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Lindsay

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  1. Lindsay
    I think it is really important for audiences to express their feelings though. Part of the reason for ENO being given a temporary ‘reprieve’ from the proposed move and cuts impacting them is because of the huge campaign from musicians and audiences to defend the importance of their work. Please remember that musicians as well as dancers are artists - we already spend so very very little on the arts compared to other European countries that these things are the result of truly unnecessary subsidy slashes. It is absolutely embarrassing and disgraceful that a major ballet company should be forced to perform to recorded music - especially when the government is claiming to be focussed on “levelling up” outside London.
  2. Lindsay
    Could I ask what priority group you book in to get that ticket please? I tried repeatedly for cheaper tickets both at general booking and through stalking the site for returns and failed for the first time ever. Suspect that many who normally book ‘better’ seats were forced into the cheaper seats by the pricing this time…
  3. Lindsay
    Rheingold was also phenomenally expensive, even for Wagner. Stalls seats were well over £300, way back in the amphi was in the high £100s and a few seats remained unsold close to the run (which I have never seen before for the Ring). The 'mostly listening' cheaper seats all sold out very early so the only option for most people was extortionate pricing. Very disappointing.
  4. Lindsay
    I do not think it is at all incompatible with “freedom” to criticise somebody who supports an aggressive state which has repeatedly broken international law and murders its opponents at home and abroad. To say otherwise is moral relativism of the worse kind (as well as a very Trumpian ‘both sides’ argument) Dance careers in major Russian companies such as the Mikhailovsky companies are currently unavoidably tied in to the state. Look at the some of the recent and explicit propaganda with soldiers alongside ballerinas - Katja Khaniukova has posted examples on her instagram….
  5. Lindsay
    Yes Bridiem- I also thought there was something very odd going on with the sound (I was in the First Circle). I had come largely for the music and it was very disappointing - it almost sounded recorded and some of the percussion in particular sounded like electronics. I also agree with you about the orchestration for Les Noces - have never heard this version before and missed the pianos (which I fear we shall never hear again live in a ballet context) And while some of the singing was very good I don’t really like the text in English either. T&V indeed showed how much more Balanchine could do with classical steps than most other choreographers. It was not the most ‘full-out’ performance though and looked a bit nervous. I saw this ballet in Stockholm last year and the dancers seemed to be “going for it” much more.
  6. Lindsay
    In bad news, David Dawson has still not got over his obsession with male dancers carrying female dancers around upside down in nude leotards with their legs splayed. The ballet got a standing ovation so I am probably in a minority here but it made me quite angry. There was not one sequence in the ballet where women were not being manhandled…… Some extraordinary performances in Les Noces though. Especially James Streeter.
  7. Lindsay
    I think it finished around 10 - wasn’t paying much attention but the last ballet was not too long (thankfully)
  8. Lindsay
    Yes, with Alexander Campbell
  9. Lindsay
    Agree Bruce. I watched the streaming of the Vienna DQ at the weekend and the music was SO much better and really complemented all the beautifully quick footwork in the Nureyev version! It is going to make the RB ‘arrangements’ very difficult to bear….
  10. Lindsay
    I do not support your point at all. I think ballet is missing out on new audiences (and outside of the ROH/Christmas Nutcracker remember it is very hard to sell out ballet in the U.K.). I think the current audience is much smaller than it could be (and ageing and not regenerating itself) because of the dated attitudes and stereotypes. I am very happy to see dancers who look like human females rather than the current Russian trend for stick-thin clones.
  11. Lindsay
    I don’t think you speak for all “people here” dance fan. Ballet is one of the least “woke” (some might call it respectful by the way) of the major art forms. To the extent that I often go to the ballet alone whereas I would never hesitate to bring friends to the theatre or concerts. I am still stinging from inadvertently taking a shocked friend to a Bolshoi performance several years ago which contained blackface……
  12. Lindsay
    With respect Ondine we do not know this is what was concluded. It is possible that they just did not have sufficient evidence at the time to act on.
  13. Lindsay
    It's not the most subtle PR tactic. In fact some might call it comically unsubtle...........
  14. Lindsay
    I think (as discussed already in this thread) there is often a difference between "what we say" and "what we actually do in practice"....
  15. Lindsay
    What I hope is that there is some attempt at honesty and providing safe and confidential channels for current students to express any concerns they might have. What I fear (which is what happened with some of the music schools) is that staff informally rally students to defend the school against “attacks” by ex-students and “outsiders” and portray all criticism, however justified, as “harmful to the current students”…
  16. Lindsay
    You could also message @BBCMarkDaly the BBC reporter who led the investigation on Twitter. Alternatively @DinoNovicelli of Leigh Day, a solicitor acting on this, is collecting information about a list of schools he has set out on Twitter.
  17. Lindsay
    Richard, for an example of how these things play out in practice you might be interested in reading this blog written a few years ago by a father of a pupil at one of the two schools discussed last night, who struggled through the complaints process at great damage to himself and his son. The Governors in the end upheld his complaint but excused the staff behaviour on the grounds that they had found this parents' complaints "scary" https://www.balletdadblog.com/the-blog
  18. Lindsay
    Richard you have a very naive faith in the power of 'systems' and written policies. Inspectors are neither omniscient nor infallible and the scope of their enquiries are necessarily extremely limited.
  19. Lindsay
    This is absolutely right. DrDee do you know whether any of the vocational schools have adopted (or been asked to adopt) the "Safe Teaching Practice" Guidelines from the Checklist on the Safer Dance website? They look eminently sensible and remind me of a similar set of guidelines devised in the wake of the specialist music schools scandal (which aimed to stop unsafe practices like teachers giving lessons in their own homes, touching students without consent, using inappropriately sexualised language with the excuse that it reflected their 'passion' for the music). There was a big push amongst the community of musicians campaigning for change to get institutions to commit to following those guidelines. It seems to me that would be a very good focus for any communications/petitions people wanted to address to ballet schools (although I'm sure Safer Dance will have thought of this already!)
  20. Lindsay
    With respect Stephanie M, I think with a 9 year old with no experience of vocational school you should not be effectively 'parent-blaming' those who have had teenagers damaged by this system. Look for example at Rubyfoo's post, which shows a parent with their eyes wide-open doing everything they can to sensibly protect their child. The problem isn't that teenagers are concerned about letting down their parents. It is that very bright, dedicated hard-working teenagers are (in many cases correctly!) decoding the destructive steps that the schools want them to take in order to 'succeed'. It is the system that is sick - not the parents!
  21. Lindsay
    It’s never the case that it’s alright to treat children (they are children) in a cruel and abusive manner just because it is a small percentage of students (which all of the comments here and elsewhere suggests that it is not). The number of children cruelly treated by adult professionals into whose care they have been placed should be ZERO
  22. Lindsay
    There is also a difference between the 'ultimate' body dancers will have as an adult professional and the developing body they have as an adolescent. It is very common for weight to fluctuate during puberty and the schools would do well to take a longer term view and work with the bodies before them rather than trying to force the 'end-product' at a stage where abnormally low weight can have a knock-on effect for later bone health or fertility. Dance education needs to refocus on the distinction between students and professional dancers - they are not the same thing.
  23. Lindsay
    This is absolutely the case and they make no attempt to hide it. I was once part of an invited group to watch a first year class at Upper School and one young man did more pirouettes than the teacher had asked for and was yelled at and sent to sit out the rest of the class on the floor in the corner. The fact that the teacher and the other school staff in the room saw no issue with embarrassing a student like that in front of strangers made me wonder what they hell it was like ‘behind closed doors’
  24. Lindsay
    With due respect for your experience Capybara I think those who are not selected in the first place for whatever reason are a different case from those who find themselves among the “chosen few”, move away from home at a young age and then have their dreams and often their sense of self-worth broken down by the system which is supposed to help them reach their fullest potential. And I don’t accept that “kids were more resilient in the past”. They were often broken and suffered in silence, and in many cases engaged in self-destructive behaciour. And in other cases replicated the bullying behaviours as teachers themselves.
  25. Lindsay
    That is a shockingly insensitive thing for any adult (let alone a teacher with professional duties - assuming that is who it was) to say to any teenager. And the fact they continue to think it appropriate is a problem.
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