Summer Term

Managed to get signed up for my Friday and Monday classes again though the server was so busy it had to be over the phone eventually. Others were not so fortunate and the ballet class sold out within the hour. (Jenny and Ricardo's tango classes go almost instantly). It's going to be a great term with Janis and Steinvor as teachers. Hopefully a lot of last term's Monday class dancers will return, it's a great mix. Bumped into one ex-member in GAP who I hadn't seen for a while, turn out she was in plaster for 5 months with a ruptured achilles she did in class. She won't be jumping for years. Scarey all it takes is that one bad landing.

Review: Scottish Ballet - Triple Bill

Festival Theatre – Saturday 1st April 2006-04-03

Scottish Ballet’s performance has left me in a bit of a quandary. The triple bill opened with Balanchine’s ‘Episodes’, by its nature a fragmented piece underscored by Webern’s complex music. Although the female dancers rose to the challenge, producing intricate weavings of position, the male dancers seemed weaker displaying a few wobbles and shakes. Notably the black and white duet which showed either too much giving of weight or an inability to support (note to costume designer: use a black cotton not nylon catsuit, it shines in the lights!).

Now the enigma and perhaps the reason for the male dancers’ problems: the performance of Petronio’s MiddleSexGorge was brilliant (bar one little issue which I’ll come to). The sheer dynamics neede after doing a matinee must have told in the first piece and perhaps there’s an element of saving themselves. Fast, energetic and anarchic, the dancers showed their grasp of the contemporary idiom. It probably shocked the hell out of the little old lady in front of me, god knows what she made of the men’s white basques, bare buttocks and makeup! The two female dancers were excellent too, it was good to see a ballet company use a girl who had the physique to cope with the piece’s demands. It was just raw energy from start to finish – apart from one dancer. Here’s the puzzle: two dancers came on at one wearing leggings of bows/rags, a bit pan-like. A series of parallel turns, chasses, jumps etc. follows. One guy was great but the second seemed totally unsure, lacking the energy levels, missing some of the turns. Albeit it was a short appearance – what was wrong? I can only think either it was either a try out for an apprentice dancer or they were needing to use an understudy – very odd.

Finally Forsythe’s Suite from Artifacts. A game of two halves I think. The first section is frankly boring and although supposedly bold at the time, seems contrived now with its rapid staging changes behind a dropping and rising curtain. The jaundice yellow costumes are awful and the black tights worn over by the lead women looked like they were just trying to warm up. Scottish Ballet are not famed for their ensemble work and the precision required for the semaphore arms in this piece showed. The 'blue' second half was much better, especially the birhythmic clapping section. The climax was strong and finished well.

So what have we got? On one hand a ballet company with a lot of strong female dancers and a reasonable corps, particularly well suited to middle-sized pieces. On the other hand male soloists who really showed their forte and confidence in contemporary technique, judging by the Petronio. They’re probably not at the stage of the Ballet Rambert – Rambert Dance Company transformation but I wonder, one day ……