toursenlair

If Miyako Yoshida'a is "like some classroom exercise", aall I can say is ... some classroom!

and rightly so. it's pretty flagrant when someone calls themselves "BBC Documentary" and then posts whole BBC documentaries to youtube within days of their public release.

in my opinion, the less one can see of Ivan the Terrible, the better!

another gripe. Does anyone else find Darcey and her sidekicks irritatingly gushy? Everything is always PERFECT and FABULOUS and THE BEST. We don't need to be told that after we can judge what we've just seen ourselves. I know it's part of the current general culture of hyperbole, but it strikes me as, dare I say it, un-English. I guess I was brought up to consider it unseemly to do something and then say "Aren't I great???"

I'm only just chiming in on the cinema broadcast because we didn't see it till today in Canada. The camera angles drove me crazy, all the quick cuts from one angle to another, the closeups when you actually want to see the whole stage (or at least the whole group that happens to be dancing, or even the whole body of one person dancing). And why oh why do they keep cutting off the feet????

from the Royal Ballet School: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/the-school/life-at-school/performing-in-the-nutcracker/

I doubt those words have ever been spoken by an AD in reference to his/her job.

I think the majority of attendees in a typical Nutcracker crowd will not care whether it is this year's performance or last year's or one from 5 years ago. I expect there are problems with conflicts with the Bolshoi Nut.

Dresden is doing 8 Nutcrackers, 8 Beauties, and 6 Bayaderes This year. Not sure how that works out to significntly "more nineteenth century classics" than 23 Nuts and 15 Giselles at Covent Garden.

What does "breaking the duck" mean?

This is from the Bolshoi Babylon website: http://www.bolshoibabylon.com/ SCREENINGSIn cinemas from Friday 8th January Special event screenings Sunday 10th January, with live broadcast Q&A featuring very special guests JW3, Finchley Road Eden Court INVERNESS Vue Carlisle Vue Cheshire Oaks Vue Finchley Rd Vue Harrow Vue Islington Vue Leeds Kirkstall Vue Newcastle under Lyme Vue Plymouth Vue Portsmouth Vue Reading Vue Shepherds Bush Vue Southport Vue Staines Vue Stroud Vue Thanet/Westwood Cross Vue WorcesteR DCA DUNDEE Wotton Electric Picture House WOTTON-UNDER-EGDE Marina LOWESTOFT Glasgow Film Theatre Errol Flynn Filmhouse NORTHAMPTON Kino HAWKHURST Kino Rye Odeon Beckenham Odeon Blackpool Odeon Dunfermline Odeon Epsom Odeon Guildford Odeon Harrogate Odeon Lincoln Odeon Salisbury Odeon Taunton Odeon Tunbridge Wells Odeon South Woodford Odeon Southend Odeon Maidenhead Odeon Wimbledon

Here's more info on what sugar plums were: http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2011/12/of-sugarplums-and-plum-pudding.html But in French, dragée is what we would call a sugared almond.

The National Ballet of Canada's version by James Kudelka has a Clara (though her name is Marie) played by a young girl. She has a brother approx the same age, called Misha (in honour of Baryshnikov) and they go through the ballet together, unlike most productions where the brother is just a brat in the party scene. This was intentional to give a good role to a young boy ballet student. They do squabble throughout the ballet but one of the plot lines is their learning to get along. In addition, there are by a conservative estimate about a kajillion children throughout the whole ballet. Boosts the ticket sales to adoring sisters, cousins, aunts, grandparents etc etc.

the theatrical release of this documentary about doings at the Bolshoi has been announced. You might want to follow the Bolshoi Babylon facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BolshoiBabylonFilm/?fref=nffor updates.

getting back to same-sex relationships, doesn't Bintley's Edward II count? Also, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet commissioned this ballet just last year ("First Nations" is the term we use in Canada for the people you probably think of as "Indians" in the UK Commissioned by Artistic Director André Lewis, this production explores the world of Annie, a young, urban First Nations woman adrift in a contemporary life of youthful excess. But when she meets Gordon, a longhaired trickster disguised as a homeless man, she’s propelled into a world she’s always sensed but never seen. Not only do they travel the streets of this place but also the roads of their ancestors, learning to accept the other’s burdens as the two walk through the past and toward the future. Together, both Annie and Gordon learn that without truth, there is no reconciliation. Based on a story by award winning Canadian author, Joseph Boyden. “Ballet cuts right to the heart of what’s most beautiful, physically in humanity and what’s most beautiful in story. We are taking a very European form and introducing it to a First Nations experience. We’ll find a way to meld this meeting of these two very different places in a fascinating way on the stage.” – Joseph Boyden

so that's not at all confusing that there's tango dancer called German Cornejo and an ABT dancer called Herman Cornejo...

here's my two cents, which I don't want to seem crotchety, but I'd really rather NOT have an opera section on balletco. It's one more set of threads in the "new content" listing to scroll past when looking for the ballet threads that interest me (and that I expect to find on a ballet forum). Respectfully submitted.

it is usually easy to get tickets for ABT performances at the Met. Individual tix don't go on sale till March, over their website. It's better to sit somewhere back of about row J if you're on the main floor, as closer seats are not raked. There seems to be a Misty Copeland phenomenon going on, so if you want to see one of her performances you should buy early. Also ABT does dynamic pricing, so ticket prices go up on anything that is selling well. If you are there for the ABT gala, that means NYCB is also in season. You should go see as many of their performances as possible. If you are under 29 they have a special "$29 tix for under 29s" or something like that. I think those tix are only available on the day of the performance, like rush seats, but they can be a great deal and NYCB doesn't usually sell out. The sight lines in the David H Koch theatre where NYCB performs are excellent. You can buy tix from the NYCB website. You should also check out the Joyce Theatre. School of American Ballet has an end of year performance, but usually towards the end of May and I believe it is hard to get tix. Lincoln Center box office across the street from LIncoln Center often has half price tix for performances close to the performance date (day before).

and even they charge more than the stated budget. I stayed at LSE's Bankside House (behind Tate Modern) with my choir a couple of years ago and I believe it was 69 pounds a night. (I also wouldn't recommend it unless you have a very high tolerance of excruciatingly uncomfortable beds).

Interesting comment from a book review today: "Are you checking out The Globe and Mail online today? Then the odds are high that you won’t read this review. How do I know that? Because we have the data, my friend, and they are sobering. As former Globe editor-in-chief John Stackhouse reports in his new book, when the paper analyzed its online traffic, they found that fully 40 per cent of the paper is read by fewer than 1,000 people. This benighted, much-ignored category includes “baseball, tennis and theatre reviews” – basically, a lot of arts and culture coverage." In the "economy of clicks", we have another use-it-or-lose-it situation like the one I mentioned in the thread about dance magazines. If we want to still have dance coverage in our major newspapers,we have to click on those links. Even if we don't read the article because we don't have time!!! Keep on clicking. The moderators of this forum work hard to bring us ballet links every single day. It's up to us to click. In the internet world, that's how we let the media know that this topic is important to us.

I have subscribed to Dance Europe (from Canada, so twice the cost) since it first started. I would like to put in a plug for people subscribing to the print version because in this day and age it's hard for print magazines to stay alive. So it's a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. If we want to have the magazine around for that one time it has an interview with our favourite dancer, we need to support it year round.

I came across this calendar in a shop yesterday. https://www.calendarclub.co.uk/lifestyle/fitness-and-health/ballet-calendar-2016-r160103 You wouldn't know it from the cover, but almost all the pics are from either ENB or BRB, so if you're a fan of those companies, or looking for a prezzie for an ENB/BRB fan, you might want to check it out. The Royal Ballet has its own calendar.

if you can find a ballerina cookie (biscuit ) cutter, you can just make a plain cake, ice it, and then decorate it by sticking ballerina cookies in the icing around the edge of the top of the cake (assuming your 15-yr-old is a girl). I was also lucky enough to find some "prince" cookie cutters in a "fairytale cookie cutters" collection that also had a tiara.

Spooking cats with cucumbers could cause 'psychological problems,' says Calgary vet technician http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cats-cucumbers-scared-video-1.3327174

At the Vienna State Opera once I was selling off an expensive ticket, and someone tried to persuade me I should sell it for half its value. His argument was that his friend had got a FREE ticket, so he himself didn't want to have to pay full price to go with her. I held my ground and said if one of them had got a free ticket he should be willing to pay full price, because that way they would each be paying half price and it was still a good deal! I had the advantage in that I was quite ready to go and see the performance myself rather than lose a lot of money on the ticket. About 5 mins before curtain someone very wealthy looking swept in and bought my ticket for face value or almost face value.