Ann Williams

Grateful thanks, Shirley!

Have been trying for a while now to subscribe to The Arts Desk and was able until yesterday to get as far into the site as the 'contact us' section; today I can't even see their 'phone number, so could anyone let me have it? Many thanks!

Quite! Apologies in advance if I sound bossy here, but I started the thread using as a title the words Luke Jennings used in his timely Observer piece last Sunday. I thought it would be worthwhile discovering if ballet audiences agreed with him in finding it offensive and unnecessary to have women's crotches repeatedly thrust in their faces. I personally loathe it, and wonder why the dancers themselves allow their bodies to be used like this, unless, of course the unspoken threat of 'if you don't want to do it, someone else will' hangs over their heads (I may be being fanciful here, of course). Would everything be ok if men's bodies were displayed in the same manner? No, but it might at least lessen the offensiveness to women.

Er.....I wonder if Hutera's tweet will sell The Place out? (The Place's audience being rather dissimilar to the contributors to this thread - so far anyway...)

Tee hee - then it must be Bayadere....

Carmen?

What Jennings doesn't say in his piece - though he can hardly be unaware of it - is that this aspect of male choreography for women is not new; it's there quite clearly in some of Balanchine's work, and certainly in a lot of MacMillan's work, although McM's sexism, if that's what it is, isn't quite so obviously physical. It's probably going to take a seismic shift to change things, but at least Luke Jenning's piece has brought it out into the open (for the first time as far as I know) and it helps greatly that it's actually a man who has turned the spotlight on it. I hope we can keep the spotlight on it by continuing to discuss it here.

I was pleased to see that Luke Jennings in his dance review in the Observer today [www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/nov/17/royal-ballet-triple-bill-romea-juliet-review/review] raised the issue of the crude in-your-face movements that some current male choreographers demand of their female dancers. I agree with his singling out of Wayne McGregor, because I’ve long thought that this is McGregor’s worst fault - it is the reason I think hard before buying a ticket to see any of his shows. Is it just me, or do others here feel the same, not just about McGregor but other choreographers too? (Luke Jennings suggests that Wheeldon too is beginning to stray in the same unpleasing direction).

The ballerina in Balanchine's 'La Sonnambula' dances the entirety of the ballet with her eyes apparently closed! How I wish th RB or ENB would acquire this eerie and untypical Balanchine work. I believe it has been performed here before (I think the role was danced by Fonteyn at some point) but it must be incredibly difficult to dance, since most of role has to be done on point . Anyway, I've got it on a disc somewhere peformed by Alessandra Ferri and Mikahel Baryshnikov. It never fails to thrill me.

To stray somewhat from the title of this thread, did anyone see last night's live broadcast of the RSC's Richard II from Stratford-on-Avon, with David Tennant as Richard? I saw it at the Vue in Westfield, and was duly stunned. Lack of any knowledge of this particular play made the first act virtually impenetrable for me, but Act II required no former knowledge to bring it into blazing life, thanks to David Tennant's amazing performance. It was an extraordinary achievement, funny, sad and fierce by turns - I felt fortunate to have seen it. Fascinating too to see the set and lighting designers explain how they achieved their striking and elegant effects; stage design, it seems owes less than we think to technology. More than well worth a visit if and when the recorded re-play is shown in the usual cinemas.

Re. DaveM's comments on Balachine above, it's interesting that some of Mr. B's greatest works (Apollo, The Four Temperaments, Agon etc.) are dressed in simple, mostly black and white practice-type costumes, designed carefully enough to show both the choreography and the dancers' bodies with absolute clarity. Would anyone actually wish to put any of those immortal works in proper 'costumes'? One only has to look at photographs of the earliest, clumsy-looking costumes for Apollo to imagine what a mistake it would be to attempt 'costume' the work today - it would comparable to having to watch it through a scrim! That said, it's hard imagine Petipa's ballets without costumes, and there's no doubting that his choreography could stand up effortlessly to the most minimal of costuming (actually it would be fascinating to see what some of it would look like performed in black and white practice costumes). I've always found that new, good choreography seen in the rehearsal room in practice clothes and with only a piano accompaniement always shines through and always excites. Which doesn't of course mean that it wouldn't look look even better in costumes...

But Tsiskaridze sounds as if he could be a nightmare to work with, so Lopatkina's job might be no picnic, I wish her the best of luck anyway.

PS: I was referring in the above to your first posting today, Lindsay....

Lindsay - very well said (and said quite beautifully). I would add to your point about some posters 'seeking comfort in dialogue with and crumbs of personal trivia concerning their favourite dancers' that another dislikeable aspect of this is the casual use - on this forum anyway - of first names, plus reported stage-door personal conversations with their favourites, giving the general impression of privileged RB insider knowledge which the rest of us are not party to. As a lifetime avoider of hopeful stage-door waiting, that dislike is probably personal to me, but I'd guess others may share it. I also think your words about MM are fair and thoroughly well-balanced, and will likely be a useful quote for any future biographer. I believe her appointment was the exactly the right one at the time, and must have come as a relief to the dancers (and to the company as a whole) so she will most likely be remembered by the general ballet-loving public with warmth only. Finally, as Dave's posting has reminded us, it was MM who appointed Wayne McGregor as resident choreographer, and - much as I dislike his work - that was a surprisingly bold choice for MM, another point that will surely be seized on by her future biographer.

'...>Nor will we get further by duking it out here.<...' Normally, I'd agree with that point, but if we leave it at that Monica Mason's term as AD is left considerably tarnished by the impression given in Ismene Brown's interview in theTelegraph, and few of us here would want that. For one thing, if is hard to believe that MM actually used the words 'not RB style' - Ismene may have interpreted Alina's words as that, given that Alina's English is not perfect, or Alina may actually have used the words meaning that MM meant that her performance - as Aurora - didn't suit the RB's production of 'Sleeping Beauty' (though it's even harder to believe that) NOT that her dancing as a whole didn't suit the 'RB style', which is the impression we are left with.. And sadly, it may simply be that - as Mijosh above suggests - Johan Kobborg influenced the final version of Ismene's interview in th way that he wanted . As John Mallinson says above, we will probably never hear Monica Mason's version of the story, but please, please, do not leave Dame Monica's long and distinguished career with the Royal Ballet - both as dancer and as AD - with this final negative and unhappy memory.

How tall is Zen exactly?

Alison - I loved those windmilll headdresses too. Little windmills were also set into the tutus, if you remember, and all seemed to be busily turning - it was just cheeky fun, and I could never undestand the disapproving clicking-with-annoyance tongues all around me. There was also a silly little 'drunk' wandering through the dancing-in-the-plaza sequences and waving his bottle around until someone took it away and gave him something to eat instead. Again, just part of the general cheekiness of the production (and to my shame, I can't remember whose it was). Thank you everyone for these comments. I haven't booked, so I'm glad there's a cinema showing on the 16th, but what a shame it's clashing with BRB's 'Penguin' triple at SW - I'd like to see both, as |I'm sure others here would too.

Is it worth scrubbing up to go as far as the high street for, Capybara? It is Sunday, after all....

That's the description in my TV listings mag. of tonight's episode of 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' on Channel 5 at 9 pm. You read it here first....

John, thanks for the tip about the Balanchine book - I've spotted it before but thought I knew Balanchine well enough not be need it, but obviously not . I'll order it now. And Janet, you say you had the 'misfortune' to sit through 'Orpheus' several times, not something one would normally say about a Balanchine ballet - was it just the rubber-draped costumes?

Many thanks, Janet. If Orpheus is a Balanchine ballet (must admit I hadn't heard of it) then that's the answer, but as I haven't got any other letters to confirm this, I'll jfust pencil it in. Any other suggestions?

....I hope I can be excused because it certainly wouldn't be right under 'Not Dance', as you'll see, A clue in last weekend's Polymath crossword in the FT reads:'Ballet by George Balanchine premiered in 1948' (7 letters.ending in S). Blowed if I can think of it, and I refuse either to Google it or look it up in any of my reference books - I regard that sort of thing as cheating. The answer is probably blindingly obvious, and no doubt nobody here will need to resort to Google etc. to find it...

...and here, playing the Mozart Piano Concerto No, 13 in C Major: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLhrBu5KRsk

Did anyone see the performance of the pianist Mitsuko Uchida, either at the Proms in person or on TV on Thursday night? Actually, the TV experience was vastly the superior IMO, because the camera caught her passionately involved facial expressions throughout the performance; the combination of these and her matchless playing of the Mozart and Beethoven pieces moved me almost to tears - what a privilege to have seen this performance!

This sounds like the very similar but much more comprehensive (and hugely enjoyable) Ashton three-day conference at the Roehampton Institute in 1994. Many of the participants in this new symposium are the same as those in the original conference (eg. Alastair Macaulay, who gave a wonderfully entertaining talk on the sexual elements of Ashton's ballets, with a beautifully-timed interruption from Alexander Grant). However, I don't suppose this will stop me from attending the Symposium if I can get a ticket.