All Activity

DD would have applied but she is too old now !

I do hope that the colleges make some effort. I am glad you have a flight booked BalletBean. That's more than I have. Enjoy the moment in whatever way it comes. I will have to send a UK-based substitute. My DD is just graduating on a diploma course, as she is also wrapping up her A levels and is still under 18 till the very end of August. She looked at all the auditions going across Europe principally, and the age required, usually set at 18,and realised that there was no point in putting together a show reel because it would be a waste of effort. The restrictions on access to studios and colleagues with the technology and know-how in other bubbles didn't help. However she would be blanked automatically by companies as under age. Gone are the days of apprenticeships at 16 plus. Employment laws, insurance, safeguarding and health and safety have put paid to that. However her appetite for academic study has increased and so DD is thinking of continuing in this direction for a while, whilst continuing with classes and delaying the applications by at least one year. She has time on her side. She may get some freelance work to put on the CV after she is 18. Who knows? She did have the opportunity to do a three day showcase with the ballet company of her college , which she adored and some material may be available from this for showreels in the future. Usually the college tours but they restricted that this year. I do not know if any company AD's attended. Tutor feedback was positive. Her old YAGP films and others, though of an excellent standard and good enough to audition a year ago, will not represent the dancer she is now after yet more intensive instruction. Improvement is constant,the quality of technique and interpretation , maturity of expression and indeed figure and face. The difference between looking like a 'student ' and a company dancer can be great. The college did give classes on employability and audition technique, but bubbles and limitations on studios prevented students having chance to do showreels easily. Not sure how many have been successful at audition, because I am out of the loop. Choreography ventures were suggested for online transmission through the year, which were highly inventive in terms of techniques, storytelling , locations and a great use of technology, and I should think that some students involved then used this material for their reels. There will be some form of live graduation ceremony but bubbled.

Is the size 2 big? I think the skirt and tracksuit would fit. Do you have picture of skirt please?

Is this generous? My little one is 8

Is this including the extra 10cm material, or is that the length to knee, my daughter is 56 waist and 46cm waist to back of knee, will this be too big?

I did wonder if the current Covid restrictions with regard to coaching made it impractical for Sarasota to be doing much Ashton this year. After all, most dancers who worked with him are generally not in the first flush of youth, and probably based on the "wrong" side of the Atlantic.

Ridiculously late to be mentioning it, I know, but I do have a spare rear stalls ticket for tonight if anyone's interested.

I’m looking forward to seeing Cinderella on Saturday afternoon- my first ballet since Lazuli Sky at Sadlers on October 31st! I’m excited and guessing that I will feel very emotional when the curtain goes up!

Hi Milzmam, Always worth applying if your Dd wants to. The worst outcome will be a no but the best would be a place. If you don’t try then you won’t know. We know 2 girls who became SAs after several nos at JAs and MAs. Good luck 🤞🏻

The Bolshoi Theatre Newsletter is available HERE World Premiere of New Ballet The Seagull by Yuri Possokhov 28th International Ballet Festival Benois de la Danse Gala Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Opera Mazeppa

Hi sorry this has sold now. I do have a size 2 leotard and some character shoes if you are interested

“Thank goodness” for presenting one (1) 15-minute, relatively-obscure Ashton work next season?! Sorry, maryrosatonapin, as I wholeheartedly agree with 99% of what you wrote. But the sudden - hopefully not permanent - dropping of Ashton as a regular staple of Sarasota’s repertoire is upsetting. Maybe just to me but I suspect not.

I am not an authority on this but it has been my clear impression that for the past few years the Royal Danish Ballet has rather turned it's back on the Bournonville style and repertoire. It is mildly terrifying how quickly such a specialised dance school and be devalued, adulterated and then eventually lost. This threat is a real object lesson for those who wish to preserve the Ashton style.

I don’t think my post ever said that performance experience makes you a better teacher? I was simple raising a few different questions of things she may want to look at, from a marketing perspective, that attract a dancer or their parents to a studio given that was her dream for the future. Unfortunately in the current climate social media and good marketing are going to be an element of maintaining a successful studio. You can be an excellent teacher and want to attract enough students to be financially viable. We all know what makes a good teacher, the average consumer may not.

I've just dug up my programme from 25th May 2005 - Rambert doing Dark Elegies, along with Mark Baldwin's Constant Speed (which I loved!), Momenta by Mikaela Polley (which I have no recollection of) and Tudor's Judgment of Paris. 😢

And there's also this below, which makes comparisons between technique past and present. I assume this presentation on YouTube is a condensed version of the research as the de Valois syllabus must have had many more exercises than those shown - at least it gives us a good idea.

Fabulous! Thanks so much for this information that Capriol Suite is available to see online. I wouldn't have known otherwise...

Agree with your point about Rambert. Not sure that ENB would be interested, but it would certainly be another feather in Tamara's cap.

Same in dd’s graduate yr! It’s very sad especially with the lack of jobs this yr even more of a reason to help these dancers during an unprecedented time.

The CE at NB has always kept a low public profile but does promote the artistic vision as with ENB & BRB.

I think this is true to an extent, but we will never really know how, for example, a tenor in the early 19th century would have sounded as there was a big shift around then towards singing "from the chest". Similarly, IIRC the bel canto technique - which many now see as the basis of good operatic singing! - was considered to be in a very precarious position at around the time Callas was learning her trade.

I think the main problem with Tudor, at least on this side of the Atlantic, is that he has been effectively orphaned by Rambert's shift away from classical ballet (which looks irreversible). The RB and BRB have a lot of their own back catalogue to look after, so taking someone else's on doesn't look likely. Maybe ENB would be a good fit?

A point about opera vs ballet: in a way it's almost more important for great works of ballet to be regularly performed in a timescale that allows for authentic interpretation to be handed down, generation to generation. Although there are, of course, fashions in operatic interpretation, it is my understanding that performances can be more easily retrieved from the printed page than is possible for ballet. I am familiar with musical scores but my remarks are based on having seen and not fully understood ballet notation, which always looks somewhat vague to me. So maybe I am wrong. If I am correct, the case for proper preservation and production of historically important ballets (including of course those of Ashton and Tudor) is even more important. And who is more responsible for this than the RB? (Thank goodness for Sarasota Ballet.) cf the Royal Danish Ballet's cherishing of Bournonville.

That is so sad. Those schools will reap what they sow over a period of time. New applicants may well be very savvy and look closely on how all schools and institutions took care of their pupils during these unprecedented times.

What about Leonid Massine??? So many greats are being ignored as companies announce their repertoires for the new season! I understand that company ADs want to fund their friends (fund living choreographers), make work on today’s dancers...but it’s a crime that this is done at the expense of most of our art’s heritage. The history of ballet consists of much more than Petipa and Balanchine.