DANSOX hosts The Frederick Ashton Foundation: An Evening with Frederick Ashton. Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford. 24th April 2024 – Maggie Watson reports

On 24 April, DANSOX hosted an evening with The Frederick Ashton Foundation, giving an Oxford audience the chance to observe the ways in which the Foundation cherishes Ashton’s choreographic legacy. At the heart of the event, which included a talk by Alastair Macaulay and a screening of Lynne Wake’s film Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain, was a master class in which Helen Crawford coached Royal Ballet dancer Romany Pajdak in excerpts from Ashton’s ballet Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1976).

After an introduction by the Foundation’s executive director, Christopher Nourse, Macaulay set the scene, outlining Isadora Duncan’s impact on twentieth century dance and her huge influence on the dancers and choreographers that saw her, among them Frederick Ashton. Five Brahms Waltzes was created for Lynn Seymour, whose feet, Macaulay said, reminded Ashton of another of his muses, Anna Pavlova. It is a work that calls for great upper-body freedom, yet Macaulay noted that Ashton was struck by Duncan’s capacity for stillness, and her ability to make tiny movements readable to the audience.

 

Isadora Now: A Triple Bill. Viviana Durante Company, Barbican Theatre, 29th February 2020 – Maggie Watson reviews

Vivian Durante Company’s homage to Isadora Duncan is a superbly staged production. As the audience assembles, waves of light wash across the stage like water on a beach, to the sound of the sea. The lights dim and our eyes are drawn to the bowl, upstage left, that crackles and sparks, becoming a crucible of flames. Dancers emerge from the darkness; horrible crawling creatures that explode into dance with demonic passion in Isadora Duncan’s Dance of the Furies to music by Gluck, restaged by Barbara Kane and Viviana Durante. The intense energy condensed into violent movement and gesture conveys the dramatic force of Duncan’s work, but the repetitive patterns and limited movement vocabulary suggest that her choreography relied on shock quality as well as artistry for impact. At the end, the dancers slowly process past the glowing bowl, each sprinkling an offering into it as she passes.

 

The Royal Ballet in Ashton quadruple bill at Royal Opera House Tuesday 4th November evening performance – Maggie Watson reviews

It was a great treat to see four Frederick Ashton ballets (Scènes de ballet / Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan / Symphonic Variations / A Month in the Country) in one programme earlier this week at Covent Garden, and despite some imperfections of performance the sheer quality of choreography carried the evening.

The opening piece, Scènes de ballet, was a disappointment not so much because there were mistakes and some of the cast were clearly not on form, but because evidence of the company’s understanding of Ashton’s style appeared only intermittently. The choreography of this ballet is so subtle, so original and so exquisitely balanced that it cannot fail to delight, but it should have been better danced.