Michaela DePrince's Coppelia

Modern Films Coppelia

 

Modern Films Coppelia BBC 2 18:15 27 Dec 2022  and iPlayer

On the evening of 27 Dec 2022, the BBC broadcast Modern Films' Coppelia in the UK. Readers who missed the transmission can still catch it on the iPlayer.  It was choreographed by Ted Brandsen and has much in common with his production for the Dutch National Ballet which I reviewed in Brandsen's Coppelia on 12 Dec 2016.  The main differences are that the score is by Maurizio Malagnini and not by Leo Delibes and it is very much shorter.  Most of the dancers are or were in the Dutch National Ballet and some of the designs seem to be the same.

For me, the main attraction of this film was that it featured Michaela DePrince. Because I have strong connections with Sierra Leone, I took an interest in her even before she joined the Dutch National Ballet (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013). When I learned that she had joined the Junior Company I flew out to Amsterdam to watch her dance (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013  25 Nov 2013).

DePrince introduced me to the rest of the Junior Company which included some outstanding dancers. Through them, I got to know the rest of the company which has given me enormous pleasure over the last 10 years.  Some of its members have become dear friends and acquaintances and I have made many more friendships among its regular ballet-goers.  I am therefore grateful to her not only for her performances but also for the introduction to the company and its fans. 

DePrince is now in Boston which is a lot further away.  Modern Films' production was one last chance to see her with members of the Dutch National Ballet.   She danced Swan, the lead role in the film. Traditionally the heroine is called Swanhilde though, in Brandsen's stage production, she is known as Swantje. Daniel Camargo who has also crossed the Atlantic but was formerly a principal of the Dutch National Ballet danced Franz.  Dr Coppelius was danced by Vito Mazzeo.  Swan's friends were Nancy Burer, JingJing Mao and Sasha Nukhamedov, Franz's were Timothy van Poucke, Sam Sjouke and Edo Wijnen and Igone de Jongh was the ballet teacher.  Darcey Bussell, one of the few cast members not to be in HNB danced the mayor.  Floor Eimers, Giovanni Princop and Rachel Beaujean were also in the film.

I enjoyed it more than Scottish Ballet's Coppelia but not as much as English National or Birmingham Royal Ballet's or indeed Ted Brandsen's stage version.  I think that is because all those companies retain Delibers's score which contributes so much to the ballet.   It was lovely to see DePrince again as well as other members of HNB.  I am not sure that I would have liked it as much had the cast come from any other company.

Well!

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Scottish Ballet Coppelia Theatre Royal, Glasgow 25 May 2022 19:30

Scottish Ballet has specialized in reinterpreting the classical repertoire ever since Peter Darrell's Beauty and the Beast.   Sometimes it has been spectacularly successful, as with David Dawson's Swan Lake or Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling. Others such as Krzysztof Pastor's Romeo and Juliet less so.  Despite excellent performances by Rishan Benjamin as Swanhilda and Thomas Edwards as Dr Coppelius which saved my evening, I regret to say that Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright's  Coppelia did not work for me.

Coppelia is not a story that needs to be reworked.  It is basically Pygmalion which has fascinated human beings since classical times. Ted Brandsen has set it in modern dress but kept the story intact in his  Coppelia.  As my readers will gather from the synopsis, Runacre-Temple and Wright have transplanted Dr Coppelius to Silicon Valley.  Instead of an eccentric old codger with a workshop full of automatons, Coppelisu is the founder and CEO of the sinister startup NuLife.

The conventional Coppelia would not have retained its popularity for more than 150 years had it focused on Dr Coppelis's experiments.  Audiences like the lovely mazurkas of the first act, the humour of the village girls' overtures to Dr Coppelius's doll. Swanhilda's increasing exasperation with Franz as he flirts with the doll, the mugging where Dr Coppelius loses his house keys, the break-in by Swanhilda and her girlfriends to the workshop, the girls' nervousness, the cacophony when Swnhilda sets off the toys as she makes her escape, the charming dance of the hours of the last act and of course a delightful pas de deux at the end.

There is none of that in Runacre-Temple and Wright's work.  It was essentially about Coppelius and his interview with pant-suited investigative journalist Swanhilda,   A voice-over asks Coppelius how he deals with his critics.   "Do I have any?" asked another voice which made me smile as I was already thinking about this review.  There were lots of lights and screen images, a percussive score with the occasional echo of Delibes and snatches of dialogue such as "This table does not exist."  Everything was packed into a single 80-minute act.  Altogether. I found it heavy going.

Now I have to say out of fairness that most of the audience seemed to love the show.  There was a standing ovation which was the first I have ever seen in Scotland.  But it was not a simultaneous rising as I had seen in Leeds the previous week but a phased one like the opening night of Akram Khan's Giselle or at the Lowry after Sir Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet.  In a phased standing ovation unlike a spontaneous one, audience members rise to their feet because others have done so and they feel they should or maybe they just want to see the stage at the curtain call,  

Now I want to end my review on a positive note because I have followed Scottish Ballet ever since they were in Bristol and I love them to bits.   This was the first time I had seen them live since lockdown and I had been looking forward to the show for weeks.  For me, the evening was saved by Benjamin and Edwards.  Particularly Benjamin.  This was the first time I had noticed her. She is still listed simply as an "artist".  I am not sure when she joined the company but I think her future is bright.  She reminds me a lot of Michaela DePrince.  She commands the stage in much the same way. 

There were good performances from Evan Loudon who danced Franz and Amy McEntee, Xolisweh Richards. Roseanna Leney, Noa Barry,  Urara Takata, Grace Horler, Melissa Parsons, Aisling Brangan, Hannah Cubitt, Nicholas Vavrecka,, Rimbaud Patron, James Garrington, Harvey Evans, Andrea Azzari., Ben Thomas, Ishan Mahabir-Stokes. Joel Wright and Jamie Reid as lab technicians. Franz was not quite the same role as in the conventional Coppelia.  Reed was also the cameraman.

As I said above I don't think it is necessary to update Coppelia because the challenge of artificial intelligence has existed since 1870 if not from the ancient Greeks.  However, if Scottish Ballet wants to modernize that gorgeous work it need look no further than one of its own board members.

The Dutch National Ballet's Sixtieth Anniversary Gala

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Dutch National Ballet  Sixtieth Anniversary Gala National Opera and Ballet Auditorium Amsterdam 30 June 2020 19:30

One of the high points of my year is the Dutch National Ballet's annual gala.  It consists of extracts from some of the company's work over the previous year and ends with a reception in which the dancers and musicians mingle with the audience.  In other years it has taken place in early September but this year it was on 30 June.  It is always a special occasion but this year's gala was particularly important because it was the company's 60th anniversary.  It also celebrated Hans van Manen's 90th birthday and the company's emergence from covid restrictions.  To underscore the significance of the occasion, the event was attended by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.  

As usual, the evening began with the Grand Défilé, a parade of artists from the youngest students of the Dutch National Ballet Academy in their smartest leotards to the principal ballerinas in dazzling white classical tutus accompanied by the premiers danseurs nobles to the strains of Aurora's wedding from The Sleeping Beauty.   That was a tune that I often played in 2020 and 2021 in the hope that the pandemic would one day come to an end and the world's theatres would reopen.  This visit was my first trip to the Netherlands since 17 Nov 2019 when I saw The Best of Balanchine at the Zuiderstrandstheater in The Hague.

The Grand Défilé was followed by Hans van Manen's Solo, a spectacular piece to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Partita which had come pretty close to stealing the show the previous evening. Henrik Erikson of the Stuttgart Ballet who had entertained us the night before thrilled us once more. This time, he was joined on stage by Fabio Adorisio and Christian Pforr.  Once again the applause was tumultuous.

At this point, the company's artistic director Ted Brandson usually walks on stage to welcome the crowd in Dutch and English. This year it was a little different for he spoke only in Dutch.  Presently a screen appeared and this film was run.  Now I have never learnt any Dutch - I regret to say that there are not many opportunities to learn that language in this country except for diplomats and a few academics - but I do speak German and my ears caught something that sounded like "Ritter" which means knight in that language.  Dutch is a language that English speakers with a good knowledge of German can actually get the drift because it is close to both languages.  The ceremony was nothing like a British investiture at which Her Majesty or nowadays Prince Charles dubs the candidate with a sword.  A decoration was presented by the Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam. But it was clearly a very high honour at least equal to any of our knighthoods for service to the arts as the company's news release makes clear.  I met Brandsen after the show and congratulated him on his knighthood. I asked him whether we had to call him "Sir Ted" from now on.  Brandsen thought that perhaps we should but I have to say that his view was not shared by any of my Dutch friends. 

The preeminence of Dutch ballet rests largely on the work of three outstanding choreographers, Hans van Manen, Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk. The company actually refers to them as the three Vans on the History page of its website.  Van Schayk is a distinguished sculptor, painter and stage designer as well as a choreographer and many of the sets for the Dutch National Ballet's productions were designed by him.  

The next work on the programme was De Chimaera van LA, an extract from van Schayk's ballet Het mythische voorwendsel which means "the mythical pretext".  According to the programme notes, the title of the ballet was inspired by a quotation from Salvador Dali who said, "the subject of art is a pretext." The music for the piece was by Bela Bartok but van Schayk created just about everything else. He choreographed the work and designed the set, costumes and lighting.  It was performed by Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili.  I know Tsygankova very well having seen her for the first time as Cinderella at the Coliseum in 2014 but Potskhishvili was new to me.  He is clearly a rising star having entered the Junior Company as recently as 2020. Their ballet master, incidentally, was Caroline Sayo Iura who danced in the first performance of the ballet.  

The French composer Erik Satie inspired Sir Frederick Ashton to create Monotones and Hans van Manen Trois Gnossiennes. Van Manen's work was the next in the programme. It is a duet but one in which the pianist and piano have a role at least to the extent that they are on castors and moved around the stage. Having never heard the word "Gnossiennes " outside the context of this music I looked it up and found that it had been coined by Satie and that he had never explained what it means.   The word is reminiscent of the Greek word γνῶσις and as the music has a sacerdotal quality I offer "The Three Initiates".  The dancers were Anna Ol and James Stout and the pianist Olga Khoziainova.

Had he lived Wojciech Kilar would also have been 90 this year.  One of his most exciting works is Toccata which Krzysztof Pastor, Director of the Polish National Ballet and former dancer and choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet, used to create a fast-moving ballet.  It was performed by Chinara Alizade, Jaeeun Jung, Ryota Kitai, Paweł Koncewoj and Patryk Walczak of the Polish National Ballet.  Toccata was the next work of the evening.

The Staatsballett Berlin presented the following ballet  It had commissioned David Dawson (the Dutch National Ballet's Associate Artist) to create Voices during the lockdown.  According to the programme notes the piece reflects that time.  Dawson is reported to have said:

“The difficult times caused by the pandemic have given us an opportunity to reflect and progress, and help us to see the world again in its truth. I believe this is when change can really happen. VOICES aims to visualise the awakening of a new era where we can create the world we want to live in. A new place for humanity to have the chance to be the best it can be as we all learn more about our infinite capacity and potential.”

This piece is quite different from any of his previous works.  It was performed on stage by Polina Semionova and Alejandro Virelles.

One of van Manen's best known works is 5  Tangos to the music of Astor Piazzolla.  Perhaps the most thrilling part of that ballet is Voyamos a Diablo.  This is a male solo which requires a dancer of considerable strength and equal grace. Artur Shesterikov danced that role with characteristic flair.  

The contribution to the evening from Van Dantzig's repertoire was  Voorbij Gegaan.  The title has never been translated but I think it means "Gone By".  Van Dantzig created it for Alexandra Radius and Han Ebbelaar as they approached the peak of their careers.  A lyrical piece to a piano composition by Chopin it was danced delightfully by Qian Liu and Semyon Velichko.

One of my favourite moments of the evening was Joel a short solo by Remi Wӧrtmeyer that he had created for himself to the music of Jacques Offenbach.  It was a humorous piece but also one that required strength, stamina and enormous skill.  The company has recently announced Wörtmeyer's retirement,  In his valedictory, Brandsen said:

"Remi’s positive energy, fabulous technique and engaging personality onstage and off have made him one of the most beloved dancers in our company. I will miss Remi and his dancing enormously and I wish him lots of success with his new artistic adventures.”

I shall also miss him and I add my best wishes.

My other favourite piece was Riho Sakamoto's My One and Only from Balanchine's Who Cares. I interviewed her when she joined the Junior Company and have marvelled at her meteoric rise. This is a solo that charms her audience.  The applause loved her and exploded in applause.

I had seen van Manen's Variations for Two Couples the previous night and discussed it in my review of that performance.  Jozef Varga, who has also announced his retirement, had appeared in the first performance of that ballet. He was joined by Tsygankova who had also been in the first show, The other dancers were Jessica Xuan and Constantine Allen.  This performance is likely to have been Varga's last with the company.  He will also be missed and I wish him well.

The last piece before the interval was Grand Pas Classique by Viktor Gsovsky. It is not performed very often if at all in the United Kingdom and the only time that I had seen it before was as part of the Dutch National Ballet's Christmas Gala which was live streamed on 19 Dec 2021.  The work is spectacular even on screen but it is even better on stage. The dancers were Jakob Feyferlik who had performed the work in the Christmas Gala and Olga Smirnova.

There was an interval after Grand Pas Classique.  After we had returned to our seats, Matthew Rowe, the Director of Music, rose and addressed the King and Queen of the Netherlands.  He said that the Dutch Ballet Orchestra had commissioned some music from the Dutch composer, Jacob ter Veldhuis, as a 60th anniversary present for the company.  Mr Ter Veldhuis was in the audience and a spotlight picked him out immediately after the conductor's announcement. The piece that Mr ter Veldhuis had written was entitled  Luce Divina inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy on which he had already written an oratorio.  The orchestra then played the commissioned work. 

Although Rowe conducted the orchestra for most of the evening, he handed the baton to Jonathan Lo for De Chimaera van L.A and the finale.   Lo is the Director of Music of Northern Ballet and I have also seen him at Covent Garden.  Lo was with Brandsen when I congratulated him on his honour and Brandsen kindly introduced me to Lo.  I expressed my delight that through Lo there was now a personal link between Leeds and Amsterdam. I was even happier when Lo told me that Northern's new Director, Federico Bonelli, had also attended the gala which means that there is now a direct link with my local company at the highest level.

Every year an award is presented by Alexandra Radius to the year's most outstanding dancer.  This year it was won by Salome Leverashvili.  She came to my attention when she and Timothy van Poucke published a vlog which I featured in Missing Amsterdam on 17 Feb 2017.   Those talented young artists have risen through the company's ranks very quickly. Van Poucke won the Radius prize as early as 2018.  Leverashvili accepted her prize with a short but witty speech in English which may well have won her even more fans.

A part of any gala to which the audience particularly looks forward is the Junior Company's piece. This year the Junior Company danced the last part of In the Future. I discussed the piece in detail in my review of the previous night's performance.  The Junior Company did not disappoint their fans.  They were as exciting and vivacious as always.  Yet another triumph for their artistic coordinator, Ernst Meisner.  The programme did not name them individually but I have done so in my review of the previous night's show.

The evening's finale was part of the last act of Raymonda.   Rachel Beaujean's new production was perhaps the main achievement of this anniversary year.  I had intended to see it in Amsterdam on 6 April but was prevented from attending by injury.  Nevertheless, I saw it on screen on 8 May 2022 (see Live Streaming of Beaujean's Raymonda 8 May 2022).  The extracts that were danced at the gala included the Pas Hongrois and the Pas Classique Hongrois.  Floor Eimers and Jan Spunda led the Pas Hongrois and they were joined by Emma Mardegan and Luca Abdel-Nour, Khayla Fitzpatrick and Rafael Valdez, Wendeline Wijkstra and Nathan Brhane,  Arianna Maldini and Alejandro Zwartendijk, Luiza Bertho and Dustin True, Hannah de Klein and Sander Baaij, Lore Zonderman and Conor Walmsley, Kira Hilli and Leo Hepler.  Maia Makhateli and Young Gyu Choi accompanied by Connie Vowles and Edo Wijnen, Yuanyuan Zhang and Sho Yamada, Nina Tonoli and Davi Ramos, Salome Leverashvili and Martin ten Kortenaar, Chloë Réveillon and Joseph Massarelli, Maria Chugai and Timothy van Poucke, Elisabeth Tonev and Sem Sjouke and Jingjing Mao and Daniel Robert Silva performed the Pas Classique Hongrois. Chloë Réveillon the variation and Edo Wijnen, Sho Yamada, Martin ten Kortenaar and Timothy van Poucke the male variation.

After the performance, the audience spilt out onto the lobby and terraces for the reception.  The reception welds the company and its audience into a family which does not happen with most other companies. It is one of the reasons why I love the Dutch National Ballet.  Of course, I have a lot of respect for the world's other great companies and I am a member of many of their Friends' schemes and support them in every way I can.  But, with the exceptions of Scottish Ballet, Ballet Cymru and, very recently, Northern Ballet, I do not feel as close to them as  I do to the Dutch National Ballet.  It was at the reception that I met van Manen.  My brief handshake and greeting enabled me to express my admiration and gratitude for his lifetime's work.  I doubt that I could have done that in any other way.

World Ballet Day - Dutch National Ballet

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Sometimes one can have too much of a good thing and World Ballet Day is one of those times. There's a great temptation to drop everything to watch a whole day of classes, rehearsals, interviews and shows.  This year I rationed myself to just one contribution on the day and this is it.

It will surprise nobody who knows me that I have chosen the Dutch National Ballet's slot.  I have been following that company for the last 6 years and I have watched careers blossom like cherry trees in Spring. One of the folks I interviewed as a member of the Junior Company in 2014 was Martin ten Kortenaar. He is now one of the leads in Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet. 

The recording shows three scenes from the work:  the Dance of the Knights, the balcony scene and the bedroom scene just before Romeo takes flight.  I have seen many versions of this ballet: Lavrovsky's, Maillot's, Pastor's, James's, Nureyev's and, of course, MacMillan's but there seems to be a unique exuberance to this work. According to Ted Brandsen, the Director of the Dutch National Ballet this was the first full-length work to be created in Holland.  With designs by Toer van Schayk, it must be gorgeous.

But, so too, will be Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Frida.  I have long admired the work that she has done for Ballet Black, Scottish Ballet and other companies. This promises to be a tour de force. With Floor Eimers in the show, how could it be otherwise?

I have said many times in this blog that I can't watch Ernst Meisner's Embers without the tears welling up. I have seen it performed beautifully by different artists - Cristiano Principato and Jessica Xuan at last year's gala, Thomas van Damme and Nancy Burer and Cristiano again with Priscylla Gallo at Trecate in Italy.  In this clip you will see two new young dancers in Embers whom I am sure will go far,  They are Sebia Plantefȅve and Davi Ramos. I can't wait to see them live on stage.

Tomorrow I shall watch another clip from a favourite company that performed yesterday.   A Russian company other than the Bolshoi or Mariinsky perhaps. Or maybe an American company that is not from New York.  There is no shortage of choice.

The Dutch National Ballet's 2019 Gala

Xander Parish and Maria Khoreva in "Diamonds"

Author Michel Schnater, © 2019 Dutch National Ballet: all rights reserved

Dutch National Ballet Gala 10 Sept 2019, 19:30 Music Theatre, Amsterdam

The opening night gala of the Dutch National Ballet's new season is one of the highlights of my year. It is always a grand affair, the gentlemen in dinner jackets and the ladies in gorgeous evening attire.  The Music Theatre (or Stopera as the building that combines Amsterdam's city hall (Stadhuis) and opera house is unofficially called) is packed. The video on my review of last year's gala conveys some of the excitement and atmosphere.

At 19:30 the lights dim and the conductor enters the orchestra pit.  He (I have not yet seen a woman conduct an orchestra in the Music Theatre though I am sure many will do so in future) raises his baton and the orchestra plays the polonaise from The Sleeping Beauty.  The curtain rises to a row of children, the first-year students of the National Ballet Academy.  The first years are followed by the second and subsequent years, each year in different coloured uniforms.  The Academy is now under the direction of the magnificent Ernst Meisner, still a young man but already a widely acclaimed choreographer. He is also artistic coordinator of the Junior Company  The students are followed by the Junior Company, then the élèves, the corps de ballet, the coryphées, grands sujets, soloists and finally the principals. The women appear in dazzling white classical tutus and the men in dashing tunics. This is known as the Grand Défilé and although it is very simple it is an impressive spectacle.

The company then performs scenes from its current repertoire or works that are staged specially for the occasion.  There is always something from Hans van Manen, usually something from one of the other great Dutch choreographers, Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk and often works by the company's artistic director, Ted Brandsen, David Dawson, Juanjo Arques and, of course, Meisner.  I particularly look forward to Meisner's works because his choreography appeals to me more than almost any other. His Embers and  No Time Before Time are among the most beautiful works that I have ever seen and I can't watch them without emotions welling up. Much of Meisner's work has been created for the Junior Company who must be the 12 most beautiful dancers on the planet.  Their performance is always the highlight of my evening much as I admire the company's principals and other fine dancers.

Brandsen usually makes two speeches at the gala.  One to welcome the audience and introduce the show.  The other to present the prima ballerina, Alexandra Radius, in whose name the company's Friends award a prize to the dancer of the year.  Usually, the winner is a principal but last year it was Timothy van Poucke who joined the Junior Company in 2016. Brandsen usually delivers long passages of his speeches in English as many members of the audience are from countries other than the Netherlands.

The gala is always a party.  Wine, beer, soft drinks and canapés are offered the moment guests enter the theatre.  The hospitality continues during the interval and after the show.  As soon as they have changed the dancers make a grand entrance down the staircase of the lobby.   This is the audience's chance to mingle with their heroes and heroines and perhaps dance with them in the disco at the entrance to the theatre.  In that regard, anyone can say that he or she has danced with the Dutch National Ballet in the Music Theatre.

This year's gala was a little different from previous years.  For a start, it seemed to be shorter.  Only five pieces were performed in the first half and one on the second.   There was no performance by the Junior Company as such though some of its members were in other pieces.  Nor was there any work by Meisner.  I would have been a little disappointed had I not reminded myself that I had seen the Junior Company at the Linbury in July for the first time in several years (see Welcome Back! Junior Company returns to the Linbury 6 July 2019) as well as in Dancers of Tomorrow at the Music Theatre a few days later.  The third way in which this year's gala differed from previous years was that Brandsen delivered his entire speech in Dutch which is not unreasonable since the show took place in Amsterdam.  Dutch is the first cousin to both English and German which I studied at secondary school and as I visit the Netherlands several times a year I have picked up a little bit of the language. I think I understood most of the director's speeches.

Despite those differences, I enjoyed the gala very much indeed,  Matthew Rowe, one of my favourite conductors, lifted his baton. The Grand Défilé was as impressive as ever.  Having seen those excellent young dancers in Dancers of Tomorrow in July I felt particularly close to them.  I am doing my best to support the Academy in any way I can and I hope that I will be able to arrange for funding through lifetime gifts or legacies for talented young dancers like Conor Walmsley who studied in Amsterdam, joined the Junior Company and has recently graduated into the senior company.

The show continued with the pas de deux in Diamonds from Balanchine's Jewels by Xander Parish and Maria Khoreva from the Mariinsky.  I have been following Parish's career since July 2007 when he and his sister Demelza appeared at A Summer Gala of Dance and Song at the Grand Opera House in York.  I did not blog about ballet in those days but Charles Hutchinson of The Press reviewed the show.   Those two young dancers performed with the likes of Samara Downs and Marianela Nuñez but it was their piece that impressed the audience the most and it has been etched in my memory ever since.  Since then I have seen Parish in London as Romeo in 2914 and in Ballet 101 in Leeds in Northern Ballet's 45th-anniversary gala.  I also had the pleasure of meeting him at the London Ballet Circle. Parish has always thrilled me but his performance on Tuesday was masterly. He commanded the audience's attention like a king. I do not recall seeing Khoreva before but I shall follow her in future.  Not only did she partner him well. She showed considerable virtuosity in her solo.  That pas de deux alone justified the trek to Amsterdam.

Parish and Khoreva were followed by Maia Makhateli and Young Gyo Choi in a pas de deux from Le Corsaire.  I was very puzzled by the programme note for it stated that the piece was created by Samuel Andrianov and premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre on 12 Jan 1915. As the music for Le Corsaire was composed by Adolphe Adam who wrote the score for Giselle I knew that this ballet must be very much older.  According to Wikipedia, it was first performed in Paris in 1856 but all modern productions are based on Marius Petipa's of 1863. I had never heard of Andrianov until I read the article on Balanchine in the French Wikipedia where I learned that he had been one of Balanchine's teachers. There is no similar mention in the English article.  A short paragraph on the piece in Dutch - not a language that I have ever studied formally so I may well have got the wrong end of the stick - the piece was created for students and was introduced to the Netherlands by Rudolf Nureyev in 1965. That would make sense for Young is a powerful dancer who reminds me of Nureyev. Makhateli is always a delight to watch.  The crowd was delighted.

The only work that seemed to be completely unconnected with Balanchine was van Manen's Trois Gnossiennes.  This was set to a piano score by Erik Satie which was earlier used by Sir Frederick Ashton in an orchestrated version for his Monotones.  Van Manen uses a single piano played by Olga Khoziainova mounted on a platform on castors which was pushed gently around the stage by four young male dancers. The dancers were Igone de Jongh and  Jakob Feyferlik of the Vienna State Opera House's Ballet Company.  It was very beautiful.   I just can't make up my mind whether I prefer van Manen's work or Ashton's.

The last work of the first part of the gala was the first of Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements to the score by Stravinsky by the same name.   This is a work for 12 dancers including 6 soloists - Quian Liu and Young Gyu Choi, Anna Tsygankova and James Stout and Floor Eimers and Jozef Varga.   This is an exuberant piece with a lively score. The women wore simple leotards and their hair in ponytails.  It was fast and slick and left the audience on a high.

As in previous years, complimentary drinks and savouries were served during the interval.  These were a bit different from ours in that chunks of cheese, ham or sausage were served without bread or biscuit. I took a sample of each of them as well as a glass of quite potable wine.  I have got to know some of the Dutch ballet goers over the years and met several in the lobby. I usually find myself at the merchandise stand buying cards or t-shirts for friends in England but, as that stand has disappeared on Tuesday, I took advantage of the interval to stand on one of the terraces overlooking the Amsel and take in the September night air.

After we had returned to our seats, Brandsen stepped back on stage and announced that the time had come for the Alexandra Radius award.  He explained that the money had been raised by Friends of the company and asked us to stick up our hands.  At least, I think that is what he said because the conversation was entirely in Dutch.  He then introduced Alexandra Radius who is still beautiful.  He announced that the winner of the 2019 prize was Edo Wijnen and played a short film which showed Wijnen's achievements. Radius presented Wijnen with his prize which included a trophy.  He gave a short acceptance speech part of which was in English. Both he and Radius received enormous bouquets.

The rest of the evening was taken up with Balanchine's Who Cares? A great celebration of New York to the music of George Gershwin and Hershi Kay.  Readers can gain an idea of the energy and exuberance of the piece from the YouTube trailer. De Jongh and Makhateli performed solos in the piece together with Vera Tsyganova and Constantine Allen who joined the Dutch National Ballet only in 2018.  I think this was the first time that I had seen him and it will certainly not be the last   Yet again the audience rewarded the dancers with a standing ovation. One that they truly deserved.

Last year I missed the party because one of my guests was a child. This year I stayed and met many friends and acquaintances from the company and the audience.  I had been looking out for Xander Parish, Ernst Meisner, Michaela DePrince and Matthew Rowe but I did not encounter any of them. Hardly surprising as the crowd was massive and the noise deafening.  As far as I know, no British company holds a party for its audience after a gala like this.  That is a shame because it is one of the reasons why every Dutch person I know has great pride and great affection for the national company even if he or she never actually attends any of its performances.

Well Done Jessica!

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There is a beautiful photograph on Ted Brandsen's Facebook page of two of my favourite dancers: Jessica Xuan and Cristiano Principato.  They are wearing the most gorgeous costumes from a white act.   No gossamer sleeves so it can't be La Bayadḕre and I can't see any feathers so I don't think it is Odette.   Be that as it may the important words are at the base of the photo:

"Wow! 🤩 Jessica Xuan has won the gold medal at the prestigious VARNA - International Ballet Competition! Congratulations! 👏👏👏"

I first saw Jessica in 2013 when  she danced the first pas de deux  with Nathan Brahane in Rudi van Dantzig's Swan Lake (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).  As I said then: "The audience loved them and so did I." I have been following Jessica's career and the careers of the other young dancers ever since.  I think the last time I saw her was as the Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote earlier this year (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote 1 March 2018.

I wrote about Varna on 23 Feb 2017 as it has its own opera house and ballet company in which Owen Morris danced for a while.  Its International Ballet Competition is one of the most prestigious in the world.  It has launched a lot of distinguished careers.  Jessica has done brilliantly.  I send her my heartiest congratulations and lots of love.

"In the Future" - Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Performance

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Dutch National Ballet Junior Company In the Future 15 April 2018, 19:30  Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam

In the Future is a triple bill to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company.  It takes its title from Hans van Manen's masterpiece of the same name which in turn takes its name from David Byrne's setting of his own words:

"In the future everyone will have the same haircut and the same clothes.
In the future everyone will be very fat from the starchy diet.
In the future everyone will be very thin from not having enough to eat.
In the future it will be next to impossible to tell girls from boys, even in bed ....."

This is a visually arresting but also a very witty piece.  It opens to a repetitive, pulsating score suggesting an industrial process.  The dancers enter the stage in pairs coalesce into larger groups then separate into smaller ones again.  Each and every movement in completely synchronized just like the equipment and components on an assembly line.

Van Manen created In the Future in 1986 for the Scarpino Ballet of Rotterdam but it could have been tailored for the Junior Company. It requires 12 very special dancers with very sharp minds and very agile bodies.  The young men and women who performed at the Stadsschouwburg on Sunday night are among the best on the planet.  Their artistic coordinator, Ernst Meisner, scored the world looking for them at competitions like the Prix de Lausanne and the Youth America Grand Prix and elsewhere. Watching those artists was a mesmerizing, awe-inspiring experience that swept the audience to their feet.

Of the towering choreographic geniuses of my youth - Ashton, Balanchine, Béjart, Cranko, MacMillan, Petit - van Manen is the only one left and he is still busy.  He is one of the reasons why the Dutch National Ballet is special.  He symbolizes its willingness to innovate and thereby renew itself. Van Manen's muse is the great ballerina, Igone de Jongh, and she was the Junior Company's ballet master for Sunday's performance.   In the trailer. Ode to the Master, de Jongh and van Mann dance together.  There could have been no stronger collaboration for this work.

© 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert
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The colours red and green were also used by the brilliant Spanish choreographer Juanjo Arqués in Fingers in the Air.  Click on the link to the left to see the video as it is the best way to explain the work.  Lamps no more than an inch long were distributed to the audience and carried by the cast. One emitted red light and the other green.  At various stages of the performance groups of dancers competed with each other - three men against three women or a soloist against a duet - and the members of the audience were asked to vote on which performance they preferred, Celebrity Big Brother style using their lamps. On the first vote, the women won. The jubilant females punched the air and continued to dance as the dejected males slunk away.  Perhaps this was the beginning of a whole new art form - reality ballet.

Towards the end of the work the lights went down. The dancers continued to dance but all that was visible was the movement of the reds and greens just like fireflies. The effect was magical and captivating especially when members of the audience lit their lamps too

I discussed the work with the choreographer after the show.  "What if the audience had chosen the men in the first vote?" I asked.  "The audience had been guided" Juanjo added. "Just like we were in the Brexit referendum," I suggested, "or the Americans who voted for Donald Trump?" The choreographer did not deny the possibility of a political dimension to his work though I got the impression he was more comfortable discussing the analogy with reality TV where the viewers are consumers.

Though the Dutch National Ballet is innovative it is also strongly rooted in a tradition and looks beyond Petipa to Bournonville.  The Junior Company's homage to that tradition was the Pas de Six and Tarantella from Napoli.  Though notionally set in Italy Napoli is associated primarily with the Royal Danish Ballet - much in the same way as Ashton's La Fille mal gardée is quintessentially English even though it is supposed to be located in pre-revolutionary France.  In their swirling skirts the women were enchanting.  The men in their breeches and white shirts and stockings were so dashing. This is a feel good ballet if ever there was. Coached by Ernst Meisner and Caroline Sayo Iura the dancers were magnificent.

I cannot think of a better choice of work than those three ballets to show off the qualities of the Dutch National Ballet.  It is that combination of innovation and classicism that distinguishes that company from the others.  From time to time representatives of the company thank me for my support.  "But I don't think I do" I explain "other than by sitting in the audience and being one of the company's Friends." I am not, alas, an industrialist or aristocrat who could donate what I would like to give and that company deserves.  All I can do is cross the North Sea to see its shows whenever I can.  Why wouldn't I?   This company has a je ne sais quoi that makes it great.  I say that in all seriousness and with all sincerity.

Junior Company - Five Tremendous Years

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In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014, Ernst Meisner. the Artistic Coordinator of the Dutch National Company Junior Company, told me how that company came to be formed:

“It has been a wish of Artistic Director Ted Brandsen for a long time to have a Junior Company to bridge the gap between school and company. While Christopher Powney was Director at the National Ballet Academy and placing the school on the international map, it seemed the right time to start such a young group. I was involved in setting the Junior Company up and it has been great to have the chance to develop the way we like this venture to go together with Ted and Christopher (now Jean-Yves Esquerre) during the years. We had a great start last year, with seven of the first group actually having joined the main company now."

I was lucky enough to attend the first performance of that company at the  Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam  which I reviewed in The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013.  On 15 April 2018 I am returning to the Stadsshouwburg to celebrate that company's fifth anniversary with a special performance of In the Future by the current members of the Junior Company.

According to the Dutch National Ballet's website, In the Future will be a triple bill consisting of the Napoli Suite (Pas de Six and Tarantella) by August Bournonville, Fingers in the Air, a new work by Juanjo Arques and In the Future by Hans van Manen.  it is described as "an attractive, yet daring programme for twelve dancers."  It differs from previous galas that I have seen where up to 8 new works were presented in a single evening.

Because I had been married for many years to a Sierra Leonean national who loved ballet as much as I do and knew a lot more about it, I was thrilled to learn about a young American dancer of Sierra Leonean origin.  She was already carving an enviable reputation for herself by winning the Youth America Grand Prix. her film First Position and early reviews of her performances in New York and her guest appearances in South Africa (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013).  When I learned that she had moved to Amsterdam my heart leapt (see No Holds Barred  4 Oct 2013).  I bought a ticket for the Junior Company's first show and booked a flight to Amsterdam.

When I eventually saw DePrince I described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" but she was not the only dancer who impressed me that night. So, too, did Sho Yamada who partnered DePrince in Diana and Actaeon and all the other brilliant young people whom I saw on 24 Nov 2013 and subsequently.  On my last visit to Amsterdam just over a month ago I was overjoyed to see Yamada and Riho Sakamoto top the bill in Don Quixote (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote 1 March 2018).

I have got to know several of those dancers.  When the outstanding young dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, brought friends and colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet and other major companies to Trecate, a small town in Piedmont to raise funds for the charity Casa Alessia, I attended and reviewed their show (see From Italy with Love  1 July 2015).  The next year Principato arranged an even more ambitious programme of new choreography in Amsterdam called New Moves I was there for that too. One of the dancers who accompanied Principato to Italy was Thomas van Damme. Van Damme.  Van Damme also showed enormous talent as a choreographer in  New Moves 2017 but he also shows extraordinary talent as a film maker (see The Ballet Couple 8 Sept 2016). In that regard he reminds me so much of our own Kenneth Tindall.

If you can't make the Staddshouwburg next Sunday you get another chance to see it on 28 June 2018 at the Korzo Theatre in the Hague, The International Court, the International Criminal Court and a branch of the European Patent Office are also to be found there though only a lawyer would be interested in that kind of thing.  One of my ballet teachers danced there in The Lion King but he has now returned to Manchester.

If you miss In the Future  I recommend the opening night gala on the 8 Sept 2018 which is followed by a party a which you can meet the dancers and choreographers, Giselle, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella and Rudi van Dantzig;s Swan Lake.  There is now a direct train to Amsterdam from St Pancras and yesterday The Guardian published the Top 10 affordable hotels, hostels and B&Bs in Amsterdam.   

A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote

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Dutch National Ballet Don Quixote 28 Feb 2018 20:00 Music Theatre, Amsterdam

Wednesday was a day of superlatives. I don't think Amsterdam has ever looked lovelier than it did that night in the clear, crisp air with a full moon and the lights of the buildings, street lights and traffic twinkling in partly frozen canals and the river. I don't think I have ever seen a better Don Quixote even though I have seen artists like Isabella Boylston and Marianela Nuñez dance Kitri and Carlos Acosta dance Don Basilio. Above all, I don't think I have ever seen the Dutch National Ballet dance better.

One reason why I enjoyed that show so much was that nearly all the leading rôles were performed by dancers who graduated from Ernst Meisner's Junior Company.   Sho Yamada, who danced Don Basilio, had partnered Michaela DePrince in an extract of Diana and Acteon the first time I saw the Junior Company (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013). Riho Sakamoto was Kitri on Wednesday night. Jessica Xuan, who also joined the Junior Company in 2013, was queen of the Dryads. Yuanyuan Zhang, danced Juanita. Many more of their contemporaries including Cristiano Principato and Thomas van Damme supported them in the show,

Wednesday's show was their opportunity to impress and each of them grabbed it readily.  They danced with exuberance and verve.  Combined with imaginative sets that included a winking moon, costumes for ambulatory cacti and monsters more outlandish than Hieronymus Bosch's, the stage exploded with energy, movement and colour. Don Quixote had never been my favourite ballet because the story is so confusing.  Basically La Fille mal gardée except that it is dad rather than mum pushing daughter into an arranged marriage.  What has that to do with Cervantes? Or cactus men and beaked monsters for that matter?  The answer is "not much but who cares so long as the ballet flows".  Wednesday did flow to Minkus's jaunty score with spectacular choreography such as one armed lifts and daring fish dives. Ratmansky's production helped me understand the ballet and to appreciate it properly.

Yamada danced Don Basilio with style and swagger.  Tall, slender and athletic he commanded the stage.  Sakamoto charmed me with her coquetry and impressed me with her technique, especially with her fouettés in the final act. Though it is probably unfair to single out any artist for special praise, there were captivating performances by Xuan as queen of the Dryads, Suzanna Kaic as Cupid and Zhang as Juanita.  There was fine character dancing from Nicolas Rampaic as the slightly dotty Don Quixote and hilarious clowning by Frans Schraven as his squire.

I have already mentioned the imaginative sets and costumes.  I was not surprised to learn that they had been designed by Jérôme Kaplan who had impressed me several years ago with his designs for David Nixon's Gatsby. I have also mentioned Minkus's jaunty score.  Its interpreter on Wednesday night was Marzio Conti.  As I was seated directly behind the conductor only 5 rows back I experienced the music as he must have done. Perhaps that was yet another reason why I enjoyed the show so much.

Usually I come to Amsterdam for the day arriving on the first flight out of Manchester and returning on the last.  This time I had come to give a talk on patent litigation  at the Radisson Blu hotel in Russia.  Not really Russia, I should explain, but the street where the hotel stands is called "Rusland" which is Dutch for "Russia". On the way back from the theatre I felt transported to Petipa's Russia as I followed the frozen canals with the music resounding in my ears. That is just how I imagine St Petersburg to be.  One day, perhaps, I will find out whether I was right.

Talking of translations, a partner of the Dutch office of a leading international law firm invited me to dinner on Tuesday night at Hemelse Modder which translates as "Heavenly Mud".  The meal was scrumptious. I had croquettes of mussels, fennel and tarragon, lamb stew and a delicious lemon pudding with an excellent German red. I mentioned it on Facebook to which Ted Brandsen commented that it was his favourite restaurant.  I can quite see why.  It is now one of mine.   It is not far from the Music Theatre and I strongly recommend it.

Terpsichore Titles: Company of the Year

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As Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner, David Dawson and Cristiano Principato were my choreographers of 2016 and Artur Shesterikov and Daniel Silva my outstanding male dancers it will come as no surprise that the Dutch National Ballet is my company of the year. How could it be otherwise?  I have seen three outstanding full-length ballets at the Music Theatre - Mata Hari in February, La Bayadere in November and Coppelia earlier this month - as well as a dazzling gala and the magnificent Junior Company at the Meervaart in February.  I congratulate everyone in the company and wish them all a happy and prosperous New Year.

Although the Dutch National Ballet is regarded as one of the world's top five ballet companies the above video shows that it is also a relatively new company.  It was founded in 1961 which was four years after the Royal Ballet received its royal charter, 20 years after the famous wartime tour of the Royal Ballet (then known as Sadler's Wells Ballet) to the Netherlands and 30 years after the formation of the company. It is also younger than English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet which started in Bristol as Western Theatre Ballet and, of course, the Birmingham Royal Ballet which is the Royal Ballet's sister company. Compared to the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, the Dutch National Ballet is a mere stripling. To have achieved so much is so short a time is not far short of miraculous.

The complete list of Terpsichore Titles is as follows:

Company of the Year      Dutch National Ballet

Contemporary Company of the Year  Phoenix Dance Theatre

Choreographers of the Year   

- Full Length Works  Ted Brandsen
- Short Works Ernst Meisner
- Best New Work in the UK  David Dawson
- Young Choreographer  Cristiano Principato 

Ballet of the Year     Bolshoi's The Taming of the Shrew

Ballerina of the Year   Lauren Cuthbertson, Royal Ballet

Premier Danseur Noble of the Year    Artur Shesterivov, Dutch National Ballet

Outstanding Male Dancer (Smaller companies) Damien Johnson, Ballet Black

Outstanding Young Dancers

- Male   Daniel Silva, Dutch National Ballet

- Female  Gwenllian Davies, Ballet Cymru

This has been a tremendous year for Terpsichore, particularly this last month.  We have already received 25,369 page hits in December which is almost double the number of page hits we received in November which was itself a record month, and there is still the rest of the day to run. Our growth reflects a growing interest in adult dance (and particularly adult ballet) throughout the UK and indeed the rest of the world, We plan to do more to help those who want to dance to access classes, workshops and performances next year.

As this is my last post for 2016 I wish all my readers a happy New Year.

Terpsichore Titles: Best Choreographers

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Three awards this year and they all go to choreographers associated with the Dutch National Ballet.   The first is for full-length ballets, the second for one act works or less and the third is for the best new full-length ballet in the United Kingdom. My choice for the first category is Ted Brandsen, for the second Ernst Meisner and for the third David Dawson.

Two of the highlights of my year were Mata Hari (see Brandsen's Masterpiece  14 Feb 2016) and Coppelia (see Brandsen's Coppelia 12 Dec 2016 and Pictures of Coppelia 15 Dec 2016) and they were both created by Ted Brandsen. I also saw two of my favourite young dancers, Cristiano Principato and Emilie Tassinari, in Brandsen's Replay when I went to Italy in June (see From Italy with Love 1 July 2016). These were very different works but each and every one was a masterpiece in its own way. As I said in my last post, there has been some brilliant full-length works by Bintlley, Dawson, Maillot and Marston this year and they all have merits but Brandsen wins it on points.

If Brandsen won the full-length contest on points, Meisner won the short works title with a knockout. I fell in love with No Time before Time when I saw the video from Lausanne. I was amazed when I saw it at the Meervvart in Ballet Bubbles on 14 Feb 2016 and carried to my feet with the crowd's acclamation when I saw it at the gala in September. In my review of the gala I wrote:

 "The first time I saw the video of Ernst Meisner's No Time Before Time was in the Prix de Lausanne finals. I fell in love with it there and then. When I saw it live for the first time in Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart Theatre on my birthday on Valentine's day it was the best present anyone could possibly receive. I expressed my appreciation in Thank You Ernst a few days later. Ernst Meisner is an extraordinary choreographer. His Saltarello had been the highlight of the Junior Company's Stadsshouwburg show of 24 Nov 2013. The performance of Embers by Nancy Burer and Thomas van Damme to the haunting music of Max Richter was my favourite of the following year. I described it my review as quite simply one of the most beautiful ballets I have ever seen. Well, No Time Before Time is Ernst's best work yet."

In the video above Ernst Meisner talks about his craft. It is well worth a listen.

Dawson's Swan Lake was so good that it has to be acknowledged (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). It was the best new full-length work for a British company all year though Cathy Marston and David Bintley were not far behind. Dawson produced a work of which Peter Darrell would certainly have been proud and Petipa too perhaps.

The Terpsichore Titles: Ballet of 2016

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John Cranko is my all time favourite choreographer and my favourite of his ballets is and has always been The Taming of the Shrew (see Cranko's "Taming of the Shrew": Now's our chance to see one of the Ballets everyone should see before they die 21 Sept 2013). But in January I was introduced to another ballet also called The Taming of the Shrew to which I took an immediate shine (see Competition for Cranko: The Bolshoi's Taming of the Shrew streamed from Moscow 25 Jan 2016);

When the Bolshoi visited Covent Garden I was in the audience for the British premiere. It was an extraordinary night and the applause exploded. Especially when Jean-Christophe Maillot appeared to take his curtain call. In Bolshoi's Triumph - The Taming of the Shrew 4 Aug 2016 I wrote:

"The Bolshoi Ballet has always been respected in this country but until last night I don't think it has ever been loved. There are many reasons for that, not least the fact that the company was seen as an instrument of Soviet soft power during the cold war coming to London as it did in the year the tanks rolled into Budapest. That may have changed with the London premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew for the audience really warmed to the show. Standing ovations are quite rare in the Royal Opera House but when Maillot appeared to take a bow several members of the audience (including yours truly) felt compelled to rise."

Cranko remains my all time favourite choreographer and Shrew had my favourite of his works but, as I said in my review, there are features of Maillot's production that I think I prefer.Cranko's work and Maillot's are very different but each has its strengths.

There have been so many fine new ballets this year. The Tempest by David Bintley,  David Dawson's Swan Lake, Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari and Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre not to mention shorter works such as Chris Marney's To Begin, Begin, Wayne McGregor's Multiverse and Carbon Life. In any other year I would have chosen any of them as my ballet of the year. But Jean-Christophe Maillot's Taming of the Shrew made a special impression on me and it would have been unjust not to recognize it.