Kool Thing

As we prepare to send off 2009 and embrace a new decade, we look back into what was hot, fun & fab around the ballet blogosphere to pick our favorite things this year. Feel free to share yours too.

Favorite Blog Posts

Haglund Heel’s “ABT needs a Mayerling” campaign

The coolest ballet campaign of the year. We keep on crossing our fingers & sending positive vibes for Mayerling to be part of ABT’s repertory someday. We’d definitely cross the Atlantic to see Marcelo Gomes as Crown Prince Rudolf.

You Dance Funny on the mess with “Swan Lake’s third act Pas de Deux”

We love uncovering mysteries à la Sherlock Holmes / Dr. Gregory House.  Divalicious prima ballerina decides she doesn’t like the score for her Swan Lake 3rd Act solo and asks Ludwig Minkus to write another one. This in turn bothers the original composer, a certain Mr. Tchaikovsky, who then writes a second version which never makes it to the final cut after all. Complicated? This could very well yield material for a soap opera.

Bloggerina meets Mr. Clement Crisp

Once upon a time our favorite ballet critic, Mr. Clement Crisp, went on a trip to Canada to see a triple bill composed entirely of new ballets, something sadly unthinkable in our neck of the woods. He met the Toronto ballet audience & spoke about what can be done to ensure the future of ballet. We were left very jealous…

Bella Figura’s Make your own Ballet Xmas in Paris

While Eurostar #FAIL would have surely prevented us from celebrating a balletic Xmas in Paris this year, this post provided us a much needed insight into the pick and mix of POB‘s casting. We are very curious about the darkest of all Nutcrackers and we might be more than tempted next December when the Mariinsky will also be in town. The post also offers a witty description of a certain Bolshoi star who has a habit of hanging on to theatre curtains.

Demicontretemps’s “If Ballet Stars were comic book heroes”

We love graphic novels, comic books and movie adaptations of both. We also often imagine deathmatches between our favorite ballet stars… if only we could pitch this idea to MTV. In this very funny post Eric Taub imagines Ballet dancers as drawn by famous comic book artists.

Veronika Part on Wolcott and Swan Lake Samba Girl

She is one of the most glamorous things to have happened to ballet. Just as gossip started to circulate that she would leave ABT she turned the tables on the rumour mill and bagged a promotion for Principal and a spot on David Letterman. May she long continue to fascinate us.

Favorite Tweets/Social Media Stuff

Sanjoy Roy on How dance companies must embrace the internet. The Guardian dance writer Sanjoy Roy picks up on the Ketinoa debate.

Hedi Slimane’s short film featuring Royal Danish Ballet’s Oscar Nielssen rocking and phrasing beaten steps to the music of Supershine drummer Matthias Sarsgaard. We said it before and will say it again: Ballet Rocks! (as tweeted by @hedislimanetwit)

Crankocast – Who would you be cast as in a Cranko ballet? Over here we got the two Taming of the Shrew sisters, one for each Bag Lady. Spooky! How did they know? (as tweeted by Stuttgart Ballet Principal dancer @EvanMcKie)

Charlotte MacMillan’s Mayerling photos at The Arts Desk – breathtakingly sinister studio shots of one of our favorite dark ballets with one of our favorite casts (as tweeted by @Macmillanballet)

Mariinsky in Japan Little Humpbacked Horse photos – mouthwatering candy store-like pictures of the Ratmansky ballet we are dying to see (as tweeted by the lovely @naomip86 – our Japanese ballet guru)

Favorite Ballet Bag Stuff

Interviews – Three fabulous leading dancers with each of the Mariinsky, the Royal Ballet and ABT. Three very distinct personalities which resulted in very different interviews. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did. We are crossing our fingers for more.

Bridge Over Troubled Water & other Social media posts – We are big believers in the power of social media. All of these posts were great fun to write & some even managed to stir some controversy (see Sanjoy Roy article above).

Supermassive Black Hole – Our resident physicist analysed BRB’s new ballet based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Perfect for the job.

Grace – This was a tough cookie. Someone asked in our Facebook group if we could write something about the ballerina’s grace. It was hard to put a subjective concept into words but we really liked the final product, not least because it gave us a chance to quote from Pride and Prejudice.

Last but not least

Our favorite Dances of the Decade

Our favorite Dance articles of 2009 (Conventional Media)

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Ballet Myths Busted

Things have changed a lot in the last century in terms of technological advances and ways to exchange information. This means people have changed as well, with new generations becoming harder to impress and more likely to spend time in front of the TV or computer where everything can be found at the click of a button,  their attention spans increasingly shorter. This also means that the arts have had to adapt to this new era, juggling the interests of established audiences with a desire to attract new ones.

Ballet in particular has been faced with various dilemmas. In addition to arts budgets which stifle creativity in favour of bankable productions, preconceptions about the art form have been passed on from one generation to the next, resulting in core audiences largely formed by the wealthy and/or the senior. However, ballet companies continue to seek new and younger ballet audiences, making increased use of social media channels. This week, for instance, the Royal Opera House announced the launch of a new iTunes channel where ballet and opera masterclasses and other educational videos can be downloaded into one’s iPod within seconds (and free of charge).

These new avenues will not necessarily change the mindsets of those who are used to associating ballet with snobbery and inaccesibility but at least they make it easier for all of us to try. And try we must. In this post we take a stab at tackling some of the biggest misconceptions about ballet. We challenge those of you who have never been to a performance to try it (and do tell us about it ). It is never too late and you might be – positively – surprised.

Myth #1

Ballet is all about old fashioned tales of Nutcrackers, Sleeping Beauties and Swan Lakes. It revolves around princes and fairies, tutus and men in tights.

First things first: Princesses in tutus are 19th century ballet symbols. While it’s true that ballet companies still go back to the bankability of old classics, especially in our credit crunched times, ballet did manage to evolve beyond that garment over the years. A revolution took place when Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes steamrolled their own artistic movement out of Russia, spreading their view of dance as art and as a way of life in the early 20th century, nurturing revolutionary minds that had a long-lasting impact on the art. If tutus are not your thing, don’t despair, there are plenty of alternatives.

Your Prescription: Go see a full length MacMillan ballet. Try a Balanchine Black and White (ie. pared down) ballet such as Agon or The Four Temperaments.

Watch the documentary “The Story of Ballets Russes” this Friday on BBC4.

Myth #2

All ballets are the same, if you don’t enjoy one then ballet is definitely not for you

As one of our Twitter buddies, Robbintheoffice, puts it: if you go see a movie and don’t enjoy it, you don’t stop going to the cinema altogether, right? But for some people, one ballet they don’t like will be enough to put them off for life. Before you decide that ballet is definitely not for you try at least a few different styles and schools. If you don’t like a 19th century classic or a Romantic ballet maybe you will like a MacMillan ballet. If you are not keen on narrative ballet perhaps abstract plotless works might win you over? Mix and match.

Your Prescription: A mixed bill containing at least one contemporary or new work to give you a flavor for which style may suit you best.

Edward Watson in Glen Tetley's Sphinx, part of a Mixed Bill. Photo: Bill Cooper / ROH ©

Myth #3

Ballet is too expensive

Ballet can be expensive but so can theatre and musicals. If you can afford tickets for U2 or Madonna, Hairspray or Legally Blonde The Musical, then ballet prices should not come as a shock. The key is to book as early as possible (first day of public booking) or as late as possible (day tickets and returns). Depending on the ballet, you should be able to find a mid–range seat for less than £50. For as little as £20 you can grab a seat in the amphiteatre sides or – if you are not keen on heights – stalls circle benches with restricted views are generally good value for money. For the price of a cinema ticket you can bag a supervalue day standing place or perhaps even a ticket for the ballet at your local cinema screen.

Your Prescription: Experiment with different amphiteatre seats or stalls circle bench seats to see which suit you best. Buy very early or very late. Read this post.

Myth #4

Ballet is formal, snobbish, elitist & not for young people

Fair enough, classical ballet does draw formal, older crowds especially in the area around the Stalls and Grand circles. But this should not intimidate you, there will be representatives of every kind of demographics in the house, from Bermuda guys to Oscar de la Renta ladies. And if you attend a Wayne McGregor premiere at the Royal Opera House you could gather enough material for an anthropological study about diversity in ballet audiences, quite the opposite of your preconception.

Your Prescription: any work by Wayne McGregor, David Bintley’s Cyrano, or Wheeldon’s company Morphoses. Read this post about dress codes, etc. at Intermezzo blog.

Federico Bonelli and Sarah Lamb in Wayne McGregor's stylish Chroma. Photo: Johan Persson / ROH ©

Myth #5

Ballet is boring, sickly sweet, definitely not cool

As we said before: different ballets for different people. Are there sickly sweet ballets? Yes. Boring ballets? Most definitely. But what I might find sickly or boring is completely different to what the person next to me will. If you want your ballets loaded with substance you might want to start with something dramatic like Manon or Mayerling, the anthitesis of sweet. Or if you want to explore something that looks sweet but which can still punch you in the gut you can try Bournonville’s La Sylphide. If you are looking for purely cool, then try modern ballets by edgy choreographers.

Your Prescription: Birmingham Royal Ballet’s E=mc2 (one of the coolest things we saw this year) Wayne McGregor, Michael Clark Company, the Ballet Boyz.

Gaylene Cummerfield, Tom Rogers & Matthew Lawrence in Bintley's E=mc2. Photo: Bill Cooper / BRB ©

Myth #6

Ballet is not for men, it’s a girly thing

Actually most of the 20th century was dominated by superstar male dancers: Baryshnikov anyone (if you don’t know much about ballet you will at least have heard of him in Sex and The City)? Dancers like him were instrumental in inspiring future generations of male ballet dancers. Don’t believe us? Then follow the various male dancers and male ballet enthusiasts on Twitter, there are quite a few of them sharing their experiences from both sides of the curtain.

Your Prescription: Read this post written by a guy about going to the ballet for the first time. Go see a Carlos Acosta & Friends show or watch Acosta dancing Spartacus, the balletic equivalent of Russell Crowe in Gladiator (it’s available on DVD).

Male Power: Carlos Acosta as Des Grieux in MacMillan's Manon. Photo: Bill Cooper / ROH ©

Myth #7

One needs to understand ballet in depth in order to enjoy it

Another cool thing about ballet (by the way, have we mentioned that we think ballet is cool?) is that it can be understood in many ways, there are no rules, nothing prescribed about what you should be taking away from a performance. Of course preparation pays off, especially when it comes to narrative or semi-narrative ballets. Reading the story and knowing a bit of the background will help, though it is by no means mandatory. An eye for detail helps too but, most of all, you will need an open and contemplative mind.

Your Prescription: A bit of googling before a performance goes a long way. Try to read the reviews (but try not to be too influenced by them), see what people are saying about the ballet you are planning to see on different social media channels and forums or – shameless promotion – over here at The Ballet Bag.

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Supermassive Black Hole

It is interesting to discover how choreographers find inspiration for a new piece and how they bring their ideas alive through dance. When David Bintley first announced he would do a ballet inspired by a physics equation, E=mc², many were puzzled. How could Bintley turn an abstract mathematical statement into a ballet?

Using David Bodanis‘s biographical account of the eponymous equation as source material, Bintley started from its components (or ancestors) energy E, mass m, speed of light c and squared 2, to create his ballet’s three main movements, plus an interlude, The Manhattan Project. He then added choreographic nods to the related discoveries of scientists such as Michael Faraday, Antoine Lavoisier, Émilie du Châtelet, among others and, most importantly, to Albert Einstein.

While there is no need to know about physics or Relativity to appreciate the piece, there is more to Bintley’s imaginative dancing than meets the eye and as I have the  advantage of a high energy physics background, all those scientific references certainly added to my enjoyment:

Elisha Willis and Joseph Caley in BRB's E=mc2 (Energy) Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

In Energy, for instance, Bintley plays with Faraday’s idea of curling lines generated from a magnet’s interaction with electric currents so dancers curl their arms and hands throughout. An almost bare stage, a central projected strip of clouds, the piece starts with a bang and the corps de ballet come in and out, filling all the space, making swirling patterns to the pitching music. His choreographic framework is clearly Faraday’s engine: using the current of a power source near a dangling wire to charge a magnet Faraday visualised circular lines coming from it, which could “sweep” the wire and induce it to rotate magnetically as does the screw in the video below:

The swirling corps de ballet is to Bintley’s choreography what the circular magnetic lines are to Faraday, the main couple – Joseph Caley and Elisha Willis – acting as the dangling wire as they rotate around the ensemble of dancers and around each other in beautiful turns and pirouettes, with their burst of energy also echoing the electric currents printed in the costumes designed by Kate Ford.

Strikingly different Mass, with its shades of brown and a moody, melancholic violin score, revolves around three groups, each with two men and a woman, plus a central pas de deux for Gaylene Cummerfield and Matthew Lawrence. The women are lifted and moved around slowly, indicating heaviness, the influence of gravity and mass over every physical object. The focus on bodies and the various ways in which they can be used to create geometry (for instance the iconic image of the three lifted dancers in a triangle) as well as the various balances taken by the dancers across the stage all point to Lavoisier’s studies on mass conservation and his conclusions on the weight of substances before and after a chemical reaction. Bintley also reminds us of the connection between mass and energy when later on these dancers enter forming a compact mass, moving as a whole with their hands curling in the same way as the previous group.

Celine Gittens and Tom Rogers in Mass and Samara Downs in The Manhattan Project. Photos: Bill Cooper. Source: BRB ©

The interlude brings a red square of light in the background, a dancing white geisha and thunderous sound which develops into an explosion. This may be a short section but references to the atomic bombs and the destruction of  Hiroshima and Nagasaki could not be more direct. Though visually impacting I thought that Bintley could have done without this section, not least because it logically should have come after Celeritas², although logic in this case would have made for a grim finale and I much prefer the dazzler we got.

A background wall of lights directed to the audience, with the dancers playfully running and doing grand jetés from the sides lead us to closing piece Celeritas² (latin for swiftness) which uses notions of speed and wave-particle duality exhibited by light. Bintley reminds us that light waves are nothing but electricity and magnetism forever chasing each other in space, just like first soloist Alexander Campbell and principal Carol-Anne Millar when they “play catch” and switch between front and back, with oscillating movements.

Bintley reserves his most visually stunning trick for a climatic end which uses the ensemble of the corps. Looking at light in terms of particles he builds rows of dancers in non-stop soft soubresauts. The dancers propagate their light in waves from the front row all the way to the last, each individually a photon, a “light” particle and  collectively a “wave” of dance going all the way to the back of the stage. The ensemble suddenly stops and only then does the main couple break to the sides, in mind-blowing chaîné turns. He could not have devised a more crowd-pleasing, applause-generating number closer.

Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 'Celeritas²'. Photo: Roy Smiljanic Source: BRB ©

Overall E=mc² does an excellent job of translating a deep and abstract mathematical concept, the result of the work of an outstanding group of thinkers, into dance. The meaning of each movement was made clear through the choreography, by Peter Mumford’s remarkable use of lighting and via the enjoyable score from Australian composer Matthew Hindson. While the piece looks modern and fresh the steps are pure classical ballet which will allow it to live in the repertoire for many years to come.

Bintley’s new piece was bookended by the work of two Australian choreographers, Stanton Welch and Garry Stewart. Welch’s Powder, set to Mozart’s luscious Clarinet Concerto in A minor, had cheeky muses playing around with mere mortals. Whilst Mozart is not the easiest composer to dance to there are many bright points,  such as the sequences for male dancers which evoked four greek marble statues coming to life through synchronised jumps and balances (special mentions to Yasuo Atsuji and Joseph Caley) – and in the elegant pas de deux between Robert Parker and Natasha Oughtred.

Natasha Oughtred with Kosuke Yamamoto, Steven Montieth, Joseph Caley and Yasuo Atsuji in BRB's Powder. Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

It is impossible to look at the shape (dancers extending through rows of linear lights) and sound (strong/electronic beat) of Stewart’s The Centre and its Opposite and not think of Forsythe‘s In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. But while the choreography is not very original it is certainly diverse in the interchange between modern extreme extensions and standard classical ballet combinations: deep grand pliés with arms on fifth, adagio dancing  (developpés going into a attitude en promenade and balances on arabesque) and a sequence of petit allegro steps (jeté, jeté, glissade, changements). I find Stewart’s use of a large group of dancers well judged since it allows many younger artists to appear alongside more established principals, with some fantastic dancing from young promises Dusty Button (a crazy balance that went for ages), Aonghus Hoole and Christopher Rodgers-Wilson, as well as the elegant Robert Parker, who made the most of his beautiful classical line in a different, surprising context.

Dusty Button and Aaron Robison in BRB's The Centre and its Opposite Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

This was a well-thought triple bill, which showed the diversity of the company and a new work which is sure to become a staple. It also served as a perfect showcase not only for the company’s stars but also for their corps members. With all the pieces making the most of BRB’s ensemble, we have proof that in ballet as in nature, one really needs to gather mass to generate huge amounts of energy!

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