Over the past two years, we have been working in partnership with Beckfoot School, Innovation North - Leeds Metropolitan University and Creative Partnerships on an exciting project called Symbiosis, exploring dance through science and science through dance. This multi-faceted project is culminating this summer with the launch of an interactive DVD at a conference for teachers, educators and arts specialists at Beckfoot School in Bingley on Wednesday 16 July 2008.
David Nixon’s Olivier Award Nominated Production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream visits Cardiff next week. The ballet will be on stage from 27th to the 31st of May in the city. To find out more information, or to book tickets, click here.
Here is a provisional casting for the production:
Tues 27
Theseus - Martin Bell
Hippolyta - Martha Leebolt
Hermia - Georgina May
Helena - Pippa Moore
Lysander - Kenneth Tindall
Demetrius - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Puck - Ashley Dixon
Wed 28
Theseus - Hiro Takahashi
Hippolyta - Keiko Amemori
Hermia - Georgina May
Helena - Christie Duncan
Lysander - Kenneth Tindall
Demetrius - Toby Batley
Puck - Victoria Sibson
Thurs 29 matinee
Theseus - Martin Bell
Hippolyta - Martha Leebolt
Hermia - Hannah Bateman
Helena - Christie Duncan
Lysander - Kenneth Tindall
Demetrius - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Puck - Kieran Stoneley
Thurs 29 eve
Theseus - Darren Goldsmith
Hippolyta - Pippa Moore
Hermia - Lori Gilchrist
Helena - Michela Paolacci
Lysander - Yi Song
Demetrius - David Ward
Puck - Victoria Sibson
Fri 30
Theseus - Hiro Takahashi
Hippolyta - Keiko Amemori
Hermia - Georgina May
Helena - Michela Paolacci
Lysander - Kenneth Tindall
Demetrius - David Ward
Puck - Kieran Stonley
Sat 31 matinee
Theseus - Hiro Takahashi
Hippolyta - Keiko Amemori
Hermia - Lori Gilchrist
Helena - Christie Duncan
Lysander - Yi Song
Demetrius - Toby Batley
Puck - Victoria Sibson
Sat 31 eve
Theseus - Martin Bell
Hippolyta - Martha Leebolt
Hermia - Georgina Roberts
Helena - Pippa Moore
Lysander - Kenneth Tindall
Demetrius - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Puck - Ashley Dixon
Tues 20
Hamlet - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Gertrude - Nathalie Leger
Opheila - Georgina May
Claudius - Darren Goldsmith
Wed 21
Hamlet - Hiro Takahashi
Gertrude - Martha Leebolt
Opheila - Keiko Amemori
Claudius - Kenneth Tindall
Thurs 22 matinee
Hamlet - David Ward
Gertrude - Victoria Sibson
Opheila - Pippa Moore
Claudius - Martin Bell
Thurs 22 eve
Hamlet - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Gertrude - Nathalie Leger
Opheila - Georgina May
Claudius - Darren Goldsmith
Fri 23
Hamlet - Hiro Takahashi
Gertrude - Martha Leebolt
Opheila - Keiko Amemori
Claudius - Kenneth Tindall
Sat 24 matinee
Hamlet - David Ward
Gertrude - Victoria Sibson
Opheila - Pippa Moore
Claudius - Martin Bell
Sat 24 eve
Hamlet - Christopher Hinton-Lewis
Gertrude - Nathalie Leger
Opheila - Georgina May
Claudius - Darren Goldsmith
Northern Ballet Theatre’s Autumn/Winter tour information is now up on the NBT website:
Click here to view Tour Map
Click here to view Tour List (Chronological)
In March, the Government announced that it would be investing a further £5.5 million in dance following the publication of the Dance Review, written by the Royal Opera House Chief Executive Tony Hall.
The funding would be invested in, amongst other schemes, six new Centres of Advanced Training (CATs) between now and 2011. NBT, in partnership with the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, set up the first CAT in the UK and remains the only CAT for classical dance.
David Nixon has responded to the announcement:
“An investment in young people is an investment in the future. As the very first Centre for Advanced Training, Northern Ballet Theatre has seen first hand the effect this kind of funding can have on young people. I feel strongly that we must develop high standards and quality access across the country and this announcement makes huge steps towards achieving these goals.”
Read a dance industry responce by Dance UK
Read about our Centre for Advanced Training
Dance Education Officer Caroline Burn springs into action this month as she joins the Company on tour to Belfast, London and Norwich. As well as leading workshops in local schools, she will hold Get Closer events at theatres. The events, such as Ballet Explored, Pre-performance talks, touch-tours and audio described performances provide a unique insight into the Company and the production to enhance your theatre visit…
A Teacher’s Resource Pack is now available for NBT’s production of Hamlet.
To download the pack or for more teacher’s resources, visit NBT’s Learning & Access pages here.
This season’s programmes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet are now available on the Northern Ballet Theatre website as PDF files. You can download them from here by right-clicking the below links:
Christopher Giles, Set and Costume Designer on NBT’s latest production, Hamlet, has been interviewed by our Communications team. You can find the video on the new production Flash sites we lauched last week. These sites are still in development, but over the next few weeks new videos, galleries and production information will go up to give you a better picture of each of NBT’s Ballets.
Class was held on stage today and an hour later than originally scheduled to give the company more time to find those final shopping bargains and for last minute sightseeing.
The final performance was a triumph with “Bravo” being called from all corners of the theatre. Over the two performances we have played to 87% capacity which is a very pleasing result and we have been told by the management that we are welcome back at the Shanghai Grand Theatre anytime!!
The final get out is underway and extra crew have been called to help get the work finished as quickly as possible. This is the last time we will work with our Touring Chinese Lighting Crew who have been fantastic and worked tirelessly to get the performances on. This has been a very significant change to previous tours where we relied solely on local theatre staff. We would have been hard pressed to get the production on in some venues without their support.
The company are now all looking forward to the journey home and although the coach is at 8.30am, we are sure everyone will be there on time!!
The last few days have been a mix of emotions for everyone. The excitement of being in Shanghai and all that it brings, but at the same time the knowledge that we are going home and wishing that time would move more speedily towards the flight home. The reaction to the final performance (and the reaction throughout the tour) has made it all worthwhile
All of the company have been outstanding and really have shown what being part of NBT is about. They have adapted and coped with every situation that we have faced with a smile and have done excellent performances on each occasion.
Special mention must be given to the Technical team who worked incredibly hard often in difficult circumstance and coped in the most professional way. Chun-Yen our bi-lingual Stage Manager, has been invaluable and ran the shows from the corner via walky talky and managed to cue the show whilst dealing with any translation needs.
A final special mention must go to Andy Waddington who has headed up the Technical team throughout but has also managed the tour since we left Beijing.
We hope the coach journey to the airport is straightforward tomorrow - fingers crossed but watch this space just in case!!
Mark Skipper
Chief Executive
PS: As always – a final challenge!! The wrong size containers have been sent. Not the high cubes that the set was shipped from the UK in but only 8 foot high. The shipping company were adamant that these are the same ones as we had shipped here but we know differently. It will be tight but we think it should all fit.
After the tedious coach journeys experienced over the last few weeks everybody was expecting the worse this morning. The journey from Yangzhou to Shanghai was estimated to take 5 hours. Everybody was on the coach by 9.55am ahead of the 10am scheduled departure. The well established check out routine is working like clockwork now after 5 cities/hotels.
The first stop of the day was at 11.50am at Wuxi services and then surprisingly we arrived at the Lansheng hotel in Shanghai at 1.45pm – only 3 hours and 50 minutes including stop!! The roads en route were deserted and Shanghai was not as busy as usual. The check in was a bit slow as the hotel had not taken into account our request for smoking and non-smoking rooms but in the scheme of things this was a small detail and everyone was checked in by 2.15pm.
The hotel is lovely and although a change from the hotel we had originally agreed everyone was really happy and looking forward to the final four nights of the tour. The only slight issue is that the hotel is quite a distance from the City centre and also a 30 to 40 minute drive to the Grand Theatre. We have found in most cities on the tour that they are reluctant to put us in hotels that are in walking distance from the theatres which really would make life a lot easier. It was great in Beijing being in the same building. The distance from the centre did not deter most people from venturing out and discovering the local area and also catching cabs to the centre. Last heard, there was some of our company on the top of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower on their 2nd bottle of Champagne!!
Andy Waddington with Steve Wilkins and Rich Godfrey departed the hotel at 10.30pm and arrived at the theatre to unload the containers on to the side of stage as agreed. This would mean that we would gain time by laying it all out in the right places on stage and be able to attack with gusto the fit up tomorrow night. Richard Clayderman is performing tomorrow evening. On arrival we found that they did not want us to unload onto stage and insisted we unload into a dock area. We explained through Flora, our Interpreter, that this was pointless and a waste of time as it would not gain us anything for the extremely tight fit up. Unloading into the dock area and then double handling it tomorrow would mean that we would still be the unload time down. The theatre only had security guards on duty and said that they did not have the key to the one sliding door between where the trailers were and where we needed to put the set. A stand off followed and Young, our Promoter was summoned and came down to the theatre very apologetically and confirmed that this was not what had been agreed. He then phoned the theatre management and local promoter. The local promoter arrived and we again explained that by unloading tonight into the dock area would not help in the fit up and we were not unloading unless it was onto stage. A discussion then took place in Chinese and the outcome was we caught a cab back to the Hotel. This whole discussion took over 2 hours in the freezing cold. The outcome is that we are now getting in at 11pm tomorrow night and unloading straight onto stage. This will then mean our Technical Teams working straight through the night until the end of the performance on 3rd which is far from satisfactory. They have an additional problem in that the container haulage contract finishes tonight but that one is not our problem to resolve. (Our own contractors are responsible for taking the containers out of the theatre and back to the UK)
So what should have been a very simple process became much more of as issue as is so often the case working in China. With the experiences we have had working with the various theatre crews across China we are somewhat nervous about how the fit up will go and we have made it very clear to Young that the show will only happen on time if the crew work our way and allow things to run smoothly. Only time will tell on that one
Nigel and I decided not to do the day trip to the Great Wall with the company again, as we’d done that seven years ago. We didn’t have the energy to make our own trip to the more remote part of the wall. After the relaxation and obvious therapeutic benefit of two consecutive days of Chinese medical massage (we had slept like babies) we didn’t want to over-excite our senses by doing something silly like taking a leisurely coach ride. Usually, coach trips in China are pretty exhilarating. But more on that later.
In fact, being a passenger in taxis in the cities is quite an experience too. In the cities, it’s more akin to slow rally driving, and most often the seat belts don’t work or aren’t there. Nobody really follows lanes - they just dash in and out where they think their car might fit, sounding their horns – ta-taaa – as they manoeuvre. It’s as if they’re expecting applause for their feat of spatial acuity. In fact, I’m impressed by their driving skills. In Beijing, for example, most of the road system, which has doubled in area since we were here in 2000, is wide with at least ten lanes, divided carriageways of course. But they don’t really get to drive at thirty miles per hour very often. Even so, the traffic mostly keeps moving. It’s on the whole an efficient and safe way to travel. I’m convinced all those years of travelling on cycles instilled a sense of travel community. I’ve not seen any road rage in the cities. And the traffic is colossal and never-ending. So the taxi we’re in becomes the filling in a bus sandwich, or more often the interloper snaking its way across lanes from right to left, left to right. It doesn’t matter. But whether from good luck or simply more superior road sense, we’ve had no scrapes. I am on the side of superior road sense. I think Chinese drivers in their bustling cities have developed an acute sense of spatial awareness. They are good at squeezing in to that quickly diminishing gap in the traffic. I’ve seen a row of seven cars abreast where there really are just five marked lanes. Throw the few enduring bicyclists and moped riders into the mix and it’s probably best to keep smiling, or laughing nervously so at least your driver thinks you’re enjoying the sights.
Last evening here in Nanjing as Nigel and I were walking to a restaurant we witnessed a car accident. But I was amazed as there was hardly any traffic. Nanjing is much less crowded than Beijing. Obviously two cars went for the same lane. The first one got in the lane and the second one followed too closely and ran up the back of it. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very bad result, although the crash made quite a crunch.
Travelling by coach on the freeways is a different matter and can be counterproductive if you’ve spent good money on a Chinese massage. The coach drivers, like the rest of the motoring fraternity, are audibly keen to get to their destination, sounding the horn every few minutes as they go. The message translates roughly as I’m coming through so get out of my way or don’t even think about changing into my lane. The day we were coaching from Wuxi to Hangzhou the fog was horrendous and had interrupted our journey, the police choosing to close the motorway for an hour and a half. Soon, we understood why when just a few minutes later we took a turning onto a motorway that was still under construction. As we travelled along the road-in-progress, inwardly questioning the wisdom of using this road given the visibility was still alarmingly low, the coach driver picked up speed. He was sounding his horn every minute and more often when he overtook on a dual carriageway into the oncoming traffic lane in the fog - trusting in his intuition or taking absurd risks - which ever way you want to look at it. Soon we passed a shocking sight. The lane that wasn’t finished came to an abrupt halt and at its edge was a huge drop to a ditch. Teetering on that edge was a car that had simply run out of road. I spent most of that trip with my hand over my eyes. Nigel spent most of that trip trying to decide whether he was going to tell the driver to slow down ‘the next time he does something ridiculously dangerous’. But then it became a matter of deciding degrees of ridiculous riskiness. So when the last risk was riskier than the current one … well, I’m sure you get the point. Of course, with the weather it was a difficult journey for the driver – a three-hour drive turned into six hours. So that does take some stamina, and clearly some nerve. I guess we’ll all be looking forward to our next long coach journey?
Diana Solano
The Technicians departed at 8.15am for the Zijin Theatre which was a 45 minute drive across town at that time of day. The theatre just says “YES” to everything. NBT Technicians are totally in control – not quite like Beijing!! Whilst the fit up was taking place, the dancers returned to the adjacent studio for class. Unfortunately the Chinese opera orchestra was rehearsing next door and we had to ask them to leave for a while. The noise level - not the music, was horrendous!! Class went well and the dancers are in good shape for tomorrow’s performance
The Stage Department completed all of their work in record time by 5.45pm. The Electrics Department had focussed the lights and were back at the hotel by 8.30pm with just booms to do tomorrow – probably the quickest fit up we have had so far on this tour and leaving the stage clear for class.
This afternoon, the Dancers had a chance to look around the town. Nanjing is a bustling city and is a mix of western and pure Chinese. Turn a corner and huge neon lit signs are awash, turn again and hanging ducks etc. are there on the street stalls. The hotel is on the outskirts of the inner city and so quite a calming place to be away from the noise and bustle. The cost of things here is significantly cheaper than Beijing. A meal for 3 including 2 beers and a coke cost 76 Yuan (about £5). It was a good meal as well. Getting a taxi in Nanjing is very hit and miss. They don’t seem to like our Western faces too much but when you do get one they are really friendly.
Finally, this hotel has an even more brazen brothel than the last. It’s called COUNT and the publicity material leaves little to the imagination. It has caused great hilarity for all. The ones that dared go to the 5th floor were met by ladies in short maid outfits and a gentleman making gestures that cannot be described here when asked if this was where they could get a beer!!
Touring through China is a challenge and it was never going to be easy but with this being my second time on tour with NBT in China, I thought it would be easier. In some ways it certainly has been. The technical staff we have on this tour have been excellent and have needed to be. Their patience has been stretched a couple of times in each venue. This is mainly due to the fact that each venue has different ways of doing things and very different systems in place. The Poly Theatre in Beijing was a challenge. From the moment we discovered that there was an access to the City issue with the containers to the no gaffa tape on stage rule. At present no trucks at all are allowed into Beijing until midnight and have to clear the City limits by 6am. As Beijing is a major building site at present you can imagine the queues at the City limits waiting for the clock to strike midnight. At this point it must be like a Le Mans start. By 12.30am long convoys of trucks wend their way into the city as in some kind of protest akin to the fuel tax protests in the UK a few years ago. By 1am on 19/20 December the first of our containers arrived and backed into the loading dock under the supervision of the local police and security/army guards at the theatre. Unloading took about 45 minutes with the help of a team of 10 guys hired in by the promoter. With the doors shut on the empty container we thought it wouldn’t be long before the second container took its place in the dock. 10 minutes later nothing had moved. What I discovered walking to the front of the truck and speaking with our translator Flora, an absolute angel, was that the driver had been caught smoking in the dock by the security/army guard. The driver was being chastised beyond belief and his boss was being instructed that the driver must be punished. Until this was all agreed nothing was moving. After a further 20 minutes the truck finally moved and I was told that an agreement with the driver’s boss had been reached but I couldn’t find out what it was. The second trailer smoked its way into the car park and tried to back into the dock area. Alas the skill needed was beyond the driver so the container was unpacked there in the car park and another 20 metres of distance was added to the route in. Finally at 3.15 am we went upstairs and retired to our rooms grateful that the theatre and hotel were in the same complex.
In the morning breakfast was a cheery affair looking forward to working in the theatre we had seen the night before. On entering the theatre we were told that no gaffa tape could be used on the Korean oak floor that we were told had come from Russia. From that point on it seemed to be that they had learnt one word of English and that was the word ‘NO’ Even when going through the translator the answer seemed to be always ‘NO’. But if we really pushed and pushed for what we required and kept smiling then eventually it seemed to turn up. Well most of the time. The biggest issue was the petal drop in Act 2. They had not seen this done before and were not happy with the petals falling past the lighting bar. No reasoning or even myself telling them we had done over 250 performances of the production and never had there been an issue of the theatre catching fire seemed to wash with them. My final offer to buy them a new theatre if the effect caused the building to burn down did not even come close. We had to move the lighting bar downstage and the petal bag had to move upstage. They seemed happy with that. But after the 1st show they insisted we bring in the lighting bar and check for stray petals. Only eight petals had the gaul to land on the lighting equipment but each one was carefully extracted before we could fly the bar out again.
Joe Marchant, our Flyman/Rigger, had a nightmare of a day trying to get the flying system working safely. The Chinese flyman had never been shown the safe way of working the system and not wishing to lose face they refused to listen to Joe’s instruction. This caused a few heated debates through Flora. Meanwhile on stage Steven Wilkins (Wilky), our Chief Stage Technician for the China Tour, was being told we could not screw into the floor and not use certain flying bars for scenery. Thanks to the Chinese lighting people we have touring with us, lighting seemed to be going smoothly. Rich, Paul, Martin and Chris (Lighting Team) were all put under various amounts of pressure through the day but mainly the pressure of ‘NO’ was mainly kept to Wilky, Joe, Nic and Paul. (Stage Team)
On the first day we all finished at 10pm. We lost around 3 hours of the day having to argue and discuss each thing we wanted to do. The second day started in much the same way with ‘NO’ being the order of the day. The electric flying bars were strictly under the control of the in house personnel and it was hit and miss whether we got what we asked for. By 11am the focus started and the stage work was coming to an end. By 12.30 the main focus of the lights was complete and we had only the side lights to do. Class then took place on stage. A welcome break for the technical crew. Back at 2pm we beavered on and the Technical Rehearsal went quite smoothly. Just before the start of the Technical though, the person in charge of the electric flying handed the reins over to Martin. Martin had never seen or operated the system before and it was amazing that the rehearsal went so well.
To add other things into the mix we were not allowed to go anywhere with out a pass. Not even if we had made friends with the guard and he knew us. We were not allowed to sit in the auditorium seats at all and the drinks machine had given up as well.
The first night and subsequent shows went very well indeed. The Technical staff on tour have been pushed to the edge and have been amazing.
The get out started well until we caught them inch by inch peeling back our dance tape to make sure that we had not damaged the floor. I know you have an image in your head of a highly polished oak floor and you are wondering why I am going on about this so much. But let me dispel this image and replace it with an image of a painted black extremely well -used floor that has had the paint ripped from it in various places. I hope you can see the frustration.
The containers were packed and all was finished by 3am. No driver getting punished this time although we still had to wait for the containers to arrive!
Having had a couple of days off I can look back and smile and make light of what the Tech team was put through. But things like this are a small part of what happens when we enter a new venue. We never know what we are going to face and only a great deal of experience and teamwork gets us through.
In the future I would hope that we in the UK can bring Chinese technicians over from the larger theatres and let them see how we work in the UK. I believe for the long term future of the theatres in China and the welfare and mental state of the Technicians arriving with companies from the West it would be very fruitful.
Nanjing, Yangzhou and Shanghai here we come.
Andy Waddington - Technical Director
The Company spent the early part of the day continuing the journey around the famous sites that Beijing has to offer. The Forbidden City and Summer Palace seem to be quite popular. All too soon it was time to go to the theatre for the day’s preparation for the performance. This afternoon was David Nixon’s last class with the Company before he leaves Beijing. A video and selection of photographs from class accompany this report. David also spent some time rehearsing Pippa Moore and Chris Hinton-Lewis who will be dancing Butterfly and Pinkerton together for the first time in Yangzhou on 31 December.
Not only was this our final performance in Beijing but also the closing performance of the 5th Beijing International Dance Festival. The performance, with Keiko and Kenny dancing Butterfly and Pinkerton, was very much appreciated by the audience and we were honoured by the presence of senior Government figures. Young, our Promoter, was delighted with the Beijing season and we all look forward to 3 days off for Christmas before we start out journey again to Nanjing on 27th. Watch this space for David Nixon’s thoughts on his visit to Beijing tomorrow (24 December) and share moments from the NBT Christmas Party on 25 December.
Oh, check out the menu in one of the hotel’s restaurants – our Christmas Lunch?
David Nixon taught class for the Dancers for the first time in 10 days so a bit of a shock to the system but essential to get them up to form for the opening night in Beijing tomorrow. As always the day was challenging. No lights on stage for class and no power for the electric piano. Eventually we found a cleaner’s socket in the auditorium and class got underway but not before David had to sing the first few exercises. Although David (and his wife Yoko Ichino) toured the world as dancers, this is his first ever visit to China. His verdict “I’m really glad I came” We took him to the Great Wall today which he found a very exciting , although strenuous experience. (Watch this space for David’s account of his visit to Beijing) Whilst we were away, the fit up continued in the Poly Theatre – again with its challenges but all will be fine for tomorrow’s opening.
Northern Ballet Theatre and David Nixon feature in The South Bank Show’s forthcoming programme about The Nutcracker …
Margy Kinmouth’s film examines the creation of Tchaikovsky’s ballet based on Hoffman’s dark fairy tale, and visits the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia where it premiered in 1892 only to remain unperformed for more than half a century. Plus, a preview of Andrei Konchalovsky’s $80million movie version due for release in late 2008.
Not too much to report today. The Company had the day off and many spent the time visiting the famous landmarks such as Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Technicians made a visit to the Poly Theatre to check things out ready for the fit up tomorrow. The first useful piece of news was that the containers are only permitted into the City between 12.00am and 6am so the planned get in at 9am tomorrow would not be possible and the crew would have to go at midnight to unload. Useful time was spent working out where the scenery would hang and dealing with the fact that huge acoustic ceilings take out large sections of the grid and make the hanging plot quite tricky. It is further complicated as some of the flying is manual and some computerised and operated from opposite sides of the stage. Our Flyman, Joe, cannot be in both places at once. As always these challenges will be overcome. The Promoter is also unable to find a venue for class so the Technicians will lay the floor and put out the barres on stage before they finish tonight and delay the fit up until after class. Mr Nixon has now arrived in Beijing.
The Company had some free time today until we went to the theatre at 2pm for class. This evening’s performance was the first of three events for our sponsors and was hosted by Yorkshire Forward. The event was attended by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Simon Hill from Yorkshire Forward and Prof. Stephen Parkinson from Leeds Met University all of who spoke at the pre-performance event. We did encounter one or two issues with the flying system this evening (or it might have been the operators) but at one point the computer console was surrounded by 12 Chinese Technicians!. We had a slightly larger audience than last night and the performance seemed to be appreciated. Yi Song danced the role of The Bonze/Yamadori/Samurai for the first time this evening.
The Technicians had a tough day today but performed magnificently. In the UK, we would normally have 12 hours on the first day of the fit up and 4 hours the second day before class and Technical Rehearsal. In Hangzhou, they only had 6½ hours on the first day and 6 today but managed to pull things together to start the Technical rehearsal at 3pm and actually get through the whole ballet by 5.30pm. This was even though the local crew did not arrive at theatre until 12pm despite being called for 9am!
The Company arrived at the theatre for 12pm for class at 12.30pm but before that we had the entertaining job of getting the ballet barres up 12 flights of stairs to the studio. Mission accomplished of course and class started on time.
Tonight was Kenneth Tindall’s premiere in the role of Pinkerton dancing with Keiko Amemori as Butterfly and they gave a great performance in front of a large audience. The performance was well received by the audience and received good applause.
A Promoter from Jianxing came to see the performance tonight and enjoyed the performance but felt that it was probably too short notice to stage a performance in 9 days time and expect to get a reasonable audience. I am hoping that we will get to spend an extra day (Boxing Day) in Beijing before moving on to the next scheduled venue of Nanjing but watch this space!!
Our fate was taken out of our hands today on the coach journey from Wuxi to Hangzhou. A journey that was scheduled to take 2 ½ hours became close to 6 hours! As soon as we left Wuxi, it became extremely foggy and the roads were incredibly bumpy and the driver seemed to have a death wish. We were on two coaches and there seemed to be an ongoing competition to see which could undertake the other in the most hazardous conditions. It was probably the worst and most scary driving we have ever experienced. Ultimately, it was miraculous that we made it without collision although we did see that aftermath of one or two mishaps on route.
The effects of the fog were brought to bear even more spectacularly when the highway was closed at the toll booth between Jiangsu Province (where Wuxi is situated) and Zhejiang Province (where Hangzhou is situated) due to the weather and we remained stationary for more than an hour. The lack of toilet facilities soon became an issue as we waited with no indication of how long we might be stuck -“sometimes it can be 10 minutes and sometimes 3 hours”
Eventually we did make it to the familiar territory of the New Century Hotel and the Company soon forgot the tedium of the journey and were out re-visiting the places they discovered in January 2006 – and particularly Starbucks.
Not such a good situation for the Technicians who were 2 hours late starting the fit up at the Grand Theatre. The schedule was already tight and this delay did not help. The situation was then further aggravated by the theatre staff deciding that we had to finish at 10pm. The Technicians returned to the hotel in a positive frame of mind and happy that they would be ready for tomorrow’s Technical Rehearsal.
The final piece of news from today is that the Promoter may have found another City for us to perform in on 27 December instead of Hefei. No further information yet but it is incredible that a performance can be agreed 10 days before the date and still get an audience (or not.)
What started out as a challenging day turned out very well. We had a major battle to persuade the theatre to put the heating on and the dancers did class wrapped up in scarves and woolly hats. At the same time, the Symphony Orchestra of China Opera and Dance Drama Theatre arrived from Hangzhou. Assistant Music Director, Nigel Gaynor has been in China for nearly two weeks rehearsing the three orchestras we will use throughout the tour. They proceeded to set up their chairs, music stands and instruments on the pit lift - I have never seen so many players in such a small space - more than 40 of them! Once the pit lift had descended to performance height there was no way in or out other than climbing ladders - probably the most undignified entrance Nigel has ever made to conduct a performance!
The theatre flying systems was somewhat eccentric and it was only possible to fly two things at any one time and also at the speed that it chose - dead slow. Stage Manager, Chun Yen, did an excellent job adjusting the cues to ensure the rehearsal (and ultimately the performance) ran as smoothly as possible.
We had requested a child to play Trouble in the production and were fortunate enough to have four brought to the theatre for us to choose from. This was fine but obviously disappointing for those not selected for the one performance in Wuxi.
The performance went extremely well and we played to a full house of entirely Chinese. Their applause was not what we are used to in the UK but the fact that they stayed to the end and were engaged throughout were testament to their enjoyment of the production. Andy Waddington and our Technical Team did a great job as did the dancers and orchestra.
Another memorable sight from the day was seeing the auditorium set for the performance and all you could see were hundreds of Chiakis on carrier bags from the sponsors left on the seats for the audience. We set off for Hangzhou by coach first thing tomorrow morning. One down and nine or ten to go!!
Northern Ballet Theatre has just started a four-week tour to China performing Madame Butterfly in 7 cities.Two busloads of dancers, Stage Management, a Physiotherapist and a Pianist arrived at the Haiyue Star Hotel in Wuxi after a journey lasting more than 24 hours. From West Park, Leeds by coach to Manchester Airport, flight to Paris, 4 hour wait, 11 hour flight to Shanghai and then a 4 hour bus journey to Wuxi. All arrived looking a little the worse for wear but with only one missing bag belonging to Mikhaila Pye, Wardrobe Assistant.
I made the similar journey yesterday with the Technical Department although the journey from Shanghai to Wuxi only took 2½ hours! After checking into the hotel, we took a visit to the Wuxi People’s Great Auditorium to work out the logistics for the fit up on Thursday. We were slightly concerned to be told that 13 of us were going in 2 cars - it was true but not the sort of cars we were expecting (see photo)!
Andy Waddington, Technical Director has gone off on day trip to Nanjing and Yangzhou to check out theatres in those cities which we will play later in the tour.
The Haiyue Star is a nice enough hotel but the restaurant menu entirely in Chinese is more than a little challenging! What we can see of the City of Wuxi is a little gray and uninspiring. Tomorrow the dancers have an optional class followed by a visit to a local hospital, which is apparently sponsoring our performance in Wuxi.
Mark Skipper
Chief Executive NBT
Tour Schedule
14 December People’s Great Auditorium, WUXI
16 December Grand Theatre, HANGZHOU
17 December Grand Theatre, HANGZHOU
21 December Poly Theatre, BEIJING
22 December Poly Theatre, BEIJING
23 December Poly Theatre, BEIJING
27 December Grand Theatre, HEFEI (May be cancelled)
29 December Zijin Theatre, NANJING
31 December Grand Theatre, YANGZHOU
3 January Grand Theatre, SHANGHAI
4 January Grand Theatre, SHANGHAI
“This month our Dance Education Officers have been a busy getting pupils in the festive spirit with school workshops based on the Nutcracker. Bradford Girls Grammar School enjoyed their third residency of the year when Caroline Burn worked with Year 9 students on a two day Nutcracker project…”
Click here to see some of Chris Giles’ costume designs for NBT’s forthcoming production of Hamlet.
Watch this space for more exclusive previews…
