Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Bluffing Your Way In Ballet
Seizing The Day Company (Seizing Up!)
Genre: Comedy, Historical, Theatre
Venue: theSpace@Venue45
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A gently irreverent, entertaining and educational look at the history and great personalities of ballet from its inception in the 16th century right up to the present day. Illustrated by some elegant dancing in combination with some solid character acting, it’s a great way for ballet buffs to see a different take on their passion or for those of us requiring a bit of an education into the art to get it.
Review
Great ballet dancers, so someone famous once opined, get you to focus on their sublime movement, not the energy going into producing it. Make it look effortless, they say, and you’ve nailed it.
But wait a minute, Seizing The Day Company (Seizing Up!) promote the fact that they are all, ahem, how shall I best put this, a little advanced in years to be leaping about in tutus on stage. Heck, the majority of them admit to possessing a bus pass!
Cue expectations of an auditorium reeking of Ralgex (other liniments are available), lathered on by our ageing dancer/actors in the hope of preventing hamstrings twanging like piano wire.
Well, I got that one wrong. Badly. Not a whiff of embrocation, only graceful, poised, elegant, technically sound movement that was central to an enjoyable and informative forty-five minute canter through the history of ballet, touching on all the greats known to twentieth and twenty first century audiences as well as a few of the less well kent faces from ballet’s inception around half a millennium ago . And not an elastic support in sight either.
Centre piece of this interesting piece of dance/theatre was Alexandra Pickford, formerly of the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet and still, by her own admission, enjoying dancing as often as she can in her eighth decade. And, as one might expect, she can dance, accurately and with expression and emotion. OK, maybe a few of the big leaps and lifts are now a distant, pleasant memory but Pickford can still grab and hold your attention as she moves, apparently without effort, across the generously sized stage in theSpace’s Jeffrey Street venue.
Support was provided by a quartet of dancer/actors playing the many and varied personnel featured as part of the history story – Fonteyn, Pavlova, Bussell, Nureyev to mention but a glittering quartet. And the script, created by all those involved in the performance, was gently amusing, the occasional moments of irreverence helping to keep the audience’s attention whilst subliminally educating them – at least in my case.
Staging this on a thrust was a clever move too, allowing the performers to be both seen by and to engage with those watching. And the four strategically placed pillars made for useful costume/props repositories, allowing the frequent character/clothing changes to be effected seamlessly.
And this, being a discourse on ballet, we got to listen to a large selection of well known classical pieces, with the highlight undoubtedly a gentle pastiche of that bit from The Nutcracker that we all adore – danced here by a duet with a combined age in excess of a century and a half.
But the glue that held this thing together was narrator/actor/sort of dancer Chris Harris-Beechey. Charismatic, engaging, raconteur extraordinaire, his uplifting performance made the whole piece fizz with energy. His commanding physical presence meant you couldn’t help but pay attention whenever he took the floor, be it in his principal role as narrator or in his many and varied characters, each of which was nicely balanced with movement, impeccable accenting and real audience engagement. Bravo!
As a complete non-dancer possessed of two left feet, maybe I’ve underestimated the benefits of dance. It’s good for you, keeping you supple, physically and mentally. And age? Pah! It’s just a number. Or an attitude. Or both. Older people (full disclosure, I am one) should dance. Just more gently.
Recommended entertainment for both ballet buffs and those looking for a new interest in life.
