Vanartus

Thanks Bruce for this - if the RB doesn't get its act together re Ratmansky hopefully ENB will take the lead...

Incredibly sad loss...

:-/ centre block full but sides empty

Thanks for the info - went down to see it today. (Hovercraft as well!) Very well done - really enjoyed it all. Northern Ballet substitutes were excellent. So glad I went.

Facada amazing - enjoyed it even more than last year. Tristesse very good - I'd seen Gomes two days before in Car Man - amazing quartet of dancers. Zeitgeist was Connectome "light", but danced with total commitment (possibly more than the choreography actually deserved...) and energy.

You should give Raven a second chance if only for the final pas de deux. Wayne will have edited quite a bit to make the whole piece work better.

Duck - many thanks for info re returns and for great review.

And all sold out! Why didn't I get my act together? Sigh...

Jealous...

So jealous - was planning Antwerp, Amsterdam and Paris - had to let all fall by wayside...so greatly appreciate your review of DNB.

Agree with all statements/views/sentiments!

I'm intrigued by the new piece - sounds good. As a Northerner/Mancunian I still regret my city's decision not to encounter/facilitate/consider a merger of the then SWRB with NDT/NBT. Had always rather liked the sound of The Royal Northern Ballet. Still good on Birmingham for delivering the goods over three decades.

Prelocaj became apparently choreo non grato (?!) in London, but I liked his Parc in Paris and really enjoyed Snow White in Berlin. I heard the Alles Cranko programme in Stuttgart was amazing - and you can still catch the trailer on the website. It shows the opposite of his Pineapple Poll side - and I was amazed at the quality and invention. We need to see this here at either RB or BRB.

Great idea re Neumeier - totally overlooked here and Brit Crits verrrry snippy - unfairly so! Full length Forsythe - yes, and I agree there's a lot more Balanchine to be mined.

More Ratmansky for both. I'd like BRB to have a MacGregor, My Brother My Sisters, Pierrot Lunaire and Manon. For RB I'd like to see a redesigned Cinderella, and I'd commission a Hamlet.

I agree with above list. I'd also throw in Voluntaries, Symphonic, Scenes de B, Requiem, Apollo...(Balanchine is tricky with RB)

A fascinating question. My wimpy response doesn't do it justice, but it'll start the ball rolling. I'm going to strike a positive note and say ...sort of. Yes. Sort of... There's a grinding reassuring regularity of the rotation of the big 3 MacMillians as the Romeo year (or two) blends into a Manon year folds into a Mayerling etc. There's the parallel Petipa-type cycle of Beauty/Swan/Bayadere etc. What seems to be missing is a powerful boost of major inputting of both Ashton and MacMillian one-acts. These tend to be more drip-fed (this year's Ashton evening was an exception) rather than used as regular markers of a company's style and a measure of their dancers commitment and ability to re-connecting to and even re-inventing a house-style. It's not just that the back Ashton and MacMillan catalogue is badly unexploited (...my list of "wanna sees" is endless) but the way triple bills are constructed is under-powered in a just "let see what we've got" way. Some I know hate the idea of themed programmes but focussing on a composer, an era, a theme sometimes helps to use the back catalogues far better. I'll end here and look forward to hearing others.

Or she may choose to stay, and shine and dazzle in Dresden...

Balancing Song is difficult. The best programme with it was actually in Munich a couple of years ago: Ashton's Scenes de Ballet followed by a variety of PDD (Voices of Spring, Thais plus Isadora Waltzes ) then Song. It really worked.

I really hope Lauren C has better luck next season!

I guess The Spectator captured both views in Ismene's review...

...Jann Parry surprisingly harsh too...

:-) brightened up my morning! Re earlier thread re alternatives to Ferri: I'd add Leanne Benjamin to the list. I would have loved to have seen second cast for second part, but stupidly double booked Guillem. Still two friends of mine are very happy! I saw first and second performances and it still resonates. An amazing piece. And I don't think I heard people talking so much about what they'd seen in the intervals. Or people being so moved after the performance. I know it would be treating WW as a Matthew Bourne type show, but I could see a three week run (given more than one complete cast) outside of the actual season and possibly in a new venue (if technology allows). Really pleased most of the critics really liked it, but thought Telegraph surprisingly and unfairly harsh.

Quote: "Dear Frank, please allow me to say that in my view you are being oversensitive. I love any ethnicity without any prejudice ! but nowadays, as soon as a referral is being made towards any ethnicity, people get oh so easily offended for no reason at all. Please!" I'm sorry but the above is exactly the type of casual racism that goes unacknowledged by the speaker. Not good. (Edited by Moderator to make it clear that the top paragraph is a quote.)