The Importance of Performance

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I spent last weekend driving to Truro and back to see Duchy Ballet (see Cornwall's Coup: Duchy Ballet's Sleeping Beauty 19 March 2017).  I shall spend this weekend driving to Chelmsford to see my company dance Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have emphasised the possessive adjective because I am proud to be a non-dancing associate member of the company and the only reason why I have never auditioned for dancing membership is that Chelmsford is just a tad too far for rehearsals.

It would have been cheaper and easier to have whizzed down to London and back by Hull Trains, Virgin or Grand Central to see Project Polunin at the Wells or even the Pite, Wheeldon and Dawson triple bill at the Royal Opera House and cheaper and easier still to have stayed in Leeds to see another performance of Northern Ballet's Casanova  (which I strongly recommend, by the way - see Casanova - "it has been a long time since I enjoyed a show by Northern Ballet as much as I enjoyed Casanova last night" 12 March 2017) but I would have missed something important.

Performances like the one I saw in Truro on Saturday and the one I expect to see in Chelmsford are important because they give a purpose to all those years of exercises at the barre and in the centre.  Ballet, like Shakespeare, is intended for the stage. Without performance, class is just a workout - about as arid as cramming Romeo and Juliet for an exam.  Performances are important not just for children and young adults but for students of any age.  I shall never forget the thrill of my first performance at Northern Ballet Academy's end of term show in 2014 (see The Time of my Life 28 June 2014).

However, students will take performances seriously only if audiences take them seriously.  Such audiences should include not just mums, dads and siblings but also regular ballet goers and even the occasional ballet blogger.  The attendance of a critical audience is particularly important when principals of leading companies perform in a student show as Elena Glurdjidze and Arionel Vargas of English National Ballet did in the Bristol Russian Ballet School's Romeo and Juliet (see Good Show - Bristol Russians' Cinderella in Stockport 19 Feb 2014) and Tom Thorne and Laura Bösenberg of the Cape Town City Ballet did on Saturday.

There is sometimes a reward for audiences who make it to civic theatres in remote parts of the country. Sometimes you see stars of the future as I did when I saw Xander Parish for the first time in York in 2007. Even as a student it was clear that he was going places.  I think I saw a spark of excellence in the lilac fairy on Saturday and also in Odette-Odile in Greenock last month (see Ballet West at the Beacon 13 Feb 2017). I don't want to embarrass or tempt fate for either of those two promising young women but I don't think I have seen the last of either of them.

Cornwall's Coup: Duchy Ballet's Sleeping Beauty

Tom Thorne and Laua Bösenberg in The Sleeping Beauty

Photo Zoe Green Photography
(c) 2017 Duchy Ballet: a;; rights reserved 

Duchy Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, Hall for Cornwall, Truro, 18 March 19:30

Cornish folk are as different from Yorkshire folk as it is possible to be. Whereas denizens of my adopted county make exaggerated claims of excellence for everything even when it is quite ordinary, Cornish folk tend to hide their lights under a bushel even when they have something to be proud of. There seemed to be genuine surprise that anyone would drive from Holmfirth to see their show. "You mean to say you have driven nearly 400 miles just to see us" I heard more than once last night. "Well, yes," I replied, "it is a long way but not nearly as far as Cape Town from where your guest artists have flown." And how else am I to see a company that attracts the likes of Roberta Marquez and Laura Bösenberg. Nobody would say that in Yorkshire about the Huddersfield Choral Society which is indeed good. If you want to see the Choral sing The Messiah in Huddersfield Town Hall well you have to come to Huddersfield - if you can get a ticket, mind - and that's that.

Duchy Ballet is beginning to get some recognition outside Cornwall. Vanessa Roebuck wrote two and a half columns about them in the education section of this month's Dancing Times  (page 122 if you want to look it up) but that is not comparable with the attention that other youth ballets get and Duchy Ballet is at least as good. 

Why do I say it is good?  I offer two reasons.  It takes children, young people and those not so young from an enormous county and coaxes the best out of them but it never asked the impossible. Yesterday's production involved some tricky choreography - especially for the young soloists who carried it off magnificently - but it skipped the rose adagio for the obvious reason that the company would have to train up four strong male dancers and rehearse them for some time with Bösenberg which would have been asking far too much of them. Instead, several new divertissements were introduced for different age groups of children who were brilliant.  Secondly, it involves a wide section of the local community. Truro is not a big city but the Hall for Cornwall which seats well over 900 was not far short of full and there had been several other performances that weekend. There were deafening cheers for the corps. You could see families' involvement from the lovingly sewn costumes and the cleverly constructed forest to the slickness of the front of house.

Turning to the show itself I was impressed by the guest artists.  Rachael Gillespie of Northern Ballet, who had trained with Tom Thorne at Central, wrote: "Tom is a lovely guy and beautiful dancer." I did not get a chance to meet him though I am sure she is right but I can confirm that he is a beautiful dancer.  He is tall and very strong and commands the stage effortlessly.  Bösenberg is attractive in a different way. A winning smile combined with virtuosity, she follows in the tradition of Mason and Nerina.

Of course, the company had it's own stars. Terence Etheridge, who choreographed the show, was a magnificent Carabosse in the tradition of Robert Helpmann. The lilac fairy (danced, I think by Alabama Seymour) was delightful. Matthew Phillips was a great bluebird and he was partnered well by Amy Robinson. Jasmine Allen was a charming white cat.  I need to credit the wardrobe, those who made the sets, the lighting designer - I could go on but it's late and I have a long journey tomorrow.   The company won a standing ovation for its performance and that is all I need to say.

My congratulations to all involved - especially to the artistic director, Kay Jones, and Terence Etheridge whom I met briefly. I will follow the company and its talented young dancers with considerable interest.  I will write more about them by and by as I get to know this company better.

Micheala DePrince Inspiration Scholarship for the Danceworks International Ballet Academy Summer School

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The Danceworks International Ballet Academy Summer School is an intensive summer school for dancers under the age of 18 that runs from 17 to 28 July 2017 ending in a performance in the Lilian Baylis Theatre at Sadler's Wells. According to the Academy's web page

"The day will start with a two hour technique class. A one hour lunch break. Afternoon classes will consist of boys/mens, pointe work or classes focusing on pirouettes, petit and grand allegro. A short 30 minute break . Lastly, a two hour performance class in preparation for the Danceworks performance on the final day for family and friends at the Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler's Wells.."

The normal fee for the programme is £750 though there is a 10% discount for students who have signed up for the termly class.

Not everyone's parents can afford that kind of money.  A scholarship has been established to enable one outstanding young dancer to attend the event. It is called the Micheala DePrince Inspiration Scholarship in honour of that fine soloist of the Dutch National Ballet. An audition will take place on 14 May 2017 to select the winner. Applications to take part in the audition should be made by email and addressed to  balletschool@danceworks.net.

I should like to wish all candidates every success in their studies and subsequent careers.

Ninette de Valois

Today is St Patrick's day. Ireland has given the world many great artists in every medium and genre over the centuries.  I can think of no better way of celebrating Ireland's national day than by remembering one of the finest of those artists, Dame Ninette de Valois.

Dame Ninette was born in Blessington on 6 June 1898. Although she is best known for establishing the Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School, she contributed much to the arts in Dublin. At the request of W B Yeats, she helped to establish the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet and choreographed several ballets for the Abbey theatre to scores by contemporary Irish composers. She was honoured for her services to the arts in Ireland by the Irish Catholic Stage Guild in 1949 and by an honorary doctorate from the University of Dublin in 1957.

Yet another country that honours Dame Ninette is Turkey for she founded the Turkish State Ballet and the Turkish State Ballet School and created the first full-length ballet for the national company.

I should like to wish all my readers whether Irish or not, and, in particular, Fiona Noonan who led me back to ballet, a very happy St Patrick's Day.

An American in Paris

Dominion Theatre

(c) 2917 David Murley: all rights reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the author

David Murley

Dominion Theatre, London

During previews, I had the fortunate opportunity to see this new spectacle (thanks to a brilliant and super talented colleague who is in the cast) currently about to grace our beloved West End. The show opens officially on the 21st March 2017. So, I will keep this short and sweet, and leave the serious review writing to press night. However, it is imperative for me, as a professional dancer, artist and creative to voice my personal opinion and let you know how truly magical and truly beautiful this show is. Being artistic is certainly not a prerequisite to appreciating the show either.

The theme for the show is movement, flow and elegance. The show does not stop. It is continually moving, never creasing. This constant passage of action was present in the dialogue, the dancing, scene changes and overall motion of the story – sure to keep the spectator engaged. The opening scene commences with Adam Hochberg (David Seadon-Young) at the piano delivering a dialogue about the soon-to-be-unfolding story in his convincing American accent. Suddenly, the scene changes complete with dancers, striking of said piano, projection and a dramatic sweeping display of le drapeau français, or le tricolore, which is then seamlessly whisked away into the fly tower. It is this opening sequence which sets the pacey, yet clear, tone for the evening.

Complimenting Wheeldon’s timeless choreography, a mention must go to the scenic, lighting and projection designers – Bob Crowley, Natasha Katz and 59 Productions LTD – if I left anyone out, apologies! The bar, the cabinets in Les Galleries Lafayette, the scene by La Seine, Stairway to Paradise, etc. I could keep going were captivating. The use of projection was poignant and was effortlessly intertwined into the fabric of la mise en scène. Thank you.

The chemistry between the characters is totally believable. I am not just referring to the classic pairing of former Royal Ballet Leanne Cope and former New York City Ballet Robert Fairchild (Lise Dassin and Jerry Mulligan). The relationships between Mulligan (Fairchild) and Milo Davenport (Zoë Rainey) had depth and exhibited a definite journey – far from one dimensional, a trap Rainey’s character could have easily fallen into. Aside from her interactions with Mulligan (Fairchild), Rainey put a whole spectrum of light and shade into her character as Davenport. Personally, I was rooting for her by the end. Rainey as Davenport was my personal favourite. To add, the relationships between Jerry Mulligan (Robert Fairchild), Adam Hochberg (David Seadon-Young) and Henri Baurel (Haydn Oakley) are a definite compliment to the casting team. However, it is their energies as individuals that breath the real-life rapport between these freshly post-war comrades. They laugh, they sing (obviously), they dance (with Wheeldon as choreographer, you better believe it), they bicker and bare cold hard truths to one another with authentic sensitivities and layers. A real sense of friendship exudes from the trio.

With such a talented cast, it is difficult to pick one individual who stood out as so many gave strong and solid performances. However, I would like to select Jerry Mulligan (Robert Fairchild). Filling such an iconic role played by Hollywood legend, Gene Kelly, Fairchild will no doubt be compared to Gene Kelly. However, I concur. Do let me finish, please. Fairchild is a tour de force when he dances, and he can sing, act and has comic timing. Indeed, this is all crying out Gene Kelly. However, Fairchild is his own entity in is his own right. Fairchild moves in his own way, and seeing Fairchild live compared to the celluloid I would stare at in awe when watching Gene Kelly – yes, make the complimentary comparison, but Fairchild makes Mulligan his own. This is something you will need to deduce for yourself. Not sure if this is because Fairchild is American, but he certainly embodies his own bit of Hollywood as the charming, eloquently roguish and that side of the Atlantic dashing when he is on that stage as Jerry Mulligan. To add, Fairchild can rock a large floppy pink hat with American G.I. cool.

What was refreshing to see, was the dancing – everything from the juicy and oozy scene changes, Stairway to Paradise and the Act II ballet. As enthralling and hands-in-the-air as conventional musical theatre (MT) T and A can be (if you have seen Chorus Line, then you will know what I am referring to here, if not, then ask someone), the style, class and elegance of Wheeldon’s choreography was the glue sealing the American and French styles of this tale.

Slick, technical and watchable, the dancers are the brick work of this production – probably some of the most beautiful brickwork I have seen in a MT production in a long time too.

Gorgeous.

An American in Paris opens officially on the 21st March 2017 at the Dominion Theatre in London. The closest tube is Tottenham Court Road. The show is true delight, the champagne of Theatreland. Book your tickets soon, and sit back and enjoy the spectacle, design and wonderment, and maybe have some champagne too!

Tom Thorne in Truro

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In Thinking Big out West 11 Jan 2017 I introduced readers to Laura Bosenberg who is Senior Principal Dancer at the Cape Town City Ballet (see Meet the Company on the company's website). My article embedded a clip of a remarkable duet between Rosenberg and Tom Thorne.  If you scroll down the Meet the Company page you will see that Thorne is also a Senior Principal with the Cape Town City Ballet.

I mentioned Rosenberg because she will dance Princess Aurora this weekend in Duchy Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro.  What I did not appreciate until earlier this morning is that Duchy Ballet will host Thorne as well as Rosenberg. I learned that news from a picture of the two of them on Duchy Ballet's Facebook page which links to a feature in Cornwall Life.

There is not a lot of information about Thorne on the Cape Town City Ballet's website though it mentions that he trained at Central School of Ballet so I did a lot of furious Googling. I found this rather amusing clip of his pushing a journalist through floor exercises in Ballet Basics with Thomas Thorne and this preview of the Cape Town City Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty with took place in Cape Town last September (see Artsvark Presser Cape Town City Ballet presents The Sleeping Beauty.

The Cape Town City Ballet proudly displays a roundel on its home page bearing the words "The South African National Ballet". That country has given the world John Cranko, Dame Monica Mason, Nadia Nerina and Phyllis Spira to name a few and it is still sending us promising young dancers such as Mthuthuzeli November and Mlindi Khulashe. I do not believe that Thorne and Bosenberg are dancing anywhere else in the UK on this trip. To my mind the most interesting place in the UK for ballet goers this weekend will not be Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Newport or even London but Glasgow.

Chantry Dance goes North

Sale, Greater Manchester

Photo Alan Halfpenny
Creative Commons Licence
Source Wikipedia

When I first mentioned Chantry Dance Company's new full-length ballet in The Sandman Cometh - Chantry Dance's New Full Length Ballet 20 Nov 2016 I wrote:

"They have not yet published their venues but I hope that they will make at least one stop in the North next year. We were sorry not to see them in our region this year. They were missed."

When Chantry Dance did announce their list of venues they were all in the Midlands and South East (see The Sandman Tour 27 Jan 2017.

Yesterday the company announced that it would add the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale and the Victoria Theatre in Halifax to its list (see the "What's On" page on the company's website). The Waterside is a particularly good venue as it is close to the Metrolink station and a multi-storey car park in one of the more pleasant suburbs of Greater Manchester. I attended two performances of Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet last May and found it an excellent venue for dance (see As Fresh as Ever: Ballet Black's Dogs Don't Do Ballet in Sale 7 May 2016 and I never tire of Dogs Don't Do Ballet 8 May 2016). Halifax is a town in which Chantry Dance has performed in the past though at a different venue. It is, incidentally, also the first place where Northern Ballet set up when it left Manchester.

Chantry Dance is more than just a dance company.  It also runs a number of educational and outreach programmes as well as the Chantry School of Contemporary and Balletic Arts in Grantham. It was through one of those programmes that I first made the acquaintance of Paul Chantry, Rae Piper and Gail Gordon who are the prime movers of the company as well as Mel Wong who subsequently contributed several interesting articles to this publication (see Chantry Dance Company's Sandman and Dream Dance 10 May 2014). Because of that work I tweeted:

@ChantryDance @WatersideArts it would be nice if you could look into doing a workshop or giving a class to local students while you are here

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) March 13, 2017

They replied:

@jelterps @WatersideArts we're hopefully running the YCC there for dance students & already looking into other participation possibilities x

— ChantryDanceCompany (@ChantryDance) March 13, 2017

"YCC" stands for Young Choreographers Celebration which is described in detail on the company's website. A few years ago I looked into the possibility of bringing Chantry Dance to Manchester or Leeds for a day workshop and actually went so far as to find a venue but the costs and risks were daunting. However, if the company does offer some sort of workshop, class or other event in Manchester or Yorkshire I will publish details of it.

This company that can fill a venue in London as well as small towns in the East Midlands. It has a choreographer who trained at Christopher Gable's Central School of Ballet where two of my very favourite young British choreographers, Christopher Marney and Kenneth Tindall, and many of my favourite dancers such as Hannah Bateman, Rachael Gillespie, Dominic North and Sarah Kundi also studied. It has coached one of the finalists in the Youth America Grand Prix (a competition that boosted the career of Michaela DePrince). It is certainly worth seeing.