Pas de Quatre

There is a table that PdL published when it first announced those selected to take part. It shows name, nationality, school and country. I will see if I can upload later. Another one shows number of entrants by country and number selected.

An interesting question, I don't think male dancers have an advantage as such, but by their very nature their solos tend to be more spectacular. I did pretty much agree with the jury's decisions.

I agree, the Arts can be a great catalyst for healthy discussion - isn't that what we are having now? My concern is that at the moment, the two schools associated with BRB, Elmhurst and RBS are both being sued by former pupils for the way they handled eating disorders and mental health issues. As it is sub judice we are not allowed to discuss, but I don't think mentioning that these cases exist contravenes anything.

So for BRB to portray weight issues as comedic does not feel right. 

If you watch the Finals you will see that there are several prize winners. They can then choose which of the partner schools or companies they would like to go to. Their choices are published in a few weeks time. The institutions offering prizes are listed on PdL's website.

Exactly! There are many things considered normal in the past that are no longer acceptable.

It isn't the same thing, using padding to create a character or make an accurate historical costume. The problem is in creating a costume specifically to mock a young woman because she is too fat and thus ugly. Likewise the other sister is mocked because she is too thin, unacceptable and totally out of touch with modern thinking about mental health issues.

How do people feel about one of the Ugly sisters wearing a fat suit? It made me feel uncomfortable when I first saw it, and today when there are highly publicised issues about ballet dancers being fat shamed perhaps it should be discarded.

I think the problem arises because hardly anyone anywhere uses the full name of the steps. At the barre the steps are nearly all named battements plus an adjective but the word battements is dropped frequently e.g. battements tendus become tendus, battlements frappés become frappés, battlements développés simply développés.  Literally translated it would be unfolding movement, so yes it is being said as an instruction - unfold.

Another difference is that in French ballet classes there are petit sauts, small jumps. The word sauté is only used as an adjective show it is a jump, an échappé can be either sauté or relevé, likewise grand fouetté can be relevé or sauté.

I had various pupils do it in the past, but most schools in this area have dropped it now. One of the last of my pupils to do GSCE dance was very dismissive of the whole thing. She was a very able dancer but they were put into groups by the school and she was placed with some people who basically had no prior training and no idea! This meant she ended up doing all the work.  They all passed with a reasonable mark, but she was convinced if she had been marked on her own she would have had a much higher mark. The school tried to get her to do A level dance but she refused point blank

In some cases it may be "nervous laughter", a well known reaction to surprise, shock and alarm, rather than finding the moment comical. A quick Google search will find lots of information about this. 

It has been recorded in various biographies that there was a lot of bad feeling between Ashton and Macmillan, so maybe out of loyalty?

They have a schedule on their website of the number of candidates who applied from each country and the number who were selected to take part.

It is already on YouTube, I just watched part of the first classical class, girls A & B.

If you want to see him teaching, he has a whole series of classes online. It started during the pandemic and developed from there. Even now, if I want to do something at home, he is my first choice.

Total rubbish!

It is 9.30 - 2.30 for ages 5 - 12, so probably no more exhausting than a summer camp in any type of sport or even just day care.

Gautier's musings that Bathilde wanted to take Giselle back to the castle may not be so impossible. Some people have wondered (we discussed this in a previous thread) whether Giselle is in fact the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman. There is nothing about her father in the ballet at all.

UK copyright, (and European I believe) is not the same as that in USA. Here copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator, not counting years of war. Prokofiev died in March 1953, so the 70 years is up this year, but presumably 5 or 6 years should be added for the 2nd World War. 

Yes please bring it back - to other theatres, not just in London!

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

 

Also it used to be the case that dancers in white acts painted themselves in something called 'wet white'. I'm really showing my age here! 

When I was performing as a professional ballet dancer it was normal for management to tell dancers that if they sunbathed during the summer and got a tan then they would have to use white makeup on exposed arms, shoulders for Giselle, Swan Lake etc. Water soluble pan cake did the trick.

These days PdL participants have a whole week of classes and coaching for solos before the selection on Friday afternoon for the Final on the Saturday. There are only a few UK students who apply and even fewer selected. The PdL website gives a full breakdown of the numbers on their website.

The Fonteyn is an RAD competition and you have to pass their Vocational exam with a particular mark to enter. So whilst the RAD is one of the largest individual Exam awarding bodies, the vast majority of ballet students world wide don't do exams.

There is a lovely photo in today's Times of Katja Khaniukova and corps in Act 2.

LinMM - in the second episode of Fonteyn's Magic of Dance there is a wonderful extract of Fonteyn and Nureyev dancing Giselle Act 2, a Fonteyn is a perfect example of the style. 

However I have always understood that only the Principal dancers get paid in the Japanese ballet companies. Has this now changed so everyone getd payment?