For their Christmas show this year, rather than presenting a full length ballet as they have done for previous seasons, The Manchester City Ballet, the performance company of Northern Ballet School (resident company at Manchester's Dancehouse Theatre) produced a much shorter but more Christmas-specific showcase.
The first half of their show this year was titled, 'Winter Wonderland', and imagined a picture-postcard style Victorian Christmas scene of carollers, skaters, and all the varied people who populate a snow-covered park from playing children, traditional dancers, and of course drunkards. Starting with the carol singers - a group of young ladies from Manchester City Ballet, providing a strong and mellow sound with some lovely harmonies, to 'Walking In The Air' whilst the school's Corps de Ballet provided a gentle dance routine around them. This segued nicely into Russian Troika music and a group of traditional Russian fold dancers. Although the routine here was not particularly spectacular I am assuming that it contained traditional folk dance movements - and of course the idea of folk dancing is that everyone can do it, not just trained dancers - thus making the routine feel all the more authentic for keeping it simple.
After that the well-known 'Sleigh Ride' music piped up and the gents wore tails and the ladies ball-gowns underneath winter coats as they twirled round the stage whilst a group of small children danced being a horse and carriage in the middle. This was brought back down again to a quieter and more reflective tone with 'Silent Night', which saw a couple of ballet dancers dance a romantic pas-de-deux whilst the choir, with soloist, Francesa Thompson sang the song. Once again the full sound and harmonies were lush; however sad to relate, despite having a lovely voice, Thompson 's phrasing was poor and she was breathing in the wrong places (in the middle of words) which, for a song such as this, is very noticeable unfortunately.
Following this was a sequence where they built a snowman and threw snowballs at each other (including the audience - perhaps a little more could have been made of this?) Once again this sequence utilised the group of children dancers who were superb, especially the young girl who finished this sequence. This went straight into 'Once Upon A December' which saw another soloist, Rosie Carter, sing the song - this time beautifully and really quite emotionally, whilst the Corps de Ballet filled the stage with dance along with the young girl once again, Ruby Nuttall. Nuttall (who I am guessing must only be 10 or 11 years old at the most) was most definitely the star of the show. She danced a few solos in the first half, and was then given the role of Clara, in the second.
There was a slight break in the fluidity of the dances at this point as the sound technician needed to turn the cassette over!! (- old joke, sorry!) and we then witnessed four of the male dancers dance rather drunkenly with some skill to the tune of 'Deck The Halls'. Unsurprisingly this routine had one of the loudest applauses of the evening.
The finale of this section saw all the groups gather back together again as they 'skated' around the ice rink to the tune of a rather famous (although I can't for the life of me think of it's name!) Viennese Waltz, and finished with 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas'.
In the second half of the evening, we were treated to a reduced version of 'The Nutcracker'. Clara, a young girl is transported to a magical land made entirely out of sweets, on Christmas Eve. There she sits on her throne inside the Candy Palace, and watches her subjects dance for her. The end of act one introduced us very nicely to this as we saw all the children receive their presents whilst Clara received a toy soldier (the usual representation of 'nutcracker'as it transforms in her ''dream' to a prince). At the end of watching all the dances - she is given the same toy soldier once again and is left to question whether or not everything wasn't a dream.
As Clara sits and watches the dances - sometimes joining in herself and managing to be just as proficient as those dancers ten or so years her senior, with seeming ease - she is delighted by a Spanish dance which was beautifully executed by Irene Ganau; An Arabian Dance which saw three female dancers perform a slow and hypnotic movement; a more upbeat Chinese dance, the Cossack dance, (Hopak) which saw Daniel Gooddy, James Hanna and Thomas Yeomans delight with their athleticism; a Rose flower dance, an energetic and delightful Children's Dance; as well as the dance which, by its title and melody alone have become infamously used in advertising, comedy routines, etc.. The Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy. This evening this role went to Airi Aoki, and her prince was Lucas Holden. They danced together and had solos too. Their control and technique amazing the audience this evening.
One thing I have been skirting around the whole review is the children. These were a group of extremely talented young girls (all roughly the same age, and certainly preteens. My guess would be 10 years old) They came from The McLaren Dance Company. Sadly the programme gives no further indication, but I must certainly find out more and watch out for more performances from this company. They were all incredible. Not only did they provide the 'ah' factor but their dancing was of an exceptionally high standard as was their stagecraft. Highly impressive. From the students of The Northern Ballet School, such things are taken for granted, but for girls as young as this to be so proficient, is really noteworthy.
With colourful and pertinent costumes, a deal of Christmassy decor, and the talented Manchester City Ballet to entertain, this was a very enjoyable, and not too long an evening, and was my first real Christmas show of this season. It's pantomimes galore for me from now on.....!!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7/12/18
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