Birthday Offering was created in 1956 to celebrate The Royal Ballet’s 25th anniversary. To music by Alexander Glazunov, the choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton is revived on special occasions. Birmingham Royal Ballet is performing it in June to celebrate Sir Peter Wright’s centenary year. Christopher Carr, who has taught and staged much of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, tells us about the enduring delights of this fiendishly difficult ballet.
Can you tell us about how you stage Birthday Offering for companies around the world and specifically for Birmingham Royal Ballet?
While I have never danced it, I’ve seen it many times. When I was asked to teach it, I had to do a lot work – watching videos and using the dance notation score – which is absolutely fantastic. When I taught it for The Royal Ballet, I worked with quite a few ballerinas, like Antoinette Sibley, Monica Mason, Anya Linden and Beryl Grey who offered insights into the roles. I learnt a lot from them when they came to the studio to look at what I’d done with the cast at that time.
Birthday Offering was created at a time when The Royal Ballet had a number of exceptional ballerinas with very different qualities. Could you explain how Ashton created the work around these qualities.
It was 1956 when it was first choreographed which is quite a long time ago, but it’s still considered extremely difficult. The men’s dance is for the seven men, but that’s kind of it for them. But the women’s solos were particularly structured on the natural gifts that the dancers had.
For example, Nadia Nerina had a very good jump, so there’s a lot of jumps in her solo. Rowena Jackson, who I never saw dance, but I believe was fantastic at everything, was a great turner and a jumper. I would say she was given the hardest solo. I was told this story that when Frederick Ashton was in the studio with her, she laughingly said to him, “So I expect you’re going to make me bourrée backwards onto the stage to start this solo and do lots and lots of pirouettes”, which of course, is exactly what he did, because she was strong and could just do it all. There are some jokey bits in there too because Sir Fred had a wicked sense of humour!
What are some of the defining elements of Ashton’s choreography?
Musicality is vital. He was so insistent on the music. Before he started to choreograph, he knew the music he was going to use inside out, backwards and forwards. He didn’t really know any steps – he’d feed you something like, “I want something to turn here”, he’d explain what the musicality was, and somehow he’d just pull it out of you. So it was a joint effort really, between the dancer and him, and most certainly the music.
How would you describe Ashton’s style?
In Birthday Offering it is pure classical style. But all his ballets are very different. If you took the music and costumes away and just had the dancers in practice clothes, I would know which ballet it was because they’re all unique. Ashton can do shocking things.
In Scènes de Ballet in the finale, the women come on from the wings and they’re walking on pointe, bent forward with their arms behind them. They look like ostriches! It’s a real shock, but it’s fantastic, and it absolutely expresses Stravinsky’s quirky music. He really was a genius.
Birthday Offering is not often revived. Are there any issues with reviving it when it’s a new generation of dancers?
I teach the steps and I teach the quality, and try and make the choreography look the best it can, make the dancers look the best they can. It’s no good saying, darling, Margot would have done this. You’ve got to put it into their heart and their body, or else it just becomes a museum piece, which it certainly isn’t. I don’t think there are any Ashton ballets that have dated. So that’s what I feel – that they’ve got to love it and enjoy it and be themselves as well as dancing the same choreography as Margot Fonteyn danced.
Margot had wonderful balances – when you look at how difficult the pas de deux in Birthday Offering is, it’s extraordinary. I think it’s almost harder than the Rose Adagio in The Sleeping Beauty. It’s hard enough to do it in the studio, let alone in front of 2000 people.
What about the men in Birthday Offering? Michael Somes was the original lead?
I believe that Ashton, as was his way, gave Michael Somes a lot of double tours en l’air, because that’s what he did best. He was an extremely good partner. Most partners use two hands to partner pirouettes, but he could actually partner with just the one hand. It’s another case of Ashton taking note of the qualities he’s working with.
Ashton loved bending your body forwards, backwards or sideways. Of course dancers don’t like to do this much because it gets rid of the air in your lungs. It makes it more exhausting. Épaulement was very, very important to him. The direction of your head, arms and body instead of just dancing flat front – it was all set out in the dance notation. It’s the best thing I ever did, learning how to read notation. It tells me more accurately and gives me more information to keep the choreography as it was meant to be.
There’s no way you can’t enjoy this ballet: it’s extremely hard, the music is divine, the costumes are fantastic. Originally there was no set – but they pinched four candelabra from an opera production! Ballet technique has come on leaps and bounds. Yes, people can do more now than they could in 1956, but they still find it challenging. Actually most of Ashton’s choreography is extremely difficult.
Birmingham Royal Ballet perform Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering on 19th–20th June at Birmingham Hippodrome.
See upcoming performances by Birmingham Royal Ballet.
This article was sponsored by Birmingham Royal Ballet.
