Boxing Day was restful: a superb walk up to the Chevin Inn for lunch. Time in the afternoon to watch again some of the great dancing in ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the New Bradford Playhouse by watching my video clips (and later to put some more pictures and video clips up on the net – see below – as promised on the village blog which I edit).

We’ve called in the Chevin many times for a drink when walking back home from Otley Chevin but have never eaten there (though we quite often ate at sister pub The Stansfield Arms when we lived close to it). The food was good – wild mushrooms and gammon steak for Petronela, chicken liver parfait and braised lamb shoulder for me. The young people serving were very pleasant and efficient, and the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord was an excellent accompaniment. All in all a good experience.

Wild mushrooms with a poached egg

Wild mushrooms, poached egg

Ham and egg, chips, onion rings

Ham and egg, chips, onion rings

Chicken Liver parfait and salad with toast and butter

Chicken liver parfait, salad

Braised lamb with minted peas and mash

Braised lamb, minted peas, mash

 
Ballet – A Christmas Carol
Library of the complete works of Charles Dickens, with a volume of Christmas Stories open at 'A Christmas Carol'

A pre-Christmas treat was the visit to a Christmas performance by young dance students from my village of Menston and their colleagues at Bradford Theatre Arts dance classes. I put a couple of video clips up on the village site which, of course, has concentrated on pupils from the classes in Menston village, run by Stephanie Clements for the past 20 years, but promised to put more here when Christmas cooking was over.

Apologies for the quality; I’m very much a beginner in video and as part of putting these clips up I had to teach myself a video editor (the free version of VideoPad). As is often the case, the program is very good but instructions not so. I may be able to improve the clips with time in the future. Stage lighting can be difficult for photography but it appears to me much more so with video; however, most of the faults are down to my inexperience. The one and a half hour performance was a real joy to watch and I hope some of that comes through in the following eight clips.

Ballet is very hard work and, for me, these performances contradict the frequent complaints about young people, as did the hardworking youngsters making our Boxing Day lunch so enjoyable.

Cratchit Family – http://youtu.be/9SdcIIerEU8

Lights – http://youtu.be/jm11THQecMA

Christmas Joy – http://youtu.be/yIe_EMm2cC0

Song and dance – http://youtu.be/kVXUV4E1DT4

Nic and Molly – http://youtu.be/iLoInAfCHpA

Happy Dance – http://youtu.be/EBP4nkk5ryY

Cratchit Family Dance – http://youtu.be/Xl3wRsQY6hU

Finale – http://youtu.be/LqDBNzZZfLQ

A few pictures

Click on any one to see them larger as a slideshow with captions

The chorus who delighted us with some lovely Christmas singing to introduce several scenes
The final bow
Presentation to teacher and choreographer, Stephanie Clements, by principal male dancer, schoolboy Nic Cain of Menston
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