Hosting Ballet Cymru's "Giselle" Workshop in Leeds 3 Nov 2021

[Terpsichore]

Ballet Cymru will dance Darius James and Amy Doughty's new production of Giselle in Leeds on 4 Nov,  I have not yet seen it live but I watched the premiere online and reviewed it for Terpsichore on 9 July.  In my review I wrote:

"If Ballet Cymru ever offers this choreography as a workshop we [Powerhouse Ballet] would love to learn it.   Once this third wave has subsided we shall learn the Coralli-Perrot-Petipa version of the dance of the wilis but the James and Doughty version would be such fun."

Our wish was granted sooner than we had expected.  The company has agreed to give us a workshop at Yorkshire Dance on 3 Nov between 17:15 and 18:30.

Although Powerhouse Ballet are hosting the event we are not monopolizing it.   It is open to any dancer who is in  or can get to Leeds on Wednesday evening.   My law practice is sponsoring the event so it is free to attendees.  All they have to do is complete this registration form.

After the workshop we shall be holding a little get together in Martha's Room from 18:30 to 20:00 which is open to balletomanes who don't want to take part in the workshop but would like to meet the choreographer and dancers.   As they are Welsh and we are from Yorkshire we shall serve cacen cri, Yorkshire parkin and maybe an Indian treat to celebrate Diwali.   Anybody wishing to attend the reception but not the workshop can register here.

The main event of the get together will be my interview of Darius James and Beth Meadway who danced the lead role at the premiere between 19:00 and 19:30.  For Ballet Cymru's fans throughout the world we are live streaming the interview over Zoom.   Anybody wanting to watch that interview can sign up here.
 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Terpsichore
Correcting a grammatical error and thr wrong date

[alison]

Sounds great, Terpsichore - and thanks for sponsoring it.  I hope you get a good take-up.  I've very much like Ballet Cymru on the rare occasions that I've seen them.

[Terpsichore]

I love that company too, Alison. I think James and Doughty's Cinderella is the bnest much as I love Hampson's for Scottish Ballet and Christopher Wheeldon's for the Dutch National Ballet and English National Ballet.  I also admire their adaptations of Dylan Thomas Child's Christmas to dance, Tir and Romeo a Juliet.  They have a knack of identifying the essentials of the the major works, stripping them down for a small cast on the road and presenting them in a very innovative way. Often they add a contemporary Welsh. The scrap between the Capulets and Montagues in Act 1 of their Romeo and Juliet takes place not in Verona but under a flyover on the banks of the Usk and is broken up not by the duke but by the Heddlu Gwent but it is still Shakespeare and Prokofiev.

I have seen a screening of Giselle and liked it very much.  Isobel Holland, the sweetest young woman you could ever hope to meet in real life, becomes a grisly Myrtha, there are male as well as female wilis oozing out of their tombs. There is an adaptation of the score by Catrin Finch which somehow weaves in familiar Welsh folk tunes.  It is new but not gimmicky. It avoids change for change's sake.

Attendance at all our post lockdown events has been disappointingly low recently despite months of notice and strenuous promotion. On Saturday, we pushed the boat out hiring a teacher from the London Russian Ballet School and a pianist from Northern Ballet but only attracted 6 dancers including me.   I asked the owner of one  of the studios we use whether it was the same for other studio users and she confirmed that it was.  There seem to be many reasons. Some students have found other things to do.  A few have left the area. One or two others have lost their confidence.  Quite a few want to avoid crowds.  

I will let you know how our event goes and you and other subscribers to this website are invited to tune in to my interview with Darius James, Beth Meadway and Andrea Battagia over Zoom.

[alison]

6 hours ago, Terpsichore said:

Attendance at all our post lockdown events has been disappointingly low recently despite months of notice and strenuous promotion. On Saturday, we pushed the boat out hiring a teacher from the London Russian Ballet School and a pianist from Northern Ballet but only attracted 6 dancers including me.   I asked the owner of one  of the studios we use whether it was the same for other studio users and she confirmed that it was.  There seem to be many reasons. Some students have found other things to do.  A few have left the area. One or two others have lost their confidence.  Quite a few want to avoid crowds. 

 

I fear that's the same everywhere, Terpsichore.  Even tickets for major ballet companies in major productions have proved surprisingly hard to shift, let alone talks and classes.  It's not good for anybody.

[Terpsichore]

8 hours ago, alison said:

 

I fear that's the same everywhere, Terpsichore.  Even tickets for major ballet companies in major productions have proved surprisingly hard to shift, let alone talks and classes.  It's not good for anybody.

I regret that I have not felt sufficiently confident to return to the theatre until now. 

Ballet Cymru's Giselle  on Thursday will be the first live performance that I will have seen Ballet West's Swan Lake in Glasgow on 9 Feb 2020 unless you count Fever Ballet's two girls in tutus in Manchester cathedral last July which I don't.  The last shows I saw in London were the Royal Ballet's Onegin and English National Ballet's 70th anniversary gala both on the same day.

I have supported the companies by joining the Friends schemes of all the major British companies except Northern Ballet plus the Dutch National Ballet, Ballet Cymru and Ballet Black and by making occasional donations.  Northern Ballet is different because it no longer has a Friends subscription scheme though it does retain a patrons' scheme.  I have supported that company by attending nearly all its online ballet classes by one of my favourite teachers and with occasional donations.   I have also attended one of its in-studio classes.

I supported ballet generally by holding online classes at least once a month which attracted dancers from as far away as Roumania and Canada as well as the members of Powerhouse Ballet.  Some of those classes were given by performers in Ballet Cymru and other companies.   I pay all my teachers £75 for a 90-minute class plus expenses.   I also held the Stage Door Zoom  interviews with several of my favourite dancers including Sarah Kundi and Damian Johnson until the London Ballet Circle started to do the same thing on a bigger scale.

Much as I love ballet and understand the importance of live performance I shall be 73 in February and have a condition that would make me vulnerable to covid.   I have taken all sensible precautions to avoid getting it.   I had my booster shot on Friday and I am losing weight.   I hope to make it to Amsterdam to see my beloved Dutch National Ballet and also to London, Birmingham and Glasgow to see my other favourite companies within the next few months. 

[alison]

Best of luck, Terpsichore.  (Best of luck to all of us, in fact).

[Terpsichore]

On 02/11/2021 at 11:22, alison said:

Best of luck, Terpsichore.  (Best of luck to all of us, in fact).

 

Thanks.   I shall do short reviews of today's workshop and tomorrow's show for BalletcoForum in addition to reviews for Terpsichore if you like.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Terpsichore said:

 

Thanks.   I shall do short reviews of today's workshop and tomorrow's show for BalletcoForum in addition to reviews for Terpsichore if you like.

 

Yes please!

[Terpsichore]

We had a very good evening at Yorkshire Dance yesterday.   We could muster only a handful of attendees on our side but they included some our most able and enthusiastic members.  The workshop was held at an awkward time but 17:15 to 18:30 was the only slot I could get in the whole of Leeds. And yesterday was the only day on which the company was free to give a workshop in the North of England.   It will perform at the Pontio Centre in Bangor on 27 Nov and I had thought of hosting the workshop there but that date clashes with our own "Waltz of the Flowers" workshop.  Also, Bangor is a very long trek for all our members east of the Wirral.

Robbie Moorcroft who dances one of the "Zombies" (the equivalent of the "Wilis") gave us a basic class to warm us up.  Beth Meadway who dances Giselle taught us part of one of her solos whre she is torn between Albrecht and Hilarion.  Andrea Battagia who dances Albrecht and Izzie Holland who dances Myrtha also worked with us.   The workshop was shorter than usual and we started late because parking in Leeds has become a nightmare since the West Yorkshire Playhouse redevelopment but it was a delight to work with highly trained and very accomplished dancers.

 

After the class we joined the rest of the company in Martha's Room.  I had collected some Welsh goodies that are not readily available in England from Bodnant the day before and Katherine Wong surprised us with some delicious Chinese cooking.  I had arranged a video conference over Zoom for those who could not attend the workshop or get together.   We were joined by Sarah Lambert from Birmingham who contributed to our discussion.   The artistic director, Darius James, told us how he came to create the ballet.  Beth Meadway discussed the role of Giselle and her interpretation of it.   Andrea Battagia discussed his interpretation of Albrecht's role.  As the story is reset in post-industrial Southeast Wales where there are not many lords of the manner he was an intriguing outsider but still a rat.   I contrasted the conventional ending (and indeed that of James and Doughty) to Dada Masilo's which is much more understandable in my book.

Ballet Cymru's genius is that it takes the essentials of the great ballets and remakes them for a small cast on the road.  It had done that particularly successfully with Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and Beauty and the Beast.   I think its re-imagined Giselle will be a similar success. 

When I get time I shall publish a more detailed report on Powerhouse Ballet's website and Terpsichore.