Standard YouTube Licence Northern Ballet Romeo and Juliet Sheffield Lyceum Theatre 4 April 2024 14:00 Northern Ballet has two fine productions of Romeo and Juliet in its repertoire.  One was created by Jean-Christophe Maillot which I reviewed in Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet - different but in a good way on 8 March 2015 and Romeo and Juliet after the Shrew on 15 Oct 2016.  The other was choreographed by Massimo Moricone and directed and devised by Christopher Gable.  Moricone and Gable's was premiered in 1992 to considerable critical acclaim ..read more

Standard YouTube Licence Birmingham Royal Ballet The Sleeping Beauty The Lowry 7 March 2024 18:39 Every March the Birmingham Royal Ballet visits The Lowry to perform one of its full-length works.  This year the company brought Sir Peter Wright's production of The Sleeping Beauty.  I had been looking forward to it very much.  I have seen many performances of that ballet by different companies over the years but none has danced it better than the Birmingham Royal Ballet.   It is not surprising that Sir Peter has been commissioned to create versions of that work f ..read more

Powerhouse Ballet takes its name from the Coalition Government's proposal to rebalance the British economy by integrating and expanding the economic, social and cultural resources of the North of England, The company was always intended to be a Transpennine one and for the first two years our classes, workshops and other activities alternated between the studios of Northern Ballet School and Dance Studio Leeds.  At some time during lockdown, there was a change of ownership at Northern Ballet School.  Its new management stopped letting its studios to members of the public.&nb ..read more

Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet Manon Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 2 March 2024 13:00 While watching Manon on Saturday I was struck by the similarities to MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet.   Not so much with the libretti perhaps though Manon loses Lescaut and Juliet loses Tybalt and both sets of lovers come to a sticky end.  The similarities I had in mind were the choreography with its spectacular duets including one around a bed and great sword fights.  Also, Nicholas Georgiadis created the sets and costumes for both ballets. Although this was an original th ..read more

Standard YouTube Licence Scottish Ballet Cinders Theatre Royal Newcastle, 10 Feb 2024, 14:30 Christopher Hampson created a beautiful version of Cinderella for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007 which he successfully transplanted to Scotland.  It was a profound and sensitive study of grief and recovery which I loved (see Scottish Ballet's Cinderella of 20 Dec 2015 and Hampson's Cinderella: Coming Up Roses 5 Feb 2019).  When I heard that Hampson had created a gender-reversal version of the ballet called Cinders bmy heart sank ecause I hate change for chang ..read more

© 2023 Mark Gowland: all rights reserved Reproduced with kind permission of the owner Northern Dance Academy Shake Your Tutu 10 Dec 2023 19:30 Creative Centre, York St John University Northern Dance Academy is a dance school in York.  It offers a wide range of classes in many styles of dance to both adults and children.  Its classical ballet and lyrical teacher, Christie Barnes, is a founder member of Powerhouse Ballet.  Christie introduced me to Sarah Dickinson, the Director of the Northern Dance Academy who invited our company to dance the extract fr ..read more

Standard YouTube Licence Just over 10 years ago I flew to Holland to watch a troupe of dancers in their late teens and early twenties called "The Junior Company" (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).   I had come to see Michaela DePrince whom I had already mentioned several times in this blog. She had been born in Sierra Leone, the country of my late spouse and my former ward who is the nearest I have to a daughter.  I was amply rewarded for my journey because DePrince danced magnificently. But ..read more

  Powerhouse Ballet Extract from La Sylphide Chrima Q Theatre, Leeds, 25 Nov 2023 15:00 and 19:00 Every Autumn The Dance Studio Leeds presents a Celebration of Dance at the Chroma Q Theatre in Leeds. It is a gala to which the studio's students and dance groups and companies from Leeds and beyond contribute.   We took part in it for the first time last year when we danced an extract of Giselle (see A Celebration of Dance: Wilis and More 23 Nov 2022).  We were invited back this year to dance an extract from La Sylphide on 25 Nov 2023. (see Powerhouse ..read more

Author Philip Stevens Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed Source Wikimedia Jeremy Bentham Ballet Black Pioneers (Then or Now and Nina: By Whatever Means) The Kowry 1 Nov 2023 20:00 Having missed the start of Then as Now in York on 13 June 2023 as a result of acute traffic congestion in that city (see Ballet Black Takes York By Storm 9 July 2023) I was determined to arrive on time for the start of Ballet Black's Pioneers double bill at the Lowry.  I arrived at the theatre car park for an 8pm curtain rise while The Archers were still on the r ..read more

Standard YouTube Licence Ailey 2 (Enemy in the Figure, Freedom Series, The Hunt and Revelations) Alhambra Theatre, Bradford 18 Oct2023 19:30 Aikey II is to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre what NDT2 is to the Nederlands Dans Theater.  According to its website, Ailey 2 is "universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best early-career dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding and emerging choreographers."  By inference, it consists of some of the best early-career dance talent in the United St ..read more