Former Royal Ballet principal Federico Bonelli, Northern Ballet’s new artistic director since May 2022, brings three ‘short’ ballets (thirty minutes, five minutes, forty-five minutes long in that order) to his old home, and it matters. After the interval, he is sitting a seat away from me and his attention is palpable. At curtain call, he is cheering his dancers on like a proud parent or a coach his team. I’m here for Northern Ballet’s second night, and hope its first night audience was more electrified than tonight’s.
Sometimes, the audience needs a bit of guidance and a nudge. None is necessary for the middle piece, Victory Dance by Royal Ballet’s Kristen McNally, which, deservedly, gets loud cheers. Only five minutes long, it is an amuse-bouche, an uplifting and jolly number for three men, one in a wheelchair, which the other two use as a prop and a speedy partner.
Joseph Powell-Main, a dancer who uses wheels and crutches after injuries to his left leg whilst training at the Royal Ballet School some years ago, has an infectious energy, commitment, and a cheeky expressive face—he connects with his audience. Yu Wakizuka and Archie Sherman make up the lively trio, the able two hitching a ride on his wheels. It looks fun.
Victory Dance could be named for Powell-Main’s overcoming of prejudice, though it is its funky jazzy music, written by the Ezra Collective, which sets shoulders twitching, feet tapping and wheels spinning. It has a party vibe: Alastair West’s purple lighting helps.
It follows a classic from 1977, Four Last Songs by Rudi van Dantzig, at that time AD of Dutch National Ballet, to Richard Strauss’s 1948 song cycle for soprano and orchestra to text by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff. Strauss’s final works at the age of eighty-four. They are a gentle leave taking. And the dance mirrors that, all coming to “rest from our wanderings”.
The songs are "Spring", "September", "When Falling Asleep" and "At Sunset". Of necessity, it is a recording we hear. Imagine having the luxury of a live orchestra… Against a painted backcloth (Toer van Schayk) of rain-spattered sky, clouds, grey with a redness breaking through, four couples in autumnal colours express their life’s journeys and prepare for the inevitable.
Gentle, moving, quietly emotional: pas de deux for each couple, who are shepherded along the way by an Angel (Harry Skoupas). I think of Mahler’s Song of the Wayfarer, the fleetingness of life, and his Song of the Earth, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan in 1965 for Stuttgart Ballet, but what I see at times is Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces in the tableaux under the Angel’s embracing wings. We need McNally’s Victory Dance to get us out of that “parting is such sweet sorrow” trance.
The final piece is Mthuthuzeli November’s Fools, taken from the South African 1976 novel Hill of Fools by the late Xhosa writer, R L Peteni (1915–2000). Set in a South African township with its corrugated iron shacks, telegraph poles and one dim street lamp, it is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but smacks more of West Side Story. The radio in the village square tells the sorry tale.
We know the story well: two tribes, the Thembu and the Hlubi, permitting no intermarriage, end up destroying young love. And for what: testosterone? Or is it the sultry heat? Or for lack of anything better to do? Harris Beattie is a boyish ‘Romeo’ (Thembu tribe), whilst George Liang’s (Hlubi tribe) ‘Tybalt’ is full of anger… How does it feel to kill a man… the horror is written on Liang’s face. Both are incredibly athletic. Rachael Gillespie is a delicate delightful ‘Juliet’, who might well be pregnant. The lover’s duets are lovely and affective. He teases her from behind the washing line as she sits moping under the street lamp.
Sticks and reed brooms are fiercely wielded in battle, which crescendos at a pace to the point of intoxication. November marshals them well, though there is too much male ‘antelope’ dashing from one end of of the stage to the other. And ‘Juliet’s’ solo, powerfully emotive though it is, could be cut without losing much punch. Having said that, the cast of twelve, as well as the three leads, is excellent.
November, who has done much work for Ballet Black, is an exciting choreographer. He is involved with his creation on all levels: music (great beats) with Alex Wilson and set design with Steve Wilkins. His assistant choreographer, Sayaka Ichikawa, also comes out of the Ballet Black stable. Yann Seabra, his costume designer, is another familiar creative on November’s productions. West’s lighting corrugates the floor.
Under David Nixon’s twenty-year stewardship, Northern Ballet was known for its story ballets—Bonelli is bringing a fresh mix to the table without neglecting narrative dance, and he is to be commended and supported. His dancers seem to be able to take it all on board: classical, contemporary and impassioned acting. Bravi!