Dance: Choreographics

As I mentioned yesterday, I'd really have loved to go to Don Giovanni in the Opera House today, but I couldn't get a ticket anywhere, at any price. That's the thing about London - it's tricky to be spontaneous. Instead, I bought myself a ticket for Choreographics, at the Lilian Baylis Studio. Two nights in a row for Sadler's Wells then! Except last night I was in the back row, and this afternoon I was in the front.

I'd never actually been to the Lilian Baylis Studio before, but a check of the website confirmed that it's round the back of the Sadler's Wells Theatre. Slightly awkward to get to, this - I always end up on a bus for the last part of the trip. Usually, I get a Tube to somewhere like Monument, and get a bus from there - but the District Line is mostly down this weekend for planned engineering works, which Google Maps is au fait with. So they sent me on the Piccadilly Line to Holborn instead, there to catch a different bus. Funny thing with them - they only suggested one bus number on the outbound journey, but two on the way back. A quick check of the routes listed on the bus stop I had to start from (thanks, Streetview!) confirmed that both routes run in the outbound direction too. So I had a choice of the #19 or the #38.

What with both District and Circle (via Victoria) out of action, the tourists were mainly pushed onto the Piccadilly Line, which was crowded nearly to rush-hour levels! That's pretty bad, let me tell you. Mind you, they all crowded around the doors, which meant that if you pushed to the middle of the carriage you had some breathing space. And I did finally get a seat, just over halfway there. Holborn Station has two exits, but they're just around the corner from each other and it doesn't matter much which you take - just head right up Kingsway, then left on Bloomsbury Way to Bus Stop F, on the other side of the road.

The chaos of the Underground seemed to have spread to street level. Before I got to Bloomsbury Way, I had to cross High Holborn - and I despaired of ever doing so! Traffic was backed up in all directions - police vans kept screaming past too, sirens whooping and lights flashing. Must have been some trouble, I guess. Even when the pedestrian lights went green, and we'd waited for the emergency vehicles to pass, the traffic waiting to come round the corner was bumper to bumper, so close together we couldn't get through and had to wait for the next change in lights!

I was beginning to worry I'd be late - and me in the front row, too. Anyway, I finally made it across there and up to Bloomsbury Way. Got halfway across and was stopped by traffic again - and looking left, I could see my bus stop - and the #19 pulling away from it. Fortunately, there was a #38 pretty much right behind it - I'd just had time to read the timetable, which promised it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to Sadler's Wells. If the traffic was reasonable. So now I had to worry about that.. but it was a minute to showtime when we pulled up at the bus stop, right outside the theatre.

Mercifully, I'd seen on Streetview exactly where I needed to go, so legged it down to the end of the building, where there's a separate entrance. I'd prayed they'd have their own box office and I wouldn't have to go into the main theatre for my ticket - and so it proved, and I grabbed it and raced into the studio. Climbed down the stairs all the way to the front row - and the advantage is, there isn't a stage as such here, the front row of seats is level with the performance area. So you don't have to disturb anyone as you take your seat! I was settled nicely before the lights went down - and I wasn't even the last person to take their seat in the front row.

I hadn't come across a programme, although the folks on either side of me had printed ones from somewhere. We really didn't need one though - the event started with someone explaining that this was a showcase for dancers in the English National Ballet to demonstrate their choreographical skills. This year, for the first time, they invited outsiders to take part as well. And the theme was postwar America. The first piece, he informed us, was the winner, and was called Babel. The others were each introduced with a short video clip, projected onto the rear wall, so we had some idea what we were looking at.

Babel comprised four male dancers, posturing individually, and when they did interact, it was with mild aggression. I took it to be an observation on loneliness - mind you, it took me a while to figure it out. As with modern dance in general, though, it might be confusing, but it's beautiful to look at! Speaking of which, the second piece was a joy - perhaps because of the emotive music though. The theme was something to do with Death Row. The third piece was an observation on the futility of war, featuring twins, one of whom is killed while the other survives. They might indeed have been twins, they looked so alike. And the final piece before the interval was a take on a film noir, or all things - a representation in dance of The Lady from Shanghai, made in 1947, with Orson Welles and Rita Heyworth.

Thank goodness the interval came when it did, because the seats aren't the most comfortable for long stretches, and my bum was numb. Mind you, we did have the interesting interval distraction of a camera being set up on stage, where interviews were conducted with the choreographers of the pieces we'd just seen. Apparently, the event was being streamed live. Kudos to the interviewer - she must really have been projecting her voice, because hers was the only one we could hear from where we were sitting (the camera could have heard them all, because they had a mic).

The second part included three pieces, making seven in total, although he'd told us there'd be six. It started with Trauma, a more successful anti-war piece, showing a woman who's lost her partner in war and falls asleep holding his picture. He then comes to her in a dream, or vision. The last two pieces were essentially pas de deux - which are very nice, but when you see so many of them.. anyway, as I was leaving, the camera was setting up for the last set of interviews.

Boy, was I glad to be standing! I was hungry too, but wanted something more substantial than the offerings of the studio café. So I headed left from the building, to the end of the road, where I remembered a decent Thai restaurant. But it's more than a year since I've been here, and now it's Niche - a café restaurant. The menu looked comprehensive enough, so I asked for a table. After some humming and haw-ing, I was seated just inside the door. I was lucky to get a table at all - several parties without a reservation were turned away while I ate.

I decided just to have a main course - and the minute steak, at just 5oz, looked about right, and came with all the sides. Wine is offered at 125ml and 75ml (!), but the glass of Pinot Grigio that he brought me looked more like 250ml. Which is just fine by me. Really good wine, too! The steak, when it duly came, was tiny, but that was all I wanted. I'd ordered some peppercorn sauce as a side, which costs £1 extra. That came in a little glass container on the plate, which also housed a huge slice of tomato (which I didn't eat, because I'm allergic), a huge Portobello mushroom, and a dinky little wire basket of rather burnt-looking chips. Shortly, the waiter reappeared with a little plate of misshapen onion rings and the chef's apology - he'd forgotten them. Where he'd have fitted them on the main plate, I'm not sure..

The steak was chargrilled and delicious. The sauce was good, but had the consistency of butter - when I tried to pour it on the steak, it all came out in a lump! I ended up scooping a lump of it back into the glass container with my knife. The mushroom was good, the onion rings were really tasty, although the coating was so hard I couldn't cut it and had to eat them with my fingers. And the fries were tasty, if a bit soggy. All in all, a tasty meal though. I had a chocolate tart for dessert - which was literally a tart, in a pastry case I could have done without. And I'll know in future not to order the salted caramel ice cream they put with it - it was ok, but salt and sweet don't mix, in my opinion.

While I'd been eating, some of the male dancers had passed by - I recognised them, and certainly you'd know them as dancers by their gait. This was some time before the heavens opened, and I hope they'd got to where they were going by then. You know, when I was leaving the house, it didn't look like rain and I hadn't been dressed for it - but then I saw someone pass with their umbrella up, and I went back and changed. Boy, was I glad of it now - it was chucking it down.

By the time I'd got back to the bus stop, my shoes were soaked, even though I'd avoided the worst of the flooded pavement. Luckily, my bus arrived just as I did. I got pretty soaked on the walk from the bus stop to Holborn Station - particularly as I didn't realise that the High Holborn exit, which I'd made for because it was closer to me, is exit-only. So I had to go out again to the other one. At least I got a seat after the first stop. Then, when I got off at Earl's Court, hoping to get a District Line train one stop more (that bit of the line wasn't closed), there was no train information, so I didn't know how long it'd be. So I walked the ten minutes home. Which is why my coat got soaked through, and I had to change everything I had on when I got in.

It's stopped now, and forecast not to repeat itself tomorrow. Which is a good thing, because I'm planning on going to West End Live in Trafalgar Square - an outdoor, free, showcase of West End shows. Must have been an absolute washout this evening. Anyhoo, I'm officially going with a new Meetup group - London Musical Theatre Review. I doubt I'll actually meet any of them there - only two of us are supposed to be going tomorrow, the main Meetup was today. Then on Monday, I'm off to the Guildford office again, so no going out that day..