2017/18 UK Ballet Season Highlights (all companies!)

[alison]

On ‎16‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 09:15, bridiem said:

As a personal aside, I see that the number of performances I went to in the 2017-2018 season was almost exactly double the number I went to in the season before I joined the Forum (2014-2015). That is directly attributable to the increased interest and enthusiasm that this Forum has stirred in me - hearing others' opinions, views on dancers or companies I would otherwise not have booked for, interesting information sparking curiosity, etc. So THANK YOU to everyone who contributes, and to the moderators for all they do. (But I also hold you all directly responsible for my reduced bank balance... ).

 

I remember the phenomenon in the late 90s, after I'd joined this forum's predecessor.  Back then, I'd just been mentally ticking ballets off once I'd seen them, and it would never have occurred to me to go and see a repeat with a different cast  

[Xandra Newman]

Same for me. I used to go to the ROH only to see a ballet I had not seen before and it didn't matter who was dancing. On one of those evenings the person sitting next to me said she watched every cast in every ballet. I was totally puzzled and wondered what was the point. Once you had seen a ballet you had seen it.

Now I understand what she meant!

[RuthE]

1 hour ago, Xandra Newman said:

Same for me. I used to go to the ROH only to see a ballet I had not seen before and it didn't matter who was dancing. On one of those evenings the person sitting next to me said she watched every cast in every ballet. I was totally puzzled and wondered what was the point. Once you had seen a ballet you had seen it.

Now I understand what she meant!

 

In the first couple of years after I started going to ballet, I deliberately educated myself by seeing RB shows as many times and with as many casts as possible, especially in the repertoire standards.

 

I do less of that now, and tend to see things twice as a maximum, but am very picky about which dancers I want to see in which ballets.  I wouldn't have the knowledge to be picky if I hadn't done that initial binge. Indeed for any company other than RB, ENB and (to a certain extent) BRB, I still generally haven't got a clue about the strengths of different dancers and often just pick a performance based on convenience of date.