Jan McNulty Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 It is the world premiere of Northern Ballet's Little Mermaid in Southampton on Thursday. If any members are going to see this production please put your thoughts here. The Company have released a short film of Abigail Prudames talking about creating the title role: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 21, 2017 Author Share Posted September 21, 2017 So what can I say about Northern Ballet's Little Mermaid? I absolutely loved it!!! The costumes are awesome, the music is superb and the set is excellent. There is some gorgeous choreography. Abigail Prudames is utterly exquisite as Little Mermaid Marilla; Joseph Taylor is outstanding as the Prince and Dreda Blow is sublime as Dana. All the cast were tremendous and I LOVED Kevin Poeung's sea horse! I can't wait to see it again tomorrow. I'm on my phone, I'll report in more detail after the weekend. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 22, 2017 Author Share Posted September 22, 2017 Northern Ballet has published a small photo gallery from Act 1 by Emma Kauldhar: https://northernballet.com/the-little-mermaid/photo-gallery 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrise81 Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 We are seeing this in Leeds in December. Cannot wait! Thank you for the review.....my daughter is very excited (as usual!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 Oh... I see I didn't get round to reporting back after a splendid couple of days in Southampton! I saw both performances in Sheffield on Thursday and was even more enraptured with the production that when I had seen it in Southampton. David Nixon has most definitely not Disney-fied this production, it goes back more towards the HCA original. Marilla is the youngest of 3 Mermaid sisters who wants to go to the surface and root amongst the ruins of ships. Her older sisters won't let her but one of them has found a locket which she drops. Marilla falls in love with the portrait of the young man. She goes to the surface and finds the young man about to die in a shipwreck. She saves him. On the beach, when he comes round, he sees Dana with some friends and thinks it is her who has saved him. Marilla persuades her father, the King of the Sea, to let her become a human but at the sacrifice of losing her beautiful voice and looking forward to her a life of pain with her human legs. She is found by the Prince she has rescued but he has no idea who she is. He takes her home and treats her as a younger sister. He is in love with Dana and will be marrying her. Marilla cannot speak but is distraught. Her sisters persuade her father to let her become a mermaid again but they have to give up their beautiful hair and Marilla has to kill the Prince. She cannot do this and her soul ascends to heaven. The end! The corps in the ballet are the see and the waves (as well as the human sailors and in the Prince's court). By using this device, David Nixon has been able to give a real impression of the mermaids swimming through the ocean. There are some absolutely gorgeous movements. Marilla's solo when she becomes human and experiences dreadful pain for the first time is truly heart-wrenching. The court scenes on land are joyous. Over the six performances I saw Abigail Prudames created the role of Marilla and can only be described as exquisite. Her Prince was the very princely Joseph Taylor. Minju Kang was a delight as Marilla. In Southampton she was partnered vividly by Giuliano Contadini and in Sheffield by a marvellously expressive Javier Torres. On Thursday afternoon I felt privileged to be in the audience to watch Ayami Miyata as Marilla with Mlindi Kulashe as her Prince. I found her performance incredibly moving and was reduced to sobs at the end. (I should explain that in Southampton the end was not hugely clear and it has now been modified to make it more understandable without having to read the programme notes.) Again Mlindi was very expressive. The company looked at the top of their game. The movements for the corps as the ocean were flowing. Even when standing quietly their hands were moving very slightly to give the impression of the movement of the water. I just got drawn into the whole production. Sally Beamish' score absolutely suits the story - otherworldly in the water and with a Celtic feel on land. The differently styled motifs make it easy to identify the ocean from the land. The men wear kilt-style skirts which flow beautifully. The ladies on land dresses are gorgeous reds and earthy colours in contrast to the oceans cool blues and greens. And as for the mermaid costumes... they are breathtakingly beautiful and very clever. The girls wear sparkling trousers with the tail attached. I can't do justice to them with words, suffice to say that they really do look like mermaids. I'm looking forward to the performance in Leeds on Tuesday and then more next year! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixiewoo Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 Oh wow ... we're seeing this next week, and I can't wait. DD has 'little mermaid' as her character dance (not disneyfied) and it sounds like this will really inspire her. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Shortcake Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 I'm looking forward to seeing this in Leeds later this month. Having being underwhelmed by Sally Beamish's score for BRB's disappointing "Tempest" last year I'm relieved to see so much praise for her music for "The Little Mermaid". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixiewoo Posted December 10, 2017 Share Posted December 10, 2017 On 03/12/2017 at 22:08, Pixiewoo said: Oh wow ... we're seeing this next week, and I can't wait. DD has 'little mermaid' as her character dance (not disneyfied) and it sounds like this will really inspire her. Wow wow and wow again. I was totally captivated and time has never passed so fast. Stunningly beautiful dancing, costumes and music. I laughed and I cried and I want a Seahorse of my own! The way the mermaids were made to swim was incredible and the sea going out and in and creating storms was mesmerising. We saw Dreda Blow as Marilla and she was so beautiful. DD was definitely inspired for her character dance and has been redesigning her costume! ( 😂 ) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrise81 Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Reading these reviews is making me so excited to see this on Sunday.....last performance in Leeds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted December 24, 2017 Author Share Posted December 24, 2017 Northern Ballet feature as "10 Lords a'leaping" in the Yorkshire Evening Post's 12 Days of Christmas feature: https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/12-days-of-christmas-northern-ballet-provides-our-10-leaping-lords-1-8926252 And from twitter: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpsichore Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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