Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A choreographer best known for blending high art and popular culture, winning Olivier and Tony awards, and creating all-male productions like Swan Lake.
On the island
Eight records
New London Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd Jones
I particularly the music from Act Four of Swan Lake, I found is so full of violence. It's not a word you associate with ballet, but violence and passion and all this emotion. I thought if I could capture that and bring that to this amazing music, we would have something that would wake people up a bit.
it so much influenced me as a child. It's my abiding love Julie Andrews singing The Sound of Music and it was the first film I saw at the age of five. It was my fifth birthday. ... the image of Julie Andrews coming over the hill at the beginning is something that has stayed with me forever.
Night and DayFavourite
The third choice is again someone who had to be there, Ella Fitzgerald. I could have chosen hundreds and hundreds of Ella tracks, but I've chosen Night and Day by Cole Porter, partly because of the Fred Astaire Association.
Cinderella Leaves for the Ball (from Cinderella)
Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
On one level it's full of promise and optimism and excitement of this thing of going to the ball, but underlying it there's this darkness and mystery, which is something that only Brokofieff can do, I think, and put those two things together and achieve both at the same time.
Lord Peter's Stable Boy (from Danish Folk-Song Suite)
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox
He's a sort of mad genius of music, I think. And the piece that I've chosen is an upbeat piece. It's called Intriguing Type of Lord Peter's Stable Boy. I'm not sure what the story behind this is, but it's a it's a lovely piece.
it's my only contemporary choice actually. It's a a singer-songwriter that I've fallen in love with recently, Rufus Wainwright. ... And this particular song that I've chosen is called Dinner at Eight, from his latest album. And it's about when his father walked out on them when he was a young boy.
for every reason, because I'm a Londoner and I'm very proud to be a Londoner. I I and I love the city and I've made many works about the city.
I think we've got a recording that's from its premiere in nineteen twenty four, which I think is the probably has the true heart of the piece in it. It's a very witty version.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:27Why did you turn all the swans into men [in Swan Lake]? Just to sort of shake people up?
I found through watching the classical version, that we were ceasing to hear or see after a while, because you've got the same images with the same music, and it's kind of has a dulling effect after a while, unless you get an amazing performance at the centre of it that wakes you up a bit. I thought if I could make people listen to the music again by putting it to different images
Presenter asks
15:30How did you decide to cross the line and get into production and performance?
I was still doing the amateur theatrics, but didn't see a way in for myself. Going back a little bit, I thought I wanted to act, maybe. That was the answer. I tried that when I was fifteen, hated it, didn't like using my voice. So I thought, well, well, that doesn't work. So gradually this thing about dance became the thing that was more important to me.
Presenter asks
16:53How could you audition [for the Laban Centre] if you couldn't dance?
Well, I just copied what was given. You know, it's at that time, I suppose it's quite naive. ... One was they're desperate for boys, and the other thing was I think they were impressed in my interview at how much I've seen and read already, because it was an academic course as well, it was a degree course. So they I think that's why they took me.
The keepsakes
The book
Kenneth Williams
My book I've chosen was a strange choice, but it's The Kenneth Williams Diaries. I think it's probably because I like that mixture of someone who is on one level very funny and there's a darker side.
The luxury
spotted dick with Lyle's Golden Syrup
My luxury is going to be spotted dick with lions golden syrup on them, which I absolutely adore. And it's something I can't have at the moment because I'm always on diets. ... it's something I absolutely love and I I miss it.
Presenter asks
26:57What's your reaction to the critics in the ballet world who inevitably get sniffy about your approach?
Well, I don't it's difficult to answer to it. It it's actually very few people. It always makes good reading to say that I'm you know, I've been called the bad boy of ballet and Damien Hurst of ballet and all these things. It's not really true. I'm actually love ballet and I'm I'm trying to be very true to the music.
Presenter asks
29:24Which bit of it all [performing, choreographing, directing] gives you greatest pleasure?
I'm very happy when I do achieve something choreographically that I'm happy with, because it's not actually my strongest point. My strongest point is storytelling through movement without words. And that's what I feel I do, which is very difficult to label what exactly that is.
“I put the audience first at all times, I think. I it's easy to make work that pleases yourself, and I think a lot of people do do that. And it's what's good is if you can do both, if you can please yourself and use your your loves and your passions and share them with other people.”
“I actually felt when I was young that it could actually make you better if you were ill. And this is one of the ones that I would have definitely put on if I had a ... measles or something.”
“I've been amazed constantly through at each stage of what I've done because it was so unexpected and came a bit late and all the better for it I think. All the better for having that time where I was just enjoyed what being a fan and I think I'm still a fan and I think that's what makes what I do click with people because I lo I love it so much”