Petunia

Everything is fine here. There`s an intermission now. I liked the tentative beginning, it looked improvised, didn´t care too much about the song but the guitar solo was nice. But I am very impressed by the faune, have never seen it before on stage, how beautiful the decor is. Want a nymphe`s dress now. Who danced the Arabian from Raymonda, was it Dorothée Gilbert? And who was the man? Hope there will be credits in the end.

16 minutes to go... I´m armed with strawberries and chocolate bisquits...!

On FranceTV Culturebox, until Dec 24th: http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/live/danse/danse-classique/dances-at-a-gathering-de-jerome-robbins-au-palais-garnier-158519

To give you time to buy the appropriate myrtles and lilies to decorate your home with: Tomorrow, 28th of June is the birthday of Carlotta Grisi (1819-1899), the first Giselle. Travelling through Istria, Croatia a few years ago we came through the pretty village of Vizinada, in the north of Porec, where Istria looks like Tuscany, but a little wilder. I saw a street sign saying “Ulica Carlotte Grisi” and was puzzled, so we went to the local coffee bar and asked (luckily everybody speaks Italian in Istria). The lady at the bar was very competend AND PROUD, and also delighted to share her knowledge with some random tourists. But she didn’t know how Carlotta made her way from the Istrian hills to Milan, do you? No, there’s no ballet school at Vizinada. But for a short time I thought about opening one.

How authors from Dickens to Dr Seuss invented the words we use every dayhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/authors-invented-words-used-every-day-cojones-meme-nerd As a lover and collector of words I have to share this!

Aaaaaah the peacock dress - wantwantwant!

Off Topic: It makes me quite envious when I read all these enthusiastic reviews. I wish I could just pop over to London again but for this year I’ve had my share already… I know and love MacMillan’s, Cranko`s and Nureyev’s versions (I’ve never seen a Russian R+J) but I never even knew there was a R+J by Derek Deane! Do you Londoners even know how lucky you are to have two fabulous companies… yes, I’m sure you do! *greenwithenvy*

wildflowers, just for the record: The “Big Five” in Germany are: Ballettschule HamburgBallett John Neumeier http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/schule.htm John Cranko-Schule Stuttgart http://en.john-cranko-schule.de/admission/ Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin http://www.ballettschule-berlin.de/cids/englisch/index.html Palucca Schule Dresden http://www.palucca.eu/en.html Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts http://www.muho-mannheim.de/frame.php?path=/wirueberuns/Ballett

Jeremie Belingard (POB) for Hermès!

And this one: http://vimeo.com/70854992

And this one is old - but I love it: http://vimeo.com/51742856

Palais de Cristal is gorgeous. I could watch it forever. You can learn so much about dealing with Space in dance. And Mr P who is a musician looked over my shoulder and remarked: 'Hey, they're dancing the music!' The Lacroix costumes are delicious, especially the head of lettuce in the 3rd movement ;-)!

Yes, Alison. On a bike path next to a very busy drivethrough in the middle of Berlin. Many bike paths here are sort of shared space on the sidewalks (pavement??) so it becomes quite crowdwd sometimes, especially in the touristy areas. And yes, there still are "backpedal brakes" but also many "Fixies", with no brakes at all...!

:lol: Lovely.

Thank you for mentioning Barbara Vine! I've read most of her books but this one has escaped me till now! I'm reading "The Virgin in the Garden" by A.S. Byatt right now. I loved "The Cildren's Book" and "Possession"! Yesterday I got "Different Drummer", MacMillans Biography, I will start to read it alongside. What a brick of a book.

Also a guy who passed me on his bicycle: with earplugs, watching his phone and typing. With both hands. Though I *did* admire his coordination skills, I feared for him.

Hi Munchkin, we used the foam roller a lot in Pilates class. Most of the exercises enhanced core stability and also flexibility of the spine. Some exercises are for relaxation of the hips and shoulder joints. I also use the foam roller to “roll out” the abductor muscles and the iliotibial band (ouch). I think the use of a foam roller beneficial in every respect. Try to get one in a good size so that your spine and head fit on it, length wise, and it should not be soft – the white ones are sufficient and not too expensive. Mine is by the manufacturer Sissel – don’t know if they’re available outside of Germany.

You may call me a cry-baby but this one moves me to tears (*snif*)

I paid 25€ plus 2€ booking fee – that’s about 22 GBP in total.

Broadcast was flawless, no glitches at all. Sadly there were only about 30 people in the audience. No popcorn but also no applause Wonderful to see everything from front and middle! Edward Watson sometimes reminded me of expressionistic silent movies. He’s such a great dancer, he doesn’t need so much explicit choreography. But I liked how his torment was shown by him twisting around the statues and fantasizing about the Hermione / Polixenes relationship. I found the stage settings and costumes thoroughly beautiful. Liked the men’s coats, they looked regal and warrior-like, like Azerbaidjanian dancers. And the colours were fabulous. The choreography for Lauren Cuthbertson was really wonderful, esp. the beginning and the end of Act 1 (trial scene). I went to see the broadcast with one of my adult students and heard her gasp when she did the unassisted arabesque turns. In the whole I was very much moved by both Cuthbertson and Zenaida Yankovsky, how expressive she is with her tiniest movement! I felt really uneasy when Cuthbertson was thrown around, I feared for the baby! Didn’t feel the first act was too long. However, I’d condense Watson’s agonies just a little bit. There were moments when the choreography was somewhat mickeymousing the music, sadly I had to wince a little. The whole flight / shipwrecking scene was absolutely ingeniously designed. The real big theatre machine bombast! Loved the billowing curtain which then became the waves! I’m sorry to say that I was also very underwhelmed by Darcey Bussell’s presentation. Loved the beginning of Act two with the flute, Sarah Lamb was a convincing 16 year-old in her first solo. My heart just melted when Steven McRae wore her like a slinky purple silk scarf around his neck. Magical Bohemian party scene, great music there by the musicians on stage. I am probably the only one here who liked the men’s costumes. Bohemia’s shores seem to be a crazy mélange of the Black Sea, the eastern Adriatic, Greece and all the Balkans. As the choreography clearly showed . I was happy to see so much challenging and fun choreography for the corps - I shouldn’t call them corps, since they looked like a bunch of individuals to me, I really became personally interested in every dancer, they are so wonderful, each and any of them. I should write some more about McRae, I love his energy, his flawless technique and his intelligence. But this time I felt here he could be a little less brilliant… would love to see some innocence – the first love leaves most of us a little “dazed and confused”, isn’t it so? Both of them looked a tiny bit too smart after the very first beginning. (I’d be curious to see Vadim Muntagirov in this role). When the last act started, I was a little tired (it was 11 pm by then), so I didn’t mind the act being comparatively short. It was dense and intensive and without any of the redundancies of the first act. Was fascinated by Hermione’s slow “awakening” and when she did her solo from Act 1 again, she transported such a maturity and sensitivity through her movement I couldn’t believe it. I had only seen her as Alice on video and liked her a lot, but from now on I am in love . All in all I felt so elated and animated when I left the cinema! On my bike ride home through the splendid spring night I smelled the sweet scent from the trees and heard the nightingales, singing their little tails off in every bush and shrub I passed.

On the other side: if watching the ballet in the cinema were a bit like sitting in a seat I could never afford, I probably wouldn’t mind the popcorn issue that much. The theatre is one of those big venues for Hollywood-blockbuster-type movies I normally avoid. Seats will be more comfortable than the ROH Amphitheatre, though.

I seem to be one of the last ones to see the Winter’s Tale… tonight at the cinema! After following your reviews very eagerly at first and reading all the provided links, I decided to just skim them, to keep myself “surprisable” (is this a word?). I am very curious to see a live performance in a movie theatre – in regard to the price of the ticket, I really hope there will be no small children or nachos with cheese or popcorn near me. Does one applaud in a cinema?

When I was 13 or 14 we had to perform a short dance sequence in “The Tales of Hoffmann” at the opera house. We had to wait during the whole second act, crouching under a raised floor from which we had to emerge through individual trap doors. The doors were locked by a latch we had to push then swing open the flap to come out. Needless to say that at my first performance I was unable to open the d***d thing and had to sit there while the quartet was reduced to a trio and the stage manager was going bananas in the wings.

I saw the opening night on Wednesday. It was the absolute highlight to my trip to London. What wonderful, wonderful dancers they have at the ENB! I was overwhelmed by their power and energy and how fearlessly they tackled Khan´s and Maliphant´s works! I didn´t know the company at all though I´ve seen “Agony and Extasy” on youtube and I understand that they are doing only classical works, is that so? I wasn´t that impressed by Liam Scarlett´s choreography. The stage design was striking but was it really worth the effort? The duets were beautifully and passionately danced love duets, especially the last one with Rojo and Berlanga really moved me. I liked the idea of a different kind of “Firebird” without princes and princesses when I read the synopsis but then I was not very convinced… But could have watched the dancers in both Maliphant´s and Khan´s works for hours. I found the more abstract approach to the subject much more compelling and I was completely swept away by the strange beauty and strong images combined with the fantastic lighting and the extraordinarily fascinating music in both pieces. That said, the Barbican is easily the ugliest theatre I´ve ever been to.

I´ve been to SB and Lest We Forget on April 1st and 2nd and was really surprised by the audiences being so fidgety and lacking of concentration. Talking during the musical interludes and (as it was the case at the ROH) constant fiddling with cellphones is something I am not used to. I spent quite an amount of money and time to book tickets, flight and hotel and was looking forward to it for weeks. For me it was a very special occasion and although I wouldn´t say it was spoilt by such a behaviour it made me feel somehow uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed. And what I found very remarkable was that at the end the applause was so short! I´d never thought us Berliners being a very enthusiastic lot but we wouldn´t have let the dancers go without extensive curtain calls, especially after a world premiere!