Category Archives: What’s On

Win Guide to March

Spring is approaching and it couldn’t come soon enough. Here’s our Win Guide to March:

Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Join a Forest Therapy session in Crab Wood on 3rd March. Organised by Adore Your Outdoors, the 2hr session focuses on guided meditation and mindfulness in a natural setting. For more details and to book your place, visit the website here.

Winchester City Mill will be celebrating World Book Day between Thursday 5th and Sunday 8th March. Dress up as your favourite character, help Mill-y the bookworm in the family trail and over the weekend listen to a storyteller. You can also take time to browse and buy second hand books and the shop will be accepting £1 World Book Day vouchers for eligible titles. For more details, please visit the website here.

Throughout March at the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium, the live show ‘DIY Science’ will be running. Experience experiments, tips and tricks for your own DIY scientific exploration. Usual entrance fees apply. For more details, visit the website.

Peppa Pig will be visiting the Theatre Royal Winchester with a live family show on Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 March. Get ready for a road-trip full of adventures. From castles to caves, dragons to dinosaurs and ice-creams to muddy puddles, this is a diary must for Peppa fans. For more details, see the trailer below. You can book tickets from the Theatre Royal website here.

The Theatre Royal is offering a great range of shows for grown-ups this month too. The Winchester Comedy Festival; Spring Gala 2020 takes place on 7 March. Treat yourself to an evening of comedy featuring Hal Cruttenden, Mike Cox, James Dowdeswell and James Gill. A few days later on 11 March, you can spend ‘An Evening with John Illsley of Dire Straits‘, including some hits and a Q&A.

For some drama, why not book tickets to see ‘Revenge’ directed by Louise Jameson (Eastenders, Doc Martin, Doctor Who, Bergerac, Tenko). “A taut thriller full of twists and turns!” The Stage, you can catch the production between 12 & 14th March. The multi award-winning Mark Bruce Company will be visiting Winchester, 17 & 18 March with their latest production, ‘Return to Heaven’, a ‘beautiful horror, laced with the darkest of humour’. Or you could book for the stirring new adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ between 19 & 21 March from “One of the most innovative, audacious companies working in contemporary English Theatre”, The Stage. For full programme details at the Theatre Royal this month or to book tickets, visit the website here.

Further down the hill at the Chesil Theatre, Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ opens on 28 March and will run until 4 April. Or why not join Flight Captain, David Baldwin, on 20 March for a Sword Combat workshop, subject to availability. For details and to book, visit the website here.

For a rather special dining experience this month, visit the Fusion Tasting Dinner at Kyoto Kitchen on 10 March. Japanese cuisine will meet German wine during this intimate tasting evening. Kyoto Kitchen – a boutique restaurant serving authentic Japanese food and The WineBarn – a wine merchant specialising in German wine, will be hosting the experience on Tuesday 10th March in Winchester. The evening will kick off with an aperitif, followed by five courses paired with five premium wines. Tickets are £55 per person. To reserve your place, please visit here.

We’ll keep you posted on more events on Twitter this month @Win_Guide. Enjoy, one and all!

Chance for Local Talent to perform at Hat Fair

Hat Fair – the UK’s longest running annual festival of Outdoor Arts – wants to hear from local acts interested in performing at this year’s event, held in Winchester and which this summer runs from Friday 3 – Sunday 5 July.

Whether you’re a singer, musician, comic, member of a choir or dance troupe, or have another unique short performance you would like to share with the public, this is your chance to shine!

The team is looking for acts to perform around the city centre on the Saturday (4 July). The deadline for applications is Thursday 27 February.

This year marks the 46th free, annual Hat Fair that last year broke records with over 90,000 attendances to shows from hundreds of professional national and international performers, including the best dance, theatre and circus acts; buskers – or Hatters, so called because they collect donations in a hat following their performance, and how the festival got its name; plus local talent, numerous colourful installations and lively workshops over the festival weekend.

Hat Fair 2020 runs from Friday 3 – Sunday 5 July 2020.

To apply to be a local talent act, please visit hatfair.co.uk/info/artists and go to the ‘Local Talent’ section, or email Engagement Producer, Katrina Henderson at kat@playtothecrowd.co.uk

Win guide to christmas

Ho, ho, how did it get to a month before Christmas? Time flies in our fair city, but thankfully Winchester has a fantastic range of festive offerings to banish the bah humbugs and ring in the season.

Ice Rink

The Winchester Cathedral Christmas markets and ice rink are already open and looking splendid. Inspired by traditional German Christmas markets, the range of exhibitors offer a great opportunity to purchase a unique gift for friends and loved ones. You can also enjoy mulled wine, mince pies or perhaps a bratwurst as you shop. The markets will be open until 22nd December and the ice rink until 5 January 2020.

Whilst we are talking about shopping, don’t forget to take a short stroll from the Cathedral Christmas markets through to Kingsgate Village where you can visit the charming range of independent shops: Cornflowers Gift Shop, Kingsgate Wines & Provisions, Kingsgate Books & Prints and P&G Wells Booksellers. And to work off the mince pies, a walk up the hill to the top of the high street will lead you to Stardust Years for some vintage fashion gifts or perhaps some unique festive party wear.

The Christmas Lantern Parade is back on 28th November. If you want to join in, you will need to make your own lantern with Bella Crafts. To book a Lantern Workshop, please contact Bella Crafts, 02380517054 or visit www.bellacrafts.co.uk. Participants in the Lantern Parade should arrive at Winchester Cathedral between 5.30pm and 6.00pm. Enjoy festive Christmas Carols for all the family in the Nave, before the Lantern Parade begins at 6.30pm. Visit the Cathedral website for more details. You can also access a list of Christmas service times and details here.

Panto season is upon us, oh yes it is, so get ready for some light-hearted belly laughs. Dick Whittington opens at the Theatre Royal on 30th November and runs until 5 January 2020. Join Dick and his cat on their madcap adventures, as Dick seeks his fame and fortune in a London bedevilled by the sinister King Rat and his rabble of Revolting Rodents. Tickets are available to book online here.

Father Christmas has managed to make some time for visits at the Great Hall between 21 & 23 December. Ticket fees includes the opportunity to meet Father Christmas, a festive gift and some craft activities. For more details and ticket prices, visit the website here. He’ll also be making his usual appearance on the Watercress Line Santa Express between 30 November and 23 December. Details and booking is available here.

For some fresh air and exercise, take a trip to Hilliers Gardens and join in The Snowman and the Snowdog Winter Trail. Guides cost £5 and come with a special The Snowman™ and the Snowdog gift. Usual garden admission fees apply. The trail opens on 30 November and will be available until 5 January 2020. The Winchester City Mill also has a Christmas trail. Find all of the gingerbread people and solve the puzzle to help Santa Claus make his journey on Christmas Eve.

We’ll be bringing you more seasonal hints and tips throughout December on Twitter @Win_Guide. Meanwhile, wrap up warm and enjoy, one and all!

Two Hundred Years of Autumn

Event: Mon 07 Oct 2019 at 7.30pm Book tickets here

Autumn 2019 is the bicentenary of the great romantic poet John Keats’s famous visit to Winchester. Keats stayed in Winchester for two months, from August to October 2019. On 19 September, he took a walk along the banks of the River Itchen and, inspired by this experience, wrote his immortal ode ‘To Autumn’, one of the best-loved (and indeed most anthologized) poems in the English language.

Keats’s time in Winchester – his ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ – represented the last great flowering of his creative genius. Shortly after leaving Winchester and moving into a house in London on 8 October 2019, he became ill. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, he was advised to leave England to travel to warmer climes. Sixteen months later, in Rome, he died.

Keats was buried in the protestant cemetery in Rome. The epitaph on his tombstone was one he had requested himself: “here lies one whose name was writ in water”.

But in the years since his death his name and his words and his vision have of course proven rather more permanent than he might ever have dreamed.

In honour of the anniversary of his local sojourn, the University of Winchester is staging ‘Two Hundred Years of Autumn’ at Theatre Royal Winchester on the evening of 7 October, as part of Visit Winchester’s ‘Keats in Winchester’ programme of events.

The University has worked with a wide range of regional, national and international organisations – and local people – to assemble this unique show.

“We’re so grateful to Hampshire Writers’ Society, Hampshire Cultural Trust, Winchester Poetry Festival, Winchester Writers’ Festival, Theatre Royal Winchester and Winchester Youth Theatre, as well as our friends from the Keats Foundation and the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association,” says Professor Alec Charles, curator of the show. “This is a great collaboration between such a lot of people who have one wonderful thing in common – an abiding love of the poetry of Keats.”

The show will include performances of Keats’s work and of the winning entries in writing competitions run to celebrate the city’s Keats bicentenary – both a children’s poetry competition run by Hampshire Cultural Trust and Winchester Poetry Festival, and a special competition run by Hampshire Writers’ Society to provide literary responses to the opening of his great autumn ode.

There will also be new music and songs inspired by Keats’s poetry, and scenes from Keats’s life specially adapted from his correspondence by Peter Phillips from the Keats Foundation.

The show will feature performances from the University’s students and Winchester’s Youth Theatre, as well as guest performances from Blue Apple Theatre, Storm Cloud Theatre and the Bard Buskers.

The show is directed by Cara Honey and produced by Alex Mackintosh.

“Working with such a variety of people on this project has been fascinating,” says Cara. “I’ve found that Keats is really relatable to so many creative artists and performers – we share so many of his ideals and aspirations. It’s incredible what he managed to achieve in his short life.”

“Keats is one of those artists whose reputation has grown and grown since his death,” adds Alex. “The poet who died so young has really lived forever.”

Tickets are only £5 (with proceeds going to Live Theatre Winchester Trust) and are available at: https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/two-hundred-years-of-autumn/

Heritage Open Days longer, stronger than ever!

13th – 22nd September 2019
www.winchesterheritageopendays.org

This year’s Heritage Open Days looks like being another triumph.  An even greater number of events – 147 – are on offer over a longer time span – 10 days!  Events take place not only in Winchester but also in Alresford, Southampton, Selborne, Chawton, Kingsworthy, Romsey, Hursley, Ropley, Swanwick and Northington.

Places for the bookable events are filling up fast, indeed, some are already sold out, but don’t worry, there is plenty more to see and do.  Whether visitors are interested in costume, food and drink, archaeology, music, drama or poetry there is something for all ages.  Not only the past but the future is on show – the open greener houses give people a chance to find out how to save energy and Alastair Stewart is discussing the impact of new technology on news coverage.

It is amazing that such a programme can be put together by a team of volunteers and it is even more of a triumph that it can all be free, thanks to the lead sponsor Winchester College and many others.  However, donations will be welcomed and there is one fundraising event on Thursday 12th Sept. when Martin Biddle will be explaining Why did the Anglo-Saxons build a church in the middle of a ruined Roman city? at the Discovery Centre, tickets for this are £14.

Some of the events this September are bookable in advance from the website, a few highlights are listed here but there are many, many more:

  • Steve Jarvis: Winchester Through Postcards  – Saturday 14th
  • Hampshire Firearms Collections – Thursday 19th
  • Dr Tim Hands: The Path to Keats Autumn – Thursday 19th
  • University of Winchester Chapel Tours by Design Engine Architects – Friday 20th
  • Alastair Stewart ‘Shifting Sands in News Coverage’ – Friday 20th
  • Jane Devonshire’ Food, Masterchef & beyond’ Saturday 21st
  • Hursley House Sunday 22nd

For other events visitors are invited to just turn up on the day:

  • Food & Drink Exhibition and Extraordinary Women Exhibit – throughout festival
  • A Celebration of Hampshire Treasures at Great Hall on 14th & 15th
  • Eel House Open Day in Alresford – Sunday 15th
  • Winchester College Treasury – 19th through to 22nd
    Winchester Cathedral Open Evening – Thursday 19th
    WEOROD – Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd

Please visit the Heritage Open Days website for the full programme and to book winchesterheritageopendays.org or pop into Winchester Tourist Information Centre. And remember every event is FREE!

Win guide to hat fair 2019

Hold on to your Hats: Winchester’s beloved Hat Fair Festival takes place this weekend, from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July 2019. Did you know that Hat Fair is the UK’s longest running festival of Outdoor Arts?

Celebrating 45 years this summer, the festival, which welcomed audiences of over 70,000 last year, is set to host acts from across the region, to international performers, and will entertain all ages. Performances, activities and installations will take place throughout the city centre on Friday and Saturday, with the festivities moving to North Walls Recreation Ground on Sunday.

Ghost Caribou – Credit Ian Hodgson

Hat Fair starts on Friday at 12 noon with Hat’s Fair ‘Fabulous’ Carnival. Hundreds of school-children will leave The Great Hall in brightly coloured costumes they have made for the event. They will be followed by Thingumajig Theatre’s Ghost Caribou – two giant puppets, part caribou / part spirit.

One of last year’s headline acts, Motionhouse, returns with a new piece co-commissioned by Hat Fair, called WILD. Performers will carry out daring moves across a forest of poles. Prepare to be amazed!

WILD – Credit: Dan Tucker
Fantabulosa – Credit: Emma Jones

Audiences will also enjoy Tickertape Parade’s Fantabulosa!, with interactive storytelling, lip-sync, dress-up, games and song inviting them to explore who they want to be. Then on Saturday night, festival goers are encouraged to get involved with a giant ceilidh hosted by Folk Dance Remixed.

Hat Fair is so-called due to the tradition of street artists busking or ‘hatting’ after their show. Some international hatters to look out for over the three days include Spain’s experimental juggler, Grumpy Pants; energetic dancer, BBoy illwill (USA); and Australian contortionists, The Maids. Also, festival favourites, Barada Street and Street Comedy return with acrobatics, comedy and live music.

This year the festival boasts a UK premiere with Money for Free by John Fisherman, from Spain. He invites the public to think about capitalism, society and money in a game that explores what extent the audience is aware of society’s ability to work as a team to make decisions and empower themselves.

On Saturday University of Winchester students perform in the Top Hat Competition, to win mentoring from the Hat Fair Director, Andrew Loretto, and return to Hat Fair 2020 as an official act. Plus, last year’s winner, Martin Jakeman, returns with Home Fires, inspired by Second World War stories.

There is plenty of local talent across the weekend, including Marwell Zoo Choir; puppetry from Blue Apple, which supports performers with disabilities; dance from Prince’s Mead School Dance Squad. The public can also play a street piano and keen singers are welcome to join Hat Fair’s Flashmob Choir.

Young audiences will enjoy Magic Glen; arts and crafts and learning to juggle; while St John’s Almshouses Lawn will provide a calm space for older audiences – with free tea, coffee and cake. There will also be mini-golf, a fun fair, an escape room, food, drink and gift stalls too.

For more information, visit www.hatfair.co.uk. Festival programmes are available from Theatre Royal Winchester, Winchester Tourist Information Centre, and other local distributors.

Tavern Talks Strike Back!

Last autumn, the University of Winchester’s Faculty of Arts teamed up with Winchester’s St James Tavern to launch Tavern Talks, a new series of public conversations aimed at bringing people together to engage in lively discussions about the arts, culture and contemporary discourse.

“We’ve been so pleased by the response to these events,” said the University’s Dean of Arts, Professor Alec Charles. “People don’t just come along to listen – they really participate.”

The first three events in the series have featured playwright Professor Peter Billingham discussing the relationship between democracy and civil disobedience, novelist Dr Vanessa Harbour talking about writing historical fiction, and playwright Professor Tim Prentki on the performative nature of human existence.

The organisers have now announced the new programme of Tavern Talks for early 2019.

On 14 February 2019, Professor Alec Charles will be leading a discussion on the nature of romantic love.

“It’s inevitable, isn’t it, given the date?” says Alec. “If you love love, loathe love, miss love, or just really feel the need to challenge the notion of love on a range of key philosophical points, then please join us for an evening of wit, banter, argument and romance at the St James Tavern on St Valentine’s night. Singles, couples and members of any kinds on non-traditional ménage are all welcome and embraced. (But not literally.)”

Alec is a journalist and author of numerous articles and books, including Interactivity, Out of Time, Political Animals and Underwords. (Alec is also scheduled to deliver a free public lecture at the University of Winchester on 26 March – on the subject of the significance we may find in insignificance.)

On 21 March, Professor Christopher Mulvey will be talking about the English language in Hampshire. Chris is the Managing Editor of Winchester University Press and a trustee at the English Project, as well as co-author of A History of the English Language in 100 Places, and the author of (among other titles) Anglo-American Landscapes and Transatlantic Manners.

“When the Romans withdrew from Britain, Germanic tribes began streaming across the North Sea, and they brought with them a language we now call English,” says Chris. “The Saxons created the Kingdom of Wessex, and its first shire was Hampshire. The English of this kingdom was called West Saxon – today we call it West Country English. It was the language of King Alfred, and since Alfred’s time, Hampshire’s West Saxon has become a rural dialect. Had Winchester remained the capital of England, the Queen would be speaking Tess Durbeyfield’s English!”

On 25 April, Dr Daniel Varndell will argue the case for why manners still matter, and will chart the use and abuse of etiquette in contemporary discourse. Dan is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Winchester and author of Hollywood Remakes, Deleuze and the Grandfather Paradox.

Dan says: “As a noted toastmaster once pointed out, etiquette is knowing how to yawn with your mouth closed. In an era increasingly dogged by a lack of regard for those with whom we disagree, this Tavern Talk tackles tact and tactlessness in the times of Brexit, #MeToo and Donald Trump.”

These Thursday evening events take place each month in the upstairs room of the St James Tavern at the bottom of Romsey Road. They feature short informal talks followed by lively discussions.

The evenings start with drinks from 5.30, with the talks kicking off at about 6.00pm. Participants usually stick around for chat and a drink downstairs in the pub after the discussion finishes at about 7.00.

There’s no charge for entry and everyone is welcome, space permitting.

Booking isn’t required but, if you’d like to reserve a seat, or if you’d like more information, then please contact: inga.bryden@winchester.ac.uk  

Donald Hutera talks to Yolande Yorke-Edgell

Donald Hutera talks to Yolande Yorke-Edgell about her company’s anniversary production, TWENTY in a special feature for the Winchester Guide.

Yorke Dance Project’s ambitious mixed bill TWENTY marks this enterprising company’s 20th anniversary. The UK tour opened in Bournemouth at the end of January, and includes one night at Theatre Royal Winchester (Feb 12) plus later dates in Leeds, Frome, Banbury, Salisbury and Swindon before culminating in several evenings at the Royal Opera House’s Clore Studio Upstairs in mid-May.

I interviewed dancer, choreographer and company artistic director Yolande Yorke-Edgell about the programme, about dance and about herself as an artist and art-maker, and here are her replies – long, but rich in detail.

Donald: First, a philosophical/practical musing. What’s kept you going as the head of a company for two decades, Yolande, and how do you measure success?

Yolande: What’s kept me going for so long is that I’m passionate about the work we present. The opportunity to reconstruct work by choreographers who’ve been (and still are) pivotal in how dance has evolved, both in the UK and the USA, has been a great honour. For me it’s vital that these works are seen. Ballet companies present both historical and new work but that’s less prominent in contemporary dance, and personally I love performing these works. I’m also driven by the dancers in the company. I want to give them the chance to perform works that are challenging and develop them as artists. They’re just as important as the work itself.

Measuring success is difficult. The obvious would be that we started (in the UK) performing in small venues such as the Acorn Theatre in Penzance, and our aim was to work towards venues such as Hall for Cornwall, Truro or the Norwich Playhouse – the sort of venues Richard Alston Dance Company performs at. But success can’t be measured by the trajectory of the scale of venues, and that’s because the way dance is being presented now is harder than ever. Still, I couldn’t have reached higher than being presented by the Royal Opera House twenty years after the company’s first performance at the Occidental College Theatre in Los Angeles.

Ultimately my measure of success is two-fold. The fact that we’re still touring an eight-strong company in work that only major companies around the world present, and with the level of dancers such as Jonathan Goddard, Dane Hurst, Freya Jeffs and Oxana Panchenko – that’s a great measure of success! My other measure is of the trust bestowed upon us to present work by Robert Cohan and Kenneth MacMillan. And just to work alongside and collaborate with Robert Cohan, which was my goal as a young student…

Donald: Tell me about Kenneth MacMillan’s Playground and how it’s been to revive a master’s 40 year-old work. 

Yolande: It’s been a fascinating process and very different from reconstructing Sea of Troubles, which he created for the company Dance Advance and which we previously revived. With only a very fuzzy black and white film and the Benesh Notation to guide us, we’ve been piecing Playground together with the help of notator Jane Elliott and two of the work’s original dancers, Susie Crow and Stephen Wicks. Aside from the principal characters there is a corps of twelve which we’ve put together by inviting dancers from Rambert School and Central School of Ballet to take part. On Sundays we all pile into a studio with both casts of lead dancers. That’s roughly 22 dancers, two coaches, a notator and myself. It’s all quite frantic, but a great experience. All of the dancers have a role to play, and so it’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn and develop character roles as well as being in a working environment with our incredible dancers.

Deborah and Charlotte MacMillan [Kenneth’s wife and daughter] have been providing some wonderful insights too. And, as with any master artist, to unpick and examine the work has been incredible. All of this focus enriches the process of reconstructing a very complicated ballet.

Donald: Why do you think Playground has been pretty much forgotten till now, and what factors prompted you to undertake bringing it back to the stage?

Yolande: From what I’ve gathered, and from my own take on this, I would say it was ahead of its time. Too abstract, perhaps, and not a traditional narrative with movement people were uncomfortable seeing. If you look at where people were with personal issues in the late 1970s… They didn’t discuss their problems openly. No one would admit to seeing a therapist back then, so maybe people were uncomfortable with seeing characters that they couldn’t – or didn’t want to – relate to, or even be exposed to. I think Playground is particularly relevant now. It was of interest to me because its theme is bullying, which is a huge problem for children at the moment especially on social media. So this work provides not only an opportunity for audiences to see an intriguing and multi-layered ballet, but it’s allowed us to devise a specific educational programme with a child therapist and movement director that we can  take to schools and do what we can to help stop bullying amongst children. 

Donald:What happens in Playground, in a nutshell, and is it being danced en pointe? And what discoveries have been made in remounting it?

Yolande: My initial discussion with Deborah and Charlotte MacMillan was about whether or not this ballet was possible to do without being en pointe, and we felt it was. Further discussions led to us agreeing that only the lead female role should be en pointe, to give the full effect of the character and the physicality of the movement, which is key to MacMillan’s partner work. There are only two other featured female roles, and their movement would not lose its authenticity by not being en pointe.

One of the most interesting discoveries, which is also an important feature of all MacMillan’s ballets, is what’s going on around the lead characters. There’s so much happening between all the other sixteen dancers that is vital to telling the story. This is what’s made it quite a challenge to reconstruct. Charlotte MacMillan is re-imagining both the set and costumes, and there have been lengthy discussions about certain design aspects and what might be most relevant now. Do we keep the visual impact of a straitjacket, or bring it up to date with whatever would be used today? We’re still working these sorts of questions out as we go along. We have to adapt the set to work in smaller spaces too. It will be very much like the original, just scaled down. 

Donald: Who’s dancing the role of the intruder, and who the lead young woman originally played by Marion Tait?

Yolande: We have two casts for the intruder and the young woman. Company dancer Jordi Calpe Serrats and guest artist Jonathan Goddard, and Oxana Panchenko, from Michael Clark’s company, along with Romany Pajdak, first soloist with the Royal Ballet, will share these roles.

Donald: Let’s move on to another master choreographer and company mainstay, Bob Cohan. What’s the mood and tone, the look and sound, of his new work Communion?

Yolande: As a small company we have in the past reconstructed smaller works of Cohan‘s. For this anniversary programme I wanted to offer a commission for a larger group, especially as he’d made such great large-scale pieces for London Contemporary Dance Theatre. Knowing we had working with us Jonathan Goddard and Dane Hurst, who particularly inspire him, he started to create a work for nine dancers. In 1973 he’d made a work called Mass with dancers who walked in a line and voiced overtones [essentially singing two notes simultaneously] as they moved. This was a starting point for Mass and now Communion. I think this new dance reflects where he is in life now, at the age of 93, and from the feedback we’ve had from people who’ve seen the rehearsals it’s a very powerful and moving. Aside from the sounds of overtone singing, the rest of the music is by contemporary composer Nils Frahm.

Donald: Can you say just a little something about the solo to be danced by Laurel Dalley Smith at Covent Garden?  It’s not being seen elsewhere on the tour, right? 

Yolande: That’s right, it’s only at the Royal Opera House. Laurel joined the company in 2014 and was chosen by Cohan to dance in Lingua Franca which he created for us and which was performed as part of his 90th Birthday celebrations in spring 2015. Laurel was so inspired by Cohan that she decided to attend the Martha Graham Summer School, and from there she auditioned and has been a dancer with the Martha Graham Company since 2015. Laurel will be on a short break from the Graham company in May, and to celebrate our anniversary they’ve have given permission for her to guest with us for the ROH performances. A new section of Communion will be created featuring Laurel, and it’ll be rehearsed a few weeks before the May performances. 

Donald: Your new work Imprint has been made in homage to three inspiring people. Can you say something about each of them, as well as giving some idea of what this work is like in terms of its structure and the sensory impact of its look, sound and other textures?

Yolande: The journey the company has taken, from its beginnings in Los Angeles through to where it is now, has been greatly influenced by my experience with three choreographers: how they work in the studio, how they make work and how it feels to dance in their work. I spoke at length to Robert Cohan about the idea of making a new work that reflected what I’d learned from each, and how that has impacted me as an artist. He suggested that I go into the studio and remember how it felt to dance their work, and be in their presence, and just let the movement come through me without thinking about it. It was the most freeing experience I’ve had as a choreographer – just allowing that physical history to come through, and making movement with what my body remembered from. I’ve never made work as quickly as I’ve done with this process, and it’s been interesting to see what has come out.

There are two sections dedicated to each choreographer – Richard Alston, Bella Lewitzky and Cohan – and the music I’m using includes Bach and Heiner Goebbels. My fear after looking at the work is that the audience might think I’m trying to make something in the style of each choreographer, but that’s not it at all. It’s simply the imprint of their work on me that they will see. What I’ve taken from each choreographer is the musicality and playfulness of Alston, the depth and sensation of movement of Cohan and the clarity, strength and shape of Lewitzky.

Donald: I came across this quote on Wikipedia:

“Great control of every motion and placement,” she says, “is a kind of self-care. It’s self-love in the best sense. I make a contract with the dancers (not literally, of course) to keep them alive and well and progressive – doing my level best to see that they’re not injured.” One must bear in mind, she says, that “dancing is not normal, that only a strong, knowledgeable body can protect against damage.” Bella Lewitzky, from an interview with Donna PerlmutterDance Magazine (January 1997)

Any reaction to it? And how normal is dance to you?

Yolande: This is very ‘Bella’! Thank you for sharing it. I was at my strongest as a dancer when I danced with Bella. She knew exactly how the body worked best and developed her technique to protect us and ensure she had strong, powerful dancers.

For me dance is, as Bella so rightly pointed out, self-care. It’s where I feel most comfortable. It is who I am, and  what I know best. As a child it became my voice and was a safe place for me to express myself. This might go back to what drives me to lead a dance company. As far as asking how normal it is, for me it’s not exactly normal, but once you allow it to exist within you, it’s your normal.

Donald: I don’t know the work of Sophia Stoller at all. Can you say something about it and her, generally, and, specifically, about the dance she’s made called Between and Within

Yolande: After forming the Cohan Collective with Robert Cohan here in the UK – a residency for choreographers and composers to collaborate whilst being mentored – I piloted theCollective in Los Angeles in partnership with Pennington Dance Group. We worked with three composers and three choreographers from Los Angeles, and Sophia Stoller was one of the latter. She created a duet during the residency that was very powerful, and I thought it would be great to develop that further and so commissioned this work for our anniversary programme. This ties in to the ethos of the company presenting work by dance-makers from both the UK and America whilst being supportive of emerging artists. We also invited her collaborator Justin Scheid to compose the music. What I find really interesting is that her style is very different from what we are currently seeing here in the UK.

Donald: Okay, a final question: Why do we need to see dance, and your company dancing, now?

Yolande: When this question comes up my mind always goes to a scenario that happened when the war in Iraq was breaking in 2003 and I was opening a show in Los Angeles. I had three nights at the Miles Memorial Theatre in Santa Monica. The opening night was when the war broke out. The second night a reviewer from the LA Times came along – one of about ten people in the audience that night as everyone was in shock about what was happening in the world. We spoke, and she said she was very moved by the performance and would do all she could to try and get the review in Saturday morning’s paper so that others would come and see the show. The headline was “Real Emotion from Yorke Dance Project” and her opening paragraph included the line, “It was possible to forget the woes of Thursday night when Yorke Dance Project brought beauty, grace and real emotion to a sparse but appreciative audience.” She did it, and we had a sold-out evening. So I don’t think it’s a case of seeing dance and the company now. There is just something very special about live theatre. You get to be in the same space, and feel the same energy (particularly in small theatres), and be taken out of your head and into another world. It’s like a meditation. You stop thinking and just experience something, whether you end up liking it or not!

View the trailer here:

Tickets available for the Theatre Royal Winchester

https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/yorke-dance-project/

EXTRA ‘INSIDER’ FEATURES!

Jonathan Goddard

The multiple award-winner Jonathan Goddard is one of the UK’s best contemporary dancers. Although he’s performed in Winchester a number of times, he won’t be available for Yorke Dance Project’s date at the Theatre Royal. Still, he was good enough to reply to an email query asking him about the work the company is offering and his part in it.

Jonathan: I’ve been involved with Yorke Dance Project since 2014, and it’s great to be able to contribute and celebrate its staying power. I’m in two of the works.

Playground by Kenneth Macmillan was originally staged in 1979 and created for what was then Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. It’s a narrative work which takes the Orpheus and Eurydice myth as its starting point, and I’ve learnt the role of ‘The Intruder.’ It’s been exciting to revive this ballet. I think Macmillan had been undertaking psychoanalysis around the period it was made, so there are some meaty themes to get into – family, and the balance of sanity and fantasy. I’m very much enjoying dancing with guest artists Oxana Panchenko and Romany Pajdak, and to develop the work’s central partnership with them. Playground hasn’t been revived or performed since it was made, so it is really a process of excavation. It’s a rarity, and with a great cast, so it’s definitely worth coming to watch!

The other work I’m in is a new choreography from Bob Cohan. Communion, created last year, feels very special. Bob has made a really beautiful solo for me which finishes the work. I first danced for him in a revival of his piece Eclipse for his 80th birthday celebrations in 2005. It’s really good to be back together, and there’s a sense of achievement, poignancy and fun to be working together fourteen years later.

Our UK tour will finish with shows at the Royal Opera House in London, where we’ll be adding a duet with dancer Laurel Dalley-Smith. Laurel began dancing with Yorke Dance Project,where we met and partnered each other, and then went off to join the Martha Graham Company and has been doing fantastically well there in New York City. It’ll be great to dance together again and see how Bob responds and creates with someone who is now working with the company where he has so much history and was a star dancer.

Susie Crow

Susie Crow was in the original cast of Kenneth MacMillan’s Playground. Here, as one of the coaches for Yorke Dance Project’s current revival of the ballet, she offers valuable inside knowledge about that first staging.

Susie: Playground was originally created for performance at the Edinburgh Festival, where it was apparently well-received; certainly friends of ours who came were impressed. MacMillan choreographed it after leaving the directorship of the Royal Ballet and making such exploratory and dark works as My Brother, My Sisters. But after subsequent performances at Sadler’s Wells, and I think some on tour, it wasn’t done again.  

Was Playground perhaps deemed to be too gritty and uncompromising for further touring? It might’ve been thought a risk when Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet was rebuilding itself and its following. It’s just a shame that it didn’t get a chance to establish itself in the repertoire.  

More recently, following the anniversary season of MacMillan work in 2017, there’s been renewed interest in reviving lesser-known, earlier works of his. That, and the recent success of Yorke Dance Project and its revival of his Sea of Troubles, probably influenced the decision to revive this ballet. It’s a work that includes rather naturalistic movement to create an environment within which the principle characters act out troubling relationships. The Yorke Dance dancers have really impressed me in their ability to present the more expressionist side of MacMillan’s work.  Given today’s social concerns about bullying, exclusion and mental health issues, Playground also feels remarkably topical and prescient.  It could be really powerful this time around.

I don’t want to disclose what happens in Playground. I think all the audience needs to know before seeing it will be in the title, and in the specified names of a few characters. Yorke Dance Project is a small contemporary company of less than ten dancers, and this was effectively a work for a much larger ballet company with a cast of eighteen and a full orchestral score originally performed live. So some adjustment has been necessary, a process which can concentrate the focus on what is important. It’s been really exciting to see the work coming back to life, and in its painstaking reconstruction to appreciate afresh MacMillan’s ability to create character and situation through balletic movement, and acting through dancing.  It also opens up questions about performative skills – how to be on the stage for a long time as a member of an ensemble and sustain the work’s claustrophobic atmosphere, often with minimal or simple means, and deciding where the focus is.

 A recorded version has been made of the original score by Gordon Crosse which is richly colourful and atmospheric, but also quite challenging for the dancers to co-ordinate to its combination of more and less rhythmic passages.

This time the work will be performed in smaller, more intimate venues. Inevitably the set, while keeping the character and signification of the original, needs to be more flexible, lightweight and tourable. The costumes likewise will maintain a spirit of dressing up, but perhaps give a slightly more timeless look.  It’s very special to have Kenneth’s daughter Charlotte re-designing a ballet made when she was a small child herself.

It’s been a brilliant learning experience for all of us!

Tavern Talks January 2019

On Thursday evening (24 January) Professor Tim Prentki will be speaking in the latest in the University of Winchester monthly series of Tavern Talks – held upstairs at the St James Tavern at the bottom of the Romsey Road.

Tavern Talks feature short informal talks followed by lively discussion. The evening starts with drinks from 5.30, with the talk itself kicking off at about 6.00pm. Tavern Talkers usually stick around for another drink (or two) downstairs after the discussion finishes at around 7.00.

Entry is free, participation encouraged. All are welcome. No booking required.

Tim will argue that, insofar as we process and perform reality in the same ways in which theatre operates, we might all be said to be ‘acting on the world stage’ – and will argue that, when our opportunities to develop as social performers and audiences are thwarted, we lose empathy and resort to tribal identities at odds with our cerebral wiring.

Tim is a playwright and the world’s first Professor of Theatre for Development, as well as being the author of numerous books on such subjects as Applied Theatre and Popular Theatre in Political Culture.

Forthcoming Tavern Talks:

Win Guide to December

That’s right Wintonians, the countdown to Christmas in Winchester is upon us. Let’s face it, our city is pretty good at embracing this season. Here’s our Win Guide to December…

Firstly, have you booked your ticket to panto at the Theatre Royal Winchester? This year’s festive treat is Beauty and the Beast. Oh yes it is. Audiences have been saying great things in response to the opening previews on Twitter and it’s going to be a corker. There are relaxed performances in the schedule and the show is recommended for anyone aged 3+. Booking details, times and prices can all be found online here.  

Young Theatre fans may also enjoy a visit to Santa’s Christmas Party at the Theatre Royal Winchester on Monday 17 December. It’s an interactive family show for children aged 2 – 7 years with a chance to meet Santa at the North Pole and receive a gift! For details, times and ticket prices, visit the website here.

And here’s a trailer:

The Chesil Theatre is hosting A Fun, Funky, Christmassy Musical Entertainment Evening, led by Marcus and Pete Whitfield. Tickets are just £3, and it will be a fantastic social event to celebrate the festive season at the Chesil Theatre. Get ready for some funky festive frolicking fun.

The Waynflete Singers present A Christmas Fanfare at Winchester Cathedral, 8 December at 7.30pm. The programme includes Handel’s Coronation Anthems, interspersed with Gabrieli’s thrilling brass Canzonas, and Heinrich Schutz’s mighty setting for double choir of Psalm 100, Jauchzet dem Herrn. John Rutter’s setting of the Gloria provides a brilliant and joyous opener for the second half, which concludes with a selection of Christmas carols for choir and audience. Tickets and prices are available online here.

Christmas in Winchester wouldn’t be Christmas without a visit to the Cathedral Christmas markets and a bit of ice skating. There are over 100 wooden chalets this year, open from 10.30am until 6.30pm Sunday  –  Wednesday and 10.30am – 8pm Thursday to Saturday so there are plenty of opportunities to do some Christmas shopping over a glass of mulled wine or a hot chocolate. For the Cathedral Christmas and Carol service times, visit the website here.

Don’t forget to stroll to Kingsgate Village for Kingsgate Books & Prints, Cornflowers Gift Shop, P&G Wells Booksellers or Kingsgate Wine and Provisions. And there are many more hidden boutiques or purveyors of luxury items so get some walking boots and knitwear on.  Chococo is a must for edible gifts, and we urge you to stop off for a hot chocolate whilst there. If you want pure vintage, climb up the hill to Stardust Years for authentic ladies fashion and accessories.

The University of Winchester Carol Service takes place 11 – 12 December 2018, 6.15pm & 12.15pm.  Traditional carols and seasonal refreshments, as well as the contributions of students, staff, governors and, of course, the University Chancellor Alan Titchmarsh, all combine to make these events a suitably rich conclusion to the University’s calendar. The Service will be held at the University Chapel, King Alfred Campus, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road.

Winchester City Museum will be hosting a Christmas Family Make and Take craft event on 22 December, 10.30am – 1pm. There is no need to book and the event is free but places and resources will be limited.

It’s worth a visit to the Brooks Centre this year to enjoy some Christmas at the Brooks activities. Christmas Wonderland is open between 3 – 8 December. Watch festive films inside an Igloo or visit Father Christmas himself on 8 December. You can decorate a cupcake in Mrs Claus’ Kitchen on 15 December and, on 22 December there will be a chance for some Christmas Face Painting. For details, visit the website here.

If you feel like watching a good old Christmas movie on a big screen, the Everyman Christmas season will hit the spot. There will be a feast of Christmas feel good films on offer throughout December from the Sing-a-long Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Love Actually, Home Alone or the unmissable It’s a Wonderful Life. For times, dates and prices, visit the cinema website here.

The Railway Inn is throwing a Christmas party on 22 December from 8.30pm. Expect Christmas hats, mince pies, DJs, funk ,disco, friends, hip-hop, bass and anything else that gets a party going. To book tickets, visit the website here.

We’ll be bringing you more seasonal tips on Twitter @Win_Guide. Wrap up warm one and all and enjoy!