Duck

Edward Watson, plus the following in no particular order: James Hay, Friedemann Vogel, Jorge Donn, Alexander Jones, Benjamin Pech

Try The Four Temperaments to music by Paul Hindemith - musical and rhythmic. There is also Balanchine's version of The midsummer night's dream; is this more in the "musical responses" category even though it has the Shakespeare play as basis?

Up until this thread, I had come to believe I would probably be the only person on this forum who doesn't like some of the Ashton ballets. Reading the posts here, it gives me some comfort that I am not utterly and completely on my own. ------------- edited wording for clarity

The information on the POB site lists a violinist and a pianist for Duo Concertant, so I guess it will be the ballet that you have in mind I'll report back if I get to see it.

Tricky question as the casting and my mood and/ or alertness on the day all can have an influence so I am limiting my comments to those ballets that I've seen more than once and I still don't like them. ... or where the choreographer uses an existing score and also runs out of ideas before the end of the music. With Ashton, I've realised that I often like the non-narrative pieces however I tend to struggle a lot with his narrative ballets. Other dis-likes are generally narrative ballets - regardless of the choreographer - where divertissements don't move the story forward. And comedy. And definitely nudity. Is this Balanchine/ Duo Concertant, or is there another ballet with the same title? POB currently does Duo Concertant, and the costumes look like "normal Balanchine", an example here https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-15-16/ballet/alexei-ratmansky-george-balanchine-jerome-robbins-justin-peck/gallery#slideshow0/4 (still trying to get a ticket ...).

Just about any role in Béjart's Bolero or in Balanchine's The Four Temperaments.

Béjart Bolero Béjart Firebird Béjart Songs of a Wayfarer Bel Tombe Bintley Still Life at the Penguin Café Cranko Initials R.B.M.E. Cranko Brouillards McGregor Infra McGregor Woolf Works MacMillan Song of the Earth MacMillan Requiem MacMillan Concerto MacMillan Gloria Tetley Voluntaries

Jiri Kylian and John Neumeier started choreographing while they were dancers at Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko, and William Forsythe joined Stuttgart Ballet not long after Cranko’s death. Uwe Scholz was given early choreographic opportunities by Marcia Haydee. Reid Anderson has programmed a wealth of new creations since 1996 - just looking at new pieces in recent years, Katarzyna Kozielska has just had the premiere of her second ballet for the main stage, Demis Volpi will be creating a new full-evening ballet later this season, Marco Goecke is producing new pieces on a regular basis, and Christian Spuck started in Stuttgart and has since moved to Zuerich. And I’ve surely missed out on some names! How important is, in addition to encouragement by the AD, the stimulation through peers who also embark on choreographic adventures? Stuttgart saw, in 1958, the creation of the Noverre society as a forum for new choreographies, both by dancers of Stuttgart Ballet and elsewhere. An English-speaking article here http://www.networkdance.com/articles/Landgraf-on-Dance/12223 gives an insight into the role of that organisation as part of a review of one of their annual performances in recent years. POB has recently appointed four of their dancers as artists in residence https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/academy/about. They follow the creation of a ballet and have access to a team of young dancers from Paris Opera Ballet School in a workshop. I’ve also read somewhere that they receive lessons in dance history and that two existing choreographers provide support to them. The four artists in residence will share a mixed programme next season. A thought – I remember from a post that I’ve read earlier that also Ashton and MacMillan created ballets that were not such a success. Did this trigger a similar discussion at the time? Has the commercial need for instant success increased, and/ or have the expectations of audience and critics increased? With busy company schedules, do choreographers nowadays have less time to review/ reflect/ take in feedback/ make amendments before the opening night? ----------- edited for typo

Tickets for the Insight event on 11 May for the new Wayne McGregor ballet "Obsidian Tear" currently available.

There are usually some return tickets for Insight events available a few weeks before the event, I am increasingly relying on those, and it has worked well a few times.

Tempted by getting a ticket for Summerscales/ Allen

Tombe had touched me immensely when I saw it on 5 Feb, in particular Benjamin Pech, when he described the elderly woman he had chosen to dance with, and in the related video that that was shown – he had come across as genuinely sincere and generous. And so … I went back for the final performance on 20 Feb, which was also his farewell from the stage, having reached the retirement age at POB. To mark the occasion, Millepied’s La Nuit s’achève was replaced by Robbins’ In the Night (of which Pech danced the first part with Dorothée Gilbert), and the final PDD from Prelocaj’s Le Parc was added as final piece (which Pech shared with one of his regular partners, Eleonora Abbagnato). An emotional evening. Whereas in seeing Tombe for the first time, I had a lump at the back of my throat towards the end, this time I was in tears throughout (not helped, I guess, by the fact that I had read just about everything that had been published on this piece over the last two weeks!). The audience reacted a lot more welcoming than on the opening night, with just one loud “boo” once the curtain was down, which however was quickly outnumbered by loud shouts of “bravo” … an interesting experience! … however the applause was still modest compared to that in response to the subsequent pieces. While extracts of the second and third parts are now available on the web, I still hope that the whole piece has been filmed and will be made public, and this with a translation into English. In the Night does not feature in the current season and so, with its just one performance, seemed to suffer a little from the lack of repetitions. I had certainly been more moved by performances at the ROH of this ballet in recent years as the different moods of the three parts had been more distinct there (or maybe I just saw specific casts at the ROH too often and thus used those as benchmark?). I warmed to Goldberg Variations even if it remains rather long. It did help that I counted the variations during the ballet (though that’s also what I do when I walk up a long flight of stairs as a means of self-motivation), and I could see patterns of interactions among dancers emerging in the first part, plus I enjoyed the dancing by the principal cast in the second part more (e.g., lifts looked easier, no wobbles in arabesque on demi point). The final PDD “Abandon” from Le Parc. What can I say. If Clavigo includes a kiss than brings the house down, even more so for Le Parc. The woman puts her arms around the man’s neck and they kiss, he starts to turn, as a result the woman’s legs lift off the floor so she appears to fly, and so they turn and turn and turn. Beyond that flying kiss, the whole PDD bringing a sense of abandoning oneself in the love for and the being together with the other person, full of passion and tenderness, full of natural expression. Transferring this from the love of another person to the love of dance - what a choice for a final performance on stage! 20-minute standing ovation by the whole house, flowers, stars raining down on Benjamin Pech. I wish I had discovered this wonderful dancer earlier. That's me for Paris for a while I guess (sadly).

Thank you for all the comments!

A world premiere of Akram Khan's Giselle at English National Ballet next season, Reimagining Giselle as part of Draft Works at the Royal Opera House in April 2016, Jerome Bel's production Tombe, which is inspired by Giselle, currently at Paris Opera Ballet. What makes Giselle so attractive to create modern versions of it? Or just pure coincidence? Apologies if this is an odd question!

There are elements of Strapless that I liked – the costumes that matched the portraits of Pozzi and Mme Gautreau so well, the funny choreography for Mme Pozzi, and generally the choreography for Mme Gautreau. However there wasn’t enough dancing for others, and I thought that transforming this into a full-length ballet would give more space to develop the characters of Pozzi, Sargent and de Belleroche and thus provide them with more opportunity to dance. When I saw Strapless for the first time, I wondered halfway through whether Sargent would be essentially an acting role. The PDD between Pozzi and Mme Gautreau is fantastic with some exquisite and passionate rolling around the floor, however then there is a break in atmosphere as the scene changes to the bar. A longer duration of the ballet would allow to develop each scene further as well as the relationships between the Gautreaus, between Pozzi and his female followers, and between Sargent and de Belleroche. Mme Gautreau’s isolation once the portrait is unveiled is nicely done with everyone turning away from her, leaving her much exposed, and the choreography shows this beautifully – however unfortunately it feels like a long preparation working up to this climax. Very good dancing though last night and this afternoon, everyone making the most of the story. Maybe it is that I struggled with so much in this ballet that I preferred the more expressive acting last night to the one this afternoon. The PDD between Nunez and Soares in After the Rain last night was entrancing, hypnotising. The same PDD this afternoon felt different even though it was done very well. Yanowski seemed very happy with the performance, and posted a big thank you to Clarke on her Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/p/BBu-YeBDa67/?taken-by=zenaidayanowsky. Well done for the two supporting couples also both yesterday and today. Oh, and I much liked the music by Paert. The costumes in Within the Golden Hour reminded me of beach wear in a lush environment. The standout performance on both occasions for me was the duet between Sambe and Acri - what energy and synchronisation, and I also much enjoyed Stix-Brunell and Muntagirov last night and Takada and Dyer today. All others also did well, and the dancers seemed to enjoy the ballet. The final part reminded me of the ending in DGV with all dancers coming together and moving in rhythmically repeated movements. The music by Bosso is a discovery, and I am making a note that I need to explore this further.

The article here http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/scenes/danse/pour-millepied-a-garnier-la-nuit-s-acheve-avec-bel-et-robbins-235013 includes three short videos - the last rehearsal by Benjamin Pech with the old woman in Tombe and two extracts from Millepied's piece.

Morera has been replaced by Choe in Within the Golden Hour http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/within-the-golden-hour-by-christopher-wheeldon (13/17 Feb and 10 Mar) -- Edited to say that I've just seen that this was already mentioned in post 74 - ups!

Additional cast information for "Strapless" on 13/17 Feb and 10 March on the ROH web site http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-confirmation-strapless-on-13-and-17-february-and-10-march-2016

Thank you for these posts as I then logged into the ROH web site to see whether there'd be any tickets still available ... and to my surprise, I got a Stalls Circle ticket Thank you.

Thank you very much, I'll watch this tomorrow

Thank you, all I've been able to find here are short trailers of the documentary with a duration of between one and three minutes. I hope it will be released at some stage. There was also a film about the health care for dancers at the Paris Opera on French television a few days ago, this is freeview in France however I haven't been able to access this from the UK.

What struck me most in reading Luke Jenning's article in the Observer on Sunday is how much must have gone wrong in the hiring process. In seeking out new employment, a jobseeker should explore the organisation's culture and values, and review whether there is a sufficient match (or for a senior role, whether there is sufficient possibility to influence culture and values) as otherwise a sense of disillusion is likely to kick in soon. Equally, the hiring organisation should explore whether the candidate is a cultural match to the organisation, and for senior roles also manage the candidate's expectations as to the possibilities of influencing the prevailing culture. For Millepied's role at POB, this would in my view include aspects such as e.g., hiring and promotion; if these were not explored/ discussed or related expectations managed, part of why it ended so soon for me lies in how it started.

I tried to access the documentary a few times however it looks like behind closed doors unless I am subscribed to Canal Plus. Have you been able to see it?

What looks like a leak in advance of the announcement of the 2016/ 17 season on 10 Feb, pictures of the programme for next season where shared on twitter yesterday https://twitter.com/LStrapontine/status/696748470888177665. There is Swan Lake (Nureyev), Sleeping Beauty (ABT), La Sylphide (sic! ... a new production?), Antony Tudor, and various Balanchine, plus McGregor, Peck, some in-house choreographies (Sebastian Bertaud is one of the dancers in Tombe).

Pictures from the three ballets now on the Paris Opera web site https://www.operadeparis.fr/saison-15-16/ballet/jerome-bel-jerome-robbins/galerie