Online Company Classes for May 2020

Company Class 29 February 2020

© 2020 Powerhouse Ballet

A photo of our last company class in a studio.  It was held on 29 Feb 2020 in Studio 2 at The Dancehouse and Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet was our guest ballet mistress. I am particularly fond of that studio because it was there that Jane taught us Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker in KNT's wonderful choreographic workshops.  It is also where my pre-intermediate class with Karen used to meet.

Jane gave us our first company class in Huddersfield two years ago.  Last year she gave us a great anniversary class at Yorkshire Dance with David Plumpton at the piano.  I had booked Jane, David and the same studio on 30 of this month for another anniversary class. 

I have no idea when we shall be allowed to reassemble in a studio but from what the PM was saying last night it is unlikely to be any time soon.  Also, as I am in the most vulnerable age group I have to face the possibility that I may never take a conventional class again.

But we can still do online classes.   To make up for the classes that we missed in March and April I have booked Charlotte Ingleson at 14:00 tomorrow and Jane Tucker at 11:00 on 16 May to train us online.   Jane will still deliver our anniversary class at 11:00 on 30 May which I shall make as special as I possibly can. 

On the first Saturday after dance studios reopen, Jane and David have agreed to give you the class of your lives even if I cannot join you in person because of continuing social distancing for my age group.

So make the following notes in your diaries:

2 May 2020   14:00   Charlotte Ingleson    Online Company Class
16 May 2020 11:00   Jane Tucker              Online Company Class
30 May 2020 11:00   Jane Tucker              Anniversary Company Class

Chelmsford Ballet's Seventieth Anniversary Show

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Author: Willliam Blake
Source Wikipedia, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Chelmsford Ballet Company A Midsummer Night's Dream 20 March 2019 19:30 Chelmsford Civic Theatre

It is very hard for me to review a performance by the Chelmsford Ballet Company objectively because I am an associate member of the company. As I live in Yorkshire I cannot participate in its performances but I have attended all its shows since 2014 and even one of its AGMs.  I am very proud of my connection with the company.   I have come to expect a lot from the Chelmsford Ballet and its dancers have always delivered.   This year's show was no exception.

The evening was in three parts:  it opened with preparations for Hippolyra's wedding to Theseus. It then switched to Coppelia starting with the dolls' scene.  That comprised the whole of the first act.  The second act was a transposition of the play without Pyramus and Thisbe. A computer-generated graphic flashing the years back to 1949 indicated why Coppelia had been substituted for the play within a play.  Coppelia had been the company's first full-length ballet so there was no need for a lion, wall or even a man in the moon which would not have been easy for a choreographer transpose into dance.  There are also some parallels between Hermia and Swanhilda in that Franz makes a pass at the strange new girl reading a book upside down.  Is that is reading too much into the juxtaposition of Athenian wood and Swabian village?

Although I love Coppelia I enjoyed the second act much better than the first.  It told the story beautifully.  It started with the quarrel over the changeling boy and continued with the troubles of the lovers, Puck's blunder, Titania's infatuation with Bottom and the final reconciliation.  I think Annette Potter was right to include Coppelia into the 70th-anniversary production though it might have been better to have Midsummer Night's Dream with an extract of Coppelia as part of a double bill.

There were some memorable performances.   Andrew Potter danced both Dr Coppelius and Oberon.  James Fletcher was a hilarious Botton.  Olivia Riley was a splendid Puck.  Women can often dance that role at least as successfully as men as Isabela Coracy has shown in Arthur Pita's version for Ballet Black. Titania, the fairies, lovers all danced well and all deserve congratulations.

I have already mentioned the computer-generated graphics. Whoever created them for Chelmsford Ballet is a genius. I am surprised he or she has not been snapped up by New Adventures years ago.  I think that artist's best work was the overgrown palace in The Sleeping Beauty.   The other things the company does particularly well are the costumes. They were gorgeous.  Particularly the fairies' tutus and in some cases headgear.

Wednesday's opening night was attended by both of the company's patrons,  Doreen Wells and Christopher Marney.  Readers of this blog will know I have always been one of Marney's fans. Wells, who danced with what was then called the Touring Company, was one of the big names when I began to follow ballet. She was and remains one of my favourite dancers. The city's lord mayor was in the audience resplendent in her chain of office.  It was, altogether, a very good evening.   Well worth the long drive from Holmfirth.

Phoenix's 35th Anniversary Tour

Phoenix Dance Theatre, Triple Bill, West Yorkshire Playhouse, 17 Feb 2016

In 1981 David Hamilton, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James founded Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds (see the History page on the company's website). Yesterday David Hamilton attended the first night of Phoenix's 35th anniversary tour at the West Yorkshire Playhouse at the start of a year of celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the formation of the company.

There is a lot to celebrate. As the tour page puts it:

"From small beginnings in inner-city Leeds, Phoenix Dance Theatre has grown to be one of the UKs leading contemporary dance companies."

Phoenix contributes much to the cultural life of the North of England and the nation not only through its performances but also by its educational and outreach work which includes workshops on tour, academies for young people in Leeds and the North East and schools partnerships. The statistics are impressive. According to the programme for yesterday's performance there were 641 workshops engaging 2,379 young people in Leeds between 2014 and 2015 and a further 228 engaging 1,360 young persons outside the city with a total audience of 91,128.

Phoenix started its tour with a triple bill that consisted of Sharon Watson's Melt, Kate Flatt's Undivided Loves and Itzik Galili's Until.With/Out.Enough. I loved all three of those works but particularly Undivided Loves which focused on Sonnet 18:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Brilliantly accompanied by the music of Adriano Adewale who played his score on stage, the dancers Prentice Whitlow, Sam Vaherlehto and Marie-Astrid Mence explored the themes of love, jealousy and rivalry. I saw a preview of this work just before Christmas as I mentioned in Never attend a Ballet Class the Morning after the Night Before 21 Dec 2015. In the discussion after the performance I asked the composer who is Brazilian whether he had read the sonnets in Portuguese as Shakespeare belongs to every culture and not just the anglophone. Adewale proved that point at the end of the score with snippets of Portuguese and Finnish.

Melt is another favourite. It never fails to lift me.  When I reviewed it for Phoenix at Home 4 Oct 2015 I described it as a "joyful work" and a "dance in three dimensions". I explained that:

"Dancers formed patterns on the stage. Then they were hoisted up on ropes from which they swooped and twirled and turned. The programme notes mentions elements colliding and the choreographer talks about ice and fire from which I surmises the title Melt is derived. I saw only harmony and fluidity. If there were collisions they were controlled. The work is hauntingly beautiful not least because of the music chosen for the work: "We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues" by Wild Beasts from their 2009 album ‘Two Dancers‘. Watson, the company's artistic director, created Melt for the company's Reflected programme in 2011."

The dancers (Carmen Vazquez Marfil, Sandrine Monin, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jack Thomson, Prentice Whitlow, Sam Vaherlehto and Marie-Astrid Mence) seemed to love this piece. I have never seen them dance better.

Until.With/Out.Enough is a co-commission with the Royal Opera House and I saw it at the Linbury on 13 Nov 2013 (see The Phoenix Soars Over London 13 Nov 2015. It was created by Irzik Galili to the music of Gorecki which cannot have been a an easy score to interpret.  The choreographer responded to that challenge ingeniously by working on the collective shape of the dancers so that the piece seemed to be almost as much a work of sculpture or architecture as a work of dance. Consequently lighting was particularly important in a piece such as this and it was designed impressively by Yaron Abulafia. In this piece were Natalie Alleston performed with Carmen Vazquez Marfil, Sandrine Monin, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jack Thomson, Prentice Whitlow and Sam Vaherlehto.

As Phoenix has given so much to the nation the company has invited the public to donate 35 for 35. That can be
- £35 - "£1 for every year that Phoenix has been entertaining and inspiring dance audiences" for which contributors will receive a poster of the Company’s latest repertoire and an acknowledgement of support on its website;
- £3.50 per month which, if renewed for a second year, will earn automatic membership of the dancer's circle.
- a one-off donation of £350 which will be rewarded with membership of the choreographers' circle; or
- £3,500 bringing membership of the artistic director's circle.
Information  on making donations is available on the "Give 35 for 35 Years" page of the company's website.

In Praise of Bintley

Yesterday was my first visit to the Hippodrome but it won't be the last

It seems only yesterday that I read in About the House or it may have been the Dancing Times that the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet would move to the Birmingham Hippodrome and be known as the "Birmingham Royal Ballet". I was bemused. As a Mancunian I have never had much time for Birmingham. "If they want to move out of London" I said to myself "there are far better cities. How about Manchester? The second city though we Mancunians say that honour actually belongs to London. Or if not Manchester another town with character, history and fine architecture with lovely countryside nearby. Edinburgh, perhaps, Bristol, Newcastle or even Liverpool which, despite a century of relative economic decline, still has the magnificent Pier Head as well as the Phil with its exquisite gents' loo. Mais pourquoi Birmingham!"

Although I have followed the Birmingham Royal Ballet ever since it was known as the touring company and never miss a season when it visits The Lowry I had never been to The Hippodrome before. I have been to opera houses  all over the world including The Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Sydney Opera House, the Semperoper in Dresden, Lincoln Center and, of course, Palais Garnier in Paris.  I had seen the Birmingham Royal Ballet on its trips to its old home at Sadler's Wells but it never occurred to me to visit the company in its new home until a year ago.

It was Ruth Brill who put me right. She gave a talk to the London Ballet Circle. She spoke about the Hippodrome and its audience and how they cherish the Birmingham Royal Ballet. I listen to her because I admire her dancing so. She is such fun. She loves to dance and she communicates her joy to her audience. So I made a mental note to see the Birmingham Royal Ballet in the Hippodrome one day.

That day arrived yesterday because it was the 25th anniversary of the company's move to Birmingham and the 20th anniversary of David Bintley's appointment as the company's artistic director. Earlier in the day I had been in Leeds watching the Northern Ballet in class and listening to a discussion on narrative ballet by a panel that included Christopher Hampson and Graham Watts (see Three into Two won't go 20 June 2015). Sadly I had to miss the choreographic sharing with new works  by Kenneth Tindall and Constant Vigier which I had expected to be (and Gita confirmed was) the best part of a very long day. But it was worth it for I would not have missed last night's show in Birmingham for the world.

The advertised performance was a double bill - The King Dances which I had discussed in my post of the 23 May 2015 and Carmina Burana which was Bintley's first work after his appointment as artistic director. I will review the performance of those works but not here because they each deserve a post of their own. The evening began with an unfamiliar overture which we learned was Prospero's theme. It is part of a new score by Sally Beamish for The Tempest and it had never been performed in public before. The curtain rose with Robert Parker standing by a lectern. "I wish I could say that that fanfare was for me" said Parker who flies aeroplanes as well as being artistic director of Elmhurst but it was for another. A photo of Bintley flashed on screen to thunderous applause. For the next few minutes Parker summarized Bintley's life and career with pictures of scenes from his ballets. The summary ended with a photo of the great man in Aston Villa's colours. Birmingham is where he has made his home and brought up his children, explained Parker, and it is where where he supports one of the city's great football teams.

There was a pause of a minute or so before the curtain rose on The King Dances and to say that that was special is an understatement.  It was one of the most enthralling performances I have ever experienced in the theatre. As I said above I will save the details of the review for another day but I don't think I have ever experienced anything more chilling than the images of hell conjured up in The Third Watch or anything more dazzling than the sight of William Bracewell glimmering in gold before the rising sun.

The evening continued with Carmina Burana and the company danced their hearts out. Although Bintley has made his home in Birmingham he comes from Honley which is almost the next village to mine (see My Home and Bintley's 22 May 2015). I long suspected that he had been influenced by the Choral. I actually asked about the artistic influences on his life when he visited the London Ballet Circle last month. Carmina Burana confirmed my suspicion for much of the glory of that ballet comes from the soaring voices to Orff's score.

After the curtain fell the crowd went wild. The applause was deafening. They yelled. They cheered.  They whooped. They clapped till their palms were sore. Several in the audience, including me, felt compelled to rise.  There was the usual reverence with its succession of curtain calls for the principals and then Michael Clarke, chair of the company's directors, walked on stage. He gestured to us to stop clapping. "That applause wasn't bad" he said "but the next round will be thunderous for I have found David Bintley," He beckoned Bintley onto the stage and the crowd erupted even louder than before. Bintley joined hands with the conductor and dancers and the applause exploded like a cannonade. Clarke told us that Peter Wright was in the audience. It was a very special moment.

I was a bit dazed after exiting the theatre. It is in the Chinese quarter of Birmingham which I think must be the fun part of town. There were crowds in the streets.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time. The Hippodrome is a lovely theatre. There are plenty of bars serving all kinds of refreshments. I ordered an espresso before the show and a very interesting soft drink consisting of squeezed apple juice and cinnamon for the interval and had plenty of change out of a fiver.  The seats were comfortable. The acoustics were good. The staff were courteous.  I found free street parking a few hundred yards from the theatre. Would you believe that they charge for parking on waste ground up to 22:00 in Leeds even on a Sunday. I can quite see why the Birmingham Royal Ballet made its home at the Hippodrome. Yesterday was my first visit to that theatre but it will certainly not be the last.

Anniversary Post

I started this blog a year ago today with a review of Ballet West's performance of The Nutcracker in Pitlochry. That was one of the highlights of the year and I am looking forward to returning to Pitlochry on Saturday for their Swan Lake. Last August I spent a very pleasant afternoon in Taynuilt on the way to Oban to catch the ferry to Mull (see "Taynuilt - where better to create ballet?" 31 Aug 2013). No wonder one of the students at the ballet school attached to the company won a medal in the Genée.

Here are some of the other highlights in no particular order:

1.  Dutch National Ballet Junior Company

I was in the Staddshouwburg in Amsterdam on the 24 Nov 2013 when Ernst Meisner's amazing young dancers began their tour of the Netherlands. I had come to the Netherlands to see Michaela DePrince. She was magnificent with Sho Yamade in the pas de deux from Diana and Actaeon. But in the same performance I saw the others and they were all as beautiful. It was a wonderful night. The crowd went wild. Every single member of the audience rose to his or her feet. One of the very few occasions in my life that has happened.  The Junior Company are coming to the Linbury on 28 and 29 May 2014. If tickets are still available - go!

2.  MurleyDance

Much the same thing happened a week later. I had come to Leeds to see Sarah Kundi who is one of my favourite dancers. On a particularly terrible day in May I drew solace from watching her dance "Dépouillement". But then I saw all the other wonderful dancers of MurleyDance.  I can't wait to see them all again in their Spring tour.




3.  Ballet Black

I was so sad when Kundi left Ballet Black. I had loved her performances in "Dopamine (you make my levels go silly)" and Chris Marney's "War Letters" when I saw the company at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham.  But just look whom Ballet Black have recruited now!

I shall see Isabela Coracy together with all my other favourites, including Cira Robinson, Sayaka Ichikawa, Damien Johnson and Joseph Alves, at the Linbury tomorrow (see "Ballet Black's Tour" 22 Feb 2014). Yippee!

4.    Scottish Ballet  Hansel and Gretel

Scottish Ballet was my first love  (see "Scottish Ballet" 20 Dec 2013).  It is still one of my favourite companies.  Christopher Hampson's Hansel and Gretel which I saw in Glasgow just before Christmas was outstanding (see "Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel" 23 Dec 2013).  Hampson reworked the story masterfully involving the public in the process with writing competitions, forest tours and many other events.   I first got to know the company when Peter Darrell was its artistic director and Elaine McDonald was his ballerina. I am looking forward to seeing Scottish Ballet again in Romeo and Juliet in May.

5.   Antoinette Sibley

There were great ballerinas in the early 1970s when I first took an interest in ballet - Fracci, Seymour and, of course, Foteyn. But my favourite was (and remains) Antoinette Sibley. I saw Dame Antoinette at the Royal Ballet School in conversation with Clement Crisp earlier this month (see "Le jour de gloire est arrive - Dame Antoinette Sibley with Clement Crisp at the Royal Ballet School" 3 Feb 2014).  Here is a clip of the great ballerina in Manon.

6.   Gala for Ghana

That same afternoon, thanks to the good people of BallertcoForum, I got to get a ticket to see Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson and other great dancers at the Royal College of Music in a  Gala for Ghana. That evening I saw the wonderful Elena Glurdjidze dance The Dying Swan thus fulfilling a lifelong ambition that had been sparked by my mother's account of Pavolva to see a modern ballerina perform it on the stage. Glurdjidze is another dancer whom I greatly admire. There were many other memorable performances that evening including Ashton's Rhapsody pas de deux by Yuhui Choe and Valentino Zucchetti, Volver, Volver by Watson, Avant La Haine by Camille Bracher and Thomas Whitehead but the work that stands out in my memory is Requiem Pie Jesu by Lauren Cuthbertson.

7.    Northern Ballet, Midsummer Night's Dream

Something remarkable happened at West Yorkshire Playhouse on 14 Sept 2013 when Yorkshire Ballet danced David Nixon's Midsummer Night's Dream (see "Realizing Another Dream" 15 Sept 2013). This was one of only three occasions that I have witnessed a standing ovation  in the ballet. Somehow the chemistry was right. A lovely, intimate theatre.  An inspired cast who gave that little bit extra. A receptive crowd.

8.  Northern Ballet's Open Day

I had not intended to stay long at Northern Ballet's open day on the 15 Feb 2014 but I sat transfixed by a succession of the Academy wonderful teachers: Yoko Ichino, Cara O'Shea, Chris Hinton-Lewis and my own teacher, Annemarie Donoghue. I learned more about ballet in one afternoon from watching them than from reading a shelf of books or a week of performances.  A few weeks earlier Dame Antoinette had spoken fondly about Tamara Karsavina who had been her teacher.  Watching Yoko Ichino lovingly pass on her skills and knowledge to the young dancers of the Academy reminded me of Dame Antoinette's words. I love the Academy. I was already a Friend of the Company but today I have become a Friend of the Academy as well.

9.   Birmingham Royal Ballet, Prince of the Pagodas

I was so excited about the first performance in the UK of the Prince of the Pagodas at The Lowry on the 30 Jan 2014 that I had to write the review that very night. Great choreography, great sets, great score and great dancing  (see "Lear with a Happy Ending - Birmingham Royal Ballet's Prince of the Pagodas 30 Jan 2014" 31 Jan 2014). The Birmingham Royal Ballet brought two other great works to Salford - Aladdin on 28 Feb 2013 and The Sleeping Beauty on the 29 Sept 2014 - but Pagodas was my favourite.

10.  Royal Ballet. Giselle

The Royal Ballet is the gold standard and Giselle is in the repertoire of all the world's great companies. I have seen many of the world's finest ballerinas dance Giselle - Fracci, Sibley, Fonteyn and now Osipova. I have also seen many great Albrechts including Nureyev at the height of his career but I don't think I have ever seen anyone dance the role better than Carlos Acosta on the 18 Jan 2014 (see "Giselle - Royal Ballet 18 Jan 2014"  20 Jan 2014).