(Belated) Thoughts On: Birmingham Royal Ballet's Shakespeare Triple Bill

A couple of weeks ago, I made my likely final visit to Birmingham Hippodrome for a while (more on this soon) to see the final show in Birmingham Royal Ballet's season in Brum until October. As part of Shakespeare's 400th year, BRB presented their Shakespeare Triple Bill, made up of Wink, 'he Moor's Pavane and The Shakespeare Suite.

The evening began with a new piece choreographed by Jessica Lang called Wink. This is a dance piece inspired by Shakespeare's many sonnets and set to music by Jakub Ciupinski. Whilst I wasn't entirely sold on the dancers moving the set pieces (designed by Mimi Lien), which felt a tad random, this was an otherwise really great new piece. The sonnets were really sensitively chosen and fitted the score beautifully and Peter Tiegen's lighting really added to the overall impact. The dancing throughout was incredibly strong, and featured some really great male partnering between Brandon Lawrence and Lewis Turner. Lawrence was really the star of this piece, doing some great solo dancing to almost music-less sonnets and is definitely someone to watch.

The next part of the evening was a mounting of Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane. This is what really attracted me to the evening as Othello is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays  and this piece is based on the central plot of that piece. Stripped back to just four performers, Limon uses the pavane style of dance and ballet style steps to tell the story. All four dancers were great; Tyrone Singleton coolly imposing as The Moor, Delia Mathews seems to just glide across the stage as his wife and then Iain Mackay & Elisha Willis (dancing some of her final performances with the company) as the scheming and more sexual couple really added the edge to the piece.  

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The highlight of the evening was David Bintley's Shakespeare Suite based on the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. This presents the numerous dysfunctional relationships that various Shakespearean characters have with each other (or in the case of Hamlet, with himself). Really, the entire company is fantastic in this. Angela Paul and Lachlan Monaghan as the duelling Katherine & Petruchio on their wedding day; the darkly sexy Celine Gittens as Lady Macbeth manipulating Iain Mackay's Macbeth into committing murder and Laura Purkiss and Kit Holder as the drunk/giddy Titiana and Bottom were all just fantastic. As Hamlet, Mathias Dingman bought a really acrobatic swagger to the piece, but literally everyone was brilliant in this at times dark (especially the presentation of Othello) but also laugh-out-loud funny piece.

My delay in getting this up means that the run at the Hippodrome has ended. However, you can catch Wink & The Moors Pavane alongside Frederick Ashton's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Salford & Plymouth (info here) from September and this Triple Bill again in London from October (info here).

Thought I'm going to be sad not be a walk away from their home, I'm definitely going to be trying to get to see the new Bintley-choreographed production of The Tempest, at my new home in London.

In Review: February

(Photo Credit: Oh Deere)

So this is a pretty belated February wrap-up, but that might just say something about how surprisingly busy February was for me, despite it only being the shortest month-even in its leap year guise.

Staying In

The most fun home-based thing that happened over the past month when my friend from school came up to Birmingham from London and made a really delicious vegan meal of roasted veg, chickpeas and crushed potatoes which I'm definitely underselling but was super delicious. We also enjoyed some prosecco & limoncello cocktails and just had a proper catch-up which was lovely.

This month also saw me become a Dementia Friend with the Alzheimer's Society, you can find out about local sessions or become a friend online by clicking here. It's a really interesting and eye-opening experience and I recommend getting involved (especially if you do any kind of customer-facing role).

I've also got properly into two television series this month which are both on the BBC over here. The first is American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson. This is essentially a dramatisation of the OJ Simpson trial which I am vaguely familiar with, but took place the same year I was born so I'm definitely not aware of all the details! The performances are all great, especially those by Cuba Gooding Jr as OJ and Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, a civil rights lawyer, and it's just a really insightful look at the court case and all the racism issues that were present in the States in the early 90s (and how little has changed).

The second programme is The Night Manager which replaced the fabulous War & Peace. This stars Tom Hiddleston, in a performance that has made me understand why everyone finds him so attractive, as a hotel manager who becomes tangled up in the life of arms-dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Based on a novel by John le Carre, it is filmed beautifully with incredible locations and is packed with solid performances (Olivia Colman & David Harewood as a trans-atlantic intelligence partnership; Tom Hollander as one of Roper's crew; Natasha Little as a mistreated wife and Tobias Menzies as a slippery intelligence agent are all great). Plus Elizabeth Debicki (who plays Roper's wife) has a seriously enviable wardrobe in this too.

Going Out

The obvious highlight of this month was getting to go to the theatre twice in one month, which was such a treat. Seeing a really modern Matthew Bourne production in Sleeping Beauty and a really classic ballet in Romeo & Juliet  within a couple of weeks was a lot of fun, and the casts of both were great. You can find my full thoughts on both pieces at the end of this entry.

In terms of eating out, I had three first-time visits this month. First up was 1847, which is an entirely vegetarian and vegan restaurant based in the Great Western Arcade in Birmingham. This was such a fun experience for someone who is a bit of a hardened meat eater, and I really enjoyed the halloumi 'fish' and chips-especially as the cheese was really melty rather than grilled as it is usually.

There was then Caffe Concerto, which is found in Grand Central above New Street Station. This is one of those places that has the sort of cakes that cause people to slow-walk past the counter and my mille-fieulle (chosen after seeing it made on GBBO-obviously) was packed with delicious vanilla-cream. Finally, was Thai Edge based in Brindleyplace. Whilst the service is a little on the slow side, the coconut rice is truly amazing and my stir-fried mussels were really tasty too.

I also had my first 'out out' experience for ages, which was a fun experience and also the first time I'd used Uber which I was super happy with-especially with it only costing £3.50 to get across town, even after midnight.

Finally, I finished the month going to Birmingham Town Hall (one of the venue's I worked at when I was at university) with my parents to see British Sea Power, a band that my Dad loves. This was a bit of a different date as they were accompanied by a brass band, so it was a lot more instrumental than their usual sound. I really liked it; the musicianship on display by everyone was really impressive. Plus Town Hall is a really gorgeous venue too (not that I'm biased obviously).

Posts this month:
January in review
Clicklist #13
My thoughts on Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
A Rookie Recruiter's Guide to Getting a Job
My thoughts on Birmingham Royal Ballet's Romeo & Juliet
Clicklist #14

February was surprisingly busy, and March is already shaping up to be pretty busy too! 2016 is really hurtling along.

Amy
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Thoughts On: Birmingham Royal Ballet's Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet is probably my favourite ballet that I've seen so far; obviously the story is wonderful, the score by Prokofiev is fantastic (and features that piece of music from The Apprentice) and Kenneth MacMillan's choreography is just brilliant at combining classical dance with actual storytelling.

I took my Mum to see English National Ballet's production at the Royal Albert Hall which starred Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo for Mother's Day a year or so ago, and so for her birthday this year I thought I'd treat her to the Birmingham Royal Ballet production.

The cast we saw starred Chi Cao and Nao Sakuma as the title characters, and their dancing in the famous balcony scene was beautiful as was their individual performances at the very end of the ballet (which is always completely heartbreaking). Sakuma in particular is a stunning dancer, especially when she was en pointe when she just seemed impossibly light on her feet.

Other great performances came from Tzu-Chao Chou as Mercutio who bought humour to every scene, and his final scene was just fantastic; Valentin Oloyannikov as Tybalt was icily commanding in his scenes and Marion Tait was very fun as Juliet's Nurse. Romeo & Juliet is also a ballet that really gives the corps de ballet excellent chances to stand-out too, with really vivid crowd scenes and characterisation throughout. Special mention should go to the wonderfully costumed Mandolin dancers, led by Mathias Dingman and the harlots danced by Celine Gittens, Jade Heusen and Maureya Lebowitz.

I'd really recommend you try and see this; it's in Birmingham until tomorrow and then goes out on tour, the details of which you can find here.

Amy
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Thoughts On: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

Last night I was lucky enough to be treated to a trip to see Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Matthew Bourne is something of a household name, due mostly to his famous Swan Lake, which features an all-male swan corps, rather than the traditional female one. However, I knew nothing about his version of Sleeping Beauty.

In case you're unfamiliar with the story, Bourne's Sleeping Beauty opens with a King Benedict and Queen Eleanor being granted a child, Aurora, by the fairy Carabosse. However, she does not believe that they have expressed their gratitude enough and thus casts the famous spell that states that if she pricks her finger she would die. Count Lilac, the lead 'good' fairy, changes the spell to be a sleep for 100 years, and the plot continues from there.

It's a show that begins in the late 19th century and finishes 'last night' and it is visually just stunning. Lez Brotherson designed the sets and costumes and they were a) really clever and b) just lovely to look at. In particular, the beautiful white costumes worn in the Edwardian summer scene really stood out, as did the gloriously campy Caradoc's cronies costumes towards the end.

It's difficult to be 100% sure about who I saw perform last night, as there wasn't a cast list handed out, but as Aurora, Ashley Shaw was really great at bringing a youthful exuberance to the role. Her duets with Leo, played (I think!) by Dominic North were pretty adorable. The two central fairies, danced by Adam Maskell and Christopher Marney were also fun to watch (and it was an interesting change to have these characters both be men). There was also a really fun ensemble of performances-in particular whoever was playing the footmen; finally a particular shout-out needs to go to the puppetry work which was excellent.

Some of the plot developments didn't quite make sense to me, but it was a really fun evening out, and it was nice to see a ballet that wasn't of epic proportions. It's currently touring, and you can find out details of dates here.

Amy
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Thoughts On: Birmingham Royal Ballet's Variations Triple Bill

Or how I ended up going to the ballet twice in a week.

After having a bit a A Week at work (though I guess you can never accuse politics of being boring) I spontaneously booked tickets to see Birmingham Royal Ballet's 25 year celebration production of a Triple Bill of ballets. This opened with Balanchine's Theme & Variations, followed by a new piece choreographed by Alexander Whitley called Kin and ending with Enigma Variations a piece choreographed by Frederick Ashton to Elgar's famous piece of music.

Theme & Variations is a very classical piece of ballet, which has a clear principals, soloists, artists breakdown in terms of staging and dance. The two leads were the same that I saw in Swan Lake, Momoko Hirata and Joseph Caley. Their partnership was so lovely to watch and Hirata is just so graceful on stage. Celine Gittens, a dancer that has been used in the publicity for Swan Lake, performed as one of the soloists and is someone who you can't help watching on stage. The piece was just beautiful to watch, with so much graceful technicality I couldn't quite get my head around it all.

The next piece, Whitley's Kin was a pretty dramatic change to the previous piece. Whilst Theme & Variations was bright and sparkling, Kin was a lot darker. It combines some of the classical ballet steps; and there is one pas de deux danced en pointe, with the sort of expressionism seen in modern dance. It was really technically impressive, Elisha Willis and Joseph Caley as the lead pair were really great; but all the other dancers in the piece were excellent too. Particular standouts were the pairing of Brandon Lawrence and Yijing Zhang; and the solo by Tzu-Chao Chou. I will also give Peter Tiegen's lighting design a shout-out because it was the first time I've ever really felt the impact of good lighting.

Finally was the Enigma Variations piece. This was a more character-driven, acting ballet and was both laugh-out-loud funny and also really moving. The general arc is Elgar (Jonathan Payn) is struggling with inspiration, much to the sadness of his wife (Samara Downs) and his friends who are all attempting to cheer him up. The central duo of Downs and Payn was really lovely, and the pas de trois to the famous 'Nimrod' movement alongside Valentin Olovyannikov was surprisingly moving. I also really enjoyed the youthful pas de deux between Richard Arnold (Jamie Bond) and Isabel Fitton (Arancha Baselga) and anyone who thinks ballet lacks 'real' acting should see Elisha Willis' transformation from the lead female in Kin to the young Dora in Enigma Variations, as it is really something.

This was a really entertaining night at the ballet, and although its run has finished at the Hippodrome now, a similar programme is touring to London and Plymouth so if you live near there I'd recommend checking it out.

Amy

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All photos from the Hippodrome website

Thoughts On: Birmingham Royal Ballet's Swan Lake

I'm going to preface this by saying I know very little about the technical aspects of dance; someone has to fall over before I realise that something has gone wrong. However, I adore watching ballet. When I was little I poured over a DK guide to ballet, trying to teach myself the various foot positions. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to watch a matinee performance of Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of the classic ballet Swan Lake with my friend from uni, and it was just lovely.

The ballet is the story of Odette (Momoko Hirata), a princess cursed by the evil Rothbart (Valentin Olovyannikov) to spend her days as a swan and only becomes a human in the early hours of the morning. One night, Prince Siegfried (Joseph Caley) spots her whilst fleeing from his mother's (Ana Albutashvili) wishes to see him married and ascend the throne. They fall in love, but are torn apart by a cruel trick by Rothbart and this version of the story does not end well.

As it's a pretty traditional ballet, the only thing I found a little odd was the constant solo dances that didn't seem to do much to further the story of the dance; although this may just be a reflection of the fact that the last ballet I saw was Romeo & Juliet which is known for being a more story-telling ballet. 

That being said, the sets and costumes of this production are just incredible-there was even a moment the audience applauded the dry-ice! The principal performances were all really good-Caley is apparently 30 but looks younger than me and was a really great partner to Hirata. She was a beautiful dancer as Odette, but I literally gasped at her dancing as Odile-where she executes numerous turns without any kind of pause.

Really for me though, the stars were the chorus of swan maidens. The choreography requires them to be completely in sync and the BRB chorus truly were. There were stand-out dances by the 'cygnets' a quartet made up of Ruth Brill, Laura Day, Reina Fuchigami & Beatrice Parma; they perform a short solo holding hands and it's incredible. There was also really good solo spots from Yvette Knight and Yijing Zhang as the lead swan maidens. Knight's other appearance raised the one big laugh out loud as the Polish Princess facing off to Delia Mathews' Hungarian Princess for the affections of Siegfried.

I really loved my time at the Hippodrome, this is such a beautiful ballet completed by a simply gorgeous score by Tchaikovsky. It's on in Birmingham until Tuesday and then on tour so I will link further details here. I'm definitely going to try and utilise having such a brilliant company on my doorstep. 

Amy
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