Ballet Cymru - Made in Wales (triple bill at Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadlers Wells)

[zxDaveM]

Just the one performance sadly, so I had to be there tonight (Nov 13th).

 

The first piece was the ever popular love letter from Ballet Cymru to Dylan Thomas, 'Poems and Tiger Eggs'. Dancing to live readings of some of Thomas' poems read (acted almost) by the irrepressible Cerys Matthews, it is a work that in my eyes would be hard not to love. I'm not the biggest fan of dancing to spoken word, but as Cerys was reading live, to live music played by muti-intrumentalist  Arun Ghosh (keyboards, hurdy-gurdy, clarinet), it came out fine. Especially as Cerys has a musicians way of bringing those epic poems to life. The dancing reflected the mood of the words - joyful, contemplative, sorrowful, in a series of solos, duets etc, up to the full company. Choeographed by the company - its dancers and directors (Amy Doughty and Darius James). An utter delight, start to finish

The middle piece, 'Murmurations', was a new one choregraphed by Liam Riddick (another Welsh lad), to music from Charlotte Church (in her indie-band phase). Loved this piece. Staring from solo dancer to duets, then the swoosh of the whole company as they moved around filling the space. Liam really used Charlotte's music to great effect. 

The final piece, 'Isolated Pulses', was from the new resident choregrapher Marcus Jared Willis. To various short electronic pieces, the company shared the space in front of a series of mirrors, somewhat disconcertingly allowing the audience to see themselves at times. Even whilst everone on stage, fleeting solos were exchanged, before synchronous steps performed, on the floor, and at the end on chairs. It was quite a striking piece, showing of the company dancers to great effect.

 

My only small qualm is that 'Ballet' Cymru is becoming more 'Contemporary Dance' Cymru every time I see them (which is sadly less often than I would like), the point shoes are disappearing. The latter two pieces, to my eyes, definitely more contemprary dance (and don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed them) than ballet, and even the first piece wasn't 'classical' ballet. It seems more and more of the small, charming ballet companies are making this conversion, which does make me a little sad

[RosiesDream]

9 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

My only small qualm is that 'Ballet' Cymru is becoming more 'Contemporary Dance' Cymru every time I see them (which is sadly less often than I would like), the point shoes are disappearing. The latter two pieces, to my eyes, definitely more contemprary dance (and don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed them) than ballet, and even the first piece wasn't 'classical' ballet. It seems more and more of the small, charming ballet companies are making this conversion, which does make me a little sad

The performance sounded fascinating, but I share your sadness at the prevalence of contemporary dance, not because I dislike contemporary, but because I love ballet, and hate to see classically-trained dancers not using the skills that have taken them so many years of hard work. I always hope to see ballet democratised, but instead it is becoming more elitist, because it is being sidelined [A general comment, not a criticism of Ballet Cymru]

I can only think it's because of the cost of the costumes and the shoes, which although understandable, just makes ballet more precious because it is becoming so rare

[Pas de Quatre]

Sometimes it is required by the Arts Council to qualify for grants. They never seem to support smaller classical ballet companies.