Sophoife

I actually wanted to make a couple of edits to my post above but don't seem to be able to: All the better female dancers are too tall for him and the preferred shorter ones such as Reiko Hombo and Natasha Kusch have left. (IMHO she has more artistry in herself than at least a specific four of the current principals put together) (some Lego-like cast changes had to be done due to injuries) Meaning that at some shows it was Jones/King-Wall/Bemet/Rodgers-Wilson and others Jones/King-Wall/Kondo/Guo and others Jones/King-Wall/Stephenson/Wright and yet others Simon/Harris/Stephenson/Wright - the couples seemed to be slotted in rather like Lego bricks, wherever it worked! They did have seven Camille/Valencienne pairs but I think only five Danilo/Hanna variations.

jmb, Lana Jones was of course the original Firebird in this production, and is as stunning as ever. A pity Chengwu Guo had not returned from injury, as he was the original Kostchei and would have been interesting to see this time around. I agree that Chynoweth did an outstanding job. I felt the programme to have been unbalanced - the first "half" was over twice as long as the second. I would have preferred the short extracts, interval, Grand in its entirety (which was not actually the case), interval, then Firebird. I was also surprised that the only piece in a programme celebrating Murphy's 50-year association with TAB actually created for TAB was Firebird, but apparently he was given complete free choice over what was presented. There was a set element missing from Sheherazade which was noticeable if you'd seen it before, but including the moving piano in Grand almost made up for the omission. I had to laugh, though, as watching the entire programme, all the "Murphy signature elements" were on show, so it didn't really matter that we didn't get any of Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Nutcracker - the Story of Clara, Beyond Twelve, Tivoli, or Gallery. I would particularly have liked to have seen Gallery again. Special mentions to Valerie Tereshchenko, Andrew Killian, Yuumi Yamada and Leanne Stojmenov dancing with Kevin Jackson.

Just to comment: in 2009, the previous time Australian Ballet's AD was on the jury, for the first time ever two Australian Ballet dancers were nominated (Kirsty Martin - who won - and Adam Bull). This time around, AB's AD on the jury, bingo! Two Australian Ballet dancers nominated (Ako Kondo and Kevin Jackson). Do not understand why Kondo, in particular, is being nominated for awards left, right and centre as Wheeldon's Alice as when I saw her (twice) she was...less than arresting. IIRC from 2009, pretty much all the jury members had been able to see most of the nominees dance live, and it was commented upon by several that it was the first time in their memories that a dancer had won an award purely based on video presentation (Martin). Interesting that three years in a row Paris Opera Ballet has produced a female winner (Hannah O'Neill, Ludmila Pagliero and Sae-Eun Park), with Hugo Marchand as a male winner in 2017. Jury members from POB in those years were Marie-Agnès Gillot and José Martinez (listed as France but presumably as AD of Compañia Nacional de Danza), Brigitte Lefèvre and Manuel Legris (listed as France but hopefully as AD of Vienna State Ballet), and Nicolas Le Riche and Eleonora Abbagnato (both listed as France, both ADs of companies outside France i.e. Sweden and Rome)...conspiracy alert!! 🤣

I was lucky enough to manage four shows in the Melbourne season: Brett Simon and Amy Harris as Danilo and Hanna with Brett Chynoweth and Jade Wood as Camille and Valencienne, Adam Bull and Kirsty Martin with Andrew Killian and Leanne Stojmenov, Simon and Harris with Andrew Wright and Dana Stephenson, and Ty King-Wall and Lana Jones with Chengwu Guo and Ako Kondo. This season in both Sydney and Melbourne notable for three returns: Martin as Hanna, Steven Heathcote (the video Danilo) as Baron Zeta, and David McAllister (AD, retired in 2001) as Njegus, Zeta's secretary. For Martin, it was her first time on stage since 2011, and for McAllister, his first since 2001. I am told he was surprised how badly his makeup had deteriorated and he had to buy all new! Heathcote was wonderful, better even I think than the ageless Colin Peasley this time around. The "other" Njegus was Franco Leo, always making a role his own in the details. Brett Simon and Amy Harris, the first couple I saw, were gorgeous. Every time they looked at each other was another tug at the emotions. Simon (soloist) and Harris (senior artist) are two of those about whom one thinks "WTH? Why haven't they been promoted?". Too late for Simon now, as he's retiring on 30 June, at just 33. TAB seems to have a problem with retaining or attracting senior dancers, it would be good to see character roles filled by people in their thirties, forties, fifties even rather than (as in the current production) 20 year olds (however "into" the part they get) playing the maitre d' of Chez Maxime. 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. All the better female dancers are too tall for him and the shorter ones such as Reiko Hombo and Natasha Kusch have left. Jade Wood was delightful but not quite at the standard of her Camille. The most glamorous chorus line in ballet (aka the men in tails, top hats, and white gloves Chez Maxime) showed a new generation can high-kick with the best of them. Adam Bull danced beautifully, but being 6'4", has to do everything so much quicker than the shorter dancers, which perhaps leaves him less mental time to play a role. Martin was, of course, exquisite - this was her retirement role in 2011 and she brought to it all her artistry (IMHO she has more artistry in herself than at least four of the current principals put together). Divine. Stojmenov and Killian a gorgeous couple, he is not such a great classical dancer per se but is one of the company's best actors, and Stojmenov has developed into a beautiful dancer besides being probably the company's best actor, so they were wonderful together. Simon and Harris (some Lego-like cast changes had to be done due to injuries) did a surprise extra show with Wright and Stephenson, particularly affecting for me as I have enjoyed so much the dancing of both Simon and Wright over a number of years, and they are both retiring on 30 June. Stephenson's Valencienne showed a very fiery attitude Chez Maxime, I really thought she was going to kick Wright in the face at one point! She's another who seems to have plateaued, having co-won the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award way back in 2010 with Ty King-Wall, who the following year was promoted to principal. She's still a soloist. Simon and Wright have so often been passed over for others, we audience members will never understand why our preferred dancers don't seem to be preferred by the PTB. Harris is another who should long since have been promoted (in her case from Senior Artist to Principal). The final show of the season was Ty King-Wall and Lana Jones, who had been a delightful Valencienne seven years ago. This time around, her Hanna was as good as I'd hoped it would be, and she even dragged a performance out of her Danilo, who is a beautiful dancer but due to frequent back and other problems is not seen as often as one might like (nor is he usually a very good actor - the only other time I've had an emotional performance from him was as Lensky in 2012). Guo and Kondo can jump high, turn fast and all that, but even though married in real life, weren't to my eyes a couple on stage in these roles. Special mentions to Madame Bumblebee as performed by both Ingrid Gow and Ella Havelka, Drunk Lady (Nicola Curry and Ella Havelka), Smiley Can-Can Girl Jill Ogai, and Cutest Petite (I mean really tiny) Can-Can Girl Yuumi Yamada.

Given that the company only officially announced its October 2018 tour to China a few days ago, and given previous experience, the official Paris visit announcement won't come at the earliest until some time in September when the 2019 programme is announced. China gets the McAllister Sleeping Beauty (about to be performed in Adelaide) and the Maina Gielgud Giselle (in Melbourne in September). Please God this time could they leave the Murphy Swan Lake at home. I think they would be best served by taking a mixed bill of recent local commissions that won't have been seen anywhere else, and a full-length possibly the McAllister Beauty or the Baynes Swan Lake - no Murphy swans please! Having watched (OK, listened to while doing other stuff) the full video announcement of 2018/19 from La Seine Musicale, the venue, and suffered through the presenter's not terribly funny jokes (not even the audience in the hall was laughing), there was nothing mentioned other than the bare facts that the 2019 guests will be Australian Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet. Further announcements later in the year, they said.

Ew, Ian, eww! 😀 That east-west-east would be a real killer. I can get a return economy ticket to London for around AUD900. To fly to Brisbane last July for Winter's Tale, Albury-Sydney-Brisbane-Sydney-Albury, cost me AUD985.

Yes but Brisbane is almost as expensive to get to as Europe from where I am! 😮

Hahaha that wasn't the attitude of several who were cast as Benno in Stephen Baynes' Swan Lake when it premiered..."what do you mean PDT means Benno is a principal role???" which was what they were told. Thank you Bruce.

Well of course Chi Cao is best known down here for exactly Mao's Last Dancer, he came down and did Nutcracker Prince with Madeleine Eastoe possibly 8-9 years ago now, and I was lucky enough that almost exactly this time last year both BRB and I were in Cheltenham and I saw him with Cesar Morales, Samara Downs and Yvette Knight in Moor's Pavane. Those of you, like Jan, who have seen him over many years will I am sure miss him very much.

He's coming for Cinderella which is not until December in Sydney. You get Kevin Jackson for Nutcracker in exchange. Aus Ballet currently performing Merry Widow and working on mixed programme that follows it, plus new Spartacus so I very much doubt Alexander would be coming here to learn the role this early, when you consider what he is already doing in London. It's a helluva long flight for a couple of days in a studio! And it's Ratmansky so possibly he'd be able to learn it in Yurrup anyway...? Anyone know where Ratmansky is atm?

Australian Story, @Jan McNulty, is a long-running programme on Monday nights, usually focusing on some sort of inspiring against-the-odds story. Always Australians, not often those who live and work overseas. Last year's episodes: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/episodes/?year=2017

I felt it was too short and rushed - Australian Story often does two-parters and this I feel should have been such. Did anyone else get the impression the two men don't actually get on at all? I did laugh watching Alexander coming out of the stage door at QPAC to be greeted by the entire family - I was (just) off-camera left, desperately avoiding being caught on film as I had actually sneaked up to Brisbane for the weekend, having fudged my actual whereabouts to family and most friends! I was so pleased to see Winter's Tale live finally, and thrilled my third and final show was Bennet Gartside and Marianela Nuñez, who were utterly absorbing and said so much just with their eyes.

I think Stephen Baynes and Hugh Colman in 2011-12 were on the same page! "...to place the Prince within the context of his court surroundings – a hierarchal, aristocratic, nationalistic and military environment. Within this court the Prince struggles to fit in." "Most importantly, Baynes wanted to emphasise the profound romanticism of Tchaikovsky’s score, not only within the choreography but also by setting it in the late 19th century as opposed to the medieval period in which it is frequently set." Australian Ballet produced a glossy PDF with Baynes' inspirations, readable at the link provided. Quotes above from Australian Ballet's website btw. Photo of Rudy Hawkes, Lisa Bolte and Andrew Killian by Jeff Busby below shows act III. The red wigged violinist is Rothbart. Oh yeah he "plays" the solos. Oh yeah what they "play" bears little relation to what we're hearing from the soloist in the pit.

I saw Naghdi do the Shepherdess in Brisbane twice in a day with two different partners. Okay only act 2 but still, definitely a reasonable-size role in Winter's Tale.

I was under the impression that choreographers had a big say (if not the only say!) in casting? Usually with the agreement of the AD and/or company ballet master/mistress, yes, but perhaps Liam Scarlett wanted who he wanted if you see what I mean? I know from being told that John Neumeier chose the three AB men he wanted as Nijinsky, and brought Riabko with him for several performances, and that when AB did an Ashton triple bill (Monotones (white one, never remember which is which), Symphonic Variations, The Dream) there were allegedly noses out of joint as the Ashton repetiteurs did their own casting and truly some of it was a revelation, people who never got given a go at things suddenly shone.

Yes it is indeed still available (Australian Ballet Shop), Odette Madeleine Eastoe, Prince Robert Curran, Baroness Danielle Rowe - none of whom are still with the company, in fact Eastoe and Curran have retired, Curran now director of Louisville Ballet in Kentucky, USA. Be aware that when you look at the cover, it shows Amber Scott and Adam Bull, neither of whom are dancing on the DVD, but "they were the ones we had proper photos of in costume" is what I was told when I queried it. Also available (Nutcracker DVD) is the Peter Wright Nutcracker (the one without Hans-Peter), with Benedicte Bemet as Clara, Andrew Killian Drosselmeyer, and Madeleine Eastoe and Kevin Jackson as Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier, plus the Sleeping Beauty with Lana Jones, Kevin Jackson, Amber Scott (Lilac) and Lynette Wills as Carabosse. Another option is the ABC Shop (our BBC) which, bizarrely, has a wider range than the ballet site: Murphy Romeo and Juliet (Jackson, Eastoe), Heritage Collection (8 full ballets from 1984-95), a 3-DVD set called the "Tchaikovsky Collection" for only $33 which is all three of the single DVDs listed above. Plus the "Heritage Collection" set (Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Fille Mal Gardée, Coppélia, Spartacus, The Merry Widow, Nutcracker: The Story of Clara, and Manon, the last four of which feature Steven Heathcote) is currently $80 compared with $135 on the ballet's site. Maybe this post should be in another section? Mods please feel free to move appropriately.

I had a similar experience the first time I saw Le Spectre de la Rose! I had read of the "marvellous leap through the window" and I got a step up onto the windowsill and a low jump off it. Talk about underwhelming!

Thank you so much for pointing me in that direction, Floss - it's a veritable treasure trove! I honestly don't remember ever looking at any of my RAD or other extra-curricular (piano, singing, double bass) examination certificates and registering who had signed them, however I see your point. Looking through them yesterday, I find that indeed, all are signed by Margot Fonteyn de Arias! 😳 Well, I don't know who Bussell was coaching in Australia, but it must have been private or back in the UK as it was not Australian Ballet, nor (after asking the relevant person) Queensland Ballet! As I said earlier it was apparently very obvious that she really didn't want to coach (at least with Australian Ballet), which is a great pity as I am sure there would have been many benefits, both for dancers and for us in the audience, from such coaching.

Thanks BBB and pompalompa for the Sylvia coaching info and video. I love watching that sort of thing and enjoy the ROH Insights when made available. Wish Australian Ballet would do more in that line.

I find the speculation terrifically interesting. There are many reasons to enjoy the Nureyev Swan Lake but the biggest reason I find to dislike it is the Tutor as Rothbart scenario. No point offering any examples of odd choices or violin-playing redheaded Rothbarts from Australian experience as no videos available of the recent Baynes version, legally or otherwise, not even on YouTube (apart from some 40-second promos) so no comparisons possible.

At the times of the daming of Melba (1918, for her charity work during WWI, and the Grand Cross in 1927 for services to Australia) and of Sutherland (CBE 1961, DBE 1979, both for services to the performing arts), Australia used the Imperial honours system, and they were (with others such as Dame Joan Hammond, Dame Margaret Scott, and Dame Peggy van Praagh) awarded the highest honour available at the time. Since the 1975 creation of the Order of Australia, fewer Australians were put forward for British honours, with the Federal government ceasing nominations in 1983 and the States more gradually following suit, with the final British honours coming in Queensland and Tasmania in 1989. After discussions with Britain, Australia formally ceased to make recommendations for British honours. Australians can, of course, still receive a British honour but such an award is officially called a "foreign award" if made after 5 October 1992. So if Cate Blanchett is ever made DBE, it will be of the same honorary nature as Angelina Jolie's. Incidentally, Leanne Benjamin AM OBE got her (honorary? I don't know if she's a British citizen) OBE ten years before her Australian honour, in 2005. Also, to drag this back to the official topic, I met Dame Darcey several times when she was living here, and she was quite pleasant, but clearly a networker on a grand scale. She was invited on a number of occasions to coach Australian Ballet dancers in roles she knew well (I am told), and the fee "requested" was (I am told by one of those involved in the various invitations) so high on each occasion that it was felt to be an indication of just how much she didn't want to do it. She was on the board of Sydney Dance Company (and is now their patron) but never involved in any formal way (board, coaching, teaching) with Australian Ballet. Does she coach at the Royal Ballet at all? Her elevation can only be applauded, as it is reminding the GBP that dance (as she put it in a 2016 interview) "is not just street dance".

Is that the first part of the ENB series, Agony and Ecstasy? I remember him as hilariously stereotypical: waspish ranging to bitchy, demanding ("what Derek wants Derek gets"), and ultimately single-minded in pursuit of his vision. But he was conscious of being careful in how pushy to be with baby Muntagirov, which I liked, even though (because she wasn't his vision) he was so mean to Klimentová. Luckily, @CHazell2 specified British companies, so nobody will be able to scathe on the Graeme Murphy version 😉 (which we down here see perhaps a little too often).

Stella Abrera (ABT principal) as Giselle with Australian Ballet. Leanne Stojmenov in Ratmansky's Cinderella and Murphy's Romeo and Juliet. Elisa Badenes and David Moore in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. The first time I saw After the Rain - Kirsty Martin and Steven Heathcote - silent tears started falling as they began the pdd and didn't stop until about 15 minutes after they finished! Kelvin Coe in the premiere season (1980) and years later (2012) Andrew Killian in the final part of Murphy's Beyond Twelve. Noone else in this role and I've seen them all. Marianela Nuñez as Giselle (on film). Vadim Muntagirov in The Two Pigeons. Leanne Benjamin (guesting) and Robert Curran in Manon in 2008, and in 2014 Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Sydney in what was to prove their final Manon together.

Try being a follower of The Australian Ballet. Casting never available until just before each run, sometimes a week ahead, mostly two or three days. Unless you live in Melbourne or Sydney, there are also significant investments in travel and accommodation and sometimes time away from work (yes I know they dance occasionally in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).

Brilliant, thanks @Josephine, I enjoyed revisiting that afternoon!