Steelpan Workshop at Northen Ballet and Swan Lake at the Ballet - on steelpans

The call came that I have waited a lifetime for, well Morgan's lifetime for! It was Keisha, teacher from Northern Ballet wanting a pan workshop for her summer school dancers. 

Ever since summer 1990 when Alison Beckett brought her wonderful dancers  [see pics below] to do a project with us at Foxwood School, where, at that time, I was Head of Music

and also very fat pregnant with Morgan, well, ever since then, I have wanted to do more mixed arts in general and pans and ballet in particular. And have taken opportunities whenever they arose. This time I am also being invited as featured artist. And why not! [The students get an early Arts Award out of it.]

Also having originally done Russian at Uni (for absolutely no good reason at that time!) I was firmly in love with all things 19th century Russian, in short Turgenev and, more relevant here, Tchaikovsky. 

Shane

Tendai

Paddy

And then Swan Lake. At Foxwood I wrote out the theme, and in early 2000s, my friend Xanthe wrote it out again. It evolved over the years from wistfully mournful to calypso with attitude. We all welled up as listened and as we played this wonderful piece of music. Still do on a good day. 

It also made Paddy, Shane and Tendai dress up and dance and pose when we were all at City of Leeds together [me teacher, they students]. The pictures above are just half of it.

Now for some proper ballet dancers!

Keisha and Xolani

Enter Keisha. Then Phillipa and Xolani. Then Akeim. And Harriet [pastoral].  I had given Keisha a copy of  First Flight, and was more than she pleased that chose Swan Lake as the tune for one of her dance pieces.

Keisha came to see me teach at Stanningley Primary School a couple of times to get a feel for what pans could do.

Stanningley Steel at Wharfedale May 2017

We did a planning workshop in July, where I wistfully recalled the ballet lessons of my youth and we posed in front of the big mirrors, where I held my arms and feet in what I hoped might pass for proper "positions".

And now it is the week. Lots of girls and two boys doing walkovers and crabs all over the floors until Phillippa weans them out of it. The students try pans, they do ballet exercises, they are asked to be creative. They buddy up, make friends, create some amazing little vignettes; they don't seem to fall out.

There's a few who stand out for me, but one in particular who, when the teacher is asking them to remember deportment and presentation, is already standing, poised, back slightly arched and arms gracefully placed just so, la-bas or whatever. 

Keisha has this plan in which both classes of altogether thirty-odd young dancers create a human steel pan drawing upon the exercises they have done and their own imaginations, in groups of four. And they will dance this to the CD that Sparrows recorded in early 2000s. And it was amazing - what I saw of it, as, totally unused to being a soloist, I was mostly head-down in the soprano pan, trying desperately not to blank. 

I am playing along with CD - for power, and as safety net [!]. In the end, Xolani and Akeim join me on the introduction and the first line. I think they would learnt the lot if they had had the time. 

They also do a follow-the-leader dance which Xolani leads, and parents and other Northern ballet tutors are invited to join in. I feel obliged.

Several things stand out. 1. How well organised the whole thing is; 2., how carefully they all  look after the students' pastoral needs [[and this is not just a paper/online child protection policy, but a debrief after every day in which any individual's nerves or needs discussed, and more] 3. how all it came together in the end. 4. how well everyone worked as a team. I felt welcomed and included.

me and Alena

On the last day I discover that the pianist, Alena's first language is Russian, and I give her and myself quite a shock bursting into said language out of nowhere. She is explaining where homeland, Belorussia is, я знаю, I say. I only got talking because she is playing this whacky little tune which I think would sound good on pans. It is called Jamillah and Aladdin and is from CBeebies.

On Thursday we have a drink in the Wardrobe; this is the only way to debrief! Rick says remember to eat before you drink. I don't but only have two bottles. Having no pictures of the young dancers I make up for it with pics of the adult dancers/teachers. And the Wardrobe drinkers, who include support staff: Heather, Laura. Ewan.

I am sorry it has all finished, but it is in my memory bank for ever, and, anyway, here's to the next collaboration. Cheers!