Northern Ballet's Latest Gastronomic Delight!

Like a gastronaut on the loose in a Michelin Star restaurant, I continue to work through the rich diet served up by Chef De Northern Ballet.

Wuthering Heights has been around a while but it's the first time Heathcliff has had to dust off his breeches for a good few years and, indeed, the first time I have sampled this course.

With the passing of time I begin to feel that I am visiting old friends when I attend a Northern Ballet performance because the faces, and styles, have become as familiar as the company's tapestry sized repertoire. But, this time I found my eyes drawn, incessantly, to the tiny, wispy frame of Rachael Gillespie as Young Cathy, one of the emerging junior soloists.

Martha Leebolt as Cathy Earnshaw, is certainly one of the most established Premier dancers in the company and, as always, she was her accomplished self, graceful and powerful, although it is always nice to see young people who may hitherto have escaped your notice; this time, I felt it was Rachael's turn in the same way that Frenchman Kevin Poeung first caught my eye when he bounced across the stage as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was there again, but this time a little more in the background.



Emily Bronte only wrote one book - but what a legacy - and, far from rolling in her grave, she would most probably be humming along if she knew that Les Miserables man Claude-Michel Schonberg had scored the music to this David Nixon ballet.

Haworth can be an extremely bleak place and probably not too many people associated passion, turmoil and the potential destructive qualities of love, with its foreboding moors until the parson's daughter picked up her pen.

In so many ways Wuthering Heights is an unlikely love story; Heathcliff brought in from the cold, falls in love with his charge's daughter and their love affair takes shape in the bleak surrounds of a West Yorkshire town where lousy weather and grey stone are the norm!

But last night's Alhambra audience was not disappointed. Schonberg's music envelops the auditorium with distinct overtones of his other works, and this incredibly physical ballet was all the more poignant in light of the fact that the role of Heathcliff was originally created by the late Jonathan Ollivier, who was killed, so tragically, earlier this year whilst en-route to perform in Matthew Bourne's Car Man at Sadler's Wells, London.

The word is that some of his lifts were almost beyond the reach of most ballet dancers but, to those who know far less than most about the exacting requirements of any ballet lift - and I include myself - both Jeremy Curnier as Young Heathcliff and Tobias Batley in the senior part of the same name, gave their hearts for nigh on two hours and would have been a match for any Olympic athlete!

Earthy, Elegant and Swept Along

Nixon's ballet is earthy but elegant, swept along by Schonberg's music, and probably does much to perpetuate the myth among foreign tourists that Wuthering Heights exists in some Brigadoon style setting, appearing only once every 100 years! The reality is very different and I am sure that Ali Allen's beautiful set design probably features a 'Where's Willy?' type competition, only in this case, it's probably 'Where's Keighley Town Hall?'

This was a beautiful production to be remembered for its physicality, light and shade, dark and bright. It captured the greyness of Haworth on a moody Winter's night but the passion of a love never destined to reach its zenith.


Until Saturday (21st November 2015)
Wuthering Heights, Northern Ballet
Bradford Alhambra
Start at 7.30pm