Steve_Bamlett_blog

Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.

We like to think ballet, like other arts, should be an expression of the joy of learning that art and be accessible at all levels of involvement. If we are to have impressive ballet dancers in the future, we need to educate children in the gruelling skills that form the talents of individual dancers and the corps de ballet, who must learn to dance synchronously as a ‘body’.

I interviewed a primary school headteacher (B) and his wife (A), a former social worker, about the issues involved. The interview took place after leaving after act 2 of the 3 Act ballet Coppelia.

Why did you leave the ballet before the end?

A: the third act of the ballet lends little to the story of the principals involved, all professionals, and depends very heavily on the skills of the corps de ballet. Those skills were deficient. Some of the corps were or looked no more than 6-7 years old and we’re not ready to give satisfying public performances as a group. I felt embarrassed for those children who made mistakes and reduced the main pleasure of a public performance. It was not the fault of the children but of the guidance they 2re receiving in being involved at this level, playing to an audience paying non-concessionary prices for seats.

B. Yes, I agree. The children were good, should be praised at attaining what they did and as a school performance, it would have been more than satisfying. Played in a public theatre to an audience unaware of the fact they would see such young children, it was inappropriate.

Me: Did either of you think it was abusive to use such young children in a context where they could not meet demanding standards of public performance.

A and B: Not abusive, No. But …

Me: yes.

A: It puts the children, especially very young ones in an uncomfortable situation where they require positive validation but if given it, will have low standards for public performance validated.

B: The children attained. In a school production I would have been gratified as a Headteacher to show it to their families who would appreciate it as the beginning of a process. But this was sold as a public performance of Youth art. Our expectations were not of children some of which were very young indeed.

Me: The audience were very young. There was even a babe in arms who cried, and one young girl who squeaked her chair by moving fitfully in it throughout. Was this a factor in leaving…?

B: Well, yes. The audience struck me as an invited audience of family, who applauded children they knew because they knew them. Again appropriate in a school production but …

A: Adults sit so still when they aware they will disturb others. Not so here. And even the staff were inappropriate. Talking on walkie-talkies during the performance in the auditorium.

Me: The principal dancers of course were excellent….

A: Yes. Especially the dancer dancing the role of Swanilda… Magnificent.

B: As indeed was Franz, though he was somewhat less than the figure you describe in your blog playing Franz for Covent Garden. But he and she were the age I expected from the title Youth Ballet.

Me: I think the function of the corps de ballet is precisely that of a social BODY. Can immature individual bodies understand the principles of social synchrony and pattern and be flexible enough to make the required social patterns.

A: I think the thing is they didn’t. Act 3 of Coppelia requires high levels of this skill. I dreaded it for that reason. However, unlike you, I thought the Scottish dance in Act 2, the best ensemble piece of the whole.

Me: I think I don’t like the Scottish stereotypes but I know what you mean.

B: I like the Scottish section too. A long way from the Spanish dance section in the same Act, but again there may be a difference here in the dancers’ comparative level.of experience.

Me : So we left I suppose because we felt cheated by the description of what we were seeing ..

B: Yes. I expected late teenagers at the least with some range of experience. But, another factor was the lack of a LIVE orchestra. That feels a real deficit in the art of ballet.

A: To call it Youth Ballet when young children are involved is problematic. It is all about expectations raised by having a theatre the size and grandeur of The Sunderland Empire. It is inappropriate for a production still deep inside the learning process of ballet.

B: I agree.

Me: And so do I. I feel for the children. Blame what is described as Artistic Direction here.

A: It was just not an experience led by considerations of art in this medium, and the art needs LIVE music.

B: And that makes me wary of going to Ballet. As if one can only risk a sure thing, like Covent Garden or the Birmingham Ballet.

Me: I think I will be more wary too. Thanks so much for helping me understand how we all acted today. Maybe if we were all disappointed, we were at least entertained for an afternoon.

Tutti: YES!!!!!

End of interview.

Thanks and with love,

Steve.