News roundup

brbontour.wordpress.com
brbathome.wordpress.com
www.balletinbirmingham.co.uk
Birmingham Royal Ballet on Pinterest
www.pointeblank.co.uk
ballet.co.uk/Matthew-Lawrence-blog

® Birmingham Royal Ballet
Company registration no. 3320538
Registered charity no. 1061012

Pointes of View

02 September 2010

Birmingham Royal Ballet performs a programme of three one-act ballets this autumn, without a tutu in sight!

Entitled Pointes of View, the bill showcases contrasting styles of music, staging and choreography. These works act as both an introduction for ballet newcomers, and a conversation piece for those more familiar with our work. Whichever camp you fall into, we urge you to simply enjoy the show, then afterwards see if you and your companions agree on which of the three pieces is best!

The programme opens with Concerto, a work created by Kenneth MacMillan, choreographer of Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet. Where the latter tells the tale of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Concerto has no explicit plot. However this does not mean that there is not a story unfolding on the stage. As George Balanchine, father of American ballet and proponent of the non-narrative work, famously said: 'Put a man and a girl on stage and there is already a story; a man and two girls, there's already a plot'.

Interestingly enough for ballet that focuses on the dancers, rather than lavish sets and costumes, many reviews and articles on the piece that we looked at recently (these notes on theballetbag.com are particularly recommended), still touched upon visual descriptions of the staging among the technical terminology. Click on the image to the left to see a graphical representation of the descriptions we found. The larger the text, the more often the words were used.

In contrast to the opening piece, the second ballet is a narrative work - The Lady and the Fool for audiences in Birmingham, and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue for those on tour. Interestingly the latter is the work of Balanchine himself, in uncharacteristic story-telling mode, while the former is by John Cranko, who was born in South Africa before moving to England to join what would later become The Royal Ballet. In both cases the dance tells a tale, complete with evocative sets and costumes; staging more typically associated with the British tradition of ballet.

Speaking in the on-line biography of our own Director, David Bintley, the critic and writer Nicholas Dromgoole noted: 'The British tradition, embedded in a rich theatrical heritage, tends to use ballet as part of a narrative, either creating a mood, or showing insight into character and situation and creating innovative dance that illuminates both.'

Finally, the programme closes (in all theatres) with Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, a stunning non-narrative piece celebrated world-wide by critics and audiences alike.

We liked the graphical representation of the words used to describe Concerto so much that we turned to those of you following us on twitter and Faceboook to help us do the same for In the Upper Room. Click on the square to the right to view a full list of the words that everybody came up with. Again, the larger the text, the more frequently the terms appeared.

Interestingly, while the piece was created less than three-decades ago, not one person used the words 'modern' or 'contemporary'. With the piece perhaps surpassing the stereotype of such categorisation, those writing their descriptions focused instead on the literal imagery of the ballet (colours, costumes, the tirelessness of the dancers) or the impact that it had on them as audience members ('exhilarating', 'exciting', 'I get chills every time').

See for yourself when we perform the whole programme this autumn, and let us know how you would describe the three pieces.

ENDS

Details of all 2010 performances of Pointes of View, including links to booking details, can be found in the column to the right.

Stories like this

Fancy Feet: five ballets danced in unusual footwear
Repertory confirmed for 2011 split tour
In the Upper Room gallery
The Low Down on the Upper Room
Concerto from the wings gallery
Video: Brouillards studio rehearsals

News roundup

Video galleries

More online

Other links

Pointes of View

Stories like this