LONDON City Ballet is touring again after a 30-year break, returning York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday on the aptly named Resurgence tour.
Heading to York as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to the city, the revived touring company will present works by acclaimed British choreographers, under the direction of artistic director Christopher Marney, former principal dancer at New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago.
After Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, and the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances, the programme will close with Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.
Taking the lead role in Eve will be Cira (pronounced Cheera) Robinson, the former Ballet Black luminary, who has renewed creative acquaintance with Marney after he choreographed her Lady Macbeth in Fabula Collective’s Human Dancing in 2020 at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and first appearing as Eve in the 2022 premiere.
“Chris let me know, maybe at the end of 2022, that he had the idea of creating a small company to play small-scale theatres, touring with just a couple of chairs and some lights, which is pretty much all you need, and it’s important to go to these theatres because not everyone can afford to go to London or Birmingham,” she says.
Marney spent two years rebuilding London City Ballet with insights from its early pioneers, selecting works for the 2024 international tour that pays homage to the company’s roots in the form of rarely seen archival footage.
“The work is child-friendly too, and everyone likes a bit of nostalgia, don’t they. York Theatre Royal is the perfect place for that.”
Cira speaks from experience, having performed there regularly with Ballet Black since 2012. “It’s like a third home to me,” she says. “I love the Theatre Royal and the city has such a historic feel, a quaint villagey feel. I don’t know if the stage is raked any more…”
…Be assured, Cira, that notoriously steep rake has gone! She smiles at that revelation but is always happy to adapt to whatever a stage demands. “For this tour, there are only 12 of us in the company touring to smaller theatres, and you just get on with it. As long as there are dressing rooms, toilets and wings, we’re ready to go!”
Describing the role of Eve, Cira draws breath, then says: “Wow! OK, OK, she’s the first woman in the world and basically this dance tells that story. She’s in this world that’s completely new, seeing birds and nature for the first time, and she’s obviously innocent.
“When she sees the Serpent, she experiences this feeling, I would say lust. The way Chris has choreographed it, one dancer (Arthur Wille) switches between the Serpent and the Man, which adds another layer.
“Like the touch of a hand. ‘What is this,’ she thinks. ‘Is it right? Is it wrong? What is it doing to me?’. There’s a battle going on between innocence and intrigue.”
Cira thrives on working with Marney. “Chris is great because he knows what he wants but is open to the dancer’s artistry after building the first floor, especially with new pieces. In my dancing I try to be as honest as possible. I judge that honesty on how aware I am of things around me, taking Cira away and diving into the character of Eve, feeling like I’m in this world as the only woman on stage, the only woman in the world.”
Auditioned by Ballet Black in 2007, Cira left the United States for the United Kingdom in 2008, beginning a long association with the London company until retiring in December 2022, taking up the post of director of Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, who bring hundreds of young ballet students to Yorkshire each summer.
Now she returns to the stage for London City Ballet’s renaissance. “I’ve danced since I was eight. My first love of dancing was definitely its sense of expression without words. I already expressed myself enough in words, but now I could do it with joy without having to say anything,” she says.
“I always had a sense of rhythm and movement, and you learn that at the beginning it’s about repetition. I still teach at junior school, where they’ll say, ‘I want to do gymnastics’ or ‘I want to play football, but once they get past that, they find that repetition is vital – and it still is.
“I just fell in love with dancing, with my teacher saying, ‘you moved your arm beautifully’. I thought, ‘if I can do that, maybe I can get praise for more movement’.
“Dancing is a love affair for me and it’s been the most constant thing in my life.”
London City Ballet, Resurgence, York Theatre Royal, September 6, 7.30pm, and September 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Copyright of The Press, York
Making her pointe: Additional questions for Cira Robinson
What are your recollections of arriving in London to join Ballet Black?
“I auditioned in 2007, and that was the first time I got my passport. Prior to that I danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, surrounded by dancers of colour.
“When I came here to dance with Ballet Black, I knew they catered for black and brown dancers, when there was a lack of opportunity for those dancers elsewhere. Cassa Pancho [company founder and artistic director] made a point of that.
“I had this safety of Ballet Black having people who looked like me, and I realised how important the representation of colour was, and that has grown since then.”
How did you come to work with Freed of London on creating the first brown and bronze pointe shoe for the celebrated shoemakers?
“There is the skill of ‘pancaking’, to make a pointe shoe match your skin colour, and even white dancers have to do this. I had to do it for many years, and it was something passed down as a ritual, where you’re putting make-up foundation on the pointe-shoe satin.
“You apply it in a thin layer, making the shoe softer, and while the colour would look great, after a rehearsal or two, the shoes would start to dye, and those shoes are not cheap to replace.
“I’m a Freed of London shoe wearer and have been for years. There were these swatches of fabric, and I asked, ‘could I have a pointe shoe made of that?’, and though the initial reaction was they didn’t think it was possible, I went round six or eight fabric shops, and I could only find dark or light colours, but my friend said, ‘let’s try two more’, and in the next one I found the perfect colours.”
“The next day I went into Ballet Black and told Cassa Pancho about it, who said, ‘that’s great, but you shouldn’t be doing that. I’ll do it’!”
And so, Freed of London’s brown and bronze point shoes were born. “It’s been great. Lessening the time to prepare a show, and the feedback has been phenomenal.
“That’s the thing. Once someone starts something, it forces everyone to get into gear because dancers come in many shapes and colours.”
How do you retain your physical condition through all these years of dancing?
“It’s sheer will, but there are going to be injuries, there are going to be niggles, because it’s unnatural turning out our legs, and with that, our bones and muscles take a beating. As much asdancing is my force for existing, there needs to be time for balancing the things you do.
“I’ve had shin splints and stress fractures, and with dancers our pain threshold is a bit different. We can take more pain, but sometimes you have to say, ‘hold on, I need a break, so I can come back stronger’.”
How did the chance to perform with grime star Stormzy on the main stage at Glastonbury emerge?
“Specifically through Ballet Back. Maybe Cassa followed Stormzy on Instagram. The fact that Freed of London’s brown pointe shoes had come out was something to highlight, and Stormzy made a point of wanting to highlight ballet dancers of colour dancing in those shoes and loving it.
“It was over in seconds! I’ve danced in front of big audiences, but this was like nothing I’d experienced before. The crowd went on for miles and miles.”
Describe your experience of playing Lady Macbeth in Japan under the shadow of Covid.
“It came about through Yukiko Tsukamoto. We were friends and she’d started this small performing group [Fabula Collective] and wanted me to perform as Lady Macbeth, with Chris Marney directing.
“That was in 2021. I’d never been to Japan before. We had to quarantine for 14 days, then had five days out for maybe two performances. There were just three of us in the cast, with me playing Lady Macbeth going mad, seeing the dagger before her, seeing all these hands coming out of pockets.
“It was really interesting, showing her quick rise and drastic fall in 20 minutes, and then ultimately dying, giving so much information in that short time in Chris’s choreography.”
How did you feel about leaving Ballet Black?
“It wasn’t a difficult decision because it was something I was preparing for, after 14 years with that company, wanting to step out and explore other opportunities…and that’s when I joined Yorkshire Ballet Seminars.
“I’d come up in teach the summer seminars at Askham Bryan, at the farm – I remember it was smelly! – and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed teaching. It’s not a normal vocational school, it’s a summer intensive, residential seminar where the children are able to run around the fields.
“In 2021, I ended up getting Covid two days before I was due to teach there again, and that year Iain Mackay let me know he was retiring as the director and said I should apply. I didn’t think I was ready to be director and hadn’t thought about leaving Ballet Black yet, but I did go to a couple of meeting, thought I didn’t get the job.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll continue my freelance life’ and then one day I was in Derby, and the girl in front of me in the dance class broke her ankle and you think ‘that could have been me’. When I got back to the dressing room, there was a missed call from Iain [Mackay] saying the person they had chosen hadn’t worked out.
“I played it in my mind for 24 hours, thinking about that broken ankle, and I decided I should take the director’s job. My last show with Ballet Black was on December 5 2022 and I started the directorship on the 12th…but I was also pregnant!
“Retirement. New job. Baby. I’d been learning the ropes and then took maternity leave and started back in August 2023, still picking up skills. All those things I didn’t study for.
“Yorkshire Ballet Seminars have been held at Ashville College, in Harrogate, since 2021 and it’s been an amazing, insightful experience being the director since 2022. It’s not for the faint-hearted but I love what I do as a teacher, and the future of young dancers in this country means a lot to me, being impactful that way, especially with Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. The sessions are serious but the dancers can also be a kid there, finding their individuality.
Cira Robinson: the back story
BORN in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, where she began dancing at the age of eight.
After graduating from the School for Creative and Performing Arts in 2004, she moved to New City as an apprentice with the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble.
After a few months, she became a full member, dancing many works from the DTH repertoire under the guidance of Arthur Mitchell.
In 2008, she joined Ballet Black in London, where she created many roles with numerous choreographers from around the world, such as Liam Scarlett, Richard Alston, Antonia Franceschi, Christopher Hampton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Christopher Marney and Gregory Maqoma, in her 14 years with the company.
Nominated in 2013 for Outstanding Classical Female at Critics Circle National Dance Awards, then Best Female Dancer nominee in 2021 awards.
In 2017, Cira worked with Freed of London and Ballet Black to create the first brown and bronze pointe shoe for the shoemakers.
In 2019, she danced on Glastonbury Pyramid stage with headline act Stormzy.
Teacher for Ballet Black Junior Ballet School and Yorkshire Ballet Summer Seminars and at open classes throughout UK.
Joined Fabula Collective in 2021 as guest artist in lead role of Lady Macbeth in Human Dancing, choreographed by Christopher Marney at New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan.
Premiered lead role in Christopher Marney’s Eve at Sadler’s Wells, London, in September 2022. Won award for Best Soloist in Dance Production at Black British Theatre Awards.
Since retiring from Ballet Black in December 2022, Cira has become director of the charitable organisation Yorkshire Ballet Seminars.
In 2024, she returns to the stage as Eve in London City Ballet tour of Resurgence.