I watched Northern Ballet's Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre - it's bold, beautiful, and brilliant
Anne Lister was a trailblazer of her time.
Known as the ‘first modern lesbian’, the Yorkshirewoman defied 19th century conventions by dressing androgynously, managing her own property, and having several romantic relationships with women.
Anne is not your typical ballet heroine, yet somehow a ballet about her life works. Not only that, it is phenomenal.
Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre is Northern Ballet’s first large-scale commission in five years. It is a beautiful production which follows the dizzying journey of Anne Lister’s life. Bold, innovative, and exciting, the new ballet is a testament to Federico Bonnelli’s leadership as Artistic Director, and a reminder as to why new art always needs a stage.
Anne Lister’s history has been learned from her diaries, where she detailed her daily life in coded entries. This crafts a dilemma for Northern Ballet: how do you tell a story where words are crucial in an inherently wordless form? Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa comes up with an innovative answer.
She uses the advantage of dance where language can be expressed throughout the body to create sequences that utilise not only the legs and feet but also the arms, hands, and hips. Emotion runs through the dancers from their heads to their toes as they effortlessly coordinate external movement to internal feeling. The expressive style offers a fantastic translation of Anne’s life.
Gemma Coutts takes on the role of Anne Lister, and she is a tour de force on stage. To stay true to the character of Anne, Coutts performs in a masculine style, meaning she wears flat shoes and she lifts other dancers. Coutts easily takes to this challenge, performing as Anne with an effortlessly cool and suave nature.
She also brings a vulnerability to the role, which is endearing. Portrayed with complexity, Anne is no longer a mythical figure from another era but instead a real person we can see with our own eyes. In short, watching Coutts’ take on Anne feels like watching history come to life.
Gentleman Jack is a show filled with quiet but marvellous moments rather than grand spectacle. It feels intimate, which is difficult to achieve in a theatre where there is always an innate consciousness of the audience you are performing, too.
However, Anne’s relationships, first with Marianna (Saeka Shirai), and then Ann Walker (Rachael Gillespie), are crafted in a way as if the dancers are so immersed in the moment they have forgotten we are in the room. There’s a gentleness to their performances, which often focus inwardly on each other rather than outwardly at us. At these moments, Gentleman Jack becomes unexpectedly delicate, and it is beautiful to witness.
The staging of Gentleman Jack is simple, with few props to allow full focus on the dancers. However, a particularly creative choice is the use of virtual screens embedded within bookcases. These digital projections transport us to different seasons and settings without the need for a grand backdrop. When you move the bookshelf, the screen’s projection moves too, making stagecraft itself a performance. The inventiveness of this is really exciting as it showcases the modern magic of set design.
Northern Ballet’s Gentleman Jack is a wonderful watch from start to finish. This is a ballet which is daring in nature, perfectly encapsulating the spirit of Anne Lester, who was unafraid to push boundaries. There is a lot to be awestruck by: the skill, the costumes, the choreography. But what stands out most is one thing: the imagination. This new ballet is creative to its core, which makes it awe-inspiring. A show like this is exactly what the Leeds Grand Theatre was made for.
Gentleman Jack is performing at Leeds Grand Theatre until March 14.
Tickets are available to buy on the Leeds Grand Theatre website.