What would you cull from the RB repertoire?

[penelopesimpson]

6 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Re-visiting Monotones II (prompted by the reviews of Sarasota Ballet) my personal view is that Ashton's piece feels more "modern" and less clichéd 50 years on than anything McGregor has come up with. And that's working squarely within the classical idiom.

 

 

It is lovely, especially as I've never seen Monotones.  Watson, Nunez and??????

[John Mallinson]

Kish.

[Lizbie1]

13 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

It is lovely, especially as I've never seen Monotones.  Watson, Nunez and??????

 

We'll make an Ashton fan out of you yet

[Fonty]

Oh, Monotones is just wonderful.  Wonderful!  

 

Now, a triple bill with Monotones, Symphonic Variations and....? 

 

Would it sell well, do you think?  Even if the ? was the most obscure piece ever - dancers contorting in string vests and oversized knickers, to the sound of someone scratching a blackboard with their fingernails - I would still go.  And sit in the bar for the non Ashton piece. 😊 

[Ianlond]

I believe Monica Mason once described considering an ‘all white’ mixed bill (my wording may well be incorrect) of Symphonic, Chroma & possibly Symphony in C. I could see either of those with Monotones. Personally I think I would like: Chroma, Monotones II/ Symphonic Variations/ Symphony in C. Actually Apollo would work very well too. 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Ianlond

[penelopesimpson]

On 21/08/2018 at 17:00, Lizbie1 said:

 

We'll make an Ashton fan out of you yet

I'm working on it.  I think its like classical music, you have to go there in steps

[penelopesimpson]

On 21/08/2018 at 16:51, John Mallinson said:

Kish.

Thanks.  Is Kish exceptionally tall for a dancer?  He has incredible arms.

[LinMM]

Thanks so much for the Montones clip Penelopesimpson I really love that ballet.

when I was a student way back in the late 60's ( at Reading) I went over to Oxford to see the ballet( my first theatre visit as an adult as it were after an eight year gap) and it was the Sadlers Wells Company performing there with Alfreda Thorogood and David Wall and I'm sure Vergie Derman was in one of the trio....wish I still had the programme which was pinned on my college wall for the rest of that year....

Not only did I fall in love with ballet again and started looking for classes but went out immediately to search for the LP of Saties music as I love the original piano music more than the orchestrated version......couldn't get enough of it (and probably drove a few people mad playing it all the time) 

It also kick started my lifelong ballet theatre going and maybe why I have a soft spot for Ashton I don't know.

The beauty in the simplicity of this ballet and its setting never fails to move me but I thought was really modern at the time!! 

 

 

[LinMM]

Perhaps was Vyvyan Lorayne not Vergie Derman but saw the ballet many times after this first visit and loved Dowell in it as the exciting new talent back in those days ....he had such perfect classical line! 

[capybara]

Nutcracker - or at least give it a long rest.

[Bruce Wall]

Several people have suggested 'culling' (don't really like the word) Balanchine's Jewels.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

Today I stumbled across JEWELS AT 50.  This was made for the work's 50th anniversary and surrounding the 2014 coaching sessions in Jewels for Pacific Northwest Ballet.  What an extraordinary ensemble Peter Boal has developed this Company into.  It is a shame that those who do not travel may never get to see them.  It was my thrill to see them in Paris this summer.  (I have already reported on it - but Boal's courage in pulling that young boy from the corps - Dylan Wald - for the opening Paris performance of Robbins' Opus 19/The Dreamer - a role I saw Boal excel in so many times himself with NYCB - will remain one of the highlights of my ballet going career.  Never before have I seen - at Wald's second performance - an audience applaud SO much after a first movement that it delayed the start of the second movement.  Wald SO deserved it.  I wouldn't blame people who didn't know the work for thinking the ballet had finished and even then they would have felt lucky.)  

 

In JEWELS AT 50 you see the sadly late Violette Verdy, Mimi Paul, Edward Villella and the abominable indomitable Jacques D'Amboise coaching.  Three of these originated roles in the masterwork that is Balanchine's Jewels.  D'Amboise's demonstration of how to do the kiss at the end of the Diamonds' PDD - an element he himself added - is entirely life-enriching.  The ease with which he knells in rehearsal belies the fact that both of his knees and both of his hips have now been replaced.  Masterful.

 

Enjoy.  
 

 

[toursenlair]

1 hour ago, Bruce Wall said:

Several people have suggested 'culling' (don't really like the word) Balanchine's Jewels.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

Today I stumbled across JEWELS AT 50.  This was made for the work's 50th anniversary and surrounding the 2014 coaching sessions in Jewels for Pacific Northwest Ballet.  What an extraordinary ensemble Peter Boal has developed this Company into.  It is a shame that those who do not travel may never get to see them.  It was my thrill to see them in Paris this summer.  (I have already reported on it - but Boal's courage in pulling that young boy from the corps - Dylan Wald - for the opening Paris performance of Robbins' Opus 19/The Dreamer - a role I saw Boal excel in so many times himself with NYCB - will remain one of the highlights of my ballet going career.  Never before have I seen - at Wald's second performance - an audience applaud SO much after a first movement that it delayed the start of the second movement.  Wald SO deserved it.  I wouldn't blame people who didn't know the work for thinking the ballet had finished and even then they would have felt lucky.)  

 

In JEWELS AT 50 you see the sadly late Violette Verdy, Mimi Paul, Edward Villella and the abominable Jacques D'Amboise coaching.  Three of these originated roles in the masterwork that is Balanchine's Jewels.  D'Amboise's demonstration of how to do the kiss at the end of the Diamonds' PDD - an element he himself added - is entirely life-enriching.  The ease with which he knells in rehearsal belies the fact that both of his knees and both of his hips have now been replaced.  Masterful.

 

Enjoy.  
 

 

surely you don't mean abominable, Bruce????

 

[Bruce Wall]

O

5 minutes ago, toursenlair said:

surely you don't mean abominable, Bruce????

 

 Oh, dear ... not I don't.  Prescriptive text has much to answer for.  I meant 'indomitable' !!!!!   Thanks for picking this up, Katherine. .... Though it did make me laugh ... and somehow - knowing his sense of humour ... I think D'Amboise would have enjoyed it too.