bridiem

There should be check boxes at the top of the thread and you can select one. (I've already voted so I just see the option to delete my vote.)

But this is 'real'. (So to speak.) So I think has the power to disturb more.

I wasn't talking about making them follow his specific style (or even encouraging them to do so); I was talking about the context and impetus for creating works. The intellect can only take you so far. But I hope he can indeed be effect as a mentor/stimulus.

I agree with this Alison, but if McGregor is held up as the prime exemplar I'm afraid that young choreographers will be encouraged to think that they have to be clever/intellectual/relevant etc rather than allowing their creativity and dance instinct to guide them. And he is not the only choreographer by a long way who collaborates with musicians and artists and allows wider themes to affect their work. What matters in the end is the work that emerges, not the method or the motivation.

The working stage rehearsal was filmed (and apart from the recorded music was effectively a performance), but perhaps that can't/won't be used commercially?

Just for the record, the seats I normally get have been priced as follows recently/for upcoming performances: Sleeping Beauty £28 Nutcracker £26 Fille £24 Jewels £24 Mayerling £24 Anastasia £20 Woolf Works £20 McGregor/MacMillan/Wheeldon triple £14 Dawson/Wheeldon/Pite triple £10 McGregor triple £10

I didn't know that was the intended reference! (Naïve, clearly.) Even I would not go that far... And please be assured that I'm very much looking forward to Woolf Works!

Shame it didn't short entirely.

It's coming back to Sadler's Wells in September 2017 and booking is already open (in fact a lot of tickets are gone! I just checked).

Perhaps it wasn't an early train; perhaps they just couldn't take any more. Spot-on description of Multiverse. Black Hole would have been a better title.

I made the same comparison, Sim - this magnificent, passionate, fantastically imaginative work of dance/theatre, compared to the sterile, inward-looking, self-conscious tosh at the ROH last week. Not just a difference of style but of substance.

I would have stood up if the calls had gone on longer - I'm very aware that if you stand up immediately you block the view of the people behind who may well not want to stand up! So that was another frustration about the length (or rather brevity) of the calls.

Funnily enough, Bruce, I was struck in precisely the opposite direction about this - i.e. at the end the curtain came down very slowly, and I found it thrilling that there was no sound at all until it had finished falling and the tolls had stopped. I was really impressed by that, especially because I was hard pressed myself to wait before applauding. But I suppose a few extra seconds of (awed) silence would have been even better!

I was absolutely stunned by this production. I do suspect that without a prior knowledge of the traditional version, and/or reading the programme notes, it might be tricky to know exactly what's supposed to be happening all the time. But in the end I don't think that matters much because the big themes are clear; in fact, I think the programme notes should simply be made less specific so that less of a literal 'story' is expected when watching it. I'm not sure whether or not I would have understood the 'double death' without the benefit of having read the forum reviews, but since I had, I did. But the sheer power and beauty of the work, and its myriad emotional resonances, blew me away. I saw both the 'working rehearsal' on Monday evening, which as Quintus has said was basically a performance but to taped rather than live music, and then the performance tonight. The cast were uniformly magnificent and the role of Giselle exploits all of Tamara Rojo's best, unsurpassed qualities of both dance and drama. James Streeter and Cesar Corrales were also brilliant as Albrecht and Hilarion and Stina Quagebeur was a thrilling Myrthe - cold, pale and cruel but not in the end completely inhuman. The Landlords are very grand, very strange; and the wilis brutishly terrifying. Some imaginative choreographic echoes of the traditional Giselle which work superbly. And so many evocative moments and movements, both tiny and huge - e.g. when Giselle and Albrecht look at each other near the beginning, and their arms begin to lift very very slowly and their hands begin to open up very very gradually, as if they are welcoming love, welcoming each other, recognising each other. And Giselle's desperate, thrusting gestures when she realises Albrecht's betrayal, as if she is trying to pull her heart out of her own chest in her anguish. Khan is also not afraid to use silence and slowness, as well as spectacular noise and speed, to brilliant dramatic effect. The tension builds inexorably until the climax, which is both redemptive and devastating. Like Petunia, I was in tears as Giselle and Albrecht danced their beautiful, loving, gentle, reflective, painful last pas de deux, with Myrthe fading away as evil will ultimately fade away in the sight of true goodness. When Myrthe comes back for one last attempt to exert her power, Giselle looks at her with calm, clear resolution and slowly takes her stick away from her; that is the great moment of victory. She then pierces herself in the body with it, and then pierces Myrthe with the other end so that they are bound together. For me this indicated that Giselle's redemptive love can now be passed through the stick to Myrthe as through a vein, or umbilical cord. They both then move slowly back into the underworld from which they have come, which will also be transformed and redeemed by them. The tragedy being that Albrecht is still in this world, and his final redemption, and reunion with Giselle, will only come when he too passes to the other side of the wall/death. That wall - representing so many ideas: separation, loss, death, fear, difference, change, barrier, bridge. Albrecht can only pound the wall in despair and grief, and then finally accept that Giselle is gone. For now. The costumes were excellent, with those of the Landlords being wonderfully ornate. The lighting was mainly low, and very atmospheric and effective. Terrific music/sound, and very moving when it echoes the Adam score. Altogether a spectacular evening. My ONLY complaint was the dearth of curtain calls! The applause was terrific, but we couldn't show our full appreciation because it was all over so quickly. A real shame, and the dancers (and creative team) deserved much more.

Yes, that's very interesting, Jamesrhblack. Though I still didn't necessarily think it encouraged us to see the first two acts as artificial memory - just as the memory of someone who was now in a very different state, and with the implication that she was Anastasia (since the film freezes on her). I thought that the off-kilter elements of the sets etc were (as in Mayerling) an indication of a crumbling dynasty, not of a crumbling mind. And nothing in the choreography or the narrative of these two acts suggests that they are not real or true - it's all pretty naturalistic (if that's the right word) and is danced as such. So even with the imposed intro, I don't think the work hangs together or that it's possible for the Anastasias to give a coherent performance (though it sounds as if they've all given it a very good go!).

Chroma - I enjoyed this 10 years ago because the style seemed new and quite cutting edge; now, without the benefit of novelty, I was bored silly. (Though I thought the Alvin Ailey dancers were very effective guests - in fact the style suited them better than it suits the RB dancers.) Multiverse - I was bored silly throughout. (Why on earth did it need a 'dramaturg'??). FLOSS has described it fully above. I found more interest in looking at the very beautiful ceiling of the ROH (I sit in the Amphi). Carbon Life - at least this had some interesting lighting effects, and some music that in another setting I might have enjoyed. At the Opera House, I felt embarrassed at the self-conscious trendiness on show. I also felt very sorry for the two men who had to dance with their heads fully covered (McGregor's usual respect for the individuality of his dancers) and those who had to wear Klan-like headdresses whilst dancing. But at least this work gave some sense of theatre. Overall: Emperor's new clothes kept coming to mind as people were whooping. And I left as KOH came on to do the presentation. I really couldn't cope with the self-congratulatory nonsense going on, and I feel angry that these wonderful dancers are being used in this way by someone who should never have been appointed resident choreographer of a classical ballet company. I loved Woolf Works; but that is not typical of McGregor's work. I have seen most of his other pieces for the RB, and have sometimes started by being intrigued - as with Chroma - but the intrigue has not lasted. I also fear for the dancers' bodies when I watch them in these works; and I resent the wilful and constant distortion of their classical technique. McGregor has his own, successful, contemporary dance company; the RB dancers, although brilliant, are not contemporary dancers. I could understand inviting him to make one work on them, as an interesting experiment (cf Hofesh Shechter); but resident choreographer??

My friend and I usually just have a sandwich at the Pret in Long Acre before performances - ROH would be far too expensive. Not long ago, who should come and sit at the table next to us but Natalia Osipova!! She looked quite 'ordinary' and most people probably had no idea who she was. So that was an exciting bonus!

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that Nunez and Bonelli did get a curtain call on opening night. (I remember feeling sorry for them having to hang around for ages in costume after they'd done their stuff!). Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

Has BRB really done nothing worthy of recognition this year? Does it have no outstanding dancers? (Or is it just not a very fashionable company?).

Is your middle name Anastasia?!! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I very much agree with this, FLOSS; I just wanted to say that I have received no training in child protection but that passage still disturbed me. I don't remember it from previous performances/revivals - whether that's because it's changed, or because I've changed, I can't say.

I understand what you're getting at, Jamesrhblack; but I don't actually think that any child is or can really be emotionally mature. They may find themselves in unusual/sophisticated situations, and so may be treated as if and even feel and behave as if they are sophisticated; but they're children, with the limitations inherent to being a child. So they need to protected.

Me too. I wondered if perhaps there was some symbolism going on there that I didn't understand. Either way it was horrible.

My impression is that on the whole full-scale narrative work still isn't really fashionable, though it seems to be making a bit more of a comeback recently. And the fewer people who make narrative works, the less creative cross-fertilisation and example-setting there is for those who do it, and, perhaps, the less demanding those who commission it can be.

I think that does an injustice to Les Mis... (and I didn't enjoy that that much). I NEVER talk during a ballet (tut, tut, Audience Behaviour thread and all that), but last night there came a point where out of boredom and frustration I couldn't resist turning to my friend and saying (very quietly) 'BRING ON THE REVOLUTION!'. But when it came - ??!! More like Carry on Comrade. There was actually someone at the back gently flapping what looked like a big red flannel, as if he was about to put it on a washing line. I'm afraid I had to laugh (or I would have cried, or booed). Was this really one of the most violent and definitive upheavals of the 20th century?! I really felt quite angry that it was being depicted so crassly. Real people lost their real lives! I know MacMillan can treat serious themes seriously (Gloria being an obvious example in this context) but here it seemed as if he just couldn't be bothered even to try.