Northern Ballet - Wuthering Heights - Spring 2015

[Jan McNulty]

Just a brief note.

 

I've had a splendid day in Sheffield today.  This afternoon Friends of the Company were able to watch the dress rehearsal, followed by a facilitated discussion about the novel and its translation into a ballet.  It was a superb event.

 

Tonight was the first performance of the run led by an incandescent Martha Leebolt and Toby Batley.  It was a very special performance indeed and it was a privilege to be in the audience.  The whole Company rose to the occasion and looked magnificent!

 

I'm seeing the two performances tomorrow so more anon...

 

 

 

 

[Terpsichore]

On Saturday Northern Ballet acknowledged its northernness by performing Jonathan Watkins's A Northern Trilogy (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). It did so again last night at the Lyceum in Sheffield with David Nixon's Wuthering Heights. I've seen quite a lot of Northern Ballet lately: two performances of Romeo and Juliet on 7 and 12 March 2015 (see Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way 8 March 2015 and Leebolt's Juliet 13 March 2015), the Sapphire gala on 14 March 2015 and a rehearsal and performance of Wuthering Heights yesterday. I enjoyed all those performances but the one that I appreciated most was last night's Wuthering Heights.

That is probably because I attended the rehearsal and a discussion in The Crucible bar afterwards. I have only read Emily Brontë's novel once and that was decades ago. While I acknowledge its greatness this sort of work is not my favourite literary genre. I read the book purely out of homage to its author and deference to its reputation and not because I wanted to. I found it very hard going and was glad to reach the end. I much prefer her sister's work, particularly Shirley and Villette not to mention the work of other contemporary authors. Because Wuthering Heights was not my favourite novel I was not tempted to see see the ballet on the previous times it had been performed. I have to confess that I put off buying a ticket until after I had seen the rehearsal and it was entirely on the strength of the rehearsal that I decided to stay for the evening. Had I come to last night's performance without seeing the rehearsal and attending the discussion I would have been unprepared and might not have understood and enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

The ballet's synopsis is not quite as I remember the novel and not as I had expected it to be. I had feared that it would start with Cathy's tapping at Lockwood's window and that it turn out to be somewhat other worldly and creepy like Giselle. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was nothing like that. There was a momentary projection of Cathy's image in the first scene but that was no more spooky than the flickering image of Odile in Act III of Swan Lake.

 

No. The ballet is a lot more subtle than that. It is very much about relationships - between Cathy and Heathcliff and Edgar; Cathy and Heathcliff and Hindley; Heathcliff and Cathy; and Isabella and Heathcliff and Hindley. It is also set in two timelines - the childhood of Cathy, Heathcliff and Hindley and their adulthood - with plenty of flashbacks. As a result Nixon has created a young Cathy and an adult Cathy and a young Heathcliff and an adult Heathcliff. There are scenes when the young Cathy danced with adult Cathy and the young Heathcliff with the older Heathcliff. The ballet ends with the adult Heathcliff kneeling in the falling snow beneath a single spotlight with the young Heathcliff and Cathy playing around him. It was very arresting. There are, of course, other major roles for Hindley, Edgar Linton, his sister Isabella and Ellen Dean.

In the rehearsal young Heathcliff was danced by Kevin Poeung, adult Heathcliff by Isaac Lee-Baker, young Cathy by Rachael Gillespie, adult Cathy by Dreda Blow, Hindley by Mlindi Kulashe, Edgar by Nicola Gervasi, Isabella by Jessica Morgan and Ellen by Victoria Sibson. From where I was sitting in the middle of row R of the stalls it appeared that we got Jeremy Curnier as young Heathcliff, Tobias Batley as adult Heathcliff, Rachael Gillespie again as young Cathy, Martha Leebolt as adult Cathy, Hironao Takehashi as Edgar and Hannah Bateman as Isabella in the evening performance and that was confirmed in the cast list. But the cast list said that Jeremy Curnier was also Hindley which can't be right and that "Samantha Moore" was dancing Ellen. I have never heard of a Samantha Moore but I do know Pippa. Clad in a mop cap and 19th century garb I could not identify her positively but the role required a strong character dancer which Moore proved herself to be par excellence when she danced the nurse in Romeo and Juliet a few days earlier. I can't think who else it might have been*.

Yesterday I enjoyed watching Gillespie twice. I have raved her many times already and probably embarrassed her to distraction for which I apologize profusely but she is one of three graces of British ballet who delight me in a very special way (see Not too sure about Fairies but I certainly believe in Rachael Gillespie 21 Dec 2014). The others are Ruth Brill of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Sarah Kundi of English National Ballet. I don't know what it is about those artists. None of them is yet a principal though I am sure that is only a matter of time but when one of them dances I float. Sibley had that effect on me 40 years ago though surprisingly not so much Fonteyn. Among male dancers Xander Parish delights me in a very similar way as does Damien Johnson of Ballet Black.

Yesterday evening I saw three of my other favourites, Batley, Leebolt and Bateman and they all danced magnificently. So, too, did Takahashi who in my humble opinion expressed considerable nobility as Edgar. In the discussion in The Crucible Janet McNulty who must know the ballet very well described him as "a wimp" and that was the consensus but that was not how Takehashi's danced him.

 

It was difficult to get into the ballet in the rehearsal because there were occasional stops and starts and corrections but I am sure I shall be delighted by Lee-Baker and Blow when I see them. Sibson was an impressive Ellen in the rehearsal as was Moore or whoever danced Ellen in the evening. The evening performance moved a lady in the centre of the front row who looked very like Janet McNulty to rise to her feet and she was joined by her companion. "Good old Janet", I thought. "The dancers deserve it" and I stood up too. I don't know who else did but I am sure there would have been some some.

So yesterday's pleasure was quite serendipitous. In case you are wondering why I decided to stay in Sheffield when I had many other commitments it was a combination of attractions. First, there was Claude-Michel Schönberg's score for which Nixon created spectacular lifts and jumps. Some of those lifts were quite innovative and I guess very uncomfortable for the ballerinas. Both Cathy and Isabella were grabbed by the throats and bundled like laundry in pas de deux with Heathcliff. Returning to the score I found it enchanting from the opening oboes. Next there was the choreography that I have already described. Blow and Lee-Baker had been magnificent and I was eager to see what Batley and Leebolt would make of it. Then there were Ali Allen's sets and David Grill's lighting. I have lived in the Pennines for 30 years among the royds, below enormous skies and know the sudden and sometimes dramatic changes of colour of heath and sky. Rarely have I seen such faithful re-creation of nature on the stage.

I did not think I would like this ballet but I did and I am now quite hooked on it. I am not sure I can get to see it while it is still in Sheffield but I will certainly follow it on tour.

Finally, I would like to commend Joanne Clayton of the Friends of Northern Ballet for arranging the discussion after the show. As I was at the box office I missed the introductions of the speakers. One was a gentleman and the other a lady. They certainly know the novel well and also the choreography. They alerted me to details that I had missed in the rehearsal. I looked out for those details and understood their significance in the evening. We need more events like that in the North. There are plenty in London organized by the London Ballet Circle, Danceworks, the London Jewish Cultural Centre and others. I had contemplated organizing some myself but had been deterred by the fear that nobody would turn up as we have a different culture in the North and a much smaller audience for ballet. Joanne Clayton's success has made me think again.

 

*Someone who knows Northern Ballet much better than me and more about ballet generally has just sent me a DM on twitter which confirms that "Samantha" was "Pippa" and given me some history.

Edited March 19, 2015 by terpsichore

[Jan McNulty]

I saw the premiere of Wuthering Heights in Bradford in 2002 (and on subsequent tour dates) and enjoyed it.  When it was revived in 2009, the Company had matured into David Nixon's style and had a lot more productions under their belt and I saw some outstanding performances.  So what of the class of 2015?

 

I think initially the sparse sets were a shock to NB audiences used to seeing Lez Brotherston's wonderfully ornate sets but once I got over that shock in 2002 I have grown to love this sparse set with it's backdrop and side panels of impressionistic moorland colours wonderfully enhanced by the lighting.  Especially on the smaller stages such as Sheffield it gives the dancers the maximum room to move.

 

The Friends' event of rehearsal and discussion really enhanced the three performances I saw.  It was great hearing what other people thought and it made me think and notice things in the production that have passed me by before.  There is a heck of a lot of attention to detail, for example Cathy does not wear pointe shoes until she has been a guest at the Lintons' home; the Lintons have china cups, the Earnshaws have pottery mugs etc.  The ballet, as with many filmed productions, does not cover the extent of the novel - the story starts with the arrival of the foundling Heathcliff and ends with his death - after Cathy's.  What came out of the discussion though was that the simple device of having Heathcliff "thinking back" (the first scene mirrors the final scene) and having a young Cathy and Heathcliff who periodically reappear could be thought to give the impression of generations to come...  I too would like to thank Jo Clayton for organising this fantastic event.

 

And so to the performances.  The two evening performances were led by Martha Leebolt and Toby Batley with Rachael Gillespie and Jeremy Curnier absolutely sublime as their younger selves.  Giuliano Contadini was a truly vicious Hindley.  Hiro Takahashi reprised Edgar (whom he created) giving him a gentle dignity and very much the impression of a repressed English gentleman with communication difficulties.  The gentle yearning of his duet with Cathy, which takes place some time after their marriage, is in total contrast to the passionate duet between Cathy and Heathcliff that takes place immediately afterwards.  Hannah Bateman gave us an intelligent reading of Isabella - a lonely and desperate young lady yearning for love and terrified of being left on the shelf.

 

Martha and Toby are, without a shadow of a doubt, one of THE unmissable partnerships of the moment.  They dance as one when they are together and the emotions that they displayed overflowed from the stage into the auditorium.  They were so exciting to watch that I realised on several occasions I was forgetting to breathe!  My favourite moment of the ballet is the "red" duet that comes as we realise that all is not well with Cathy's marriage.  The passionate coupling/uncoupling of the 2, as Cathy tries to stay loyal to her marriage, is acted out to a soaring, swelling section of the score.  

 

The whole of the cast melded together and gave us 2 very special performances indeed on Wednesday and Thursday evening.

 

On Thursday afternoon the cast was full of debuts.  It was another terrific performance and I am sure that this cast will be awesome by the time I will be able to catch them again.  Dreda Blow is another wonderful dance actress and she gave a sublimely nuanced performance as Cathy.  For such a young man, Isaac Lee Baker proves yet again that he has a wonderful stage craft and his debut as Heathcliff was remarkable.  Ayami Miyata and Kevin Poeung were superb as the youngsters.  Mlindi Kulashe is another young dancer who seems to be able to get under the skin of a character.  You could feel his hurt as his father ignored him for Heathcliff, I could understand his brutality and I empathised with his descent into alcoholism resulting in the loss of the Heights to Heathcliff.  Nicola Gervasi and Jessica Morgan also had terrific debuts as Edgar and Isabella.

 

Here's a review from The Public Review

 

I can't wait to see this production again in MK (easily reachable from London folks!).

 

BTW, if any Forum members are at Gatsby on Wednesday or either performance on Thursday please come and say hello!

[Sandsfoot]

Thanks for this review. I saw Rachel Gillespie at ISTD awards gala and she is a lovely dancer, I have not seen anything by the Northern Ballet before but I notice that they are coming to Southampton so might try and go if logistics allow.

[Jan McNulty]

I hope you get to Southampton Sandsfoot, NB are in spectacular form at the moment.

[Timmie]

Thanks for this Janet, I'm hopeless at finding ballets.

Tickets booked for MK. 

[Sandsfoot]

I hope you get to Southampton Sandsfoot, NB are in spectacular form at the moment.

Thanks - I have booked my tickets and persuaded a friend to join me. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the recommendation 

[Jan McNulty]

A good review from Southampton:  http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/12908935.REVIEW__Wuthering_Heights_by_Northern_Ballet_at_the_Mayflower_Theatre__Southampton/

 

If all went to plan, 2 new casts have come aboard this week and Saturday evening will be a real treat with Julie Charlet coming back to guest with Kenny Tindall.

 

It would be great to hear thoughts from anyone who has been to Southampton.

[Jan McNulty]

A nice photo gallery from Sheffield:

 

http://www.carolineholden.co.uk/index.php/dance/153-professional/northern-ballet-wuthering-heights-2015/142-northern-ballet-wuthering-heights-2015

[Sandsfoot]

I went to the Southampton show last week, it was my first experience of Northern Ballet. I really enjoyed the choreography and the fact that the men can show off their dancing skills rather than just be a partner to show off the ballerina. The story telling from the dancers was really top notch and I found it easy to follow, (after reading the synopsis) - although my friend got a bit lost at times. 

Everyone danced beautifully and I particularly enjoyed Pippa Moore as Isabella Linton (very emotional) and Matthew Koon as her brother, a young dancer with a lovely line. I also thought Rachel Gillespie as the young Cathy very charming and well suited to the role. Everyone else was brilliant too but they are the ones that stood out for me.  The staging is very effective and the cast coped well with the all the props, the timing with the teacups etc was incredible and amusing, again a testament to their skills as actors. I did love the maids, there were a nice touch of comedy in the ballet.

My only slight complaint was the fact that young Cathy and older Cathy had different coloured hair and young Heathcliffe was a tall compared to older Heathcliffe but I appreciate that ballet dancers are chosen on their ability to dance and that in a small company it is not always possible to get total realism in terms of physical likeness- after all there are often racial differences between dancers who are supposed to be related in many theatrical productions and I don't have any problem with that.

Highly recommended and a real treat for a Thursday afternoon, thanks for bringing this to my attention. I have recommended this to my Mum who lives near Sheffield.

[Bruce Wall]

A second glowing review from The Public Reviews this time from this NB production's opening in Milton Keynes.  (Janet kindly posted the first - Southampton - one in item number 3 above.)

[Jan McNulty]

Well I loved the 2 performances I saw yesterday. Tonight's performance led by Martha Leebolt, Toby Batley and Hannah Bateman was the most intensely emotional performance I have seen in quite some time. I was completely overwhelmed by the end!

[Jan McNulty]

What started out as a special trip to see Kenny Tindall's final performance on 2nd May turned out to be something of a Wuthering Heights marathon as I ended up seeing 5 performances, fortuitously with all 5 casts.

 

Having reread Wuthering Heights after many years (I studied it for O level and hated every single last word!) I realised even more what a very clever adaptation of the novel this production is.  The device of using Young Heathcliff and Young Cathy can be interpreted as giving a sense of the generations of the novel.  In the final scene is it Young Cathy and Young Heathcliff forever reunited or is it Cathy's daughter and Hindley's son (Hareton) having a chance of peace and happiness at last?  The timespan of the relationships and inter-relationships are necessarily compressed in the ballet but I believe that they beautifully represent the events in the novel.

 

There are a couple of small sections of this ballet that thrill me every time I see them - the way Young Cathy and Heathcliff are exploring the moors and roll off to each side to be replaced by grown-up Heathcliff and Cathy - it's sheer genius!  I also love the interplay of the servants the day Cathy is returning home to the Heights after her stay at the Grange because of her accident.  As well as providing a light moment, it serves to illustrate the opulence of the Linton household.  My absolute favourite moment happens at the back of the stage when 2 of the servants are sweeping the leaves - I am so captivated by this that I have sometimes forgotten to watch the main action!  

 

The main highlight of the ballet for me is the "red duet" when Heathcliff comes to find Cathy at the Grange;  it encompasses all the complex emotions of these 2 characters - Heathcliff desperate for Cathy, Cathy desperate for Heathcliff but trying to stay loyal to her marriage.  As the music soars to a crescendo the emotions roll off the stage in waves and are almost overwhelming in their intensity.  The final scene for Heathcliff after Cathy's death is very moving.

 

On Thursday afternoon I saw Dreda Blow and Isaac Lee-Baker in the leading roles for the first time since their debuts in Sheffield at the end of March.  Oh boy have they got into the roles since then.  They were terrific!

 

Thursday evening saw Lucia Solari and Javier Torres leading the performance.  Their Latin temperaments really suited the roles and brought out a wild edginess in their duets that was very exciting to watch.  It was interesting to see their outward facing emotions compared to the more inward facing emotions of the other casts.

 

On Friday evening Martha Leebolt and Toby Batley gave what I think was just about the best performances I have ever seen in this production.  I was emotionally wrung out by the end.  I felt really sorry for Hannah Bateman as Isabella having to face Heathcliff's wrath.  The look Toby gave the audience as he dragged her off stage froze the blood in my veins!

 

Saturday afternoon was another really exciting performance from Antoinette Brooks Daw and Ashley Dixon.  I am really starting to run out of superlatives here but just to say that they were absolutely wonderful.

 

I have only really mentioned Cathy and Heathcliff but some other highlights were Hiro Takahashi bringing a gentle dignity to the role of Edgar and Matthew Koon was a total delight in the same role.  Not only was his acting exemplary but he looks as though he is floating rather than dancing!  Hannah Bateman, Pippa Moore, Jessica Morgan and Abigail Prudames all brought something to the role of Isabella, the ditzy blonde young lady who falls for the dangerous Heathcliff and lives to regret it.

 

I would also like to mention Dominique Larose as the nervous maid who can't stop shaking and rattles the tea-tray.  Her comic timing and terrified facial expressions were absolutely perfect.  She also appeared during the week as a friend at the badminton party and a wedding guest, dancing with great elegance.

 

Northern Ballet certainly has an embarrassment of riches at the moment with some superb actor-dancers.

 

And so to Saturday evening,,, It was always going to be an emotional night.  When I saw Kenny Tindall perform the role for the first time in the 2009 revival, I was so swept away by his performance that I was sobbing hysterically by the end and was in no fit state to join in the standing ovation!  He absolutely embodied Heathcliff and found something in the depths of the character that made us care about him.  I shall never forget that afternoon in Hull any more than I shall never forget his monumental performance on Saturday evening.  Julie Charlet came back to guest as his Cathy.  The whole cast rose to new heights for the performance which was extremely intense and emotional.  Rachael Gillespie and Jeremy Curnier were exquisite as Young Cathy and Heathcliff and Pippa Moore and Hiro Takahashi were sublime as Isabella and Edgar.  Mlindi Kulashi managed to find pathos as well as brutality in Hindley.

 

During the curtain calls David Nixon made a presentation to Kenny and gave a beautiful speech celebrating Kenny's career with the company.  Quite a few of Kenny's fans had made the trip to see this wonderful final performance and, of course, we were all on our feet applauding him.

 

I am sure that Kenny has a very bright future ahead of him as a choreographer.  I would like to say thank you to him for all the wonderful memories he has given us as well as wishing him every success for the future.

 

Kenny tweeted a photograph that Toby Batley took during the final seconds of the ballet.  It is a wonderful photograph:

 

https://twitter.com/Tindallkenny/status/595286926422372352