Lynette H

A couple of productions which may be of interest:

New Movement Collective - Collapse 30 July - 6 August

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/new-movement-collective-98373?dt=2016-08-01

Ballet National de Marseille

Body.Dance.Nation. City

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/body-dance-nation-city-97423?dt=2016-08-05

Performances in the main turbine hall.  8h July (today) to 10th July. Details including performance times here

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/anne-teresa-de-keersmaeker

On weekends in August there are free outdoor performances outside the National Theatre on the South Bank. Rambert, whose HQ is right behind the National, are performing on the weekend of 19th - 21st August. Full details here. 

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/river-stage-rambert

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre are touring the UK this autumn in Sept and Oct. Venues include London (Sadler's Wells), Plymouth, Birmingham, Bradford, Nottingham, Cardiff, Salford, Southampton, Canterbury and Edinburgh. 

They are doing two weeks in London (three separate programmes) but just two days at each of the other venues. 

It's a Dance Consortium presentation. (They indicate there will be a 2017 UK tour for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba). 

As to where some of the "missing" principals might be appearing, note that Carlos Acosta is at the Royal Albert Hall Oct 3rd to Oct 7th appearing "with some of his closest contemporaries from the Royal Ballet" according to the Sadler's Wells website. 

http://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2016/carlos-acosta-the-classical-farewell/

Just out of interest for comparison purposes, here are some details of the National Theatre's 2011 production of Frankenstein directed by Danny Boyle with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. It's one of their most popular encore productions, which they claim has been seen by half a million people. Lots of details about the production here including photos and interviews. You might find it popping up somewhere in cinemas this year. 

http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/16546-frankenstein

Perhaps we are seeing the results of budget cuts from Birmingham City Council. They cut their arts funding by 25% fir the coming year. BRB were among the losers. 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-city-council-slashes-arts-10567577

Casting is up for Les Enfants Terribles, the de Frutos work. 

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/les-enfants-terribles-by-javier-de-frutos

Three performances only, just the one cast. The dancers are Yanowsky, Watson, Nixon, Sveaas, Goddard and Gülgeç. 

They are doing An Italian in Madrid together with Burning and Nomadic in Wimbledon on 10th May. Definitely worth a look. 

At last a way of getting the audience to comply with requests. The usual announcement at Sadler's Wells before "Golgota" said the customary things about phones, photography and filming but then added. something to the effect that in addition, there should be no applause until the end "in case it frightens the horses". 

The audience complied. 

These are out now, and the dance nominations are as follows

Best new dance production

He Who Falls (Celui Qui Tombe) by Compagnie Yoann Bourgeois at the Barbican
Romeo Et Juliette by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo at the London Coliseum
Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor at the Royal Opera House

Outstanding achievement in dance

Alessandra Ferri for her performances in Chéri and Woolf Works at the Royal Opera House
Javier De Frutos for Anatomy of a Passing Cloud at the Linbury Studio theatre, Royal Opera House
Sasha Waltz for Sacre at Sadler’s Wells

Best theatre choreographer

Carlos Acosta and Andrew Wright for Guys And Dolls at the Savoy theatre
Drew McOnie for In The Heights at King’s Cross theatre
Stephen Mear for Gypsy at the Savoy theatre
Jerry Mitchell for Kinky Boots at the Adelphi theatre

There is one for de Valois, in Barnes. It's been there for a number of years. 

Is there one for Constant Lambert ? Who else would you expect to have a blue plaque ? 

Still no casting details for the Invitation, at least not on this page at time of writing.

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-invitation-by-kenneth-macmillan

Odd isn't it, given that booking has opened for higher level Friends. 

Darcey Bussell did indeed have a farewell show (four of them) at Sadler's in 2007 as well as the ROH performance. It was put together by Nunn and Trevitt. There's a review here

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/may/20/dance

The latest ROH Friends magazine does give a list of prices for the Bolshoi visit, but does not map these onto the seating plan. The prices are just given as a list, it appears to be the same for all productions. . 

£135, £120, £105, £90, £77, £63, £55, £48, £34, £25, £20, £15, £10. 

A brief running order for those of you who weren't able to get there

Excerpt from Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty

Mr Wonderful – Bourne (danced by some former Princes to JO’s Swan)

Hidden (Rambert School, where JO trained)

Gypsy Souls (Rambert School)

Paganini (choreographed and danced by Marcello Gomes with violinist Charles Yang)

“Growing up” pas de deux from Wuthering Heights, by David Nixon, danced by Northern Ballet. Jonathan created the role of Heathcliff in this production.

Excerpts from Play without Words (Bourne)

Excerpts from “come, been and gone” by Michael Clark Company including Michael himself, and danced to Bowie’s Jean Genie. Jonathan danced in this work with them in 2013.

Excerpts from The Car Man

Interval

Tidal from Re:bourne (young ensemble group who appeared in Lord of the Flies)

My Girl from the musical Motown. Choreographed by Warren Adams, friend of Jonathan. who was best man at Warren’s wedding.

Shine, Drew McOnie Company. Jonathan appeared with them in the past. 

Paso Double, Karen and Kevin Clifton.

Sapphire, danced by the men of Northern Ballet, choreographed by David Nixon.

Excerpts from Bourne’s Swan Lake.

In addition we saw Jonathan on film in Bourne’s Spitfire, and a very young Jonathan on an ancient clip from The Generation Game, dancing the Nutcracker....

I'm pleased we get casting for new works in advance now. It was not generally the case in the past. I recall that when Wheeldon's Alice was premiered there were no cast details at all, and you had to try to guess which nights might be the second cast, if you wanted to see them. Names of new works were often not revealed until opening night either. However there does seem to have been a change in policy on these points which is welcome. 

Michael Berkeley interviews a wide variety of people on his weekly show. Akram Khan was a recent visitor. 

All can be downloaded as free podcasts here

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/private-passions/id653514061?mt=2

Interviewees include 

Akram Khan

Kim Brandstrup

Robert Cohan

Gillian Lynne (very lively, discusses de Valois and Ashton) 

...and many more

Rather to my surprise, casting for some of the final triple bill of the year has appeared on the ROH web site. 

Obsidian Tear (McGregor)

The Invitation (MacMillan) 

Within the Golden hour (Wheeldon) 

Obsidian Tear (all male ?)

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/obsidian-tear-by-wayne-mcgregor

Invitation - no details given at present

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-invitation-by-kenneth-macmillan

Within the Golden Hour

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/within-the-golden-hour-by-christopher-wheeldon

Casing here looks similar, but not the same as for Feb. 

At the Insight evening on Elizabeth earlier this week, Tuckett said that the performance in the Linbury would be filmed for transmission on Sky. 

presumably a shorter version?

It is a shorter version ! Evidently the original play ran for something like 4 hours. Patrick Marber renamed it because he had pruned back this version at the NT to 2 hours 15 minutes and cut out a number of minor characters. There are still more characters in this version than in Ashton's ballet, including Anna Petrovna's mother, a suitor for Vera and a local doctor. Though John Simm gave a very nuanced portayal of Rakitin, I still came away thinking how much more effective Ashton's ballet is in in terms of really getting to the heart of the characters, and reflecting again on Ashton's ability to distill things to their essence. The ballet a much more involving and moving experience. 

If you are interested in comparing plays with the ballets based on them, there a a couple of opportunities coming along. Wheeldon's A Winter's Tale returns next April at the Royal. There are also two productions of the play on in the next few months (unusual since it's not done as often as some Shakespeare plays). 

Kenneth Branagh's company is presenting A Winter's Tale at the Garrick with Judi Dench as Paulina from early October this year. Next January A Winter's Tale is also on at the Wanamaker Playhouse (the small indoor theatre next to the Globe). 

Currently at the National Theatre is Three Days in the Country - a version of A Month in the Country. 

Don't know why, but I was under the impression McRae wasn't available at the beginning of the season ...

 

That still leaves some speculation as to R&J casting unanswered, then ...

McRae is appearing in New York as part of the Fall for Dance season, but not until 2nd and 3rd October. 

"So here are a couple of even smaller differences.Both the von Rosen production and traditional version include a very clear section of mime in which Effie's mother,Anna, tells her to get ready for her wedding using exactly the same mime for a veil that we see in Fille. In the final scene of von Rosen's production not only does Anna have the standard stage business but Effie clearly looks to her mother for assistance when Gurn proposes to her. A section that is clearly absent from both the traditional and Schaufuss versions."

​In the cast sheet for the Queensland Ballet production, Anne (not Anna) is stated to be the mother of James not the mother of Effie.  This is also how she is described in the Kobborg version for the RB, according to the ROH performance database. So why in the situation quoted would Effie look to Anne ? Anne does not appear in the later wedding procession which you might expect if she was Effie's mother.  

I do find it odd that Anne disappears from the scene after Gurn's proposal and does not seem to be as worried as you might expect about her missing son. But there are so many mysteries about the interactions between the protagonists. Why does James trust Madge's gift of the scarf when he is so hostile to her earlier ?

Mukhamedov and Yoshida did perform the Talisman pas de deux at the ROH, back in summer 1997. It was longer ago than I thought, but that's what the ROH performance database says. Rather lovely costumes if I recall correctly. I think they might have been scheduled to appear in this at some point before then (or after?) but it didn't happen for some reason. I think there may have been some rather odd reason given for its non-appearance - unable to get copies of the orchestral score or something. Maybe someone else can recall.

A lovely piece, shame we haven't seen it at the ROH again.