Angel Pericet (1926-2011)

APRIL 2012, LONDON
FIRST EUROPEAN ENCOUNTER
BETWEEN AUGUST BOURNONVILLE, ENRICO CECCHETTI AND THE ESCUELA BOLERA

with Flemming RYBERG, Principal of the Royal Danish Theatre

Richard GLASSTONE, former senior teacher at the Royal Ballet School, London Fellow and Examiner of the Cecchetti Method for the I.S.T.D.

and Marina Grut, Dame of the Order of Queen Isabel of Spain, President of the International Spanish Dance Society.

Technique classes, repertoire, film showings and discussions

A unique opportunity to participate in a weekend intensive for dancers and student teachers, ages 15 and over who are working at Advanced 1 and above. Non-dancing observers are most welcome to attend, pre-booking essential.

Evening Reception and talk: Friday 13th April 2012 7.00-9.30pm
Course: Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April 2012 10.30am-6.30pm
Highgate, London N6

Fee: Dancers: £120 Observers: £70 Reception only £10
Highgate, London, N6

Registrations: Julie Cronshaw, Director,
Highgate Ballet School, 18 Hutchings Walk, London NW11 6LT
Tel. 0044 20 8 458 1377

Click here to download the Application Form (PDF file )

Click here to download the Course Timetable (PDF file )

info@highgateballetschool.com

For August Bournonville and Enrico Cecchetti, classical dancing was neither a sport, nor a branch of gymnastics.  First and foremost, it is a movement in the mind, which manifests itself through the pairing of music and gesture, rather than words.  They accepted that Form is Function, and that true beauty will emerge only from a proper use of the human frame, and most especially, the spinal column which is an extension of the brain.  The splendid plastique and high theatricality that we admire even in their classwork, is possible only because both respected the limitations of that frame.

The Bournonville and Cecchetti methods rely upon on a rotation of Days-of-the Week.   They are, with the Vaganova School, the only methods that have come down to us, the modern French School, a product of Gustave Ricaux, having never yet been documented.  Unlike the Vaganova School, these are methods rather than a system.  Bournonville and Cecchetti’s approach is problem-solving:  each Day of the Week looks at a specific difficulty, or in the case of Cecchetti, at a specific principle, returning to it over and again whether to the left, the right, moving upstage and downstage or in reverse, until the dancer has solved the problem for himself. 

The Highgate seminar is fortunate in that Flemming Ryberg and Richard Glasstone, who are perhaps the two leading specialists in the world in the Bournonville and Cecchetti methods respectively, will be teaching.  The themes of the event focus on theatricality and Spain, so we are delighted to welcome Marina Grut, Dame of the Order of Queen Isabel and President of the Spanish Dance Society who will give a presentation on the style of Escuela Bolera and the close ties it shares with the Bournonville and Cecchetti methods. In addition to daily technique classes in the two Schools, students will study repertoire from Bournonville’s La Ventana and mime in the Bournonville tradition. La Ventana is influenced by the Escuela Bolera which held the greatest fascination for Bournonville – and for Flemming Ryberg whose ancestors were Spanish!  On Friday evening the event opens in Highgate village with a reception at 7.00pm and a talk given by the guest teachers. Following classes and presentations on Saturday and Sunday there will be a Round table discussion led by the participants which will bring to a close the seminar on Sunday afternoon.

This event is held in collaboration with the Société Auguste Vestris, a non-profit teaching society