Duck

Alvin Ailey will be at this year's "les étés de la danse" in Paris http://www.lesetesdeladanse.com/en Running from 4 - 22 July, there'll be an opening night and 5 different programmes. Location is La Seine Musicale which opened in April 2017 and is based on an island in the river Seine.

I guess I need to start by saying that I live very much at the edge of a conurbation over here, in a place where the countryside really takes over, where the trees are higher than the houses, where I wake up at dawn to a vivid chorus of songbirds, and where I often see woodpeckers and birds of prey during the day. So there I was, leaving a local supermarket this afternoon … when my eye caught what I thought was a familiar face in the window of a luggage shop on the other side of the street. A quick run towards it. The confirmation of what I saw left me stunned, open mouthed, my eyes wide open, too. A life-size cut out of Eric Underwood sitting on a – real - suitcase! I’d seen a couple of pictures of this on his public Instagram account (e.g., this one here https://www.instagram.com/p/BS1YwrYl_uJ/?taken-by=ericunderwood) … for the world of it, however, I would have never expected to see this here, all live and real, right in front of me. A score of pictures on my phone later … I think I need to walk past that shop rather frequently at the moment … she says, slightly embarrassed about her emotional reaction, wondering whether she'd seen the Royal Ballet a good few times too many, and apologetic for the length of this post just to provide a link to an advert.

I cried in my living room earlier this morning , just from watching a number of pictures and short videos of the send off for Zenaida Yanowsky, and in reading the above posts. Thank you so much for posting about last night! Tempted to go to an encore screening (there are far fewer over here unfortunately) though I would probably flood the place. Will miss her terribly.

Thank you, trog, for pointing to this programme, which I listened to last night. Given the above posts (clearly, these slips shouldn’t have happened), I found the programme more enjoyable than I thought I would. It’s been a while since I saw The Dream or Symphonic Variations and I may not be able to make it to one of the cinema broadcasts of the current triple bill, so listening to Kevin O’Hare’s explanations about the two ballets gave great insights and memories. The programme was described as exploring the relationship between dance and music, and so I don’t think the intention was to cover or mention all of Ashton’s major works but instead to show what influenced him, how he adopted music scores for his choreographies, and how the steps in his choreographies reflect his musicality. I think though that the programme would have worked better on television as this would have allowed to illustrate the description of Ashton’s style through excerpts of said works.

My heartfelt condolences go out to you. What a wonderful gesture to name her favourite seat in her memory. The music chosen for the service reflects Lynn’s and your love of ballet and music so beautifully, and I hope the two art forms will be able to provide continued solace to you.

Please do continue if you can find the time every now and then. Reading about companies and some of their performances that most of us would not be able to see allows for new insights and in some cases maybe even the decision to go and see them, too.

Great to see this live streamed last night. Flight Mode was adorable, and I will certainly be watching flight safety procedures with different eyes going forward! I was a little late for the first PDD so I don't have a complete picture. I found it very enjoyable, however, how Rina Kanehara and Aitor Arrieta turned up the speed towards the end of their PDD. Also, I just loved the Don Quixote PDD and thought that I should see the full ballet at the next opportunity. It was good to see Saving Albrecht again, too. Fingers crossed next year's event will be live streamed, too.

Thierry Malandain describes his style in the following way - http://malandainballet.com/en/ballet/valeurs "Deep human values underpin Thierry Malandain’s approach, as he leads a troupe of performers who master the grammar of classical dance with a contemporary expression." ""As DNA found in all living cells and passed down through generations, this information [from classical dance] might be altered over time to result in species diversity and evolution. That is why my dancing style leaves room for variation. Considered as a classical choreographer for some, a contemporary one for others or even seen as hereditarily neoclassical, I am simply on the lookout for a dance I like. A dance that would not only leave traces of pleasure but that would also revive the essence of the Sacred as an answer to the difficulty of being." "Deeply linked to the concept of "Ballet" as an aesthetic movement, he gives priority to the dancing body and the celebration of its sensuality and humanity." The sensuality and humanity were incredibly prominent in Noé.

Oh nooo !!! I knew about Demis Volpi and Georgette Tsinguirides but not about the others - the article in the local newspaper earlier in the year about Robert Robinson had described it as "time out" rather than leaving the company, I have really enjoyed the performances by Adam Russell-Jones, and Constantine Allen und Pablo von Sternenfels are still shown as dancers for next season in the online brochure. Yes, this makes next season, as much as I enjoy the programming, somewhat less appealing.

Stuttgart Ballet next season https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/17-18season/ Lots of works by John Cranko in memory of his 90th birthday - Onegin and Swan Lake, plus a number of shorter works (Jeu de Cartes, Brouillards, Initials R.B.M.E, L'Estro Armonico). Also a full month of events "behind the scenes" with open classes and rehearsals in relation to works by John Cranko. A festive week in celebration of Reid Anderson at the end of the 17/18 season. Ashton's La fille mal gardee, Robbins' Dances at a Gathering. A revised version of Spuck's Lulu which he created for the company in the past. Death in Venice, the co-production with Stuttgart Opera, will be back on stage following the enormous success this season. The triple bill "Night pieces" from the current season is revived, too. Five world premieres by Marco Goecke and four dancers with the company in a mixed bill "The fab five". ------------ Needless to say, I love it

Part 2 Ballet Nice Mediterranee Scarlett’s Vespertine will be back on stage in September as part of a triple bill, together with Vu-An’s Coppelia and Duato’s Gnawa. Romeo & Juliet (Vu-An after Lifar) and La Sylphide (Bournonville version Bjorn) in December. Further mixed bills in October (Bejart’s Cantata 51, Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante, et al.), April (e.g., Robbins’ En Sol) and June 2018 http://www.opera-nice.org/fr/saison-ballets Festival « Le temps d’aimer la danse », Biarritz 8 – 17 Sep 2017 The web site for the festival http://letempsdaimer.com/ still relates to last year’s programme. The Biarritz tourist office however already shows a list of festival events http://tourisme.biarritz.fr/fr/agenda?date_deb_agenda=01%2F09%2F2017&prefix__date_deb_agenda__suffix=01%2F09%2F2017&date_fin_agenda=30%2F09%2F2017&prefix__date_fin_agenda__suffix=30%2F09%2F2017&categorie – among those, Ballet Nice Mediterranee with the same triple bill as in Nice in September, Atterballeto with choreographies by Inger, CCN Lorraine with a piece by Twyla Tharp, plus a variety of contemporary works Ballet de l’Opera de Bordeaux Charles Jude’s Don Quixote in December. A number of mixed bills - Carlson/ Cherkaoui (Faun)/ Lifar (Suite en Blanc), Le Riche/ Carlson (Pneuma), Kylian (Petite Mort)/ Bejart (Songs of a Wayfarer)/ Robbins (The Concert), and a few guest companies with contemporary works. Eric Quilleré, previously Ballet Master and then Interim Director when Charles Jude got suspended during the latter part of the 16/17 season, is shown as Directeur Adjoint in the online brochure for next season http://fr.calameo.com/read/003415584715f5af67e7a

Thank you for comments and sharing the additional links The company is based in Biarritz and seems to tour a lot. This was the first time that I saw the company, too. Thierry Malandain also organises an annual dance festival in Biarritz "le temps d'aimer la danse".

I am intrigued about the colours of the costumes for The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. I saw the piece in Toulouse in March, where the men were wearing blue. As the Royal Ballet has gone for some berry-like colour, I looked at pictures on the web from other productions and discovered also purple and red for the men's costumes. The shape of the costumes seems the same, just the colour changes completely. The women's costumes, on the other hand, don't seem to come with such a broad colour palette. Did Forsythe provide a range of available colours that companies and/ or those who stage the piece can choose from? Thanks in advance.

Thanks so much, Sim I am in the process of building a schedule of what I am interested in seeing next season. I'll need to put in some serious work though as the list, as it stands at the moment, is far too long ...

The company is in the middle of a two-week run of Thierry Malandain’s new work Noé at the Theatre Chaillot in Paris, set to Rossini’s Messa di Gloria. I saw Tuesday’s performance. While the piece is inspired by the story of the deluge - complete with Noé, his wife, their three children, a raven and a dove, a float or ship in the midst of rising and falling water, plus Adam and Eve and their three children – the message that I’ve taken away is timeless and universal. The floor, a bench that spans across the width of the stage and pearl curtains on all three sides of the stage are in turquoise, illustrating the omnipresence of the water. The curtains will rise and fall along with the coming and going of the deluge. Dancers in muted tones of blue, brown, green and burgundy sit on the bench or dance in varying combinations. Three male dancers rise to interact and fight, leaving one person dead on the floor. As a result, the deluge is approaching. Movements ensue that depict the rolling waves (dancers sit on the bench and stand up and sit down in the form of a wave, …), the daily grind and the desolation of those affected by the deluge (robbing along while sitting or lying on the floor, shuffling forward in circular movements with a hunched back and clenched fists, moving sideways along the bench, individuals trying to break out from the group and joining in again in as there is no way out in the midst of the floods, …). Lots of movements in canon; this is where I started to notice Noé (Mickaël Conte, vastly impressive with his stage presence and stamina – he was dancing pretty much from start to finish) as he repeatedly starts with a solo and is then joined by more and more dancers, guiding his people throughout their journey in their search for hope and resolution. The pearl curtains are at full height by now – the deluge has reached its peak. Adam and Eve (nude leotards) appear, providing hope, vitality and renewal. The other dancer’s movements are much more upwards now, some high lifts, Noé is praised by his fellow men, illustrating the joy and optimism. A dove and a raven fly past (dancers in long flowing white/ black robes), and the curtains are now on the way down again as and when the waters recede. One by one, the dancers take off their day wear and appear in nude leotards … there’s a fresh start, renewal, a new world, a new chance, a clean sheet. How does it end? It ends as it started, with one person slaying another. The story has gone full circle. Mankind is given a new chance and does not use it, I thought, rather depressed, as I was watching the curtain go down at the end of the performance. Superb performance by all, full of engagement and commitment. Links to video extracts Trailer http://theatre-chaillot.fr/malandain-ballet-biarritz-noe Noé guiding his people https://vimeo.com/212740826 Close up of costumes and scenography http://malandainballet.com/actualites/article/premiere-de-noe-au-theatre-national-de-la-danse-de-chaillot-a-paris (“documentaire autour de la creation”)

Casting http://www.lincolncenter.org/lc-festival/show/jewels-2

Casting for POB is still announced a long time after booking has opened. Announcements are normally made in two steps - pre-casting, showing the names of dancers for the main roles for the whole run i.e., not by date - casting by date; this can be published as little as a week or two before the opening night ... or even on the day of the opening night, as for the current Robbins/ Balanchine/ Cherkaoui & Jalet triple bill Dansomanie provides unofficial and provisional information with regards to casting in the same two steps however a good few weeks earlier ... this is however still way after the booking has opened. To give some examples about timing, see the various threads about POB bills (scroll down beyond the announcements and post-its) http://www.forum-dansomanie.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=2 If you decide to wait with booking until September - there is a Pass' Opera at €50 that gives access to discounts for higher-priced tickets of certain dates of certain works during the 17/18 season https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/ticketing/spectators-offers/pass-opera. Depending on the number of tickets you decide to buy and their full price, purchasing the pass can lead to overall cost savings with just a 2-3 viewings (bearing in mind that, at least in the 16/17 season, the pass could only be used for one performance of a specific bill, and that there is no information on the web site yet as to which performances/works the pass will refer to next season). The pass also allows to buy tickets before the general booking start for the performances that are later in the season. Both the pass and the discounts per performance come in limited quantities. Last-minute discounts for performances that don't sell well often go through the pass, too. I bought the pass for the 16/17 season and, while I didn't use it very often, it gave me piece of mind as it allowed me to buy tickets before the general booking start for later works. Finally, there is also a monthly flash sale of tickets with discounted tickets for performances that don't sell well, or tickets for performances that are otherwise sold out. https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/ticketing/spectators-offers/les-rendez-vous-du-mercredi

Thank you, Mary, for confirmation. I found a short video showing parts of a stage rehearsal with cast 2 (Marti Fernandez Paixa as Apollo; Riccardo Ferlito as Tadzio; plus Matthias Klink, who plays Aschenbach in all performances), complete with gondolas and some more views of Apollo. I hope the video is accessible from the UK. http://www.swr.de/swraktuell/bw/der-tod-in-venedig-in-stuttgart-gelungenes-zusammenspiel-von-oper-und-ballett/-/id=1622/did=19496596/nid=1622/1prdp25/index.html (background comments and interview with Demis Volpi in German)

Casting for The Judas Tree http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-judas-tree-by-kenneth-macmillan

There'll be further performances of Death in Venice right through to the end of the 16/17 season i.e., including once the announcement for the coming season has been made

Fabulous premiere of Demis Volpi’s production of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice last night, a coproduction by Stuttgart Ballet and Stuttgart Opera. .... This being a coproduction, I've been in two minds as to whether I might better post this in the performances or the opera section. I saw the piece last night based on the dance elements so I've gone with the performances thread. No Venetian sights – instead, semi-transparent walls made from plexiglass and in various formations illustrate the labyrinth-like structure of Venice (sets and costumes by Katharina Schlipf). Depending on the lighting, the walls are more or less see-through, reminiscent of foggy weather. No Venetian gondolas either – instead, racks that are used in hotels to move luggage and clothes serve as means of passenger transport across the city, moved along by staff as if they were ice-skating – pushing one foot off the ground and keeping the leg in arabesque, transforming this into a dance-like sequence. Dancing for Apollo (David Moore last night; Marti Fernandez Paixa in a later cast), Tadzio, his mother, his brothers and sisters, and his friends on the beach. Students of the John Cranko School play Tadzio (Gabriel Figueredo, superb), his brothers/ sisters and friends. Clever use of stacks of books throughout. At the start, Aschenbach (Matthias Klink, truly fascinating; massive ovations for him at the end) lies amongst the stacks of books/ stands on them when he describes his dissatisfaction with his situation and then tears up the pages of a book before he leaves for Venice. Some of these books are subsequently used as passenger seating for a gondola, other books are used for the boys’ games on the beach (throwing and catching books as one might do with sports equipment), still others as stepping stones for Aschenbach on the beach - as if part of Aschenbach's previous life is gradually disintegrating. Apollo appears as statue with golden hair, a golden waist cloth and golden spray paint along the body, every inch the physical ideal, moving through a number of positions known from classical statues. What is reality, what is illusion? Based on what I remember from reading Thomas Mann’s book last summer (please flag if my memory is playing tricks), there is no direct interaction between Tadzio and Aschenbach (they just look at each other), between Tadzio and Apollo, or between Aschenbach and Apollo (Apollo appears in a dream). The staging last night took these aspects further and transformed what I remember as being imagined and/ or longed for by Aschenbach into something that looked real (or real in Aschenbach’s mind?). Aschenbach participates in the boys’ beach games – Tadzio throws a book at Aschenbach which the latter catches; later on, they align their hands on either side of one of the semi-transparent walls. Apollo dances around Aschenbach, the latter is entranced by his looks and movements, and he later takes up yoga and attempts to do some dancing himself. Apollo coordinates the boys’ beach games, helps Tadzio win the games and passes on his golden crown to him. The boys climb onto the water lily-like pedestal on which Apollo stands following the games, they all stand behind each other, and together they become Shiva, moving its multiple arms in coordinated fashion. Towards the end, when the cholera is present, most tourists have left Venice, Aschenbach knows about the danger and yet continues to expose himself to it, the Apollo statue has toppled and rolls along the floor. It is picked up by hotel staff and remains initially unstable. Aschenbach’s counterpart (Georg Nigl, brilliant in his various incarnations) rubs sun cream on Apollo’s arms, and they transform from a statue to human being. Finally, Apollo takes the bottle of sun cream and simply walks off stage … the physical ideal has disintegrated and disappeared. Aschenbach dies of cholera not soon thereafter. Long and thunderous applause last night. Picture gallery here https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/2017-05-07/death-in-venice/images/

Below a first set of announcements for the 17/18 season at various companies and venues in France. Bordeaux will announce their 17/18 season on 22 May; Ballet Nice Mediterranee, Mandalain Ballet, Ballet Preljocaj & others tbc. Feel free to add others. Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris http://2018.theatrechampselysees.fr/saison/danse We’ve already known from toursenlair for some time that the National Ballet of Canada will perform Nijinsky in October. Further companies and works: St Petersburg Ballet Theatre (Swan Lake, Paquita, Chopiniana), LA Dance Project, a programme in honour of Ingmar Bergman, Tanztheater Wuppertal, and others Theatre Chaillot, Paris http://theatre-chaillot.fr/la-saison-2017-2018 Boris Charmatz, a flamenco festival, Angelin Preljocaj (La Fresque), a festival with dance from Scandinavia, Alonzo King, CNDC d’Angers with a Cunningham triple bill, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo (Le Songe), a number of contemporary works Theatre de la ville, Paris http://www.theatredelaville-paris.com/ Various works by Jerome Bel, a new work by Maguy Marin, a double bill by Shechter II, 2 triple bills with the Ballet de l’Opera de Lyon, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Taiwan, and a number of contemporary works Ballet de l’Opera de Paris https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-17-18/ballet Already known, so here just for completeness Maison de la danse, Lyon http://www.maisondeladanse.com/programmation-2017-2018 Alonzo King, Ailey II, Yacobson Ballet (Sleeping Beauty), Maguy Marin, de Keersmaeker (Rain), Sao Paulo Dance Company (a triple bill with works by Goecke/Oliveira/Scholz), and a long list of contemporary artists Ballet de l’Opera de Lyon http://www.opera-lyon.com/page/saison-17-18 Forsythe/Brown/Bel (The second detail, Set and reset/reset, a new work), Kylian (East shadow), Roland Petit (L’Arlesienne, Carmen), Maliphant/Millepied/Forsythe (Critical mass, Sarabande, Steptext), Inger/ Kylian (A new work, Petite More, No more play) Opera national du Rhin, Strasbourg/ Mulhouse/ Colmar http://www.operanationaldurhin.eu/danse-2017-2018.html Mario Schroeder’s Chaplin, various triple bills e.g., with Forsythe/ Kylian/ Scholz, and a ballet for children based on Sleeping Beauty Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse http://www.theatreducapitole.fr/1/saison-2017-2018/saison-2017-2018-2373.html?lang=fr Belarbi’s Giselle, Belarbi’s Nutcracker, a double bill with works by Bombana and Bigonzetti, a triple bill with works by Roland Petit (Les Forains, L’Arlesienne, Carmen) Ballet de Marseille http://www.ballet-de-marseille.com/fr/calendrier Choreographies by Greco and Scholten

More than one triple bill for me, too Infra/ Voluntaries/ Sinfonietta Vespertine/ Oktett/ Bolero A million kisses to my skin/ The vertiginous thrill of exactitude/ Song of the Earth Woolf Works

http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/073441-000-A/la-fille-de-neige-de-nikolai-rimski-korsakov-a-l-opera-de-paris This was live streamed last night and is now available online. While I can't see the programme on the English-speaking site of Arte, there is a comment on the French site that the programme is available worldwide. The reviews that I've seen in the media where rather positive, in particular about Aida Garifullina in the role of the Snow Maiden. Information about the production here https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-16-17/opera/la-fille-de-neige#head

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/watch-rehearsals-for-the-royal-ballets-symphonic-dances (from around 15 minutes in)