Chairman's Report
2004/5
Last season saw the Royal Ballet Companies
celebrate the centenary of the birth of
Sir Frederick Ashton. For many members,
this saw the return to the repertoire
of favourite ballets, whilst newer dance
enthusiasts were introduced to some of
the great works of one of our finest choreographers.
Foremost amongst the revivals was Christopher
Newton’s production of Sylvia, which
returns to the stage this week.
The year saw the Association go from strength
to strength. Once again our membership
increased to another all time high of
420. This has resulted in higher attendance
at meetings, as can be seen today. As
always, we are grateful to Joan Seaman,
our Membership Secretary, and Sylvia Tyler,
who keeps our database. The increase in
our membership and in attendance at meetings
has contributed greatly to our financial
health. This has enabled us to keep the
cost of the dinner fairly low. Once again
we are grateful to Melanie Shipton, our
treasurer for keeping our finances in
order. I would also like to thank our
auditor, Peter Mahrer. We have produced
a membership badge. I hope members will
purchase badges, at £1 each, which
will contribute further to our finances.
In February, we made a donation of £500
to the Royal Ballet’s First Drafts
in the Clore Studio. The Association is
keen to support the development of young
choreographers and will be providing similar
donations towards two First Drafts events
this year, in November and March. In June,
we welcomed two of the choreographers
from First Drafts and one from Inspired
by Ashton to talk about the choreographic
process.
We were delighted to hear that Desmond
Kelly, one of our Presidents, was awarded
the OBE in the New Year’s Honours
list. We continue to receive invitations
from the Vic-Wells Association to attend
some dress rehearsals at Sadler’s
Wells. Unfortunately, the late notification
of these means we can only notify those
of you who receive your newsletter by
e-mail. We also received an invitation
from The Great Britain-Russia Society
to attend talks on Galina Ulanova, both
in Russian and English. We continue to
advertise some events of The Society of
Dance Research, to which the Association
belongs. We also advertise some events
at the Wales Millennium Centre. This may
seem strange, as few of our members live
near Wales, but the Centre is keen to
attract balletomanes.
Just before the end of last season, we
were saddened to hear of the deaths of
Pamela May and Ross Stretton. Pamela last
attended an Association event in 1998.
She made her debut in the Vic-Wells Ballet
in 1934. Ross was our Patron during his
short tenure as Director of The Royal
Ballet, and was very supportive of the
Association. He died of melanoma, at the
age of 53. He is remembered fondly by
many for introducing major works and renowned
choreographers to the repertoire, as well
as bringing in some exciting new dancers.
Some members of the Association joined
the Royal Ballet’s Supporters Group
on part of the successful tour of the
Far East, whilst many of you left at home
attended our meeting, where we marked
the retirement of Principal Pianist Philip
Gammon. In Japan, we were all shocked
to hear of the London bombings on July
7th. It was with great sadness that we
heard, on our return, that one of our
members, Anat Rosenberg, was killed on
the No 30 bus at Tavistock Square. We
asked her boyfriend to pass on our condolences
to her family back in Israel. In thanking
us, he wrote: “I recall how she
would tell me, in great detail, about
meetings and I know she really enjoyed
the dinner. The Association meant a lot
to her and she would be pleased and proud
if she could know she was in your thoughts.”
Our Patron, Monica Mason, had the good
idea, that we might put together a book
of reminiscences of members to mark the
75th Anniversary of the Company. Please
send anecdotes, photos, etc., to Sylvia
Tyler. To mark the 75th Anniversary, during
2006, the Royal Ballet is looking to the
future with some new choreography. They
are asking for Anniversary Supporters.
The Committee feels it is appropriate
that the Association become one of these
supporters and donate £2500 a year
for this and next season.
Guests during the season
Our guests during the 2004-5 season were:-
Wendy Ellis Somes, Christopher Saunders,
Romany Pajdak, Henry St. Clair, Ludovic
Ondiviela, Michael, Stojko, James Wilkie,
Marianela Nunez, Darcey Bussell, Alastair
Macaulay, Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico
Bonelli, Nao Sakuma, Kosuke Yamamoto,
Vanessa Fenton, Ernst Meisner, Peter Quanz
and Philip Gammon. I hope you will agree,
that we continue to provide a very varied
guest list representing all aspects of
the Companies. We were very grateful to
Desmond Kelly for enabling Nao and Kosuke
to come down from Birmingham to talk to
us.
As you are aware, the Swedenborg Hall
has had to reduce its capacity to 100
as a response to new fire regulations.
This causes us some problems, and unfortunately
resulted in some members being turned
away at Darcey’s talk. We have sought
alternative venues, and will sometimes
use the Royal Ballet School or the Clore
Studio. We are very grateful to Jay Jolley,
Philip Mosley and ROH2 for arranging this.
However, we don’t want to use a
large venue, unless necessary. So we apologise,
if we sometimes get it wrong. In order
to meet costs, there will be an increase
of £1 on admission for events held
in the Clore.
We continue to post reports on our website
and others. I would like to thank those
who have written reports during the last
year, but apologise for delays in publishing
some reports. At all meetings we have
a raffle. I am very grateful to artist,
Phil Bremner, who has provided some of
the prizes for tonight’s raffle.
Annual Dinner
Once again we had an extremely successful
Annual Dinner at the Rubens Hotel. We
are extremely grateful to members of the
Company for giving up rare free time to
be with us, on what is always a very special
evening. Unfortunately, because of commitments,
none of our Presidents were able to attend
and our Founder Patron, Sir Anthony Dowell,
was dancing with Sylvie Guillem in Japan.
The final list of guests attending was:
Monica Mason, Jeanetta Laurence, Kevin
O’Hare, Gail Taphouse, Philip Mosley,
Leanne Benjamin, Federico Bonelli, Roberta
Marquez, Tamara Rojo, Viacheslav Samodurov,
Zenaida Yanowsky, Belinda Hatley, Sarah
Lamb, Yohei Sasaki, Jose Martin, Cindy
Jourdain, Hikaru Kobayashi, Emily Low,
Kenta Kura, Andrej Uspenski, Tara-Brigitte
Bhavnani, Yuhui Choe, Celisa Diuana, Ryoichi
Hirano, Paul Kay, Ernst Meisner, Ludovic
Ondiviela, and Henry St Clair.
Our guests at the dinner included dancers
from all corners of the globe. Some are
British, some from other countries but
trained at the Royal Ballet School, some
trained elsewhere. At the dinner, I was
able to make a response to some unfortunate
statements in the press about a lack of
British dancers. There are some wonderful
British dancers in both Companies, but
there is no doubt in my mind that the
amalgam of talent from different backgrounds
has enriched the Royal Ballet Companies
enormously. Long may they continue to
attract the best of dancers from around
the world.
Thanks
I would like to record my thanks to all
members of the committee for the last
year– Kenneth Leadbeater, Joan Seaman,
Melanie Shipton, Sylvia Tyler, Geoffrey
Griffiths, Rachel Holland, Liz Bouttell,
Belinda Taylor and Mandy Kent. We all
give our time and energy voluntarily.
Thank you to all of you who turn up at
meetings. You help make them a success.
Thanks especially to those who have lent
a hand clearing up and setting out equipment.
Chairing this Association is a real privilege.
Thank you for your kind comments throughout
the year. We look forward to new season,
which has already seen BRB at Sadler’s
Wells and the Royal Ballet celebrate the
bicentenary of Bournonville.
Our Annual Dinner this year will be on
Wednesday 24 May. Our meeting on 1 March
will be in the Clore Studio and that on
22 March at the Royal Ballet School.
CHAIRMAN: David Bain, 23 Capstan Square,
Stewart Street, London E14 3EU Tel: 020
7515 1254
Mobile: 07855 823921 Email: Dbcapstan@aol.com
.
© The Ballet Association 2005
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