News – Page 107 – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School’s Gala

The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School’s 40th anniversary will be celebrated this year in a gala organised by Anthony Dowell and the actor Derek Jacobi. The gala will be held at national dance house Sadler’s Wells, London, on 29 September, marking the journey from strength to strength of the summer school and its staff.

The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School began as the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars in a church hall, taught by ex-Royal Ballet dancer and teacher David Gayle. The seminars were devised in order to provide young local dancers with an introduction to the professional ballet world, enabling them to learn about opportunities and meet other artists.

The success of the seminars meant they evolved to form a residential ballet course, with the first masterclass taught by Alicia Markova. 2005 saw Marguerite Porter take over the directorship reins of the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, who began teaching at the course in 1990.

Kevin O’Hare has spoken of his support for the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School: ‘It was such a huge inspiration for me attending the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars and added so much to my training and knowledge of what it would be like to become a professional ballet dancer. When I look back at all the amazing teachers who taught me I feel so lucky to have had that experience while growing up in Yorkshire and I am so glad the seminars continue to thrive and inspire a new generation of dancers.’

This year the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School of more than 180 students will be held at York St John university, boasting course faculty including Anthony Dowell and David Pickering. In terms of the gala, directed by Richard Clifford, the event will include guest stars such as dancers from The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Wayne Sleep and the BalletBoyz. Actors Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter and Samantha Bond will also be in attendance.

Tickets cost £12-£85 and are available from Sadler’s Wells.

The King’s Head Theatre Vs. Russian law

The Kings Head Theatre What with funding news, openings of shows, closing shows, pay and tragic passings of life, theatre is never far from reported news. In a more political stance, the King’s Head Theatre in Islington has responded to Russia’s anti-gay laws in a reaction to the escalating violence and oppression towards gay Russians after Putin’s anti-gay legislation and the current high-profile debate over the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

Many aspects of theatreland have spread into the political and social spectrum, making their views known either directly or indirectly. For the King’s Head Theatre this will be the first verbatim account in response to Putin. In order to do this the King’s Head Theatre has commissioned a rapid-response protest piece to help raise the public’s perspective of the situation as a humanitarian issue that needs to be urgently addressed. Gay activist Russians have been viciously attacked and prosecuted for “spreading homosexual propaganda”, homophobic murders are on the increase and gay parents are fleeing their homeland for fear of having their children taken away from them, the new laws affecting individuals across the board.

Sochi 2014 provides an invaluable opportunity to focus on Russia’s attitude towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. These voices will be heard on stage for the first time to make a stand for those who endure oppression on a daily basis, and raise important questions, such as what will other countries do about this dated and incomprehensible attitude, and what will happen if we do nothing.

Behind Sochi 2014 is playwright Tess Berry-Hart who is an experienced verbatim theatre writer, using Russians’ stories to increase public awareness in the UK. The piece will be interspersed with media coverage, debate over solutions and extracts from the Olympic charter which show the flagrant violations of the Olympic spirit by Putin’s regime, harnessing the power of theatre as a political vehicle to demand change.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Laine Theatre Arts: Funding Trouble

Students at the prestigious musical theatre college Laine Theatre Arts have had a blow ahead of the new academic year. Epsom and Ewell Council, the area in which the college is situated, has withdrawn housing benefits which many of the student receive.

As an institution of further education, Laine Theatre Arts students were entitled to the benefits in order to subsidise their tuition fees and rent, however September may see many students unable to pay their rent to stay in Epsom and attend college.

Laine Theatre Arts is now deemed a provider of higher education, alongside universities and similar institutions, awarding its graduates with a diploma. This would presumably make the college eligible to receive student loans for the hefty tuition fees which are charged by most performing arts colleges, yet this is not the case. With no access to housing benefits or loans for fees which may see many parents remortgage their houses to pay up, for example, Laine Theatre Arts students are in a rather unfortunate position.

In the wake of cuts to arts funding and speculation as to the survival rate of many West End shows, theatre and dance organisations and providers of performing arts training, it is becoming increasingly clear that the arts are being brushed to one side, devalued by the lack of investment and support from funders. Just last week there was musings in The Stage online as to what would happen if the Royal Opera House was to lose its funding. Whilst the venue is not every audience’s choice for the arts, it would be a great pillar lost in the upholding of the arts and what value they stand for.

Unfortunately there does not appear to be a clear step forward in terms of funding for the arts, but in the short term it is hoped that the students of Laine Theatre Arts will be eligible to apply for student loans to aid their studies.

Scottish Ballet at EIF

Scottish Ballet Logo

Scottish Ballet is getting set to launch its Dance Odysseys mini-season at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). Previous visits to the EIF have seen Scottish Ballet showcasing their technique in triple bills of choreographers such as Balanchine, Forsythe and Ashton whereas this year everything is very different. The presentation of the content is much changed in its approach, full of choreographic contrasts and alternative perspectives. Dance Odysseys seems not to be missed, presenting the company in a whole new light, full of awe and versatility.

Dance Odysseys will consequently include Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea Of Troubles as a dramatic portrayal of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in addition to Artistic Director Christopher Hampson’s larger-scale Silhouette, which was first created for Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2010. The aim of Dance Odysseys is to mainly celebrate dance and classical ballet, not forgetting the iconic image of the tutu for ballet companies. Hampson maintains that there are so many other styles in the four-day festival so Scottish Ballet must embrace its roots and history therefore.

As a result of what Dance Odysseys, also including talks and film screenings, has to offer over the four days, it seems the company will have its work cut out! The Scottish Ballet building is currently full of different visiting choreographers at work with the dancers, with Hampson bringing in five of the most exciting dance-makers of the moment and commissioning them to create work on the dancers. There have been a range of close encounters with unfamiliar styles through producing for the festival, opening up new horizons for Scottish Ballet.

As a result Dance Odysseys will mark a turn of discovery for the company, and also for the audience in what constitutes dance as an artform. The programme contains completely contrasting styles, moods and intents, ready to present much that is new to Scottish Ballet’s audiences.

New Artistic Director For The Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet School The 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.

Rambert’s Animateurs

Rambert Dance Company Logo No one can deny the sheer talent of the dancers within a dance company, be it contemporary, ballet, or a jazz-hand waving West End show. However, it is often those people behind the scenes that support the work of the dancers, promote it, administrate it, direct it, and neither the dancers nor the ‘backstage’ team can do without the other.

For example, amongst many other teams of people working for the company, Rambert Dance Company (or Rambert, as it is now known) has a team of animateurs who take the work of Rambert and deliver it far and wide. The animateurs work as part of Rambert’s Learning and Participation team, and work with those who may not have access to Rambert’s work originally.

A case in point… earlier this year the animateurs worked with adult patients from HIV oncology wards and teenage out-patients over 5 sessions to create a piece of choreography using poems as a starting point. Often the partnerships with other groups begin with an interactive dance workshop, working to translate Rambert’s works to focus groups. February 2013 saw the creation of the partnership between Rambert Dance Company and Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity, and the programme included a fortnight-long poetry residency project, 10 week dance workshop programme for patients and out-patients aged 50+ to improve their mobility. As a result the dance sessions offered inspirational experiences through engagement with contemporary dance and the prestigious company.

In the company’s move to London’s Southbank later this year, it will consequently be placed between two of the poorest boroughs in London. As a result it is likely that the company will do more to engage with its community. Rambert, the national company for contemporary dance, already offers a year-round programme of learning and participation activity throughout the UK for people of all ages and abilities, with other projects in hospitals and care environments including work with Queen Mary’s Hospital, St George’s Trust in Roehampton and Arts 4 Dementia.

Birthday Honours For Dance

Dance in the Mainstream With dance continuing to raise its profile within Westminster, it was a delight to see a huge ten dance names recognised for their outstanding work in dance across a wide variety of contexts in Britain in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Announced on 15 June 2013, some of those awarded an honour in the recognition of dance included the below:

Esteemed dance writer Jeanette Siddall was awarded a CBE for services to dance, recognising her outstanding contribution to the industry beyond her job. Also awarded a CBE was Gailene Stock, Director of the Royal Ballet School, for services to dance.

OBEs were awarded to Lloyd Newson, Founder and Director of physical theatre company DV8, for services to contemporary dance, and also to Cindy Sughrue, Chief Executive of Scottish Ballet for services to dance. Richard Glasstone, choreographer, teacher and author was awarded an MBE for services to classical ballet.

Howard Panter, the co-founder of the Ambassador Theatre Group and Chair of Rambert Dance Company was made a knight in the Honours list for his services to theatre. Panter has been a driving force in the fundraising and building of Rambert Dance Company’s new building on the Southbank which is due to open later this year in September as a very exciting new prospect for dance.

In particular, Dance UK has been working to respond to industry concerns about the numbers of dance professionals compared to sport, theatre and music recognised in the Queen’s and New Year’s Honours lists. As a result, Dance UK has established a voluntary Honours Advisory Committee for the industry, including dance professionals from a cross-section of dance genres. The group meets twice a year and is committed to nominating and championing dance professionals who deserve to be honoured for their services to dance.

Liza Minnelli: The Non-Stopping Show-Stopper

Liza Minelli Showbiz legend Liza Minnelli, famous not only for her singing starlet mother Judy Garland but also in her own right, proved that she is still a show-stopping success at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank earlier this year. At 66 years old, Minnelli shows no sign of stopping either, continuing to wow her audiences and exude the presence of the ultimate star of the golden age of showbiz. Minnelli is a multi-award winning artist, singer, actress and fabulous dancer, who has proven herself as a starlet who knows her ‘razzle-dazzles’ from her ‘stepping outs’.

Her one off date performance at the Royal Festival Hall earlier in 2013 marked her first performance at the concert venue since 1973. However, in recent years she has graced other iconic London venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Coliseum as the headline act. Minnelli’s performance at Festival Hall forms part of the Southbank Centre’s ongoing season The Rest Is Noise – inspired by Alex Ross’s acclaimed musicology book – with the focus for Minnelli’s visit being Berlin In The ’20s & ’30s. As a result, Minnelli’s sparkling set exuded her fantastic talent in its fullest form, including hits from the divine decadence of Weimar-era nightlife such as Maybe This Time and Mein Herr, in addition to her performance of some of the late Bob Fosse’s choreography from her smash hit film production Cabaret.

Forming the full programme, legendary numbers such as Cabaret, But The World Goes ‘Round and New York, New York were originally written for her and included for Minnelli’s privileged audience, with other jazz and Broadway classics added to the mix and producing a show-stopping evening of immeasurable talent and star quality.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The BBC Performing Arts Fund

BBC Performaing Arts Fund

The BBC Performing Arts Fund has recently awarded £450,000 in grants to the theatrical sector for 2013. The first venture in this direction took place on Friday 7 June, which was the first live show of The Voice UK. This BBC One programme raises income for the BBC Performing Arts Fund through phone votes (a minimum of 10p per call), and whilst the genuine talent of the programme which graces the nation’s television screens could be questioned, it is clear that the contributions of funds from programmes of this type are extremely beneficial for the performing arts.

Since 2003, the revenue generated through phone voting programmes has resulted in over £4million of grants being awarded to emerging individuals and community groups working and performing in areas across the dance, music and theatre sectors. The commercial side of the venture considerably raises the profile of the sometimes understated performing arts sector, giving a larger voice to the belters of the industry, singing them loud and proud.

As a result of this, 2013 has seen the funding spotlight placed solidly on theatre. A total of £450,000 in grants is currently available for use in performing arts in each niche that will further invest in creative talent across the UK, from community centres, to after school clubs, to dance and drama schools, to the West End stage. Both of the Fund’s schemes are now currently open for applications, namely the Theatre Fellowship and Community Theatre.

Theatre Fellowships aims to support individuals through the early stages of their theatre careers, helping them to establish themselves in the professional world through bespoke placements within existing theatre organisations. The Community Theatre scheme aims to support the development of not for profit community theatre groups, allowing them to carry out training, attract new audiences, encourage new members and raise their profile in their communities.

English National Ballet’s 2014 season

ENB Logo

English National Ballet’s Artistic Director Tamara Rojo has announced the company’s 2014 season, which is set to include performances at the Barbican, which is new territory for the company. Previously solely classical, the company under Rojo’s instruction has begun to embrace more new works and modernised thinking in terms of opening ballet up to wider audiences. The Barbican will also fit with the company’s intrinsic tradition of touring and presenting ballet to new and existing audiences too.

This change in tact from the young Director is the force behind her first new commissions for the company, working with award winning British choreographers Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett in order to create new works for ENB as part of a programme of dance inspired by the centenary of WWI. This programme will be performed at the Barbican alongside a reworking of Associate Artist George Williamson’s Firebird.

Exciting news for ballet fans also came in the form of the announcement that Rojo will be performing alongside ballet legend Carlos Acosta in Romeo and Juliet. This will reunite the iconic stars in the classic romantic production that was created for Rojo earlier in her career by choreographer Derek Deane when she first danced with ENB in 1997. Rojo went on to dance the role of Juliet with Scottish Ballet, and last danced Juliet opposite Acosta’s Romeo in 2011 with The Royal Ballet, which included the choreography of the late Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

ENB’s Romeo and Juliet will be performed by a company of 120 dancers and actors at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2014, so it is certain that the upcoming season looks sure to both delight audiences with older works, in particular this epic staging of the classic work by Shakespeare, and sparkle with new commissions.