Terpsichore
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Everything posted by Terpsichore
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Yesterday's company class was given by Fiona Noonan of Leeds Centre of Advanced Training. She was the teacher who led me back to ballet nearly half a century after my last class. She is an exponent of Les Mills and a qualified progressive ballet technique instructor as well as an excellent classical ballet. She trained at the Queensland Ballet's School in Brisbane and danced with the company for a while. Fiona had attended Terry Etheridge's audition in September and danced with us in Ballet Cymru's workshop in November so she knew us very well. She advised me that we needed to work on strength, stamina and balance and recommended centre barre as a strengthening exercise. Dispensing with the barre was far from easy. Even simple exercises like plies and tendus were challenging and I struggled with the harder ones like frappes. But we had a great workout and I could see the benefit. Centre barre is more time consuming than wall mounted barre so we had to cram a lot of the conventional centre exercises into the remaining time. Next month we welcome back Yvonne Charlton of the Jos Dolstra Dance Institute in the Netherlands who gave us the best class to date in Liverpool last September. She will conduct the company class in Manchester on 23 Feb and a full day workshop on her own ballet in Leeds on 24 Feb. I shall post the registration page to both events on Eventbrite soon. Early booking is strongly recommended.
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Yesterday, Karen Sant, the principal of KNT Danceworks invited Powerhouse Ballet to dance in her 10th-anniversary show at the Dancehouse in Manchester on 4 May 2019. That is a great honour because KNT's reputation in Manchester is second to none. It will be a great opportunity to raise the company to a new level. Karen gave us our last company class and it was one of the best ever. Our next company class takes place at Dance Studio Leeds between 15:00 and 16:30 tomorrow. It will be given by Fiona Noonan who trained at the Queensland Ballet's school in Brisbane. Fiona is a good friend as well as a teacher. It was she who led me back to the barre many years after I first took up ballet as an undergraduate at St Andrews. Having sat in on Terence Etheridge's audition and participated in our workshop with Ballet Cymru she has a pretty shrewd idea of where we need to improve. She has already indicated that we shall do centre barre to build up strength, balance and stamina and she will be work on every kind of turn and jump. Her class is pretty full but we always have a few dropouts and no-shows. If you want to have a lot of fun and learn something you will be most welcome if you let me know by registering here, On 23 Feb 2019, we welcome Yvonne Charlton of the Jos Dolstra Dance Institute in IJsselstein in the Netherlands who will teach is her own piece, Morning from Grieg's Peer Gynt. She will hold a company class at the Dancehouse studios in Manchester on 23 Feb between 13:30 and 15:00 and then a workshop in Leeds from 09:00 to 14:00 the next day. In the longer term, we plan a workshop in Mold and of course, we shall be working on our piece for KNT's 10th-anniversary gala.
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NBS Manchester - Christmas at the Dance House.
Terpsichore replied to balletbean's topic in Doing Dance
I saw the show do and I have reviewed it in Terpsichore. I also enjoyed the show, I was going to mention it in the Performances forum but you beat me to it. -
Subscribers and visitors to this website will recall that I was very impressed with Ballet Cymru's performance of Ballet Cymru's Dylan Thomas programme at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds last Wednesday. Yesterday I attended their performance of those works at the Pontio Centre (Bangor University's arts and innovation centre) and was even more impressed. I think there are two reasons for that. The first is that Cerys Matthews and Arun Ghosh were on stage in the first ballet. The second is that they had a particularly appreciative and responsive audience which included several friends from Powerhouse Ballet who had attended our workshop or Ballet Cymru's company class. I have seen many good shows this year including the Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote and Giselle, the Royal Ballet's Winter Tale, Swan Lake and Bernstein triple bill, Birmingham Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, ENB's La Sylphide, Swan Lake and Manon, Scottish Ballet's Highland Fling, Phoenix's Windrush and Ballet Black's double bill but yesterday's show was one of the highlights of my year. I should say a word about the venue. I had heard a lot about the Centre when I attended the Anglesey Business Show in October. It was a major investment and was not without its critics. It is a fine modern building just below the main university buildings. Some excellent shows were advertised. There is ample parking just across the road and it is a stone's throw from the mainline railway station with direct trains to London and other major cities. It should do a lot for the economy and cultural life of Northwest Wales.
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I watched Ballet Cymru's "Dylan Thomas – A Child’s Christmas, Poems and Tiger Eggs " in Leeds last night and I think it is their best show yet. I have been one of their fans ever since I saw their Romeo a Juliet in 2013 and I was particularly impressed with its revival as well as their Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, TIR and Stuck in the Mud. I have not yet had time to review them in my blog - partly because I shall have to conjure up some fresh superlatives - but I can give an outline report of the show right now. Although it is styled as one ballet I think it would be fairer to describe it as a double bill. The first part consisted of readings by Cerys Matthews of some of Dylan Thomas's poems including "Do not go gentle into that good night". That prompted a head to head comparison with Christopher Bruce's work for Scottish Ballet which I reviewed in Terpsichore on 6 Oct 2014. I liked Bruce's work very much but I much prefer Darius James and Amy Doughty's. Those poems were interpreted beautifully by all but I was particularly impressed by Krystal Lowe and Beth Meadway. On Wednesday, Powerhouse Ballet (the amateur company that I am setting up in Yorkshire and the Northwest) hosted a workshop for Ballet Cymru at Yorkshire Dance as I mentioned in the "Doing Dance" section of this website yesterday. The score that we were invited to interpret was the poem that opened and closed the first act. The opening was a solo and the close as a group work. It was great to see it all on stage. The second act was very different. It began with a video of primary schoolchildren talking about Christmas and in the case of one child, Eid. The well known and well-loved sequences of the Child's Christmas were performed. I loved the cats' scene, the uncles in front of the fire and the arrangement of "Still the Night". As I tweeted last night, this was a work that showcased all the talents of the individual dancers to best advantage. The only desiranda in Leeds was Matthews herself though we heard a recording of her mellifluous voice. Tomorrow she will be on stage in Bangor and two of us who participated in the workshop will see her there. We shall post a full review in Terpsichore sometime after that. If you can't make Bangor your last opportunities will be Stroud on 4 Dec and Aberystwyth on 11 Dec.
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Last night's workshop with Ballet Cymru at Yorkshire Dance was a great success. It was one of the most challenging but also one of my most enjoyable experinces in ballet. The reason it was challenging is that we had to use our minds as well as our bodies. For me, and I am sure for others, it was a first experience of choreography. After the workshop, Darius James and his company were our guests for the launch of the Powerhouse Ballet Circle. We have tried to model this activity on the London Ballet Circle except that I did not use notes and kept the questions short and sweet. Darius told us about his childhood in Wales, his early training in Newport and at the Royal Ballet School, his work at Northern Ballet (or Northern Dance Theatre as it was then known)in Hulme where the only smenity was a chop shop that served chips with gravy, the formation of Ballet Cymru, its achievements and plans for the future. Ballet Cymru are performing at the Stan and Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds this evening and at Bango University arts centre on Sturday. If you have not yet seen the company, cancel whatever plans you have for this evening or Sturday and get over to one or other of those theatres. These artists are good. Dame Nonette de Valois was the first president of the London Ballet Circle and was very proud of it. It has done much for dance in London and the South of England and we hope to be equally supportive in the North. Our next guest is likely to be Yoko Ichino who has accepted our invitation in priniple . I shall notify subscribers to this website of the date, time and venue as soon as we have arranged them. Powerhouse Ballet Circle's next event is a 90 minute class and 30 minute pointe class on Saturday at the Dancehouse Studios on Oxford Road in Manchester at 13:30 with Karen Sant of KNT. Karen is an excellent teacher but her classes are never easy. For more details, see our website at www.powerhouseballet.com. I have posted a report on last night's workshop and Powerhouse Ballet Circle launch to my blog.
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I was also at the Liverpool Empire on Friday night and I thought that the evening was quite special. It was the best "Swan Lake" I have seen this year and that includes Scarlett's at Covent Garden and St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's at the Coliseum with Denis Rodkin as Siegfried. In fact, it was in my estimation one of the best ever. I was also impressed by both Rina Kanehara and Ken Saruhashi but particularly by Kanrhara. Like Capybara I enjoyed the Neapolitan dance. I am sure it must have been created by Ashton for I remember Wayne Sleep dancing it with - I think - Jennifer Penney in the early 1970s. The Royal Ballet no longer seem to do it which I regret so it was good to see it in this production, Everyone - musicians as well as dancers - performed well and I think they were lifted by an appreciative if somewhat noisy audience. This is not the first time that theatre has delivered an outstanding "Swan Lake". I saw David Dawson's equally good but very different productions there some years ago. I am a bit behind with my reviews. I need to write up ENB's Manon, BRB's Fille mal gardee, two performances of Ballet Black and one each of Ballet Theatre UK and Phoenix. But Friday's performance deserved to jump the queue and you will find it in my blog if interested.
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We are holding our last company class of the year at the Dancehouse Theatre studios in Manchester at 13:30 on 1 Dec 2018 and it should be a good one. It will be taken by Karen Sant who is principal of KNT Danceworks. She is an excellent teacher with very high standards but also abundant patience. Like all our classes until February entry to this class is free and newcomers are always welcome. The class will consist of the usual barre exercises and centre work and there will be an optional 30-minute pointe class for those who want it at the end. Finally, there will be a rehearsal of "Aria" for cast members and reserves. If you are free on Saturday and should like to attend, please register here.
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We shall host a workshop for adult ballet students to be given by Ballet Cymru at Yorkshire Dance at 3 St Peter's Square, Leeds, LS9 8AH on 28 Nov 2018 between 18:00 and 19:30 at which they will teach us some of the choreography for their latest ballet "A Child's Christmas in Wales". If you have not already signed up for the workshop and would like to come you can register here, Immediately after the workshop, we are throwing a party for the company in Martha's room at Yorkshire Dance between 19:30 and 21:00 at which we shall launch the Powerhouse Ballet Circle which hopes to raise funds for ballet charities in the North and elsewhere by holding talks, arranging visits to companies and ballet schools and similar events much in the way that the London Ballet Circle does in the capital. If you want to attend the reception but not the workshop you can register here. If you cannot attend our launch we hope to welcome you to some of our others. Our next guest is likely to be Yoko Ichino of Northern Ballet who will tell us about her illustrious career and famous training method. As soon as we have fixed a date and time we shall advertise it on our website.
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We welcomed back Jane Tucker for our October company class in Leeds on Saturday. She had given us our first company class in May when 11 dancers turned up. She got twice that number on Saturday. Attendees travelled in from North Wales in the west, Ripon in the north, Filey and Scarborough in the east and Birmingham in the south. As I said in my report on our website, I am so proud of those dancers. For the first time we held a pointe class which nearly everybody joined. Though there were variations in expertise they all looked confident and poised. After class we held a rehearsal of the ballet that Terry Etheridge has created for us and that is becoming very polished too. We are now about to set up a charitable incorporated organization to run the company and launch a Powerhouse Ballet circle on the lines of the London Ballet circle to enable those who support dance education in the region but do not wish to attend class a chance to participate in our activities. Our next event will be a workshop with Ballet Cymru on 28 Nov followed by a launch of the circle (we may change that name) at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds. Our next company class will be given by Karen Sant of KNT in Manchester on 1 Dec.
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I have to say that I enjoyed this year's World Ballet Day. I started watching at about 04:30 when there may still have been a few wilis about on Saddleworth Moor and watched one delightful performance after another almost continuously well until the evening. The highlight for me this year (as it had been last year) was the Dutch National Ballet's rehearsal of La Dame aux Camelias with two remarkable pas de deux - one by Daniel Camargo and Igone de Jongh and the other by James Stout and Anna Tsygankova. The second of those two was danced with remarkable passion. Unfortunately, it clashed with Northern Ballet's performance though I did flip between tabs to catch the odd bit of action in Leeds when not much seemed to be happening in Amsterdam. I am looking forward to seeing the whole contribution on YouTube over the next few days. The only other disappointment was that the sound cut out during Birmingham Royal Ballet's presentation. I could see David Bintley, Ruth Brill and others but could not hear what they had to say. There were some unexpected treats. Just as I was about to leave for my own ballet class in Manchester I spotted the Paris Opera House's ballet's Dame aux Camelias with Mathieu Ganio as Armand. Having seen him on Christmas Day last year in Don Quixote I could not resist watching him again. The result was that I left it too late to set off for the Dancehouse. I liked the Houston Ballet's new Swan Lake. I was very impressed by the Ural Ballet of Ekaterinburg the existence of which I had not previously been aware. It took me weeks to get through last year's offering and I suspect I will spend a long time watching the bits I missed today. Despite the annoying technical problems I think I enjoyed this year's offerings more than those of previous years. I am sorry that others were less satisfied.
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You should make enquiries at The National Ballet Academy at the National Academy of Theatre and Dance, Amsterdam University of the Arts. Here is some info on training for 8 to 10 year olds, For older children there is a preliminary course. Incidentally, Ernst Meisner, who trained at the Royal Ballet School and danced with the Royal Ballet for many years and now runs the Junior Company of the National Ballet, has recently been appointed artistic director of the Academy (see Dutch National Ballet's website), I wish your daughter every success in her studies and you a very pleasant time in Amsterdam.
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Our next company class takes place at Dance Studio Leeds on Saturday 27 Oct 2018 at 15:00. It will be given by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy. Jane's classes ate never easy but they are always fun. It was Jane who gave us such a great start in May (see We have a Company 27 May 2018 Powerhouse Ballet website). The studio can take 25 dancers and 20 places were booked in the first few hours. There will be cancellations and no shows so we can still fit in the odd one or two at the barre, All you have to do is clink this link and fill in the simple online registration form which requires only your name and email address. We particularly welcome dancers who have not yet trained with us. Dancers come from all parts of the North and a few from even further afield. Some of our strongest dancers come from North Wales and I am thinking of holding a class or staging a show in that principality. We already have a strong link with Ballet Cymru, Wales national classical ballet company. Our November event with be a workshop with that company when they visit Leeds. At present classes are fee though that will change when we set up the company on a formal basis.
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Yvonne Charlton with her Don Quixote repertoire class Last Saturday's company class in Liverpool was our best day yet. After 90 minutes company class with Mark Hindle, Yvonne Charlton of Jos Dolstra Dance Institute in the Netherlands taught us a dance from Don Quixote that she had created for her own adult dancers. It was not easy. I can;t say that we got it right. But it was great fun and we all had a jolly good try. We also rehearsed the new ballet that Terry Etheridge has created for us. We now look forward to our next company class in Leeds with Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy.
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Thank you very much. The date for the show in which we had intended to perform Terry Etheridge's work has been put back to May but we have our company class, masterclass and first rehearsal to look forward to in the great city of Liverpool on Saturday and our workshop with Ballet Cymru on 28 Nov to look forward to. I will keep subscribers to this website posted.
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Terry Etheridge held an audition for our first ballet on Saturday and selected 8 of our number for his cast. David Plumpton played the piano for us. As we had a few last minute cancellations I took the class. It was an unforgettable experience even though I was not auditioning and it must have been particularly memorable for those who were. Yesterday he crafted a beautiful ballet for which we hope to perform at The Dancehous in Manchester in February. Now the hard work of converting this choreography into a show begins. Our first rehearsal takes place at Liverpool on 22 Jan. Mark Hindle of KNT and Yvonne Charlton of Jos Dolstra Dance Institute will be in the audience and Janet McNulty said that she would consider watching us.
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A great end to a great career. Congratulations also to Root on his innings in the 5th test. This has been a vintage season for all sorts of reasons not the least of which has been the success of Surrey. As my father came from Southport in Lancashire and my mother from Bramhope near Leeds I am always conflicted in a roses contest. A conflict that is perpetuated by being born in Manchester and living in Yorkshire. So I support Surrey in the county championship. That is after all the county in which I learned to love and play the game and it has won the county championship no less than 19 times, second only to Yorkshire.
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A quick reminder that the audition for our first ballet takes place at Dance Studio Leeds on 15 Sept at 16:00. A big thank you and toi-toi to all who have registered for it. I have arranged a 30 minute warm-up class immediately before the audition for those who want it. Those coming to Leeds for the audition may want to stay for Northern Ballet's mixed bill at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre. There are new works by Morgann Runacre-Temple, Mlindi Kulashe and Kenneth Tindall. According to the theatre website there are still 14 tickets left.
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I am looking forward to the show and will review it in my blog. I shall be accompanied to the performance by Terry Etheridge, one of the Northern Dance Theatre's original cast members who also trained Mlindi Kulashe in South Africa, so I shall try to get his take on the performance too.
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I think that is even more true of Christopher Hampson who has commissioned David Dawson to create a new Swan Lake, Krzystof Pastor a new Romeo and Juliet, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Streetcar named Desire, Angelin Preljocaj MC 14/22 (ceci est mon corps). Crystal Pite Emergence .............I could go on. I might add that Scottish Ballet is the only company other than New Adventures with a work by Sir Matthew Bourne. Having recently seen Highland Fling (Sir Matthew's take on La Sylphide) in Oban which is deep in Gurn and Effie territory I should add that Highland Fling is my favourite of Bourne's works. Hampson is also a considerable choreographer in his own right both for narrative ballets such as Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella which are among the best of that genre and shorter works like the Rite of Spring. As I am bankrolling Powerhouse Ballet I have had to cut back on my donations and subscriptions this year but Scottish Ballet together with the Dutch National Ballet, Ballet Cymru, Ballet Black and Phoenix Dance Theatre will continue to receive my support.
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Every year in the first week of September the Dutch National Ballet holds a gala at the Stopera to launch the new ballet season. It is a very grand affair. Everyone is in evening dress. Lots of local and some international celebrities attend the event. With the exception of last year, I have been coming since 2015 and each year has been better than the last. The evening opens with a grand defile - a parade starting with the first year students of the National Ballet Academy and ending with the company's principals to the strains of Aurora's wedding from The Sleeping Beauty. This year the orchestra was conducted by our very own Koen Kessels. The company's artistic director then comes on stage and welcomes the audience partly in Dutch and partly in English. There are then a number of performances some created especially for the evening and others classics from the company's repertoire. This year the gala was dedicated to the memory of Rudi van Dantzig and three of his works were danced including his the white and black acts from his Swan Lake. The Netherlands' other towering fenius, Hans van Manen, was also well represented with the performance of three of his works including his Symphony for the Dutch People which particularly impressed me. Other full length works that were dipped into were the first Dutch performance of the Flames of Paris and Neumeir's Lady of the Camelias. Of the shorter works I particularly enjoyed Ernst Meisner's Embers which was danced by Jessica Xuan and Cristiano Principato. When they danced it at Varna earlier in the year Xuan won the first prize and gold medal for her performance. I also liked Grimm which was a collaboration between the Junior Company and ISH and combined ballet with hip hop. Finally, I was glad to see Michaela DePrince back on stage after a very nasty tendon injury. Every year a prize is awarded by Alexandra Radius to the best dancer of the year.. It is usually won by a principal but this year it went to Timothy van Poucke who is one of the company's youngest dancers. They say that the best is the enemy is the good and I think there is some truth in that saying because the gala spoils me for anything else for months on end. There were quite a few Brits this year including my former ward and her little boy who are from Sierra Leone, colleagues from Powerhouse Ballet and DonQFan. I have written a fuller review in my blog if anyone is interested.
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I traipsed down to the Smoke and back for last night's performance with Denis Rodkin and Irina Kolesnikova in the lead roles.. I quite enjoyed the evening though not as much as I had enjoyed La Bayadere three years ago. Rodkin never fails to impress even though he was more subdued than he had been 3 years ago, Kolesnikova was more convincing as Odette-Odile than she had been as Nikiya. The man that impressed me particularly was Sergei Fedorkov as the court jester. I liked the corps and the divertissements (particularly the cygnets in act 2 and Hungarians in act 3). I also liked the sets and costumes - particularly the lake backdrop in acts 2 and 4 reminding me of the Queen's View and the castle in act 1 reminding me of Schloss Neuschwantein. A very diverse but also very reactive crowd with more than a few newbie ballet goers which is perhaps the best sort of audience to be part of. A fuller review for those who may be interested in my blog.
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Registration is open for our company class in Liverpool which is our most ambitious event yet: - a full 90 minutes class with Mark Hindle of KNT; and - a special 60 minutes masterclass from Yvonne Charlton of the Jos Dolstra Institute of Dance and Movement in the Netherlands who will teach is some of her repertoire. There will also be a rehearsal for our show. The class will take place at Z Studios on 42 Devon Street which is half a mile from Lime Street station at 14:00 on 22 Sept 2018. Admission is free but attendees must register for the event in advance. Information about the event is available here and the link to the registration page is here. We are already a third full so don't leave it too late.
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The BBC World Service this morning carried a report of a plan to build the USA's biggest cricket complex at a place called Prairie View in Texas. Apparently building work has already started on this 88 acre site This is the project website http://www.prairieviewcricket.com/.
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Another very encouraging result. Many congratulation to our team. Let's hope they do not become too complacent. There are 3 more matches to be played and cricket is very unpredictable which is why it is so fascinating.
