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Jane S

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  1. Jane S
    The Sarasota Ballet has just announced its programme for next season and Apparitions is scheduled for March 2019 (on a double bill with Balanchine's Stars and Stripes).
  2. Jane S
    No, I was right the first time - she's doing Liza. There was an open rehearsal of two acts yesterday so some at least of the casting is known - Ida Praetorius is also doing Liza. (Not exactly a surprise!)
  3. Jane S
    Yes, don't get me wrong: I really admire her and am delighted to see her get such good roles - it's just that she must have thought, at 35, that she would finish out her career as a respected soloist - I believe no-one else has ever been promoted so late in their career. Here's a video of her trying some of her costumes http://www.pictame.com/media/1733307638278945647_259760189 I'm also pleased to see that Lo Sardo is back - slightly wonder from this picture if she's actually the Countess rather than Liza?
  4. Jane S
    And also from Instagram it looks as if Tobias Praetorius may be second cast Hermann, with Alexandra LoSardo as Liza. (Incidentally I guess if you'd told Kizzy Matiakis a few years ago that she'd get to be a principal and one spring would be dancing the leads in Swan Lake and Raymonda and creating the title role in a new full-length piece, she'd have been a bit ... surprised)
  5. Jane S
    I think this one comes under the heading of 'useful things you can discover while you ought to be working at something else'!
  6. Jane S
    The RDB gives the world premiere of Scarlett's Queen of Spades (Spar Dame in Danish) on April 14th - there's a page about in English on their site and more information and a couple of videos if you switch to the Danish version. From the photographs etc you can deduce that the first cast has Kizzy Matiakis as the Countess and Andreas Kaas as Hermann, but there are few clues to who else is dancing and if/when a second cast goes on. ( But, hey, there's still a week to opening night - plenty of time to plan your visit.) If anyone is going, please report back!
  7. Jane S
    If you click on the search box without entering any search term it takes you to the Advanced Search page where there's a 'search by tag' option at the top left hand corner - seems to work.
  8. Jane S
    Maybe it literally is short of that solo - the prologue, cut before the first night, in which Manon was shown "dreaming of rising to wealth and success"? (according to D&D)
  9. Jane S
    In the very early days of ballet.co we had the pleasure of republishing one of Mr Guest's articles from Richard Buckle's Ballet magazine - it was a piece called 'Babbage's Ballet' and we thought it very appropriate that a pioneer online ballet site should publish something about a computer pioneer's idea for a ballet. Mr Guest kindly gave his permission, though we had to wait to hear from him till he returned from a world cruise celebrating his retirement! It finally went live on our pages 21 years ago this month.
  10. Jane S
    For interest, here is an article about the costumes for the McGregor and Wheeldon pieces, from a site called Mode & Motion which looks at "the synergy between dance and fashion". (I'm linking to partly because it's interesting to read another point of view and partly because it talks about Shirin Guild, whose name has not been mentioned once in the 100+ entries in this topic - it's not often I can look in my own wardrobe* and find some of the work of an RB designer!) * secondhand section
  11. Jane S
    There certainly was a character who seemed much younger than the others - a girl dressed as a boy, or perhaps the other way round? (Though always danced by a female, I think.) She had a little dance of her own and was clearly presented as an extra tease for the customers.
  12. Jane S
    LFB did revive Apparitions, in 1987 - I think Peter Schaufuss persuaded Ashton to let them do it, although it's said he'd already refused permission to two directors of the RB. It only had 3 performances and although Ashton himself had been involved in the revival it was not thought to be a success, for reasons including casting (Makarova and Schaufuss), lighting, the sets, and the size of the theatre (the Coliseum). Iain Webb planned to revive it for the Sarasota Ballet last season but had to postpone it, for reasons explained in this article
  13. Jane S
    Yes if McGregor used Tippett's Fantasia on a theme of Corelli.
  14. Jane S
    Well it's 35 years since Alston's last piece for the company, so maybe they could risk another try? It was called Midsummer and had its premiere on the same night as Bintley's Consort Lessons - John Percival In D&D liked them both, and his last paragraph reads: "A final thought: how good it was to see the dancers as people - not playing roles, not being funny, not hidden behind the glossy body-tights that often turn them into shining objects, but as themselves: attractive, individual, different. I for one would enjoy seeing that more often." Oh yes. (And Alston has always acknowledged Ashton as a strong influence.)
  15. Jane S
    There are some things I'm very pleased to see in the announcement, but for my taste a season that is split - very roughly - into 1/3 19th century classics, 1/3 Macmillan and 1/3 everything else is not exactly well-balanced!
  16. Jane S
    I remember people saying the Tombeaux tutus were ravishing, some of the most beautiful ever designed! (I thought so too)
  17. Jane S
    Post deleted
  18. Jane S
    In Leigh Witchel's review of the Osipova/Ball Giselle he writes: " Osipova’s Act 2 entry was an Osipovism where she altered the choreography to create a unique, larger-than-life effect: wild spinning followed by huge jumps picking her legs up under her. " This sounds very much like what I think I saw Naghdi do at that point - is it now standard? (Or did I imagine it?)
  19. Jane S
    There was a short piece in yesterday's Sunday Times about Ball stepping in for Hallberg, with some comments from him and a photo. Incidentally while I was watching Ball in Act 1 of his performance with Naghdi I kept wondering who it was he reminded me of and eventually realised it was... David Hallberg. Anyone else get that?
  20. Jane S
    This one? http://www.dancedirectory.co.uk/article/va-museum-acquires-nijinsky-ballet-costume-designed-by-leon-bakst.html
  21. Jane S
    Hallberg's Instagram explanation here
  22. Jane S
    Via Dansomanie, news of a gala in Montreux on March 3 including Rupert Pennefather, Ivan Putrov, Delphine Moussin and Agnes Letestu in an in-the-round piece based on Sartre's Huis Clos, with choreography by Ludovic Ondiviela. https://www.montreuxdanse.ch/ https://www.24heures.ch/culture/montreux-choisit-etoiles/story/19016279
  23. Jane S
    The French site Dansomanie gives a link to a complete version of the programme on Facebook - no guarantee it will stay there for much longer. The section with Harrison Lee starts about 2.01. (Also at about 2.48 you can see Kristina Shapran and Xander Parish dancing the pas de deux from Diamonds.)
  24. Jane S
    It was the opening night of Dowell's Directorship, wasn't it? And people looked at it as a sort of statement of intent. Programme was La Valse, then the 1st London performance of Bintley's Galanteries, then Opus 19, then The Concert. I believe Bruce Sansom did one performance of Opus 19 but I don't know if there was a second cast for Cynthia Harvey.
  25. Jane S
    Song of the Earth: I liked Rojo on opening night but she's been even better in the past and the rest of the soloists didn't live up to her - though the young Fernando Carratalá Coloma, the Messenger of Death, showed a lot of promise. So did Henry Dowden, making a very confident debut in the same role the next night, and I also liked Aitor Arrieta as the Man in that performance. Sylphide: A really attractive Sylph from Erina Takahashi last night and nice Jameses both nights from Isaac Hernandez and Ciro Tamayo (who would be even better if he could slightly turn down the volume on his acting in places). I like the way they are casting Effie, and Daniel Kraus as Gurn had the character very well. Praise also for the two leading sylphs, Precious Adams and Jia Zhang and - of course - for Eva kloborg's Madge and also for Jane Howarth in the same role. I didn't like the comedy act of the two farmhands, though, most especially when they were hamming about at the back of the stage when Effie was making her decision to accept Gurn. Some work needed on Wing Release and Cradle Management. I'm afraid I simply don't get Jurgita Dronina - I've seen her in three big roles now and she's disappointed me each time - nothing wrong with her dancing but she seems to me very short of expressiveness and she doesn't hold my eye - I saw a lot more of the corps de ballet work in last night's Song of the Earth than I ever have before. Others may see her differently.
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