BALLET CENTRAL

BALLET CENTRAL

at the Civic Theatre

16.05.17

an updated version here, for The Reviews Hub, at Colchester Mercury

For this, his inaugural tour as Artistic Director, Christopher Marney has put together a stunning varied programme: a two-hour showcase for the emerging talent of the Central School of Ballet.

Thirty young dancers, seven presentations, book-ended by two fresh looks at familiar repertoire. The last, and the longest, was Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling, first seen in 1994. It's a typically tongue-in-cheek take on La Sylphide, keeping the gist of the original story, and the Scottish setting, but giving it a make-over for the Trainspotting generation. So as well as the silver birch backcloth, the setting includes an old armchair and some dustbins down stage left. The Sylphs sport little angel wings, James a kilt. Plenty of fun in the glade, with young James eager to join the corps, until suddenly the mood changes as his beloved's wings are clipped. Beautifully danced, and imaginatively staged, with athletic work from Adam Davies, and a moving performance from Brittanie Dillon as the Lead Sylph.

Jenna Lee's Romeo and Juliet – the Ballroom scene – uses Prokofiev's score in an original, eloquent narrative. Amy McEntee's Juliet is shy and apprehensive with Paris and has some lovely moments with her two friends. The Montague boys do some spectacular showing-off. There is romance of course, but frustration too, with the dancers forming barriers between Juliet and her Romeo [Craig McFarlane] And then a brief expression of innocent joy before the tragedy we know is to come.

A stylish glimpse of La Bayadere, with scarves, an impressive pas de deux, and a traditional tableau to finish.

In more contemporary work, we see fluent avian grace in Liam Scarlett's Indigo Children, edgy urban graffiti in Sleepless, choreographed by Malgorzata Dzierzon with music by Philip Feeney, played live, and Christopher Bruce's enigmatic Mya, danced to Arvo Part – three cocooned figures moving in witty, wistful shapes and patterns.

And a memorable look at the Castle Dracula scene from the ballet created in 1996 by Michael Pink and Christopher Gable, with an original pastiche score by Philip Feeney. Haunted by succubi, Alvaro Olmedo has a strong, erotically charged duet with Matthew Morrell's magnetic, hypnotic Count.

As ever, a wonderful display of burgeoning dance talent, and an excellent sampler of what ballet can do. If you missed it at the Civic, it's at the Mercury in Colchester in June, and at the Kenneth More in Ilford in July.

production photograph: Bill Cooper

THINGS TO COME - BALLET CENTRAL

Things to come

Ballet Central 2017 comes to the Civic Theatre

Always eagerly awaited, Central School of Ballet's renowned graduate performing company Ballet Central will call at Chelmsford's Civic Theatre on Tuesday 16th May as part of its 2017 national tour. 


Ballet Central gives audiences across the country the chance to see the company’s young and dynamic dancers who are on the cusp of their professional careers, showcasing newly-commissioned works and celebrated masterpieces by the dance industry’s top choreographers.  

The repertoire for this year’s tour features Act 2 of Highland Fling by Matthew Bourne, Indigo Children by Royal Ballet artist-in-residence Liam Scarlett, and a new version of the ballroom scene from Romeo & Juliet by former English National Ballet’s Jenna Lee. It also includes specially created works by Christopher Bruce and Malgorzata Dzierzon, as well as excerpts from Petipa’s La Bayadere.  The tour will also feature a scene from Dracula, choreographed by Michael Pink from the original production directed by Christopher Gable in 1996.

Christopher Marney, the new Artistic Director of Ballet Central said "This year’s performance showcases the best dance theatre from current industry professionals and gives you the chance to see newly-commissioned work and refreshed classics from the world’s top choreographers. This is an opportunity to see the future stars of dance as they launch their professional careers”.

Ballet Central’s dancers not only perform but also help with technical aspects including lighting, sound, staging and wardrobe.  Another highlight of Ballet Central is the music, much of which has been created by Central’s Composer-in-Residence Philip Feeney, who also performs live on the tour.

Civic Theatre, Chelmsford on Tuesday 16th May at 7.45 pm  

www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres

BALLET CENTRAL

BALLET CENTRAL

at the Civic Theatre

15.04.2016

The Civic was packed for the annual visit of Central Ballet School's touring arm.

As usual, they'd brought a wealth of new talent in an eclectic artistic offering.

Seven pieces, beginning with Christopher Gable's Celebration. Classical – tights and tiaras - but relaxed in tone, it was a stylistic sampler exploring the fluid relationships between the four men and four women. With a score by their Music Director Philip Feeney, who was at the piano for most of tonight's ballets. Resident costume designer Richard Gellar was responsible for these and almost all the other costumes.

Leanne King's Insinuare was a much more complex, more confrontational duo, danced with energy and intelligence by Prima Tharathep and Jacopo Butelli. A huge contrast with the Paquita Pas de Trois which followed: Mai Ito performed with precision, but it was Mark Samoras who impressed, with a versatile approach, engaging the audience in this, and in the final work, Christopher Marney's War Letters, extracts of which I saw in town back in 2014. Set to a selection of Shostakovich, with a leavening of Glenn Miller for the dance hall number, it features heroes and heart-ache, a conga line, wounded soldier, a spectacular quartet of male dancers and celebration for VE day. The most moving moments are the The Heavy Coat, inspired by Vicky Feaver's poem [read on the soundtrack by Carol Been] and the final tableau, in which the company turns and looks out to the sunlit uplands of a world at peace.

Chelmsford Ballet Company member Jasmine Wallis [pictured with Joseph Vaughan] featured in the last piece, as well as in the Gable, and in Linda Moran's Elan Vital, a showcase for eight girls in dusty pink, danced to the music of Gustav Holst – upbeat, as its title suggests, with a hint of callisthenics.

Production photographs © Bill Cooper

M.A. SHOWCASE

M.A. SHOWCASE

Christopher Marney at the Crypt on the Green, Clerkenwell

03.06.2014

Fifteen years after he left the Central School of Ballet – and the inspirational guidance of Christopher Gable – Christopher Marney has been back at the School, developing his choreographic work for a Master of Arts.

In an historic crypt in Clerkenwell, this impressive showcase sampled all the pieces he's devised during the last eighteen months, performed by dancers from Ballet Black and Ballet Central.

The focus is on narrative dance. In the two extracts from War Letters [Ballet Black] we saw first a lively Dance Hall, with a conga line, lots of swirls and lifts to Shostakovich and the dreamy Moonlight Serenade. And throughout, there is eloquent interaction between the girls and the GIs on the floor …

And then The Heavy Coat, an interpretation of Vicky Feaver's poem in which the coat becomes a character in its own right, as well as a potent metaphor for love and loss.

Anon!, which I first saw in Ballet Central's 2013 tour, uses Delibes' Sylvia music for a cheeky tale of fantasy football as the geeky girl [engagingly danced by Amelia Jackson] meets Duncan Anderson's somewhat abashed soccer captain. A proud pyramid, some lovely slomo, and a tender pas-de-deux.

Two of a Kind [Ballet Black] follows the journey of a relationship – the warmth and subtlety of the interpretation made it easy to believe in the feelings the four dancers expressed.

The finale – a highlight of this year's Ballet Central tour, too – was Carousel Dances, Marney's tribute to the dream ballet world of the classic musical. Clearly a labour of love, the piece is also underpinned by thorough stateside research, talking to dancers involved in early productions and studying Agnes de Mille's original choreography. This is a dazzlingly inventive work – with minimal lighting and four striped poles it conjures up the world of the showgirls and the barkers, and the merry-go-round itself, in a moving, hugely enjoyable celebration. The full-blooded pas-de-deux [If I Loved You] was exquisitely danced by Duncan Anderson's Barker Boy and Emma Walker's Louise.

Marney is probably best known for his work with Matthew Bourne. But as this showcase proves, he is an inspired choreographer in his own right, and we eagerly await more of his work in this narrative genre especially. Next spring, he's creating a new piece for Chelmsford Ballet Company – 18^th to 21^st March – it's in the diary already …

production photograph: Dave Morgan

Coat

Sometimes I have wanted

to throw you off

like a heavy coat.

Sometimes I have said

you would not let me 

breathe or move.

But now that I am free

to choose light clothes

or none at all

I feel the cold 

and all the time I think

how warm it used to be.

BALLET CENTRAL


2010 tour at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford 
08.04.10


Ballet Central, the touring arm of the Central School, is celebrating 25 years on the road.


The programme they brought to the Civic had a nostalgic tinge, I thought.


It began with the continually inventive Duologue, choreographed by Christopher Marney, who began his career in mid-Essex and is probably best known for his work with Matthew Bourne. The opening tableau had striking height, and the three couples, costumed in browns with subdued lighting, eloquently explored their sepia memories, ending with a chaste kiss.


Philip Aiden's Let Yourself Go – grey silks and spats, and more daring lifts – took Irving Berlin's tunes and showed inhibitions shed as bow-ties were loosened. Shift, by Christopher Bruce, began with some fairly literal mime, before exploring the mechanical work of the factory. A lithe, fluent performance, more Sing As We Go than Stalinist, the excellent trio of boys very American. 


Philip Feeney, who has been the Musical Director of the company since it began, wrote and performed the music for David Nixon's beautiful Song to St Andrew, and for the last piece, Knot Garden. Sara Matthews had devised a fascinating sequence of rhythmic, ritual movement, often ludic – the circle – but mostly celebrating the joy of dance itself, reflected in Feeney's folk-ish music.


Barry Moreland's brief Pas de Trois to Mozart, and Louise Bennett's busy, athletic Twin Figures, completed a stunning showcase of modern dance.  

BALLET CENTRAL

at the Civic Theatre

08.04.09

With their usual flair, the young graduates of the Central School brought us eight pieces, showcasing many talents in many genres.

David Bintley's Scottish Dances, like the Malcolm Arnold music, wore their tartan slightly tongue-in-cheek, though amongst the leaps and the laughs there was a touching pas de deux. Philip Aiden's When No One Is Looking used Sondheim's music for an intriguing blend of cynicism and showbiz smiles.

As ever, there was live, bespoke music too. Philip Feeney's genius provided a score for the busy athleticism of Mikaela Polley's Ascent, and for two very different pieces, both stronger for the contrast: Christopher Gable's 5 Lullabies, all white frocks and springtime innocence, with a heart-melting tenderness at the end, and Jonzi D's Scorpiones, adding a hugely enjoyable layer of irony to that most self-absorbed of forms, street-dance. The scorpions here were Pamela Gimenez, Katarina Nordin and stylish Italian brothers Daniele and Michele Pellegrini.

The last piece was out-and-out fun: Matthew Hart's Whodunnit, set to Martinu, an inspired choice. The Cluedo characters breeze across the stage, weapons cleverly concealed, they all have an opportunity; their crimes are re-enacted, before the guilty party is revealed. Was it Professor Plum in the Billiard Room with the lead pipe ? No, actually, in the biggest cliché of them all, it was ... the Butler [Jamiel Laurence] !