Swan Lake in the Round

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English National Ballet, Swan Lake, Royal Albert Hall, 12 June 2016

Watching ballet in the Royal Albert Hall is quite a different experience from watching it on a proscenium stage. Even though the performance space is so much larger it is in many ways more intimate. I think that may be because the audience surrounds the dancers who often down the aisles between them to enter the stage. Swan Lake is particularly well suited for arena performances because much of the action takes place around a lake which is by definition a space enclosed by land.

The scale of the production is staggering. According to the programme there were 120 dancers of whom 60 were swans. There were also 80 musicians in the orchestra. Many of the dances doubled in size. There were 8 cygnets and not just 4. The pas de six became a pas de douze. There were 8 princesses, 8 Spanish dancers and 8 Hungarians.

The reason for the scaling up was that those dances would have been lost to at least half the audience had they been performed with the usual numbers in the traditional way. However, there are some roles that cannot be scaled up. Clearly you can't have 2 Siegfrieds, 2 Odette-Odiles (except for Odette's 'don't be such a blithering idiot' bits of the black act which I shall mention later) or indeed 2 Rothbarts. For those roles the company needs to deploy dancers of exceptional versatility who are thrilling to watch and capable of filling the massive space single handed. All the dancers I saw yesterday met that requirement.

The key to the success of this ballet - unless you rewrite the story as Sir Matthew Bourne and David Nixon have done (see Wikipedia Swan Lake (Bourne) synopsis and Swan Lake Story on the Northern Ballet website) - is a strong Odette-Odile. She must be ethereal, delicate and almost fragile in the second and fourth acts and an only two human vamp in the third. Now what I perceive to be the difficulty for the ballerina - and it may well be that I am quite wrong about that - is that human personality leans towards one or the other and if you lean one way it is not easy to project the other.

One ballerina who can pull it off is Erina Takahashi.  I saw her dance Odette-Odile at the Palace in Manchester on the 9 Oct 2014 (see What Manchester does today 10 Oct 2014). Here is what I wrote about her then:

"Yesterday was the first time I had seen her (or at any rate the first time I had noticed her) and she impressed me considerably. She was a very convincing Odette in the prologue and second act - so delicate and feminine - and I couldn't imagine her as Odette but the lady is tough as well as beautiful and she is also an accomplished actor. She danced the seduction scene even more brilliantly than she had danced Odette."

I had forgotten that I had written those words for this is what I tweeted at 15:59 yesterday

Thoroughly looking forward to seeing @ErinaTakahashi_ in the Black Act. Can she do seductress.as well as the Swan Queen? Test of a ballerina

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) June 12, 2016

Immediately after seeing Act III I wrote:

At first I thought @ErinaTakahashi_ was too nice for Odile but the way she gave Siegfried the push at end of Act 3. She passed the test.

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) June 12, 2016

On the bus to King's Cross I concluded:

Loved @ENBallet's Swan Lake: @ErinaTakahashi_ equally convincing as Odette and Odile. @AcostaYonah a fine Siegfried. Great corps too.

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) June 12, 2016

I have never really believed that Siegfried could have been taken in by Odile's appearance because she moves and behaves so differently from Odette. I think he was so dazzled by Odile, and in particular by her 32 fouettés, that he temporarily forgot about Odette even when she fluttered in to warn him not to be such a blithering idiot. Had it been mistaken identity the spell could have been undone but as Siegfried's promise was intended it could not. At least not unless he jumped in the lake or fought Rothbart or something.

My view of Siegfried - any Siegfried - has recently been revised by David Dawson (see Empire Blanche: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016). Siegfried is a blundering adolescent. Yes he really is impressed by silly things like cross bows.  He falls in love with visions. He makes promises he cannot keep. Yet he cannot be ignored for he is heir to the throne.  However, great virtuosity is required of him. He must thrill us in the third Act with his leaps and his turns in the air.  One of the most thrilling dancers in English National Ballet who filled that bill exactly was Yonah Acosta.

The third major player in the story is Rothbart.  He must also thrill and also chill even though he has no great solo. However, he does have a cape to wave or rather wings to flap and his appearances were heralded by flashing lights across the auditorium and the antics of his skull headed acrobatic acolytes. Yesterday his role was performed by Fabian Remair whom I had last seen as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (see Manchester's Favourite Ballet Company 28 Nov 2015). He had impressed me then and he did so again yesterday. A first soloist with the company he is clearly a name to watch.

There were fine performances also by Michael Coleman as Siegried's tutor and the master of ceremonies, Jane Haworth as Siegfried's mum (or the queen) and Shiori Kase and Vitor Menezes. Everybody in the cast did well. Although she did not dance a solo role on this occasion I am always delighted to glimpse Sarah Kundi, one of my favourite dancers, in any role. She was in the Spanish dance and I gave her an especially loud clap as she passed my box at the end of her piece.

This year the swans included Natasha Watson and the guests at Siegfried's party Andrew McFarlane who trained at Ballet West (see A Cause for Double Celebration at the Robin's Nest 9 Feb 2016). I could not recognize Andrew but I do know Natasha and I uttered a little "brava" for her at the end of the show. I am so proud of her and also of Andrew. Natasha is a Genée  medallist and was the only British finalist in Lausanne in 2015. She is on a trajectory to the top and I wish her all the best.

I should say a word about the expanded orchestra.  They played well.   Indeed rarely have I heard the English National Ballet Philharmonic play better.  I had expected Gavin Sutherland to cinduct them but instead Helena Bayo appeared. It was the first time I had seen her but I hope it will not be the last.  Often my eyes turned to her from the stage for her body was expressing the music too just as beautifully as any of the dancers.  She directed the musicians with passion but also with sensitivity. The result was a most delightful rendering of one of my favourite ballet scores.

Some things have to be done differently in the round.  A real live dancer who is obviously not Takahashi has to represent Odette during the seduction scene. The ballerina could not lead the admirable Helena Bayo onto the stage. All that could be done was a reverence by the lead dancers and a kiss from the conductor blown back to them.  There were also monitors around the auditorium with the camera fixed on the conductor. I surmise that was for the benefit of the dancers.

Although I enjoyed yesterday's performance tremendously I do have reservations.  It is spectacular but at times I felt the emphasis was on the spectacle - the flashing lights, the acrobatics, the costumes and the sheer numbers on the stage - rather than on the dancing.  It is obviously more expensive to stage than a proscenium show because the ticket prices were high even for London.  However there were plenty of people able and willing to pay the price for the Albert Hall was packed to the gunnels. In The Arena Phenomenon in the programme noted that the novelty and appeal of ballet in the round attracts audiences who do not regularly attend conventional performances. The absence of a ripple of applause when the principals appeared or at turn 28 of Odile's fouettés, someone from my box shouting out "He's behind you" when Rothbart took his curtain call to mixed cheers and boos, the middle age man in the box next to mine sticking his fingers in his mouth and whistling his appreciation at the end of Act III and the eyes of so many on the synopsis page of the programmes suggested that was indeed the case. Nothing wrong with that of course if ballet in the round inspires a love of ballet generally, but it is an indulgence which, like chocolate, should be savoured only sparingly.

A Good Old Fashioned Swan Lake without Gimmicks

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Swan Lake is special to me and it has become even more special since I tried to learn the cygnets' dance, Siegfried's solo and the swans' entry at KNT's Swan Lake intensive last year (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3). The last "Swan Lake" I saw had bikes, a whole load of new characters with names like Anthony and Odilia and a completely different story set somewhere where they vote for Bernie Sanders. I didn't like it the first time I saw it in 2004 even though it had a stellar cast (see  Don't Expect Petipa 5 Jan 2016) and I didn't like it any better when I saw it again in March (see Up the Swannee 17 March 2016).

So my tongue is hanging out for a real Swan Lake with a Siegfried, Odette-Odile and Rothbart with all the usual divertissements plus Legnani's 32 fouettés but minus the bikes and other gimmicks. And I am glad to see that English National Ballet have offered us  exactly that with Yonah Acosta as Siegfried, Erina Takahashi as Odette-Odile and Fabian Raimair as Rothbart. That would be more than enough to justify the somewhat steep - nay mountainous - ticket price and the return rail fare to London but my cup would run over were I to see Sarah Kundi and Natasha Watson on stage too.

Audiences in England already know Kundi well and my readers have read how much I admire her work but they may not have seen Watson before.   They should for she is a name to look out for. She is a graduate of Ballet West and I have mentioned her in this blog more than once (see Yet More Good News from Ballet West - Natasha Watson's Medal in the Genée 30 Sept 2013, Natasha Watson in Lausanne 15 Nov 2014, and A Cause for Double Celebration at the Robin's Nest 9 Feb 2016). You will find her picture here.

Watson is interviewed together with other young artists in yesterday's post to the English National Ballet's blog "It’s hard work being a swan!" 30 May 2016 ENB blog. You can say that again folks.  I KNOW. I'VE TRIED TO DO IT."

Cuba

Alicia Alonso

Source Wikipedia

Javier Torres's appearance at the London Ballet Circle last Monday reminded me of the extraordinary contribution of Cuban dancers to British ballet. Torrres is for the moment one of two male premier dancers at Northern Ballet  the other of whom has just announced that he is about to take leave of absence (see Batley and Leebolt 10 May 2016). Carlos Acosta may have retired as principal dancer with the Royal Ballet (see Au Revoir but not Adieu 19 Nov 2015) but he is still very busy. Yonah Acosta and Alejandro Virelles are principals of English National Ballet.

I could go on and I could also find Cubans as principal dancers in many other countries around the world. That is impressive for a country with a population of just over 11 million whose gross national income is US$7,301 per head which ranks 67 in the UN's human development index (see UN Development Programme Human Development Indicators).

Clearly one reason for such success is that it has directed considerable resources to the development of the the art which is only possible in a command economy (see Michael Voss Passion fuelling Cuban Ballet Boom 7 Nov 2008 BBC).  According to Wikipedia the Cuban National Ballet School is the biggest in the world with over 3,000 students and there are several other schools and classes throughout the island. Another reason, however, is the genius, drive and vision of Alicia Alonso, the founder of the National Ballet of Cuba. Alonso, who had a glittering career in the USA, established the National Ballet in the name of the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company some 11 years before the present government came to power.

This blog has acknowledged Alonso's genius in two articles. The first is the review by Joanna Goodman of the National Ballet's Swan Lake in Havana on 27 June 2014 (see "We are the dancers, we create the dreams": Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s El Lago de los Cisnes in Havana 8 July 2016). Alonso took the curtain call and Joanna managed to snap that great dancer together with Viengsay Valdés who danced Odette-Odile that night. The second was my tribute to Alonso on her 95th birthday last December (see Alicia Alonso 22 Dec 2015).

For many years Cuba was isolated from its neighbours by diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by the USA and other members of the Organization of American States. During that period Cuba depended heavily on aid from the former Soviet Union and its allies which would have increased Soviet influence in all areas of Cuban life including the performing arts. Happily there has been rapprochement between Cuba and the USA which means that Cuba will be open to other influences. Will ballet continue to flourish in ballet n changing times? I hope so and think there is every chance that it will if only because ballet is flourishing in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America.

Coppelia in Oxford

The first time I saw Coppélia was when I was an undergraduate at St Andrews. It was London Festival's at the Coliseum in the late 1960s with Peter Schaufuss ("can't believe it's a real name" scoffed my companion Jean who was reading German at the time and is now a successful solicitor in Scotland) and the beautiful Dagmar Kessler.  It was one of the first ballets that I saw shortly after I got my own income in the form of a local authority grant and entrance scholarship and could afford to take myself off to the ballet and pay for my first ballet lessons. Delibes's music and the kaleidoscope of colour and movement with the gorgeous sets and costumes and the spectacular choreography impressed me like no other ballet before or since.

I saw that show shortly after I had made my first acquaintance with digital computers and the so-called Turing Test. I could not help reflecting on the modernity of the ballet's plot in a way that Saint-Léon and Delibes could never have imagined a century earlier when they first staged the work (see Laura Dodge Coppélia: An Insight), This was a discussion of man-machine interaction, one of the issues of artificial intelligence, a topic of moral philosophy which was compulsory for St Andrews undergraduates as well as something we addressed in our short course in the computer science lab.

Fast forward nearly half a century to the same company's performance of the same ballet (albeit under a different moniker) in another ancient university city and the work was still as fresh and appealing to me as it had been when I first saw it.  Instead of Schaufuss and Kessler I saw Yonah Acosta and Shiori Kase as Franz and Swanilda. Acosta is a virtuoso. Always a pleasure to watch. He wowed us with his magnificent turns and jumps particularly in the last act. His virtuosity I had seen before but last night he also showed his charm and his aptitude as an actor. He is fast winning my admiration in the way that only a handful dancers (one of whom is Carlos) have done. Kase was a lovely Swanilda: sweet, vulnerable (Franz's dalliance with a doll really hurt her), impetuous and in the end heroic as she struggled to release her fiancé from Dr Coppélius's clutches. The role could have been created for her.

There were strong performances from Michael Coleman as the mad scientist, Fabian Remair as the Burgermeister, Crystal Costa as Dawn, Lauretta Summerscales and Jung ah Choi (who was also the doll). Anjuli Hudson, Sarah Kundi (one of my favourite dancers as every reader of this blog knows) and Jennie Harringtom in the Dance of the Hours. The whole cast danced well - as one would expect from a company of this calibre - and it is almost invidious to single any of them out for special praise.

Earlier in the day I had the privilege of seeing this company including last night's cast in company class.  I didn't see it all because the traffic yesterday morning was appalling and I don't know Oxford as well as I thought I did. I knew there was an underground car park under the bus station but could I find it in the congestion? I had intended to take the park and ride service but the car parks on the ring road were full by the time I had arrived from Yorkshire. The class took place in the theatre with the scenery for the show on stage. I noticed travelling barres on stage but missed the barre work if indeed there had been any.

Company class was very familiar with the ballet mistress Hua Fang Zhang directing the dancers much in the way Fiona, Annemarie or Ailsa directs me. Some of the exercises were the same as ours though there were several (probably most) that I could never do in a month of Sundays. There was a pianist just as we have in Leeds playing some of the same music as in our exercises. The big difference was in the pace of the class and the fact that the professionals were getting the exercises right first time (or at least most of the time) which doesn't happen with us (or at any rate me).  I noticed how many of the dancers followed the ballet mistress's instructions with finger movements - a useful trick that I shall try - and their effort. They really work hard. I'm even more impressed with those dancers than I had been before.

Just before we left the auditorium we were treated to a rehearsal of the pas de deux in the first act by Kase and Acosta.  As he was in his practice clothes I could see the muscles of that man.  I marvelled at the way he held his precious cargo on his shoulder with his right arm almost casually around her. A precarious position one would have thought but Kase seemed as relaxed and comfortable as if she had been in her favourite arm chair. I've seen such lifts and holds countless times as a ballet goer but seeing it in rehearsal with the principals stripped of their costumes was nevertheless a revelation.

The show is moving on to Bristol now and I thoroughly recommend it.

Further Reading

3 Nov 2014  Sarah Kundi   Oxford: Sarah Kundi on Tour   ENB website

English National Ballet's Le Corsaire - a Valentine's Day Treat

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In the programme, Tamara Rojo noted that Le Corsaire is such an important work that it is strange that no British company has ever owned a production. She added

"The great thing about having a work that no one else has is that you can really make it your own. This is going to be Le Corsaire for the United Kingdom."

The ballet was not entirely unknown to British audiences. The Bolshoi's version was broadcast live in 2012 and I watched it at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Based on Lord Byron's The Corsair the ballet tells how Conrad, a corsair or privateer in love with Medora, a beautiful Greek woman in Turkish captivity, rescues her from a fate worse than death and takes her back to his den with other beauty including other captives. Conrad's lieutenant, Birbnanto, becomes dissatisfied with the distribution of the booty especially after Conrad promises to give it all to Medora especially after Medora persuades Conrad to liberate the other captives. He makes two attempts to mutiny the second od which results in the recapture of Medora. Conrad comes looking for Medora and rescues her a second time. Sailing away the corsair's barque is caught in the sort of storm that has been battering our coasts for the last few months and sinks. Conrad and Medora (or at least their spirits) survive and they fade away in each other's arms. 

This story provides juicy roles not only for the principals who dance Conrad and Medora but also for Birbanto, Ali (Conrad's sidekick), Lankendem (the governor of the city) and Gulnare, a young slave girl who is left behind in captivity. There is also a great character role for the fat old pasha who can't wait to get his hands on a pretty slave girl.

The production that I saw yesterday was commissioned from Anna-Marie Holmes who had staged the work for the wonderful Boston Ballet which visited us briefly this summer (see "Boston Ballet: 'High as a flag on the Fourth of July!'" 7 July 2013). Homes's production was itself based on a revival of the work by Konstantin Sergeyev, the artistic director of what was then called the Kirov Ballet and is now once more the Mariinsky. The work that Sergeyev revived was choreographed by Marius Petipa to a score by Adam though with contributions from a number of other composers including Delibes and Minkus.

The work had its première in Milton Keynes on 17 Oct 2013 since when it has been staged in Southampton, Oxford, Bristol and London. Manchester is the last stop of its tour although it is going to Spain for a few days in April. The advantage of seeing a show at the end of a tour is that the company will have accumulated a lot of experience so the performance should be very polished.  Le Corsaire had had a very good run in London both from the critics and audiences. I therefore had very high expectations when I braved the elements on Valentine's day.

I was not disappointed. Conrad was danced by Zdenek Konvalina who danced with enormous energy and grace. He was partnered by Fernanda Oliveira as Medora. She was delightful.  Sweet and imploring when begging for the slave girls' freedom in Act II, fierce when cornered by Birbanto indignant when denouncing him to Conrad and very exciting to watch, particularly in the spectacular dances with Conrad and Ali in Act II.   Fabian Reimair projected slyness and malice as Birbanto.  Ken Saruhashi, who danced Lankendem, is an impressive young man with ambitions to dance Siegfried, Albrecht and Basilio, I am sure we shall see a lot of him. Michael Coleman, the fat old pasha (the archetypical dirty old man) had the audience chuckling as he vibrated after acquiring Medora. But the loudest applause on Friday went to Shiori Kase who danced Gulnare and Yonah Acosta who danced Ali.

When I mentioned that the crowd had gone wild for Acosta on BalletcoForum one of the ballet buffs replied:

"Not to take anything away from Yonah Acosta, of course, but ENB's Corsaire audiences have all gone wild for Ali, whoever has been dancing the role!"

I can understand why that would be the case. Ali has some spectacular jumps that would raise a cheer whoever danced that character. But I was impressed by this young man and I am sure we shall all see a lot more of him.

The same is true of Gulnare's role which is danced by an up and coming young dancer. Michaela dePrince (a Sierra Leonean dancer currently with Ernst Meisner's Junior Company whom I just can't see enough of) performed it for the Joburg Ballet when she was just 16 or 17. As with Ali's role the choreography certainly helps for there is a delightful flower dance in the pasha's garden. Shiori Kase danced it beautifully. All the audience could do after that scene was purr.

But there was yet another star and that was Bob Ringwood's designs.  Though overlooked by some, the sets, costumes and lighting can be as important to the success of a ballet as the dancing and the score.  The opening scene of old Istanbul wowed us before a step was danced.  The view of the sea from the pirates' cave took our breath away. The storm (so reminiscent of the news reels last week) made us shiver.  The costumes were sumptuous, particularly the pasha's outfit complete with paunch.  The multicoloured skirts in the opening scene were delicious. They must have been such fun to wear.

I do not know why this ballet has not been performed more often but  now that it is the repertoire I am sure it will become one of English National Ballet staples. Valentine's day happens to be my birthday and I cannot think of a better way of celebrating it.