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The Royal Ballet: Don Quixote, 2014


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Saw the final performance on Thursday with Salenko/McRae and was not disappointed.  Great night with good dancing, McRae really pulled the stops out and did one tremendous one hand lift which lasted for ages! Salenko was lovely as ever and did a fasb set out 32+ fouettes.  Pity that Kaneko muffed her Italian fouettes - yes I think this should be a principal role - the Mariinksy and Bolshoi both employ top dancers (Principal or First Soloist) for the Queen of the Dryads I have seen Kondaurova and Somova(Mariinksy), and Alash and Shipulina(Bolshoi) perform this role perfectly and with a lot more Italian fouettes than in this version - I think the Russian norm is 16 here we only get 5.   Gary Avis was a lovely Don Q.   Anyway thoroughly enjoyed the final performance and so sad to see the Don head off into the sunset until I do not know when again :-( I must give HUGE thanks to the Corps de Ballet who have worked hard for many weeks without a break I think they deserve as much praise as anyone because without them, there would be not a ballet!  

Edited by Don Q Fan
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DonQ fan said

the Mariinksy and Bolshoi both employ top dancers (Principal or First Soloist) for the Queen of the Dryads I have seen Kondaurova and Somova(Mariinksy), and Alash and Shipulina(Bolshoi) perform this role perfectly and with a lot more Italian fouettes than in this version - I think the Russian norm is 16 here we only get 5.

 

I don't think there is enough music for 16 (unless it is repeated) but I saw a clip with Somova who does 8 and the POB's Delphine Moussin does 7 beautifully on their DVD. She was a soloist at the time but later was nominated etoile.

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In the YouTube clip of Zenaida Yanowsky dancing the Queen of the Dryads in 2001, there were seven Italian fouettes, so either they've adjusted the choreography or Akane Takada wasn't doing the right number of them.

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Yes I watched some videos on YT and I agree 8 is more the number not sure where I got 16 from oops! I was amazed to see Zenaida Yanowsky as QoD and she was v good so I wonder why RB didn't use her in this run she would have been perfect. It's not a big role so she could have gone home early too. What a shame I really like Zenaida it would have been great to see her.

Edited by Don Q Fan
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She's been underused for quite a long time - I can't think of any other principal dancer who has a longer list of major roles never danced - so even if dancing less is her own choice now, I doubt that was always the case. In any case, I hope Fumi Kaneko's problems with the Italian fouettes were just the product of her having a bad day and nothing more serious.

Edited by Melody
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Especially when you compare her career to Sylvie Guillem who danced almost everything apart from Onegin. Was it Ross Stretton who promoted Yanowsky to principal? If that's the case then maybe he had more plans for her than Mason or O'Hare. I think even Bayadere, Manon, Month in the Country, Marguerite and Armand (and Swan Lake?) came a bit later in her career than you might have expected. I would have loved to have seen her Aurora. I think as well as being underused she was underestimated by management.

Edited by Sunrise
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i always got the impression that she was taller than both Bussell and Guillem, but I don't know how tall the latter is, I can't find any info with a quick search.  

 

I see no reason why she should not have done all the things that they did, unless that extra height made partnering very difficult?

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i always got the impression that she was taller than both Bussell and Guillem, but I don't know how tall the latter is, I can't find any info with a quick search.  

 

I see no reason why she should not have done all the things that they did, unless that extra height made partnering very difficult?

I think that is probably the case. They have often had to bring in tall dancers from other companies as guests to partner her in major roles.

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But still, I think it shows a degree of underestimating her that they didn't seem to try to get another tall man into the company; it's not as though they didn't exist. Most of what I've read has said that the tall men in the company were reserved for partnering Bussell and Guillem, and there didn't seem to be much feeling that their third tall girl might have needed a partner too. It's not as though a tall guy couldn't have partnered a medium-sized girl as well as a tall one, after all.

 

Anthony Dowell said in one of the short Swan Lake YouTube videos that he was "very fond" of Yanowsky - it seems as though he promoted her as a parting gift and his successors didn't really know what to do with her. She even said in her Ballet Association interview in 2004 that she didn't think she'd ever get to dance Manon, and she was already pushing 30. I wonder if her going public with that complaint was partly why she was finally allowed to do it, or if Manon would have been yet another of the long list of major roles she never got to dance.

 

But she seems to have managed an Indian summer with her success in Alice in Wonderland and the good reviews in The Winter's Tale, although again those are roles where she's mostly dancing without a partner.

 

In her Radio 3 programme in December she said that this run of Swan Lake would probably be her last, so obviously she's in the process of winding down her career. I just wonder if she'll stick around long enough to take part in Christopher Wheeldon's next full-length ballet, whenever that comes along.

 

Sorry for helping take the thread off topic...

Edited by Melody
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But still, I think it shows a degree of underestimating her that they didn't seem to try to get another tall man into the company; it's not as though they didn't exist.

They may have had their fingers burned by a number of very unfortunate experiences when they tried the same for Bussell, of course. Not that that's a real reason for not trying, but it may suggest that things aren't that simple. And anyway, perhaps it was easier to borrow other dancers when necessary? I believe Yanowsky is 5'8", which doesn't even make her the tallest ballerina in the company, if we're using the term loosely.

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Well according to her, she's 5'8". Interesting to re-read this 2004 interview with Judith Mackrell:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/dec/15/dance

 

The Yanowsky/Greve Swan Lake I saw was wonderful and I've always wished they could have danced together more often.

 

I couldn't agree more, Jane.  They were fantastic together, in all ways, and I remember saying at the time 'bring that guy over here permanently!'. 

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I thought Yanowsky was 5'9 but presumably she'd know. I also remember reading that she's the tallest principal dancer the company has ever had, and since Beryl Grey was 5'8 I assumed that'd mean she was taller. I think she also was quoted as saying she has big feet, which would make a difference to her height on pointe. The Royal Ballet doesn't seem, so far, to have followed the Russian trend of preferring tall women in the company - not that that's such a bad thing because I swear some of those 5'10 Russian dancers who weigh about 80 lb look like pipe cleaners.

Edited by Melody
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*furious counting on fingers* That's five feet eight and three quarter inches, right? (we don't do decimal over here so measurements in metres don't mean anything to me)

Edited by Melody
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  • 2 months later...

RB casting for the Kennedy Center has been announced:

 

Marianela Nunez, Carlos Acosta – Tue., June 9 & Fri., June 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Sarah Lamb, Federico Bonelli – Wed., June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Iana Salenko, Steven McRae – Thu., June 11 at 7:30 p.m., Sat. June 13 at 1:30 p.m.
Natalia Osipova, Matthew Golding – Sat., June 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Roberta Marquez, Alexander Campbell – Sun., June 14 at 1:30 p.m.

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Oh so Iana Salenko has been hired to go Stateside too with RB interesting. Lucky Americans getting to see Osipova whilst we over here only got one act:-( Nunez and Ospivoa and I think McRae are guesting with ABT too in New York. Saves them a trip. Be interesting to hear how Acosta's Don Q is received over there.

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Oh so Iana Salenko has been hired to go Stateside too with RB interesting. Lucky Americans getting to see Osipova whilst we over here only got one act:-( Nunez and Ospivoa and I think McRae are guesting with ABT too in New York. Saves them a trip. Be interesting to hear how Acosta's Don Q is received over there.

 

As a side note, it has just been announced that Cojocaru (ex RB, current ENB, Hamburg, Romania, etc.) will appear in place of the Bolshoi's Smirnova (due to injury) in ABT's BAYADERE.  Chudin (not injured - in fact danced in the YGAP gala in NYC this past week as did RB's Hamilton and Underwood in QUALIA PDD) will be replaced by ABT's Cornejo who will be appearing in RB's presentation next season of M. Clarke's CHERI.  

Edited by Bruce Wall
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