Annual Review 2016/17
Northern Ballet Annual Review 2016/ 17
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Introduction 2016/17 was a fantastic year for Northern Ballet. We toured 9 different ballets to 41 different venues. Our performances were seen by more than 165,000 people and we set a new Box Office record grossing more than £3.4 million in ticket sales. Our success was recognised with a number of awards and nominations. South Bank Sky Arts Awards Winner of the Dance Award (1984)
National Dance Awards Winner of Best Classical Choreography (Jonathan Watkins for 1984) Nominations
Outstanding Company Best Male Dancer (Tobias Batley) Best Classical Choreographer (Cathy Marston for Jane Eyre) Outstanding Female Performance – Classical (Martha Leebolt for Julia in 1984) Outstanding Male Performance – Classical (Tobias Batley for Winston in 1984)
UK Theatre Awards Winner of Achievement in Marketing Award (1984) Nominations
Achievement in Dance Best Presentation of Touring Theatre
Further Nominations The Charity Awards in the Arts, Culture and Heritage category The Achates Philanthropy Prize The North West Television Society Awards (CBeebies television adaptation of Tortoise & the Hare) The Knights of Illumination Awards (1984 Lighting Design by Chris Davey) The Child Friendly Leeds Awards for Organisations Inspiring Schools The CIM Marketing Excellence Awards in the Innovation (not-for-profit/public sector) category (1984)
Front cover: Giuliano Contadini in Casanova. Photo Simon Lee. Opposite page: Guiliano Contadini and Javier Torres in Casanova. Photo Caroline Holden
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Contents Productions .......................................... Children’s ballets .................................. Light Night ............................................ Children of the Mantic Stain................. Tell Tale Steps ....................................... Academy of Northern Ballet ................. Learning ................................................ Development ........................................ Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre ......... Our home.............................................. Welcoming Anita Rani .......................... Financial summary................................ Find out more .......................................
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This page: Northern Ballet dancers in Beauty & the Beast. Photo Caroline Holden.
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Jonathan Watkins’
1984
Winner
The South Bank Sky Arts Dance Award National Dance Awards Best Classical Choreography
This award-winning production toured to Edinburgh, Southampton and had its London première at Sadler’s Wells. Filmed by The Space in collaboration with BBC Arts, the transmission on BBC Four was the first time in over 20 years that one of our full-length productions has been broadcast on TV. Also available on iPlayer, it has been watched by more than 150,000 people.
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‘…an ambitious, compelling and, ultimately, moving new ballet’ The Telegraph Excerpts from 1984
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David Nixon’s
Swan Lake Swan Lake continued its triumphant revival as audiences flocked to performances in Norwich and Milton Keynes. Over 11,000 people saw this two-week April tour.
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‘This is a very special Swan Lake’ York Press Excerpts from Swan Lake
Opposite page: Dreda Blow in 1984. Photo Emma Kauldhar. This page: Northern Ballet dancers in Swan Lake. Photo Emma Kauldhar.
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Cathy Marston’s
Jane Eyre One of literature’s best-loved heroines was brought to life in this new ballet which coincided with the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. Following a sold-out world première in Doncaster, this mid-scale tour continued to Richmond, Aylesbury, Wolverhampton, Stoke and Leicester; receiving acclaim from critics and audiences along the way.
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‘Beautifully crafted and moving’ The Times Excerpts from Jane Eyre
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Claude-Michel Schönberg’s
Wuthering Heights Choreographed by David Nixon, this revival continued the Brontë theme. Cathy and Heathcliff’s tempestuous love story was played out just miles from Emily Brontë’s original setting as we performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse for a limited run of seven performances.
‘A total joy from start to finish’ Yorkshire Times Excerpts from Wuthering Heights
Opposite page: Victoria Sibson and Javier Torres in Jane Eyre. Photo Emma Kauldhar. This page: Rachael Gillespie and Jeremy Curnier in Wuthering Heights. Photo Emma Kauldhar.
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Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Les Ballet de Monte Carlo’s
Romeo and Juliet As the only UK company to have perfomed this ballet, we were thrilled to bring back JeanChristophe Maillot’s Romeo and Juliet, which received rave reviews when the Company first performed it in 2014. In 2016, we took this stunning production to Sheffield, Canterbury, Belfast, Woking and Bradford, where audiences fell in love with this reimagined classic.
Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet
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‘Superb... In this performance, they have excelled themselves.’ British Theatre Guide
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David Nixon’s
Beauty & the Beast The revival of this fairytale ballet added some extra magic to Christmas 2016. With packed houses at all venues including Norwich, Newcastle and Leeds, we also had our most successful visits ever in Nottingham and Southampton. More than 44,000 people enjoyed this magical production.
Photos from Beauty & the Beast
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‘Fun is high on the list… and this production delivers plenty’ The Observer
Opposite page: Lucia Solari and Javier Torres in Romeo and Juliet. Photo Andy Ross. This page: Dreda Blow in Beauty & the Beast. Photo Emma Kauldhar.
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Kenneth Tindall’s
Casanova 2017, our year of premières, got off to a seductive start with the world première of Casanova in Leeds, followed by successful runs in Edinburgh and Sheffield. Audiences and critics fell for Casanova, with standing ovations at every venue, as we unmasked the true story behind the legendary man.
Excerpts from Casanova
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HHHHH The Stage
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Mail on Sunday
Both Pages: Northern Ballet dancers in Casanova. Photo Emma Kauldhar.
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Children’s ballets Our children’s ballets visited 36 venues and were seen by more than 45,000 people on stage. On average people paid just £5.84 per ticket.
Dreda Blow and Sebastian Loe’s
Nicola Gervasi’s
Tortoise & the Hare
Goldilocks & the Three Bears
It was ready, steady, go for Tortoise & the Hare which continued to tour in spring 2016. Visiting a further 24 venues, children and their families loved to cheer Tortoise over the finish line in this heart-warming tale.
This new ballet for children was just right, with sold-out performances at the première in Leeds in October 2016. So far, a further 14 venues have enjoyed Goldilocks’ adventures, with plenty more to come in 2017.
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‘Delightfully performed’ The Stage
Goldilocks & the Three Bears was also performed in our local community of Harehills as part of ongoing work to reach more diverse audiences. Performing in non-traditional settings provided a familiar, friendly environment for families to enjoy live ballet and theatre for the first time.
To engage children and young people with our children’s ballets we delivered nearly 150 workshops in nurseries, children’s centres, schools and private dance schools with more than 6,000 children and their families taking part. Northern Ballet Annual Review 2016/ 17
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Northern Ballet and CBeebies We were also thrilled that CBeebies adapted Goldilocks & the Three Bears for TV, which brought together our dancers, Mr Bloom and the tiddlers. Over Easter weekend 2017, the CBeebies adaptations of both Tortoise & the Hare and Goldilocks & the Three Bears were broadcast, meaning even more people could enjoy these magical performances.
‘Loving the Goldilocks ballet my 4yr old is mesmerised by the dancing and story and so am I’ Parent on Twitter This page: Jenny Hackwell in Goldilocks & the Three Bears. Photo Brian Slater.
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Light Night The 12th annual Leeds Light Night took place on 6 and 7 October 2016 and explored the elements of earth, wind, air and fire. As part of the city’s biggest free annual multi-arts event, Northern Ballet dancers joined dance artists from across Leeds to perform Compound — a new dance work by Gary Clarke and Antonio Borriello. This free event was performed four times throughout the night at our home in Quarry Hill. Compound was a partnership project between Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Yorkshire Dance and was commissioned by Light Night Leeds.
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Children of the Mantic Stain This new ballet by visual artist Linder Sterling and choreographer Kenneth Tindall, performed by eight Company dancers, premièred in 2015 as part of the British Art Show 8. In summer 2016, this collaboration was performed in London, Norwich and Southampton.
Tell Tale Steps Following the success of last year’s Choreographic Laboratory, Tell Tale Steps returned in June 2016. Five choreographers were selected: Lucia Solari, Morgann RunacreTemple, Tobias Batley, Charlotte Edmonds and Carlos Pons Guerra. The choreographers were mentored by David Nixon and other top professionals from the worlds of dance, theatre, film and literature. Following a three week residency at Northern Ballet, a sharing was held to show the choreographers’ work which included a panel discussion on the delights and difficulties of creating narrative in dance. Tell Tale Steps was livestreamed and watched by just under 1,000 people. Carlos Pons Guerra was then commissioned by The Lowry to make a new piece for Dance: Sampled in Febuary 2017. He created Paradis on some of our female dancers.
Excerpts from Tell Tale Steps
Opposite Page: Hannah Bateman in Children of the Mantic Stain. Photo Justin Slee
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Academy Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) The 2016/17 CAT programme graduates secured places at top vocational schools including The School of the Hamburg Ballet, Elmhurst Ballet School, Central School of Ballet and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Pupils had the opportunity to perform Small Steps, a piece created by Cara O’Shea, Head of Lower Level Pre-Professional Programme, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, at the Multi-Cultural Variety Performance at West Yorkshire Playhouse in July. In September 2016 five students joined 41 students from the other 10 national CAT schemes to take part in a residency with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, held at the Jerwood DanceHouse in Ipswich. The intensive four-day period of training, The Ailey Way, gave students the unique opportunity to gain an insight into the ethos, training and experience of Alvin Ailey’s heritage by working with Ailey artists Matthew Rushing and Alexandria Johnson.
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Professional Graduate Programme We were delighted to offer Graduate Professional Programme student Darragh Hourrides a contract as an Apprentice with Northern Ballet on completion of the programme. Students had the opportunity to perform on tour with the Company in Goldilocks & the Three Bears as well as performing in the CBeebies adaptation of the ballet. The standard of training and guidance provided on the course supported several students in achieving contracts as professional dancers before the course had even reached completion.
Open Classes More than 750 students, from tiny tots to over 55s, took part in weekly dance classes with the Academy.
Opposite page bottom image: CAT students with Alivin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Photo Rachel Cherry. All other images Northern Ballet Academy. Photos Justin Slee.
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Learning During the year, our Learning team delivered a wide range of activities, engaging over 13,000 people of all ages in dance. Through participatory activity and watching live performances we use dance as a tool to challenge perceptions and tackle social issues. Young at Arts We have been tackling social isolation in older people through the Memories of Dancing in Leeds project. Working on a one-to-one basis in their homes, through conversation, music, images and videos, we focused on people’s memories of dance and its impact on their lives. A participant who was a former dance teacher has mid-stage dementia and the process allowed her to reflect and reminisce about her early years and career. The creation of a memory book documenting her dancing life and incorporating photographs and drawings will be a valuable keepsake in the coming years.
Audio Descriptions We audio describe some of our ballets, bringing the action on stage to life through a live narrative of the movements. An accompanying touch tour insight allows blind or partially sighted people to feel the props, costumes and quality of the dancers’ movement to help in their understanding of the audio description.
‘I had no idea how involved he could get with the ballet — it was beyond his range of possibility for a blind man to enjoy a visual thing so much.’ Mother of audio description attendee
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SLiCE This action research project with pupils at Herringthorpe Primary School in Rotherham explored the impact of dance on listening and speaking skills and on behaviour for learning in the classroom. Using different teaching methodologies to see how structure, creativity and performance influenced pupils’ confidence and increased their role in their learning, the project demonstrated the benefits of the arts in delivering key areas of the National Curriculum.
‘My own practice has benefitted from the opportunity to work alongside dance professionals.’ Teacher, Herringthorpe Primary School, Rotherham
Both pages: Photos Sara Teresa, Tony O’Connell and Jo Dean.
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Development 2016/17 has been another year of stable growth for our Development team, with continued ambition and drive generating more than £950,000 in donations from generous individuals, trusts and corporate organisations. Successes include: first direct became Northern Ballet’s official National Tour Sponsor in 2017 continuing to support our artistic work and solidifying their commitment for the future. The Emerald Foundation generously reaffirmed their support for our ground-breaking productions, funding both our mid-scale production Jane Eyre and our full-scale production Casanova. This year was the third of a five year pledge by the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation, generously supporting the artistic work of the Company as well as our Academy and outreach activities. We have continued to develop new and innovative partnerships with corporate supporters through commercial hospitality, sponsorship and support for our Learning work including Kleinwort Hambros, Swarovski, Mulberry Bow and Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill. Our annual Future Builder’s Dinner took place in October 2016, celebrating our community of individual givers. The event was proudly sponsored by our new corporate partner, Progeny. In 2017, through our Costume Appeal and the generosity of our Friends, Patrons and supporters, we raised more than £7,000 in support of Kenneth Tindall’s new production Casanova and the creation of lavish, long-lasting costumes for our dancers whilst on tour. The Garfield Weston Foundation continued their generous support for the creation of our children’s ballets, enabling children and families across the UK to access the wonder of dance.
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This page: Abigail Prudames and Luke Francis in Casanova. Photo Emma Kauldhar.
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Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre
Nearly 14,000 people attended performances at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in 2016/17. In 2016/17 this intimate studio theatre, located within our home in the heart of Leeds’ cultural quarter, offered audiences the opportunity to see quality dance at incredible value. This year saw performances from world-class companies including Phoenix Dance Theatre, Ballet Black, James Wilton Dance, 2Faced Dance Company and Company Chameleon. The theatre also hosted Northern Ballet’s second Choreographic Laboratory as well as the world première of our fifth children’s ballet, Goldilocks & the Three Bears, which was a sell-out success. Northern Ballet Annual Review 2016/ 17
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Our home Northern Ballet’s home in Quarry Hill, Leeds, offers unique, creative and flexible facilities for meetings, conferences and events. This year, Northern Ballet hosted the 02 Media Awards and the Leeds 2023 Business Launch as well as welcoming clients and delegates from the Department of Work & Pensions, NHS England, Yorkshire Water and many more. In 2016/17 we welcomed a total of 3,542 additional people through the doors across a total of 101 meetings, conferences & events.
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Opposite page: 2Faced Dance Run. Photo Chris Nash This page: Photos Karl Andre
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Welcoming Anita Rani In February 2016 we were delighted that Bradford-born BBC and Strictly Come Dancing Star Anita Rani accepted our invitation to join Northern Ballet’s Board of Directors. With her local roots and genuine passion for dance, Anita couldn’t be a more perfect fit for the Company. In addition, we also announced four further new appointments; Paul Smith, Head of Media at global entertainment marketing and advertising agency AKA UK; Harry Keogh, Managing Director, Head of London Coverage at Coutts; James Taylor, currently Chief Financial Officer at Tommy Tippee; and Jane Gilbert Boot, Investment Director for leading UK private equity company LDC.
Opposite page: 2Faced Dance Run. Photo Chris Nash. This page: (top) James Wilton Dance Leviathan. Photo Steve Tanner. (bottom) Ballet Black To Begin, Begin. Photo Bill Cooper.
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Financial summary Download the 2016/17 Financial Statement
Key Facts Revenue generated from touring
£3,417,000
This includes a record £2,175,731 in net Box Office Income
Donations received through fundraising
£968,000
Funding received from Arts Council England and Leeds City Council
£3,621,000
Cost of artistic product and touring
£6,672,000
Opposite Page: Northern Ballet dancers with Anita Rani. Photo Justin Slee. Back page: Dreda Blow and Javier Torres in Jane Eyre. Photo Caroline Holden.
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Artistic Director David Nixon OBE Chief Executive Mark Skipper DL
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