toursenlair

wow it take's a mother's eyes to catch that!

Now available online, a half-hour TV program (in German) documenting a journalist's weeklong experience of life in a ballet company: http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/7_tage/index.html Julie please let us know if your son is anywhere to be seen!

Thanks Julie and Angela. I myself don't worry too much about being underdressed but one of the gentlemen on my trip last year was dismayed because he hadn't brought a suit and tie (me having told him that it was ok to dress more casually), even for the non-gala performances which we attended. It wasn't because of anything the Munchners said or did, he just felt that he should have dressed up more. And yes, I do love seeing the fancy dirndls in the audience!

I noticed on my last visit to Munich that people tend to dress up more there for the ballet than in, say, Stuttgart. I was there for the ballet week, but not for the gala. Has anyone been to the annual Terpsichore gala there? Do people get really dressed up for that? e.g. evening attire? I'm taking 20 people and I don't want them to feel uncomfortable because they are underdressed.

Yes it is very different. For a long time it was the version performed in Winnipeg, where I grew up. I was 12 the first time I saw it and when I heard the RWB was doing a Nutcracker for the first time I had such visions of snowflakes dancing in my head from my first live ballet experience which was London Festival Ballet's Nut when I was 6. TOTAL DISMAY: NO SNOWFLAKES in Neumeier's Nut! I CRIED. However, subsequently I grew to love it. His "snowflake" scene is replaced by a scene like a Degas ballet studio, ballerinas in white Degas tutus with velvet chokers. Beautiful grand pas de deux. Structurally much like ordinary Nuts. I actually love the way Neumeier rethinks the classics. I adore his Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake too. DEFINITELY worth watching. It's a free live stream!

Neumeier's Nutcracker with Polina Semionova and Bavarian State Ballet live stream Dec. 13: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2012/12/neumeiers-nutcracker-with-polina.html

not in this case.

If you're interested to know, please check out my "Wordlady" blog: http://katherinebarb...um-pudding.html

Zdenek is only a guest with NBOC alas. He used to be full time in Toronto. So we shall make sure we see as much of him as we can in this Giselle run!

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I've found often that the Russian productions don't measure up to Western companies'. They seem almost to be coasting on their reputation. I took a group to see the Mariinsky Sleeping Beauty in Washington and then another to London where we saw BRB's, and the people who were in both groups unanimously preferred BRB's!

That pretty much describes it. The Mariinsky's is a different matter. Their swans are so amazing that you are mesmerized by them even to the point of not watching the soloists. When they all turn from one "stand" to another, you just think "Oh my God that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Those ARMS!!!!"

I saw their Swan Lake live here in Toronto (after seeing it at the cinema) and found it pretty dreadful actually. Horrible sets and costumes, uninventive and unmusical choreography. I wouldn't recommend springing big bucks (or whatever the British equivalent of that phrase is) to go and see it.

Great quote in Mike Dixon's review of this in this month's Dance Europe: "Robert Parker and Jenna Roberts gave a tender account of... The Two Pigeons, though neither of the birds had a suitable homing sense. Robert Parker is one of the few artists alive who can manage to embody poetic romance with a peripatetic dove on his head."

a whole battalion of Praetorii...

Judging from the twitter feed of Ida's mother, Carolina Praetorius (formerly Hamburg Ballet), there is also a younger brother Tobias, 16, now at Royal Danish Ballet School.

Yes, Praetorius did The Lesson last year while still an apprentice. I saw her in NY and was most impressed. Amazing that she and Andreas Kaas are only 19. Keep your eyes on these two! (and James Hay too)

a clean sweep for the Royal Danish Ballet entry, with Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas winning the best dancer awards and Alessandro Sousa Pereira (of Danish Dance Theatre) winning the choreographic prize for his piece "Traditional" to music by Zoe Keating. Audience favourite award for best male dancer to Royal Ballet's James Hay, who I felt all evening was in a close race with the Danish guy. I also liked Liam Scarlett's choreography the best of the five contemporary creations.

I am organizing a group trip to Munich (and Stuttgart) for the ballet week in April , which includes this program. I will keep my eyes peeled for Milner Jr. in Choreartium.

also Canada's National Ballet School.

Thanks for the tip, Don Q Fan, but that didn't work either. pout pout.

aarrrggh, it won't play on my player!!! (in any language). Curses. Will I have to buy a portable DVD player when I'm next in the UK??

Those of you who will soon be attending your children's Christmas plays and ballet recitals may find this particularly funny: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/19/funny-or-die-childrens-theater-critic-alfred-molina-video_n_1987727.html?utm_hp_ref=theatre

see also this thread: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/1940-ballet-books-for-christmas/

I just ordered the DVD of Hobson's Choice from amazon.co.uk. It only exists in PAL format but I just got myself a portable DVD player that handles both European and N American DVDs. Can't wait to see it! I was intrigued though by the note on amazon that said the ballet is in "English and Castillian". ?????