Congratulations to Delia Matthews

Delia Matthews

Photo Andrew Ross
© 2016 Birmingham Royal Ballet: all rights reserved
Reproduced wth kind permission of the company: 

Ever since I saw have bravely and professionally she exited the stage of the Grand Opera House in York when she must have been in considerable pain or discomfort, I have been a fan of Delia Matthews (see Birmingham Royal Ballet in York 23 May 2015). I am therefore delighted that she and Tzu-Chao Chou, another favourite dancer, have become principals of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  I congratulate both of them and wish them all the best for the future.

Heartiest congratulations also to Arancha Baselga and Yasuo Atsuji who become first soloists, Miki Mizutani who is now a soloist and Laura Day and Alys Shee who are now first artists. Best wishes to them too.

Welcome to  Elisabetta Formento and Lynsey Sutherland who join the company from the Estonian and Polish National Ballets and also to Haoliang Feng, Augustus Payne, Harry Wright, Brogan McKelvey,
Hamish Scott, Claudia Nicholson and Jade Wallace who have recently graduated from their respective ballet schools. I congratulate each and every one of them on landing jobs with a great ballet company. I shall follow their careers with considerable interest.


Joseph Caley and William Bracewell will leave the company - Caley to join English National Ballet as a principal and Bracewell the Royal Ballet as a soloist. I congratulate them on their new appointments and wish them well with their new companies.  Sadly, we sat goodbye to Jamie Bond who retires from ballet to take up a new career in sport in which I wish him every success,  Lewis Turner and Alexander Bird who will join the Berlin State Ballet and Emily Smith and Johanne Monfret. Many thanks to each of them for the pleasure that they have given us and good luck for the future

New Moves - The Photos No. 2

Dutch National Ballet, New Moves 26 June 2017 Amsterdam

Photo Michael Schnater |(c) 2017 Dutch National Ballet All Rights ReservedReproduced with kind permission of the company 

Another great photo by Michael Schnater from last Monday's New Moves by the Dutch National Ballet.  More to come in the course of the week

Manchester International Festival

Available Light                                                       Standard YouTube Licence


Manchester International Festival, our city's biennial arts festival, is in full swing. Between the 29 June and 16 July 2017, there will be a massive choice of events in the following fields:

• COMEDY
• DANCE
• DIGITAL
• FAMILY
• FILM
• FOOD
• FREE
• IMMERSIVE
• MUSIC
• RADIO
• TALKS/DEBATES
• THEATRE
• VISUAL ARTS

Albert Square has been transformed into a village of tents, pavilions and other temporary buildings and has been renamed "Festival Square" where almost every type of street food was on offer.  Gita and I checked out Festival Square last night and I can recommend Heathcote & Co. and Life Bakery (see  Five foodie questions: Heathcote & Co and Staff of Life Bakery on the Festival website).

One of several dance events is Available Light which takes place at The Palace between 6 and 8 July. This is a collaboration between the choreographer Lucinda Childs, the composer John Adams and architect, Frank Gehry. The work is described as "a perfect fusion of music, movement and art," and as "a landmark in American dance." According to the website:

"Available Light beautifully unites the distinct visions of its three creators. Gehry’s designs playfully subvert convention, setting a backdrop of chain-link fencing against a stage split over two levels. Adams’ hypnotic soundtrack pulses out in waves, subtly blending acoustic brass with synthesisers and electronics as it anchors the movements of a dozen dancers. And Childs’ intricate, mesmerising choreography, playing with notions of space and time, is a brilliant distillation of the minimalist aesthetic that has long kept her work at the cutting edge."

I found the clip of the work on  YouTube which appears above.

Wikipedia describes Childs as a post-modern dancer and choreographer whose compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions.  It adds:

"Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest movements into an intricate choreographic masterpiece. Her use of patterns, repetition, and dialect has caused her to have a unique style of choreography that is often imitated for its ability to experiment."

Adams's work includes Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer which has been the subject of considerable controversy because of its subject matter.

Duchy Ballet's Auditions for the Anniversary Nutcracker

Later today Duchy Ballet, Cornwall's classical ballet company, will hold auditions for its annual show at Poltair School in St Austell. The timetable and other particulars of the auditions appear on the Info page of the company's website. I hope everyone who takes part has a good day.

The company will dance The Nutcracker in March which it first performed in 1998.  According to the Performances page

"Duchy Ballet was formed to celebrate the opening of a long awaited theatre in Cornwall in November 1997. Our first production just three months later, with a live orchestra, and professional soloists was 'The Nutcracker'."

As it will be the 20th anniversary of that first performance, next year's show is likely to be special. I shall make every effort to attend and review it.

I wrote about the company in Ballet in Cornwall 17 Sept 2017 when I was on holiday near Looe last year. In that article, I discussed Cornwall's cultural identity based on a strong literary and musical tradition upon which the company has drawn from time to time for the subject matter of its ballets. At that time I had not actually seen the company but I took an interest in it because I have connections with Cornwall having spent two significant periods of my life there as well as many holidays.

I saw Duchy Ballet for the first time last March when it performrd The Sleeping Beauty.  I was very impressed as you can see from my review, Cornwall's Coup: Duchy Ballet's Sleeping Beauty 19 March 2017.  The lead roles were danced by Tom Thorne and Laura Bosenberg of the Cape Town City Ballet but, as I noted in my review

"....... the company had its 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."

I later learned that Seymour had been offered a place at Rambert's school which delighted but did not surprise me at all (see A Spark of Excellence 23 March 2017).

Even though Truro is not a big city and Cornwall does not have a large population, the performance that I saw was well attended and there had already been others earlier in the day and the day before.  I mention that because the info page mentions sponsorship and advertising opportunities which must be worth considering for businesses based in, or doing a lot of business, in Cornwall.

Finally, the company relies on volunteers for technical, wardrobe, chaperoning, front of house and other jobs. I can say from experience that preparing for a performance is always great fun.  If you live in Cornwall this is your opportunity to experience the excitement of the theatre.

KNT Summer Intensives

In her article "We’re a Bunch of Adult Ballet ‘Super’ Commuters!" 1 July 2017, Wendy McDermott wrote:

"It was about this time last year that I started to look for ballet Summer intensives for adults, as I had seen so many advertisements for young people to attend the same, for a week or more. Disheartened by what I thought was very little opportunity for adults to dance beyond their class of 60-90 mins per week, I tweeted a comment expressing my (I guess) frustration at becoming invisible as an adult dancer. This turned out to be one of the best things I did, as, through various new followers and chatting with other dancers (and more thorough research on the internet), discovered many more opportunities to dance than I could have imagined."

The intensive to which I think Wendy refers was La Bayadère taught by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy. We both attended it last year and enjoyed it tremendously.  Here is my write-up La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016.

Not only did I enjoy the intensive but I also appreciated the Dutch National Ballet's performance of the ballet in which Sasha Mukhamedov danced Nikiya and Jozef Varga Solor so much more. In my review of that performance, I wrote:

"Having recently attended a three-day workshop in Manchester to learn bits of the choreography from Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy I had a personal interest in this ballet (see La Bayadere Intensive Day 3: No Snakes 17 Aug 2016). As the experts performed the steps that Jane had taught us my fingers traced the steps. It was like the icing on the cake, the fulfilment of last August's intensive. I felt even more chuffed with myself for attending the intensive than I did in August,"  (see Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere 14 Nov 2016).

Now KNT, which offers classes in the studios of the Northern Ballet School in  Manchester, proposes another series of intensives in jazz, musical theatre and contemporary as well as ballet in August. The ballet intensives will be taught by Jane Tucker again.  As I have noted more than once, she is an excellent teacher.  She has already taught me Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker as well as La Bayadère.  

These intensives tend to fill up quickly so if you want to join Wendy and me at the barre, get in touch with Karen Sant through her Facebook page.

We’re a Bunch of Adult Ballet ‘Super’ Commuters!

Wendy McDermott

If you live in a small town, chances are there are few opportunities to take part in adult ballet classes, let alone dance of any style. It would be my guess that most local dance schools focus their time and attention on dance for school age children and very little beyond that. Needless to say, those of us that have the freedom and facility to do so, travel many miles each week in search of classes to suit our age, level, ability and so on. Granted, an adult class may range in age from 18 to 70 years or more, however, it’s the love of the form that keeps us coming back for more. For some, it’s not just the chance to share a studio with their peers, but it’s a place where friendships are formed, nurtured and held dear. A recent straw poll amongst fellow adult ballet dancers revealed that some of us make a round trip journey of between 18-65 miles for our regular class, travelling up to an hour at a time per single journey.

The lengths we’ll go to for our art doesn’t rest there. Some of us have travelled from the North/Yorkshire to Manchester, Birmingham and London to take part in drop-in classes, one-day workshops to three-day intensives and rehearsals for shows. I think you’ll agree that’s quite a commitment and shows just as much dedication as our younger counterparts (not least by the number of leotards, ballet skirts, leg warmers and other dancewear we ‘need’ to buy – dear friend you know who you are and I’m doing my best to catch up).

It was about this time last year that I started to look for ballet Summer intensives for adults, as I had seen so many advertisements for young people to attend the same, for a week or more. Disheartened by what I thought was very little opportunity for adults to dance beyond their class of 60-90 mins per week, I tweeted a comment expressing my (I guess) frustration at becoming invisible as an adult dancer. This turned out to be one of the best things I did, as, through various new followers and chatting with other dancers (and more thorough research on the internet), discovered many more opportunities to dance than I could have imagined.

If you’re one of those people seeking new adventures in your personal ballet journey then I guarantee that those who’ve taken the plunge will say they wouldn’t miss it if at all possible. I’ve read blogs and had conversations at class where dancers feel that they’re not improving, but I believe (and I’m sure there’ll be some research somewhere to back up the belief) that the more you spread your wings; experience new environments, new teachers, you’ll soon start to notice some improvement in your dance. It might only be small – maybe better coordination of port de bras with the steps, or pick up a dance combination just that little bit quicker. But then return to your regular class and you’ll notice your improvement straight away.

Happy dancing folks!

New Moves - The Photos No. 1

New Moves 26 June 2017,

Photo Michael Schnater
(c) 2017 Dutch National Ballet All Rights Reserved
Reproduced with kind permission of the company 

I reviewed last Monday's New Moves gala on 27 June 2017. I have now received some lovely photos by Michael Schnater of the performance from Richard Heideman, the company's press manager which I shall publish over the next few days. Here is the first which I believe to be a shot from Clotilde Tran-Phat's In Limbo. More tomorrow.