Lindsay

The stairs in this production also come in two small sets, with a wide flat step in the middle to bourree across. It think it would be virtually impossible for a ballerina in a tutu looking out to the audience to navigate them en pointe without a partner to (presumably) press her hand to indicate that she has reached the top of the second set of steps.

I think (at least for me) it is not the tutus worn by the fairies in Acts 2 and 3 but the dresses they wore to dance their variations in Act 1 which were the "issue". But they were not as bad as the Prima designs!

Agree with most of the views here and I really enjoyed Cinderella. It has been so long coming back that I had forgotten just how amazing the choreography is - the footwork in the female solos, the beautifully 'radical' (especially after seeing Beauty recently) corps work for the Stars, the fiendishly difficult Prince's variation in Act 2 (I will be very interested to see whether later casts can succeed in making it look as elegant as Vadim did). Just seeing a lot of Ashton that I am not very familiar with was pleasure enough in itself. The stepsisters were not too annoying - although I didn't find their antics as hilarious as many in the audience seemed to. Luca Acri in particular managed to mine some pathos and was not too 'broad' in his approach to the humour. And I generally liked the designs, which seemed relatively complementary and unobtrusive. Not quite so sure about the Season Fairies costumes and hairstyles and as someone else mentioned above, they reminded me a little of those unfortunate outfits in the recent Zucchetti piece for the four women (although I think Magri faired considerably better this time as the winter fairy costume was the most flattering). But all of that is nitpicking. The main thing for me is always the quality of the music and choreography and their execution. And on those terms this is a really welcome re-addition to the repertoire.

What lovely news - thanks Janet. Especially exciting as I’m taking my niece to her first Swan Lake tomorrow afternoon and see that Max is dancing. My first time at this production and very interested to see it

I agree with you on the Tanowitz Tebasile - by far the most surprising and interesting of the new works for me. I thought Prima did not stand up well against the Wheeldon (and the costumes were somewhat less than flattering….) Very pleasantly surprised by Reece Clarke in Diamonds. I knew he was a good partner but he made the fast solo sections look easy too. And Marianela is at her superb best in that piece! edit: also edited to add that Vadim Muntagirov’s arabesque should be backlit more often - talk about purity of line…

It was a post-10pm finish last night. I suppose it will depend on whether they have speech/ENO Chorus every night. As others have said, a very moving evening. And fascinating to see a Ratmansky version of the ballet - including what I think (I'm sure the experts here will know better!) is the "fugue" reintroduced into Act 2. The principals were clean and charming, the technical standard of dancing otherwise was understandably a bit uneven (given that this is a group of dancers from different schools and companies) but Ratmansky (or somebody) has very cleverly staged a version to show the group to their best possible advantage. A really laudable endeavour!

I've been a couple of times (although for opera not ballet) and would echo Janet's advice on the top level being a good view. For the first show I saw we were in a box on the middle level but in the rear seats, and because they are loose seats your view is completely at the mercy of whether the people at the front of the box are tall/have big hair/fidgety/lean over/move around. Much 'safer' in terms of view to be in the rows at the top level, although a bit further away from the stage.

what do you think “Dancing” is Fiona?

A useful test for me is whether choreography if seen on its own, without sets or costumes, would be in any way interesting or distinctive or convey any ideas or meaning. That is true for at least some of the choreography from every Petipa, Balanchine, Ashton, Macmillan, Robbins, Ratmansky or McGregor ballet I have seen. For this, I might guess that it was Wheeldon because of the combination of pointe shoes and flexed feet but I would otherwise find it very difficult to distinguish from any generic west end choreography. Lots of high legs accompanied by yearning arm-reaching. And a bit of floor work to make it look modern. Take away the setting and I don’t know what would be interesting about LWFC - imagine even the last PDD (probably the most developed section) without the lighting and props and compare it with say the Manon or Chroma pdds. They have a shape, structure and originality that would hold the interest. I’m not sure that this would…

The actual "Winterval" story was never about Christmas being offensive - it was a marketing strategy devised by Birmingham City Council for lots of winter activities from Children in Need to a Frankfurt Christmas Fair to lighting up Aston Hall during a city rejuvenation project in 1997. It was subsequently recycled and distorted many times by the Murdoch press and the Mail and has morphed into a "PC gone mad" urban myth about immigrants objecting to Christmas and Councils appeasing them. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/08/winterval-modern-myth-christmas And for those who dislike the Guardian, here is the Mail apologising for repeating this untrue myth: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-2058830/Clarifications-corrections.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

I made a mistake by picking up a last minute ticket for this evening’s show. I did not enjoy either Alice or Winter’s Tale so wasn’t planning to see this but found myself with an unexpected spare evening and decided to give it a go. I really wish that Wheeldon would go back to good music and abstract ballet for grown-ups. I could watch Polyphonia ten times in a row and not be bored. But today I had to force myself to stay until the end in case it got interesting (spoiler - it didn’t). Pretty sets and costumes, beige music, bland choreography (what there was of it), way too much vague emoting but absolutely no imagination. So literal and earthbound. Which is quite a feat when your material is a magic realist novel. To be relying so heavily on the make up and lighting teams for impact (they did sterling work by the way) is not where a top ballet company should find itself…..

Except that saying "my friend" and "two people I met at the ballet" were fine with it, therefore it's ok, is not really a summary is it? I don't disagree that some critics are at risk of throwing-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater. There obviously needs to be a nuanced discussion that moves over time (i.e. I don't think many people, other than the Bolshoi, still think blackface is acceptable, whereas depictions of oriental slavemasters with whips (looking at you ENB Nutcracker!) may divide opinion more evenly. But saying there is no need for a discussion at all and it's all just PC silliness ignores the genuine offence that stereotypes cause to many many people. Ballet in the West is already in enough trouble as an art form struggling for audiences who perceive it as archaic. Doubling down on the right to retain tropes that would have been considered dated by many people in the 1960s will not help.

I think recent discussions around Petipa and other 19th and early 20th century 'creatives' seeing the East through a colonial and imagined "Orientalist" lens derive largely from Edward Said's very influential book, Orientalism . For example, a quick google throws up This Article which discusses the European vs 'Oriental' ideals depicted in ballet and draws heavily upon Said. I don't have access to JStor from this computer but, if anyone does, I'm sure that searching Said/Orientalism/Ballet would produce more journal articles along the same lines. Petipa was living in a world where such tropes were a constant reference point across all of the art forms. My personal view is that there are very respectable arguments that Said overstated/oversimplified his case and/or that some of his 'followers', (particularly those overly-indebted to post-modern theory) have taken his arguments to illogical conclusions, but for those looking for the basis of such arguments, his book is the starting place.

Wow this is really taking me back - I briefly moonlighted as an usher in the early 90s and remember Iestyn and other characters mentioned very well. I think that 'the lady in black' was not the only self-upgrader - as I recall the house often seemed emptier in those days than it does now and the moment the lights went down, there was a genteel scurrying from the amphi to claim any empty seats. Which our unspoken duty as ushers was to ignore... Also Cafe Des - where the bar staff knew to have the pints poured and ready for the brass section bang on time for the interval in Nutcracker....

The Petipa Society has some very interesting video extracts on their site of the La Scala performance of the Ratmansky version on their site: https://petipasociety.com/swan-lake-ratmansky-reconstruction/ And I agree Floss. I wish there were more 'palatable' speakers and writers than Macaulay producing longer/more reflective materials on ballet. He is so fond of stating his own broad opinion as if it represents an undeniable truth that I find him unreadable/watchable these days. A controversialist for the sake of it and not nearly as well-informed as he would like one to think. If anyone has suggestions for other essayists/lecturers I would be grateful - I always find Doug Fullington very interesting but haven't really come across many other writers on ballet (as opposed to modern dance)

Thanks so much Lizbie1 - that works! in same browser where it still isn't showing if I go into the site 'cold'. Really appreciate your help

how weird - must be a blip for me. Have unfiltered everything, tried calendar view and still no joy. Ah well - giving up. Thanks everyone

can anyone else not see Swan Lake on the ROH site at all please? I have tried looking at all events, filtering and going via the Calendar View and it's not showing....

Interesting - thank you Janet. I recently discovered that the Australian Ballet's version of the BRB production is on Marquee TV (for anyone who subscribes) and it reminded me of how beautiful the full production is. Quite my favourite Nutcracker.

I agree with you Janet. I saw this a couple of weeks ago, having not seen the BRB production for at least a decade (although my locally based family goes faithfully every year). We were really looking forward to it and were very disappointed by the production changes. Not nearly as 'magic' as it usually is so I didn't just want to write something critical on here. Agree with you that the dancing was of a very high standard throughout but I think the production will have been a disappointment to many of their 'regular' Nutcracker audience. Glad to hear that the usual production will be back next year - we didn't know that, I hope that others do!

Sympathy to everyone who has had terrible experiences with these schools and thanks to Luke for his important article. I have no direct experience of ballet schools, but my family has been very closely involved in the investigations into specialist music schools, culminating in the IICSA enquiry. The final report on the specialist music schools hearings has not yet been published but, given the evidence heard by the inquiry, it is likely to be extremely critical, including of very recent, rather than simply historic, management in multiple schools. All I wanted to add here is that our experience shows that it is well-nigh impossible for parents, individually or collectively, to exercise any influence with these insitutions. During the years that it took to force an inquiry into music schools, even after shocking and well-publicised cases of abuse, multiple schools played off parents and existing student bodies against survivors and complainants. These are boarding schools so parents are geographically isolated, and also often divided by experience, language and (especially) wealth and cultural status. Parents who are donors or "in the industry" themselves, have a tendency to rule the roost in PTAs or other 'official' networks and to side with the school. Governing bodies are the "great and the good" with little to no hands on experience of dealing with safeguarding issues. In addition, there were instances of heads and senior staff at schools instructing current pupils to tell their parents to ignore "hostile trouble-makers" trying to "harm" their school, even instructing sixth formers to post defences on social media. Alumni (with a few notable exceptions) rallied around on social media to defend the institutions - and in music (as with ballet) the UK industry is dominated by alumni of these institutions so their views count for students wishing to have a career. It is easy, at a time when classical arts can feel increasingly under attack from many directions, to convince those who love them that they should defend the institutions at any cost and many well-meaning but naive people will do so. So any 'complaining' parent faces a wall of at best apathy, more commonly hostility, and is often expressly told that their child just can't cut it in this special world. Other parents believe this until something happens to their child and then the same pattern unfolds for them. I would hope that the LADO in this instance has had an opportunity to study from and learn what has happened in the case of music schools. The extensive evidence on music schools given to the inquiry can be found Here. So whilst no one will disagree that parents should of course speak up for their children, I did not want anybody to feel that they had in any way 'failed' as a parent by not remedying a problem.. This problem is much bigger than any one individual or family.

Well said Pups mum! I have more experience of specialist music schools than dance, but it took a string of very nasty scandals for them to even begin to admit that it should be "children first, musicians second". And given the recent testimony from heads and governors of various schools in front of the National Enquiry it seems that complacency is still alive and well in many places. I really hope that specialist dance schools can wake up to the fact that they are first and foremost in a position of care for children and that their mission to protect standards of dance is a secondary consideration.

I was not being in the least disingenuous and am a little confused as to where your accusation of ‘fat-shaming’ came from. I was responding to the binary that you set up in your previous post between musical theatre and Tippett/Stockhausen by giving examples of the musical theatre which is musically complex and sophisticated. And as for the charge of resorting to “a higher authority” (by which I assume you mean expertise) I live with someone who works in tertiary music education and know scores of others but in fact it doesn’t take more than my basic training in theory and harmony to see that ALW’s music is harmonically basic and far more simplistic and less interesting than the work of the others I listed. It is a free country in which you are entitled to choose to spend your money on ALW’s work. But others are also free to express objective opinions about his music.

True, but it felt unfair to mention Kander without him

Luckily for composers, death is no barrier to their works being performed