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Christopher Hampson,
Atlanta Angels Advert... | |||||||
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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.
One refreshing aspect of freelance work is the variety of working conditions, the difference in how a company operates and how that transpires to working with the dancers in the studio. This August I was with the Atlanta Ballet to create a new work for their 2005 season. I chose to use a Martinu score I have wanted to use for some time (Sinfonietta Giocosa). This is a very hard working company comprising 20 dancers and a varying number of Apprentice and Fellowship students. I had only four weeks to create this work, but I found a real connection with their style of movement. Quick foot work, high energy and an attack rarely encountered anywhere else. I find Martinu’s music to be sometimes like doing a 3D rhythmic jig-saw and everybody in the studio had a hand in counting out the cross-rhythms and phrasing I was after. It premieres in May 5th 2005 and so I have another trip out there next year to make a few adjustments, something I’m looking forward to. In the meantime the company is looking for money so that I can have the designs realised…Any angels should contact John Clark at Atlanta Ballet on +14048735811. Most ballet companies in the States (including Atlanta Ballet) are only able to employ their dancers for roughly three-quarters of the year. In their lay-off period there is no weekly wage, they often must have their own medical insurance and jobs such as waiting tables, teaching elsewhere become a necessity in order to execute the job they’ve trained so hard to do. My next stop was to ENB where here in the UK we sit between the U.S. style of contracts and the Continental “Opera House” job for life system. I was just at ENB for a couple of days to see how Perpetuum Mobile had shaped up before their tour to Biarritz and Dubai. Some new faces in the company and a good time to get a look at people before casting begins on Nutcracker. Since September I have been in Stockholm with the Royal Swedish Ballet to re-stage Double Concerto on them. Here the employment rules could not be more different to where we started our journey in Atlanta. Double Concerto has a cast of 38 and, for that reason, is best suited to large companies. Royal Swedish Ballet is a company of 75 dancers in total, however, it has been almost impossible to get even a first cast of 38 people in a studio together. There are two other works in the programme and all three choreographers are fighting (amicably) for the dancers, but I think there’s a bigger problem. If you want to have a baby, go live in Sweden. They have the most amazing support network from the State and also Employers. Fathers and Mothers enjoy the same maternity/paternity leave (365 days, per child, until the child is 8, taken at anytime and any increment of 25% through to 100% time off). Two weeks maybe taken if your child is un-well, without the presentation of a doctor’s note and the Employer may not refuse this time off. Now marry two dancers that have two children and multiply that about ten times through the company and the paid leave begins to add up. There are some other very odd, quirky rules that one only finds by working in an old Opera House. Caroline, my assistant, is with me on this and has done the hard work of teaching the ballet from her notated score. The dancers have digested a lot in the two weeks we’ve been there and now have a couple more weeks to get it looking as it should. Jan-Eric Wikström will be dancing the leading role with Marie Lindqvist, followed in alternate performances by Dragos Mihalcea and Anna Valev. It’s been fascinating to see this ballet being danced by dancers with different training, different strengths and approach to the company it was originally created for. If anybody knows what a “System Bolaget” is then you’ll also know that these Scandinavian countries social laws can be rather taxing too! A quick stop at the Royal Ballet School yesterday to coach a boy that is taking one of my solos to a competition in Spain just about brings me up to date. Back to Sweden in a few days then a short break before Nutcracker starts to take shape again. | ||||||||
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