Christopher Hampson, Country Tour & Masterclass
	Chistopher Hampson website   Christopher Hampson, formerly a dancer and choreographer with ENB, has been keeping a diary for us since November 97. Initially he covered the creation of his new ballet ‘Country Garden’ but since then there have been 20 other ballets, and he has been a freelance choreographer for three years. Here is a link to the previous column in the series. Link to later column.     Hampson diary index New Zealand (June/July 2003) There is a lot to write about and I'm not sure where to start. So I'll start at the very beginning, as I believe Julie Andrews normally does. Romeo and Juliet Tour It's been quite a while since I've been on the road with a company. The last time would probably have been with City Ballet of London when I was their Ballet Master. It was in this capacity that I was invited to go on the Royal New Zealand Ballet's tour with my Romeo and Juliet. From my previous experiences the requirements for going on tour are Nurofen, a sense of humour, a sense of dread (reserved for theatres where you were promised it would fit, but nobody actually believes it), a mobile phone and a fully working liver. In my last diary I believe we'd had the opening night of R&J in Wellington so I'll just start from there. Wellington Well that just carried on really. We managed to get a few more casts on for various roles and I eventually ended up with a full compliment of Mercutios. I seem to remember that the bar shut quite early. Napier This was the first bit of real touring, but I just waved the company goodbye as I had an engagement with the Queen's representative in New Zealand, Dame Sylvia Cartwright, at Government House in Auckland. A swanky affair where Gary Harris (Director of RNZB) and I were to give a presentation of the production. A beautiful setting with gardens that Romeo and Juliet reviews Royal New Zealand Ballet site   seemed to be endless. Dame Sylvia and everybody there made us feel very welcome. After a late evening of nibbles and drinks I was on a flight to Napier to join the rest of the company. Napier is situated in the Hawkes Bay area and is famed for its Art Deco architecture. The town was originally planned in 1854 and I would imagine they thought that was that. But in 1931 there was an earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) that virtually destroyed it and killed many people. New Zealand does earthquakes quite well and this one, like many others seem to, threw up another 40 square kilometres of land out of the sea. The rebuilding program after this is what gave Napier its unique architectural look. The theatre we performed was, guess what? Art Deco. And quite stylish it was too. A smaller stage than Wellington and so the first rehearsal (or was that the only one?) was basically making sure the set worked without running over any of the dancers. Napier shut quite early so I opened up a private bar in my chalet (think Butlins in Prestatyn) and slowly got on with getting to know the company. Auckland Once we'd finished up in Napier I had already started to make some changes to the production. This was to be a continuing theme of mine. With so many different sized stages that we performed, it would often change the focus of the work dramatically. I would see aspects of the production in greater detail on small stages, especially helpful when it came to the intimate family scenes in Act 3. Jane Turner as Juliet and Alex Wagner as Romeo in Christopher Hampson's Romeo and Juliet Photograph by Bill Cooper © The company travel from place to place by coach and everyone seemed to have their own specific seat. I was heartened to find that the Company Manager (Nicola Blackman, a woman that puts the fish into efficiency) had reserved me a seat at the front. This was a great way to view New Zealand. Nicola made an excellent tour guide, getting me to pronounce some of the place names we came across like, Ngaruawahia, Whakapapa or Te Kauwhata. Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand and is certainly the most cosmopolitan (you can't believe how much trouble you can get into by making such statements in NZ, I thank God I'm 12,000 miles away writing this). We performed at the Aotea Centre, a barn of a place that reminded me of the Royal Festival Hall with a proper stage. The production looked quite different here due to the impressive size of the stage. Scenes that happen off stage could be easily viewed and the ballroom had the space it requires. I also felt that the dancers had really started to settle with the production and the performances were improving nightly. I had also started to make a few adjustments to the show and it was one of the real perks of being on the road with the company. Hamilton I think the best thing to be done with Hamilton is to inform the French that dolphins live there and that Greenpeace is sending the Rainbow Warrier II to stop them from testing anymore French nuclear weapons. I'm sure M. Chirac would respond with the appropriate number of bombs. They could start with the theatre. Very cramped conditions and the cast just got smaller and smaller as we cut Ballroom Couples and others. The company gave excellent performances, which were well received, but quite difficult to keep morale going, I don't think I'll be seeing Hamilton again. Palmerston North Some would say the same of Palmerston North, but I don't. It is situated in the Manawatu Region (named after the river, I guess). The theatre is amazing, formally a cinema palace and has a huge auditorium. By now I thought I had made as many changes as I had wanted, but I managed to push through a few more. One of the hardest jobs on a tour like this is keeping a company focused. After so many performances the performances can start to look formulaic. Often just re-rehearsing sections or reiterating how we got to certain scenes the way we did can re-focus, but often you are dealing with very tired dancers. Dunedin and Christchurch This was my first taste of the cities in the South Island, and it really is a beautiful Island. Alps separate the East from the West and the flat plains that lead into Christchurch are amazingly expansive. By now I think that most of my choreographic work was complete and my job really became teacher and repetiteur. And there I'll leave it. In total I spent just under four months in New Zealand. A friendly, inviting country with people that smile at you. I made lots of new friends (to which I say Kia Ora) and whom I'll no doubt see when the company come to the UK to perform Romeo and Juliet and their Mixed Bill in April/May 2004. Giselle My new production of Giselle will have its premiere on 1st April at the Národní Divadlo, Prague. This project started last year just before I went to New Zealand. Bruce French (Designer) and I kept in touch while I was away and it was one of the first things I picked up on my return. He'd sent out a whole bunch of images to me in Wellington, NZ for me to ponder over. They came on tour with me around NZ and I made copious notes and tried not to spill red wine on them. On my return we decided that he should come to Prague while I was teaching at the Masterclasses (I'll get to those in a bit). He arrived with the model and my hotel room was transformed into a studio. The model theatre took up most of the bed and there were bits of houses, graves, wings and backdrop strategically placed on the floor. We had decided on a look for Act Two that we were both happy with and so worked mostly on Act One. A difficulty with Act One is there is so much story and mood to set up, and all of it quite dependant on the décor (bench, flower, houses etc....). We had a really good brain storming for two days and Bruce left me in Prague with a wave and probably a sense of relief that there was no red wine incorporated into his designs. Prague (August 2nd – August 17th) Airports are strange places aren't they? I was standing holding, well, hiding a plastic card that read Prague Ballet Masterclasses, trying not to give the gangs of stag parties pouring out onto the concourse any ammunition, but still hoping the sign would be visible to the students I was there to pick up. I wasn't having much luck until a man in his forties came up to me and said, “Who's teaching?”. To which I replied, “Who's asking...?”. It turns out he was a ballet master for a company in the U.S.A and was on holiday in Czech Republic. I didn't manage to find one student, instead they'd find me and ask if I was there to take them to the Masterclasses, as each time they came to find me they were normally accompanied by a stag party so there was no sign to see.   Daria Klimentova Photograph by Milan Fara © The Masterclasses were the brainchild of Daria Klimentova and along with her and others we'd worked over a year to set them up. For the first week we had over forty students and in the second week over fifty students. There may have been Irek Mukhamedov photographer Daria Klimentova © more, but they're probably still at the airport looking for a choreographer. It was an excellent venture and great to be working with so many brilliant teachers and friends. There was a real buzz about the place. Aside from Daria and myself the casting was: Agnes Oaks Andria Hall Irek Mukhamedov Greg Horsman Yat-Sen Chang Amy Hollingsworth Jonathan Still Vaclav Janecek The day consisted of a Classical ballet class in the morning followed by Variations for both boys and girls. A spot of lunch and then either Pas de Deux, Creativity, Contemporary or Repertoire normally were happening all at the same time. The students' energy was amazing. The days were full of dancing and they couldn't get enough of it. Just as it should be. What next? Over the next three months I'm back and forth to Prague with Bruce for production meetings. We'll continue evolving the look of the production until December when Bruce finally hands over the designs. At the same time as the above, I'll also be at ENB re-staging Trapèze and Nutcracker. I teach for Roland Price at Pineapple Dance Studios (12pm – 1:30pm Monday 29th September until Friday 10th October). And finally, in the last week of September you'll find me in Birmingham where I've been invited to create two variations for the Genée International Ballet Competition 2003. The finals are held on Sunday 28th September at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre. Lots of dancing by students that can't get enough of it, just as it should be.
	{top} Home Magazine Listings Update Links Contexts
	../sep03/christopher_hampson_37.htm revised: 12 September 2003 Bruce Marriott email, © all rights reserved, all wrongs denied. credits written by Christopher Hampson © email design by RED56