Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet. The company tours widely across the United Kingdom.

History[]

Northern Dance Theatre, the name by which the company was originally known, was founded in 1969 by Canadian-born ; a dramatic dancer whose formative years were spent with Bristol-based, Western Theatre Ballet, the first ever British dance company to be based outside London. The company's first performance was on 28 November 1969 at the University Theatre, Manchester, with the orchestra being supplied by musicians of the Royal Northern College of Music.

In the first six years, the repertory included significant revivals, Kurt Jooss's The Green Table and Andrée Howard's Death and the Maiden, alongside new works by Peter Wright, John Chesworth, Charles Czarny, and Clover Roope.^[2]

Robert de Warren[]

Robert de Warren was appointed artistic director in 1976. A classically-trained dancer, he had previously worked with the Royal Ballet, as well some of the larger West German ballet companies. He renamed the company Northern Ballet Theatre (NBT) and began to work on full-length classical ballets, rediscovered works and brand new dance-drama creations. During 11 years as artistic director he expanded the company to more than 30 dancers and the orchestra to 25 players under Maestro David Garforth and staged works by such diverse choreographers as August Bournonville, Michael Fokine, Walter Gore, John Cranko, Gillian Lynne and Royston Maldoom. Among other collaborators were composers Carl Davis and Joseph Horovitz and stage designers Clive Lavagna and Philip Prowse, then director of Glasgow's experimental Citizens Theatre.

De Warren's creative drive brought many artistic collaborations to the company including choreographers Andre Prokovsky and who was given space to experiment on such on-off, site-specific, works as "Paradise Lost" and who made what was for many years the company's signature dance-drama piece, Miss Carter wore Pink, music by Joseph Horovitz, based on the autobiographical books of Helen Bradley, with live narration by actress Patricia Phoenix and designs by Philip Prowse.

De Warren brought Dame Alicia Markova to the company as coach on productions of Les Sylphides and Giselle. He secured Rudolf Nureyev as artistic laureate and guest artist, and Princess Margaret as the company's Royal Patron.

The last of his collaborative works for the company was "A Simple Man", based on the life and paintings of L.S. Lowry: Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Music Carl Davis. The piece brought Northern Ballet's future Artistic Director Christopher Gable to the company to create the role of Lowry. "A Simple Man" remained in the repertoire for a decade and was seen throughout the world in repeated showings of the BBC Television filmed version. De Warren left the company in 1987 to go to the Scala, Milan.

Christopher Gable[]

The appointment of Christopher Gable as NBT's third artistic director in 1987 saw the company gain a reputation for imaginative new works and for impressive revivals of old classics.

His appointment owed much to chance. In 1987, for the centenary of the birth of the painter L. S. Lowry, Salford City Council commissioned Gillian Lynne to create a new ballet for the company to celebrate the life and work of the Salford-born artist. At this time the company was still under the artistic direction of Robert de Warren. The work with Lynne and Gable would be the last of his inspired artistic collaborations. Lynne was determined in her choice of dancer for the role of Lowry, enticing ex-Royal Ballet star Christopher Gable back to the dance stage for the first time in more than 20 years.

Gable's appointment as artistic director was popular with the company. He focused as much on the theatre as the ballet in the company's title. With the emphasis on classical dance drama, the success of A Simple Man was followed by full-length productions of Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, , the , Don Quixote, , Giselle and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Christopher Gable worked closely with Michael Pink who joined Northern Ballet Theatre as associate artistic director in 1993, where he remained until 1998. His choreographic work for the Company included Attractions (1983), Memoire Imaginaire (1987), his first full-length work The Amazing Adventures of Don Quixote (1988), as well as acclaimed ballets such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Swan Lake,^[3] Giselle, and Dracula.^[4][5]

Throughout his 11 years with NBT, Gable remained artistic director of the Central School of Ballet, which he co-founded with Ann Stannard in London in 1982. The company was located at Spring Hall, Halifax briefly, in 1990.^[6] Gable's death in 1998, from cancer at only 58, left the company with a reputation that was gaining steadily on the worldwide dance stage. Northern Ballet Theatre productions had been requested and performed by other companies including Norwegian National Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Stefano Giannetti[]

Stefano Giannetti became fourth Artistic Director after a career including dancing and creating principal roles at English National Ballet and . His first work was an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. However, he was to leave the company after only a year.

David Nixon OBE[]

The fifth, and current, appointment to the role of Artistic Director was given to former National Ballet of Canada principal dancer David Nixon in August 2001.

In February 2002 he presented his revised version of Madame Butterfly. That was followed by his tribute to the music of George and Ira Gershwin, I Got Rhythm. Nixon's first full-length new work for the company was Wuthering Heights, a collaboration with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. It premiered at the Bradford Alhambra Theatre in September 2002.

The company followed this original work with a production of Birgit Scherzer's and Nixon's a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which also saw Northern Ballet perform at the West Yorkshire Playhouse for the first time. This was followed by new productions of Swan Lake, Peter Pan, The Three Musketeers, A Sleeping Beauty Tale, The Nutcracker and Hamlet. Autumn 2008 saw the company tour with another new ballet from Cathy Marston telling the classic Dickens story A Tale of Two Cities.

2009 was the company's 40th anniversary; on Monday, 6 September 2010, the company announced that it was changing its name to "Northern Ballet", dropping "theatre" from its title.^[7]

In 2011 Northern Ballet premiered two new works - Cléopâtre^[8] on 26 February 2011 and ^[9] on 17 December 2011 both choreographed by David Nixon OBE at Leeds Grand Theatre. In 2012 Ondine was added to the repertoire,^[10] originally created by David Nixon for Ballet du Rhin.^[11]

2013 also saw the creation of two new full-length ballets; ^[12] and Cinderella.^[13] Both productions were choreographed by David Nixon and again received their world premieres at Leeds Grand Theatre.

In 2012 the Company started producing ballet's created especially for young children. The first was ^[14] choreographed by Company dancers and . The second, ^[15] choreographed by dancers and . The third, ^[16] was choreographed by Northern Ballet Ballet Master with an original score by composer . The three ballets for children have been adapted by the BBC for CBeebies;^[17][18][19] the adaptations kept the music and dance but also incorporated one of the channel's properties, Mr Bloom, into the production to make them more suitable for a television audience.

During 2013, most of the Channel 4 series Big Ballet was filmed at Northern Ballet.^[20]

In 2015 Northern Ballet commissioned Barnsley-born choreographer Jonathan Watkins to create a ballet based on George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.^[21] A recording of Nineteen Eighty-Four was commissioned by The Space and BBC.^[22] It was broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 28 February 2016.^[23] In June 2016 1984 won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Dance.^[24]

In 2017 Northern Ballet produced three new full-length ballets, one based on the Casanova biography by Ian Kelly, the second based on The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, and a third based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.^[25][26]

Rehearsal and performance facility[]

Northern Ballet headquarters, Quarry Hill, Leeds

In autumn 2010 the Northern Ballet moved to a new purpose-built dance and teaching facility in the Quarry Hill district of Leeds. Located in the center of the city adjacent to the Leeds College of Music the building is the largest dedicated space for dance outside London. The building was funded through a public / private partnership between Leeds City Council, a grant from Arts Council England and fundraising by the Northern Ballet.^[27]

The building features seven dance studios including a 230-seat studio theatre. Six of the dance studios are installed with specialized harlequin floors. Shared with the contemporary dance company, Phoenix Dance Theatre it is the only facility for dance to house both a national classical and contemporary dance company alongside each another.^[28]

Academy of Northern Ballet[]

Under the direction of ballet mistress Yoko Ichino the academy is housed within the company's Leeds headquarters. The academy offers open classes, an associate program and selective advanced level training for students up to sixteen years of age.^[29]

Artistic staff[]

Name	Role	Nationality
David Nixon OBE	Artistic Director	Canada
Daniel de Andrade	Artistic Associate & Artistic Director of Children's Ballets	Brazil
Yoko Ichino	Rehearsal Director	USA
Christelle Horner	Rehearsal Director	France
Kenneth Tindall	Artistic Director of Digital & Choreographer in Residence	UK

Northern Ballet staff^[30]

Dancers[]

Name	Position	Nationality	Training	Other companies including guest performances
Abigail Prudames	Premier Dancer	UK	Royal Ballet School Elmhurst Ballet School
Antoinette Brooks-Daw	Premier Dancer	UK	The Trull School of Dancing in Taunton Royal Ballet School
Javier Torres	Premier Dancer	Cuba	Cuban National Ballet School	Cuban National Ballet
Ashley Dixon	Principal Soloist	UK	Central School of Ballet
Joseph Taylor	Pincipal Soloist	UK	Janice Sutton Theatre School Elmhurst Ballet School
Minju Kang	Pincipal Soloist	South Korea	Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts The School of The Hamburg Ballet	Bundesjugendballett
Mlindi Kulashe	Leading Soloist	South Africa	Cape Town City Ballet Cape Junior Ballet School English National Ballet School	Cape Town City Ballet
Riku Ito	Leading Soloist	Japan	Yumi Kitamori Ballet Studio The School of The Hamburg Ballet
Sarah Chun	Leading Soloist	USA	Faubourg School of Ballet Joffrey Academy of Dance	Oklahoma City Ballet Kansas City Ballet
Dominique Larose	First Soloist	USA	Ayako School of Ballet Tanz Akademie Zürich Academy of Northern Ballet
Greig Matthews	First Soloist	UK	Dance School of Scotland Royal Ballet School	Vienna State Ballet The Joffrey Ballet
Jonathan Hanks	First Soloist	UK	Royal Ballet School	Estonian National Ballet
Kevin Poeung	First Soloist	France	English National Ballet School	English National Ballet
Lorenzo Trossello	First Soloist	Italy	Teatro alla Scala Ballet School Royal Ballet School
Matthew Koon	First Soloist	UK	Academy of Northern Ballet English National Ballet School	Billy Elliot the Musical (title role)
Rachael Gillespie	First Soloist	UK	Judith Hockaday School Central School of Ballet	Scottish Ballet Ballet Central
Sean Bates	First Soloist	UK	Royal Ballet School
Filippo Di Vilio	Junior Soloist	Italy	Teatro alla Scala Ballet School English National Ballet School Academy of Northern Ballet
Gavin McCaig	Junior Soloist	UK	The Dance School of Scotland English National Ballet School	Scottish Ballet
Miki Akuta	Junior Soloist	Japan	Kazuko Sugihara Ballet School Art Académie Princesse Grace
Heather Lehan	Coryphée	Canada	Canada's National Ballet School
Aerys Merrill	Dancer	USA	Richmond Ballet Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre
Albert Gonzalez Orts	Dancer	Spain	Estudio de Danza María Carbonell Academy of Northern Ballet
Alessandra Bramante	Dancer	Italy	ASDC Dietro le Quinte in Catania Il Balletto di Castelfranco Veneto John Cranko School in Stuttgart
Alessia Petrosino	Dancer	Italy	English National Ballet School	Ballet de l’Opéra de Metz
Andrew Tomlinson	Dancer	UK	Academy of Northern Ballet Canada's National Ballet School	National Ballet of Canada
Antoni Cañellas Artigues	Dancer	Spain	English National Ballet School	National Opera of Bucharest
Archie Sherman	Dancer	UK	Hilton Hall Dance Academy Royal Ballet School
Aurora Mostacci	Dancer	Italy	Royal Conservatory of Dance Mariemma in Spain	The Washington Ballet Finnish National Ballet
Aurora Piccininni	Dancer	Italy	Conservatory of Valencia
Bruno Serraclara	Dancer	Spain	Escola de Dansa Marisa Yudes, Barcelona Académie Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo	The National Ballet of Canada
George Liang	Dancer	Taiwan	New Zealand School of Dance Canada's National Ballet School	The National Ballet of Canada
Harriet Marden	Dancer	UK	Central School of Ballet Academy of Northern Ballet
Harris Beattie	Dancer	UK	Danscentre in Aberdeen Central School of Ballet	Ballet Central
Helen Bogatch	Dancer	Estonia	Tallinn Ballet School	Estonian National Ballet
Julie Nunès	Dancer	France	Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille Central School of Ballet Academy of Northern Ballet
Katharine Lee	Dancer	USA	The Washington School of Ballet English National Ballet School
Kirica Takahashi	Dancer	Japan	Elmhurst Ballet School English National Ballet School
Matthew Morrell	Dancer	UK	Central School of Ballet Academy of Northern Ballet
Sena Kitano	Dancer	Japan	Soda Ballet School Dutch National Ballet Academy
Wesley Branch	Dancer	UK	Tring Park School for the Performing Arts English National Ballet School
Gemma Coutts	Apprentice	NZ	Aree School of Dance Arts, Bangkok English National Ballet School

Source:^[31]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website