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Christopher Hampson,
Time to reminisce... | |||||||
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Christopher Hampson, 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 lots of other ballets, and he is now a freelance choreographer and ballet master for City Ballet of London...
Here is a link to the previous column in the series.
24th October 1999 I have returned from Cambridge after watching Elmhurst Ballet School perform Geoffrey Cauley's Peter and the Wolf. It has confirmed to me just how important it is for children's ballets to be created. Earlier in the day I had been rehearsing my own ballet for children, Carnival¸ set to Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals, which I was invited to create for the National Youth Ballet. At the time I was asked, I remember hesitating before saying yes. The reason was fear of the unknown. Over the past weeks, I've faced many scary times (which we'll get to eventually) but none were ever in connection with Carnival. In fact, working with the children every Sunday morning has become something I look forward too. They've taught me how to work positively in a studio as much as I hope I've taught them. Today, however, was not a particularly clean run-through of Carnival, and I came away feeling nervous and apprehensive about how it/they would transfer to the stage. After seeing Peter and the Wolf I can now relax, knowing that children are much more reliable than adults. The students at Elmhurst enjoyed every minute of stage time, and in turn, the audience enjoyed watching them. Going to see Peter and the Wolf was very important for me. It was like looking at where I've come from. I first met Geoffrey Cauley when I was eight years old. At the time, I was attending the Northern Ballet School, and he was creating a ballet for Northern Ballet Theatre called Miss Carter Work Pink, based on the life of local artist Helen Bradley. He needed to find a boy who could play her brother George. I can't remember being chosen exactly, but I do recall my first rehearsal. I was taken to the company's studios in Whalley Range, and I waited with a dancer called Nicola Treherne for Geoffrey Cauley to arrive. He was late, and stubbed his cigarette out in a mug of coffee, and promptly lit another one. "You're the second main part in this ballet, I hope you can concentrate!" As he walked away I heard him say "Otherwise we're f**k*d." To say I was scared of this man would be an understatement. However, I got the feeling he was just as scared of me. Geoffrey doesn't like children, so he treats them like adults, and for this I came to adore him. One of the first things was the funeral scene. I was stood behind a table with a white cloth covering a body. I remember being in my black tights, white ballet shoes and t-shirt, alert and running through ballet steps in my head so I could be on the ball.
"Do you know the Lord's prayer?" That was my introduction to having a role choreographed on me. I could bore you with more stories of being fed chocolate cake at the Sadler's Wells gala by Princess Margaret, or of performing every night with Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) who narrated the shows, and finally of meeting the real George Bradley, who shook my hand and said I'd done a very good job on him. The point is, when I look back at that creative time with Geoffrey Cauley, I know that it was something so special that I think every future dancer should have an experience like it. It's good to know that they can.
I want to talk about ballet mastering with Roland Price; about working with Hans van Manen and Robert North; re-choreographing Canciones while putting on an old ballet to make sure there was a ballet to go on on opening night; the performance that was interrupted by a fire alarm causing the theatre to be evacuated half-way through Five Tangos; Ulverston; my projects with ENB School; Central School of Ballet; the filming at Blue Peter. But in the last four days I've commuted between York, Shepherds Bush, Farringdon, Fulham, Turnham Green, Cambridge, Tooting and five ballets. Tomorrow I tech and light for Carnival while rehearsing City Ballet for the Peacock theatre. I'm tired. We'll talk about it another time.
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