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Beverley Brommert
Among the delights awaiting ballet lovers in Cape Town City Ballet's 2025 Summer Season is a double début in GISELLE, when guest artist Jerome Barnes takes centre stage partnering Hannah Ward, the company's newly appointed principal danseuse. Neither has hitherto danced the leads in this much-loved classic.
A trainee of the Royal Ballet School, Barnes was invited to audition for performance with CTCB in 2024 when Keith Mackintosh, doyen of South African ballet, saw the young dancer's impressive calibre as he was transitioning from soloist to principal in the Scottish Ballet.
Barnes explains: "The problem was that the timing was not right just then; I was in the process of becoming principal dancer, and felt that I needed more time with Scottish Ballet to acquire more 'tools' for my professional development. Now, however, the circle is complete so coming here feels absolutely right ".
He arrived with no preconceived ideas of what to expect, although he admits he had always wanted to see the iconic Table Mountain. He sums up his experience of the Mother City as "the best in a long time, rivalled only by a trip to Japan; the balance between nature and urban development, calm and energy, resonates with my soul - it is so beautiful".
Comparing the new roles ahead of him as Albrecht in GISELLE, and also as male lead in the RAYMONDA PAS DE DIX, to be staged thereafter, Barnes comments that partnership with another debutant has as much to commend it as one with a more experienced co-dancer.
He is warm in his praise of Ward: "We each bring our own qualities to our roles to work together and complement one another; we connect and communicate easily to form a team in finding how to succeed in our partnership. It has become a graceful process of give-and-take, all fresh and new for both of us, and it's a building exercise as we mould each other to our parts."
In RAYMONDA, essentially an ensemble piece, Barnes and Ward each lead the male and female members of the corps respectively, but in the finale, he partners CTCB's current prima ballerina Kirstél Paterson, who fills the lead as Raymonda.
This presents him with a different co-dancer, as her experience balances his youthful exuberance and since he missed earlier rehearsals prior to arriving, she has generously helped him catch up.
"I love dancing with Kirstél, she has taken me under her wing and assisted me so much, giving me the guidance I need. We share a clear vision of our destination, and that makes it easy to work with her - it's another sort of partnership, and a different connection, but just as rewarding."
Looking back on his short but meteoric career in ballet, Barnes identifies his time with the Royal Ballet as the most important factor in his development: "At the Royal Ballet I was taught both inside and outside, with discipline and comportment as key.
There I had the blueprint to the world of ballet, which was completely new to me...before taking up a scholarship to train there, I was a runner, participating in sprints. My trainer suggested I take up ballet to enhance stretching my muscles and breath control, so I went to class with her 9-year-old daughter. Thereafter it was ballet for me, although my father was quite worried. In our culture, boys don't do ballet! But my mum was supportive, and my three sisters all took ballet as well, which promoted their careers in later life."
Barnes asserts that the scholarship to the Royal Ballet did more for him than merely train him as a professional dancer; it gave him the confidence to follow his dream as well as to grow towards self-realisation, navigating obstacles and discovering his potential both personally and professionally.
"What I learnt there has given me a strong foundation on which to build with subsequent experiences in different ballet companies..."
After his current stint with CTCB is over, Barnes hints that there may be more opportunities to dance in the South African company, although any announcements in that regard would be premature; suffice it to say that he will bid "au revoir" rather than "adieu" to Cape Town come April.