thewinelake

They're keeping us waiting for casting venue, aren't they? ;-)

My DD was #10....

Dame, surely?!

Am I allowed to ask what numbers you all were in auditions (for RIckmansworth)?

Fantastic. Must look out for more underwater ballet/contemporary dance.

The winners of ballet were UCL...

I see that Sadlers Wells/New Adventures were advertising last minute cancellation tickets last night.

Ah, well I've not seen his Swan Lake so maybe missed out on some recycled concepts in SB. I wonder when RS will be returning to London, but hoping to see SL in 2018. Groupthink can be dangerous (in wine as well as ballet!)...

Ha! I tried editing it just after I posted, but was told that I had to wait 12s. I got side-tracked and now I'm told "This content can no longer be edited. It may have been moved or deleted, or too much time may have passed since it was posted for it to be edited."

We were talking about Matthew Bourne the other day and the general feeling was that RS was a bit of a disappointment compared to SB - and that maybe the reason was that there wasn't as much dancing in RS - or at least the dancing wasn't as easy on the eye. It's been a while now (and we saw RS in the early days) and so my memory's not that clear, but I remember thinking that the innovations for SB really worked for me. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? I know that these shows aren't so much traditional classical ballet as they are something else (although I get terribly confused on dance nomenclature and classification these days).

Well, I've made a Composite multi camera version which I hope isn't too distracting in terms of being self-indulgent editing. A bit of digital zoom applied, and had to include some snow (easier than doing the real theatre stuff!) . Any feedback (preferably constructive!) welcome - If anyone can be bothered to watch, that is!

Yes - I did film a little of the piano concerto from up there

I don't know! But it was the "stage level" one that she doesn't like - and that's where the audience don't get in the way... Edit: I asked her again and it's a bit silly really - apparently you can see the mistakes more clearly with that view, and also there are times when you can't see them all... Sorry to have wasted everyone's time, but I guess I'm still curious about how one should approach a blended approach - mostly from the back with a bit from the side or what? As I said, the constraints in place for this performance were unusual, and I did miss out on a potentially good angle from the front of the balcony.

BTW, DD was not at all keen on the footage shot from stage level - but I don't quite understand why - I quite liked it (apart from the unavoidable jerkiness). Maybe someone here can explain! Some samples: From stage level From the back (in the middle(ish) somewhat elevated) Ideally, one would do a mixture.

No - it was just a couple of weeks ago. There's a YouTube playlist here of most of them. See if you can guess who won.... (BTW, the sound was removed from one as the copyright holder wouldn't allow it)

Yes, the old EU import duty limit. Interestingly on some such cameras (Panasonic anyway) you can apparently get around the limit by switching to NTSC mode (the same restrictions don't apply in USA). I've traditionally been a PAL 25/50 fps kinda guy, but this might send me into the land of 30/60. I'd love to get a taller tripod (but they get very expensive, so I've sometimes used a lighting stand instead!). I do find the wifi connectivity of panasonics useful in such circumstances, but it seems a touch flakey.

BTW, was anyone else from here at the KCL Just Dance It event?

They tend to have periods of relaxation. I know Scott has been ill as well - and said that if you don't reply, they chase you anyway (eventually). I had the same for Rickmansworth.

Ooh, just seen this thread, and as an instigator of one of the others, it's of great interest. So DD did end up at Cambridge, so we know quite a lot more about the dance scene there - particularly ballet - than we did when I first asked the question. It seems to be thriving and DD is spending A LOT of time on ballet related stuff. She was selected to perform at the Law Society ball (some numbers from Nutcracker), a repeat performace in front of the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra (and some children's choirs for snowflakes) at West Road and one of the inter-varsity competitions down at KCL. The standard seems to be very high. Indeed they were joined by an ex Rambert professional (who seems too young!) and we're talking Advanced 1/2 level. The competitions are a scream (at least based on the "Just Dance It" event at KCL) and an element of partisanship wasn't as bad as at most "proper" ballet competitions according to the ballet judge. One of DD's friends seriously considered taking ballet forward instead of becoming a Cambridge NatSci, but is similarly split between work and dance, burning the candle at both ends. So the take-home message is that dance can carry on (and perhaps get even more intense) at university - even a pressurised one with short terms like Cambridge and on the toughest courses such as medicine, Natural Sciences and Architecture. Where they get all this energy from is beyond me, though! So Cambridge University Ballet Club are putting on Swan Lake (no relation) from 1-3 March 2018. Annoyingly they've chosen exactly the same performance days/times as EYB's Coppelia in Rickmansworth (in which DD2 has a part). So we'll be whizzing between Cambridge and Rickmansworth, Grandparents in tow, like mad people. If anyone wants to see examples on YouTube, let me know and I can provide links. No blues at Cambridge for ballet (maybe we should start lobbying!) - the only thing is "dance sport" (ballroom dancing?) where you can get a half blue if you beat Oxford or come high enough up in the national championships.

Well, I did record a kind of ballet show the other day in Cambridge. I don't know how many of you know West Road Concert Hall, but it's not really designed for ballet - for example there are no "wings" and the way it was done for this event was more as an orchestral concert with some ballet with the first set of pieces (Nutcracker) and no stage. I wasn't really able to liaise in much detail with the organisers to do anything proper, but did put a pair of cameras (one of which was new) in a somewhat elevated position next to the lighting desk at the back. That worked quite well, except the lack of stage meant that the audience heads obscured a lot of the feet! So I had another camera with me, and decided to sit on the front row at the side - and that was OK in terms of seeing everything, although at times the dancers got too close to me. In the event, I had a few technical issues with cameras mysteriously cutting out (I think this may be down to SDCard write speed being too low?) and the white balance was a bit inconsistent (and I can't blame the lighting, which was quite bland). However, one thing that emerged was that one can get some quite useful still photos from 4K footage, which with a bit of judicious post-processing can look reasonably attractive.

I had to Google that one, but applause merited!

Just wondering about recording ballet shows. There are a few options. If recording a ballet performance, what's the best angle (vertically) to shoot from? Traditionally I've always done it from near the back of the hall, but sometimes one has the options of balconies, etc. Would it be the same as where the best seats are, or does a long lens mean that one can do better by being further back and higher? Or how about a (secondary) camera mounted vertically above the stage in the lighting gantry? That might result in more clarity to the geometry of choreography (although it could also show up errors!). The other thing, of course, is what combination of full stage view and close-ups do people like? I find flicking between camera angles very distracting, but just a fixed view of the whole stage from the back is dull - how does one get the balance right?

Not sure I understand the question! I doubt that Zipping a compressed video file would be particularly useful. What are you trying to do?

We were there and DD was selected. First time since Sleeping Beauty in Stevenage. DW thought the overall standard was lower than at SB auditions, although the best ones were pretty good (my money was on 11 to get the full scholarship - unfortunately no bookies would take my bet!)...