SheilaC

Good news about Forsythe's Barre Project with the amazing Tiler Peck. I contacted the organisers, CLI Studios, as I was unable to watch either showing as they were in the middle of the night here, and viewing wasn't extended as I had hoped. I got a very prompt reply to say that Sadler's Wells will be issuing it, in May, at 'Europe-optimised' times.

I totally loved Choreartium, too, and agree with Jan that Samira Saidi was at her most impressive in it. .A few years later I was doing a public interview, pre-matinee, with David Bintley. That morning I had received post from Dutch National Ballet on future programmes and was very excited that they were planning to do Choreartium. In the pre-interview chat with Mr Bintley I burbled on how pleased I was that DNB were going to do BRB's production of it but was sternly informed that it was a dreadful ballet and the company would never do it again while he was director. Needless to say I went to Amsterdam to see it and all the posters across the city were of BRB dancers in it. I can't imagine that Carlos Acosta will programme it either. It was this ballet that made me like Brahms; before then I'm afraid I found his music boring. It also made me like Massine as a choreographer, it's so different from some of his comedic ballets.

At the BRB gala ( which didn't actually include much dance) we were told that Carlos Acosta's Don Q will be shown soon but will be different in some ways from the RB version so that it is specific to BRB (no details given as to how it will differ). There's still no indication that the company's wonderful rep will be shown, other than what has already been announced. There was a quiz that included Fille and Apollo, but that was devised by Paul Murphy as it was a musical quiz so it doesn't necessarily indicate that any of the Balanchine ballets will be shown, or even Ashton.

My humble apologies, bangorballetboy and Alison. May I point out that a moderator who referred to 'Daria' on 3 March was not similarly reprimanded. But you are right that full names are preferable. so.... Brandon Lawrence, Daria Stanciulescu (who performed the role of Queen Mother; less than 10 months later she became an actual mother to Zion), Lachlan Monaghan, Miki Mizutani.

A year ago this week I went to Sunderland on 4 days to watch BRB's wonderful production of Swan Lake- 1 rehearsal (rather relaxed!), a Friends talk by Brandon, a pre-performance talk (Daria), 4 performances. On the Thursday I was even introduced to Carlos Acosta (I had actually met him in Havana several years previously but he was scarcely going to remember that!). The Saturday matinee performance was especially fine (Lachlan and Miki) which was a relief as I had prioritised that over going to Leeds to see the premiere of Northern Ballet's Geisha that night, safe in the knowledge that I had tickets to see Geisha in Leeds the following week. How wrong can you be!

I agree with Stucha and Jeanette how beautifully both ballets were danced. But I would expect no less as the director of the Royal Swedish Ballet is Nicolas le Riche, former etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet. As a dancer he had a wonderful technique but above all was a consummate performer. His wife, Clairemarie Osta, a very pure dancer, directs the RSB school and may well assist in some rehearsals. Before the pandemic they also ran an interesting ballet education programme in Paris (they continued directing it after their move to Sweden) that trained ballet students not just in technique but above all in performance aesthetics, how to convey meaning and artistry through the technical steps. It was initially set up with support from the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and there was a student performance there every June. It's good that the streaming will continue for several more weeks- I for one will keep returning to it.

He was Romeo at the very first performance I saw by the Paris Opera, but at the Palais des Congress, not the Garnier. His Juliet was that wonderful, pure, dancer Monique Loudieres and her mother was none other than Yvette Chauvire, and Tybalt the amazing dramatic dancer, Jean Guizerix. Dupond was a very special dancer, fabulous technique, charismatic personality.

I hope it's ok to post this information under this theme as it's about BRB but not about Domininc, rather about their educational work. In today's links there's one for the Guardian interview with Julie Felix- not the singer but a former ballet dancer who couldn't find work in the UK, because she is black, and moved to the USA to dance with Dance Theater of Harlem. She returned to England as a teacher and remedial coach for SWRB. (She doesn't mention she was married to Joseph Cippola, one of the most charismatic dancers ever, who had been a fellow dancer at DTH despite being white). She claims that BRB's educational work, although successful in the past, has 'fizzled out', a bit unfortunate given all the community and diversity related work the company does. (She blames LEA budget cuts rather than the company). She refers to Ballet Black and the lack of black dancers in mainstream companies but implies that it's only in this century that British companies have had dancers of colour. Yet: Johaar Mosaval joined SWTB in 1951. Vincent Hantam danced with Scottish Ballet in the last century. Jose Manuel Carreno joined ENB in 1990 and RB in 1993. Acosta joined ENB in 1991 and RB in 1998. Despite the minor inaccuracies it's an interesting article and discusses an important issue. Perhaps dancers of colour could be one of our threads?

Rojo's Raymonda rather proves my point! How on earth can a ballet about Florence Nightingale ( a woman who spent much of her life in bed- but presumably the plot will focus on her active nursing, and possibly the long struggle before then to persuade her aristocratic parents to let her become a nurse, in those days a job regarded as sex worker) use the Petipa choreography ?

I hope ENB do show La Sylphide again soon, Alison, but my fear is that companies will in the future only show classics that are safe, in terms of ticket revenue, so rep would be limited to Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker: Sylphide has never sold well. And most ballet companies (ENB, Scottish, BRB under Acosta, even the Royal) seem to be giving increased emphasis to more contemporary works, possibly under Arts Council pressure, and showing fewer 'heritage' works. Returning to the Polish National Ballet galas, in each of them Dawid Trzensimiech, who longstanding Royal fans will remember well, dances 2 pieces, a mix of classical and contemporary ballet. He's on good form.

The Polish National Ballet gala (3) is varied, offering both classical and contemporary excerpts. I particularly enjoyed seeing a well danced Bournonville pas de deux, Flower Festival. When I first used to see the Royal, in the '60s when there were so many varied and varying mixed bills, a Bournonville excerpt was often included. Now I wonder if a British company will ever dance Bournonville again; with Kobbrg having left the Royal they are unlikely to do Sylphide again, indeed they are likely to loan their sets and costumes to the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. There's also a gripping pas de deux to Kurt Weill, choreographed by the company director Krzysztof Pastor, who created some of the other pieces, including two excerpts from his production of Swan Lake, which I saw two years ago, and a Petipa pas de deux, Satanella. Well worth watching- and free!

The Sarasota company has just announced that, because of travel restrictions due to Covid, they are no longer able to present Elite Syncopations in program 6 (April 23/27) but instead will be dancing Ashton's Facade ..... which some of us think is a better ballet anyway!

I agree, DanJL, that one's mood can often affect our response to a performance, it certainly does mine. but your reaction to Paris Opera Ballet is not uncommon, I have heard English ballet fans describing their dancers as cold. So far as the defile is concerned, the face masks didn't help, I couldn't recognise most of the dancers and it dehumanised them. But the company was right to show it as the programme was primarily for POB friends and subscribers, like myself. The defile takes place at the start of the ballet season and is usually very impressive, even moving, as everyone, from the youngest pupil to the grandest etoile slowly descends down the huge rake of the stage (which seemed to have disappeared on the streaming!). I was slightly disappointed by the Grand Pas Classique, not my favourite piece admittedly. Hugo Marchand was fine but Valentine Colasante was tense and couldn't hold her balances for as long as this gala piece requires. As Capybara implies Sylvie Guillem was extraordinary in this, sending it up, teasing the audience and holding those poses for ever. In The Night usually has greater variety between the couples as the ballet is essentially depicting differing types of romantic relationship (or even, in my view, different phases of relationship of the same couple). In particular the first couple embody joyous young love, as when the Royal did it, rather than the more staid relationship shown here. The second pair have on the surface a more formal relationship but elements of passion are revealed towards the end of the pdd. I thought Leonore Baulac, whom I normally admire, was a bit stilted but Germain Louvet coped well with the difficult partnering as the lifts generally go wrong, even when the Royal did it. The final pair have a tempestuous relationship and Alice Renavand, whom I've admired since she was in the corps, and Stephane Bullion, who like Alice R has more personality than many current POB dancers, pull it off. When POB first performed it the company was in a golden age with wonderful dance artists that Nureyev had developed when he was director, and the emotional depth of the piece was conveyed to the full. The Vertiginious Thrill of Exactitude was a lively contrast to the Robbins piece and it was good to see newly promoted Paul Marque among others. The full programme contained Etudes, not an especially good ballet but great fun and shows off the full company, and presumably had some of their other stars, but they weren't allowed to stream it for legal reasons.

Thank you so much, DanJL. I did manage to do it in the end- but might forget, so will be glad to turn to your advice next time!

Although I bought a full subscription I just can't work out how to access the streaming. Any tips? (SFB do give some advice but I still can't work out what to do!)

I endorse what Jan says, it's well worth the £10 cost to rent, with the final viewing date for renters now extended to 15 February. The programme is a varied range of pas de deux, with a mix of music as well as choreography, from Gershwin to Malcolm Arnold. (If I remember correctly, the premiere of The There Musketeers was on the day that Arnold's death was announced, a sad coincidence). Anyone who was able to see the recent very interesting London Ballet Circle interview with David Nixon will especially enjoy seeing some of his best work, including an excerpt from the ballet he said would be his last, The Little Mermaid.

I've just checked the announcement that Alison has helpfully posted. The ballets listed in the latest announcement are the same as listed in June, but the order is very different eg Midsummer Night's Dream is Jan 21 - Feb 10, Jewels is April 1 - 21, R&J is May 6 - 26, Swan Lake is May 20 -9 June. The composition of the mixed bills varies too: Feb 11 - Mar 3: Rhoden, Thatcher, Morris Mar 4-24 : Ratmansky, Rowe, Possokhov Apr 22 - May 12 : Tomasson, Marston, Dawson

The article doesn't seem to cover the impressive digital season the company is offering from 21 January to 9 June. There will be 7 separate programmes. They include 2 full time Balanchine ballets (Midsummer Night's Dream, Jewels) and 2 full length productions by Helgi Tomasson himself (Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake) and 3 triple bills, including world premieres ( Myles Thatcher, Danielle Rowe, Cathy Marston- 'Mrs Robinson'), all on separate programmes. Other choreographers represented include Mark Morris, Ratmansky, Possokhov. Subscribers paying for the full season can watch each programme for the duration that it is available (approx 20 days) and access extras. Alternatively, it is possible to rent programmes separately, available to watch for 24 hours. I found out via an email as a supporter (the company has such amazing rep, possibly the best anywhere, and tremendous dancers) but presumably the full info is available from their website.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the streaming of a programme devoted to Nureyev's choreography, presented by the Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse. It started last night and is available until 15 January. It's free- not even a request for donations. There is quite an interesting selection of pieces- and not a Nutcracker in sight! It opens with six dances from the Hungarian act (3) of Raymonda. That's followed by pas de deux from first, the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, then Sleeping Beauty, then Cinderella and ends with the Black pas de trois (yes, 3, not 2- von Rothbart joins Odile and Siegfried) of Swan Lake. The standard of the dancing is variable but the ballerina Natalia de Froberville dances well in the famous Raymonda solo and as Odile. The company was rehearsed by two of the exceptional dance artists that Nureyev developed, Monique Loudieres ( who had a wonderful pure technique, she danced Juliet the first time I saw the Paris Opera Ballet) and Charles Jude ( who had compelling dramatic stage presence and personal charisma- the last time I saw him dance was as the Prodigal Son, at the Edinburgh Festival, although aged about 50 he was totally convincing). So with all their experience of Nureyev and his ballets the extracts are presented well. The streaming is available from both FaceBook and YouTube on the company website: theatreducapitole.fr

I'm afraid I disagree with John S. Far from thinking that BRB's Drosselmeyer is too creepy I regard Jonathan Payn's performance as way too genial. After all, the character is based on the Hoffmann story. Nowadays productions such as Nutcracker and Coppelia, although based on Hoffmann, are often far too sanitised. And the BRB production is a wonderful testament to Diaghilev's views that ballet should combine wonderful design, music and choreography where the whole comes to more than the sum of the parts. The designs are truly magical.

Paul Marque is only 23 but, according to Danses avec la plume (DALP), his promotion has been expected for a year, most probably after a performance of Raymonda, which got cancelled due to the strike. Apparently he won the Golden medal at Varna in 2016 and the following year was voted by AROP (the Opera organisation, a bit like the Friends of Covent Garden) as dancer of the year. He is especially strong on classical roles, having chosen to dance Siegfried in a key promotion competition. As DALP states, the current preference under Dupont, the director of the ballet company, is for neoclassical and contemporary works, which won't benefit his career, although DALP stresses that Dupont, like Millepied before her, has encouraged his career, giving him many opportunities. And after the new Opera director(Alexander Neef) had announced his promotion, Dupont embraced Marque very warmly. It was all very emotional, Paul Marque looked overcome and the theatre erupted with loud applause. This contrasted with the performance, where there was absolute silence each time the dancers took their bows, quite weird. (There was no audience). The decision to allocate different dancers to each act didn't work well for me, the Nikiyas and Solor's were so different. The company does occasionally have different dancers in key roles in a full length ballet, most frequently for a well known etoile's final performance. Joan has replied while I was typing this so I will miss out some points which would have repeated hers, but in addition to the 2 intervals, nothing happens for the opening 30 minutes, before the first act starts.

There was a change in the cast for the third act. Instead of Pagliero as Nikiya it was Myriam Ould-Braham, who is Mathias Heymann's usual partner. I first saw them dance together in Fille when Alexander Grant mounted it for Paris: and very fine they both were in that. She wasn't entirely on form in Bayadere, and the standard was a bit variable across the company, but it was lovely to see the company dance the ballet, despite some of the out-dated elements in Nureyev's production. But one of the highlights came after the ballet had finished when it was announced on stage that Paul Marque, who had danced the golden idol, had been promoted to etoile. It's available for six more days.

This is absolutely wonderful news. He is such a thoughtful man, with strong values and a lively creative and innovative impulse, that he is capable of moving Phoenix on at a time when all companies are fighting for survival. I spoke to him early this year, when I bumped into him at ROH, asking if there was any chance of him performing in Leeds again, and he indicated then (somewhat to my surprise!) that he was keen to be more involved in Yorkshire but that a performing contract had prevented him to take up some opportunities that had been mooted. My only query is whether he will continue to perform- I can't find any reference in the Phoenix email I got, or the press release Janet has kindly posted, on his future career as a dancer. He has the most marvellous movement quality, as beautiful as Michael Clark's when young. It would be a great loss if he feels he has to give up dancing in order to prioritise the onerous responsibilities of directing the company in these difficult times.

I've now checked the streaming of Paris Opera Swan Lake. It seems to be an old filmed version, presumably a 'Live' film. It costs £7.99 and you can watch for 30 days - whereas Bayadere is only available for 7 days. Odette/Odile: Amandine Albisson Siegfried: Mathieu Ganio Rothbart: Francois Alu Pd3; Leonore Baulac, Hannah O'Neill, Germain Louvet Neapolitan: Melanie Hurel, Emmanuel Thibault

Paris Opera will be streaming a filmed La Bayadere for £9.99. It starts on Sunday, 13, at 2.30 (I presume that's GMT, it's the time I was given in statements in English- although live matinees at the Opera on a Sunday start at 2.30 local time which would be 1.30 here). It's Nureyev's production of course; his final production- and one that the Paris Opera took to Salford to open the Lowry. The cast is studded with etoiles as there are different principals for each act (Nureyev's production only has 3 acts). Nikiya: Dorothee Gilbert; Amandine Albisson; Ludmila Pagliero Solor : Germain Louvet; Hugo Marchand; Mathias Heymann Gamzatti: Leonore Baulac; Valentine Colasante Shades variations: Sae Eun Park, Silvia Saint-Martin, Hannah O'Neill The Opera have set up a new VOD platform as a separate unit ( my usual password didn't work). They are planning to issue a series of streamed productions and have a catalogue that already includes Swan Lake. For details see chezsoi.operadeparis.fr