Dance Life – Brent Street Academy Click here to watch on Prime Video There’s no way to describe this form of dancing, commercial dancing, without sounding dismissive, which is the last thing I intend. This offshoot of modern dance has no names for its steps or movements, but its beat is paramount. The dance these students are learning and perfecting at Brent Street Academy is what you see when you watch a pop or rock singer. They are the background dancers. They jump, writhe, squirm, twist, pose, turn and contort their bodies in support of the singers. They have their own competitions and showcases, and choreographers who teach by example rather than vocabulary. And by this, I don’t mean to denigrate them. They are as committed to their discipline as any ballerina. By the end of their training at a special school in Sydney, Australia, they are fully trained dancers equipped to go out into the stage, screen and television worlds and many will make lucrative careers as professional dancers. This series, Dance Life, tracks the remarkable journey of Brent Street Academy students during their senior year, as they strive to become professional, commercial dancers. From perfectionists to prodigies, underdogs to the entitled, everyone's journey is unique. I, for one, as a long time observer of dance in all its forms, find this series a revelation. Prix de Lausanne 2024: Rising Stars Click here for tickets Still talking dance but arguably at the other end of the scale, last week the prestigious Prix de Lausanne was awarded. This is a dazzling "best of" from the 2024 Finals of the Prize that has been a stepping stone toward international renown for talented young dancers, aged 15-18, since its founding in 1973. It has helped jumpstart the careers of ballet legends from Darcey Bussell to Carlos Acosta. The 2024 edition concludes with a Rising Stars performance, showcasing two former prize winners, Madison Young and Julian MacKay, who have already gone on to successful careers, alongside this year's finalists and newly crowned prize winners. Here too are brand-new dances by the 2024 winners of the Young Creation Award, as well as a piece by renowned choreographer and designer Kinsun Chan, created during the competition week with the dancers from the Prix de Lausanne's partner schools and companies. I love seeing these young dancers at the very start of their careers and making my own picks as to who may later emerge as the next great ballet star. Narcissus – National Gallery Click here to watch This is a particularly compelling disquistion on the myth and image of Narcissus from writer, academic, and self-proclaimed Drag King, Holly James Johnston. In the Roman poet Ovid’s version of the Narcissus myth, Narcissus’s mother is told in a prophecy that Narcissus will reach old age, so long as he never recognises himself. He grows up to be a beautiful young man, admired by men and women alike. One day, during a hunt, Narcissus grows thirsty and finds a stream to quench his thirst. As he leans down, however, he becomes utterly bewitched by his own reflection. His most notable admirer, the nymph Echo, is often depicted in art looking wistfully at Narcissus, who looks even more wistfully at his own reflection. Unable to tear himself away from the sight of himself, Narcissus eventually withers and dies, and a narcissus, or daffodil, is found in place of his body. The Narcissus myth is most often interpreted as a cautionary tale against the perils of self-obsession – the pool of water serving as a metaphor for the mirror, and with it, the dangers of vanity and excessive self-involvement. This interpretation has since been reinforced by the term ‘narcissism’, which, coined in the late 19th century and popularised by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, derives its name from the Narcissus myth. Narcissus's tale of tragic beauty and forbidden desire has long inspired artists. Through images from the Renaissance to today, she/he/they explore how the myth has particularly resonated with queer artistic and literary circles. Forget the pronouns, listen to what she/he/they has to say. Lots of interesting stuff, none of which I knew before. Met Opera – Bluebeard’s Castle Click here to watch Now streaming on Met Opera on Demand: Soprano Jessye Norman and bass Samuel Ramey headline Bartók’s dark fairy tale in this riveting classic telecast from the 1988–89 season, available free through the month of February. The sole opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Bluebeard’s Castle is an intense psychological journey, a powerful drama of inner emotion, and a tour de force for just two singers. In it, Bluebeard’s bride, Judith, prods her new husband to open seven doors—despite his increasingly dire warnings about what lies behind them. In this gripping telecast from 1989, two singers at the height of their vocal and interpretive powers, soprano Jessye Norman, who died in 2019, and bass Samuel Ramey, now 81, joined forces as the principal pair, headlining an atmospheric staging by director Göran Järvefelt. James Levine conducts the Met Orchestra—who play a starring role in their own right—in one of the defining scores of the 20th century. The set design is by Hans Schavernoch and costume design by Lore Haas. Cinderella – TV 1957 - Julie Andrews Click here to watch My friend Carmen suggested this welcome memory for lovers of musical theatre – the 1957 made-for-television version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring (and introduced by) Julie Andrews, with Jon Cypher and Edie Adams. More than 100 million viewers (in more than 60% of U.S. households) tuned in to CBS on the evening of March 31, 1957 to watch Julie Andrews play the title role in Rodgers and Hammerstein's TV adaptation of Cinderella — the only musical the pair ever wrote for television. Terrible dress rehearsal video, (the performance itself was live) having been recorded what was known as a Kinescope but riveting all the same for those of us who remember when television was able to innovate in this way, even commissioning new musicals by top writers and composers. There are three other versions of Cinderella, from Broadway to Disney, none are nearly as good. Pocket Review The Hills of California – Harold Pinter Theatre Jez Butterworth’s new play, The Hills of California, in a dazzling production by Sam Mendes, is reminiscent of several other plays. It has elements of The Homecoming in which a long absent family member returns to the fold with alarming consequences, but it is also redolent of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, in which a brisk female character attempts to mould her charges in her own image. An excellent Laura Donnelly gives us a central performance that owes much to Gypsy’s Mama Rose, a mother who tries to embue her daughters with her own stunted ambitions. There’s even a hint of Waiting For Godot in the anticipation of a long absent central character. The story begins in Blackpool, 1956, where Mrs Webb is determined to get her four daughters out of the stultifying life of a decaying seaside resort and into the London Palladium as an Andrews Sisters tribute act. 20 years later, The Hills of California treads a familiar dramatic path with the gathering of a dysfunctional family at the dying of its matriarch. It’s 1976, the hottest summer in 200 years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving, even Mrs Webb’s rundown guesthouse is full, and in the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the sisters are returning to their mother’s house, as she lies dying upstairs. All but Joan, the favourite. Where is Joan? On her way back to Blackpool from her California home to bid farewell to their mother? Perhaps. The Hills of California, as you might expect from the author of Jerusalem, is an immensely complex and multi-dimenstional story in three acts, with a huge cast, effectively wrangled by Mendes. It takes place in the past and the present, with both the adult sisters and their child counterparts enacting the sometimes surreal, sometimes tragic and sometimes very funny interactions of a family who have known one another forever but, it turns out, not very well. The entire cast is strong with Butterworth, Mendes and their actors clearly delineating each character so that each has her separate claim on our attention and sympathy. But the highest plaudits must go to Laura Donnelly’s finely detailed and pitch-perfect Mrs Webb who has to make a maternal choice so shocking that it reminded me of Sophie’s Choice, far more consequential than Mama Rose telling Gypsy Rose Lee that it's okay to become a stripper.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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