National Youth Ballet - Evolving Visions bill
National Youth Ballet has the vision that ‘young people will create the ballet of the future’. We catch up with their latest show designed to deliver on that promise…
National Youth Ballet in Daniel Davidson’s “Open Water (Just What You Wanted)”. © Lachlan Monaghan.
National Youth Ballet
Evolving Visions: Ada, What You’ve (Already) Got, Learning The Ropes, Out Loud, Ready, And…, Open Water (Just What You Wanted), Ephemeral Blueprint, Blank
★★★✰✰
Birmingham, Crescent Theatre
22 August 2024 (relaxed matinee)
nationalyouthballet.org
www.crescent-theatre.co.uk/
National Youth Ballet’s Residential Performing Companies are unique in looking to give young dancers aged 9-19 a full-on slice of the professional dance life. The idea is that they work with a mix of choreographers to create “ballet of the future” that they then perform on proper dance stages to a paying audience. I caught them at a relaxed performance in the Crescent Theatre in Birmingham, but they will shortly be performing at London’s Sadler’s Wells. Working with NYB is a big gig, and the alumni list is full of names that have gone on to achieve great things in ballet and dance. To name just a few from a very extensive list: Andrew McNicol, Ariella Smith, Drew McOnie, Grace Horler, Gregory Dean, James Streeter, Jamiel Laurence, Jonathan Watkins, Kristen McNally, Max Maslen, Nancy Osbaldeston, Paris Fitzpatrick, Ruth Brill, Sian Murphy, Sophie Leplane, Tyrone Singleton, Travis Clausen-Knight…
The roughly 100 young dancers involved come from across the UK and meet up in 2 bursts, one for a research period (which was last year for this cohort) and then an intense rehearsal period of just 9 days this summer, followed by the performances. Life in a professional company is often thought to be notoriously hard, but NYB’s philosophy is for everybody to feel supported and make their work together joyful and fun. And that joie de vivre comes over in all the work I saw.
This year’s performance comprised ten pieces under the banner “Evolving Visions”, and the visions of what ballet can be were diverse and unabashedly modern - pointe shoes (for those old enough to safely use them) were little seen and ballet’s traditional full-on classical tutu side didn’t feature at all. That’s not to say that traditional ballet movement, in terms of jumps and duets (pas de deux) etc, was not in evidence, and the first piece, Ada by Louise Bennett, showcased many of them. To a fine minimalist-inspired score it rather acted as an introduction to the many senior dancers and was performed under some stunning backcloth projections (Kenneth McLeod) that grew to have the characteristics of a murmuration of starlings. Several times during the show, I have to say that the variety and quality of the backcloth projections elevated the performance to the point where they sometimes drew my eyes away from the choreography. But it was a slick and professional start and underlined the technical chops of many on stage. Rosie Mackley’s What You’ve (Already) Got started intriguingly in lovely 40s costumes, changed live behind an on-stage clothes rack, as the music morphed from earthy Dinah Washington period vocals to more modern sounds and ditto the steps, which became muscular and contemporary. Sadly, it struggled with a poor ending, and it took us many seconds to appreciate it had actually finished. A small change will sort it.
The junior dancers were introduced to us in Learning The Ropes by Tierney Lawlor. It featured a naïve painted and partially animated backcloth projection (Rhia Mitsuhashi) of a back garden and John Lanchbery’s music for Tales of Beatrix Potter. It’s a sunny world of children at play with endless variations on skipping rope games - not quite at the level that Ashton achieved with ribbons in La fille mal gardée perhaps, but thoughtfully and charmingly clever. In a show of often joyful work, this was the most happy and carefree. Count me beguiled. There were two late additions to the running order and so not covered in the glossy Programme. Both were exceedingly short and, in all honesty, felt over before they began if I could see the promise in the solos by Tilda Marriage Massey and Harvey Stevens. Hopefully, they will be developed and presented in full context.
Spanish choreographer Neus Gil Cortes (ex Hofesh Shechter, National Dance Company Wales and others) produced my hit of the day. Out Loud was a mad-cap piece for a mixed group of 21 dancers, all identically clad in white with platinum blond afro wigs. They start lying down in a line and slowly, effortfully shuffle themselves around and into a standing group. To remind themselves of placement, they chant “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” if you still wouldn’t call them a slickly honed group, but I don’t think that’s the point. From the group, solo dancers are ejected, Latin tunes get hips swaying, and odd wigs come off. It’s perhaps a surreal take on the individual vs the group, but as all the wigs come off, a new norm is established to a percussive foot-stamping beat. Some programme notes on Out Loud, indeed all the pieces in the show, would have been handy, but I loved the ever-changing strange world created by Cortes and would like to see more. It also featured a terrific ending (but no spoilers here).
Another work that impressed me was Ready, And… by Amy Groves (dancing credits with Rosie Kay and in Ballet Cymru, among others). To a Chopin piano prelude, this piece had structure and smoothness of movement as groups collided, eddied and enfolded, opening to reveal the odd, unexpected solo. All in great unisex costumes of a chic black leotard spirally trimmed with multicoloured gauze to catch the light and remind you of ballet’s tutu tradition - the excellent work of Polly Mitton.
More good design came after the interval in Daniel Davidson’s Open Water (Just What You Wanted). This work had the highest production values of the show and had the look of a pop video or expensive perfume advertisement. Emilie Depauly-Viguie’s all-in-one costumes were a mix of shiny black and deep sparkly blue that occasionally flashed in the moody lighting (Andrew Ellis, who did most of the lighting for the show). It was set off by more Rhia Mitsuhashi backcloth projections, this time of an all-seeing alligator(?) eye and a view across a massive Amazon-like river. If I write a lot about the staging, it’s because it was mesmerising, and the senior dancers looked 110% at home in such a professional context. Davidson, ex-Scottish Ballet and Rambert, certainly delivered the moody look, and just when you think you’ve taken it all in, the piece changes. The projections seem to take you underwater, where the movement for the corps neatly shimmers, if the solos and duets felt less striking. It’s another work that would have benefited from the £10 Programme including some words spelling out what the piece was looking to achieve.
In this company, Ephemeral Blueprint by Richard Bermange stood out for using some pointe shoes if, by this point in proceedings, they felt oddly alien. More fine costumes and surreal lily pad projections as dancers ran around, hopped and formed neat lines that showed off fluorescent pink circles applied to their shoulders. It looked confidently done if, again, I was puzzled by the inspiration and felt in need of something more arresting from the choreography.
No problem with inspiration in the closing piece - Blank by Miguel Altunaga - because, as the title might imply, there wasn’t any clear inspiration other than what might happen if you chuck the rule book away. The dancers all line up, and two talk to us, one asking how we are, mentioning her parents out front before she is bundled away and another, more thoughtfully, talks about ballet tropes he is not going to bother with. The South Bank Show Paganini music takes off, and movement anarchy follows - it all feels like a load of disconnected ideas, from mad cartwheels to mock boxing to jazz hands and hip-hop; the stage is a riot of busyness at times. Part of me says it’s the choreographer’s job to make a coherent piece, but the other part of me picks up on NYB’s credo of making the young dancers part of the creative process and that the whole working environment should be joyful and fun. And I’m very sure the rather bonkers Blank was fun to make.
The next chance to see NYB’s joie de vivre is on the main stage at Sadler’s Wells, 8 September 2024 - details