Northern Ballet - Architect mixed programme - Spring 2015

[Jan McNulty]

Northern Ballet's Architect mixed programme opens in Leeds (Quarry Hill) this week before moving on to the Linbury next week.

 

Here's a trailer for The Architect:

 

 

 

 

 

I'd love to hear what people think of the programme so please put your thoughts here!

[Jan McNulty]

Casting is out for Leeds:

 

http://northernballet.com/?q=mixed-programme-2015%2Fleeds-casts

[Jan McNulty]

An early review from last night:  http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/THEATRE-REVIEW-Northern-Ballet%E2%80%99s-Mixed-Programme-2015/9715547

[Jan McNulty]

The performance tonight was scintillating. More after the weekend...

[Jan McNulty]

Well I saw three performances of the mixed programme over the weekend and absolutely loved them all.

 

The first three items on the programme had already been seen at the Sapphire Gala:

 

Jonathan Watkins' Northern Trilogy is set to 3 poems narrated by Stanley Holden:  Yorkshire Pudden', One-each-a-piece all round and The Lion and Albert.  Jonathan Watkins has produced movement that seems to perfectly match the cadence and meaning of the poems and I find this piece really witty.  Yorkshire Pudden' is about the creation of the first Yorkshire Pudding and includes an Angel on furlough from Heaven.  The way Martha Leebolt floats onto the stage you could really believe she is that Angel.  Her partnership with Toby Batley is just magical.  One-each is a solo for Kevin Poeung that shows off his gorgeous technique and his stage presence beautifully.  Lion and albert is for 5 dancers - Toby and Martha are joined by Hannah Bateman, Dreda Blow and Isaac Lee-Baker for the family day out to the zoo - it is a real rib-tickler!

 

The second piece on offer (but sadly not being shown at the Linbury for some reason) is Daniel de Andrade's sultry and sensual Fatal Kiss set to Astor Piazolla's Autumn from his Four Seasons.  Lucia Solari and Javier Torres are supremely well matched in this and the stage is filled with passion.  There is one incredible lift that amazed me when I saw it but I couldn't even begin to describe.  It doesn't look particularly showy but I can remember thinking how on earth they did it!

 

We saw 2 casts for Demis Volpi's Little Monsters - Abi Prudames/Isaac Lee-Baker and Dreda Blow/Joseph Taylor.  The piece uses three Elvis Presley songs and seems to be about a pair of disfunctional lovers.  It starts off with the female dancer hidden behind the male and only her hands are on view.  They gradually get further and further apart and more frenetic in their movements.  

 

The first section of the evening finished with Christopher Hampson's gorgeously classical Perpetuum Mobile.  Again we saw 2 casts over the weekend, both equally excellent and this piece showed off lovely classical lines and deft footwork.  Lucia Solari and Javier Torres were sublime in a duet in one cast.

 

After the interval we were treated to Kenneth Tindall's The Architect which is a very striking piece indeed.  All the men are Adams and all the women are Eves.  We see Adam being born from lycra tubes.  Again we saw 2 casts and I particularly loved both Kevin Poeung and Matthew Koon as the first Adam.  The movements are very lithe and sinous and perhaps serpentine.  This is an intricate and intense piece that is compelling to watch.  I do not know how the dancers cope with the apples but cope they do and I really felt I was watching the original sin!

 

I am looking forward to seeing a slightly modified version of this programme at the Linbury on Thursday.  Fatal Kiss is replaced by Angels in the Architecture.

[Bruce]

Just wanted to say that if you are seeing the Linbury show then you might find the DanceTabs iv with Kenny Tindall illuminating re his piece in teh bill - The Architect:

http://dancetabs.com/2015/05/kenneth-tindall-choreographer-on-his-new-work-the-architect/

 

Looking forward to the show and seeing The Architect again - hopefully this time sans the prop failure!

[Jan McNulty]

Hmmmmmm - props!  Just as well the dancers have such good reactions!

[Bruce Wall]

I wholly agree with Janet's glowing estimation in item number five above for this finely mixed bill by the ever exhilarating Northern Ballet Company now - as it has been for over a decade - under the enticing helm of yet another of those 'pesky Canadians' (to quote dear Janet from yet another BcoF page) David Nixon.  Her word association is well wrought I think.  After graduating from the School of the National Ballet of Canada under its pioneering director, Betty Oliphant (who founded that School aside the Company's own insightful founding director, Briton Celia Franca), Nixon entered into the main Company under the leadership of the likes of Erik Bruhn and Alexander Grant.  Those penetrating chieftains needed to be pesky simply to survive in a country striving to forge something - indeed anything - of its own national identity from without the force of its own founding British and French chasms whilst still harbouring - somehow honouring - the uniqueness of its own indigenous native appeal/energy.  History relates that they more than survived.  They flourished.  So too has Nixon. The fire of that achievement burns at Northern Ballet's core.  Each is at a rightful one in terms of the pride of their unified qualitative deliverance.  Confidence radiated the Linbury last night.  I'm sure that Christopher Gable too is - somewhere - beaming alike with rightful pride.  

 

Indeed last night there was one advantage to the technical hitch which occurred prior to the evening's final unit - Kenneth Tindall's incendiary take on the act of creation entitled THE ARCHITECT.  It meant - after an initial slight delay - that the audience had the pleasure of hearing David Nixon come out and speak to us, much as he had done in the front of last year's programme when he movingly spoke in memory of Gailene Stock.  Has there ever been a more gently articulate leader of a ballet company?  Not in my experience.  I somehow doubt it.  Nixon explained that the ROH's technology is great as long as it works .. but that sadly the computer system that masters the Linbury's scenic mechanisms had - for the moment at least - packed up and thus a 'pesky' bar would now appear against that ballet's established crystalline backdrop.  'We want to dance this work for you' Nixon said with deserved dignity, 'and often on such occasions - when things go wrong - it can inspire a certain magic'. IT did ... and then some.  The 'pesky' cross was more than bared.  It was dressed with a most vivid imagination.  It became our shared Rubicon.  Throughout the evening we had felt the energy of Nixon's own joy in being able to proffer meaningful opportunity to a collection of striving and oft significant dance makers (some of whom have well moved on from the 'emerging' epithet such as was applied by K. O'Hare in his introduction on the cast sheet).  We - the privileged audience - much as the dazzling company that decorated the stage - thrilled in our proactive involvement ... one granted through the wisdom of a uniquely understanding architect.   

 

This IS a 'NORTHERN Ballet'.  You can detect its accent immediately.  That is its strength.  From the very get-go that IS its pride.  Happily it is far from 'Estuary Londonese'.  That defining aspect alone is what I believe allowed NB to survive when ACE cruelly cut its core funding in the last round but one.  Happily in 'the one' ACE temporarily came to their senses and restoratively realised the folly of their ways.  

 

This is a company that very much speaks as one; that sings in unison.  It cries out the reason why it should be cherished.  I can well see why Janet - a self-proclaimed 'Scouser' - (a heritage topped with the proclamation of a delightfully direct dialect) - holds such pride in this burgeoning ensemble.  It is just so refreshing to come across such no-nonsense 'Northern' attack.  In that one aspect the NB's zeal reminded me at times - certainly in Christopher Hampson's oh, so pretty Perpetuum Mobile  - of the overall candor such as is currently celebrated by NYCB.  It is like having a bath.  You come away feeling cleansed.  It's never furious in its exactitude; never OVER bearing.  It is invigorating.  Even when the wit of Stuttgart's Demis Volpi's LITTLE MONSTERS wore a tad thin Abigail Prudames and Isaac Lee-Baker were still brilliantly batting out in a park we could all recognise.  Even if the concerted sweep of Mark Godden's ANGELS IN ARCHITECTURE did not entirely enjoy the heights of De Mille's detail, Nixon's dancers blissfully flew in the ever widening wonder of Copeland's exhilarating 'Appalachian Spring'.  Nowhere was this Northern Ballet's accent more proclaimed than in the endearing bubble of Jonathan Watkins A NORTHERN TRILOGY.  They let him speak for himself as much as Stanley Holloway - oh, so wittily so - and we giggled along.  

 

There are just so many fine artists in this company - that Godsend Martha Leebolt amongst them - but Northern Ballet's strength stands in their number.  They celebrate such.  So I think should we.   

Edited May 13, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[Bruce]

Hmmmmmm - props!  Just as well the dancers have such good reactions!

Kenny Tindall says he is going to ban me from seeing his works in future!

 

Tonight is press night so hopefully ROH will have techies there to sort whatever might arise.

[aileen]

I saw this programme this evening. As far as I am aware there were no prop mishaps but there seems to have been a lighting mishap during the first song in Little Monsters in that the two dancers were not standing in the centre of the spotlight and much of the wittiness of the choreography was lost as a result. The lighting was low for the rest of the piece as well. I have seen this piece performed by Stuttgart Ballet when I enjoyed it more, possibly because of the novelty factor. Personally, I don't think that it bears repeated viewing. However, it received loud cheers at the end.

 

I really liked Angels in the Architecture and Perpetuum Mobile. I had mixed feelings about The Architect. Some parts of the choreography were great; others less so. My heart rather sank when I saw those strange stretchy tubes suspended from the ceiling and the ugly tight and shiny trousers worn by the men (similar in style to the ones worn in Wheeldon's Aeternam).

 

A Northern Trilogy was enjoyable enough but I'm not sure that it's a piece that will last. The pdd to Yorkshire Pudding was the most successful part of the piece for me.

 

This looked a very demanding programme for the dancers, particularly those who performed in several pieces. There was tremendous variety on display and the company should be congratulated for bringing such an absorbing programme to the Linbury (which appeared to be virtually full this evening).

[Jan McNulty]

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 performances I saw yesterday.  It was good to see Angels in the Architecture again, lovely choreography reflecting the simple way of life.

 

The second cast of The Architect have come on in leaps and bounds since I saw them in Leeds last week and I thought they were absolutely wonderful (the first cast continues to be awesome!).  Lucia Solari and Javier Torres continue to be sublime together in Perpetuum Mobile.

 

It was also lovely to catch up with fellow Forum members Josephine and LinMM and to finally meet Bill Boyd.