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You would be forgiven for thinking that a dance year, which began at The Nutcracker and ended with The Sleeping Beauty, had been a staid one outside of London. But in spite of much gnashing of teeth from those in our capital about the lack of new creations, if you ventured beyond the Watford Gap you may have been surprised to discover that during the course of the year almost all the country’s dance companies, as well as all-but-one of our national ballet companies, premiered new work in and around the North and its regions. Though their quality was, in general, mixed, this fact reveals a healthy state of affairs that many in London might overlook.
Much of this is due to the theatres themselves, which, thanks to healthy investment, are now proving attractive performance venues. The Grand, in Leeds, has emerged from closure with better back-stage facilities and, at the Lowry in Salford, skilful programming and a vibrant education department has ensured packed houses for its seasons of contemporary dance and dance theatre. Rambert now traditionally opens its tour there and unveiled a new work by Andre Gingras, and it was at the Lowry that Javier de Frutos, lately installed as Artistic Director of the Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre, presented a triple bill of his new work, for the first time in the UK. This latter evening showcased de Frutos’ sublime Paseillo – a superb response to its Mozart score – and a work, which in its hushed poetry, was the most beautiful new creation of the year.
The Stepfather by Arthur Pita
© Hugo Glendinning
Grand Old-Timers, Richard Alston and Michael Clark, toured with their respective companies and reminded us how lyrical each can be – Alston with Devil in the Detail, his tribute to Scott Joplin, and Clark in an extraordinary nude ensemble to Barbra Streisand singing ‘Send in the Clowns’. Two ‘new kids on the block’, Arthur Pita and Raphael Bonachela, presented a double bill of world premieres to launch CandoCo’s season at Manchester’s Contact, and Pita, especially, revealed in his quirky ‘dansical’, The Stepfather, that he is honing his craft to a pitch that will soon rival his partner, Matthew Bourne.
Tanja Liedtke's Construct
© Tanja Liedtke
It was also at the Contact that we saw Tanja Liedtke’s witty Construct, an hour-long trio that dealt with the construction and dismantling of human relationships. It had a simplicity and a poignancy that grew even more sad when we read a month later that Liedtke, who had just been appointed Director of the Sydney Dance Company, had been knocked over in a traffic accident and her life cut so tragically short.
Robert Parker and Valentin Olovyannikov in Cyrano
© Roy Smiljanic
In the world of ballet, David Bintley premiered his new Cyrano for Birmingham Royal Ballet in February. With its tuneful (though twee) score from Carl Davis and its famous tear-jerker tale, it was always going to be a popular success though it proved a little sickly for my tastes. Far better was an all Stravinsky/Balanchine Triple Bill in which the BRB dancers displayed brilliant neo-classical style and, though a box-office flop, the evening was a critical triumph. ENB unveiled a new three-acter from English choreographer, Michael Corder – The Snow Queen. Yet so enchanted was he by its score (Prokofiev’s Stone Flower), so besotted by the company’s dancers (who are in fine form) and so wrapped up in the Swarovski-inspired fabrics, Corder devised a work so packed and packed and packed again with classical steps that he lost sight of its all-important narrative and in its near three-hour length it became a bore.
Daria Klimentova in The Snow Queen
© Patrick Baldwin
It has also been a year to mangle Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. In Glasgow, Ashley Page presented his vision of the ballet to conclude his trilogy of ‘fairy-tale’ works. Though it boasted splendid design from Antony McDonald and a malevolent turn for a spiced-up Fairy Carabosse, these failed to dispel the impression that the choreography was at odds with the music and that the company dancers are no longer at home in classical style. It was, however, better than David Nixon’s revision of it as A Sleeping Beauty Tale for Northern Ballet Theatre. Setting the action in outer-space and bogging down the narrative with Sci-Fi references, by the third act Nixon had ditched Tchaikovsky in favour of music suitable for a nuclear holocaust (and a dancing spider) and the result was a muddled mess. Extraordinary, therefore, that the man who had so befuddled Tchaikovsky here, should later honour him with a superlative new staging of The Nutcracker, which in its simple manner and never-less-than-magical-ways, proved to be one of the absolute highlights of the year.
Lorena Fernández Sáez as Pina, Limor Ziv as Carabosse and Amy Hadley as Lucinda in Page’s The Sleeping Beauty, sponsored by Bank of Scotland.
© Andrew Ross
It was a year of departures – firstly Robert Parker from BRB, who bade farewell at Salford in July and then a tearful goodbye to Chiaki Nagao at NBT who with performances as Juliet in Bradford retired from dance after fifteen years. As the year closes, we thank them for the delight they have brought.
Chiaki Nagao as Juliet and Hironao Takahashi as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet
© Merlin Hendy
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