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MAB

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Everything posted by MAB

  1. I always put the Danes in a separate category, every one is an outstanding dance actor; after all starting on stage so early they get most of their lives to perfect their craft. The character dancers that have left dancing behind astound me, a few years back Jiri Killian created a work for Jette Buchwald and Flemming Ryberg called Uden Titel # 1, it was just acting and a bit of movement from two very senior company members and was one of the most memorable things I've seen in the past decade. Last year I saw Ryberg teach mime to a group of students here in London - a privilege to watch such a superb artist.
  2. If we can include dancers of the past then John Gilpin, Maris Liepa and Gediminas Taranda. Great applies to a miniscule number in my view.
  3. Ignore the comments, Telegraph readers react in much the same way to just about everything.
  4. Davis House: it is set back from the road a little on South End. The Davis Theatre was beautiful, rather Victorian and ornate inside, you can tell it was an important venue because the Bolshoi toured there in the 1950's.
  5. I would say this is very expensive for this venue as the Palais de Congres is really huge - even bigger inside than the Palais de Sports, although you can see from all the seats the stage can seem miles away. Overpriced in my view.
  6. Like dollyry I was taken to watch ballet while at primary school, I went to the old Davis Theatre in Croydon (now demolished to make way for a much needed office block) and saw Festival Ballet in Pas de Quatre, Harlequinade and Graduation Ball. I didn’t become an instant convert but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and a couple of years later I went to a lavish Robert Helpmann produced pantomime at the Coliseum that featured Anne Heaton as the ballerina, the only part of the show I remember. Ballet going proper began when at sixteen I was taken to see the Royal Ballet at Drury Lane in a performance of Sleeping Beauty and to be honest I enjoyed the music as much as the dancing, but from then on I went as often as my salary as an office junior would allow and was lucky enough to see Fonteyn and Nureyev at the height of their fame, usually queuing all night for a standing place. Having a passion for the nuts and bolts of how things work I spent a recovery period after a road accident watching professional classes at the old Dance Centre in Floral Street. After that I was no longer entranced by everything I saw and became a lot more discriminating, but at the same time more appreciative of things done well. I consider myself fortunate to have been around in the old days when top choreographers were all creating major works on a regular basis, there is still much new choreography to admire but less and less in the classical style and I miss that.
  7. I can assure you Glurdijze is very well known to the UK public, had she been dancing I would have bought a ticket. She is not, therefore I won't
  8. I agree entirely but perhaps in this case the director might have sacrificed one of her own performances, after all isn't her job to direct?
  9. But with a dancer of the calibre of Glurdijze, surely favouritism should be outweighed by the exceptional quality of her dancing?
  10. The exclusion of Elena Glurdjidze is beyond comprehension and at this moment I am feeling very angry about it..
  11. Of the countless eastern European companies touring the UK in the past decade only St Petersburg Ballet Theatre were worth shelling out for and they don't tour here any more because the shady spivs that have recently gone into the impresario game are engaged in a race to the bottom on substance & quality, so who exactly these 'good quality companies' are I'd be interested to know. Perhaps Sofia National Ballet will be worth going to see, but on the other hand we may see long since retired, out of condition dancers, dancing in front of sets that are falling apart. I hope that isn't the case but won't be surprised if it is.
  12. This is just to apologize re the post I made about the amount of subsidy to the RB, I realize that a figure I was shown was privileged information and I should not have referred to it. Sorry.
  13. In that case surely it would be more economically viable to ditch the RB - after all they cost the taxpayer a hell of a lot more.
  14. I imagine most ballet-goers (opera-goers, theatre-goers etc) find their favourite art forms a blissful escape from the real world. I work in economics and even have to talk to politicians now and then. I absolutely don't want to talk about 'the changing economic & political climate' when I'm out for the evening and I suspect most others don't either.
  15. Well said Marieve - I agree with every word.
  16. You mean you haven't noticed the superiority of National Theatre productions over the average West End dross?
  17. The arts in the US ARE subsidized - by wealthy individuals that get substantial tax breaks in return for their generosity, take a look at US ballet programmes and you will discover that that form of sponsorship even extends to sponsoring individual dancers. Of course sponsorship exists in Britain too but nowhere on the same scale. And by the way, are you aware that the US is the only major country that doesn't have a National Theatre? Sponsorship only extends so far. Perhaps it would be a better idea to compare the situation with that in Europe where the arts are taken more seriously - govenment funding is never an issue there.
  18. No subsidies = vastly diminished audiences, therefore the arts in this country will die, all we will have will be the tacky east European touring groups and Glyndebourne. Is that what you really want?
  19. Marieve, post 108, made the point succinctly: the company exists to perform for British audiences. If the criteria for receiving public money is to exclude non Brits (which would by the way be illegal) then it would be bye bye Royal Ballet too.
  20. The O/P seems to only regard British dancers worth watching. The only form of dance I am familiar with danced solely by Brits is actually Morris dancing. Again a statement of truth.
  21. I stated the truth, what is childish about that?
  22. Agreed. As they say in the world of football 'the boy done good'.
  23. It is British because it is a British company founded in Britain by British dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin some 60-odd years ago. Ballet is an international art, if you don't like it go and watch Morris dancing.
  24. "Simple Russian people", "fading ballet stars". You are very free with your insults, Clarissa.
  25. This gets ever stranger, they stiched up his eyes to prevent damage while they were operating to restore his face? Surely the priority would have been his eyes?
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