Duck

Just discovered a review of Saturday's matinee performance here http://lesballetonautes.com/2015/10/08/premieres-et-dernieres-amours/#comments. The reviewer highlights the freshness and commitment of Yasmine Naghdi's and Matthew Ball's dancing in the PDD, making the moment of first love visible, and Yasmine Naghdi's maturity in dramatic expression.

Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball achieved this for me in the matinee performance today. As others have already posted, what a stunning double debut. Such fluidity and natural interaction and emotions in the balcony PDD. Juliet taking Romeo's hand before she dies. Speechless. Just equally mesmerising Luca Acri's quicksilver solo. Congratulations to the whole team today.

Having been to Monk's House in Rodmell and Charleston Farmhouse recently, I am currently reading The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. My thanks go to Woolf Works as this ballet introduced me to Virginia Woolf.

I am glad you liked it, and I hope that there weren't too many empty seats on Sunday.

There were a few last-minute changes to the printed programme so I hope the following is the full list of participants. Apologies to the dancers if I missed anyone Northern Ballet - Dreda Blow and Joseph Taylor. They danced "Little Monsters" by Demis Volpi The Royal Ballet - Maria Barroso. She performed with Louis Stiens in "La Llorona" by Marcelino Sambé Hamburg Ballet - Kristina Barbelyova, Marcelino Libao, Dales Rhodes, Eliot Worrell. A combination of them danced in the two choreographies by John Neumeier, "This could get ugly" by Robbie Bird, "Zamia" by Edvin Revazov and "The Jealousy Theory" by Eliot Worrel Staatsballet Berlin - Caroline Bird. She performed with Eliot Worrell in "Zamia" Stuttgart Ballet - Robert Robinson, Louis Stiens. Robert Robinson danced "Ballet 101" and the solo from "Le Corsaire", Louis Stiens danced "The Boy" (his own choreography), "La Llorona" with Mario Barroso and "Speedi" with Robert Robinson (again Louis Stiens' own choreography) On a different note, I wondered last night whether "Noctunes" (as written in the programme) would really be "Noctunes" or rather "Nocturnes". From checking on the web this morning, it seems to be Nocturnes.

Thank you Janet, only my first time on the Isle of Wight also

At the end of June, toursenlair posted about a ballet gala for a charitable cause on the Isle of Wight on 1st and 2nd August http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/10040-isle-of-wight-ballet-gala-august-1-and-2/. I had been thinking of spending a weekend on the Isle of Wight for some time so the ballet gala was the incentive to transform thoughts into action. Robert Robinson, born on the Isle of Wight and a dancer with Stuttgart Ballet, brought together dancers from Northern Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Staatsballet Berlin and Stuttgart Ballet in support of a hospice on the Isle of Wight. After a film about last year’s gala, the dancing started with “Spring and Fall” by John Neumeier, followed by the most classical choreography of the evening, a solo from “Le Corsaire”. “La Llorona”, a piece by Marcelino Sambé came next, including trademark colourful shirt respectively dress for the two dancers and the dancers having an episode of quarrelling. The next piece “Zamia” was, costume-wise, most intriguing as it involved harem pants that were so elastic that the two dancers could pull them over their heads, which made for interesting movements. “Ballet 101” by Eric Gauthier concluded the first part of the programme and received lots of cheers. The second part of the evening started with another choreography by John Neumeier, “Noctunes”, a ballet about a couple where the man is longing for attention and affection by the woman and yet she is not willing to give this to him. The next piece, “This could get ugly”, showed the development of a relationship between two men, albeit with a more positive outcome. Next in line was “The Boy”, a solo which reminded me of a 17th century court dancer practising movements in front a ballet barre. It was back to couples with an excellent performance of “Little Monsters”. Another solo, “The Jealousy Theory”, left a very strong impression, danced to the final speech of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”. A fast duet called” Speedi” concluded the programme. I wish there would have been fewer empty seats in the auditorium tonight, and I hope that the success tonight will help sell more seats in years to come. If you are anywhere near the Isle of Wight on Sunday 2nd August, tickets for the matinee performance at 2.30 pm are still available, they are for a charitable cause and come at a fraction of the price of a ticket for a similar two-hour programme in London. The Medina Theatre in Newport is very close to local bus stops, and there are regular busses to the ferry ports back to the mainland. - edited to state the name of the theatre

I started to go to performances of The Royal Ballet when I was living in Yorkshire and, as a result, was restricted to Friday evening and Saturday matinee/ evening performances, which additionally meant that I normally got to see just one performance of a particular ballet. So while I had little to no choice of who I was seeing, it did provide me with a fair range of dancers, rather than focussing on specific dancers early on. Now that I live in London and am thus able to go to a higher number of performances, I admit that I have developed preferences for certain dancers. At the same time, however, I find it increasingly exciting and insightful to see young dancers taking on major roles, and often doing very well in these. Interestingly, when I book performances with companies that I don't get to see very often and/ or where the company routinely publishes casting only a few weeks before the performance, I may be hopeful about specific casting however ultimately am a lot more relaxed about who I get to see. So possibly expectations about seeing a particular cast is based on what one is used to with a particular company?

I like "light footed", "great lift" and "elegant" as well

Fluid and emotive PDD for Osipova/ Watson and choreography for the soloists in Zeitgeist, and beautifully performed. I would love to see Zeitgeist again and enjoyed it much more than Connectome. Vogel stood out for me in Tristesse with his springiness and elegance of movement. Façade - macabre, humorous and fun, and with superb acting and live music.

Some tickets for "Do It Yourself - Dance with The Royal Ballet" have become available

Some impressions from last night. The first piece - a room with empty chairs and the clock ticking. When Whelan tries to walk past Watson, he - by now sitting on one of the chairs - stretches out his leg to prevent her from passing, and this is repeated a few times with different movements. Halfway through, the pattern reverses into Whelan preventing Watson from passing. And then the interaction changes again when Whelan changes into being utterly disinterested in Watson, and Watson tries his utmost to gain her attention however to no avail. I was surprised to see little dancing however looking back I enjoyed the subtle interaction between the two characters displayed, and the variety of Watson's facial expressions as the piece developed from he teasing Whelan to she teasing him to he trying to capture her attention. The solo for Watson - the piece that I enjoyed most. An intriguing duet with a chair, Watson caressing the side of the chair with his toes, jumping on/ off it, crawling under it, dancing around it and always coming back to it. Interspersed with a flurry of pirouettes and jumps across the stage. The emotional state displayed turning increasingly towards desperation, fabulously performed and fascinating to watch from close up, without the barrier of an orchestra pit. The music a mix of live songs (for the interaction with the chair) and classical music (for the pirouettes and jumps). The solo for Whelan - choreographically not my cup of tea. The music - a drummer playing at incredible speed The fourth piece - I've been trying hard to remember anything however my memory fails me :-( I hope other reviewers on this forum will be able to close the gap. The final piece - As others said above, not for children. A sense of "hate and can't live without". Hats off to the two dancers for the courage to display what the web site describes as semi nudity, as the audience is so incredibly close. The music a tango. I normally don't watch contemporary dance and it was the casting that attracted me to the programme, and this certainly influenced which pieces I liked more than others. Fascinating however to be so close to the dancers on stage, and very good live music played throughout.

A few return tickets are currently available ...

I've just finished Virginia Woolf's The Waves, and I am glad that the recent ballet "Tuesday" by Wayne McGregor & based on the book remained non narrative. As challenging as reading the book was at times, the importance however of water and its recurring movement of ebb and flow really became clear (see the corps movement in "Tuesday"). Towards the end of the book, there is even a reference to drops falling of a candle (see the posters for Woolf Works), and the last about ten pages centre increasingly on (Bernard's) impending death. I've rarely highlighted so much text in a book as, with the ballet being non-narrative, I was constantly on the look out for which parts of the book might have given input to the ballet.

Superb matinee performance today & congratulations to all the dancers. The highlights for me, also choreographically, were "Let my people go" (as already on Wednesday) and "Third Movement". The latter included dancers from years 8 to 11, and it was really enjoyable to see how Liam Scarlett brought together dancers of different age groups in the same piece, providing each age group with specific dance movements.

I saw this tonight and agree, it is huge fun & it was brilliantly performed by all dancers. Fantastic news that it will be performed in the Matinee on 12th July as well. This piece is enormously impressive and was very convincingly performed by the three dancers tonight.

Thank you for your kind reply, Two Pigeons. I like your use of the word "firecracker" and think that this sums it up really well. Watching the complexity and variety of the sequence of jumps and pirouettes for the male leads, the many high lifts in the PDD and the multiple technical challenges for the corps was mesmerising, in particular as it was executed so well. BRB showed Brouillards on one of their split tours a few years ago and I was hoping that this would be the precursor to performing it in Birmingham or London however sadly this hasn't materialised yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day it will. Edited for punctuation.

Looking at the "All Cranko" mixed programme, the challenging choreography is certainly there, and despite the age of these ballets, the choreography looks innovative. I agree though that an acquisition would be more likely for a new ballet than for a piece that was created 40/ 50 years ago.

One of the recent posts in the forum topic "acquisitions" referred to the Cranko mixed programme with Stuttgart Ballet, and this inspired me to write this review. @ Moderators, I wasn't sure whether to post this in "performances seen" or "news from Germany" and went for "performances seen" - please move the post if it better sits elsewhere in the forum. Opus 1 and Initials R.B.M.E. had been on my list of ballets to see for a while so buying a ticket for the run that just finished at Stuttgart Ballet was a given, and the only decision was which date to go for. I settled on Friday 26th June, not least influenced by the fact that the programme was also scheduled for the following evening, thinking that this may give me another opportunity to see it, tickets permitting. And what a performance it was on Friday! The first thing that I did yesterday morning was to buy a return ticket for last night (which was also the final performance). If this review maybe reads too overly positive, the performances were simply, to my amateur eyes, so incredibly good. The programme consisted of four ballets by John Cranko: Concerto for Flute and Harp, Holberg Pas de Deux, Opus 1, and Initials R.B.M.E. Concerto for Flute and Harp has two lead couples and a corps of ten men, all dressed in cream and white. The corps often move in pairs of two or ten, so synchronicity is essential in making this ballet work. They also join in dancing with one of the male leads and/ or partnering one of the female leads, and equally the male leads join the corps for some of the choreography. I had seen Concerto for Flute and Harp in my teenage years and didn’t remember much of it other than that I didn’t like it back then as I thought it was too “classical”. With that, I wasn’t sure what to expect before Friday night. How preferences change over time! I believe that my own efforts in taking beginner level ballet classes over the past year helped me appreciate the choreography as I was able to see how some of the movements and steps that I tried in class should be performed. What hooked me both on Friday and last night was the quality of the dancing of the corps. The corps consisted of dancers from apprentice to soloist level, and the apprentices did just as well as the more experienced dancers – synchronised lines, on count, solid landings after jumps and turns. Adam Russell-Jones in the corps for this ballet had a nice speedy solo of pas de chats. When casting was announced a couple of weeks ago, I was happy at the prospect of seeing Alexander Jones once more before his departure for Zurich at the end of the season. He captivated me with his completely infectious smile throughout his dancing and his incredible stamina; on Friday night, there was no visible breathing after the end of his lengthy solo. Opus 1 was premiered together with Song of the Earth. The programme describes that there was no exchange between the two ballets during the rehearsals, and yet both the topic and choreography show similarities (the ending in Song of the Earth though is more upbeat than in Opus 1). Opus 1 depicts live, loss and death. It starts with the corps lying in a circle – the female dancers creating the outer ring, the male dancers the inner ring – and the lead male dancer in a foetus position held up by the arms of the male corps, then gently turned, stretched and tumbled to the floor. The female lead appears, the two leads dance together and yet they need to part. The male lead, superbly danced by Jason Reilly both on Friday and Saturday night, is gliding to the floor and is stretching himself, desperately longing to reach the female lead (Anna Osadcenko) who is carried past by another dancer, yet unable to reach her. At the end, he is left lying on the floor alone and moves slowly back into a foetus position where he dies. Opus 1 is only 11 minutes long and yet it is able to show a wealth of emotions in this short period of time. Equally, the choreography for Opus 1 shows some similarities with Song of the Earth. While in Song of the Earth, the Woman jumps sideways into the arms of the Man and the Messenger of Death; in Opus 1, the male lead such a jump into the arms of the corps. In Song of the Earth, a female dancer is progressing through cartwheels on the shoulders of male corps dancers; in Opus 1, both the male and the female leads are tumbled forwards over the shoulders of the male corps. Initials R.B.M.E. The initials R, B, M and E stand for the first names of the dancers on whom John Cranko created the ballet (Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil, Marcia Haydée, Egon Madsen), and the ballet depicts the friendship between four dancers, supported by a corps of varying size. While each section has one of the initials as lead, the dancers who perform the roles of the other three initials appear in each section to greet the lead. Daniel Camargo danced in the lead in the R section with incredible virtuosity, and a prolonged series of jumps and variations of pirouettes in quick succession received well-deserved applause on the spot. The choreography for the lead of the M section, danced by Alicia Amatriain on Friday and Saturday, included a slow, dreamlike PDD with Jason Reilly and an astonishing series of quick-footed bourrées both forwards and backwards, exiting the stage as if drawn backwards by an invisible line. Adam Russell-Jones, who only graduated from the Royal Ballet School last year, had his debut as the lead in the E section on Friday night and danced the same role again on Saturday night, and he did really well on both occasions. His solo started with fast footwork of small jumps, and he was then greeted by a series of individual corps members who danced around him, to which he reacted with a visible sensation of positive surprise each time. The other dancers applauded him at the curtain calls for his debut on Friday, and he received huge cheers from the audience. Just as the corps for Concerto for Flute and Harp, Initials R.B.M.E. included some apprentices. The latter, additionally, even featured three students of the John Cranko School, and again, they and the apprentices did well. Hats off to all these young dancers as both ballets would have left no place to hide, and congratulations to them and those who decided on casting on giving the young dancers these opportunities so early in their career. Another aspect that I liked - the pianist played some of the passages of the piano concerto that is used for the ballet during the interval directly in the orchestra pit, and it provided a beautiful, relaxing, poetic atmosphere throughout the ground floor of the building. As with the performance of Song of the Earth that I saw in April, curtain calls for the four ballets took place as long as the audience continued to applaud, and the final curtain calls for a ballet were with all dancers not just those who danced the principal roles. The joy of receiving the audience’s appreciation was visible in the dancer’s faces. The audience in turn reacted with a huge roar of approval when they were successful in having the curtain opened one final time. The run of this mixed programme is now finished however the trailer for the programme is still accessible on http://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/all-cranko/trailer/. Edited to adjust line breaks

Thank you for highlighting this event, toursenlair. which I would not have heard about otherwise. Ticket booked :-)

Having seen the programme both on Friday and last night, I wholeheartedly second this suggestion.

The document just says "for services to Dance". From looking through the document, the wording "for services to ..." seems to be used across all levels of honours.

No worries at all, capybara I am sorry if my reply late last night was too direct or seemed critical in any way. As you say, the lists are very long, and when I looked through the document myself, I didn't find it easy to conclude from a page in the middle of the document which level a name related to. Thank you for being the first to highlight that Edward Watson's name is in the list.

If I read https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/434869/Queens_birthday_honours_list_2015.pdf correctly, it's an MBE for him. Anyway, huge congratulations!

Immensely touching interaction between Barry Wordsworth and the orchestra on Thursday evening. Lots of handshaking before the start of Song of the Earth. Once Song of the Earth had finished, the orchestra members' clapping. During curtain calls, Barry Wordsworth's gratitude and joy. zxDaveM's post above used the word "ebullient" - yes, I think this sums it up really well. There was a whole page in the cast sheet dedicated to Jeanetta Lawrence. Even though Barry Wordsworth is returning to conduct some ballet performances during the next season, it would have been nice to acknowledge his achievements and departure from his current post in the cast sheet, too.