bridiem

Personally I think there's a real chemistry between Hayward and Campbell, and that partnership should be given the chance to blossom.

I'm positively shocked!! In a good way. So many promotions! I haven't seen much of Hirano, so I didn't realise he was quite so well regarded; I must rectify that. I also thought that it was too early for Hayward and Campbell, but I'm delighted that it's not considered to be so. (Though I do hope we continue to see Hayward especially in smaller/soloist roles - she's so young, and we're only just beginning to see her wonderful talents!). Congratulations to all these special dancers.

I'm so sorry too, Harwell. I hope that your mother will get some rest while he is assessed, and that he will get the best possible care now and in the future.

Thanks for posting this, RobR - I walked down Long Acre after work today and was delighted to see the plaque.

Oh goodness that was so moving!! Thank you for posting it capybara.

What a brilliant post, Floss. As ever. Thank you.

I had been hoping/expecting to enjoy Obsidian Tear after the comments and reviews I’d read; to my disappointment, I didn’t. In fact I really, really didn’t like it. The dancers were terrific, needless to say (except that it must be said). But although the choreography was softer than much of McGregor’s past work, in every other respect it seemed to me to be the same (with Woolf Works an honourable exception). Dense, laboured, repetitive, and always straining for some sort of obscure meaningfulness that ends up expressing nothing. Not helped by the costumes; whoever designed Edward Watson’s hideous outfit (i.e. Hood By Air, apparently) should be defrocked. It made him look like an undersized schoolgirl. And how is it possible that a one-act abstract work for 9 dancers mainly wearing quite basic harem-type pants or t-shirts needs 8 fashion designers to clothe it? How can Luca Acri’s simple black body band require a fashion designer’s input all of its own? How much did all that ‘creative’ input cost? It really made me fume at the pretentiousness and waste of it all. The best bit of the piece for me was when the stage was lit in a warm orange light that spread into the front part of the auditorium. Never has the ROH looked more beautiful. I had been afraid that I might find The Invitation old-fashioned, or dated. Here again my expectations were confounded. I had only the vaguest memories of it from a few viewings many years ago. I found it absolutely riveting and as original and interesting as if it had been created yesterday. Searing, heartbreaking performances from Hayward, Avis and Yanowsky, with Muntagirov a very touching foil to them, and wonderful dancing from others in the cast (including Ursula Hageli looking – and at times behaving - disconcertingly like Ninette de Valois!). So much real creativity here, so much to think about, so much to feel. A real sense of both the joy and the danger of sexuality (since time immemorial), of the tragic confusion of innocence and naiveté, of the sudden and irrevocable shattering of a young life, of the pain and cynicism of love lost. A brilliant, strange, disturbing and profoundly moving work. I found that I enjoyed Within the Golden Hour much more on this bill than I did on the all-Wheeldon bill in March. Here (in spite of the men’s shorts which I found very unflattering) it seemed a soothing, lyrical and sometimes beautiful antidote to what had gone before. Cleansing the palate, perhaps, after the unappetising starter and the explosively rich main course. And again wonderfully danced – I especially liked Sarah Lamb’s quiet lyricism but the whole cast was superb.

Yes, it's a term that's been used for a long time. When I started watching ballet, it was often used in relation to Lynn Seymour but it may well have been used before that too. Dance-actor was and is a recognised term too (e.g. David Wall, Stephen Jefferies etc). From what I can gather from what dancers have said over the years, the acting element of dance has sometimes been somewhat neglected in training, though I'm sure that varies according to school. But some dancers have an exceptional ability to express/embody a character through dramatic ability and not just by dancing the choreography very well. I think it's comparatively rare, and incredibly precious. Zenaida Yanowsky is definitely in that category. I don't know to what extent the talent is instinctive or innate in some dancers, but I think it can also develop. e.g. Fiona Chadwick at the beginning of her career was a beautiful but rather reserved and sometimes even inexpressive dancer; by the time of her retirement she had developed into a superb and sophisticated actress.

Yes, that production was beautiful and straightforward and powerful. I came to love the Dowell production after initial dismay, though I never came to terms with the maypole dance which almost made me cry on first viewing and never improved. But I'm hoping that elements of the earlier production will be restored.

But the headline is quite justifiable in the context of the article, which gives every possible piece of information about the work except for the crucial fact that it's danced by the Royal Ballet with Royal Ballet dancers. So the headline writer was (to give them the benefit of the doubt) as misled as the readers.

That is totally outrageous!! I am well and truly gobsmacked. It's actually quite ingenious - how to write an article that totally misleads its readers whilst sounding quite straightforward. I hope the RB/Wayne McGregor will have something to say about publicity like this. Of course Boston wants (and is entitled) to 'own' it too (though I hadn't realised this was another co-production); but this is just ridiculous.

What strange byways we end up with sometimes on this forum... Has there ever been a naked cyclist in a ballet?? Let's hope there's never an avant-garde production of Enigma Variations. Anyway I'm not seeing this bill until next week but am looking forward to it very much.

I don't think it's hard in ballet, and it has as you say been done by other choreographers and no doubt will continue to happen. But that doesn't mean that every new work has to develop the art form, or be innovative. Just as every novel doesn't have to be experimental. What matters is that a work is good, whether or not it's innovative in form.

I think that any dance work has to stand on its merits as a dance work, in terms of either pure movement or story-telling, not on how well or badly it reflects an idea or theory which the viewer may well know nothing about (and/or care less about). The most that can be said is that it can be interesting to know what a choreographer's starting point has been for an 'abstract' work.

The interview with Melissa Hamilton linked in today's Dance Links says that she has signed a 'permanent' contract in Dresden. Does anyone know if that's right?

I agree with your initial reflections, SPD444, but equally I don't think it necessarily matters what a choreographer says about his/her work - what matters is the end product. And I try and go to new works in a spirit of hope; maybe Obsidian Tear will be enjoyable even if it bears no real relevance from the audience's point of view to the theoretical underpinning as put forward by the choreographer.

Wonder what name he posts under?!

When I first saw Swan Lake I was amazed to hear music that I completely associated with the opening of old horror films - took a while for that association to be overridden by balletic ones!

Thank you tabitha! You've given me a laugh-out-loud start to my day. Now to hit the tube...

If he works quite so collaboratively, perhaps the dancers should be co-credited as choreographers.

I agree with you, Jamesrhblack; but Macaulay does have a particularly cruel way of expressing negative views about dancers at times. I once took issue with him about a review of Bryony Brind in the 1980s, and he did eventually send me a very thoughtful reply - though it doesn't seem to have affected his approach to his writing! And since his red hair is the one thing cited that Edward Watson cannot (realistically) change it must be particularly frustrating for him to have it brought up regularly in a negative context. Though I would say that nowadays his appearance garners more plaudits than criticism, so I'm surprised he's so bothered about what one critic writes. Assuming it's Macaulay he was referring to of course.

I hope he will soon be awarded a knighthood as a nationwide tribute to his achievement.

All other new works have second and often third casts. It seems ironic to me that Wayne McGregor should find it so difficult to prepare two casts when in most of his works the dancers are barely differentiated as individuals so to me it makes very little difference who is dancing (even in the works I like).

It does seem odd to have a public competition for an 'emerging dancer' within a company. Surely the AD (and others) can see very well who is 'emerging' and how quickly, and it seems a bit insulting to be getting big parts in a major company and be competing for an 'emerging' dancer prize. I've always thought that this is really just a way of drumming up interest in the company etc, which ENB and Tamara Rojo are very good at - so maybe that's OK. I don't know how the dancers feel about it, whether nominated or not; that's really what matters.

Slightly off theme, but I find it a bit depressing that this story is not in fact about ballet at all but about redheads, and that's why the press have picked up on it. They don't, on the whole, take ballet seriously at all (apart from a few arts sections) and only cover it when they can link it to a non-story like this. But I suppose it's inevitable, since the press will generally cover what they think people will read rather than what actually matters; and people are apparently more inclined to read a story about redheadedness than about ballet.