Fonty

Gorgeous!

I can't remember the name of the character, all I can remember is that a girl was dancing something in an outfit suitable for something like Giselle with a long skirt. Someone watching remarked how talented she was, and the teacher replied that yes she was, but her thighs were too big and she didn't look right in a tutu. Consequently she would never make it as a classical ballet dancer. Considering I haven't read the books since I was about 10, I am amazed I remember that much.

Oh don't get me wrong, of course children should be encouraged to dream, and to work hard to achieve that dream. I am all for that. But I am deeply concerned that there is a trend now to make all children believe that they will always achieve that dream if they put in enough effort. And when, for whatever reason they don't achieve it, there will be the belief in their own minds that they "didn't work hard enough". Which is a shattering blow, and can and does lead to depression. I was reading an article somewhere about young boys, very talented footballers, who made it to prestigious football academies, and then got weeded out at the age of 14 or 15 for not being good enough. The number suffering from acute depression as a result was very distressing to read about. The problem with ballet (and presumably football as well) is that you have to start very young, and deal with blows at the worst time i.e. adolescence and young adulthood. To feel a failure at such a young age must be appalling. The paragraph I highlighted in the post above is really one of the most important issues. How to deal with disappointment, and channelling your energies into something else are areas that hopefully could be covered in a sensitive manner. You would hope that parents would feel equipped to deal with this, but not everyone comes from that kind of background. And yes, I realise I am being much too serious about a nice series of books aimed at young children. But if by any remote chance the authors happen to be reading this forum, they might want to give it some thought.

Not too sure about the message that if you dream big and work hard then you will achieve success. I know it is only a work of fiction aimed at younger readers, but I am certain that ballet is littered with multitudes of children who worked extremely hard and still had their dreams shattered. Either because they grew to be the wrong shape or they were simply not quite good enough. I am all for dreams and hard work, but a little realism has to be included in the mix somewhere. Talking of which, did the Lorna Hill books deal with the issues regarding physique? I have a vague memory of one girl whose legs were deemed to be the wrong shape for ballet as she reached maturity.

Ah, ok, that makes a bit more sense! There was a lot of gossiping going on during the interval bits, so I obviously misheard what Bussell said. It wasn't really explained, though.

Having worked from home for several years, I would sometimes take an afternoon off, and make up the hours missed by working in the evenings or over the weekend. Generally speaking, as long as I put in the hours and delivered on time, nobody was bothered if my phone was switched off while I went to a matinee. Just got back from my Encore screening. There were about 20 of us, and about 17 of them were definitely retired. It was interesting to compare the cinema performance with the live one I saw. I loved Danses Concertantes both times, and agree that Gasparini was terrific in this. I was fortunate enough to see Muntagirov in the live show, and although the cinema cast were good, none of the men could match him for style and personality. I have to say that I thought the whole cast were dancing splendidly, particularly the girls, with speed and precision. Would be very happy to see this ballet again on another triple bill in the near future. Unlike others, I definitely preferred Different Drummer when I saw it live. I thought some of the camera angles missed the wider picture, so that for example there were only glimpses of the Captain barking his instructions at the soldiers and dominating them. I have a slight preference for Hayward rather than Osipova as Marie, but I enjoyed both their performances. I have always liked Requiem. When I wrote my review of the live performance, I said that for some reason it didn't move me as much as it usually did. This time I was completely overcome by the fabulous music and dancing. It looked and sounded absolutely wonderful. Which brings me to the commentary. As others have said, the last two ballets required a bit more explanation that was given here. If you didn't know anything about Different Drummer you might have been completely lost. A brief synopsis of the story wouldn't have gone amiss. I heard one member of the audience asking why there was a bath on the stage all the way through. They just didn't get it. Not sure I would have done either if I hadn't read about it beforehand. Likewise, Requiem. Ok, I think everyone would have got the idea that it was a tribute to the death of a friend, but the choice of music was very specific. Would it have been too much trouble to explain the different segments, especially with someone as knowledgeable and eloquent as Petroc Trelawny? Is it going to offend anyone if the Catholic religion is mentioned? I wouldn't have thought so. It is all very well Bussell saying "It is all there in the movement", but if you don't actually know what the movement is supposed to represent so much is lost. Also, Bussell threw me by saying (or at least I think she said) that one of the cast is supposed to be a child. I didn't know that, and if so, which one? I enjoyed the interviews, but felt the one on Benesh notation was a bit wasted. It was in the wrong place, taking up space that could have been spent giving the sort of information I mentioned above, and also I don't think it really explained it all that well. As someone who actually studied this myself, it might have been more interesting to have a dancer take up one or two positions, and then show how that would have been written down in Benesh. Otherwise, I suspect it just looked like a lot of meaningless squiggles. And finally, what on earth was Bussell wearing? She is a lovely looking woman, and is always immaculately well groomed, but sometimes her outfits are somewhat....unusual? At first I thought she was wrapped up in a winter coat, but as she was inside I didn't think this was likely. It appeared to be a sort of culottes jumpsuit in coral tweed. I was so hoping there would be a longer shot of it so that I could see how long it was, but sadly my curiosity wasn't satisfied.

I wonder if they are catering for people who work from home, and can occasionally take a longer lunch hour.

I am going to one at Picturehouse Greenwich tomorrow at midday, if I can get there in time.

I was going to ask why Hayward got champagne.. I thought it might have been because she had been in the company for a certain number of years or something. I didn't notice he was holding two. It was definitely because they substituted at short notice? I don't want to sound like Scrooge, but I hope Mr O'Hare paid for them out of his own pocket. Would hate to think ticket prices now have to include champagne presents for all those that perform as substitutions....

Ah, must have been that one I was thinking of when I mentioned it above. I don't think Von Rothbard should win, a bit surprised Nureyev would do that. However, it did give him a bit of extra stage time as he sank beneath the waves......

For me, it doesn't work having Odette sacrifice herself so that everyone else might live, and the audience seeing her dead human body at the end. I find myself thinking, "Well, that was a bit of a waste of true love." I don't mind whether they both live, or they both die, I want to see them united somehow, having triumphed over evil. I prefer it if they both die, as the soaring music at the end suggests tragedy, but I'll settle for hand holding in this life if I must. I am sure there was at least one where VR triumphs, and Odette is condemned to life as a swan forever, isn't there? I don't think Siegfried dies, though, just watches her vanish into the distance, mourning his loss.

Just been reading this thread with interest. With regard to dancers in the higher ranks performing with the corps, when I went to see ENB's Swan Lake in the round at the Albert Hall many years go, I am pretty certain that I spotted the young Tamara Rojo as one of the swans in the Corps. She must have been a principal then; didn't she join ENB as one? She was a particular favourite of mine, so that is how I spotted her. Edited to add, it was a long time ago, but I presume she would have performed the lead at a later date in that run of performances.

You can certainly say that again, @alison I couldn't see Picturehouses mentioned at all when I did a search for London. The only choices I got were the Curzon Mayfair on Sunday, or the Everyman Hampstead or Barnet on Monday. Were none of the Odeon cinemas screening it at all? Edited to add I didn't realise some of the cinemas were doing Encores on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. A bit unusual, but I see my local Picturehouse is doing one that I could get to. But it really is a horrible new page, I don't like it at all.

I adore Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, I find it incredibly moving. But I can understand why people who were expecting a ballet might be a bit startled. I think having all male swans rather than all female ones is a terrific concept. We are so used to seeing them as beautiful and graceful. Bourne emphasises their power.

I haven't seen Swan Lake in this current run, I have a ticket for May. However, I would disagree with posts that say current dancers have stronger techniques than past dancers. I hear this time and again, and I am not sure if it is accurate. Many of today's crop dance differently, it is true, but they are not necessarily better in some areas than great dancers of the past. Certainly today's women display more athleticism that those of the past, but I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. I am not talking specifically about Fonteyn, because I think the majority of her stuff was filmed right at the end of her career. But having seen clips of dancers such as Sibley, Seymour, Nerina, and Fonteyn in her youth, I am always struck by their speed and lightness of footwork. Often they are just tantalising glimpses of what these dancers were capable of, but it makes me sad that certain qualities seem to have been lost. I am not sure if there are any clips of past Swan Lakes that would be a suitable comparison, unfortunately.

Oh dear, @LinMM I would have had the giggles too. It puts me mind of the incident in Three Men in a Boat, where one of the characters carries 2 ripe cheeses on to a train and manages to empty the entire carriage!

I occasionally save up for an expensive seat. I don't consider myself to be rich or elderly! I certainly wouldn't want to see a dress code imposed, but as I said elsewhere, Londoners do tend to be either more casual in the way they dress. Or scruffy, depending on your point of view. Christmas jumpers are all part of the seasonal fun as far as I am concerned. However, while a sweater with Rudolph on the front is acceptable, flashing antlers are not. I went to a theatre last December where a party of women were wearing these. I had to go and get a member of staff to speak to them and get them to either turn them off or remove them. What puzzled me was why they had to be told in the first place. Apart from annoying the rest of the audience, I would imagine the cast of the play would have found them very distracting too.

With regard to the costumes for Danses Concertantes, they only make sense if set in a swimming baths. The male costumes for the Spurling one have my greatest dislike as far as I can make out...bare legs. I really hate to see that on ballet dancers who have so little fat on their bodies. I don't want to play Count the Sinew as I watch. Am I the only one who really liked the Georgiadis costumes? I thought they were brilliant. Although I still don't get the head adornments.....

@art_enthusiast I didn't have a problem with any children, I was responding to the OP's comment. Sorry, forgotten who it was.

Possibly. But surely in that case the behaviour of everyone else around them should be a clue? The teenage boys might not have been aware, but the adult certainly should have been. I have to say that some of the most annoying behaviour I have experienced recently has been from older British people. Who definitely should know better. I went to the cinema recently, and half a dozen OAPs were gossiping loudly as the film progressed. I had to get out of my seat and go and speak to them to tell them to keep quiet. They showed their disapproval of me by sending two of the party out for ice creams and popcorn, with loud requests for "strawberry ice cream if they have it, otherwise vanilla". All while the film continued. No doubt they went home and complained about my behaviour for telling them off in the first place.

I would be equally annoyed by people behaving like that at the cinema. And I think that everyone is fully aware of the correct behaviour in theatres and cinemas, no matter what their nationality happens to be. Unless it is obviously one where audience participation is encouraged, such as pantomime.

@San Perregrino I appreciate the points you are making, but these were not children and would certainly not have required baby sitters. One of them was a year away from being able to vote in UK elections. And moderators, I am conscious that much of this is nothing to do with Swan Lake itself. Perhaps these posts could be moved to the Audience Behaviour thread?

Well, my first ballet was Swan Lake, which I saw at the age of about 6. This was the full length, full scale production by the RB touring compan. I sat there absolutely transfixed, and developed a life long love of ballet. To be fair, I had just started doing ballet classes, and my parents thought I might enjoy it. But why take any child to a full length production of a classical ballet if they have shown no interest in the first place? It is not as if the tickets are exactly cheap, after all.

This makes me so angry. We are not talking about toddlers here, but boys who are well old enough to know what is appropriate behaviour for a theatre. What was the father doing? Why on earth wasn't he making sure they behaved, and telling them to keep quiet when they were speaking to him? I have seen many children at the ROH over the years, nearly all much younger than these two, and I have always been impressed at how well behaved they have been. If I had been there, I think I might have given this particular father an earful when the interval came along.

I don't remember that, how could I possibly have forgotten that. Makes me curious to see it again as soon as possible. I agree that the subject matter is not to everyone's liking, but I don't find it any different to scenes in Manon or Mayerling. MacMillan seemed to like portraying women being ravished by men in various ways.