The squeak of a jogger’s trainers and the ting of a bicycle bell are not the usual soundtrack to ballet, but then a stretch of the Regent’s Canal in Hackney is not where you’d expect to see dancers from the Royal Ballet perform.
On a warm Saturday afternoon, the threat of rain in the air, bare-torsoed Harry Churches swoops across a pontoon jutting out over the canal, the audience on the opposite side of the water. Partner Annette Buvoli enters the stage and their bodies etch out classical lines and when the dance ends with an embrace, a swooning sigh comes from a group of young women watching through the railings, canned cocktails in hand.
This free, Instagram-advertised event is DistDancing, one of the few opportunities to see live dance at the moment and its founder Chisato Katsura is a member of the Royal Ballet. Katsura, 23, moved to a new flat during lockdown and her landlord, Russell Gray, also owns Hoxton Docks, a former coal store turned performance venue. When he found out she was a dancer, Gray asked if she could come up with a performance for the canalside. Katsura and Royal Ballet colleague Valentino Zucchetti put together a programme of performers across various dance and circus styles, including Royal Ballet principal Matthew Ball and partner Mayara Magri, and contemporary dancer Maëva Berthelot, formerly of Hofesh Shechter Company.
Katsura herself has been out injured since the autumn, a stress fracture in her shin now healed and rehab almost complete, but she’s been happy to give her fellow furloughed dancers a sense of purpose and a chance to perform, and to bring ballet to a sometimes unsuspecting public. Watching from the pavement above the canal is Munjeet Singh, who lives locally. He happened upon the dancers one weekend and has come back for more. He’s not a dance-goer ordinarily, “but it was a lovely thing to come across. It’s nice to see people stop and admire and enjoy,” he says.
The poise and serenity of the ballet pas de deux, especially, seems to delight the onlookers who whoop enthusiastically. “It’s amazing to hear people scream and cheer,” says Katsura. “You don’t get that at the Royal Opera House.” She’s been pleased to show ballet to passersby who might never see it otherwise. “We struggle in the bigger companies and theatres to get that younger generation in, but in the feedback I get, the people in their 20s tend to be the ones that love the ballet and they’re very surprised after watching it. Every time the ballet dancers come on it’s total silence, everyone puts down their phone and they just watch and it’s amazing to see that.”
One impressed audience member, Grace Simmons, is out celebrating her birthday. She’s a swing dancer, “but we can’t dance at the moment, so we’re living our dance life through this,” she says. “Everyone is craving this sort of thing,” says her friend Emma Winslade. “There’s nothing else like it,” adds Simmons. “It’s an absolute moment of joy.”
Find out more about DistDancing.
