Jump to content

Sunrise

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    306

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Sunrise

  1. Sunrise
    Yes and no? I think the emotions one experiences reading, listening and watching art can be heightened or filtered by events in life. But I think strangely that experiencing love and being happy in life has actually made me more cynical or dismissive about love I see on stage and screen - I can't watch Onegin anymore for instance as I find it too melodramatic, and though I love the story of R&J, I find it at little less relatable now (probably a good thing!). So finding love has made me less of a romantic, but on balance I can't say that I'm sorry about it. :-) Fun topic TTP
  2. Sunrise
    Winter's Tale made it to bbc tv, maybe whether they liked it or not, audiences are less inclined to see it as a result? At least the triple bill has one world premiere and two works new to the RB. If I was a bigger fan of Wheeldon I'd be extremely excited.
  3. Sunrise
    Wow, that really is a pity. I thought some of these performances were recorded for their own archives at least.
  4. Sunrise
    Maybe Bussell is contracted to a certain number of performances? I thought her interview with Cuthbertson and Collier was nicely done, more relaxed in the studio than the weird tea-time setup of past interviews and her live interview with Thorogood was good. In the live bits, it's lovely she's so enthusiastic but her off-script gushing makes me a bit uncomfortable. My partner whispered to me early on in Rhapsody that he didn't think McRae was that great (he's still at the stage of judging male dancers by how high they jump)...until he saw those stupendous jumps, and then he quickly took it all back I don't love Two Pigeons, but Kaenko was fabulous, so much sass! :-)
  5. Sunrise
    Love it!
  6. Sunrise

    Tai chi

    Sunrise replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    My mother started learning about 10 years ago - it's good for her aging body but the meditative nature of it is wonderful for her mind and has transformed her life. She's also uses the sword, fan and I forget what else, and is able to teach her friends too. I agree a good teacher is important, but lacking that you learn a lot from the people around you as well. I'd recommend trying :-)
  7. Sunrise
    The same sentiment is expressed by one of my scientist friends who doesn't watch much tv but says at the end of a long day when it is turned it on, it is to watch something stupid with no brain power required. I would like more informative ballet programmes too, but ballet doesn't film terribly well, and maybe there are too many issues with ballet, dancer and music rights nowadays - were any of these these case in the past?
  8. Sunrise
    I haven't been a fan of Darcey's live work, but I really enjoyed the programme and I thought her presentation of it was fine. The selection of dancers were not surprising apart from maybe Alban Lendorf, but there was a nice logic and narrative to the choices. I also agree that her Strictly Come Dancing judging makes her name a much bigger draw than other dancers, and even her own ballerina status, especially to younger viewers.
  9. Sunrise
    I liked the other presenter Ore, but I think Gary Avis added the most to the presentation side of the cinema broadcast. I wasn't crazy about Darcey's interview with the students - focusing on what they were worrying about and what might go wrong onstage seemed a bit negative!
  10. Sunrise
    I'm not sure I agree with this. Dance or any kind of performance art is so ephemeral, and is not always well captured and recorded. I think that with such short careers, ambitious dancers might want to leave a lasting legacy that is more than just a memory of a few great Giselles and Sleeping Beauties that a relatively small number of people might have seen, and one of the few ways they can do so is to create new work, new roles. I'm really sorry that we never saw great narrative works created around partnerships like Cojocaru/Kobborg or Rojo/Acosta, that no one even tried. I'm all for new works and taking risks, though I agree that the output this season seems to have been quite poor.
  11. Sunrise
    I was recently reading about Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra he co-founded, also of his opposition to the ban on playing Wagner in Israel. This comment made me think about how just the act of performing (or not performing) can produce interesting discussion.
  12. Sunrise
    Maybe ballet has too many limitations - pointe shoes, turn out, ballet positions, music. We are used to seeing ballet expressed in a world of fantasy and to convey romanticism. And it's not always done very successfully - the number of choreographers that have produced what might be considered great or timeless work is very small. I think audiences may, as a result, have built a kind of stubbornness or resistance to any change. Maybe modern and contemporary dance by comparison have so much more freedom of expression that choreographers can be more adventurous, so that current issues can be addressed readily and audiences in turn are very receptive? I like the point that art shouldn't have to cater for audiences. I think that maybe these kind of issues are best done through exploring personal relationships within that context. Or maybe done quite abstractly? I'd be very interested to see how a choreographer might tackle migration, terrorism or climate change through these prisms. My problem is that I'm so often disappointed by new choreography, choice of music or the disconnect between the two in new ballets these days, I think any interesting message may be lost. Edited to correct typo.
  13. Sunrise
    For me the relative maturity of the dancers is more important. I really enjoyed an R&J with Cojocaru and Bolle who both look very youthful. Their height difference was huge, but it made the pdd especially thrilling. Similarly, Rojo and Cope who had a large height difference (and a similar age difference?) and a maturer look were stunning together in the few performances they had, though they never did R&J together and I don't know if they would have pulled it off. These are rather exceptional performances though - maybe in general, as Alison says, excessive height differences should be avoided. But we seem to now have an excess of tall male principals and apart from Yanowsky, a lack of tall ballerinas to partner them. :-)
  14. Sunrise
    Sorry, read this a little late, will do!
  15. Sunrise
    I agree with this. McRae's explains in the Independent article of the close connection he feels with Salenko, and I think that it he feels so strongly about a partnership with her then a partnership should be nurtured. It must be quite unusual to feel they've found the perfect partner in terms of physique, temperament and chemistry, for them and for the audience. I feel since Cojocaru/Kobborg, Rojo/Acosta, Guillem Cope, and so on, there haven't been any rock solid partnerships that have developed. Having lost Rojo, Cojocaru, Galeazzi, Benjamin in recent years, I think bringing in Osipova on a full time basis and Salenko on a part-time basis is not that unreasonable. Having said that, I am sympathetic to the fact that it means there are fewer opportunities for home grown dancers. But if they aren't being given specific principal roles then maybe O'Hare doesn't think they are ready just yet? Or maybe having cast some of the up and comers in principal roles and seen how well they've done, we can expect them to be cast in more ballets in the next round of casting decisions.
  16. Sunrise
    Maybe involving the author rather than outsider was the problem? There will surely be a resistance to any pruning or changes.
  17. Sunrise
    I think Kobborg, when staging La Sylphide, cast himself last, which seems a lot more sensible.
  18. Sunrise
    I vaguely remember when McGregor was appointed as resident choreographer that part of his job would be to guide young choreographers. I imagine Wheeldon has a similar role, so young choreographers like Scarlett and Charlotte Edmonds can benefit from their experience and advice. It must be more difficult to be critical with a star like Acosta, especially as this is being billed as a kind of final goodbye. It must also be tempting to think that the ballet might pull together when the sets and costumes are in place and after some bedding in. I'm really sorry to read that this doesn't seem to have happened. I do think it's important for companies to take risks and that failure is part of the process of developing into a success at anything. But I wonder if Acosta has thrown himself into creating large ballets without the kind of guidance and allowance for failure that other choreographers may go through.
  19. Sunrise

    Happy Halloween!

    Sunrise replied to Melody's topic in Not Dance

    I quite like seeing little trick or treaters myself, but on Tuesday evening I was accosted by a mum and two kids, all dressed up as witches, and asking everyone they walked past on the street for sweets! Obviously I didn't have any on me! I thought they might be on their way to a party and were trying to stretch out the holiday a bit too far
  20. Sunrise
    What was the audience reception like on opening night?
  21. Sunrise
    My feeling is that some opinions have been presented as some kind of global consensus and I get pretty annoyed by it. I know it's a pain to qualify everything with "I think..." or "my opinion is..." but it does make comments less inflammatory.
  22. Sunrise
    Thanks so much for posting these! I have to agree with Bruce Wall, the musicality, the shape and speed and warmth, I've never seen done like this before in my relatively short fifteen or so years of ballet-going, and it was such a pleasure to watch. I would love for there to be a dvd - can we campaign for one? ☺
  23. Sunrise
    I think all dancers in the world want an opportunity to grow as artists. If they were typecast, as FLOSS suggests McRae should be into cheeky/technical roles, I suspect they'd get bored and we'd lose them very quickly to other companies. Maybe it should be considered that some dancers who were/are successfully typecast are not happy with their lot but never have opportunity to go elsewhere. McRae is an outstanding dancer, and I was happy to pay to see his interpretation of Romeo, which I enjoyed very much. As I've said in previous threads, I think there is room for more than one great interpretation of R&J, and some people who saw the Fonteyn and Seymour casts (as well as Parke and Sibley) might attest to that. ☺
  24. Sunrise
    I disagree, I don't think we can take it for granted that the general public will know that ballet is supposed to be for all - it still looks very white, and even if that's changing I think that's still the perception. I do think it is important that young dancers are encouraged to see that dancers from all backgrounds can make it at the top level.
  25. Sunrise
    Wasn't Irek Mukhamedov in his late 40s and well retired when he was invited back to the ROH for his swan song in Mayerling? I'm sure Watson has some years left and Mayerling does seem to come around semi-regularly. ☺
×
×
  • Create New...