Quintus

Interestingly we have converse journeys - I got into ballet from karate... and having no dance background I found the hardest part of the latter was memorizing the kata. I also recognize that same focus on perfect technique, and the first time I saw 'class' relayed from the ROH, it reminded me of the structure of a karate class, progressing from individual techniques repeated for muscle memory through to combinations/sequences. Not sure what the ballet equivalent of semi contact sparring is though!

excellent, thanks for posting that Janet - I've always wanted to see Maria Kochetkova as Juliet, and as she doesn't seem to tour here much, this is probably as close as I'll get!

the Nytimes article about Abramov and his claque which is linked on the Clapping thread is very interesting indeed - I knew of claques historically but had no idea this was still a practice. It must only work if done very subtly however; if the artist's aspiration is to impress their director by the volume of applause they generate and hence get more castings/promotion, then it's surely going to be counterproductive if their applause is evidently claque-led!

As an ENB Friend I went to one of their dancer insights evenings where in Q&A the pair of soloists were saying how Tamara turns up daily long before anyone else to do extra personal practice - she is phenomenally driven. They said they were very enthused both by her clear vision and her personal energy, and how the company felt like a different place since her arrival - albeit much harder work for all! When she does eventually wind down the dancing, I hope we see more of Tamara on TV and on cinema streamings as a presenter; she is both very passionate and very articulate.

Well if the ROH is willing to fund a claqueur, sign me up

I disagree with the logic of that assertion. I could watch a clip of Gone With the Wind on my mobile phone and conclude that it has strong cinematic properties. It is clearly designed to exploit the visual scale of a cinema screen. Conversely I don't have to wait for Crimewatch to be shown in a cinema to conclude that it is televisual rather than cinematic. This documentary makes very little use of the screen 'real estate' available in large format; it does however make heavy use of 'talking heads', a classic TV approach. Some of the content is interesting - someone deeply interested in the management politics at the Bolshoi would find it fascinating, and there is some revealing insight into the degree to which the Bolshoi is entrenched in the fabric of Russian society. My point was that it does not need a cinema, and the associated cost, to do what it is trying to do.

Just watched it on Vimeo. I'm surprised it has a cinema release - it is a straightforward TV documentary with no cinematic qualities whatsoever. I wouldn't buy the dvd either - it's not something you'd watch more than once. - I'd advise waiting for the BBC showing. Some interesting moments but overall rather disappointing and drawn out. I was impressed however by the audience member who has been going almost every night for years!

when I did the RoH tour the guide said when the younger Royals attend 'on their own account' they don't use it anyway as as the view is so restricted!

Shame. I'd chosen the 16th specifically to see Alina; Tamara is of course a great substitute but I was particularly looking forward to seeing Alina having watched the DVD.

Canny in fashion deals she may be, but I suspect they booked the Royal Box because Posh considers herself royalty, and indeed above the norms of behaviour. I was disappointed that Iana Salenko republished the photo on social media, all excited about them being there. I just don't get the cult around these people. I remember fondly the Ali G 'interview' with them where he asked whether their son wanted to grow up 'to be a footballer, like his dad, or a singer, like..............Mariah Carey'

They must have changed their pricing - I saw them do Swan Lake about 3 years ago in Ipswich and the tickets were around £25; I'd baulk at more than that for them. I remember Odette/Odile being good, indeed in a different league to the rest, who were very young and of variable capability. Siegfried was a particularly puny youth and the corps had an unusually wide range of heights, which gave a rather ragged impression. To be fair the stage in Ipswich is very small, which must have posed challenges. I had the idea that they are effectively a school which tours rather than a fully professional company?

That picture really, really irritated me too! Is she a complete fool or just horribly arrogant?

And how about cries of approval; what's the forum-approved form these days? A clearly enunciated 'brava' or 'bravo' sounds rather mannered, whereas the incoherent bellow is better suited to football. My son was most amused when I took him to Osipova and Vasiliev's DQ, and a middle aged chap near us was almost apoplectic in his enthusiasm for Natalia, repeatedly roaring 'raaaaaagh!' like Boris Johnson charging a Japanese schoolboy.

Yes that was his name. He wasn't catastrophic, just rather pointless; he brought nothing to it other than an ability to read an autocue. He also referred to 'Laura Cuthbertson' at one point, which suggested all of 5 minutes preparation.

That's indicative of the forum membership, not necessarily the wider public. I have the feeling that there are generally far more posts on here about RB than ENB, which could be for a number of reasons - perhaps for example several core members are members/friends of RB so naturally see more of their performances.

Although if you're artistic director you can make your own rules up...tomorrow I'm seeing the ENB with Tamara Rojo as Clara. Now without wanting to be ungallant, and as a huge fan of TR, that is by now also quite an intriguing age stretch!

Or a ballet about the traumatic and scarring humiliation of turning up for games at school without your PE kit, and the teacher making you do it in your vest and pants. Oh, no, sorry, Wayne's already done that one

Saw it in the Stratford Vue last night. I'm always a bit disengaged for the first 15 mins or so of Nutcracker, but then it gets going.. I thought there were plenty of great performances - for me Frankie Hayward was an excellent Clara; she is naturally fresh faced and beautiful and can play 'young' convincingly. Lauren, Yasmine, Gary, all really great. I do find the make up of the Chinese dancers a dubious element - it's odd that racist 'yellowface' stereotypes have persisted long after 'blackface' became unacceptable. Imagine swapping them out for black and white minstrels and you'll see what I mean. Keep the dance but tone down the makeup and costumes.. Only other niggle about the cinema streaming was the presenters. I still find Darcey wooden and amateurish (though at least this time I didn't see 'say thank you' written on her cue card). The other guy is a sports presenter on BBC's ultra dumbed-down Morning show. He fluffed people's names and added zero value. Surely there must be plenty of male ex dancers who have a bit of charisma and credibility...

'batsman', 'run', 'dismissed'....this one could really spiral....

whoops, just noticed the Nureyev dvd has been mentioned in another thread, mea culpa for not searching....

This came out sometime in 2015 but I've only recently noticed and bought it - the 'Nureyev and Friends - a gala tribute' dvd. It's sensibly priced and well worth getting. A couple of nice Tamara pieces, but for me the absolute star of this release is Evegenia Obraztsova, with pdds from Bayadere and Sleeping Beauty where she is just gorgeous. No showiness, just beautifully expressive and liquid movement.

depending where it's playing you might want to have an alternative ending to hand, and a stage large enough to accommodate 72 houris all doing 72 fouettes. Now if that doesn't bring the house down..

I've caught up on this series bar one episode... It's amusing enough as it has the shock and shlock dialled up to 11; incest, strippers, violence, drugs, mafia, human trafficking. Maybe I should ask about these things at the next ENB Friends evening as I've clearly been missing out in my ballet experience! Nice to see Irina Dvorovenko, though to be honest I'd rather she'd kept her top on. I'm waiting to see in the last episode whether Sarah Hay is called upon to register an expression other than 'anguished'.

The EU Referendum would be an opportunity, but perhaps more for the Hokey Cokey - in/out, in/out etc More seriously, I dimly recall a documentary some time ago called 'The Last Ballerina in Iraq' , about a handful of kids sneaking into a tiny dance school in Baghdad despite the increasing abuse and threats along the way. I believe the lead girl has since been able to get out to the US or Canada. Now that seems like a pretty topical and relevant story - cultural change, repression, persecution, dedication, escape - which would lend itself very well to staging

Thanks - you're right, I since saw a blog entry that also mentioned it. I did loiter for a while with the intention of buying a copy of Tir from Cerys but had to leave before she surfaced; so this track would have been on a different CD in any case.