Sophoife

Gosh I know we're not "supposed" to like that sort of thing, but in such hands it was pure joy and fun. When I marvel at Osipova's speed, it's that diagonal turning past the matadors I specifically remember. She was almost a blur to the naked eye.

I'd love to see Osipova as Kitri now, having seen her with Vasiliev guesting with AusBallet in 2013. Her speed was incredible! She and Vasiliev hammed up the dress rehearsal: fast, strong, and utterly joyous to watch. In the second one-handed lift he got her up, put his arm out, moved into arabesque, then rose on to demi-pointe. And held it. And held it. Everyone on stage was whooping, as were we, and finally the then-AD got on his mic and said, "OK enough please", and was heard to be laughing as Vasiliev lowered Osipova like a piece of porcelain, then made fists and displayed his biceps. I'm told their actual shows were somewhat more restrained.

Yes, he has, @LinMM. He loves teaching there.

I wasn't sure if you knew to what @alisonwas alluding @capybara. Yes, I'm an out and proud fan of Mr Ramos. I'm also privileged to call him a friend (certainly not the usual case with a dancer one admires!) and yes, this year's Big Trip was engendered by his retirement as a dancer. I got to see three ballets I'd never seen before (Sinfonietta, Prodigal Son, Bruch Violin Concerto) in Colorado, and then I got to return to London (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty), Paris (Béjart triple) and Zürich, and visit Turin and see the Giro d'Italia - so thanks Yos 😘

Every time someone says that, @capybara, I'm reminded of the Australian politician Pauline Hanson who, in a 1996 profile on 60 Minutes, was asked if she was xenophobic (she is) and replied in a flat, deadpan, very nasal Australian voice, "Please explain?"

Change isn't completely unexpected as Thiago Soares' socials have certainly shown him involved with a lot of things outside the company.

Ballet de Monterrey has announced a new Artistic Director. Thiago Soares is moving on and from January 2024 Yosvani Ramos will take up the position. He's extremely excited and pleased to have been named to this role. https://www.instagram.com/p/CzejF_Pv1HP/?igshid=b2IzZTNnMDh3M25h Ballet de Monterrey is in northern Mexico, about 500 miles south-west of Houston, Texas. Company of 60 (4 principals, 11 soloists, 34 corps dancers and 11 apprentices). There's an associated school. The company was founded in 1990 and past ADs include Fernando Alonso, Fernando Bujones, Luis Serrano (twice) and José Manuel Carreño. I'm extremely excited and pleased for him! 🤣

They do? Nope, never seen something like that, only the good old fashioned one, and no, not for ten years or more. Now of course I'll have one once a week 🤣

BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death At one time a frustratingly regular state of affairs with a PC. Windows would crash suddenly and a blue screen with some white text would appear, telling you of a catastrophic failure of the system. Might take as many as a dozen reboots to make things work again. I've not seen one in person for over ten years (thank goodness), but @alison I do feel your pain!

That's a brilliant video Jan! Beautiful space too - lungs of the local area I bet.

The several mentions above of how many full Kitris Mayara Magri has danced and whether that's enough for her to feel okay doing a cinema relay (I think the consensus was six) have struck me as interesting. As many will know, AusBallet is live-relaying a very short Ashton programme on 21 November. Marguerite will be danced by Amy Harris. It will be just her fourth performance of the role.

She's been a principal since 2014, and according to the story on Sky Italy (thanks, elderly Italian lady I live with!) she and Bolle are the only current étoiles. It requires trades unions to all agree, as it's a title outside the "normal" hierarchy and pay structure.

Yes, it's a very special title at La Scala. The only ones for quite some time were Bolle and Murru, with Ferri in fact having been named the theatre's prima ballerina assoluta in, I think, 1992, and Zakharova (who held the title for about 10 years) no longer associated with the company - indeed, the only Zakharova mention on its website is now second violin Olga Zakharova 🤭

They do. Info here.

It's the European one-day championship match @Terpsichore 😉

Thanks for the reminder - I went and read those reminiscences more fully. I couldn't agree more. Which is why it's a shame ABS syllabus doesn't draw more from Cecchetti.

@Ondine I would very much appreciate the source of that quote, please. I do need to change my comment to "anyone currently with AusBallet who has Cecchetti training got it privately". Dear Mr Welch whose dancing I remember with much pleasure. His teacher was RAD. He left AusBallet in 1973. Dame Peggy left in 1974, returning in 1978 for one season. The imminent season of The Dream and Marguerite and Armand is just the third time this century AusBallet has performed any Ashton. Australian Ballet School website says "The Australian Ballet School’s curriculum is unique to the School" and I am told by both current and former dancers that it is far more Vaganova than Cecchetti. Yes, the first director of the School was Dame Margaret Scott and Cecchetti was in her DNA. She was replaced by Gailene Stock more than 30 years ago, after 28 years. The curriculum has certainly altered since then.

Cecchetti method not part of ABS syllabus if I remember correctly. Anyone with AusBallet who has Cecchetti training got it privately. If I'm wrong and someone knows better, please correct me: learning is lifelong.

Haha @Ondine, great pickup! The dancers tell me he shouts a lot but they don't really mind because they know he loves the work and he wants them to do it right. Ashton is such a distinct style and it's pretty much a dance generation since they did any.

(I've removed the bits irrelevant to this comment) Goodness, Imogen is older than I thought, then! One does wonder, though, in the cases of Bracewell and Muntagirov specifically, were they recruited to the RB or did they initiate the contacts that led to their contracts? Of course a famous example of someone graduating from RBS, getting a contract at RB, and then going (successfully in his case) elsewhere is Xander Parish. Another is Polunin, although he doesn't seem to have really settled anywhere since leaving the RB. And yes, thank you, I'm quite well aware of what he has been doing so please, nobody jump in with his CV since 2012.

IIRC Muntagirov and Polunin were the same year? and Dame Monica offered a contract to Polunin. In Daria Klimentová's book, she says that Wayne Eagling offered Muntagirov a contract thus: Discovering that his counterpart at The Royal Ballet was not taking Vadim, Wayne Eagling was in like a shot and offered him a great deal to join ENB. Knowing the company, and having come to know Vadim, I doubt if the attraction of this arrangement would have been so much about money because the main temptation would certainly have been the prospect of being offered the major classical roles to dance early in his career, which is every dancer’s dream. To whet his appetite even more, Wayne offered Vadim the chance to dance the role of Albrecht (the lead male role in Giselle) before Christmas in his very first season, which meant that within six months of leaving ballet school, he would be headlining in a major ballet in a major company. This was completely unheard of, but Wayne clearly had every confidence in the young Russian boy. Quoted from chapter 10 of Daria Klimentová with Graham Watts: Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance published in 2013 by John Blake Publishing. I was copying the quote when your comment appeared @Jan McNulty, so I'm going to say that in my reading that counts as public information 😉 and that if anyone would know, it would be Klimentová.

Dame Darcey is dyslexic, and for the live streams she is required to read from cue cards. Speaking off the cuff as it were would probably be much easier for her.

The first time I saw Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain (it was the full version, not just the pdd), after wiping the tears from my face as it was Steven Heathcote's penultimate performance as a principal (July 2007), I rushed off up Swanston Street and bought the relevant Arvo Pärt CD. In the days when there was a music shop open after 10pm in a bustling hub that's now a desert of takeaways and building sites.

Épaulement, arms, faces, toes, hips, knees...oh and pretty backs too.

Not in AusBallet world, @alison. They divide the theatre into Premium and A B C and D Reserves, with for this Ashton evening in the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House (which was originally intended as the concert hall) a price range for adults of $333, $254, $176, $127 and $85. "Restricted view" seats and believe me they're restricted (@Bluebird can attest to this) are $61. No extra benefits. Given those prices, and that I'm a Melbourne subscriber not a Sydney one, I was absolutely delighted when the aforementioned @Bluebird gave me a heads-up on an offer of A and B reserve seats for just $99 and snapped up three reasonable ones for less than the cost of one Premium seat. I'm sitting way to the side for two, so despite being A Reserve with a slightly restricted view, and in the centre but in the second back row of the stalls for the third. Reminder that SOH seating is in blocks with no aisles except at the sides, nothing like the horseshoe of the ROH. They used to sell 6 standing places in the circle on each side (12 total), later reduced to 5 a side, on the day and I have very fond memories of walking down through a dawning Sydney and parking myself first in the queue with my portable breakfast (there's a convenience store at Circular Quay that sells plastic bowls of cereal, and I'd buy some milk, plus a piece of fruit and a coffee - often provided by my hotel!). Security often lent me a cushion. By 6:30am the queue was always full, because they would only sell one ticket per person so if you wanted two you both had to queue. It was very fair. Box office doors opened at 8:30, tickets went on sale at 9, and usually sold out by 9:05. I'd be back at my hotel and back in bed by 10 😁 Then they started making standing places available the day single tickets went on sale, and removed the limits. Since Covid I understand the standing places are no longer sold. Back on topic, my favourite class stream was Paris Opéra Ballet with Gil Isoart, who kept telling them to do something doucement or joliment or to n'oubliez pas l'épaulement et le visage 🤭 He wanted all the centre work to be presented, not just completed. It was a mixed rank class, the only male étoile I recognised was Paul Marque. I spotted Bleuenn Battistoni and Bianca Scudamore. One chap had fluoro green sockettes for the barre work 🧦