Sponsored by
Next step in giant leap of faith
Leeds will step out as the north's centre for dance excellence when two jewels in the city's cultural crown come together. But it has been a long road to travel as Stephanie Ferguson reports.
David Nixon often choreographs work to water music. Nothing to do with Handel, but the steady drip of leaks around his studios based in an old school. "We have a couple of pails in place," he says. "Other companies have far better facilities than we do. There should be some kind of equity."
Nixon is artistic director of the Northern Ballet Theatre whose dancers have grown used to leaky, chilly West Park and rehearsing in the former school's gyms. Before long he hopes they will be able to say goodbye to the draughts and the discomfort.
The trouble is, he reckons, the public think that the company has a wealth of funds. After working in America for many years, he has noticed a big difference. "The difficulty in England is that we are not fully funded and the public think we are so we don't need the money. An extra half a million would really change this company. I hope that if you inspire people, they will open up their wallets."
He sees a promised new building as a flagship. "It's what the company needs to make it really feel permanent and established as part of Leeds.
"We need to change people's perceptions, be more visible. The building will be source of pride for the city."
One of his students, 12-year-old Joshua Ockerby echoes that sentiment. "We get changed in the NBT meeting room, so I'm really looking forward to having changing rooms. It'll make me like a proper dancer."
Nixon wants to bring in new choreographers and stage new productions. At present financial restraints clip his creative wings and he has to go for the instant ballet. "Add water, mix and it's done." He sees great opportunities for collaboration with the company who will share the building – Phoenix Dance. At the moment it would be a nightmare because of their punishing touring schedule.
NBT is the only centre for advanced training in classical dance in the UK and the new headquarters will give young people the best tuition without having to leave the region. Nixon and his wife, ballet mistress Yoko Ichino, have carried on in the footsteps of Christopher and Carole Gable.
"We hope some day soon we will have a full-time school providing an holistic approach to teaching that will incorporate all aspects of becoming a professional dancer," says Ichino.
Now re-wind to a scene in the same old school in 1997 when I met David Nixon's predecessor. Christopher Gable, charismatic and colourful in his bright blue parrot T-shirt, sitting back in his chair, silver bracelets clanking and spoke of his vision for the future.
His hope was to get Northern Ballet Theatre housed in Quarry Hill by the millennium – if he could raise the required 2.5m.
"You have to set off from A to B," he told me. "You might end up at X, but you must set off. If we get there it will be my finest hour." Gable died nearly 10 years ago and after years of rattling plastic buckets for coins, fighting to keep NBT alive and ending up at X, it looks as if his goal is in sight. These days, NBT's chief executive Mark Skipper sits in Gable's old room at West Park and spreads out the plans for the new dance centre in what is becoming the culture gulch of Quarry Hill.
It's a great glass box of a building, six-storeys of light bright space with seven dance studios, some double-decker. There's a 200-seat theatre, a health suite, wardrobe facilities and offices. There will also be a public exhibition space and gallery to bring in visual arts, a coffee shop and roof terrace.
It's hoped work will begin next spring and Gable's "finest hour" will come posthumously in summer 2010.
A bit pricier than he envisaged, the bill comes in at 12m and there's still 1.5m to find.
A "momentum" campaign has been launched headed by Prince Edward, NBT's patron. It will also be home to students studying a new dance course at Leeds Metropolitan University.
"It will be an exciting and lively place with around 200 people regularly using it. It will be a creative hub with great scope for collaboration," adds Skipper.
The site on York road will be a pirouette away from the Leeds College of Music, the BBC, Yorkshire Dance and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The project has been long in gestation and Mark Skipper, with 20 years at NBT, feels like a long-suffering midwife at times.
"When they cut that first sod on site we will really believe it's going to happen", he says.
"In the past it's seemed like something in the distance, that mythical building. Now the funding makes it a reality and it's finally going to arrive."
The new, as yet un-named building, will be the only centre in the UK to house a contemporary dance company alongside a classical narrative one, with a school and a dance degree course. NBT's orchestra will also benefit from the new facilities with the chance to do in-house recordings of commissioned scores and the possibility of lunch-time recitals by the musicians. Mark Skipper adds: "The new dance centre and more importantly what will take place inside it, will establish Leeds as a powerhouse for dance in the UK... it will be source of pride for the wider community, everyone in Yorkshire and beyond who values our work."
They say life begins at 40 and NBT will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2009 when work is scheduled to start
on site.
Javier de Frutos, artistic director of Phoenix Dance Theatre, arrived hot from rehearsing Cattle Call, his new creation for Phoenix Dance with Richard Thomas of Jerry Springer – The Opera. He is now mentally juggling creativity with practicality, having inherited the building project when he took over as artistic director from Darshan Singh Bhuller two years ago. As well as strengthening the company, he has to make sure they get a new roof over their heads.
"It would be terrible to have this beautiful building and not the money to make it work," he says. "It's exhausting, like having a baby you may have to give up at the end of gestation."
De Frutos, from Venezuela, never pulls punches. Phoenix now fields 10 international dancers and has metamorphosed into a powerful, innovative company since it was formed in 1981. "I came here so I could turn a slightly tired brand into something exciting," he says. "Dancers want to come to us despite our surroundings." Phoenix is currently housed in the Yorkshire Dance Centre with limited facilities.
"The company was in transition with an identity crisis and needed to grow and move into the 21st century. So I wanted to make sure there was a company worth building a new building for," he says.
De Frutos has already made his mark on the international dance scene, with Phoenix moving into its next incarnation. His Paseillo, set to Mozart, part of an arresting and challenging triptych of works, wowed them at last year's Venice Biennale.
"Twenty minute standing ovation," he reveals, grinning. Not bad then. Sharing the space with Northern Ballet Theatre will be like a marriage, but not one of convenience, he adds.
He thinks he and NBT's artistic director David Nixon share the same pursuit of excellence and quality in what they
stage. "I never wanted NBT to think we were riding on their backs in this. Both David and I want to arrive in one piece."
As well as the usual fundraising methods, you can buy a brick for 50, name a seat for 500 or pledge a memorial gift. If you want to dig a bit deeper, you can help buy dance floors, ballet barres and a piano for 150 plus. Corporate or egocentric dance fans can also have studios or other spaces in the new building named after them. For information, contact Melanie Aram on 0113 274 5355 or email her on melanie.aram@northernballettheatre.co.uk
History of NBT
1969: Northern Dance Theatre launched with Laverne Meyer first artistic director.
1975: Gang of Four. Assistant director, Deirdre O'Donahoe; ballet master Peter Clegg; choreographer Jonathan Thorpe and administrator Freda Steel run the company.
1976: Robert de Warren takes over. Name changed to Northern Ballet Theatre, based in Zion Institute, Hulme, Manchester.
De Warren moves to La Scala, Milan.
1987: NBT faces axe from Arts Council. Christopher Gable switches from dancing Lowry in A Simple Man to becoming artistic director. Company saved and moves to Spring Hall, Halifax. Numerous successful productions follow from Romeo and Juliet to Dracula.
1996: Company moves to West Park, Leeds.
1998: Death of Christopher Gable.
1999: Italian Stefano Giannetti becomes NBT's fourth artistic director. Creates successful Great Expectations but leaves in 2000.
2001: Canadian David Nixon takes over. Among his acclaimed productions are Madame Butterfly and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
2008: Tenth anniversary of Associate Training programme.
History of Phoenix Dance
1981: Phoenix Dance Company founded by David Hamilton, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James, inspired by Leeds teachers Nadine Senior at Harehills Middle School and John Auty at
Intake High.
1982: Phoenix builds a strong following and take on dancers Merville Jones and Edward Lynch, now artistic director of
RJC Dance.
1987: Neville Campbell takes over as artistic director and
expands the company and rep. The company moves from Chapeltown to a permanent base at Yorkshire Dance.
Campbell takes on women dancers for the first time,
including the Donaldson sisters, Dawn and Sharon, to create Phoenix Plus.
1991: Maggie Morris, the company's first woman artistic director arrives and develops important overseas touring and work by international choreographers.
1996: Phoenix perform to great acclaim at the Cultural Olympiad at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
1996: American Thea Nerissa Barnes takes the company into the new millennium with new artistic directions. She establishes the first company archive.
2002: Former Harehills student and leading contemporary
dance voice Darshan Singh Bhuller returns to his roots
to run the company. He commissions eight new works;
revives favourites; and creates three new pieces of
his own.
2006: Phoenix Dance Theatre. Venezuelan Javier De Frutos takes over, grooms 10 top-flight dancers and introduces a challenging new repertoire. He has won numerous awards for his achievements including the 2007 Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for his work on Cabaret.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Rival chips in with £500,000 to restore the original Harry Ramsden’s
- SportsTalk: Leeds United’s manager search, Super League and Calcutta Cup
- Visit from Princess as Serbian culture celebrated
- Strategic review will lead to job losses at Yorkshire Bank
- NHS spends £20m a year on translators and interpreters
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
