SMballet

Dear all: Update, hurrah, I've managed to get one ticket for Friday 5/1 7.30 p.m. performance, but am still very much in the market for a second. Any price!

No luck with Friday rush again, alas, so still in the market for two tickets for Jan 5th evening performance, at any price range!

Still looking and hoping for two tickets to Jan 5th evening performance! Fri rush not working for me...

Am still very much in the market for this, dear friends!

Dear friends, if anyone has two tickets available for the Jan 5th evening performance, I'll gladly buy them. I'll keep looking at the Friday rush releases as well, but just in case someone here has good seats they cannot use , do please let me know!

I'm just reading about this now. I'm so sorry, and my deepest condolences to all those who loved her. May she rest in peace. I never met her but I read her posts here with interest and admiration, and was deeply touched by her great love and knowledge for ballet. It is too sad to realise we'll not read her posts again. I hope wherever she's gone there's lots and lots of delightful ballet, performed live right in front of her eyes...

I have a very silly and possibly unhelpful comment to add to this discussion: these very occassional spats between posters is super entertaining (for me, but maybe for others too ), and I do hope that no one leaves just because sometimes things get a bit heated! Honestly, of course no one should be outright rude - but no one here has been, not on this thread , and people really rarely are here - so here's a plea to everyone, yawners, non yawners alike, to stay and keep posting (and yawning, if you wish!)! I love you all even when you fight (maybe especially, cause I'm bored at work!). And because there is room here for everyone: rabid fans, rabid critics, well-informed balletomanes, completely uninformed dillettantes (like me), new timers, old timers, dancers, non dancers etc etc. It's what makes this forum fun, and I hope all of you will stay !

I'm so sorry to hear this. My condolences to his family and all those who loved him. May he rest in peace.

SheilaC loved your story and your harridan school headmistress, who let you skip school again!

No no! Not saying that at all. Oh no, I hope it didn't sound ageist of me. I just wanted to say that I do very much enjoy reading the reminisces of some of the more experienced ballet watchers here, and it is sometimes startling for me to realise how long so many of you having been watching and loving ballet, whereas for me it's only been a few years and I'm very much still at the stage in my life where I'm forming my likes and dislikes. So the longer-time watchers are true ballet fans, whereas people like me are just newbies, and it is good for us to learn from them. I mean that in full admiration. If some people here have watched Lesley Collier dance then it means you've been watching for more than 40 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is amazing.

I'm loving reading all these reminiscences about her. Looked on youtube for some clips of her dancing but there is not much available. Gosh some of you have been watching ballet for so long, and have such good memories and experiences that you share here. I'm so glad to be able to learn from you! (I'm just barely out of my 20s and hope to be watching ballet, and maybe reading and writing on this site, for at least 60 more years... Maybe I will be talking about Marianela Nunez the way some of you are talking about Lesley Collier!

I'm curious to know more about your views on this. I can't find much on it on youtube except for one brief clip with Ed Watson and Federico Bonelli, which looks really interesting. The general consensus here seems to be that it is not a very good or interesting ballet, and I'm wondering why (if anyone who has already seen it would be kind enough to fill us in, briefly, as to what he/she thought) I'm not based in in London, alas, so can't see it anyway. But am curious to know why the general view is less positive, as the premise seems fantastic (and the stage sets look great too, based on the brief youtube clip I saw).

I'm so sorry; I'd wanted to write with a fuller report yesterday of Saturday evening's performance, but the unseasonable warmth, and the splendours of London on a Sunday, and the fact that I'm only here for a few precious days, kept me from writing. As I'm not a seasoned or well-informed ballet watcher, I'll keep my comments to the impressionistic: first off, Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov: a gift from the gods. I know many of the more experienced ballet goers here have been fortunate enough to have watched some legendary partnerships in the past, and I wonder if, for my (younger) generation, this particular partnership will linger on in my mind, and in my memory, as I grow older, as the one to which every other is compared. I simply cannot think of a better partnership. A lot of people , here and everywhere, have rightly complimented the joyousness of their dancing and their individual technical perfection and the sheer brilliance of their stage presence. I'll confirm all of that, but what I think I'd like to add here is that they dance so well together. I've seen each of them on this stage with other partners, and they are always so good, always giving of their best. Each is a joy to watch, no matter who they are partnering. But when they dance together it seems to me all that more special, as if they give more than their best to and for each other. I've never watched DQ live, but I've seen the youtube clips of Marianela and Carlos dancing the same choreography, and think that actually physically, and perhaps personality wise (at least what they project on stage in character), Carlos and Marianela are much better matched. But there is something about Vadim and Marianela together, perhaps their very difference - his reticent elegance, her warmth and radiant joy, their technical perfection, the matched lines - something about it just makes the partnership sparkle in a way that seems really rare. Apart from the main leads, I was blown away by Ryoichi Hirano and Itziar Mendizabal's duets, and their chemistry together; they sparkled and then caught fire, and absolutely stole the show when they had centre stage. Anna Rose O Sullivan was a delightful, light-footed cupid, so perfectly musical and fairy like. Mayara Magri was a fantastic Queen of the Dryads; something about her just catches the eye, no matter where she is on stage. I agree with some other commenters here that the staging is a bit too busy; there is almost too much going on all the time, and the scene is unnecessarily crowded with people and props and bits of scenery. It is certainly colourful and joyful as intended, but I sometimes couldn't see the dancing because the props , or dancers, got in the way. Some of the acts felt a bit too long. But maybe that's my travel weariness catching up with me! For the rest, I was thinking how rare it is in ballet to have an older lead in the main role, as we have here, and I found myself wishing that there could be ballets that did much more (and I wish this one did more too) with the themes that lurk beneath the surface of DQ: the poignancy of old age, of regret at things not having been done, of nostalgia for an adventure filled youth , of yearning for a past that maybe never even existed, and above all, the longing for a life that is more colourful and adventurous than the one that one has been consigned to living. In this staging it is all boistrous broad comedy, but I think much more could be done, to bring out Don Quixote and Sancho Panzas story, to make them complex, nuanced, and recognizable to us all, regardless of our age. But that is maybe for another ballet, and here I risk being told that I've gone off topic. To end with a final thought on Saturday's evening performance: the ballet was performed as a perfect embodiment of Carlos Acosta's (announced) vision, a thing of joy that helped us forget the sadder parts of life. Marianela and Vadim sparkled in a way that I think must be rare, on any stage, in any era, but the entire company sparkled with and for them. It was a lovely, lovely evening. I just wish the story could have pushed a bit more, towards the darker, sadder, elements. Thank you to the whole company, and , oh, to the marvelous, appreciative audience too, whose collective joy lifted my spirits !

A marvelous, exciting, wonderful, unforgettable evening. I'm just back ( after having waited for an hour and a half at the stage door, during which I managed to get autographs from many of the wonderful dancers tonight, including Mayara Magri, Nicol Edmond, Kevin O Hare, Ryochi Hirano (swoooooooooon, so good looking in person, it's almost imporbable) Vadim (double swoon, though his vibe is more kind and gentlemanly rather than outright "hot", which Hirano , to my tastes, is) and la queen Nunez, all of whom were smiling and gracious and patient and kind with the many, many, fans who waited till 11.30 to see them). I will try to write a fuller report tomorrow, it is well past 1 a.m. and I am exhausted ! PS many many cast changes, and I asked one of the ushers and he didn't seem to even know. I could identify Mayara Magri (instead of Fumi Kaneko) and Itizar Mendizabel (instead of Laura Morera) but it's really irritating that they can't print cast change slips if the changes had been made somewhat in advance. I mentioned to Mayara Magri that I hadn't known that she would be Queen of Dryads this evening (while telling her how delightful her performace was) and she asked if she was in the cast sheet and appeared irritated to see that she was not listed as the Queen of the Dryads. So, I do think it is disrespectful to dancers. I understand if the change had to be at the last minute, but if it is done a few days ahead surely they can reprint at least change slips like they used to? And why don't they announce the changes before the performances? More from me tomorrow, on the actual performance.

Dear all of you, I've just arrived in London last night, and am lucky enough to have got a ticket for DQ this evening (Saturday). Am sooooo excited. Will anyone else be there and would you like to meet at one of the intermissions?