Back to blogging again!

Review – Swan Lake – English National Ballet

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

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 ……

Edinburgh Festival

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

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

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.