Second Performance of Romeo & Juliet

Today, class was a little later but with more work to do to prepare a further cast of Romeo and Juliet plus two new casts for Madame Butterfly, the company were busy all day. This has been the busiest year in recent history for the Company with regards to the numbers of productions we have had in repertoire. Normally we would have five or six in any year but with the three overseas tours in 2010/11 it has been necessary to add Christmas Carol and Madame Butterfly that were not part of the UK repertoire to allow for shipping time as well as meeting the particular requests of the overseas promoters.

John Pryce-Jones (Music Director) continued his quest with the orchestra rehearsing them for Madame Butterfly. He has worked extremely hard working with the orchestra for 6 hours a day for the last 6 days and it's not over yet with Madame Butterfly to come!

This afternoon the venue requested an Education Workshop (with dancing) but as the function room they were using was heavily carpeted this was not an option although Darren and Vicky demonstrated some positions and a little movement from both Madame Butterfly and Romeo and Juliet as well as showing a range of costumes and props from the productions. The workshop is part of a regular series of events held at the venue and today’s was hosted by Liu Haining who is a high profile presenter of the News on Beijing TV so was well known to the audience. The dancers did an excellent job and entertained the totally Chinese audience for more than an hour on a wide range of subjects.

The National Centre for Performing Arts has to be the most amazing theatre that the Company has ever performed in. This spectacular egg-shaped venue was designed by French Architect, Paul Andreu and opened in July 2007. Inside the vast complex there is an Opera House, Concert Hall and two Drama Theatres which collectively host world-class opera, ballet, drama and Chinese opera. The “Golden” Opera House where Northern Ballet is performing has 2398 seats and is considered the centrepiece of the complex.

This evening’s performance was received well by the capacity audience with Hannah Bateman and Toby Batley once again dancing Juliet and Romeo

All photos: Neil Jarman