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Lindsay

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  1. Lindsay
    We used to do this far more in the 'old days' when the house first re-opened and was fairly often not full. I had a friend who could maneouvre the back stairs from the Amphi to the Stalls in about 15 seconds and be sitting demurely at the end of a row by the time the conductor raised his baton. There was a fairly large group of us regulars, some of whom had moonlighted as ushers in the past, who knew the house staff well and they would turn a blind eye to our self-upgrading since we were well practised, silent and never disruptive.
  2. Lindsay
    I agree - Cunningham’s thinking is that the process and difficulty shouldn’t be ‘concealed’ from the audience in the traditional way. I saw both Thursday shows (via some confusion with a friend over tickets) and thought they were great. The Cunningham was the standout and I found the Tanowitz interesting too and was glad in the end to see it twice because there was a lot going on. Calvin Richardson and Hannah Grennell in particular seemed really to have embraced and carried out the idea (central to Cunningham’s ethos and which Tankowitz was following) of revealing something of themselves as dancers on stage in a naturalistic way rather than ‘performing’. The Monotones II performances were not the best I’ve ever seen but perfectly competent. I thought the second group - Storm-Jensen, Donnelly and Dubreuil - did better than the first but I wonder whether that is because I was further away from the stage. I think those costumes could do with replacing and close up they are just a bit too ridiculous to take seriously. I am also going to risk offending the Ashton worshippers by saying that I found the opening manipulations of the woman quite uncomfortable, especially after the Cunningham where the women had equal agency with the male dancer. The Ashton, although it does have some extremely beautiful passages, felt dated in a way that Cross Currents did not. But overall an excellent evening and I would really welcome more short thoughtful programmes of this kind.
  3. Lindsay
    Hi, I've got a side balcony ticket (B61) which I've just realised I'm not going to be able to use as I'm now out of town on Sunday. Unfortunately it's a paper ticket but I could post it to you today if you are interested? £41 face value but would happily take £30. But it is on the side, so depending where your amphi seat is, may not be much of an upgrade!
  4. Lindsay
    penelopesimpson is Edwina Currie and I claim my five pounds
  5. Lindsay
    I'm a little gobsmacked by this attitude to fine art. I would recommend this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Five-Year-Could-Have/dp/0500290474
  6. Lindsay
    MRR - perhaps you mean things like little flourishes of the hand/arm on turns and a more staccato 'presentation' of the chest when finishing a movement, that can appear a bit mannered, especially in Balanchine?
  7. Lindsay
    I thought Month went very well last night. David Hallberg has LINES! Very Dowell-esque.
  8. Lindsay
    Ah ok - sorry. That's even worse though - if he actually attended and is still implying it was taken at a slow pace. Yes, RB is not NYCB circa 1973. But neither is the current NYCB. It seems to me that all modern companies have traded turnout and clean finishes for a bit of speed and it certainly wasn't 40 minutes. I've seen NYCB and a couple of other US companies known for Balanchine do Symphony in C in the last couple of years and none was noticeably quicker than last night. Yes, NYCB is more idiomatic in Balanchine (as you would expect) but the performance I saw was also very sloppy in places. I thought Miami City Ballet were actually better. Last night was perfectly respectable. Campbell and Choe were mismatched in the third movement, and neither really hit the Balanchine aesthetic (for different reasons) but the first two movements were glorious.
  9. Lindsay
    No, he wasn't even there. But that doesn't get in the way of him having a Definitive Opinion on the Royal's Balanchine Edit: As helpfully pointed out by others, Macaulay was there - he just didn't notice the actual running time
  10. Lindsay
    I know how to behave thank you. You said that you have already tweeted and got no answer. Personally, in a context where a dancer has previously been announced as injured, I would take that as a sign that banging on about it on public message boards is unwelcome and in rather bad taste.
  11. Lindsay
    Could you stop speculating about this please. A person’s health is a private matter unless and until they choose to make it public and injury is particularly horrible for dancers.
  12. Lindsay
    Me three. Will be skipping it in the autumn.
  13. Lindsay
    I think the tone of that press announcement actually indicates they will not be promoted this year. It goes out of its way to explain why non-principals are acceptable substitutes and flags the presence of principals in other roles. Hours of careful drafting behind that effort I imagine..
  14. Lindsay
    I wonder whether this may be Bonnelli's final performance in the role, which might explain why that pairing is being given the cinema relay?
  15. Lindsay
    (a) that analogy doesn't make sense on any level (b) just don't buy tickets for any more of his performances - problem solved. You're welcome!
  16. Lindsay
    I think it is obvious that we are going to divide into those who are very happy to see Hallberg (me included!) and thsoe who don't like him/any guest stars (those people have the perfect right to hold that opinion). Shall we short circuit that debate and agree to differ?
  17. Lindsay
    Thanks Richard LH. I see a promotion in O'Sullivan's future. Aurora AND Swanilda!
  18. Lindsay
    Thanks Dawnstar. I have a ticket in my basket but am umm-and-ahhing about it. Other than Firebird (which we will see in any case in the triple bill) does anyone have any clue what else will be on the programme? I have been "bitten" by terrible gala programming before....
  19. Lindsay
    Agree - this is an amazing and engrossing triple. Ratmansky is incredibly musical and I have never seen anyone manage a corps so well - it was utterly 'organic' and unpredictable - never settling into "solo, pas de deux, solo, ensemble" patterns. Grabs and keeps your interest for every second of the piece. And SFB has some really excellent dancers. Wei Wang is a technical phenomenon and it was great to see Yuan Yuan Tan and Sofiane Sylve still looking so amazing. And Ulrik Birkkjaer, leading the second act last night, was a revelation. I wasn't planning to see any of the other new works, since every programme has at least one choreographer (and more than one composer) I find a bit meh, but am now tempted to grab a ticket or two just to see what else their dancers can do.
  20. Lindsay
    Thirded (or fourthed - am losing track) in the not-going stakes here.
  21. Lindsay
    I would rather they did not. It is one thing to believe that an artist should not be censored for expressing his homophobic and sexist views (a distributor deciding not to sell tickets is not censorship by the way - it's the expression of a moral position, however commercially driven that decision might be) but encouraging discussion of that artist's work as one would any other performance is to normalise those views as if they were acceptable in a civilised society. Polunin is free to hire space for his projects but no one is obliged to go and see him perform and I reserve the right to think less of those who do. Doesn't matter how brilliant they consider his dancing to be. To support him is to support his repugnant views. Very disappointed by Kobborg's continued collaboration.
  22. Lindsay
    There is a view that the heavy and extensive gym work some RB dancers have been doing over the past few years has contributed to a more muscled "look" which distorts their classical line. The counter-argument is that it reduces the risk of injury, but I know a sports scientist who thinks that is an over-simplistic analysis, based on extrapolations from data sets that are too small to be meaningful. Of course he doesn't think we should return to the days of dancers pushing on through injury and maintaining their bodies through a diet of coffee and fags alone but that perhaps things have gone a bit too far in the other direction. It is one of the cruel truths of this profession that how you look on stage is important.
  23. Lindsay
    Not sure you are along Colman - there seem to be quite a lot of people who don't see Nunez as Juliet. Lise I view a bit differently, since she can be played as a kind of "Queen" of the peasants and I find that Nunez's radiant smile goes well with that happy ballet. But I think it's a question of degree - there are some very clear cases of type/miscasting and others which are borderline and will divide opinion more.
  24. Lindsay
    You have the advantage of me Janet, since I didn't see Campbell in the Bintley ballets, but I can imagine that his stage persona would suit them well. Just goes to show that there is space for many opinions in the debate - as I said I enjoyed his Basilio but I found his Albrecht somewhat jarring. Perhaps because his default expression and demeanour seems very bouncy and upbeat (doesn't really appear "understated" to me I must confess) I had a hard time believing in his attempts at arrogance in Act 1 or melancholy in Act 2. He is not a naturally "tortured soul". Same reason (in reverse) why i can't ever imagine Ed Watson, even in his prime, doing Basilio. I think perhaps I am in favour of emploi. If a dancer recognises that their body type, technical strengths and stage presence are suited to particular roles and excels in those, it doesn't make them any less a great dancer. Campbell has a superb comic talent - I very much liked him as Bratfisch (although of course the comedy there is of the heartbreaking kind) and I would always happily book to see him in an appropriate role. Of course some dancers develop over their careers and broaden their scope of work, but it can be uncomfortable seeing a dancer you admire struggle in role that is not really right for them...
  25. Lindsay
    I think Sambe displays signs of deep emotional intelligence that could bode well for a future Onegin. His performances as Romeo and in Flight Pattern, although very different, showed tremendous potential as a dance actor.
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