Ballet Black: Storyville - Northern Stage. October 11

(Review by Russell)

Some fifteen years ago Cassa Pancho founded Ballet Black. As Artistic Director, Pancho has nurtured the development of the London-based dance troupe, transforming it into the international touring company that it is today. Ballet Black’s dancers of black and Asian descent embrace the classical tradition, fusing it with contemporary, abstract forms. The company is currently touring Britain and, thankfully, a first visit to Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, was on the itinerary.
Last night’s performance (there is a second performance tonight, Wednesday 12 October) in Stage One at Northern Stage comprised three parts; two new pieces and a revival of the critically acclaimed Storyville. Set in 1920s New Orleans, Christopher Hampson’s tale of Nola, a wide-eyed farm girl lured by the bright lights of the Big Easy, examines enduring themes – ambition, love, the high-life, ill-advised dalliances with low-life characters. Set to the music of Kurt Weill (Walter Huston is heard singing Ulysses Africanus (Lost in the Stars), Eniko Szilagyi’s recordings, in French, of Je ne’taime pas and J’attends un navire evoke the period, and selections from the London Sinfonietta’s recording of  Threepenny Opera), Cira Robinson (Nola) gave a spell-binding performance of the naïve country girl who will, ultimately, be taken from us in a Mahogany Hall-swirling vortex of dollars and dimes, bar flies and bourbon, and Jelly Roll jazz.

Nola casts aside Sailor (Damien Johnson) in favour of Lulu White’s promises of jewels, liquor and good times. Sayaka Ichikawa (Lulu) is Nola’s nemesis; we know the outcome, we implore Nola to take a different path. Nola dances/drinks herself into oblivion. Ballet Black’s eight-strong troupe deservedly won several curtain calls.

Earlier, Cristaux (Arthur Pita, choreography) glittered as a duet piece featuring Robinson and Mthuthuzeli November dancing to an insistent clockwork jewelry box chiming theme by composer Steve Reich. South African November joined the company in 2015 and this energetic performance enthralled Newcastle’s informed dance audience. A second newly devised work – To Begin, Begin (Christopher Marney, choreography) – called upon six of the company’s dancers to interpret the dance maker’s vision. The score (composer Dustin O’Halloran) punctuated the troupe’s constantly shifting movements across the Stage One minimalist set.

Russell.

Ballet Black: Cira Robinson, Sayaka Ichikawa, Isabela Coracy, Marie-Astrid Mence, Damien Johnson, José Alves, Mthuthuzeli November, Jacob Wye