New Theatre, Cardiff

Tues 24 April

★★★★★

words: ANGHARAD BROWN

My mother tried her hardest to make me enjoy my ballet lessons, but as a rather loud and giggly child, I always felt it was too stiff and boring and after months of being told to “shh” and “stop laughing” by the teachers, my mother felt like it was best that I perhaps stopped.  Since then I’ve always struggled to enjoy ballet, due to the stiffness and pomposity that often surrounds a ballet performance in the theatre.

However, after seeing some videos on the internet, and being something of a huge fan of the Disney adaptation, I was incredibly excited to see the Northern Ballet’s version of Beauty And The Beast. Although the usual older crowd made up the majority of the audience, the whole performance felt very young and modern and sidestepped all of my previously experienced ballet-related feelings with touches of humour throughout and nods here and there to the Disney version itself.

Split in to three acts, the story is depicted beautifully with clever and imaginative scenery, stunning costumes and the most wonderful arrangement of music from John Longstaff. Perhaps my favourite scene, though, was during the first act and involved Beauty and Prince Orian alone on stage, where they danced to Clair de Lune (from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque). The choreography was outstanding, even the simple way Martha Leebold (Beauty) gracefully treads air whilst lifted by Kenneth Tindall (the Prince), which gave the illusion of weightlessness and confirmed that the scene was one of Beauty’s dreams. It was simply beautiful and the whole performance is testament to Artistic Director David Nixon’s talents. Another outstanding performance is that of Ashley Dixon who played the Beast: the control shown in his every movement was breathtaking.

I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to ballet, but I know what I like and this was simply marvellous.