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Dance with meaning

“Café Müller”, “The Rite of Spring”
Wuppertal Dance Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
London, England
February 12 – 22, 2008

by John Percival
copyright 2008 by John Percival

Hardly anybody seems to remember London's first sight of Pina Bausch's choreography, danced at the Round House by some of her pupils from the Folkwang Dance Studio, Essen, where she became director on Kurt Jooss's retirement in the late 1960s. I think it might have been on Horst Koegler's recommendation that I made a point of catching the performance; it was certainly thanks to him (my contemporary, friend and colleague, then living in nearby Cologne and with a spare room) that I saw her Tanztheater Wuppertal from its quite early days. And I have been watching her work in Wuppertal and elsewhere ever since, as often as possible. So the two ballets from quite a time ago which she brought for her latest visit to Sadler's Wells, although both new to London, were both familiar to me on stage and film – and none the less welcome for that.

Why, oh why?

"Different Drummer", "Chroma", "Rite of Spring"
Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
London, UK
February 2-23, 2008

by John Percival
copyright 2008 by John Percival

Well, so far this season I've seen "La Bayadère" (two performances) and Jewels" (likewise twice) from the Royal Ballet. That's not a lot from four months' work, October to January, so I must mention that they have also danced "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Nutcracker", neither of them favourites of mine in these productions, "Sylvia" which I hope to catch shortly, and an alleged Ashton double bill with "Les Patineurs" - fine, but accompanied by Anthony Dowell's ballet supposedly based on "Tales of Beatrix Potter" which Ashton made as a film performed largely in the open air. It should have been left that way - on stage it doesn't work so I felt I had to miss that programme.

Prokofiev transformed

“The Snow Maiden”
English National Ballet
Coliseum
London, England
December 11 to 16, 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

Born in London 52 years ago, Michael Corder began his career with the Royal Ballet after training at their school, and almost at once made his first choreography for their apprentice group, his first professional ballet following not long after. Since then he has worked as dancer and choreographer with companies in Britain, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and USA, creating more than fifty ballets, some pure dance (he has a flair for showing even inexperienced casts to good advantage), others to stories both familiar and original. He says he has long been attracted to Hans Christian Andersen's “The Snow Queen” as a subject; also that having already produced Prokofiev's “Romeo and Juliet” and “Cinderella” the composer's less often heard ballet music for “The Stone Flower” appealed to him too. That was written for an unfamiliar subject not necessarily suited to western audiences, but he thought that “the various rustic, magical and wintry sounding elements in the score seemed ... to lend themselves completely naturally to the requirements of the Snow Queen story”. And so it has proved, with Corder's own adaptation of the action for a three act ballet and the music arranged by the composer Julian Philips, using about two-thirds of "The Stone Flower" plus extracts from two operas and a symphony.

How brightly shining?

“Jewels”
Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
London, England
November 23 to December 7, 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

What is (or are) “Jewels”? In his book “Complete Stories of the Great Ballets”, George Balanchine, deviser and choreographer of the show — created for New York City Ballet just forty years ago and now newly mounted for the Royal Ballet — gives his answer to the question always provoked: is it a three-act ballet or a trio of one-acters? Covent Garden over-cautiously gives both versions in its programme book; my own view is that only the décor ever really held it together. But Mr B says categorically that “this is a dance ballet in three parts to music by three different composers. The music for the three parts is very different and so are the dances.” So how often have you heard of “a ballet” (singular) with such disparate scores? John Neumeier did it successfully, and for good reasons, in his “Midsummer Night's Dream”. Kenneth MacMillan did it in “Anastasia” and look what a mess that made. They both had stories. And maybe calling “Jewels” the first three-act plotless work helped sell tickets; maybe it still does.

Strictly Dancing

“Daphnis and Chloe”, “Nine Sinatra Songs”, “Paquita Suite”
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Sadler's Wells Theatre
London, England
9-10 October 2007 and touring

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

Why did it take choreographers so long to wake up to Ravel's music? Although he wrote five ballet scores and part of another, they had few stagings before he died in his sixties. And the poor chap could scarcely guess that they and much of his concert music would be danced more often in latter years, even that he would become one of only three choreographers chosen by Balanchine to be celebrated by New York City Ballet with a festival devoted to their work (and a less obvious choice than the similarly honoured Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky).

Inventive Simplicity

“Two Quartets”
Siobhan Davies Dance
Queen Elizabeth Hall
4 – 6 October 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

For thirty-five years Siobhan Davies has been making choreography, since she was a young dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre — one of the best dancers their school produced, and the best choreographer too. She formed her first group in 1980, which joined the groups of Ian Spink and Richard Alston for a while to form the experimental company Second Stride. She was for a time associate choreographer with Rambert Dance Company, also working with English National Opera and the Royal Ballet. So she brought wide experience to her present company, and since 2002 has developed a new way of running it through extensive periods of research with the dancers for each show.

Starting Out

“Morphoses: The Wheeldon Company”
Sadler's Wells Theatre
London, England
19 – 23 September 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

I think I never saw a new company hailed with so much hype and advance publicity as Christopher Wheeldon's. And large audiences applauded enthusiastically the nights I was present. Yet the first reviews have been very mixed, suggesting that he still has a lot to learn about how to use his talent and other people's goodwill.

Unfair to Alvin

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Sadler's Wells
London, England
4 – 15 September, 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

At least you saw some good dancing, was one friend's comment when I moaned about the London season of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, but I don't think it was half as good as it should have been. There were three programmes spread over two weeks at Sadler's Wells, after which two of the shows toured to seven regional theatres. Several of our present reviewers did not like some of the works given, but praised the performers. However, remembering how these ballets were danced years ago, I'd say the opposite, namely that although most of the company can do steps well enough, they don't get the feeling or the depth. And sadly that's true of quite a few companies nowadays.

A Party for Beryl

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

What a year 1927 was for ballet. It began with the birth of Maurice Bejart, immediately followed (less auspiciously one might think) with that of Yuri Grigorovich; a little later came the arrival of the late John Cranko — and we may well wonder how different the history of the Royal Ballet might have been but for his premature demise before he could be offered its directorship. Do you recall, by the way, that it was Bejart who named the 20th century the century of ballet? He, I hear, is still making new choreography as I write, even though he is feeling none too well.

Mixed bag from Moscow

“Elsinore”, “Class Concert”, “In the Upper Room”, “The Bright Stream”
Moscow Bolshoi Ballet
London Coliseum
London, England
13 – 18 August, 2007

by John Percival
copyright ©2007 by John Percival

A triple bill with revivals of works by Asaf Messerer and Twyla Tharp framing a Christopher Wheeldon premiere — that sounded like an interesting programme amid the evening-long productions that made up (as reported last week) the rest of the Bolshoi Ballet's London season. Sadly, I found two of the works profoundly depressing. In Moscow, Wheeldon called his new ballet “ Misericordes” which gave a better idea of what to expect than the title “Elsinore” under which it reached us. Presumably the lone figure of Dmitri Gudanov prowling around, mostly at the back of the stage, is meant to suggest Hamlet (although wearing pale grey, not Shakespeare's “customary suits of solemn black”), but what he and the four supporting couples had to do with the play I really cannot see. Nor, come to that, did the choreography seem to me related to Arvo Part's Symphony No 3 except that both finished about the same time — having started quite separately. Some very able dancers were involved, twisting their arms and stretching their legs, but rumour has it that they couldn't follow what Wheeldon was driving at, and I can't blame them. The score is reportedly based on Part's studies of medieval music, but the ballet hardly suggests that period. I fear that Wheeldon will need to rise well above this if his own new company is to succeed.