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petperj

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Everything posted by petperj

  1. Ah okay. Yep, that makes sense. I didn't notice this at all last time. Yep, it was definitely red fabric. I didn't notice it happen at all last time, although I was sat closer so may not have noticed. In terms of the soil it's definitely understandable from a practical/clean-up standpoint. But I guess my point is that the effect is different to the video recording where the soil just disappears into the dark rather than being clearly defined by the solid grey floor of the stage.
  2. Wow. What a fantastic triple bill! I bought a ticket to see Rite of Spring again, but I was gripped from start to finish. Broken Wings was beautiful, colourful, dark and moving. While I tend to be pretty poor at following ballet storylines, I found it surprisingly easy to follow the narrative and emotional lines of Frida Kahlo's life here, despite knowing relatively little beforehand. I really enjoyed Nora too. Crystal Costa was fantastic, and I thought the exaggerated perspective in the relatively simple staging was really effective. For me, there was one exception: I really wasn't keen on the guy in the mustard suit, Krogstad(?), which felt over-the-top/cheesy to me, but I'm still very new to ballet so may have missed things there. My expectations for Rite of Spring were pretty high and the performance just blew them out of the water. Last time (the Bausch-Forsythe-Van Manen triple bill) we sat around mid-level and this time we went for cheaper, higher 2nd circle seats. It's my first time seeing the same ballet from different places (as I said, still very new here!) and I really enjoyed getting a different perspective. This time, rather than looking from near to the level of the action, we had a more dispassionate gods-eye view. When it started, I wondered if the fact that the edges of the soil were so explicitly visible from this perspective might be a problem (would it be more effective if the edges of the soil weren't visible?) but instead it added to the sense that you were looking onto a world. This higher view a clearer view of the patterns formed by the dancers but also seemed to give a bit more distance (which isn't to say that it didn't pack an emotional punch). I can't wait to go again, perhaps from near the front of the stalls next time. I have one question about Rite: How is the chosen one selected? And why is there more than one red dress? I had assumed that the selection would be done before the performance, but I noticed something slightly odd which was that there were at least two red dresses: Immediately after the chosen one was selected (Emily Suzuki on Saturday) a dancer near the back went to the side and threw the second, unused dress off-stage. If the chosen one was selected on the spot then perhaps duplicate red dresses are necessary because the size of dress isn't known until then. Or perhaps this is simply a way of having a clean red dress, since it will have gotten covered in soil by this point(?)
  3. I've only started watching ballet in the last couple of years (and began with lots of kind help from board members here!) so have probably been to less than 20 ballet/dance performances in my life. From skimming a couple of the newspaper reviews it seems like some of my thoughts are the opposite of theirs, so I suspect my taste in dance isn't particularly refined. Which is to say, take my comments with a huge pinch of salt. I found the evening a really mixed bag, loving some pieces and hating others, but I found the evening as a whole really exciting and I can't wait to go to the Linbury again. The first, 'based on 'a' true story', was moody and interesting but ultimately fell flat for me. Perhaps it simply reflects my lack of understanding of dance, but by the end it just felt uninspired to me and I wondered how much of the effectiveness was simply down to the lighting. The second 'uncanny valley' was meant to explore that unnerving effect that occurs when the artificial gets closer & closer to emulating the natural, but I found it simply too scrappy, oddly out of sync and too long. Presumably the scrappiness was intentional to give the uneasy feel, but it just almost looked under-rehearsed in a way that, in my eyes at least, is fundamentally different to what the uncanny valley really is. The third, 'circular ruins' I enjoyed. Unlike the first and later pieces it's ideas felt fairly clear to me; bringing to mind ideas around creator/created like films like Blade Runner and Ex Machina. On the first night the order was different to the programme. I'm not sure if this has remained, but we had 'something borrowed' which I absolutely loved. If much of the rest of the night was intensely somber, this was joyous and just a little mad. The mix of different dance styles, the weird outfits and Anna Meredith's wonderful pounding score all worked together brilliantly for me. This image from the Guardian review is one of the sets of costumes from that piece. The next was 'two sides of' which felt more traditional. I found this enjoyable in parts, but it felt oddly truncated, as though it wasn't a complete short dance but a section of a longer piece that was cut off early. The final piece 'blue moon' didn't work for me at all. It gave me the impression of a wonderful silent comedy with all of the joy sucked out. The dancers smiled but, unlike 'something borrowed' the piece as a whole just felt stiff. In terms of view I was sat LG, front row of the side stalls but on the more central seats rather than in the lowest/highest numbers. Perhaps its just a reflection of the fact that I have so little experience of dance, or the fact that at the ROH we tend to go for the highest & cheapest seats, but I found the view fantastic. The near back-corner of the stage was blocked from sight, but other than that the view was pretty good. Obviously, a more central position would have given a better view of the overall staging (in particular a visual trick at the start third piece fell flat), but on the other hand I found it quite exciting to be so close to the action. I really hope that Metamorphosis is put on again, now that the Linbury is back. Although I see that it hasn't been for ~6 years so presumably it's unlikely.
  4. He also did a wonderful documentary about the American Ballet Theatre in the mid 90s. A fascinating look at both the artistic, and practical side of the life of a ballet company. And some extended clips of their performances in a Greek outdoor venue. Director Frederick Wiseman seems to have a genuine love of dance. His documentary about the National Gallery also includes scenes of ballet performed with the Titian exhibition.
  5. As someone barely a year past going to my first ballet, I don't have much of a frame of reference for wish lists. But the one that does spring to mind is that I'd love a return of Arthur Pita's Metamorphosis. Seeing clips online it just seems so visceral and exciting. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been staged since 2012, but I have no idea if that makes it more or less likely to be staged in the future.
  6. Apologies for reviving a long-dead thread. A while back I started this to get some guidance from board members for going to my first classical ballet and thought to say thanks to those that kindly responded, and give some feedback in case anyone finds this thread searching for advice on ballet classics for newcomers. Following the posts here and a little more reading, we decided to get tickets for the recent Mariinsky Swan Lake in Covent Garden. Before this we saw one act of a recording of Jewels, which some posters mentioned might be a helpful touching point between the more modern dance we had seen and a full on classic. We ended up going to an evening performance, after a long day traipsing around rainy London only to find -tired and soggy- that I had inadvertently booked standing tickets. The ones way at the back of the auditorium. The prospect of standing in wet shoes for 3 hours didn’t seem very enticing, and we briefly considered leaving but decided to stick it out in the end. We’re really really glad that we did. Of course, from our cheap ‘seats’ the view wasn’t as great as it could be, but the 3 hours truly seemed to fly by aided, in part, by the way that the acts seemed to shorten over the course of the ballet. The dancing was by turns beautiful, exciting and sad, and while some of the sets seemed a little bland/quaint, the precision of the dancing completely overrode any minor niggles like that. Given how little experience I have of watching ballet I can’t say if the performance was truly great or not (it was the Saturday when Matvienko was Odille/Odette), but it certainly seemed amazing to me. And there was something quite awe inspiring about the way that a dozen dancers might hold a pose for several minutes only to suddenly move, as one, into another pose or start dancing. A couple of quick questions; 1) I understand that the Mariinsky Swan Lake is different, having a happy ending. However, does this mean that in other ways the ballet is the same? If I go to see next year’s Royal Ballet Swan Lake for instance, would it be the same except for the final few minutes? 2) In act 2/3 when the prince sees Odile in the window after being enchanted by Odette’s dancing, Odile is shown as a video projection. Presumably this wasn’t possible when the ballet was originally written, so how would this have been done then? We also went to see the Mariinsky Contrasts triple bill. I really didn’t enjoy the Carmen Suite except for the weird costumes. Infra was very good and ended particularly strongly, but it was the Paquita Grand Pas which really blew me away. More than anything it seemed just really exhillarating & joyous. Anyway, just wanted to end with saying thanks again to you guys for commenting and giving advice and being so welcoming.
  7. I went to see this at the Barbican earlier this year. I have only seen a few ballets, so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but I loved it. All three pieces varied tremendously, but were uniformly great. One thing I would mention however, is that the final one (a take on Little Red Riding Hood) is surprisingly dark. On the surface, it's as bright and joyful as the third image above suggests, and at times it's very funny. However, it doesn't shy away from the themes/subtext of the original fairy tale, and the ending -while empowering and modern- is very dark. I'm not sure how much younger viewers would 'get' of some of the ideas being presented but it's certainly a little more adult and serious than it first seems.
  8. I've finally taken the time to see this on iPlayer (to anyone still on the fence, it's available there for 11 more days). Wow. The mix of theatrical raw emotion, dance and the layering of sound effects, music and voice is just mesmerising. I've never seen anything quite like it, but it makes me think of the best aspects of David Lynch; dark, dreamlike, emotional and visceral. I decided against going to see this in Sadlers Wells earlier in the year, but am really regretting it now. I don't know how common it is for SW to put on a show several years running, but I really hope it comes back next year (hopefully for more than just 2 days)...
  9. There are still a few performances remaining. Although it's 'sold out' tickets have popped up online sporadically most days so it's probably worth keeping an eye on the website if you're still interested. When tickets do become available they don't bother to update the text on the main page that says "This show is currently sold out, but keep checking for returns." so it's best to just ignore that text and click on 'book tickets' to see if any have popped online.
  10. I went to see this over the weekend, and was completely overwhelmed by Rite of Spring. Really magnificent. I have a couple of (hopefully small) questions about it. I thought it was brilliant that the preparation of the soil was done with the curtain up; it gave the interval a real sense of ritual and helped to build the anticipation in a way that you wouldn't have just grabbing an ice cream in the foyer while stagehands work behind closed doors. Is this dictated by Bausch and always like this, or just what was decided by the ENB/Sadlers Wells? In the interview linked at the bottom Tamara Rojo says: "I am grateful that the Pina Bausch foundation gave us this opportunity to present Sacre ... I wanted to start with one of the works that I consider to be quite based on contemporary and classical techniques so that it was the first step for the dancers into the Pina Bausch language." Does this mean that ENB are intending to/have the rights to perform more Bausch ballets soon? I couldn't see anything obvious on the website.
  11. FLOSS, thanks for such a thoughtful and lengthy response. Apologies for the delay in responding but I've only just had a chance to read through it properly. It's very helpful, especially in getting me to think more about 'how' to watch ballet. I've also been watching a few of the interview/rehearsal shows that ROH put onto youtube which have been illuminating. Something I'm starting to realise is that, probably more than other 'live' artforms, the seating location has a huge impact on how I experience a ballet. Most of the time I tend to go for cheaper/higher seats and while that means I can't see faces so well, it does mean you get a sense of the geometry and forms from the movement/relative locations of the dancers in a completely different way to the shifting layers that I've seen when watching from closer in at the lower levels. I haven't yet gone multiple times to see a single show; partly for monetary reasons and partly because there are so many things that I haven't seen for a first time yet, but I'm sure it's not long until I start trying to see a show twice just to experience it from above and lower levels. Thanks Quintus. I went to see the ENB triple bill over the weekend and the Rite of Spring was simply magnificent. Despite the massive expectations, and having watched clips online, seeing it for real was such a wonderful and visceral experience. The combination of the dance, the staging and the music was overwhelming in a way that I haven't had at the theatre/concert in a long time. I have little doubt that it will be one of my highlights for the year. I also thought it was brilliant that the preparation of the soil was done with the curtain up; it gave the interval a real sense of ritual and helped to build the anticipation in a way that you wouldn't have just grabbing an ice cream in the foyer while stagehands work behind closed doors. The one negative I have is that I saw it the day after the Human Seasons/After The Rain/Flight Pattern triple bill at the ROH, and I really wish I'd left at least a day between the two. I really enjoyed ROH triple bill. In particular, Flight Pattern was every bit the exciting and emotional spectacle that people have said and it lingered in my mind until the Rite of Spring; it seems my brain can only handle one ballet at a time.
  12. Wow, Mary, Colman, zxDaveM, alison, Moomin, Janet McNulty and ninamargaret thanks so much for taking the time to make such thought-out and helpful responses! When I posted I was hoping to get a reply or two, especially given the time, so this is really beyond what I was expecting! As a newcomer, ballet can sometimes feel like a somewhat intimidating art-form to get into, so it's really nice that there are forums like this one where people are helpful and friendly to newcomers. Thanks for the kind words, suggestions and comments on the different possible classics to try out. I also hadn't thought about watching something like Jewels as a 'stepping stone', or seeing ballets on DVD/cinema, so thanks also for these suggestions too. You've given me a lot to think about, so I'm glad I have some time before some of these go on general release. I'll be sure to post once I've taken that plunge into the classics. Thanks again
  13. Hi everyone, I've lurked here a little while, but I've finally decided to join to make a post. There’s some overlap with the initial question in the existing Mariinsky thread, but I think my question here is different enough to warrant a separate post. However, if I’m mistaken or have broken some forum rule, my apologies and I can remove this post. (oh, and apologies in advance for the wordy post!) I never really thought ballet was something I would enjoy. However, at the start of the year my girlfriend and I decided to see Les Enfants Terribles at the Barbican, admittedly mostly drawn to Philip Glass’ score. I know the reviews haven’t been that great but it absolutely blew me away. Since then I’ve made an effort to catch more. We went to see Woolf Works and Ballet Black both of which I enjoyed (my highlight so far is undoubtedly part 3 of WW), and picked up tickets for the Bausch triple bill, the Human Seasons/Flight Pattern show and Rain. However, I’m aware that these are all modern ballets/dance and now would like to dip my toe into a classic. I’ve spent some time reading online but find it a little difficult to sieve through the information, mainly because I have no real frame of reference, and because I haven’t really found something that explicitly talks about different ballets/companies aimed at beginners. So, does anyone have advice for a classical ballet to see for someone who’s a real newbie? Based on the threads here and elsewhere I’m considering the Mariinsky Swan Lake, Don Quixote or Bayadere or the ENB Le Corsaire, but am open to any suggestions really. Thanks in advance, and apologies for any mistakes in terminology.
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