Terpsichore

Last Sunday I visited Mel Wong (a member of this forum and contributor to this thread though I can't for the life of me remember her BalletcoForum name) in Budapest and attended class with her teacher, Imre Andrasi, who is a distinguished dancer and choreographer. The works that he has created is as long as your arm. Class took place in a studio at an incubator of interesting dance companies some of which have websites which Mel has drawn to my attention. The class was very much like one in Leeds or Manchester except that we did a lot more work on demi-pointe which Mel explained was a feature of Hungarian training that had been influenced heavily by the teachings of Agrippina Vaganova. It is intended to build up strength for pointe work and jumping. I was in Hungary to attend the première of Sir Peter Wright's production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Hungarian National Ballet with members of the London Ballet Circle and I was lucky enough to be invited back stage to the first night party. If anyone is interested in the class, dance in Hungary or the cast party I have written a short note about it in my blog. I will review the performance at great length in a future post.

I have seen it twice - once in West Yorkshire Playhouse a few days after its première and again in Manchester a few weeks later. I was somewhat underwhelmed when I saw it in Leeds even though I had the chance to quiz the choreographer about his production. I first saw it immediately after the Dutch National Ballet's gala which had been excellent and I put my disappointment down to the old adage that the best is the enemy of the good. I wasn't any more enthusiastic when I saw it the second time. The Palace was nowhere near full and although several members of the audience clapped enthusiastically I would say that the applause was polite rather than rapturous. I am not saying that the ballet is bad, There are in fact bits that I like a lot. But on the whole I think there are better works in the company's repertoire. Except for The Nutcracker just before Christmas the last show from Northern that I really enjoyed as the opening night of Madame Butterfly and Hampson's Perpetuum Mobile in Doncaster which was excellent. Especially the Hampson where the company was at its very best. It was one of the best performances that I saw all year, As I say, I didn't go a bundle on 1984. Wuthering Heights in Bradford was OK but I have seen better. Nixon's Swan Lake was not my cup of tea at all. I am looking forward to Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre and also to Maillot's R & J again. I really miss the triple bill at the Stanley and Audrey Theatre which is one of the the best things the company does each year. They don't seem to be doing it this year, possibly because the Linbury is dark. Of course, all this is a matter of taste and one man's meat is another man's poison. I am very glad that Janet and others like 1984 and I wish I could share her enthusiasm for the work.

I am so glad that Christopher Moore has taken that suggestion on board. I admire the company and its talented young dancers and would encourage others to see but it is very hard to review a ballet without knowing for certain who danced what. Having attended several shows I can recognize one or two of them by sight but even they can look so different under powerful lights and make up. I was always so grateful to you for your unofficial cast lists. Many of my posts would never have been written without you.

Over 20 of us had a great day yesterday at KNT's Romeo and Juliet intensive for beginners at the Manchester Dancehouse in Oxford Road today. Both members of Team Terpsichore were there and there would have been a bigger contingent from Yorkshire had I mentioned it to my companions in Jane Tucker's Wednesday evening improvers' class sooner. A more advanced workshop on Romeo and Juliet is taking place today, Like the Swan Lake intensive which I mentioned in this thread last Autumn the courses have been given by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy. We started the day with floor exercises on pilates mats followed by a 90 minute class on the lines of Jane's Wednesday evening class in Leeds. One of the exercises was the Descent into the Kingdom of the Shades which is one of my favourites and which I would love to master. Then we learned a modified version of the Capulets and Montagues and Juliet's version. At 16:00 we gave a show to one of our friends from the advanced class and one of our teachers who were extremely generous in their appreciation. At the end of the day Jane gave us a cool down plus some tips on hot baths and cold showers and sent us on our way. Altogether, a very good day. For those who are interested I have written a full account in my blog.

Sad about losing the match but wasn't Braithwaite's innings glorious to watch. Particularly the last over. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35956567

A couple of interesting topics on this thread have caught my eye. The Bolshoi may not do Marguerite and Armand but they danced The Lady of the Camelias which was of course also inspired by Dumas. I enjoyed the HDTV transmission of that ballet very much. The other topic was the suggestion that Birmingham Royal Ballet's might move to Bristol. I have not heard about it anywhere else so I am sceptical but part of me thinks it would be great if it were true. Bristol once had its own ballet company but it moved to Glasgow in 1969. Good for me because I was at St Andrews at the time and I had the opportunity to get to know the company through John Steer who had known the company in Bristol immediately before he came to us. The reason I sympathize with Bristol is that I am a Mancunian and we also lost our ballet company first to Halifax and then to Leeds. However, we do have a close link with English National who danced their first show in our city and will be premièring Akram Khan's Giselle there later this year. Likewise Bristol can draw consolation from its proximity to Newport where there is a super company of which I am very fond.

I was also in Covent Garden last night and could not agree with you more.

After last night's Giselle at Covent Garden which was one of the most extraordinary nights I have spent in my half century of ballet going, I should like to add Lauren Cuthbertson to my list.

The greatest ballerina I ever saw was Margot Fonteyn but the one I have loved the most is Antoinette Sibley. I also admire Elaine McDonald, Lynn Seymour, Carla Fracci and Marcia Haydee. As to modern ballerinas I admire Anna Tsygankova, Laura Morera and Natalia Osipova but the one I love most is Elena Glurdjidze. Ernst Meisner has some real stars in the making. Michaela DePrince leapfrogged from eleve (apprentice) to coryphee in a single season but another young woman with real potential is Emiie Tassinari

Bodes well for the new season :-) http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35904984

The Sleeping Beauty is a bit long though I don't mind that in the least because the music is so beautiful. However, I agree it could benefit from some judicious pruning. I saw a rather good production last week by Chelmsford Ballet which was cut down to three acts very skilfully to manageable proportions without losing important bits such as the rose adagio and the bluebird pas de deux. Considering that most of the dancers had full time education or full time careers outside dance it was all the more remarkable. I've reviewed it in my blog if anyone is interested. As it happens I will have a chance to see Peter Wright's production for the Hungarian Ballet on 17 April 2016. He has invited the London Ballet Circle to the show.

Gita and I attended the show at the ExCel on Sunday. The first shock was the parking. £15 per day! "By heck!" said I. "They're having a laugh" said Gita. There was no way two Yorkshire women would fork out that kind of brass on parking so we cruised around the neighbourhood until we found a quiet residential street with no yellow lines or resident parking restrictions on the other side of the dock connected to the ExCel Centre by a footbridge. We arrived just a few minutes after Catalyst Dance's Entrance of the Swans had started which is the one class that I would really like to have done. Perhaps I should have paid the £15 after all. The second shock was the cost of admission. We could have saved ourselves £4 by booking in advance but our decision to see the show was made at the last minute. We were in Chelmsford for The Sleeping Beauty on Saturday night so we moseyed on down the M11 to the ExCel Centre before heading back North. We paid £19 each just to get in. Once inside we saw Darcey Bussell on the main stage as well as Boadicea which I quite enjoyed. I also managed to make contact with all the exhibitors I wanted to see and picked up complimentary copies of The Stage and Dancing Times to offset the admission fee. Gita attended a talk which she enjoyed very much. "Could be the best £4 I've ever spent" she said afterwards. There are worse ways of spending a Sunday afternoon but there also far less expensive ways,

hftbrew, Gita and I met Christopher Moore on his company's stand at Move It 2016 last Sunday. I asked him whether he would hand out some cast lists on this tour and he promised that he would. We also told him how much we admired his dancers, David in particular,

That's not a bad list and I'd go along with it except perhaps for substituting Odile in the black act for Kitri in Don Q in the pure technique department. Having recenty seen "Month in the Country" I know what you mean but I'd also fancy Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin and perhaps Marguerite in Neumeier's La Dame aux Cameias or indeed the title role in Brandsen's Mata Hari in the melodrama stakes. PS. I'm not sure whether it counts as ballet but I have always loved Martha Graham' Appalachian Spring.

So many. Dowell's production of Swan Lake comes pretty high.

A dead heat between Nixon's Swan Lake and Beauty and the Beast and Macmillan's Anastasia.

I am so glad you enjoyed it Janet, I was also in the audience on Saturday evening and I agree the dancers were good. I have now seen this ballet twice. The first was its première in 2004 and the second time was last Saturday. There was a reason for the 12 year interval and I shall leave it at that. I like some of Nixon's work a lot more than others. Madame Butterfly is my favourite but I also admire his Cinderella and Midsummer Night's Dream.

I attended Jane Tucker's Swan Lake intensive at KNT last August and enjoyed it tremendously. I attend her Wednesday evening classes for improvers in Leeds regularly and enjoy them very much. I find her an excellent teacher. I also attend classes at KNT frequently and was in Ailsa Baker's ballet class last night. I get on well with all the teachers and enjoy the company of my fellow students. I thoroughly recommend the Romeo and Juliet intensive and wish I could attend it.

That has been my experience too. I have never been refused admission to a class in London or the North but sadly at least two students have been which is why the article was written. Of course we don't know all the circumstances of each case but there are not many grounds upon which discrimination can be justified. In response to shygirlsmum remarks on the question of support for young trans-patients there are a lot of services and support groups for young people some of which are available through the National Health Service. The GP is usually the first port of call though not all doctors have experience of this issue. With luck the patient's parents will be aware of the help that is available. Returning to Anna C's observation, I should add that I have also danced in public several times and attended an intensive without any objection. The limits to my progress have been lack of natural ability, age, weight, bad co-ordination and physical weakness and no statute can do much about that. Talking of statutes I notice a typo in my first post. I referred to the Gender Reassignment Act when I meant Gender Recognition Act. Should a moderator care to correct that mistake I shall be very grateful.

Perhaps Sean Dorsey was talking about the USA.. According to Sally Howard who wrote the article "Dorset is a San Francisco-based female-to-male transgender dancer and choreographer." It is however my experience that ballet is at least as popular in the USA as here. That does not detract from his main point that there is no reason why anyone should be excluded from ballet albeit that only a few people can make a career in it.

I have to congratulate the RAD for publishing a very interesting article on gender identity and ballet in the latest issue of Dance Gazette which is advertised in the following YouTube trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIf6NHH2QKc I have not yet received my copy of Dance Gazette but I have read the article, Transformers, which RAD subscribers can download from the March newsletter. The article features two dancers - one from Yorkshire and another from Northern Ireland - who are receiving treatment and who have been allowed by the RAD to train for the syllabus for their assigned genders. Even though it is more than a decade since s.14 and Sched 6 to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 were supposed to have outlawed discrimination they both suffered humiliation. The article reports that the Yorkshire dancer's "inchoate trans identity led to expulsion from the first group ballet class he joined, at the age of 17; a class he presented in as James, dancing the male role." . The article continues "One day, James’ teacher called home to report a class cancellation. The following day, she rescinded the teenager’s place in class: James’ mother had made a passing reference to his struggles with gender identity and she no longer felt comfortable teaching him" The result was devastating:. ‘It absolutely crushed me,’ James recalls, quietly. But, by then, the fire had been lit. ‘I couldn’t, wouldn’t stop dancing,’ he says. Each time James moved house, with his parents and later to study and work, he would contact local dance schools, coming clean about the situation and asking if he could join a class. ‘There was rarely any response.’ The Northern Irish student had a similar story: "Last year, through application to Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, Adrianne won an out-of-court settlement from the ballet school that rejected her. She resists any hint of triumphalism. ‘It saddens me that we have such a long way to go, culturally, until young transgender people can transition without experiencing discrimination at every turn" The article addressed a wider issue quoting Sean Dorsey: "In theatre, visual arts and multimedia we’ve seen a fracturing of gender and sexual identities; but dance remains a space that excludes bodies that don’t fit strictly binarised gender stereotypes; so – and I’m singling ballet out as particularly guilty, here – we see few tall women or short men, let alone gender ambivalent or disabled bodies." Quoting Dorsey again the article concludes that ballet can’t afford not to respond to changing social realities outside the academy. He notes that ballet is struggling with diminishing audiences and adds that ‘This should prompt dance institutions to ask themselves whether their work is truly relevant to the world we live in.’

The Dutch National Ballet's Mata Hari ended its run on Friday. As promised I have uploaded another four photos to my blog including a magnificent photo of Mata Hari's vision of dancing with Shiva. In all the photos Mata Hari is danced by Anna Tsygankova. Shiva is danced by Young Gyu Choi. Many thanks to Ian Macmillan for the link to Nina Siegal's write up in the NYT. Too bad we can't get Mezzo in the UK.

The Dutch National Ballet has sent me some rather nice photos of Anna Tsygankova in the title role for publication in my blog. I posted the first one today. It is from the last scene where Mata Hari approaches the firing squad. She is shown on pointe reflecting the composure with which the historical character met her end. This is my abiding image from the ballet. I shall be publishing more photos from HNB over the next few days but I regret that I don't think I am licensed to reproduce them anywhere else.

Just to say that I attended yesterday evening's performance and wrote a brief review this morning. It was the first time I had seen Dream in decades. It is a very special ballet for me because it was created for Sibley and Dowell and I don't think I have ever seen anyone else dance it live. I go wobbly at the knees when I hear the final pas de deux because of those associations and I am not sure that's a good thing. From where I was sitting (centre of row P of stalls) I imagined I was watching Sibley and Dowell (possibly because of the blonde wig) even though I knew it was Sakuma and Caley. I can't see why Titania has to be Northern European and she is a fine dancer. That niggle apart I enjoyed the show. Great dancing from the others and good to see Farmer's designs. A Month in the Country was new to me and I enjoyed that too. Three great female roles danced well by Downs, Day and Zhang and a fine performance by Bond as Beliaev. More familiar music and rich stage designs from Osman. As it was a belated birthday treat my Team Terpsichore colleague and I dined at the Circle Restaurant and were delighted to find Lancashire hotpot on the menu. Never seen that at The Lowry or indeed anywhere else in Manchester. Impressed with the Hippodrome. Only disappointment was that the theatre was nowhere near full. I am sure the company will do better when it brings R & J to the Lowry.

Very grateful to Janet McNulty for bringing this news report to my attention http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03k28lr