Blossom

Great words from @Bridiem, to open tonight’s reviews. Fumi Kaneko and Reece Clarke got things off to a great start with Scenes de Ballet. I adore watching them and Fumi is a particular delight. Also the 4 male roles were well cast and well danced - always enjoy seeing Sissens in particular! Month in the Country- sad to discover it should have been Isabella Gasparini’s début tonight, but it was pretty wonderful anyway. Gorgeous music, Bracewell has such musicality (but hate that costume!!), he and Osipova together were mesmerising. Liam Boswell was really the highlight of the evening for me and one to watch. I’ll be looking out for him in future! Rhapsody really ended a perfect chocolate box of an evening on a high. The role was made for Corrales with all of that virtuosity and a few cheeky moments played to the audience. He absolutely dazzled. Always love watching Hayward, she is such a beautiful classical dancer and makes Ashton really sparkle. This cast - wider cast included including the fab 4 men - would be perfect for a DVD/BluRay release although nothing is quite as electric as live on stage. Really feel the need for more regular Ashton short programmes to spark a bit of pure joy - hope it’s not long (at least 18 months though) before we return to more varied ballet seasons.

Thrilled for Cinderella and looking forward to seeing Woolf Works live. Glad Mayerling is back. Disappointed at the continued long runs e.g. Sleeping Beauty which cynically I'd say are there just to fill the coffers post Covid. Would have liked to have seen more from the broader repertoire, Fille surely could have been a money maker also but at least adding a bit more variety and another reason to book. Classical triple bills would also fit the bill - lower cost in general so more likely to sell out easily? With opera not having sold so well this year, I'd hoped, perhaps naively that there may have been a bit of an opportunity to redress the balance.

Went to opening night but haven’t had a moment to post! It was an evening of pure joy and both pieces really make the company shine. Highlights for me were Precious Adams and Rhys Antoni Yeomans (a promotion surely overdue). Every dancer genuinely seemed to be having the best time on stage and my only criticism is that it was like watching an incredible party that you just couldn’t join! Forsythe was there are came out for curtain calls, not sure if this is an every night occurrence. If you don’t have a ticket get one before you kick yourself for not going!

I've managed to convince my husband to come along next week (actually he heard the playlist and convinced himself) despite having decided after some poor choices (Nutcracker in the brief period between lockdowns as he promised to come to something with me in place of us getting to St Petersburg for my 40th in the first May of Covid and Dante Project because he was interested in the subject matter but was too abstract for him to follow without any prior reading!) that he definitely doesn't like ballet (personally I would have preferred him to see some MacMillan). Also having convinced a friend to join me for the last BRB triple bill which she was surprised she enjoyed, she is bringing her husband and 2 sons along next week too. Strongly believe in 'member get member' and this is a prime piece of repertoire from that perspective - can't help but find joy in Playlist. Meanwhile just can't wait for opening night with my daughter!

It was a wonderful performance this afternoon. Sae Maeda is definitely one to watch, absolutely gorgeous as one of Siegfried’s sisters. Act 3’s black swan pdd was electric - between Mayara Magri’s perfectly pulled off fouettés (which left me quite emotional) and Cesar Corrales soaring across the stage it was pure joy. Mayara’s Odette was quite different to the more ‘vintage’ swans portrayed by Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Yasmin Naghdi - I wondered if just stylistically a different dancer or if it might be different coaching but gorgeous all the same. Cesar’s acting has most definitely come on leaps and bounds since joining the company and he was just perfect in the role. Joseph Sissens’ is just perfect in the Neapolitan dance. Sad Bennet Garside was injured but what a great replacement (Gary Avis). Spotted Matthew Ball in the Paul Hamlin hall during the interval (not easy to miss - or to take eyes off), lovely to see he was on our side of the curtain to support Mayara!

Last night was a truly special debut from Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe. Echoing others, they not just danced beautifully but from an emotional perspective were so thoroughly in character that I almost shed a tear. It was wonderful to have the audience rooting for them both- definitely a few more fans than those of us on this forum based on the gasp when Anna Rose slipped and the cheers during the curtain call. Anna Rose is such a versatile dancer, it really amazes me how she fits any role like a glove, classical or contemporary, and her Odette/Odile was no different. Marcelino’s jumps were absolutely breathtaking, such height and then he lands like a feather. It was also special to take my cousin with me last night, his first experience of the ROH which didn’t disappoint. I love sharing the magic with someone who hasn’t been there before and think how lucky we all are to have this wonderful theatre and company. I also learnt from him only moments before the lights went down that our shared great grandmother’s parents had come to the UK from Odessa, which made the playing of the national anthem even more emotive.

Not harsh at all - I think you've hit the nail on the head - and if they can't get their faithful audience filling seats and encouraging others to give ballet a go, then it doesn't bode well. Is this a total fait accompli or is there ever room to tweak the plan?

So I feel that this announcement falls a bit flat for a number of reasons:- 1. After a long run of Swan Lake in London, do we need another one in January, especially at the time when ENB struggles to sell tickets anyway? From a UK perspective, they may be visiting some different venues to Birmingham but it doesn't look like they have taken BRBs earlier release into consideration and means it could risk more empty seats all round 2. Disappointed from a UK tour perspective how light on the ground Raymonda is also. I feel like the 2022/23 season really needed to give back to the max on the touring front after over 2 years of nothing. 3. Dates seem a little light on the ground overall and not helped by the touring outside of the UK - although this is prob great news in terms of driving profit for the company which long run is a benefit for us all 4. No desire to see Creature again esp without Cirio 5. What happened to a summer performance in June/July time? Will this perhaps be announced later? On the whole, a bit of a 'same old' plan for the year which doesn't even act to celebrate the tenure of Tamara Rojo and her commissions. This year either needed to be a big celebration of the past 10 years (I'd have left Swan Lake as it was Derek Deane's) or a reminder of the jewels of ENBs crown (Corsaire, new Raymonda, possibly Giselle vs Giselle, a female choreographers presentation or a gala at least containing works specifically from the past decade).

Surely just a copy and paste? Keen to get the conversation going on this esp for those outside of London but defer to admins to post the info!

They are likely just coming to the end of their season though - don't they usually announce their new season in April?

Or you would think this is a great opportunity for ENB.

Should we be asking the dancers from British companies to respectfully pull out ?

Desperately upset about the invasion on the lives of the people of Ukraine, especially for the children who have had to live through the uncertainties of Covid to now have an unimaginably worse situation to deal with. Looking at the map, and thinking about the old Soviet regime, it's hard to know if Putin will stop with Ukraine alone. A particularly challenging development thinking of the dance community and important to remember that many Russians are protesting Putin's advance, including politicians. To those of you with Ukrainian connections, if you think of any practical ways to help, especially thinking of students stuck in the UK, please let me know.

I will be very sad to see him leave and have really enjoyed watching him perform over the past few years. Nobody likes the uncertainty that change brings, I am trying to be hopeful that a new AD might also attract some new stars to the company!!

Yes, was there on Thursday night. Really enjoyed, a huge amount of technical ability and they all seem to visibly have a high quality dance training behind them. In awe of the huge amount of talent from such young dancers.

I had problems with the new booking system at the point where you could add something to basket (donation options or click through to pay). It didn't matter which option I selected, nothing happened at all, so I edited the url which took me back to the old system to check out which was a smooth process. I did email the Friends team and the Box Office to let them know about the glitch but no idea if it is or isn't working now.

I would echo your comments about Whitehead's Tybalt. There was something ratehr flat about the character, it wasn't really clear why he wanted to get into a fight at any one time in terms of character motivation and there was definitely a lot less brooding menace than Gary Avis or Matthew Ball. What makes Tybalt a great character role is the acting and there was definitely something missing last night too. Anna-Rose O'Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe were indeed incredibly well matched. O'Sullivan perfectly characterises the young Juliet and is so beautifully expressive that the audience can feel everything she is feeling. I was at opening night where Marcelino Sambe played Mercutio and interestingly my companion commented that she would love to see him dance Romeo. Indeed his quick, light footwork and immense speed in places really put his stamp on the role and that was before even considering his dramatic ability. What particularly engaged me was his perfect match with O'Sullivan, they are so incredibly in tune with each other. James Hay was a wonderful Mercutio, but I don't think anyone can come close to Sambe's perfection in this particular role. As always, Mercutio's impaling completely crept up on me as always as I get so drawn into the drama and music. I was delighted to see Leo Dixon as Benvolio - really enjoying seeing him play more soloist roles having first come across him at an insight (or Ashton event?) a few years ago. There's always something special when a dancer you've been watching has a bit more of a spotlight put on them and it was such a pleasure to see him interpret the role last night. I really miss Beatriz Stix-Brunell as harlot - every time I see 'her' red harlot wig on someone else!! It was nice to see some new dancers in this role but I wasn't particularly enamoured with the combination on this occasion, they just weren't brash enough.

Thrilled BRB are bringing Don Q to Sadlers. Such a sunny production and offers Londoners (and families) great value vs ROH. However I am also greedy and wish they would bring more, specifically Coppelia.

Wow. Never expected that, but really interested to see what will happen! Particularly interested that Bonelli has invested in leadership development via the Clore Foundation (ie Dame Duffield who also supports the ROH) - it's great to see this investment benefit other arts organisations in the long run, for the wider benefit of British ballet.

Looks like they are taking Creature to Chicago before they start work on Forsythe so not as long to play with. I did look up the Forsythe programme this morning as trying to encourage some friends to come and thought something was missing. On receiving the email, my main thought was that it could have been worse- thankfully nothing was cancelled.

I started taking ballet classes at the age of 6/7 at my insistence and a couple of years later my grandma started to take me to the ballet- she was a huge balletomane. I grew up in Manchester so mostly saw English National Ballet and Northern Ballet and remember seeing most of the classics in addition to Alice in Wonderland and something Christopher Dean had choreographed. After heading off to university things tailed off a bit as it was too expensive/no youth access programmes and then when I started working in London I was simply time poor and never thought to go on my own, then had small kids I couldn’t leave. Once they were all of school age I started to focus on myself a bit more! The first ballet I saw was Le Corsaire by ENB at the Coliseum back in 2015/16 and I slowly started to discover what was on at the ROH, starting small by only choosing a few productions a year. I was generally going on my own, but the last Jan which ENB performed Giselle, I invited a new friend to join me and we were a very bad influence on each other and started to see everything together! She unfortunately emigrated in July 2020 and combined with Covid only allowing households to sit together, my eldest daughter has become my most frequent companion. Because there hasn’t been so much ballet since March 2020 I’ve been taking her to lots more in terms of musicals too. She has been bitten by the theatre bug and as she is almost 15 she now wants to encourage her friends to go and see more with her (definitely my mini me!). My husband is not a ballet fan and was seemingly done after Nutcracker and Dante Project but having played the playlist for Forsythe’s Playlist and shown him some clips online I now have a 3rd attempt to show that ballet can be diverse and interesting and trying to see if I can entice a few more friends along.

This is madness. There’s surely a huge opportunity as theatre revives itself after the Covid dearth to replicate the WW2 approach of touring every corner of the country, in turn growing back a greater demand for (high quality) dance with completely new audiences. Essentially the Arts Council is shooting itself in the foot.

I agree, the programme had lots of interesting content and explained a lot more about why certain things were done which helps the production stand up. Still think this will hold up well over time and looking forward to seeing ENB properly your it.

They did seem to be filming, however, based on equipment, not sure if it was streaming/DVD quality filming or for internal critical use

Fond memories of RAD grade 6 connected me immediately to the music on seeing Raymonda for the first time (Mariinsky full version remotely during Covid and Royal Ballet Act 3 live before that). Between that and grade 7 (La Sylphide) in years gone by, I've realised how important the RAD is in driving my music appreciation. I think there's also a piece from Raymonda used in the current Intermediate syllabus also for the classical dance. I don't dance anymore but it does produce quite an emotional response for me as a result. I've been watching Royal Ballet's Act 3 today to really get a feel for the stylistic impact on Act 3 in the new version, it's a lot more classical (vs character dancing) than I recall, with only Raymonda's solo not being remotely demi charactere (but dramatically really fitted the story line) and perhaps one more short solo. Given the fabulous opening dance led by Emily Suzuki and Henry Dowden which had lots of Character with a capital C, I think I can accept it even with a more 'purist' head on. Can't wait to see again on Sat night, same lead cast but hoping there is some opportunity to see some different dancers in other roles.