Jamiel Devernay-Laurence

PROGRAMME 001 - A WORLD PREMIERE

Dear Forum & Supporters, Thank you to those who attended our October shows, and took the time to share their feedback on their experience and our programming. As many of you are aware, we really listen to our fans, audience and critics, and after the launch of the start up really went back to the drawing board to bring the audience experiences to meet the out of this world performances taking place on our uniquely up close performance space. To help those of you still on the fence about attending our shows, and making the surprisingly convenient journey across to Canary Wharf, we have put together material which I will below working with our Video Production team - which should help shed some light on our performances featuring World Stars, Emerging Voices, Legacy Classics and New Discoveries. I do hope we can see even more of you at our Grand Finale on 24th & 25th November, and here are some short videos to prepare you for your visit Your Host Jamiel Devernay-Laurence www.BalletNights.com

Announcing our November Headliners 2 and 3... www.BalletNights.com In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated Performed by Sangeun Lee & Gareth Haw Choreographed by William Forsythe Music by Thom Willems, Leslie Stuck Set Design & Costumes by William Forsythe Stage By Laura Graham AND THE RETURN OF... Heisei 9 Performed by Constance Devernay-Laurence Choreographer Jordan James Bridge Pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel Costume Design by Stevie Stewart Composer Nobuo Uematsu

Hi All, Below is Ballet Nights first ever piece of WBD content, Premiering on 1st November for you to enjoy:

🚨 Ballet Nights Autumn Season 2023 Programming Update 🚨 As Many of you may already be aware that earlier last week, Principal of the Royal Ballet and Ballet Nights headliner, Steven McRae, received a serious injury on stage, and as a result will no longer be able to perform in the Ballet Nights Autumn Season 2023. 🙏 Our best wishes are with Steven at this time, and we cannot wait to welcome him back to Ballet Nights again one day soon, as he is a big part of our future. As a result, we are thrilled to announce a brand new addition to our October programme: Excerpts from Elite Syncopations “Stoptime Rag” & “Bethena Rag Waltz” Performed by Constance Devernay-Laurence & Ryoichi Hirano Choreographer Kenneth Macmillan Composer Scott Joplin Costume Ian Spurling With thanks to the Macmillan Trust, and The Royal Ballet Company After working closely with Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet, Kevin O'Hare, and the MacMillan estate, we would like to thank their teams for helping us put together a new headliner at such short notice, and we hope you will enjoy this welcome addition to our Autumn Season 2023. 👉 You can get your tickets to see Constance, Ryoichi, and many more stars perform LIVE this Autumn at: www.BALLETNIGHTS.com

DAY 3 A lick of paint! After finishing the main body raise in the early hours, our workers got to work on fireproofing and painting the two new seating levels, with all that remains is reattaching the safety outlines. Here are the pics of the progress today: https://www.jamiellaurence.com/lanterns

DAY 2 A louder day today...! With all of the equipment and parts now on site, our timber bases are now under construction, raising our penultimate row to the height of our rear row, before work begins on raising our rear row above that. As with everything at Lanterns, many of our patrons have now offered to assist in getting the rostrum painted in time for the end of the week! Here are the pics of the progress today: https://www.jamiellaurence.com/lanterns

That one is gong to be a big ENB party! Don Q and a double Ivana Glad you found the journey as simple as I'm preaching! - Also do check out our new restaurant partnership with Hazev or hotel deal with Tribe Canary Wharf if you want to make a trip out of it. J

Actually LinMM the venue has primarily only catered for production rehearsals - the biggest in the world for Musical, film and dance - but none of these companies create anything for the local community and engagement for the youth taking part in the other dance and theatre classes at the school below. Having a backer to remount Ballet Nights was step one, and we want more dance orgs to consider the venue for their performances, which suit mainly dance performances or Concerts. BALLET NIGHTS presents a first run at providing the local community of South Quay and the Docklands living in high rise apartments something cultural outside of Tesco Extra, but also a way to show more Londoners how close the post covid Canary Wharf cosmopolitan community really is via the Elizabeth Line and Jubilee connections.

GALLERY OF OUR PROGRESS HERE: https://www.jamiellaurence.com/lanterns

DAY 1 - Planning, Preparation and a Good Old Sweep! Dear BalletCo Forumites, Earlier in September, I launched my brand new vision for celebratory dance experience - BALLET NIGHTS - at Lanterns Studio Theatre. "Ballet Nights presents uniquely compèred evenings of Classical Ballet, Neo-Classical and Contemporary dance, up close and without compromise at Lanterns Studio Theatre, London. " - www.BalletNights.com The theatre is a part of the 30 year storied East London community centre, providing performing arts and early years childcare for over 3 decades and I became the 'Project Manager' of the newly converted top floor of the space in 2011 - running the venue as a production hire space, and growing with the role alongside my full time job as soloist of Scottish Ballet. After a successful Pilot performed in October 2021 to an audience of 170 people, featuring world dance stars, and all produced on a budget of £7k, I set out to get my idea seen and heard by those that can make a difference - that that mission was achieved for everyone to see at the launch of our Autumn Season. However, with success come new challenges, and with more audience members than ever before visiting the venue and approaching our capacity, for the first time I have encountered some balanced and objective feedback on how we can improve the experience for all who attend. There is no doubt that our new style of event complimentary to the main stages across the world is a fantastic way introduce new audiences to dance, and bring dance fans closer than ever before to the action. However, the facts are the facts, and if you can see the action then there is very little to celebrate indeed. Working with the founder of the venue, Janet Viola, both our teams on Ballet Nights and Lanterns Studio Theatre came together to start problem solving, and the results I am going to share with you over the next 3 days. With Row H now gone (unless booked, in which case you will be upgraded!) it is time to get rows F and G in on the action, and I am pleased to share that we began work today on raising our seating rostrom and extending the walking area on both these levels. Here is what happened on our very first day (of 2 I'm told.... which would be a record I'm sure!) https://www.jamiellaurence.com/lanterns

Hello All, Over the past week I have been taking feedback on what we got right, where we can improve, and - working with my Ballet Nights team and the team at Lanterns Studio Theatre - come up with several solutions. Key to this will be the raising of the back 2 rows of the seating rostrum, the removal of an entire row and a repositioning of our technical/lighting rig to improve the quality of the viewing experience here at our unique launch venue. Transforming our community centre was never going to be an easy task, and I look forward to sharing all of our improvements at our next shows this October (and osme shots of the rostrum being extended!). Jamiel

Watch This Space... https://www.youtube.com/@BalletNights

Don't be! We had our teething problems with the launch of the club, but without feedback we cant ever improve. I am a strong advocate of critique, trained by Kerry Nicholls in how to use it to the advantage of everyone, and want to make this exclusively intimate experience something you can return to again and again!! November is one BIG ENB Party, and I think the Don Q is going to give our season the Autumn finale we all deserve before Christmas !! You were at our new launch, and like it or not, you are now a part of the BALLET NIGHTS Story Jamiel

Thank you Simon, Let me know when you can make it next and you can grab those seats on the house Jamiel

Hi Simon, I was very sorry indeed to read that you didn't have the best time over at my house this weekend, and I would like to extend my sincerest apology on behalf of myself and the team at Ballet Nights. Hearing of your viewing issues, I instructed my management to ensure you were re- seated with a clearer view or Stageside, which I had hoped would go some of the way towards improving you night, and I do hope was actioned by James and Andrew my co-hosts that evening. Hearing your feedback that night from my team - we then took the further action of removing an entire row for the following night to ensure this would not happen again, and we received a much better feedback loop as a result - and have made the change stick as a result for both the view and comfort. As a new startup in a new weight class, much was learned from our opening night and great strides taken into the following evening - something that I have seen reflected in our review stream as a result. There is still much to learn, and like any jazz or comedy club we hope to provide audiences with uniquely experiences that have never happened before, and will never happen again - such as Ryoichi's first show at 40 years. The dedicated dance audience mean the absolute world to me and my team, as well as those new to dance, and the thought that you or anyone would not want to the Ballet club is something that for me is simply unthinkable. I would like to personally extend the offer of 2 tickets to the UK premiere of David Dawson's Metamorphosis 1 and our other star acts of our second programme - 27th & 28th October 2023 - and please take this chance once more to experience our evening of dance celebration once again, with your feedback heard (and my mic repaired!) Jamiel Your Compere https://thespyinthestalls.com/2023/10/ballet-nights/ https://www.seeingdance.com/ballet-nights-1-231001/ https://www.londontheatre1.com/reviews/ballet-nights-at-lanterns-studio-theatre-review/

It's just one week to go until the launch of BALLET NIGHTS Autumn Season 2023! Ballet Nights presents uniquely compèred evenings of Classical Ballet, Neo-Classical and Contemporary dance, up close and without compromise at Lanterns Studio Theatre, London. As the new taster platform for dance, our carefully curated programming includes Modern Masterpieces, Legacy Classics, Emerging Voices and New Discoveries, placing the artist at the centre of the work being performed and unveiling their individual stories for our audiences. Ballet Nights has already seen World Premieres, UK premieres and even announced a Principal Dancer retirement, and we look forward to continuing to celebrate the artists with you, live on our stage. ----- 🎟️🎟️🎟️ TICKETS SELLING FAST 🎟️🎟️🎟️ www.BalletNights.com ----- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Featuring the Stars of... ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Royal Ballet - English National Ballet - Rambert - Northern Ballet - Britains Got Talent - Yorke Dance Project 🎻 Live Music by International Star Vasko Vassilev, and Moira Hartley 🎹 Ballet Nights Concert Pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel

Thanks all for the robust discussion around the subject! I knew there was more to it that Wikipedia led me to believe! I was in the studio with Melissa Hamilton today (photos coming), and it is one of the most moving and honest interpretations I have ever seen. I am now going to print, and you can pick up a programme at the show to find out Jamiel www.BalletNights.com

Hi All, Sorry if this sparks a serious conflict... but does anyone know the official way to spell the first name of FOKINE!? We are going to print on the BALLET NIGHTS programme on Wednesday this week, and the internet appears to be split 60/40 on this issue. Thank you for any assistance! Jamiel www.BalletNights.com

As a product of 4 major dance institutions (and one music!) I would point out that as someone who is now guest teaching/making new creative work at these schools, they are simply unrecognisable from the places I knew as a student. I am not saying whether for better or worse, as I wouldn't know what the new experience this decade is all about - but what I would say is that these are now institutions that are funded differently, focused differently and have a completely new set of teacher to those I knew as recently as the late 2000's.

Hi SheilaC I'm not sure how I missed this wonderful comment, and thank you for listening! If you liked this, you can find this interview, more interviews and our behind the scenes features at Youtube.com/@Balletnights Coming up this October will will feature a behind the scenes of our UK World Premiere of David Dawson's Metamorphosis 1 Jamiel www.Balletnights.com Only 400 tickets left for our World Premiere Weekend