Every pier in England.........
We are at the beginning of the long winter tour of Nutcracker. Last week was the last week of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a while, and this got me thinking about this well-loved, brilliant ballet. I have always been a voracious reader, and among the books I love reading are old ballet books. There is a wealth of information written by balletomanes and critics about ballet in Britain when it was beginning to take off as a serious and attended art form. I find this era is so fascinating, and it is the role of the touring ballet troupes who travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles to bring ballet to the masses, and the reaction of these masses, that forms a large part of NBT’s version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Rehearsing the ballet, I often thought how close the ballet is to the reality of life in a touring company, and the pleasant irony of a gypsy-like tribe of dancers such as NBT portraying on stage their counterparts from sixty years ago. In the programme, there is an extract from a memoir of Ninette De Valois entitled ‘Dirty clothes, Dirty dancing’. It seems that even in the 21st century, while lots of the problems faced by those touring dancers don’t apply to us, (we rarely worry about losing our jobs because of the invasion of Hitler, or our current theatre being bombed) some things never change. We still wonder how to wash clothes whilst on tour-(I write this in my digs in Hull, surrounded by the damp contents of my wardrobe that I washed yesterday in Leeds, then put into my suitcase wet to dry here,) and theatres are still freezing. The pervasive cold is my room 101 of touring- its only thing I dread going into the theatre every day. By the end of class, everyone has peeled off their warm onion layers, but has to fight to stay warm for the rest of the day, to keep injury and tight muscles at bay.
Last week we were in Canterbury. Everyone loves it, and its easy to see why, its a true taste of the England that tourists want to see when they are rich enough to visit for a holiday. It has the most lovely little cafes and restaurants- a gastronome can eat excellently very easily. By contrast, Hull is not exactly ideal-shops tend to shut quite early, so it can be hard to find the things you need (like food) in between rehearsals and the show.
The best anecdote I have from our stay in Canterbury is something that could happen anytime, anywhere. We were nearing the finale of a run through of nutcracker, and the sugar plum was mid pirouette, when Olivia, one of our stage managers, came on stage to tell us that the fire alarm was going off and we had to evacuate. A few enterprising individuals managed to grab their laptops, but most of us didn’t even get a chance to get a coat. So there we all are, standing out in the street in central Canterbury in pointe shoes, legwarmers and t shirts- in one of the harshest Octobers in living memory, the press tell us! Between the wind, puddles and curious stares from passers-by, it all got too much, and the company trooped into a hotel across the road for precious warmth, with the diners not even batting an eyelid. Soon, after a fire engine had been and gone, we were allowed back in- and told that the alarm had been activated by the smoke from a piece of burnt toast. We resumed rehearsals with the smell of breakfast lingering in the air.
By the time it came to the day of my first show, I was much more excited than nervous. It was lovely, to everyone else it was just another Midsummer’s, but they all knew that it wasn’t for me, and remembered how they felt standing on stage as a paid professional for the first time. And it wasn’t just me who felt the support and sympathy from this big extended family- there were three new Pucks over the two week run and they were all showered with presents and cries of ‘chukkers’ before they went on.
Tonight was the opening night of Nutcracker. The afternoon flew by with quite an intense technical rehearsal, during which the crew learnt quickly about the quirks of the set, the orchestra got to grips with the score and we worked out how to fit the choreography onto the relatively small stage. By the time of the show, I was quite nervous, simply because I hadn’t done it before and I felt as though there was a lot of surprises in store. I’m always a bit nervous the first time I do something; once I’ve done it and know how it all works, I feel a lot more confident. I think the whole company felt a bit insecure, but everyone overcame it all and not only did the show go on; it went very well with only a few minor hiccups.
My last entry was written about the importance of true friends. While I won’t replace the wonderful friends I have, maybe with time and sharing the trials and tribulations of touring, I will make new, fulfilling bonds with others around me- a prospect that fills me with warmth.
Posted by Rym Kechacha at November 4, 2008 11:15 PM
