Sophoife

I've reproduced Stella Abrera's post-competition Instagram post below. The photo shows Cynthia Harvey, Julio Bocca, Alessandra Ferri, Stella herself, and Sascha Radetsky. All ABT alumni/alumnae, and Harvey was Abrera's predecessor at the ABT JKO School. Ms Abrera's comments in the post informed me that Do you care? was an ABT dancer's piece, and she also (and this is rare from a school AD) acknowledged Natalie Steele's previous teacher before she joined the ABT JKO School last year. I'd guess that her previous school was preparing her for PdL and when she was offered a place at JKO it was negotiated that she be permitted to compete, if selected from the video auditions. Note that Miss Abrera herself trained for a time in Sydney, and won the gold medal at the Genée competition (as it was then) in 1995.

Oh I much prefer either an indoor gig or, if it has to be outdoors, an "intimate" one. I don't want to have to spend hundreds or (these days) thousands just so I can see the artist without a giant screen or binoculars! And, @Peanut68, aren't we supposed to be intoxicated by the music? 🤭 I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in about 1990 in a former theatre turned nightclub in Melbourne and i felt punch-drunk, it was so visceral.

At home over Christmas I copied some stuff from my old DVR and one of them was a broadcast of a documentary called Béjart : The Show Must Go On. It shows Roman and the company, including excerpts, in the years immediately post-Béjart's death in 2007. Quite interesting. Multi-lingual with subtitles. Bolle seems to do Boléro whenever he feels like it including with the Béjart company. I missed him in Milan last year by two days. It premiered in 1961, with the dancer Duska Sifnios on the table. The first man to dance it was Jorge Donn in 1979. The links are to YouTube videos. In Paris last year I was booked to see Amandine Albisson and then Hugo Marchand. Due to minor injury I saw Mademoiselle Albisson twice, and I did wish I could have stayed on for Alice Renavand's [second] retirement show. I also got to see both Germain Louvet and Mathieu Ganio as the blue man in Wayfarer and I can die happy now. The LINES my dears!

ENBS student Gabriel Pimparel did indeed compete in the live rounds, representing and supported by his school. @invisiblecircus I was curious about the source of those numbers, and found your initial PdL post in the Doing Dance sub-forum, which links to a pdf showing numbers of entrants and finalists by nationality (thank you). The difficulty with quoting that is it doesn't show where the candidates train. So yes, 5 British students might have sent in videos, but as you say, no idea where they train. And on that same pdf the ENBS student would be counted as Portugal not Britain. Hm. Wonder if I emailed them the PdL people would tell me how many British schools were represented in the initial 400+?

Paris Opéra Ballet performed a triple of Béjart last year: Firebird, Song of a Wayfarer, and Boléro . We used to get quite a lot of Béjart in Australia when Maina Gielgud was AD of AusBallet as she had a personal relationship with Béjart. The company was filmed in Le Concours in the mid-90s. Wayfarer is danced to the Mahler song cycle, but for some forsaken reason it is Song not Songs. Alessandra Ferri performed L'heure exquise in the Linbury Theatre in 2021.

Goodness, I wonder what Miss Gielgud thinks!!

And this is yet another reason why bodies outside Russia are so anti-Russian participation.

She'll have been long scrapped by coaches etc., and I think doping bans prohibit her from being coached and from using ice rinks. I know in other sports doping bans extend to training in facilities used by other pros, and to coaching services.

A 15 year old was given drugs by adults, none of whom are being sanctioned. This young person, still not yet 18, will never compete again, as by the time the four year ban she has received expires, she will have been long consigned to the scrapheap. TBH I think the ISU should further alter their age rules, and require all competitors in senior-level competitions to have turned 18 by the date of the competition or the first day of the season, e.g. 18 by 1 September or 1 October.

There are two lists of accepted candidates: the one linked in the first post above by @Sabine0308, and another that is a quick three-page list, no photos. At this link is the streaming schedule for live watching.

There's a Portuguese boy, Gabriel Pimparel, in the senior boys' class, who is a student at English National Ballet School.

Asking for casting two months in advance just reminds me, we in Australia are also going to see Johan Inger's Carmen, in Sydney, dates 10-27 April. We certainly don't expect to see principal casting made available until, probably, 5 April. Link to AusBallet's production page here. It's quite interesting to read AusBallet's provided info next to ENB's, as it makes no mention that Bizet's score has been augmented, it doesn't mention mirrors, and it doesn't mention the Benois de la Danse! "Johan Inger’s award-winning production of Carmen is an exhilarating journey that thrusts Georges Bizet’s 19th-century opera into the modern world with a breathtaking display of athleticism and passion. "Created in 2015, Inger’s contemporary retelling of Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella is a darkly compelling story of the dangerously seductive Carmen, whose love affair with Don José ends in brutal tragedy. Broadening its gaze beyond its fiery heroine, Inger’s Carmen is seen through the eyes of a boy bewildered by the ugly manifestations of machismo. "Using Georges Bizet's famous score, Inger has reimagined the classic opera, transporting it to dance in a fascinating production. Including sublime passages for soloists and duos and ensemble sequences of consummate virtuosity, Carmen brings you the heat of southern Spain in a powerfully unique production. "Content warning: Carmen contains adult themes." Production credits Choreography Johan Inger Assistant choreographer (creation) Urtzi Aranburu Dramaturg Gregor Acuña-Pohl Music Rodion Shchedrin, Marc Álvarez, Georges Bizet orchestrated by Alvaro Dominguez Lighting design Tom Visser Decor design Curt Allen Wilmer and Leticia Gañan with estudiodeDos Costume design David Delfín World première 9 April 2015, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid, Spain, Compaňia Nacional de Danza Madrid

🤣 Le seul fois que j'ai rencontré Aurélie Dupont, j'ai dis "Madame!" The only time I met Aurélie Dupont (at stage door at the ROH in 2017, I was leaving a note for someone, she was waiting for security to finish with me), I just said "Madame!" and then babbled something about Hannah O'Neill. To which she replied graciously. I got out of her way ASAP, I mean, Aurélie Dupont ! I didn't call her Madame Dupont, but Madame. She's Mademoiselle Dupont professionally, and Madame Bélingard (I think, still) privately.

Jannik Jannik Jannik!! Phew, for an hour there I had thought it was going to be a quick 3-set demolition job from Medvedev. To their eternal credit both players turned it in to one of the Good Finals.

I believe they do. Purcell played doubles here with Jordan Thompson. Yes yes Leander Paes! What a lovely player to watch!

...and people think Federer, Nadal and the other one have career longevity!!

Zheng's fairytale is over, but Rohan Bopanna's continues. 43 years 340-something days old, oldest first-time world number one in men's doubles, and his first ever Grand Slam men's doubles title (he won the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2017, and he's the oldest man to win a GS men's doubles title). His daughter is old enough to enjoy watching him play, and they are precious memories the family will have in the future.

Forza campione! Sinner in four sets, will play the winner of the match now in progress (Medvedev v Zverev). On a PR front, Tennis Australia and tennis orgs generally must be praying for a Sinner win on Sunday. If Medvedev wins tonight we have a final between two guys who didn’t play in any of the lead up tournaments, which isn’t great for the Australian swing. And then there’s the whole PR win for Russia angle too. If Zverev wins, there’ll be (rightly) even more attention on the charge he’s going to be contesting in May and that’ll make for bad press for Tennis Australia and for tennis more generally. Not the least being the ATP player council, to which he was recently elected. I guess on the bright side, we know that given Melbourne, it’s likely to be a pretty friendly crowd for Sinner on Sunday.

Forza Jannik Sinner!! Match still in progress...

James in La Sylphide certainly ends up in a bad place. He collapses and Madge is triumphant. But there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead, and Miracle Max is not present to divine which is the case. In the novel, Des Grieux thinks he has killed the Bad Man but hasn't, so is able to be taken back to France by his friend Tiberge (who of course is one character too many for the ballet).

@Bruce thank you so much for posting those links. The piece on Jock Soto's retirement gala (one can't really call it anything else) was absolutely wonderful to read, bringing me in to the audience in the theatre.

Thank you @Jamesrhblack! I was going by performances at the ROH as listed in the performance database,.which I thought was for all performances on the main stage from 1946-August 2019 but now realise is not. According to the database, Wall danced DG once, in May 1977, with Lynn Seymour and Derek Rencher as Monsieur GM. This, however, is wrong, as John Percival reviewed Lynn Seymour's début in The Times, dated 2 January 1976, and made a point of commenting that Wall and Dowell, swapping into each other's rôles, were better in their new ones than in their originals. Julian Hosking is only listed in the database as having appeared as Gentleman in 22 performances of Manon at the ROH over the period 1974 to 1983 and is not listed as having appeared in the ballet after that. However, John Percival in The Times of 12 February 1982 damns his début the previous evening with faint praise (and says Lesley Collier was miscast as Lescaut's Mistress) in his début as Des Grieux. So the database on which I relied is not infallible! I did know about Bruce Sansom but I forgot, so thank you for that as well.

What a lovely rabbit hole you sent me down @Dawnstar! Anthony Dowell, who remains the only man to play both Des Grieux and Monsieur GM, made his first appearance in the latter rôle on 31 January 2003, with Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire, Brian Maloney as Lescaut, and a young dancer called Marianela Nuñez as his Mistress. Whatever happened to her? I discovered that between 1974 and 1991, there were only three Des Grieux at the ROH: Dowell, Rudolf Nureyev and Wayne Eagling. Bruce Sansom debuted in 1991. Irek Mukhamedov was the first to dance both Des Grieux and Lescaut, and on 30 October 1995 he was Lescaut to Guillem and Hilaire. Carlos Acosta has also danced both rôles, as have Alex Campbell and Marcelino Sambé. Ryoichi Hirano will be only the fifth dancer to have done this when he makes his DG début. On 1 November 1995 David Drew, who had previously performed both Lescaut and the Gaoler, made his first appearance as Monsieur GM. Gary Avis has performed both Monsieur GM and the Gaoler on many occasions. Bennet Gartside has done three of the four, only lacking Des Grieux. The Gaoler's Mistress disappeared as a named role between the July and November 1974 performances. I would love in the future to see Ryoichi Hirano or Edward Watson have a go at Monsieur GM; I think they'd both be utterly creepy.

Oh I only listen to one commentary at a time, too! Listen to the cycling, watch the tennis.

You bet @Dawnstar! TDU is on 7 terrestrial, tennis on 9 terrestrial. TDU also on 7's streaming platform 7+, tennis every court on Stan (owned by 9) and 9Now. TV, phone, tablet, computer... Also, my predictions have been shot apart somewhat...I will now go Sabalenka in the women, and...Sinner or Rublev for the men. 👍🤣