First Steps – A Child’s Coppelia at The Lowry Review
First Steps: A Child’s Coppelia
The Lowry, Manchester
6 March 2015
Reviewed by Hannah Abbott
After a couple of performances of Coppelia the Birmingham Royal Ballet have put on a fabulous First Steps performance targeting a much younger audience.
As an introduction to ballet with a suggested age of 3-7 years the Birmingham Royal Ballet pulled out all of the stops to ensure that the children understood as much of the story as possible. They included online material that you could download before the performance and they also handed out a programme to every member of the audience which contained pictures and a very simplified version of the story.
Realistically I am a ballet novice, I struggle to follow the story without words or song so I was really nervous about taking my young child in case he asked too many questions. I was none the wiser about the story and decided not to do any research beforehand, my reason being if I left this performance not understanding the performance then how would a child within the target audience? Well it was a success, I understood. Yes I know I am above the target age range but I really don’t understand ballet.
Although aimed at children aged 3-7 this performance was held on a Friday afternoon during term time. This restricted the viewing opportunities for some families and caused a number of disappointed comments on the Lowry website and from parents with school aged children in the audience. A number of school groups attended this performance but from how full the audience was and comments within the audience and online another couple of performances at weekend would have easily sold out.
Unlike the majority of ballets (if not all, I am a novice after all) this performance included a narrator. He was charismatic and had a presence on the stage that drew the audience in. We were included in the performance and taught key elements of the dance that would be used repeatedly to help us understand how the story would be told and also, more importantly, what the story was. It wasn’t just the story that the narrator discussed, he explained to the audience about the lighting and the music in terms that could be understood by all, but although it was simplified nobody’s intelligence was questioned and the correct terminology such as ‘overture’ was still used.
It was a simple performance that was shortened in-line with the needs of the target audience. With a running time of 50 minutes there was no interval between the two acts. It wasn’t clear at first that the acts had changed other than I had seen that the narrator was only to be included in Act One, however I am certain that the children weren’t aware of there being two acts or what an act is.
The Royal Ballet Symfonia led by Paul Murphy did an amazing job at introducing emotions and story through music. At the end of the performance we were able to walk to the front of the Lyric theatre and see the musicians with their instruments, my little boy enjoyed it so much he shouted thank you down into the orchestra pit.
Although I know comments were made about the fact I had taken a little boy to the ballet he was engrossed throughout. He loves watching performances on the stage and this was no different. Other than Cbeebies Ballet he had never seen a ballet before so I wasn’t sure how he would take to it but he was enthralled even though he is just below the target audience age range at 2 and a half. Although I’m not sure he fully understood the story he clearly understood that the dancers were telling a story, which I thought was amazing because of his young age. He was so excited at the dancing that he twirled all of the way to his Daddy after the show, he even forgot to say hello because he was explaining how the dancers danced and showing everyone who passed just how they did it.
The only issue I had with the performance at the Lowry was at the end of the performance it was announced that the dancers would be saying goodbye to everyone in the circle bar. It was a fantastic idea and we did go to see it but I ended up leaving with a slightly disappointed toddler because we never saw the dancers. It was just too busy and seemed poorly organised, it just looked like a huge huddle of strangers without a hint of order.
I wish the performance was on a weekend for my own convenience but I also would love to take my nieces along as well. I believe they would really benefit from it.
I would rate it 4/5, they only lost a star due to the lack of organisation in relation to meeting the dancers at the end of the performance.
Rating: 4/5
The Birmingham Royal Ballet are currently touring with the full version of Coppelia, for more information, tour dates and venues visit www.brb.org.uk.
For other shows at The Lowry visit www.thelowry.com.
The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 3AZ | 0843 208 6000
