6 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

Without going into the rights and wrongs of the whole mess, I think a problem is that the ROH, and other theatres, need large numbers of Patrons, Friends whatever to swell their coffers. Inevitably, the more that give this support, the more tickets and benefits they want, and can justifiably expect. If I was a Patron paying several grand a year I would be pretty miffed not to be able to get tickets because some were being held back for the general public. You would have to be a particularly generous minded patron to say 'I don't mind foregoing my ticket so that Joe Bloggs can have it'. Some years ago the Donmar closed its' Supporters list because too many people wanted priority tickets - a very honest action, but I can't,see the ROH doing that. But I totally agree that greater transparency on the part of the ROH is needed, and a clear policy should be stated and adhered to.

Just to say, here in Toronto, "Friends" don't have any priority access to tickets. I do "pay several grand a year" (well a couple anyway) and this gives me the same ticket access as someone not donating a cent, i.e. I can book a subscription when they go on sale to everyone in March for the following Sept-June season. And I can buy individual tickets when they go on sale to everyone in September. So if Joe Bloggs gets to the box office before me, more power to Joe. I consider my donation as exactly that, a donation. I don't know that donors can "justifiably expect" benefits like this, but I guess the ROH has trained its Friends to think they can.

10 hours ago, JNC said:

 

Thanks Dawnstar, very useful to know for planning purposes. (Although this is personally out of my price range but I’m sure it will be helpful for others.) 

 

Not to sound too bitter but any hopes of ROH holding anything back for general booking day has been thoroughly extinguished....(sorry low blow but I couldn’t resist...will be more civil in future!) 

I've found with Osipova performances in the past that they're all sold out before general booking and then miraculously a couple of weeks later whole swathes of good seats appear. It's all very mysterious to me.

The great Cuban ballerina died this morning. She was 98

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article236359533.html

https://toursenlair.blogspot.com/2019/10/full-program-world-ballet-day-live-23.html

this is very funny, but be warned: STRONG LANGUAGE

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Here's a rather catty article about his departure from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/nov/02/arts.artsnews1

very catty, and that last sentence is completely unjustified.

On 06/10/2019 at 08:26, Dawnstar said:

 

That's interesting. Presumably he must have performed in Manon elsewhere then, if he's now able to coach it.

Robert Tewsley performed Manon many many times: Toronto, Munich, Australia, New National Theatre of Japan, Ballet de Santiago (Chile), Vienna, in addition to the ones mentioned above. He was an absolutely fabulous Des Grieux, and also Lescaut.

3 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

My experience of dynamic pricing in commercial theatres is (i) "day-one" pricing is often higher for Friday and Saturday performances and (ii) prices drop for unsold tickets closer to the performance (and, sometimes, once or twice on the day of the performance).  I've not seen the price of unsold tickets increase due to popularity.

In my experience of dynamic pricing for ballet performances in North America, for very popular performances the price can rise quite dramatically. For instance for an Osipova/Vasiliev Don Q at American Ballet Theatre, I booked tickets at $100US a few months in advance, and closer to the performance they had gone up to $150. At the National Ballet of Canada I heard rumours of tickets for Nutcracker going up to $400 (from $200). I have seen price reductions much much less frequently, and this despite the fact that many NBOC performances do not sell out or anything near it.

Sylvia 

2 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

And, of course, not unique.  

 

Karl Lagerfeld designed a tutu for Elena Glurdjidze and Jasper Conran collaborated with both David Bintley and Galina Samsova (when she was AD of Scottish Ballet).

 

Currently to be seen, Oscar de la Renta designed the costumes for Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs.

 

Then, of course, Picasso did some set designs as has David Hockney (albeit for opera).

for that matter, Coco Chanel herself designed the costumes for Nijinska's Le Train Bleu and Balanchine's Apollo (1929 version, not the premiere)

On 19/09/2019 at 18:18, alison said:

I'm pretty sure quite a few of the works mentioned had been shown outside London.  How many people saw them may be another matter, of course.

The point being that unless they were ALSO seen in London, they didn't make the cut. So anything seen in North America, Australia, Europe etc. that wasn't also performed in London is not part of the list.

a pic from Dorothee Gilbert's instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2thihupXJ9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

1 hour ago, NJH said:

 it will be a function of  the attrition rate  for that intake 

I don;t understand what you mean. This article is about *this year`s* graduating class, so there won`t be any attrition between now and next June.

of course the headline should have read "Best dance *that's been seen in London*" ....

For the first time ever, there are more boys (16) than girls (11).

Does anyone know if this is true of other vocational ballet schools?

Article here

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadas-national-ballet-schools-graduating-class-1.5288565?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar&fbclid=IwAR0im0Xz57WXhcXRAQwn7ZZ-QpmV-h5SaTKuxeh_DfKu-UH8zQqUEEyprcA

Click here to see a wacky Swan Lake and Pictures at an Exhibition promo videos:

https://toursenlair.blogspot.com/2019/09/swan-lake-goes-monty-python.html

3 hours ago, Casella said:

Thanks for your reply. I did try the above, but there was an odd disappearing listing of a ballet, and tickets disappearing before my eyes ...perhaps I will try the box office...

which website were you using? the standard Opera de Paris one, or the "bourse d'echange", where tickets are put up for exchange?

https://boursechange.operadeparis.fr/ballets-onp/le-parc

Tickets can indeed vanish quite rapidly, so you have to seize them when you see them and keep checking back if  you don't see what you want. They have some tix for Le Parc at the moment.

8 minutes ago, Angela said:

Not even a month after State Ballet Berlin was named "Best Company of the season" by Germany's "tanz" magazine, they have to postpone their premiere of Marcia Haydée's "Sleeping Beauty" by half a year. It's not a choreography problem, the production was created in 1987 at Stuttgart and has been staged by some other companies since then, it seems to be a problem of the sets and costumes, which will be created for Berlin by Jordi Roig.

aarrgh I was planning a trip to Berlin to see it and Bayadere.  I don't want to see Swan Lake. Why can't they just borrow Stuttgart's costumes!!!

Stuttgart Ballet: 2 from Germany, 23 from abroad

Royal Danish Ballet: 5 from Denmark, 17 from abroad

Dutch National Ballet: 2 from the Netherlands (soon to be 1), all the rest from abroad.

I could go on...

11 hours ago, DD Driver said:

Congrats to all!

 

I am surprised at the prize money and opportunities offered from this competition.  The lack of ...!

 

I couldn't find the details on this for 2019 but a few years ago it was $10,000 for a gold medal, $6,000 for silver and $4000 for bronze.  If more than one award is given in each category then the money is divided between them.

 

- This seems very little given the travel costs for candidates.  

Does anyone know what the current prize money is and any scholarships or other benefits to be gained?

 

- I also find local RAD competitions confusing, as they bring in judges who are not RAD examiners.  This seems a shame for the brand.  De-branding actually.

A panel of RAD examiners would be ideal as they have a shared and detailed understanding of what is valued by RAD in a dancer for each level. 

According to t he program booklet:

Gold: $8500 Cdn

Silver: $5000 Cdn

Bronze $3500 Cdn

"The  judges may decide to award more than one medal in any category. In this event, the prize money for that medal and the next category down will be pooled and distributed amongst the selected candidates at the discretion of the Judges and Genée artistic team.

I was surprised that Darcey Bussell was not in attendance, seeing as she's President of RAD. Surely this is the big event in the RAD's calendar.

Also surprised at how very few British dancers were in the competition: 4 out of 52.

Genée International Ballet Competition 2019 medallists announced

The Royal Academy of Dance is pleased to announce the medallists of the prestigious Genée International Ballet Competition 2019, held at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto on 29 August.

After a week of intensive coaching from world-renowned teachers and choreographers, the competition final saw two coveted gold medals awarded to Mia Zanardo, aged 15 from Australia, trained by Hilary Kaplan and Archibald McKenzie, and Darrion Sellman, aged 15 from the USA, trained by Andrea Paris-Guiterrez and Jose Carayol. Silver medals were awarded to Paloma Hendry-Hodsdon, aged 17 from Australia and trained by Shirley Rogers; and Julian Wen-Sheng Gan aged 17, from Malaysia trained by Serena Tan Suet Leng. Jessica Templeton aged 16 from the UK, trained by faculty of Tring Park School was awarded a bronze medal. Julian Wen-Sheng Gan was also presented with the Margot Fonteyn Audience Choice Award and the Choreographic Award for best Dancer’s Own variation was awarded to Ashton Parker from South Africa, trained by Jonathan Barton.

Marijn Rademaker, who supposedly "retired" last year, has just posted this on his instagram:

Looking forward to going to dance with you more now You have more freedom!

Just found this (Google translate) from a Dutch media outlet: