Marieve

That's such a shame for her if it's true.

 

It does make me wonder though, especially given the comments from the Bolshoi on her apparent difficulties with learning choreography, whether she was only accepted into the Bolshoi company as a kind of enticement to encourage more foreigners to pay to study at the Bolshoi school.

 

They may be increasingly reliant on income from foreign students and perhaps the acceptance of one of them into the company, even if she wasn't quite up to the ideal standard, would have been quite an effective recruitment tactic.

Stucha, I'm not sure if you're allowed to put the links up but if not, then maybe you could post the names of the dancers with their Russian spellings and also the Russian spellings of Onegin, so people can cut and paste into the YouTube search bar? If it's not too much trouble, obviously!

There were barely a handful of people at the screening at my local picturehouse cinema. I don't think the Ashton bill was even added to the schedule until the last couple of weeks as I'd checked the Screen Arts section of the website about a month ago and was very disappointed to see no ROH productions whatsoever for the next year. (VERY relieved to see that they are going to be showing the RB live broadcasts after all!).

 

Am sure it would have been far better attended if it had been added to the schedule sooner. Anyway, I really enjoyed the first four performances but struggled to stay awake after that - due to tiredness and pregnancy, not boredom - and missed most of Marguerite and Armand because I couldn't stop nodding off Gutted about that.

Again at the LBC on Monday, Kevin was asked specifically about the possibility of Vadim guesting and, having initially responded to the effect that it would be difficult between 'home' companies, responded quite positively when it was pointed out that Tamara guested with ENB while at the RB. Maybe that gave him food for thought.

 

Perhaps Kevin O'Hare feels that it could be unfair to ENB, who sometimes struggle with ticket sales, if the RB were to borrow one of their star performers - it may take sales away from ENB if audiences can go to see Vadim Muntagirov dancing elsewhere in London.

Forgot...Marieve have you seen the clip of Diana dancing with Shklyarov in R and J.

Just watched some of it on YouTube. Gorgeous She is such a beautiful dancer.

Watching this topic with interest as I don't have many ballet DVDs and am curious to see what everyone else rates most highly!

 

LinMM I've got a DVD "Great Dancers Of Our Time" that includes the bedroom scene from Manon danced by Diana Vishneva and Vladimir Malakhov. It's in a studio, not taken from a performance. I came across the clip on YouTube and loved it so much that I had to find the DVD it was taken from

If Kevin O'Hare really wanted the best of the best Japanese dancers, he should have searched further into the market and could have invited AYAKO ONO, now principal with the New National Theatre, whom I saw guest with BRB in Aladdin this past February. I do hate to compare dancers in this way, but if you're choosing from a certain ethnic pool, then you might as well choose the most special one both physically and artistically, as this is THE RB (this is my opinion!).

Also, you seem to be implying that there's some kind of tokenism going on with regards to Japanese dancers - that there's only room for so many and that they should be compared against each other rather than against other dancers in general. Who is to say that Kevin O'Hare would want a Japanese dancer rather than just a world class dancer?? Who is to say that he's "choosing from a certain ethnic pool" when hiring or promoting dancers?

 

Perhaps you are right, and the people who are in charge of ballet companies do see race as an important factor when they're deciding who to promote. I wouldn't know. I find it a depressing thought though.

Politically speaking, an English company is also (ideally) not going to want to have 3 Japanese/East Asian principal female dancers, that would probably be seen as too many

Really? Why would it be too many? Are you implying that the RB should not have more than one non white female principal?

 

Until a year ago they had five Spanish/Latin American principal ballerinas. That obviously wasn't considered to be a problem so why would it be undesirable to have as many as three Asian ballerinas??

That would be interesting, do you know how often the principals dance compared to the lead principals? I suppose the Paris have a similar system with the etoiles and it appears to work well there.

Absolutely no idea! I'm not that familiar with ENB, just noticed on their website that they have a different ranking system from RB - seven ranks, not including character artists, as opposed to five. And three levels of soloist rather than two.

 

I just thought that if there was any question about a RB soloist's readiness for promotion to principal, it might be a less enormous leap and maybe a less questionable decision if the promotion was only to second/ordinary rank principal and not a declaration that said dancer was now one of the company's biggest stars. I hope that makes sense, not sure I've explained it very well.

 

Apologies if this is too off topic by the way.

I agree that if the soloists are continually taking on principal roles they should be correctly rewarded for it, it seems unfair to deny the title of principal if they are essentially a principal in all but name.

Perhaps a two tier principal ranking like ENB's would be the answer in this case?

I really feel that the best solution to the ringing phone problem would be  a firm no-nonsense pre curtain-up request for silenced 'phones from an on-stage theatre administrator,  and don't understand why this isn't done as a matter of course. 

Yes and it should be done after every interval too. Am sure most people would take more notice of someone speaking from the stage than over a tannoy.

I saw Watson on Saturday, and never mind his dancing - he managed to give off such palpable despair just sitting at the table that I forgot to watch Bratfisch.

That's exactly how I was during that scene on Saturday! Paul Kay was fantastic but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Thiago and Melissa.

They must have been sitting in between their friends as there was plenty of loud tutting going on - very thick skin indeed!

Me too, Blackqueen. It was my first time of seeing it and to be honest, I found Thiago's performance so moving that I almost feel like I don't ever want to see anyone else dancing Rudolph.

Once back in the 80's an alarm clock....one of those Baby Ben ones...went off in my handbag(don't ask me why I was carrying it around) right at the beginning of the second act of Giselle!! I was so embarrassed and it seemed to take forever to grab it and switch off...I did use large handbags in those days. I imagined everyone in the audience had heard it let alone the dancers and in such a quiet bit! Bet I was popular with those next to me.

At least you had the decency to turn it off! When I saw Ballet Black a few weeks ago, someone's phone started ringing halfway through the third piece. The phone's owner was obviously too embarassed to draw attention to themselves and switch it off so they let it continue ringing continuously until the interval.

 

It absolutely ruined that particular ballet as it was so intrusive and, worst of all, that piece had some sections where the music stopped for several seconds and the dancers had to carry on dancing through what should have been silence! I felt so bad for them, having to maintain their concentration through that. It must have been so hard but they were very professional and got through it. I was SO annoyed though and was also unimpressed that nobody from the theatre made any effort to locate the culprit and make them turn their phone off. I honestly don't understand how some people can be so selfish.

Sim - your thoughts on the matinee performance with Soares/Hamilton/Nunez/Choe echo my feelings exactly. It was a wonderful performance, weren't we lucky to experience it?!

I saw the Soares/Hamilton matinee too and also feel incredibly lucky to have been there. It was so moving.

So sad to hear this, I saw them for the first time in Romeo & Juliet last year and thought it was one of the most beautiful performances of anything, not just ballet, that I'd ever seen. Was hoping to see them again sometime.

 

Wish them both all the very best for the future.

Fascinating to read Xander Parish's diary, thanks for posting that Amelia

 

Sounds like they work unbelievably hard at the Mariinsky. I was amazed to see that they sometimes have to go back to rehearsals after finishing a show!

 

And it looks like Xander Parish is doing really well there too. I wonder if the Royal Ballet will try to get him to come back now that he's proved himself to have enough talent to dance principal roles on the Mariiinsky stage.

Interesting comment from Judith Mackrell:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/may/15/royal-ballet-british-dancers?CMP=twt_gu

 

"The Royal Ballet: just how 'British' do we want it to be?

It's hardly shocking that so few Royal Ballet dancers are homegrown nationals – dance in this country has long been enriched by foreign talent. We should celebrate it"

 

I found this quote from the guardian article interesting:

"Brind herself was performing during the 80s, at a time when foreign artists were in a minority in the Royal: yet while she and her fellow principal Fiona Chadwick were rightly hailed as examples of new British talent, I remember the overall standard of dancing as relatively lacklustre."

 

I realise that this doesn't necessarily mean that if foreign dancers were still in the minority, the overall standard would still be lacklustre. Perhaps it was just coincidence. And may not have been every ballet goer's perception of the 1980s RB either!

 

But IF the standards WERE lower then, then it does sound as if the influx of foreign artists may possibly have raised the overall game? And perhaps that the RB dancers of the 80s could have been slightly complacent because there was less competition from outside?

 

And maybe if the RB did go back to having mainly British dancers, there might be a danger of the "lacklustre" period repeating itself for the same reasons as before. At least, that's what I think the article was getting at.

Fingers crossed for Lauren in Mayerling, but it's looking unlikely.

I have been wondering about that too

Things have not changed as much as some would have us think. In 1956, often considered a "golden age " for the RB, the line-up of ballerinas for Ashton's "Birthday Offering" was as follows: Fonteyn - English father but Brazilian/Irish mother. Nerina - South African. Fifield - Australian. Jackson - New Zealander. Beriosova - Lithuanian. Elvin - Russian. Grey - English. And come to that, de Valois herself was Irish.

That's an interesting point but it does seem a little like splitting hairs to say that Margot Fonteyn couldn't be classed as British because she had a foreign parent.

 

Does this mean that young UK born dancers don't count as British dancers if one or both of their parents is foreign born?

 

(Just editing to say that I didn't mean that to come across as rude or argumentative - apologies if it does! Can be very hard to get the tone right when writing )

It is sad that our main ballet company has so few high ranking British dancers. It's hard to imagine that that would ever be the case in a Russian company.

 

When did it all change? I mean when was the last era when most RB principals were British?

 

And did it change because the talent was (thought to be) no longer there or did standards remain the same BUT weren't perhaps seen as quite high enough any longer? I hope that makes sense!

It sounds like all of the casts so far have been amazing. I hope Soares and Cuthbertson are as good on 1 June!

 

I saw Melissa Hamilton in Las Hermanas last November and although I haven't a clue about technical prowess, I thought she had fantastic stage presence Wonder if she'll be promoted this year?

I'm starting to think that certain posters are here with a hidden agenda

 

Sofia National Ballet look fab

3. Does it give access to ballet to people who would not otherwise be able to see it?

Answer: Not really.

Yes it does. Many, many people outside of London only to to see live ballet performances when a touring company is performing nearby or only a short distance away