Terpsichore
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Everything posted by Terpsichore
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Although the match was won by Pakistan Ireland seems to have played very gallantly (see Ireland v Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq prevents an Irish win on Test debut on the BBC website). After being forced to follow on the Irish added 339 runs to their score in their second innings largely thanks to O'Brien who scored a century before he was caught by Sohail. Ireland's bowlers also did well dismissing Shafiq for 1, Azhar for 2, Sohail for 7 and Safraz for 8. It was only some solid batting from Imam and Babar that saved the match for Pakistan. By all accounts it seems to have been an entertaining and hard fought match for which both sides deserve congratulations. One day Ireland may face England in a test for which I think our players will need all their resources of skill, experience and determination.
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I am delighted to see that Ireland has become a first class cricketing nation. Although its batsmen have struggled at the crease today, the fact that they are playing Pakistan at all in an official test is a considerable achievement. It is encouraging that Cricket Ireland represents Northern Ireland as well as the Irish Republic. Several of Ireland's matches this year will be played in Northern Ireland. I understand that is also the case with rugby football though not association football. Any all Ireland institution must be a good thing if a soft border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland cannot be agreed. I see no reason why Scotland should not follow Ireland soon. Over the years many Scots have played at the highest level in England and other countries. Cricket was played to a high standard at St Andrews when I was there. As for Wales Glamorgan already plays first class county cricket. Looking to the Continent, several of Ireland's fixtures are against the Netherlands which is yet another emerging cricketing nation. Its great rival on the Continent is Denmark. And of course the national ballet companies of both those countries are highly regarded. That may be a coincidence but I have always seen parallels between my two passions.
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Thanks for your comments, Nicola. I agree with you about the corporate structure but we shall find out what others think. Chelmsford offers 10 classes a year on Sunday mornings. But you do make some good points.
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Less than three weeks to go before our inaugural class with Jane Tucker at Huddersfield Leisure Centre on 26 May 2018 at 15:00 and the studio is filling up. If you want to come then please register in advance because there is security at the entrance and the management may not let you in if you just turn up. If you have not yet registered, please click here. If you have registered but find you can't now make it, never mind. There will be other classes. Just let me know in good time so that I can release your place to another dancer. Whether you are coming to the class or not we need to think about how we are going to organize ourselves and there are two models for us to consider. Chelmsford Ballet is a members' club and I have put a link to their constitution from our website. Duchy is a company limited by guarantee. If you have any views one way or another do let me know, Also, while our main purpose is to stage shows once a year we should think what else we want to do for the rest of the year. Chelmsford has regular company classes with guest teachers - one of whom was our very own Cara O'Shea. I think we should do the same. Note there is a huge difference between company class and adult ballet class as I found out last Monday in Scotland. Company class is fast. You barely have time to think. Another thing I think we should do is hold the occasional workshop or outing. Chelsmford have organized a great one with Ballet Central. Let me know what you want folks.
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Windrush - Movement of the People
Terpsichore replied to Terpsichore's topic in Performances seen & general discussions
Last night's performance went very well. The cast danced brilliantly. I don't think I have ever seen them dance better. But the atmosphere was different from the opening night in Leeds. Then it had been almost like a party. The audience was more reflective last night. But how could it be anything else in the light of recent events? Phoenix will give one last performance in London tonight. After that they go to Birmingham, Newcastle and Barnsley. This show is well worth seeing. In my review I said it was more than just art, it was an education. -
Windrush - Movement of the People
Terpsichore replied to Terpsichore's topic in Performances seen & general discussions
I reviewed the premiere and the two previews I saw in Terpsichore if you are interested. -
Windrush - Movement of the People
Terpsichore replied to Terpsichore's topic in Performances seen & general discussions
Phoenix Dance Theatre has brought Sharon Watson's Windrush - Movement of the People to the Peacock Theatre in London and its timing could not have been more appropriate. According to the company the first night was a great success. The company tweeted: The awesome #WindrushPhoenix team @Sadlers_Wells Peacock Theatre tonight. Fab after party by @TheVoiceNews and standing ovations from the audience If you have not seen this company you really must because it is special. Windrush shows the company at its best. Tonight there will be an after show discussion which I shall be nipping down to London tonight to see the work for a second time. I will review it again properly in Terpsichore and mention it again here.- 4 replies
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- West Yorkshire Playhouse
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Thanks for your encouragement, FullContretemps. A decision on the number of rehearsals will be taken by the artistic director, choreographer, ballet master or producer of the show. As for company classes. Chelmsford hold one class with a quest teacher on the first Sunday of every month every month except January and August (see https://www.thechelmsfordballetcompany.co.uk/company-classes/) . We will probably do the same but, again, the decision will be the director's and much will depend on the facilities that we can use. Chelmsford have a lovely studio and store room which I described in "At Home with the Chelmsford Ballet" in Terpsichore on 8 Oct 2016. The teacher who led me back to ballet has very kindly agreed to give one such class.
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Thanks sarahw
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Many thanks. I will get in touch with them. One of the participants in the first class lives in Birmingham which is even further than Staffs.
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We thought of that and may still do that but the immediate priority is to gather as many potential company members as possible.
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Chaperoning is not the problem Picturesinthefirelight. Jane Tucker has already advised me that we can safely admit students over the age of 16. The reason we have to insist on persons of full contractual capacity for this first class is that we plan to hold a short business meeting with a view to forming a company and electing a steering committee immediately after the .class. Martin Dutton was expressing a personal opinion and not speaking on behalf of his school. The reason I had asked his opinion is that he had taught me on a couple of occasions. We discussed the proposal briefly at the KNT Intensive on La Bayadere last week. I am writing to all the schools in the region about the proposal as a matter of courtesy. What if anything they want to do about it is another matter for another day but I am sure they would appreciate some reliable information from the horse's mouth.
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Thanks for your encouragement and best wishes, Karen. I have only just written to the RAD, dance agencies, one of the local centres of advanced training and posted a note to BalletcoForum. Several professional schools including at least one in the Northwest have released their students to dance with Chelmsford, Duchy and the Bristol Russian Youth Companies and Martin Dutton of the Hammond seemed to think that his school would look favourably on the idea. I will publish any responses I receive here and on the Powerhouse Ballet website.
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Thank you so much for your encouragement and good wishes. If you live in the Southeast you may like to contact Chelmsford Ballet or Duchy Ballet if you are in the Southwest. As for workshops, I strongly recommend KNT's in Manchester. I have heard great things about Hannah Bateman's Ballet Retreat in Leeds and London. Several of my contributors have attended that workshop and written about it in Terpsichore.
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Thanks for your response, Sara. As you must already know that Jane is an exceptional teacher, you may wish to bring her class on 26 May to the attention of any of your students or former students who are over the age of 18. They will be very welcome to attend but they must register in advance through Eventbrite. If we can launch the company and make suitable chaperoning arrangements we should hold a similar class for students below that age to be taught by Jane or some other fine teacher I will update you here and on the Powerhouse Ballet website. You may also get an email from me very soon.
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Many thanks for your offer of help. First, I wish your son every success in all his studies and activities. If we manage to launch a company he will be very welcome to audition for its shows and participate in its activities. I should be grateful for any advice you can give on writing funding bids setting up voluntary organizations and the third sector. Folk in North Wales are our neighbours.
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It does not seem like five years ago since I saw the first performance of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company at the Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam. I had come to Amsterdam to see the young African-American dancer Michaela DePrince about whom I had heard a lot. When I saw her with Sho Yamada in a pas de deux from Diana and Actaeon I described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while". But she was not the only one to impress me. Sho Yamada who partnered her in that piece was also a thrill to watch and so in different ways were all the others. DePrince rose very quickly through the Dutch National Ballet's ranks. She entered the main company as an eleve after only a year with the Juniors. She was elevated very quickly to coryphee, grand sujet and soloist. She has written books, given masterclasses, appeared as a guest artist for companies around the world. Still in her early twenties she is probably one of the best known names in ballet. But Yamada has risen quickly too. The last time I was in Amsterdam at the end of February he danced Don Basilio in the company's Don Quixote and his Kitri was his Junior Company contemporary, Riho Sakamoto. Other contemporaries are making their mark in choreography. Cristianp Principato who entered the Junior Company in 2014 managed the whole New Moves sharing of the company's latest choreography. As I have never studied Dutch I can only make out the gist of a speech or conversation but I think the company's director, Red Brandsen, attributed the success of those artists to their time in the Junior Company in an opening speech that he delivered before the Junior Company's 5th anniversary show. If I am right, Brandsen described the Junior Company as a bridge between school and company allowing the young dancer space and time to mature. The fifth anniversary performance took place on Sunday, 15 April at the Staddschouwburg which is where I saw the company for the first time nearly 5 years ago. It is a beautiful theatre which was the National Ballet and Opera companies' home before they moved to the Stopera. The company presented a triple bill starting with extracts from Bournonville's Napoli, continuing with a new work by Juanjo Arques called Fingers in the Air for which members of the audience and cast were issued with miniature red and green torches with which we were asked to vote at various times Big Brother style and finishing off with Hans van Manen's In the Future which was a very witty but somewhat alarming piece. I have reviewed the show in Terpsichore if anyone wants to read it. During the second interval Ted Brandsen spotted me and came over to chat. He very kindly invited me to the after-show party where I was able to discuss Arques's Fingers with their creator. I asked him what would have happened had the votes gone the other way at which he smiled and assured me that was unlikely because he was able to regulate audience reaction. "Sounds a bit like Cambridge Analytica" I ventured. Again he smiled and admitted that his work might have a political dimension. I couldn't stay long as I had a flight back to Leeds early the next morning but I introduced myself to the 12 dancers who had impressed me considerably with their virtuosity and I made the acquaintance of Macro Gerris, the hip hop choreographer who had collaborated with Ernst Meisner very successfully on Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe some years ago and who appears to have repeated that success in is latest collaboration with Meisner based on Grimms' Fairy Tales. Every show by the Junior Company has been good but I think last Sunday's was the company''s best yet. The original company has done very well but I suspect that we can expect even greater things from this season's cohort over the next few years.
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- Dutch National Ballet
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Thanks. That's just the sort of help we need. Let's keep in touch.
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Last month Duchy Ballet celebrated its 20th anniversary with a splendid performance of The Nutcracker with Sara Maria Barton of Ballet West as the "Sugar Rum Cherry". Next year, Chelmsford Ballet Company will celebrate its 70th anniversary. It will be a splendid affair if the 69th year performance of The Snow Queen is anything to go by. I started to think that if two medium size communities in the South of England can produce such excellence then perhaps we in the North should have a go too. I canvassed the idea with friends on Facebook and found lots of support and encouragement from dancers of all ages and abilities from all parts of the North. We discussed how to get started. We decided that one possible way forward might be to hold a free 90-minute class at a place easily accessible by road or public transport from the M62 corridor and see who turns up. Huddersfield is an obvious location as it is on the Trans-Pennine main line with direct rail links to Barnsley, Bradford, Rothrham and Sheffield and it is close to the M62 and M1 motorways. To attract good dancers the teacher would have to be well known on both sides of the Pennines. I am glad to say that Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet, an excellent teacher who also teaches the intensive repertoire workshops for KNT in Manchester, has kindly agreed to give that first class. That class will tale place at Huddersfield Leisure Centre which is a short walk from the rail and bus stations on 26 May 2018 between 15:00 and 16:30. Admission to the class is free but space is limited so attendees have to register in advance. They can do so through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/powerhouse-ballet-tickets-45023701102, After the class a vote will be taken on a show of hands as to whether we want to form a ballet company in the North. If we decide to do so, 4 or 5 volunteers will be chosen for a steering committee to decide the legal format of the company, draw up a business plan, seek funding and eventually appoint an artistic director and ballet master or mistress. If all goes well, we should be ready to stage our first production early in the New Year. We hope to give opportunities to dancers of all ages and abilities from talented students at the leading ballet schools to kids who are learning the basics and everyone in between. As we plan to hold a short business meeting immediately after the class and have not yet made any chaperoning arrangements, those attending that first class will have to be 18 or over but one of the first prorities of the steering committee will be to arrange a class or audition for students below that age. We are looking not just for dancers but also for artists, costume and set designers, carpenters, musicians, stage crew, photographers, technicians, front of house managers and administrators. In short, just about everyone with a skill, talent pr experience that can help us stage a show.The provisional name of the project is "Powerhouse Ballet". We have chosen that name partly because there is already a Northern Ballet and a Northern Ballet School and partly because we hope to attract dancers from he whole M62 corridor and points North and South. We may well change that name to something more elegant if and when we get started. For those who want more information, we have a website at http://www.powerhouseballet.co.uk/, a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/powerhouseballet/ and a twitter account at https://twitter.com/powerhousedball. I have already written to the RAD Regional Manager for the North and the dance agencies for the Northwest and Yorkshire. Over the next few weeks I shall write to every dance school in the region that I can find from the Hammond and Northern Ballet School downwards. Should anyone have any questions he or she is welcome to contact me through BalletcoForum or the Powerhouse Ballet message form.
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I couldn't agree more about the exorbitant cost of parking at the Lowry or the time it takes for the tram to reach Piccadilly late at night but if one can get to Covent Garden from Liverpool then surely one can get to the Lowry or Grand. It is always cheaper and quicker to travel to Manchester, Leeds or Bradford than it is to London. You and I dash up and down the M62 all the time for business or pleasure and think nothing of it. The comparison was between the cost of stalls tickets at Covent Garden and those elsewhere. My ticket for row L of the orchestra stalls at Covent Garden on 22 May costs more than tickets for similar seats at the Lowry for Casanova, the Rambert and Cinderella combined.
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To be fair we get a lot more in the North than English National Ballet and Matthew Bourne although one may have to negotiate the M62 to see it. Leeds, not too far from Liverpool, has Phoenix Dance Theatre and Northern Ballet both of which are good. Birmingham Royal Ballet manages two trips to the Lowry and one to York every year. Lots of foreign companies perform at the Alhambra, the Lyceum and the Lowry from time to time. Ballet Black makes at least one appearance in Leeds a year and often other venues in the North. Ballet Cymru is often in the North. Scottish Ballet comes to Newcastle almost every year. I once attended an excellent performance of David Dawson's Swan Lake by that company at the Empire in Liverpool. The North is by no means a terpsichorean desert. Indirectly, Liverpool also provides an alternative to London. I have flown to Amsterdam from Speke at a fraction of the rail fare from Huddersfield to London. Despite the depreciation of sterling hotels and restaurants in Amsterdam are less expensive than those in London. The Stopera is an excellent auditorium offering a good view of the stage even from the cheapest seats. It also commands a magnificent view of thee Amstel , plenty of good seating and fast service in the vars for the intervals. A comfortable seat in the stalls a few rows from the stage for Don Quixote on 28 Feb cost me 52 euros. I am not going to raise a ruckus by comparing the Dutch National Ballet to the Royal Ballet because both companies have their strengths. However, the Royal Opera House could learn a thing or two from the Dutch about making high quality ballet accessible to the general public. I love the Royal Ballet and I relish my trips to Covent Garden but they are not the be all and end all by a long chalk.
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While hanging around for my car to be serviced I noticed an email from the Royal Opera House headed "Booking for Summer now open". I would have missed it altogether otherwise. "Oh good!" I thought to myself "let's see how the tickets are going for the new Swan Lake." "*!@#^£* " I exclaimed when I found that they had nearly all gone. I got one of the last decent stalls tickets for the 22 to see Cuthbertson and Bonelli as Odette/Odile and Siegfried respectively, but it wasn't cheap. 'I'll let you know on 23 May whether it was worth it. Somehow I think it will be.
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Changes to the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018
Terpsichore replied to Jan McNulty's topic in Doing Dance
I am also happy to give a reasonable amount of my time free of charge to companies, theatres, dance schools, freelance teachers and the like to anyone who has a GDPR query.- 1 reply
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This year marks the 70th anniversary of the voyage of the Empire Windrush from Jamaica to Tilbury which brought the first post war contingent of Afro-Caribbean workers to the United Kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of others followed them including the family of Sharon Watson, the artistic director of Phoenix Dance Theatre, and one of the choreographers I most admire. Watson has celebrated the anniversary by creating Windrush: Movement of the People which opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds on 7 Feb 2018. As the editor and principal contributor to Terpsichore I was fortunate enough to be invited to the premiere and press night. I had already seen previews at Phoenix at Home in September and a work sharing just before Christmas (which I mentioned in my blog) so I knew it would be good as did many of Phoenix's friends and followers. Its excellence, however, was quite beyond our expectation. The work chronicled the odyssey of some of the early travellers starting with the vivacity and colour of their home islands, the grey of Tilbury, the indifference and in many cases hostility that they met as they found lodgings and the institutions and culture that they brought to their new homeland. For me the most moving part was a recitation: "You called and we came". Watson had invited one of the few surviving passengers on the first voyage to her premiere. An impressively tall gentleman with a ramrod straight back who must be well into his late 80s if not 90s. So, too, was her mother and many dignitaries including the Lord Mayor of Leeds and the daughter of the captain of the vessel. Watson has cooperated with some remarkable artists such as Chistella Litras to compose the score and Eleanor Bull to design the set. The audience, which included Northern Ballet's David Nixon and Yoko Ichino who sat a few seats from me, seemed to love it. At the end we rise to our feet as one. I have never seen a more enthusiastic audience in Leeds nor, indeed, artists who merited such applause more in any other performance in that city. Windrush is part of a triple bill the other works of which are Aletta Collins Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe and Christopher Bruce's Shadows. Phoenix has just finished its season in Leeds and will proceed to Keswick, Cheltenham, Doncaster, Leicester, Aachen, London, Birmingham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. If you get the chance it is well worth seeing.
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I haven't always been kind to David Nixon. I don't like his Swan Lake one little bit and I don't go a bundle on his Beauty and the Beast or even Wuthering Heights, but I did like The Little Mermaid which I believe to be his best work yet. It is one of the reasons why I picked Northern Ballet as my company of 2017. I particularly liked his detailed study of the mermaid's psyche. She like Shakespeare's Juliet is 15 tears of age. She has to grow up fast. She makes a lot of sacrifices and she has to display a lot of emotions. It's a lot to ask of a dancer and Abigail Prudames who danced the role in the performance that I reviewed impressed me a lot. I also liked Sally Beamish's score with its Celtic allusions echoed in the men's costumes. If anyone is interested my review appears on the front page of my blog.
