Had someone told me, even three years ago, that I would get hooked on ballet I would have been a bit sceptical as, although the music is usually really good, I don’t speak the language of dance. If they had laboured their point and included modern ballet I would have been even more doubtful. Now, here I am, about to write a glowing review of Three Short Ballets, which I had the pleasure of seeing at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre in the Northern Ballet building in Leeds. I saw the last incarnation of this event at Leeds Playhouse a couple of years ago and was very impressed but the 2024 edition has surpassed even that night.
Sadly, I must begin with one criticism, and that is of the theatre itself. It is the perfect venue to watch a production like this, being small and intimate with the dancers almost within touching distance. The stage area, which is not raised, also seems to be fairly solid so there is hardly any sound when the dancers land after jumps, but it is let down by the tiered seating meaning a lack of leg room. Not only is it tiered, but there is a kick board, leaving even less room for ones feet. I am sure the dimensions meet current building and health and safety regulations and am not saying that the models for the audience demographic were Ronnie Corbett and Danny DeVito, but anyone taller than Rishi Sunak might suffer. I am 5’11” with dodgy knees so was thankful to have been allocated an aisle seat. As it happens, the seat next to me was free so I could use that footwell instead, meaning I didn’t have to sit one way and look back across my shoulder to the stage. I am not picking on this place especially, as all tiered venues suffer from the same fault and it might be a concern. I am sure that the lovely people at Northern Ballet can help you should you need it.
Whinging done, I can now move on to the show itself which was incredible and more than compensated for the discomfort.
Unlike most of the larger, more conventional ballets, I noticed,on reading the preview, that the music would be of the recorded variety, rather than played live. My immediate thought was that it was a result of the recent financial cuts suffered by arts companies, but, not only would there not have been room for the musicians in this venue, the nature of the soundtrack meant it would probably not been feasible for it to have been done live anyway.
The programme was made up of three works – the clue is in the title – lasting between about 15 and 45 minutes and covering a trio of diverse subjects.
Three of the four couples in Four Last Songs
Firstly we had the ironically titled Four Last Songs, Choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig to the music of Richard Strauss, featuring a soprano enhancing the mood. The work begins with four male and four female dancers, in colour coded costumes, moving rhythmically across the stage in total silence. They are joined by a sole male dancer dressed in black and all move off into the wings. They reappear to the music as a series of four pas de deux, that is a dance for two people to you and me, each performed separately by the appropriately colour clad dancers, but linked when a solitary male dancer leads off one couple and introduces the next. This solo performer is billed as being Angel and is dressed in black to reflect the mood of melancholy in the first three dances, but this contrasts with the joyous gratitude of a good life reflected in the fourth. He then gets everyone back on stage together as they look forward to a brighter future.
Bruno Serraclara in Four Last Songs
The dancers are, in their pairs; Saeka Shirai and Harris Beattie; Dominique Larose and George Laing; Sarah Chung and Jonathan Hanks; Amber Lewis and Jackson Dwyer. Angel is Bruno Serraclara.
The grace and athleticism shown was breathtaking and I couldn’t help but be moved and also uplifted at the ending. If it can get to a cranky old git like me it should have you in raptures.
Joseph Powell Main in Victory Dance with Kevin Poeung and Yu Wakizuka
Secondly we had Victory Dance, the shortest work of the evening, and one which was totally different from the other two. The Choreographer was Kristen McNally and the dancers Kevin Poeung, Yu Wakizuka and Joseph Powell Main, who ‘danced’ his part in a wheelchair and on crutches. Impressive doesn’t go anywhere near summing it up. Kirsten McNally describes it as ‘A moment of celebration. For anything that goes before and anything that comes after.’ Celebration was the perfect word, as the music is Victory Dance, written and performed by Ezra Collective, a Latin American piece which, in my mind at least, because of the costumes and the cool wheelchair, evoked more a block party in The Bronx. Whatever, the performances were spectacular and the speed and control of the chair, mind boggling. There is a YouTube video of the rehearsal which can be accessed via Northern Ballet’s website, link at the bottom, but it doesn’t do the dance justice as, when they have got the moves down to perfection, it is executed at breakneck speed. I can see it being banned in Wales for breaking the 20mph limit.
The protagonists in Fools
After the interval came the big finish in Fools, choreographed by Mthuthuzeli November, who also wrote the music with Alex Wilson. The piece is set in South Africa and based on the novel, Hill of Fools by RL Peteni, dealing with a feud, so deeply embedded over the years, that no one really knows the reason as to why it began. I was immediately reminded of West Side Story, especially the fight scene between the Sharks and the Jets. The hatred festers between two tribes when Zuziwe, a Hlubi girl, falls for Bhuqa, a Thembu boy. Taking things a bit further than Maria and Tony or even Juliet and Romeo, there is a secret pregnancy involved here, which not only makes the couple’s situation worse, but gives the foreboding of a tragic ending, which is the case.
Bhuqa and Zuziwe, the doomed lovers in Fools
The contrast between the tender scenes of the lovers and the uber violence of the tribe members could not be more stark. I am sure that some of the dance steps have names, but if they do, I don’t know them, so it makes it difficult to convey the moves. Regardless, this is a magnificent tour de force.
The feature dancers were Sarah Chun as Ziziwe and Harris Beattie as Bhuqa.
Sarah Chun in effortless flight!
Thembu women were danced by: Aerys Merrill, Helen Bogatch and Gemma Coutts, the Thembu men; Albert Goldález Orts, You Wakizuka and Stefano Varalta.
Hubi women were: Saeka Shirai, Kaho Masumoto and Nida Aydinoglu, The Hlubi men; Filippo Di Vilio, Bruno Serraclara and Harry Skoupas.
I cannot recommend this triple-header highly enough, especially if you would like to sample this genre for the first time. The contrast between the pieces and the magnificent dancing means that there is bound to be at least one which floats your boat and I would wager that, like Christopher Columbus, all three set sail! By the end I had all but forgotten about the discomfort of the seating.
For bookings and more details about the ballets, which run in Leeds until 14th September, and then go on to London Linbury Theatre at Royal Opera House from 28th to 31st January 2025, please visit https://northernballet.com/three-short-ballets
For details of other Northern Ballet productions and to see taster videos it is https://northernballet.com
Images from Northern Ballet, production photographs by Emily Nuttall
Tyke It To The Limit 