Ori-GIN-al

It has to be said I like gin; hardly an original preference and one that I share with many millions of fellow human beings fond of a sup and a cry (!). Originality is such a difficult beast to pin down. Like all unattainable goals it is flaunted by those who wish to discourage you and professed as the holy grail for those who haven't a clue how the real world works. Cynicism you say, gin I say. The only syllable worth worrying about is that one - if we did this the world would be a much happier place, well at least the artistic world.

Originality comes at a high price. Nothing is ever truly original in the 21st century, so what can we do as artists to help us to stand out amongst the crowd of charlatans. We stick to our guns that what we do. We 'plough on' regardless. Art worth making is the art that comes from the individual not the establishment. This art has relevance to the everyday man - this is key if art is to survive the next 100 years. We are in danger of alienating the very group of people that allow us to be artists. It is genuinely depressing how many times I have gone to a contemporary music or dance gig and seen the same faces. Art can't survive the same circle of people anymore. There is over saturation of peoples lives -  too much choice. But with the best art, like the best gin - it is all in the ingredients.  

A Response to the Charge of Elitism in Classical Music

This short article was written as a response to two other articles. One published in the Telegraph blog as a critique of the Classical Brits, Telegraph Blog, and one published in the Independent about pop singer Leona Lewis' desire to become an opera singer in a year, Leona Lewis article. It is mainly a response to the comments that followed in the blogs. It is my opinion but has been inspired by many people and events in my life over the last 23years of being a classical musician. It was first published on Facebook on the 8/10/12.


After reading the two articles I shared over the last few hours, the one thing that stands out for me is the misappropriation of the word, elitist. It seems that many of the commentators on the blogs and perhaps this is indicative of national and international opinion or not, but it seems that these people have confused the term elitist and uneducated. Now, before I get lynched for using such a fi

lthy word, I would like to point out and argue that, yes indeed, the reason we get sucked into the KJ's and the Watson's and the Rieu's of the recording world is that we, as a nation and nations, are not educating people in the way to listen to music properly. Listening with your 'heart' is not enough, you need to listen with your brain; I mean really listen and be critical in your listening. It is this fundamental that we are lacking and yes some of us are more fortunate than others to be able to listen with open minds and hearts. Classical music demands a certain level of critical thinking. It has nothing to do with being elitist; most of the musicians I know struggle or have struggled to pay their bills on a monthly basis. There is nothing elitist about that. It also demands time. Time is a precious commodity in the world we live in and many people will simply say they do not have the time to sit down and really listen to a whole Symphony or Sonata. These people need to be convinced that when they sit down and listen to a KJ recording it is a so far from the education they will receive by listening to another singer who has spent years honing their craft to get the perfect sound you hear. What we should be looking to take forward from the articles is a renewed sense of challenge to all classical and non-classical musicians; to educate as many as we can in the art of listening. Live performance is the way forward here. Live performance always sorts the men from the boys. Most of the 'pops' singers can't sing without a mic or at all, if we take that mic away then we remove their power. Not by physically taking it away but by metaphorically removing it through the promotion of the real stars of our genre - the ones who just sing. Of course nobody is going to admit to being uneducated, especially in something as basic as one of the five senses, but perhaps people ought to admit this. Perhaps people should stand up and say "I don't know how to listen to this." Then we can start to bring the world back to the music that makes it worth while. Classical music has not lost any of its relevance, these two articles prove it albeit in a rather distasteful way, but what has happened is that the general populace has lost classical music. It is our job as ambassadors of the craft to bring it back to them.

David Wallace

Mmus, Bmus, PgDip

New Book!

So it is here! The book that I contributed a chapter/essay in, Joan Denise Moriarty: Ireland's First Lady of Dance was launched last Wednesday.

http://www.corkcitylibraries.ie/eventsnews/latestlibrarynews/mainbody,51894,en.html

 and the review:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/books/rich-tribute-to-moriarty-188174.html

Get your copy NOW! :-) x

Starvation - The Price For Being A Swan Queen?

Since the La Scala 'scandal' many opinions and hypotheses have emerged as to what could drive a dancer to reach such an extreme point in their lives that they would starve themselves to the point of anorexia. This is an extreme and volatile social taboo. Anorexia still brings with it a stigma of shame and is shrouded in secrecy as it's victims hide themselves away from prying eyes in order to be able to fulfil their goal of beauty, yes, beauty. This is the goal of anorexia. The reason people starve themselves to this point is to attain beauty - the perfect body.

Dance and in particular ballet, has long had to battle the associations with eating disorders from binge eating to bulimia and anorexia. Many dancers (not every one) have suffered and do suffer from a less-than-ordinary relationship with food. The expectation on the dancers of today, and in particular the female dancers of today, is to have the perfect line, the perfect weight and a jaw line you could cut cheese with! What is not explained to these dancers when they are young, is the price that one needs to pay in order to attain this unreasonable body-shape goal. Even with the high cardiovascular and muscle workout that dance provides the expectation of female ballet dancers is a bust-less, fragile waif with razor sharp attack and strength that defies the visual. Some dancers are lucky enough too have a metabolism that allows them to eat all around them and still not gain a pound but most people have to be strict with what they eat while trying to get the most energy out of the least food as possible.

Anorexia is not a problem exclusively reserved for the dance world of course. It affects thousands of young women and men across the globe and is becoming increasingly common among young teens. The body-image projected by current society expects a thin, yet toned and beautifully lean body with a big bust and small waist. This is, of course, totally unreasonable to expect, but no matter how hard the magazines that advocate this image run articles countering this advocation, in the same issue they will have high fashion models in an editorial or on a catwalk with their collar bones sticking out. The problem of anorexia is one that all of society is responsible for and highlighting it and dragging it out of the metaphorical closet will force society to deal with this in a more open way. So people, and specifically the dancer at La Scala who 'outed' her situation, did the right thing. If we hide anorexia away it will get worse, if we force it into the cold light of day then we can deal with it and, hopefully, prevent young girls in ballet companies across the globe from going down the slippery slope of extreme attitudes towards food. Institutions that I have had the pleasure of working or studying in all have comprehensive structures in place for dealing with young dancers and professionals who show signs of struggling with food. Unfortunately this is not the norm across the globe, we should advocate and expect this kind of watchdog approach in all dance-orientated environments.

A Question of Age?

With the unexpected retirement of Sergei Polunin from the Royal Ballet a week ago the ballet world has been turned upside down with questions about the real commitment we expect from our young dancers in the 21st century. Polunin is one of the most naturally gifted and technically accomplished dancers I have had the pleasure to see since frequenting the RB performances since 2005 and I was really looking forward to his debut as Romeo in the upcoming production but alas that is not to be.

What causes a dancer to suddenly change his mind about his career? I am guessing that a number of factors affected his decision, both personal and professional,  but for me I think the main question would be 'I am devoting my life to this art form and I only have until 40( if I'm lucky-less if I'm a woman) so what will I do for the rest of my life?' Teaching is a vocation, many dancers would not want to go into teaching or many go in and don't last. What do they do then? The clever ones have done degrees as they keep their career afloat on the RB stage - some are photographers, some become dance writers but as a foreign national in a country where perhaps your language skills are not what they should be what do you do? The practicalities of a career in dance become, suddenly, very daunting.

A panic sets in, a panic that you will be dropped (with respect of course but still dropped) at the first sign of injury; that you will always be looking over your shoulder for the next 'young thing' to take the coveted principal roles away from you. A life of constantly questioning your ability and artistic relevance is a very very tough life indeed. Dance is not the only art form that this happens in of course, but it seems that in the dance world this is felt more acutely than say music or the visual arts. At least in music theoretically you can play music until your last breath, you can't do this with dance in the same way. Perhaps it is because dance is so connected to the body, to the corporeal, that it does not allow you to age. Dance demands youthful exuberance and agility on every level - even mime roles require a certain bodily awareness.

Ballet (onstage) does not value the wisdom that comes with age the same way music does, instead it pushes its young apprentices to be mature beyond their years in order to portray a complex role in a complex work. (A contentious statement perhaps and one that has been hotly debated over the years)

Few rise to this challenge - they are the superstars of their generation, many manage with mediocre acting skills and brilliant technical ability but is it fair to expect our young dancers to commit so much of themselves when they have not even lived into their twenties? A nineteen year old can't possibly give the same depth of performance for a role like Manon (Macmillan) as someone in their early thirties. Yet the ballet world will push a young girl to explore these dark themes when she herself may not have experienced anything close to the extreme range of emotions expected by the audience in a work like Manon. Similarly in roles such as Mayerling (Macmillan) for men or Romeo, what we expect from our young male dancers in these roles is nothing short of a miracle. Yet some manage to portray these characters with a maturity beyond their years, but, as I said, many fail.

Some might say Polunin has had a lucky escape. I know from my, relatively minute, dancing experience I think he has - from his twitter updates he needs to get out and live a little and perhaps put things in perspective. Some say he is a fool - to throw away such an illustrious career at such a young age but I would say to those people: perhaps he is showing a maturity beyond his years, perhaps he is thinking about his future, perhaps he is planning ahead and realising that dance is not what he wants his life to be about. Reprimanding him for showing this maturity is an interesting twist. If he showed this kind of maturity onstage he would get 5 stars in the reviews - now he gets called a fool.............I rest my case!

Book Review - Victoria O Brien A History of Irish Ballet 1927-1963

Review of Victoria O’Brien’s A History of Irish Ballet from 1927-1963

Victoria O’Brien's book, A History of Irish Ballet from 1927-1963 presents an account of the foundation of the Abbey School of Ballet and the legacies it created through the students that studied there and the teachers who taught there.  This is a long-awaited and well-researched engagement with regard to ballet in Dublin, but the author curiously ignores all other developments in ballet outside Dublin during the mentioned time-period.  Overlooked in the section on the roots of ballet in Ireland is Joan Denise Moriarty [JDM].  She was already working in Mallow towards the end of the Abbey Ballet School (1933/4) and she had studied with Marie Rambert.  The patrons of the amateur company (Cork Ballet Company) were Rambert and Alicia Markova.  The proposed influence of Diaghilev on ballet in Ireland came from two sources, one from de Valois herself and the other through JDM, JDM having studied with Rambert.

It becomes clear early in chapter one: we are not getting an Irish history we are getting a history of the Abbey School and ballet in Dublin.  A total elimination of dance outside Dublin as being worthwhile in the study of ballet in Ireland becomes, sadly, an omission that runs through the book.  Un-documented in the study is the first professional ballet company in Ireland, Irish Theatre Ballet [ITB], founded and directed by Joan Denise Moriarty in Cork.  This company is falsely labeled a semi-professional company (p.138).  ITB had 10 dancers; the first ballet master was the distinguished Stanley Judson, the pianist was Charles Lynch, manager Leslie Horne.  It was a touring company bringing ballet all round Ireland during two annual seasons.  It received a small grant from the Arts Council, and support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, but most of its money was raised on an annual basis from businesses and individual supporters.  In this uncertainty lay one of its main problems.  In 1963, in an attempt to reduce costs, the Arts Council insisted on a merger of ITB and Patricia Ryan’s company National Ballet Company - the new company being called Irish National Ballet [INB].  But the merger did not solve the financial problem.  O’Brien quotes a letter to the paper from Ryan (p.140/1) calling JMD’s competency as a dancer into question.  This is used as supporting evidence regarding the reasons for the dissolution of INB.  The reasons were, in fact, financial and had nothing to do with competency on any level.  The roots of the ITB Company can be traced to the amateur Cork Ballet Company.  Since 1947 it had been performing ballets to audiences in Cork and across Munster with guest soloists performing principal roles.  This company was responsible for many commissions and re-staging of ballets by Irish composers and helped develop a solid basis for the recruitment of dancers for ITB.  Also overlooked in the study is the huge education and outreach efforts made by both CBC and ITB – long before Peter Brinson instigated his “Ballet For All” movement in the UK.  

Questions about JDM's qualifications (p.69) to choreograph in the traditional style are unfounded because JDM was a champion Irish step dancer.  The suggestion that JDM presented an unacknowledged (Sara Payne) form of the ballet, Fair Rosamunde (p.70) in the CBC opening season (1947) is not true: the programme shows that JDM presented her own ballet Rosamunde based on the story for which Schubert had composed the music.  Payne’s libretto was quite different.  Further attacks on the integrity of JDM occur in the chapter on the Ballet Club: the suggestion that JDM used Cepta Cullen’s choreography of the ballet An Coitin Dearg without acknowledging her is unfounded (p.112/3), the music score is by a different composer and the JDM ballet is based on the MacLiammoir scenario.  With regards to Puck Fair, Moriarty does attribute the original choreography and idea to Cullen in the programmes of 1948 and 1953.  Correspondence between Cullen and Moriarty illuminates the discussion between the two on the best way to stage the ballet, as Moriarty did not have enough male dancers to re-stage the Cullen version.  Cullen suggests she do her own version (letter dated 9 March 1948).

The disturbing subtext of anything outside Dublin being unworthy of documenting is carried into the conclusions of the study.  The theory that JDM blurred the past and presents herself as the sole heir to the throne of Irish ballet is presented as one of the main conclusions of this study.  The Cork Ballet Company programme of 1972 did state that when JDM began to work for ballet there had been no ballet tradition in Ireland.  That is surely true if we compare it to the traditions of Russia or France – or, indeed, the one Britain had built for itself at this stage.  All of the work done for ballet in Ireland since 1927 can be said to have been a novel undertaking - 5 years of professional ballet do not constitute a tradition in the normal sense of the word.  It is, therefore, surely entirely unjustified to maintain that JDM ‘consciously or not’ eclipsed any past achievements in ballet in Ireland.

While this is a very useful history of ballet in Dublin it is not, as the title states, a history of ballet in Ireland. 

David Wallace