A ballet’s first steps
By Lydia Polzer for The Dancing Times

Prince, Pauper and a cast of 37 great girls and 19 equally brilliant boys found (as reported in February), the London Children’s Ballet set to work full-steam. With two months to go and the tickets for the performances on sale, everyone needs to work their hardest, to turn The Prince and The Pauper from a story in a book into a professional ballet production. Witness a ballet being born.

It is 4pm on a Sunday in January, and the second rehearsal day for the London Children’s Ballet corps. Time for a welcome talk from Lucille Briance, the Artistic Director of the company. Almost the entire cast is present and some have already had a long day rehearsing. Everyone settles down along with many of the parents to listen and get an idea of what lies ahead.
The London Children’s Ballet is a non-profit organisation, Lucille points out first, and the main aim of the company is for everyone to have a very professional experience of being a dancer with a company and also having a really enjoyable time.

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Twins to star in ballet
The twins have been dancing since they were eight

The teenagers have been dancing since they were eight, and have both won places at London's Royal Ballet Upper School.

Denise Rhind of the London Children's Ballet said the company had put on a production featuring twin girls before, but never boys.

"It is hard to say for sure, but as far as we are aware they are unique."

She said the teenagers' achievement was "tremendous".

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The old dog's new tricks
Irek Mukhamedov has written a new ballet for London schoolchildren. There's just one problem, he tells Louise Levene in The Daily Telegraph: they've been so badly taught

A girlfriend of mine once spotted Irek Mukhamedov in a supermarket in Tring and has been haunting the red meat counter ever since, legs waxed, in full make-up, in hope of another glimpse of one of the handsomest men in the Home Counties. He was 43 last month but his pantherish good looks are undiminished and he seems relaxed and fit despite an unusually heavy schedule.

By the time you are sat reading this over your cornflakes, the former Bolshoi and Royal Ballet star will already be hard at work in a flyblown dance studio off Fulham Broadway, preparing 57 young students for the premiere of The Prince and the Pauper, a new piece he has made for the London Children's Ballet.

LCB is a nine-year-old charity which every year mounts a professionally-produced ballet in a real theatre using young talent from the dance schools of London and the South East. It might sound like amateur night in tights, but recent productions have been surprisingly enjoyable, with original scores, high production values and proper choreography that carefully flatters and enhances its performers' often limited gifts.

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The Story Unfolds
By Lydia Polzer for The Dancing Times

Not long before The Prince and the Pauper opens in London’s Peacock Theatre. The rehearsals are in full swing now and here are some impressions of the London Children’s Ballet in top form

The big studio in West London’s Dance Attic, the location of LCB rehearsals, is crowded. A lot of younger children are sitting watching the others rehearse or chatting. Fran the rehearsal director has to call for silence every now and then, which she does to great effect only it lasts no longer than two seconds before the background hum sets in again. Understandably so. All these long hours waiting until finally it is their turn to rehearse their part in the scene. And meeting all these new people is exciting and there are a lot of things to talk about.
On the schedule this Sunday is a scene taking place outside the Palace. They might be members of the Royal family (in the ballet!) but they have to learn their steps nonetheless. Even

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Twins shine in West End ballet
From The Cambridge News

CAMBRIDGESHIRE'S twin ballet stars wowed West End audiences with fine performances of contrasting styles in the lead roles of a London Children's Ballet production.

Identical twins, Matthew and Oliver Edwardson, of Cottenham, danced to sell-out crowds seven times in four days at the Peacock Theatre in an adaptation of Mark Twain's novel The Prince and The Pauper.

The story, which centres on mistaken identity, could not have been better suited to the 15-year-old boys.

It relates the adventures of street urchin Tom Canty, played by Oliver, who bears a striking resemblance to Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII, played by Matthew.

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The Prince And The Pauper, Peacock Theatre, London, ***
Child's play by John Percival for The Independent

Twin brothers aged 15 and that 43-year-old star who looks like a Tatar warrior have provided most of the publicity for The Prince and the Pauper. The twins played the title parts: those more familiar with the story than I was will know that they needed to look alike so that they could plausibly be mistaken for each other after a decidedly implausible decision to swap clothes. But it was Irek Mukhamedov's presence (as choreographer, not performer) that ensured a much higher profile for this year's production by the London Children's Ballet than for its previous activities over the past decade, although they have been building up consistently to this point.

The advantage of the subject, adapted from Mark Twain's story about children in Tudor London, is that it provides a lot of roles and a lot of incidents; the disadvantage is that the dramatic development is limited and artificial, and the story is not easy to tell in dance.

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London Children’s Ballet
By David Dougill for The Sunday Times

On a different tack, the , founded in 1994 and directed by Lucille Briance, is a company re-formed each year by audition to give children, mostly aged 9 to 15, the opportunity to dance in a professionally staged production. The latest, with a cast of 57, including a larger-than-usual contingent of boys, was The Prince and the Pauper (at the Peacock Theatre), adapted from Mark Twain’s story about Prince Edward swapping roles with his beggar lookalike, Tom Canty, choreographed by Irek Mukhamedov.

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<small>[ 27 May 2003, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

The Curtain Rises
By Lydia Polzer for The Dancing Times

The Prince and The Pauper has got to the final and most exciting stage. London Children’s Ballet moves into the Peacock Theatre.

The anticipation before their entrance is written on the faces of those waiting in the wings during dress rehearsal.

Wha-ha-ha-ha – ha-ha-ha-ha, wha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi... No, your IntoDance! reporter isn’t going mad, it is the orchestra practising the famous laughter in Act II, Scene 3 of The Prince and The Pauper as described in IntoDance!’s April edition.
This year’s London Children’s Ballet production is getting to its final stage and approaching performance.

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