ARTS

Steps in the right direction

Giannandrea Poesio talks to Ashley Page about the future of British ballet Is there a future for British ballet? The question encapsulates one of the dance world's current concerns.

That Britain has played a decisive role in the development of 20th-century classical dance is an historical fact; and several gen- erations of British ballet-goers have grown up savouring what has often been consid- ered one of the finest dancing traditions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the loss of the great exponents has generated a linger- ing feeling of artistic bereavement. Like mourners who seek refuge in idealised memories, most of these ballet-goers fail to accept that their favourite art needs contin- ual renewal, even though this might entail a gradual move away from the well-estab- lished principles of a (glorious) past or a radical reworking of the same.

In addition, few seem to realise that, within the last decade, the dance scene has changed dramatically. The interaction between different cultures plus various cul- tural exchanges have eroded a defining national identity which until not long ago constituted both the pride and the distinc- tive feature of the world's leading ballet companies. In other words, new ideas and new solutions from abroad have found their way into British ballet.

Whether this stylistic contamination is bad or good, it is too early to say; still, it is worth remembering that it was from a simi- lar, apparently complex situation that unique phenomena such as Diaghilev's Bal- lets Russes emerged. It is also true that the rush to find new talent and new formulas has recently brought to the fore an alarm- ing number of mediocre works and mediocre personalities — thus causing more discontent and disillusion in the state of the art.

Not all the choreographers who have been assigned the unenviable task of fol- lowing the steps of Ashton and MacMillan, however, belong to that category. Among those who in recent years have proved that they have something to say and, most important, know how to say it is the out- standing figure of the Royal Ballet's Ashley Page. This is not simply because his work demonstrates clearly that British ballet does have a future but also because his choreographic style encompasses a thor- ough exploration of formulas derived from both the classical repertoire and contempo- rary dance trends.

Ashley Page confirmed this during a recent conversation. 'The nineteenth- and twentieth-century classics provide us with a constant source of inspiration, and we can- not dismiss them as surviving museum pieces,' he said. 'They form a lively cultural background to which, consciously or The Royal Ballet's Ashley Page unconsciously, we cannot help referring. This is why I strongly advocate and support a careful preservation as well as a full understanding of those dance styles. A mere regurgitation of what has been done before, however, is out of the question.

`Unfortunately, the contemporary cul- ture, and I do not mean just dance culture, is vitiated by a constant rehash of past ideas, dispatched as novelties. What I try to do in my works is to explore the myriad possibilities offered by that lively back- ground mentioned above, by putting well- established components into a different, even unusual context.

`In this respect, my experience within the contemporary dance field — namely the works created for the Dance Umbrella Fes- tival — has been particularly refreshing and enlightening. Also, I have been lucky to approach contemporary dance at a par- ticular moment in history, between the late Seventies and early Eighties, when British modem dance was rapidly finding its own identity.'

Vivid, contrasting images are, in fact, a key component of Page's choreography. 'In Two-Part Invention, the new work I am cre- ating for the Royal Ballet,' he says, 'the contrast is particularly evident in both musical and choreographic terms. On the one hand, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 prompted a series of more classically ori- entated images — probably because we are also restaging his Cinderella for the Christ- mas season — while Robert Moran's Thir- ty-Two Cryptograms suggested the use of a more contemporary vocabulary.

`The idea of joining these two pieces might sound arduous, but it was actually the different, almost clashing nature of each piece that inspired me to create two dances that complement each other, for I think that people will be able to detect sim- ilarities in the use of the language.

`Music is, for me, an essential factor in the creation of a new dance. It is the music that tells me what to do, that guides me in devising both the structure and the devel- opment of the choreography. The most important aspect of my use of the music, however, is that I really do try to get right inside the music, thus establishing a very complex relationship with it — which can pose a problem for some viewers who are accustomed to a more straightforward use of the given score. I am not interested in simply translating the musical images into dance and taking into consideration the various contextual factors that might inform the score I am using.

`Having said that, though, I must admit that as far as the Prokofiev concerto is con- cerned I could not help referring to the various balletic nuances contained in the piece. Some might even spot a particular pirouette which I derived straight from Ashton's Cinderella.'

It would be wrong, however, to consider the complex, multilayered nature of Page's choreographic style as a dance genre for only a few connoisseurs. Previous cre- ations, such as the acclaimed Fearful Sym- metries (1994), Pursuit (1987) and Piano (1989) — based on Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 — stand out for their immediacy and clarity.

His work has often encountered the acclaim of both the most traditionalist bal- let-goer and the more radical, post-mod- em-orientated younger generations, who find in his creations an accessible, undaunt- ing introduction to ballet. And the ideas for his new creation sound intriguing. So, is there a future for British ballet? 'I think so,' Page answered, 'providing we do understand that the term future is synony- mous with evolution.'

Ashley Page's new work, Two-Part Inven- tion, will be premiered on Tuesday, 26 November at the Royal Opera House.