Peter Viney's Blog

Beauty & The Beast
Ballet Theatre UK

Octagon Theatre
Yeovil, Somerset 

Choreography by Christopher Moore
Music: from Antonin Dvorak 

Saturday 3^rdOctober 2018, 14.30

Ballet Theatre UK have a great aim: to take “proper ballet” to the parts of the country which the majors do not reach … Yeovil today, Blackpool tomorrow, Bury St Edmunds, Neath, Monmouth, Workington, Llanelli, Billingham, Horsham, Newbury … and it’s running until February 10^th2019. Here it’s at the Octagon, a theatre with superb sound in Yeovil, Somerset.

No, this is NOT some stripped down dance theatre with a bit of rap and a skateboard, but a full classical ballet production with SEVENTEEN dancers, all with multiple costumes and a first rate touring set.

Ballet needs to get round … so many little girls go to ballet classes, and here ballet skirts or Disney Belle Princess costumes were the chosen clothing for lots in the audience. It’s some years since I’ve seen “ballet” rather than dance theatre. My second date with Karen, then studying dance, was the film of the Royal Ballet’s Tales of Beatrix Potter. We went to a lot of ballet in the 70s and 80s, though we always saw more contemporary dance, and in the end we decided we could not watch the ballet of Pineapple Poll (one that was in every touring selection, it seemed) ever again. It was a welcome return here to see something so good, and so well presented.

The selection is appropriate. Beauty & The Beast was always a well-known story, but add a Disney film, a long-running Disney stage musical, shorter versions and Disney parks and a 2017 live action remake and … yes, the kids know the story. Thus it makes a splendid introduction to more classical ballet because we always know what’s going on, and we get facial expression acting with it.

It’s played to Dvorak themes curated from various suites, and the one at the end with the duo of Beauty & Beast in white is really bugging me, because a few bars have been nicked for a well-known popular song, and I’m not getting which one. I’m fairly sure it’s not from The New World. I would have liked to see a list of the pieces for each segment in the programme. The sound was excellent, and animal noises, weather, lightning strikes had been incorporated in the soundtrack.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the “Enchantress” was worthy of particular mention, a brilliant dancer, with so much work on points. As ever, looking at the dancers I’m amazed that they can do the routines while maintaining a constant smile. Beauty though had a lot of facial acting … despair, fear, worry … all portrayed well.

We all love the “problem.” Here it was a green hair slide from one of Beauty’s sisters which ended up on the stage. I’m sure “The Father” stood on it without flinching too. Then I watched the Gargoyles and the Father gradually flick it to one side, where The Father had the presence of mind to simply pick it up and escort it to the wings.

Final say? Our seven year old granddaughter, who had been transfixed, said as we went out, ‘I’ll be doing that in 20 years, ‘cos I’ll be a ballerina.” There is no greater praise.