Sophoife

🏆 Typo of the day albeit a few days late! Thank you! (my emphasis in the quote)

No idea sorry @Benjamin but I must say I'm pretty sure Mr Hallberg never danced Crown Prince Rudolf. At this date we are told that Lady M will not allow the company to perform Mayerling as they are locked in to using the Sydney Opera House Joan Sutherland Theatre and the stage and particularly backstage space is considered too small.

I agree 100% about the JS Theatre, @DD Driver! How they can justify the prices they charge for the views we get I do not understand. I've seen Paris Opéra Ballet's Giselle, the Murphy Swan Lake, and Wheeldon's Alice at the Capitol and would prefer it to be AusBallet's permanent Sydney home for full-length ballets.

Where's the ICC @DD Driver? I was lucky enough to see Alina Cojocaru dance Manon as a guest with AusBallet, partnered by in what turned out to be his last Des Grieux, Johan Kobborg 😍 so I can well imagine how wonderful she was.

As a result of the industrial relations issues at AusBallet, I looked up newspaper archives for 1981 (when the dancers struck for 26 days). This has led me down a fascinating path: reading newspaper archives for stories on the company. After the 1981 strike, then-AD Marilyn Jones resigned in January 1982. Advertisements were placed by a recruitment agency in newspapers, with a closing date in May. Maina Gielgud was appointed in November 1982. I've just read an interview with her from early 1983 informing the readership that Mayerling had been removed from the year's plans due to inadequate rehearsal time (one of the dancers' issues leading to the strike), which she was disappointed about because she and "Kenneth" had felt it would be a good fit on the company. In those days the company used three venues in Sydney: the theatre at the Opera House which they use today, the concert hall at the Opera House (originally intended as the theatre), and the Capitol Theatre (bigger stage). Forty years later and we still haven't got it. SWRB toured in 1982.

Last night two quarter-finals were played. England's Lionesses beat Colombia 2-1. Australia's Matildas beat France 7-6 on penalties after extra time 0-0. Each side took 10 penalty kicks. Wednesday night Australian time England will play co-hosts Australia in a semi-final. May the best team win. Signed, #proudAustralian

My dear! I bought the VHS the moment it became available to me, and I also have it on DVD. My 21yo nephew spent an evening with me last week and we watched his favourite bits at his request, "I haven't seen it for years and it's so cute!"

I must say, as a child of five I adored the film when it came out, and I know myself and schoolfriends saw it at least half a dozen times (birthdays etc) in its first cinema run ("Mummy, please! The squirrels! Mr Jeremy Fisher!"). I couldn't imagine it as a successful stage production but I can imagine children delighting in it. As far as jobbing choreographers go, that's exactly what they were. Frankly, Mr McGregor with his prolific output is also a jobbing choreographer. It would take some sort of ego to say "I am creating a masterpiece which shall last for generations"! I remember a music Q&A with Nicolette Fraillon when she described Riccardo Drigo as a jobbing composer, typical of many operating within the theatre systems in Imperial Russia, "give me ten bars of buildup, two of display, and a climax" type thing. She said it was Tchaikovsky's success that changed that attitude, but not completely.

Change in AD, @Sim...?

Not at the Australian Ballet, @Sim. Alice Topp currently enjoys that title and presumably support. Hers is the sole name under that heading, and she was named some time in late 2018 (between the production of programmes for September and December). Natalie Weir was named resident choreographer in I think 2000, but none of her work has been performed by the company since 2001, and she dropped off the list some time in the mid-2000s. Stephen Baynes was named resident choreographer in 1995, and remained on the list until 2021. Stanton Welch was a resident choreographer from 1995-2021. Tim Harbour was a resident choreographer from 2014-2021.

One might. However, to compare AusBallet in Jewels unfavourably with companies such as NYCB (by inference rather than by reference) as AM did is unfair. Also, as I noted above re the Sydney season, injuries have necessitated cast changes, added to which the retirements of Adam Bull and Chris Rodgers-Wilson took out two men who danced (for example) the "Emeralds" principal couple. Given the average number of performances by AusBallet in a normal year, 25 for one production would generally be considered as "not many". For example, the revamped Swan Lake opens in Melbourne on 19 September and will be performed 53 times between then and 20 December, with in addition the Ashton double bill of The Dream and Marguerite and Armand running for 19 performances in Sydney between 10 and 25 November. 72 shows in 94 days plus travel, performing in four different cities and theatres... 😳 In an average year, the company presents six productions. In 2010 the company performed 187 times, in 2011 180, 2012 194, 2013 188, 2014 184, 2015 203, 2016 197, 2017 183, 2018 189, 2019 190, 2020 9 with 167 cancelled, 2021 75 with 121 cancelled, and 2022 179. So, not that much variety in a "season" (calendar year), but plenty of opportunities for all the principals, quite different from, for example, the Royal Ballet. I would actually really like to know how these numbers compare with other "major" companies. I'll have to ferret out Queensland and WA too...

It was interesting that earlier this year AusBallet performed a repertory season in Sydney, one show Jewels, the next the contemporary double bill called Identity, with Daniel Riley of Australian Dance Theatre creating a work on his dancers and AusBallet's called THE HUM and Alice Topp working with retired dancers and current company members on Paragon. After barely a handful of shows it became obvious that people being expected to dance in both the Balanchine and the mixed bill was a Very Bad Idea, with a spate of injuries the result. And AusBallet are justifiably proud of their injury record or lack thereof. Why the decision to perform in the pattern they did was made, I've no idea. In Melbourne, the mixed bill was performed separately from the Balanchine. The best part of Paragon was seeing the return of beloved former dancers such as Kirsty Martin, Julie da Costa, Lucinda Dunn, Steven Heathcote, Fiona Tonkin, Madeleine Eastoe, Sarah Peace, Leanne Stojmenov, Paul Knobloch, David McAllister and Simon Dow. Every time one of them came on there was a sigh of delight from the audience. The opening sequence and tableau with retiring principal Adam Bull, 15+ years retired Steven Heathcote, and young corps member Adam Elmes, with a very long filmy drape that was collected, wound and folded by the trio and could be said to represent the company's traditions, was pure magic. The three dancers in that sequence represented 40 years and more to come of company history, Heathcote having joined in 1983 and retired in 2007, the year before Bull was promoted principal, and Elmes having joined in 2020.

The other sideswipe at the RB that I noticed in Macaulay was "Ratmansky’s stagings of nineteenth-century ballets are among the most historic revelations of our time. (You may be sure the Royal Ballet has steered clear of them.)" (from the gala review) @FLOSS Macaulay didn't say anything negative about the RB's end of season programme - he managed for once to say nothing 🤣 He's really quite curmudgeonly about the RB as a company. He also compared Jewels as performed by the AB unfavourably with the same work as performed by other companies - without noting these were only the 26-30th performances ever of this work by this company. Not very fair to not include that note.

There isn't a bio for him in "home" programmes either, @bridiem.

Memories @Dawnstar of a three-performance gala season in Launceston (that's Lon-ston to Australians, we know the one in Cornwall isn't), northern Tasmania, in 2011. The theatre up there (my parents live in Hobart, at the other end of the island, okay) was celebrating its centenary, and AusBallet sent a bunch of principals and senior artists down for a Gala Celebration. The audience was fine with pdds from Coppélia, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Merry Widow, and Sleeping Beauty and yes, all of those were included. It was the extract from Tim Harbour's Halcyon that had them puzzled, as of course no story information was included on the printed handout! I spent interval at all three shows (yes tragic but 2 hour drive and a cheapish hotel) explaining who and what! No need to do so here as it's been relegated to obscurity, having been created on and for Harbour's wife Madeleine Eastoe who is some years retired now.

@FionaE Guo Chengwu has an ongoing issue with a bulging disc in his back, and at times has struggled to walk, let alone dance. Well spotted. For anyone who doesn't know, Chen and Ako Kondo are the married to each other parents of one human and two canine babies. I'm thoroughly enjoying the speculations regarding the plot of Harlequinade - it's based on commedia dell'arte. Girl and boy in love, father not happy as he wants her to marry a rich nitwit, has her locked up, she escapes with help and a good fairy gives Harlequin a magical slap stick that helps him get his own back on the Old Man and the Fool, and he and Columbine can marry. Yes, it's quite similar to the plot of Don Quixote.

Maxim Zenin stayed in Australia with the group touring the regions. Aha! Thank you for clarifying that for me. Definitely Kondo then! Thank you! Yes, I eventually realised they're now calling it "The Australian Ballet On Tour" which is completely misleading and deliberately so (six corps members and the touring party is 43 - I baked them 11 dozen tiny cupcakes and muffins, 4 dozen of which were gluten-free). They're also, as you say, calling it (on socials) "National Tour" which, again, is basically a lie. Regional Victoria and NSW is hardly a "national" tour. When I said "national is pushing it" I literally meant that describing this tour as "national" was pushing the meaning of the word to well outside its normal parameters, I didn't mean to be seen as correcting you, and am sorry if it came across that way. It's only national in the sense that they're remaining in Australia.

I believe that was Amy Harris. Definitely her in @Silke H's Instagram-posted photos. Has been the case for years. I can remember as far back as 2010 they'd stopped indicating principal role debuts on cast sheets. Of the four male principals, he's by far the most experienced. Plus, you know, English dancer, English stage - AusBallet certainly aren't blind to publicity angles! Similar to his fellow Hull boy Xander Parish being named principal when the Mariinsky were in London. Yes. Isn't she gorgeous. And so TINY! Thank you everyone for your comments - it's been almost as good as seeing it all myself (especially as I do know the dancers)! I'll add that Harlequinade came to us just after Kunstkamer and you couldn't get much more of a contrast 😂 At the time I said to a friend "I quite liked Harlequinade it was a piece of fluff but such pretty fluff. I could just imagine it on the stage in Imperial Russia with Kschessinska taking her multitudinous bows in all her sparkling real diamonds!" It also had squadrons of children - 32 each show, total complement 72 to allow for covers. I was told that virtually every ballet school in Melbourne sent kids to the auditions and it was a case of "I was short, I fitted the costume, and I did what I was told." The Peck piece I did enjoy, it was such a lively and dancey contrast to Wayne McGregor's Obsidian Tear with which it was tripled (together with Alice Topp's Annealing, the pas de deux of which were lovely, the whole-company bits not quite so much). Just as a final aside, Marcus Morelli was one of the Basilios I saw earlier this year, teamed with Jill Ōgai. The other was Brett Chynoweth, with Yuumi Yamada.

I've sat through it twice. Once because it was sandwiched between Serenade and The Four Temperaments, with both of which it suffered in comparison, and once because it was part of the company's first Melbourne performance in 21 months. A gala closing, in December, with the pine forest and snow scene from Peter Wright's BRB Nutcracker 😍

Thanks @Sim, @annamk and @Bluebird for explaining that DH said it was (paraphrasing) about looking forward. I stand by my astonishment that in a "60th anniversary celebration" that should be stated as the case. Imagine Kevin O'Hare out front at the Royal Ballet's 100th birthday gala, explaining why no Ashton, MacMillan, de Valois, Wheeldon or Wright is on the programme. Queensland Ballet's 60th anniversary gala showcased works created or commissioned by each of the company's five artistic directors, including one original 1960 piece.

...but it was billed as a celebration of 60 years!

I understand Mr Murphy is not exactly Mr Hallberg's favourite choreographer @Sim 🤣 But seriously, it looks more like, DH's fave bits, plus a sop to the ROH (the MacMillan), absolutely incontrovertible company history (Nureyev), and something a married couple can work on in their own time (Tschai Pas).

Oh, but those fandango costumes are Historic! They were designed for the 1970 Nureyev production, used in the 1972 film, and Never Shall Be Changed. They are absolutely hideous. As are the wigs. The Alice Topp was an extract only, as was the Tanowitz. I often think more contemporary pieces suffer in the extraction. As a celebration of 60 years, it's absolutely remarkable that not one second of Graeme Murphy's many, many pieces for the company was deemed worthy of being included. Nor was anything by previous Resident Choreographers such as Stanton Welch, Stephen Baynes, or Natalie Weir. In fact as a representation of the company over 60 years, it was really rather unrepresentative. The Ratmansky/Petipa, Peck, Possokhov, Inger, and Tanowitz pieces only entered the company repertoire inside the last three years. Alice Topp's piece is from 2017. The Balanchine pdd was first performed by the company in 1995. The MacMillan's company première was in 1973, last seen in full in 2011. The Nureyev is from 1970. So nothing created for the company between 1970 and 2017, and no new-to-us work between 1973 and 1995. Some rather large gaps.

National is pushing it 😉 it's a Regional Tour, country Victoria and NSW only this year, and I went to company class here where I live yesterday, which was taught by Steven Heathcote. There was a 3yo in front of me, enthusiastically but silently conducting the pianist...in time! She was brilliant. I do love what used to be called Dancers' Company, such a good chance to spot potential stars of the future (Callum Linnane, O'Neill, Benedicte Bemet...). Traditionally it's the graduating year from the ABS with guests from the main company. Occasionally with injury or lack of numbers level 7s will tour as well, Hannah O'Neill was one such. The corps dancers on the tour, getting invaluable experience in roles they would not normally yet be considered for, are Sara Andrlon, Lilla Harvey, Samara Merrick, Hugo Dumapit, Cameron Holmes and Maxim Zenin. Harvey is this year's Rising Star Award winner, Isobelle Dashwood the People's Choice. Holmes spent much of 2022 in the Australian company of An American in Paris as Jerry (after Robbie Fairchild), and Zenin is ex-Mariinsky and has beautiful upper body lines. Grace Carroll who was never not going to London is the beautiful publicity image - typical of a company that once released a DVD with cover photos featuring dancers not actually on the DVD 😂 Of the current company principals, as @Emeralds says, neither Robyn Hendricks nor Amber Scott is in London. I think soloist Ingrid Gow may still be on maternity leave too. Otherwise all the dancers at soloist, senior artist and principal rank are there. Coryphée and corps I'm pretty sure are all there apart from the six on Regional Tour.

It's a matinée and you'll be able to watch the end of the men's road race while waiting for the train 😉