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Christopher Hampson,
Prague, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Stockholm... | |||||||
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Tens of works down the line and Christopher is now an internationally known and respected choreographer. So which far flung place is he in this time...
Here is a link to the previous column in the series.
Ten dancers with a residency at DanceBase in the heart of Edinburgh. The music is a combination of Schnittke’s Conerto Grosso No.1 and Quasi una Sonata. I had four weeks to create the work and it couldn’t have been more different an experience to the past three full-length productions I’d been working on over the past two years. Most of the dancers were new to me, but a few I knew from my school days, namely David Fielding and Jenny Tattersall. While working on this I was also doing some promotional work for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s forthcoming tour of the UK. It was a strange experience to know that I would have two ballets from RNZB at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and being followed by one from the Ensemble Group at the same venue. Just before RNZB arrived ENB were in Barcelona performing Double Concerto and in preparation for it’s debut with Royal Swedish Ballet in Autumn I made a one day visit to do some homework for when I re-stage it later this year. Double Concerto was looking in good shape. The theatre made a video of every performance that was relayed to people in the audience that didn’t have a clear view of the stage. A good idea for two reasons. The first is obvious, that the audience get to see the performance they paid to see. The second reason is that it is gives the possibility of documenting the performance for future reference and to safeguard the copyright of my work. In the UK the agreement between the Musician’s Union and the dance companies differs depending on where you work. Some agreements allow for only one recording to be made. This is normally a dress rehearsal so that we can film from anywhere in the theatre. But dress rehearsals are highly unreliable so the other option is to make the recording during a performance, often from the lighting box, and therefore the sound is either limited or non-existent. It is a situation that is extremely frustrating not just for me but for anybody trying to re-stage or document the work. My only recording of Double Concerto is dreadful. It was taken in the dress rehearsal, with plenty of things going wrong on stage and me talking over the top to the lighting-designer. The same with Nutcracker. It seems that whatever the agreements in Prague, Sweden, New Zealand, Spain and the United States allows for a very good video documentation to be achieved. There’s a problem in the UK and I don’t see it being addressed. It needs to change and some talks need to happen. Moving on…Next stop is Manchester with the UK premiere of Romeo and Juliet. Great to see this gem of a company again. Gary and Turid had done a great job of re-staging my works. I stayed with the company during Manchester and at the Sadlers Wells. After the Wells season I was back up to Stirling where the Ensemble Group were to premiere the Schnittke work (Strict/Free). But it was not easy to shake off RNZB as they were doing their rep in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Both companies managed to see each other’s work. Immediately after Strict/Free had it’s premiere I got on a plane to Stockholm to cast Double Concerto. It was my first visit and I’m glad to have seen the company, their wonderful theatre and to find out how the costumes were coming along. I was in Stockholm a total of three days and then went directly to Athens were I was coaching candidates for the Genée Award in two solos that I created last year. It was a great event and the prizes well deserved. Since then I have been back to Prague to see how they were baby sitting Giselle and I’ve had a holiday, in London. Catching up with friends, going to see as many shows as I can, and having my bathroom renovated by two plumbers that also share the name Hampson.
My next diaries will be from Prague (again) where I’m working with Daria Klimentova on our Masterclasses and then Atlanta Ballet in August. | ||||||||
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