Magic

 

Whenever Jane Tucker works with David Plumpton something special happens.   I noticed it in our first-anniversary class in 2019,  In the middle of our barre exercises Jane remarked:

"Oh David, I missed you so much!"

Whereupon the whole class erupted in applause.   I wrote:

"From then on, the rest of the afternoon was magic."

And so it was yesterday.   It was the best-attended class since lockdown despite all sorts of vicissitudes,   It was certainly the happiest class since 2019 if not the happiest ever.

I missed the first half of the class because I was caught up in the congestion on the M1 caused by its closure between Junctions 41 and 42 as a result of a pileup but David told me that he played "The Day We Went to Bangor" during the barre exercises because he remembered that I like that tune.  I was able to take part in all the centre exercises once I had warmed up with some hurried tendus, plies and glasses.  These were tendus in the centre, a delightful adagio, chasse pas de bourree with pirouettes, warmup jumps, glissades and jetes and a joyous grand allegro,

The only sadness yesterday was that it was the last day of one of our dearest members who performed in our scene from Giselle in 2022 and La Sylphide in 2023,  She will soon leave this country to take up a research appointment in Amsterdam.  Though we shall miss her terribly I can think of no better place for her than Amsterdam.  There she will find the Dutch National Ballet, one of the world's greatest companies, which has recently announced an exciting new programme for its new season.  Lady Macbeth which will be performed next April sounds unmissable.

Powerhouse Ballet has friends in Amsterdam.   Maria Chugai gave us two online classes in 2020 (see An Unforgettable Ckass  2 May 2020).  Yvonne Charlton taught us one of the dances from Don Quixote in Our Best Day Yet and she returned the next year to teach us Morning which she had created for her own adult ballet class in IJsselstein,  Maria was also our guest at the Stage Door,

All this reminds me that we have done a lot in our 6 years of existence and we have much to which we can look forward.  Jane has offered us rehearsals for La Sylphide on 9 and 23 June.   Alicia Jelley has invited us to her new studio.  Jane has agreed to run another romantic ballet workshop in the Autumn for our contribution to Dance Studio Leeds's gala