BALLET HOO? BALLET MARVELLOUS……REVIEW

29-09-2006

“The impossible has just happened”, said Birmingham Royal Ballet's breathless director David Bintley last night after one of the most exhilarating and emotional nights ever seen at The Hippodrome.

His excitement was understandable; Bintley and his colleagues had just succeeded in staging an unforgettable “Romeo and Juliet” with a cast of dozens of West Midlands youngsters from deprived and troubled backgrounds.

These are the kind of kids normally described as being “at risk”, but they shrugged off the limitations of their home life to turn in a show full of fierce discipline and no little talent that delighted the packed auditorium.

TV viewers can see some of the birth pangs of the project every Wednesday on Channel 4's “Ballet Hoo” programme, and there's no doubt that the three year gestation of this idea has been painful for many of those involved.

The end result, though, fully justified the incidental trauma - this was a night of which the region can be proud, and which worked well on so many levels.

For one thing, it was marvelous to see a dance event being watched by an audience that reflected the multi-cultural make-up of the West Midlands.

It was clear that many in the crowd were ballet first-timers, unsure sure when to applaud, but any lack in etiquette was more than compensated by the intense connection between those watching and those on stage.

There was one astonishing moment in the second act when Prokofiev's score became a knees-up clap-along; sacrilegious during the normal course of events, but entirely appropriate here after an awesome break-dancing interlude.

Alterations to the choreography were sanctioned by the widow of Sir Kenneth MacMillan who devised the ballet, andshe was there to give her stamp of approval, joining Bintley on stage at the finale.

She said “people in the ballet world tut-tutted when this was suggested, but Kenneth would have said ‘go for it'.”

It worked, too, because, although changes were made to accommodate the non-professional dancers, there was sufficient respect here for the original material; it wasn't dumbed down, merely updated.

Romeo and Juliet is like that - as Rodgers and Hammerstein, then later Baz Luhrmann realised; this timeless tale of tragic teenage love is there, waiting to be interpreted by each new generation.

Of the newcomers, a lad called Linden who lives in Stourbridge, took the honours as Capulet with a haughty, glowering performance, full of poise, although the real achievement here was to blur the distinction - in a good way - between the amateurs and professionals on stage.

The youngsters, from Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Birmingham were a credit to themselves and the West Midlands.

Praise is due to their local authorities for having the bravery to get involved; likewise Channel 4 for hitching their wagon to a show that proves (like Jamie's School Dinners) that reality television can be full of intelligence and insight.

And let's be having a knighthood for David Bintley, a true visionary in our midst, proving that ballet doesn't belong to the rich or the snooty.

Through this project he has helped to change perceptions,transform lives, and give the world of dance a long overdue kick up the tutu in the process.