INSIDEAUTUMN/WINTER 2023-24 | ISSUE 33 The magazine from Northern Ballet 14 Welcome from Artistic Director, Federico Bonelli 5 Update from our Development Team 6 Autumn 2023 in pictures 10 The impact of your support 12 Falling back in love: Reviving Romeo & Juliet 16 Learning update: Rise & Shine 18 It’s never too late to learn to dance with Development Executive Richard Cross 20 Behind the lens: meet Amber Lewis, Leading Soloist and TikTok Content Creator 22 Northern Ballet so far: meet our latest Company dancers 24 Changing Places: In Conversation with Emily Deller and Lyndsey Holmes 26 Upcoming Supporter Events and Company Class dates 28 What’s on Contents Front cover: Joseph Taylor and Dominique Larose in Romeo & Juliet. Photo Emily Nuttall. Opposite: Joseph Taylor and Abigail Prudames rehearsing Romeo & Juliet. Photo Sophie Beth Jones. 2Welcome from Artistic Director, Federico Bonelli 2024 started with a bang, with our children’s ballet Tortoise & the Hare hopping on stage to a full house at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House in January followed by our long-awaited revival of our audience favourite production of Romeo & Juliet. You can read more about how our dancers and creative teams prepared for the production’s return on page 12, but I can say with certainty that over the last year every member of our Company has worked tirelessly to bring this landmark production back to life after the sets and costumes were devastated by floods in 2015. Thank you to each and every one of you who has donated to our Rekindle the Romance appeal to bring the production back to life. We couldn’t have done it without you! Looking ahead this year, we will be reviving another piece of Northern Ballet history with A Christmas Carol, by Christopher Gable CBE and Massimo Moricone, alongside a newly commissioned trio of short ballets. I’m also very proud that Sketches will be returning in May, showcasing the choreographic talents of five artists from Northern Ballet and Carlos Pons Guerra (DeNada Dance Theatre). For those of you who missed it last year, this is dance in its purest form, direct from our home in Leeds – I hope you will join us this time round! As ever, the Development team and I would like to thank you for your generous support. I am looking forward to seeing you at the theatre at some point during our tour this year. Best wishes, Federico Bonelli Artistic Director Federico Bonelli’s position as Artistic Director is generously supported by Aud Jebsen Federico Bonelli. Photo Andrej Uspenski. 4Our new Director of Development, Lynne Farnell, joined us late last year. She is passionate about ballet, the arts and education and joins us from previous roles as Head of Development at Buxton Opera House and Deputy Director of Development at the Royal Northern College of Music. Lynne is joined by two other more recent new starters. Danielle Sharma-Pay joins the team as our new Head of Trusts and Foundations, following a senior development role at Turner Contemporary and a successful freelance career securing grants for a variety of cultural and education projects. Welcome to the team! Left to right: Danielle Sharma-Pay, Georgia McKie, Lynne Farnell, Richard Cross, Zoë Walker Photo Sophie Beth Jones. Supporters who regularly come into our Quarry Hill Headquarters may already know Georgia McKie, who was previously our Head Receptionist. Georgia will now be bringing her expertise to her new role as our Events and Partnership Executive. ‘This is such a critically important and exciting time for Northern Ballet, and we’re thrilled to join Zoë, Rich and the rest of the Northern Ballet team. We look forward to building warm relationships with our supporters and to growing our philanthropic income to enable us to create, perform and share our wonderful ballets and to support our transformative education and inclusive dance programme to reach and benefit as many people as possible.’ Lynne Farnell We’re delighted to introduce three new members of the Northern Ballet Development team. We look forward to getting to know you all soon! 5Autumn 2023 in pictures Aerys Merrill in Generations: Three Short Ballets. Photo Emily Nuttall. 6Top: Dancers of Northern Ballet in Beauty & the Beast. Photo Tristram Kenton. Bottom: Harris Beattie and Bruno Serraclara in The Nutcracker. Photo Emily Nuttall. 7Top: Kirica Takahashi and Jun Ishii in Generations: Three Short Ballets. Photo Emily Nuttall. Bottom: Kevin Poeung and Dominique Larose in Beauty & the Beast. Photo Tristram Kenton. 8Alessia Petrosino in The Nutcracker. Photo Emily Nuttall. 9Next >