BALLET Cymru artistic director Darius James always manages to bring something new to his company’s productions of some of dance’s best loved classics.
This season’s ballet, Romeo and Juliet, based on the glorious Prokofiev music, will be a Welsh take on the ballet, incorporating traditional clog dancing into the choreography. So for Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers read Romeo a Juliet and watch out for a very different take on one of the ballet’s most iconic scenes, the Dance of the Giants.
Chatting with Darius and his team in a break from rehearsals at Newport’ s Riverfront, where the new show has opened and now starts touring the UK tour that runs throughout the year, it quickly became clear that this will be a special production for the company. It is the first major collaboration between Ballet Cymru and Coreo Cymru, the dance development body initiated by the Arts Council of Wales in the same year that Darius’ company achieved revenue funding after more than two decades of bringing ballet to audiences far and wide .“Being a co-production with Coreo means we are again able to take another step up as an organisation and for this production we will have our biggest ever set. For the first time we have been able to commission a set from a professional company, Bay Productions, and costumes and designs by Georg Meyer-Wiel who has worked with both Birmingham Royal Ballet and Australian Dance Theatre. It allows us to continue pushing up the quality of what we are doing in every way.”
Darius says the relationship with Coreo has also been instrumental in the inclusion of traditional Welsh dance into the ballet. “I was brought up on the iconic MacMillan choreography of the ballet with what seems like hundreds and hundreds of dancers in the famous Dance of the Giants. I have always thought I would only want to present that ballet when we had something completely different. “
Assistant artistic Director Amy Doughty explained that last summer the company dancers worked with clog dancing specialist Huw Williams. “The dancers had sessions on clog dancing, learning technique, and that
has enabled us to incorporate elements of this type of dance into the choreography. “
Darius argued that it works particularly well in this scene and that while he sees it as being Juliet’s “coming out party” is a very masculine scene which will be reflected in the set and costumes and also now with the clog dancing, although danced by men and women. “It’s strong, it’s Welsh and it’s different, “Darius said, “We try every year to do something different and this year again we have something new. It is ballet, it is Prokofiev but different, with clogs”.
He pointed out that as the company tours well beyond Wales it will also be taking clog dancing to new audiences which also fulfils part of Coreo’s brief to widen awareness of Welsh dance. Coreo’s Creative Producer Carole Blade explains “Ballet Cymru is one of the many companies Coreo is currently working with to help raise the profile of Welsh dance and to diversify the artistic offer to audiences”. She continues “Romeo a Juliet whilst retaining its classical routes has something new and innovative to offer the Ballet world and should appeal to a wide variety of new and existing audiences.”
In 2011 the company also brought something different with Beauty and the Beast with jumping stilts for the beast. That show also toured extensively including to sell out audiences in Italy.
The production has two other key partners, the Riverfront and Sinfonia Cymru, which has its own special relationship with the Newport venue. Coreo has also enabled the company to engage dance artist Jo Fong to work as rehearsal director to again add that extra quality to the performance.
The company also tried to be innovative in other mediums such as this year working with Cardiff-based Polish photographer Michal Iwanowski (corr) and incorporating projections of his images and video during the performance.
Amy explained that this is the third co-production with Sinfonia Cymru, which also achieved ACW revenue funding in the same year as Ballet Cymru, and the musicians will play live at the two Riverfront performances in May. They will also be recording the score to be played when the company tours.
The relationship with the Riverfront is important to the Company which still lacks its own home production base. Darius stressed the company's appreciation of being able to work at the Riverfront with its excellent facilities, stage and the amount of time the company is able to spend at what is an unofficial home venue. Even so it does mean the company has to fit in with its other commitments and frequently has to rehearse in other locations around Newport.
But if the Company can raise £67,000 that will change. The company has purchased a building at Rogerstone, outside Newport, with financial help from ACW, the Foyle Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation. The new building needs refurbishing and converting to its needs and that means finding 30 per cent of the cost to trigger the release of 70 per cent ACW funding.
In the meantime Darius and Amy return to work with their dancers at the Riverfront in preparation for the tour which so far includes 16 venues (more are added as the year progresses), including in November the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells, a key London venue with which the company has established a strong, and prestigious, relationship over the last six years.
Amy explained that the company now has 10 dancers and an apprentice who are employed on contracts that exclude January and February each year when they are encouraged to extend their experience with other ventures. He said that all of the dancers came back to work with the company after last year’s two month “break”, as was the case the previous year.“We always make sure our dancers get the chance to dance strong roles, to have experience of teaching and directing and that also contributes to developing their careers.”
As well as the main tour the dancers are also engaged in other projects with the company such as working with renowned disabled choreographer Mark Brew on a project called Stuck in the Mud this summer at Hidcote Manor Gardens in Gloucestershire, which will also be performed in Newport. This is a collaboration between the National Trust, Cheltenham Festival, Ballet Cymru and GDance.
Competition for work is incredibly tough. Darius said that when the company advertised for two apprenticeships they had 450 applications. They invited 50 to audition and 30 attended. Those dancers are from a variety of countries including, France, Japan, England and Bermuda whose apprenticeship was sponsored by the Arts Council of Bermuda, and two Welsh dancers, Jemma Beatty from Porthcawl and Iselin Eie Bowen (corr) from Swansea.“There are a lot of Welsh dancers working across Britain and the world,” Darius added, “but there has never been a Wales focus for them before. “
Romeo a Juliet tours throughout 2013
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