Reece Clarke and Friends, Sat 31 August 2024, Airdrie Town Hall

[AllAboutTheJourney]

I will write more tomorrow when I have time but this was absolutely incredible - the atmosphere was so warm and the dancers were, without exception, excellent. World class ballet up close in small town Scotland - so glad we had the chance to see it. 
 

I will post the running order if anyone is interested, and some more thoughts tomorrow. 
 

 

[AllAboutTheJourney]

[AllAboutTheJourney]

[AllAboutTheJourney]

Apologies for the terrible quality of this pic! 

[Vanartus]

What a great programme- really well put together!

[Scheherezade]

It sounds wonderful @AllAboutTheJourney.
I wish we could have that programme here in London in place of the dire offerings foisted upon us for much of the 2924/25 season. 

I’d be Interested, too, to hear how Bracewell and Pantuso shaped up as a partnership. 

[Missfrankiecat]

How wonderful that Reece put together this programme for his home town; I thought it speaks volumes about the high regard his fellow dancers hold him in that there was such a good turnout from the RB to support this event.  I sat next to someone who went to school with him at one of his Manon performances this year, who was on her first visit to ROH just to see him dance.  I wondered if she made it to the show.

[AllAboutTheJourney]

I thought the same @Missfrankiecat. I also loved the diversity of the audience.

 

Kevin O’Hare was in attendance as well as Chris Hampson and various Scottish Ballet dancers. There were also lots of representatives from Guide Dogs for the Blind, children from a local dance school (who presented flowers at the end) and people who may have been seeing a ballet performance for the first time (from snippets of conversations overheard). 

Edited September 1 by AllAboutTheJourney
Typo

[oncnp]

More from Dancer's Diary

 

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Edited September 1 by oncnp

[Emeralds]

What a beautifully curated programme by Reece! I would LOVE to have seen that Spring Waters pas de deux from Hamilton and Clarke, the Diana and Actaeon pas de deux from Maeda and Dixon, the Cinders and Sophie Laplane pieces from Fyfe and Micchiardi etc etc. If only I could have been in Airdrie Town Hall and Royal Albert Hall simultaneously to watch both yesterday but the technology (or sorcery!!) hasn't been invented for that yet! 

 

If Reece feels adventurous enough to organise a Guude Dogs charity fundraiser in London or the Southeast as well, and the dancers and musicians are available to reprise the repertoire, I know lots of friends who would be very pleased to support this great cause and a lot of us here would be delighted to get tickets to watch it. 😍 🐕‍🦺 👏  Look forward to reading @AllAboutTheJourney and any others' reviews in due course! Thank you for the photos, @AllAboutTheJourney! 

 

[KateCan]

I went in the afternoon and it was such a special performance. Everyone looked so happy to be there, especially Reece, and he was superb in all three of his pieces - warm, animated and polished. Spring Waters was particularly jubilant. Another standout for me was Mariko Sasaki's Odile. Being in such an intimate venue really let the audience see all the subtle nuances of her performance, and the next time Swan Lake is programmed I will definitely be booking for her. William Bracewell was incredible as always, and Viola Pantuso's Odette debut was particularly lovely. She was lovely, albeit a little tentative, in Sleeping Beauty, but her Odette was tragic, lithesome and beautiful and she looks to be a very promising Swan Queen in a future run. I love the sparkle that Sae Maeda brings to everything, and I enjoyed her, particularly in Rhapsody, but I found myself thinking that I would have enjoyed Sleeping Beauty and Diana & Acteon even more had she and Viola had swapped roles. Qualia was a work that I approached with ambivalence going in, having only ever seen it on video, but the chemistry between Melissa Hamilton and Ryo Hirano made me appreciate the work in a way that I hadn't before. Big, beautiful smiles from both of them when it was done. The musical performances from Rob Clark, Kate Shipway, and Melissa Carstairs must also be mentioned, as they were brilliant. There was also a lovely story in the commemorative booklet about how the town of Airdrie and ScotRail pitched in to support and champion the Clarkes, with four of the five Clarke sons (remarkably!) attending White Lodge. A standing ovation for Reece, and flowers presented to all the performers by local ballet students, which got me quite teary. A beautiful afternoon, and got on the train back to Glasgow feeling so grateful to have had this opportunity for us up in Scotland!

[AllAboutTheJourney]

I would actually agree with everything that @KateCan has said, especially about leaving feeling grateful to have had the opportunity to watch this programme and these dancers in Scotland!

 

I also left quite teary – it’s very unlike me, but in my defence I was watching the whole thing mindful of the fact that in a few days' time I will be dropping two of my children off at White Lodge, 400 odd miles from home, and somehow seeing Reece on stage, back here in Scotland but at the peak of a career in dance, was a timely reminder of why we make the sacrifices we do to let them enjoy the ballet journey for as long as they want to.

 

Anyway, I haven’t been watching ballet for that long – I have only recently become more engaged as my DC have got into it – and I had seen only a few of these pieces on stage before and others only on video or not at all, but here are some thoughts on a few of the pieces for what it’s worth...  

 

Reece’s first solo was the perfect start – he leaped onto and around the stage with a huge smile on his face and the cheers at the end got the show off to a great start. I have never seen Spring Waters before (his duet with Melissa Hamilton) but again it wrapped things up perfectly – such a joyous finale, both dancers looking like they were absolutely loving performing it.

 

Sleeping Beauty & Swan Lake Act II – I’m a big fan of Viola, as the RB clearly are! In Nutcracker I felt her solo work was more assured than her partnering but I didn’t get the sense that anything was lacking in terms of partnering on Saturday. She did ease into the first piece (SB) as it went on. As a general point it’s interesting watching this kind of piece with simple lighting and literally nothing else on stage – no set, no other people – as I found myself watching every single detail in a way I hadn’t before. Bracewell was solid and stately, I very much liked them together in SB but the Swan Lake PDD was outstanding. It felt like a glimpse into the future.

 

Swan Lake Act III – I mean this is always going to be a crowd pleaser and probably got the biggest cheers of the night. Mariko Sasaki is not someone I have seen live before but as was said above, I will now absolutely look out for her name when booking for the RB. She was on fire in this role.

 

Diana and Actaeon – gorgeous, another glimpse into the future moment. Both dancers are ones to watch as far as I’m concerned.

 

Cinders & Dextera – the two Scottish Ballet pieces couldn’t have been more different from each other, and both slotted in very well amongst the RB performances. Cinders is a work that I am very familiar with so I won’t bore everyone about it again but Bruno Micchiardi and Jess Fyffe are very much the pairing I would book to see at SB at the moment – they seem to be working very well together and settling into a beautiful partnership. I loved Dextera – which I have since read was created for Scottish Ballet’s 50^th anniversary – the female dancer has various handles all over her body and the male dancer moves her around using them, it’s hard to describe and sounds gimmicky but it didn’t come across like that on stage. It was quirky and a bit different and I will hope to see the full version later in the year when SB revive it.

 

To be honest I enjoyed every single piece but these were just the ones that stood out to me. Of the McGregor pieces, Infra was so fluid and mesmerising, but in Qualia you couldn’t take your eyes off Hamilton and Hirano. The way Hamilton moves her body is just gorgeous. They were excellent together and totally in sync.

 

A long, loud standing ovation finished the night off. I took a very short video of the bows (as well as the dreadfully blurry pic above) but was told off by a very zealous usher. It’s ironic you can take curtain call pics at the ROH but not at Airdrie Town Hall but anyway… I dutifully put my phone away.

 

We spoke to Bruno Micchiardi briefly at the end who was very enthusiastic about being involved in the whole thing. He and his partner Roseanna Leney (also a SB principal) both came through the RBS and said it was lovely to see and perform with old school friends, as well as people who had been very young White Lodgers while they were at Upper School and how lovely it was to now see them doing so well professionally.

 

Sorry for the length of this – conscious I have been waxing lyrical but it was a very special night and I am very glad to have been there.

[AllAboutTheJourney]

A few more pics from the programme

[LinMM]

Don’t apologise about the length your post was a great read as was Katecan’s. Sounds like a lovely show ….I will be seeing Viola in Alice in a few weeks but now am intrigued by what’s been said about her in the Odette role!! 
Also looks like I will now  be seeing Reece as Onegin for the first time in the Winter programme so look forward to this. 
Wishing your two DC every success in their coming year at RBS…saying goodbye to two of them must indeed be very hard. 

[oncnp]

He will be replacing Muntagirov and his ailing plantar facia in Japan, both in the Super Star Gala  (Notice of Changes to Performers and Some Performances | Super Stars Gala (super-stars-gala.com) and dancing with Nunez in October (Thanks to @ kk_tone on IG) 

Edited September 6 by oncnp