Search the Community

On Thursday Gita Mistry and I were guests of Chancery Dance Company at their rehearsal studios in Grantham, We attended their company class and a rehearsal of Vincent - a stranger to himself which is part of a double bill that the company is taking on tour later this month. The company will visit Grantham, Stamford, Birmingham, Worcester, Halifax and London. I understand that their opening night is already sold out. Also, they have just received an excellent mention in the London Ballet Circle's latest newsletter. The company has come a long way in the three years since it was founded, It is on its second national tour. Since the last one its principals, Paul Chantry and Rae Piper, have worked in Japan, at Covent Garden and the Rome Opera Theatre, performed or held workshops, schools, care homes and prisons, established their own school which will actually teach the students how to get work after they graduate and have recruited three talented young dancers: David Beer, Rebecca Scanlon and Sorel de Paula Haniks. Vincent which is Chantry and Piper's latest work quite bowled me over. Rarely have I been more excited by a new ballet. It is about the life and work of Vincent van Gogh. There is a gripping narrative and powerful choreography constructed around a beautiful musical compilation which includes Satie's Gymnopedies which has been used no less effectively than in Ashton's Monotones. After the rehearsal Gita and I explored Grantham which has a magnificent parish church with a massive spire and a chained library, a pub called The Beehive with a hive of living and no doubt stinging bees as its inn sign, the school where Sir Isaac Newton studied and the corner shop where the late Baroness Thatcher was born. If you have not been to this town it is surely worth a visit. I am looking forward to seeing the double bill in Halifax on 26 Sept and I shall review the show here afterwards. If anyone is interested I have posted a few articles about Chantry Dance here and many more in my blog.