Audience Behaviour

[Blossom]

What beats leaving during curtain call? Leaving during the final act of course! Frustrating to have moving bodies leaving the theatre and blocking the stage at Coliseum tonight. I know Sleeping Beauty is a long ballet, but seriously??? 

 

Also frustrated by random calls of bravo/brava/bravi post solos. Am I being unduly irritated or is usage getting a bit excessive and show-offy when applause would more than do until the curtain call. Or is this something which is just now routine?

[alison]

I think someone left during the Bluebird pdd at one of the matinees I was at ...

 

Some people living well out of town do have some rather erratic train services, and it can make a huge difference if you catch an early train rather than a late one (I've done the same coming back from the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton before now).  Or you may not even have that late one ...

[SusanR]

9 hours ago, Blossom said:

What beats leaving during curtain call? Leaving during the final act of course! Frustrating to have moving bodies leaving the theatre and blocking the stage at Coliseum tonight. I know Sleeping Beauty is a long ballet, but seriously??? 

 

Also frustrated by random calls of bravo/brava/bravi post solos. Am I being unduly irritated or is usage getting a bit excessive and show-offy when applause would more than do until the curtain call. Or is this something which is just now routine?

My last train home is at 10.16 & I have to get to Victoria, so there is no way I can stay until the end of the ballet! I usually book matinees for this reason but occasionally I may want to see a particular cast only dancing in the evening. It would be good if there was an earlier start once in a while. I know I am not alone with this problem.

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

9 hours ago, Blossom said:

 

 

Also frustrated by random calls of bravo/brava/bravi post solos. Am I being unduly irritated or is usage getting a bit excessive and show-offy when applause would more than do until the curtain call. Or is this something which is just now routine?

 

When the late Christopher Gable was AD at Northern Ballet he preferred the audience not to applaud during story ballets but wait till the end.  That is so instilled in me that I do not applaud unless there are obvious applause breaks (as there are in some of the classics these days).  I really do not like this thing that seems to have started to happen where the leading dancers are applauded on their first appearance.

[Timmie]

27 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

...I really do not like this thing that seems to have started to happen where the leading dancers are applauded on their first appearance.

 

I sort of agree with you Janet, but when you've been waiting* through the whole prologue to see her and it's Alina Cojocaru sometimes you just can't help yourself...

 

*not to mention the 17 months to the day since I last saw her 😃.

[capybara]

11 hours ago, Blossom said:

 Also frustrated by random calls of bravo/brava/bravi post solos. Am I being unduly irritated or is usage getting a bit excessive and show-offy when applause would more than do until the curtain call. Or is this something which is just now routine?

 

I feel that it's OK to shout out when dancers are taking their bows during, or at the end of, classical pas de deux. Indeed, I do so.

However, there has been a recent spate of calls and wolf whistles before the end of a section and, noticeably, during Manon and Marguerite and Armand and I find this intrusive, especially at key dramatic moments in the story.

P.S. I do clap dancers on. I think they like it.

[jmhopton]

At the stage door quite recently Yasmine said she was so relieved at her entrance applause as she was dreading a silent entrance 

[bridiem]

24 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

At the stage door quite recently Yasmine said she was so relieved at her entrance applause as she was dreading a silent entrance 

 

Gosh! I would have thought that would have been the last thing on her mind! I didn't realise that dancers are quite so aware of what the audience is doing whilst they are actually dancing.

[Sim]

Don't forget, many dancers (like many artists of any kind) are quite insecure, especially the good ones, and any sign of encouragement and love from the audience does them a world of good.  Dancers are very aware of how an audience is reacting to them and it really does affect their performances.  Many dancers have told me that.

 

I did feel a bit sorry for Kish because no-one clapped his entrance on either time I saw him.  

[Timmie]

That is amazing 😲. I clap-on my favourites and any Odette.

[Mary]

I would much prefer to have the whole Act before applause....I don't recall there being so much bowing between each variation in the SL pas de deuxs before...It does break up the atmosphere...

Clapping on for special occasions is all right because the atmosphere is yet to build....

[capybara]

22 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

Gosh! I would have thought that would have been the last thing on her mind! I didn't realise that dancers are quite so aware of what the audience is doing whilst they are actually dancing.

 

I think, particularly when a dancer is making a debut, the applause when they come on makes them feel surrounded by warmth and goodwill. I have occasionally asked them about this and the response has always been an appreciative one.

 

Getting the red run curtain calls 'right' is also an aspect which concerns dancers, especially those who haven't yet got used to it. There seems to be an inbuilt, and very understandable, fear of staying out too long.

 

 

[Lizbie1]

One of the things I like about UK ballet companies is that they don't generally overstay their welcome when receiving applause.  I sometimes despair at the Russian habit of "milking" applause, which, however standard it is at home, becomes awkward and sometimes unseemly on foreign soil.

 

Concerning applause during a performance, I think a lot of credit is due to conductors for their judgement in keeping things moving at the earliest opportunity and sometimes nipping inappropriate interruptions in the bud: it's a skill I've always admired.

[Lizbie1]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

However, there has been a recent spate of calls and wolf whistles before the end of a section and, noticeably, during Manon and Marguerite and Armand and I find this intrusive, especially at key dramatic moments in the story.

 

I'm not talking about Manon and M&A here, but what about when you've just seen something really special?  It would have felt inappropriate not to at least applaud Muntagirov for his pirouettes a la seconde during the Swan Lake coda on the first night, so beautiful as they were!

[Blossom]

8 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I'm not talking about Manon and M&A here, but what about when you've just seen something really special?  It would have felt inappropriate not to at least applaud Muntagirov for his pirouettes a la seconde during the Swan Lake coda on the first night, so beautiful as they were!

 

When you have seen something really special, absolutely. But that’s just it, it should be special. 

[Xandra Newman]

3 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

Gosh! I would have thought that would have been the last thing on her mind! I didn't realise that dancers are quite so aware of what the audience is doing whilst they are actually dancing.

 

Oh yes they are! On many occasions dancers have told me that they can FEEL their audience: they feel when the audience is indifferent or about to fall asleep...or a warm, supportive and enthusiastic audience. A dry audience can really affect the mood, there is certainly an interaction.

 

According to jmhopton she referred to the entrance applause (not during the actual dancing). I was there too and the audience was just so delighted to "finally" see Naghdi come on stage after 30 minutes into the ballet   I feel it is really nice to applaud the lead ballerina in those big classical ballets.

[Douglas Allen]

Lighten up people!

7 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

When the late Christopher Gable was AD at Northern Ballet he preferred the audience not to applaud during story ballets but wait till the end.  

 

Christopher Gable had many excellent qualities, but really, some ideas were really, really silly.

Try sitting through a performance of Fille or Coppelia without applauding until the end? How bonkers!

 

I remember a performance many years ago of Coppelia by Festival Ballet at the Royal Festival Hall. It hadMargot Miklosy and Dudley von Loggenburg in the lead roles and Terry Hayworth was Coppelius. Aged aficionados will be aware what can be implied about the performance from the casting. The audience was typical of a Festival audience of the period (coach parties, school parties and hard-core ballet goers) and typically, applause would tend to be polite and sparse. A group of the ballet goers decided to try to get the applause " livened up" and began to applaud enthusiastically at every opportunity. At Franz's entrance applause rang out from a few people, when Swanilda appeared applause came forth again, this time from a few more. Every time someone appeared the applause happened again, each time from a wider section of the audience. This continued gaining more and more adherents until by the last act, a member of the corps had only to rise on pointe to get a volley of applause. The performance ended with tumultuous applause and cheering. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves enormously and when some of the dancers came out at the end, they were asking people waiting what was that all about?

 

Ballet is largely about enjoyment and in contemporary western society we express our enjoyment by applause - not by sitting in largely po-faced silence. I'm all in favour in applauding vigorously as and when I see something I enjoy and appreciate. There needs to be some appreciation of the context - vigorous applause and cheering at the sight of a particularly well executed suicide at the end of Mayerling might be a trifle de trop, but applause during performances can enhance the experience. Sitting in silence throughout a performance of Theme and Variations is rarely a good sign.

 

Incidentally, to stir things up a bit, booing dancers playing unpleasant characters at curtain calls (eg von Rothbart) is vulgar and common. It's not a pantomime and we are not children. It should not be beyond our intellectual capabilities to distinguish between the character and the dancer,

[Jan McNulty]

10 minutes ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

Incidentally, to stir things up a bit, booing dancers playing unpleasant characters at curtain calls (eg von Rothbart) is vulgar and common. It's not a pantomime and we are not children. It should not be beyond our intellectual capabilities to distinguish between the character and the dancer,

 

But it is a bit of fun when the dancer stays in character and seems to relish the boos.

[bangorballetboy]

13 minutes ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

Incidentally, to stir things up a bit, booing dancers playing unpleasant characters at curtain calls (eg von Rothbart) is vulgar and common. It's not a pantomime and we are not children. It should not be beyond our intellectual capabilities to distinguish between the character and the dancer,

 

Lighten up people! 😈

[Lizbie1]

10 minutes ago, Douglas Allen said:

Incidentally, to stir things up a bit, booing dancers playing unpleasant characters at curtain calls (eg von Rothbart) is vulgar and common. It's not a pantomime and we are not children. It should not be beyond our intellectual capabilities to distinguish between the character and the dancer,

 

But surely the whole point is that people *do* distinguish between the two and this is their way of showing appreciation of a job well done. I understand the objection and I don't do it myself, but I rather like it. I think anyone who dances such roles regularly in this country accepts it for the approval it's meant as.

 

Didn't someone here mention last year when the Mariinsky were touring that, once it had been explained to them, they were all for it?

[Mary]

I do get fed up with people thinking I must be 'snooty' because I go to the ballet a lot, so it's nice to know I'm really 'vulgar and common'-hurray!

😄.

 

[Blossom]

7 minutes ago, Mary said:

I do get fed up with people thinking I must be 'snooty' because I go to the ballet a lot, so it's nice to know I'm really 'vulgar and common'-hurray!

😄.

 

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Rob S]

1 hour ago, Douglas Allen said:

Incidentally, to stir things up a bit, booing dancers playing unpleasant characters at curtain calls (eg von Rothbart) is vulgar and common.

 

Wow, do you think it's only done by people in the cheap seats?

 

 

[aliceinwoolfland]

Douglas Allen - I go to the ballet to enjoy myself, not to distinguish myself as unvulgar and uncommon 😂

[Lizbie1]

Some earlier discussion here:

 

 

[capybara]

It's a busy week for the boo-ers as there is Carabosse at the Coli this week, also.

[ninamargaret]

Doesn't worry me one little bit when audience at ballet, or anything else, boo the baddy, although I always feel sorry for the dancer/actor who has often turned in a terrific performance  i wonder if it is a sort of inbuilt reaction, going back to the old days of melodrama where audiences were expected to participate by booing, hissing, cheering and generally having a good time?

[Coated]

I'm still a bit gobsmacked at the woman texting throughout the balcony scene of R&J at Sadlers. The guy sitting right next to her didn't come back after the intermission, so I'm thinking I either sat next to a nest of ballet haters or she ruined a perfectly good performance for him.

 

Today's swan lake was enhanced by a non-stop chewing gum chewer, thankfully he was noiseless with it, but the movement of light bouncing off his  overactive hamster cheeks was pretty distracting, so I'm now in possession of a slight ballet injury from holding up my binoculars non-stop to block him from my view. 

[AnneMarriott]

7 hours ago, Coated said:

 

 

Today's swan lake was enhanced by a non-stop chewing gum chewer, thankfully he was noiseless with it, but the movement of light bouncing off his  overactive hamster cheeks was pretty distracting, so I'm now in possession of a slight ballet injury from holding up my binoculars non-stop to block him from my view. 

Was this the matinee?  And were you sitting in Stalls Circle C36?  If so you have explained what I took to be eccentric use of binoculars by the lady in front of me - I was standing in D9.

[bridiem]

I had another canoodling couple in front of me at the Coliseum last night. Heads together, heads apart, heads together, heads apart... And when the man, who was sitting in front of me, WAS sitting independently, he moved incessantly, and every time he moved I had to swing sharp left, or sharp right, then back again, then back again. It was ridiculous, exhausting and distracting. I wasn't in the mood to ask him to sit still (have to be feeling courageous/assertive), but I kept thinking: 'You're not on your sofa at home!! You're in a theatre!'.

 

Why is it that every time I go to the Coliseum, I (who am tall) have my view almost completely blocked by the person in front of me?? Something very wrong with the seating configuration (at least in the Balcony), since that almost never happens at the ROH (in the Amphi). It's a distinct disincentive to go to performances there.

[jm365]

It's not only the Coliseum!  I was at Sadlers Wells last night in the First Circle for the triple bill and was originally sitting behind a very tall man - not his fault, obviously!  However, the fact that seats in the middle of the auditorium are directly behind one another, it meant that the centre of the stage was totally blocked.  In the interval I moved - along with quite a few other people frrom various parts and ended up on the end seats in the back row for a much better view.  I must remember this when booking in future.

[Sharon]

I'm hoping to come down to Sadler's Wells and as I'm very short - does anyone recommend a good area?

[Jan McNulty]

53 minutes ago, Sharon said:

I'm hoping to come down to Sadler's Wells and as I'm very short - does anyone recommend a good area?

 

From my point of view it depends on what the front row of the stalls is.  If it is row A, then that is my preferred row (I'm 5'3").  Otherwise I prefer row F or the next couple of rows.  I find the sight lines fine across the whole row.  I've never sat upstairs in this iteration of the theatre.