Birmingham Royal Ballet - La Fille mal gardee

Post

Subscribe

Wed 25 Sep 2024 - Sat 28 Sep 2024

Frederick Ashton’s popular ballet La Fille mal gardée combines romance and comedy in a heart-warming tale of two young lovers determined to be together despite all the odds.

When Widow Simone determines her daughter Lise must marry Alain, the son of a rich landowner, Lise and her secret love Colas have other plans.

With beautiful music by Ferdinand Hérold and Ashton’s choreography, the ballet is a firm favourite in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s repertoire and this autumn principals Max Maslen and Beatrice Parma are among the cast taking the roles of Colas and Lise.



And while the parts have challenges, they are also lots of fun to play. For Max, who joined BRB in 2012, this autumn is a chance to discover and develop new aspects to the role which he first performed in 2018. “I’m at the stage now where roles are starting to come back that I’ve done before,” he says. “I definitely feel a lot calmer with the tricky stuff that Fille mal gardée has tons of - like the Ribbon Pas de Deux and the Stick Dance.”

He continues: “You have to focus so hard the first time you learn it, repeating it over and over and over again, but this time actually picking the ribbons up at the beginning of the rehearsals, it all came flooding back. Also artistically and physically I’m in a very different place from when I first did Colas. I’ve got a lot more experience and it’s nice when you revisit roles like this to kind of lean into it. In rehearsals I’m trying to play with it a little bit rather than just trying to do the steps and make sure they are correct.”

The challenges to the role are in more than just the dancing – it is also winning the audience over to Colas’ side. “One of the scariest bits about those kind of roles where comedy is such a part is that you need to get the audience to like you from the moment you walk out on stage,” explains Max.

And it is bringing out all sides of the character. “Colas is a cheeky chappy, a man about town, a bit of a lad. When he first walks on, he’s with his mates and within eight counts they’re pushing each other, they’re giving him grief because he’s trying to meet up with Lise. That first few seconds sets the tone and then it’s taking that and running with it. But it’s all well and good being a lad but he’s also romantic and there’s a lot of Act Three where the audience sees the sweet side of him. For all the virtuoso stuff and the solos, the Wedding Pas de Deux is really delicate. It’s really tender and touching so he does have a little bit more to him than just being a lad.”



Born in Bradford, Max trained with Nydza School of Dance in Shipley and the Central School of Ballet in London. He has danced a huge range of roles with BRB over the past 12 years including Basilio in Don Quixote, Will in Hobson’s Choice, the title role in Aladdin and the Princes in Tchaikovsky’s classic trio of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. And last year Max was promoted to principal.

He says: “I think principal promotion is different from a lot of other promotions,” he says. “It’s a recognition of your contributions to the company and I see it as more than just being a really good dancer. You have to be able to set an example. Beatrice and I were both getting principal roles, getting the opportunities while we were corps de ballet or first artists, so technically we were able to do it but it’s whether you can add all the layers to it. So it’s a mixture of recognition and also the trust that every role you are giving is going to be of a certain standard and with a certain commitment and dedication.”

Max and Beatrice bring a special something to playing the roles of young lovers as they too are wedding planning after becoming engaged this summer. And it has been an exciting year for Beatrice as she was also promoted to the role of principal this July.

Born in Prato in Italy, Beatrice trained with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the English National Ballet School in London. After training, she was a soloist with the Turkish State Opera and Ballet before moving to BRB in 2015.

She says: “Since I joined BRB I’ve been so lucky to get a lot of opportunities with David Bintley and then with Carlos Acosta,” she says.% “But just because you start doing principal roles it doesn’t mean the actual principal promotion is going to happen so you keep working hard for it. When it happened it really was a moment I will never forget. Max had my parents on Facetime from Italy in the wings of the theatre. It was incredible, probably one of the best things I have ever experienced.”

Beatrice has danced a host of lead roles with BRB including Swanilda in Coppélia, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Maggie in Hobson’s Choice and the title role in Cinderella. Although Beatrice has played one of Lise’s friends in La Fille mal gardée in the past, this is her first time dancing Lise.

And she is enjoying exploring the complexities of her character. “Lise is really interesting,” she says. “She’s really sweet and caring but she’s also very determined. She knows that no matter what happens she will end up with Colas. It’s a nice contrast within her character. It’s the mentality of ‘I’m not going to have someone tell me what I have to do in my life, I choose what I do with my life’. So even though she’s supposed to marry this rich guy that her mother wants her to marry she knows that’s not what she wants, and she decides she’s going to push and get to the ending which she wants which is with Colas.”



But there are challenges to ensuring the balance of comedy and romance in the ballet. “Ensuring you have the comedy right can be hard because there is an element in which some of the expressions are extreme and exaggerated so they are almost pantomime,” %5Beatrice explains. “I think you still need to keep a bit of reality to it, there is always the thought of ‘how would I react if this happened?’ So even though it is a bit of a caricature it’s keeping it as real as possible.”%%

La Fille mal gardée may be fun to watch but Ashton’s choreography asks a great deal from the dancers. “Choreographically, like with all the Ashton ballets, it looks really easy but actually there’s a lot of intricate and awkward steps and you have to get them in the body,” Beatrice explains. “With Ashton it’s repetition so you’ve got control and then pushing it a little bit more every day so that the bends are more bends and the twists are more twists. It’s finding it within your body and working on it, always pushing it a bit further. I’ve really enjoyed doing that while learning the part.”

Now she is looking forward to sharing that enjoyment with audiences this autumn. “La Fille mal gardée is a classic and you get everything you want from a story,” Beatrice says. “You’ve got the cheekiness, the romance and then the musicality of the choreography - everything just works.”

And Max adds this is a show for everyone. “It’s a great entry-level ballet and also a great theatre production. I’ve never watched a Fille mal gardée show or been in a Fille mal gardée where the audience hasn’t laughed. The proof is in the pudding - it’s been successful for more than 60 years now and that proves something.”

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Fille mal gardée plays Birmingham Hippodrome on 25-28 September, see here for more information and tickets.

#arts_culture
#dance
#ballet
#Theatre-shows

%wnbirmingham