Hampson's Triumph

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Scottish Ballet The Nutcracker Theatre Royal Newcastle, 6 Feb 2025 19:30

I was so delighted with the first act of Christopher Hampson's production of The Nutcracker that I tweeted in the interval that the company that had brought me my favourite Swan Lake had also created my favourite Nutcracker.  Immediately after I had clicked the "post" button I reflected on my rashness as I had only seen half of the ballet.  I need not have worried because the second act was every bit as good as the first. 

Scottish Ballet already had a fine version of The Nutcracker that had been created by its founder Peter Darrell in 1972.  I saw it in Edinburgh just over 10 years ago and reviewed it in Like Meeting an Old Friend After So Many Years on 4 Jan 2015.  Hampson seems to have retained the best bits of Darrell's version such as Brotherston's designs while inserting a few innovations like casting Drosselmeyer as a woman.  At this point, I might explain that there is a difference between an innovation which adds a new dimension to a ballet and a gimmick which is simply change for change's sake.  In this production, a female Drosselmeyer brought extra magic and mystery and even a hint of menace to the role possibly because of humankind's inherent fear of witches.

According to the programme notes several of the dancers added to Hampson's choreography.  One of those contributors was Sophie Laplane who has created some unforgettable work for Ballet Black.  Her dialogue between patient and therapist in Click illustrates succinctly the difference between coincidence and causation so absent in contemporary transatlantic political discourse.  She contributed to the Russian divertissement presenting the dancers as playful and slightly chaotic wearing candy cane costumes rather than as slightly sinister Cossacks.  Other contributors were Javier Androu to the Spanish dance, Jessica Fyfe to the French (itself an innovation) and Nicholas Shesmith to the English dance which I think was another innovation.  Their contributions added to the freshness and the exuberance of the second act.

For some reason or other the Arabian dance was dropped from Act II though I think I recognized the music in Act I if my memory is not playing tricks on me. In other productions, it is one of my favourite divertissements.  It is not a long dance and I would love to have seen what Hampson and Co would have made of it.

Turning to last night's show, the Snow Queen was danced by the excellent Marge Hendrick who reminds me so much of the late and great Elaine McDonald.  Hendrick's performance at Northern Ballet's 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala was the high point of that evening for me.   Her performance at that gala moistened my eyes then and her dancing did so again yesterday.  

The other great female role in the traditional Nutcracker is Sugar Plum who is sometimes danced by Clara or Marie in some productions.  It was performed exquisitely by soloist Gina Scott.  

Evan Loudon, another of my favourites, was the gallant Nutcracker.  

I was awed by Madeleine Squire's magic as Madame Drosselmeyer.  She is a magnificent character dancer and I look forward to seeing her in other roles.  

Ava Morrison was a delightful Clara and a realistic one in that she was not all goody-goody unlike her counterpart in other productions, She was as much responsible for damaging the nutcracker as Jamie Drummond, her brother Fritz.  

 My one "bravo" of the evening was directed at Thomas Edwards after some amazing fouettés and sautés.  

I also enjoyed Ishan Mahabir-Stokes's performance as King Rat.   

All danced well in this performance and all deserve congratulations.  Northumbrians are not known for wearing their hearts on their sleeves and the standing ovation that the cast received attests to the excellence of last night's performance.  

The company will remain in Newcastle until tomorrow.   This is the last stop of its Scottish and Newcastle tour,   if you can lay your hands on one of the very scarce remaining tickets for the last few shows you will not be disappointed,

Scottish Ballet's Cinders!

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Scottish Ballet Cinders Theatre Royal Newcastle, 10 Feb 2024, 14:30

Christopher Hampson created a beautiful version of Cinderella for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007 which he successfully transplanted to Scotland.  It was a profound and sensitive study of grief and recovery which I loved (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella of 20 Dec 2015 and Hampson's Cinderella: Coming Up Roses 5 Feb 2019).  When I heard that Hampson had created a gender-reversal version of the ballet called Cinders bmy heart sank ecause I hate change for change's sake.  That's why I was less than enthusiastic about David Nixon's Swan Lake, Akram Khan's Giselle or even my beloved Scottish Ballet's Coppelia.

But sometimes a reworking of a well-known and well-loved ballet succeeds spectacularly.  David Dawson's Swan Lake is a case in point and Ted Brandsen's Coppelia is another.  I am relieved to say that Hampson has carried it off brilliantly with Cinders!.  I have to temper my enthusiasm with the caveat that I have only seen the version in which Cinders is danced by a woman, but I have sufficient confidence in Hampson's genius to look forward to the other version of his ballet when it is next on tour. 

On the train back to Huddersfield I reflected that Scottish Ballet has always innovated. It began with Mods and Rockers '63 to the Beatles' music in 1963.  As Scotland's classical dance company, Scottish Ballet might have been expected to include La Sylphide which is set in the Highlands into their repertoire.  And so they do in a sense though they locate it in the gents' loo of a Glasgow community centre rather than a castle and call it  (see Scottish Ballet's "Highland Fling" in Gurn and Effie Land 2 May 2018).  The company's founder, Peter Darrell is said to have inspired Sir Matthew Bourne who created Highland Fling.  Cinders! follows that tradition and I have no doubt that Darrell would have approved of Hampson's creation.

The synopsis of Cinders! is very different from that of Cinderella.  Gone are the Fairy Godmother, mice, the pumpkin coach, dressmaker, cobbler and dancing master.  There is no wicked stepmother as such because Cinderes's father dies in a fire but there is a new owner of her father's business called Mrs Thorne who performs a similar role.  She also has two unlikeable daughters called Morag and Flossie and a son called Tarquin.  The relationship between Cinders and Mrs Thorne is not clear but it is one of subordination. The prince has two friends who are dukes, one of whom takes a shine to one of Mrs Thorne's daughters and the other to Tarquin.

The simplification of the story has made way for some spectacular choreography.  Particularly impressive were two duets between Cinders danced by Gina Scott and the Prince danced by Evan Loudon.  One takes place at the ball and the other after they eventually find each other.  In both of those duets, there are spectacular fish dives.  I first noticed Loudon when he danced the Prologue in Emergence with Sophie Martin (see Scottish Ballet - Emergence and Mc14/22 11 June 2017).  Scott, however, was new to me and when I posted a comment about her performance on Facebook I learned that both she and I have studied with the same teacher.  That teacher remarked that Scott had some special magic I knew exactly what she teacher must have meant.  Scott must have shown remarkable promise as a student.   The reason I had not noticed  Scott before is that she joined the company only last year.   I shall certainly follow her career with interest in the future.

Other dancers who impressed me were Grace Horler who danced Mrs Thorne and Thomas Edwards who danced her son, Tarquin.  I had been a fan of Horler since 2017 when I saw her in Hansel and Gretel (see Hansel and Gretel in Newcastle - a bit like falling in love 4 Feb 2017).  I first noticed Edwards for his performance as Dr Coppelius.  I should add that everybody in the show danced  well and all deserve commendation.

This company had commissioned new sets and costumes from the young Welsh designer Elin Steele. She graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama only in 2018 and has already acquired an impressive portfolio.   Her costume for Cinders's entrance to the ball was dazzling.  Cinders was clad entirely in white.  She shed her veil to reveal a skirt in the colours of the prince's uniform.   The sets for the shop, ball and rose garden were ingenious and intricate.  The last scene with its Christmas tree uplifted the dancers and audience. 

I should mention Hayley Egan's video designs.  Her simulated newspaper headlines about the fire, survival of Cinders and Mrs Thorne's purchase of the haberdashery shop launched the story.  Her projections marked each change of scene,   

Credit is also due to Lawrie McLennan for his atmospheric lighting.

Cinders!  should be danced alongside Cinderella much in the way that the English National Ballet retains both Mary Skeaming; 's Giselle as well as Akram Khan's.  Both Cinders! and Cinderella have merit and each helps audiences to understand and appreciate the other.

Ballet Black Takes York by Storm

Nina Simone

Author Gerrit de Bruin Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source 
amazingnina.com Courtesy o Re-Emerging Films

 

Ballet Black Then or Now and Nina: By-Whatever Means 23 June 2023 19:30 York Theatre Royal

I have followed Ballet Black for several years and have seen some great ballets by them including Chris Marney's War Letters, Arthur Pita's A Dream Within a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Cathy Marston's The Suit and Christopher Hampson's Storyville.  Every one of those works was impressive but none has impressed me more than their performance of Nina: By Whatever Means at York Theatre Royal on 23 June 2023.

Nina was created by Mthuthuzeli November.  Having seen his ingoma for Ballet Black and Wailers for Northern Ballet I came with high expectations.  Often that leads to disappointment because high hopes are rarely equalled but on this occasion, they were greatly exceeded.  November is one of Ballet Black's Senior Artists. He first came to my notice on 2 May 2015 when he appeared with Londiwe Khoza on Ballet Centrak's tour (see Dazzled 3 May 2015).  I have been following him ever since.  I particularly enjoyed his performance as the wolf in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Red Riding Hood as did my friend. Joanna Goodman, who also reviewed the show (see Sexy Wolf Stole the Show! 5 March 2017).

In Little Red Riding Hood November showed he was an actor as well as a virtuoso, but that is by no means an end to his talents.  He is a composer contributing the score as well as the choreography to Wailers.   He also created some of the music for Nina and designed its sets.  In the Q&A that followed the performance, we learned that the idea for a ballet on the life of Nina Simone had been his. Dramaturge and librettist can also be added to his catalogue of accomplishments.

The ballet started with the young Simone as a child in rural North Carolina. It followed her training as a classical musician in New York and the debut of her career as a nightclub singer.  Simone suffered mental distress at various stages of her life which Alves called her "demons" in posthumous correspondence in the programme notes.  Those dark periods were represented in the ballet too.   

Simone was much more than an outstanding artist.  She was one of the drivers of political and social change that I witnessed first-hand as a graduate student in Los Angeles in the early 1970s.   That was the climax of the civil rights movement but there were also protests against the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the beginnings of the women's movement.    In a maelstrom of change, Simone stood firm and tall.   

In casting Isabela Coracy as Simone, November practically brought Simone back to life,   A scene that haunts me is of Coarcy with her clenched fist in the air as the dancers swirl around her to chants of "power".  That is how I remember Simone in real life.  

The audience exploded in applause.   We Brits are not the most demonstrative - particularly not those of us who live in Yorkshire.  At the reverence, every single member of the audience rose to their feet.   I was hoarse from cheering and my hands throbbed with clapping.   I think we all felt that we had seen something special that night,

Nina was the second part of a double bill that night.  The first was Will Tikett's Then or Now.  I shall not attempt to review it because I missed the start owing to acute congestion on the way into York city centre. What I saw of Then as Now I liked a lot    Happily there will be another chance to see the double bill in the Autumn as the company will dance again in Watford. Norwich, Durham and the Lowry.   

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.

Hampson's Masterpiece: The Snow Queen

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Scottish Ballet The Snow Queen Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 11 Jan 2020

I have been following the company now known as Scottish Ballet for nearly 60 years. The first ballet of theirs I can remember is Peter Darrell's Mods and Rockers which was quite unlike any ballet that I had ever seen before. It has staged some great works since such as Darrell's version of The Nutcracker, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa A Streetcar Named Desire, Christopher Hampson's Cinderella and David Dawson's Swan Lake. However, as I tweeted immediately after seeing the show, The Snow Queen is its creator's best work yet and one of the company's best ever,

@HampsonChris, great to run into you at @GlasgowKings yesterday. Congratulations to you, the cast, creatives and all at @scottishballet on #SBSnowQueen. I think this is your best work yet and one of the company's finest ever. Already a fan of Wraith, Loudon, Horler & now Addison.

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) January 12, 2020

The ballet is based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's tale. Hampson inserts a prologue to explain the Snow Queen's meanness. That is permissible just as the spurning of her stepsister's flowers in Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella is permissible to explain the girls' dislike of Cinderella.   The score is an arrangement of Rimsky Korsakov by Richard Honner. The designs which were breathtaking were created by Lez Brotherson. A work by Brotherson, Hampson and Honner could hardly fail and I had high hopes for it but it exceeded my expectations greatly.

Hampson's libretto creates three big female roles as well as some interesting supporting ones.  There is the Snow Queen herself who features strongly at the start and end.  Her sister is the Summer Princess.  While the siblings live together, all is harmony but when the Summer Princess sets off to explore the world the personality of the Snow Queen changes.  She becomes disorientated, resentful and vindictive.  Her sister disguises herself and calls herself Lexi as she scours the world for Kai.  Her rival for his affection is Gerda.  Kai is the lead male role but there are also solo roles for the men such as the ringmaster, strong man, clowns and bandit leader as well as bandits and townsfolk for male members of the corps. 

The Snow Queen was danced by guest artist, Katlyn Addison, a first soloist with the American Ballet West which is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and not to be confused with the school and company of the same name at Taynuilt in Argyll.  The Summer Princess or Lexi was danced by Grace Horler. and Gerda by Araminta Wraith.  Horler and Wraith I had seen before and were already favourites of mine. Particularly Wraith who had impressed me in character roles such as Cinderella's stepmother and Hansel and Gretel's mum as well as for her classical technique in what I think must have been The Nutcracker not too long after she had joined the company.  This was the first time I had seen Addison and I sincerely hope it will not be the last.  I have made a mental note to include Salt Lake City in my itinerary for a future holiday in America. 

Kai was danced by Evan Loudon who first impressed me in the Emergence and MC 14/22 double bill at Sadler's Wells in 2017.  Kai is a complex character combining the most attractive masculine attributes with the most infuriating.  An accomplished dance actor, Loudon discharged that role with flair.  Other dancers I noted immediately after the performance include Nicolas Shoesmith who was the ringmaster and Rimbaud Patron as the bandit leader.  All danced well and all are to be congratulated.   So, too, are the orchestra and their conductor Jean-Claude Picard. 

 The Scots have an onomatopoeic adjective for miserable weather - dreich.  The evening of 11 Jan was as dreich a night in Glasgow as ever there could be.  The thunderous applause from an audience that had already been drenched to the skin and chilled to the bone says it all.

Newcastle Nutcracker

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Scottish Ballet  The Nutcracker  Theatre Royal Newcastle 2 Feb 2018

I have seen three versions of The Nutcracker over the last few months: the Royal Ballet's at the Royal Opera House, the Birmingham Royal Ballet's at the Hippodrome and Scottish Ballet's at the Theatre Royal Newcastle.  I just can't decide which I like best because each version has its own strengths. Scottish Ballet's are Peter Darrell's libretto and choreography, Lez Brotherston's designs and, of course, the company's brilliant dancers. 

In Darrell's version, Clara remains a little girl. She does not morph into Sugar Plum.  She gets rid of the vermin who stray into the second act by kissing rather than thumping them.  At the end of the ballet it is she and not Sugar Plum who invites the conductor onto the stage to take a bow.  I also like Scottish Ballet's divertissements.  The Chinese, for example, are not treated as acrobatic clowns despire the musical prompting.  They have a short but sweet dance for two female dancers.  The Arabian dance is a charming solo for one femalle. There is an English dance with a hornpipe that brought to mind  Balanchine's Union Jack and, to a lesser extent, Cranko's Pineapple Poll.

Brotherston's sets and costumes are magnificent. It cannot be easy to create a set for touring. The opening scene looked like a Christmas card.   It gave way to the Stahlbaums' Christmas party in a solid looking living room but the scene that impressed me most was the kingdom of the sweets with its hundreds of Christmas tree baubles.  As for the costumes I particularly liked the female mice.  Without a doubt Brotherston's vermin are the best in the business.  Nobody has better mouse heads.

Sugar Plum was danced by Bethany Kingsley-Garner. I became one of her fans when I saw her in Cinderella in 2015 (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella 20 Dec 2015). I was impressed by her performance in Dawson's Swan Lake a few months later (see Empire Blance: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). She delighted me yet again in The Nutcracker.  She was partnered well by Evan Loudon. Chrstopher Harrison was a splendid Drosselmeyer.  Marge Hendrick was a charming Snow Queen. As I have said before, it is the children who can make or break The Nutcracker and in this production the students definitely helped to make it.  Particularly Ailish Ogilvie who danced Clara and Charles O'Rourke her tiresome little brother.  Finally, it s always good to see Matthew Broadbent.   Tall and athletc he attracts attention. I was a fan when he was at Northern Ballet and even  more so now.

There were a few weaknesses. The orchestra sounded a little thin at times partcularly in the overture but that could have been the theatre's accoustics.  Newcastle's Theatre Royal is an archotectural gem and it is easy to reach by public transport but it is not the most comfortable venue. Scottish Ballet's Christmas show visits all the major venues in Scotland but rarely ventures into England and never south of Newcastle. That is a shame because audiences in the rest of the UK would love it.

Hansel and Gretel in Newcastle - a bit like falling in love

Theatre Royal Newcastle

Author Gita Mistry
(c) 2017 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved

Scottish Ballet, Hansel and Gretel, Theatre Royal Newcastle, 3 Feb 2017

Ballet can be a bit like falling in love. Once in a while, you see a show that stands out.   You leave the theatre floating on a cloud.  You can't quite put your finger on why, especially if you have seen the ballet before, but somehow it is special.  That was how I felt last night after watching Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle.  I had seen Hansel and Gretel before in Glasgow on 21 Dec 2013 and had enjoyed it then (see Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel 23 Dec 2016), but I loved last night's show so much more.

As the show has not yet been to London or, to the best of my knowledge and belief performed abroad by any other company, I shall describe it briefly for my readers. The story follows loosely the fairy tale as retold by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm but with some twists and refinements.  It is set not in medieval Germany but in a small Scottish town near a forest - Dunkeld perhaps or maybe Aberfeldy - in the nineteen fifties or sixties.  The period is set by the costumes.  Little girls in gym slips. The boys in short trousers,  The mums in headscarves and the dads in flat caps. Local toughs in denim jeans and leather jackets. An enormous fridge in a corner of Hansel and Gretel's home - entirely bare except for cans of lager - some basic furniture and a massive telly.

Why did Christopher Hampson set his ballet in post-war Scotland which was well before his time let alone that of most of his audience? Part of the answer may be that Scottish Ballet and indeed Western Theatre Ballet before it has always been topical.  A tradition started by its founder Peter Darrell who staged the marvellous Mods and Rockers to Beatles music in 1963. The story begins with child abductions which of course is the subject of historical child abuse investigations and trials that were taking place in 2013 when Hansel and Gretel first appeared and, unfortunately, are still continuing today.

Hansel and Gretel are kept away from school until those abductions end.  Not surprisingly, they get bored with each other's company.  They slip away while their parents doze in from of the TV, first into the town and then the woods where eventually they find the witch's cottage.  Everything else follows the Grimms' story. They enter the cottage and find a table heaving with food with dancing chefs who come out from below.  The witch plies the kids with goodies, but then things start to go wrong. She chops off the head of Hänsel's teddy. She forces the children to play a game of hide and seek which ends with Hänsel finding himself in a cage under the table. Her malevolence becomes clear when she tosses the remains of the teddy into a cupboard overflowing with children's toys including two enormous rag dolls danced by Andrew Peasgood and Madeline Squire.

Happily, the story ends well - or fairly well for I can't be the only one who would prefer to see the witch in the dock than in the Aga - but at least the children (including those abducted in the prologue) are saved and reunited with their parents. A pile of bones reminds us not to feel too sorry for the witch who maybe had what was coming to her. Hänsel and Gretel are hoisted on the adults' shoulders and the children and parents parade triumphantly around the witch's kitchen.

The score is essentially Engelbert Humperdinck's as arranged by Richard Honner. The sets are by Gary Harris.  There are two excellent videos in which each member of the creative team explains how they brought the show together (see Scottish Ballet: The Making of Hansel & Gretel (Part One) and (Part Two).  Masestro Honner conducted the orchestra last night.

As I noted three years ago, there are some really juicy roles in this ballet. Hänsel and Gretel, of course, with Gretel taking the initiative but her impetuous brother the glory.  After all, it was he who kicked the old woman into the oven.  Yesterday Hänsel was danced by Constant Vigier (an up and coming choreographer as well as first artist with the company) and Kayla-Maree Tarantolo who trained in Amsterdam.  Gita likes to award "man" or "woman of the match" accolades to dancers as though they were cricketers. Her woman of the match was Tarantolo. I heard Gita giggling as the wide-eyed children gobbled the sweets or the witch hobbled about her kitchen. Now Gita just doesn't usually laugh in ballet but she was having a great time in this one.  "I am really enjoying it" she mouthed to me several times.

 Probably the most demanding role in the ballet is the witch because she mixes so many roles.  As I said in  2013 the teacher morphs into the local vamp, the ballerina in the moon and finally a wicked and twisted, ugly old witch. In The Making of Hansel and Gretel  Hampson says that he created that role for Eve Mutso who is a splendid dancer. Difficult shoes to fill but Grace Horler rose to the challenge and performed that role brilliantly. Indeed, she made it her own. The antithesis of the witch is, of course, the good fairy - in this case the Dew Drop Fairy - and she was danced delightfully by Claire Souet. Hansel and Gretel's mum and dad were danced by two of my favourites, Araminta Wraith and Christopher Harrison. They also have to morph from the everyday into the sublime as the children imagine them in evening dress dancing in high society. There is a sleek and sinister sandman danced by Peasgood last night and, of course, the menacing ravens - Rimbaud PatronHenry Dowden, Thomas Edwards, Eado Turgeman and  Evan Loudon.

Hampson is a great hero of mine as I have repeated many times in this blog. I had heard him speak at Northern Ballet's symposium on narrative dance (see My Thoughts on Saturday Afternoon's Panel Discussion at Northern Ballet 21 June 2015) but until last night I had never actually met him. Gita bumped into him in the theatre lobby and, knowing my admiration for the man, held him in conversation until I appeared. However eloquent my reviews (if indeed they are) and tweets, there is nothing like telling the choreographer in person how much one enjoys his work. Especially after an outstanding performance like last night's.

Dance in Newcastle

Dance City Performances (with subtitles) from Northern Stars on Vimeo.

I first heard of DanceCity from BalletLORENT when they visited Huddersfield on 30 Sept 2016 (see BalletLORENT 3 Oct 2016). BalletLORENT are one of several dance companies that are based at a studio and theatre complex known as "DanceCity" which is located just north of the Tyne at Temple Street in Newcastle.

DanceCity is a member of the National Dance Network to which dance agencies around the country (including our own Yorkshire Dance) are also associated. DanceCity runs classes in many styles to students of all ages and abilities. These include ballet classes for beginners and improvers aged 55 or over which seem to be very similar to the classes that I attend at Northern Ballet Academy. For those contemplating a career in dance, DanceCity's Learning Academy offers formal, professional, dance training at all levels starting from children aged 10 to postgraduate level in conjunction with Northumbria and Teeside Universities and local schools and universities. That includes a Centre for Advanced Training similar to the CATs in Leeds and the Lowry. There are opportunities for local choreographers and companies to perform their own work and even a small fund for commissioning new work from local artists.

Equally impressive is the performance programme for the theatre. In November, for instance, there will be no less than 6 shows starting with James Wilton's Leviathan this evening which is described as a "blend of athletic dance, martial arts and capoeira." The plot is intriguing:

"LEVIATHAN follows Ahab, a ship captain hell-bent on capturing the white whale: Moby Dick, a beast as vast and dangerous as the sea itself, yet serene and beautiful beyond all imagining. Ahab’s crew is drawn into the unhinged charisma of their captain, blindly following him on his perilous adventure towards almost certain destruction."

The theatre is currently offering a very generous 2 performances  for £22 promotion which seems good value for live entertainment in the centre of a major city.

Although Newcastle does not yet appear to have its own professional classical ballet company (but please do correct me if I am wrong) it is on the circuit for visiting companies. For instance, Northern Ballet will perform Beauty and the Beast next week and Scottish Ballet will dance Hansel and Gretel  in the same theatre in February.

Birmingham Royal Ballet brings Shakespeare to York

York Theatre Royal

Source Wikipedia
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Birmingham Royal Ballet, Shakespeare Triple Bill, York Theatre Royal, 14 May 2016, 19{30


Birmingham Royal Ballet has a lot of links with Yorkshire. Brandon Lawrence, one of my favourite dancers, comes from Bradford and David Bintley, the company's artistic director, comes from the next village to mine (see My Home and Bintley's 12 May 2015. "We like coming to York" said Jade Heusen in the talk before the show and I think I speak for most theatre goers in this county when I say that we like having you here but we wish we could see a lot more of you. Not just the Northern tour and not just in York but in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and any other theatres in the county that are geared up for dance.

I asked David Bintley about that once and he seemed receptive to the idea. He said that he had first seen ballet at the Alhambra and that it would also be good to see Northern Ballet in Birmingham. One of the reasons why that does not happen now is the perceived need to build up local loyalty for regional ballet companies, but I don't think it works like that. Three of Northern's biggest fans of my acquaintance live miles from Leeds. Two in Buckinghamshire and one in Merseyside. I for my part feel a particular attachment to Scottish Ballet which was the first dance company that I got to know. I do not see it anything like as often as I wish because it is in Glasgow which is further away than Birmingham. I am also a Friend of Ballet Cymru, Ballet Black, the Dutch National Ballet and Covent Garden. I donate regularly to Northern Ballet, attend all its shows and take at least one adult ballet class there every week but I am just as much a fan of English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Anyway, this beautiful company (or at least part of it) was in York last Saturday night and it brought a programme of ballets based on the plays and sonnets of Warwickshire's most famous son, William Shakespeare. The programme began with Wink choreographed by Jessica Lang to a score by Jakub Ciupinski. It was followed by three pas de deux from Ashton's Dream, MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet and Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew and concluded with José Limón's The Moor's Pavane.  I was attracted to the show by the prospect of seeing the three pas de deux which are among the best bits of three of my favourite ballets. I was not disappointed. They were danced exquisitely and were the highlight of my evening; but I liked Wink too and The Moor's Pavane somewhat more.

As I remarked in my review of the company's  performance in Birmingham in Ashton's Double Bill 21 Feb 2016, I cannot even hear Mendelssohn's music let alone watch The Dream without thinking of Dame Antoinette Sibley who is my all time favourite ballerina or indeed Sir Anthony Dowell who partnered her in this as in all ballets so beautifully. It makes me root for tissues. Titania was danced by Karla Doorbar who looks a little bit like Sibley and Obseron by the magnificent Chi Cao. I think I enjoyed watching them even more than I did Sakuma and Caley in Birmingham.

Ideally an interview or at least a pause should have finished that performance but it was followed immediately by another treat. Tyrone Singleton and Celine Gittens danced the second pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet.  I had seen Singelton as Romeo once before when he took over the role from Jamie Bond at very short notice but this time he was dancing with Gittens and when those two are together the result is magic. I saw them in Coppelia at The Lowry last year and they were sensational. They were sensational again last Saturday night.

The last pas de deux was from one of my favourite ballets (even though I have only seen it once) by my all time favourite choreographer, John Cranko, and its was danced delightfully by Elisha Willis and Iain Mackay. It was from the part of the ballet that starts with a battle of wills but ends with the first signs of attraction and softening by Katherina. It is an amusing but also very beautiful piece and the change in mood is caught by the choreography. This work was created for the Stuttgart Ballet and it is performed not nearly as frequently as it should be in this country.  I look forward to Birmingham's production at the Hippodrome next month very much.

According to David Mead's programme note Wink comes from the first line of Shakespeare's sonnet 43 "When most I wink, then do my eyes best see." As it was also derived from the sonnets I could not help comparing Lang's work to Kate Flatt's Undivided Loves for Phoenix Dance Theatre which I reviewed in Phoenix's 35th Anniversary Tour 18 Feb 2016 and I have to say that I think I liked Flatt's work more. The score was stronger and the choreography more interesting. The black and white slabs that are intended to represent pages according to the programme note were distracting. I found it hard to get into the work and maybe need to see it again when I have not driven from Holmfirth to Bradford, Bradford to Manchester and Manchester to York all in the same day. What could not be faulted was the dancing and so many of my favourites were in that work including Singleton, Gittens, Cesar Morales, Yijing Zhang and Ruth Brill.

Created in the year of my birth The Moor's Pavane is a classic of American dance that I have long wanted to see. It tells the tragedy of Othello to the music of Purcell in 20 short minutes. Morales was the Moor, Yvette Knight was Desdemona, Chi Cao was Iago and Yijing Zhang was Emilia.  A powerful, very beautiful but also quite disturbing work. It is performed without props. The story is told entirely by the music and perhaps also by the lighting.

I should say a word about the theatre. Built in the ruins of St Leonard's Hospital it is one of the most beautiful and intimate theatre that I know.  it was established in 1744 and has staged many great productions. In her talk Jensen mentioned that it was adapted well for dancing. I can well understand why the company likes performing there. Situated not far from the Minster and almost opposite the art gallery and some lovely public gardens with a pleasant cafe and bistro the theatre is a tourist attraction in its own right,

Fille bien gardée - Nottingham 26 June 2014

Birmingham Royal Ballet - La Fille mal gardée trailer from Rob Lindsay on Vimeo.

La Fille mal gardée is the oldest ballet that is still performed regularly. It was first staged in the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux two weeks before the storming of the Bastille, the event that precipitated the French Revolution. In another sense it is a very modern ballet. It has no shades or wilis, no wicked magicians who transform girls into swans, no kings or queens, princes or princesses. It takes place not in some mythical or exotic land but in rural France. Normandy judging by Osbert Lancaster's backdrops, It is about a young man and a young woman in love who find a way to be together despite the best efforts of the young woman's mother to marry her off to the wealthy but in every other way unsuitable village idiot. For those who have yet to see the ballet, here's the story guide,

The version of the ballet with which British audiences are most familiar was choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton in 1960 to an arrangement of the music of Ferdinand Hérold by John Lanchbery with sets and costumes by Lancaster. He created powerful roles for the lovers in which he cast Nadia Nerina and David Blair but he also created amusing character roles for Stanley Holden as the social climbing mother and Alexander Grant as the halfwitted suitor. I never saw Nerina but I did see Merle Park and Doreen Wells in the title role as well as Holden and Grant.  Ashton's ballet contains some of the best known and best loved scenes such as the clog dance and the "Fanny Elssler pas de duex".

The Birmingham Royal Ballet has taken La Fille mal gardée on a summer tour which David Bintley describes as part of a "small celebration" of the work of the Royal Ballet's founder Frederick Ashton. I caught it at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham which is a delightful building with a more than passing resemblance to the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux. The lovers were danced by Maureya Lebowitz and Chi Cao, the mother by Rory Mackay, the halfwit by Kit Holder and his dad by Jonathan Payn.

Lebowitz was a delightful Lise - witty and pretty - just like Park as I remember her.  It took me longer to warm to Chi Cao.  He is a powerful dancer and I loved his turns and jumps. But Colas has a funny side. For example he likes his drink and he's also a  bit cheeky. Chi Cao played it very straight which is by no means wrong as there are some who would like that interpretation. As for the character dancers I loved them all, particularly MacKay as widow Simone.

Leaving the theatre, everyone seemed to smile or grin. It's a feel good ballet that I have already seen many times and hope to see many times again. Nobody - not even the London Royal Ballet does Ashton as well as Birmingham. They are Ashton's heirs and they have kept their Fille very well indeed. 

Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel

Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel, Theatre Royal Glasgow, 21 Dec 2013

If you want to rework a well-known story so that it is fresh and contemporary but not gimmicky Scottish Ballet's Artistic Director, Christopher Hampson, shows how to do it.  Locating the first Act of The Nutcracker by the banks of the Thames or getting rid of the divertissements from Aurora's wedding in Sleeping Beauty seem to me to be changes for change sake.  Hampson, however, has produced a version of Hansel and Gretel set in the 1950s and 1960s that is a different from the Grimm brothers' story and Humperdinck's opera but still works very well.

The synopsis is the product of a remarkable exercise called Hansel & Gretel and Me which included creative writing and art competitions for adults and children and outdoor performances of scenes from the story. Those exercises, which lstarted in 2012, were carried out in conjunction with the National Library and National Galleries of Scotland, the Scotsman newspaper and other Scottish and local institutions.

Whether intended by the choreographer or not there were plenty of Scottish cues as the ballet unfolded.  Muriel Spark's Prime of Miss Jean Brodie came to mind as a new teacher who turned out to be the witch charmed the children and spirited them away.  Nesbit and Roper's Steamie as Hansel and Gretel's mother, hair in head scarf, cigarette in hand, shuffled back into the house and slumped on the sofa as her children hauled off her shoes and shod her with slippers. Even the music hall song "I belong to Glasgow" as pa returned with two of his cronies very much the worse the wear with Glasgow going round and round. Judging by the conversations in the Bar in the interval, the audience at the Theatre Royal picked up on all those allusions.

The story has created some really juicy roles.  First, there is the teacher who morphs into the local vamp, the ballerina in the moon and finally a wicked and twisted, ugly old witch.  Next there are the parents who shed their everyday existence to perform a glamorous pas de deux in the children's dreams.  There are Hansel and Gretel themselves not to mention lots of ravens, chefs and fairies.   Because the theatre management distributed cast lists dated the 18 December instead of the 21 and as I am not yet sufficiently familiar with the company to recognize the dancers on stage I cannot be sure who danced those roles.  According to that cast list Marge Hendrick danced the witch, Christopher Harrison and Luciana Ravizzi the parents, Constant Vigier Hansel and Sophie Martin Gretel. If that cast list is right Hendrick danced impressively, especially as she is still listed in the corps on the company's website.

Although the score was composed by Engelbert Humperdinck it includes extracts from his other works as well as his opera. The fascinating story of how Richard Honner, the Principal Conductor, compiled and orchestrated a ballet score is set out in the programme in an article by Graeme Virtue.

Gary Harris's sets which had to transport us from Hansel and Gretel's home to a city street, the enchanted forest, the imaginary feast and finally the interior of the witch's gingerbread house were ingenious. The fridge which opened to reveal a solitary beer can anchored the ballet in the late 1950s or early 1960s.  An impression reinforced by the mother's pinny and headscarf and Hansel's shorts with braces and open neck shirt.

Brilliantly conceived, brilliantly orchestrated, brilliantly designed and brilliantly danced my only fear is that it will spoil me for the next ballet that I shall see which will be Northern Ballet's Cinderella at the Grand on Boxing Day. I hope not for as a Friend and as a member of the over 55 class of its Academy I feel part of that company and love it dearly. But I have followed Scottish Ballet ever since it was in Bristol and I got to know it well when it first moved to Glasgow (see Scottish Ballet 20 Dec 2013). Scottish Ballet was my first love and they say that one's first love is always the greatest. Having seen Hansel and Gretel my love for Scottish Ballet has been rekindled.

Hansel and Gretel will stay at Glasgow until this Saturday. It will then move to Edinburgh (8 to 11 Jan 2014), Aberdeen (15 - 18 Jan 2014), Inverness (22 - 25 Jan 2014), Newcastle (29 Jan - 1 Feb 2014) and Belfast (5 - 8 Feb 2014). If you live anywhere near those towns do go to see it.  Although no plans to bring it anywhere else have been published, I hope the company will dance Hansel and Gretel to London or, better still from my point of view, Leeds and Manchester.

Post Script

Andrew Cameron, Customer Services Manager of the Theatre Royal, has just emailed me the cast list for the performance on 21 Dec 2013 which I have just reviewed.

CAST

Hansel Andrew Peasgood

Gretel Bethany Kingsley-Garner

Witch Luciana Ravizzi

Mother Eve Mutso

Father Erik Cavallari

Sandman Christopher Harrison

Ravens Daniel Davidson, Rimbaud Patron, Thomas Edwards

Chefs Nicholas Shoesmith, Thomas Kendall

Dew Drop Fairy Constance Devernay

Rag Dolls Sophie Laplane, Jamiel Laurence

Waiters, Waitresses,

Fairy Attendants, Sweet Treats

and other characters: Artists of Scottish Ballet

Conductor Richard Honner