Lynette H

It is a good idea to get there early and take a look around. One thing that you might like to see are a couple of lovely tutus on display - they are for Princess Florine from earlier productions of the Sleeping Beauty. If you take the escalator up to the amphi level, they are on your left as you get off the escalator. They are very well displayed, in big glass cases. (And then you can pop out onto the terrace in front of you for a view over Covent Garden).

Another curious change was that I was told I couldn't use the main staircase in the foyer to get to the upper circle. The staircase was for the use of dress circle patrons only. I was directed across the foyer to the stairs at the other side. Seemed rather odd, if not off putting. Did I not pay enough for my ticket ? Are the dress circle patrons suddenly easily offended ?

After some further inspection of the recent Arts Council spreadsheet, It appears that the following dance companies or organisations will now receive some funding from 2023, after not previously receiving Arts Council funds. Amina Khayyam Dance Co Blink Dance Theatre CoDa Dance Company Company of Others DanceSyndrome FRONTLINEdance Gary Clarke Company Ltd Humanhood Impact Dance Foundation IRIE! dance theatre Jaivant Patel Company CIC Just Us Dance Theatre Company Kala The Arts Magpie Dance Nupur Arts Dance Academy Pagrav Company Limited Rhiannon Faith Company Second Hand Dance Seeta Patel Dance Ltd Southpaw Dance Productions Surface Area Dance Theatre CIC The annual amount awarded to these is between £100K and £300K. Five of these are identified as London based, the rest around the country. These are the winners: it looks as if the money trimmed from the bigger recipients is going to much smaller organisations.

The following dance companies appear to have lost their Arts Council funding completely, as far as I can see Russell Maliphant Mark Bruce Dance Company Shobana Jayasingh Michael Clark (Trading as modern masterpieces) There are others. I have the previously published Arts Council funding spreadsheet for 2018-22 if anyone wants it for comparison purposes, I can upload it here. Edit: If no funding is allocated where it had been previously, the organisation does not appear in the new spreadsheet at all. You need to look in detail at the earlier funding spreadsheet to compare to work out what has vanished.

Can anyone indicate what the running time of this programme is please ?

Todays Tix has an offer on this https://www.todaytix.com/london/shows/25885-the-nutcracker They claim "save up to 47%" but as ever you need to pick your way through carefully - its not for all dates or for all parts of the venue.

Following up on rising ticket prices in general, I see that the top price for Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty, the Christmas show at Sadler's is £85 in the stalls which is much more than I remember (though I can't recall a precise figure). The top price for Bat Out of Hell at the Peacock is £95. Yes, there are cheaper tickets available of course. Elsewhere Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre next year has a maximum price of £125 (much cheaper seats are available in the gallery). Not very cheering is it.

More on this - impact on museums who might have planned to provide "warm banks" for those struggling to heat their homes https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/31/uk-museums-rising-energy-costs-could-hamper-warm-banks-plan "Museums have said they will struggle to provide “warm banks” planned for people priced out of heating their homes, because their own soaring bills threaten opening restrictions and closures this winter."

"Guest" performances at Sadler's are independent hires and discounts for members don't apply. Quite a few have popped up on the Sadler's website recently, though they don't seem to get much publicity. I'm quite curious about this one - Fabula Collective, on the main stage on 17 September. Details are a bit terse but the cast sounds interesting https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/fabula-collective-momentum/ "Fabula Collective Associate Artists James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight and international guest artists from excitingly varied backgrounds, from former Royal Ballet Principal Mara Galeazzi and Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s Christopher Marney, to current Nederlands Dans Theater artists Paxton Ricketts and Madoka Kariya, Ballet Black’s Cira Robinson, former Northern Ballet’s Mlindi Kulashe and former Ballet Basel soloist Kihako Narisawa, get together to tell stories that demand to be told, in a full programme with all-new commissioned music." Does anyone know any more about the background to this ?

Following on from the startling news that the Lowry's electricity bill will be bigger than its Arts Council grant, here's more on how price increases are affecting venues, including Sadler's Wells. Sobering. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/19/covid-uk-arts-venues-energy-crisis-fatal

6 - 17 Sept Use promo code TROCKON for £10 OFF our best available seats or click on the 'Book now' buttons below to receive the discount. Book by 31 August to access this limited offer* *Not in conjunction with any other offer, off-peak performances only, excludes £22 tickets, subject to availability. Read more & Book now

Cathy Marston made a piece quite some time ago about TS Eliot's relationship with his wife.

I spotted that there was a new work on in a few days time in Bath from Kim Brandstrup. Details here https://www.whatsonstage.com/shows/bath-theatre/minotaur_270102 I suspect its quite small scale. The cast on the Theatre Royal Bath site is given as Jonathan Goddard and Tommy Franzen, which makes it sound quite tempting. It seems to be on for just a short run in Bath - anyone know of any future plans to tour ?

It's August. There aren't that many performances out there right now. But there's still quite a bit on Iplayer to catch up with, so here's a reminder..... Alvin Ailey bio https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016ccs/alvin-ailey-a-legend-of-american-dance Dancing Nation, in two parts, including Matthew Bourne and Akram Khan https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0952ph6/dancing-nation Dance Passion - a very mixed bag of five episodes from different points around the UK of all types of dance https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0014twh/dance-passion EX-S - a documentary from the 1990s, Jasper Conran designs new production of Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p026fb77/exs-styling-the-swan Firestarter, a documentary about the Australian dance company Bangarra https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014rg7/firestarter-the-story-of-bangarra Imagine: profile of Wayne McGregor https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014rz7/imagine-2022-wayne-mcgregor-dancing-on-the-edge Steps to Freedom: the story of Irish Dance https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015f6r/steps-of-freedom-the-story-of-irish-dance

Has anyone got the film to work ? Such a nice idea, shame that it doesn't function.

I just thought I'd bump this up as we are nearer the date. https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/river-stage-2022-hofesh-shechter-company-weekend

BBC Rewind is a site of archive material from the BBC. There's lots in there to provoke nostalgia. Here's a few items about ballet Northern Ballet 10th anniversary with Robert de Warren https://bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/61d8676c81037f0022f615c1?categories=artsAndEntertainment&q=ballet&size=30 Irish National Ballet ceases to exist (1989) (anyone know more about this company ?) https://bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/5ea00c939cf8e10027567e56?categories=artsAndEntertainment&q=ballet&size=30 Scottish Ballet at Belfast Opera House 1982 https://bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/5de5054f177e9d0027b1df1e?categories=artsAndEntertainment&q=ballet&size=30

Seat prices for Woolf Works are up as well https://www.roh.org.uk/seatmap?performanceId=51374

I had an email confirmation from ROH yesterday.

I don't think I've spotted this reported here so far "Join us online from our studios as Roser Muñoz Massanas shares the process of staging Uwe Scholz’s The Seventh Symphony in a live rehearsal with BRB dancers. The company has just started rehearsing for this autumn’s UK premiere of Uwe Scholz's monumental work, danced to Beethoven’s spectacular The Seventh Symphony. It’s a huge show with 34 dancers on stage, and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in the pit, and will form part of a triple bill that also includes Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land!" Watch the livestream on RB's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bhamroyalballet/live_videos/

More reviews of the book, should you be interested https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/books/review/la-nijinska-lynn-garafola.html https://www.seeingdance.com/la-nijinska-220407/ https://danceinternational.org/la-nijinska-finally-the-biography-she-deserves/ https://literaryreview.co.uk/dance-like-theres-no-yesterday There are more reviews out there, if you search. A really substantial and thoroughly researched piece of work. I'm only a hundred pages in so far but it's really gripping.

Looking for some background on Yondering I found this site which has quite detailed information about how it came to be created etc http://yondering.squarespace.com/

I spotted that the Barbican cinema is showing Like Water for Chocolate on 22 Jan 2023. I assume it's not the only one, so this gives some indication when the filmed version will be available. NB the Barbican has published dates for showing RB's Nutcracker (11 Dec) , Mayerling (9 Oct) and Diamonds mixed bill (20 Nov). (These are described as live but must be encore performances - they are later than the filming dates) Details https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2023/event/like-water-for-chocolate

The Royal Ballet School are currently performing at Opera Holland Park. For the Upper School this includes Raymonda Act 3, Neumeier's Yondering, some student choreography and Ashton's Swan Lake waltz for 12. It seems likely that some of these will feature in the main stage performance on the 16th. It's quite odd seeing the pieces in daylight - the stage lighting doesn't make much of an impression, and I think the Wayne McGregor piece came off worst for this. Looking forward to seeing the dancers perform with live music at the ROH. The venue has been updated, but not, it seems, for the better. It looks like they have searched every second-hand shop in London for chairs, mainly dining chairs with hard backs. It was a remarkably uncomfortable experience. All the dogs of London seemed to be right outside and engaged in a barking competition, but nevertheless it it's still a lovely place to be on a summer's evening and the performance was very enjoyable. The programme gives some details of graduate contract, but just numbers, not names - five to the RB Aud Jebsen scheme, five to BRB Junior Company, and others (no numbers) to ABT Studio company, Boston Ballet II, Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Norwegian National Ballet 2, Ballet am Rhein Dusseldorf, The Sarasota Ballet, Scottish Ballet.

The NT is bringing back its free weekend outdoor performances in August - the River Stage. From a dance perspective, the weekend of 5 - 7 Aug features multiple performances from Hofesh Schechter Details of these here https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/river-stage-2022-hofesh-shechter-company-weekend Details of the other free performances here https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/river-stage-2022 There's a free live broadcast of one of their productions on the 14th I think. Plus dance performances from Kate Prince's Zoonation. Definitely worth exploring what's available.