BristolBillyBob

She didn't go into specifics, actually. It's only her second ballet - I took her to see one that I thought was awful before but she seemed to enjoy it all the same - so maybe she didn't feel confident in picking anything out. She might have also been being polite as it was my birthday present for her. I'll ask her and report back!

This was a joke, by the way. I just suddenly had a paranoia attack. Tell you what, though, I do have the urge to watch the Baz Luhrmann movie again after seeing this production! Speaking of which, I think a ballet version of his Moulin Rouge would be terrific. But that's for another thread.

Right, non-ranty review time. I'd booked my tickets to this the minute I heard about Daria's retirement. I didn't want to miss seeing her after all the lovely comments I read about her on here and after thoroughly enjoying her autobiography. So Sunday was to be my first and last time seeing her dance. And because it was my mum's birthday, she was my guest and ballet buddy for the day! This production, a classical ballet re-imagining of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 original hit movie Romeo + Juliet starring Clare Danes and a young Leonardo Di Caprio, was (issues of previous rant aside) a jolly good production, with real drama. It was also, according to my mum, "the best thing she'd ever seen". The sight lines issue in act one affected my enjoyment a lot, and it wasn't until act two that I really settled into the show. Having said that, there was a lot to like before the first interval. The orchestra played beautifully and the staging of the ballroom scene did seem spectacular (although I bet it was more impressive from higher up), with its moody lighting changes and dark, broody costumes. Daria's inhabitance of the role was sublime. The way she, as a 42 year old dancer literally on the brink of retirement, brought to life the teenage Juliet was amazing. I've often read about how the fireworks of technique might fade ever so slightly with age, but they are more than compensated by the maturity of the acting, and this was the clearest example of this I've ever seen. Brilliant. Her scenes with Paris were sweetly entertaining. Anton Lukovkin was terrific as Mercutio, with a real swagger and cheekiness to his dancing. He really seemed to be enjoying himself! Mercutio's death scene though was almost comedic in its length. Honestly, it makes Giselle's demise seem positively instantaneous. The production's greatest moments, though, were predictably enough, the PDDs between the title characters. The balcony scene was amazing, and the chemistry between Vadim and Daria was writ large for all to see. And if there was an award for 'Most Devastating Forlorn Look Offstage Of The Year', Nancy Osbaldeston, previously a shoe-in for the title for her performance in Stina Quagebeur's Vera, would have serious competition. Honestly, I couldn't take my eyes off her, no matter how hard I tried. Simply heartbreaking. It's one of the strengths of Deane's choreography, the way he uses stillness to brutal effect, and Klimentova takes full advantage. When I booked the tickets, I knew that even if the ballet was hopeless, it would be worth it for the curtain call, and it proved to be. She broke into tears clutching Vadim right as the as audience rose to their feet, an appreciation of the last 18 years with the company. Only having seen her dance once, I can only imagine how moving it must have been for those who've spent the best part of two decades enjoying her performances! I wish her all the best in her future endeavours. With careers ending, though, I think it's only right to mention careers that are still largely beginning. A fair part of my applause was for Nancy Osbaldeston, who is without question my favourite dancer (I might have mentioned this before!). I wish her all the best in RBF, and I hope we'll get her back to the motherland before too long. Hopefully I'll be in a theatre somewhere, twenty years hence, celebrating her own glittering twenty-year career.

I don't really want to sour my review too much of what was ultimately a jolly nice afternoon at the ballet with my rant about sight lines, so I'm going to split them out into separate posts. If you just want mostly the positives, by all means skip this. If, on the other hand, you'd prefer to hear a thirty-five year old man have a tantrum, then you're in the right place. I was in the second row of the stalls for this, right by the centre aisle, and paid top whack for the seats. I'm in two minds whether to write to ENB to have a bit of a whinge, because in a few scenes they must have been the worst seats in the house. Most of act one was completely ruined by cast members just milling around the outside of the stage as if out for a Sunday stroll. I don't really know why they were there, because they didn't really add much. Derek Deane must have planned them as a kind of 'moving' scenery. He also must have been conscious that they would block the view of anyone in the lower stalls, because he kept them moving, pausing for a few seconds before sauntering off. However, this meant that I simply couldn't see anything that was going on during a lot of the first act, including pivotal moments. Even when I did have sight of some dancing, I couldn't see it for long enough to enjoy the flow of the choreography. I'm sure the moment Romeo and Juliet first meet is beautifully moving, but I couldn't see it because I was looking at somebody's arse instead. "Ballet dancers have lovely bottoms, though," I hear you cry, "so at least you had something nice to look at," and you would be right, if it weren't for the fact that the stage was lit from the centre. So I just had a big, black silhouette instead of the top-class dancing I'd paid £60 to see. No dancing, and not even a pair of pert buttocks as a consolation prize. Boo. Sorry. Can you tell I'm annoyed? I was so intensely irritated by it, I seriously considered calling "Could you get out of the [insert choice anglo-saxon word ending in '-ing'] way, please?", or clambering onto the stage and physically moving them myself. It was only a desire not to ruin Klimentova's last performance that stopped me. I'm not sure even my innate Britishness would have been enough otherwise! I understand that Derek Deane was trying to make it look impressive from all parts of the Hall, and I fully expected there to be moments where, from the stalls, I wouldn't be able to see very clearly, but I expected my view to be obscured by, oh I don't know, dancing of some sort, not just people stood around like lemons*. I expected the bulk of the scenery, props or cast members, to have been moved largely to the back for the pivotal scenes. It simply staggers me that nobody thought to mention to Deane that the sight lines of the first five rows of the stalls might be a little important. Someone have a word, please? Right, rant over. * My old drama teacher used to say this. Are lemons renowned for their standing?

I was 2nd row stalls too, and was in exactly the same boat. (I'll write up my thoughts in full later. )

Thanks Lynette. That's the second time this has happened. I honestly don't know what it is with me posting links on here. The original link I had was from an email, so I figured that what had happened last time was the link was specific to me. This time, though, I Googled it, found the page and copied the link directly from the address bar. It's a complete mystery. *scratches head* Let me try again: http://uk-offers.timeout.com/deals/entertainment-tryst-devotion-and-betrayal%20 Well, that seems to work. Oh well.

£15 (normally £25) tickets to NEBT at the Peacock Theatre in London on 3-5 July (it's running from the 2nd but the small print says 3-5). http://uk-offers.timeout.com/deals/entertainment-tryst-devotion-and-betrayal%20

A full calendar and an empty bank account meant I couldn't see this production, but it's fantastic to hear glowing reviews of Maureya's debut. I've really enjoyed all her performances whenever I've seen her so it's great to hear she's adding to her repertoire with such aplomb. Bring on the 14/15 season.

Thanks very much for the heads up, Ian. I'll keep a close eye on that. Do report back, Ian (or anyone), if and when the casting crops up!

And this one for £10 off on 12, 18, 19, 20 June, 7.30pm: http://www.standard.co.uk/esrewards/english-national-ballets-romeo--juliet-save-10-on-selected-ticket-prices-9490307.html

PS. I might start an ice cream thread. Or could we rename this grouping "Performances seen, ice creams eaten & general discussion"? Birmingham Hippodrome do a great ginger and honey one, and if I remember correctly it's very reasonably priced.

Ah, yes, £2 was my very conservative suggestion for average spend for illustration purposes, working on the principle (ballet-half-pun unintended) that especially in a second interval a lot of people, cheapskates like myself included, wouldn't buy anything at all. It'd be interesting to know, though, what the average spend in an interval (either a first or second interval) is. Even at £2 per audience member, that additional interval in Giselle could feasibly pay two Artists' salaries for an entire year.

I read somewhere, and it might have been in relation to Wheeldon's Alice, that one beneficial side effect of three acts over two in a full-length ballet is the increase in revenue for the theatre from interval bar takings. Leaving artistic merit aside for a moment, maybe there is a commercial benefit to adding an additional piece to Giselle in order to double up the intervals? The ROH has a capacity of 2,256, so even at a nominal £2 average spend, that's £4,500 in the bank extra per performance. Over the course of their recent run, by my calculations (which I will no doubt spot are horribly wrong once the edit facility lapses) it could generate nearly £60,000 in additional revenue.

That's good to hear. Although as I didn't get to see her myself, part of me would've also been happy if you'd told me she came on with her dress tucked into her underwear and a bit of loo roll attached to her pointe shoe, tripped over the scenery and let out a particularly loud burp during the pas de deux.

Well, my week of ballet-going (do remind me to review Ballet Central when I get a moment, by the way) has been brought to a close by this fascinating triple bill. This was only my second time at the ROH and it still has that frisson of excitement and occasion, walking into the gloriously ostentatious reds and golds of the auditorium. Serenade almost came across like the Royal Ballet boasting. It was such a self-assured display of the depth of talent in the company it was almost un-British in its puffed-out-chest pride. The corps de ballet were as disciplined as any I've ever seen and worked as a cohesive and unified whole throughout the piece. In fact the corps could almost have been said to steal the show, were it not for Osipova in particular fighting back on behalf of the principals. It was my first time seeing her dance and I can completely see what all the fuss is about. To maintain a feather-light grace while delivering such focussed and measured attack and precision to each movement is something to behold. She appeared literally inch-perfect. I enjoyed Sarah Lamb's performance too, and was hugely taken with Olivia Cowley. I know there's been a lot of disapproval about commenting on dancers' physical appearance on here, so in that spirit I shan't mention that I thought Cowley was utterly gorgeous, neither will I at any point use the word 'swoon' in connection with her in any way. As for Serenade itself, I adored it. It felt like a love letter to ballet and a love letter to ballerinas, danced like a tribute back to Balanchine. Beautiful. Starting the second third of this bill pretty much with a ballerina, whose delicate grace and prettiness we'd been marvelling at just 30 minutes and one cup of tea earlier, being literally thrown against the set was certainly a startling contrast. Not having done my homework properly (something my parents will no doubt recall from my school days) I was fairly lost, plot-wise, during Sweet Violets. I suspect it'll be a bit like Northern Ballet's Gatsby, i.e. one I'll enjoy more retrospectively when I read more about it (I'd never read The Great Gatsby before). The choreography was very powerful in some places, but overall it didn't really grab me. The score I found a bit depressing, if I'm honest. Still, both the ballet buddies who came with me said it was the highlight of their evening, so Marmite Violets it is, then. Danse Á Grande Vitesse. First thing I have to say is that I ADORED the music for this. If a dancer hadn't set foot on stage, I would have gone home happy just to have heard this piece played so beautifully by the RB Orchestra. As someone who isn't such a fan of classical or orchestral music outside of ballet but loves dance music and electronica, this felt like orchestral music for dance music fans. The choreography was wonderful, particularly right at the start where the power and potential energy is held so perfectly before the kineticism (yes, I'm aware I've just made that up) kicks in. In both music and choreography, this was a piece that continually surprised and delighted. The main dancers in this piece were, and I haven't checked my programme on this, all Soloists and they did themselves proud, with Tierney Heap catching my eye as being particularly strong. I couldn't help wishing I'd caught Zenaida Yanowsky in DGV, though. I can imagine she would have been sensational! Next time, next time… All in all, a fascinating, compelling and utterly enjoyable triple bill. It was a fitting end to a great trio of ballets in quick succession for me (this, Ballet Central and ENB's Choregraphics) that were all, in their own ways, wonderfully special memories. Happy times.

I'd booked into the ENB R&J on 22nd June as it was Daria's farewell performance, but I'm presuming it'll also mark Nancy's final appearance before leaving. It'll be jolly nice to be in the audience to give her a farewell cheer too.

I've frequently talked to my ballet buddy, the one who introduced me to the art, about how transient the ballet experience can feel. Out of all the art forms, it's the hardest to preserve an accurate record in the memory, and the more one tries to cling on, the harder it gets to keep hold of the feeling. Tonight, more than any other night, that fact is particularly frustrating. Because it breaks my heart a little bit that I will probably never see Vera, at least with that cast and in that setting, again. Sim wrote so beautifully above about this piece that I won't attempt to describe it further, but to say that it was something very special indeed would be to put it mildly. It was a perfect meeting of choreography and performance. Stina Quagebeur's choreography was sublime, fluid, moving, heartfelt, honest and tender. It was deeply impressive. Quagebeur is definitely a name to keep an eye on for the future. And Nancy Osbaldeston? Well, I will wax lyrical about how much I adore her at any and every opportunity. There isn't any doubt in my mind any more, she is simply, without question, my favourite dancer. I can only presume, given the point of her career that she's at, that she's not even at the top of her game yet. Which is ridiculous. She has a glittering career ahead of her. Not just as a well loved soloist, but surely she's going right to the top. It made me so, so happy to have had the opportunity to see her dance such an amazing role in such an intimate venue before she ventures to foreign climes (although I've resolved to make the trip to see her at RBF). While Vera was something very special, I was also very moved by Ripple Effect. Especially in the second half, it sent a real shiver down my spine. The interplay between the soldiers, the necessity of their reliance upon one another, the shared experience... It all creates and contributes to a barrier that proves difficult to penetrate for the wife, in this case danced beautifully by Ksenia Ovsyanick. As a whole, it was very moving. In such a short period of time Makoto Nakamura's choreography tells a very complex story very effectively. I'm not entirely convinced by the singing of the poems before each piece tonight. The idea was interesting, and the composition and singing were both very good, but I think I'd prefer to have heard the poems read than sung. I'm giving up writing about everything I've loved in a show because I'll be here all day, so the above is a 'highlights' review. ENB's Choregraphics, just after tonight, is now going to be an immovable fixture on my ballet-going calendar. For £15, it's a complete no-brainer. You won't get a better bang for your ballet buck anywhere else. But maybe next time I'll buy tickets to two performances. Because if there's anything even remotely as good as Vera, I'll kick myself for not seeing it twice.

Welcome indeed! Oh, to see the likes of BRB and RB at the Hippodrome! The Hippodrome ballet scene is very odd these days. The Russian State Ballet Of Siberia who, to be as charitable as possible, aren't A-list, play to packed-out houses every year. English National Ballet's Le Corsaire on the other hand, at the same price and with Alina Cojocaru and Vadim Muntagirov dancing the leads, have swathes of seats left unsold. What's the phrase? "This is why we can't have nice things."

They did indeed! They loved it. In fact, I think they enjoyed it more than I did on this particular occasion!

Just got back from seeing Ballet Central in Newbury. I'll write a few more words tomorrow, but for now let's just go with something succinct, like... oh, I don't know... "Wow."

I went to see this at the Bristol Hippodrome this afternoon. I've written a review, but I'm going to save it on Notepad and let it simmer in my mind before I consider posting it up here. I'm going to read through the programme a bit more and let my brain absorb the show a little longer. I should probably go and see it again or something. Maybe draw up a list, with "things I liked" in one column, and "things I didn't like" in the other. Maybe then give each thing a score and work out some kind of weighted average? Because, and I'm disappointed to be saying this, I didn't really like it. I do reserve the right to change my mind, though. I'm sure I must be missing something.

I took someone to see their first ballet this afternoon! Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake.

I'm fairly certain I would've been the new Nureyev if wasn't for my stupid brother.

Ooh, this one had completely gone under the radar for me! Thanks for the heads-up. Hmm, that is tempting! But I'll have to see. I'm already going to four ballets in the next week... And the deposit for a flat isn't going to save itself up... I might make this a last-minute-if-there-are-good-seats-still-going-and-I-can-find-a-ballet-buddy special.

I was just flicking through my old programmes and noticed something pretty cool. Yesterday was the third anniversary of my first ballet experience! My then girlfriend (now good friend and ballet buddy) was quite the ballet fan, but seldom had anyone to go with, so I offered to go with her. I remember that, actually, I was probably more excited than she was in the weeks leading up to it! As my school days had left me with a lingering reticence to publicly declare an interest in things not stereotypically associated with male peers, I suspect it was quite reassuring to have an 'excuse' to indulge exploring something like ballet under the pretence of being a supportive boyfriend. I saw Matthew Bourne's Cinderella at the Bristol Hippodrome on 19th May 2011. As an introduction to dance, I can quite see why Matthew Bourne is so spectacularly popular. It had all the hallmarks of the musicals I'd seen every Christmas in the West End with my family as a child. In fact the only discomforting thing seeing a dance show for the first time was the anticipation of them opening their mouths to finally sing, which of course never came! The plot cantered along at a jolly ol' lick and there was nothing too scary for the first-timer. It was great fun, and I enjoyed it immensely. The only problem was, though, there was very little en pointe and not a tutu in sight! I felt like I'd had a slightly watered down version of the ballet experience. So I requested that next time we booked into something more traditional. I guess you can't get more traditional than going to see The Nutcracker at Christmas (in this case, danced by the Russian State Ballet Of Siberia), so that's what we did! To this day it's still not my favourite ballet, it's a bit frothy for me. And, if I'm honest, the company weren't brilliant. But it was my first introduction to the classical style, and I knew instinctively that's what I enjoyed the most, at least at that point. But what I really wanted was a hybrid of the two things I'd seen so far, really. Something with classical style choreography, but with a more contemporary staging. Cue Northern Ballet's Beauty And The Beast. In April 2012, this was the ballet that finally clinched my passion for ballet. Martha Leebolt's pas de trois with Kenneth Tindall and Ashley Dixon did it for me. I'd never seen anything like it, and to this day Martha holds a dear place in my ballet-going heart as a result. We were lucky enough to have a back-stage tour afterwards, and taped to my ticket is a piece of foil confetti from the finale of the show that I picked up from the stage. I thought that was it, I was hooked after my first three ballets. But there was to be one more milestone. The pas de deux between Sergeant Troy (Iain Mackay) and Bathsheba (Elisha Willis) at the end of Act 1 of Birmingham Royal Ballet's Far From The Madding Crowd on 20th June 2012 literally took my breath away. They've been 'my company' ever since that day, as you'll probably gather from my profile picture, and I have adored every single expedition up the M5 I've made since then. So, that's how I got into ballet! It took me nearly a year to see my first three ballets. Two years on from that... Well, I'm up to twenty-nine now.