Tartan Leotard

2010-04-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Back to blogging again!

Review – Swan Lake – English National Ballet

2006-05-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh Festival Theatre - 5/5/06

There’s no doubt that ENB have an excellent corps and Swan Lake gave them a showcase to for their talent and grace. Positioning and timing were impeccable throughout the entire performance. What was most remarkable about Friday night’s performance was that, due to illness, the understudy danced the part of Odette/Odile and did so with amazing confidence and capability. Not only were her fluttering arms beautiful but she managed to carry the movement into the neck and head. I’d love to see her dance as a principal in her own right. Costuming and scenery too were excellent. Criticisms? Well as for the dancers I’m afraid the prince was not convincing; OK the role calls for angst but he just looked pained throughout the performance and frankly not handsome or young (maybe that’s why he has to make do with swans!!). It’s a part that doesn’t appear to demanding – a lot of strutting and a few showy turns and jetes. The supporting male dancers actually have more to do a lot more (apparently when I checked the books it’s because it was originally choreographed for a 50 year old dancer).
Other points – the choreography is a bit jaded in places: I’m not sure of the technical term but the same dreadful hopping arabesques used in Giselle just make me laugh. I’m afraid and there are other bits of fairly naff choreography here and there. The corps handled it extremely well though and prevented it looking silly. Maybe Matthew Bourne has spoilt us showing just what can be achieved with the texte and music. Actually the music is another issue, someone has taken a few liberties with Tchaikovsky’s score and done some very ‘Hollywood’ arranging in places and not for the better.
Overall 4 stars from me and a big pat on the back for the performance of Odette.

As a footnote, casting my eye down the cast list, it’s remarkable how un-English English National Ballet is, drawing many of its members from the former soviet union and the far east. Maybe someone could explain why? Is the talent not coming through from the British ballet schools or are dancers from this country just not wanting to join the ballet companies? Comments from ballerinas welcome!

Summer Term

2006-04-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

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 ……

Edinburgh Festival

2006-03-23T01:46:00.000-08:00

This year's Edinburgh International Festival dance events are:-

Telesquat
DANCE
Mon 14 - Sat 19 August 8.00pm
The Hub
Scottish Ballet
DANCE
Fri 18 & Sat 19 August 7.30pm Sun 20 August 4.00pm
The Edinburgh Playhouse
Alarmel Valli & Madhavi Mudgal
DANCE
Mon 21 & Tue 22 August 8.00pm
Royal Lyceum Theatre
H2
DANCE
Tue 22 & Wed 23 August 8.00pm
The Edinburgh Playhouse
Balanchine's Don Quixote
DANCE
Sat 26 - Tue 29 August 7.30pm Matinee Sun 27 August 2.30pm
The Edinburgh Playhouse
Nederlands Dans Theater
DANCE
Thu 31 August - Sat 2 September 7.30pm
The Edinburgh Playhouse

Janis Claxton Workshop

2006-03-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

This was the last in the series of improvisation workshops organized by Janis herself. Despite the terrible weather which cancelled trains, closed airports and blocked roads to the north, 14 brave souls reached Dancebase (paying up front might have something to do with it!). It was another eclectic mix of backgrounds from a clown through professional dancers to Janis’s osteopath experiencing firsthand what dancers’ bodies do. I liked the idea from the start of decluttering the studio of the usual bits and pieces leaving just the sound system and the necessary water bottles.
What followed was a brilliant workshop involving release work and improvisation. The time just flew by (5.5hrs). (The only part I didn’t like was head contact with floor – makes me dizzy!) There were gems like the ‘Crocodile Dance’ which really frees movement from the pelvis. Working in duets and trios produced some lovely movement; it was interesting to see the exchange and blending of movement vocabularies. For instance my final partner came from a more lyric tradition / capoeira whereas with my background in Nikolais and Cunningham styles, my dance tends to concentrate on direction/line. Fortunately Janis will be teaching next term so look forward in anticipation.

www.janisclaxton.com

More Funding Uncertainty

2006-03-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

News via the BBC (acknowledgement) just in:

Dramatic changes for arts funding
Major changes to the way companies are funded by the Scottish Arts Council are set to be unveiled.
There will no longer be automatic core funding for the 100-plus companies currently on the organisation's books.

From next March, some will be eligible for long-term "foundation funding" while others will be offered "flexible funding" for up to three years.

The Scottish Arts Council is itself being merged with Scottish Screen to create a new cultural development agency to be called Creative Scotland.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/4764834.stm

Published: 2006/03/02 00:50:38 GMT

© BBC MMVI

How this affects dance funding will no doubt become clearer later.

Friday Class

2006-02-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

I've been doing the Friday class for ages - OK I know it's not a level I should be working at and it theoretically isn't challenging enough but there are loads of reasons for doing it.
Firstly after a bad week I really look forward to a high-energy class to burn off the frustrations and anger and the Friday class is always a bit jazzier.
Secondly getting back to basics helps iron out the bad habits and review things e.g. getting those simple plies really smooth and centered. You get the services of Dougie, one of the best percussionists around (Salsa Celtica). I suppose most of all though it allows me to enjoy dancing and 'performing' rather than concentrating on technique.
There are downsides of course - sometimes going over sequences slowly can be frustrating when you just want to get out there and do it. Especially at the beginning of term you get people there who seem to have wandered into the class randomly!! I still can't get to grips with this: why does someone pay upfront for a term of classes when they don't know what it involves? You even get girls turning up in tight jeans and long skirts! Luckily Dancebase allows class switching in week 1 if there are vacancies.

This week there were 2 people injured - one who has a chronic back problem and had to stop, the other a knee sprain doing jumps - luckily one for the icepacks and not a hospital job.

Monday Classes

2006-02-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

No need for a warm-up as I had to powerwalk to class; my car being under intensive care at the garage. I’m still suffering a bit from the improv workshop on Sunday! 9 times out of 10 there’s no floor work in the Cunningham-based class but just my luck to have to pivot on a somewhat colourful and swollen knee. We have to suffer from our art but managed to cheat by taking it on the calf muscle. Not my day, I got picked on for having Swan Lake arms – good enough for Markova but I was supposed to do power not grace. Still the arabesques are improving and I just love triplets, I reckon my body rhythms work in threes (perhaps because I was born on the third day of the 3rd quarter?). Still a great class as always and as the numbers were down a little more room to move in Studio 2. It’s a very international class (Cuba to Singapore) though I think the girls at the back struggle with English a bit.

Dance in Edinburgh

2006-02-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

Edinburgh’s dance scene features a strange dichotomy: 11 months of the year things go on at a steady pace then in August the floodgates open with the Edinburgh International Festival ( www.eif.co.uk ) and the Festival Fringe ( www.edfringe.com ). From a performance point of view there are several venues: the Festival Theatre (www.eft.co.uk) – new, comfortable and showing superb large contemporary dance productions (recently Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands and shortly Scottish Ballet’s Triple Bill of Balanchine's Episodes, Petronio's MiddleSexGorge and William Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact), The Playhouse ( www.thisistheatre.com/regional/edinburghplayhouse ) – hosting ballet (the ubiquitous Ellen Kent touring company!) and musicals, the Kings – grouped with the Festival, and the Traverse ( www.traverse.co.uk ) which is a more intimate venue for smaller contemporary productions. During the Festival almost anywhere becomes a potential venue but notably Dancebase ( www.dancebase.co.uk) transforms itself into a theatre with some of the best performances. Also notable during the festival is Aurora Nova at St Stephens (www.auroranova.org) which features international dance and physical theatre.
Educationally, Telford College ( www.ed-coll.ac.uk ) does courses in dance for qualifications at various levels, Queen Margaret University College ( www.qmced.ac.uk ) has dance elements in its Drama courses and in the private sector, Dance For All (www.nimbiz.com/4032002 ) runs student courses in dance. For a pure contemporary dance course then Dundee hosts the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance ( www.dundeecoll.ac.uk/sscd ).
The aforementioned Dancebase is the principal centre for classes from absolute beginners through to professional level, next port of call would be Dance for All. There are classes in various parts of the city in other forms of dance from Swing through to Tango.
There are several dance companies and artists in Scotland either based or regularly performing in the Edinburgh area e.g. X-Factor, Curve Foundation, David Hughes, Jenna Agate. For more information I’d suggest using the Scottish Arts Councils website and following the various dance options - www.scottisharts.org.uk .

I know Rachel Feinerman has placed a link to Tartan Leotard on her excellent New York dance blog www.downtowndancer.com so I’d welcome any questions/comments from the US.

Katie Duck

2006-02-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I had the opportunity to take part in a pro-level workshop with Katie, part of Janis Claxton’s program of Improvisation, Composition and Movement Awareness. It was a great experience, not just from a dance point of view but also because she takes care to explain the reasoning behind what she teaches. It involved forgetting a lot of the things that we’ve struggled to learn – so turning without spotting and freeing the eye was a somewhat disorienting experience! It’s the second of these workshops I’ve attended this year. Last month Angus Balbirnie held a composition workshop. This was pretty energetic and challenging, working on trios both as a dancer and director. I always feel inferior at these sessions, partly because I’m my own worst critic and know my own limitations, and partly because I was aware of the considerable experience of most of the other participants. I think though I’ve reached a stage in my dancing where I need to come out of the ‘safe zone’ and challenge myself before it’s too late.

www.katieduck.com

Introduction

2006-02-20T02:24:00.000-08:00

OK, so why tartan leotard? Well I needed something Scottish and something connected with dance so there we are! It's been really great contributing to other people's blogs so I'm going to contribute my little bit to cyberspace.