THE LONDON CHILDREN’S BALLET ANNOUNCES
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER
- a ballet adventure for the whole family

IREK MUKHAMEDOV CHOREOGRAPHS HIS FIRST ORIGINAL NARRATIVE BALLET

Extraordinary find: identical twin boys to dance the title roles.

PEACOCK THEATRE, London WC2
Thursday, 15 May – Sunday 18 May 2003
Press night: Friday, 16 May at 7.30pm

BOX OFFICE: 020 7863 8222

Irek Mukhamedov and Matthew Edwardson in reheasal
© Bill Cooper and LCB

The London Children's Ballet (LCB) has pulled off a remarkable coup in attracting the Russian virtuoso dancer Irek Mukhamedov to choreograph its forthcoming production, The Prince and the Pauper. The production, Mukhamedov’s first wholly original narrative ballet, has eight West End performances at London’s Peacock Theatre from May 13-18.

While auditioning LCB made an extraordinary find – two gifted, identical twin boys, Oliver and Matthew Edwardson, from Cambridge who will dance the title roles of the Prince and the Pauper in Mark Twain’s adventure story of mistaken identity. This year’s multi-talented company includes a record number of boys – 21 out of a total of 57, making it an ideal year to introduce boys to the ballet.

Matthew and Oliver Edwardson
© Bill Cooper and LCB

The LCB was founded in 1994 as a performance company to give talented young dancers aged 9 –14 the opportunity to perform on stage with an orchestra as part of a professional ballet production. One of the unique aspects of the LCB is that Artistic Director and Founder Lucille Briance has commissioned a succession of action-packed story ballets, with original scores and designs, supported by professional creative and production teams. The ballets have been a sell-out success year after year; 8,000 people are expected to attend the four-day run in the West End.

The sheer accomplishment and verve of LCB’s productions has captivated even the sternest of ballet critics. “Stunningly well staged” commented The Sunday Times; “You have to pinch yourself to believe this was a children’s show ” added the Independent on Sunday.

Remarkably, LCB survives without public funding, but the Premiere Committee, headed by former Royal Ballet principal Doreen Wells, The Marchioness of Londonderry, raises much-needed funds for the company’s work.

For this year’s production of The Prince and the Pauper, Timothy Hammond returns to compose his third original score after the popular success of his previous LCB ballets, A Little Princess (’95) and Faithful Gelert (’96, ‘02) . The design team includes costume designer Kate Ford, lighting designer Jon Buswell, stage designer Diego Pitarch. The Musical Director is Philip Hesketh.

Lady Jane Grey, The Prince and Princess Elizabeth
(Rebecca Hartley, Matthew Edwardson and Jordan Cather)
© Bill Cooper and LCB

Irek Mukhamedov, who was recently the subject of a documentary for LWT’s South Bank Show, is hard at work on The Prince and The Pauper with the young company who meet to rehearse in London on Sundays at The Dance Attic. Mukhamedov is a former star of the Bolshoi and is well- known to UK audiences for his virtuosic performances with The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet

"I find the experience of working with The London Children’s Ballet
exceptionally rewarding and a great challenge. It is unusual in ballet to
be able to work with twins and I enjoy pulling out their different
personalities and tailoring my choreography to their characters. Working with little ones can test my patience! - but whatever their age, we work at an adult level and I treat them all very seriously!" comments Mukhamedov.

Performances

LCB’s Peacock Theatre season includes six public performances (see below for details) and two Ballet for £1 special outreach matinées where all ticket are priced at £1. The Charities Matinée for sick or disabled children and isolated elderly people takes place on Thursday, 15 May at 2.30pm. London’s Inner City Schools Matinée will be on Friday, 16 February at 12 noon. The Première on Thursday, 15 May at 7pm will raise much needed money for The London Children's Ballet.

BOOKING DETAILS

Public Performances
Friday, 16 May at 7.30pm
Saturday, 17 May at 2pm and 5.30pm
Sunday, 18 May at 1pm and 4.30pm

Tickets £8.50 - £40
from : Peacock Theatre
Portugal Street, London WC2
BOX OFFICE 020 7863 8222
www.sadlerswells.com

PREMIERE PERFORMANCE Thursday, 15 May at 7pm
Tickets directly from the LCB office 020 8969 1555.
£40 - £120

BALLET FOR £1 TICKETS
Schools or charities, contact the LCB office on 020 8969 1555.

The London Children’s Ballet

The London Children’s Ballet was founded in 1994 to give gifted young dancers from varied social and cultural backgrounds the opportunity to perform on stage with a full orchestra as part of a professional ballet production.

The London Children’s Ballet provides a top class dance experience free of charge for children from non-specialist schools from London and the Home Counties who are passionate about dance. Each year some 55 boys and girls aged 9-14 are selected from competitive auditions to dance with the Company.

Since 1994 Artistic Director and Founder Lucille Briance has commissioned a succession of action-packed story ballets with all-round family appeal. Previous choreographers include Harold King and the Royal Ballet’s Cathy Marston and Tom Sapsford. Each ballet has an original score and professional lighting, design and costumes. Last year 8000 people came to the company’s season at The Peacock Theatre.

Irek Mukhamedov

Irek Mukhamedov was born in Kazan and trained at the Moscow Choreographic Institute. On graduating, he joined the Moscow Classical Company. In 1981, at the 1Vth International Ballet Competition in Moscow he won the Grand Prix and gold medal and also the Hans Christian Andersen Prize. He made his debut with the Bolshoi in 1981 in the title role of Grigorovich’s Spartacus. Other notable roles included Ivan IV in Ivan the Terrible and Boris in The Golden Age. He toured extensively with the Bolshoi and made guest appearances world-wide.

He joined The Royal Ballet in 1990 and performed leading roles in the classical repertoire as well as scoring a great success as Colas in Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, and danced the title role in Bintley’s Cyrano. Choreographers including Kenneth MacMillan and Twyla Tharp created roles for him. Television appearances include a documentary about his first year in Britain with The Royal Ballet, show on BBC2’s Omnibus in 1991. He has also performed with his own company in Britain and abroad, with Arc Dance, and is currently a guest with English National Ballet. He returns to The Royal Ballet in 2003 to perform in MacMillan’s The Judas Tree.

Irek Mukhamedov is married to former Bolshoi dancer Maria Zubkova, and the have a son and a daughter. In January 2000 he was awarded an OBE.

I'm not that used to kids - except occasionally visiting friends when they are on some kind of best(ish) behaviour I suspect. Anyway I was pretty unprepared and ill equipped for the pandemonium I found when tens and tens of the little 'horrors' get together in a studio. The noise, the excitement, the running about all over! I'm a fish out of water and vaguely look around for rescue when Lucille Briance emerges from the hubbub and smilingly scoops me up me and plonks me in a comfy chair. I expect it's the onset of getting old when you tut tutt about kids making too much noise and rushing about. Next stop dementia...

I'm in Fulham at a less-than-state-of-the-art dance studio - the floor is pine boards even. But we have a piano, a choreographer, an assistant and Lucille Briance who runs the London Children's Ballet and makes it all happen - this year it's happening with a ballet version of The Prince and the Pauper. My brain adjusts as the rehearsals get going again and the repeating grind needed to get a section looking right. And perfection and quality is what's wanted from the nearly 60 children involved in a show.

Getting into LCB productions in actually competitive and they draw from about 150 schools, of which kids from 40 schools have made it this year. Lucille makes it clear that they are looking for young dancers with attitude and ability to communicate as much as technical pizzazz - though it always helps of course. They also stretch the age range when they need and this year, in need of an older dancer, have an 18 year old in the show who has only been doing ballet (as opposed to dance) for 7 months - I see him later and his jumps are amazing, even Irek nods some approval!

LCB has now been performing for 9 years and they concentrate on narrative works, which gives the most enjoyment for kids and is popular with their mixed audiences. This year they are doing 8 shows in 4 days at London's Peacock and it will be mostly sold out - though please don't let me put you off 'phoning for tickets (020 7863 8222). They have great prices on tickets but also some shows sell seats to schools and charities for an absolutely paltry £1.

And the terrific thing is that their ballets are nearly always new: new steps, new music, new costumes. Lucille keeps her tabs on who is coming through and in recent years Cathy Marston and Poppy Ben David have produced notable works. There is professional design - just look at the pictures of what Kate Ford is doing this year with Prince and the Pauper. The costumes are also made professionally and so fit well... but a small army of friends help finish them which saves much money. This year they have 120 costumes in the production and the budget is about £12,000. The results are professional-looking productions that are great to watch and stretch the young dancers too. And after all how many brand new full-length ballets do you get to see premiered in a typical year - often none I think.

This is all done without the benefit of public funding. Briance has tried and continues to look for such support but bureaucracy struggle with the one-off likes of London Children's Ballet which is neither a repatory company or school. They deserve something and it would enable them to do some dates outside London for example. I saw the show a couple of years ago and was impressed by the all-round professionalism of it. And because of those standards and the good price on seats new people come along to see what the ballet 'thing' is - don't just think of them as a kid's show. These are young dancers doing new and unique works for everybody.

Occasionally, while we've been chatting, the hubbub gets too much and Irek claps his hands and scowls a bit to get everybody paying attention, and around the loop they go again - do the steps, more feedback and adjustment. Irek is really pushing the theatrical side of working on stage and that's tough at times. For speed he works out the movement elsewhere and then concentrates in the studio on showing them what's needed - and in the showing you see all that Irek control and commitment and that's when they really look of course. I finish by asking Irek what's different about working with such young dancers: "They make too much noise and don't always pay attention enough!". He was serious but it was said with a knowing smile. I'm getting old in good company I thought!