Maxine Denys, is a former Royal Ballet dancer who now lives and works in South Africa. Here, in a piece originally for a Johannesburg newspaper, she casts an eye over the last year of ballet in South Africa. The Trocs have been there and Ashton style is looking thin on the ground it seems..... A new SA web site has also just come on stream: Cape Town City Ballet

Whatever went wrong at the State Theatre Ballet Company (STBC) this year?

To start with, the year-programme was overloaded, one can only surmise in an attempt to draw a wider audience and increase sorely-needed revenue. This did not succeed, and resulted in presentation of works ill-suited to available skills in the Company, and serious overtaxing of many of the dancers. The cumulative effect was, predictably, a decline in overall quality and dancers' morale.

Since 1997 political uncertainty and financial pressure have led to an exodus of skilled dancers across the hierarchy. We now have a Company in which there are many new faces, a large degree of inexperience in the lower ranks, and few role-models in the upper ranks. On the up-side, dancers were presented with challenges and opportunities they might not otherwise have had, and some rose to the occasion.

Les Sylphides challenged the emerging talent in the Company, but all the casts were lacking the requisite Romantic style. A single exception was the début of Trevor Schoonraad as 'The Poet', but to the dismay of balletomanes he too had departed from the Company by the next season!

Tanya Graafland stood out as the lead in David Krugel's Blank Slate and Chris Kindo's Wind Dances. Irina Zyrianova and Kimbrian Bergh delivered a rousing Walpurgis Night. By contrast, The Dying Swan should really now be shelved until another artiste can rise to equal the singular 1991 interpretation by Catherine Burnett.

Swan Lake was Tanya Graafland's performance of the year. Reunited with the consummate Johnny Bovang, they rendered sublime interpretations worthy of any stage, anywhere. Christian Tatchev made an astonishing début in the daunting role of Prince Siegfried ..... rarely does one see a rendition of this calibre, particularly from a nineteen-year-old!

Nutcracker, the ever-popular Christmas favourite, rounded off the year with two versions - the traditional Prokovsky, and a new Mark Hawkins version. Fortunately Artistic Director Dawn Weller hedged her bets with only five presentations of the Hawkins choreographic catastrophe.

The highlight work of the year was undoubtedly Paul Taylor's Company B. This work extended all the selected casts and is another scoop for the Company's already versatile repertoire. Outstanding were Andries Wiedemann, James Cocker and Tanya Graafland, who positively fizzed in Rum and Coca-Cola.

Dancers emerging most successfully from the ranks were Angela Malan (now an admirable Principal), Bernice Silvius, Christian Tachev, Kaloyan Boyadjiev, and the uncannily versatile Andries Weidemann.

Visiting Companies
We were visited by the Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB), Geneva Ballet, Russian National Ballet, and the Trocaderos.

The BRB, being unknown to local ballet lovers, was heavily reliant on Letitia Müller's ability to fill the houses. Their visit was something of a disappointment. Audiences did not respond to "Far from the Madding Crowd" which is not an easily accessible ballet. Their Second Programme, presented in Johannesburg, proved more popular. Though marred by an embarrassing mutilation of Balanchine's Agon, it also included a stunning production of David Bintley's Carmina burana. Müller's brilliant Goddess Fortuna was the direct fruition of the Contemporary style she first explored in her sojourn with the STBC.

The Geneva Ballet dazzled with a single memorable performance of diverse contemporary works. Sadly they were seen by a tiny minority of Gauteng balletomanes.

Less memorable was the Russian National Ballet. How many more pseudo-official "Russian" splinter groups will be allowed to con the ballet-going public out of money they would normally spend on local and bona-fide ballet seasons?

The return of the Trocaderos proved a delightful interlude in the ballet year, but more for their general comic appeal than aesthetic value.

Collaboration
An important development was the collaboration of the STBC with Cape Town's CTBC, showcased in the intriguing choreography of Choo San Goh, and the pedantic efforts of Veronica Paeper. This partnership was a tentative but positive step in the right direction. Despite an imbalanced programme and decidedly unchallenging interaction between the two Companies, the exercise confirmed that a merger of such special resources is essential if Ballet in South Africa is to survive and prosper. It will then be possible to expand the number of dancers, broaden the artistic directorship, and to tour, taking Ballet back to the smaller cities so long starved of this art. We face a precarious situation, and there is clearly no other way forward.

Visiting Producers
To their credit, STBC management recognised the dire need for foreign expertise in producing this year's Programme, bringing Patricia Neary (for Balanchine), Ronald Hynd (for his own works), Janek Schergen (for Choo San Goh) and Sandra Stone (for Paul Taylor). The results varied. Sandra Stone produced a superb Company B, whereas Patricia Neary should not have permitted Ballet Imperial onto the stage. The corps de ballet are not ready for this. Her Rubies was only a little more successful. Janek Schergen made an astute choice of principals, and the Choo San Goh Configurations and Unknown Territory were a total delight. Ronald Hynd's Rosalinda was a profound disappointment, and he may as well not have come at all. In addition to absence of style or interpretation, the casting was wholly inappropriate.

It is now apparent that STBC have entirely lost their command of the Ashton style. Despite brave efforts from the dancers, La Fille mal gardée fell far short of the Company's past triumphs. This knowledge is tragically lost, perhaps forever.

STBC's major problem in 1998 was that of production. In the rush to present a diverse and overloaded programme, stylistic and interpretative quality suffered severely. Dancers were cast beyond their capabilities, and exhausted to the point of burn-out. It is no surprise that audiences were thin throughout the year. STBC might consider new, less challenging works, and greater use of guest artists if it is to redeem its long tradition of balletic excellence in 1999, and repel the spectre of economic recession which so threatens its survival.