Sophoife

Closer to home @DD Driver, Isobelle Dashwood of Australian Ballet is I think 5'10" maybe even a bit taller, and Yuumi Yamada is not quite 5'0". Clearly the current AD, whatever his other failings may or may not be, doesn't have an ideal height for female dancers!

Also, that audition call for Bayerische Staatsballett is weird. Their principal Yonah Acosta is 5'8", yet wouldn't qualify if he were required to audition!

On 26/10/2018 at 16:04, Sophoife said:

If anyone on the forum sees Tzu-Chao Chou as Colas, I'd be grateful for a report please.

On 26/10/2018 at 17:16, Jan McNulty said:

I was going to do a full roundup after Saturday but yes I saw his debut with Karla Doorbar yesterday afternoon.

 

It was a joyous experience altogether.  Perhaps there was some nervousness at the start but certainly by Act 2 (the haystack scene in BRB's 3 act production) he and Karla were firing on all cylinders.  Their dancing was crisp and vivacious and their interaction together was gorgeously romantic.  I really felt that they were a young couple madly in love.  Very auspicious debuts altogether!

 

(PS - I am biased but then the cheers from the audience backed up my feelings!)

22 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

On Thursday afternoon we saw the debuts of Karla Doorbar and Tzu-chao Chou.  They were very well matched and the main word I can think of to describe Karla is exquisite.  They were achingly romantic together and the kisses up the arm scene brought me out in goosebumps!

Thank you so much Jan. Achingly romantic is something we never had the opportunity to see Tzu-Chao do in Oz, and now I just want to get on a plane and see the entire Sadler's Wells season, as you've whetted my appetite for all casts, and AusBallet hasn't done Fille since 2004 (I couldn't get to Brisbane for QldBallet's, and anyway it's not Ashton it's Greg Horsman).

On reflection the person who assaulted me knew full well why they had been tapped on the shoulder: when they launched their tirade, I hadn't yet said even "Excuse me"! So obviously it was their habit, and they'd been told before they were inconveniencing others but didn't care, and were now tired of being interrupted. Probably all my fault for being a foot shorter, choosing a seat behind them, and having the temerity to want to actually see what I'd paid to see.

4 hours ago, Geoff said:

The ROH are doing everything they can to "open up": this inevitably brings people into the house who are at the other end of the spectrum of experience from the sit-quiet-and-behave regulars.

With reference to the above quote, I read it as saying that people will come into the house who are not the sit-quiet-and-behave regulars, but people who are less...is passive the right word, or maybe polite... about bad behaviour, meaning they will not hesitate to call it out!

1 hour ago, Richard LH said:

Why we should assume that new attendees, that are encouraged by the open up project,  "inevitably" will be  badly behaved? You're saying you have to be a long-standing regular to the ROH in order to learn good manners?

Now you've obviously taken the completely opposite meaning...isn't it interesting how we all interpret written language differently!

I got in a bit of a discussion on Twitter last year for taking what the OP then said loud and clear was the wrong meaning, and yet both of us had supporters in the sense that some saw the post the way I saw it, some the way the OP said it was. I agreed I may have misinterpreted, the OP agreed their response had been inflammatory and we all calmed down, but it certainly made me think.

10 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

just give 'em a tap on the shoulder and ask them to lean back. The sight lines are designed for people sitting with their backs against the back of the seat - so usually all they will miss is the orchestra pit  - and allow people behind them to see something!

 

Oh good luck with that with some people. I had possibly my most distressing experience ever in a theatre last year. I quietly tapped the person on the shoulder only to have my wrist forcefully grabbed and my arm pulled so I was forced almost head to head with this person. I said, "I only wanted to ask you to please sit back in your seat so I can actually see the stage, please" and this person said "I will sit how I effing want to sit, you have no effing right to effing touch me I will effing have you for assault, now effing leave me alone and eff off." They then released my wrist in such a way that I was almost thrown back into my seat. Now I am hefty though short and that took some force.

I did of course report to the usher at the interval, who was suitably shocked and found me another seat. I wish I had reported the person to the police as I did have a lovely bruise bracelet the next day.

What stunned me was the complete non-reaction of any of the neighbouring patrons - in my row and the one in front - to a definite act of violence. I was crying with pain and shock and the person two seats to my right leaned over and asked me to please be quiet. It would have caused more disturbance if I had tried to leave as I was in the middle of the row, in a theatre with side aisles only.

I know Australian Ballet sells used pointe shoes in their online shop: you used to be able to choose your dancer from a drop-down list and the prices were flexible depending on your choice. It's now $99/pair and no choice is available. Given their heavily-promoted  partnership with Bloch, it's funny how many use Freed, and half a dozen are now using Gaynor Minden.

On 31/07/2018 at 08:39, DD Driver said:

The Australian Ballet ITP (Interstate/International Training Program) students appear to be selected in a similar way to the UK, Canadian etc junior associates.  Various skills are tested at auditions - for 9 yrs and up - but aesthtics seem to play a large part in selection at the younger years i.e. not just facility in terms of turn-out but having the desired look/body type.  

(my emphasis)

Which is actually either hilariously funny or ridiculously stupid when you think about it. Why? Take a look at the company's dancers. All shapes and sizes, ranging from a particularly tiny Japanese corps member (I'm not 100% sure she's even reached five feet (1.52m) tall) to a six foot four (1.95m) principal. Some of the female dancers have "womanly" shapes, others are like stick insects in the nicest possible way. Some of the males are lean and muscly, other are more boyish in their appearance. Some of the females are five foot nine (1.75m) or taller, at least two of the males are shorter than five foot eight (1.72m).

Given all that, how they can continue to justify choosing ITP children based on their look at the age of nine or 11 is beyond me.

Hello balletnut55 and hurray, reports from Stuttgart! I really like some of the things they have there: the pretty lake outlook, the free-postcard-to-anywhere-just-fill-in-the-blanks (my German's just about adequate for that but I did have to ask what two of the adjectives meant), and what demi-soloist Jessica Fyfe tells me is a regular thing - dancers at a table in the foyer/gallery/whatever they call it during intervals, signing autographs.

Isn't David Moore wonderful? I saw him as Romeo last year (with Elisa Badenes), and also the excellent Matteo Crockard-Villa.

If anyone on the forum sees Tzu-Chao Chou as Colas, I'd be grateful for a report please.

On 23/10/2018 at 06:34, Don Q Fan said:

Definitely not suitable for a 7 year old. Teenagers yes but not under say 12. 

On 23/10/2018 at 07:16, Blossom said:

 

I would love to take my 11 year old but feel she is still too young for this. I think there should be age limitations for Manon and even more so for Mayerling. 

My first Manon was Merle Park in July 1974 when I was eight years old, our last ROH hurrah before returning to Australia after five years in England.

My memories (which had to last me until 1994 when Australian Ballet did it for the first time) were largely sad ones. As a child obviously I didn't understand the undercurrents, and back then the Gaoler had a Mistress (she was well jel of Manon), but my overall impression was what a sad story it was. Those poor girls with their sad music falling down all over the place. The pretty happy girl who died in the end. The funny but nasty boy who bleeded when he died! Imagine my mental revisions seeing it again at 28!

What I'm trying to say is, from my own experience, without having had too much explained to me, I wasn't adversely affected by seeing it. I think age-related attendance should be individually assessed by the adult wishing to take a child. I was fine at eight, some children might be not fine at 14.

In retrospect I certainly saw some fine dancers that I now recognise how lucky I am to have seen: Nureyev on début as des Grieux, Desmond Kelly and Lesley Collier as Lescaut and his Mistress, Derek Rencher as GM, David Drew and Georgina Parkinson as the Gaoler and his Mistress, Gerd Larsen as Madame, Wayne Sleep as the beggar chief, with Derek Deane as a Townsperson, Wendy Ellis as a Harlot, and David Ashmole and Wayne Eagling as Gentlemen.

Melbourne:

• The Happy Prince - new Graeme Murphy - 19-26 March
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Wheeldon - 8-22 June
• LAC - Jean-Christophe Maillot - Les Ballets de Monte Carlo - 27 June-6 July
• Sylvia - Stanton Welch - 31 August-10 September
• The Nutcracker - Sir Peter Wright - 17-28 September

Sydney:

• Verve - mixed bill of Stephen Baynes' Constant Variants, Alice Topp's Aurum, and Tim Harbour's Filigree and Shadow - 5-25 April
• The Happy Prince - 1-18 May
• Sylvia - 8-23 November
• The Nutcracker - 30 November-18 December

Plus Alice in Brisbane 25 February-2 March and The Nutcracker in Adelaide 8-12 October.

Plus Paris in July, and a mixed bill at the Joyce Theater in New York in late May, comprising Aurum, Unspoken Dialogues by Stephen Baynes, and a new Tim Harbour.

Casting will be available on the company website approximately one week before each season opens. Allegedly.

My brother and I have a joint subscription to Australian Ballet's Melbourne seasons. This means five nights over the period March-September. For 2017 it was $636 each for second-rank seats. For 2018 the exact same seats will cost us $812 each, which is $176 or (I think) a 27% increase. And for three of five shows we're further back than usual as they're removing the front two rows to accommodate a larger orchestra pit. Sadly all the cheaper seats are either way at the side (restricted view although they rarely admit it) or way up the back. Grrr 😡

6 hours ago, alison said:

It's still relatively rare for non-French (or non-POB-trained?) dancers to enter the company, though, isn't it?  Or am I out of date here? 

Not at all out of date, Alison. 95% at least of the company was trained at their school. The not-French thing is a bit less rare though - there's even a small group that does summer tours under the name Les Italiens du Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, and the étoile Eleonora Abbagnato is also the AD of the ballet company of the Rome Opera. 

I clearly spend far too much time reading French ballet blogs and news. I learned about the concours externe etc. because of Hannah O'Neill.

It is, however, almost unheard-of for a non-French child to enter the school at 11 and go all the way. Most foreign students enter for a year or two after the Prix de Lausanne, for example Bianca Scudamore, who is currently a coryphée with the company.

Yes, Hallberg was there, and yes I seem to remember he was miserable.

There is only one way to join: by audition. Every year the company has X places in the corps de ballet, some male, some female.

It first holds an audition solely for students of the POB school (the concours interne) at which the candidates are ranked and the top one/two/however many, male separately from female, are offered a contract. Some years all the available permanent contracts are offered at this audition.

The company then holds an open audition (concours externe) for dancers 16-26, who can have trained anywhere. Many of the unsuccessful POB school students also attend this audition. Applicants may be eliminated before the actual audition based on the file they send in application. The audition proper consists of a class, after which some candidates will be eliminated, followed by a classical variation selected from the company's repertoire (they say which one each year). At the end, again, candidates are ranked. If there are permanent contracts available, they are awarded in order of ranking, however it is rare for more than one male and one female dancer to get a permanent contract from this audition. 

Those who are not offered a permanent contract may, in order of audition ranking, be offered a temporary contract as a surnuméraire. These dancers are not guaranteed to dance on stage. They attend company class, learn all the corps roles, and may go on if someone is injured or ill.

Many people try this concours externe more than once.

For example, current étoile Ludmila Pagliero trained in her home country of Argentina, and danced for three years with Santiago Ballet of Chile before, at 20, winning a silver medal at the New York International Ballet Competition and being offered a year's contract at American Ballet Theatre. In the meantime (2003)  she went to Paris for the concours externe, was ranked 5th, and only two permanent contracts were given. Two months later she was offered a three-month temp contract, which was extended, but she wasn't on stage for six months. She finally won a permanent contract at the 2005 concours. 

Current premières danseuses Hannah O'Neill and Sae Eun Park had similar entry patterns: Park was already dancing with ABT II, and O'Neill was in her final year at the Australian Ballet School, both got temp contracts their first year, then Park got a permanent one. O'Neill had two years of temp contracts, then a permanent one. Both had a lot of competition experience, which has helped them in POB's promotion competitions. The POB school doesn't send many students to competitions so some of them struggle with the pressure of the promotion comps (the only way to get promoted).

As far as company rep goes, it's a complete mix. They love their Nureyev rep, they have some really new stuff and some recreated traditional stuff, but many French ballet fans would prefer them to be more classical as that is their tradition. That's a topic for another day.

Oh this makes me laugh (hollowly). Just the idea of being able to book for any sort of cast more than a week in advance seems to be anathema to The Australian Ballet (mustn't forget to capitalise that "the"!). Given that for Melbourne I have to travel 350km (220 miles) each way and for Sydney 550km (350 miles) each way, I'd really like more than a lucky dip before booking accommodation and ballet tickets, not to mention either embarking on that drive or deciding to splash out on a plane ticket! And I am far from being the only out-of-town ballet fan! 

Well, well, well! I think I know now where I'll be spending a chunk of May 2019, although yes, gutted no Campbell as Romeo. And after umpty performances of Graeme Murphy's Romeo and Juliet as it was titled, with its... interesting... costume and set choices, boy oh boy will I be happy to see this! Okay yes I got to see Elisa Badenes and David Moore in the Cranko version in Stuttgart last year, but this looks like luxury casting in a luxury ballet. Bring it on.

Remembering that to sign up on WhatsApp you have to use your phone number, and that to add contacts into WhatsApp they have to be in your own phone's contacts, personal contacts already know your phone number

However, groups are another kettle of fish entirely. The creator or admin/s of a group can invite participants by sharing a link, which of course means that someone you don't know can see you. According to WhatsApp, though, they can't access your number or contacts. https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/20971813/?category=5245250

On 24/09/2018 at 19:18, Picturesinthefirelight said:

The problem I find with joining Whatsapp groups is the notifications.  I use WhatsApp as a free alternative to texting woth close friendsand family (our work phone contracts don't include picture messages for example and have a monthly limit on text) and if I was to join a social Whatsapp group my phone would be forever pinging with notifications but I can't turn thm off as I wouldn't want to miss a message from my Dad or one of the kids which might be important and time limited (ds WhatsApps me when he's on the bus home for example) 

Colman is correct, you can mute notifications for all except, say, your children or your Dad, inside WhatsApp. We have a family group (8 sibs plus Mum as Dad refuses to use a smartphone plus 6 of the next generation) which if I left notifications on would drive me bats. OTOH one particular person with whom I communicate on WhatsApp is on the other side of the globe from me so I very much want their messages/calls coming up at the time!

On my Android, if I long-press on the "conversation" or group in question, the option for muting comes up. If you're using an Apple phone, my sister says that's what she does, too (I'm the non-Apple user in the family).

On 23/09/2018 at 05:03, Pulcinella said:

the ladies loos in the Linbury. There shouldn’t be much queuing for them as there are masses of them and self flushing!

Um, excuse my iggerance, please, but what is a self flushing loo? Do I get sucked down the bend and deposited, all clean and fresh, back at the door of the theatre?

I never did post properly, just a few impressionistic phrases.

I quite like the music, but don't usually listen to the whole score like I can with some other ballet scores. It is so Sovietly-heavy in places that I do find it hard going at times. The set is very simple in its colour palette, and simple in design, too, but on a massive scale. The pointing finger ought to come crashing down at the end of act I but it is neatly folded down instead - you can see the hinges if you use your binoculars! The costumes are very simple - for the gladiators, high-waisted pants (think Petite Mort and you've almost exactly got them except they come in a range of colours). for the enslaved Thracian women, diaphanous blue-grey tunics, although Flavia somehow manages to find a change of clothes in the interval between Acts II and III. The Roman (male) oppressors wear trousers, long-sleeved tunic tops, and often a long drape of fabric that gives the effect of a toga. Their WAGs wear body-revealing sparkly things. And headdresses.

Yes, Kevin Jackson hugely bulked up, but oddly, apart from his upper body, only his thighs, not his calves! It did have a deleterious effect on his line. None of the other gladiators was anywhere near as bulky, and to my eyes it looked too much. He should have defeated slim-line Andrew Killian much more quickly than he did - it looked like one body-slam would have been enough. Robyn Hendricks was simply brilliant as Flavia, strong and brave but still delicate. Brett Chynoweth danced beautifully, as did Ty King-Wall as Crassus, and Amy Harris' Tertulla was clearly living on her body's attractions, although when Crassus was defeated she still clung to him.

The combats were all created by fight director Nigel Poulton and choreographer Lucas Jervies, they were very well done, it looked like real fighting. But what the heck is going on with all that haka-style movement? You know, demi-pliés in second while slapping thighs, beating chests, and slapping biceps!

Act II (Crassus' villa) was in some ways the balletic equivalent of one of those decadent scenes in I, Claudius - steam coming out of baths, nekkid Romans and WAGs writhing in baths (both alone and together), slave women being treated appallingly, and my LOL moment - Chynoweth leaping on his wife, played by Natasha Kusen (RBS US alumna thanks to the Prix de Lausanne), and the pair of them rolling around on the floor. When the gladiators snuck in and murdered people in their baths, it worked very well.

Act III opened with Flavia and Spartacus' pdd which if Jackson had been a little bit less bulky would have been Very Nice Indeed. Yes, they're real flames in those firepits. Marcus Morelli and a couple of others tried to rebel against Spartacus' leadership, but were persuaded back into the fold just in time for the Roman army to come and arrest them all. Now they're all coming back in dragging tall plinths, which they place in a diagonal line from upstage left to downstage right, and then each gladiator is helped to jump up by two Roman soldiers. They're being crucified. So why the heck is every one of them drenched in blood from the scalp down? I was unaware that pre-crucifixion preparation included scalping. Standing up on those plinths with their arms extended looked excruciating. They had to stand there for quite some time while Crassus gloated, and Flavia danced a sorrowful solo.

Overall I would see it again, in fact I need to in order to form a more coherent opinion. I think a trip to Sydney in November is on the cards ...

On 20/06/2018 at 14:23, Sophoife said:

Brett Chynoweth is one of the company's most beautiful dancers but due to his less than robust physical appearance and lack of height will probably never get to take that final step.

On 20/06/2018 at 14:23, Sophoife said:

Harris is another who should long since have been promoted (in her case from Senior Artist to Principal). 

I was wrong about Brett Chynoweth, and couldn't be more pleased. He was promoted to Principal Artist on the closing night of the Spartacus season. Amy Harris was promoted on the opening night of Spartacus. I wasn't there but I was told by a friend who had been that there were a number of audible mutters of "about time"!!

Hah Australian Ballet has a whole team of people dedicated to getting people to sign on the dotted line for bequests. If they actually used dancers, we might!*

* NOT

Awww I so wanted to see this but couldn't get to Melbourne at the right time!

Thank you so much @jmb for this detailed review.

Lovely to see Mia Heathcote (who "took over" Queensland Ballet's Instagram on Saturday) doing so well (she was also cast as Titania). I remember seeing her as Clara the Child in the Murphy Nutcracker - Story of Clara as long ago as 2009 with Marilyn Jones as Clara the Elder and at one performance Lucinda Dunn and a second Danielle Rowe as Clara the Ballerina. Then in a short Tim Harbour piece called Sweedeedee in 2012, the cast of which was retired principals Justine Summers and Steven Heathcote, with two ABS students - Heathcote M (what is the BCF protocol for referring to two dancers of the same family in the same paragraph?) and a boy whose name I can't remember as all my pre-2013 programmes and cast lists are in storage. Summers did not look great, very thin, I could hear shocked whispers from older fans around me. However, her character was obviously meant to be fragile, so it sort of worked. Heathcote S was his usual wonderfully warm presence. Wish I could remember the boy's name. The music was fabulous - a collection of old songs played by a live band, chosen by Harbour and arranged by Chong Lim.

I saw the TV interview last week on ABC Breakfast with Li Cunxin and Heathcote M, gosh she must get tired of non-ballet-watching-interviewers-who've-been-briefed talking about her father!

4 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

BA LBC BR LST RDO D&P BR HF DS

Have I got a song for all who are amused by the TLA and its friends: https://youtu.be/xNASVPZ-tQE

2 hours ago, loveclassics said:

 

Adam Cooper danced it when he was a soloist but was immediately promoted to principal on the strength of his performance.  I don't know if it was announced on stage but that was not unknown back in those, less considered, days.  From what I've been reading today I can't help wishing we could return to a more spontaneous, less corporate time.

 

Linda

Yes, Linda, I wasn't saying that no-one not a principal is cast as Rudolf, I was saying that it appears today that if a person is a Principal Character Artist, they will not be cast in principal dancing roles in full-length ballets, with specific reference to Gartside (i.e. Winter's Tale, Mayerling). Which is really odd, given that in 2017 those who were to be promoted were told before they left London for Brisbane (apparently this is standard, they are told about a month before it's announced), he then danced an extra show of Leontes in Brisbane, when technically a PCA, then the announcement was made late on their last day in Brisbane, since when he's danced Judas Tree and Age of Anxiety but not Leontes and now not Rudolf. Can't help thinking it's a Thing that PCAs Shall Not Dance Principal Roles In Full Length Ballets. I mean Drosselmeyer isn't a dancing role, nor is Bay Middleton (well not much). Empress Elisabeth is, but relatively short compared with either Rudolf or Leontes, and as for Paulina, I note that during the very short most recent season (Feb/March 2018) the Paulinas were Morera, Mendizabal, and Heap - no sign of Arestis (also a new PCA).

On 04/10/2018 at 00:36, capybara said:

 

Oh YESSSS!  

However, it is a huge thing to get dancers up and running to dance Rudolf (goodness knows how they are managing that with Matthew Ball, especially given that he was away in Plymouth and so actively involved in the Insight and WBD focus on Unbroken Soldier) and having 5 casts will already, surely, be stretching the resources of the RB.

Early on in this thread, there were complaints to the effect that Ball was "not doing much" in the Autumn casting, especially for someone tipped (at that time) to be promoted Principal (which he duly was). If I remember correctly, at that time it had not yet been made public that he would be performing in the Bourne Swan Lake as well.

I do wonder, did They (you know, the PTB) perhaps decide way back then to have him learn Rudolf, just in case a change was required in the proposed casting? After all, it's pretty clear Gartside isn't going to be cast in a principal dancing role in a full-length ballet again, and with Hirano already making a planned début, and Kish mysteriously almost completely absent, and Campbell not under consideration at this stage, and Muntagirov probably needing at least ten years of living to excess (he'd better start now) to be able not to be utterly charming (and probably to start with dancing Lescaut at least), someone had to be the cover...

On 04/10/2018 at 01:02, capybara said:

Didn't Gartside replace Kobborg, Bruce?

On 04/10/2018 at 02:09, penelopesimpson said:

Yup, at really short notice and he was amazing

I asked him about that when I met him (by arrangement) at stage door last year. He said he had originally learned the role for the 2002-03 season, but as a learning experience only. He was then a cover for subsequent seasons but had not gone on until that 2013 occasion, he said he had been terrified and excited all at the same time, and hugely relieved and happy when the first show was done. I do think They have missed a trick in not casting him as Leontes or having him as an available Rudolf cover, but perhaps it is his own choice? Not knowing, can't say.

Thanks, Katherine. Alison, Katherine has hit the nail on the head. Having seen the production live a number of times, I think they could have cut a bit of the fairies-running-around-the-forest section, especially as that was apparently one of the complaints about the previous (Stanton Welch) production (the others included the costumes) - which production did not end in everyone being glamorously displayed around the happy couple, but instead with a grand promenade from downstage right to exit upstage left, with Carabosse arriving and owning the scene after everyone else had left. Very effective!