Category: Interviews


Corps de ballet work

Filed Under: Interviews, Pictures
Oct.12, 2010

Last month David Bintley was finally able to work on a number of the larger corps de ballet pieces for Cinderella.

‘I started earlier in the year with lots of solo and duet work,’ David explains, ‘because we were so busy preparing for our spring and summer seasons that I could only get hold of a handful of dancers. This of course meant that I left myself with a great deal of ensemble work to make. Which brought its own difficulties. When you’re on your third waltz or second mazurka within the space of two weeks, it can be difficult!’

However, David has also found benefits in working on large numbers of similar forms during these extensive periods of creation.

‘It’s interesting,’ he ponders, ‘because if you’re working on say, the solos, then as you choreograph each one, all of the others that you’ve already completed, or are due to work on later in the week, are still right at the forefront of your mind. You’re much more aware of what themes and motifs you’re already using at various other stages of the ballet. As a result it’s bringing out a more diverse set of steps, and a more diverse language.’

What of the shift from working with one or two of his title characters, to a studio full of the corps de ballet?

‘It’s a very different dynamic when you’ve got 40 people in a room, compared to just one or two.’ he nods. ‘As well as choreographing the piece you’re having to manage the room; motivating and maintaining the interest in people who are doing things that they’re perhaps slightly less interested in, compared with those who are doing a solo. But creatively, you’re going through a similar process. I’m still putting something out there and saying “what do you think?”

‘Then I’m looking round the room to see who is picking upon the idea and focus upon them. If I’m working with eight couples, for example, one couple will be more forthcoming, or do something slightly different, and I’ll tell the rest of the room to follow their lead.

‘When you’re working with just two people in the room you’re very focused on those people, and at the same time you’re much more reliant on them. Whereas with the corps, sometimes ideas get developed by different people in different corners of the room, even though they’ll all end up doing the same thing.

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Structural work

Filed Under: General News, Interviews
Oct.07, 2010

While David Bintley is already an experienced creator of full-length narrative ballets, Cinderella still requires a new approach. ‘There is a very definite classical model to the ballet’, says David. It’s grown entirely out of the music, and so there is a variation for the Prince and a variation for Cinderella. There are set pas de deux, and group works, and classical forms to readdress, which I always enjoy doing. But previous full-length ballets that I’ve done have not had this form; Sylvia is the closest that I’ve ever come to it.’

The structure of the work has changed a few times over the past months, as David has resolved how the story will play out on stage. ‘At one point we thought it might be a very nice idea to run the second and third acts together’, he says, ‘because the third act tends to be a bit short. Narratively, and dramatically, it could have worked very well, but unfortunately it would have given us a first act of 35 minutes and a second act of over an hour, even with some cuts we looked at. That’s just an uncomfortable shape, so we reverted back to three acts, as is traditional.’

Designer John Macfarlane had originally designed the piece to be a two-act ballet, and so from a technical standpoint all the sets and costumes could be turned around in such a way. But David admits that it has given them some breathing space. ‘The stage crew, certainly, are very pleased that they get more time for that transition,’ he says, ‘and Cinderella herself gets a bit of a breather and a chance to get out of her finery and back into her rags after the ball.’

The Director has already revealed that he often looks ahead to his next project before a new ballet is completed, and enjoys the ‘cross pollination’ of ideas between contrasting works. However in this instance there is less scope for influence. ‘The next piece that I’ll do will probably have some similarities with Cinderella – it’s a full-length piece that I’m doing with the New National Ballet of Japan and it does recall the classic forms. So Cinderella will no doubt have some bearing on that, but both will be miles away from E=mc²!’

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Prosthetic heads

Filed Under: Interviews, Pictures
Sep.29, 2010

Robert Alsopp & Associates have provided prop costumes for a number of theatre productions around the world, from masks and animal heads to entire suits of armour. Their film work includes titles such as X-Men, Gladiator and Elizabeth.

Robert himself has worked with John Macfarlane as a Prop Costume Maker before, including providing the rats tails for Sir Peter Wright’s stunning production of The Nutcracker. Speaking to him now in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s costume storeroom, we glance at a selection of spare tails hanging from the wall. ‘They’re still using those same tails from day one,’ he says. ‘They’ve lasted since that first season.’

John has called upon Robert’s expertise a number of times since The Nutcracker opened in 1996, most recently enlisting him to bring to life the more fantastical costume elements required for David Bintley’s new production of Cinderella.

Pictured here is one such item: the head for one of the lizard footmen, conjured up to escort Cinderella to the ball.

Robert explains the process of creating the item, saying: ‘I start off with a head-cast as a basis to start building up a clay sculpture. It wouldn’t in this case need to be the head cast of the person who’s wearing it, because it’s such a large head. I’ll sculpt the whole shape from the clay and detail it.

‘At this stage I’ll email photos to John to get his approval and to get any new notes on the designs.

‘Once it is finished and approved, I’ll make a two-piece plaster mould of the clay sculpture. When this is ready, I’ll clean it all out – the clay’s played its part by that point, so it would just be thrown in the bin.

‘Then I brush or pour latex into that hollow plaster mould, in much the same way that cast ceramics are made. Once the latex is dry, it peels out in one piece.’

The whole process takes about a week-and-a-half. The level of detail is incredible, especially considering that the audience will never see the head up close. But establishing such detail at this point has advantages, reveals Robert.

‘It really helps with the painting,’ he says. ‘It’s much harder to paint realistic texture upon something that’s smooth. With a detailed surface you can apply transparent washes of watercolour that will then collect in all in the little recesses and wrinkles, and it will almost paint itself.’

As well as the aesthetics of the head, there are of course practical issues to consider. ‘Usually for dance the first priority is that it fits really firmly on the head and doesn’t shift backwards,’ Robert says. ‘So there’ll be an inner skull cap which is fitted specifically to the dancer. Vision is the next priority after that.

‘The head seen here is just a prototype, and at this stage we’ve not yet fully resolved the issue of visibility for the dancer. The holes that you can see here are more of an approximation of where they will see out. Part of this front section front will be cut out and replaced with mesh-fabrics. Once the fabrics are in place we’ll then further conceal the holes by adding back in some of the detail over the top.’

For David’s 2003 production of Beauty and the Beast, the heat that built up within the lead male dancer’s costume was a big issue, however it is not such a problem in this case.

‘Heat is sometimes a consideration,’ Robert says, ‘but the amount of time that these characters are on stage is fairly small, so it isn’t a problem. We may make some small holes to allow air to circulate, which can be easily hidden, but we aren’t having to worry about it so much that it’s informing the design that much.’

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The Four Seasons

Filed Under: Interviews, Pictures
Aug.25, 2010

David has confirmed that all of the design work on Cinderella has been completed. ‘I think the last designs were the ones for the Seasons,’ he says. ‘I haven’t actually seen complete finished designs for Spring or Winter [pictured right], but I really don’t need to.

‘I spoke with John [Macfarlane, Designer] about them and we both know what the other is after.

‘Funnily enough, over the whole production, the hardest costume for him seems to have been the Spring costume. In theory it will be the simplest, just a little slip of a dress, but he puts so much thought into every one of his creations, and this one just seems to have come the hardest.’

David has also revealed who will be performing the roles of each of the four seasons, who visit Cinderella in the kitchen before she is magically whisked off to the Prince’s ball.

‘Momoko Hirata is Spring, Lei Zhao is Summer, Angela Paul is Autumn and Delia Mathews is Winter.

‘The character of each role is entirely within the steps. You have to establish the roles in a very short space of time – Momoko’s Spring variation is less than a minute, for example.’

David has already created choreography based upon the four seasons for previous works, but these new roles will not be influenced by what has gone before.

‘All of the versions that I’ve done in previous ballets have really been dictated by how each season has been characterised by the composer. The Verdi Four Seasons that I did has really very little to do with the seasons at all, other than Spring wears green, for example. It’s just a response to the music. Althoughy admittedly, there are appropriate qualities to each movement – so you’ve got a brilliance in winter and a langour in summer which would indicate snow and ice, and the hot sun respectively.

With the Prokofiev, there are similar elements. Spring is fast and joyous, and autumn is like leaves being blown around, a little bit menacing with a hint of rain. Summer is beautiful and languorous with flutes, and winter is pizzicato, like walking on ice.

I have been putting a lot of thought into why Prokofiev included the seasons at all – why are they in this story?

‘There’s a constant theme of time passing throughout the story of Cinderella – the imagery of the clock, or the transition from loneliness to joy. In our version, the seasons precede Cinderella going to the ball. And we liked the idea from the original scenario that this was the moment when Cinderella got dressed up into all her finery, and that the seasons all bring her appropriate gifts which become elements of what she wears. So it’s a bit like a little girl dressing up.

‘We’re still talking about the scene at the moment, as we’re still not entirely decided. But the idea is that summer will perhaps bring her flowers for her hair, and winter will bring a cloak of frosted leaves, and so on. All of these elements will then combine into the outfit that Cinderella wears for the ball.’

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Cinderella's coach

Filed Under: General News, Interviews
Aug.16, 2010

It has been hinted that Cinderella’s trip to the Prince’s ball may hold surprises for the audience in this new production.

‘John [Macfarlane, designer] was hesitant to have a coach at first, as he didn’t see how it could be achieved,’ confesses David. ‘I came up with an alternative that we both rather liked, although I’m not sure how it would have worked in practise.

‘There’s a vast starry background, and I suggested that Cinderella could literally run up the stars to exit the scene. So we would have an invisible staircase and she would seemingly disappear into the sky. I liked the idea of her being a bit like a child, with her dress and shoes being a little bit too big, before we saw her at the ball in the next scene.

‘I was also going to parallel that staircase with the stairs that lead up and out of her cellar kitchen; stairs that Cinderella is never allowed to step on.

‘So we were going to go ahead with that concept, but then everybody that John spoke to about the project said: ‘You’ve gotta have a coach!’ So we looked at it again and now we’ve got a coach, but it doesn’t do what coaches usually do…’

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The summer break

Filed Under: Interviews
Jul.18, 2010

With Birmingham Royal Ballet now on the five-week summer break, David has been quick to quash concerns that this will have any effect on Cinderella’s creative momentum.

‘I had to stop work on Cinderella back in March because we were just so busy towards the end of the season,’ he explains. ‘So I’ve not touched it for four months anyway. As a result the summer break won’t make any difference other than me spending a large part of my summer holidays worrying about something that’s going to happen in November!’

However, technology has allowed him to refine his ideas during this period.

‘Now, whenever I do a rehearsal I record it and transfer it to my computer,’ he says. ‘So I’ve got the forty minutes that I did in January and Feburary, for example. It’s not finished, because I just made it, got it down and then ploughed on. So it’s good to be able to go back through these recordings and look at what bits are wrong and what bits I want to change. I can still continue some work on the choreography even when all the dancers are away.

‘Outside of that there really isn’t a lot that I do anymore. I used to prepare more before I went into a studio but I don’t like doing that now because it doesn’t really work. If you prepare too much before you go in there then you find yourself throwing 90% of it away. So it’s a waste of time.

Instead I think about the elements that aren’t in the choreography. Some of the character elemenets and individual incidents. For example, what do the sisters do when they come back from the ball? What are they doing, what are they saying? Narrative ideas, themes, bigger picture stuff.

‘But at this stage, more than anything else, I actually tend to think about the next piece! Because the next piece is only a year-and-a-half away! At this stage with Cinderella, the only thing I can do is go into the studio and make it, and if I can’t do that then there’s really no point in spending that much time thinking about things too much. Sometimes starting work on the next idea can be quite helpful too. Sometimes I may have an idea for it and think: “No, actually I’ll use that in Cinderella!”’

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New Q&A with David Bintley

Filed Under: Interviews
Apr.14, 2010

A new Q&A with David Bintley has just gone up on the Company website. In the discussion, originally conducted for the launch of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2010-11 season tickets, the Director outlines how the project came about, and what he sees himself bringing to the classic fairytale.

He also praises designer John Macfarlane, saying:

‘Right from the start, the choice of collaborators is paramount, absolutely paramount, especially when you are creating a big piece.The music is obviously a vital factor, but the look of the production is so important as well.

I’ve never worked with the designer John Macfarlane or the lighting designer David Finn, although they’ve produced work for the Birmingham Royal Ballet before, most famously for Peter [Wright]‘s Nutcracker, created for the Company the year it moved to Birmingham.

I’ve wanted to work with John in the past, but one of us has always been busy with other projects at the wrong times. As soon as we started work on the ballet, John and I established that we were going to do a ‘proper’ Cinderella. John immediately went to work and everything that he has produced is utterly beautiful and wonderful.’

You can read the full interview with David Bintley by clicking here.

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