Cinderella in the Stopera

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Dutch National Ballet Cinderella 22 Dec 2018 , 20:00, Stopera, Amsterdam

In July 2015 the Dutch National Ballet performed Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella at the Coliseum. It played to full houses and audiences seemed to like it but though not all critics did.  In my review, Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015, I wrote:

"I enjoyed the show. I liked Wheeldon's treatment of the story, the dancing, Julian Crouch's designs and Natasha Katz's lighting. I prefer it to The Winter's Tale to which I was indifferent when I first saw it on stage but warmed to it when I saw it in the cinema and on television. It may be that Wheeldon is an acquired taste and that his critics will come round. I look forward to seeing the show again and I think it will look even better on the stage of the Stopera."

Well, I saw it in the Stopera on Saturday 22 Dec 2018 and was bowled over by it.  At the end of the second act, I wrote on my Facebook page: "Christmas has been made for me by  DutchNatBallet's Cinderella even if I never get a single present, a Christmas card, a slice of Turkey, a smidgeon of plum pudding, a mince pie or a whiff of mulled wine."

Why the difference?  The answer came when I joined a tour of the Stopera for new Friends on my birthday in 2016 (see Double Dutch Delights 17 Feb 2016).  One of the senior technical staff welcomed us to the stage and showed us some of the computer equipment at his command.  I mentioned that I had attended a performance of Cinderella in London the previous summer and asked him how the company found the Coliseum.  He replied that the company enjoyed their visit to London very much through the Coliseum lacked the state-of-the-art equipment and facilities that they enjoy at the Stopera. That equipment enabled the tree over the grave of Cinderella's mother to grow and change colour with the seasons. It showed birds in flight and falling rain at the funeral of Cinderella's mother.

I noted the similarities between Cinderella and The Winter's Tale in my previous review.  In both, the lead characters were introduced as children and both features a massive tree.  In a strange sort of way, Cinderella was actually more Shakespearean than the ballet that was based on a Shakespeare play.  Excitement was ratcheted up as in a Shakespearean play.  When Cinderella's appeared in a golden gown the lights on stage were cut and the house lights switched to full brightness.  That moment was matched at the end of the next act when Cinderella ran off stage right into the stalls and through the audience to the exit.

There was also plenty of humour that provided dramatic relief.  Cinderella's stepmother, Hortensia, became tight at the ball as the evening wore on much to the embarrassment of her husband.  Benjamin, the prince's friend, fell head over heels in love with the plainer of Hortensia's daughters.  The most unpromising candidates queued to try Cinderella's abandoned slipper including a Balinese princess with long nails and a spiked headdress, a forest spirit with an outsized head and a knight in full armour brandishing a battle axe.  Levity is not easy to induce in ballet.  Ashton managed it his Cinderella in his pairing with Robert Helpmann as Cinderella's ugly sisters and Wheeldon succeeded in his version of the ballet.

In London, I had seen Remi Wörtmeyer as Benjamin, the prince's friend.  On Saturday he was promoted to prince, a role that suited him well.  Benjamin was danced by Sho Yamada who has impressed me twice this year.  Cinderella was Anna Ol. She commanded the audience's respect from the start and not our pity.  She showed her spirit from the moment her father (Anatole Babenko)  introduced her to Hortensia.   Hortensia had offered her a bunch of flowers that she tossed to the floor.  I sensed fear on the part of the stepmother and her sisters rather than simple malice. Hortensia, a difficult role, was danced impressively by Vera Tsyganova. Luiza Bertho danced Cinderella's stepsister Edwina and Riho Sakamoto, her other stepsister Clementine. Finally, it was great to see Jane Lord on stage again as a dance teacher.

As I had benefited from attending Rachael Beaujean's talk on Giselle last month, I attended the introductory talk on Cinderella.  That took the form of a Powerpoint presentation in a lecture room `below the auditorium between 19:15 and 19:45.  Although it was given in Dutch which is a language I have never studied I think I got the gist of it as Dutch is closely related to Engish and German. I learned that this ballet is a co-production with the San Francisco Ballet, about Ashton's influence over Wheeldon, the significance of the tree and all sorts of other useful facts.

The ballet will run to 1 Jan 2019 and is playing to full houses.  Readers who miss it this month in Amsterdam will have a chance to see English National Ballet perform a version in the round in the Albert Hall between 6 and 16 June 2019.

Dutch National Ballet's Gala 2018: A very special evening with a very special company

Author: Gebruiker:Iijjccoo  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

Dutch National Ballet Gala 2018 National Opera and Ballet Auditorium, 8 Sept 2018, 19:30

I described the Dutch National Ballet'a gala in 2015 as "The Best Evening I have ever spent at the Ballet" 13 Sept 2015.  I meant it even though I had seen some very special performances.  "How could the 2015 gala possibly be equalled?" I asked myself rhetorically. In fact it was surpassed the very next year (see in Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2016).  Saturday night's gala was better still  It was a very special evening with a very special company.

It was special for all sorts of reasons.  Some of those were obvious such as the brilliance of the performances and the sense of occasion.  Others were personal reasons like the expression of pride on the face of my former ward (the nearest I have to a daughter) as she spotted Michaela DePrince in the grand defilé.   My ward also came from  Sierra Leone.  Having suffered  from civil war and ebola Sierra Leone has not had much to cheer about lately. DePrince's success is an exception. It is unadulterated good news and an enormous source of pride even to Sierra Leoneans who have never seen a ballet.  Recently DePrince sustained an injury that has kept her from her public far too long.  Seeing her dance again on Saturday in Peter Leung's Portrait  was a joy.  That alone justified the trip to Amsterdam as far as I am concerned.

Another personal highlight was Cristiano Principato and Jessica Xuan in Ernst Meisner's Embers. I fell in love with that piece the first time I saw it at the Stadsshouwburg in 2015 (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015). In 2016 Principato brought his friends in the Dutch National Ballet and other leading companies to a tiny theatre in a small town half way between Milan and Turin to perform a Gala for Africa (see From Italy with Love 1 July 2016).  I flew to Italy to support them. While I was there I had the honour of meeting Cristiano Principato's parents.  It was a beautiful evening which ended with a performance of Embers by Principato and Priscylla Gallo. I wrote:

"Last year Meisner was my joint choreographer of the year for creating Embers. It moves me in a special way. I have now seen it four times and I love it a little more each time I see it. Thomas and Nancy Burer introduced me to the work and they dance it beautifully. I experienced it in a different way when Cristiano and Priscylla danced the piece on Tuesday night. Never has it seemed more beautiful."

In July of this year, Principato and Xuan danced Embers  at the Varna International Ballet Competition. For her performance in that piece, Xuan was awarded first prize.  I am very fond of both of those dancers. When they took their bow on Saturday I felt compelled to rise to my feet.  Wild horses would not have restrained me.

One of the reasons I like Meisner's work so much is that he innovates.   In 2014 he collaborated with Marco Gerris of the ISH Dance Collective to create Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  That work combined ballet with hip hop for the Junior Company and ISH.   Dancers from both companies performed extracts of that work at the 2016 gala and I was entranced.   Now Meisner and Gerris have collaborated again to produce a new work called Grimm which the Junior Company and ISH danced on Saturday night.  The combination of hip hop and classical dance succeeded brilliantly. The costumes were gorgeously outlandish and the music infectious.  I would love to see the whole work.   I hope it may be performed in the UK one day.

This year's gala was dedicated to Rudi van Dantzig who was one of two towering geniuses of Dutch ballet.  Three of his works were performed on Saturday: Voorbij Gegaan ("Beyond Goodbye")  by Josef Varga and Anna Tsygankova, Autumn Haze by Qian Liu and Constantine Allen and extracts from his Swan Lake.  The first extract was from act II where Siegfried meets Odette.   Artur Shesterikov was Siegfried and Anna Ol Odette.  The second was the seduction scene from act III with Legnani's 32 fouettés.  Maia Makhateli was Odile and Daniel Camargo Siegfried.   I have seen some great dancers in that role including Fonteyn and Nureyev but this was one of the most exciting performances  that I had ever seen.  Just before Christmas I joined the autograph queue following their performance in The Sleeping Beauty to ask Camargo and Makhateli to sign  two Christmas cards - one for two promising young ballet students at the Leeds Centre for Advanced Training whose mum is one of my ballet teachers and  another for Helen McDonough, who is the second biggest fan of Camargo and Makhateli from the UK.  Helen was in the audience on Saturday so they danced before their #1 and #2 British fans.

The other towering genius of Dutch ballet is, of course, Hans van Manen.  Three of his works were performed on Saturday.   The first was the Frank Bridge Variations, a pas de deux which was performed exquisitely by Remi Wörtmeyer and Suzanna Kaic.  It was followed immediately by In the Future  from the Junior Company which I had seen at the Stadsshouwburg in their fifth anniversary performance.  Visually Saturday's performance was as impressive as it had been the first time I had seen it but the words that are an integral part of the piece and essential for its appreciation were indistinct.  The last of Van Manen's works was his Symfonien der Nederlanden which was performed by the corps immediately after the first interval.  Van Manen is my favourite living choreographer and this symphony for the Dutch People is now my favourite of his works.  Set to Louis Andriessen's uplifting score, the dancers in costumes that resembled overalls saluted a great nation.  This was the first time that I had seen the Symfonien but I shall make sure that it is not the last.

Wörtmeyer is a talented choreographer.   I was impressed by his Passing Shadows at New Moves 2017:

"Passing Shadows by the company's principal, Remi Wörtmeyer, was another gripping work though more for the choreography than the staging. There was an explosion of applause before the curtain began to fall as Wörtmeyer spun his fellow Australian Juliet Burnett of the Flanders Ballet inches from the floor. This was a work for four dancers to Rachmaninov's Cello Somata in G Minor Op 19 Slow. This was a work for four dancers the other two being Jingjing Mao and Clemens Fröhlich. Wörtmeyer is credited with painting the sets and designing the costumes though they were sourced from the company's wardrobe and props departments."

He has created another beautiful work called You Before Me to Philip Glass's Etudes No 2 .  It was danced on Saturday by Anna Ol and Semyon Velichko.  Their interpretation was a joy to watch, as delicate as it was moving.

Ever since I saw her Streetcar Named Desire  for Scottish Ballet I have been a fan of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.  Last year I was introduced to her by Cassa Pancho at Ballet Black's performance of her Little Red Riding Hood in Nottingham (see All Hail to the Lone Star Dancer 23 June 2017).  Her NUDE a delightful piece danced by Erica Horwood and Vito Mazzeo in flesh coloured body hugging costumes delighted the crowd.

Another choreographer who has created a major work for Scottish Ballet is David Dawson.  I loved his Swan Lake but I also enjoy his shorter ballets for the Junior Company and the Dutch National Ballet.  One of my all time favourite ballerinas is Sasha Mukhsmedov whose Nikiya delighted me (see Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadère 14 Nov 2016).  On Saturday I saw her in a very different role in Dawson's The Grey Area and she delighted me once more.  In The Grey Area she has partnered gallantly by James Stout who has recently been promoted to principal.

One of the most thrilling virtuosos of any company is Young Gyu Choi.  He excels in such roles as the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty and Shiva in Mata Hari.   He was superbly cast for the Soviet era ballet Flames of Paris which was danced for the first time in the Netherlands (and possibly the first time anywhere outside the former Soviet Union by a non-Russian company) on Saturday night. The bit that we saw was a rumbustious pas de deux with Aya Okumura to some catchy tunes by Boris Asafyev.  Okumura partnered Young enchantingly.  "Balletic Les Mis" flashed through my mind as I watched the piece.  I missed Ratmansky's revival of Flames of Paris on the Bolshoi's latest tour of London and in last year's cinema screening so I can't really say much about the work other than that the extract that we saw at the gala was very entertaining.

Another work that we see rarely in the UK is John Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias.   That is probably because we are brought up on Ashton's Marguerite and Armand which was created for Fonteyn and Nureyev some 15 years earlier.   Just as Fonteyn was Ashton's muse Marcia Haydée was Neumeier's.  The role of Marguerite requires a diva and there is probably nobody in the world who could have performed it more convincingly than Igone de Jongh.  Her Armand was Daniel Camargo who was magnificent.  Elegantly constructed and beautifully executed, it was the company at its best.

The show opened with the grand defilé or big parade - row upon row of dancers from the first year students at the National Ballet Academy to the principals presented themselves to the strains of Aurora's wedding from The Sleeping Beauty.   What presence and grace those children possessed.  The orchestra was conducted by our very own Koen Kessels.  That was yet another treat as Kessels is my favourite ballet conductor since John Lanchbery and I was able to tell him that in person as I was about to leave the theatre.  The show ended in a shower of gold confetti that brought the audience to their feet.

Every year the company awards a prize in honour of Alexandra Radius to the outstanding dancer of the year.  Usually it goes to a principal.   Young Gyu Choi won it last year and Artur Shesterikov the year before.  This year it was awarded to Timothy van Poucke, one of the company's youngest dancers who is still in the corps.  Van Poucke's career has been meteoric.  Only last year he and Salome Leverashvili were blogging about the Junior Company (see Missing Amsterdam 18 Feb 2017).

Readers will get some idea of the grandeur of the occasion from the video above. I am in the clip 8 minutes 35 seconds in.   Although it is grand it is not exclusive as it would be in some countries.  Anyone anywhere can buy a ticket through the company's website.  Tickets for the gala are more expensive than for other shows because there is a reception at which food and drink are served liberally.  Even so, our seats in row 9 of the stalls (zaal) were significantly less than the cost of equivalent seats at Covent Garden.

The New York Times ranks the Dutch National Ballet as one of the top 5 in the world and I would respectfully agree with that ranking.   I think the Junior Company has much to do with the Dutch National Ballet's success as recruits from the Juniors refresh and reinvigorate it every year.  According to Ted Brandsen, Junior Company alumni already make up a third of the company and that proportion is likely to rise over time.  I think that is why every year's gala has been better than the last.

How to get to the Dutch National Ballet's Gala

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Tickets for the Dutch National Ballet's gala on Saturday, 8 Sept 2018 have just gone on sale and they are going like hot cakes.  Last year they sold out well before I got round to buying one.  This year I took no chances and ordered mine as soon as I could get onto the company's website. The tickets are not cheap but remember that there is a lovely party afterwards where you may get a chance to shake hands with such gigastars (if not terastars) as Artur Shesterikov and Sasha Mukhamedov.

I described the 2015 gala in The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015 and Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2018.

So how to get to the gala.   Well it takes place in the Stopera in Amsterdam which doubles as the town hall and the national opera house.  The word "Stopera" is what we trade mark lawyers call a portmanteau combining the words "stadhuis" (or town hall) with "opera".  Be that as it may, the Stopera is in a splendid position overlooking the Amstel river and there is no better way of spending the interval than gazing out over the river. Every seat commands a good view of the stage which is cavernous. I once stood on that stage as part of a birthday treat in 2015 (see Double Dutch Delights 17 Feb 2015).  There is much less of a crush than at the Royal Opera House because the walkways and stairs are broad.   There is plenty of seating for the intervals. It is also a lot easier to get served at the bar than in the West End and you don't need a second mortgage to buy a round.

The Stopera is next door to Waterlooplein tube station which is served by thee lines all of which go to the Central Station.  From there you can get a train to just about anywhere on the continent and even to St Pancras via the channel tunnel nowadays.  It also serves the airport which is a major hub from where you can travel to just about anywhere in the world.

When I am in Amsterdam for business I like to stay at the Radison Blu which is on a street called "Rusland" that I think means "Russia".  It is a short walk from the Stopera.  It is also close to a the Hemelse Modder (literally "Heavenly Mud") which Ted Brandsen once told me is his favourite restaurant and it is certainly mine.   It is important to get a good meal inside you because there is no restaurant in the Stopera.   There is a pub next door but it is not particularly special and service is slow.  I recommend the Heavenly Mud and I have already reserved my table there.

If I am in Amsterdam for leisure I stay at one of the hotels in the Bastion chain. They are very like Travelodges, Fairly cheap and cheerful but not always in the best locations.  Probably the most convenient is at Duivendrecht which is about 6 stops on the underground from Waterlooplein.

To get around Amsterdam you can buy a combined bus, rail, tram, underground and ferry card known as an Amsterdam Travel Ticket starting at €16 for one day and  €21 for the weekend.  Remember to check in and check out every time you use a public transport service.

You can fly to Amsterdam from Leeds with Jet2 or from Liverpool and Manchester with easyJet.  There are probably more services from  London than you can shake a stick at and there is also a through train to Amsterdam from St Pancras.  I am sure there are good connections from Scotland, Newcastle, East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff but I have never flown from any of those cities.  There are some excellent bargains from both airlines and Eurostar if you book far enough ahead.

The Dutch National Ballet is one of the most beautiful, friendly, innovative and thrilling companies that I know with some of the world's best dancers.   I do hope you can join me on 8 Sept.

Michaela DePrince to return to London

Michaela DePrince in "A Million Kisses to my Skin"

Author Angela Sterling
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Licensed with the kind permission of the company

Danceworks has just announced that Michaela DePrince will teach at its studios in London between 23 July and 3 Aug 2018.  According to the studio's press release:

"Michaela will be teaching our young dancers at the Danceworks Ballet Academy Summer Intensive, a two-week programme that offers young dancers from ages 6 up to pre-professional, the chance to be coached by leading ballet stars. Students will perform at the prestigious Lilian Baylis Studios, Sadler's Wells on the final day of the course."

She visited the studios in 2015 and 2016 and on each occasion Lesley Osman sent me some lovely photos of her with her students, including an account by one of them who showed a talent for journalism as well as dance (see Michaela's Masterclass 8 July 2015 and Michaela DePrince revisits Danceworks 7 Aug 2016).  If you or one of your offspring would like to attend one of Michaela DePrince's classes you should email balletschool@danceworks.com for further information.

I first heard about Michaela DePrince when she was still in America.  I was interested to learn that she was born in Sierra Leone because my late spouse and daughter manquée also came from that country.  When she joined the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet I attended its first performance at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam.   In my review of that performance I described her as  "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).  Michaela led me to the Junior Company who in turn led me to the mighty Dutch National Ballet which has been a source of great pleasure for me.

If you want to meet Michaela but are too old for her class at Danceworks you might do so at the opening night gala of the 2018/2019 ballet season.  The evening consists of a performance followed by a party in the Stopera and it was at that party that I encountered her (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet  13 Sep 2015).   Now there is quite a crowd at that party and I can't guarantee that you will meet Michaela as I did but you would be very unlucky not to make the acquaintance of at least one or two members of that brilliant company. 

Tickets for the gala will be on sale from the beginning of June and they are usually snapped up like hot cakes.  If any of my readers from anywhere in the world would like to join me at the Stopera on opening night do let me know and maybe we can form a party. If there are enough of us we may even be able to get some discounts and so some other fun things like take a day trip to IJsselstein for an adult ballet class at the Jos Dolstra Dance Institute.

The Dutch National Ballet's "The Sleeping Beauty" - I have waited nearly 50 years for this show

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The Dutch National Ballet The Sleeping Beauty, Stopera, Amsterdam 17 Dec 2017, 14:00

It's funny how some performances stand out in one's memory over the years.  The performance of The Sleeping Beauty by the Royal Ballet on 22 July 1972 was one of those. Dame Margot Fonteyn danced Aurora and Rudolf Nureyev Florimund.  It was a glorious evening and I saw the show when I was at a high point of my life, shortly after graduating from St Andrews and just before I was due to take up a scholarship to UCLA.

I've seen many excellent performances of The Sleeping Beauty since then by Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Hungarian National Ballet and lots of other companies including the Royal Ballet. None has come close to that show on 22 July 1972. It was for me the gold standard. At least not until last Sunday. Now, over 46 years after that remarkable performance by Fonteyn and Nureyev, I have seen its peer.

The matinee that I attended on Sunday afternoon had been staged by Sir Peter Wright, It is a production that I had seen several times before and know very well, Although the music, choreography and designs appeared to be the same as those I had seen before, Sunday's show had a freshness, an energy, a je ne sais quoi that somehow distinguished it from all previous performances of that ballet since 1972. The reason why it was so good is that HNB is one of the world's great companies and very special as Sir Peter noted in a YouTube clip to promote a previous revival (see Sir Peter Wright has wonderful words for the company (Dutch National Ballet) HNB 6 Dec 2010). In fact, when a gentleman in the seat next to me asked how it compared with London I replied that for my money HNB was the best company in Europe if not the world.

HNB has some brilliant dancers. Aurelia was danced on Sunday by Maia Makhateli. Although she trained in Georgia and the USA she seemed to dance very much in the English way displaying a pleasing line and considerable virtuosity but without exaggeration or gratuitous theatricality. Her rose adage was superb and readers can see her performing it in Maia Makhateli Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio 28 Oct 2016 YouTube. It is the best I can remember. I should add that Ms Makhateli is as charming off stage as she is impressive on it for when I asked her to sign a card to my contributor, Helen McDonough, in a signing session after the show she knew exactly to whom I was referring.

Ms Makhateli was partnered gallantly by Daniel Camargo. He is a very powerful but also very graceful dancer and he can also project emotion and feeling as well as any voice actor. In those regards he reminds me very much of Nureyev at the same age.  Sunday's performance was the first time I had seen him in a major role and I was impressed,  His rise to principal in Stuttgart over just a few years was meteoric. Although he is still quite young, he has already achieved a lot.  His potential must be considerable.

As Perrault's tale is essentially a struggle between good and evil, the most important characters are perhaps the lilac fairy and Carabosse.  Erica Horwood was a delightful lilac fairy but the prima ballerina, Igone de Jongh, was the best Carabosse I have ever seen, Both appeared with their attendants and Carabossse's were particularly creepy. The other fairies, Jessica Xuan, Suzanna Kaic, Yuanyuan Zhang, Naira Agvannean, Aya Okumura and Maria Chugai, danced exquisitely There were strong solo performances in the final act. I particularly liked Young Gyu Choi's and his partner Suzanna Kaic as the bluebirds and Clotilde Tran-Phat and Daniel Montero Real as the white cat and Puss'n Boots. Everyone in the cast danced well but this overlong review would resemble a telephone directory if I gave every artist the credit he or she deserves.

The Stopera's enormous stage displayed Philip Prowse's gorgeous costume and set designs to optimum advantage.

It was thrilling to sit in centre of the second row of the stalls just a few feet behind the celebrated conductor Boris Gruzin. It was tantamount to being in the orchestra pit. Indeed, it was almost like being on stage.

The Sleeping Beauty will run to New Year's Day but, sadly, almost every performance is fully booked. However, Birmingham Royal Ballet's version, also produced by Sir Peter Wright and also very good, is about to go on tour.  It will visit Southampton between 31 Jan and 3 Feb, Birmingham between 13 and 24 Feb, Greater Manchester between 28 Feb and 3 March, Cardiff between 14 and 17 March and Plymouth between 21 and 24 March.

Finally, I must apologize to readers for the long and embarrassing delay since my last post in November. I have made made copious notes of Rambert's Ghost Dances at the Alhambra, Northern Ballet's The Little Mermaid in Sheffield, Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker in Birmingham and the Russian State Ballet and Opera House's Romeo and Juliet in Harrogate not to forget the preview of Sharon Watson's Windrush, cinema relays of the Bolshoi's Le Corsaire and the Royal Ballet's Alice in Wonderland and The Nutcracker, Martin Dutton's inspiring Nutcracker intensive, great classes at Pineapple and Huddersfield and the Arts Council's seminar on grant applications. I will try to get these out to you by the end of the year.

Jumping for Joy

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I described Jump two years ago in Jump 11 July 2015. It's a fan club for young ballet fans with its own website but it is also an open day called Dansdag when kids take over the Stopera. This year it fell on 24 June and I am told by people who were there that it was particularly good this year.

Judging by this film it certainly seems to have been. Most ballet companies run special activities for children and young people but this must be one of the best.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Music Theatre

Sinterklaas close to the Stopera

(c) 2016 Team Terpsichore: all rights reserved

Only 126 miles separate the Hook of Holland from Harwich. English is spoken very widely in the Netherlands. Their own language is a first cousin of English, appreciably closer  than either German or French. Their climate is very much the same as ours. They share our maritime heritage. They are a constitutional monarchy just like us. The colours of their flag are red, white and blue. According to Wikipedia the Dutch even play cricket (see Cricket in the Netherlands Wikipedia). The Dutch are just like us, aren't they!

Well no! Not exactly! And certainly not in every respect as I found out for myself on the way to the Muziektheater or Stopera, the home of the Dutch National Ballet. I usually take the tube to the Stopera but the nearest exit to the theatre was closed for some reason or other on Sunday. I had to leave from another exit on the other side of the Waterlooplein. Last Sunday, however, my way was blocked by a big parade. There were scores of floats and marching bands with men and women in 17th-century costume doling out sweets and biscuits to children and other passers-by. Many of them had blackened their faces with makeup. In the centre of the parade on a milk-white horse rode a man in a mitre with a false white beard and a wig of white curls who was waving to the crowd. He turned out to be Sinterklaas and his black-faced assistants represented his companion, Zvarte Piet ("Black Piet").

I felt a little uneasy at seeing all those blacked up faces but the Black and Asian folk in the crowd did not seem to mind at all. They appeared to be having just as much fun as everyone else. Sinterklaas sounds almost the same as Santa Claus but he is nothing like our Father Christmas. We tell our kids that Santa lives in Lapland where he is attended by elves and reindeer. When he wants to deliver presents on Christmas eve he travels by sleigh. Sinterklaas, by contrast, lives in Spain, travels by boat or on horseback and is attended by Black Piet. Instead of a red hood, he dons a bishop's mitre. Sinterklaas's story is told by the Sint in Amsterdam website and the video Intocht Sinterklaas Amsterdam 14 Nov 2010 gives you the flavour of the parade.

After the procession had snaked its way along the Waterlooplein we crossed the road and made our way to the Stopera. We enjoyed a superb performance of La Bayadere which I reviewed yesterday in Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere 14 Nov 2016.  After reading my review Richard Heideman, the National Ballet's press manager kindly sent us the following pictures By Marc Haegeman.

Dutch National Ballet, La Bayadere

Photo Marc Haeeman
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company 

Dutch National Ballet, La Bayadere

Photo Marc Haeeman
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Dutch National Ballet, La Bayadere

Photo Marc Haeeman
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Although we had come to Amsterdam primarily to see ballet that was not the only thing we did there. The Philips Symphony Orchestra gave a concert at the Concertgebouw which we attended on Saturday evening. They played Brahms's Violin Concerto and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony in their main auditorium which was an experience in itself. Excellent acoustics, beautiful chandeliers, the walls bearing the names of many of the world's greatest composers. Each piece was introduced by a short lecture of which I fear I understood only the gist as it was delivered in Dutch. In the interval free drinks were served in the bar. "A very civilized touch and typically Dutch", I thought.

Earlier in the day we had spent our afternoon across the road in the Stedelijk Museum which displays a small but precious part of its collection of paintings and sculpture from the last 150 years and a massive display of every aspect  of design. There were several special exhibitions on Saturday of which a retrospective on Jean Tinguely absorbed most of our time. I have to confess that I had never heard of Tinguely before I visited the exhibition but I was fascinated by his moving machines. They were like Heath Robinson come to life.

All good times come to an end, of course, but I was sadder than usual to board my plane back to Manchester on Sunday night. The Dutch appear on average to be about 6 inches taller than us Brits but they also seem to be gentler in their dealings with one another and certainly with foreigners. A land of Big Friendly Giants with arguably the best ballet company in Europe if not the world. I could get used to living in Amsterdam.

Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere

Sasha Mukhamedov and Jozef Varga

(c) 2016 Team Terpsichore: all rights reserved

Dutch National Ballet, La Bayadere, Stopera, 13 Nov 2016, 14:00

There were gasps, sighs and murmurs from members of the audience as the image of Nikiya appeared momentarily before a disconsolate Solor. Nobody tried to shush them. They could not help themselves. The scene was just so beautiful. I've seen a lot of ballet in my time but I can't (for the moment at any rate) think of a more beautiful production than the Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere. 

The version of the ballet that the company performed was by Natalia Makarova.  She had created it for American Ballet Theatre in 1980. It is the version that the Royal Ballet danced in 2013 (see La Bayadere on the Royal Opera House's website). The story in Makarova's production differed in several important respects from that of the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre which is the only other performance that I have ever seen (see the synopsis on the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's website and my review Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2015). In Makarova's version, Solor is killed (presumably by falling masonry) when the temple collapses just as he is about to marry Gamzatti. In the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's, he actually marries her but kills himself in a fit of remorse. St Petersburg Ballet Theatre transposes Solor's dream of the kingdom of the shades to the last act whereas in Makarova's that scene occurs in the second.

Yesterday Sasha Mukhamedov danced Nikiya, Jozef Varga Solor, Vera Tsyganova Gamzatti and Nicolas Rapaic the Brahmin. Mukhamedov had danced Nikiya with Daniel Camargo in an extract from La Bayadere at the opening night gala on 7 Sept 2016 (see Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2016) and she had impressed me with her grace and sensitivity. She showed those qualities again yesterday and I became an even bigger fan. Varga partnered Mukhamedov brilliantly. He also dances with great sensitivity but shows strength and Speed in the solo roles. Consequently, he is thrilling to watch. I had not followed Vera Tsyganova until yesterday but I shall do so from now on. Another exciting dancer but also an accomplished actor expressing eloquently the wide range of emotions that her role demanded. The young Brazilian dancer, Daniel Silva, who had impressed me in the Junior Company's Ballet Bubbles on 14 Feb 2016 (see Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016) and who has recently joined the main company as an "eleve" danced the bronze idol. It was good to see him in that role and, indeed, good to see so many of the other young dancers whom I have tried to promote in this blog on stage. We saw several of the company's rising stars such as Michaela DePrince and Floor Eimers as well as many recent and current members of the Junior Company. I congratulate each and every one of those beautiful young dancers on their contribution to a magnificent performance.

The performance was magnificent not just for its choreography and dancing but also for its scenery, costumes, lighting and special effects. As in the Royal Ballet's production, the sets were designed by Pier Luigi Samaritani, costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend and lighting by John B. Read. Some of Read's lighting effects were very clever. By way of example, immediately after Nikiya had been bitten by a snake she appeared in a bluish light giving her an ashen appearance. I do not know who designed the special effects but he or she deserves special commendation. The images of falling debris in the destruction of the temple and Nikiya's fleeting appearance in Solor's dream were spectacular.

The Dutch seem to cherish their National Ballet in a way that few other countries do and the company responds by making its dancers accessible to the public.  Immediately after a gruelling performance Mukhamedov and Varga, still in full costume, sat at a desk at the bottom of the stairs to sign autographs and shake hands with their fans. In other cities members of the audience have to queue up outside the stage door in the rain to glimpse the stars but in Amsterdam the stars welcome the fans.  "So sweet and so typically Dutch", I thought.

Having recently attended a three-day workshop in Manchester to learn bits of the choreography from Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy I had a personal interest in this ballet (see La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016). As the experts performed the steps that Jane had taught us my fingers traced the steps.  It was like the icing on the cake, the fulfilment of last August's intensive. I felt even more chuffed with myself for attending the intensive than I did in August,

A Coppelia Makeover

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Dutch National Ballet's Christmas show this year will be Ted Brandsen's Coppelia. It will run at the Stopera (or Music Theatre) from 10 Dec 2016 to 1 Jan 2017 with performances on Christmas  Eve, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve,

This is nothing like any Coppelia that we have seen before. It is set not in a remote 19th-century village somewhere in Mitteleuropa but in a modern urban setting.  Instead of being an eccentric recluse Dr Coppelius runs a beauty clinic to which celebrities flock including a beautiful young girl with a curious hairdo who turns Franz's head. In this video, the choreographer explains that the set was designed to resemble a child's picture book by the well-known illustrator, Sieb Posthuma. Because of the change of period and setting a delicious range of new costumes have been designed by François-Noël Cherpin.

I am very cautious about attempts to update well-known, well-loved ballets. I think David Dawson succeeded with Scottish Ballet's Swan Lake (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016) but I am much less sure about David Nixon's version (see Up The Swannee 17 March 2016) and I have one or two issues with Akram Khan's Giselle. I have yet to see Brandsen's Coppelia on stage (though I have seen quite extensive bits of it on YouTube) and if the video is anything to go by it seems to work very well

Another Beautiful Giselle

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A delightful extract from Act II of Giselle danced in everyday clothes (and shoes) to Adolphe Adam's score by artists of the Dutch National Ballet in a Beijing shopping centre. Adam's score and Coralli and Perrot's choreography can still touch the spirit even in everyday settings.

And here is a trailer for that beautiful ballet which the Dutch National Ballet performed at the Stopera last year:



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Kammerballett

Kammerballett

Photo Altin Kaftira
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Licensed by kind permission of the company

Dutch National Ballet Kammerballett Stopera, 7 Sept 2016

Kammerballett (literally Chamber Ballet in German) was created by Hans van Manen for the Netherlands Dance Theatre (Nederlands Dans Theater) and was first performed in the Hague in 1995. It is set to the music of Domenico Scarlatti and features a piano and a lot of chairs as well as the dancers.

Photo Altin Kaftire
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced by kind permission of the company

The leading dancers in this piece were  Vito Mazzeo and Igone de Jongh but they were supported by a very distinguished cast: Rachel Beaujean, Floor Elmers, Juanjo Arques, Ernst Meisner, Marijn Rademaker, James Stout and Alexander Zhermbrovskyy. Ernst Meinser and Juanjo Arques are particularly well known to British audiences as they danced for the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet respectively. It was very good to see them both on stage again.

The above photo shows the principals with the other dances sitting on the chairs in the background.

Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere - the Highlight of my World Ballet Day

Daniel Camargo and Sasha Mukhamedov in an Extract from La Bayadere

Photo Altin Kaftira
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company

It will come as no surprise to my readers that the slot for Dutch National Ballet between 16:00 and 16:30 was the highlight of my World Ballet Day. If anyone missed it I have shared a recording on my Facebook page. It is well worth watching as were all the contributions to yesterday's feast of dance.

There three several reasons why I enjoyed the Dutch National Ballet's programme so much.

The first is that I love the company. I am one of its Friends in the formal sense. I have visited the Stopera (the company's home) several times over the last few years including the opening night galas this year and last (see Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2016 and The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015). Over the years I have been lucky enough to meet the company's artistic director Ted Brandsen and many of its dancers, choreographers, technical staff and officials some of whom are Facebook friends or followers on twitter.  One of my birthday treats on 14 Feb 2016 was to tour the Stopera with a group of Friends of the company (see Double Dutch Delights 17 Feb 2016).

Daniel Camargo as Solor on 7 Sept 2016

Photo Altin Kaftira
(c) 2016 Dutch National Ballet: A=all rights reserved 
Reproduced by kind permission of the company

The second is that the slot showed the rehearsals for La Bayadère and an interview with Natalia Makarova, the great dancer, choreographer and director who has staged the ballet for the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet. Although I have seen the complete ballet only once (see Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2016) it is one of my favourites. I learned some of the choreography in a special three day intensive at KNT in Manchester in August (see La Bayadère Intensive Day 1: There's Life in the Old Girl Yet 16 Aug 2016, La Bayadere Intensive Day 2: Idols and Disembodied Shades 17 Aug 2016 and La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016).  Yesterday featured Daniel Camargo and Anna Tsygankova, one of my all time favourite dancers  (see Anna Tsygankova 8 Sept 2016). I saw Camargo dance a scene from La Bayadere with Sasha Mukhamedov at the gala. I shall return to Amsterdam on 13 Nov when I hope to see Mukhamedov again with Jozef Varga and Vera Tsygankova in the last performance of La Bayadere.

The third reason why the Dutch National Ballet's slot was the highlight of my day is that Ted Brandsen was interviewed by Michaela DePrince, That remarkable young woman, who joined the Junior Company in 2013 and is already a grand sujet attracted me to the Junior Company and later to the main company. I met her briefly at last year's gala after which "I left the Stopera thinking how that exceptionally talented young dancer was as gracious off stage as she is magnificent upon it." I have written quite a lot about DePrince over the years for various reasons one of which is that I also have connections with Sierra Leone, the country of her birth. You will find links to some of those articles at Michaela DePrince at TEDx Amsterdam 28 Nov 2016.

Toer van Schayk's "Episodes van Fragmenten"

Toer van Scayk wearing the Medal of the Order of Orange-Nassau

Photo Juri Hiensch
(c) 2016 Dutch National Balle

Licensed by kind permission of Richard Heideman

Dutch National Ballet, Episodes van Fragmenten, Stopera, 7 Sept 2016

The gala of the 7 Sept 2016 which I described in Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2016 was a double celebration (Dubbel Feest) of the careers of the great ballerina Igone de Jongh and the great artist, choreographer, dancer and designer Toer van Schayk.

Van Schayk is perhaps the nearest we have in the modern age to a renaissance man and that is how he is described by Richard Heideman, press manager of the Dutch National Ballet in a press release to announce his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Orange Nassau (an order of chivalry in the Netherlands roughly equivalent to our OBE). He was presented with that honour by Mariette Bussemaker the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science on stage on the first night of Dutch Masters which celebrates three giants of Dutch Ballet, Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen and Toer van Schayk. The Minster described van Schayk as follows:

“Toer van Schaijk is multi-talented. Dancer and choreographer. Costume and set designer. Harpsichord builder and sculptor. Painter and also inventor of his own notation method for choreography. You cannot sum him up under one heading, and that makes him a wonderful, unique person.”

Dutch Masters includes van Schayk's latest ballet  Episodes van Fragmenten which was premiered at the opening night gala on the 7 Sept 2016. This is a particularly beautiful pas de deux as you can see from the following YouTube clip:


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Although there are only two dancers there are on stage two other artists on stage, namely a violinist and a pianist whom van Schayk regards as equally important. For that reason, he describes the work as actually a pas de quatre.  

The dancers at the gala were Young Gyu Choi and Qian Liu who also appear in the YouTube clip. Here are some photos by Altin Kaftira for you to enjoy. Please note that in each case copyright in the photographs belongs to the Dutch National Ballet which has kindly licensed me to reproduce the same. The company has not granted anyone else permission to copy the following pictures and neither do I.

The ballet is set to the music of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Extase.  It traces the relationship between the man and woman with different emotions. .

As well as choreographing and staging the work van Schayk also designed the costumes. Not surprising for he is a multi-talented artist. As Richard Heideman says in his press release; 

"he choreographs, paints, sculpts and designs scenery and costumes. In everything he does, he shows a craftsmanship, precision and eye for detail that seems almost to belong to another era. He has worked with Dutch National Ballet for over fifty years. Van Schayk began his dancing career with the Nederlands Ballet, stopped dancing to train as a sculptor, but returned to dance on stage again in 1965. He stood out for his expressive and moving interpretations and, from 1971, for the ballets he created, in which you can often discern the visual artist because of their plastic quality. He has created around forty ballets in total, including the full-length The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (in collaboration with Wayne Eagling). This ballet is still regularly presented by Dutch National Ballet, as are his designs for Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and Giselle."

Van Schayk celebrates his 80th birthday at the end of this month. I am sure all my readers will join me in congratulating him and wishing him well.

Three Days in Amsterdam

Cristiano Principato with the author

(c) 2016 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved
Reproduced by kind permission of the copyright owner

Although the opening night gala for the Dutch National Ballet was my main reason for coming to Amsterdam (see Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 8 Sept 2016) it was not the only thing that I did there.

Immediately after the show there was a party at the Stopera where I met some of the outstanding young dancers I featured in Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014). Many of them have been inducted into the main company while others have joined the Stuttgart and Hungarian and Norwegian national ballets.  One of the most promising is Cristiano Principato from Novara in Northern Italy who is making his mark as a choreographer as well as a dancer. Also, he has already demonstrated his potential as an artistic director by staging the Gala for Alessia in June which I covered in From Italy with Love on 1 July 2016. Two of his works were performed in that show including Palagio which the Dutch National Ballet danced in its New Moves programme.

Eight of Cristiano's colleagues from the Junior Company appeared in Night Fall which is described as the first virtual reality ballet in the world. They included Lisanne Kottenhagen and Emilie Tassinari whom I featured in 2014 as well as Nancy Burer whose performance in Embers I described as one of the most beautiful that I had ever seen in The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015 and Priscylla Gallo, Clara Superfine, Melissa Chapski, Hannah Williams and Belle Beasley whom I saw in Ballet Bubbles on 14 Feb 2016. Each and every one of those young dancers is special and I cherish them dearly.  In Night Fall, those eight young dancers supported the magnificent Anna Tsygankova who had danced Cinderella brilliantly at the Coliseum last year (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015) and Artur Shesterikov who received the Alexandra Radius prize at the gala.

I had tried to follow the instructions on the How Can I Watch the Night Fall page of the Dutch National Ballet's website but did not get very far (see Looking forward to the Gala and trying to get the Night Fall Video to work 31 Aug 2016). In response to that blog post the company advised my companion and me to try the Virtual Reality cinema next to Amsterdam Central Station which we did. Had I seen Night Fall on the stage I would have loved it. As a ballet it could not be faulted. However, as a technology, virtual reality still has a way to go.

The VR Cinema turned out not to be a cinema at all in the conventional sense but a bar with some side rooms equipped with a number of revolving chairs to which vizor like goggles and headsets were attached. Patrons were invited to don those items and relax in the chairs. As I had to remove my headset several times I noticed the heads of my fellow patrons lolling around like babies and gyrating in their chairs like dynamos. We were behind a plate glass picture window in full view of the public. No doubt a source of considerably amusement to the neighbourhood.

We were charged 12.50 euros each for a choice of films each of which lasted about 30 minutes. Drinks were expensive too and the cinema would only take cards for payment. I chose "Documentaries" which featured polar bears in the Arctic, a French artist who made a massive tableau of a chap with a John Cleese style silly walk and a trendy couple in he media making excuses to a fake TV crew for not taking care of a Syrian refugee after they had gone on record as saying that the migration crisis was everybody's problem and not just the authorities'. I had all sorts of problems with my goggles. First, they took a long time to start. When they did start they offered me the "Scary" programme and not "Documentaries" which I had ordered. Half way through the show the film cut out altogether. When it restarted the picture was so blurred that I could not recognize any of the dancers even though I know them all very well. Altogether, a bit of a swizz.

Having said that I do think there is a place for VR in ballet which I shall probably discuss in another blog post and there are better technologies.  While waiting for me to finish my video, my colleague was invited to try the goggles of a VR equipment supplier. She found the quality of that company's product (which happened to be British) to be greatly superior.

One of the delights of Amsterdam are the free lunch time concerts that are given in the small auditorium of the Concertgebouw most Wednesdays.  We were treated to a programme of Ravel, Piazzolla and Milhaud by the Colori Ensemble on 7 Sept. My favourite was Piazzolla's Verano porteno which was a percussion solo by Arjan Jongsma.  Tickets are distributed at 11:30 on a first come first served basis and there was already a bit of a queue by 10:40 when we arrived.  The auditorium can hold about 440 persons.

We did a lot in those three days without getting round to the Rijksmuseum or indeed any of the other art galleries. There is so much to see in Amsterdam and the Night Watch should still be there the next time we call.