trog

I hope the program is not a one off special. I say that as it contains the ballets that are being performed at Sadlers Wells, not just the ones on the regular BRB schedule.

As to the ballets, I went on Friday night and we were treated to Brandon and Celine, not once (which would be heaven) but twice (really on cloud nine). They danced the first movement of Concerto and in Elite Syncopations. Brilliant in both cases. I had also seen Brandon with Delia the weekend before doing the grand pdd from Nutcracker. I feel really blessed. I would also like to mention Maureya as the Ram - she definitely turned it up to 11.

More on this on the BRB website https://www.brb.org.uk/post/birmingham-weekender-we-came-we-saw-we-mobbed

I found this on the BRB website the other day and tried it out. It is very cool!

Bring our animals to life with Augmented Reality!

If you've got a iOS and Android device, go the page above and download the zappar app from the link on the page (it's free).

Find a poster or open the page on your PC, and scan the blue circular code. Enjoy! I'm local to Dudley Zoo, so I'll have to make time to pop along!

If you haven't got a mobile device, there is a video on teh page which shows what happens.

Well what can you say? Brandon and Delia will wonderful as always and Ruth's Brill's opener had a few people joining in. This is the only video that I can find and sadly the start isn't there.

Some pictures are here https://twitter.com/BhamWeekender

Not a baby ballerina, but Natalia Makarova was one. From what I remember from her autobiography, she defected while guesting with the RB (dancing with Nureyev) but the RB management didn't want to push out Fonteyn, who was well past her prime at this stage. Still RB's loss was ABT's gain.

The best free resource that I know of is Brad Appleton's Stretching FAQ - this has been quoted in several books, including Stretching Without Pain by Paul Blakey.

I also like the Sleek Technique DVD, especially the parts on flexibility. I've seen an improvement in my flexibility, although I'm far too old to reach the splits.

On 26/08/2017 at 17:18, Picturesinthefirelight said:

For example an arabesque performed at 90 degrees but with properly aligned hips, no fishing or sickling etc etc is better technique than one where the leg is higher but the body is out of kilter. 

Or 45 if, like me, you can't get to 90!

I would love to see the London show but the last train to Birmingham leaves at 9:00pm. What use is that?

George C - I didn't like The Light Princess, but I would see it again as I like the company and as you said, they need support. I'be been watching them for over 20 years and in all that time, they have only staged two ballets that I didn't like.

I work in a sixth form college and we have to have training in this. LGBTIQ is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning. Intersex is somebody with characteristics of both sexes. As far as I understand it, Questioning is a Christian person who says they are something that their religion says is wrong.  Missing however is Asexual. I questioned this in the last training session and I did not receive a suitable answer. Be prepared for more letters to be added to this - excluded are Gay & Lesbian Muslims and others.

Where I work, if I'm address a group of female students, I say "girls" and for a group of male students, I say "boys". For a mixed group, I am very imaginative - "girls and boys".

I think Nicholson School of Dance offer private tuition. Really gorgeous studios too! I really miss going there.

Perhaps an idea for a problematic corps? In any case, the robots are cute and a couple fall over, so even they aren't infallible.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/robots-dancing-china-world-record

I've seen Ballet Cymru's Roald Dahl’s Red Riding Hood & The Three Little Pigs and the children in the audience have a great time - they especially like the fart jokes. The ballets in this program as short so children stand a chance of sitting without getting too fidgetty. If you see these, you have to be prepared for a noisy audience.

I've also heard children say that they liked BRB's Beauty and the Beast. It's a bit dark and scarey which they like.

£18 at the MAC in Birmingham. I assume the Bolshoi will still be £12-15 at my local Showcase.

If you edit the message and click on the image, you can drag the "handles" on the image to make it the desired size

They've done it before back in 2015 https://www.brb.org.uk/flash-flock and good fun it was too!

Here's the link from Flash Flock on Ruth Brill's site http://ruthbrill.com/?work=flash-flock

The round avatars have messed up my rectangular avatar. The same thing happened on another forum that I sometimes post too. I've had to make a new one with a white border.

Grade 1 is easy - you ask audience members a question like "Who is your favourite dancer?" and if they answer Fonteyn/Nureyev/Bussell etc, it's obvious that these are the only dancers they have heard of and they are barred

I've been an RPG, COBOL, BASIC and Assembler programmer over the years. These days I do sysadmin on Windows and Linux boxes, and a bit of web development in Perl, PHP and HTML. Rubbish salary but the work is easy - I work in a six form college.

Ploughing the legacy furrow has seen me nearly always in work for the last 35 years,

I sincerely hope that no ballet venue follows the RSC

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4741276/Royal-Shakespeare-Company-encourages-audience-talk.html

A true legend of the silver screen has sadly passed away.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/movies/french-cinema-star-jeanne-moreau-dies-aged-89/news-story/e9eac9c5512ccbedbedef1f0e14f7890

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40774985

I take ballet class regularly and I also lift weights regularly. I've been lifting weights for 30 year, and I'm a qualified gym instructor, so I vaguely know what I'm doing. What works for me probably won't work for you but here goes.

I used to squat 85kgs on the bar - it didn't really have any affect on my ballet, but I I cut back to 30kgs on the bar as my knees didn't like the heavier weight. With the heavy weight I did the classic squat; with the lighter weight the Hindu squat, where your bum touches your heels and you feet are flat on the ground. My knees hurt less in ballet class and my plies are a bit deeper.

My ankles have never been the best - I often sprained them as a teenager roller skating. Over the last year, as part of the lighter squat, I've added a rise to tip toes with the 30kgs bar and lower with resistance. So the full rep is rise, lower, squat and back to stand. I managed to break one of my big toes doing this, but it's all better now. Pirouettes are more stable and I'm getting more good ones (well good for me - they are still rubbish).

I think the most useful gym work has been skipping. I used to love running on the treadmill. I would never run outside - too many dogs/pedestrians/cars/obstacles, etc - looking where you are going is a drag. On the treadmill, it was brain out and go for it, aimlessly looking out of the window until an hour and 12kms later, it was all done. My knees started to say "no!" but I didn't want to lose my aerobic fitness. I figured if skipping was good enough for boxes, it was good enough for me. I do 3 to 4 minute bursts between sets of weights. The result has been faster feet, especially on frappe and jumps are easier.

I've always concentrated on shoulders and arms in my gym work. Before I started ballet, cycling kept my legs in shape.

I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV, but your painful toe sounds like mine was earlier in the year. When I visited the doctor, she told me it was broken. It seems it has been broken for a couple of weeks. It was a bit twingey, but I didn't think anything of it. I'm 60 and suffer a lot of twinges, so I just put it down to one more. During petit allegro, it really hurt and I had to leave class early. I probably broke it in the gym, doing rises with a 30kg barbell on my shoulders. Anyway, it's all fine now and I'm back doing class and weighted rises are just fine.

10 hours ago, alison said:

 

I know how tough it is to be a perfectionist, but as you get older you tend to realise that things can't always be perfect, and "good enough" may have to do at times.

Yep! I always strive to perfection, but I know that there are ballet steps that I'll never be able to do, and what I can do is rather rubbish. I enjoy dancing and that is all I really want.

I've found Esme very good for custom made dancewear.

Darius James presents yet another original work; it is always excellent to see new ballets. I saw it presented in the round at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme. This didn't hinder the viewing in any way.

Unfortunately it is not one of his better pieces. The story is too thin and if you haven't read your program, you would wonder what is going on, even though there are inter-titles at the start of act one. These titles, in English and then Welsh, disappear almost as quickly as they appear, and are impossible to read.

As far as the story goes, a king and queen have a new baby and forget to invite the three older siblings to the Christening. Three witches curse the baby, stealing her gravity and the baby nearly floats away. Later, the princess is 19 and her attendants prevent her from floating away with ribbons. It all gets a bit random then, with the princess falling out of a boat and nearly drowning in the lake. She meets a prince, falls in love and the curse is broken (I think).

Combining ballet and some simple trapeze, the dancers do their best with the rather boring choreography. To me it appears as a series of pdds for no apparent reason. There are some quite good pieces; I liked the parade in act two and the witches were a highlight, although this was more gymnastics than ballet.

If you like you ballet imagery subtle, then this isn't for you. I found the boating scene almost laughable and much of the characters either annoying or confusing.

I last saw the company in September and half of the 11 strong company are new dancers. Perhaps they haven't quite gelled yet? Perhaps the work is just poor? I will find out on Sunday as I am seeing them again in their brilliant Midsummer Nights Dream. Always a delight this and it will be interesting to see how the new dancers handle this.

For me the real highlight of this ballet was the superb score by Catrin Finch. If you like harp music and I very much do, then this is for you. I don't know if Finch herself is playing on the score. I would very much like to own a copy on CD.

I've heard off and indeed been told to not let my feet be like dead kippers, but I've never heard of kebab back. Why a dead kipper? I thought that all kippers were dead.