Both rehearsal and performance space it formed part of the theatre’s redevelopment and exists to make new work possible – a fact that
Posted in General on 23. Aug, 2010
Both rehearsal and performance space, it formed part of the theatre’s redevelopment and exists to make new work possible – a fact that prompted Michael Kaiser, the ROH executive director, to lend his personal help in getting activities there started without delay. Way above the top level of the Royal Opera House auditorium is the new Clore Studio. Both rehearsal and performance space, it formed part of the theatre’s redevelopment and exists to make new work possible – a fact that prompted Michael Kaiser, the ROH executive director, to lend his personal help in getting activities there started without delay.
The result is a short season by two choreographers from outside, both given space, time and support from Royal Ballet volunteers for administration, planning and fundraising. Sheron Wrey was the first, with Live, a collaboration between her company JazzXchange and jazz composer Byron Wallen. A strange mixture of western and African traditional instruments, plus a gamelan, accompanied dances that included jive, playing at soldiers, duets and, later, pretending to die, grieve or be alarmed.A stern programme note about the impact of Aids in Africa revealed what was on Wrey’s mind, but the piece never became explicit enough, and a long final section for the choreographer with Wallen’s solo trumpet seemed indulgently tacked on to something already as complete as it was ever going to be.Wrey’s background is entirely in contemporary dance; Matthew Hawkins began as a Royal Ballet dancer (and a notably good one) before moving to an independent career where his collaborations have included Michael Clark, Rambert Dance and the Hackney Empire.
Returning to his starting point, but finding everything as much changed as he himself, has provoked a markedly individual reinterpretation of classicism in Angels and Exiles.His starting point is a luscious, little-known composition by Cesar Franck, extracts from Redemption, with singing and spoken text by Edouard Blau Hawkins concentrates on the sound. Inspiration comes also from the setting, the great, high-ceilinged, mirrored studio, surrounded by ballet barres and ample space for dancing; also from the mixture of dancers, himself and the admirable Yalckun Abdurehim and Kaori Suzuki from his own company, six Royal Ballet dancers, some very young, and a member of Anjali, a company of disadvantaged dancers with whom Hawkins has simultaneously been working.Hawkins brings out the separate personality of each dancer, yet unites them all in patterns that cohere or effectively contrast. He uses a wide vocabulary of steps, subsumed into a sustained style and spreading handsomely right across and around the space.Pearl, his regular designer, has dressed everyone in elegant black unisex tunics and tights; there is a minimal and witty decor in the form of a cable made by Sophia Clist from ballet shoes, wound around one corner of the barre; and Charles Bamfour’s lighting effectively transforms the whole look and feeling of the space to match the dances’ varied moods.After a recent series of ballets from other sources which have offered clever ideas (or sometimes not so clever) rather than real choreography, it is a pleasure to see a presentation that concentrates on beautiful and inventive dancing. Whatever else comes of the Clore Studio, Angels and Exiles already justifies all the effort and expenditure that has gone into it.. It might be a straight lift, or perhaps it is a remarkable coincidence. But it is certainly the case that Hogwarts, the name of the world famous school for magicians in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, has been used before.
It might be a straight lift, or perhaps it is a remarkable coincidence. But it is certainly the case that Hogwarts, the name of the world famous school for magicians in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, has been used before.
Hogwarts, it turns out, features in one of classic 1950s Molesworth books written by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle.The connection between Harry Potter and Molesworth has been discovered by Oxford classics professor Richard Jenkyns – whose literary scoop appears in this month’s issue of the intellectual magazine Prospect.In the Molesworth book How to be Topp, says Jenkyns, “there is a cod Latin play, ‘The Hogwarts’, by Marcus Plautus Molesworthus, and Hoggwart is also the name give to the headmaster of Porridge Court, a rival academy. As far as I know, no one has yet noticed this.” There are other parallels. “Even Harry Potter’s appearance, with his round glasses and perpetually untidy hair, seems to be modelled on Molesworth as drawn by Searle,” says Jenkyns.In many ways Potter and Molesworth are diametrically opposed.
Potter is immersed in school life, respects the Hogwart’s traditions and admires a fair number of the teachers. Molesworth, by contrast, is essentially anarchic, he shows no affection for school life, considers that: “peotry is sissy stuff that rhymes”, and is awful at “foopball”.At a deeper level, though, Joanne Rowling, Jenkyns points out, is plainly true to the boarding school genre. “The social set-up at Hogwarts is remarkably old-fashioned,” he says. “It feels less like the 1990s than the 1950s – the Molesworth period.”Jenkyns sees Harry Potter as essentially boys’ books (despite their immense popularity with girls) And Rowling’s Hermione is a real Molesworth girl “Gurls,” he considers, are “intent, eager, keen ect. in class, and stick their hands up excitedly when the teacher asks a question”. It is an accurate description of Hermione.In America, Ms Rowling has faced more serious accusations of lifting material.