Northern Ballet ‘Gentleman Jack’

[San Perregrino]

From an email just received:

In 2026, we'll be bringing you a new ballet based on a Yorkshire icon. Get ready for Gentleman Jack.   Gentleman Jack, the story of Yorkshire icon Anne Lister whose diaries tell of a woman who lived as she desired and blazed her own trail.   Inspiring biographies, novels, a hit BBC/HBO series and now a new ballet told by our masters of storytelling and performed to new live music, Gentleman Jack is next on your watch list.

Find out more about Gentleman Jack

Gentleman Jack will open in Leeds before touring to Sheffield, Nottingham, Salford, London and Norwich in spring 2026 - on sale details will be announced in spring 2025 so watch this space!

Gentleman Jack will be created by Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa • ComposerClaire Cowan • Dramaturg Clare Croft • Lighting and Set Designer Christopher Ash • Costume Designer Louise Flanagan • Creative Consultant Sally Wainwright • Assistant Choreographer Jemima Brown • Music Advisor Martin Georgiev   Gentleman Jack is a co-production with Finnish National Ballet

Edited Tuesday at 13:48 by San Perregrino

[Bruce Wall]

This sounds SO exciting.  I SO look forward to seeing this.  Have much admired the work I've seen Annabelle Lopez Ochoa do.  

So adored Broken Wings - surely one of the best things done by ENB under Tamara's inspirational directorship - enjoyed much of Scottish Ballet's Streetcar (if only I not seen the Neumeier take I think I would have been even more enthusiastic) - also a glorious non-narrative piece for Dance Theater of Harlem and a delightful one for Ballet Hispanico.  Live music TOO.  ONCE AGAIN - Well done, Mr. Bonelli.   (Also hoping for a revival soon of Tiler Peck's and Benjamin Ella's stunning ballets for NB - and that incredible R&J you've just finished.  You are doing VERY WELL in a most challenged and challenging national clime.)  

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 14:17 by Bruce Wall

[art_enthusiast]

Very glad this with be touring to London!

[SheilaC]

I do so agree with Bruce that Lopez Ochoa is a wonderful choreographer. Her narrative ballets are clear and focused, no padding, no need to read explanatory notes like some choreographers we could all mention. Relationships are revealed through expressive choreography. She has choreographed for many companies, the one I have closest links to is the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, for which she was a sympathetic collaborator. Her Streetcar ballet for Scottish is a masterpiece.

An inspired choice of subject  (Northern woman) and choreographer by Federico. I note that most of the creators involved are women- very appropriate, given the subject matter. The dancers of Northern will perform it to the hilt- an amazing role for some of their female dancers.

 

[Tango Dancer]

I am really pleased about this.  It looks like a great subject for a ballet and Northern has some really good female dancers now.  Dominique Larose, Sarah Chun and Amber Lewis all would be really good as Anne Lister.  I just hope they choose interesting music and pick something suitable.  

 

I think this is really promising and should be interesting.  it's good to have something new for the company alongside revivals of some of the older works such as Romeo and Juliet and Jane Eyre.  Federico seems to be making some good choices.  

[Jan McNulty]

The official press release.  Sorry for late publication but I was at a supporters' lunch in Halifax where the announcement was made.

 

 

For immediate release Tuesday 1 October     Northern Ballet announces new original work: Gentleman Jack                      Northern Ballet will debut a groundbreaking new full-length production based on the life of Anne Lister in 2026.   Northern Ballet is thrilled to announce the creation of a major new full-length ballet based on the extraordinary life of Anne Lister, or 'Gentleman Jack' (1791-1840), the historical Yorkshire figure often referred to as 'the first modern lesbian' whose diaries have captivated audiences around the world. Gentleman Jack will open in Leeds before touring to Sheffield, Nottingham, Salford, London and Norwich in spring 2026 with live music.   As Northern Ballet's first large-scale commission since 2021 and the first under Artistic Director Federico Bonelli, Gentleman Jack marks a significant milestone for the organisation. This new ballet will explore the narrative of this fiercely independent woman who defied societal norms and expectations, presenting a unique opportunity to tell her story through the powerful medium of dance.   Anne Lister's remarkable life inspired the hugely popular and critically acclaimed BBC/HBO series, Gentleman Jack, written by Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones. The series, which premiered in 2019, brought her story to a global audience and highlighted her relationships with other women. Now, Northern Ballet will be the first to bring this narrative centring on a gay woman to the classical ballet stage in a groundbreaking production.  A carefully selected artistic team will ensure that Anne Lister's story is staged with respect and maximum impact including Sally Wainwright, series-writer of Gentleman Jack; choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and New Zealand-based composer Claire Cowan who will create a new score for Gentleman Jack.   Artistic Director Federico Bonelli said: "Northern Ballet is renowned for our expert storytelling and mastery of ballet technique, and this production will be no exception. Like many, I first became aware of Anne Lister through the BBC drama in 2019 and have been fascinated by how the traditionally gendered language of classical ballet could be adapted to convey her story.    As an organisation, our aim is to break down barriers to world class ballet for larger and more diverse audiences. It is my vision to diversify the stories represented in ballet, and add to the landscape of the dance sector through stories that connect with audiences. Anne Lister’s story, the story of someone many call the first modern lesbian, is a perspective we rarely see represented through ballet. With her connection to our home in Yorkshire it feels like a perfect fit, and I am thrilled that Annabelle Lopez Ochoa will choreograph this ballet alongside a talented creative team."   Creative Consultant Sally Wainwright said: "It's so exciting to see Anne Lister's influence and legacy continue to expand and for her life and writing to reach new audiences. What a thrilling opportunity to present Anne Lister to the world in a brand new way."   Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa said: "I’m so excited for the opportunity to create this ballet, a piece that I hope will resonate with audience members on a personal level. Anne Lister's story, as revealed through her diaries, offers an incredible depth and richness that are fascinating to explore through ballet, particularly with Northern Ballet’s dancers who are renowned for their ability to combine compelling storytelling with the classical technique."   Composer Claire Cowan said: "The discovery and translation of Anne Lister's secret diary is a phenomenal insight into queer history. Her life and story is a very exciting one to explore, especially through the artform of ballet where it is a rare delight to see a queer female character, let alone a queer female love story based on real life. Being commissioned by Northern Ballet is such an amazing opportunity for the whole creative team to come together and create something which reaches a really wide audience. I’m looking forward to learning more about Anne and exploring how all the complexities of her character can be portrayed through music to heighten the impact of the choreography and storytelling."   Dramaturg Clare Croft said: "It's fascinating to be delving into all the nuances of how we will tell a story—through ballet—of a more masculine woman, a woman who loved women. In this ballet, it’s not just that such a woman—a woman who refused to marry a man—is on stage, but that she’s at the centre of the story. Queer women get a shot at seeing one version of ourselves on a ballet stage. That shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is."   International Partnership Northern Ballet is proud to partner with Finnish National Opera and Ballet to deliver Gentleman Jackinternationally. Finnish National Ballet, established in 1922, is the only full-sized professional ballet company in Finland and will present Gentleman Jack in Helsinki in April 2028.    Community Engagement Alongside the creation of Gentleman Jack, Northern Ballet's Learning team will launch a comprehensive schools education program, exploring themes of identity, allyship and compassion, drawing inspiration from Scottish Ballet's Safe to Be Me program. By supporting young people to challenge prejudice, celebrate diversity and express themselves, Northern Ballet hopes to make a lasting impact.   Further details of Gentleman Jack's tour will be announced in spring 2025. To find out more about the ballet and sign up to receive the latest behind the scenes content and updates, visit northernballet.com/gentleman-jack.               NOTES TO EDITORS   Gentleman Jack Creative Team Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Composer Claire Cowan Dramaturg Clare Croft Lighting and Set Designer Christopher Ash Costume Designer Louise Flanagan Creative Consultant Sally Wainwright Assistant Choreographer Jemima Brown Music Advisor Martin Georgiev   Northern Ballet   Bold and innovative in its approach, Northern Ballet is one of the UK’s leading and widest touring ballet companies, dedicated to creating stories that connect.   A champion for the cultural exports of the North, the Leeds-based Company is committed to bringing ballet to as many people and places as possible, under the leadership of Artistic Director Federico Bonelli. Northern Ballet’s Company of dancers performs a combination of its full-length ballets and specially created ballets for children at more than thirty venues annually.      The Academy of Northern Ballet provides exceptional classical ballet training for hundreds of students both locally in Yorkshire and to students who travel nationally and internationally to train with the faculty.   Audiences can also enjoy Northern Ballet’s work on screen through their digital dance platform. Visit northernballet.com/digital-dance to discover more.    Finnish National Ballet Established in 1922, the Finnish National Ballet, under the current Artistic Director Javier Torres López, is Finland’s only full-sized professional ballet company. Today, it boasts an international ensemble of 75 dancers in the main company and 14 in the youth company.     The company's repertoire is a mixture of high-class classical ballets and contemporary dance productions by renowned and innovative choreographers. This, along with the high artistic and technical level of its dancers and the company’s modern, human approach towards work ethics, values, and health, contributes to its unique identity.    The Finnish National Ballet also hosts a ballet school.

[jmhopton]

Interesting to hear it's touring with live music. Does this mean the touring orchestra problem has been resolved or will it just be a small orchestra? Still an improvement on recorded music and a welcome development. 

 

[Jan McNulty]

8 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Interesting to hear it's touring with live music. Does this mean the touring orchestra problem has been resolved or will it just be a small orchestra? Still an improvement on recorded music and a welcome development. 

 

 

As the company collapsed the orchestra due to its financial position it could be that live music is being performed when the company can support it which, in theory, may not be all performances.

 

Jane Eyre, for example, is being performed using the scaled down orchestra that was used during its premier season which was at much smaller theatres.

 

We have to live in hopes that the finances are being resolved so the company will be using live music from the spring tour next year.

[Jan McNulty]

I find it interesting that Gentleman Jack is a co-production with Finnish National Ballet.

 

Although some previous productions have been taken on by other companies I think this is a first.

[Emeralds]

@jmhopton for this season, Romeo and Juliet (Sept - Oct 2024) is danced to a recording, the Three Short Ballets mixed bill (Sept  2024 and Jan 2025) is dancing to recordings, and A Christmas Carol (Nov 2024- Jan 2025) is also danced to a recording. Their children's ballet for this season, Hansel and Gretel (7 days in March, 6-7 days each in April and May) uses only several musicians and not the whole Sinfonia. Jane Eyre (March-May 2025) will be the first programme to use the orchestra, at the end of the 2024-25 season.

 

Last season they staged their mixed bill at Linbury Theatre with a recording for one third of the programme (the Leeds run had the string quartet and pianists for the entire programme). 

 

Basically, Northern Ballet no longer have their own orchestra the way RB have ROH Orchestra, BRB have RB Sinfonia, ENB have ENB Philharmonic and Scottish Ballet have Scottish Ballet Orchestra.  NB Sinfonia is now an ensemble in name only- a group of musicians hired on an ad hoc basis per gig. The musicians have said that they have gone on to do other jobs to pay mortgage/rent, bills, transport bills, food etc. They will rejoin Northern Ballet when they are asked to next spring, but NB is not  offering work nor paying them from July 2024 to Feb 2025. Some have had to leave NB Sinfonia and their positions are still unfilled.

[Jan McNulty]

43 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

@jmhopton for this season, Romeo and Juliet (Sept - Oct 2024) is danced to a recording, the Three Short Ballets mixed bill (Sept  2024 and Jan 2025) is dancing to recordings, and A Christmas Carol (Nov 2024- Jan 2025) is also danced to a recording. Their children's ballet for this season, Hansel and Gretel (7 days in March, 6-7 days each in April and May) uses only several musicians and not the whole Sinfonia. Jane Eyre (March-May 2025) will be the first programme to use the orchestra, at the end of the 2024-25 season.

 

Last season they staged their mixed bill at Linbury Theatre with a recording for one third of the programme (the Leeds run had the string quartet and pianists for the entire programme). 

 

Basically, Northern Ballet no longer have their own orchestra the way RB have ROH Orchestra, BRB have RB Sinfonia, ENB have ENB Philharmonic and Scottish Ballet have Scottish Ballet Orchestra.  NB Sinfonia is now an ensemble in name only- a group of musicians hired on an ad hoc basis per gig. The musicians have said that they have gone on to do other jobs to pay mortgage/rent, bills, transport bills, food etc. They will rejoin Northern Ballet when they are asked to next spring, but NB is not  offering work nor paying them from July 2024 to Feb 2025. Some have had to leave NB Sinfonia and their positions are still unfilled.

 

 

@Emeralds - this is not entirely correct.

 

The mixed programme last year was the first time any of the mixed programmes at Quarry Hill have had live music and it was only for one piece not all 3.

 

It is absolutely clear on the Northern Ballet website which performances will be accompanied by live music going forward for anyone who is not sure.

 

I heard yesterday that one reason R&J was performed with the orchestra in the Spring tour was because of the successful fundraising campaign to help remount the production.

 

As you will also have no doubt read in my post above, although Jane Eyre will have live accompaniment it is only the original version of the score which has about 12 musicians.

 

I think you will also find that the Scottish Ballet orchestra is made up of free-lancers too and I assume they are only used when needed.

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

 

@Emeralds - this is not entirely correct.

 

The mixed programme last year was the first time any of the mixed programmes at Quarry Hill have had live music and it was only for one piece not all 3.

Oh wow! Thanks for the information - so in fact Linbury had more live music? We had live music for the Benjamin Ella and Hans van Manen ballets (one violinist and one pianist for Ella's ballet, and a different pianist for Adagio Hammerklavier). Which piece at Quarry Hill had live music- was it only Adagio Hammerklavier? 

 

The last ballet required a string quartet but violinist Geoffrey Allan was already there in London for the first piece so they only needed 3 more musicians, not four more, and it seemed, well, very odd that the company splashed out on two different pianists (I play myself and it's no problem for one pianist to play in three ballets never mind two)- I don't understand the logic of paying for 2 different pianists if they can't afford 3 more string players for the last ballet. 

 

I was under the impression from reviews that said Leeds had live music that it meant live for all three ballets- had it meant for only one, I would have described it as "partially live music". I and people in my section I chatted to would have been more than happy to pay more for our tickets (we did feel that the full view seats for that programme were too low and shouldn't have been the same price as the semi restricted view seats) for the company to afford 3 more string players to come to play in London and it definitely affected the quality of the performance- not the dancing itself which was excellent. It just felt more flat and less alive.

 

The tickets in the central block were £25 on the upper circle level and £45 I think in stalls and circle, some further back might have been £35 i think. Given how close to the stage  they are, they could have easily been £40 in upper circle and £60 in stalls and circle (that's dress circle level) in the middle blocks with unrestricted view, £50 for the unrestricted view £35 seats, and they would still have sold out with that programme and the live music (which for the first two ballets was simply sublime). And of course, any extra income would help NB at the moment. 

 

Oh, with regard the Jane Eyre score- 12 musicians is fine. From the point of view of the music, if the ballet was created for NB to have only 12 musicians, that's what it should be- one doesn't expect it to be puffed up for full orchestra. In the same way that I don't expect Adagio Hammerklavier to be danced to an orchestra, since Beethoven wrote it for one piano and van Manen wanted it kept that way. It's the alteration of Romeo and Juliet, Intimate Pages, Four Last Songs and A Christmas Carol to recordings that is, unfortunately, less enjoyable and will eventually dent Northern Ballet's standing among dance companies. 

 

It's a difficult situation they are in because if costs of living, touring and everything else hadn't gone up since mid 2022, they would still be able to tour and perform in the same manner that they have previously done, even though RB abandoned their domestic tours/visits years ago, ENB had to reduce a lot of theirs, and BRB is also now feeling the squeeze without the funding from Birmingham Council they previously had. I would still like to see fundraising initiatives to earn more income rather than the cuts to their live music provision. The article you shared was intriguing- is Arts Council England forbidding them from fundraising and insisting that they cut back their Sinfonia performances or risk losing all their ACE funding? That article raised so many searching questions.

 

What's sadder is that NB's standing was going up and up with the announcement that Adagio Hammerklavier and a Tiler Peck commission were on the cards as well as the revival of the Gable/Moricone R&J. Then this has pushed them back down after their initial progress. Disheartening for them and everyone rooting for them. 

 

Full pay and benefits contracts as opposed to freelance contracts are obviously preferable but Scottish Ballet Orchestra musicians at least do know where their regular performance commitments are (eg Nutcracker, full length ballets etc). Unfortunately the loss of live music for more than half the season hurts a dance company more than the musicians. 

Edited Wednesday at 16:19 by Emeralds

[Jan McNulty]

47 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

 

 

What's sadder is that NB's standing was going up and up with the announcement that Adagio Hammerklavier and a Tiler Peck commission were on the cards as well as the revival of the Gable/Moricone R&J. Then this has pushed them back down after their initial progress. Disheartening for them and everyone rooting for them. 

 

 

Your opinion - obviously not the opinion of a more or less sold out Stratford audience.

 

We haven't yet had a performance on tour at one of the company's regular theatres so I don't want to express an opinion for those audiences.  Christmas Carol is still selling very well in Sheffield for example.

[Emeralds]

Ah well, never mind, @Jan McNulty- the wheels have been set in motion now. It was a good decision to tour Romeo and Juliet, which is a box office certainty in ballet, contemporary dance and theatre nowadays whichever production it is, and to take it to Stratford upon Avon. A Christmas Carol, with the reputation of Dickens' story and the films. has done very well in panto, comedy, theatre etc at Christmas so it's a good choice to revive the ballet version this year while others are performing Nutcracker and Cinderella. 

Edited Wednesday at 18:02 by Emeralds