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Sophoife

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Everything posted by Sophoife

  1. Hunh. That's something I've been complaining about since this year's AusBallet programme was revealed 12 months or more ago. The November Ashton programme is just The Dream and Marguerite and Armand with one 25-minute interval. Full price for "best" seats $333, $343 for Saturday nights, roughly ยฃ175. Some of these seats are so far back you need binoculars to see the footwork or even to identify the faces. That's for 55 minutes plus 35 minutes of dance, 1 hour 30 minutes. In 2017 the Royal Ballet presented these same two ballets, with Symphonic Variations in the middle. At that time when I asked him at stage door what thoughts he had when setting the programme, Kevin O'Hare told me that without the third ballet in the middle the evening would have been too short to justify charging full price. Pity he didn't ring up or Zoom David Hallberg to say the same thing!!! ๐Ÿ˜ 
  2. Australian Ballet principal artist Amy Harris has announced her retirement, to come at the end of the November Ashton double bill season in Sydney. She will be dancing Marguerite in Marguerite and Armand . Miss Harris, wife to senior artist Jarryd Madden (who will be co-hosting AusBallet's World Ballet Day stream once again) and mother to daughter Willow and son Phoenix, has been with the company 22 years. She's always been a popular dancer, winning the People's Choice in the company's internal Ballet Dancer Awards twice before winning "the big one". She joined AusBallet in 2002 and was promoted to coryphรฉe in 2007, soloist in 2011 and senior artist in 2012. In 2018 she was promoted to principal artist on stage after dancing the secondary lead of Tertulla in Lucas Jervies' Spartacus. She's never danced Giselle, but Myrtha. Not Alice, but the Queen of Hearts. Not Cinderella, but Stepmother. Never Odette or Odette-Odile in any of the three Swan Lakes we've had during her time in the company. Not Juliet, but Lady Capulet. Not even a Sugar Plum Fairy as far as I can remember. Quite odd. London audiences may remember her as the Baroness in the Graeme Murphy Swan Lake some years ago, or in pdds from Concerto and Anna Karenina in the recent 60th anniversary gala, both with Nathan Brook, who will be her Armand. He btw is my tip for next male principal.
  3. Oh, now I want to see that!! ๐Ÿคฃ And thank you @PeterS for your gracious acceptance of my 3am nitpicking ๐Ÿ˜˜
  4. As @Silke H noted up-thread, he is former dancer Andrej Uspenski. Nice to know his name as well as that he is very discreet in taking his photos! BTW "discrete" and "discreet" mean two different things, and the two are often confused, much like "horde" and "hoard". My personal hashtag elsewhere is #NitPickersNotSoAnonymous ๐Ÿ˜‰ and I find myself using it more and more frequently, especially on the site formerly named Twitter. I won't say "formerly known as" because most of us still call it that ๐Ÿคฃ alleged billionaires notwithstanding.
  5. Oh @Scheherezade can we do a thread on Ballet Mondegreens? ๐Ÿคฃ
  6. Just to remind those who've heard French and/or British people call it "Don Quickshott" or "Don Keyshott" that the French spelling is in fact Don Quichotte ๐Ÿ˜‰
  7. Examples: Pharaoh's Daughter at the Mariinsky in April/May 2022. Flames of Paris, Bolshoi, November 2022 through June 2023. Little Humpbacked Horse, Anna Karenina and Concerto DSCH remain in the Mariinsky repertoire, with his name removed, and claims that Tony Candeloro reconstructed PD. I'm sure with your Russian interest you can find others at other theatres.
  8. This is sadly familiar to me from AusBallet's strategy over the last five or six years. 1. Sell subscriptions in late Year 0, no casting information whatsoever available, but best seats all go then. 2. Make single tickets available, again late in Year 0, no casting information available. 3. Season commences in, say, June Year 1, and only 60% of the house is sold. 4. Special offer of A and B Reserve tickets for $99 (more than a 50% discount even for B Reserve) to fill house. 5. Pissed-off subscribers, many of whom (not me) regularly buy more than one ticket for each production. 6. Subscriptions for Year 2 open late in Year 1. Prices have gone up by approx 19-23% across the board. No casting information available. 7. Rinse and repeat.
  9. Fiona, I was very careful not to insert politics. Withdrawal of performance licence is both legally enforceable and respected, anywhere except Russia it seems, as some organisations there are still producing his work, but with his name removed. To be specific, he was born to Ukrainian parents in Leningrad but grew up in Kyiv. His parents and other family still live in Kyiv. I was simply seeking to add some context to your sweeping statement that Russian audiences don't want to watch his ballets - because they are watching them, against his express wishes. Further comment would verge on the political, so will not be made
  10. The licences haven't expired, Fiona. He was very, very clear that he withdrew them, despite that withdrawal having subsequently been in practice ignored by various organisations inside Russia. A hint as to why that might be is in the title of Marina Harss' excellent new Ratmansky biography: The Boy From Kyiv. He did not "dissociate himself from his previous directorship, training and productions", he withdrew the performance licences. Which has been ignored. I do recommend people read Lyndsey Winship's interview with him published in August.
  11. Can't speak to the minuet, but can definitely confirm the wig-pulling in the Nureyev Don Q, which of course is wot we 'as 'ere Dahn Unda. Last seen in Sydney in April this year ๐Ÿ˜‰
  12. The way I look at it is, sure, it's really nice for us if a dancer comes out stage door and we can say thank you. After all I've been doing just that for over 50 years now! However, no dancer should feel obliged to do so. The idea that a principal (either in rank or role) should feel disrespectful if they, tired, choose to exit other than at stage door, is not one to which I subscribe.
  13. Well, it was Mercutio and Tybalt who were already dead but had to hang around for curtain calls, and at the first interval it was Lord Capulet who was one of the ballet masters (whom, amusingly, I had met at interval aka smoking break at ROH earlier in the week!), and Benvolio. Definitely not Romeo or Juliet!! Dancer acquaintance at that time with Stuttgart said they were all fine with it as everyone knew who was rostered and those who wanted could nick straight off home after (using the exit through the bar!).
  14. Stuttgart Ballet has meet and signs in the foyer at interval. Costumed, made-up, the works. Certainly Mercutio, Lord Capulet, Tybalt... Avoiding Floral Street in order to head for the Tube is easy if a dancer wants the Central, Northern, Piccadilly, Circle or District lines (Holborn, Temple, or Leicester Square). I made a close study of Tube lines earlier this year as a tourist ๐Ÿ˜‰
  15. I'm with you @Dawnstar and @capybara - I hate selfies as I don't like myself in photos. The only ballet ones I've ever asked for are Johan Kobborg after what was his last Des Grieux, in Sydney; Federico Bonelli after my first Mayerling, and Gary Avis because he's Gary Avis ๐Ÿ˜‚ I was asked at a Richard E Grant signing session after An Evening With... to hand my phone to the publicity person so they could take a pic of me with him and I said, "No offence Mr Grant, but no. I didn't come for self-aggrandisement but to hear you speak and get my books signed. Thank you for your time." And I got a hug and a thank you!
  16. Looking at your gorgeous photos @Rob Sam I going blind or has Miss O'Sullivan gone back to her original dark hair?? It suits her SO much better! Lucky all those who got to see not one, but two Basilios - and two such Basilios! Best of luck to Mr McRae - he's not yet posted anything on his Instagram. I was watching the Bailey's Christmas Nutcracker ad "making of" from 2014 yesterday (it came up in my YouTube feed) and my goodness his body is a completely different shape these days!!
  17. If it's an Android phone, the same thing works too!! I have three actual lights linked to my phone so when I said "Lumos" it asked me if I was sure I wanted to turn them all on ๐Ÿ˜‚ I said "no, Lumos torch" and it turned on the flashlight built in to the phone aka the light also used by the camera. Thank you @bangorballetboy!
  18. AusBallet hosts will again be Livinia Nixon representing The Iggerant Audience, and Jarryd Madden combining the roles of both Kristen McNally and Alex Campbell. Bet he won't say "I love a glitter shower, me!" ๐Ÿคฃ
  19. I would say yes, give it a go @Pas de Quatre because I can't make a fair assessment of the production from the cast I saw - the couple I saw in the lead roles had (to my eyes) technical excellence but zero chemistry (which is how I feel every time I see them dance together, very weird as they are married in real life!). I'm also buying the stream, as I'm very keen to see a different lead couple and it's way cheaper than going to Adelaide, Sydney or Brisbane ๐Ÿคฃ
  20. I am happy to report exemplary behaviour from all those around me at the sold-out Swan Lake in Melbourne last week. Including all children and old ladies.
  21. For clarity, the Victorian State Ballet and Victorian State Youth Ballet are based in suburban Melbourne, Australia. The main company is largely made up of "emerging artists" and "pre-professional artists". My ballet teacher friend says she has not heard of any of their pre-pro students auditioning successfully for any of the known ballet programmes/companies. On the other hand, she hears good things about their contemporary work. HTH.
  22. They'd be on their knees praising Providence they're not in an American company in that case @Benjamin๐Ÿ˜‚ NYCB 48, ABT 12, SFB 31, PNB 37, Colorado 28, Ballet West 24... Not to mention AusBallet's new/old Swan Lake which premiered last week will have been performed 53 times by Christmas. With an intervening Ashton season.
  23. How lovely - and what a beautiful name! Congratulations to Alex and Claire. On a side note, I'm catching up on Masterchef UK, and the show I'm up to sees the contestants in the kitchen at Piazza at the ROH. Not one word about any of the core activities of the ROH.
  24. Commissioned by AusBallet, sure. It's a virtual guarantee that a new full-length Wheeldon/Talbot will be licensed to other companies regardless of co-production status, vide Winter's Tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , and not to forget Cinderella.
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