Sophoife

@Benjamin, without wishing to trample on your comment, I feel a little further information on The Australian Ballet under David McAllister's artistic direction is warranted. McAllister scheduled everything from mid-2001 onwards, and 2004 was most definitely a McAllister schedule. See his memoir Soar for details: "...because he [Ross Stretton] wanted to keep his tenure until the end of 2001, while starting with The Royal Ballet in September of the same year and effectively running two companies at once. The board eventually kyboshed this, and set the changeover date at midyear. "...Shortly afterwards, Ross came to me about the schedule he had prepared for the 2001 season; he wanted to include La Fille mal gardée. I pushed back: it felt as though he was trying to pigeonhole my first months in charge by scheduling a ballet that I had been closely aligned with, and I knew he would never have programmed that ballet during his tenure. We reached agreement by replacing it with a mixed program that I felt more comfortable with." McAllister seasons for information purposes: 2012: triple bill of 3 world premieres, Cranko's Onegin (first time since 1996), triple bill of 3 old ballets (The Display Helpmann 1964, Beyond Twelve Graeme Murphy 1980, Gemini Tetley 1973), new Swan Lake. Fifth season replaced by "showcase of Australian dance" while company in New York. 2011: Madame Butterfly Stanton Welch, triple bill (de Valois' Checkmate, Macmillan's Concerto, Wheeldon's After the Rain), double bill of Stephen Baynes (Requiem, Beyond Bach), Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow, Graeme Murphy’s Romeo & Juliet. 2010: The Silver Rose (Graeme Murphy), Coppélia, gala bill to celebrate founding AD Dame Peggy van Praagh (Giselle peasant pdd, Garland Dance from Sleeping Beauty, pdd Act III Ashton Cinderella, Gala Performance, other stuff I can't remember), triple bill (At the Edge of Night (Baynes), Halcyon (Tim Harbour), and Baynes' Molto Vivace), and Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker. 2009: Welch Sleeping Beauty (2005, 2009), Murphy Nutcracker: Story of Clara, triple bill (Petrouchka, Les Sylphides (2006, 2009), Graeme Murphy's Firebird), triple bill (Ratmansky Scuola di Ballo, Por vos muero (Duato), and the McGregor Dyad 1929), double bill (Suite en Blanc (2006, 2009), Welch's Divergence - last seen 2001). 2008: Visit to Paris with Murphy Swan Lake and another Bangarra collaboration, Rites. Plus Manon, Murphy Swan Lake, triple bill (new pieces inspired by the Ballets Russes: Mrozewski Semele, Fonte, Baynes), Robbins tribute (Australian premieres of The Cage and A Suite of Dances, plus Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert), mixed bill (Ballet Imperial, pdd from La Bayadère, pdd from Act 3 of Sleeping Beauty, Grand Pas Classique, Esmerelda pdd and Paquita pdt), plus visit to Brisbane with Giselle and Adelaide with a mixed bill (Afternoon of a Faun, Symphonie Fantastique, Ballet Imperial). 2007: Nureyev Don Quixote, Peter Wright Nutcracker, mixed bill featuring Paquita pdt etc etc, mixed bill (After the Rain, Constant Variants (Baynes), Apollo), mixed bill (Les Présages (Massine), Symphonie Fantastique (Pastor), and something else I can't remember), Japan tour. 2006: Baynes Raymonda, Fokine tribute (Les Sylphides, Spectre de la rose, Schéhérazade), Bangarra collaboration (Rites, Amalgamate), Giselle, RNZB triple bill (while TAB buggered off to the UK with, guess what, Murphy's Swan Lake). 2005: Bournonville 200th birthday tribute (La Sylphide, Le Conservatoire, Flower Festival in Genzano PdD, and Walter Bourke's Grand Tarantelle), Welch Sleeping Beauty (premiere), WA Ballet La Bohème, mixed bill (Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère, Suite en Blanc, new Adrian Burnett), mixed Kylian bill (Forgotten Land, Stepping Stones, Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze). 2004: La Fille mal gardée (first time since 1993 plus we got Angel Corella as Colas!), Murphy Swan Lake, Balanchine tribute (Serenade, Symphony in C, Agon)...you get the idea.

What she said. I'm about three weeks away from my first Royal Ballet performance of this Ashton ballet since 1969. I've seen it in between but not from this company.

Peregrine will, of course, be in Paris! 😂🐎

@JohnS that's absolutely how I feel. Six years ago a friend and I arrived at Castlerigg after a day of driving round, and we walked across from the gate and it was... otherworldly. I could certainly believe that those who built it believed they were at the centre of their world. I did not take one photo, just absorbed it all.

So actually when I saw them together in 1969 they were in their sixties and when Helpmann did it in Australia he would have been in his seventies! I remember quite well his Australian shows and he was the dominant figure on stage - but maybe that was just his outsize stage personality? I'll be really interested to compare my memories with the current production when I see it on 27th April. Ashton's stepsister was quite shy and very much dominated by her sister Helpmann IIRC. As a tiny child I was mesmerised by the fairies and by Cinderella and her Prince (I'm told I cried when she danced with the broom!), later on I could appreciate the whole production.

The press conference was live streamed and yes, I heard José Martinez say Miss Nuñez would be guesting in Fille.

My favourite thing was that Lily retired to a convent in Brittany. I really enjoyed his memoirs, too. What a lovely man he seems to have been, despite vicissitudes.

As I was reminded this afternoon at an Australian Ballet matinée of Nureyev's Don Quixote: people (grown adults over the age of 40) who repeatedly move their feet and legs, thumping or kicking the back of the seat in front of them. When I whip my head round and silently glare, it stops, but starts again within minutes. When politely spoken to at interval (apologising of course for the glares), they deny all responsibility, even knowledge, and proceed to repeat the activity in the second act. Come the third, thank you lovely usher I've been moved to the front row of the balcony. At first I thought it must be a child. Not so, all children mesmerised. Not a squeak except when cheering at the end.

I would like to say here that I know for a fact that at least one company artistic director in the USA reads this forum. Because he called his retiring principal dancer in to say he'd seen mention on this forum of his retirement, then showed him the page 😳 (I think maybe he was idly googling his dancers to assess their social media reach or something) so I fully support the mods in their endeavours and reasons. My name is Anna Campbell, I live in Albury NSW and I'm not hiding behind my online nick of 27 years.

@rosefairy thank you so much for starting this thread! Everyone who has contributed suggestions, tips and personal warm and fuzzies, thank you so much too! I'm coming to London, solo, in late April and mid-May (Paris, Italy and Zürich in between), and I have a whole raft of new ideas! As I'm staying near Gloucester Road tube station, I have a feeling the V&A will be the subject of at least one day. Incidentally I'll be at the ROH for Cinderella on Thursday 27th April and Sleeping Beauty on Thursday 11th May, amphitheatre both times, so if anyone would like to say hi (I would love that) please PM me.

🤣 I remember when the first mobile phones aka bricks became available. Someone using one on public transport was stared at and most users in my experience spoke specially loudly and clearly. "Look at ME, I have a MOBILE PHONE I'm so IMPORTANT" 🤣 Today it's more "I don't care if you're disturbed, irritated, upset or annoyed - it's my right to do whatever I want as loudly and odoriferously as I want wherever and whenever I want".

No, Thomas Docquir is not the sujet promoted étoile. That was Guillaume Diop 😉 Docquir is certainly considered a future étoile.

Australian former cyclist Robbie McEwen frequently commentates live for GCN streaming service from his home in Queensland, Australia, joining England-based voices via the magic of the internets. Cycling podcast Never Strays Far often sees Ned Boulting, David Millar and Peter Kennaugh in three different (usually European) countries. I see no reason Brandon and @ToThePointe can't continue. Durn it though, I would so love to see Still Life at the Penguin Café but I get a feeling extending my European trip a further month might just be a step too far. 👍

Dear God. My local cinema sells nachos so I refuse to go there. The nearest decent cinema aka one that doesn't sell nachos is 3½ hours away by road. My niece (then 4) told her father (thinking he was being kind to try to explain the plot) "No talkin' in the ballet Daddy!" which had the extra effect of shutting up the two elderly ladies in front who were comparing Productions They Had Seen - in normal speaking voices during a performance. Her father asked at interval why she had told him not to talk and she said with a shocked look on her face, "But Daddy they are PEOPLE dancin'. They might hear you and fall over!" She also pointed out that her mother, grandmother and two aunts had all told her very firmly not to talk if the lights were off. That's not elitist it's good manners.

Aww @Dawnstar no! You know how to behave. I reckon the fact that the lady friend was allowed to stay says she either didn't say anything or otherwise failed to corroborate his punching and slapping rubbish. I've had a couple of other bad experiences but gosh, I couldn't imagine never seeing live performance again. And a good glare can be felt in the dark. Keep it up 😉

I'd never seen him before (it's my subscription seat so the same each time I go) so I just hope he was a one-off using the usual person's tickets and will never be there again. Hey ho Don Q next week ("reimagined from the iconic 1973 film") but then I'm treating myself to Cinderella (Morera/Ball) and Sleeping Beauty (Takada/Hay) while in Europe.

There are some risks in politely asking people not to lean forward. Late last year at Romeo and Juliet in Melbourne I leaned forward, used one finger to politely tap the shoulder of the tall man in front of me, and asked him please not to lean forward, as neither I nor the people in the ten rows behind me could see a thing. He did not react well. He slapped his hand in my direction and hit my leg. At interval he loudly and vehemently reported me to the ushers for assaulting him - according to him I punched him in the shoulder and slapped the back of his head. An usher came to me and asked me for my version. I'm 5'3" and dumpy. He was a good 14, maybe more, inches taller than me. All of a sudden another voice chimed in and corroborated my story, she had been sitting directly behind me. It was she who then suggested I show the ushers where he had slapped me. As I bruise very easily there was an enormous mark on my thigh, just above the knee. He was escorted from the building by security, loudly protesting he'd paid for his seat and was entitled to stay. I was given an empty seat in the front row of the circle. I believe his lady friend was permitted to stay, I really hope she didn't have a bad time on next seeing him. So thank you, unknown lady from behind. Thank you Arts Centre ushers and security. Gosh I hope that man's not there this year! 😂

Solor of course. Stupid autocorrect. I just worked out that of the current male étoiles, apart from Mathieu Ganio (20) and Mathias Heymann (21), 23 is the "correct" age for nomination: Germain Louvet, Hugo Marchand, Paul Marque, and now Guillaume Diop. Marc Moreau (36) entered the company in 2004, when Diop was four 😂

At the end of a performance of Giselle in Seoul, Korea (where half of POB is on tour)), Director of Dance José Martinez has announced that sujet Guillaume Diop, who had just danced Albrecht opposite Dorothée Gilbert, Is nominated étoile. Three in 10 days wowzas that's a bit speedy. Diop is a beautiful dancer who has been regarded by many as étoile in waiting - he has already danced Romeo, Basilio, Solid and now Albrecht, just in the last two years. Unlike Germain Louvet he has not even achieved the rank of premier danseur, having only been promoted sujet at the 2022 promotion competition. Louvet was nominated after being promoted but before the new year when the promotion would have taken effect.

No, you were absolutely correct. Photos on AusBallet Instagram today.

Just want to thank all who contribute to this thread. My upcoming trip to England will require trains (Yorkshire, Nottingham and Cirencester) and the information y'all provide makes me nervous but at least I'm an informed nervous.

The Australian Ballet has announced its 2023 season will once again be "livestreamed". Happily the model has changed and we now have 14 days from the start of each stream to watch, on "any" device. Cost is $100AUD for all four, or $29/26AUD separately. Sadly the mixed première bill Identity featuring new work by Alice Topp and Daniel Riley is not included. The four shows are Don Quixote, Jewels, Swan Lake and The Dream/Marguerite and Armand. All start at 7:15pm Australian east coast time. The dates are Friday 24 March (Don Quixote) Thursday 6 July (Jewels) Friday 29 September (Swan Lake) Tuesday 21 November (Ashton bill) Casting is usually available a week or so before each season starts, with Melbourne Don Quixote casts here (Ako Kondo as Kitri, Chengwu Guo as Basilio, and about-to-retire Adam Bull as the Don). Here is the Ballet TV page with details.

Oh no! Yet another piece of my youth shattered. Thank you for the info and at least we have our memories.

Unavailable in Australia too. Isn't it lucky I bought a 12-month VPN subscription which I have just discovered allows me to watch france.tv streams! Plus they made sure the on-screen credits say "Hannah O'Neill étoile Marc Moreau étoile"...didn't they used to say "danseur/danseuse étoile"?

Hannah started ballet in Japan, but in terms of vocational training, she was "made" at Mount Eden Ballet Academy in New Zealand before three years at ABS. After seasonal or surnuméraire contracts in 2011 and 2012, she gained a permanent quadrille position in 2013. Three months later she was promoted to coryphée at the internal competition, rising to sujet in 2014 and première danseuse in 2015 - at which competition she was classified above the lovely Léonore Baulac, who was nominated étoile in December 2016. She has won Prix de Lausanne (2009), YAGP (2010), internal POB Prix du Cercle Carpeaux for the under-24s and silver medal at Varna (2014), internal POB Prix de l'AROP (2015), and the Benois de la Danse in 2016. As you so rightly point out @SheilaC roles for her dried up under the directorship of Aurélie Dupont. For example, she danced Odette-Odile in 2015 but in 2019 got the pas de trois. Back when she was at ABS she was something really special, and those of us who saw her dance then knew her dream of Paris and it's so fabulous to see her finally reach the étoile rank. Interestingly Hannah is the third current female étoile to have joined via the external competition without having trained one day in Nanterre: Ludmila Pagliero and Sae Eun Park the other two. None of the current male étoiles followed that route.