HUMPTY DUMPTY & FRIENDS. One-hour nursery rhyme classical ballet, choreographed by Robin van Wyk. Presented by Cape Town City Ballet. At Artscape Theatre at 11a.m and 2pm until Friday. SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews the final dress rehearsal.
IT’S a moot point, in our electronic age, whether today’s mums and dads bounce babes on knees singing Humpty Dumpty. Or (slightly) older children play Ring a’ Ring of Roses. Or act out Mary Had a Little Lamb and Jack and Jill.
But even if ‘tinnies’ aren’t all that conversant with this nursery rhyme selection, their parents and grandparents will be.
So all should pop along to see Robin van Wyk’s latest children’s ballet. Humpty Dumpty presents a host of popular nursery rhymes well danced in colourful costumes by Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) dancers.
Nursery rhymes go back many centuries in English history. Frequently relating to an important event, such as Ring a Ring o’ Roses referring to the 1665 plague, or the Viking attack in 1014 on London’s Bridge so it fell down.
Some songs are simply nonsense, or learning exercises like Itsy Bitsy Spider teaching finger articulation. Other roots are vague.
Including this hour-long ballet’s title. Thoughts are Humpty Dumpty is a 15th century English colloquial term describing a somewhat overweight person. However, many believe Humpty Dumpty was a large canon used during the English Civil War (1643-1649).
Whatever the truth, look out upstage left for Rosamund Ford’s outsized handmade “toy” sitting on a wall.
He’s an absolute delight. As are the three little pigs used for To Market to Market to Sell a Fat Pig, as well as Tom Tom the Piper’s Son.
To Half a Pound of Twopenny Rice(price of a pound of rice) Pop Goes the Weasel(pawning Dad’s whistle flute to pay for it) Humpty Dumpty & Friends begins with a rather too short display of up-and-coming nursery figures. Then out jumps Craig Pedro as the mouse from Hickory Dickory Dock(teaching children time). Tabs then open on an agreeably cheerful setting.
Bright coloured ribbons suspend stars from two starlight borders. Upstage right an undressed Pinocchio figure lies atop a bookcase; a Maypole serves advance notice of a Maypole dance; a curtain, centre back upstage, becomes used for surprise entrances.
Comfortable in an armchair sits Johnny Bovang as Old MacDonald.
Cuddling two woolly toys, he’s dressed in smock, straw hat and boots. His part in proceeding is simply to jolly events along with bell and tambourine and hold the Maypole for his namesake’s song.
A fun piece with eight dancers mimicking animal movements while weaving ribbons over and under.
Ivan Boonzaaier delivered a nippy tap number in The Muffin Man, as did Sarah-Lee Chapman in a mini-French maid’s black number for Pat a Cake.
Newcomer Martin Milner made a good impression in Yankee Doodle with his light ballon, neat foot work and crisp pirouettes.
Characteristically Van Wyk drew upon the classical step repertoire for his choreography for solos, pas de deux and groups. Arabesques, chassé temps levé, posé coupés, petit tours, soutenu’s, grands jetés en avant and en tournant, glissades into pas de chat lifts, and various presages and pirouettes were his choices.
However, too often moves/steps didn’t match words. Where was Old King Cole’s (Elrico Lieman) pipe and bowl and fiddlers three? Jack and Jill went up the hill without a pail to fetch water. Oranges and Lemons was danced as a garland dance rather than a child’s game (fortunately without its sinister overtones of chopping off a head), and in Hey Diddle Diddle the spoon, cow and moon were missing.
Humpty Dumpty & Friends is a charming idea. And doubtless was Van Wyk not expected to choreograph and produce so many ballets in addition to his duties as CTCB’s artistic director, he could find the time to develop good ideas to their full potential. He has the ability.
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