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Jane S

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Everything posted by Jane S

  1. Jane S
    There's just the little matter of writing the reviews...
  2. Jane S
    It's Elgar's own, original, ending isn't it? - which Ashton chose to use because he felt it was more in keeping with the mood of the rest of the ballet.
  3. Jane S
    Thanks - I just couldn't remember what happened on previous occasions!
  4. Jane S
    Does anyone know if they send out actual tickets for these events, or do you just register on arrival?
  5. Jane S
    Two months, in 2002 - joined in September, left in November. He did a few performances of Mayerling, and said he left because he wasn't going to get on stage as often as he'd hoped.
  6. Jane S
    That was one British critic (Craig Dodd) and he was reviewing a performance in Monte Carlo, ten years or so before it was seen in London.
  7. Jane S
    Yesterday's Times carried an obituary notice for the dance photographer Frederika Davis, whose pictures of Fonteyn and Nureyev and other dancers of that era were very well known and are still admired. I remember her particularly for a photograph of Natalia Bessmertnova which appeared on the cover of the Dancing Times in 1960-something - it was the first photo I ever bought and still remains, in my view, unsurpassed both for the dancer and the picture.
  8. Jane S
    Together, but a bit earlier. Interesting couple of things from a Ballet Association interview with Monica Mason in 2003 (hope the quote is not too long for forum rules - in any case the whole piece is worth reading in the context of this thread): "Wayne Eagling, Director of the Dutch National Ballet, had rung Monica, “I’m retiring. I have two principal men, Vyacheslav Samodurov and Federico Bonelli, who also want to move on.” “How many other people have you rung?” asked Monica. “No-one else yet,” said Wayne. They sent Monica photos and videos first, then they came over and did class with the company. Then Monica went to Amsterdam and they both were dancing in the matinée performance. Monica engaged both of them as Principals. Monica did not want the current male Principals to feel threatened, but was concerned that some of them could get overloaded. The company had become so used to dancers rising up through the ranks. Now the company had lots of male guests all the time, but she needed to build up the strength of the company male Principals again. “I hope you will see the value of them,” she told us. “Please make them welcome, when they come.” "
  9. Jane S
    Persson had gone by then, I think, and as Alison says, many of the guests were brought in for specific roles - Anthony Dowell and Wayne Sleep did the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella, for instance. Others are accounted for by Sylvie Guillem's habit of bringing in anyone she wanted to partner her, and the quest for tall partners for Bussell (Robert Bolle) and Yanowsky (Kenneth Greve). And William Tuckett, for a time at least, gets a credit as guest principal dancer at the same time as being listed as a principal character dancer. But even so there were a lot!
  10. Jane S
    Burn and Hatley were not principals, but Rojo, Benjamin and Yanowsky were there, and also Sylvie Guillem. The male side was still recovering from when (3 years earlier?... it's all a bit of a blur by now) Kumakawa had left to set up a company in Japan, taking with him Cassidy, Trevitt and Nunn; and Bruce Sansom had also retired. (None of which was anything to do with Ross Stretton) Imagine the RB now if there was much less talent in the lower ranks and Bonelli retired and, say, Mcrae left and took Ball, Sambe and Bracewell with him. The company relied on guests - Acosta, leRiche, Bolle, Murru, Stiefel and Tewsley all appeared that season, as well as Adam Cooper who had left a few years earlier.
  11. Jane S
    Lendorf is appearing in a show called Danish Design wwhich opens in Copenhagen tonight - I dearly hope it will show him in good shape. Facebook page
  12. Jane S
    I think almost the most interesting thing about these suggestions is the total absence of anything by Massine, who for 20 or 30 years of the 20th century was regarded as one of the greatest choreographers of his time - apart from anything else it shows how rash it would be to predict that any of today's most praised work will survive! But perhaps some of his ballets should be kept alive somewhere - Le Tricorne, La Boutique Fantasque, Les Presages, even? - or maybe the Red Shoes will be all that keeps his name remembered.
  13. Jane S
    Nijinska: Les Biches Les Noces
  14. Jane S
    The theatre has now announced details of the programmes and casting: https://joyce.org/performances/ballet-festival Includes Sissens in Ashton's Dance of the Blessed Spirits and Pajdak in his Isadora dances, and lots of other goodies.
  15. Jane S
    I only knew John in person through occasional interval chats, but I valued him very highly for his sense and sanity online, and his never-failing ability to calm down exasperated readers (me) via the messaging system. What a sad loss, to the site as a whole as well as to those who knew him.
  16. Jane S
    "What would the Company do without Miss Farron?" - asked The Times one day after Julia Farron had danced very different roles in each ballet of a triple bill.* She had a wonderful career with the Sadler's Wells/Royal Ballet, creating key roles for the company's choreographers and putting her own stamp on many inherited works. In her later years she was most often seen in character roles - the Queen in Sleeping Beauty, Lady Capulet in Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet (which she created), Bathilde in Giselle (still my benchmark for the role) - but earlier she had danced in most of the company's repertory: Lykanion in Daphnis and Chloe, the Betrayed Girl in the Rake's Progress, the Waltz and the Prelude in Les Sylphides - almost everything except for the great leading roles in the classical repertory. Some of her key roles were made for her by Ashton, from the little dog Pepe in A Wedding Bouquet (when she was only 14) through to Berta in Ondine, and - probably the one remembered with most affection - the Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake. She moved on to become a very widely respected and admired teacher, as I'm sure many of her former pupils will attest. * quoted by Cyril Swinson in Six Dancers of Sadler's Wells
  17. Jane S
    The Joyce Theatre in New York has just announced the details of the four programmes Kevin O'Hare has planned http://www.joyce.org/performances/ballet-festival
  18. Jane S
    Not necessarily the pieces I love most, but all with choreography of genius that will always delight me: Serenade Les Rendezvous Konservatoriet (Bournonville) Shades scene from La Bayadere Airs (Paul Taylor)
  19. Jane S
    Isn't it about time for the company to reconsider its 'everybody does everything, every time' policy? Seven casts for 14 public performances is ridiculous - think of the reharsal time!
  20. Jane S
    How do the company justify this competely irrelevant inclusion, I wonder? Maybe they know something we don't know - Fonteyn always longed to do Manon, perhaps? 'We're awfully busy' would sound a bit feeble.
  21. Jane S
    I use Firefox but I notice this problem only appears when I'm using a desktop, not on my (Android) tablet. I haven't particularly noticed it on other sites but will keep an eye open for other occurrences, which would point the finger at Firefox rather than the ROH.
  22. Jane S
    I realise this may be a problem with my browser, but if I go to the ROH website and select Menu - About - Royal Ballet - Dancers - Sambe (for instance), I then have to click the back button at least 4 times to get back to the Dancers page. Anyone else get this?
  23. Jane S
    There are some much more positive comments on BalletAlert today.
  24. Jane S
    Ria Peri did a Swan Lake in the 1970s but I can't remember if she was ever a principal.
  25. Jane S
    Interesting, though, that Gartside gets a debut * by his first Elgar of the run, and Avis doesn't.
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