‘Jekyll and Hyde’ reviews all NBT reviews Ballet Central reviews Ballet Central Students Diaries

Moriconne's Romeo and Juliet worked rather well, due in no small part to the fact that it was actually directed by Christopher Gable. Jekyll and Hyde by contrast is a solo work of Moricone and sad to relate it’s a poor piece in which the company, one or two principals aside, looked young and uncomfortable.

The plot is actually pretty thin but the choreography turns out to be thinner. There are a few affable pas de deux but they are spread thinly and the rest is confined to uninspiring and repetitive corps work or just “walking about” stuff rather than directed action. In a dance sense it seems to take about 15 or 20 minutes before something remotely striking really happens on stage. Much of this time is taken with work for the corps men who are in bondage gear with lots of buttocks on display and some desperately embarrassed dancers. It looks anything but scary, raunchy or dangerous - about as wild as ginger wine (and probably a low alcohol version at that). One could go on but there’s no sport in it and many other reviews cover the ground. A company that knew how to commission dramatic work, act their socks off and grab you with their conviction seem to have lost their way at the moment.

I felt desperately sad and hope Nixon can bring the leadership they need. To add to the misery there has recently been an arson attack at the company headquarters in Leeds just when they were looking to bring back Romeo and Juliet for hopefully better box office.

Central School of Ballet
A couple of weeks later I got to a 'bit of a do' at the school that Christopher Gable founded in 1982. It was an evening designed to showcase what the Central School of Ballet is about as an institution and in a little over an hour we got a terrific taster in as slick and professional fashion as you could wish. Aside from the students dancing or illustrating class, the members of staff (all distinguished dancers themselves) came and said a few words to enlighten us about their specialty.

Gable wanted to create rounded dancers/performers - not just ballet dancers and this is the true strength of the school I think. It bears fruit as well with all of last year’s students having obtained dancing jobs. One hears all manner of things about schools but the friendliness and achievements here struck home with me and I'm moved to see how we might help them improve their facilities.

Ballet Central Tour
The following night I got to see the final output of the school as the Students’ tour reached the Lilian Baylis, the more intimate performance space at Sadler's Wells. Sponsored for many years by British Gas/Centrica, for whom all praise, it's an opportunity to see good young dancers, often in new work, at a terrific price and often in small theatres across the land that see little dance. In the case of Ballet Central you get quite diverse choreography which ran through from classical works like the Giselle pas de deux and, the new, Allegretto (to Beethoven and with beautiful costumes on loan from David Bintley's BRB) to jazz dance to 'Forsythe'.

Much of the work is choreographed by the schools teachers but choreographically the piece I enjoyed most was Concept of Entropy (Part 1) by Laura Caldow. I didn't know this at first and it was really thrilling to have enjoyed the piece (inspired by Forsythe and Page I reckon) and then find it was by one of the Ballet Central students who wrote for us last year and has been living in New York of late. Entropy features a dead ringer of a (Forsythian) Thom Willems electronic score, actually by Philip Feeney of NBT and the school, and strange kabuki costumes by Cas Baker. A stretch for the audience (if that's not too condescending) but its sense of exhilaration and brevity was perfect.

In all there were 9 pieces danced by approximately 20 students and they all made their mark in one style of work or another. Inevitably you find some favourites and it will be nice to see how they 'go' subsequently, though given they get jobs all over Europe, and beyond, this will not be easy. In terms of the works, my preference would be to see at least one longer piece as part of the mix, and to up the amount of professionally choreographed work. But none of this implies a 'bad' show and I hope you catch them as they come near you. I'm also pleased to say that we have a student’s diary again this year - David Johnson being the brave soul who agreed to write for us despite a very hectic schedule.

If NBT seem to be going through something of a self-inflicted tough time, it’s nice to see that the school and students are still upholding Gable’s ideals and pushing themselves as hard and successfully as ever. It made me wish that I was young, slim, fit, musical, rhythmic etc etc etc - perhaps in my next life!