Ballet West's Best Show Ever

Ballet West The Nutcracker McRobert Centre, Stirling 2 Feb 2019 19:30

Ballet West is a ballet school on the outskirts of a little village not far from Oban.  Every winter it tours Scotland with a full-length ballet to give its students stage experience.   This year it offers a new production of The Nutcracker.   I have been following Ballet West for nearly 6 years and I have seen at least one performance of every show that it has taken on tour.  I  say without hesitation that this is the company's best show yet.  I add that I don't think I have ever enjoyed a performance of The Nutcracker as much as tonight's.

The production is an original interpretation of Hoffmann's tale of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King that nevertheless remains true to the story.  The Stahlbaums' house is set by a lake in the country rather than in a town in Germany. Some nifty computer-generated graphics take the audience inside where we see falling snow through the windows. There Mr and Mrs Stahlbam (Alex Hallas and Hannah Tokely) with their children Clara (Michaela Fairon) and Fitz (Luciano Ghidoli) receive their guests who include Ballet Cymru's Miguel Fernandes. The most important guest is, of course, the conjurer, Drosselmeyer, danced impressively by second year student, Rahul Pradeed.  I noticed that young man for the first time last year and I am convinced he is going places.  Another impressive character dancer was the grandmother, Lauren Pountney-Barnes.  She grabbed Fritz by the ear, patted Clara on the head before performing a spirited solo before the guests and collapsing in a heap. A small role, maybe, but an important one that has been performed by the likes of Marion Tait and Hannah Bateman in other productions.

A detail of a previous version of The Nutcracker which seems to be unique to Ballet Weast is the furtive dram taken by the servants after the Stahlbaums have taken to their beds.  I was delighted to see that Daniel Job, who has staged this work, has retained that detail in the new production.  They assemble around the butler glass in hand. Like traffic drill, they look to the left, then to the right and even to the ceiling before downing their bevvy.  I don't know why because that scene could occur anywhere but it just seems so Scottish - like the children dancing around their patents as in an eightsome reel.  Yet another fragment of the former production that has been preserved.

It is in the fight scenes of act I that the computer-generated graphics come into their own. Toy soldiers descend from the sky by parachute.  An intrusive rodent with the word "PRESS" on its back takes photos of a dying murine. The artist who designed those graphics is a genius.  I wonder how long it will take for Sir Matthew Bourne or someone like him to snap up that animator.  "Never," said the director with the force of the late Sir Ian Paisley, "we're keeping him" and I fervently hope they do.

The first act concluded with a delightful pas de deux by Hallas who had morphed from Clara's dad into the snow king and Natasha Watson, his queen.  The recording that Ballet West used for their show made better use of the choir than in most productions. The voices seemed to linger to the very end of the snow scene which I appreciated.  I left the auditorium at the interval grinning like a Cheshire cat. The director and Mr Job could see from my face how much I had enjoyed that act.

The kingdom of the sweets is very saccharine with representations of lollies and bonbons in most productions.  However, "sweet" can have a figurative meaning and it was the figurative meaning that the designer seems to have had in mind for this work. The backdrop was more Far Pavilions or Shangrila than Willy Wonka or the witch's hut in Hansel and Gretel.  The usual divertissements - the Spanish, Arabian and Chinese dances representing chocolate and tea followed by Cossacks, mirlitons and flowers - were performed with verve.  There were also new divertissements that gave Sara-Maria Barton's associates a chance to shine. One divertissement was performed by some very young kids but they were kids who knew how to hold an audience.   Three, in particular, dazzled us with their acrobatics.  In previous productions, there had been a scene for kids called "Mother Ginger".  She has been dropped from this version and I doubt that the show has suffered from her absence in the least.

The highpoint of the ballet is the pas de deux by the sugar plum fairy and her cavalier.  It is the bit that audiences remember and it is the yardstick by which some print critics seem to rate a Nutcracker.  Those roles were performed by Lucy Malin, another student who impressed me last year. and Maxine Quiroga. They were magnificent. They were exciting to watch. They justified my trip to Scotland.  Those folks are seriously good. They deserve to go far.

This is a short season and the students never stray furth of Scotland.  If you want to see them - and if I were looking for dancers I would want to see them for they consistently win medals at the Genée and other competitions - you have to travel.  London may be a Weltstadt and its ballet schools are good but they have no monopoly of excellence.

Ballet West's Winter Tour ................... and a bit of McGonegall

Standard YouTube Licence

Not long now before Ballet West's tour of Scotland.  Once again they are dancing The Nutcracker.  They danced that ballet at Pitlochry the first time I ever saw them.  My review of their performance is my very first post.  I am very grateful to Ballet West for allowing me to attend class with their undergraduates earlier this year (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018).

As usual they will begin their tour in Oban on 26 Jan 2019.  They will proceed to Stirling on 2 Feb, Dundee on 5 Feb, Livingston on 7 Feb, Glasgow on 9 Feb, Greenock on 15 Feb and Edinburgh on 22 Feb.   Dundee is a new venue.   They will perform at the Gardyne Theatre which is a new auditorium on the campus of  Dundee and Angus College along the way to Broughty Ferry.  I know it well.

I think that is where I shall see the show because it is not far from my alma mater  (see Thoughts on St Andrew's Day  1 Dec 2016).   The performance in Dundee takes place on a Tuesday.  With any luck I can resume my old place at the barre in the beginners' class at the St Andrews Dance Club some 50 years after I learned my first plié.   According to the Club's Facebook page, that class meets in the town hall at 14:00 on Wednesdays.

In Thoughts on St Andrew's Day, I quoted Andrew Laing's atmospheric first verse of his Almae Matres.   That poem never fails to cheer me up when I miss Scotland.    Dundee also has a bard in William Topaz McGonogall.  You may be amused by one of his poems:

"Oh, Bonnie Dundee! I will sing in thy praise
A few but true simple lays,
Regarding some of your beauties of the present day
And virtually speaking, there’s none can them gainsay;
There’s no other town I know of with you can compare
For spinning mills and lasses fair,
And for stately buildings there’s none can excel
The beautiful Albert Institute or the Queen’s Hotel."

Both of those buildings remain though the Albert Institute is now known as "The McManus".

I digress.  Wherever you see the show it will delight you.  Especially the Mother Ginger divertissement. 

Ballet West Showcase 2018

Standard YouTube Licence

Ballet West Showcase 27 May 2018 19:30 Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling

Each winter for the last 5 years I have come to Scotland to see a performance of a full-length classical ballet by Ballet West.  On Sunday I returned to Scotland for Ballet West's 2018 Showcase.

The Showcase took the form of a gala consisting of 18 separate works divided into two parts or "acts".   Each act began with an extract from a classical ballet and included a solo and original choreography by the school's teachers, Natasha Watson, Indra Reinholde and Martin Fenton. Ballet West performed the Showcase at the Conran Halls in Oban on 19 May 2018 and the Macobert Arts Centre at Stirling University on 27 May 2018.

The first act opened with the grand pas de deux from Paquita which I had seen in rehearsal on my visit to Taynuilt on 30 April 2019.  The full work is not performed very often in the United Kingdom but the pas de deux is seen more frequently in competitions and galas. As in the rehearsal Paquita was danced by Uyu Hiromoto and Lucien by Joseph Wright. I admire both dancers but especially Hiromoto. As I wrote in Ballet West at the Beacon 13 Feb 2017 which was the first time I saw her, Hiromoto has a certain quality that is difficult to pin down but I spotted it in Xander Parish and Michalea DePrince. She danced delightfully on Sunday. In her dancing I saw not just a talented and accomplished student but Paquita herself. Congratulations to Wright for his partnering and also to the soloists and corps de ballet who accompanied them.

The solo for the first act was the victim's dance from The Rite of Spring.  It was performed by Francesca Rees who is still in her first year at Ballet West. The sharp, angular, movements to Stravinaky's throbbing score still manage to shock after 105 years.  It cannot be an easy work to perform even for an experienced dancer and it must be particularly challenging for one so young. Rees responded to that challenge splendidly. She is clearly someone to watch and I shall look out for her on next year's winter tour.

Watson contributed no less than five works to the the first act   They ranged from Symphony No 3 which was reflective to Who Lights the Sun which was playful.  The contrast in mood was the difference between a deep, dark, pool and a fountain.  Until last night the only work by Watson that I had seen was the piece that she had prepared for Oscar Ward and Uyu Hiromoto in the BBC Young Dancer Competition. Having seen her several times in principal roles and having blogged about her achievements in Lausanne and at the Genée even before I saw her I knew that she was an outstanding dancer. Now I see that she is at least as talented as a dance maker.  The nation's - indeed the world's - artistic directors, impresarios, angels and others who commission dance would do well to take note.

Hey Now by Martin Fenton was in complete contrast to everything that had gone before. The programme stated that the music was by "London Generation" but I wonder whether that should have been "London Grammar". Be that as it may it was a pleasure to watch. The girls wore jeans and trainers with their hair in pony tails. They danced freely and vivaciously. It was the first time I had seen them like that.  I was delighted.

One of most interesting works of the first act was Indra Reinholde's November to Max Richter's music. This was a fluent classical piece for third year dancers.  Reinholde's A Mid-Autumn Night's Dream appeared to be an intriguing study of the unfulfilled aspirations. It consisted of a soloist with one group dancing reality and the other dreams. With layer upon layer of meaning I need to see it again and probably several times to understand it properly.

The first act finished with Sarajevo, a piece that Watson had made for the company's Glasgow Associates to Max Richter's score.  A deeply moving piece that those excellent young students performed brilliantly.

The second act opened with the scene from La Sylphide in which James abandons Effie and follows the sylph. The work is performed regularly overseas but rarely in the UK which is odd as it is set in Scotland. We may see more of it in future as it has been staged recently by English National Ballet and Sir Matthew Bourne has produced Highland Fling for Scottish Ballet which is based on  La Sylphide. Dylan Waddell, whom I knew from MurleyDance and Ballet Cymru, danced James and Sarah Nolan was the sylph.  Nolan performed her role charmingly.  I think hers will be yet another name to watch.  Waddell partnered her sensitively enabling her to shine. In what I believe to be a variation to Bournonville's choreography, the ballet mistress, Olga Savienko, created roles for the sylphs which they performed delightfully.

Watching a Scottish company perform that beautiful work just south of the Highland line gave me considerable personal satisfaction. As long ago as August 2013 I wrote in Taynuilt - where better to create ballet: 

"I don't know whether Ballet West has ever thought of staging La Sylphide but they might because Taynuilt is Gurn and Effie territory."

Well now they have and I am over the moon.

The solo for the second act was From Within by Hortense Malaval who is in the second year.  It had been created for her by Watson.  A very different work from the Rite of Spring but probably no less challenging. Malaval displayed not only considerable virtuosity but also the power to possess a stage and command an audience.  The audience warmed to her and rewarded her with thunderous applause.

The solo was followed by three more works by Reinholde: Light and Ash, A Song of Sorrow and Pride and, my favourite of her works, Symphony No 41.   The last work was created for the young women who had welcomed me to their class on 30 April 2018. They were my team.  They had a difficult score.  Late Mozart to me sounds a little like Beethoven and that's what I thought it was. I remembered one of the pundits at Northern Ballet's symposium on narrative ballet on the alleged impossibility of dancing to Beethoven yet here were these splendid young dancers doing just that. Or at least interpreting music that was equally difficult. Clad in flowing blue garments that must have been a delight to wear, they were clearly having fun. They danced with verve and my heart danced with them. They finished the piece on their backs as the lights cut. Bravissime! I clapped and clapped until my palms were raw.

A work that reminded me of van Manen's In the Future was Watson/s Pocket Calculator.  Just listen to the words "I'm the operator of the pocket calcuulator". Watson spun those works in a generally fun slightly disconcerting work that showed yet another side of her immense creativity. The song also began the finale that drew the audience into the show. They clapped rhythmically to the music breaking into deafening applause as each wave of artists appeared to take their bow. Again, I clapped enthusiastically and shouted "brave, brave" for the women in blue.

I had seen the winter shows. I had even visited the school, watched and indeed attended one of its classes. But it was only on Sunday that I fully appreciated how good it was.  In that Showcase  the school showed the strength and depth of the artistic education that it offers.  Had I any aptitude for dance and an ambition to go on stage, I should have loved to have studied there.

Ballet West's Showcase

Standard YouTube Licence

In Ballet Black's Standing Ovation at the Nottingham Playhouse 17 May 2018 I mentioned that Ballet Black are coming to Scotland.  They are not the only ones.  I shall return on 27 May to see Ballet West's Showcase at the Macrobert Arts Centre at Stirling University.

The event is described as follows:

"This show is the culmination of the Ballet West students' year and the final assessment for the BA (Hons) in Dance students (awarded by the Open University). It demonstrates the breadth of experience the dancers have gained in classical ballet, modern ballet and contemporary and presents new works created for the students by Belgian choreographer Daniel Job. Degree courses at Ballet West combine training in technical dance skills with genuine performing experiences required by dancers working today."

The students will perform extracts from Paquita in Stirling.  The video shows a rehearsal in a studio that looks very much like the one in which I attended class on 30 April 2018 (see Visiting Taynuilt 4 May 2018).  Immediately after class I was allowed to watch Jonathan Barton coach Joseph Wright and Uyu Hiramoto in the grand pas de deux.  It was looking good even then and I am looking forward to the performance very much indeed.

One of the reasons for my last visit to Scotland was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the St Andrews University Dance Club t-shirt of which I was one of the founder members (see St Andrews University Dance Club's 50th Anniversary Gala 5 May 2018). The Club has commissioned some commemorative t-shirts to celebrate its first half century and one of my friends and university contemporaries was kind enough to send me one earlier today. The panel on the left shows my trying it on and the panel to the right is the back of the same t-shirt.

The other reason for my visit was to see Scottish Ballet's Highland Fling in Oban.  Their newsletter reports:

"The company is back in Glasgow after a whirlwind tour of Highland Fling in Shetland, Orkney, Oban and Stornoway and our hearts are full."

I love that expression "our hearts are full".  It a beautiful phrase which I shall try to remember and use in my own writing. It also reminds me of all the good things I associate with Scotland - some material like the beauty of the countryside but much more the intangible.  In their Dancer's Tour Diary  Scottish Ballet recount some of the places they visited and things they did on tour.  In this hilarious video they challenge their non-Scottish dancers to repeat some Scottish phrases like "braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht" and "Lang may yer lum reek". 

Our West Riding argot can be pretty impenetrable.  I wonder how much of it our Gavin has picked up while he has been with Northern Ballet. Happen a'll ask him next time I meet l'lad.

Toi Toi Toi Taynuilt

Standard YouTube Licence


Our good friends Ballet West are starting their tour of Scotland in Stirling tonight, We want them to know that we are thinking of them. Some dancers say "toi, toi, toi" at times like this. Others "chookas". Whatever works for them we wish it for them and send them all our love.

The company is giving three shows at the Macrobert Centre on the Stirling Unversity campus.  One tonight at 19:30 and two tomorrow at 14:30 and 19:30 respectively. If you live in central Scotland, hurry, for there are not too many tickets left.  The Macrobert Centre is a good venue offering free parking and a reasonably priced bar and restaurant.

Ballet West then move on to Helensburgh, Tower Digital Arts Centre 27 Jan, Paisley, Paisley Town Hall 28 Jan, Oban, Corran Halls 9 Feb, Glasgow, SECC 11 Feb, Greenock, Beacon Arts Centre 12 Feb, Livingston, Howden Park Centre 16 Feb and finish up triumphantly at Edinburgh, EICC on 18 Feb 2017.

I saw the company's 2014 Swan Lake in Pitlochry and very good it was too (see  Swan Loch - Ballet West's Swan Lake, Pitlochry 1 March 2014 3 March 2014).  Most of the dancers are students this is the first opportunity to see some of the names to watch in the future.   Isaac Peter Bowry who danced the male lead in Ballet Theatre UK's Romeo and Juliet in Wakefield on 14 July 2017 was von Rothbart in Pitlochry on 1 March. Genée medallist Natasha Watson the only British dancer of her year to make the finals of Lausanne was in last year's show. Sarah Mortimer, who delighted me when she was at Ballet Theatre UK, trained at Ballet SWest some years earlier.

Ballet West have just celebrated their silver jubilee (see Congratulations to Ballet West - here's to the next 25 Years 23 Nov 2016). They may be on the edge of a small village in Argyll but they have turned out some very good dancers over the years.

Ballet West's 2017 Tour

Standard YouTube Licence


Ballet West is a ballet school not far from Oban in the Western Highlands. It must be a very good school for several of my favourite young dancers trained there.  Sarah Mortimer is one.  Isaac Bowry is another.  Natasha Watson is yet another.  Some of the staff and students from Ballet West have recently toured Malaysia as I mentioned in Ballet West in Malaysia on 18 June 2016. You can download a video of two of the students with one of their Malaysian hosts from the Ballet West home page.

The school has a company which tours Scotland at the beginning of each year to give its students stage experience. A performance of The Nutcacker by that company in Pitlochry on 23 Feb 2013 was my very first post to this blog. The show was so good that I returned for Swan Lake the next year (see Swan Loch - Ballet West's Swan Lake, Pitlochry 1 March  2014) the subsequent year, Romeo and Juliet the year after that (see Ballet West's Romeo and Juliet  1 Feb 2015) and The Nutcracker again this year (see Thinking out Loud about Ballet West 8 Feb 2016).

Ballet West have announced their tour for 2017. They will dance Swan Lake again and they will dance it just the way I like it. No Simon. No Anthony. No Odilia. The same ballerina dancing Odette and Odile. No evil genius but a proper von Rothbart danced so impressively last time by my fellow Mancunian Isaac Bowry. And above all there will be no bikes. To get a flavour of their performance I have found this YouTube clip which shows Sara-Maria Barton's brilliance in the black act. That is my favourite part of the ballet for it is the act that contains all those fouettés not to mention the divertissements at the beginning.

The tour will start on 20 and 21 Jan 2017 at The McRobert Arts Centre on the campus of Stirling University. The McRobert Centre has a fair sized auditorium with what appears from the stalls to be a fairly danceable stage. There is a reasonably priced restaurant with a licensed bar and coffee shop in the lobby and plenty of free parking near the auditorium. It might be awkward to reach by public transport as the campus is a mile or so outside the town centre and I have never seen a bus there but there are probably taxis to be hired somewhere in the vicinity.

The company's itinerary is as follows:

• Stirling, Macrobert 20th & 21st January 2017
• Helensburgh, Tower Digital Arts Centre 27th January 2017
• Paisley, Paisley Town Hall 28th January 2017
• Oban, Corran Halls 9th February 2017
• Glasgow, SECC 11th February 2017
• Greenock, Beacon Arts Centre 12th February 2017
• Livingston, Howden Park Centre 16th February 2017
• Edinburgh, EICC, 18th February 2017

If Cinderella's fairy godmother were to appear right now and grant me three balletic wishes, one of them would be for Ballet West to make at least one appearance in the rest of the United Kingdom. I am pretty confident that audiences here would love them. I happen to know from conversations with members of the audience and posts to a ballet fans' forum to which I subscribe that I am by no means the only Sassenach who ventures North at the coldest time of the year to see these fine young artists.

And my second wish? Why it would be to see those same young dancers perform the purest and most beautiful of the Romantic ballets which like them is set in the Highlands.  Please, Mr Job, pretty please! Do consider La Sylphide one year. I have seen Danes dance it. Australians. Even an Italian in Trecate earlier this year. Why not Scots?

Ballet West's Romeo and Juliet

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, 31 Jan 2015

I've seen three performances by Ballet West: The Nutcracker in 2013, Swan Lake last March and now Romeo and Juliet. The other two were good but this is the best by far. This is a very ambitious production with a big cast including some very young children. It would have been a credit to a full time performing company. As most of the dancers are students Ballet West's achievement is all the more remarkable.

Several factors made this production special.  Excellent choreography by Daniel Job: dramatic and with plenty of detail that is often missed by other productions. Great sets by Ryan Davies and Sara-Maria Barton. A well trained and coordinated corps where even the children performed like pros. Sparkling dancing not only from the principals Jonathan and Sara-Maria Barton but also from the soloists Owen Morris as Tybalt, Andremaria Battaglia as Paris, Miranda Hamill as the nurse, Isaac Bowry as Lord Capulet, Kathrine Blyth as his wife, Andrew Cook as Prince Escalus and Karen Terry as Friar Lawrence.

This is a ballet that demands not only great virtuosity from the principals with no less than 4 major pas de deux (the ball, the balcony, the bedroom and the crypt) but also great drama. Juliet grows up literally overnight. A playful adolescent teasing her nurse in the first Act. A woman who knows her mind and is capable of taking enormous risks in defiance of her father in the next. Romeo - passionate in love but also in fury. Drama also from the soloists. Katherine Blyth's grief at her son's death. Her anger on seeing his killer. Her performance gripped the audience - or at any rate it gripped me. Bowry who I had previously seen as Drosselmeyer and Rothbart showed he can act as well as dance. So too could Cook whom I had also admired very much last year.

Because the cast is large and the sets were elaborate the show needed a big stage. The Macrobert is not a small auditorium but it did not do justice to the show. This production has already toured China where it was no doubt danced in bigger auditoria. Probably the best place to see this show is the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow where the tour concludes on Valentine's day. This will be a memorable performance and if you live in Glasgow or anywhere near it you really should try to be there.

In the programme the company's founder and artistic Gillian Barton wrote how it started from humble beginnings in 1991 and how it has achieved great things with tours of China, finalists and medallists in important competitions and graduates in several major companies. Tonight I met Gillian Barton for the first time. Others including one of the members of my class at Northern Ballet had spoken very highly of that lady and I can quite see why.

Further Reading

4 Fev 2015 Kenneth Speirs Brother and sister look ahead to Romeo and Juliet performance in Paisley Daily Record
2 Feb 2015 Kelly Apter Ballet review: Romeo and Juliet, Stirling The Scotsman

Stirling Stuff

Ballet West will dance Romeo and Juliet at the Macrobert Centre in Stirling tonight and tomorrow and with any luck  I will be in the audience tomorrow night to cheer them.  I enjoyed their Swan Lake and  The Nutcracker very much and I have high hopes of this production.

The company has already performed at The Corran Halls in Oban and by all accounts they did very well. The following message appeared on their Facebook page:

"Congratulations to the entire cast of Romeo & Juliet!! Each and every one of you were outstanding! A special well done to the outreach students, you were brilliant! Thank you also to the artistic and admin staff, chaperones, technical crew and wardrobe! Hope you're all ready for tonight's performance!!"

These shows are the only time I get to see Jonathan and Sara-Maria Barton who are accomplished performers as well as teachers at the school. I was very impressed with both of them in Odette's seduction scene last year.

Stirling is in one of our finest cities. Although it has fewer than 50,000 inhabitants it has the feel of a metropolis. It was for a time the capital of Scotland. Like Edinburgh it has an ancient castle built on a volcanic mound and the splendid Church of the Holy Rude where King James VI of Scotland and I of England was crowned. For the last 50 years Stirling has been a university town with a fine research university with the science park and Macrobert Centre.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is discouraging with high winds and driving snow threatened for both sides of the border but Ballet West, like a Michelin restaurant vaut le voyage.

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Oban

Photo Wikipedia

In Oban, Stirling, Livingston, Paisley, Greenock, Musselburgh and Glasgow.

Ballet West, Scotland's other classical ballet company, is on tour. It will dance Romeo and Juliet in each of those towns on the following dates:

The principal roles will be danced by Jonathan Barton and Sara-Maria Smith who teach at the school. Other roles will be danced by the school's students some of whom are already beginning to distinguish themselves (see Natasha Watson in Lausanne 15 Nov 2014). If this show is anything like as good as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake it should be well worth the trek up the M6 and M74.