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Latest Blogs
Clarinets, Cleopatra and Claude-Michel
In her last blog before the Northern Ballet Ensemble Clarinet Quintet tonight Joanne Rozario talks us through a busy week... The Sinfonia has been busy this week making a recording of the new ballet music by Claude Michel Schönberg (of Les Misérable fame) in a lovely church in Brighouse. Making a CD is a completely different discipline from performing a live show with very different stresses and strains. We began recording on Monday afternoon and finished on Wednesday afternoon doing six...
The START of something big...
Today has been a very busy day, not just because we received news of the Arts Council funding cuts this morning, but because it was the first of our two START Days of Dance. I have been in charge of organising the day which has involved 240 pupils from local schools taking part in workshops and watching a performance here at Northern Ballet! The START project, supported by the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, enables young people who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to...
Vital final preparations
Joanne Rozario has told us about the music and players of the Clarinet Quintet performing 31 March, offered insights into the rehearsal process, and here tells us more about the process and preparations... We managed to squeeze a rehearsal in on Saturday at midday before the matinee. It made for quite a long day but it's all coming together so well now that it was definitely worth it! We are getting to the point where we are saying less and playing more. Small suggestions seem to be...
Rehearsals, Mozart and new strings
Yesterday Joanne Rozario told us about the music and players of the Clarinet Quintet performing 31 March - today she offers more of an insight into the rehearsal process... The rehearsal between shows went really well yesterday. We did some in-depth work on the Tartini. We had been discussing whether we should be attempting to play in an authentic Baroque style. After some debate we decided that it wasn't such a good idea. The clarinet hadn't even been invented at this time so we're...
Preparing for Sinfonia performances
In her blog Joanne Rozario, principal clarinet for Northern Ballet Sinfonia, tells us about preparations for the new concert series at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre at Northern Ballet in Leeds starting with a Clarinet Quintet on 31 March. The chamber music series has been a really exciting development for the Sinfonia. It's lovely for us to come out of the darkness of the pit and out into the bright lights of the stage! I've been with Northern Ballet since 2000 and am...
Easter Course 4 - 8 April 2011 (11-16 year olds)
Our annual Easter Course is fast approaching. Final preparations are under way and it will definitely be an exciting week. I will be having my last planning meeting on Thursday with our composer Richard Kenwood-Herriot. Richard will be accompanying our daily energising class and creating some electrifying music to add to the drama as we learn stage fighting techniques. He will also write an original piece of music throughout the week to accompany the scene from the production as we work. In...
Phoenix Dance Education - Youth Dance Showcase at Quarry Hill
Phoenix Dance Education are holding a Youth Dance showcase in our new premises at Quarry Hill in Leeds. Having carefully selected a number of youth and community groups to represent West Yorkshire, the event will showcase some of the best and brightest of youth talent out there today. With a wide programme of styles from Urban and Street styles to Jazz and Contemporary dance, and featuring Phoenix’s very own Youth Academy, the evening will feature the dance stars of tomorrow and is one not to...
The Marriage of Figaro – Studio Theatre
The crinolines have been bustling across the lacquered floor of Northern Ballet’s atrium. Sumptuous dress and contralto have quivered through the air and, for a short time at least, the vestiges of the Viennese court have run amongst the lithe shapes of the Company dancers and the flurries of children in tutus. Sitting to next to parents with panini’s and dotted amongst employees power-lunching the casual observer might spot Dr. Bartolo chowing down with a pasty, a coiffured Count making the...
Wheelchair Dance project in Leeds
The Learning department is running a Wheelchair Dance project in Leeds, and Dance Education Office Caroline Burn tells us how the first session went. The first of three taster sessions has taken place at our previous home in West Park. This is our second wheel chair dance project in partnership with Artforms. The taster sessions have been set up to give young wheelchair users in Leeds an opportunity to be creative and experience the freedom of movement and dance in a safe environment. We hope...
