Lynette H

There are various special offers for this - I found these From the Box Office https://www.fromtheboxoffice.com/city/2957-london/1EL9A-the-car-man/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqPGUBhDwARIsANNwjV6txAccPTRCUEO_ReeDCWPvU6bMU-tbRLmgdEiTWaFGThegOmxhZkoaAuz8EALw_wcB TodayTix https://www.todaytix.com/london/shows/23978-the-car-man Good reductions of up to 60% off.

I would avoid the seats in the front stalls that are right at the sides of the hall (lowest and highest numbered seats) - the view of the stage is oblique. There is a step down between each row all the way to the front. Comfy seats.

Either that, or there is another piece of music added. I had formed the impression that the 1 Hour 30 running time was without an interval, though rather frustratingly, I can't put my hand on a reference to that now.

In the latest ROH Friends magazine the running time is given as 1 hour and 30 mins.

31 May to 21st June. Performances from Zoonation Youth Company, Queensland Ballet Young Artists, ABT Studio Company, New English Ballet Theatre, Rambert School. I think the "next generation" performances refer to the RBS. All showing as sold out at present, but I think they are not yet on sale. https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/festival/next-generation-festival-2022-dates

I see the Bintley work, The Spider's Feast, is described as a world premiere. I'm a bit puzzled by that. I recall Bintley made a piece for the Royal Ballet School, many years ago, which was called The Spider's Feast (Le festin de L'araignee). It was 1997. Is this the same or is it a total rework using the same music ? How is it a world premiere ?

BBC Young Dancer 2022 is on BBC4 this evening 17th April , at 7pm. Part 1 of 3. Somehow this had completely passed me by.

In response to queries about how different this season is: In the RB programmes pre pandemic there were usually about 11 main house programmes, plus additional RB appearances in the Linbury. Taken from a couple of the season guides I had handy: 2014/5 -Manon, Ashton mixed (scenes, Symphonic, Month), Triple (Brandstrup, Scarlett, Wheeldon), Don Q, Alice, Onegin, Swan Lake, Triple (Balanchine, Shechter, Macmillan), Fille, Woolf Works, Triple (Robbins, Macmillan) (2 premieres over the season) 2015/6 - R&J, double (Connectome, Raven Girl), Quad (Scarlett, Robbins, Balanchine, Acosta), Double (Monotones, 2 Pigeons), Nutcracker, Double (Rhapsody, 2 Pigeons), Triple (all Wheeldon), Giselle, Winter's Tale, Frankenstein, Triple (Mcgregor, Wheeldon, Macmillan). (4 premieres over the season) In the planned 2022/3 seasons there are only 8 main stage programs in total. It's the mixed bills that have gone, and the total number of ballets on offer as a result has shrunk markedly. The triples usually had runs of 5 or 6 performances. I assume this is due to the size of the financial hole inflicted by the pandemic. Has the opera season suffered in the same way ? We don't know ticket prices yet, which may cause another sharp intake of breath.

There are a series of events on at the V&A as part of their Performance Festival. These include performances, talks and films - some free, some paid for. From 23 April. The main page for this is here https://www.vam.ac.uk/season/2022/va-performance-festival-2022 Performances include Yorke Dance project (both live and on film), talks include Akram Khan on his latest Jungle book project (both in person and remotely), a talk on Lez Brotherston's designs for Edward Scissorhands, some south Asian dance performances, and also family and late night events. Lots on offer and very much worth a browse.

I'm pleased that I managed to catch this at the Peacock last night. Great to see Harmonica Breakdown again, and the company looked in fine form. There's a lot of anniversaries around at present - 40 years of Phoenix, 20 years for Ballet Black and for Ballet Boyz, and certainly the audiences I saw at Phoenix and at Ballet Black were in a celebratory mood.

I haven't spotted the Feb 20th one on the Ashton Foundation web site yet. It was filmed. Merle Park rehearsed Leticia Dias in Markova's solo from Rendesvous and Wayne Sleep took Daichi Irakashi through the Blue Boy solo from Patineurs. It was a good afternoon.

An addition: Osipova at QEH in Carmen, for two days in late May, 27th and 28th. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/performance-dance/carmen?eventId=898943 This has been shown previously in Edinburgh. There are reviews available, if you want to research this before a potentially expensive purchase. Tickets £30 to £90.

Ernst Meisner is artistic coordinator of Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, not NDT2. https://www.operaballet.nl/en/ballet/junior-company I am hoping that the DNB Junior company will be over in the UK for the Next Generation Festival at the ROH in June this year in the Linbury. They have appeared in previous editions of this, along with a number of other junior companies from Europe and Rambert2 for example.

I did wonder about the possibility that he might return next season for a one-off farewell appearance. Didn't Rojo do that (returning in a performance of Marguerite and Armand) after she took over at ENB, or am I misremembering ?

Since there was a response here about not having heard that the Mark Bruce company were performing at Wilton's I thought I'd list a few other things at smaller venues in London that might have escaped your attention. Yorke Dance Company 8 March at The Place - Connecting to Cohan Not quite the same programme as was shown in the Linbury I think. Dancers from the Royal Ballet are mentioned, but that might be on film https://www.theplace.org.uk/whats-on/yorke-dance-project Akram Khan at Queen Elizabeth Hall 20- 23 April A revival of Kaash, about 20 years after it was first shown here. Part of celebrations for Ravi Shankar 100. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/performance-dance/kaash-revival-akram-khan-company?eventId=807084 Ballet Black at the Barbican 24-27 March, a new double bill https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/event/ballet-black-double-bill Dance reflections a new festival sponsored by Van Cleef and Arpels, the jewellers. 9 - 23 March performances at ROH, Tate modern and Sadler's Wells. Main festival site here. Includes films as well as live performances (including a film of Cunningham's Beach Birds) https://www.dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com/en/london-festival

It's on at Wilton's until March 5th. I was particularly taken by Folk Tales: Phantoms itself was a little episodic but still delivered some goosebumps moments. Mark Bruce has a very individual style and taste, and he has found the collaborators that work in sympathy with that. The company are all terrific dancers, but if I was forced to choose it would be Jonathan Goddard in the song Beaulampkin in Folk Tales, pivoting in an instant from the concerned father to the sinister intruder just by donning a hat and shifting the expression in his compelling eyes. Very much worth your time.

One of the useful features about package booking was that it opened for Friends a day or two before Friends booking. There was a better choice of seats and it was a good deal less fraught as an experience - tickets didn't vanish before your eyes as they can do on a busy day. It's not just the discounts that will be missed.

I think communication within the ROH could be improved. The new Friends magazine has just arrived, and it has details of a new film from Matthew Ball, Icarus. The magazine says that he will "introduce Icarus at an Insight event in the Linbury Theatre. See ROH.org.uk for details" . But right now there are no such details to be found on the site. you might think that announcements like this would be co ordinated between departments.

Phoenix are coming to the Peacock in London on 29th and 30th March and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. The programme there looks slightly different from what is described above. The Sadler's website gives it as follows: Featuring Pave Up Paradise from Lost Dog (Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer); Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Heart of Chaos; Signal by Henri Oguike; Jane Dudley’s 1938 masterpiece, Harmonica Breakdown; and Family, choreographed by Shapiro & Smith. https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/phoenix-dance-theatre-40-years-of-phoenix/ The total programme is 1hour 30min. Maybe there is room for a few extra pieces ? I'm very much looking forward to seeing Harmonica Breakdown. More about that piece here http://roehamptondance.com/harmonicabreakdown/about-the-project/

As an aside, I'm assumed to see that a couple of the tickets I did manage to purchase are showing on the events page as wheelchair spaces (they aren't - there are no wheelchair spaces in that row). But it is confusing.....

If it offers you a choice, do NOT choose the new checkout service. That is, if you do get offered a choice - I got randomly assigned to the new booking service at some attempts and then the screen freezes. Better to check out each ticket individually rather than risking the entire basket becoming inaccessible. Painful.

Hi Lizbie I have tried again, and repeatedly refreshing the screen seemed to clear it. Which is a relief. I will have a go at clearing the cache well before booking opens though, just in case.

Something is definitely amiss. When I sign in and look for my future events, there aren't any (when there should be) On the what's on page , all productions have the same picture. Once I sign in, I'm not shown as signed in when I go to the what's on page. I can add a ticket to a basket - but if I can't sign in, I can't check out. Sigh.

There was something with Gavin Sutherland on In Tune, sometime last week I think, but not sure of the exact day.

There's an article in Dance Tabs specifically about the Foyer de Danse reconstruction. I think I remember from the Foundation Masterclass that Ursula Hageli said that they had managed to reconstruct all but a few bars. https://dancetabs.com/2019/11/ashton-rediscovered-masterclass-foyer-de-danse-and-the-le-papillon-solo/