Just let it be, if you find one, you find one, if you dont, you dont. Yokos very balanced. Dame Monica asked: Do you have any particular ballet that you would describe as your favourite in terms of what youve created and what youve made for your dancers? He said yes, he had, and had almost gone to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet where she was before his original move to Berlin.
And I guess always being a student I said (to Yoko); Well, what do you mean? And she said; Well if you want Ill teach you. So for about three-quarters of the American tour he would spend three hours with Yoko on the barre each morning. I make choices in that, instead of doing one new production with the money we had, Id do two. Written by Phillip Cooper, approved by David Nixon and Dame Monica Mason. I really am a rehearsal director whos trying to make his vision be as good as possible with the dancers. The limitation for us as a company comes more from our theatres because many of them are very small and they dont have the depth, so some of the things that you spend money on you couldnt make use of. He said he always thought of the European stages and, indeed, the Royal Opera House and the depth available. David thought for a moment. He had been a great dancer himself. He also had a way of gathering the right people to him, such as Sylvie Guillem who danced a gala in the opera house before anyone really knew who Sylvie Guillem was. The other advantage was that, at last, David was able to work in partnership with Yoko. She recalled: I think 58 was the premiere for Ondine here and while Sir Fred was choreographing, he would come to a halt because he was waiting for the next piece of music to come from Germany. So I should think that the first time you came to make the ballet youd had the chance to really listen to the music? David said he could not imagine that score on a piano, describing some of it as so thin. But Ive never had an ability to imitate a choreographer. It wasnt the best. I dont think you were there then. David said that that was before his time. The Director of Northern Ballet for nearly 20 years talks to Dame Monica Mason DBE. He went on; Evelyn is a little bit above me so I actually never saw her in the school before she left. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The problem was that we would start pas de deux in September and by the middle of October the pas de deux classes were cancelled for rehearsals so you were never really getting the training. And whenever, commented Dame Monica, I see your dancers in your company (Northern Ballet) I am always struck by how wonderful the boys partner and I imagine that must come from you being a very good partner and being able to rehearse people really well, teach them how to partner well. He didnt have the whole score and he had no way in those days of hearing the score before he choreographed. I put the phone down and I said Oh, my god! Evelyn was quite a demanding partner and she had really studied things and she would insist in you partnering her in certain ways. Nixon's Liaisons was produced at the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin in 1990. It was only when the Council took over the project that we were able to fund it and get it built and they leased the land for it. Moving into the building also had an immediate effect on the companys profile. She said: Im a huge fan, David. She thought Id give it up quite soon but, instead, I added more classes the following year and so on and so on. He then admitted to a big mistake when he was six, in Grade1. There are dancers, Kevin Poeung was one, I just saw him at the barre and I knew I wanted him and I knew he was extraordinary and special, and Joseph Taylor is another one and Abigail Prudames. Dame Monica said David was very encouraging with his dancers and helped them when they wanted to explore something different or begin to choreograph. Also the value in my choreography is that the partnerings quite challenging and so they have to learn to be a good partner in a certain way. Dame Monica asked whether David had been fortunate in not suffering a lot of injury as a dancer? And in the early days I was really able to teach the men in the company. He added: Whats interesting today is that there are more really talented choreographers than there were during our time. How much help had Yoko been to him in his choreography? We had to piece it together but it gave an opportunity to look at the production absolutely stripped down to nothing so it came back to just the three pieces of furniture and the black back, and three chandeliers. This actually made the piece look as though it was reborn, he felt, and one focussed totally on what the dancers were doing. He said this was probably Albrecht in Giselle dancing opposite his wife in the classical version but his favourite programme of all time was doing Bjarts Firebird and then being on the table in Bolero. Susan Dalgetty Ezra expressed LBCs gratitude for his coming on board at the last moment. because I never though of Henze as easy music and I wondered how I was going to be able to deal with it. So she works on their technique and the way in which they execute so that supports how I would like them to move and gives the company more of an identity in the way it moves and also sometimes Im looking for the clever idea and she says: the more you try and find the clever idea, the farther away it will be. David paused. Yes, said David. Its so much better today. That intervention, David explained, led to his moving to Berlin to the Deutsche Oper Ballet under the directorship of Gert Reinholm. I definitely can show them how to partner in ways that perhaps some people dont understand, he said, because I was also quite guided through my whole career by various people, not just working with Yoko. He cited the revolving wall in Akram Khans Giselle at the ENB. He felt it was very important to support them. He duly auditioned and was accepted. The title role is danced by Martha Leebolt. The important thing is to take the responsibility off of the dancer because that way they dont feel pressured to do something when they shouldnt, even when they want to. Its hard when youre looking for who to choose for a mixed programme because you get in so many videos of work that is quite interesting. In 1994 he returned to Deutsche Oper Ballet as First Ballet Master. I feel sometimes theyre not our home in a way. I took it back more to the original and I actually added more Henze music into it . As a director, theres too many things to list. The Northern Ballet Theatre won the Audience Award in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 National Dance Awards, becoming the first company to win the award in consecutive years. What happened is that I felt that my choreography was not of itself that extraordinary a thing but the experience of the process for the dancers was quite extraordinary and what developed in them was really worthwhile. He hadnt been a dancer but I know he had trained a lot of people in this country and he was very knowledgeable and it seemed to me then, and Im talking late 90s and the beginning of the new century, that we really got to grips with it and I think in the last 20 years theyve made such strides. What kind of evening was it? Why should you just hire a dancer to direct a company? This decided him to produce his own evening of dance, which he ended up doing twice. [5], A perennial production for many ballet companies is his Dracula (1999). Dame Monica continued: So now youre in Germany with Gert Reinholm. It was the one thing I felt I had missed out on, he admitted. I had already given up my contract and Peter wanted it for someone else so I was kind of out of a job.. He said no But, you were doing it at that time with both Alina and Tamara and I came and you gave me tickets and so thats when I saw it and I thought to myself Oh my god! It didnt work for her and then she ended up in Winnipeg of course where she was really able to blossom and become a quite extraordinary dancer. He added: So that was an interesting year. It was a great privilege to meet him and know him a little. Then she asked: So how long did you stay in Berlin? I was there for five years as a dancer, David confirmed, and in the fifth year Reid Anderson took over the National Ballet of Canada and I had been guesting with them after a couple of years because all along they thought I was coming back, I was on a leave of absence, but I kept saying well, I havent really done what I need to do yet, but then Reid took over and, because he understood the German system he said: you resign in November in Berlin or I wont give you a contract. Anyway, the tour ended and I went back to the National Ballet of Canada but I had this thing that I wanted to change how I worked. Dame Monica said Herr Reinholm had asked her to come and teach the snowflakes adding: I think that was the late seventies, 79. [8], A new version of David Nixon's Dracula was created for Northern Ballet Theatre in Leeds for 2005. My approach is much more like a director? She noted that he, one of the Circles vice-presidents, would be In Conversation with our President Dame Monica Mason, so we have London Ballet Circle royalty tonight.. The only thing I really would have liked to have done as a dancer was John Neumeiers Swan Lake. Ive had dancers say no, I can still do it, and Im like no, in this instance the physio has said that it could get worse by doing something so that is a turning point for us. Dame Monica wanted to know when David decided that his dancing career was probably coming to an end and he was looking to transition? I think they thought I was never going to leave, he said. We had parents calling us would this be appropriate for my three-year-old? and were like theres a word Dangerous in there I dont think thats right for a three-year-old. It was the characters (that appealed) because I was a dramatic dancer so I had more of an affinity for dramatic characters and there were several of them and I was trying to get away from the ballet thats typical in a classical ballet repertoire where you have a single principal man and woman and maybe some soloists underneath but that sense that more people were necessary to tell the story in concrete ways. He premiered multiple works there including new versions of Madame Butterfly, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers. Something youre especially proud of or, maybe, youre proud of all of them as well. I imagine you would be. This, he said, was a really difficult question. Thats the way I was working at that point. Dame Monica wondered how many rles he had had created on him by a choreographer but he admitted not as many as he would have liked. It was about making sure they looked their best.
We did Cecchetti, I wouldnt say we trained Cecchetti but we did the exams. Because I went to America to a smaller company (Ballet Met, Columbus, Ohio) and the resources were not there to hire people to choreograph six programmes a year so I had to do it and I had experience with it so was fine. He joined the Deutsche Oper Ballet, in Berlin, in 1985 as a principal dancer where he won the Critics Award for Best Male Performance in 1987. I worked a lot with Glenn Tetley, David explained, but never had anything created. He was Artistic Director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, 19942001, before joining Northern Ballet. David said that on the first occasion he used dancers he knew from the Deutsche Oper. This, he felt, gave him some credentials to prove he did understand marketing, fundraising, programming, even lighting. [6] The original Dracula, Jimmy Orrante, and Nixon created a Count Dracula full of contradictions with more human longings than the Stoker character. 2022Royal Opera HouseBow StreetCovent GardenLondonWC2E 9DD, Book onlineTickets for upcoming events are only available online, Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company number 480523) Charity Registered (Number 211775), Tickets for upcoming events are only available online, We can never underestimate the effect of any choreographer on the next generation an interview with Northern Ballets David Nixon. He explained: I think I look at ballets by dancers Ive created and worked with and because I look at them that way, each of them is special in its own unique way because of the experience of working with those dancers and what that brought to them and to me and to the company. For that reason he could not really place one ballet over another but, on the other hand, he described what he called the most different experience he had had and this was when he created Ondine for Ballet du Rhin. Unlike you, Monica, I could not have done that. But actually I didnt create many rles. I had a duet with Eva Evdokimova choreographed by John Neumeier for myself called the Einhorn the Unicorn. 
It was important, she believed, to keep ones dancers as rewarded, happy, satisfied and challenged as possible. Do you think that had you had bigger budgets you would have done things very differently? David responded by saying that the problem in some ways was the audience and their expectations. The Artistic Director on growing his Leeds-based company and working with new choreographic talent. After that we (he and Yoko) just decided to freelance and we lived in Berlin so I was there for another four years, so thats ten years in total and I started to get this idea that I wanted to direct more and I thought to myself Im not going to get a job as a director just having been a principal dancer. The London Ballet Circle is registered in England and Wales under charity number 1123258
Yes, he confirmed, adding: I grew up with RAD then went to the National Ballet School. [12], In 2017 Northern Ballet premiered his ballet The Little Mermaid, based on the story by Hans Andersen. Had David known her in Canada? Is this something you really enjoy getting into with them? she asked. I think it was a combination of those dancers and I had rewritten the story. And because the dancers were quite classical but did a lot of contemporary work and when I came in and I had the more classical vocabulary and this very difficult story, they were just like sponges and they worked with me, especially the two leading women who were just extraordinary. He described the experience as really beautiful and received a review in Dance Europe that said he had made Hans Werner Henzes music come into its own. My dancers get to create roles all the time. She went on: I know one of the first people to work at the Royal Ballet was a German trained therapist. We were so struck the very first time we heard the first orchestral. When you dance with dancers that are more mature than yourself you have such respect for them. Dame Monica asked if pas de deux had been taught at the National Ballet School? The first wanted to know what was the most favourite role David had danced? I was always second cast. He went on: I had a lot of creations from Constantine Patsalis who was a choreographer, he was Erik Bruhns partner for a long time in Canada. Its quite difficult musically to understand it. Mary Poppins had just come out at that time, we were doing a sort of musical on it and I wanted to audition for the role of the chimney sweep, so I brought my RAD record in and put my tights on and did a ballet demonstration so I could get the part, and I did. He was very good, he said, and managed to let everyone know that I was a ballet dancer in a hockey town in Canada. For the next six years, walking to school, during break, lunchtime and walking home he was called Tina the ballerina. Born in Chatham, Ontario, Nixon trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and danced with the National Ballet of Canada. Created for BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio while he was artistic director there, it is a visually impressive and highly athletic dance. As to his favourite choreographers at present these were Kenneth Tindall, Cathy Marston and Jonathan Watkins, all of whom had worked for him. Dame Monica asked about Yokos background and why she felt she could introduce David to a different dancing technique. But my first new full-length that season was Dangerous Liaisons. Dame Monica wanted to know what appealed to him about that complex story with many interesting characters and for an American audience? It was fantastic because I didnt have to lift anybody all night and I had more energy to dance than I had ever had. Another questioner asked who had been the designer of his Peter Pan and had it survived the flood? But, said Dame Monica, had he not worked with Glenn Tetley on a creation? He said the music was mainly Vivaldis Four Seasons augmented with some additional pieces and, yes, he also did the designs but on that he admitted: Wayne Eagling once said to me, he looked at my sweater and said: did you knit that as well? I said well maybe I wouldnt have to if I had the money that ENB has! In the early days I couldnt afford designers so I did all the sets and the costumes but always in collaboration with the team, building the set with people, painting the scenery and then with the costume department. How do you deal with this piece? and it was actually the orchestra manager who suggested Richard Rodney Bennett. And, he added, author Anthony Meredith who wrote the biography of the composer worked with them as he had worked with David Drew on the Malcolm Arnold score for The Three Musketeers. What can I use the ballet to pull out of them? It was when I came to England finally. My ideas werent necessarily what Mlindi had in his head but what they did was connect the dancers in a way that ended up making the choreography work in the way Milindi wanted it to. But Yoko really understood Mia so many times Mia didnt come in and told her to teach the class even when she was only 14. You must not think of it as trying to capture THAT. You can build these fantastic sets that retreat into the distance or out to the wings, he said. And she goes No, its not Twyla Tharp. Nixon was voted Director of the Year by readers of Dance Europe in 2003 and 2006. [1] During his six years with BalletMet, he added sixteen world premieres and fifteen company premieres to their repertoire. Im not really sure but it was there and when I met Yoko I started to create things for us. Dame Monica noted that he quite enjoyed choreographing for himself and Yoko, adding; Which is not the easiest thing to do. David was frank: I think I enjoyed choreographing for her, not me. Then, he said, you have to make that decision whether youre going to rebuild things or not and its kind of a sad thing in a way because youre like well I think that ballet isnt going to work any more. He tours them to our similar venues. I dont know what you would play to make it come to life. He added: I always laugh because Bertrand (Bertrand dAt, director of Ballet du Rhin) called me and asked me to do it and I would have to use the Henze score and I said yes because I was really eager to do the ballet. So she was always teaching when she was very young and teaching older people because most of the ballet students couldnt stand Mia after a couple of weeks. The only students who stuck with her tended to be the modern dancers. He was really wonderful. It would arrive with a piano score, the pianist would play him some things, but of course its hardly a representation of it. Often performed separately for dance exhibitions and competitions, a pas de deux between Dracula and Mina draws the two into an equal partnership, including moves with the ballerina supporting the male lead. Susan Dalgetty Ezra reiterated these thanks and admitted feeling very homesick hearing David talk about Canada and she added: I feel very fortunate because I saw David and Yoko dance in the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. Shed say things to people like what are you wearing stripes for, youre fat as it is and that makes you look twice as big. [3], Nixon choreographed an adaptation of The Great Gatsby which premired at Grand Theatre, Leeds in March 2013. David said the ballet had unfortunately been one of those they had said goodbye to. You read about it as a student, you just think to yourself: these were moments in dance that everyone in the world knew were happening, so when someone asks you to do something that is so iconic, to do it again, its quite humbling.