penelopesimpson

I think Muntagirov was either lucky or very perceptive in going to ENB first.  It's a brilliant proving ground and has often been instrumental in developing potential in dancers who were not quite ready (or perceived to be ready) for a bigger company.  Dancers at ENB (or BRB) get more opportunities to essay principal roles much sooner than they would at the RB and, as others have pointed out before, in London real potential sometimes gets overlooked in favour of more extrovert/precocious dancers (how else could Xander Parrish have been allowed to leave?)

 

I saw Muntagirov in his first Des Grieux and was VERY impressed.  It's not just his technical skill but his emotional involvement in a role that is so remarkable.  He can express vulnerability in a way many young dancers seem afraid to reveal and I thought he captured the character better than anyone I have seen since Jonathan Cope (admittedly he was coached by him, so no surprise there).   I am soo looking forward to his Romeo!

 

Linda

 

Edited for clarity.

Emotional involvement - yes, that was what touched me.  I thought he was wonderful.  Watson has it and Kobborg, too.

Thanks to everyone who is helping me fill in the gaps. I do love to know how things work.

With the existing Principals, I adored Kobborg, I am a huge Watson fan and now a Muntagirov cheerleader.  Also love the Cuthbertson Bonelli partnership.  Macrae masterful in some parts but not, for me, as Romeo, although terrific in Winter's Tale.  Soares and Nunez another great pairing, Acosta peerless but not, I feel, at his best with the Macmillan repertoire.  Polunin - well, what can I say?  Only saw him in Marguerite and Armand but he was electric.

I have seen Kish twice and he didn't do it for me and one performance by Golding left me a little cold.  From a knowledgeable perspective, what are the supposed strengths of these two?

Some info from the ROH is here, and a report of a Ballet Association interview with him is here.

Thank-you for that.  Would he be tipped as a future Principal?

Polunin and Muntagirov are almost the same age but after Polunin arrived at the RBS he was put up two years and so the two of them were not in the same year. Presumably Polunin joined the RB when he was 17. Muntagirov has never said publicly that he was disappointed not to have been offered a contract with the RB when he graduated but, whether he was or not, it has all worked out very well for him and possibly better than if he had gone straight to the RB. The same can probably be said of Alexander Campbell, although I don't know whether he was offered a contract with the RB when he graduated.

What is Campbell's background?  Always think he is great.  There does seem to be a lot of wonderful talent coming through.

I wondered this as well.  I seem to remember the Bolshoi were after him, but Wayne Eagling managed to persuade him to join ENB, promising him leading roles from very early on.  He graduated the same year as Sergei Polunin, I think - perhaps taking both of them might have been an embarras de richesses? 

We should be that lucky!  It just seems odd that they let him go.

Have only recently seen this elegant and muscular dancer and I am in his thrall.  I read that he wasn't originally invited to join RB from the school.  Is this because he developed late or did they miss a trick?

I live out in the sticks so when I go up to London to see the Royal Ballet I am prepared to pay for decent seats though I'd love to be able to see multiple casts of a production and try out different locations in the theatre.

 

As it is I always try to go for the orchestra stalls, as its my treat for my once or twice (or if I'm lucky three!) a year trip to see the Royal Ballet.

I have the same problem which is why I go for good seats, like you.  Grand Tier is my absolute favourite.  It's always a marathon - I leave home at 13.00 and get back about 03.00 the next day but its almost always worth it.  Oh for a decent late night train service - hanging around at Waterloo in the small hours is no fun!

Booking easy, but choice restricted.  I am not a Friend but as I come from a long way off I like to buy good tickets for the 6 or so visits I make per year.  It is impossible to get Grand Tier which all seem to be hoovered up by the friends which is irritating.

if Bristol Hippodrome is uncomfortabe for you I highly recommend you to avoid La Scala.

 

I cannot really think of anybody of "equal ability" of Cojocaru, especially in the UK. The only one in the world comparable to her both on dancing and acting (or "living") qualities is for me Alexandre Riabko. When I think of musicality, the first image that springs to my mind is a moment on violin music in the  Ballet Imperial she danced with Massimo Murru in La Scala: the two were absolutely sublime together.

 

As Capybara wrote, Hernandez was excellent: he has an outstanding technique (absolutely necessary in Nureyev R&J) and good acting skills (both on the pure acting and on the "movement intention" sides), plus a remarkable partnering ability.

 

You have probably forgot that at the Royal Ballet Cojocaru was often put on stage with McRae: a collaboration that started ages ago very promisingly and ended up to a disaster IMO, when it became evident that they are approaching the stage in opposite directions, technically and artistically. I've seen her on stage with more than 35 partners and in more than 200 shows: comparing them I cannot think of a worse perspective than to be back to that for Cojocaru. Reading your other comments I'd be surprised you would be happy about that: I think at least on one thing we have to agree.

if Bristol Hippodrome is uncomfortabe for you I highly recommend you to avoid La Scala.

 

I cannot really think of anybody of "equal ability" of Cojocaru, especially in the UK. The only one in the world comparable to her both on dancing and acting (or "living") qualities is for me Alexandre Riabko. When I think of musicality, the first image that springs to my mind is a moment on violin music in the  Ballet Imperial she danced with Massimo Murru in La Scala: the two were absolutely sublime together.

 

As Capybara wrote, Hernandez was excellent: he has an outstanding technique (absolutely necessary in Nureyev R&J) and good acting skills (both on the pure acting and on the "movement intention" sides), plus a remarkable partnering ability.

 

You have probably forgot that at the Royal Ballet Cojocaru was often put on stage with McRae: a collaboration that started ages ago very promisingly and ended up to a disaster IMO, when it became evident that they are approaching the stage in opposite directions, technically and artistically. I've seen her on stage with more than 35 partners and in more than 200 shows: comparing them I cannot think of a worse perspective than to be back to that for Cojocaru. Reading your other comments I'd be surprised you would be happy about that: I think at least on one thing we have to agree.

If I am ever lucky enough to get to La Scala, I'll try to overlook the discomfort!

That's the trouble with us pesky amateurs.  We know what we like and aren't afraid to say so.  We also try to learn more from any resource we can.

I never saw Cojocaru with Macrae but I agree it is not a happy thought.  I suppose I am hankering after the impossible - her and Johan back together at ROH.  I accept that dancers retire but I think they left a season too soon and thought the handling of the whole affair appeared careless.  I live in fear of Edward Watson getting much older!

For deeply emotional I'd look at Cuthbertson/Bonelli as well.

I think you are right and that's probably the place to go. 

Which theatre is uncomfortable? My seat in Bristol was just perfect.

 

Which is the inferior version of Romeo and Juliet? Cojocaru is absolutely outstanding in Neumeier version (a wonderful work): "Julia" is probably one of her finest roles. I don't like that much Nureyev version, but in some moments it's my favorite and for sure it's grander than any other and Alina was marvelous dancing it.

 

In Bristol she danced her 6th version of Romeo and Juliet (all based on Prokofiev music, it would be interesting to see her also in Berlioz based works) and having seen her in all of them I can say that the six are true masterpieces when put in the hands of a real artist as Alina is.

Regarding the partnerships, nobody can take the place of Johan Kobborg, not just for the chemistry he has with Cojocaru, but also for his personal acting and partnering skills, but Cojocaru had a fantastic result with Friedemann Vogel in the Deane version and, according to reports, in the MacMillan with La Scala in Japan (she danced 5 times MacMillan Juliet also in Milan, unfortunately with irrelevant Romeos); Revazov, Trusch and Hernandez proved themselves to be great Romeos and IMO superior to anybody the Royal Ballet can offer (or has offered in her last seasons) her (excluding Muntagirov).

 

I can agree that Cojocaru should be at the ROH because it's a magnificent venue, but that's not enough: personally I prefer to see her with ENB, Hamburg Ballet and Romanian National Ballet, her current companies. The world is much bigger than Bow Street and very interesting. :-)

As I said, the view I am expressing is a personal one.  It is good that it stimulates discussion.

I find the Bristol Hippodrome (and I was born in Bristol so love the city) an uncomfortable and unsatisfactory venue, ditto The Mayflower Southampton.  I also don't especially admire the Nureyev R&J. 

My (deeply selfish) viewpoint is that Alina Cojocaru is a sublime artiste at the peak of her powers and I would like to see her partnered by someone of equal ability in a ballet that moves me - albeit from the comfort of a good seat!

Would appreciate some advice here.  Will Osipova be back and will the partnership with Golding deliver?   Or is Nunez Muntagirov the top ticket?  I like my ballet deeply emotional so will probably give Macrae a miss this time around.

We all see things differently. If you see ballet as athleticism with a symphony orchestra that is absolutely fine but don't ask me to come and see it. I have always understood that the reason that the Russian companies fell into the trap of athletic dancing after the Revolution  was because they were suddenly faced with a new unsophisticated ballet audience who would appreciate and understand the the wow factor in a performance but not the subtleties of classical dance.The fact that the capital  was moved from Petrograd to Moscow probably contributed to this  development as even before the Revolution the dancers at the Mariinsky, if the autobiographies accurately reflect the views of the many rather than merely the author's opinion, seemed to have regarded the Bolshoi dancers as circus performers rather than artists.

 

Danilova made some interesting comments about the development of ballet in Russia and the West in her autobiography Choura published in 1988.

 

" I can see in the Soviet style an extension of the way that I was trained, but I think that what happened here in our century is much more interesting than what happened there.Somehow in Russia ballet has become the exhibition of dancing. Soviet dancers no longer want to show the story or the mood so much as they want to show us their technique- this one can turn three times in the air, lifting both his legs,and that one can do something else. "

 

The other thing is that in Russian choreography in the twentieth century the vocabulary for male dancers seems to have been reduced to jumping and technical tricks are not disguised in any way.Acrobatic and athletic  movements are created as obvious show stopping moments and stuffed into the choreography with little consideration for their context as far as story telling is concerned. If a male dancer is going to perform a series of pirouettes you see his lengthy and careful preparation.You can't miss the performance of the steps because the preparation rather than being disguised is advertised. Here is a bum lift !!.Look !. Applaud.While in an Ashton ballet the bravura doesn't draw attention to itself and is embedded in the story telling. The bum lift at the end of the Fanny Elssler pas de deux is the culmination of a pas in which both dancers perform a series of choreographic fireworks but the sequence tells the audience about the characters and their feelings for each other and none of the tricks with the exception of the lift at the end draws attention to itself because the performer has to make it look effortless and elegant.

 

Fokine wrote somewhere that the ballet audience tends to be impressed by tricks which look difficult but are relatively easy to perform but are unaware of how difficult it is to perform apparently simple steps perfectly.The problem would appear to be that Ashton, Cranko, MacMillan, Robbins and Balanchine made the mistake of not advertising how difficult their choreography is.I seem to recall dancers at the Mariinsky cast as Sylvia saying that it was the most difficult ballet that they had ever danced. I sometimes wonder whether the problem with the Ashton repertory as far audiences are concerned is that it because the dancers have to make it look easy and natural the audience assumes that anyone could dance it and as far as dancers are concerned they get no credit for the difficulties they have mastered?

Just want to say thank-you for such a fabulous mine of information which is so interesting.

I appreciate this is a selfish point of view, BUT I don't want to see the incomparable Cojocaru in an inferior version of Romeo and Juliet with a less than satisfactory partner in a theatre that is astonishingly uncomfortable. This wonderful ballerina should be at ROH

Yesterday I stumbled across this on youtube and thought that other forum members may enjoy. Here's part 1, but the follow ups are easy to find. 

 

Part 1 of a South Bank special documenting the creation, background and first performance of the Royal Ballet's Mayerling; from 1978.

 

Thank you so much for posting this.  I knew of its existence but could never find it.  My favourite ballet by far

Well we shall all have to be patient and see what happens.I think that O'Hare has got some very tough decisions to make. Given the number of Principals who he has to accommodate can he afford to give dancers like Emma McGuire or Demelza Parrish an opportunity to show what they can do if that means holding back the development of the younger dancers like Hayward,Nagdhi, Ball,Clarke,O'Sullivan,Stix Brunell and the more recent intake?After all the majority of the Principals are in their thirties and unless he intends to buy in the next generation of Principals and has the money to do so he has to begin succession planning now.Arguably the greatest contribution that O'Hare can make during his directorship is not the creation of new ballets, welcome though many of them are, but devising a system which provides opportunities for those in the junior ranks of the company,identifies potential and develops the next generation of Principal dancers while avoiding the overt selection at graduation undertaken by the major Russian companies.

 

On of the things that makes little or no sense in this context is O'Hare's choice of repertory unless of course bringing the Two Pigeons and the Invitation back into the repertory is part of a training and development scheme. Perhaps he could be persuaded to revive Ashton's Les Rendezvous,Les Patineurs, A Wedding Bouquet,Jazz Calendar,Facade and MacMillan's Solitaire which are all ballets which give dancers the chance to create characters without the burden of carrying the whole show.Perhaps he should try to persuade his inhouse choreographers to make ballets on the younger dancers rather than the established ones.

 

 

No actor, dancer or singer is equally good across the entire repertory of their art form.When that truth is acknowledged then the audience can, perhaps, be spared the horror of the entire season being taken up with an incredibly limited number of full length.works while every Principal gives us their interpreration of a particular role.I know that this is unlikely to happen and that if it did this site would be full of complaints from fans about dancers being passed over.But I think that there is a great deal to be said in favour of typecasting.I am far more interested in seeing dancers appearing in roles in which they are likely to excel than in seeing a dancer who even I can see in unlikely to bring much to a role being given the opportunity to give us her Juliet or Odette/Odile or his Romeo or Oberon on the basis of their position in the company.

 

In a company the size of the Royal Ballet there is no excuse for  compromise casting that is often inevitable in smaller companies.McRae is a fine dancer but while he would make a fine Mercutio he fails to convince as Romeo. It's all to do with his cheeky chappy stage personality and the sort of thing that he did in Rubies where he gave an extraordinary display of his technical skill and speed.He seems to me to be suited for any role that David Blair or Michael Coleman made their own and any role that requires a technician.Is he dancing Romeo because someone thinks that he is suited to the role or is it connected with the trend in recent  years to treat this and other roles previously danced by Principal dancers as beneath the dignity of the current crop of Principal dancers?

 

 Casting dancers because of their status rather than their suitability for roles adds to the difficulty of providing the junior ranks of the company with opportunities for development. I don't expect that the director will deny the Principals their "rights" as far as roles are concerned but he may well find that he has to skip a generation in order to have the experienced dancers that he will need when the current Principals retire.

Great post and you say everything I have said about Macrae.  He is indeed a wonderful dancer and he blew me away in Woolf Works and was fabulous in Winter's Tale but his Romeo was not right.  He was the cheeky chappie and Salenko was the silky ice maiden.  I much regret I forked out £127 for a performance that did not move me at all.  I am with you - lets see the dancers in the roles that suit them, rather than just the star names.

Well I think Alina Cojacaru and Tamara Rojo are still big names surely.

But they aren't at the RB...

And Winter's Tale shoild be back next year along with Woolf Works - so more for Ed!

Ooh, is Woolf Works coming back?  I loved it.

But there's a world well beyond Acosta (whom I never thought excelled in MacMillan anyway), Kobborg (whose back injury put paid to dancing Rudolf with the necessary intensity in the end, which is a dreadful shame) and Pennefather (whom I'll miss).  In the last RB run of Mayerling, Gartside was the stand out Rudolf for me.

 

The one thing I'll say for certain, there's no shortage of Rudolfs at the Royal; just wait and see!

I didn't mention much wrong with Kobborg's performance when he did his last Mayerling... It was a wonderful night, so emotional.  However, I do agree about Gartside whom I was also lucky enough to see.  He made a real impression.

Mayerling will definitely be revived in either 2017 or 18 to mark 40 years since its creation. So hang on in there Ed!

Best news I've had all week.  I've got the DVD of the Mukhamedov version and its stunning.

Well Edward Watson has just sent me TWO replies.!! Saying [to Mayerling] "I hope so". Then he sent me another reply,saying,he will be "Dancing a lot in the New Year".!!!

Thank you SO much.  I adore Ed, he is exactly my type of dancer.  Not to say I don't love everyone else at RB but, for me, he just has the certain special something.  His Winter's Tale was fab and as for Mayerling, well...

OMG. Edward Watson has just replied to my Tweet. The second one i`ve had from him.!!! Told him we were talking about him, in the nicest way possible on this Forum. He said "Thanks for the concern. Not going anywhere. Just decided not to perform Romeo for a while". So there you have it,from the horse`s mouth. God,I wish I could go to the ROH and watch him dance,just once. [Wish I could go to the ROH just once.] You all don`t know how lucky you are to be able to go multiple times. Just once in my lifetime would be an absolute joy.  Anyway,thanks to my Tweet reply, i`m now a happy bunny for the afternoon.!!!

Ooh, lucky you.  Please tell him he is much missed and if you can, ask if we are going to see him in Mayerling again.  I can't bear the thought that he won't do another one.

Osipova is a dancer of such dazzling talent that I am genuinely perplexed when I read these kind of comments.  I appreciate that people have their favourites but would like to point out that Osipova is currently the hottest ticket in world ballet and it was very much to the Royal Ballet's credit that they had the foresight to acquire her services here in the UK.

I am also a big Osipova fan.  Problem is, she is really the only show in town as far as star names are concerned.

Does he not do "classical" roles. Never seen him cast for R & J, Swan etc. Is that his choice or is he not considered good enough?

'good enough?'

It would be hard to think of anyone better at RB

Edward Watson must be approaching the age of 40 now. I guess it is more likely his choice not to dance in the classics. Romeo really is a physically demanding role after all.

I SO hope we will see him do Mayerling just once more.  I think with him absent there is a lack of what I would term emotional male leads.  Great hopes for Alexander Campbell.  I adore Macrae but for me he does not do emotion.