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“Jesus Christ Bananas!”
(The Beav in Dreamcatcher, Stephen King, 2001)
Sometimes things just happen that are so irritating, yet so ridiculous that the only thing you can do is blaspheme, add fruit and leave to simmer…
An Incident occurred recently, and all I can really tell you is this; we had a magazine interview with a photo-shoot, it all went fantastically well, then we had an hour and a half break when, completely unrelated to the photo-shoot, a dancer tripped and got injured. Her ballet teacher got upset with me, reputations were called into question, a flurry of letters, and the incident was seemingly closed. It probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it almost got messy. I had expected when starting Ballet Black that I would be up against years of hardcore stereotyping, cultural differences and plain old racism - but this? Jesus Christ Bananas! When you come up against things that make life scratchy it can sometimes feel like you’re continually and quite deliberately banging your head against a brick wall. Fortunately, for every scratchy happening, there are about ten that are as fantastic as can be. Including the people mentioned in this months diary (from this point onwards of course!)
By the way, if anyone’s interested, full details of The Incident are available in exchange for seven Bacardi Breezers. ONO.
Play That Funky Music, White Boy
On Saturday the 13th of July, Daniel Jones came to take class and rehearsal to begin work on his ballet, The Devil’s Blues. He’s been with us for a few weeks now, but what made this day particularly significant was that Murray Gould (guitarist, composer and enormous hair) came along too – so we had rehearsal to live music...
Murray Gould rehearsing The Devil's Blues
photograph by Jonathan Still
It was Really Cool. Daniel and Murray have been friends for years, and it’s interesting to watch them work together. The line of communication between them seems to flow effortlessly, freeing Daniel up to concentrate on the ballet. Dancer-wise, we’re all over the place as it’s holiday season, plus we’re auditioning about one new dancer per week, AND news has spread as far as Leeds that we are The Place (no, not that one) to come and take class – all credit to Denzil for that one, with his new, improved, honed ballet classes. We’re back to regular work in September, so Daniel will be able to cast the piece and we can start rehearsing like bastards*
*(Say; bàs’tuds, as fast as you can, with a Northern accent)
Ballet School
The 13th of July was also the last day of term at the Ballet School. Parents were invited to watch, but my assistant Marina was away on holiday, so it was just me, a lot of kids and a tour en l’air exercise that they absolutely adore. It went very well (thank goodness!) and they will all be returning next term, some of them with young friends or family members, who want to join the class. To keep them thinking about ballet over the summer break, I gave them each an Angelina Ballerina storybook and they couldn’t have been more thrilled. I’ve also had calls from the parents of slightly older children who are keen to start classes, so I need to work out a way of expanding the number of classes whilst giving me time to get to the RAD for Ballet Black rehearsals later in the day. Multi-tasking – what a breeze man.
Finale
Another ballet in our rapidly developing repertoire
is Finalé, choreographed by Christopher Hampson. It was
originally done for the graduating third years of the
Royal Academy of Dance in 2000. I clearly remember being in my
second year at the RAD, sitting in the corner watching Chris rehearse it with its original cast and thinking; “my God – I wish I could do that!”
Now, due to Chris’s incredibly busy schedule, (dividing time between the U.K and New Zealand put my journeys between Shepherd’s Bush and Battersea into perspective) I am. Well, sort of. I’m teaching it to the Company, using a videotape of the performance and whatever memories I have of rehearsals (the clearest one being Chris describing a tendu type thing as requiring “you having the most gorgeous foot on the planet, and you just know it”). I hate it! I mean, I love the ballet, but transcribing it from a video is one of the most annoying, frustratingly difficult and tedious things to do EVER! (Strangely enough, as I write this, the theme from Mission Impossible is playing – a sign from Above perhaps?) Having said that, once you actually step back and see the dancers in action, it’s worth every play - pause - play - rewind - play - bugger - what - was - that - step - damn - I’ve - lost - the - remote - ah - here - it - is moment, and, pending Hampy’s approval, the costume design is by me - which turned out to be a great deal of fun.
I have to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Venetia’s father, Pierre Fowell for drawing up the designs for me. When I draw, it looks like a blindfolded monkey with a pencil in its teeth has been let loose on paper, so, following an afternoon of Venetia and I saying “a bit more sort of like that way” and “yes that’s exactly it! Now could you do something completely different?” we finally got the ideas out of my head and onto paper.
Just William
We have been lucky enough to meet yet another cool person, in the shape of William Potter, dance photographer and, to quote William, Ballet Black’s newest piece of “studio furniture”. He found out about us through Celia, one of our dancers. Cards were exchanged and he came to rehearsal the following week. One of the first things William said to me was “I’ve been reading your diaries”. When I had recovered from the shock of that (somebody actually reads these things?) I found out that his first ever visit to the Academy was to purchase none other than Jonathan Still’s Intuition CD, which was exactly what Denzil was about to use that day, as Jonathan was away in Prague. Spooky, no? Anyway. He took a lot of pictures, and returned the next week with the most remarkable portfolio of work. William has a gift for capturing…something that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think what I mean is a kind of intimacy. Whenever we work, no matter which choreographer is taking rehearsal, be it Denzil, Daniel or myself, there is always an “up” atmosphere in the studio and a real sense of friendship between the dancers, and that is exactly what you feel when you look at William’s pictures. They will be on the Ballet Black website before long, as well as in this diary, so you’ll soon be able to see for yourself…
Future Plans
Get your cheque books ready – December is going to be an expensive month - we’re having a fundraiser! There are so many fabulous things that will be happening, but I can’t really give out any more details yet, except that it will be held at the Royal Academy of Dance, there will be live music and tickets will be available online from the BB site a little nearer the time. Full details in next month’s diary.
Kent Youth Ballet
At the beginning of August, I began work on the children’s version of Act II of Coppélia for the Kent Youth Ballet. I have a cast of thirty-four - yes - that’s thirty-four kids, with ages ranging from waist high (sort of sixish) to way taller than me (fifteen/sixteen). We’ve just finished a week long Summer School, which allowed me to set most of the ballet in about four days. I was absolutely dreading it to begin with, but found that I really enjoyed it – plus all the kids involved are so enthusiastic (if a little noisier than I had expected) that the time just flew by. The rest of the rehearsals take place every Sunday from September onwards, until the performance in November.
On the fifth day, I flew to Madeira with Venetia (she was PR, but was kind of elbowed out in favour of a pro! She’s altogether much happier as the BB Pilates instructor though!) and Vanessa (sometime BB administrator, when I delegate, which isn’t often). This was a much-needed break for me, as working full-time, doing BB and the Ballet School, plus the Kent Youth Ballet can be a bit much. I was banned from taking my phone, checking emails or writing things down, and by day three I was semi climbing the walls, finally resorting to writing out a miniature storyboard for my Kent Coppélia on some tiny sheets swiped from the back of Venetia’s filofax on the flight back to London. Sad innit?
Going to Madeira was quite significant as the three of us had been there this time last year. It was there that I came up with the name for a project I was thinking about starting – Ballet Black. We were on a beach of black sand and wrote the name in foot-high letters, having no clue as to how things might progress. We had a glimmer of an idea for headed notepaper, about 50 quid and two dancers, one of whom never showed up. Now we have enough dancers to call it a Company (we’ve even turned people away), five choreographers, a musical adviser, a website, a small but steady school, a physiotherapist, a photographer, business cards(!) and fabulous studios to work in.
Blimey.
What a difference a year makes.
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