Bruce

Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the photocall for The Unknown Soldier, Infra, Symphony in C... Yasmine Naghdi in The Unknown Soldier © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Marcelino Sambé and Mayara Magri in Infra © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Marianela Nuñez in Symphony in C © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: Royal Ballet in The Unknown Soldier, Infra, Symphony in C Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the photocall for the Marianela Nunez, Vadim Muntagirov and Natalia Osipova cast... Marianela Núñez in La Bayadère © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Natalia Osipova in La Bayadère © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Alexander Campbell in La Bayadère © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: Royal Ballet in La Bayadère Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

It's a tricky area to talk about and words can only carry you so far - ultimately it comes down to what seems fair and reasonable - going 10 times a year, 20, 40, 60 etc? We'd all draw a line in different places. The very regularly attending fans don't want hemming in or for any number to be higher then they go(!). But what would ordinary tax payers (who fund the Arts Council) feel? I think they would want to see the money spread widely and to think that ordinary people would not find it so hard to get cheap seats because so many get scooped up by those who go much. Even if ROH found a number/set of criteria, policing it would be a minefield. There is no magic answer, but simply putting up prices to discourage (very) regulars is not it. Edit to add that what I said earlier re ROH finding a better way to work with fans and use them to further the artistic aims of the place still stands. The fans are a major asset. Just my 2p anyway.

Nice one @bridiem in pursuing this and good on Alex Beard for realising there was a huge issue that needed to be put to bed. He's chosen to do it with a pithy statement, but there are real issues, I think, underpinning frequency of attendance by some and how that relates to public subsidy and in a house running near capacity. Ideally, it should be spread far and wide, rather than deep and narrow. Gross extremes, but they make the point. For now, Beard's statement implies no limits and that should make very regular attendees happy. Of course, prices will still be going up, but that's another issue!

Sorry, just catching up, but has anybody seen anything from ROH that seems to resolve all this or shut it down? From what I can see nobody from ROH seems to have said that the statements made by their Director of Media and Audiences (in the artsprofessional piece) are wrong. The piece itself remains up which presumably means ROH agree with it.

Scottish Ballet have just announced plans for their Fiftieth Anniversary in 2019, including three world premieres – by Sophie Laplane, Helen Pickett and Christopher Hampson. But there are other good things happening in the year and beyond - full details at: https://www.scottishballet.co.uk/50 DanceTabs interviewed AD Christopher Hampson about the plans: http://dancetabs.com/2018/10/christopher-hampson-scottish-ballet-director-future-plans-and-companies-50th-anniversary/ And finally there was an official London launch, complete with some dance (on the smallest stage I've ever seen!) courtesy of Sophie Laplane and James Cousins - Foteini Christofilopoulou was there to photograph for DanceTabs. Claire Souet and Evan Loudon in James Cousins' Jealousy © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Claire Souet and Barnaby Rook Bishop in Sophie Laplane's Oxymore © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Christopher Hampson, introducing the 50th Anniversary Season © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: Scottish Ballet - 50th Anniversary Season Launch Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

Pleased to hear this - being a sporty type I have a Lululemon yoga mat! Not cheap, but wonderfully thick and large. Recommended. Obviously, I'm now saving up for the Principal Dancer Pants! (bet that's the last thing you expected to see from me!)

Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the photocall for the Thiago Soares and Lauren Cuthbertson cast... Thiago Soares and Lauren Cuthbertson in Mayerling © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Thiago Soares and Itziar Mendizabal in Mayerling © Foteini Christofilopoulou/ROH. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: Royal Ballet in Mayerling Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

I look at the original article differently from some others - when I read it I rather ignored the numbers ('cos it was obviously a puff piece for consultants) and concentrated on the hard quotes of ROH's Director of Media and Audiences - it's the quotes that have incensed people because, although there are attempts to be careful with words, they actually say what their intention is and what they want to happen. Nobody needs to know nothing about data analysis to see it represents a painful change for some fans, particularly those without deep pockets. As an aside, I think Baker Richards were extremely daft not to see they were dropping paying clients in the shit with their customers, just to selfishly puff their own work. And an ROH Director was pretty bonkers not to see that their most ardent fans would be very, very, upset by what they said. But it's also part of the new reality for customers - technical cleverness is used every which way by many companies to sell stuff to them at the best price that can be had from each individual customer. We are all getting tailored offers all the time now. It's the way business is these days to be farmed and maximised. All that said I do recognise there are complex issues around how public (and fundraised) subsidy is divvied out. Ideally, you want very many people touched by the public £'s, rather then a few touched many times. The numbers are substantial - each seat in ROH is publicly subsidised to the tune of £40. Because of their fundraising another £40 (roughly) per seat is effectively given to customers in reduced prices. £80 in all. So some customers will effectively cart off £1000's of subsidy per year and because the place is running at 95%+ capacity new people can't so easily join in. Its certainly got me thinking about subsidy, why it's there, how it's used most wisely. But as @clouddancefest said on Twitter "...my god they are out of touch if they think raising ticket prices is the solution." What ROH haven't really done is look at is how they use and mobilise their fan base to evangelise more and feel part of the fabric that makes the art better. Just looking at fans as numbers and individual revenue streams is too narrow a view - they need to be proud of their collective fan base and show them they are valued and part of pushing the art forward in the country - because they are. ROH really need to rethink their strategy to fans - pissing them off is no place to be and all ROH Directors should really know that. But regardless of ROH's attitude, fans (me included) should perhaps reflect on how lucky we are that the art we love is underpinned by huge subsidy (public and private) that enables ticket prices to be substantially cheaper than they otherwise would be. Few things in life are as subsidised as ballet is and it's a glorious thing for us. We routinely complain about ticket prices but my goodness we've all done incredibly well out of the system as is.

Foteini Christofilopoulou was also at the Sadler's Wells photocall... Parvaneh Scharafali and Rauf Yasit in "Seventeen/Twenty One" © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Riley Watts and Ander Zabala Gomez in "Seventeen/Twenty One" © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: William Forsythe: 'A Quiet Evening of Dance' Gallery Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the photocall of Carlos Acosta and Acosta Danza's Rooster, which premiered last night at the Royal Albert Hall. A couple of shots for your delectation... Carlos Acosta in Rooster © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Julio Leon, Alejandro Silva, Carlos Acosta and Leticia Silva in Rooster © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Foteini Christofilopoulou: Carlos Acosta and Acosta Danza in 'Rooster' Gallery Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

A frustrating rather than a seamless experience. Agree with Sim that they should involve real punters in feedback and act on what is said. But ROH can be very good at congratulating themselves and not really comprehending the reality - or the reality for some. Even now https://worldballetday.com/ is still not loading and yet this is supposed to be the front door for the whole endeavour. Hopefully, all the vids will go on YouTube, where they can easily be consumed at leisure. It's paradoxical, but World Ballet Day is really best seen on any day but the day itself.

In the original thread on News member Richard LH contributed a really useful post that gave the times (UK times) and links to numerous company contributions to WBD: It's well worth reading, but I'm pasting below in the hope it might be seen directly... Posted yesterday at 11:40 (edited) I have put UK time in red. I think they got the "UTC+" for Wellington wrong - the web tells me it is currently 11:40 pm in Wellington so they are exactly 12 hours ahead of us here. Please correct if you spot any silly errors. The Australian Ballet, Melbourne 11:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs) 02:00 - 07:00 Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow 09:00-14:00 MSK (UTC +3hrs) 7:00 - 12:00 Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet, London 12:00-17:00 BST (UTC +1hr) Guest companies: AUSTRALIA and ASIA The National Ballet of Japan, Tokyo - 11:00-11:15 JST (UTC +9hrs) 03:00 - 03:15 West Australian Ballet , Perth - 14:30-14:40 AWST (UTC +8hrs) 07:30 - 07:40 Queensland Ballet, Brisbane - 15:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs) 06:00 – 07:00 Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington - 15:00-16:00 NZST (UTC +12hrs) 03:00 - 04:00 (UTC + 13 hrs) MAINLAND EUROPE Nasjonalballetten UNG / Norwegian NB 2, Oslo - 14:00 - 14:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:00 - 13:30 The Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen - 14:15-14:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:15 - 13:45 Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich - 14:30-15:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:30 - 14:00 Das Stuttgarter Ballettt, Stuttgart - 15:00-15:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:00 - 14:30 Wiener Staatsballett, Vienna - 15:15-15:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:15 - 14:45 Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, Paris - 15:30-16:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:30 - 15:00 Het Nationale Ballet - Dutch NB, Amsterdam - 16:00-16:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 15:00 - 15:30 Kungliga Svenska/Royal Swedish Ballet Sch.Stockholm - 16:15-16:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 15:15 - 15:45 Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Warsaw - 17:00-17:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 16:00 - 16:30 UNITED KINGDOM Scottish Ballet, Glasgow - 11:00-11:30 BST (UTC +1hr) Birmingham Royal Ballet - 13:00-13:30 BST (UTC +1hr) English National Ballet, London - 14:00-14:30 BST (UTC +1hr) Royal Academy of Dance, London - 14:30-15:00 BST (UTC +1hr) Northern Ballet, Leeds - 16:00-16:30 BST (UTC +1hr) AMERICA and CANADA Ballet Concierto De PR, San Juan - 10:00-10:15 AST (UTC -4hrs) 15:00 - 15:15 Acosta Danza, Cuba - 12:00-12:40 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 17:00 - 17:40 Houston Ballet, Texas - 12:30-13:30 CDT (UTC -5hrs) 18:30 - 19:30 Pacific Northwest Ballet , Seattle - 11:00-11:30 PDT (UTC -7hrs) 19:00 - 19:30 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York - 15:00-15:30 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 20:00 - 20:30 Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal - 16:00-17:00 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 21:00 - 22:00 Edited 1 hour ago by alison Added highlighting in the hope of making this easier to spot

Scottish Ballet are having class now on their Facebook stream: https://www.facebook.com/scottishballethq/videos/2493145957362524/ It started way before the 11:30 stated on one of the circulated WBD pages.

Great. It's links like this that all the companies should be putting out - deliver you straight to the stream, not genic links that require you to do more navigation and make full screen etc. I'm not the only one who does little to nothing on Facebook.

I just thought I'd try the main site at https://worldballetday.com/ Sadly it fails to load on 3 different browsers.

Whereas the ENB slot at some unspecified time in the 5 hour RB transmission is: "English National Ballet VT – We take a first look at their new production She Persisted, a trio of ballets by female choreographers that will be staged at Sadler’s Wells in April."

It's a big muddle. This came in from BRB late last night: "WORLD BALLET DAY 2018 One of our favourite days of the year is just a sleep away, as Tuesday 2 October brings us World Ballet Day 2018. A day devoted to and celebrating our favourite thing, World Ballet Day sees all the major ballet companies around the globe showcase their best on a dedicated stream on Facebook. Tune into the Royal Opera House feed throughout the day to check out two gorgeous short videos from us, as well as visiting the BRB Facebook page live at 1pm for a rehearsal Juanjo Arqués's Ignite (part of Fire & Fury) with Brandon Lawrence, Mathias Dingman and Céline Gittens, as well as popping up through the day with other fantastic surprises." So to see all that BRB is doing you currently have to look at the entire 5 hour Royal Ballet broadcast for the BRB section. But at 13:00 you need to go to the BRB Facebook page to see direct another and different BRB broadcast. For what its worth the DanceTabs list for the RB 5 hours says this about the BRB part: "Birmingham Royal VT – Rehearsals of two of our dancers as they work on the male pas de deux from The King Dances. The second half will be a brief conversation with Artistic Director David Bintley as he prepares to leave the company and will feature excerpts from his created rep over the past 20 years as well as conversations with notable dancers and colleagues (Marion Tait, Ruth Brill, Iain Mackay etc.)." It's shown in our list as coming after the RBs Cuthbertson(now Takada?)/Osipova/Muntagirov Bayadere section and that is currently shown as happening at 13:50. From the RB Facebook page: 1.50pm: Rehearsal of La Bayadère with Akane Takada Natalia Osipova and Vadim Muntagirov 2.20pm: Rehearsal of Mayerling with Steven McRae, Sarah Lamb, and Laura Morera So BRBs section in the RB stream might happen at just after 14:00? Possibly! This is just for BRB. Goodness knows what is happening for the other 3 UK companies and if their own broadcasts will repeat or augment what is contained in the main RB 5 hours. It shouldn't be this complex!

Thanks John! The problem is getting the detailed information (that everybody wants) in a timely manner from all the companies concerned. It's not easy!

Although I think this year is better then it has been, on the release of what is happening when, it's still not easy to find the information - mainly because it's not where you would expect to find it. So the RB schedule for the day (with their sections for the 4 other UK companies) is not on the obvious place at www.worldballetday.com It's also not on the RB/ROH page about WBD at http://www.roh.org.uk/about/world-ballet-day They do nudge you to Facebook for more info but when you go there you don't immediately see what they are doing either = the post with the info is buried well down the page and you have to expand it to see it. It also doesn't include the 4 other companies contributions in their transmission. But the companies are listed as doing their own thing (no links) at other times during the day. It's all a bit poor and un-thought about. And I just don't think Facebook is a good place for giving hard information. What WBD really needs is a central and detailed definitive list of what is happening when and that should be on www.worldballetday.com to which all companies should be able to add. And the final icing on the cake would be that you could tell the page your timezone and all the times for what's happening when would appear as times in your zone so no mental gymnastics are needed. That and hard links to where the stream will be if it's done by a company that is not one of the central three that are making it all happen this year.

Duh - just saw the earlier post on this thread about RB's timings - not sure how I missed. But I think the list in DanceTabs has a bit more info and also covers the other UK companies.

I've just released a piece by Jann Parry about the RB section of WBD where she talks to Kristen McNally, James Hay and Assistant director (of the transmission) Anthoula Syndica-Drummond. The RB section is hosted by Kristen and Alexander Campbell. At the bottom of the piece I include a list of all that they hope to cover in the 5 hours segment, including other company contributions. Interesting, but to be consumed with usual health warnings. Sadly It doesn't include timings for what should be transmitted when. http://dancetabs.com/2018/09/world-ballet-day-2-october-2018-an-insight-into-what-the-royal-ballet-will-be-doing/ Finally I also include a link at the top of the piece to this thread - because it gives a good idea of the breadth of what is happening on the day and the great difficulty in getting a hold on it all - especially with time zone complications. But do keep adding folks...

Matthew Ball’s taxi ride to Royal Ballet history https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matthew-ball-s-taxi-ride-to-royal-ballet-history-wv529vvz6 "Mr O’Hare noted that Ball was young to be elevated to principal but said his “innate artistry”, “love of every role” and “development of technique” had convinced him. Not to mention coping with the “highly pressurised” late call-up in Giselle."

Thank you! The forum is a great institution and long may it flourish and nourish!

Sorry for being late to this. It's appalling when people abuse those who provide a free and friendly service that nobody is forced to use. Until you run a forum you have no idea just how troubled some people can be. I remember way back in my time one of my writers got a serious death threat - it followed much other abuse. And my email still has some redirects that just delete, sight unseen, emails from some abusive addresses. And there was all the crap of checking who was registering for accounts and teasing out the problem folks looking for another way in and many just looking to dump spam all over. It's a big thing looking after a forum and I salute all who do it. And if you really don't like the way it's done then go off and sort out your own forum and run it the way you want to see it done. Don't abuse those who are doing their best, their way and in their time, for a happy and diverse band of ballet lovers.