Northern Ballet 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala - Leeds Grand Theatre, 4th January

[ChrisG]

Wonderful night tonight at the Grand Theatre, Leeds with Northern Ballet's 50th Anniversary Gala.  Not a single tutu in sight and just for once at a gala a Petipa, Ashton, Macmillan and Balanchine-free zone, and none the worse for that!  The dancers were a mixture of current and former Northern Ballet dancers and some well chosen guests from ENB, RB, BRB, SB, Phoenix Dance and Joffrey Ballet.I'll let those more familiar with NB's history comment on how well they covered the breadth of their work, but I particularly liked the excerpts from 1984 (with Laura Morera replacing the originally advertised Lauren Cuthbertson), Jane Eyre, The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas and Casanova, and the two outside excerpts, Darrell's Ruckert Songs from Scottish Ballet and Windrush from Phoenix Dance Company.  For those interested here's the complete list of what was done and who by.

 

WORK	SECTION	CHOREOGRAPHER	DANCER	ROLE	COMPANY
The Great Gatsby	Charleston	David Nixon	Artists of the Northern Ballet		Northern Ballet
Five Rückert Songs	Solo	Peter Darrell	Marge Hendricks		Scottish Ballet
Cinderella	Fireside Duet	Christopher Gable	Ellise de Andrade	Cinderella	Central School of Ballet
			Matteo Zecca	Prince	Central School of Ballet
A Simple Man	The Golden Room	Gillian Lynne	Tamara Rojo	Mrs Lowry	English National Ballet
			Jeremy Kerridge	Lowry	Northern Ballet
A Christmas Carol	Belle & Young Scrooge Duet	Massimo Moricone	Antoinette Brooks-Daw	Belle	Northern Ballet
			Jonathan Hanks	Young Scrooge	Northern Ballet
Romeo and Juliet	Balcony Duet	Massimo Moricone	Federico Bonelli	Romeo	Royal Ballet
			Abigail Prudames	Juliet	Northern Ballet
Dracula	Dracula & Harker Duet	Michael Pink / Christopher Gable	Sean Bates	Harker	Northern Ballet
			Mlindi Kulashe	Dracula	Northern Ballet
Carmen	Bedroom Duet	Didy Veldman	Minju Kang	Carmen	Northern Ballet
			Lorenzo Trossello	José	Northern Ballet
Madame Butterfly	Wedding Night Duet	David Nixon	Momoko Hirata	Butterfly	Birmingham Royal Ballet
			César Morales	Pinkerton	Birmingham Royal Ballet
Casanova	Masquerade	Kenneth Tindall	Steven Wheeler	Casanova	Northern Ballet
			Artists of the Northern Ballet		Northern Ballet
Windrush: Movement of the People	Duet	Sharon Watson	Aaron Chaplin		Phoenix Dance Theatre
			Vanessa Vince-Pang		Phoenix Dance Theatre
1984	Countryside Duet	Jonathan Watkins	Laura Morera	Julia	Royal Ballet
			Ryoichi Hirano	Winston	Royal Ballet
Jane Eyre	Proposal Duet	Cathy Marston	Amanda Assucena	Jane Eyre	Joffrey Ballet
			Greig Matthews	Mr Rochester	Joffrey Ballet
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas	Twin Souls Duet	Daniel de Andrade	Filippo Di Vilio	Shmuel	Northern Ballet
			Matthew Koon	Bruno	Northern Ballet
Casanova	Casanova & Bellino Duet	Kenneth Tindall	Dreda Blow	Bellino	Northern Ballet
			Giuliano Contadini	Casanova	Northern Ballet
Wuthering Heights	On the Moors	David Nixon	Tobias Batley	Heathcliff	Northern Ballet
			Harris Beattie	Young Heathcliff	Northern Ballet
			Martha Leebolt	Cathy	Northern Ballet
			Rachael Gillespie	Young Cathy	Northern Ballet
Cleopatra	Cup Duet	David Nixon	Abigail Prudames	Cleopatra	Northern Ballet
			Joseph Taylor	Mark Anthony	Northern Ballet
A Midsummer Night's Dream	Jive	David Nixon	Artists of the Northern Ballet		Northern Ballet

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by ChrisG
Formatting

[Bruce Wall]

Thanks so for this, Chris.  A fittingly festive treat:  Just so many compelling dishes to seduce the senses; just so many bewitching provocateurs to grip, intrigue and enchant the palat.   So wish I could have been there to taste the reality of these exhilarating delights but ever grateful to have been able to live to see the origins of so much of this 'eventful history' unfold.  

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Bruce Wall

[Jan McNulty]

WHAT A NIGHT!!!

 

Fans of Northern Ballet were jam-packed into the Grand Theatre in Leeds last night for a celebratory trip down memory lane and it was just wonderful!

 

The evening opened with the Charleston scene from Gatsby.  This scene always makes me want to be at that party and last night was no exception - the dancers looked as though they were having a ball and it was a great way to start the celebration.

 

The first half of the evening, as well as the danced excerpts had some filmed speeches from Robert de Warren, Ursula Hageli, Michael Pink and Carole Gable as well as a couple of filmed excerpts.  The filmed speeches and David Nixon's compering of the evening gave us a real flavour of the history of the company.  It was also lovely that Christopher Hampson gave a speech about his (very) early association with Northern Ballet and explaining the joint beginnings of Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet within the environs of Western Ballet Theatre.  A fabulous surprise was Jayne Regan being present to take a bow and her being carried off by David Nixon!

 

Apart from the opening Gatsby Charleston and the love duet from Madame Butterfly the danced excerpts were all from the pre-Nixon period.  In a way it's a bit hard to think logically about these works as they all hold memories and were all wonderfully performed.

 

Act 2 covered the Nixon era ... quite rightly as he is the longest serving Artistic Director of the company by a long way.

 

Throughout the evening we could hear people whispering "oh we need to see that again" (and we were just as guilty!).  As gala presentations go I thought it was a great idea to have the guests dancing items from the company's back catalogue ... it made it a very personal evening for both the company and the assembled fans.  The guests did the rep proud!

 

As ChrisG has put the programme in his first post I won't bother going through everything.  Inevitably, and probably unfairly given the quality of performances throughout, I had some personal highlights:

 

• Abigail Prudames and Federico Bonnelli (Royal Ballet) in the balcony duet from the Gable/Moricone Romeo and Juliet.
• Antoinette Brooks-Daw and Jonathan Hanks in the Young Scrooge duet from A Christmas Carol
• Momoko Hirata and Cesar Morales of BRB closing act 1 with an utterly sublime performance of the love duet from Madame Butterfly
• The masques ball from Casanova (thank you for the ear worms!) with Steven Wheeler (ex NB stalwart) just perfect as Bragadin
• Laura Morera and Ryo Hirano so powerful in the forest duet from 1984.
• Ex-dancers Dreda Blow and Giuliano Contadini as Bellino and Casanove
• Abigail Prudames and Joseph Taylor as Cleopatra and Mark Antony

 

Of course my main highlight was Martha Leebolt and Toby Batley as Cathy and Heathcliff.  It was sheer magic to see them on the stage at Leeds again.

 

The evening ended with the jive section from the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was danced with gusto and huge fun by company members and Keiko Amemori, Hiro Takahashi, Pippa Moore, Kenny Tindall and Vicky Sibson.  At the end when, in performance, Puck speaks his final speech (If we shadows have offended...) Puck's cane was handed to David Nixon who made that final speech most beautifully as all the dancers came on stage and held hands.  A most wonderful end to a most wonderful evening.

 

Dance Europe captured the final moments and posted on Instagram:

 

 

 

[sunrise81]

We were there last night.....front row...with my 11 year old daughter who is on the Northern Ballet CAT scheme. She loved seeing all the company dancers on stage, and seeing Mr Nixon on stage too. She particularly loved Mlindi as Dracula and the jive scene from Casanova. As well as seeing Tamaro Rojo as she had watched her in Giselle on TV. And finally seeing Jeremy Kerridge dancing as he has taught her on a couple of occasions. We loved it!!! 

 

[Jan McNulty]

Donald Hutera of the Times enjoyed the Gala:

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/northern-ballet-50th-anniversary-gala-review-what-a-swell-party-this-is-zjw8dtn9l?shareToken=e67096046ff540dd390706f8f2053357

Edited January 6, 2020 by Ian Macmillan
To substitute a Share URL

[Jan McNulty]

Dance Europe has put a post of some of the individual curtain calls from the Gala on Instagram:

 

 

[Terpsichore]

While I enjoyed the whole show, my personal highlights were Five Rückert Songs danced by Marge Hendrick and A Simple Man with Jeremy Kerridge as the painter and his mother.

 

The reason why the first of those works was a personal highlight is that Western Theatre Ballet moved to Glasgow in my second year at St Andrews. John Steer who later chaired the company was our Professor of Fine Arts. He had got to know them at Bristol and he may well have been instrumental in their move to Glasgow. He introduced me and other members of the St Andrews Dance Society to their director Peter Darrell and the dancers.  They toured Scotland quite a lot in those days and we watched them whenever they came anywhere near St Andrews. On the day the 15 Feb 1971 the day the UK adopted decimal currency they actually performed in our Buchanan Theatre.  To see Marge Hendrick dance a work that Darrell had created for Elaine McDonald who was one of my favourite ballerinas many decades later brought tears to my eyes.  Scottish Theatre Ballet was the first company that I got to know and love and Scottish Ballet still has a special place in my affection.   Northern Ballet, like Scottish Ballet, traced its roots to Bristol and Christopher Hampson who followed David Nixon at the start of the show reminded the audience of the two companies' shared heritage.

The reason why A Simple Man is special is that it was the first work by Northern Ballet that I ever saw.  Christopher Gable and Moira Shearer were in the leading roles and it was the last time I ever saw them.   I saw the show shortly after I had accepted a tenancy at a good set of Chancery chambers in Manchester.  I was born in Manchester though I had attended school in London, university in Scotland and graduate school in Los Angeles and was happy to come home but my late spouse was a Londoner and had serious misgivings about living in the North.  We were both keen regular ballet goers and feared that remoteness from the House and the Wells would be unbearable.   There was of course the Halle and Nick Hytner's Royal Exchange but that hardly made up for it.   Watching Lynne's brilliant choreography performed by two of our favourite artists reassured us that there was a dance company in Manchester that was every bit as good in ballet as the Halle was in music and the Royal Exchange in plays.  I have followed and supported all three institutions ever since.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Terpsichore
correcting grammar

[Darlex]

Lovely post, Terpsichore. 

[Terpsichore]

Thanks very much. Darlex.

Marge's performance was a shortcut to a very special part of my youth.   I took my first ballet lessons when I was an undergraduate and I developed a love and appreciation of dance that has never diminished.   

 

It was while I was at St Andrews that I read with pride in Dance and Dancers about a new company called Northern Dance Theatre which had performed three short ballets at the university theatre in my birthplace. on 26 Nov 1969.   One of those dancers was Terence Etheridge who created the first ballet for Powerhouse Ballet, an amateur company that I founded in the North of England just under 2 years ago.

[Jan McNulty]

Northern Ballet has published a gallery of photographs from the gala on the company website.  Happy memories...

 

https://northernballet.com/50th-anniversary-celebration-gala/photos

[Jan McNulty]

As part of the company's Pay as You Feel digital season Northern Ballet has just released a second excerpt from January's 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala.  This excerpt is SHEER BLISS!!!