Jump to content

LinMM

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10,230

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by LinMM

  1. LinMM
    Well Basilio is supposed to,be a poor barber......whereas Kitri is the daughter of the local Innkeeper......obviously a cut above a barber in Old Spain!! Whether this is why he is in brown and beige? But he could be poor in black and white maybe.........stronger dramatic colours than the browny beige look!!
  2. LinMM
    Well if dancers are expected to perform them in Ballets I'm really glad someone is teaching them!! Swanprincess don't know whether you've been following Don Q thread but at one point have been looking at different ways this step seems to be performed .......as the queen of Dryads has to perform them in the vision scene from this ballet. Anyway I did search on YouTube but couldn't find a tuition tape for these Fouettes ......plenty for ordinary Fouettes though. I had been wondering too whether RAD had a place for teaching them in their syllabus somewhere round about Advanced one or two but disappointingly obviously not! They may be on the Russian syllabus somewhere maybe.
  3. LinMM
    Is it a more Russian step do you think?
  4. LinMM
    I'm seriously thinking of going on a writing course if continuing to post here!! As I obviously don't get across what I mean in some of my posts!!
  5. LinMM
    The other reference was to Carlos Acosta.....who was not brought up in our culture.....a very opposite one in fact.
  6. LinMM
    Exactly John.....he is British so should know the score as I said!!
  7. LinMM
    I think I dislike Basilios costume the most!
  8. LinMM
    Re reading this thread this morning I was having a sense of déjà vu and then remembered .......was it about a year ago now......that Carlos Acosta had made some very similar remarks about "British Students" I can understand to a degree that our more "British reserve" may be misread by someone not brought up in our culture but Christopher Powney must have some understanding of this and if he thinks the culture in ballet needs changing ....that's fine...but there are ways to express this desire without actually putting down the students he is working with........he should know the score. Sometimes a bit of pushing is healthy though. I was in a class once .......well quite a few years ago now.....where the teacher stopped the class at the pirouette section because in an enchainement he had set we had all only put in one pirouette. He asked us all to do pirouettes one by one first ...and most of us did two though a couple in the class could do three!! He then said as we couldn't be bothered to do the number of pirouettes we were capable of then he couldn't be bothered to carry on teaching the class!! A lesson learnt!
  9. LinMM
    Yes I think I understand that it's largely this Don Q production that you dislike FLOSS and absolutely agree that if you don't like something so be it! I don't dislike this production myself.....though do agree some of the costumes are a bit dull looking. I am assuming Carlos Acosta was trying to give it a more real Spanish feel with the gypsy scene and the shouting and commenting on the others dancing etc( certainly what happens in genuine Flamenco performances in Spain with a Spanish audience .....they are certainly not quiet as would be in UK!) It is different ......and maybe goes on a little too long .....but I quite like this attempt at authenticity. However I also agree that Don Q should be an excuse for some show stopping dancing .......privileged to see Osipova and Vasiliev in these roles......absolutely had me on the edge of my seat literally..... I think this production does still have those moments but it's always in the end going to be best with certain dancers. I'm sure the Bolshoi production is fantastic ......would certainly love to see it.....but in reality how many different Kitris and Mercedes and Basilios does the Company offer in one run. I'm pretty eclectic myself in my ballet loving. I love the Royal but it's not the ONLY company I'm interested in either. As far as Don Q is concerned I do think its fine to have a different version such as this occasionally.
  10. LinMM
    http://www.tlbc.org.uk/documents/Christopher%20Powney%202014.pdf Well this makes interesting reading. Especially the last sentence!! Perhaps he does intend to shake things up a bit at the school.
  11. LinMM
    Oh dear I had no idea that one of our top ballet schools was training dancers almost not to be seen!! How absurd. However there is a balance to be struck between not encouraging 10-11 year olds perhaps to attempt variations far too advanced for them and to have time to build a firm foundation for technique .......but however expecting somewhere between 15-18 to start maturing into being able to do quite complex variations which might be expected at competition level. Does Christopher Powney have any dance training and where was this ....does anyone know offhand?
  12. LinMM
    Not sure if it is possible to generalise about the attitude of all British students!! And we only see the most successful foreign students usually successful enough to have won or been a finalist in a major competition. I haven't read the article though. However I did try to go into Dancing Times which I haven't read for years and saw that they had a very good 12 month offer on so have just subscribed to this .......looking forward to first one arriving. Ive ordered from December 2014 onwards......which issue was this article in?
  13. LinMM
    The thing is I really haven't the first idea of how ballet companies are organised or run. Perhaps it is usual to give employment to dancers in companies for different reasons eg the powers that be suspect that certain dancers may never make it to Principal (or are just not hundred per cent sure) but could be very good in more minor roles which many ballets need. And some dancers may be very happy about this. I have no idea how long contracts are for......you can't just sack a dancer like that if not coming up to scratch but presumably contracts have to be renewed every so often?? There are dancers also coming towards the end of their careers who have given very good service to the company and presumably these dancers are dancing less roles than previously as they bow out gracefully as it were but are on the payroll. Do they get paid purely by number of performances? Anyway the Royal by comparison is a large company I cannot believe there are no dancers suitable to this Dryads role(am beginning to hate it already!)
  14. LinMM
    The ultra high leg extension is not required to make this step look good .......it's the overall dance quality of the whole variation which is more important. I think the more "open" attitude of the Russian style best suits this Italian fouetté though. In terms of the step alone(as to the Dryad variation) I like a very very young looking Darcey doing this but it's from Bayadere in fact(on YouTube)
  15. LinMM
    Aargh......the Italian fouetté has got to me!! I even looked on YouTube to see if the RAD had a video of the "correct" performance of this step. It's just that all the people Ive looked at including Darcey Bussell and Zenaida Yanowsky all do with a grand battement a la seconde so this must be part of the whole step?? The beauty of what I.....at present....believe to be this step is all in the timing I would imagine and at least a split second hold to show off that attitude position and the beauty of the leg coming in from second into it whilst turning. In the Dryads variation I think the difficulty is doing the NUMBER required( presumably many advanced students can pull off 2-3) but keeping them ALL looking beautiful with the arms etc. FLOSS I absolutely agree with the first half of your post. We are paying customers after all and being at the ROH deserve the best. It's just that I didn't want some comments I made to appear to denigrate the RB as a whole and I just don't think they're THAT bad! Just out of interest who do you like yourself in this role......from any ballet company.
  16. LinMM
    Look some of those comments in your post FLOSS were from things I'd said in my post and are just my opinion. Others may have found the vision scene "magical" I don't know!! But in no way would I think it was like a student production!! That to me is an insult to the Royal Ballet and I certainly did not think this was the case. The trouble with making any statements on a public forum is that things can be taken out from the post as a whole and then give entirely the wrong impression. I would just like to make it clear that I think this production is absolutely fine to take to America(I personally had no idea this was planned anyway) The Royal Ballet is strong as a whole at the moment and I'm sure they can find dancers in the Company ......barring serious injury to Principals......who can fulfil the roles in this ballet extremely well. Vive the Royal Ballet!!
  17. LinMM
    Not having a good day today The step which name alludes me is of course the Italian fouetté step and the above clip does include them!!
  18. LinMM
    There is a Holiday Inn within a couple of minutes walk but this could be expensive too!
  19. LinMM
    Hmm still a bit young to do this journey across London by himself methinks.
  20. LinMM
    http://youtu.be/OYe58BzKmq8 This is Alina Somova's version ....quite nice I think!!! Obviously this is just the main variation for the role and doesn't include the Fouettes etc.
  21. LinMM
    I have been thinking about Queen of Dryads role. It really is fiendishly difficult to do so I think that is why it would require a fairly experienced dancer to perform it. Also the music it is performed to is a rather slowish waltz which may make it appear a bit heavy at times. I think Claire Calvert did a solid (in the best sense) performance yesterday and when you hunt around on YouTube for others they all do some bits of this variation better than others .......even Sylvie Guilluime in the final step ......that sort of grand battement into a fouetté into attitude bit.....there's no doubt a proper name for this step which currently alludes me.....does a very high kick but her drop into a lowish attitude doesn't look that beautiful! So a dance that many would find difficult to make it look good.
  22. LinMM
    It's about a 5min walk from Old Street station on the Northern Line. But How old will he be by next summer?
  23. LinMM
    Yes a very Happy New Year to you and your families too. X
  24. LinMM
    Okay then thanks Aileen!! So it was Claire Calvert as Queen of the Dryads then yesterday ......now the Fouettes comments make sense.....I was trying to imagine the girl in the blue costume doing Fouettes and couldn't remember it .......which made me think I had muddled the roles up!! So the more technically difficult dance was hers then.
  25. LinMM
    Just to,be absolutely sure I'm not muddling these two roles up.....the Amour role has a white with lemony overlay on the tutu and the Queen of the Dryads is a blue colour??
×
×
  • Create New...