Lindsay

No excuse for anyone not having their phone off from the moment the lights go down until they come up again but I did just want to point out that in the modern world some of us have jobs or run businesses where we are expected to be in contact and replying to email almost instantaneously at all kinds of unvicilised hours.  It can also be wholly unpredictable (which is why I find it hard to book tickets in advance) but sometimes I do 'sneak out' to go to a performance in the knowledge I will have to spend every second of the intervals typing away until the lights dim.  Again, I'm not saying it's ok to use your phone in any way during the overture or performance (and neither am I advocating for this being a positive development in workplace culture - I think it's a curse!) but I wanted to make the point that not all phone use is self-indulgent leisure time.    

Agree Sim, it was a splendid second movement with Naghdi’s beautiful lines and Hirano’s exemplary partnering.  In fact, with Magri in the third movement and O’Sullivan in the first, the future of the RB’s female talent looks very secure.

The evening as a whole was the best I’ve seen from the RB in a while - Morera was at her sensitive dramatic best in Enigma Variations, partnered sympathetically by Christopher Saunders.  Muntagirov surpassed even his own high standards in the Raymonda variation - it’s becoming almost comical, as if gravity doesn’t apply to him - lots of fun to watch.  And Osipova made me laugh too.  I thought she looked a bit tired but she more than made up for it by vamping her way fiercely through the whole thing.  It was a long way from the ice queen that a lot of ballerinas deliver for Raymonda but absolutely no one can top her for entertainment value - you just never know what kind of crazy is going to turn up but it is never anything less than fascinating!

Because the combination of human faces and bodies with CGI fur and tails in the trailers released so far is disturbing and creepy.  Even the furries don’t like it. I know not everyone has the same tastes but industry press reaction to the advance PR has been overwhelmingly critical.  I’m sure the release will do solid business with Taylor Swift fans who worship anything she does and with ALW nostalgists but I don’t think it will be an artistic highlight of this or any year.

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/cats-trailer-reaction-critics-horrified-footage-1202159139/

Nothing against Francesca but I think all those involved with this movie are going to be leaving it off their CVs for years to come.  The design choices alone leave it wide open to critical savagery and a tsunami of social media derision.

I thought the Monday Moves segment was respectfully presented in a non-patronising way and I was very interested by the teaching techniques used.  

Awesome - thank you so much BeauxArts

Does anyone know who any of the Bolshoi dancers currently being rehearsed by Ratmansky in Giselle on the livestream are please?

They also used to paper extensively for some visiting companies.  I saw San Francisco Ballet from the Grand Tier for free, sitting next to Deborah Bull and a very young Edward Watson.

4 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Goodness, was it?  I don't remember that - my memories are of everything being sold out, and struggling to get tickets.  But that would have been ballet only, I suppose.

I used to go to more opera in those days but I do recall productions like the Nureyev Don Quixote and some of the newer works Stretton put on being pretty sparsely attended.

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

Well in my experience some people do do this; it can be a pain if they wait until the lights are going down (which they have to do to ensure the seats really are empty) and then there are shuffles and crashes and people having to stand up as people start moving round. But I've never experienced that to any degree at the ROH because there are usually so few empty seats anyway. At worst people have just shuffled along a row so they're nearer the centre if they can do so.

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.  

3 hours ago, JNC said:

 

I agree it felt a little rough around the edges but I think this didn’t detract from the performance, I think it’s probably meant to look slightly improvised perhaps, considering Cunningham’s style? 

 

 

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.
 

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!

penelopesimpson is Edwina Currie and I claim my five pounds

2 hours ago, Geoff said:

art that does not need specialist training or skill

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

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?

I thought Month went very well last night.  David Hallberg has LINES!  Very Dowell-esque.

7 minutes ago, annamk said:

 

Are you sure he wasn't there ? I thought I saw him and his Instagram posts certainly suggest he watched the performance ! 

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.

28 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Did he then tweet about the actual running time (which was less than 40 minutes...)?

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

11 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Oh, do behave!

 

There is no speculation whatsoever about the nature of Edward Watson’s injuries/health or anything that might be considered personal.  I am enquiring about the continued absence of a dancer I have followed for many years.  Such concern is entirely legitimate about a performer on a public stage, the more so in a discussion forum devoted to dance.  Everything I have said I would say direct to Mr. Watson were I lucky enough to encounter him.

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. 

2 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

Alison:  I have a horrible suspicion it might have been me.  I was grasping at straws a while back and 'speculated' that perhaps as Wayne's muse he was a central character in the new full-length.  A triumph of hope in the vacuum that is currently Ed Watson

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.

4 minutes ago, serenade said:

 

Me too...it feels a bit soon to have it back

Me three.  Will be skipping it in the autumn.

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..

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?

11 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Well, no, because this is a discussion forum, not a referendum.

 

i rather wish I hadn’t seen Hallberg because I was disappointed.  Would rather have had him on a pedestal as a dancer that others reported as glorious but whom I hadn’t been fortunate enough to witness.

(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!

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?