Sophoife

Oops sorry I meant that Luke Jennings "probably...has too many plates spinning and has had to carefully place one down."

(re Luke Jennings' retirement from the Observer/Guardian)

Probably given that his originally self-published novella Villanelle took off so well and is now the critically-acclaimed (haha - meaning funny that a critic gets critical acclaim) Killing Eve TV series, with one of my favourite actresses, the Canadian Sandra Oh in the Eve role, he has too many plates spinning and has had to drop one?

@The Traveling Ballerina How great that despite a lifetime's experience, one can still revel in a different take on an old favourite. Funnily enough BW cdb member Dominic Ballard comes from the Albury-Wodonga area, my current home, and he told me in mid-year it was a Nutcracker to delight in!

@LinMMI remember telling Miwako about seeing Miyako Yoshida guesting in Sydney in Madame Butterfly (Stanton Welch) in the mid-90s and her saying Yoshida was her idol and wishing they'd revive it. They did. She got to dance it (and be the image of the production) and was beautiful.

9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Is Miwako Kubota from Japan.......did she dance once with a Japanese Company?

Yes to the first and no to the second. She came to the Australian Ballet School at 16, and graduated into the company, dancing for us for 18 years with great beauty and technique. She retired at the end of 2016, dancing Swanhilda with Chris Rodgers-Wilson (ex-BRB) as her Franz.

On 05/12/2018 at 22:30, jmb said:

Sophoife said that she was opening this thread in the hope that I, amoung others, would write a review before she saw TAB's Cinderella next week. Really sorry, Sophoife, but I thought I'd write after I've seen Alex Campbel, so that I can hopefully effuse about at least one dancer that many BCoF will have seen or be able to see. Having said that, I have also to say that Cinderella is terrific. The dancers are fantastic, the choreography wonderful, the music music engrossing and the set design amazing. More next week.

Thanks! But you spelled my last name wrong 😉 mind you, it's a new one on me - usually people write "Cambell"! (Er, yes, Sophoife is a virtually unpronounceable made-up word, combination of Sophie and Aoife, neither of which is my actual name)

I will enthuse too but will be sniffling as I write because I will have seen Leanne Stojmenov's final show and one of Lana Jones' last few shows.

@jmb I hope you're going to talk about all the casts you see...and yes, isn't it a great production. I remember the première with Stojmenov and Daniel Gaudiello...

Oh well I'm going to have to watch Australian Ballet's recording of Nutcracker with Kevin Jackson as the Prince, Benedicte Bemet as Clara, Andrew Killian as Drosselmeyer and Madeleine Eastoe as the SPF. And my much-loved and missed Miwako Kubota as the Rose Fairy. And no creepy angels.

(Available on DVD or to stream through the company's website, section called Ballet TV, which is pretty good, a number of full-length ballets to stream and a lot of trailers and stuff as well)

(Miwako Kubota retired two years ago and now has a beautiful baby boy)

(And I really really don't like the Balanchine version. He and narrative never seem a happy marriage in my personal opinion. And as for all those children...!)

We here in Oz have the BRB version and whenever I watch the RB version (I have two on DVD and yes I notice tweaks) the whole Hans-Peter plot annoys me. Go away boy! @Dawnstar that's the major difference - no HP in the BRB/TAB version.

I really like that the Nutcracker turns into a prince who dances with the SPF (who in turn disappears from the last ensemble to be replaced by Clara). The forest awakening scene is my favourite part of the whole ballet, and the end behind the (dreaded) scrim where the prince brings Clara back home is so lovely...

Oh and Snow Fairy is a named role and has four Cavaliers aka the Winds if I'm remembering right...

24 minutes ago, DD Driver said:

Someone who went the other night said that they wished more principals and soloists had been cast e.g. as planets etc.  I understand this was how it was when Ratmansky first staged this with The Australian Ballet in 2015 and that it was magical

It was. But they had experienced soloists Brett Simon and Andrew Wright then. And they weren't "down" four principal men. And they had Daniel Gaudiello with Miss Stojmenov. And the sublime trio of Amy Harris as Stepmother, Ingrid Gow as Skinny Stepsister and Eloise Fryer as Dumpy Stepsister. I don't see Harris' name anywhere on the published casting, maybe she was also going to the US with her husband Jarryd Madden? And Eloise Fryer retired a couple of years ago and is now in Toronto with her husband Joseph Chapman, who has joined NBoC.

3 minutes ago, Esmeralda said:

Also some dancers who will dance their entire life in the corps de ballet won´t have so many chances to get it like Soloists, principals etc...

So very true. I was so surprised and pleased when they all came out, as they also did in Stuttgart, because it's definitely not a thing they do at Australian Ballet.

Oh and in response to @northstar on my visit last year I bought a programme and it contained a trifold A4 double-sided photocopied sheet listing the creatives, full cast including every swan and courtier, company management etc, theatre staff, orchestra members, and a very detailed synopsis! I'm sure @Esmeralda can give you more up to date info?

2 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

Wasn't there ... seeing this cast at a later performance ... but lovely to see Benjamin Ella back amongst the throng.  

And for those of us who remember his parents' dancing there's an extra fillip 😀

and with regards to Mr Muntagirov and Jan and Fiz' comments above which I can't figure how to quote in an edited post: Ha nearly every post Marianela Nuñez makes on Instagram featuring him just calls him "Vadream", as in fact do posts by most of his dancing partners. I think if he had a problem with it he'd have told them by now. IIRC it was Daria Klimentová who started it.

I think it speaks volumes as to their various feelings when partnering him, and from what others have said over the last 40-odd years, it's by no means all or even a majority of partners who are "a dream" to work with.

An ex-Australian Ballet dancer now in Berlin said they often ice as soon as they get off stage, then just whizz back into costume for the bows! 

I love that in Berlin everyone takes a bow! I saw the Patrice Bart Swan Lake there last year and all the court and peeps from the third act took bows as well as the swans, the Queen, Rothbart, Siegfried and Odette/Odile.

Yes they do these days. Robyn Hendricks was promoted after her Odette/Odile debut - what a night, within seconds of her first entrance we knew we were watching something very special.

Unfortunately a couple of promotions have come on someone else's retirement night, and I do hope that doesn't happen this year, as there is recent precedent for people being promoted not dancing a leading role. It seems so disrespectful to the retiree, for one thing!

I love the French phrasing "j'ai assisté à une représentation... où X a été nommé.e étoile" because of course a cursory glance says "I helped..." 😉 when it really says "I attended..."

Opening this thread in hopes of reports from @jmb, @DD Driver and @Bluebird before I make it to Sydney!

Alexander Campbell is dancing the Prince to Leanne Stojmenov's Cinderella on 12 and 14 December, otherwise only Ty King-Wall and Chengwu Guo, just two of six male TAB principals (one doesn't do it, two injured, one in Birmingham with BRB) and a wealth of talent from the middle ranks ie soloists Brodie James, Cristiano Martino and Marcus Morelli, and coryphée Callum Linnane.

In the Cinderella role are both Stojmenov and Lana Jones in their final performances before retiring, also Ako Kondo and Robyn Hendricks, plus senior artists Dimity Azoury and Jade Wood, and soloist Sharni Spencer - I think her debut main stage principal role.

Opening night was last Friday, after which Wood was announced as winner of this year's Ballet Dancer Award.

Room for at least one promotion...but it won't be the night I'm there as I'm supposed to have Stojmenov and Campbell.

Having only seen the brief clips available on Instagram (both Marianela Nuñez and Vadim "Vadream" Muntagirov have reposted other users' videos, mostly shot in the cinema from the looks of things), oh my goodness I cannot wait until 22nd December when it's on here. I shall also go on Christmas Eve 😉

Haha LinMM and Sim...the next time I saw this man (by careful arrangement on my part) I asked him again about those projections. He had the gall to repeat that I should buy better seats.

I presented him with my printout showing exactly how much I'd spent on seeing his damn ballet (which I enjoyed) seven times. Including costs of travel, accommodation, and subsistence while visiting Melbourne and Sydney. I also gave a copy to the company's AD who came past and stopped to say hello.

Both of them read in silence and the choreographer then apologised, saying "but you're an exception". The AD said "yes we really should do something about this".

I explained gently that I'm not an exception and that in fact it used to cost even more when travelling from Hobart.

This was five years ago and I've not yet seen an improvement.

41 minutes ago, Richmondhill said:

It does make you wonder if choreographers and stagers take the trouble to visit each area of the auditorium when making or designing a new piece. I was lucky to sit in the Grand Tier for a head-on view but you could tell for US at least a third of the horizontal staging would be obscured for seats above, let alone traditional problems of far stage left/right sight lines.

I think, based on what I've seen, that they don't. All the comments here and on Bayadère about scrims/screens recently...and what a difference there is in so many ballets between a straight-line viewing and one from an elevated position.

Elevation: one can really see the patterns the dancers are making on stage. Unfortunately increasingly large amounts of set, backdrop, projections, and/or stuff hanging from flies become invisible. And with the increasing use of projections supposedly integral to pieces, this is more and more relevant.

Straight-line: all sets, backdrop, visual projections etc visible. Full effect generated. Can't see stage patterns made by dancers.

I actually complained to a choreographer in person once that the projection that had been made much of was invisible from anywhere except the stalls in the two very different theatres in which I'd seen the ballet. His response was that I should buy better seats.

...meanwhile in Sydney for Cinderella of the six male principals at TAB, two are injured, one doesn't do this role, one's in Birmingham and we've borrowed one from y'all for two shows. Our sole male senior artist was not cast as he was meant to be guesting in the US but it fell through at the last minute.

Three of the seven men dancing the role are soloists, two Aussie principals (from China and New Zealand), one RB principal (an actual Aussie), and the one I really would love to see but because I don't live in Sydney and had to book my trip before any casting came out (8 days before opening night) so won't be seeing, is a coryphée.

TAB ranks BTW are principal artist, senior artist, soloist, coryphée, corps de ballet.

I feel like I'm rewriting the Four Yorkshiremen sketch. 😂

Lol

4 minutes ago, alison said:

I obviously looked at the wrong bits - namely the postage section only.

I was questioning the misspelling of the subscribe button to myself, then I saw the POB Robbins which looked good but as it won't be in cinemas here until June 2019, I got suspicious and that was what sent me looking for site owner info etc...which there isn't any of...

The RB recordings are indeed no longer there. And the button labelled "Subrscribe" was a bit of a giveaway. Also that they don't post immediately. And there's zero information regarding the company.

12 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

...thanks for the correction Sophoife

 

Sorry to do it...but thanks for being so cool about it. 

@alison your Google skills put mine to shame! But having a closer look at that site, I find this in the Terms and Conditions: "all items are made to order" and you can choose a plastic sleeve or a full colour box and artwork. Also they're selling a Blu-ray of the 2018 Robbins tribute that was broadcast live in cinemas on 8 November. No DVD release date has yet been announced.

Also, I, um, happen to be acquainted with, um, shall we say, a place on the interwebs where all these ballet and opera cinema broadcasts (and much other stuff) can be found, usually within 12 hours of the broadcast, and the specs look remarkably similar (I checked).

Methinks 'tis a pirate, arrr! ☠️

Oh the Calvert Magri and McRae ones were on Instagram TV...dancersdiary aka Andrej Uspenski - links on his Instagram page too i thought they were terrific.

PS welcome back to the Sunburnt Country!!

23 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

on amazon, I found this:

 

Tribute to Jerome Robbins, by POB. One of the reviews says that 'In the Night' is followed by 'Dances at a Gathering' - so you may be in luck

 

Hi Dave, that review said In the Night followed Dances at a Gathering meaning he made the former after the latter. I own this particular DVD and it only has En sol, The Concert and In the Night. Plus the Millepied which I've watched once.

Sorry Blossom, you are right that you want the DVD with the Ratmansky as well. However they don't have that for sale. They do have the programme from that 2014 season for €12 though.

Andthe POB shop online used to ship to Australia but now nowhere outside "mainland Europe" including some small islands eg Malta - how odd! Because I bought my DVDs in 2016 as I'd never seen En sol and I wanted to spend my first visit to the Garnier enjoying, not learning a new-to-me ballet...and then found the Boléro was Cherkaoui/Jalet not Béjart!

Lucky duck.