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Fonty

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  1. Fonty
    I read somewhere that Ninette de Valois disapproved of her female dancers being wives, let alone pregnant. I am sure at least one dancer told the story of being called to an interview with Madame shortly after her marriage, and being told she had to "retire" from the company. She was only about 22 at the time, and it was the last thing on her mind, but out she had to go, and others told similar stories.
  2. Fonty
    Yes, I think that is an excellent way of putting it!
  3. Fonty
    Well, I think I disagree slightly. I think my idea of a perfect ballet does depend on the dancers. I think anyone who goes regularly must think that, surely? If someone has only ever seen Fille once, and for whatever reason it is not a particularly good performance, then it will colour their judgement, I would have thought. Emeralds is a good case. It is dancer dependent, surely? Otherwise, it can seem a bit dull and uninteresting.
  4. Fonty
    I can't understand why the seats in the stalls have such poor sight lines. It doesn't seem to matter where you sit - the seats are poorly arranged. Consequently, you get that bobbing head motion as people try to see round the person in front, that ripples from the front to back of the stalls. Yes, you can sit on something to push you up a little. But then you have to consider the person behind. it is one thing to have your view blocked by someone who just happens to be tall, and quite another by someone who has boosted themselves up. I remember being annoyed once when there was a child in front of me, who was encouraged by their parents to stand and lean back on the upturned seat. Now, I appreciate that the child wanted to see properly, but as a result I could hardly see anything and had to swap places with my partner. This caused a lot of tutting from the rows behind, but what else could I do? When I had a seat in the stalls at the Coliseum, I didn't have this problem at all.
  5. Fonty
    I remember a time when my husband used to get 2 seats in the stalls and we would go to the ballet for my birthday treat. And that included a meal out as well. It must have been a very long time ago.
  6. Fonty
    Should have been bourree, I think! How did I come to leave that pesky e off the end.
  7. Fonty
    Thanks so much for that. I found the record of Markova, Beriosova etc on Youtube, and had a lovely time watching it. The bourre was so smoothly done by all the dancers that they looked as though they were on wheels. I have to say that the last time I saw Les Sylphides live I found it rather tedious, but this was delightful.
  8. Fonty
    I do remember seeing one performance of Fille years ago, where Alain was portrayed as being a bit simple, as my mother would have said. I felt quite uncomfortable watching it, actually, even though it raised a few laughs from others in the audience. It is one thing to have Lise turn him down because he is simply too young for her, and quite another if he appears to be mentally retarded.
  9. Fonty
    I think that the perfect ballets on that basis are going to be the ones with very few changes of scenery, which is when a lot of the "filling" takes place. I think if you allow a bit of filler solely for that purpose, then in a perfect narrative ballet, all the action should be relevant to the story. Hence, no Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood, that-pas-de-trois-that-looks-great-but-why-are-they-there....... I am struggling to think of one other than Fille. There must be another, surely?
  10. Fonty
    Goodness, didn't Mr Crisp give 5 stars to Morera and Mutagirov as well? He must be keen!
  11. Fonty
    You beat me to it with Symphonic Variations!. I guess it really depends on the definition of perfect, I suppose.
  12. Fonty
    Makes me wonder why on earth she wasted money on a ticket, if she doesn't like Ashton or Fille! I have seen Osipova several times now, and I agree that she tends to be a "big" dancer, in the sense that everything has to be pushed to the limit.
  13. Fonty
    The use of the term soubrette is interesting. To me, it always conjures up dancers who can handle roles which require them to display their dazzling technique with a radiant smile on their faces, but suggests that they are unable to handle anything more serious. Quite wrong, of course, I don't know why I always think that!
  14. Fonty
    Reading the Fille thread, people are talking about Marquez. I think she might be a good casting for Pigeons? What does everyone else think?
  15. Fonty
    I agree with that. I am sure we all have our own ideas about dancers who seem to have reached the top a little too early, and their promotion seems to be done on the basis of promise for the future, rather than current level of expertise. Oh, and I am a huge fan of Vadim as well. I loved his partnership with Klimentova at ENB, and I haven't seen him put a foot wrong at the RB so far.
  16. Fonty
    I have never really thought of Lise as an ingenue. I've always pictured her as a young, robust country girl, only too ready to have a quick canoodle with her man behind the hay bales while her mother's back is turned. Talking of earthy interpretations, I went to see one of Nunez's early performances, and I remember her getting very saucy indeed with the butter churn! I haven't seen her since, so she may have toned it down a little since then.
  17. Fonty
    Well, I can't read Mr Crisp's review, but I found myself slightly surprised by the words of Jeffrey Taylor of the Daily Express: "Morera seemed out of her depth last Thursday, looking heavy and technically insecure" Er - I didn't see the performance myself, but i have never seen Morera look heavy and technically insecure in anything! I do wonder about the critics sometimes, I really do.
  18. Fonty
    Can anyone remember who danced the artist and the young girl at the school performance? I tried to do a search, but my computer keeps crashing for some reason.
  19. Fonty
    I hope that the roles of the artist and young girl are cast with a view to their ability to give a wonderful performance of the Ashton choreography, rather than their age. I agree with previous posts that some performances seem to have been cast according to seniority rather than suitability. However, I would hate to see the pendulum swing the other way. Some of the senior dancers have not yet had a chance to perform roles for which they seem ideally suited. I would love to see Morera as Juliet, for example.
  20. Fonty
    Some of the soft tissue injuries are notoriously difficult to deal with. The treatment probably requires complete rest, which must be so frustrating for them.
  21. Fonty
    I thought someone was saying on another thread about how he was travelling a good deal, as well as having a lot of different partners at short notice. Or have I misunderstood?
  22. Fonty
    Well, he has been doing rather a lot, hasn't he?
  23. Fonty
    The scenery for Act II looks wonderful. However, I hope I don't ruin it by saying the first thing that popped into my head was the image of Conchita Wurst singing the Pheonix song from Eurovision last year. For those who don't know what I am talking about, at some point the backdrop to the song showed beating wings.
  24. Fonty
    Is it really the result of the Cecchetti method? I hadn't realised. I thought the reason the music was slowed down was to enable dancers to show off their technique i.e. lift the leg higher, do triple pirouettes instead of a single, hold the balances longer, and so on.
  25. Fonty
    Isn't the Ashton double bill rather short? If the show starts at 7.30pm, allowing for a 30 minute interval, it would be over by 9.30pm at the latest, wouldn't it?
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