Two Pigeons

It was rather sad really. She was the 'star of the moment' and she was physically very different from many of her colleagues. One minute she was in everything and the next she was sort of dropped without trace. I feel that she was mentally quite fragile and when tougher dances came along Bryony faded from notice. Macmillan's didn't use her much at all and when people like Ferri appeared Bryony's star faded and faded very quickly.

I have finally got round to writing my comments on Wednesday's performance. Whatever the casting this was always going to be special as my hubby was coming with me for his first ever trip to the ballet. I am very pleased to say he really enjoyed it, especially the first act. I really must pay more attention to the details of the cast list. When Dr Stahlbaum entered and I realised it was the utterly divine Wolfgang Stollwitzer my heart skipped several beats and no one else got a look in for much of the first bit. However, there are always exceptions to even the most obsessive of crushes and I thought Laura Day as Clara was a complete and utter delight. Her look of rapturous enchantment in the first act pas de deux and the snow scene was just glorious. I really liked Rory Mackey as Drosselmeyer, quirky but believeable, and hubby was very taken with Lachlan Monaghan as the brilliant Jack-in-the-Box. Our prince was Tzu-Chao Chou who was a courteous and attentive partner. His jetes were pretty terrific but I hope I don't sound overly picky when I say that I prefer my princes to land a little more silently. In the snow scene Yvette Knight was predictably lovely with great attendants including the divine (sorry that word again) Celine Gittens and Delia Matthews. Th winds were lead by Will Bracewell and Brandon Lawrence. What more could a girl ask for? The second act was fine, hubby was particularly taken with the Russian Dance and I was very happy as Luke Schaufuss was involved. Arancha Baselga shone with warmth as the Rose Fairy and the change of child Clara to the adult Sugar Plum of Karla Doorbar was the most convincing I have seen in 25 years of watching this production. However, I have to say that I thought Karla was flagging a bit towards the end of her variation and the pas de deux actually wasn't quite the climax I was expecting. She looked beautiful and a very convincing adult Laura Day but that pas de deux is a killer and if you start to fade it really shows. So, all in all a very happy evening and hubby has said he may return as long as it's Hobson's Choice. I may work on him next time Fille or Two Pigeons come round again. I am only going to one Nutcracker this year but I am really looking forward to The Dream and A Month in the Country, just as long as we get the right casts.

I also think that BRB have a special feeling for the ballet. I have heard David Bintley refer to it as 'our' ballet. He also tells this story about seeing Bejart watching SWRB performing it from the wings with tears in his eyes. Apparently he thought it was a near perfect ballet. It is interesting that such a simple ballet gives rise to such a wide range of extreme views. People tend to love it or hate it. I love it and have very happy memories of the piece. I have seen some great casts with people who worked with Ashton and /or a real understanding of his style. One cast I remember causing a mega load of tissues was Marion Tait, Roland Price with Karen Donovan as the gypsy. It must have been a couple of decades ago but I still remember it very clearly. My last cast was the great Robert Parker with Nao Sakuma. They also had a real feeling for the work. To use a cliché, I think BRB have the ballet in their DNA. If you consider that their teaching staff includes Marion Tait and Michael O'Hare, himself a favourite Young Man, you can see why. If the RB haven't quite got the same degree of heritage. However, now they have introduced it to a new generation it may yet happen.

Gosh, I thought Pulchinella was joking about the booking opening tomorrow but this is no word of a lie. This smacks of slight desperation.

Hi Mary, you are so right. I think it is pretty upsetting that really there is so little film available of the great triumvirate that was Park, Sibley and Seymour. There is the full length Isadora but that hardly shows Park at her classical best. She was recorded in the Nureyev version of Nutcracker but that is very hard to get hold of. For my money no one has ever matched Park as Marie Larische or her performance with Eagling in Voices of Spring. I do not deny there gave been as good dancers but they gave the piece something extra.

I expect the Council is damned if they do and damned if they don't. I consider myself to have been very fortunate to have seen the establishment of SWRB/BRB in Birmingham since 1984. Birmingham took the far sighted decision to make the city a centre of dance and since 1990 around 60 dancers a year have had paid employment and we have been able to enjoy the fruits of it all. I am sure the company will survive, even if it is in a smaller form.

P.s. Hi Petunia. I never saw Lesley Collier in that fairy variation but I can believe she was that fast in view of other things I did see her perform. I made the point about the Osipova Fille that I got irritated at how slowly she took Lise's solo in the Fanny Elssler pas de deux. Lesley was my first Lise and I saw her do it a number of times. It was like seeing a different ballet.

Hi Tabitha. No, the BRB Auroras kept their legs at a more classical angle, say 90 degrees rather than over 135. It was not a case they the can't do the higher stuff as much as Sir Peter seems to prefer a more modest approach.

Good Heavens! And she was only 55. What hope for the rest of us? All those postings about Sleeping Beauty reminded me of her debut as Aurora. She was a very distinctive and individual dancer and I will spend some time thinking over my memories of her.

May I say that when I watched the aforementioned ladies I never felt that kind of tension because I KNEW they would hold the balances. Indeed, a ballet going friend at the time used to say that Park deliberately put in a slight wobble just to make it interesting. An exaggeration no doubt but I knew what she meant. Watching Marguerite Porter, on the other hand, could shorten your life by a couple of years. This was a role too far for her, as she admitted herself. Interestingly when BRB last did Beauty a couple of years ago there were some comments that the extensions were far less exaggerated and some people found this a detraction. I am sure that this is not what Petipa ever intended and I doubt he would have approved either. What is good enough for Dame Ninethe and Sir Peter Wright is quite good enough for me.

P.s. and Tabitha as well. I think we are all of one mind.

I could not agree with you more Fonty. I was lucky enough to see Merle Park dance Aurora in the early 80s and the moment of her arabesque at the start of the act 1 variation is one of those freeze frame instants that has remained in my memory ever since. I also have very happy memories of Collier, Penney and Whitten in the role. They all danced with such a wonderful combination of great foot work, musicality and attack. Just because they were not 5'9" with extensions past their ears does NOT make their performances anything less than superlative. I find some of the comments accompanying the clip very depressing. I will ignore the really vulgar ones as they say far more about the poster than the artist they refer to. This modern trend to believe that only current dancers are valid and those of the past can be regarded as a 'dwarf' are as misguided as they are offensive. In addition to talking about an Aurora who smiles and holds the balances without distorting the music may I add how lovely it is to see one who GIVES the second set of roses to her mother without chucking them at her feet.

In addition to all of that there was a far higher chance of seeing the greatest of ballet stars touring the provinces. I have a friend who saw F&N at Stratford upon Avon.

I have had the great good fortune to interview Sir Peter in person twice and once over the telephone for a magazine article. He really is very good value and I loved hearing his stories about touring during the War. Having said that, my favourite stories were those which related to seeing Galina Ulanova and how she influenced his love of Giselle over the decades. He is one of British ballet's greats and it is terrific that we still have him and all his knowledge.

I have just seen Fonty's last post. I get really irritated when people snipe at the 1950s as though it was the decade from Hell. (I realise entirely that this was a quoted view and not the poster's own.) You get this all the time on anything relating to Radio 4, especially The Archers. There was much that was very good about that decade which we could do with a bit more now. If there was an element of a desire for escapism I cannot see that there is anything wrong with that. I do accept that 2Ps isn't for everyone but I agree wholeheartedly that there is no need to decry the people who do like it. If I get a bit worked up about this my nom-de-plume may indicate where my loyalties lie.

Given that Two Pigeons is about to have much wider exposure due to the cinema relay I would not be at all surprised if a number of European ( and possibly American) companies suddenly start performing it. Given that Ashton's work is having something of a renaissance, if not his true style, the work may become very popular in all sorts of places. Incidentally, back to the arguments about the portrayal of gypsies as exotic but dangerous outsiders, I was thinking how often this appears in 19th century works. It is in operas such as Carmen and Il Trovatore and then I saw a version of Emma at the weekend. Even Jane Austen portrayed them as such. It must have been a fairly widespread view at the time.

I have been buying Dancing Times regularly since the early 1980s. I think I will be cancelling soon if the contents continue to have less ballet.

I saw Marion Tait and Desmond Kelly do it with Galina Samsova and Roland Price as the second couple of wife and young man. I was not particularly shocked by it but I did find it very uncomfortable viewing despite excellent performances. I do remember how well it conveyed the life wrecking effects of a rape on the victim with the aggressor just carrying completely undeterred by his actions. It must have been a real wake up call when first performed but ballet has kind of overtaken it over the past decades.

I only remember Michael O'Hare dancing it

Thank you for getting me up to date. What a lot I have missed.

I think your point about Tudor is very valid FLOSS. The Royal Ballet seem to have a near schizophrenic relationship with his work and pieces such as Dark Elegies and Lilac Garden don't seem to have been performed in Britain for decades. I have only seen Lilac Garden once, at the old Sadler's Wells and by a foreign company. Sorry, cannot remember which one. I would love a chance to see Gala Performance. I did see Shadowplay once with Anthony Dowell and Derek Rencher in the 80s. It did not impress me that much but it is a piece I would welcome seeing again now that my ballet experience has broadened. I had forgotten about Pillar of Fire but I have this rather dim memory of Marion Tait and Joe Cipolla doing it rather well. I have got that wrong I am sure someone will correct me. Regrettably Tudor has few advocates left now and I am not sure how well his work is recorded. However, he did have most of his success in The States so it may well be that much of it is preserved in a number of ways.

Surely this view of gypsies as romantic but dangerous is not limited to the time period you suggest Lindsay. They don't come out that we'll in From Russia With Love from the early 1960s. The ballet I am always surprised is allowed to continue is Petrushka. Having said that this a work which is a complete work of art in terms of music and design as well as the choreography. I am less than keen on it but I would be sorry if modern eyes decided it should be consigned to the pages of history.

A Wedding Bouquet, Les Rendezvous - but only with the right designs and not the most recent ones - Macmillan's The Four Seasons. If we are allowed to suggest works for BRB I would like to see Paramour, Consort Lessons and Galentaries again together with Les Patineurs. I will probably think of some others. Oh yes, Raymonda.

FLOSS may I just say that I am a great admirer of your postings and go out of my way to read them. That being said I think your most recent entry is undoubtedly one of your very finest. I agree with everything you say. Thank you. We Ashton fans need to stick together while there are still some of us left who remember how his works should be danced and the importance of preserving his style before it is lost in some overall Euro/Russian mess.

There are no two ways about it, the Ashton rep is much harder to dance than the Macmillan rep. It is even harder to dance the Ashton rep as Ashton intended, not least at the right speed. I was watching my DVD of the Osipova Fille and I got frustrated at how slowly she took the solo in the Act 2 pas de deux. I also thought Lesley Collier's observations in the extra interview were illuminating. Please may I add A Wedding Bouquet to the list of revitals to be requested. I would normally make my usual observations about the greater amount of Ashton's works that BRB do but I have my reservations about the way some of those are going as well. After the performances of Les Rendezvous last year I am starting to lose my faith there too.