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bridiem

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Everything posted by bridiem

  1. Yes - it's very strange that there's such sensitivity around given that I personally can find very little to watch on TV that I don't find gratuitously violent, overly sexual, needlessly explicit in various ways, or just coarse and depressing with absolutely no serious artistic intent. Give me ballet any day.
  2. But won't the MacMillan casting be available before booking opens?
  3. I didn't receive it either. I've had others from the ROH about the shop/offers etc, but not this one. Baffling. I wonder if I/we will receive today's email?! Who knows.
  4. I agree with what you've said, DVDfan, except for this sentence. Maybe I was lucky, but I was a member of a choral society for many years despite being an extremely average (being kind to myself) singer - it had no auditions in spite of being run by a serious musician and attracting some good singers (and the good singers on the whole supported the less good). Maybe that was because when I joined it was run as a local authority evening class; when funding for that was no longer forthcoming, we went independent and it became much more of a struggle to survive. Unfortunately I can no longer sing now for health reasons. But I do think that there are still at least some local choirs/community choirs that do not require auditions, and it's the most wonderful activity both in terms of music and achieving something as a group. (But I do agree that at higher levels, musicians are often dismissive of non-musicians!). But it does demonstrate the importance of funding at local levels, not just for the talented but for anyone who wants to either participate in or just experience music/theatre/dance.
  5. Thank you for this really interesting review, Darnedshoes! And I completely agree with your final paragraph.
  6. I think this is an excellent review, Sam - very clear and helpful. Thank you for posting it and I hope you'll post about any other productions you see!
  7. Matthew Bourne completely rewrote the scenario of Swan Lake, re-choreographed and created a male swan character. He didn't create a male Odette.
  8. That's true, but in the past injuries have often meant opportunities for more junior dancers. I suppose maternity leave is different because it's long (and getting more common), and unfortunately nowadays dancers often seem to get more serious injuries and are off for longer. All very difficult.
  9. There could in theory be a male-male Sleeping Beauty (or Sleeping Handsome? With a new male name for the sleeping prince), or indeed a female-female one, but the choreography would have to be changed since it's been created for female-male physiques and training.
  10. I think it's like old films - they're of their time but still (if they're any good) of great interest today.
  11. Poppy Frenkel looks lovely. (Vanessa Palmer - what an excellent dancer she was! So glad to see how well her students are doing.)
  12. Yes, I'm sure some ballets have aged badly, but since the possible candidates are rarely or never performed it's difficult to say which they might be. I have to say that the last time I saw Pineapple Poll I thought it seemed dated (but maybe I was in the wrong mood). I think older works have to be staged very carefully in order to retain their life and flavour and that's not easy. There also has to be a willingness on the part of ADs to take risks and to understand and present the history of the art form. We seem to live in age in which some people are only prepared to tolerate theatrical performances (of any kind) that reflect exactly the same values as those of today (or what they themselves feel today's values to be). Which is utterly boring and reflects a bizarre and blinkered view of history. It's also dangerous because it morphs into (or springs from?) an unwillingness to tolerate differing views or outlooks in any sphere.
  13. Yes - her bio on Dance Tabs reads: 'Deborah Weiss is a freelance dance writer and critic, based in London. Royal Ballet School trained and a former senior soloist with London Festival Ballet and Bayerisches Staatsballett, she began writing in 1993 whilst living in Southern Germany. She has written for a number of publications including Dancing Times, The Dancer and Dance Europe.'
  14. Strange! Thank you (though for me Nutcracker in January would feel very odd!).
  15. Unfortunately (in one way!) all the performances are booked out now anyway. So Friday Rush may have to come into play...
  16. What a wonderful Insight! Have just watched it. All the dancers were brilliant and Gary Avis is just incredible. You understand why he is such a superb dramatic/character dancer because he understands exactly why he is doing every move and imbues it all with complete meaning (and passes it all on with such clarity and generosity). He has the perfect mix of being both demanding and encouraging to the young dancers. I'd love to see Aiden O'Brien's Drosselmeyer - he looks really charismatic! But that would have to involve booking another performance... unless he does the Friends' Rehearsal. And such beautiful piano playing from Kate Shipway.
  17. I can't imagine that many people go to something they know they won't enjoy; but if it's a new work, even if it's by a choreographer you haven't enjoyed before, you never do know. And as @Jan McNulty has said, even if you haven't (or have!) enjoyed something (or someone) in the past your tastes may change over time. In order to keep learning, you have to keep an open mind as far as possible and (money and time allowing) try not to restrict yourself only to things you know (or think) you will like, especially if you haven't yet seen very much. (Which is why the high cost of tickets now is so detrimental to the art form; how are younger people nowadays supposed to be able to see a wide range of performances and develop their understanding of ballet, as I was able to do for many years?). And I find it just as valuable reading about what people haven't enjoyed as reading about what they have enjoyed - getting different perspectives is what makes this forum so interesting. Having said all that, I am nowadays very selective in what I go to! Partly by choice and partly by necessity. As you say, life is too short...
  18. But how do we know what 'the majority view' really is if members don't post their views because they think differently from a few people who may already have posted?
  19. I've only booked one too (featuring Bracewell); but it's interesting that the tickets I normally book are £29 for Dante and were £67 for Don Q (so I had to sit further back for DQ). Dante is a very big production too, so why is it priced so much lower? Could it be that the ROH doesn't have quite as much confidence in Dante/McGregor as it seems to have? (I wish the pricing had been done the other way round - I'm looking forward to Dante but would only ever go to one since I don't really find the casting in McGregor works is all that important, whereas in classics and more interpretative works I want to see more/different casts.)
  20. Yes - as I've mentioned on the forum before (apologies!), my first ever ballet performance was Enigma Variations/Symphonic Variations/Les Noces. No wonder I got hooked!
  21. Yes, Yes and Not at all! I just don't like them being pigeonholed like that. (KOH does tend to talk about 'heritage' works as if they're something rarefied and outside the mainstream. If they were programmed regularly, they would be part of the creative present too, which is precisely where they belong.)
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