Ballet Cymru's New Giselle

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Ballet Cymru is touring the United Kingdom with a new production of Giselle.  It opened in Newport on 16 May 2025, and the company will bring it to Bangor on 13 Jun and Mold on 8 Jul 2025.  The opening night was reviewed by Molly Stubbs for The Nation (see Dance Review: Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 20 May 2025).

If I am not mistaken, this is Ballet Cymru's third version of the ballet.  They had one in the early days of the company when they were known as Ballet Gwent.  They created a new version with a score by Catrin Finch in 2021.  It opened in Lichfield and I reviewed it in Giselle Reimagined  9 Jul 2021).  I also saw it in Leeds and Newport.   

In their latest version, they appear to have reverted to Adam's score, banished the zombies and restored to the stage Myrthe and her wilis resplendent in their romantic tutus.   While I liked Darius James and Amy Doughty's reimagining much more than I enjoyed Aktam Khan's, I do not like change for change's sake.   If the live performance is anything like the trailer, we are in for a treat.   I shall be in the Bryn Terfel auditorium on Friday and my write-up will appear soon afterwards.

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.

Essex Excellence - The Chelmsford Ballet's Cinderella

(c) 2023 Chelmsford Ballet Company: all rights reserved Licence Courtesy of the company

 

Chelsea Ballet Company Cinderella Chelmsford Theatre 17 March 2023 19:30

Chelmsford is a community about the size of Huddersfield and the same distance from London as Huddersfield is from Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.  Although Chelmsford has been a city for many years in the ecclesiastical sense as it has a cathedral it was elevated to city status in the municipal sense in 2012 to celebrate the late Queen's diamond jubilee.  While Huddersfield is renowned for its choral society Chelmsford has an institution that is at least as precious, namely the Chelmsford Ballet Company.

Chelmsford Ballet Company is a company of artists who live and work or study in and around Chelmsford.  Although some of its members have made a career in dance - including one of my dear teachers at Northern Ballet Cara O'Shea - many do not.  I shall not call those artists "amateurs" because that description has connotations of aspiration rather than achievement.  In the quality of its productions and the enjoyment that its audiences experience the Chelmsford Ballet stands comparison with many companies of full-time dancers.

Every March the company stages a full-length ballet or mixed bill in Chelmsford's Civic Theatre.  This year it presented its own version of Cinderella.  The score was by Glazunov and not Prokofiev and the choreography was by the company's artistic director Annette Potter with the important contribution of a pas de trois for Cinderella, her prince and his footman from one of my longstanding, favourite choreographers Christopher Marney.  One of the company's strengths is the quality of its sets, costumes, lighting and special effects.  Annette Potter designed the sets, Ann Starlings the costumes and Alana Holland the lighting.  This year we were treated to indoor pyrotechnics when the Fairy Godmother cast off her cloak to reveal a dazzling tutu, Cinderella set off for the ball and at the finale.  I do not know who takes credit for those fireworks but they were spectacular.

Another strength of the Chelmsford Ballet is that it finds a role for as many of its members as possible.  These include the children who performed as mice and the adults who danced as fairy godmother's assistants, seamstresses, ladies of the court, court dancers, the hours of the clock and guests at the wedding.  All of those performers danced well and all deserve congratulations but if I gave each and every one of them her due in this review it would resemble a telephone directory.

The lead roles were, of course, the prince danced by Nicola Marchionni and Cinderella danced by Isabelle Fellows.  They performed their roles with fluency and flair.  They impressed me particularly in their first duet with movements that required considerable virtuosity and more than a little daring. They communicated ecstasy to the audience.  Appreciating the difficulty I applauded them specifically for that sequence.  I have no idea whether they could have heard clapping from row "O" but they know about it now.

The other important female characters were the fairy godmother danced elegantly by Samatha Ellis and the step sisters Alycia Potter and Georgia Olley.  The sisters were my favourites and I can assure readers that there is nothing "ugly" about either of them in real life.   I was able to congratulate one of them on the way out of the theatre when I deposited a somewhat larger contribution to the company's charity than I would otherwise have made.   It is very difficult to clown in ballet and they showed their virtuosity in the dancing lesson by collapsing into splits.  I was reminded of Paddington Bear at Her Majesty's platinum jubilee when one of the sisters took the teapot and poured its contents down her throat from the spout.

The three other males were Neil Harget who was Cinders's long-suffering dad, Alexander Evans who was the tailor and pageboy and James Fletcher who also performed several roles including Marney's pas de trois with Marchioni and Fellows.  All were impressive but I have to give special praise to Evans.  He is still very young but I am sure he will go far.  He has stage presence in spades.  I was particularly amused by his chutzpah as he extracted the last wad of banknotes from a father on his way to Carey Street. 

Cinderella continues at the Civic for one more day and if you can make it to Chelmsford either for the matinee or the evening show you will be amply rewarded.

One of KNT's Best Shows Ever

Friends' Meeting House, Manchester

Photo RuthAS Licence CC BY 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

 

KNT Showcase of Dance Friends Meeting House, Manchester 19:30 21 May 2022

Yesterday's Showcase of Dance was KNT's first show since the pandemic and, in many ways, it was one of its best. Showtime is important to dance education because dance is part of theatre. Everything we learn in class is in preparation for performance.  It is therefore important that everyone is offered a chance to perform even though not everyone wants to accept it.

KNT is run by Karen Sant, one of the most enterprising but also one of the most pleasant young women I have ever had the good fortune to know.  Over the last 13 years, she and her teachers have offered adults and kids evening and weekend classes in ballet, contemporary, jazz and tap in central Manchester.  For most of those years, they gave those classes in the studios of Northern Ballet School on Oxford Road.  When access to the studios was prevented by the pandemic Karen transferred the classes online.  When it became possible to hold classes in the open air, Karen moved them to Castlefield.  When it became possible to teach indoors again Karen tried a number of venues including eventually the Quaker Meeting House. 

Karen's students followed her through those changes of venue. That says a lot for both Karen and her students. Students followed her because she is an excellent teacher and her classes are fun.  But dance is not easy and requires a lot of personal commitment.  Dance students are good at supporting each other and from such support, friendships form. That is particularly true of rehearsals, choreographic workshops and days of dance when we have a shared project and rely on each other for the project's success as well as our own.  I have made a lot of friends at KNT over the years.  One of the delights of the evening was seeing many of them in the show.  

Part of the reason for yesterday's success was the venue which the compère likened to a school assembly hall.  In fact, it was a place of worship which would have been used as such this morning and nearly every other Sunday. Quaker worship can take many forms which, incidentally, could include dance. While I did not detect religiosity yesterday I did see enthusiasm (derived from ἐνθουσιασμός or "inspired by God") and plenty of devotion.  But the main advantage of yesterday's venue was its intimacy.  The audience was very close to the dancers which I particularly appreciated as I would normally have been one of them.

Every class performed a short piece last night,  The teachers skilfully choreographed each piece to display their students' skills to their best advantage and I was most impressed with their capabilities. In the beginners' ballet for example one of the few men in the show supported a woman in a movement that gave the impression of a duet.  The tap class danced to music from Slumdog Millionaire.  The compere performed in that piece changing from a three-piece suit to his costume before the audience.  When he asked how he had done I found myself shouting "very well".   My friends and classmates from my pre-intermediate class filled me with pride.  However, my favourite piece of the evening was the advanced ballet class's interpretation of music that Karen has chosen for her wedding.

Yesterday coincided with Karen's birthday. At the reverence, she was presented with a cake, flowers, a massive card and presents to a more or less tuneful rendering of "Happy Birthday".  It was a wonderful evening that I would not have missed for the world.

Beatrix Potter comes to Life

Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit*

 

* Photo credits Rod Tinsley/Tony Cockrell Copyright 2022 Chelmsford Ballet Company, Reproduced with kind permission of the company

Chelmsford Ballet Company Beatrix Potter™ Tales in association with Frederick Warne & Co. Chelmsford Civic Theatre, 16 March 2022, 19:30

I have watched every annual show by the Chelmsford Ballet Company since 2013. I have enjoyed them all but none has delighted me more than Beatrix Potter™ Tales in association with Frederick Warne & Co. It was a show in which everyone shone from the tiniest hedgehog to guest artist Xholindi Muçi.  It was not just the cast that excelled.  I don't think I have seen so many scene changes. There was a different backcloth for each scene.  Those backcloths seemed to depict not the Cumbrian lakes and fells but the rolling hills, brooks and woods of rural Essex. Never have I seen more lavish costumes.  Each animal head painstakingly created.  There was entertainment even in the interval as the artists dashed through the bar and foyer in full costume. 

The ballet opened with Olivia Riley as Beatrix Potter at her desk.  She rose to her feet.  Gentle soutenus and développés represented her musings.  Characters from her Tales came to life one by one.  They included:

• Mrs Tittlemouse (Sophie Odell)
• Johnny Town Mouse (Orla Swann) 
• Mice led by Anastasia Marks and Tessa Raita, 
• Peter Rabbit (Alycia Potter)
• Mrs Tiggy-Winkle (Anna Gellett)
• Hedgehogs led by Isabella Stagg
• Alexander Pig (Grace Emerson)
• Pigling Bland (Xholindi Muçi)
• Pig Wig (Darci Willsher)
• Jemima Puddle-Duck (Samantha Ellis)
• Mr Tod (Anna Gellett)
• Jeremy Fisher (Kiera Cook)
• Hunca Munca (Isabelle Fellows)
• Tom Thumb (Abigail Wiltshire)
• Squirrel Nutkin (Rachel Young)
• Tabitha Twitchit (Echo Murrill)
• Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in Act 2 (Grace Emerson) and 
• Squirrel (Karisma Patel).

There were many artists - some very young - who danced in the ensemble.  Each and every one of them performed well. The only reason I have not listed them above or singled them out for special praise below is that this review would resemble a telephone directory had I mentioned everyone who impressed me.

Each of the scenes represented a different Tale. Some were solos and others were duets.  I particularly admired Muçi's dance with Willsher.  There was some difficult choreography in their duet including a fish dive. I enjoyed all the solos especially Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck who flew across the stage and Jeremy Fisher who read "Pond Life" while waiting for his catch.

This was the first time I had seen this ballet but I was told by Elizabeth Baker (the company's President) that it had been in the repertoire for some time.  She had danced in an earlier production.  She said that the ballet had been inspired by the film.  Frederick Warne & Co. had licensed Chelmsford's version.  The score had been composed by John Lanchberry and Nigel Westlake.  The magnificent costumes were designed by Ann Starling. The sets were created by Annette Potter who also choreographed and produced the show. 

The Tales of Beatrix Potter shows what can be achieved by non-professional dancers.  Chelmsford Ballet was formed 73 years ago and has survived lockdown, austerity, inflation and umpteen recessions.  It inspired us at Powerhouse Ballet to set up a similar company in the North of England.  lt would be wonderful if we could stage something like the Tales of Beatrix Potter one day. 

There will be performances tonight and tomorrow.   If you can reach the Chelmsford Civic Theatre you can expect a treat.

Acosta Danza "100% Cuban"

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Acosta Danza 100% Cuban  New Theatre, Hull, 25 Feb 2022, 19:30

Cuba may be a small Caribbean island with a population of 11.2 million but it has world-class national ballet and contemporary dance companies.  Joanna Goodman reviewed one of the Cuban National Ballet's performances of Swan Lake in its own theatre in 2014 (see "We are the dancers, we create the dreams: Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s El Lago de los Cisnes in Havana" 8 July 2014). I reviewed the national contemporary dance company when it visited the Lowry (see Danza Contemporanea de Cuba at the Lowry 19 Feb 2017).

Artists from Cuba have contributed not only to their own national companies but also to leading companies of other nations.  Probably the best known of those is Carlos Acosta. He is now the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  Previously he was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet.  A glimpse at his website shows that Acosta is more than a dancer and choreographer. He is an entrepreneur, novelist and indeed impresario.

In 2016 Acosta established Acosta Danza which he has described as "Some of the finest Cuban dancers I have ever had the pleasure of working with."  The company is touring the United Kingdom and my friend and I caught up with it at the Hull New Theatre on Friday.  We were treated to the following:

• Liberto 
• Hybrid 
• Paysage, Soudain, La Nuit
• Impronta, and
• De Punto a Cabo.

These were very different works that showed off the versatility of the company.

Liberto was a duet created by Raúl Reinoso to the music of Pepe Gavilondo.  The programme contains the following note:

"The story of a cimarron, invites us to reflect on the faces of slavery, from ancient times to the present day. The meeting of the fugitive with the woman, beyond the beginning of a love story, is a moment of reflection and retelling, the possible discovery of the path to the utopian kingdom of total freedom."

I think cimarron must be the Spanish word for "Maroon" who were fugitive slaves.  They formed colonies in the Caribbean and some found their way to Freetown in Sierra Leone where I first learnt their story.  The ballet featured a couple. I am not sure of the identity of the man because the company did not publish a cast list. I asked for one in a Q & A that followed the show but the company's interpreter did not seem to know what I was talking about or why I needed one.   I think Reinoso danced the male role and believe the woman was Zeleidy Crespo but I cannot be sure. I remember a giant net from which the man struggled to escape.  The designs were by Alisa Peláez. The lighting was by Yaron Abulafia.

Like a football match, Hybrid was a combination of two halves. Quite literally because there was a point when the cast lined up for a curtain call, accepted the applause and then slowly started dancing again.  The inspiration for the work appears to have been the legend of Sisyphus:

“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.

(The Myth of Sisyphus).  According to the programme, the piece was about a "universe where the real and the unreal blur their limits to reach our chimaeras." It continued:

"An approach to sensitive realities and imaginaries of a nation and its people, told from the strength of its culture and dance.
An island that unveils its mysteries on a path that goes from darkness to light"

The whole company or at least a large part of it seemed to be in the work. The music was by Jenny Peña and Randy Araujo, the choreography by Norge Cedeño and Thais Suárez, the designs by Celia Ledón and the lighting by Yaron Abulafia.

This was not to everyone's taste because the audience thinned out a little after the interval.

As the music was entitled Cuban landscape with rumba by Leo Brouwer and Cuban Landscape by Stefan Levin and the ballet was danced against a backdrop of growing crops, I understood Paysage, Soudain, La Nuit to be an appreciation of the Cuban countryside and those who worked in it.  This was another work in which the whole company participated.  The choreographer was Pontus Lidberg. Costumes were by Karen Young.  The lighting was by Patrik Bogårdh.

The most spectacular work was Impronta.  It was a solo by Crespo which she performed to the music of José V. Gavilondo. The show started with a mass of blue.  It was not clear whether that was a prop or a group of dancers.  It turned out to be a long flowing dress worn by the dancer. A tall, elegant and exceptionally supple woman, Crespo had bent her body almost to the floor so that her face appeared through the dress.  In the Q&A, Crespo explained that the dress represented the sea.  In answer to a  question from my friend, she said that the dance had been influenced largely by African rhythms.  The programme added:

"Catalan choreographer María Rovira created this solo in wich contemporary dance merges with Afro-Cuban folk dances."

Several audience members stood to applaud Crespo's performance at the end.  Others whooped with delight.  The reaction was well merited because it was impressive.

My favourite ballet was De Punto a Cabo.  I surmise that the title must refer to a seaside walk that is opposite Havana.  The backdrop was of a busy city separated by a stretch of water and a sea wall. Alexis Fernández's choreography to José White and Omar Sosa's music reminded me of the view of Manhattan in the last scene of Liam Scarlett's Age of Anxiety (see Bernstein Centenary  18 March 2018). The piece generated much the same energy and awe.   The website states in Spanish that the choreographer sought to transpose into dance his impressions of contemporary Cuba, a land of diversity and contrasts. He made that point by combining ballet with contemporary dance.  There were some spectacular fouettés from Penélope Morejón as well as contemporary expressions to African and Cuban rhythms.

In the Q&A we learnt that the morning company class alternates between ballet and contemporary. Each of the dancers was asked which style they preferred.  None expressed a preference except Morejón who seemed to glow as she talked about ballet.  There were the usual easily anticipated questions from the floor about the creative process, influences and how they liked the British weather. The best intervention came from a lady from Bridlington who had to dash for a train. She probably spoke for all of us in expressing gratitude for the pleasure the company had brought after a 2-year pandemic.

This was the first time I had attended the Hull New Theatre and my first impressions are good.  It is located on Kingston Square where there was plenty of free street parking.  There is a restaurant and bar which offered inter alia burgers and scampi and chips. It was not exactly gourmet food and slightly over-priced for what it was but it was very convenient.  The auditorium seemed well ventilated.  The seats were comfortable with enough legroom at least for me.

Acosta Danza is nearing the end of its UK tour.  They are at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury tonight and at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth at the end of the week. 

Powerhouse Ballet's Reawakening

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The last two years have been tough for everyone in the arts but they have been particularly hard for adult ballet students who long to perform in public.  For Powerhouse Ballet which was founded just under 4 years ago, the lockdown was almost fatal.  We had been riding high with our very successful workshop with Yorkshire choreographer Alex Hallas and were looking forward to learning the snowflakes scene from The Nutcracker when everything was put on hold.

I feared that it would be the end of Powerhouse Ballet and probably all the other amateur companies in the United Kingdom because we could no longer meet for class.  But help came quite unexpectedly from Amsterdam when Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet offered us an online class.  That class was very successful and showed that it was possible to train over Zoom.  I engaged all our regular teachers as well as Shannon Lilly, Beth Meadway and Krystal Lowe to give online classes.  When restrictions were relaxed in 2020 we held classes in studios in Birmingham and Leeds.   Though it was expensive and hard we never missed a monthly company class and, most importantly, we stayed together.

Now that the country is emerging from lockdown Powerhouse Ballet can rebuild.  My immediate aim is to stage a mixed bill which will include Terence Etheridge's Aria, Yvonne Charlton's Morning, Waltz of the Flowers and Snowflakes from The Nutcracker and part of the wilis' choreography from Act II of Giselle. Much of the preparation for this will be at a summer school in North Wales.  In the longer term, we plan to set up an associates class and I have engaged the assistance of someone with considerable experience in that area to advise me.

That leaves the tricky matters of funding and governance.  Over the last two years, it was easier for me to sponsor the company's activities and I will continue to do so but our plans will require more than I can afford.  In the medium term, we will need to reintroduce a subscription, seek grants and sponsorship.  Publications like this blog, the Stage Door and classes outside the North of England could generate revenue for Powerhouse Ballet.   Eventually, we shall seek charitable status for which we shall need trustees, a business manager and a full-time artistic director.

Returning to the present, if you want to meet us with a view to joining us, register for our company class at Dance Studio Leeds on 26 Feb 2022 from 15:30 until 17:00.   

Back to the Studio with KNT

Manchester Quay Street

Author Mikey Licence CC BY 2.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Throughout this pandemic, Karen Sant of KNT Danceworks has kept north country dancers moving and motivated. Frst by transferring her regular classes online. More recently by holding some of those classes in the open air in Castlefield near the Roman fort where Manchester began.  While nothing beats alfresco dancing on a warm summer evening our city is better known for precipitation than sunshine.   On a particularly inclement evening, Karen announced a new venue in the ABC Buildings on Quay Street.  I rolled up there for my regular pre-intermediate ballet class with Karen yesterday.

 As Quay Street was my old stamping ground when I practised in Manchester I had no difficulty in finding the building.  It is located near Cobden House which housed the Manchester District Registry and County Court offices for many years and is now occupied by a set of barristers into which my former chambers merged.  It is a few hundred yards from Spingingfields car park and there is usually some metered street parking nearby if you care to look for it.  It is very close to Deansgate which is the main shopping street of Manchester.  Also, a moderate walk from the nearest tram stop by the Town Hall or Victoria and Piccadilly mainline railway stations.    

One hazard for dancers coming by car is the roadworks in Quay Street and approaches.   The congestion caused by those excavations was horrendous.   The journey from the intersection of the Oldham Road and Swan Street to Spiningfields - which can't be much more than a mile - took almost as long as the 25 miles from Holmfirth to that intersection.  Next time I shall park on the outskirts of the city centre and finish my journey on foot.

The class took place at the top of what I believe to be the B Building of the ABC complex. It was not easy to find because there is no signage. The reception desk was unoccupied and the staff in the cinema bar hadn't a clue though they did their best to point me in the right direction.  Happily, I ran into two other wandering souls.  After eliminating between us just about every landing and staircase in the building we caught a peel of tinkly music that eventually led us to Karen.   Newcomers to the class should enter the building by the first set of doors if coming from Deansgate or the last if coming from Spiningfields, walk down a long corridor to the lifts, take a lift to the top floor and climb the stairs to what appears to have been the penthouse.

Although probably not intended to be a dance studio, that space is an improvement on Studio 2 of the Dancehouse in several respects.  For a start, it has windows along both main walls.  Two doors open onto a balcony with views of central Manchester. The doors also provide good ventilation.  On the other hand, the floor is unfinished, there is no sound system and we have to use the window structures as a barre.  However, the amenity of the space more than made up for its limitations.

Because I was badly delayed by traffic and could not immediately find the class I arrived in the middle of pliés.  Karen took us through all the usual barre exercises except grands battements which she combined with tendus and pirouette practice in the centre.  She also taught us a delightful adagio which we performed in two groups.  We had warm-up jumps and joyful temps leves at the end.

It was a delightful class.   It was good to see so many familiar faces and of course Karen.  Everyone I could see had grins from ear to ear.   At £6.50 this class was a bargain.   To sign up or future ones, register or log on to the KNT Class Manager site and follow the simple directions.  There are also other classes at different levels of several genres on most days of the week,

Dancing Outdoors in Castlefield

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Castlefield is where Manchester began. It is where we meet to celebrate and commiserate. I remember doing a little bit of both before a big screen one late summer evening in 1993 as we waited for the International Olympic Committee to weigh our bid to host the 2000 Olympics against those of Beijing and Sydney (see Manchester lost 2000 Olympics to Sydney 'because of arrogance and old buffers 18 June 2019 BBC).

Last night we celebrated moving, being outdoors and being together.  All around me were dear friends and acquaintances including our teacher Karen Sant whom I had not seen for15 months. Covid 19 has done a lot of mischief but it has also helped us appreciate things that we had previously taken for granted like friendship and simply being alive.

We wore trainers and plimsolls rather than ballet shoes.  We were in jeans, shorts or tracksuits instead of leotards,  We did warm-ups, pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe, fondus and grands battements withut a barre.   Then tendus in the centre, followed by an adagio, warm up jumps, temps levés and cooldown.   We had an audience that applauded our pliés until an acrobat somersaulting across the Canal Basin like an express train grabbed spectators attention.

There are outdoor classes at Castlefield in different genres of dance several evenings a week.  If you can't attend those classes you can still take part in KN T Danceworks' online ones or "on-demand" ones,  You need to register at:

https://app.classmanager.com/portal/knt-danceworks/login

and then select a class from "upcoming classes."   There is a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu1s3Eo-qIE which shows you what to do.   If you attend one of those outdoor classes you will experience ballet in a way that you have never done before.   I don't know whether it will be possible for Karen to continue these classes when we return to the Dancehouse but I hope she will offer a few every year just to commemorate this time.  They are definitely one of the positives of this pandemic.

Meet Amedeo Giunta of the Plovdiv Opera House Ballet

Amadeo Giunta

© 2020 Amadeo Giunta 

 

 

A few weeks ago I joined KNT's Saturday online intermediate class and met a new teacher, He asked us to bear with him because it was the first time that he had taught in English.  He had no need to seek our indulgence. He had a love of dance which he communicated to us eloquently.  It came as no surprise to learn at the end of the class that he was a professional dancer. He is a member of the ballet troupe of the Plovdiv Opera House.

A few weeks later, he taught us again on the Day of Dance.  This time for a full 90 minutes.  There are many good teachers who have never been members of a company but those who have bring something very special to their classes.  I am not sure what it is but they make us want to jump that little bit higher or make a bit more of an effort at something else.  I don't know whether we jumped a fraction of an inch higher or whether our pirouettes were tighter and straighter but we definitely felt lifted by our teacher's manner.  

Immediately after the class, I contacted Karen Sant, the Principal of KNT, for the teacher's contact details so that I could ask him for this interview.  Karen sent me a short bio from which I learnt that his name was Amedeo Giunta.  I transmitted the invitation through a mutual friend and, almost immediately afterwards, I received his acceptance.

Amedeo told me that he was born in Barrafranca, a small, inland cathedral city in the province of Enna in Sicily.  He has a younger brother and two older sisters. The older of his sisters, Rosamaria, has two daughters of whom he is particularly fond. He says that the days on which his nieces were born were among the happiest of his life. He is justifiably proud of his region which is distinguished for its history, architecture, cuisine and traditions.  

He comes from a family of dancers.  His mother attended dance classes until she learned that she was pregnant with Amedeo.  Rosamaria teaches ballet to children and young people. It was she who took Amedeo to his first dance class at the tender age of 3.  He was the only boy in a class of girls.  He remembers being the centre of their attention sitting on the floor in his sister's dancing shoes. He felt at home in the studio right from the start despite being the only boy.

He studied hard under his first teacher Cettina Averna.   He describes her as almost a second mother.   After a few months of classes, he was invited to perform in public for the first time.  His piece was a Michael Jackson solo.  From that moment he knew that he was destined for the stage.

As there are no theatres near his home, Amedeo did not see ballet live on stage until his student days in Rome.  However, he had DVDs of the great classical works including Giselle, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Le Corsaire.  I asked him about his first live ballet.  It turned out to have been a dress rehearsal of Roland Petit's Coppelia.  That must have made quite an impression on Amedeo because Petit's version is particularly dramatic as can be seen from this clip in which Sergei Polunin danced Franz.  I asked Amedeo whether he was inspired by any of the artists that appeared in his DVDs. He replied:

"Of course as dancers, we all have our idols (Nureyev, Baryshnikov, and the more recents like Roberto Bolle, Carlos Acosta, Federico Bonelli, Angel Corella, Ethan Stiefel) but what most inspires me is the desire to improve myself not to be like my idols, but to be the best version of myself everyday."

 He said that he took advantage of every opportunity he could get to attend workshops with the leading Italian and international masters.  

Amedeo's big break came in 2012 when he won the best soloist title in the Mentana Danza Life competition.  This is the video for the 2013 competition.  His prize included a scholarship to the MAS professional school in Milan.

Between 2013 and 2015 Amedeo trained at the Balletto di Roma School, As it is attached to the Rome Ballet and directed by the distinguished choreographer, Paola Jorio, it is very prestigious.  I asked Amedeo whether he had any favourite teachers at the Rome Ballet School. He mentioned Alexandre Stepkine who taught ballet, Mauro Murri, another of his ballet teachers and his contemporary teacher, Paolo Mangiola.  Stepkine helped him to understand how to develop the power needed for jumps and tours en l'air.  Murri showed him how to work on his body with intelligence and awareness. Mangiola opened his eyes to new possibilities of movement and to explore new ways to find expression through the human body.  

As end of term shows often provide the first opportunity for artistic directors, critics and audiences to spot up and coming dancers, I asked Amedeo about his performances at ballet school.   He mentioned, in particular, dancing  Brighella in Alexandre Stepkin’s Commedia Dell’arte.  He also had the chance to dance with the Rome Ballet. That was his first experience of working in a studio with different choreographers.  He danced in Futura, a piece by  Milena Zullo who also taught at his school.  He took part in the premiere of Tefer by Itamar Serussi Sahar a the Belgrade Dance Festival.  Other performances included Tourning by Alessandro Sciarroni and Reveals which was created by the dancers themselves.

Amedeo seems to have enjoyed his time in Rome.  I asked him what was the most important lesson that he had learned there.  He replied:

"The best advice that I received was to focus on my limits, accept them and make them my quality,"

His first job was with the Sienna Ballet (Balleto di Siena),  One of the works in the company's repertoire is entitled in English The Great Pas de Deux which includes extracts from Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty and many more.  Amedeo had the chance to dance in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire. Diana and Acteon, and Esmeralda. He also learned some of the technical skills of staging a ballet such as lighting design and scenography. 

I asked him where he had acquired his teaching skills.  He replied that he had always assisted his sister and his first teacher Cettina Averna.  He would give classes to their students and choreograph pieces for their shows.  His bio mentions the "Snoopy School" so I asked him about that.  He told me that Cettina's classes are known as "The Snoopy School" because the sports and leisure centre where she gives her classes is named after Snoopy in Peanuts.  He is passionate about dance education not just for the talented but also for the public as a whole.  He said:

"Our mission is to make dance, culture and art more accessible to the people of our city and to destroy the prejudice that the ‘unknown’ takes within society."

That is identical to the mission of this blog and indeed Powerhouse Ballet which grew out of the blog.  I shall make it my business to keep in touch with those artists in Sicily.  Who knows? Maybe we can find a way of working together. 

As I said in the first paragraph, Amedeo is now with the Plovdiv ballet.  Plovdiv, like Manchester, is the second city of its country and it also has a long history.  It used to be known as Φιλιππούπολη because it was founded by Philip of Macedon.  Also like Manchester, Plovdiv is a big manufacturing and commercial centre with lots of theatres, concert halls and other places of entertainment, museums, universities and plenty of arts festivals.  The opera house was founded in 1953 and the auditorium now hoists operas, musicals and concerts as well as ballets.

Amedeo is very glad to be in Plovdiv:

"I enjoy every single day, emotion, show, moment. It’s amazing how much this country believes in culture and theatres, and I’m really happy to dance in such a beautiful city like Plovdiv."

While he has been there he has danced the Rat King in The Nutcracker and Magdavaya in La Bayadere.  He has also danced Siegfried in a performance of Swan Lake for children.  I asked him about roles that he would like to dance in future.  He replied  Birbanto in Le Corsaire and Rothbart in Swan Lake.

I learned that Amedeo had created some ballets of his own so I asked about them.  He replied:

"The piece that I created for State Opera Plovdiv is a pas de deux called  The Opposite Pole that talks about the attraction, relation and complementation of everything. For example, day and night are completely opposite from each other, but they compliment each other because they are attached together. It is inspired a lot by the symbol of Yin-Yang (That I actually have tattooed on my arm because it is a very special symbol that always appears in my life). It is choreographed to a beautiful music by an Italian composer, Andrea Farri and danced by myself and my colleague from State Opera Plovdiv, Mara Salvaggio. Now I am starting to choreograph a new piece for the company, under invitation by the artistic director Mariana Krancheva, with only male dancers! Which is a big challenge for me, and I cannot wait to develop it in the studio and hopefully on stage."

I guessed that Wayne McGregor might have been one of his inspirations and so it turned out.  Other favourite choreographers include Alexander Ekman, Marco Goecke, Akram Khan and Ohad Naharin.

I asked Amedeo whether he had any unfulfilled ambitions and this is what he said:

"The only ambition that I have right now is to dance all over the world, and why not create new choreographies and inspire people with them."

I asked him whether that might include the UK  "Living in the UK?" he replied,  "Why not? Who knows, maybe my next adventure is there!"

As for the future, he said that he has always loved teaching:

"So yes, later in life I would like to teach as well as choreograph in professional schools and pass all of my love for this art form to the new younger generations."

"In that case," I replied, "your students will ask you for advice,  What are you going to tell them?"

He said:

"The only advice that I want to give young aspiring dancers is to accept themselves with their limitations and their qualities and work on them. Only by working in that way, can they improve every day and maybe become someone that they never imagined to be. At least that is what happened to me. I started my career certain that the only way for me to dance was in modern or contemporary because of my body limitations for ballet; and I see now that I’m living a dream that I never even imagined, to dance in an Opera House."

How many others who have grabbed a barre can say that? 

Bethany Kingsley-Garner - A Ballerina with a Brand

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 In Ballet as a Brand? How to bring More Money into Dance for Companies and Dancers 13 March 2020 I quoted Alina Cojocaru:

"Ballet careers are relatively short and require years of training that pose the risk of injury, yet the world’s top dancers earn far less money than their counterparts elsewhere in show business."

"What to do about it?" I asked.  I concluded that companies and theatres were already pretty stretched and that the public whether as theatregoer or taxpayer cannot afford much more. Since then we have had the pandemic that has closed theatres around the world for months.

"So is there anything else that can be done?" I asked.    "Well perhaps" I answered." As the Bailey's Nutcracker commercial showed some years ago, ballet can sell. Maybe advertising, merchandising and endorsement.  Many companies were already taking advantage of that revenue stream but what about dancers?  Compared to sports stars, rock musicians and even opera singers, dancers have been slow to tap into it.   When I wrote my article 6 years ago, the only two that came to mind were Carlos Acosta and Darcey Bussell.

They have been joined by several others and the latest happens to be one of my favourite artists, Bethany Kingsley-Garner.   I wrote in my review of her performance as Odile in David Dawson's Swan Lake:

"Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who has recently been elevated to principal, was perfect in both. She first came to my notice as Cinderella in Edinburgh (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella 20 Dec 2015) and she has already entered my canon of all time greatest ballerinas. The only other Scottish dancer in that rare company is Elaine McDonand (see Elaine McDonald in her own Words 11 March 2014)." (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016)

Kingsley-Garner has two spin-off activities: online ballet classes and coaching and, more recently, her own dancewear collection which she distributes through Manchester-based online retailer Move Dance.

The dancewear includes leotards, shrug, skirts, top and leg warmers.  Each of those garments has a name and a story.   For instance, one of the leotards is called "The Rachel Leotard".  This is the story:

"Every step of the way

​Here's to good women everywhere. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them."

​Creation - Emergence - Life Force - Love - Nurture - Protect - Support - Confidence

​Rachel is my mother, she gave me the greatest gift of life itself; nurtured, protected and loved unconditionally.

She helped me take my first steps, raised me to become confident, individual and independent and was there to watch me step on stage emerged as a principal ballerina leading the ballet company.

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person who makes leaning unnecessary. I am a strong woman because a strong woman raised me.

​Feel the support and protection when you're dancing in The Rachel Leotard.

Be Inspired Be Unstoppable Be You . . BKG"

That is a delightful sentiment and it says something that we might have guessed but would not otherwise have known why Kingsley-Garner is such a remarkable dancer.  

Launching a dancewear collection when dance studios in most parts of the UK are in lockdown might seem to some to be a bold thing to do. But it is also a promise of better things to come.  This venture deserves to succeed and it has every chance of doing so.

KNT's Day of Dance Tomorrow

The Dear Old Dancehouse

One of the highlights of my year is KNT's Day of Dance.  It offers a chance to train with some of the best teachers and performers in the business.  Last year, for example, I took classes with   Alex Hallas of Bale Cymru and  Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy.

Another Day of Dance will take place tomorrow and I regret to say that I only learned of it a few minutes ago when I tried to check in your some online classes for the coming week. According to KNT's Class Manager app, the following are available:

• 11:00 - 12:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Ballet 
• 11:00 - 12:30 Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary 
• 13:00 - 14:30 Intermediate/Advanced Ballet
• 13:00 - 14:30 Pre-Intermediate Contemporary 
• 19:00 - 20:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Ballet 
• 19:00 - 20:30 Beginner/Pre-Intermediate Contemporary
• 20:30 - 22:00 Intermediate/Advanced Ballet  
• 20:30 - 22:00 Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary 

All the classes for tomorrow's Day of Dance are priced at £10.

Sadly it won't be quite the same as last year because we are exiled from the Dear Old Dancehouse as a result of the public health emergency but we shall still have excellent teaching.  Above all, we can still wave at each other over Zoom even if we can no longer embrace.

Plagues don't last forever.  There is every chance that medicine will eradicate or at least contain this virus as it has done with so many other infections.   One day this horrible scourge will be nothing more than a horrible memory.  I wish everyone a great weekend.

Stage Door - A Sunday Afternoon Conversation with your Favourite Artists

"Stage Door" is a new service to keep ballet goers in touch with their favourite artists and artists in touch with their fans during these miserable times.

Every Sunday afternoon during lockdown (and possibly longer if theatres remain dark) I shall interview one of my favourite artists over Zoom.  After the interview members of the audience will be invited to put questions to the guest through the chat function.

I shall start with Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet.  I featured Gavin in Terpsichore shortly after he had joined the company (see Meet Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet 3 Sep 2014).  That interview is still one of my most popular articles.   Next week I have lined up Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet, the best Myrtha I have ever seen in 60 years of ballet going. For the week after that the world-famous accompanist David Plumpton whose DVDs power ballet classes everywhere.

As this is an experimental service and I am still on a learning curve I do not have the brass neck to charge anything just now.  But the arts and education need help during this time.  I am therefore inviting everyone who enjoys these talks to contribute to a charity or good cause of the guest's choice.  Gavin has nominated the Academy of Northern Ballet.  As I study ballet there I think that is a great choice.   I have not been able to find an online donations page for the Academy but you can call them on 0113 220 8000, by email academy@northernballet.com.

If you want to hear Gavin on Sunday you must register here. When I get a little more experience with webinars I may livestream these events over YouTube or Facebook but baby steps for now.  My thanks to Gavin for being our first guest,

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.

A Fille that owes Nothing to Ashton or Lanchbery

Krasnoyarsk State Opera House

Author MaxBioHazard 
Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Source Wikipedia Krasnojarsk

The Russian State Ballet of Siberia La Fille mal gardée 15 Feb 2019 Liverpool Empire

Krasnoyarsk is a city in Siberia with a population of just over a million on approximately the same latitude as Dundee. According to Google Maps, it is 4,559 miles away and takes over 14½ hours to reach by air or 5 days by surface transportation.

An opera house with a resident ballet company opened in that city in 1978.  The company's founder members included graduates of the Vaganova Ballet Academy and the Moscow State Academy of Choreography.  Krasnoyarsk has produced some fine dancers over the years despite its remoteness and modest population. They include Anna Ol of the Dutch National Ballet and Viktoria Tereshkina of the Mariinsky.  Many of those dancers trained or began their training in the city and some such as Ol danced with the Krasnoyarsk opera house company.

Every year artists from the Krasnoyarsk opera house ballet tour the United Kingdom as The Russian State Ballet of Siberia (see Anna Lidster Promoting Krasnoyarsk: How the Russian State Ballet of Siberia has won British hearts 3 March 2013 The Siberian Times). I am not sure why they chose that name. It may be that they think that the name of their city might be a bit of a mouthful for British tongues or it may be because they recruit a few extra dancers for the tour such as Francesco Bruni and Francisco Gimenez. However, it is clear from comparing the Russian State Ballet of Siberia's programme with the Krasnoyarsk opera house's website that the two companies are substantially the same.

The tourists have a punishing schedule.  They opened at St David's Hall in Cardiff with The Snow Maiden on 19 Dec 2018 and they will finish in Oxford on 16 March 2019 with Swan Lake. By the end of their tour, they will have performed 6 full-length ballets in 24 venues in every one of our constituent nations except Northern Ireland.  On Friday they reached Liverpool which is where I saw them for the first time.

I was attracted to Liverpool by the show rather than by the company.  They were to dance La Fille mal gardée with music by Hertel rather than Lanchbery and choreography by Gorsky rather than Ashton. La Fille mal gardée is in one sense the oldest ballet in the modern repertoire having first been performed at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux less than a fortnight before the storming of the Bastille but the version that we know was premiered in 1960.

To my great surprise and joy, Friday's performance was not at all inferior to the Ashton-Lanchbery-Lancaster version. I would go so far as to say that I left the Empire somewhat more elated than when I left the Lowry in October after seeing BRB's latest production which had somehow expanded into three acts. The story was very much the same. The only significant difference is that Colas gets into Simone's house disguised as a notaire rather than hidden under a bundle of wheat sheaves.

There were a few other differences.  Instead of churning butter half-heartedly, a distracted Lise collected a couple of eggs from the henhouse while her mother gathered a basketful.  Nobody dressed as poultry though there were computer generated animations of pigs and other animals crossing the backcloth which earned a few laughs from the audience. There was a sort of ribbon dance but it did not end up as a love knot and Simone performed a clog dance though not the one we know.  Alain was not swept into the sky by the storm clutching his umbrella.  Nor was he made to resemble a carthorse.

But there were elements that do not occur in the Ashton version such as a full-blown classical pas de deux complete with entrée, male and female solos and coda.  Lise dons a classical tutu which could not possibly have been in the Dauberval version. In the Russian version, Lise dances at least as many fouettés as Odile in Swan Lake or Kitri in Don Quixote.

As in Ashton's version, Simone was danced by a man.  In this case Pavel Kirchev, a Bulgarian guest artist who dances with the Varna ballet.  He reminded me quite a lot of Stanley Holden. Elena Svinko was a delightful Lise, coquettish and feisty.  She had teeth and she used them on poor Alain (Ilia Kaprov) biting his fingers and ear and stamping on his foot as he tried to express affection.  Marcello Pelizzoni, who trained in Moscow and dances with the Krasnoyarsk ballet, was Colas. He has impressive elevation, power and grace and I delighted in his virtuosity.

Considering the time they must have spent on the road and the need to pack and repack almost every day I was pleasantly surprised that the sets and costumes seemed so fresh and that the cast had so much energy.  I shall try to catch their Swan Lake when they come to Halifax or Sheffield.

Scottish Ballet dancers and their pointe shoes

Why would a Scottish Ballet dancer carry a Stanley knife and a hammer? Find out courtesy of Scotland's Sunday Post newspaper: https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/these-shoes-were-made-for-dancing-thats-just-what-we-do/

KNT Danceworks Day of Day - A Couple of Postscripts

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Two postscripts to Vampires, my write up on yesterdays' Day of Dance at the Dancehouse,

The first is that Karen has posted the video of our performance of Daethon and Arundel to YouTube which you can see above.   Remember we learned this piece in 90 minutes.  For many of us it was the first time we had heard David Hotchkiss's music or learned about his libretto.   Daethon was danced by Ruaridh Bisset and the lead vampire by Mark Hindle.

The other postscript is that Harriet Mills, who taught the advanced ballet class yesterday, keeps an excellent blog called A Ballet for Life which I strongly recommend. Harriet is a principal of the Karlsuhe State Ballet.  On 17 Nov 2018 her company will premiere a new production of Swan Lake by Christopher Wheeldon which I for one should like to see. 

If anyone would like to see it with me get in touch as soon as possible.   If there are enough of us we might be able to negotiate group discounts with the theatre, hotel and airlines.

A Day Not To Be Missed: KNT's "Day of Dance" in Manchester

When I told colleagues at work a few years ago that I had spent three days of my summer holidays in Manchester they did a double take.  Even more so when I told them that I had spent the time learning Swan Lake and it was one of the best three days ever. I did the same a year later to learn La Bayadère and again the year after that to learn Coppélia.  

That was great fun but this year we regulars at KNT are ready for something different.  Accordingly we are offered "A day of dance with industry professionals at the Dancehouse Theatre Manchester." In other words, wall-to-wall classes on Saturday 18 Aug 2018 from 10:00 in the morning to 17:00 in the afternoon.

Two of the industry professionals have already been announced.  They are Rachael Crocker and Harriet Mills.  Rachael will be teaching advanced jazz, beginner and pre-intermediate ballet and musical theatre and Harriet advanced ballet.  Both have very impressive credentials

Here is Rachael's bio:

"Rachael trained at Northern Ballet School and was a Royal Ballet senior Associate whilst training she qualified and took part in the prestigious Adeleine Genee Awards and also won the IDTA ballet scholarship.
Rachael recently finished performing at the London Coliseum in Kiss Me Kate (choreographed by Will Tuckett) as Dance Captain. Prior to that she was part of a small group recording the soundtrack to the new Mamma Mia movie ‘Here We Go Again”.
Other theatre credits include: ‘Dick Whittington’ at the London Palladium, ‘Strauss’ (National Tour); ‘Kiss Me Kate’ (Welsh National Opera); ‘Cats’ (RUG Australia) as Tantomile understudy Jemima, Demeter and Victoria Graziella in ‘West Side Story’ (National tour); first understudy Meg Giry in ‘The Phantom of the Opera – 25th Anniversary tour’ (National tour); ensemble and first understudy Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ (Mayflower theatre); ‘We Will Rock You’ (Antwerp Belgium); ensemble and understudied and played Wendy in ‘Peter Pan’ (Grand Canal theatre Dublin); first understudy Cinderella in‘Cinderella’ (Orchard theatre); ensemble and 1st understudy Iris in ‘Fame’ (National tour); ‘We Will Rock You’ (Dominion theatre); swing in the original London cast of ‘Movin’ Out’ (Victoria Apollo); alternate Ice Princess in ‘The Snowman’ (Peacock theatre); swing and first understudy Zsa Zsa in ‘Love Shack’ (National tour); Dance Captain and swing in ‘Grease’ (Victoria Palace, Japan and National tour); ‘Cinderella’ (New Victoria Woking), Rumpleteaser, Demeter, Jemima and Tantomile in ‘Cats’ (Stuttgart Germany); Meg Giry in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (Hamburg Germany) and the Spirit in ‘The Spirit of the Dance’ (US tour).
Film and TV credits include: ‘Devils in the Disguise’ for the Discovery Channel, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ directed by Joel Schumacher and ‘Finding Neverland’ directed by Marc Forster.
Radio Credits include: BBC radio production of Smith of Wooten Major.
Rachael has also appeared on the Al Murray Show, took part in the 2008 Olympic handover ceremony and guested for Rock of Ages for their performance at West End Live. She also regularly performs for Incandescence Contemporary Circus Theatre Company and Private Drama Events.
Teaching: Rachael graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance gaining a Distinction for The Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma and teaches at various schools and colleges across London. She taught scholarship classes for the IDTA and RAD along with various workshops in ballet and jazz."

Harriet is a principal with the Karlsruhe State Ballet.  I was lucky enough to attend one of her classes earlier this year (see One of the Best Ballet Experiences Ever  14 Feb 2018).   This is her bio:

"After attending her first vocational school from the age of 11, Harriet Emily Mills left the Hammond School, Chester, to start at the Royal Ballet Upper School in London. She graduated after 3 years with her first job with the Staatballett Karlsruhe and has worked as a professional ballet dancer there for 6 years. Harriet has danced roles such as Odette/Odile in Swanlake, Myrtha Queen of the Willis in Giselle and Katharina in Taming of the Shrew. She has been involved with many creations by choreographers such as Davide Bombanas (Der Prozess), Terence Kohlers (Misia Sert, Das Kleine Schwarze/ the Riot of Spring) and Reginaldo Oliveiras (Edith Frank in Anne Frank). After 6 years of working her way through the company Harriet is now a Principal Dancer."

Space is limited and bookings have to be made and classes paid for in advance.   The email address and phone number for further information appear on the poster above.  The Dancehouse is a short walk from Oxford Road station which is on the Leeds to Liverpool mainline.  There is an NCP multistory car park in Chester Street which is literally round the corner from the Dancehouse.  The car park offers a discount for daytime parking on Saturdays. There is usually plenty of free street parking on Saturday afternoons.  There is a bus stop outside the studios which is served by several routes. The nearest tram stop is at St Peter's Square which is a few minutes walk from the Dancehouse.