An Enormous Loss

By Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken - https://www.flickr.com/photos/ministeriebz/48865568151/,
CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152604341

 

I met Michaela Mabinty DePrince only once but I felt personally bereaved when I read about her death earlier today.  I first heard of DePrince shortly after my late spouse died of motor neurone disease.  My late spouse was also Sierra Leonean who shared something else with DePrince. We had been married for nearly 27 years and watching life drain away from the most precious person in the world was the most painful experience of my life.

The post about the success of a 17-year-old Sierra Leonean coincided with a postcard on my gym notice board advertising "ballercise" (ballet exercise) classes,  They were offered by a teacher who had trained in Brisbane and danced with the Queensland Ballet. I had studied a little bit of ballet as an undergraduate when I was bursting with energy and ambition.  I had never ceased to attend performances and I continued to devour every review book or article on ballet that I could obtain but there were no ballet classes at my graduate school in LA or indeed at the Inns of Court in London,

Irrational though it may sound to describe the coincidental appearance of the post on the BBC website and the advert as providential, that is just how it seemed.  I enrolled in the class and miraculously much of the ambition and energy of youth gushed back.  I have often told my teacher that her classes raised me from utter despair but I would never have thought of joining the class had I not read that article about DePrince.

Shortly after DePrince had won the Youth America Grand Prix, I learned that she had joined the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet.  I flew over to Amsterdam for its first performance,  I reviewed the show in The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 on 25 Nov 2013.  I described her as "simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."  My review was read by the Junior Company's Artistic Coordinator Ernst Meisner which led to correspondence and eventually an opportunity to meet the dancers.  

Every year the Dutch National Ballet holds a gala followed by a party.  At the party dancers, musicians and the management of the company mingle with the audience.  It was on one of those occasions that I exchanged a few words with DePrince.  It was a glorious evening which I have described as The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet.   Just as I was leaving I spotted DePrince and greeted her,   It was a very short conversation as I was rushing for the underground but I left the theatre thinking how that exceptionally talented young dancer was as gracious off stage as she was magnificent on it.

Over the years I have made the acquaintance of many other members of the Dutch National Ballet and some have become dear friends,  I also met many members of the audience including a wonderful teacher who came to train Powerhouse Ballet a few years ago. I have also got to know the Netherlands well.  It is the one part of the world outside my country that I feel most at ease.   All of those acquaintances and friendships as well as my affection for the Netherlands I owe to that first visit to the Stadsshouwburg and ultimately to the artist who caused me to make that visit,

According to The Guardian DePrince's family has requested donations to  War Child, instead of flowers.  I am sure that her many fans around the world will respond generously to that request. 

Huddersfield University's Graduate Costume Show

Standard YouTube Licence

University of Huddersfield  Graduate Costume Show 15 June 2018 17:00 Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

I am often asked by friends who regard balletomania as an addiction how I came to be hooked. Even  though I saw a lot of theatre, attended a lot of concerts and visited a lot of art galleries and museums as I was growing up, I never had much to do with ballet.  That was largely because my father, a kindly and erudite man of letters, regarded it as slightly disreputable owing to its association with the Soviet Union and the tendency of the classical tutu and male dancers' tights to reveal more than many considered decent.

My interest in ballet was sparked by an exhibition of early 20th century Russian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum or possibly Royal Academy when I was about 16 or 17.  There I saw some of the work of Leon Bakst and was quite bowled over. I learned of his work with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. I found that he was just one of many great artists who had been commissioned to design for the ballet.  When I should have been revising for "A" levels and Oxbridge scholarships in Hammersmith Library I was pouring over its massive collection of reference books on theatre design and ballet.  I watched what I could on television and became an early fan of Peter Darrell's Western Theatre Ballet. Eventually the London Festival Ballet staged a triple bill at The Coliseum that included the The Firebird, widely regarded as Bakst's masterpiece.

On the pretext of treating an elderly aunt I persuaded my parents to pay for me to see the show. It was better than I had ever imagined. The music, the colour, the movement and the drama absorbed all my senses.  It was the most thrilling experience that I had ever known.  The auditorium exploded at the curtain call.  The cheering, whooping and growling from the crowd, the thunderous applause, the mountains of flowers were theatre in themselves. Nobody with any soul could fail to have been moved by that experience.  Although I had to wait till I got to St Andrews with an independent income before I could afford another show or ballet lessons my passion for dance had been ignited.

I experienced a similar frisson  of excitement last night when I saw another costume for The Firebird .  That garment had been designed by Amelia Sierevogel who has just graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a bachelor's degree in Costume with Textiles. The costume was modelled by Erin Phillips who also reads Costume with Textiles at Huddersfield.  As soon as she came on stage I recognized her as a fellow adult ballet student. Erin did not simply display that costume. She danced in it.  Much of her performance was on pointe.  It was - or rather costume and dancing were - spell binding.

Amelia's costume was just one of several excellent works that I saw last night at the Graduate Costume Show at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.   The students on that course learn to design costumes for theatres around the world as can be seen from the placements.  Amelia's were with the Australian Ballet and the Australian Opera last year.  Students pick characters from theatre, literature, film or television and create costumes for them. Last night we saw costumes for Cinderella and Ophelia as well as The Firebird and many other characters.  There were several designs for the ballet. Erin was not the only model on pointe last night.  The show opened spectacularly with a scene from Midsummer Night's Dream with a splendid Bottom dressed as an ass.

Although last night's show was filmed, it is likely to be some time before any of it is posted to YouTube.  Happily one can get some idea of its format from the above recording of Rhianna Lister's designs for characters from A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the 2016 show.

As I said above, I was led to ballet by Leon Bakst so I cannot stress too much the importance of theatre design. Over the years I have been impressed by other designers such as Nicholas Georgiadis, Osbert Lancaster and more recently Lez Brotherston   The course at Huddersfield is described in Costume with Textiles at the University of Huddersfield - Natalie Day. It is clearly an important resource for the theatre and thus for all of us.

Although it has nothing to do with costume design or fashion I must report another find.  On my way back to my car I passed an eatery called Rostyk Kitchen that advertised jollof rice. It is a delicacy from West Africa that my late spouse used to cook and I miss it so.  West African food requires a lot of preparation and the ingredients are not always readily available. I can cook simple dishes like plantains and sweet potatoes but not plasas, pepper chicken or groundnut stew. Now I no longer need to mither Vlad the Lad's mum and dad, my sisters in law in London or my relations by marriage in Freetown when I get a craving.  My feast of jollof rice and chicken completed a perfect day.

Dance with DePrince

On 7 July 2015 between 10:30 and 12:00 Michaela DePrince will give a master class at Danceworks. The class is for intermediates and above aged 14 or over. The cost is £21.50 and one can book on-line. If I were 50 years younger and a lot better at ballet I would have booked my place like a shot.

I have written a lot about Michaela DePrince over the last two years. You will find links to my articles about her at Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam 28 Nov 2014. I took an interest in that dancer long before she crossed the Atlantic for two reasons.

The first is that she comes from Sierra Leone and I was married to a Sierra Leonean for nearly 28 years. My late spouse and I never had any children but we did take care of a young woman from Sierra Leone whose parents sent her here just as violence in Liberia was beginning to spread across the Mano River. That young woman is the nearest I have to a daughter.  We sent her to school in Huddersfield where she did well. After three years in Cambridge where she read economics she married a lovely man from Ghana. They have a beautiful little boy with the most expressive face who can run like the wind and jump like a frog.  It was she and her husband who gave me the copy of Hope in a Ballet Shoe in the photograph above for my 66th birthday just before  we saw Ballet Black's Triple Bill where they gave the performance of their lives. I don't think I have ever received a better birthday present or spent a happier birthday.

The other reason for my interest in DePrince is that

"She is quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."

I wrote those words in  The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013 after I had seen her dance for the first time. I saw her again when the Junior Company came to London and she was even better (see And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden 30 May 2014).  I saw that show with my daughter manquée and sister in law who is, of course, also Sierra Leonean and the pride with which they left the theatre was palpable.

I read somewhere that DePrince plans a ballet school in Freetown. I don't know whether that is true but I hope it is. Or if not DePrince then someone. There is a ballet school in Kenya that is doing wonderful things for kids in one of the roughest neighbourhoods of Nairobi (see Back to Africa 7 Jan 2015 and What can be achieved by a good teacher 3 March 2013). Not all of those students - possibly none of them - will perform at Covent Garden or the Met but through their exercises at the barre they have been given the physical and mental skills, confidence and pride that will make them much more likely to qualify as the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, managers and entrepreneurs who will lead their nation out of poverty. I'd love to see something like that Kenyan school in Kroo Town or Kissy. After a vicious civil war that killed and mutilated thousands and the ebola epidemic that is killing thousands more that beautiful country that combines the grandeur of Argyll and  the charm of Cornwall in an almost perfect climate deserves a break.

Back to Africa

One of my most popular articles when I started this blog was What can be achieved by a good teacher 3 March 2013. It was about the classes given by the remarkable Mike Wamaya to kids in one of the poorest and toughest neighbourhoods of Nairobi.

I am returning to the topic again because of a news item on the class on the RAD website. It is headed "Former Faculty of Education student, Amy Shelton, gives a fascinating insight into her personal experiences of teaching ballet to children in Kenya in this month’s edition of Dancing Times," The students are up to date with the new RAD syllabus and as you can see from the film above and those in my earlier post they are as diligent and ambitious as any in the world. I have high hopes that some of  Wamaya's kids will perform one day at Covent Garden and the Met.

What Wamaya has done in Kenya could be repeated elsewhere in Africa including Sierra Leone. That country has already produced Michaela DePrince. It is going through a terrible trial right now just as it did two decades ago when DePrince was born. Sierra Leone survived the civil war and it will survive ebola but, as I said in  Could the Arts not do something about this horrible Scourge 8 Oct 2014,  "Sierra Leone and its neighbours will need massive help in rebuilding their economic, social and cultural institutions when the immediate crisis is over."

A ballet school for Freetown may seem an odd priority for a country that needs to be rebuilt but men's minds and souls need feeding as well as their bellies and dance provides some of that food. We know that from our own experience for it was the Vic-Wells Ballet that kept us going during the Second World War (see David Bintley's Dancing in the Blitz: How World War 2 made British Ballet BBC website) just as it helped generations of Russians survive decades of famine, war and oppression. Look what Wamaya has achieved in Kenya. Why not the same in Kroo Town, Kissy or Kenema?

Further Reading
28 Nov 2014  Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam

Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam

This is not the first time I have mentioned TED (Technology Entertainment Design). I embedded the presentation of the educationalist Ken Robinson in Dance is as important as Maths on 17 Aug 2014 because he told a wonderful story about Gillian Lynne, choreographer of A Simple Man and Miracle in The Gorbals. Robinson's talk had received more hits than any other.

Here is another TED presentation that should run and run. Michaela DePrince gave this talk at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam where I saw her dance a year ago (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013). Much of her speech is about her life. The appalling things that happened to her in Sierra Leone. Her adoption.  Growing up and learning to be a dancer in America.

But there was a message.

"10:32 the reason why I'm telling you my stories because I want to encourage
10:36 young people to aspire to dream I want people to understand that
10:40 is okay to be different it is OK
10:43 to stand out I'm different I want you to understand to believe
10:48 yourself to believe that you have talent even if you don't think you do"

Those words have moved me as much as her pas de deux with Sho Yamada from Diana and Actaeon in the same theatre.

I saw her dance that pas de deux with Yamda again  again in May in the Linbury Theatre and this time I brought Vlad's mum and my sister in law.  Both are Sierra Leonean. Vlad's mum came to us during the same civil war that DePrince mentioned in her talk.

DePrince has another message. Her life itself is a message of hope. Having emerged from the ordeal of war 20 years ago Sierra Leone is now tested with another.  Its people need hope. They need such a message.

Further Reading

About De Prince

8 July 2015   Michaela's Masterclass
29 June 2015  Going Dutch
31 March 2015 Dégagé
30 March 2015  Another Beautiful Picture of Michaela DePrince
26 March 2015 "Taking Flight" in more ways than one
2 March 2015 Dance with DePrince
20 Jan 2015  Cafe 164 to screen "First Position"
30 May 2014  And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden
28 May 2014 The Flying Dutchmen are coming to London
9 Dec 2013 Dutch National Ballet Junior Company: "Twelve Outstanding Talents" and "Stars of the Future"
25 Nov 2013 The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013
20 Nov 2013 The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company - more than just dePrince
4 Oct 2013  No Holds Barred
4 April 2013 Michaela DePrince

About Africa

7 Jan 2015  Back to Africa
8 Oct 2014   Could the Arts not do something about this horrible Scourge
20 May 2014 A Ballet School for Freetown
4 Feb 2014  Gala for Ghana
10 March 2013  Happy Mothers' Day
3 March 2013  What can be achieved by a good teacher
18 April 2007  Sierra Leone (from my law blog)

Could the Arts not do something about this horrible Scourge

Last February some of the world's finest classical and contemporary dancers gave up their time for a gala at the Britten Theatre to raise funds for development in Ghana. I was there and it was a great evening for a great cause. I reviewed it in Gala for Ghana 4 Feb 2014.

I think now that there is an even better cause and that is to raise funds for treatment centres, medicines and clinicians to contain, control and eventually conquer a virus that has already killed thousands and is likely to kill very many more.  Possibly even more damaging than the virus itself is the economic damage to the economies of some of the poorest countries in the world since tourists are no longer coming to this regions's beautiful beaches and most other types of business is grinding to standstill. Needless to say it is also affecting the social and cultural life of the region as well. Sierra Leoneans are among the most friendly and courteous folk I know (and I should know for I was married to one for nearly 28 years) but who risks a kiss or handshake nowadays when since skin to skin contact spreads the virus.

So the region needs some help.  It is already getting some from governments and NGOs but Sierra Leone and its neighbours will need massive help in rebuilding their economic, social and cultural institutions when the immediate crisis is over. That's where something like Gala for Ghana to raise money for such rebuilding could help. If anyone in ballet or the other performing arts would care to give their time for a similar gala I would do my best to support it.

And can they fly! The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company at Covent Garden

In "The Flying Dutchmen are coming to London" I wrote:

"Well they are not all Dutch, of course, and only half of them are men but, as you can see from the clip above. they can all fly."

And fly they did from the high pitch whine of Daniel Montero's gyrations in Ballet 101 to the magnificent jumps of Sho Yamada and Michaela DePrince in the pas de deux from Diana et Acteon. Yesterday was the end of a 6 month tour of the towns and cities of the Netherlands plus Vitoria and Oviedo in Spain and the Linbury in Covent Garden that started at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on 24 Nov 2013. I saw them at the start of their tour and reviewed their performance in "The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013" on 25 Nov 2013. I was amazed then but the company was even better last night.

The show in the Linbury followed very much the format that I had seen in Amsterdam. There were eight short ballets introduced by a video clip. The only difference is that the speeches in Dutch were edited out, Having seen the show before and knowing the Linbury I selected my seats carefully. The middle of row G in the Arena so that my eyes were approximately the same height as the dancers'. I calculated that these would be just about the best sets in the house.

The reason I chose my seats with such care is that I brought my sister in law and the nearest I have to a daughter to the show. They are both Sierra Leonean and I wanted them to see DePrince, a Sierra Leonean born dancer whom I had previously described as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while." For many years Sierra Leone was in the news for all the wrong reasons and whenever there was a report of a coup or atrocity my late spouse who had known the country in better times was driven to tears. I watched the faces of my guests as DePrince as Diana entered from the right of the stage with her bow and their joy and their pride were palpable. As she executed one amazing feat after another their pride increased like the whine of Montero's engine. Seeing their happiness - indeed our happiness -was reason enough to make the 400 mile return journey to see that show.

But DePrince is just one of 12 prodigious talents.  As George Williamson said in his video introduction to Dawn Dances the dancers of the Junior Company come from all over the world and they all have different qualities. Yesterday I concentrated on some of the dancers I had missed last time. Thomas van Damme, for instance, who opened the evening with Nancy Burer in Minuet.  Van Damme also danced in Hans van Manen's Kwintet an exposition of almost architectural symetry created originally for Alexandra Radius. I have always admired van Manen's work but I saw new complexities which left me wanting more. Happily I don't have long to wait as Northern Ballet will be dancing Concertante in Leeds between the 18 and 21 June,

As in Amsterdam my favourite ballet of the evening was Ernst Meisner's Saltarello. That is the ballet that shows the dancers to their best advantage. DePrince and Yamada were magnificent in that ballet but so were Montero and Sofia Rubio Robles. Fast and spectacular it must have been such a joy to dance. It was certainly a delight to watch. The yellows and reds of the costumes flickered like flames in a hearth.

The finale was Williamson's Dawn Dances which was performed for the first time in the United Kingdom on Thursday. As with Kwintet I noticed qualities in the work that I had missed before as well as Oliver Haller's designs and Judd Greenstein's score. It is an exuberant ballet well suited to young dancers.  It is a work that I could see again and again.

The Linbury is a very different theatre from the Staddshouwburg.  In is smaller and more confined.  The crowd were appreciative clapping and cheering in the right places but somehow the atmosphere was different from that wonderful night in November.  This seemed an even better performance than in November which was rewarded by the audience rising to its feet as one.   If ever a troupe of performers deserved a standing ovation it was those 12 great kids last night. It should have been easy as those at the top and sides of the auditorium were already standing. I rose but nobody else in the Arena joined me and in the end I sat down so as not to spoil the view of those behind me. Ah well! London is London. Always a bit too snooty. Now if my friend Mel had been with me it would have been different.

A Ballet School for Freetown?

The Cotton Tree where the Sierra Leonean nation was founded

Source Wikipedia

Although ballet belongs to the world there are places where the muse makes its home. In the early 19th century that home was in Denmark. Later in the century the muse moved to Russia, Diaghilev brought it to Western Europe and in particular England and France. In the last century it made its way to the New World. Arguably it has now found a home in East Asia and in Latin America. I believe its next abode will be Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are already signs that that is happening. Arguably the most exciting company in the British Isles is Ballet Black. In America there is the magnificent Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey. In just over a week London audiences will be thrilled by the Sierra Leonean born dancer Michaela DePrince as I was when I saw her last November (see "The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013"  25 Nov 2913), Finally there are initiatives like Anno's Africa's remarkable class in the back streets of Nairobi (see "What can be achieved by a good teacher" 3 March 2014),

According to The Guardian's Africa correspondent, Michaela DePrince "plans to return to Sierra Leone one day to open a school" (see "Sierra Leone war orphan returns to Africa en pointe for ballet debut" 16 July 2912).  DePrince has achieved so much in her short life that I have every confidence that she will realize that plan. We in this country are particularly well placed to help her to do so.

Sierra Leone is an English speaking country which was administered by our government until 1961. It is a member of the Commonwealth and many of its political, educational, commercial and cultural institutions are modelled on ours. There is a large Sierra Leonean community in this country two members of which will be accompanying me to the Linbury to see De Prince dance when the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company visits London on the 28 and 29 of the month.  I have a personal link with Sierra Leone in that I was married to a Sierra Leonean for nearly 28 years.

If children from DePrince's school wish to complete their training we have great ballet schools in London, Leeds, Glasgow and elsewhere where they can do so. The Royal Academy of Dance which accredits teachers and examines students is here.  Above all we have a massive and sophisticated audience for dance and out great companies have always been open to, and attracted, the best dancers in the world.

There must be a massive reservoir of talent in Africa and the prospect of watching it develop is exciting.

David Lister's Post on Ballet Black

I had intended to leave ballet alone this week. After all I have seen quite a lot of it lately - Ballet West's Swan Lake on 1 March, Matthew Bourne's on the 4th and Northern Ballet's Cleopatra on the 6th - and I have also written about Peter Darrell today. But I really must respond to David Lister's article "Ballet Black is a wonderful company. But it's a shame on the arts that it still exists"  7 March 2014 Independent Voices.

In that article Mr Lister wrote:

"Ballet Black has been delighting crowds and critics at the Royal Opera House this week. The company, founded in 2001 to create opportunities for dancers of black and Asian descent, has, according to our critic’s review, “never looked better”. They are good, so good that I want to pay them the ultimate and richly deserved accolade – they should be abolished."

He continued that Ballet Black's website states 

“Our ultimate goal is to see a fundamental change in the number of black and Asian dancers in mainstream ballet companies, making Ballet Black wonderfully unnecessary.”

And concluded

"Well, I’d say that after the reviews that this week’s performances achieved, it already is wonderfully unnecessary. If there is evidence that the big companies really are not recruiting talented black and Asian dancers, then it is imperative that we are given the evidence, and that the heads of these mainstream, and indeed national, companies are forced to explain themselves in public. The danger is that Ballet Black, understandably delighted with public and critical reaction, will strive less to make themselves unnecessary."

It is clear that Mr Lister abhors racism like all right thinking people. His article is no doubt written with the best of intentions but he is wrong. Ballet Black has never been more necessary than now. Not because black or South Asian dancers cannot get into other ballet companies as, clearly, they can and do. But because Ballet Black is claiming an art form that began in the courts of renaissance Italy and developed in imperial Russia for all cultures including (but by no means exclusively) kids from Bradford, Brixton and Moss Side.

The company is doing that in two ways. First, by bringing new audiences to the ballet.  I have seen Ballet Black three times at the Linbury, Leeds and Tottenham.  At the Linbury and Leeds there were perhaps a few more folk of African or South Asian heritage in the audience than one might see for a performance by the Royal Ballet or Northern Ballet but it was very much the same ballet going crowd. At the Bernie Grant Arts Centre there were very many more folk of African and South Asian heritage and from some of the conversations that I overheard in the queue for the loo and in the Blooming Scent Café it seems that it was for many their first experience of ballet. I might add that Ballet Black brings ballet not just to districts like Tottenham where there are many people of African and South Asian heritage but to places like Exeter, Southport and Guildford where there and relatively few.

The second way in which Ballet Black is claiming ballet for all cultures is through its school. That school like every other good ballet school in the UK is open to kids of all races, cultures and nationalities but it is clear from the photo on the website that a high proportion of its children are of African and Afro-Caribbean heritage. Why do such kids not audition for White Lodge, Elmhurst, the Northern Ballet Academy or some of the other fine schools of the country? Well some of them do but without dancers like Cira Robinson and Isabela Coracy to show those children and their parents that it is possible for folk who look like them to achieve excellence in ballet not to mention the inspiration of the wonderful Cassa Pancho they would do so in far fewer numbers.

I can testify from my own experience how important that is. Although I am white I was married to a Sierra Leonean for 28 years. During the vicious civil war we looked after a young Sierra Leonean girl who was fortunate enough to be born in London and could therefore take refuge in this country. That young girl is the nearest I have to a daughter and her 3 year old child is the nearest I have to a grandson. I love both of them to bits. The boy has a beautifully expressive face and in his play he has shown signs that suggest that he may have a talent for ballet. I suggested to his mum that we ought to take him to a ballet teacher. She replied by asking me whether ballet was really for Africans. I might add that she had already seen quite a lot of ballet by companies like the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet and loves the art. I answered her by taking her to the performance of Ballet Black that I reviewed on the 26 Feb. Having seen Ballet Black she has agreed to let me take the little boy to the Peacock on 13 April to see My First Ballet: Coppélia. If he likes the show she will let me take her boy to a mini-mover or baby ballet class and we shall see how he gets on from there.

For most of this article I have justified Ballet Black for their role in generating new audiences and education but there is an artistic reason why the company will never be wonderfully unnecessary. There are some ballets that people of African heritage can do particularly well either because the are based on African or Afro-Caribbean music or legend or simply because of features of their physique or countenance. That is why companies like Alvin Ailey and the Dance Theatre of Harlem continue to thrive in the USA. That is why there will always be a need for a company like Ballet Black in this country.

Related Articles

6 Oct 2013  "Ballet Black: 'we don't talk about stuff, we just do it.'"
12 Mar 2013  "Ballet Black's Appeal"

If you see no other ballet this year this is the one you must see - Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Linbury 28-29 May 2014

On 4 April 2013 I posted a short article on Michaela dePrince while she was still in the United States. I wrote:

"I can't wait to see her in  England".

A few months later I noticed that she had come a lot closer to England by joining the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet. I made a special trip to Amsterdam on the 24 November 2013 to see the company at the Stadsshowburg. I was bowled over by the performance as was the rest of the audience.  It went wild for the company. Not just for dePrince - though she was magnificent - but for the other 11 members and their artistic director Ernst Meisner who have produced something remarkable.  Now at last they are coming to the Linbury on the 28 and 29 May.

If you have never seen ballet before this is the show you should see first.  If you are not charmed by these wonderful young dancers then nothing will charm you.  If you only see one show this year this is the one you should see.  Tickets range from £7 to £20 and students are entitled to concessions.  You can book on-line or by calling 020 7304 4000.

I would have raved about dePrince had she come from Singapore or Suriname but I have a special regard for her because she does come from Sierra Leone. I was married to a Sierra Leonean for 28 years and I have travelled around that beautiful country. A lot of Sierra Leoneans live in London. I shall be bringing at least two of them, my sister in law and my daughter manquée, on the 29. I have told them about Amsterdam and also about dePrince's story which brought tears to their eyes. Sadness but also enormous pride.

Last week, attention was focused on Nigeria as Jim O'Neill has identified it as a future economic giant but I have seen comparable innovation and creativity in Freetown and indeed among the Sierra Leonean diaspora here.  That tiny country does not get a very good press in England when it is noticed at all but it should. It has produced writers like Aminatta Forna, composers like John Akar and now a beautiful dancer. I am sure there are plenty more where they came from not to mention the scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, business leaders and others who will draw their inspiration and confidence from those artists.

No Holds Barred

I have got even greater respect for the kids of Mathare whom I mentioned in my article "What can be achieved by a good teacher" (3 March 2013). Like them I have had a class without a barre.  You have to concentrate much harder just to keep your balance let alone perform an exercise correctly. On the other hand you do learn something about weight distribution particularly with glissés and tendus.   

On the subject of Africa I am pleased to see that Michaela dePrince, who was born in Sierra Leone, is now in Europe. She is with the Junior Company of the National Ballet of the Netherlands. As I mentioned in my article, Ms de Prince appears to have exceptional talent and I was saving my pennies to see her in New York.  Thanks to budget airlines the Netherlands is a lot of cheaper and easier to reach than the USA. This is the Junior Company's schedule for the next 6 months.

I have a lot of connections with Sierra Leone through marriage and through looking after another young woman whose family was displaced by the civil war. I visited the country and travelled around it in 2007.   When I was there the scars of the conflict were still very visible.  Watch this short video in which de Prince tells her story.

Louis Smith  Source Wikipedia

Also impressive in another way is our British Olympic medallist Louis Smith who was challenged to learn ballet. A short film "Louis Learns Ballet" on the Royal Academy of Dance's website shows that he had some natural aptitude for the art for he seems to have made quite remarkable progress.

Also on the new website is an article by Jennifer MacFarlane the RAD's manager in Scotland on the Genée which was held in Glasgow this year (Some Thoughts from Scotland on Genée 2013).  Most of the article is about fund raising but there is a beautiful picture of medallist Natasha Watson from Ballet West with her award.  I mentioned this young dancer's success in
"Yet More Good News from Ballet West - Natasha Watson's Medal in the Genée" on 30 Sept and the article seems to have gone viral. Ms. Watson is another outstanding dancer I look forward to seeing on the stage.

Although I try to keep the ballet separate from the law my chambers have provisionally booked the boardroom of Northern Ballet's premises for a 3 hour seminar on recent developments in intellectual property on 11 Dec 2013 for local solicitors and patent and trade mark attorneys.  Attendees will be asked to donate to Northern Ballet's "Sponsor a Dancer" and the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School Appeals.

Postscript

In "Engaging Generation Y in ballet – thoughts and ideas" whose blog I featured in "Fantastic New Blog: Dave Tries Ballet" mentions another sportsman who incorporates ballet into his training schedule:

"British Olympic swimmer Liam Tancock uses ballet seriously within his training. I think one of the best things about Tancock is that he’s so “matter of fact” about doing ballet. Being interviewed by the BBC (BBC Article) he points out the benefits of ballet and how it’s impacted his performance. "

He also refers to a conversation between a rugby player and a dancer. The context of those observations was a discussion on engaging young adults in opera and dance.  Dave had been approached by RESEO (the European Network for Opera and Dance Education) to contribute to the Network's Autumn conference on "GENERATION Y: Engaging young adults in opera and dance".  I agree with his view that often the most effective way to connect with his (or indeed any other) generation is by not 'trying too hard and that "the easiest way to make ballet accessible is by making it seem 'normal.'”  However, rather than comment on that article in detail I invite you to read it for yourselves.

Michaela DePrince

Readers of this blog will have guessed that I love Africa which is why I wrote about Anno's Africa work in the rough neighbourhoods of Nairobi in "What can be achieved by a good teacher". Some might even have guessed from my clip of Lady Feli in "Happy Mother's Day" that I have a connection with Sierra Leone.

The reason I love Africa is that my late spouse came from Sierra Leone which is one of the smallest and poorest countries on that continent.  I visited Sierra Leone in 2007 when it was still recovering from a vicious civil war. The people there the kindest and most courteous that I had ever known. However, the massive number of young people missing an arm or a leg in Freetown indicated that at least some Sierra Leoneans were capable of the utmost cruelty.

Imagine my delight when I read "The Unstoppable Ballerina: A young dancer’s journey from Sierra Leone to the heights of American ballet" by Malcolm Jones in The Daily Beast of 2 April 2013. This is article about Michaela DePrince.  This young woman is not just a promising dancer plucked out of Africa.  She is clearly exceptional.   As Jones says in his article:

"In her 18 years, Michaela has experienced more than most people do in a full lifetime. Dancing since she was 6, she won a scholarship to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of the American Ballet Theatre after competing against 5,000 other young dancers in the prestigious Youth American Grand Prix, an annual competition showcased in the acclaimed 2011 documentary First Position. One of six aspiring dancers the film profiled, Michaela, then 14, supplied the most heart-in-throat moments when she stubbornly danced through a case of tendonitis that threatened to kill her career before it even started."

I have Googled DePrince and found her website which is full of lovely photos. I can't wait to see her in England.

I know a little boy in Thamesmead who is half Sierra Leonean and half Ghanaian who knows nothing of ballet but can rotate his legs and perform perfect sauté and almost an arabesque quite naturally. I am trying to persuade his mum to let him take lessons.  Up to now she has been sceptical but perhaps DePrince's example will help change her mind.

Update
5 Oct 2013  DePrince is now with the Junior Company of the National Ballet of the Netherlands which is a lot closer than New York City (see "No Holds Barred" 4 Oct 2013).