Review: 1984 Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet are the winner's of Best Company at the Taglioni European Ballet Awards and this innovative company are considered by some to be Europe's best dance company. It is with these and many other dance credentials that they are currently touring and wowing audiences with their new work 1984. This week they are at Theatre Royal Nottingham.

For a fan of Orwell's bleak novel with its central themes around disallowed thoughts and the crushing of anti Party sentiments embodied in the hero, Winston Smith, the idea of a ballet work being capable of expressing 1984 solely through dance may seem unlikely. Not so in the superbly capable hands of choreographer and director Jonathan Watkins and through the original score created by Alex Baranowski.

Orwell's story of Winston and Julia's ultimately doomed love story; his secret diary recording his anti Big Brother sentiments; the robotic workers at the Ministry of Truth; the Thought Police and the Proles all come terrifyingly to life through Northern Ballet electric dance forms. Winston (Tobias Batley) and Julia's (Martha Leebolt) pas de deux is at once joyful and yet sorrowful, sexy and yet has an edge of yearning sadness.

Both the choreography and direction create rich tapestries of a dark dystopian life and the constantly changing sets include startling media design and telescreen graphics dominated by Big Brother's constant stare. Befitting the calibre of Northern Ballet's well earned reputation in the dance world the 1984 company's dance standards are exemplary.

Especially good are the dance sections expressing the daily conditioning of 'two minutes hate'. Here the dancers let loose their emotions as dictated by the Party in order to demonstrate their utter distaste against the enemy. Orwell's book has stood the test of time and resonates with readers all around the world. It is truly a book that makes you think about how we live today and Northern Ballet's brilliant dance adaptation brings all those challenges alive on stage in a 101 different ways.

Originally written for Nottingham Post October 1st 2015

Neat Festival. Mass Bolero in Nottingham. Just brilliant!

This is just fantastic! Very proud of all the many people who took part during neat14.

Watch and smile!

At Lakeside Nottingham. A Darker Shade of Fado with Nuno Silva. Review.

A Darker Shade of Fado with Nuno Silva at Lakeside Nottingham

Review: 29/04/2014.

A Darker Shade of Fado is billed as a dance piece in which contemporary dance and Fado are inter-twined. Fado is a traditional type of song, frequently melancholic and soulful and mainly from the Portuguese city of Lisbon. Nuno Silva's 'A Darker Shade of Fado' is certainly no tourist style entertainment but instead a hot bed of passion entwined with eroticism, wistfulness and downright danger. Even as I type I feel that should be hitting the keys harder in a slowly pulsating dramatic manner, pausing for a while for to underpin my words with silky eroticism exemplified by a loving caress of my laptop screen. Mopping my fevered brow, I continue...

The dance work uses three dancers and a superb live musician (Sabio Janiak). Principally we have the creator Nuno Silva as Spirit – a malevolent tour de force – a flickering mess of possessed muscular and taut limbs – occasionally inhuman and predominately Succubus or Incubus preying on and manipulating the forces of love and mistrust between the seemingly sweet and innocent 'Woman' (Stephanie Dufresne) and the gentle 'Maker' of string instruments (Matthew Lackford).

All is played out amongst a foreboding stage palate of darkness, light, shadow and billowing back lit smoke with occasional ambient candle light. The stage is often divided up into quadrants through the effect of a large window frame cast onto the playing area. The dance pieces regularly contain themselves within a particular quadrant and the physical entrance by a performer into a space is signalled by music cleverly combined with sound effects such as the trembling of an excited/nervous heart beat. As the second half brings itself to a dramatic close the terrifying figure of a rampant bull (Matthew Lackford) overtly challenges the dominance of the all controlling Spirit.

Nuno Silva dances brilliantly and stuns the audience with his ability to sing in the poetic Fado style whilst intensely enraptured in the fiercely emotional dance dialogue between his tortured spirit self and that of his victims. This is a supremely talented man at the very pinnacle of his artistic game and at times appears to be almost sucking raw energy from the air to continue in his mis-deeds.

Stephanie Dufresne is equally brilliantly deft in contemporary dance and conveys lightness of body phenomenally, as well displaying unexpected contradictions in emotional conditions between her character and the potential lover in Lackford's 'Maker'. There is the push and pull, tease and counter tease but also due to the 'Spirit's' twisted whims we get a contortion of all of the emotions vividly expressed in dramatic dance by the talented Dufresne.

Lackford's gentle but deep concentration of character as 'Maker' allows even the scraping of the interior of a section of an unmade guitar to be of a tranquillising dramatic focus and interest. His character shows itself as meticulous in work and is literally thrown off centre by a romantic curiosity as exemplified by the dancer's back slides and twists yet becoming more evidently recognisable moves toward forwarding a new and exciting love relationship with Dufresne's 'Woman'. Lackford's work grows rapidly in strength throughout the work and he finally comes into his own as the terrifying bull.

From all the dancers there is a tremendous energy and agility throughout and a deep focus on the intentions of Fado. This is a fantastic dance work created by Nuno Silva that will stay with the capacity audience well after the final echoes of the traditional Fado songs and con-temporised dance fade away from the physical stage.

Phil Lowe

Derby Theatre. Gecko's new work Institute. A MUST see!

Review for Institute by Gecko Theatre at Derby Theatre.

Institute is Gecko's sixth creation in ten years. The company creates each new show by building on their established working methodology of physical exploration through movement and dance and wonderfully inventive theatrical invention.

Using many different people as source material for Institution Gecko spent a year developing the work around the notion and practice of 'care' and Amit Lahav (creator) invited a group of inspirational artists, support workers, patients and carers to explore care in a fresh new way in order to create this masterpiece of modern dance theatre.


Exploring themes of emotional fracture and disconnection and human reliance the four male performers are electric in their dance work. The piece may start as a funny romantic dinner for a man and an imaginary woman but Institute soon shifts the amusement swiftly to one side as the man's mental landscape slowly starts to disintegrate. He is joined by a stressed work colleague in the foreboding nightmare office of towering old filing cabinets and ghostly architectural models. From the cabinets appear cleverly constructed set pieces and the drawers open up to release a haunting Pandora's box of light and sounds from the past. The whole piece takes invention further than one would imagine possible through exaggerated theatrical dance and particularly through the part featuring connecting rods attached to the dancers. There is humour scattered throughout and, conversely there are startlingly animal-like distorted grunts of despair and agony from a contorted patient in a white bed gown that alarm and unnerve. Gecko's already brilliant reputation for extraordinary theatre has sky rocketed into the heavens in this astounding new work.

Men morph into women; bodily progression turns to regression and twists back upon itself in a flailing of limbs; emotions are presented as desperately raw and in turn, surprisingly gentle. European languages feature throughout as part of a complex sound-scape.A restaurant set is cleverly shifted around the stage as part of the macabre and often terrifying movement. Institute is ninety minutes of total dance/theatre and utterly engaging and thrillingly performed by the amazing performers, Chris Evans, Amit Lahav, Ryen Perkins Gangnes and François Testory. The energy of the piece is astonishing and the guys still manage four curtain calls after the performance.

Full credit must also go to the brilliant technical collaborators, Rhys Jarman and Amit Lahav for the set design, Chris Swan and Amit Lahav for the atmospheric lighting design, Nathan Johnson for the Sound design and Dave Price for the original music.

Currently playing at Derby Theatre until 5^th April.

www.geckotheatre.com

http://derbytheatre.co.uk/institute

BalletBoyz - The Talent at Nottingham P!ayhouse

If you are considering booking for Balletboyz -The Talent at Nottingham Playhouse tonight, I would highly recommend a visit.

I saw them at Derby Theatre in November 2013 and wrote this review. http://philloweactor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/review-balletboyz-talent-derby-theatre.html.

Review of Swan Lake at The Theatre Royal Nottingham

Matthew Bourne's ground breaking and provocative re-imagining of the classical ballet piece Swan Lake was first staged at Sadlers Wells theatre in London in 1995. Historically it is the longest running ballet in the West End and on Broadway when it moved across the Atlantic and premièred to massive acclaim in 1998 in the USA. Since then the production has been shown on stages all around the world including, Turkey, Greece,  other major countries in Europe and in Australia, Japan and Los Angeles. The ballet has won over thirty international awards including three Tony's in the USA. It is now well documented that Matthew Bourne's main innovation was taking the female swans away as the corps de ballet and replacing them with aggressive, bare chested and powerful male swans in feathery breeches. It still works supremely well and one could say, has improved with age. The story has strong echoes of the traditional ballet and on one occasion Bourne has amusement by re-working a particularly difficult dance section usually performed by the tutu clad female corps as a frantic male dance. The whole ensemble works through this fresh and still new style Swan Lake with seemingly consummate ease. But then the grace of swans always shows as they glide effortlessly across the surface of the water with years and years of dedication and training powering them into action. As with swans so it is with this stunning ballet brought bang up to date.

This ballet demands extreme physical endurance and faultless technique and the dancers must be able to show a range of emotions that would easily grace a complex play like Hamlet. Because of the now famous male corps de ballet the work is sometimes mistaken for being all male. This is not the case. Bourne's ballet benefits from the top notch talents of both sexes. Swan Lake is about a prince who has lived a very restricted life bound up with unwanted royal duties and royal expectations and very little love – especially from his emotionally distant mother – the Queen. We assume the father figure is missing, particularly as the Queen openly flirts with the younger male members of the royal entourage. A superb performance from dancer Madelaine Brennan that moves from icy and distracted Queen to joyous then distraught throughout the evening.

When the prince (Simon Williams in a very moving and sympathetic portrayal) meets the main swan for the first time the flock are aggressive to him and, as swans are, very territorial. The emotional trigger for the story is that the swans are the same sex as the prince and psychologically represent qualities that he desperately wants to attain to. The prince character carries the ballet from beginning to end and his is the story of someone who is restricted in his life and needs love, not necessarily sexual love or even homosexual love but love that truly warms his heart and holds him tenderly in a tight embrace. A love that supports and encourages his needs. He is one confused prince, emotionally and sexually. These emotional needs are things he certainly doesn't get from his frosty mother or from his rather fake and fatuous girlfriend (Anjali Mehra – superb comic timing with a fine range of expression in dance and character) who thinks she has indeed met her prince. By the end of act one the audience are fully invested in caring about this lonely prince existing in his dull and repetitive royal world. To his mother, the erotically charged ice maiden Queen he is a major disappointment. But is she a villain? I think not as her character is just as entrapped as her unacknowledged son she constantly pushes away.

Bringing them both out of their tightly shut shells is the dynamic dancer Chris Trenfield as The Swan/Stranger. He is equally seductive in each role and the confusion that leads to madness in the prince's mind is well portrayed through the powerful music and dance especially at the superbly dramatic end. This re-working of a classic tale is the kind of ballet that you never want to stop. Matthew Bourne's touring production of Swan Lake is utterly flawless all the way through with surprise after choreographically dramatic surprise. The live orchestra is thrilling, the set design by Lez Brotherston is breathtakingly dreamlike and nightmarish in parts and Rick Fisher's lighting design and implementation is just astonishing in creating diverse mood after mood. No wonder New Adventures Swan Lake has won so many awards and one may wonder what Tchaikovsky would make of this jolting modern interpretation that began in 1875 as a small project to encourage small children to dance to some music about The Lake of Swans. I think he would very well approve – rather heartily. The Nottingham audience certainly totally appreciated the creative skills that  made Swan Lake such a triumph and demonstrated this with a standing ovation and several curtain calls.

Nottingham Playhouse - a fabulous dance season ahead

My Nottingham Playhouse brochure for 2014 dropped on my door map yesterday and what an array of fabulous theatrical and modern dance goodies it held within.

My personal highlight of the year (a must see in my opinion) is the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre - The Rite of Spring and Petrushka (Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd May). It just feels and looks phenomenal.

In a programme rich with dance I would pick out BalletBoyz:theTALENT featuring ten exceptional male dancers in two exciting and explosive dance works by choreographers Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett. (Monday 31st March). Onward into the brochure I found that the Playhouse are to be blessed with the dance talents of Richard Alston Dance Company on (Tuesday 29th April). They are presenting three dance works, Shimmer, Illuminations and Madcap in the evening of modern dance.

On Wednesday 12th March, Sheffield based, Vincent Dance Theatre present Motherland and this promises to be a funny and moving show about 'having it all'. Motherland is billed as 'uncompromising yet utterly accessible' and has a broad appeal for both sexes through its potent blend of theatre, live music and dance. The New York Times called it "Astonishingly original."

Fancy a madcap dance cabaret? Then on Saturday 17th May Dance 4 along with Nottingham Playhouse present Hercules: A Dance Cabaret. The story of Hercules is told through hilarious dance routines and amazing speciality acts. It's a modern cabaret the whole family can enjoy.

U.DANCE 2014 are presenting shows over the weekend of Friday 27th of June until Sunday 29th of June. Nottingham Playhouse are hosting three distinct shows that will bring together hundreds of talented young dancers from across the UK. Visit www.u-dance.org for more information.

Ballet Black: For their debut at the Playhouse, the company are presenting a triple bill of new work with exciting ballets from two of Britain's best choreographers, Christopher Marney and Martin Lawrence. Plus, award winning dance maker, Arthur Pita creates Black Ballet's newest narrative ballet. Wednesday 2nd July.

More locally we have the opportunity to witness the dance talents of students at the Nottingham Theatre Dance School in their Showcase 2014. Produced by principal Jane Moreton, students from age 3 to adults will perform classical ballet, contemporary dance, modern dance, jazz dance, musical theatre and tap dance. Sunday 25th May

On Friday 20th and Saturday 21st of June the MADD college proudly presents their Gala Showcase featuring the talented students of their three year Professional Musical Theatre diploma course with a live orchestra. The show is directed and choreographed by leading professionals from the performing arts industry.

Finally, The Tracy Quaife Theatre Dance School will be showing their 'Dance Express 2014 and Variations 3 programme. This promises to be two days of superb entertainment choreographed and produced by principal Tracy Quaife. This show will be showcasing the young talented dancers and maybe Nottingham's young stars of the future.

For booking any of the dance events go to www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk or call the box office 0115 9419419

Promo video for Chicago at Leicester Curve. Plus auditions video.

For those that have read my recent glowing review you might be interested in this short video produced by Curve that shows some of the background to the show and comments from director, Paul Kerryson. Plus I have added a Curve Chicago audition video for your delectation and interest.

Review: Balletboyz – the Talent. Derby Theatre. November 5th 2013

Co-produced by Sadlers Wells – Balletboyz-the Talent (ten very impressive professional male ballet dancers) electrified the Derby Theatre stage with two challenging ballet works. The fine attention to detail to every single body position, move and extension, the juxtapositions, the incredible balancing acts of male body against male body – still – gliding or in flight – held the mainly youthful audience in rapture. Once the lights went down and we were presented with a short film and the first dance sequence nary a sweet wrapper rustled across the auditorium. Such was the respect and admiration for this company.

Each of the two dance pieces is announced by a short film about the Balletboyz company's inner workings and rehearsals plus the two choreographers ideas and inspirations. The first work is called Serpent with music by Max Richter. It is choreographed by Liam Scarlett.The supine dancers create the abstract world of gliding and linked/unlinked serpents with utter fluidity, visual poetry, coiling and striking rivals through the medium of ballet. Throughout the dance and Richter's music amplified water drops punctuate the movement and the lighting by Michael Hulls works well with the near bare dancers. The over all effect is stunningly beautiful.

 

The second ballet work, Fallen, choreographed by Russell Maliphant is a completely different artistic animal. This piece is densely industrial in feel. The music by Armand Amar rises and falls to a dull beat and the dancers, clothed in quasi fatigues spiral from without a scrum and the bodies pulse and dive and spin like elastic crouching dervishes in green pools of light. The dancing becomes more and more animated and is impressive (perhaps an understatement) as bodies begin to fly across the stage as if light as feathers. Then the Balletboyz use balance to an extraordinary degree throughout manner of acute body angling and brave falls and catches. This is certainly a brave dance company and are acclaimed throughout the world for their depiction of forms old and new in ballet.

 

The Derby Theatre audience rose as one and gave the guys a well deserved standing ovation. Catch them if you can! 'Real men wear tights' as their t-shirts say.

Phil Lowe

www.balletboyz.com