< PreviousOur autumn 2022 season How did you become involved with Northern Ballet? I have of course been aware of Northern Ballet and their work. However, my awareness sharpened up when I first met David Nixon CBE: David became a trustee of the Royal Academy of Dance where I have been Chair for several years. Through him, I became much more familiar with the work, seeing it live and on TV. I remember being particularly excited when David choreographed The Three Musketeers – one of my absolute favourite books, which turned out to be a brilliant ballet as well. It’s an exciting time in the Company with the appointment of yourself, Federico and David – what are you most excited about going forward? I couldn’t agree more! It really is an exciting time. We are incredibly fortunate to inherit a rich and strong legacy from David Nixon and Mark Skipper who led Northern Ballet so well for many years. They have given us a tremendous platform on which we can now build. And that is what is so exciting: to be able to take what we have inherited from David Collins has been appointed the incoming Executive Director – can you tell us a bit about what David will be bringing to the Company? What struck me immediately about David was his intelligence and thoughtfulness. There is no denying that we have a number of challenges to face in the next year or two, but I am very confident that David will have exactly the kind of experience and expertise to steer Northern Ballet through these. Clearly, his understanding and appreciation of the arts and culture will be a tremendous asset for us, especially from his time at Opera North. But I also think it is important to have someone who is rooted in the community and understands the role that Northern Ballet must play in Leeds, locally, and nationally. In creating a partnership with Federico, I am also sure that the two of them will be able to work very well together to the enormous benefit of Northern Ballet. Introducing our new chair Guy Perricone Guy Perricone joined us as Chair of the Board in July 2022. He has been Chair of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) since 2015 where his successful tenure has included significant fundraising, including a £19.5m project to build a new state of the art headquarters. His extensive experience in the arts and education sector, which includes leadership roles at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and the National Army Museum will be invaluable in guiding the future vision for Northern Ballet with Federico Bonelli as Artistic Director, and David Collins as incoming Executive Director. Guy told us about his involvement with the Company and why he’s so excited about what’s to come. David and Mark and create a new vision and direction for the Company moving forward. Northern Ballet is renowned for its ability to tell stories in dance and I’m sure that this is a tradition that Federico will want to continue, with his own artistic vision and ambitions. I’m very excited to see what he has up his sleeve! 10Upcoming events 18 March 2023, The Great Gatsby Matinee, Leeds Grand Theatre 18 March 2023, The Great Gatsby Evening, Leeds Grand Theatre 18 May 2023, The Great Gatsby, London Sadler’s Wells Patron events To RSVP for one of these events, or if you would like to take up your complimentary Patron ticket at a different tour location, please contact Richard Cross at richard.cross@northernballet.com Details of our Benefactor events around The Great Gatsby will follow early in the New Year! To RSVP for any of these events, please contact Richard Cross at richard.cross@northernballet.com Alternatively, the full performance dates are available on our website. We have Benefactor tickets on hold for every performance and we will book your tickets for a date of your choice. Benefactor events 18 March 2023, Company Class, Leeds Grand Theatre 25 March 2023, Company Class, Sheffield Lyceum Theatre 20 May 2023, Company Class, London Sadler’s Wells As a working ballet company, all events remain subject to change. Bookings for Company Class will open in the New Year. Company class dates Abigail Prudames in The Great Gatsby. Photo Emily Nuttall. 11Our autumn 2022 season Dancer update Amber Lewis and Jackson Dwyer have both recently joined the Company from Hong Kong Ballet. We found out how they’ve been enjoying their time with Northern Ballet so far. How has the transition been from Hong Kong to Leeds? Jack and I were both born in English speaking Commonwealth countries, Canada and Australia respectively, so while there are certainly some differences and things to learn, much more is familiar. However, on occasion a handful of the UK’s local accents have had us asking “sorry, come again?”. What has been more of an adjustment is the number of shows, particularly on tour, that Northern Ballet does. And let’s not forget to mention dancing on raked stages, a first for both of us. Why was Northern Ballet an exciting prospect for you? Of course, there are several factors and considerations behind our move, but the main draw was Federico. When we heard about his appointment to Artistic Director, we were immediately interested in the possibility of working under his guidance. What has been your favourite thing about dancing with Northern Ballet so far? The number of shows the company performs! Don’t get us wrong, it’s a marathon and because of the size of the Company it’s likely you’ll be on stage in one role or another almost every night. However, it also means that when you’re performing a leading role in a production, you’re afforded a healthy number of shows. As a result, there’s a reduced sense of pressure on any single show and there’s more time to develop in that role and to take more risks. If you could choose, which ballet or role would you most like to perform from Northern Ballet’s repertoire? When you walk into our Quarry Hill home one of the first things you notice are the many production posters lining the balcony above the lobby. It’s evident the Company has a rich unique repertoire but one we aren’t yet fully familiar with. We’re excited to learn more about them all and we’re also interested to see how Federico will expand on the existing repertoire. Amber and Jackson are sponsored by Linda & John Topott. It’s been a busy autumn season and in addition to welcoming Amber and Jackson, we’re pleased to also have had the following dancers join the Company in recent months. Kaho Masumoto is from Tokyo, Japan and trained at Kishibe Ballet Studio in Japan and English National Ballet School. She was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Prix de Lausanne. Stefano Varalta is from Verona, Italy and trained at Balletto di Verona. He graduated in Zurich and joined a Trainee Programme in Amsterdam. Jun Ishii is from Tokyo. He trained at the State Ballet School Berlin. He previously danced with Staatbellett Berlin. Jun is sponsored by Neil Eckersley. Mackenzie Jacob grew up in the Southwest of England and began his dance training at TLW Dance. He successfully gained a place at Elmhurst Ballet school in Birmingham in 2017 and graduated in 2022. We also wish Junior Soloist, Miki Akuta, the best of luck on her future endeavors as she retires from her dance career and returns to Japan. 12Northern Ballet Dancers. Photos Emily Nuttall. Kaho Masumoto Stefano Varalta Jun Ishii Mackenzie Jacob Amber LewisJackson Dwyer 13Our autumn 2022 season Inside the Wig Room This year Northern Ballet has been able to expand the Wig Department and hire our first Deputy Wigs and Makeup Manager, Lizzie Fraser. Lizzie joined the team in August and has since hit the ground running on our autumn tour throughout the UK. Prior to Lizzie joining the company, our Wigs and Makeup Manager Harriet Rogers had been doing the job on her own, prepping the shows at base and then managing them out on tour. Lizzie started a few months ago and she has already helped prepare multiple wigs for The Little Mermaid, along with handmaking all the 18th Century hairpieces for the Made in Leeds: Three Short Ballet piece, Ma Vie. She has also made ten brand new headdresses for the children appearing in The Nutcracker, as these costumes had been updated and needed a fresh new look. The impact this has had on the department has been huge as Harriet tells us “The extra resource has been so positive already in such a short time. I’ve been able to create so many more hairpieces, headdresses, and wigs in house. Having an extra pair of hands to achieve this has meant that more time can be spent on them, elevating the standard of what appears on stage for the audience.” Harriet also pointed out that ballet casting works slightly differently to the casting for a musical or play: “For every show the casting changes with multiple dancers cast in specific character roles. If those characters require any wigs, special effects makeup or tailor-made headdresses, then these need to be multiplied and adapted to fit everyone appearing in these roles. This is great as it means that the dancers get the amazing opportunity to perform in these roles, but for a long tour this can double the workload for myself and the Wardrobe Department in fitting and preparing all the costumes and wigs for all the characters. For example, in The Nutcracker there are five different male dancers performing in the role of Uncle Drosselmeyer, all with different hair textures and head sizes which means that the past wigs won’t fit all of them. Previously I’ve had to adapt or purchase wigs in the hope that they fit or make wigs quickly while out on tour in between performances. Now, with Lizzie’s help managing the touring show, I can take the time to make our wigs in house. This process starts by taking a mold of the dancers’ head, carefully marking their hairline, then making a wig foundation out of wig lace to match this mold, and finally hand knotting the hair covering the foundation. This is finished off by knotting individual strands of hair along the hairline, so the wig looks as natural as possible. This means that the wig will fit the dancer more closely and more resemble their own hair, or at least look a lot more natural.” Being able to adapt and make the wigs in house ensures that not only do the dancers feel more comfortable, but also the audience doesn’t lose the magic of the show by realizing that someone is wearing something that doesn’t look right. For Harriet “there’s nothing more distracting than a dodgy wig on stage.” With the expansion of the department, Harriet is excited to create even bigger and bolder looks for any future projects and to produce even more magic for our audiences. Looking forward to spring’s The Great Gatsby, Lizzie and Harriet will be updating these wigs for 2023 and working with the individual dancers in those roles to make sure they feel comfortable and confident as the character. 14“[Gatsby] is a very busy show with lots of period hair styling. With it being set in the 1920s the style of the time was very short hair for women. Some of our dancers jump at the chance to cut all their hair short for this production but for others that is a big ask. On our last run I made multiple new Daisy and Myrtle wigs for the principal dancers performing these roles. The 20s style is very short and is quite a tight finger waved style, a look that is hard to achieve on all hair types in a limited time frameat the top of the show. In the run up to opening the show we’ll also teach the female dancers in the Corps how to style their own hair into a finger waved hairstyle. They always do a fantastic job, and I love that we get to collaborate with them on their own individual 20s look. It’s all about the attention to detail with this production.” Photos Emily Nuttall. 15Our autumn 2022 season THE NUTCRACKER spotlight The Nutcracker is a festive, winter staple and one of the world’s most loved and famous ballets. Our Artistic and Learning Assistant Pippa Moore MBE and Assistant Rehearsal Director Ashley Dixon share with us behind the scenes secrets, fond memories of dancing the production for Northern Ballet throughout their dance careers, and what makes our production different from other companies’ productions. Pippa: Our production of The Nutcracker premiered in Manchester in 2007. The role of Clara, the protagonist, was created on me and it was a huge privilege to be in the original cast. I danced Clara and various other roles in the ballet for many years. The last time we performed The Nutcracker in 2018, having outgrown my Clara pigtails by then, I performed as Clara’s mother and also her grandmother - which is very rare to have danced all three generations of the one family! Ashley: In the première cast of The Nutcracker in 2007 I was lucky enough to dance a multitude of roles in one show. I started the show as the young boy, Frederic’s best friend, then on to one of the mice, and then into the Chinese dance in the second act. Since then, I have been very fortunate to dance almost every male role in this production including the Nutcracker Prince. This is a very special role that has meant a lot to me. It was one of the first principal roles I danced and is probably the role I have danced more than any other during my career. Pippa: As Northern Ballet’s Artistic and Learning Assistant I am fortunate to be able to pass on my experience to the next generation of dancers. Together with Ashley, who was my Nutcracker Prince from 2010, we have coached a new cohort of Claras and Princes for this season passing on details and intentions of the original choreography to ensure that the essence and the precision of the production lives on. A key element to the ballet is the strong sense of family and families sharing their time at Christmas - both the audiences and the characters in the story. This extends to the use of children in the show, who dance alongside the professionals in certain scenes, playing party guests, mice and fairy attendants. 16Pippa: For our touring venues, Ashley and I were asked to visit local dance schools to audition children and teach the repertoire. In Leeds, the children are selected from our Academy of Northern Ballet. Ashley: As Pippa mentioned, we first danced this ballet together in 2010. We went on to dance this ballet together for many years until Pippa, as she puts it, “outgrew her Clara pigtails”. This year’s restaging was very interesting, as we had a number of Claras and Princes to teach and rehearse. It’s always great to pass on what you have learnt from a role, point out the tricks to make certain things easier or little things to look out for when performing. Moreover, making sure they maintain the precision, intention and spirit of the choreography. Pippa: One of my favourite scenes is the snow scene. The white costumes with layers of net use silver thread and sequins to highlight the glistening of water and spiky headdresses that represent ice. In the choreography there are the swirling movements of snowfall and blizzards but the formations the dancers make are reminiscent of the actual structure of snowflakes themselves. It’s a very beautiful scene but not without its challenges - 50kg of paper confetti is used to create the snowfall which then must be swept up at the end of the show and used again for the next performance. We learnt very quickly to keep our mouth firmly closed during this scene, as during the dress rehearsal when the snowfall was first tried, we came off stage feeling like we’d ingested most of the 50kg! Photos Kyle Baines. 17Our autumn 2022 season Ashley: The difficulty of the Nutcracker Prince is that your first entrance is in a very large, heavy head with limited vision, not a lot of breathing space and walking down a wooden ramp. I remember the first rehearsal I had wearing the head, I fell down the ramp. It’s a lot harder than it looks! Dancing in the head forces you to amplify every movement you do to make it read to the audience, which can be scary when you can’t see much. At the end of the battle scene, you have the fight with the Mouse King. He is also in a large head with limited vision, making this a difficult opening scene, but a very rewarding one when you hear the audience’s reaction. Pippa: The large heads worn by the Nutcracker Prince and The Mouse King are very effective but take some getting used to. For the male dancers, jumping and turning in them with the weight in-balance and restriction to their peripheral vision, it can be quite disorienting at first. Look out for the Mouse King on top of the huge chunk of cheese as he surveys the marching toy soldiers…this improvisation is individual and intentionally humorous so between the various casts it gets quite competitive to see who has the most entertaining freestyle! Pippa: Backstage, in Act 1 particularly, there are some very quick changes for the cast. With no time to go back to the dressing rooms, parts of the wings and any available space are designated ‘Quick Change Areas’ where party guests suddenly transform into soldiers, mice or snowflakes in the blink of an eye! Pippa: David Nixon was inspired to set the ballet in the Regency period. Although different to other versions, it is very fitting, as it was in this era that E.T.A Hoffman wrote the story The Nutcracker. The Napoleonic war of the time is referred to in the ballet, particularly in the battle, the toy soldiers’ jackets are red, as were worn by the British army in the 1800’s. Pippa: Oriental influences were happening in England at that time in both art and architecture, so when Clara is taken on a magical journey through the land of snow, eventually reaching an exotic garden, the design is a huge red oriental pagoda. You may notice it is created with the red toy box of Act 1 but there are now four with a big balcony on top and minarets that create the look of a mini palace. Everything in the dream world is bright with vibrant colours contrasting the pastel shades of Act 1. 18Ashley: This has always been one of my favourite productions, not only because of the wonderful dancing involved, but because of what this production means to the audience. It’s a Christmas family favourite. There is always such a buzz in the audience and after the performance you see hundreds of people leaving the theatre smiling and talking about the show. Pippa: I absolutely loved performing Clara and a little secret I don’t often share is that as I child I was absolutely convinced my toys came to life at night as in The Nutcracker. Many years later you could say I was somewhat proven right with the added bonus of dancing with them on stage! Photos Emily Nuttall, Justin Slee and Bill Cooper. Do you remember the first time you experienced the magic of The Nutcracker? Generations of ballet lovers have experienced the joy of seeing The Nutcracker performed live on stage. By leaving a gift of any size in your Will you can share your passion for ballet with the next generation and give future audiences the chance to experience magical performances for years to come. For more information about remembering Northern Ballet in your Will, or to have a confidential conversation, contact Zoë Walker, Head of Development at zoe.walker@northernballet.com | t: 0113 220 8000. Or visit northernballet.com/legacies. 19Next >