June 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of Cranko’s death. When Stuttgart Ballet announced that they would be mounting a gala to honour Cranko, and that there would be, soon after, a programme titled Remember Me, I began making plans for Jane and me to be there.
The initial flight was to London. A Qantas mess-up meant that our luggage was offloaded at Singapore … so when the bags failed to appear at the Heathrow carousel at 6 in the morning, a dreadful sinking feeling took hold.
However, Brenda Last gave us a wonderful welcome – and clothes to wear – at her house in Dulwich until the cases arrived. On a boiling hot day we walked round to Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The following day we visited new parents Allison McWhinney (our former student, now English National Ballet soloist) and very proud father Laurent.Just look at the adoration for baby Maia on their faces.
Next day it was Covent Garden to meet Robin Gordon-Powell the former music librarian at Napac Dance Co in Durban, who now works at the Royal Opera House music library. This is the same job that my father had, 60 years ago! We visited the library , where we found some music manuscripts in my father’s writing. This present music library is right next to the Bridge of Aspiration which connects the Royal Ballet Upper School and the ROH.
Talking of the RBS, soon we were off to White Lodge in Richmond Park, where Nicki Katrak gave us a tour. Memories! I presented a copy of my Cranko book to the school library.
The Stuttgart gala was on 30 June, so we flew there on 28th, giving ourselves a day to re-orientate.
And what a gala it was! Four hours of excerpts from Cranko’s career performed with verve and an obvious love by people, many of whom were born more than twenty years after John died! They were led by Friedemann Vogel and Elisa Badenes the two true stars pictured. Director Tamas Detrich, who had put the mammoth programme together, breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was all over – until the Remember Me programme, at least!
It was so good to see Birgit and Vladimir, Egon, Marcia and Reid who had been coaching the dancers, and each of them, so close to Cranko, was exceedingly kind about my book. The designer of many of his ballets, Jürgen Rose, who had campaigned to restore John’s last ballet Spuren, had not received his copy of my book (posted from UK 4 months earlier!!), so I was able to give him one the next day.
Georgette Tsinguirides, the 96 years-young company notator, invited Jane and me to a delicious lunch, interrupted by her loud orders to the staff and her wonderful stories about the ‘old days’ of the Stuttgart theatre. Her memories date back to the late 1940s, mine only to the 1960s.
On the Sunday I gave a talk for a group of Friends of the company on the Sunday, hosted by the critic Angela Reinhardt. The planned 90 minutes turned into three hours, with continued discussions on the street afterwards. Judy Reyn (previously Judy Fischer) came up from Munich and joined in. I’ve known her since RBS years and then in the Stuttgart Ballet company where she danced many of the leading roles including Tatiana, Katherina in Shrew and the Fonteyn role in Poème de L’Extase.
Jane is, as well as being a discerning ballet critic, a Mercedes fanatic (she once owned a very old and extremely big Merc in Cape Town), so we visited the museum (Stuttgart is is home of Bosch and Porsche, as well as Mercedes-Benz). Here she is with her dream car.
Back to ballet, we were given a tour of the John Cranko School by Tadeus Matacz, the director, and we admired not only the amazing facilities, but much of what he had to say about dance training. We talked a lot about the importance of the teaching of character dance.
We returned to London on 4 July for the first of the RBS Holland Park performances. The contemporary dance choreography for Upper School male students by Mikaela Polley, Fast Blue was tremendously impressive.
Monica Mason was in the audience, and during the interval we discussed my book, particularly the sections dealing with the friendship between Kenneth and John, (a working relationship to be commemorated the following week in Stuttgart with performances of Kenneth’s Requiem in the Remember Me programme).
The next few days were a lovely mix of renewals of old friendships – people and places such as Kenwood House, Keats House and Tate Britain. We went to Canterbury for the day, marvelled at the cathedral and had lunch with David and Jenny Bintley. It was wonderful to see Ralph Adron and his fascinating home, stuffed full of a lifetime of his and his partner’s artefacts. Birdie Last hosted a gathering of friends including Alfreda, Rashna and Jeff (pictured below). We also met up with Mavis Osborne, widow of Terry Emery who designed 3 of my ballets including Renard many, many years ago. There was no way we could see all friends and relatives in this relatively short visit to London.
Soon it was time for my 2nd visit to Stuttgart for the Remember Me programme. Jane had decided to stay in London with Brenda, so I asked SWRB colleague Brian Bertscher if he’d like to accompany me.Our similar interests, especially German painting and ‘kultur’ generally, would help make it a stimulating couple of days.
I had never seen MacMillan’s Requiem, and the current company danced it with blazing commitment. Of course, no reproduction could replicate Ricky, Birgit, Marcia and Egon in Initials RMBE in the roles made specifically for them 52 years ago, but all the intensity of feeling was there. The same could be said for MacMillan’s very beautiful work, a revelation to me.
Brian and I revelled in the many Otto Dix paintings at Stuttgart’s two main galleries.On our way to the airport we stopped at the Solitude cemetary and it was moving to see the tributes laid by today’s dancers and students at Cranko’s grave .
Back to London, and fond farewells. As we set off for Sydney, I was glad to see a smattering of rain and a double rainbow.
ashley killar 