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For many, seeing Jayne Regan dance made for a very special night. In a company (NBT) that accentuated the dramatic Jayne would always, but always, startle you with the vividness of her portrayals.
Well there is more to Jayne than 'just' being a ballet dancer as I started to find when I (BM) interviewed her a couple of seasons ago: she is also a cook, mother (to Max) and a thinker and writer... which is what this is all about.
Link to Jayne's first column in the series.
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Partnerships...
I happened to be gazing blankly AGAIN at the T.V a few weeks ago and perked up considerably when a couple of familiar faces peered out at me from the said screen. What a blast from the past... none other than Michaels Nunn and Cassidy appearing in that great programme 'Ballet Boyz' along with Britains equally fantastic exports, William Trevitt, Matthew Dibble, Gary Avis and Tetsuya Kumakawa.
The afore mentioned 'two Michaels' I personally owe a huge thankyou to. You see we were in the same year at the Upper school on Talgarth Road and prior to going to the RBS I had NO experience whatsoever of pas de deux work or indeed any proof that normal blokes under the age of 18 could actually look good dancing and make you split your sides laughing in some of the most chilling situations.
They may or may not remember me from school but I think all the girls in my class may have been the bane of their lives during their first and second years of training due to the shortage of guys they would invariably be called to double up in any pas de deux class. Often the results were hysterical... Never the less Mr Cassidy went valiantly once more into the breech with another of Miss Connor's lovelies, quite often where the other lads would quake with trepidation.
I must have been a particular liability to partner at the age of 16, being so oblivious to the demands and skill that partnering requires. What I did have was a blissful ignorance that allowed me to launch myself fearlessly in to the most bizarre lifts and a small frame that made the guys slightly more willing to chose me to chuck around. I should point out that the lads endeavours were not of an entirely altruistic nature, more a matter of pride, and the certain knowledge that they would be worshipped by the girls and envied by the other guys not to mention that there's no better training than getting up and doing it and get up they certainly did.....many times. Already they were proving to be worth their weight in gold. Good partners are very hard to come by.
Actually they happened to be very nice chaps too and I like to think tried to help make some of us girlies look good and feel a bit more confident.
The bulk of my class, it would be fair to say had fairly low self esteem, not being the 'creme de la creme' of the school; so come Pas de deux class time ( 3 times a week ) we could most probably be heard shaking with nerves in the corridor before the lesson
A formative incident in my education most certainly sewed the seeds of any future anxieties that I was yet to encounter. Having left a catholic convent and then been moved on to a 'CO-ED' catholic comprehensive, I was in for a treat in the partnering department. Very early partnering, rather like early music but nowhere near as relevant or interesting.
Perhaps some of you may be familiar with this story having been a student in the English educational system in the early 80s whereby it was deemed important that the girls and boys could find a common ground to interact . 'Music and movement' the answer to all their prayers......Amen. If handled properly, I'm sure we'd all have felt the benefit ( so to speak ) however when I say that I remember this not with fondness but with a shame filled kind of terror, I am not exaggerating.....don't get me wrong. I really do see the funny side in most things but when you're 13 and 'not quite like the other girls'. The terror does not fade!
It does sound rather dramatic, but I was a skinny runt with VERY unfashionable hair in plaits and worse still NO BOOBS. The importance of a fulsome bust (or any at all) as a valuable commodity at secondary school, should not be underestimated. In trade value I'd have compared boobs then, to rather like having 1lb of gold bullion stuffed up ones nylon school jersey. My chances were very slim of being chosen by one of the 90 boys that sat opposite myself and the other 89 girls (with the gold bullion) in the games hall. What happened next would be one whole hour of doom that would re-visit me once a week for two years.
At the blow of a whistle Miss Teddar would ask the boys to cross the room to chose their partner for the session... as you can imagine I was not the hottest ticket in town and can honestly say that I spent many a Thursday afternoon dancing to 'country music' of dubious origin with my best mate Majella. She later went on to become a butcher and then an insurance broker and for some reason I stuck with the dancing and eventually got lucky with the chaps. Nothing to do with boobs incidentally.
Naturally you could say I was scarred, but thanks to those lovely boys in my year at the RBS Upper school I emerged not only unscathed but finding that pas de deux work and all of it's facets, my favourite part of being a dancer.
Professionally my first experiences of dancing 'a deux' would have to be where most dancers start in ballet companies... with a romping good old mazurka !. Nothing quite like it. You really do begin to learn your craft up there on the stage at show time and I took great pride in making sure myself and my partner where exactly behind the front couple and evenly spaced about the stage etc. etc. It wasn't too long before I might have to drag a 'new boy' around the stage who'd only joined the company perhaps just the day before and been given one emergency rehearsal to learn three big company numbers!! Great fun and testament to the 'in at the deep end theory' actually working. You could only see the whites of their eyes, filled with hope, trust and fear. Generally new dancers would also wear a good half inch of an orange grease stick on their faces that we'd later discover was a tried and tested make-up tip passed on to them from an esteemed octogenarian at their ballet schools. I point out the make-up thing only because the sheer terror that a new dancer felt guaranteed the kind of feverish sweating in the first 16 bars of music (before the dancing) that permanently discoloured their beautiful white shirts and made them very unpopular 'socially'!
In one performance of Coppeilia I left my partner to his own devices for quite some time, very unprofessional, horribly embarrassing and absolutely hysterical. During a short passage where all of us good village types mill around the stage and the main action was taking place down stage, I chose to go sit on the steps of Dr Coppelius' caravan (taking a little rest from the heat of the day). So I arranged myself very artistically on the top step directly in front of the caravans stable door. I also took advantage of the costume that allowed me to use an elaborate and long shawl to fan myself in the heat until it became strangely taut... What I hadn't bargained for was that Dr Coppelius was inside his caravan and having a bit of a lull in the show... so to jolly up his evening, he reached for the corner of my shawl which was just visible under the gap at the bottom of the stable door. He then pulled a good chunk of it through and tied it off to a pole inside his caravan.!! The show must go on and go on it did. Lots of it, with me all the while smiling inanely, silent tears rolling down my face as I furiously swished my skirt around trying to look like I was dancing the romping good mazurka. The only difference being I was at least 15 feet away from my partner, sitting down and tied up!!. I'd like to mention that my professional and personal relationship with the chap playing Dr Coppeilius began right there on those steps. May I introduce Jeremy Kerridge.
Both Jeremy and I are rather diminutive people. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me saying that he is no Goliath, rather more a pocket dynamo. This year is his 20th anniversary and he's still got plenty of performing left in him...... as a duo we had our little vintage year performing Flemming Flindts 'La Lecon' We've also a cruel and comical inclination to be merciless with each other, and through humour have kept ourselves going when times were very bad in the company. Darling Christopher Gable also had an enormous sense of humour and decided to put Jez and I on stage in the Blue Bird Pas de Deux. Like a baptism of fire, I think it served it's purpose in the experience department for both of us, which was Christopher's intention...being the wise sage that he was. I also thought it would point out or rather 'Advertise' my weaknesses to my boss, but oh no Christopher wasn't finished yet he had the 'Don Q grand pas' up his sleeve for me. Here was a man with blind faith AND a sense of humour. Eventually I did what most dancers might call professional suicide and begged Christopher to take me OUT of the role. Myself and a long suffering Paul Thrussell (now a principal dancer in Boston Ballet and one of the most skilled and generous partners a girl could hope to dance with) did persevere however and did not give up the fight on Don Q. Far from it in a touring ballet company you can expect anything between 3 and 8 shows a week in a principal role depending on the ever present injury rate. At the drop of a hat you could pick up injured colleagues' work on top of your own, sometimes dancing with a brand new partner that you'd be unfamiliar with... Mind you when a company tours for upwards of 30 weeks a year you soon get to know each other well enough and the trust element and team spirit, goes without saying. (Did I really say that?)
By the time I was 20 I was lucky enough to have had more partnering and performing experience than most people, but still much to learn. Over the next 5 years in particular I would spend just about every working day dancing with William Walker in a variety of roles. It was like striking gold as we were very well suited physically, William brought buckets of knowledge from his time in the States and in Chile. He also heard the music the same way I did and we got on like a house on fire.
The rehearsal process is so different with different partners and if I could make comparisons between William Walker and Denis Malinkin with whom I spent 4 years as a partner, William's approach was far more instinctive and often wild; never dangerous as he was as safe as houses on the technical front. You would just have to submit to William and go out there with an unquestioning faith. It was a very intoxicating feeling... whereas with Denis he brought with him every ounce of his Bolshoi heritage. No moment was left unaccounted for. This proved to be a bone of contention as I would plead with him to trust his instincts and 'listen to what he felt' then hone it so it could be naturally reproduced for the stage.
I learnt much from Denis about perameters and how much freedom one can feel. You rehearse and rehearse and nail something down. It's exhausting but then suddenly you're free, as the body and muscular memory take over.
Humility...
and getting what you want!
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I also learnt about humility from Denis as he had the toughest job and most difficult 'journey', coming to work in a style and environment that was so removed from his tradition. Strangely enough I danced with both of them in R and J , Giselle and Swan Lake at different periods of my career and used similar tactics to achieve what was required in the studio. Smile nicely , nod your head and then do what you want anyway!! After 45 minutes trying to work out a new lift, when you were convinced that you had it sorted out 42 minutes ago, you learn some politics quite fast. it's easy for me to be a bit 'flip' about these chaps but it's borne out of genuine admiration and a huge affection. They were great days.
My most famous partners must surely be Nureyev and Gable. The former reference, is me really stretching the boundaries of how one would term partner. Does it count that I only waltzed with Rudolph for 4 bars, as a Russian Princess in Swan Lake?... No I didn't think so. Still I'm very proud of that.
Now then Mr Gable I most definitely did partner in Don Quixote, albeit briefly, but mostly in 'A Simple Man'. Christopher of course is legendary for many things but particularly for some of his famous partnerships, not least with my idol Lynn Seymour. I wonder if Lynne ever put the poor man in hospital though. I remember being so keen to please, and to help as Christopher was doing all 7 shows in the role of Lowry... such was the audience demand at the time. It was during the main pas de deux that the misdemeanour took place. Quite simply I tried to do the work that Christopher would always insist on doing himself and in doing so damaged his poor back. He was brought up on a diet of Ashton and Macmillan where the men were men and the ladies smelt divine. The two main pas de deux from Christopher's Cinderella demonstrate just where all of his expertise was honed. It was a style he liked to call an 'Ashton ball breaker'! Christopher was always the gentleman and often joked with mw that after 40 years in the theatre my 'obesity' and lack of talent had ruined his career in under 3 minutes!!.
Gable was a dream partner, even in his 50s, he was strong, eloquent and had the youthful good looks of Peter Pan. He would spend hours in the studio helping and advising the younger members of the company, or better still showing them how to do certain lifts. This had one of two effects. 1. They would be completely in awe at his dexterity 2. They'd feel completely useless and crawl back under their rocks, never to emerge and glory in the partnering Olympics!!. If you've got it flaunt it.
I could write for hours about the eleven lovely years that I knew Christopher but this is about those heroes of the dance world that have nourished and sustained many a womans dancing career. Certainly when I had to change partners after getting so used to one, it would throw me rather than thrill me, as I had been very lucky in that I was able to always dance with the same chap. You do expose a bit of your soul to your partner and it's not uncommon for two dancers to form a more personal relationship from that of their one on the stage. This can be bliss or a nightmare, as any rehearsal director would tell you. Familiarity breeds contempt.
My husband was also a great partner.....unfortunately (or fortunately for us) most of our dancing has been done in our sitting room, early in the morning when Michael has thought of a complicated lift he'd want to use in a new ballet. Imagine the scene.
There is however no substitute for my very first dancing partner though. He is skilled, sure footed and is the only man I can jive with.....My father. Take a bow Mr Regan.
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