| September/October
Diary 2002
by Cassa Pancho
Fundraiser
December the eighth will be
the first ever, official performance for Ballet Black. Our
line up includes three ballets, choreographed by Denzil, Daniel
and myself and each will be performed to live music. Its purpose
is obviously to raise some money for BB, as well as give people
an idea of where we are now, and where we could be in the
future, given the right support. I can’t quite believe
how much and how many people we’ve pulled together in
such a small space of time. In addition to the live music,
we’re having an after show party and William Potter
(our resident photographer) will be exhibiting/selling his
work there to help us raise money, as will the dance artist
Charlotte Fawley, who came along to rehearsals recently to
do some drawings of the dancers.
The diary may seem really
long this month, but I felt it was important to record some
of the stuff that’s been going on, and to give you a
bit of an insight into what it has taken to get this fundraiser
off the ground. If you get desperately bored, you can just
skip through most of it, though the Devil’s Black &
Blues section might interest you…
Are you sitting comfortably?
Before we even knew about the fundraiser, (rewind time to
about April) Denzil had begun work on his ballet, believing
it would be for the show next year. He was using a CD called
Aquador by Celloman (Ivan Hussey, Oli Savill, Oroh Angiama,
Kosimo Keita and Samy Bishai). Because we had no definite
date in mind for the performance, there was no real sense
of hurrying. Denzil loved the music, but wasn’t sure
whether he could choreograph something classical to it. The
decision to have a fundraiser happened and time seemed to
vanish (fast forward to July). My solution to being unsure
was to promptly let it go and get on with something he was
sure about. (“Use it or lose it” I think were
my exact words). Denz suggested I take the CD home and have
a listen. Thank goodness he did. I absolutely LOVED it. In
fact, he had trouble getting it back from me. When I called
to tell him he laughed until I thought his sides would split
(anyone who has heard Denzil laugh will appreciate this).
I then went completely the other way and started butting in
and suggesting he used more of the tracks on the CD, much
to his amusement. Aaaaanyway… we figured that as we
had Murray Gould playing live for Devil’s Blues, why
not attempt to get Celloman to play for Denzil’s ballet
at the Fundraiser? Denz already had the email address of the
music company, so he wrote to them and told them he was a
choreographer using some of Celloman’s music. We thought
there’d be absolutely no way they would agree. Celloman
is a Real Musician with a Real CD and all the rest of it –
would they really want to wing it with us? No way! But, THEY
WROTE BACK! We were amazed and continued an e-mail dialogue
with their manager, Candy Bowman, until it came to asking
them if they could possibly make it to the fundraiser, bearing
in mind there was no money involved and not a great deal of
space in the venue to accommodate the whole group. THEY SAID
YES! I called Denzil to tell him the news and our conversation
went a bit like this (and FYI, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a word
in edgeways with Denzil, though he says the same about me):
C: Denzil!
D: Hallo. I’m just talking to Paul Lewis [he’s
always talking to Paul Lewis]
C: Yeah, but Den-
D: Want to say hello?
C: No, Denzil, I-
D: Here, say hello
C: DENZIL! Celloman just confirmed!
D: What the?! Paul, I’ll call you back! [to me] Really?!
No way!
C: Yes!!
D: NO!
C: YES!
C&D: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
[lots of laughter, and the rest of the conversation was quite
dull]
Ivan Hussey of Celloman
photograph courtesy of SPI Music
I'm Spartacus
Cool. That was Daniel and Denzil sorted for music. Now all
we needed was someone to play for me. My music is a gorgeous
piece by Count Basie, and I needed to find an equally gorgeous
Jazz group. So, it was off to the Ealing Jazz Festival with
a friend to have a scout around to see what we could see.
We were there for about twenty minutes when a fantastic quintet
started their set who would have been perfect for the Fundraiser.
The plan was to watch which way they went off, follow them,
talk them into playing for us and give them a BB business
card. By the time they had finished their set, I was positively
wriggling with impatience. We trailed them round to what must
have been a VIP tent for all the musicians, because the minute
we tried to set foot inside, a very large, very burly security
guard appeared and stopped us, grunting “Got a pass?”
Obviously we didn’t, but she was surprisingly helpful
and said I could go in on my own as long as I was quick. I
chucked my handbag at my friend and followed the security
guard in. “Where are they?” I asked her, “I
dunno, I’m just here for a cup of tea. I thought you
knew who they were.” Ah. “Try looking over there…”
So, I went round the corner to find myself confronted by an
extremely hushed, mass of male musicians who were all…how
should I put this? (Begin Joyce Grenfell voice now) Gravitationally
challenged? Height not quite in proportion to body mass? Big
boned? Who ate all the pies? Yeah, you get the picture. They
were enormous! There was a gray mist hanging around them from
all the fags being smoked, and each had a pint of beer clutched
in hand. They looked at me, I looked at them and they kept
looking at me until I realised I should probably say something.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m looking
for the band who just played the last set.” All said
with a hopeful smile. Nothing but a smoky silence, then a
voice from the back; “I don’t know who they are
luv, but will you marry me?” Followed by a collective
chortle from the Large Ones. Deep breath. “Well! I’d
love to, but first I need to find that band” (hopeful
smile tightening into more of a facial stretch now) “Does
anyone know where I can find them?” Then someone helpful;
“You need Tony – he’s the leader of that
group.” Ah-ha! Progress - until I asked where Tony was
and I got “I’m Tony!” “No, I’m
Tony” “No luv, don’t listen to him, I’m
Tony” from several different people. (Smile has long
since turned into a thing that merely hides my grinding teeth)
Thankfully, the real Tony arrived just before I was about
to give up. We talked, he was fairly interested, so we exchanged
cards and I split from there quicker than you can say “cholesterol”.
The next day, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that
this wasn’t the right way to do things. I’m a
fairly big believer in following instincts - and the thought
of this particular band at the Fundraiser just didn’t
sit well with me, though I couldn’t define why. So,
to cut what is already a pretty long story short, I decided
not to go with them. It turned out to be a good choice, as
I was then put in touch with Issie Barratt, the Head of Jazz
from the Trinity College of Music, whom I went to meet recently
in Greenwich, where they’re now based. Walking up to
the entrance of the building alone would have made the visit
worthwhile. Every window had snatches of music wafting out
and I knew instantly that this was the way to go. Though my
memory is a bit hazy, [see Devil’s Black & Blues
section below] Issie and I found common ground over something
to do with boys, drum kits and mothers, and we were able to
organise the next six weeks worth of rehearsals in the space
of ten minutes. Six Trinity musicians will be playing at the
Fundraiser and I couldn’t be happier.
Devil’s Black & Blues
The past few weeks have been fairly stressful for a number
of reasons - one being that we lost three dancers. The first
did the decent thing and came and spoke to me about it, the
second informed me via a text message and the third just never
came back. The latter was a problem, as not only is it insulting
to just never hear from someone again, but she was meant to
take the role of the Wife in Daniel’s ballet, Devil’s
Blues. There was no realistic way of getting any of our remaining
female dancers to take on this part as well as dancing in
both Denzil and my pieces, so, at the request of the choreographer,
I was cast in the role. This is most certainly not the route
I had intended to follow, but after some words of reassurance
from Denzil, Jonathan and Venetia, not to mention some very
patient coaching from Daniel, I’m now enjoying the process.
Excluding one rehearsal…
On Saturday the 30th of September, we were rehearsing a very
tricky lift, that when done correctly, looks impossible yet
effortless. It involves the female being picked up in a “carrying
over the threshold” sort of way, hooking the legs over
the mans arm and being swung downwards (upside-down) round
the side, across his back and hey presto! you’re back
in his arms, safe as houses. The trick is to hook those legs
for all you’re worth then feel the fear – and
do it anyway, all as fast as possible. We did it three or
four times, going from tentatively okay to pretty good. On
the fifth go, we got the pick up, I hooked my legs and was
feeling the fear and doing it anyway when – smack –
the back of my head hit the floor (which didn’t feel
very sprung) then a lot of hands appeared, putting me round
the right way and sitting me on the same floor that had just
been rude enough to hit me. Ouch. A quick trip to the Chelsea
and Westminster hospital followed this – and when I
say quick I mean there was a seven-hour queue – where
I got to wait with some fascinating people. And when I say
fascinating I mean; one maniac that required four policemen
to restrain him, seven hooray henrys with bloody noses, (you
know you’re in Chelsea when the local yobs have names
like ‘Tolly’ and ‘Angus’) two Mormons
in suits and a leak in the roof. Is there a song to be written
here? Anyway, I had a mild concussion and apart from a bump
on my head and a few gaps in my memory, was absolutely fine.
We worked to fairly strict time limits with this ballet as
Daniel was about to go off on tour with ENB, but managed to
get the whole thing done in about four rehearsals, which is
thanks in large part to Daniel’s calmness, his girlfriend
Fernanda’s additional coaching (she’s also a dancer
with ENB) plus the endless enthusiasm from Murray and the
dancers. Cool beans.
Jake Nwogu and Celia Grannum rehearsing
the Devil's Blues
photographer William Potter
Through the Body
On the 7th of October, myself, some of the Ballet Black dancers,
Venetia, Denzil and our friend, the choreographer Michael
Rolnick all went to a talk at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal
Opera House. The theme was black artists in ballet and opera
(or the lack of) and was part of Black History Month. Bonnie
Greer was the host and the panel included Monica Mason, Felix
Cross (AD of NITRO), choreographer Kenneth Tharp and opera
singer Gweneth Ann Jeferies. It was an interesting talk –
but only went on for about an hour – which I didn’t
think was long enough to really get into some of the issues
raised, like the ideal physique for classical ballet, or the
age old question of one black woman looking odd in a corps
of white dancers. Each time we got onto one topic, it was
time to move to the next, and occasionally the discussion
moved to other minority groups like the disabled. There was
one desperate moment when a man in the audience asked Monica
Mason if a dancer with all the perfect physical attributes
for classical ballet (180º turnout, feet to die for etc) auditioned,
but only had one hand, would she accept them? She paused for
what seemed like an age, and I think the whole audience (well,
probably just me) wondered whether she would be honest and
say “no” whilst secretly hoping she would say
“yes” just to see how she would justify such an
insanely PC answer. Thankfully, she said no. All in all, the
talk may not have been done in what I think is the best way,
but it’s a start, and I admire the way Bonnie wants
to “really shake this house up” as she put it,
and bring these issues out into the open. About ten ka-jillion
more hours ought to do it…
Kent Youth Ballet
I am finally done with this ballet! I thought I would never
get to the end, but I have managed to condense Act II of Coppélia
into twenty-three minutes and thirty seconds, thanks to some
musical miracles from Jonathan. All thirty-four members of
the cast are cool and I will miss them – but the journeys
to Kent I can definitely live without. Every place on the
way there and back seems to end in Field. Nutfield (or is
it Nuffield?), Chesfield and I’m sure there are others,
though I can’t recall them right now. It was a huge
amount of work, and I don’t know if I would do it again,
but I definitely learned a lot, like dealing with thirty-two
very bored children who had nothing to do when the lead two
were learning their parts (doling out bags of sweeties was
good for that) and hanging out with Chris Baldock (the Artistic
Director) is always well worth the trouble. It goes on on
the 1st and 2nd of November at the Assembly Halls Theatre
in Tunbridge Wells and I’ll be there both nights, sitting
in the audience with my fingers crossed and cheering them
on - though I’m sure I’ll be more nervous than
they will…
Happy Birthday & More Fundraiser
Stuff
Ballet Black had its first ever birthday on the 27th of October.
It was exactly one year to the day when we had our first audition.
Things have changed so much since then. We have none of our
original dancers, but thankfully, the original “crew”
of Denzil, Venetia, and Jonathan is still in place –
as well as a load of new people (even an accountant! How grown
up!) and I think I can finally feel us picking up momentum.
Plans for the fundraiser mean there is never a dull moment
– with things going from bad to worse and good to amazing
in the space of an hour sometimes! We don’t do things
in half measures that’s for sure. In one day, we assembled
an entire stage crew at the same time as our lighting designer
dropping out and loosing the lighting rig. We managed to increase
rehearsal time and secure some funding to help us with the
cost of the fundraiser, but can’t rehearse in the performance
space on a regular basis. Just stuff like that. I feel that
some people around me sometimes think I’m on a really
negative slide at the moment – but in actual fact I’m
thrilled to be doing this. It’s easy to forget that
when you’re yelling down the phone at someone who has
let you down, or you’re noticing more gray hair than
someone of twenty-four should have, or wondering which major
organ you could sell off and still function without to make
ends meet – but for all the complaining, tears and hard
work, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
Ask me that question next week though… |
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