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Quintus

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  1. Quintus
    Katie Boulter got us through to the final 16, for the first time in an age. I'm pleased with this pic - she doesn't photograph well, not least because of that wretched visor that shadows her face in almost every shot
  2. Quintus
    An extraordinarily noisy Fed Cup yesterday in the Copperbox Arena as the Kazakh drummers and trumpeters were out in force! My 'discovery' was Yulia Putintseva, who I'd not come across before and how is very entertaining - a little powerhouse who wears her heart on her face! I'll be cheering for her over Konta this afternoon. Here are a few pics..
  3. Quintus
    Indeed, or possibly comfort turning into rejection - for anyone unfamiliar with Frida's work this scene, with the jacket and the skeletons holding her detached braids, is a direct reference to her painting here. Similarly the miscarriage scene with the red ribbons refers to this henry ford hospital painting, and there are of course many other references - the Wounded Deer, the Broken Column, and many others. Her work can be very dark, so even the fluttering bird at her death also evokes that in the grisly 'A Few Small Nips'. I wish this were on DVD so I could sit and spot them all at leisure!
  4. Quintus
    Great evening tonight. I've seen BW and RoS a few times over their two runs and enjoyed every cast. Of the Fridas I've seen, I think Tamara Rojo best captures the pain, and Begoña the joy - but Katja Khaniukova gave a well balanced performance tonight. In the Bausch, Precious Adams threw herself into the Chosen One role tonight and was very powerful. For me in Rite of Spring however, even when as tonight she is not the Chosen One, Francesca Velicu is on another level and simply owns the stage - she really seems to become the character rather than play it, and I couldn't take my eyes off her. It's an absolutely gut-wrenching work, a real masterpiece. As for Nora, not knowing the play, I had little idea what was going on, but aside a few McGregoresque arm-whirls I enjoyed the choreography and thought Stina had put together a visually appealing piece.
  5. Quintus
    I think it was on a tennis forum, Fonty - I was just googling around RG outside courts to see how they 'work'. We'll play it by ear; get in early to get a good first match but then plan to wander around - a friend happens to be there the same day, on one of the big courts, so we need to catch up with her in any case. I enjoy taking action photos and certainly at Wimbledon I've got the best shots by wandering round the smallest, least popular courts, so I hope RG is similar. Having said that, I also see they limit you to a 20cm lens, which knocks out my favourite combo!
  6. Quintus
    Roland Garros ticket sales just opened. We got a pair of unreserved outside court tickets, but I now see online advice that once there, you need to secure your seat early then plan on sticking in it the whole day as big queues build up. We were assuming it was like Wimbledon, where going from court to court is not a problem. Has anyone else had this kind of RG ticket before?
  7. Quintus
    Like a scene from 'Frasier' ! I can just see the Crane brothers in this situation...
  8. Quintus
    I saw it on Saturday, not particularly knowing what to expect. I enjoyed it very much as an engaging and strangely hypnotic spectacle, even if at moments it veered somewhat towards 'soirée folklorique'. I didn't quite fathom the coherence between the 'line bits' and the 'individual bits' or an overall sense of narrative, but then I'm too mean to buy a programme so doubtless all was revealed therein. I felt this was something to sit back and get absorbed into, rather than analyse. Vangelis' music was powerful and atmospheric, and mostly loud enough to drown out the constant audience chatter at the back of the second circle....
  9. Quintus
    By way of contrast to the time it takes the dancers to get out, I'm always amused by the speed at which the orchestra manage to make an exit. I've often managed to be one of the first audience leavers at Sadler's only to find sundry musicians with large instrument cases way ahead of me, legging it up Islington High St at a rate of knots!
  10. Quintus
    Thanks. I took that photo in Norfolk, there's a big seal colony off Blakeney which is well worth a visit if you're ever out that way.
  11. Quintus
    I second Scheherezade's comments. We absolutely loved it last time round and the pairing in April with Rite of Spring, plus a new piece by Stina Quagebeur, makes for a dream programme. The other element I hope makes a reappearance is the amazing Kahlo-themed front cloth by Grayson Perry, a photo of which I still have set as my laptop background. link here
  12. Quintus
    I texted my sister a blurry snap of Prince Charles at Two Pigeons tonight, and she replied "Be careful when you leave, his dad's coming to pick him up"
  13. Quintus
    Thoroughly enjoyed both Cunning Little Vixen and Two Pigeons tonight. Fumi was gorgeous and the pigeons' performance impeckable.
  14. Quintus
    Given the comments above about poor views, are there particular seats we should avoid booking in future?
  15. Quintus
    I've messaged you..
  16. Quintus

    Room 101

    Quintus replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    Yes, if the crossing is empty then cross how you like; this peeve was specifically about busy crossings - where a bunch of pedestrians are trying to cross 'straight' and you get someone cutting through them at an angle...
  17. Quintus

    Jeremy Hardy RIP

    Quintus replied to alison's topic in Not Dance

    Sad for anyone to die so young but I remain ambivalent about how he used his undoubted talent. He was extremely and spontaneously witty on non-political topics, but I found his extreme left political rants very heavy-handed with little humour to disguise the lecturing, and an annoying way of delivery that stated very controversial views as unarguable fact. I have only ever been moved to write one complaint to the BBC in my life, and that was about how his lengthy News Quiz monologues were effectively becoming straightforward Labour party political broadcasts, breaching the BBC requirement for political balance. Perhaps that was ultimately the fault of the editors rather than him. When he bounced off other panel members on neutral topics, he was hilarious.
  18. Quintus

    Room 101

    Quintus replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    I am directing to Room 101 anyone who walks diagonally across a busy pedestrian crossing, instead of walking straight then turning on the path. They get to save themselves two or three steps on the other side by adopting the 'hypotenuse', but get in the way of everyone else and potentially cause trips along the way - had this twice this morning on packed 'beat the count-down' crossings in London! I'd happily train these miscreants using a pair of pig-boards...
  19. Quintus
    Excellent, timed just right for my birthday! On casting, Stina Quagebeur was the essential for me - I saw a few performances of this and she was the standout.
  20. Quintus
    I suspect that the arrival of social media has had some impact on 'stage door'. Most dancers maintain Instagram pages and many actively engage with comments on there - which gives the audience a way of paying respects that the dancer can deal with in their own time. It can also be easier for certain demographics of spectator - I'll sometimes compliment a performance online, but as a man I'd feel distinctly creepy turning up at the stage door.
  21. Quintus
    Sad to hear this, had swapped DMs with John about photography and will miss his pictures.
  22. Quintus
    A streaming release rather than a disc: 'Driven to Dance' is now on Netflix. It's a film vehicle for Juliet Doherty, with a basic storyline of 'girl with no support from broken family fights on to audition for a ballet company'. Frankly the script and acting are both absolutely awful, but for hardcore JD fans there are some dance sequences. One to fast forward through..
  23. Quintus
    ....or, I'm now thinking, a contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet. Young, impressionable Joan Macron fall in love with Gilles Martin, a trainee truck driver. Their families clash on the tear-gas choked streets of Paris. I give you... 'Gilles et Joan'.
  24. Quintus
    It’s awful, though opportunistic AD might have quickly dusted off Les Flammes de Paris.... ;)
  25. Quintus
    I've been to a couple of daytime events in the Floral Hall recently - one of the Month of Sundays mornings and today the Ballet Studio Live:Class, and I thought both were well run events and a good use of the space to generate additional revenue. Today apparently sold out quite early, and seems set to become a regular feature. Today's dancers were mostly from the Aub Jebsen programme , which I hadn't been aware of before. Several were quite impressive, so fingers crossed for them getting full contracts in due course. Taisuko Nakao had some serious height in his jumps, and of the girls Katherina Nikelski and Yu Hang looked very neat and accomplished, while Lania Atkins was also both graceful and striking. More of this kind of thing!
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