Jane S

Apologies - her name is Emma Riis-Kofoed.

(Which I know perfectly well - fingers/brain link problem, I'm afraid)

Going back a few pages, to Rothbart's machinations: in the current Royal Danish Ballet production, he really is the power behind the throne and among other things he 'turns' Benno from Siegfried's close friend to a part of the conspiracy against him - it's an interesting approach, let's say, and the recording of the production is still online and currently not geo-blocked. And Alban Lendorf is Siegfried.

The Royal Danish Ballet is currently dancing Balanchine's Jewels and at last night's performance Nikolaj Hubbe appeared on stage twice - after Rubies, to promote Alexander Bozinoff to Solodanser (Principal), and after Diamonds, to do the same for Emma Riis- Cofoed. She has been very obviously headed for the top ever since she joined the company in 2017, whilst Bozinoff is a bit more of a surprise - Hubbe describes him offstage as a 'still water running deep' personality and he has quietly built up quite a repertoire of leading roles.

The press release claims this a first for a double onstage promotion but I'm fairly sure that Alexei Ratmansky and Thomas Lund were also promoted together, after a performance of Swan Lake (Prince and Jester respectively). But that was long ago, and at the end of this month Thomas Lund leaves his post as Director of the RDB school after 10 years. His successor is Anne Peyk. until now the director of the Tivoli Ballet School. The press release announcing her appointment describes her previous career (via Google Translate):

'Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk comes from the position as innovative artistic director of Tivoli Ballet School and also has 13 years of experience as an instructor and teacher at the Royal Ballet with strong results in organizational, talent and staff development. Her ability to act in the Danish ballet school environment is seen, among other things. through initiatives such as the establishment of the ballet competition The Danish Ballet Prize and the association for dance medical knowledge Dance Science Denmark. Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk is herself a former dancer and has a strong national and international network in the professional ballet environment as well as the ballet school environment, i.a. Ballet Chemnitz, Tivoli Ballet Theater, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Finnish National Ballet and Hamburg Ballet.'

Thank you, Lynette - I look forward to the film - I long to see how Park sees the Markova solo!

That link takes me to the video of the previous one, in October - it's the one about Les Rendezvous and Les Patineurs I was hoping to find?

I can't remember seeing anything about the Ashton Rediscovered on Feb 20th - did it happen, and if so who danced?

According to the Guardian obituary he was actually five years older than he claimed - 95!

51 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I don’t know Prodigal Son at all has this ever been danced by the RB since 1973... I just looked it up to see it’s a Balanchine work and was danced by the Royal in 1973.... 
Ive certainly never seen it as the only ballet I know by that name was danced by Festival Ballet starring the talented Paul Clarke ...but that was years ago and I’m sure wasn't by Balanchine. 

 

 

 

This one?

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/18/archives/dance-prodigal-son-a-ragtime-ballet-is-sellout.html

17 hours ago, jmhopton said:

 

Well yes, I suppose that is the traditional way of doing things, to do Lensky first and then Onegin. have any dancers ever started straight with Onegin?

Yes, lots -  of the Royal Ballet's Onegins I remember, only 2 (Bonelli and Hristov) had already done Lensky - though of course others may have danced Lensky before joining the company, or some of the Lenskys may have done Onegin since leaving.

Thanks, Rob

Could someone kindly identify the 4 Flowers in Rob's photos from last night?

It was actually in the November edition - page 13

Re Apparitions:

The only reviews of the London Festival Ballet version I have to hand are by John Percival and David Vaughan, both of them strongly pro-Ashton, and they both put the casting at the heart of the revival's failure - Schaufuss too solid and Makarova too worldly. (JP thinks the role would better suit 'a teenage ballerina with huge dark eyes'  - I assume he's talking about Trinidad Sevillano)

DV says that it didn't work on the big Covent Garden stage and it doesn't work in the Coliseum either.

Interestingly, JP says that Anthony Dowell had tried to persuade Ashton to let him revive it at Covent Garden, and Ashton had said no.

It would be interesting to know what Clement Crisp thought - is his review included in his book?

Have you seen this, I wonder? (or maybe you wrote it!)

Thank you - it will be interesting to see how they are both cast,

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/nov/29/royal-ballet-dancer-natalia-osipova-to-auction-worlds-first-ballet-nfts

And please, if someone could explain in VERY SIMPLE LANGUAGE what would be the point of buying one of these, I'd be very grateful.

That could be interesting! How tall is Casalinho, does anyone know? - will they be competing for roles or are they of obviously different types?

4 hours ago, alison said:

 

But we already have a Giselle Act 3 somewhere ...  Can anyone help?

If it's the one I'm thinking of Alison, I'm sure I saw a link to it quite recently but can't find it anywhere now.

Meanwhile here's how the Wilis'  first introduction to London ended, in a 'play with danced episodes' using Adam's music but with choreography by Mr Frampton:

The climax is a scene in the ‘translucent palace of 100 fountains [real ones] beneath the bosom of the witch’s lake’ where Myrtha is struck dead by a thunderbolt; Giselle returns to life and marries Hilarion.

So now you know.

(Originally reproduced by Kathrine Sorley Walker in an article for Dance Now}

Thank you - look forward to it!

1 hour ago, Anna C said:

 

 

 

Finally, the absence of ushers in the auditorium was alarmingly evident when a man near us stood up during the curtain call, walked towards the front of the stalls and tried to throw a bunch of flowers onstage - his throw failed spectacularly and I think a poor unsuspecting member of the orchestra got hit on the head with them.  Not great for him or her, and really bad from a security point of view (by which I mean he could have thrown anything).  Bizarre. 

 

 

 

 

i remember there was a man who used to toss little bouquets onto the stage quite often - but he was quite a good shot and it was before  people worried much about security.

Also, there used to be a net over the orchestra pit didn't there?

= which caught and held the no-longer-slender David Drew when he fell off the stage in Sleeping Beauty.

On 29/10/2021 at 17:17, bridiem said:

 

 

THANK YOU TO THE BALLET ASSOCIATION

This week we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Frederick Ashton Foundation with an Insight exploring the genius of Frederick Ashton. And thanks to The Ballet Association we were able to film it to share with our Friends and Supporters next month. Keep an eye on our social media and website for the date.

 

 

Friends and Supporters? Does this mean it won't be generally available?

The Royal Danish Ballet is currently in the middle of a run of its own preferred Romeo and Juliet - Neumeier's - and  last night's Juliet, Wilma Giglio, was promoted to the company's highest rank onstage during the curtain calls. It's five years since they had a new female principal and it was getting fairly obvious that she would be the next one.

She comes from Argentina and had her early training there, arriving in Dnamark via the Prix de Lausanne and the Canadian Ballet School - she's been a soloist since 2018 and has already danced La Sylphide and Swan Lake.

(And incidentally, checking the press relase on the RDB site, I notice that Nikolaj Hubbe's contract has just been extended for another 4 years.)

5 hours ago, LinMM said:

I was at the performance when Monica Mason as Myrthe ( I would have been terrified of her on stage!) broke her ankle mid performance. I think she even briefly carried on but you could tell she was in trouble. I still can’t remember who came on to take her place. 

Sandra Conley? (Was it at the Coliseum or have I misremembered?)

10 hours ago, Bluebird said:

 

 

This is a bit late but might be useful for those who are yet to watch the class. I've now had the original post confirmed:

 

Back row left to right Maddison Pritchard and Denilson Almeida; Marianna Tsembenhoi and Marco Masciari

Front row left to right Daichi Ikarashi and Olivia Findlay; Viola Pantuso; Ava May Llewelyn; Alix Van Tiggelen; Hanna Park and James Large

Thank you, Bluebird - I only knew one of them before but hope I can pick out a few more now!

The happiest thing in the RDB's contribution is to see that Alban Lendorf is in class - he's been off for so long it would be wonderful if he's getting back  to performance-ready!