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Irmgard

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  1. Irmgard
    @Sim @Fonty Thank you for your very kind comments about my contributions to this thread. I am always very happy to share information about Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" as I consider it a huge privilege to be responsible for this beautiful production, and Mary herself was always very generous in sharing her thoughts about it. As the dancers I have worked with will tell you, I can talk forever about it but then, as Katja Khaniukova said in our interview for London Ballet Circle, it probably is the most detailed production of "Giselle" currently in performance. However, I do find that all the details give the dancers the freedom to make each character their own, and I alway stress that they have to "keep it real", especially the character roles in Act 1. If anyone has any further questions about the production, I'm happy to answer them. It was so very heartwarming to read here how much people enjoyed the performances and your wish to see it again soon! I know it is a ballet that all the dancers enjoy performing, even though it is very challenging, especially for the ladies, after all those Nutcrackers, but perhaps every January might be pushing it a little! I would also love to see it during a spring or summer season one year in London, especially at the Coliseum, which is when it used to be performed from 1971 to 1991. During that era, it was also performed at Royal Festival Hall in the days when the company had a six-week summer season - three weeks at the Coliseum and three weeks at RFH! @oncnp Many thanks for mentioning the flower shower for Erina Takahashi's farewell performance. It was my absolute pleasure to organise this for my beautiful friend, who had already started working in the autumn as a repetiteur on the production, being responsible for the scenes in Act 1 involving the Vine Gatherers and coaching Ivana Bueno and Daniel McCormick for their performance in Liverpool. It is wonderful that the dancers are already benefitting from her highly regarded knowledge and experience, and I feel very honoured that she chose the Skeaping "Giselle" for her farewell performances in the UK.
  2. Irmgard
    Fernanda Oliveira had her phone on so that he could see the event and Erina Takahashi spoke with him after the curtain came down 🥰
  3. Irmgard
    Maybe that was the Friday matinee when Angela Wood was Bathilde. I could not see her face (from the Stalls!) due to the angle of her hat so I spoke to her between shows and she adjusted it for the Friday evening show which she also did. All other performances had Stina Quagebeur as Bathilde, a 'veteran' in the role having first performed it in 2009.
  4. Irmgard
    Woolhouse was sadly injured for this run. Nakaaki was onstage quite a bit, especially as a Gamekeeper, although you might not have been able to recognise him in the half-light. He also appeared as a vine gatherer in several performances but he did not have a featured role in this particular run.
  5. Irmgard
    Dancers not cast in this run of "Giselle", due to the limited number of performances, were Emma Hawes, Ken Saruhashi, Daniel McCormick and (originally) Shiori Kase. Apart from those indisposed, all other dancers appeared in the performances in some guise or another. Van le Ngoc retired at the end of last season after twenty-one years with ENB.
  6. Irmgard
    I expect that is the Patrice Bart version as I noticed the same thing when I watched his production in Berlin this summer (of course, he was in the Mary Skeaping version for a number of years in the 1970s and 80s!)
  7. Irmgard
    On Instagram, Erina Takahashi has reposted a video by Isabelle Brouwers taken from the wings of this very moment happening last night!
  8. Irmgard
    Katja Khaniukova posted a wonderful clip of this moment on Instagram last season in tribute to the wonderful ENB stage crew. To spoil the magic, there is a sort of fishing wire attached to the top of the veil at one end with a stage hand holding the other end. He stands just out of sight in the wing and yanks the wire at exactly the right moment in the music and voila!
  9. Irmgard
    Bathilde was played by Stina Quagebeur at all performances except the two shows on Friday. Zulma and Moyna were danced by Minju Kang and Anna-Babette Winkler respectively on opening night.
  10. Irmgard
    It was the wonderful Junor Souza, known for being an exceptionally fine partner. He did all the shows, except for Friday night when he was Hilarion, when Vsevolod Maievskyi, took on the role of "man in black". On opening night I was rather chuffed to be asked how they managed to unhook Giselle so quickly from the flying wire in that scene, and the person asking was amazed when I replied that it was another dancer actually carrying her!
  11. Irmgard
    Yes, seats 3000 - bigger than the Coliseum!
  12. Irmgard
    As I previously mentioned on this thread, Gautier's original conception of the Wilis was that they come from different countries, one representing a bayadere which I have always associated with this solo, and therefore everyone's descriptions of Velicu's beautiful interpretation are very heartening to read! As the second half of the solo uses the same step sequence (relevé développé à la seconde into fouetté sauté) which Giselle dances around the kneeling Albrecht in Act 2, I always tell the Moynas that they are practicing to be Giselle in this so that they get that serene quality. I think I have previously mentioned that Velicu is a cover for Giselle so, as others have mentioned, I hope there will be a chance for her to perform the role when the production is next given (no future dates as yet, but it is a production especially liked by Aaron Watkin).
  13. Irmgard
    Not the first time this mistake has been made 😄. I remember it amused Mary quite a lot when it happened. Interestingly, the surname is an English corruption of the Norwegian name Skiiping (where her father's family originated from a couple hundred years ago before settling in Liverpool) so actually it is not far off it!
  14. Irmgard
    Personally, I thought Durand was excellent on opening night (with Ivana Bueno). All praise to Adriana Lizardi who ended up dancing with three partners, due to her original partner, Miguel Angel Maidana,injuring himself following their first performance on Thursday. Yes, @Dawnstar, there were a couple of glitches in Durand's partnering of her last night, of course due to very little rehearsal time during the two double-show days. Although it usually, looks effortless, the partnering in the Skeaping version of this pas de deux, in particular, is quite tricky in places.
  15. Irmgard
    Please let me know which casting you are interested in and I will try to help, although it did alter daily from the complete casting (i.e. every peasant Wili etc) that I was given at the start of the week.
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