Latest news with #NorthernBallet
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Thousands of Bradford children take to stage for ballet and opera
More than 2,000 Bradford primary school pupils took to the stage recently to perform a ballet and opera inspired by their own hopes and dreams. The children filled the newly refurbished Bradford Live to perform the new ballet and opera as part of Sing, Dance, Leap - a mass participation project for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Tom Whitehead, a Bradford-born Royal Ballet dancer who returned to his hometown for the project, said: "It has been a real privilege to be able to help bring Sing, Dance, Leap to my hometown and see the impact it has had on these brilliant young people. "I know how much I would have loved to have been involved in a project like this when I was young, so it makes it extra special to be able to give Bradford's next generation this opportunity. "If Sing, Dance, Leap can be that spark of inspiration for one child to pursue their passion, whatever that is, then this project has been a huge success." The Sing, Dance, Leap project was commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (Image: Elly Welford) Led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet, the Sing, Dance, Leap project intends to help children to express how they feel about themselves, and their city, through ballet, opera, and the arts. The children's thoughts and feelings helped shape the performance's music, lyrics, and choreography, which were created respectively by Will Todd, Kadijah Ibrahiim, and Carlos Pons Guerra. Jillian Barker, director of learning and participation for the Royal Ballet and Opera, said: "Sing, Dance, Leap is a real celebration of young voices and the power that access to the arts can have. "We want to ensure that projects like this give children more than a momentary experience – we want these young people to take what they have learnt in this project and continue to be creatively inspired in their daily lives. The project was led by the Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North, and Northern Ballet (Image: Elly Welford) "We have seen firsthand how impactful projects like Sing, Dance, Leap can be on young people, and we will continue to advocate for greater arts access for children across the UK, both in our own work and in the national curriculum." Rhiannon Hannon, director of creative engagement and participation for Bradford 2025, said: "It's so fitting for Bradford's young people to be among the first to use this stage to share this inspiring new work." Sing, Dance, Leap is part of a four-year community partnership, launched in 2023, between the Royal Ballet and Opera and Bradford.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The new show that lit a spark for Bradford's children
I wasn't expecting to shed a tear while watching hundreds of Bradford schoolchildren performing on stage, with professionals from some of the country's most prestigious arts as they sang and danced about "Five hundred and thirty thousand hearts / Our brilliant city of many parts", I admit, I welled something very moving about the hopes and dreams of the youngest generation being on show, in one of the youngest cities in the UK. Nearly 30% of Bradford's inhabitants are under 20 years old. Ten-year-old Aiza told me she has never done anything like this before. "Does it make you want to do it again?" I asked. "Yes!" she nodded, Zuriel said that singing with the Royal Opera was "exhilarating and exciting". More than 2,000 Bradford children are involved in Sing Dance Leap, the first ever collaboration between Royal Ballet and Opera, Opera North and Northern Ballet, who've been working together in schools to create this one-off performance at the newly refurbished Bradford Live the biggest moment of mass participation created by and for young people commissioned by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. The show is inspired by the children's own thoughts about their city. Nine-year-old Toby told me it was exciting "because some people don't even get to perform on stage in their life and we've got the opportunity to do it".He loves Bradford's landscapes - "it's just nice to walk around in the sun every day".Hidaya,10, says "it's a really diverse place, there's so many cultures and traditions around here."Nine-year-old Willow likes "the different kind of foods we have and the different places you can take walks and have fun". For many of the children, this is their first introduction to ballet and North's vocal coach Marry Claire Breen has been working with some of them for says that it became apparent very early in the workshops that opera didn't have much meaning to young people, so the team started to have discussions what opera rejecting the claim that the art form is elitist, Marie Claire told me that the children were made aware that "opera doesn't have to just be about the stereotypical big, huge voices on big, big, stages, but that we're telling a story with their words, with their emotions, with experience". One of the professional Royal Ballet dancers working with them, Tom Whitehead, was born and raised in Bradford. He told me he began dance classes when he was ten, "a long time ago, pre-Billy Elliot... so quite a lot of stigma still attached to it".For him, it's been a calling for many years now, but he insists "a project like this is not about discovering the next Darcey Bussell or [opera singer] Jonas Kauffman". From my perspective, watching on, it was impossible to look at the sea of enthused, focused and increasingly confident young faces as the rehearsal progressed, without wondering what kind of spark might be lit as a consequence of taking can't know for certain, but the Royal Ballet and Opera's director of learning and participation, Jillian Barker, who was also born in Bradford, told me her hopes for its legacy."I would love to be sitting in the Royal Ballet and Opera in maybe 10 years' time next to somebody who did this project when they were younger... and then maybe to look up on the stage and there may be one young person for whom this lit a fire and now they are on the stage." The point, of course, is about widening access to the arts and inspiring creativity in every child involved. Outreach work, particularly in areas of social deprivation, is an important part of the contract between these institutions and Arts Council England which awards them public funding (in steadily decreasing amounts in recent years when it comes to Royal Ballet and Opera). But the composer of Sing Dance Leap, Will Todd, puts it even more strongly. For him, these kinds of programmes are "the jewel in the crown" of the work of these arts bodies."In a sense, we could expect them to do great performances of Puccini or of The Nutcracker," he says. "But can they go out and inspire ordinary people to participate, to be energised, to sing and dance? To me actually that's the apex of what they can do, so it thrills me that they're here doing this." Being on stage and participating in something of this scale is confidence-boosting. I could see the children walking just that little bit taller, after a day of rehearsing in a theatre so embedded in Bradford's rich cultural history - and they will take that confidence into other aspects of their Tom Whitehead had a message for them: "Have your ideas, dream big and don't be afraid to go for it."
Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Jane Eyre review — Brontë's heroine and her demons will hook you in
Cathy Marston is a dab hand at fashioning dramatic narrative ballets from disparate sources. In the past, the British choreographer, who is director of Ballet Zurich, has found inspiration from literature, including adaptations of Ibsen and Dickens, and biography, in dances based on the lives of Clara Schumann, Jacqueline du Pré and Queen Victoria. Marston's full-length take on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre premiered at Northern Ballet in 2016, subsequently entering the repertoires of prominent ballet companies in America and Germany. Presented at Sadler's Wells this week as part of a UK tour ending later this month in Norwich, Northern's revival reminds us of what a good — and sometimes very good — piece of mainstream art it is. Set to Philip Feeney's blend of original
The Guardian
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Hansel and Gretel review – Northern Ballet ditch the witch in peril-free eco-fable
Traditionally, Hansel and Gretel is a tale of tasty delight and grisly dread. Northern Ballet's new version for young audiences chucks out the gingerbread cottage and the witch who has unsavoury plans for the siblings. Rather than fearing the forest, the duo learn to love and respect green spaces in a breezy, 40-minute eco-fable with as little jeopardy as the company's sugar-spun version of Little Red Riding Hood a few years ago. But this peril-free, meandering story is often witty in its compositions (by Colin Scott) and choreography (by Harris Beattie and George Liang), both with a helping of music-hall tomfoolery. The show also has an attractive, economical patchwork design by Ali Allen that matches the environmental message and creates a collage of town and countryside. This Hansel and Gretel live in an urban apartment with their father – there's no stepmother in sight – and are glued to video games. Dad despairs of them so takes them for a walk in the woods: cue a relatable scene for parents in the audience as he bounds out into the fresh air, with the kids dragging their heels behind him. Andrew Tomlinson, dressed in a dandified business suit that matches the monochrome cityscape, stands with chest stretched and hands on hips like an adventurer surveying awe-inspiring terrain. Archie Sherman's Hansel and Julie Nunès's Gretel are a kerfuffle of huffs and shrugs, arms folded and lips pursed. Left alone, the duo encounter characters that shift their perspective. The first are a pair of birdwatchers – greeting them with great rippling hand shakes – whose beloved birds are represented by rod puppets and accompanied by fleet notes on flute (Sarah Bull) and clarinet (Joanna Rozario), from a quartet directed by pianist Ewan Gilford. The ensemble sits at the side of the stage so young audiences can enjoy the musicians' characterful movements, too, and identify the sounds of each instrument. Alexander Volpov's cello is best at conveying the weary melancholy of a rubbish monster (Bruno Serraclara) who shuffles along with glowing eyes, weighed down by a coat of litter, looking as if a bottle bank's innards have been spewed out. A pirouetting nature spirit (Mayuko Iwanaga) appears under Abbi Fearnley's emerald lighting and, like a disappointed teacher, rebukes the siblings when they carelessly toss their sweet wrappers away. Instead of a witch, the children encounter the Lady of the Wood (Gemma Coutts) who shares the joy of gardening. The dancing can at times appear as didactic as the plot, with the siblings mimicking first the scampering, feet-flicking birdwatchers and finally their green-fingered host. There is an over-extended jig of a finale, and an overwhelming sense that the original story has got as lost as Hansel and Gretel themselves, but there are appealing performances and even the sorrowful rubbish monster is treated to a fairytale transformation. Touring until 7 June
