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Quintus

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  1. Quintus
    and the lack of amusingly misshapen vegetables has consequently killed off the Esther Rantzen show
  2. Quintus
    Ha ha yes, there was a major 'awww' factor
  3. Quintus
    Was that the last song, Dave? That was a real heart wrencher.. I saw one of the dancers in the lobby with I presume her mother, in floods of tears. Clearly a painful time for the company, so all the more credit for getting through the earlier upbeat parts of the performance with such control
  4. Quintus
    I saw this last night and understand it is a production that has toured before. I booked without any particular expectations, but the idea sounded intriguing: Cerys Matthews, whose early career I'm familiar with, singing revived traditional Welsh songs accompanied by Ballet Cymru, with whom I was not at all familiar. Fair to say if I'd seen advertised an evening of Welsh songs by Mifanwy Pugh and with no dancing, I'd not have leapt at the chance. Well, what a delight it proved to be! The first two pieces were unaccompanied by singing, but the very youthful and passionate company were very engaging - not the polish of a big company but still very impressive and with bags of warmth and charm. The final section saw Cerys on one side of the stage with her guitar, and the dancers reflecting a variety of moods in the accompanying choreography, but typically very uplifting - broad smiles across the audience. The latter mood changed with a final tribute to a company member who had died a few weeks ago. Cerys' singing was emotionally very powerful and a couple of the dancers could not hold back the tears. Quite a few people in the audience were sniffing and dabbing too and I must admit things got a bit blurry at one point .. So this was an evening that opened my eyes both to a new genre of music, and to a young company that I will make a point of seeking out in future. Did anyone else go?
  5. Quintus
    I saw it a couple of months ago when it premiered in Ipswich. Broken Fall and Piece Number 43 both had a really big impact for us, and drew some gasps of admiration from the audience. The piece I was somewhat underwhelmed by was that for Dana Fouras - the choreography was largely waving arms and the backlighting effects only worked for those bang in the middle of the auditorium (which was where Russell Maliphant was sitting), otherwise the misalignment of backlight and dancer if you were sitting to one side meant getting a full beam in the eyes. Other two pieces more than compensated though and I'd certainly recommend getting tickets..... in the middle of the auditorium.
  6. Quintus
    they have to be objective attributes then, even if they aren't ideal or if it's unclear which end of the spectrum is 'best'. here's a more cynical take . leg length ground clearance in a grand jete brilliance of smile measured in lux fee commanded number of guest artist contracts held simultaneously
  7. Quintus
    I saw Two Pigeons from centre block of row R in the Amphi and thought the view was very good. The rake is enough that you could get away with a pretty tall person in front without being blocked. I had binoculars for the detail but found the overall view without them was much better than I expected. Only drawback is no armrests, so you are more exposed to being sandwiched between two 'laterally challenged' neighbours
  8. Quintus
    Is this going to spawn a heated sub-thread of allegations about diva-like behaviour on the part of the star pigeon, refusal to perform with the proposed partner etc?
  9. Quintus
    I hadn't seen either before last night and had plumped for a cheap seat in the Amphi which proved to have a surprisingly good view ... and no neighbours! I thought Monotones was a joy, despite the attendance of the local tuberculosis ward. Pigeons - agree with ZXDave about the gypsies, but overall this had a great upbeat atmosphere, with lots of genuine laughter, and I thought Steven, Iana and Fumi were all excellent and very well suited to their respective roles. Steven has also been using my distant iPhone picture of the curtain call on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook - think I deserve being comped a ticket in return p.s. I just noticed when googling 'two pigeons reviews' that after the Telegraph results there is one for 'Pigeon Control Product Reviews' Thankfully not needed last night!
  10. Quintus
    everyone's got the gist but leaving aside the skinning of cats and frying of fish, I've translated the important sentence below non vuole ballare con lo scaligero Claudio Coviello. Ha proposto di sostituirlo con Sergei Polunin (che tra l'altro è il suo fidanzato), ma per il teatro si tratterebbe di pagare un'altra étoile ospite. Nulla ancora è deciso, se salterà lei o Coviello. she does not want to dance with the Scala dancer Claudio Coviello. She has proposed to substitute Sergei Polunin (who inter alia is her fiancé) for him, but for the theatre this would mean paying another guest star. nothing is yet decided as to whether she or Coviello will dance
  11. Quintus
    Looking forward to this tomorrow, though I must admit the first thing that the Monotones costumes brought to mind was Woody Allen's 'Everything you wanted to know about sex'. If you know the film you'll know the scene..
  12. Quintus
    Great evening in the Stratford Vue -had the front half of the cinema to myself! Liked the energy of Viscera, loved Lamb and Muntagirov in Faun (and those two have similar high cheekbones and wide set eyes, hadn't seen them together before). Admired the technical virtuosity of Iana and McRae but they were a bit too 'lips and teeth dahling, lips and teeth' in manner. Carmen was a mixed bag with more than a hint of Spinal Tap that made me chuckle a few times, but the love showered on Carlos at the end was heart warming.
  13. Quintus
    Alison - not sure, I only picked up on the whole live streaming thing when the RB Giselle was advertised. Have to say half the local population probably sees ballet as haram, so it's perhaps not the most promising demographic. Hope they don't just give up on it due to low sales; I quite enjoy having a near private showing!
  14. Quintus
    I'll be watching at the cinema tonight. Last time there were about 12 of us altogether in the Stratford Westfield Vue and that was for Osipova in Giselle, so it will interesting to see what the relative attendance is tonight!
  15. Quintus
    I'd offer Gary a lift on my own weekly commute from Suffolk but I don't want owl feathers all over the car...
  16. Quintus
    I agree, there are those who come across quite down to earth and engaged with everyday life, and some who are more aloof or 'managed'. Sometimes other characteristics or talents emerge that make them worth following irrespective of the ballet connection - Maria Kochetkova for example is very quirky and frequently very amusing on Instagram, and Mathilde Froustey posts absolutely superb travel photos (from a Hasselblad, no less).
  17. Quintus
    What are members' views/experiences on the use of social media by ballet companies and artists? I was prompted to post this having last night gone onto a new platform called Periscope, which hangs off the Twitter user base, and ended up having a direct Q&A session with Iana Salenko, which was excellent - in effect she was talking live to camera in her hotel room somewhere, and users typing in questions for her, which she then read out and answered. It was a great engagement, well at least once she'd filtered out the wackos. Iana I think is having an orchestrated campaign to up her profile as she is very active on multiple platforms. On Instagram there are quite a few RB and ENB dancers who post interesting pictures of their tours, rehearsals etc, but there are also a few from US companies who seem to make a few bucks on the side posing in skimpy sportswear which I suspect are aimed at a different audience... I look occasionally at Twitter, which feels more corporate and PR-ed; but useful as a place to pick up Tamara's latest thoughts. Facebook is a mixed bag - on the one hand there are quite a few Russian dancers who run personal pages and react to comments, on the other there are some very dodgy ballet enthusiast groups where I've ended up unsubscribing because of the photos they post. Mixed bag then but overall positive for me.
  18. Quintus
    We really enjoyed this as an overall spectacle. Did anyone else see it?
  19. Quintus
    I'm going with my wife tomorrow straight from work - I suspect I may be undercostumed compared to most of the audience. Perhaps I should define my look as 'businesscore'.
  20. Quintus
    *their. Aaaagh, autocorrect winds me up.
  21. Quintus
    At Modern Moves last night, as soon as the interval lights came up, the usher came and asked someone in the front row to delete photos from there camera. The audience watched in fascination. It was one of those events where we weren't sure whether this was actually part of the performance..... Of course these days the photos just stay in your trash folder to be recovered, so the offender still won out.
  22. Quintus
    We went to a Dance Umbrella event last night - Modern Moves at the Barbican. Have to say that when the interval came, the temptation of being able to drive home outweighed the temptation of watching the third dance. I love traditional Indian dancing, and know that this was contemporary but assumed there would be elements still used. There was a tantalising 10 seconds of classical dancing which was danced ironically and dismissed. I'd happily have sat though a couple of hours of that instead of what we got. Low points were two blokes in their undies putting shoes on their heads, and the female dancer spitting into her hand then letting the saliva slowly ooze back into her mouth. Someone please tell me where I can see some proper kathak??
  23. Quintus
    I saw it last night. I hadn't seen Raven Girl before and found it mostly enjoyable. The final pdd was wonderful, and the scene where she gets her wings was also striking. There were a few weak passages, like the scene while she is being transformed where the stage is full of pairs of dancers just, well, doing stuff. Not sure I'd rush to see it again but I don't regret going. I really enjoyed Connectome. Sarah Lamb was a good fit to the role and was a delight to watch. I'd seen an extract of this before as part of the Russian Masters bill and remember Natalia Osipova launching herself at her partner like a cruise missile. SL is less 'robustly committed' in her style but the slight coldness I find in her was actually well suited to this piece. The music is fabulous, particularly the first piece from Fratres
  24. Quintus

    Room 101

    Quintus replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    The mole which has resisted my trapping attempts for two months now and reduced the paddock to something resembling the Somme. I suspect that by successfully trapping a dozen or so of its dimmer predecessors I have unwittingly accelerated natural selection and produced a Supermole with an IQ of 170.
  25. Quintus
    I've seen Connectome before and enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing Raven Girl for the first time; I won't recognise changes but it will be interesting to see if the initial lacklustre reception has prompted them.. I went to a Russell Maliphant premiere at the weekend, and while one piece (not a premiere) was superb, the new work looked to me as if it would have benefited from some direct feedback during conception. Choreographers seem to get much freer rein than say film directors, and would often benefit from a degree of forced editing.
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