Author: Jessica Wilson

New Artistic Director For The Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet SchoolThe prestigious Royal Ballet School announced the appointment of Christopher Powney as their Artistic Director Designate last month, who is due to step into the role in April 2014. The current Artistic Director, Gailene Stock, is sadly unwell, and will retire from her post on 31 August 2014. As a result, the summer term of 2014 will see Powney taking over the running of the School after a transitional period. Jay Jolley will continue in the role of Acting Director and will lead the School’s artistic programmes into the 2013/14 academic year.

As one of the top classical dance training centres in the world, the Royal Ballet School has flourished under Stock and is hoped to continue this journey under Powney, selected unanimously to take the school further forward as the driving force behind exceptionally talented and motivated young dancers.

Powney, a former teacher at The Royal Ballet Upper School, is currently Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and has danced himself with Northern Ballet, English National Ballet and Ballet Rambert, as it was then known. During his career he has worked with some of the world’s leading artists, such as Rudolf Nureyev, Jiri Kylian, Lynn Seymour, Christopher Bruce, Twyla Tharp, Frederick Franklin, and Glen Tetley.

Powney later went on to focus on teaching, having qualified with The Royal Ballet School’s Professional Dancers Teachers’ Course. He was Assistant Artistic Director of the Central School of Ballet’s graduate touring company, and in 2000, he joined the teaching staff of The Royal Ballet Upper School. 2006 saw him invited to take on the position of graduate teacher with the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Powney has also been a member of the board for the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine and was a jury member of the 2011 Prix de Lausanne competition.

Theatre Traditions

The Journal Tyne TheatreThe theatre is a world of mystique, intrigue and illusion, serving to delight and entertain its audience with spectacle, no matter how otherworldly. This tradition of theatre is still upheld in many venues and arts spaces across the country and even across the world, but equally much of the previous spectacle has developed to accommodate the twenty first century. Productions have alternative intents, aiming to shock and provoke audiences rather than provide a successful model of theatre which has been proven to work.

Despite many changes, developments and modernisations of the theatre, many of the time-old traditions remain stuck to the people, productions and venues. Superstition and performance ritual is just a small part of theatrical tradition, yet play a meaningful role in much of what is said and occurs without a second thought. Ever wondered why Shakespeare’s Macbeth is referred to as The Scottish Play, and not by its real name in the theatre? Why the Green Room is called just that? Why many dancers are wished good luck through “break a leg”, despite this being the worst thing that could happen to them?

A theatre or performance space is never without a Green Room, a place for the performers to rest, a limbo or sort of purgatory between the dressing rooms and the stage, somewhere to eat or sleep. There are many interpretations as to why this space – which may not even be green – is named as such, with one being that travelling actors would traditionally perform on the village or town green, and stay in the adjoining public house, usually called The Green Rooms.

Another name which has stuck is that of the theatre’s crew, responsible for set changes, scenery construction and other technical tasks which lift the production out of the rehearsal room. It is said that they are so called because traditionally they would be sailors, a ship’s crew, who would work in the theatre in between sea voyages. Despite many changes taking place to theatre over many years, these are just two features which have stuck.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Carlos Acosta: Back And Not Alone…

Carlos AcostaCarlos Acosta’s return to the London Coliseum in August is highly anticipated, particularly as the casting and classical repertory has recently been announced, forming Acosta’s Classical Selection. Running from July 30 to August 4, the run is full of huge ballet stars and iconic works.

Acosta’s new show will be presenting highlights from his career in celebration of his 40th birthday, which is marked by 2013. For Classical Selection, the thrilling Principal will be joined on stage by some of his past dance partners and stars of The Royal Ballet, including principal dancers Marianela Nunez and Nehemiah Kish, ex-Royal Ballet Principal Leanne Benjamin, first soloists Ricardo Cervera and Yuhui Choe, soloists Melissa Hamilton and Eric Underwood and first artist Meaghan Grace Hinkis. The programme looks set to be captivating, and every ballet fans’ dream.

The pieces on offer throughout the run are some of the most iconic of the classical ballet world. Performances such as extracts from Manon, Winter Dreams, Mayerling, Gloria and Requiem were originally choreographed by one of the greatest ballet choreographers of the 20th century, Kenneth MacMillan. Also part of the programme is an extract from George Balanchine’s Apollo and from Rubies, and an extract from one of Frederick Ashton’s last works, the Rhapsody. The programme concludes with fellow Cuban choreographer and Rambert dancer at Miguel Altunaga’s 2009 solo Memoria, extracts from Mikhail Fokine’s Diana and Actaeon and Christopher Wheeldon’s Tryst. 

Acosta is currently performing as a Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet, having also danced with English National Ballet in 1991/2 as a Principal – where his nephew now dances – the National Ballet of Cuba in 1992/3, and was a Principal with Houston Ballet from 1993/8. Acosta then joined The Royal Ballet and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003.

Image courtesy of scillystuff on Flickr.

Spotlight On: Coppélia

ENB's 2008 Production of CoppeliaAs a choreographic work which does not end in death for the main protagonists, Coppélia is a light-hearted comedic ballet, with a narrative which delights audience with its humour, magic and a happy ending.

Our heroine Swanilda is a feisty villager who isn’t very happy when she spots her beau, Franz, making eyes at a mysterious female figure high in a window of Dr Coppelius’ workshop.

The reserved beauty later is discovered to be the mechanical doll Coppélia by Swanilda and her girlfriends, when they find themselves inside the workshop. Having found the answers to their questions, they amuse themselves at Franz’s expense, delighted that he should be declaring his love for a mere doll.

Meanwhile, Franz has also found his way into Dr Coppelius’ abode, searching for Coppélia. The intruding girls are discovered by Dr Coppelius and flee, bar Swanilda who quickly hides. Dr Coppelius, after a short outburst at discovering Franz too, rethinks his strategy and invites Franz to drink [poison] with him, tipping his away and allowing Franz to submit to unconsciousness. Dr Coppelius is seemingly alone to care for his prized doll Coppélia, who we discover is Swanilda, taking on her role in the doll’s clothes.

Chaos ensues, with Dr Coppelius believing he has brought his beloved creation to life. Following two engaging solos from Swanilda/Coppélia, Franz is finally woken, and the lovers escape. Depending on the interpretation of the production by different ballet companies, the extent of remorse felt for Dr Coppelius varies! Act 3 sees a town celebration take place, with solos by Dawn, Prayer, Morning Hours, Working Hours and the introduction of the new bell, a cause for a party. In some versions of the ballet, Dr Coppelius is reunited with the town who have rejected his odd and introverted ways; a happy ending for all.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Wind In The Willows In The West End

The Wind In The Willows

Beginning its journey at the Royal Opera House, Will Tuckett’s adaptation of The Wind in the Willows is set to transfer to the West End for Christmas 2013.

Kenneth Grahame’s story of Toad of Toad Hall is the ROH’s first transfer, heading for the Duchess Theatre in December. It is the first time that a ROH production has transferred commercially to London’s West End, and may be the instigator of many more! With so many shows coming and going from the heart of the capital’s Theatreland, it is great news that the piece based on the movement vocabulary of ballet is destined for other stages.

Running for eight weeks, the classic story sees the outrageous and sometimes criminal adventures of the reckless Toad and his friends Ratty, Mole and Badger, told through dance, song, music and puppetry, set to delight audiences young and old. Transforming the much-loved story into an exciting production is a great development, with the piece originally just a small-scale Christmas production, the first to be created for the then newly opened Linbury Studio Theatre a decade ago. Through its popularity the piece has been brought back into the repertory in Covent Garden three times since as a fantastic theatrical show for the whole family.

The West End transfer will open up the production to even more audiences, and will be directed too by the choreographic brains behind the vision, Tuckett. The piece was inspired by the music of George Butterworth with a score created by the talented Martin Ward, with Willows having already played more than 100 performances since it was commissioned. The Wind in the Willows will follow the West End transfer of The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui starring Olivier Award winner Henry Goodman, following a run at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2012.

Roland Petit

Roland PetitRoland Petit, a choreographer in post-WWII ballet, was responsible for defining a new French chic and erotic frankness in dance, creating many roles for his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire. With July 2013 the second anniversary of his death, there has recently been a Moscow Stanislavsky production of Petit’s Coppélia, receiving mixed reviews.

Born in 1924 Paris, Petit began as a classical dancer but rebelled against the traditionalism of the Paris Opera Ballet. By 25, he had created two of his most iconic ballets, Le jeune homme et la mort and Carmen, for which he is perhaps most well-known and popular. The ballets caused a sensation worldwide and Petit became an exciting name in French dance.

Petit was accepted at the Paris Opera Ballet aged 16. He was promoted to soloist by the director Serge Lifar (Diaghilev’s last protégé), and was taken under the wing of two leading Diaghilev associates who influenced Petit by the cosmopolitan artistic post-war Paris. At 21 Petit founded Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées and reinvented the ‘suffering, virginal ballerina’ as a provocative, irresistible femme fatale; other post-war work includes Les Forains,  Les demoiselles de la nuit (for Margot Fonteyn), Le Loup, Cyrano de Bergerac and Notre-Dame de Paris, which still remain today.  Aside from the world of ballet, Petit charmed Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth in 1955 Hollywood, and went on to choreograph the 1955 Fred Astaire musical Daddy Long Legs, Hans Christian Andersen, The Glass Slipper, Black Tights, and Folies-Bergère.

Petit returned to the Paris Opera Ballet as director in 1970 for a few months, and 1972 saw him take leadership of the Ballet de Marseille and produce the world’s major ballerinas for the following 25 years, such as Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Makarova. Petit left Marseille in 1998 and withdrew all his ballets when he learnt of his successor, going on to travel widely, creating ballets and mounting old works for companies in Paris, Tokyo, Moscow and St Petersburg, South Africa, Italy and Beijing, having created over 170 ballets.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Backstage Rituals

Backstage RitualsWhether you are a dancer, actor or performance artist, you will be well aware of the phrase ‘backstage ritual’.

Many performers employ these in the run up to their performances, and any straying from the ritual may be thought to considerably affect the performance, haunting the performer from the moment they step on stage.

To a certain degree, these rituals epitomise the workings of a theatre – if things do not happen exactly as they did in the previous performance, it will not be as successful or may even result in error. This mindset is naturally adopted by those working on the theatre stage, striving to make their performance worthwhile for the audience.

Lucky legwarmers or lucky socks are often used by dancers and actors before they go on stage, usually in order to warm their feet up correctly, or simply to feel reassured that if their performance is affected at all, it won’t be because they varied their ritual routine before going on stage! Other performers take to kissing the walls just behind the stage, adding their lipstick mark to thousands of others who have passed along the wall in a reassuring performance gesture. Listening to the same music before a show is a similar practice, as is getting ready in the same order each show.

Not complying with your backstage rituals can make you mentally doubt your upcoming performance and will usually affect how you perform for worrying about the disruption to the ritual. The best thing to do, rather than compensate for the change to your routine, is concentrate on the task in hand, as the involvement in your performance will distract you from worrying about what did or didn’t happen before you stepped onto the stage.

Break a leg!

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The New Nureyev?

Rudolph NureyevFollowing performances of three young Russian men – Ivan Vasiliev, Sergei Polunin and Vadim Muntagirov – there has been some speculation from dance critics as to whether any of these men may become the next Rudolf Nureyev, one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the twentieth century and an extremely charismatic performer.

There have been recent starring roles danced by each of the dancers for various companies. Ivan Vasiliev, a Principal dancer of the Mikhailovsky Ballet and American Ballet Theatre Guest Artist with impressive thighs and a wonderful sense of characterisation danced Albrecht in Giselle opposite his on and off-stage partner Natalia Osipova. Although small, Vasiliev is a man of gigantic leap and power, executing his directed movement with conviction and a desire to tell the story to the last detail.

Polunin, on the other end, appears to have a notorious want not to tell the story, either his own or the one he should be dancing. Polunin has recently been the subject of much dance press in his desertion of the production of Peter Schaufuss’ Midnight Express, in which he should have danced Billy. This was after Polunin walked from The Royal Ballet of which he was a highly regarded Principal, with a greater desire for money and tattoos as a typical young man. Here, it is the intrigue of Polunin that sets him apart.

Elsewhere, Muntagirov, as one of English National Ballet’s revered Lead Principals under Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, is a sight to behold. Having been a Guest Artist greatly received by many international ballet companies, Muntagirov is usually partnered with Lead Principal Daria Klimentova. This highly successful partnership has often been likened to that of the iconic Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn duet as sparkling stars, just slightly unattainable. In this sense, it looks likely that Muntagirov will excel even further than he has a young dancer, creating a remarkable career.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Tommy Franzen: The Artist Who Needs No Introduction

Tommy FranzenTommy Franzen needs no introduction. Beginning his dance training in Sweden, he was only ever interested in street dance classes. Tommy then began working professionally at the young age of 14 in the musical Joseph, hopping from musical to musical before embarking on a 3-year performing arts diploma course at the Urdang Academy in London, for which he received a scholarship.

He is probably mostly recognised as the runner-up of BBC 1’s So You Think You Can Dance 2010, but other dance fans may have spotted him in Mamma Mia – The Movie, The Pepsi Max Advert Can Fu and the Handover Ceremonies at Bejing Olympics 2008.

Having worked professionally as a performing artist for 16 years, Tommy has recently delved into choreography, for example working on ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop, performing in the show as Simeon Sun. Currently Tommy is working with the Russell Maliphant Company and is touring internationally with the show The Rodin Project.

This year Tommy was nominated for an award at the National Dance Awards in the “Best Male Performance (Modern)” category for his efforts in Goldberg at The Royal Opera House and Blaze at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre. Tommy has also been nominated for an Olivier Award (2012) for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Here Tommy talks about his dance career to date, the joy of rehearsals, and his biggest inspiration, Bruce Lee.

When did you begin dancing and why?

I started dancing at age of 11 back in 1992. My sister, Elena, was taking classes and performing for a man called David Johnson who came from California to Sweden to open up a dance school. That’s the first time I had seen anyone dance hip hop dance styles and it grabbed me straight away. They caught me sometimes doing the Robot, basically imitating them so Elena thought that maybe I should try and go to a class. I did, and after the first class I never wanted to go back again as I thought I was the worst one in there. My dad and Elena were surprised and luckily convinced me that I was actually the best of the lot! So I changed my mind in a second, went to the next class and have never looked back since.

What were your early years of dancing and training like?

I started with classes that incorporated locking, popping, general hip hop and some tricks. That was at David’s dance school ‘Crazy Feet’ in Lund, Sweden.

How does that compare to now?

Through the years I’ve danced many styles but nowadays when I go to class it’s either hip hop, contemporary or ballet.

Have you always been interested in choreography?

No, I haven’t always been interested in choreography. I hadn’t thought of doing it really when my first opportunity came along and I choreographed for a show called Blaze, which we played at the Peacock Theatre in London and is now touring the world. Since then I’ve choreographed for Some Like It Hip Hop and Cher Lloyd. It’s not my main focus but I do really enjoy it.

What would you say was your choreographic triumph?

Definitely Some Like It Hip Hop. Saying that, I think Blaze put me on the map but I did a lot more for SLIHH and I’m more proud of my efforts in that show. We’ve been nominated for the choreography several times so we must’ve done something right!! The other choreographers are Kate Prince and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille with additional choreography by Duwane Taylor and Ryan Chappell.

How long have you been performing and choreographing?

I’ve been performing for 21 years and choreographing for 3 years.

What is your favourite role you have danced and favourite choreographer you have danced for, and why?

I must say my character Simeon Sun in Some Like It Hip Hop has been a right ball to play: so much fun. Lots of acting and very challenging dance wise. I’ve only got myself to blame for that! I would probably say that there are three favourite choreographers I’ve worked with. Kim Brandstrup, Russell Maliphant and Kate Prince, who are all very different and very good in their own field of work.

What do you like most about rehearsals?

The best thing about rehearsals is the creation period. You are being creative and you train hard. Then we you start performing then things are pretty much set in stone but you get the pleasure of sharing with an audience. I love the feeling of dancing in front of an audience.

What is the best part about dance?

It’s so much fun!!

Who would you most like to work with, dead or alive?

Bruce Lee without doubt, he’s always been my biggest inspiration.

What’s next for you?

There are a few projects coming up but I can’t disclose anything yet. I will be working with Boy Blue Entertainment on their new show at The Barbican in October. I also spend a lot of time building two businesses at the moment. As dancers we don’t have a pension for when we retire at a relatively young age so I think it’s important to secure your financial future by other means during your dance career.

The Jazz Master: Jack Cole

Jack ColeJack Cole, one of the greatest yet least known jazz choreographers is thought of by some as the father of theatrical jazz dance, responsible for the jazz we know today. He was the influencer behind huge choreographic names such as Bob Fosse, with his work reaching the likes of modern dance greats Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins. Cole worked to create the style of jazz that is still widely received today, on Broadway, in Hollywood movie musicals and in music videos.

Cole was born in 1911 (he lived until 1974) and studied, as many did modern dance pioneers, with the Denishawn Dance Company under Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn in the early twentieth century. Cole went on to make his professional debut in 1930, but abandoned modern dance for a more commercial style of dancing on Broadway and in movies. Jazz, at this point, was hugely popular, but did not employ any use of technique.

As a result, Cole began to create his own style of modern dance. He continued to work with modern dancers Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman to form a signature style. This style was aided by Cole’s study of the Indian dance technique Bharatanatyam, forming the basis of his unique jazz technique and choreography through the precise isolations of the head, arms and fingers, in addition to the swift changes of direction. Cole consequently named his jazz style ‘urban folk dance’, having observed the Lindy Hoppers and their integral rhythms, incorporating this with Indian styles and creating the foundation of the theatrical jazz style.

Cole’s choreography saw him involved in various Broadway shows, such as Alive and Kicking (1950), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Man of La Macha (1965), for which he was nominated for a Tony award. However, today Cole is remembered for his work with films of some 25 credited and non-credited works. In addition to working as a choreographer and performer, Cole also established dance training at Columbia Pictures, in which his programme included Humphrey/Weidman technique, Cecchetti ballet, East Indian dance and flamenco, where he worked with dancers such as Carol Haney and Gwen Verdon, who went on to become Fosse’s muse.

Matt Mattox, the iconic jazz dancer and teacher most associated with the Cole style broke the Cole lineage in America when he moved to London in 1970. It has only been recently that there has been a renewed interest in Cole’s work.