This week, press intern Amanda Grimm goes behind the scenes at Scottish Ballet.
In the past two weeks at Scottish Ballet I’ve been writing less for the press and more for audiences who want to learn about ballet and the myriad activities that contribute to the finished product of a performance. In the process, I’ve been learning a fair bit myself.
First, I learned about the daily activities and responsibilities of the ballet staff when I interviewed ballet master Nicolas Blanc for an article that will be appearing in the Geometry and Grace souvenir programme. The ballet staff, which comprises Nicolas, Hope Muir and Maria Jimenez, teach technique class every day, coach the dancers in rehearsals and provide a link between the dancers and the Artistic and Deputy Artistic Directors. They must also learn each ballet inside out, down to every last detail, in order to be able to teach it accurately to the dancers. The ballet staff usually teach themselves from a video, but they often record the steps and patterns on paper, so that when in rehearsal they can be quickly reminded of what’s next, without always using the video. Nicolas uses a system for recording directions that he learned while training at the Academie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace, in Monte Carlo. Maria trained in Benesh notation, the most prominent system for recording dance, which has been used since the 1940s. This notation is a great tool, not only for learning a ballet, but also for preserving it for future generations.
Nicolas Blanc and Claire Robertson in rehearsals.
The day after interviewing Nicolas, I talked to Tim Palmer, the production manager, about the lavish sets for Scottish Ballet’s Cinderella, for a blog that will soon be featured on a new arts website. It was fascinating to learn how Artistic Director Ashley Page and the designer Antony McDonald worked together to come up with the general idea and look of the production, and how they hired a set construction company with theatrical expertise so that they knew how to build sets that both look right and function in the theatre, engineering expertise so that they could make the sets safe and strong enough to support the weight of the dancers, and touring expertise, so that they could build sets that can be taken apart, transported and bolted back together, and still remain in good condition for decades. It was also interesting to learn about the challenges of set changes during a performance, and all the organisation and people management skills required. I’m really looking forward to seeing Cinderella this winter, and paying more attention to the gorgeous sets.
Production Manager Tim Palmer with Cinderella set model.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I learned more about the Company dancers. One of my tasks this week was to update a list of information about the dancers, and add one interesting fact about each dancer. I found these facts by reading through their bios, CVs and the press quotes about them. I began to see how they all have different backgrounds and strengths, and started to put names to faces.
Then, yesterday I got to watch rehearsal for Scènes de Ballet. I love watching rehearsal: it’s such a different experience to watching a performance. You get to see the work in progress: in this rehearsal, Nicolas Blanc and Deputy Artistic Director Paul Tyers were coaching the four casts of the principal couple, making corrections and suggestions. And you get more of a sense of the dancers’ personalities, as they make mistakes, laugh and actually speak a bit! I think it’s great that Scottish Ballet frequently holds Access All Areas events, which give audiences similar glimpses behind the scenes. They also hold one-off events like last weekend’s The Dance Challenge, in which two groups of interested individuals took a tour of Scottish Ballet’s award-winning headquarters, watched Company class and a rehearsal and participated in a question and answer session with a dancer, before trying out some ballet for themselves. If you want to learn about every aspect of the ballet, events like this are the perfect way to do so… Well, other than doing an internship!