Quintus

adding an appendix "disreputable DVD sellers" as I'm in a bad mood this morning having had three bad DVD buying experiences in a row this week  :

 1. ordered the ROH version of Manon on eBay; an Aussie TV version in 4:3 turned up   2.  ordered Zakharova's Bayadere from an Amazon marketplace seller 'Marvelio'; rather than the German original pictured, a dodgy Argentinian copy arrives which has picture quality like an old VHS and laser printed artwork - clearly either an illegal fake or some cheapo sub-licensee  3.  ordered Divine Dancers; disc looked OK but vibrated in the player and the picture pixellated. defective and possible a fake.

previous experiences include a terrible fake copy of Zakharova's Giselle (eBay) and a BluRay of Flammes de Paris which ended up costing £13 more than advertised (Priceminister - dispatched from USA rather than France so got clobbered with customs fees, and they used a ridiculous off-market exchange rate).  the Priceminister complaints process was completely useless, so I will never use them again.

on the plus side, I've found Sainsburys Entertainment a good alternative site to Amazon for ballet blurays - their goods are always genuine and the prices are quite often significantly less.  downside is they only have 20 or so titles.

Cigarette smoke within five miles of me

Football

Lamb (as food, not the little pingy things themselves)

Cyclists when I'm driving

Drivers when I'm cycling

Ridiculously noisy motorbikes

Middle aged men in lycra (see cycling points above)

Flytippers ("crucifixion's too g-g-g-good for 'em")

That's encouraging - the news from Egypt recently has sadly tended towards the opposite direction, but it seems there is a degree of popular resistance to this move, which from other reports is backed by the government  (another similar proposal was ending the regular Aida performances)  

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2013/06/01/Egypt-s-Islamist-lawmaker-says-ballet-is-obscene-artists-angry.html

Good idea.  I'll be very interested to see what suggestions are made here - could go the technical bible, or the biography, or the synopsis way, I guess.  I've only ever read one ballet book, which was worthwhile but a 'once only' read - Monica Loughman's The Irish Ballerina, an account of her experiences in the Perm academy.  I've also downloaded 'Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear' but not started it yet.  As a relative newcomer I'd like to find something that helps me understand the moves and techniques better, without being aimed at a six year old actually learning it!

Quintus, would the island equipment include a stereo system? So that we could take CDs for the music of ballets we've been forced to leave out? 

afds, you'll find that a dvd player does also play CDs, and to go with the 65inch TV we can assume a full home cinema surround sound set up  - but I can't guarantee extra CDs would get past the customs crabs, so I think any CD would have to be instead of a DVD       

You'll all be sensing that I'm not trying to make this any less of a sacrifice.....

polite note to hfbrew from the Desert Island Health & Safety Executive; please do not leave your 5 DVDs strewn all over the beach as this constitutes a trip hazard

oh dear, we've slipped from the entirely plausible and scientific monkey-powered home cinema into the realms of fantasy..  in that case, so as not to be greedy, I'll settle for being marooned with Polina Semionova 

That 'extra extreme stretching class' her mum referred to at the end clearly paid off!

OK, now we've all stretched and warmed up, here's a much more difficult one......  Last year I took the family to a rare local performance of Swan Lake (usually the only culture we get round our parts is growing on the leftovers at MacDonalds).  It was a pretty poor performance in many ways by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia, but the audience was not critical and was well behaved and enjoying it.  Now the ethical conundrum focuses around one member of the audience, seated on one side near the front, who was suffering from some medical condition that meant he could not control himself from shouting out noises every few minutes, and also breaking into applause.  These shouts/noises were really extremely loud - they carried right across the theatre and they were occasionally actually making the dancers jump and look.  For anybody seated nearby it would have completely ruined the show. He was clearly aware of and visibly embarrassed by this himself, but had chosen to go regardless.  Now, whose rights take priority - those of the individual who through no fault of their own would otherwise not be able to attend an event they enjoy, or those of the majority who have spent a considerable sum to attend what they expected to be a performance in a quiet environment?

we've been getting a rabbit a day from our Maine coon for the last few weeks - unfortunately it's usually the postman who gets confronted first by the grisly remains..   I've managed to save a few shrews live and well, but he's welcome to the rabbits and gets a big pat for a mole!

phew, moment of panic having shelled out for two events at what seems to be double the usual price, but my chosen leads are still in place..

I think we have to stick to commercially published DVDs, so the rest of us stand a chance of getting hold of them if they inspire us...   And only 5, otherwise there's no challenge -  any attempts to smuggle more on will be foiled by trained crabs.

 I too really enjoyed the Agony & Ecstasy series on TV, and it has found its way onto a dvd-r chez moi via Youtube for safe keeping; I'm surprised they didn't release it as I think there would have been enough buyers.

No-one's come up with Auerbach's The Little Mermaid, which would seem appropriate viewing!

that's a scops owl in our local sanctuary - cute little things, they huddle together and bob up and down..

I've just ordered the RB Manon with Rojo/Acosta, which I've never seen, so that's something to look forward to.  I'd love a Polina Semionova release of that, as I've seen some some great clips of the pdd - she's another one who's a bit underrepresented on disc..

I never realised ballet watchers were such an unruly bunch!     

I was originally going to say 3 DVDs only, but then I couldn't do my own challenge so I went soft!   My other mean wrinkle was the huge TV - many of the older recordings, and YouTube clips, actually look distractingly poor quality on a big screen..

LinMM - There is a remarkable dearth of Diana Vishneva material available, other than isolated pdd etc on compilations.  I did ask on her website and was pointed to a Japanese website that supposedly has a couple of full length performances on locally published discs - but it doesn't work properly when you click the 'in English' button, so that led nowhere.  There was talk however of a DV Romeo and Juliet bluray coming out sometime this year.  I really don't understand why this scarcity should be - she has a huge fan base that would surely buy up any release, so it seems like the production companies are missing a trick..

zxDaveM, for your cheating you are banished for a week to the adjacent island and compelled to watch X-Factor repeats!

Janet - they have to be real, available ones.  I'm afraid you'll have to sit under a palm tree and just imagine your fantasy productions..

and answering my own challenge..

1.  La Fille du Pharaon, Zakharova bluray.   I got this a couple of months ago and it's already a firm favourite.  Zakharova is just gorgeous in it and the quality is superb.

2.  Swan Lake, Lopatkina bluray.  There's no perfect SL recording out there as I like different bits of different productions, but this one is a good all rounder

3.  Caravaggio, Staatsballett Berlin, Semionova/Malakhov, blurry.  A curate's egg with some iffy corps choreography but Polina Semionova and Beatrice Knopp in particular are wonderful and the lighting is fantastic.  

4.  Giselle, hmmm, tough one as I like both the Alina Cojocaru bluray and the Zakharova DVD.  I'll plump for Alina as I already have my Svetlana fix sorted.

5. Chroma/Limen/Infra triple bill ENB bluray - love this one and it has a cast of many familiar faces..

forgive me if there's another thread on top ballet recordings that I've overlooked, but I thought it would be interesting to see what folks' favourites are (not least because I'm always scouting for new gems)..  

So the rules are - on your desert island you have a 65 inch TV and bluray player, with a ready supply of monkeys on treadmills to power them, but you can only choose 5 recordings..

just an addendum to this thread - I found this bill served as a great introduction to ballet for young people with no previous exposure.  I took my son and his girlfriend, who were around 17 and into the wilder fringes of fashion, art and hip hop, with the dismissive certainty about what's cool and what's not that only a teenager can have...  They would frankly not have agreed to come and see a 'tutu ballet', but were absolutely enthralled by Carbon Life in particular - my son afterwards said it was the best thing he'd ever seen.  They've since been to see Swan Lake and enjoyed it (despite a dire production, but that's another story), so I think this really opened up their views on dance. A 'gateway' bill

some very applicable suggestions here from the world of cinema goers!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2010/12/the_moviegoers_code_of_conduct.html

From a relatively passive starting point, my enthusiasm for ballet suddenly took off just a few years ago, prompted by an almost random purchase of the Lopatkina Swan Lake blu-ray.  That blew me away and led me to looking out other interpretations.  The Agony and Ecstasy documentaries got me interested in ENB and delving into their MacMillan and McGregor triple bill recordings, which exposed me to more contemporary work and I wanted to see what they’d missed in  Polina Semionova, so I bought Caravaggio – another jaw drop moment.  I then started going to performances, so far at ENB, ROH and Berlin.  I’ve never danced, but have done a lot of martial arts – principally karate - and I think that was one of the initial ‘hooks’ for me that I could relate to; a huge respect for the technical proficiency, stamina and dedication, which was then overlaid with a growing appreciation of the grace and artistry.  In karate, you have to be strong and flexible (and to an extent interpretive in kata) but you don’t have to look effortless

No, these weren't kids, they were middle aged women, speaking a Slavic language - suspect they were tourists and were cramming in the ballet to a busy schedule 'doing London'.  I haven't to date had bad experiences with kids.  The best behaved audience on the other hand was in the Linbury studio for Wayne McGregor's Random Dance triple bill last year - not mainstream fare and seemed to attract quite a young audience (I mean young adults, not kids) who were very positive and respectful. That was a nice atmosphere.

Hello all, I'm new here, glad to have come across this forum.   I did have a rather fraught Nutcracker at the Coliseum a couple of years ago. I was pleased to find the two seats next to me empty - sadly the occupants appeared for Act 2 and munched rice crackers all the way through, then got up as soon as the curtain first fell and barged their way out.  Meanwhile, the dear old man behind me was humming along to all the most familiar passages and giving an appreciative running commentary on the costumes and scenery!