Category: News

Carlos Acosta is set to bid farewell to classical ballet with his final performances at Royal Albert Hall for a limited run, from 3-7 October 2016. Entitled The Classical Farewell, the programme will celebrate highlights from Acosta’s career which led him to being cited as the most famous male dancer of his generation. Taking to the stage when he was just 18 years old, the 2016 performances will mark the final time audiences can watch the ballet superstar dance classical works live. Whilst Acosta is presumed to continue to choreograph for the stage, it seems his ballet shoes will be hung up for the last time.

The Classical Farewell programme features new repertoire, to be announced shortly. The performances at the Royal Albert Hall are ahead of Acosta embarking on a UK tour to Nottingham, Birmingham, Southampton and Salford in May 2016, delighting regional audiences away from London. For lucky London audiences, Acosta’s final Royal Ballet season saw him choreograph and dance the lead role in Carmen late last year, marking his farewell to the company after 17 years.

For The Classical Farewell Acosta has put together a programme featuring some of his closest contemporaries from The Royal Ballet, presenting some of his favourite pieces from the classical repertoire for the final time: Acosta’s past productions have played to sell-out audiences. In 2014 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to ballet, and is known for his passion for nurturing and inspiring the next generation of dancers.

Additionally Acosta choreographed Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls in 2015 alongside Andrew Wright. The show is currently playing in the West End and Acosta has been nominated for an Olivier Award. At the National Dance Awards 2015 Acosta was awarded the De Valois Award for Lifetime Achievement and he is currently working in Havana, Cuba with his new company Acosta Danza.

Born in Montreal, Samuel Tétreault began his artistic development at age 14 at the Montreal National Circus School of Canada where he studied for seven years. There he developed a passion not only for the acrobatics but also for dance and theatre. Upon graduating in 1996 he started his career as a hand-balancer, winning several awards in circus festivals. 

In 2002, after performing over 1,500 shows of Cirque du Soleil’s production Alegria, touring with Cirque Éloize’s production Orchestra and appearing in some of the most prestigious cabarets in Germany, Tétreault became one of the co-founding artistic directors of Les 7 doigts de la main, the Montreal-based circus collective also known as the “7 Fingers”.

Since the foundation of the company Tétreault has collaborated as artistic co-director to create most 7 Fingers shows, as well as appearing on stage in the productions of Loft, La Vie, the Fibonacci Project and Le Murmure du Coquelicot. The 7 Fingers return to Sadler’s Wells with the UK premiere of TRIPTYQUE, a new triple bill of dance and circus on 1 & 2 April 2016. Hailing from Québec, renowned as the home of the modern circus discipline, The 7 Fingers is one of the world’s most inventive contemporary circus companies.

 

Have you always wanted to be involved in the performing arts?

No… When I was a kid and young teenager my dream was to become a professional goalie in the National Ice Hockey League! Then I was fascinated by the Olympic Games and tried different sports in search of the one discipline that would best suit my physical qualities in the hope to make it into the Olympics… I guess I was inspired by the athletes I saw on TV, the intensity of their drive and willpower, the fact they could perform extraordinary skills.

 

How did your involvement begin?

I discovered circus at age 14 and was first drawn to it because of its physicality and its eccentricity… I liked learning things that most people couldn’t do… It made me feel special and I enjoyed the extra attention I was getting from people when they saw me training in the park or riding my unicycle to school. But strangely, even if I grew up in an artistic environment (my dad was running a contemporary art gallery and our house was decorated with abstract sculptures and paintings), I had never imagined being involved in the arts myself. The revelation of my artistic vocation only came a year later when I saw Cirque du Soleil’s Le Cirque Réinventé in 1989… it was still in the very early days of what we now call “contemporary circus” but already, there was a mix of theatre, dance, acrobatics, live music, and comedy forming a show that was held together by a storyline that was emotionally engaging… that’s when I decided I wanted to become a performing artist! I wanted to be onstage and be able to make an audience feel the way I felt!

 

Did you train? Where, and what was it like?

I studied at the National Circus School in Montreal for almost six years. I was on a scholarship programme that combined the academic classes and the circus training, but beyond the acrobatic skills, it’s the artistic formation I received there that has influenced most of my career. Throughout my formation as a circus artist I was always encouraged to develop my own artistic reflection and original voice… very early on, under the guidance of artistic counsellors, I had to come up with my own ideas and concepts for the creation of my end of year and graduating act. Originality and artistic research was highly encouraged. I also remember one of my favorite classes ever was about writing and directing a show… We were put in small groups and over the course of the whole session we had to write the concept of show with all the details of scenario, set and costume design, production budget, etc. I had so much fun and felt so inspired to discover this creative capacity to imagine things, to see them come alive in your head and plan how to turn these visions into a show… That’s when the seed of the idea to direct my own shows one day was planted.

 

What was a typical day like?

I started around 9am and sometimes didn’t get out of the school until 8 or 9pm… We would usually start the day with some dance classes, acting classes or music and rhythm and then would have some general acrobatic training sessions like trampoline, floor acrobatics, juggling, or stretching sessions. Then, after lunch we would have 4 to 5 hours of training in our own circus “major”, mine was Hand-balancing and Hand to Hand pair acrobatics. In the evening we would have the regular academic classes as well as some specific to the circus school, like Circus Arts History, Career Management, Human Anatomy… Overall I did about 6-7 hours of physical training and 3-4 hours of academic classes everyday!

 

What is a typical day like now?

After I graduated I spent about six years working as a soloist performer on tour with Cirque du Soleil (in Alegria) and with Cirque Éloize (in Cirque Orchestra). My life then was entirely focused on my training and my performance on stage, sometimes doing up to 10 shows a week… But my life is very different since I became one of the artistic co-directors of the 7 Fingers, the collective circus company I co-founded with six friends in 2002. A regular day for me doesn’t really exist as I can sometimes spend a whole day in meetings and answering emails and sometimes I’ll be in the creation studio all day, either directing a new creation, rehearsing a show with new cast members or taking a dance class and doing my own hand-balancing training. It is a great challenge to find the time to combine all these things and I often end up working extra long hours… But fortunately most of it doesn’t feel like it’s a job as my passion to create is what drives it all!

 

Tell us more about your work with The 7 Fingers – what do you enjoy most about it?

The diversity of the projects we create… The fact that the company has grown over the years into an amazing collective tool that allows us to fulfill both our individual and collective creation dreams. The creation of Triptyque for instance came out of my own desire to create a show that would combine dance with the circus arts, and although it was an artistic proposition very different from what the company had ever produced, I had the support of the other “fingers” who supported my vision and agreed to put the company’s resources to create the show.

 

What’s next for the company?

Oh there are so many creation projects in the pipeline for the coming years it would be too long to list them all… To mention only a few, there is a theatre and circus show about the Dutch medieval painter Jheronimus Bosch I’ll be directing this summer in Denmark, another “Finger” is directing Reversible, our new touring show this fall in Montreal, another “Finger” is directing a circus opera in Russian, and the list could keep going with another 3 or 4 new creations on top of our other shows we currently have on tour! But maybe the most exciting project for 2016-2017 is the building in Montreal of our own creation studios set in an old brewery… this is going to be an amazing asset for our collective, bringing our administration offices together with a creation studio, a training studio and a dance room under one roof!

The 2016 Olivier Award nominations have recently been announced, with much excitement amongst the performing arts industry. The nominations were revealed in London, and are presented by the Society of London Theatre. They will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Opera House on 3 April, as the 40th anniversary year of the awards. New for this year, the ceremony will be live streamed on Youtube for the first time.

The dance nominations in particular are a follows:

Best New Dance Production:

He Who Falls (Celui Qui Tombe) by Compagnie Yoann Bourgeois (part of London International Mime Festival) Romeo Et Juliette by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo The Royal Ballet’s Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor

Outstanding Achievement in Dance:

Alessandra Ferri for performances in Chéri and Woolf Works Javier De Frutos for his choreography of Anatomy Of A Passing Cloud Sasha Waltz for her choreography of Sacre

Best Theatre Choreographer:

Carlos Acosta and Andrew Wright for Guys And Dolls Drew McOnie for In the Heights Jerry Mitchell for Kinky Boots Stephen Mear for Gypsy

Other nominations for the Awards were dominated by theatre heavyweights Imelda Staunton, Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh. Musicals Gypsy and Kinky Boots received the most nominations, eight and seven respectively. Branagh has been nominated for best actor, and Dench, who was nominated for best supporting actress, received her 15th nomination. Staunton received her 11th Olivier award nomination, for Gypsy, in the best actress in a musical category.

Musicals Kinky Boots, Bend It Like Beckham, In the Heights and Mrs Henderson Presents are all nominated for best new musical, with Bugsy Malone, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers all nominated for best musical revival.

Dance injuries can unfortunately be common; whilst many can be rectified with rehabilitation, it can often be helpful to work hard at avoiding injury altogether. Certain precautions can be taken before, during and after class in order to limit any damage you may do to your body whilst dancing. You only have one!

Do not wear ill-fitting footwear to class: whilst this seems like common sense many dancers continue to work in shoes that don’t fit their feet properly, or have simply worn out. Every brand of footwear is different, as well as considering how different pairs of technique shoes are! Have new shoes fitted by a professional before you know the brand and style that suits you. Check that your toes are snug, however shoes that are too tight do not allow you to distribute weight evenly throughout your feet. Equally you don’t want to dance gripping your toes to keep the shoe on.

Ballet teachers should decide when a student should go on pointe to avoid unnecessary damage to the dancer. However eager students and parents can mean this happens earlier in a dancer’s training than it should. Dancers need a strong foundation of technique and strength before they begin pointe work, knowing how to use their plié, articulate their feet, pull up and out of their hips, and how to control the work. Compromising the strength and alignment of the ankles and knees will only lead to injury and could affect all areas of dance, not just pointe work in ballet.

Work hard to maintain and then improve your technique in order to avoid injury. ‘Cheating’ movements or positions will mean your body is not working in the correct way, such as twisting your knees or ankles. For ballet, basic technique means turning out from the hips and not forcing the body to work beyond its limitations. This cannot be sustained and will just cause problems in the future, if not then and there in the studio.

Early February saw an announcement by Entertainment Tonight that 13 year old Maddie Ziegler was set to leave the hit reality television show Dance Moms, and the Abby Lee Dance Company to boot, after season six. Industry rumours circulated about Ziegler’s involvement in Sister, a film project written and directed by the pop star Sia, who is her frequent collaborator. The pair have previously worked on three of Sia’s music videos, “Chandelier,” “Elastic Heart” and “Big Girls Cry”, and Sia’s first-ever film Sister will be based on a one-page story she wrote.

It also looks as though Ziegler will be a competition judge too. She is said to be joining the judging panel of the new So You Think You Can Dance season, alongside judges Paula Abdul, Jason Derulo and Nigel Lythgoe. The show will be celebrating its 13th season, and will be changing in order to focus on younger dancers, hence Ziegler’s involvement. Despite this fitting involvement, it is important to remember the age and breadth of experience of the young dancer, and how much she has to offer ahead of stepping into a prestigious role.

The teen dance phenomenon will lend her expertise as a dancer who has performed professionally on Saturday Night Live, the Grammy Awards, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, “We Can Survive” at the Hollywood Bowl, Dancing with the Stars and Jimmy Kimmel Live. She will be expected to critique and praise the contestants as they compete during the studio shows this summer. Dancers as young as eight years old will be invite to compete in various dance styles, such as contemporary, tap, hip-hop, ballroom, animation and breaking. They will then be paired with All-Stars to compete for the title of “America’s Favourite Dancer.”

As busy as Ziegler is, another project she is reportedly working on is the upcoming feature film The Book of Henry, directed by Colin Trevorrow. This will be her big screen debut, starring opposite Naomi Watts.

Barre work is the most important part of ballet class – echoed by any teacher – in order to set up the body’s foundations to move into the centre and onto allegro. The barre is where you learn to stand, move, and hone in on the body and how it is performing in the class, aiding alignment, technique, and confidence. Barre work can sometimes feel static and like the body is ‘going through the motions’, however it is important to give this part of the class just as much attention in order to perform at your best throughout the remainder of the class.

Let your hand rest on the barre, not grip it, so you can easily move it up and down the barre depending on the exercise set by the teacher. Find a happy medium at the barre so you are not standing too close or far away. Your fingertips should be in contact with the barre so there is a sense of support but not reliance on that part of a dancer’s comfort zone. Keep the elbow bent as the hand rests on the barre so it is relaxed and free. Don’t let your elbow sag, but support the arms through the back to create a continuous line.

Lengthen your spine and soften your plié to further enhance your posture, being constantly aware of the body and the positions it is moving through during the exercises. Keep the shoulders back and the tailbone tucked in so the spine is one line, keeping the chin level with the floor. Imagine the pull and balance of gravity pulling you towards the floor and the back of the neck being pulled upwards to lengthen the spine and stand correctly. Don’t rush when you plié, but use your muscles and squeeze through the movement. When you rush your plié it is likely you have floppy arms and an arched spine. Control the movement and this will translate to the upper body too, to develop a sense of grace and poise.

Two of the West End’s most treasured leading ladies in theatre have announced upcoming solo concerts at the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square, London, as a delight to fans who will be able to see the icons up close. It was recently announced the Casino would host the ladies in their own concerts: Kerry Ellis and Bonnie Langford have announced solo concerts at the venue, as two much-loved stars.

An Evening with Bonnie Langford will take place on 31 March and will see Langford singing songs and telling stories alongside special guests (further details yet to be announced). She will be accompanied by the Winston Rollins Band with musical direction by Anthony England. Langford’s theatre credits include Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Gypsy, and her nieces – the successful Strallen girls – have followed closely in their aunt’s footsteps and have too forged hugely successful careers. Langford can currently be seen in BBC1’s EastEnders.

Separately, Kerry Ellis Live will also take over the Hippodrome Casino. As well as infamously playing both Wicked roles of Elphaba and Grizabella, Ellis also originated the role of Meat in We Will Rock You and has starred in West End productions of Oliver!, Miss Saigon and Les Miserables. From her beginnings at Laine Theatre Arts, Ellis has gone on to make a huge name for herself in the world of showbiz. Fans of Wicked and Cats will here get the opportunity to see another musical theatre legend up close in a unique location.

Whilst further information is still to be announced, tickets to the concerts – produced by Club 11 – can already be purchased.

A major industry-wide conference looking at challenges within the theatrical sector is set to take place in May this year, aiming to establish what needs to be done to ensure success and sustainability within the industry of theatre. Tipped as the largest industry-wide conference open to everyone who cares about the future of the theatre in the UK, the conference will run over Thursday 12 May and Friday 13 May.

Additionally, Theatre 2016 will celebrate the fact that the UK is a world leader in theatre, and that the sector does much to contribute to the cultural, social, educational and economic health of the nation. There have been major challenges the world of theatre in recent years, beginning with the arts cuts of 2011, so it is encouraging to be able to see tickets selling and actors working. Despite setbacks for many organisations and individuals, it is clear in places that the theatre industry in the UK is somewhat thriving.

Consisting of keynotes, panel sessions and mini-conferences, the Theatre 2016 conference will celebrate the success of theatre and provide some informed and challenging opinions on what needs to change to ensure the success of the sector’s future. Delegates can then take part in a total of six mini-conferences of discussion and debate on key questions for the sector. Whatever an individual’s specialism or length of career, the conference is open to all.

It is clearly acknowledged that while there will be celebrations of the sector, there will also be a focus on the changes taking place for theatre in the UK, with new – and current – issues for the sector that must be addressed. Theatre 2016 will discuss and attempt to reach some consensus on what the sector needs to do ensure it is successful, sustainable and even more relevant in 2026.

The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia have announced the first co-production between the two companies. Established choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has worked on a new ballet named Strapless, which recently received its world premiere in London. The piece was part of an all-Wheeldon mixed programme which also included After the Rain and Within the Golden Hour. The Bolshoi will consequently stage the same programme in 2017.

Wheeldon is the Royal Ballet’s Artistic Associate; in combining forces with the Bolshoi Theatre this act nods to the close association between the two companies, fused by a new production to be staged by them both. Two such historic organisations which have seen some incredible creative talents working in dance, music and design, will now see their legends combined. The pair have a long-term relationship through many years of collaboration however February marked the first co-production through Wheeldon’s new choreography. As a leading choreographer of his generation, it is clear Strapless will develop further ahead of its transition to Russia.

The co-production of Strapless is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, with other recent activities including the annual World Ballet Day, a live digital stream behind the scenes of the world’s-leading ballet companies and the Royal Ballet’s tour to the Bolshoi Theatre in 2014. The Bolshoi Ballet returns to the Royal Opera House in July this year for a three week residency marking the 60th anniversary of its first visit in 1956, demonstrating that art only developed through collaboration and the production of new work.

The Bolshoi Ballet will visit London specifically from 25 July through to 13 August, along with the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, for a three week season of Don Quixote, Swan Lake, The Taming of the Shrew, Flames of Paris and Le Corsaire.

BalletBoyz, the male dance company based in Kingston is partnering with YMCA London South West in order to deliver creative movement sessions for people aged 14 and over with a disability, as part of the YMCA Inclusive Lives programme. The workshops will provide a space to explore movement and dance, and to encourage creative and collaborative work. The company has demonstrated it is committed to working in and with the local community, now offering inclusive classes that excite, inspire and enthuse.

The organisations are excited to build a regular group of participants for the classes as part of the new project. Classes cost just £2 per participant and it is clear the membership will grow rapidly. The sessions have been seen to have had huge therapeutic benefits for participants, helping to build sensory integration, cognitive skills and physical awareness. In addition to the wellbeing dance encourages, the classes look set to be hugely popular.

The creative movement workshops are part of YMCA London South West’s Inclusive Lives project, which enables people with disabilities to make positive lifestyle choices through access to a wide range of health and wellbeing activities. YMCA London South West works to provide a range of services including supported housing; children’s work; sports, health, exercise and fitness; youth work; catering services and conference facilities; short stay hostel accommodation and community programmes.

The multi award-winning BalletBoyz is one of the most original and innovative forces in modern dance. Led by former Royal Ballet lead dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the company thrills audiences and critics the world over with its highly distinctive style, which fuses spectacular dance both energetic and graceful, with stunning music and film. With its inclusive arm, it works to inspire dance in a range of settings, and ultimately promote the art form.