Jane S

A propos absolutely nothing: I just came across a mention of a performance of Ashton's Tweedledum and Tweedledee  at an ROH gala or something a few years ago, which said that the Tweedles were Bennet Gartside and Ricardo Cervera - for some reason just thinking about this (which I didn't see) makes me laugh! Lucky Alice, too, whoever she was.

The George Balanchine Foundation is putting out a lot of information, videos, photographs and links to past insight sessions on its Facebook page throughout the NYCB season - some small consolation, perhaps, for not being there

On 12/09/2023 at 17:33, Jane S said:

 

 

Astrid Elbo is the first night Odette/Odile and it would be really good to see her promoted to Principal - well overdue, if you ask me.

And it was so! Astrid Elbo was promoted to Solodanser - the company's highest rank - after last night's Swan Lake.

Would so love to see her...!

NYCB brought Jewels to Covent Garden in their 1979 season - my diary tells me that I saw it then but sadly I don't remember much about it.

If you take a look at the video of the rest of the show you'll get a better idea of the occasion, which started with Dido's Lament...

I hope the dancers had a great time!

Agreed - but if you can look at this Swan Lake for what it is rather than what it isn't. it has some interesting ideas and it frequently looks stunning.

Astrid Elbo is the first night Odette/Odile and it would be really good to see her promoted to Principal - well overdue, if you ask me.

The RDB has just announced the casting for a run of Swan Lake starting next week (entirely sold out) and I noticed a couple of familiar names: Joseph Aumeer, who dances Benno in one of the casts, and Lazaro Corrales (RBS, brother of Cesar) who dances the Fool (Jester) in the other one. Good to see them both progressing! (But note that this is  a Hubbe ( and Schandorff)  production so the roles (particularly Benno) are very different from what you are probably used to.)

ABT danced The River in London a couple of times - at Covent Garden in 1970 and in their 1977 Coliseum season - I saw the later one but there was so much else going on in that week that The River was rather overshadowed - others may remember more than I do!

35 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

Saw the AA Classics bill last night - a proper 'greatest hits' festival of joy. Absolutely superb! So glad I was there

I also really enjoyed the Abrahams' piece 'Are You in Your Feelings' on Tuesday night, though not so keen on the v short pieces in the middle 'act' (AD Robert Battle's 'Four Four' and 'Unfold')

Both nights ended with 'Revelations' of course - as magificent as a signature piece should be. I wonder if the dancers ever tire of dancing it - sure didn't look like it on either night!

There was a piece about how the dancers feel - see Links for 17 August.

The weird thing about doing Fille and Facade in the same programme (as they did on the first night despite it having been advertised as Fille and Pineapple Poll) was that they did Fille first - I saw it a couple of days later and I thought it seemed quite wrong- a real anticlimax - and in fact I noted that lots of people went home  before Facade. (I like to think that someone was worried that Fille, with those ribbons and maypoles and things, might be a dreadful flop and they'd better follow it with a guaranteed send-'em-home-happy piece just in case.) By the end of the season they'd changed their minds and did Scenes de Ballet/Fille instead, close to cup-runneth-over territory in my book!

50 minutes ago, MAB said:

This is evoking fond memories of the last Bournonville festival and seeing so many things for the first time.  I adored Folk Tale.  Has it ever been performed in Britain?

Yes, but possibly not since the RDB season at Covent Garden in 1953.

(And these days they do a Hubbe version.)

Some reviews - all in Danish, but you can get the general idea from the closing lines of one of them:

"But it was ... Alban Lendorf's night, and the audience immediately responded with a standing ovation after 17 minutes of passionate and soulful dancing."

https://pov.international/alban-lendorf-i-skaebnedrama-paa-bellevueteatret/

https://www.sn.dk/gentofte-kommune/anmeldelse-alban-kom-dansede-og-sejrede/

https://cphculture.dk/sommerballet-2023/

And some photos of the curtain calls:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=688810469958368&set=pcb.688810513291697

Whilst waiting for reviews, there's a long article about Lendorf  in Politiken  - Google translate does a good job on it.

(Lots of pictures too.)

This opened last night - some photos on Alexander Meinertz's Instagram

I just signed on for the free trial to see if it would work for us - an Apple-free household - and I could watch it on our Samsung TV via my Android phone with no problem . (I think I remember that another system didn't work until I installed Google Home on  my phone, though).

Joined mostly to watch the Hayward/Sambe Rhapsody...  I joined Medici.tv on a similar deal to watch them in the Dream pas de deux and have not  regretted it!

9 hours ago, alison said:

I forgot to set the recorder: did anyone find out which Bayadère it was?

Muntagirov

16 hours ago, SheilaC said:

It's good that they refer to his death but it's lazy, almost disrespectful, just to tag another organisation's piece, fascinating though his personal account is. The very least that BRB could do is give an account of his long career with the company in its previous forms, discussing the major contribution he made to the company. 

Entirely agree.

I was interested to see several mentions of Mosaval dancing a solo in the Coronation performances for Queen Elizabeth 2, as he definitely wasn't in the ballet programme on Coronation night - it was actually in the Coronation opera , Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, where Mosaval danced the solo Morris dance  - choreographed by John Cranko, also a South African.  (Also mentioned, I see, in Ashley Killar's new Cranko biography.)

Yes, SheilaC - I have a programme from early 1965 listing him as a soloist, and then another from 1966 listing him as a principal: I think he was maybe promoted to some sort of senior soloist in 1960, rather than to principal.

They certainly worked  him hard - 310 Jaspers (Pineapple Poll), 97 Blue Skaters (Patineurs), 91 Bluebirds - I must have seen him dozens of times over the years and remember him with pleasure and admiration.

I think the actual box office opens at 9.30 (Danish time) but I don't know if online booking starts at the same time.

So far as I can see, booking is open now for selected dates only or for people with a season card, but general booking for all performances opens tomorrow (16th)

1 hour ago, OnePigeon said:

Which is why I think it’s so very important right now to get the Ashton works taught and recorded properly by the artists who worked with him, before it’s too late.  When they’re gone, it’s gone.  I can’t imagine the Balanchine foundation being so cavalier in their attitude.

Indeed so: see here for what the Balanchine Foundation has done

The Hotel Opera - once my home from home - closed several years  ago and after a complete makeover reopened as the Hotel Sanders - far too posh for me but may suit others! (It's owned by Alexander Kølpin, once a dancer with the RDB)

13 minutes ago, Ondine said:

I see no clamour for a revival of Ashton's Tales of Beatrix Potter. So popular in its day it was made into a film.  I suspect the dancers are relieved, those masks must have been hell.

The other way round, surely? It was  a charming film made into a much less successful stage show.

I don't know about that, but he did make a piece called L'Apres-midi d'Emily Wigginnbotham!

How much of Four Seasons was there? - just the corps de ballet bits, or more?