TYR

Read title too quickly. Disturbing!

Where was that? I'm in the market for a recommendation.

So I went to see this at the Teatro Real in Madrid. I wouldn't bother. Cortés has been touring this since 2017 and frankly it needs to be retired. I can't think of any element of the show I wasn't deeply disappointed by. The flamenco stuff is a succession of disconnected tricks (I remember seeing Andres Martin perform at Sadlers' Wells and that was a world apart) without any sense of drama or emotion other than showing off. Did you know he's both a ballet dancer and a flamenco guy? That must be new and exciting IN 1992 WHEN HE STARTED IT. I know nothing about flamenco technique and can't comment on that, but he was visibly happier and better whenever anything classical came up. The music was uninspired and the sound waaaaay too loud, while the stage design and lighting looked like Strictly Come Dancing. The choreography makes basically no use of some no doubt talented women who get to do very familiar Graham technique floorwork (so we're going to contract, kick, safety release, roll through, up to the lunge, reverse it, sunburst kick? has anyone who's ever taken Graham class not done that sequence?) while dolled up for a ball with their knockers out (seriously) before repeatedly swooning at the great man's feet. This trope happened several times. At some point he was pretending to be a matador, good grief. His ego should really be credited as a dancer in its own right. Of course the home fans thought all this was great, whooping and cheering as the stage director picked out different boxes with the limelight. There are basically three problems here: the first is clichés. Whatever good might possibly emerge from the company's efforts (I think of one flamenca who was clearly trying to carry the whole thing by sheer attack and dramatic excess, two qualities I'm not going to complain about) is obscured by a mass of hackneyed kitsch. The second is the guy's mammoth ego cluttering the stage up and occupying everyone else's space, reducing the women especially to part of the décor. The third is fan service; he has an evidently loyal following who demand their ration of tricks and macho posturing and he sucks up to them. It was a decently full house at €25-50 a go, you can see why he's been touring it for six whole years. The whole thing left a bad taste.

I am going to be there for a couple of weeks and wouldn't mind hitting class daily...

Depends if he's cooking and eating the swans

I see as well as ballet he leads a Cunningham class on Friday evenings, which sounds intriguing if I ever wanted to dive back into the world of extremely hard skin on one's feet and painfully sore oblique muscles.

"In any turn, piqué, pirouette, fouetté, whatever, the level of arms is like the horizon. If you keep them consistent you can change anything else"

Sir Luke Ahmet this fine morning (the "Sir" is unofficial): As in, prepare and rip right into the turn, don't die waiting. Also the problem here was that his demonstration of the problem looked so good it convinced me to try it.

"Think about the architecture of it. The further you lean over off balance, the more steel you'll need to support the cantilever."

Not really a correction: "I remember when I was young, and in open class, when all the companies were...I found myself surrounded by people from the Royal Ballet and I had no idea what I was doing... but I was looked after"

Also an Anna-ism: I was expecting her to say something about the time she held the late Queen's hair while she was throwing up, or the like, but not yet.

One from Anna du Boisson:

welcome to our forum!

Bill Waldinger: https://classicalballetandallthatjazz.com/2022/07/25/thoughts-on-grand-plie/ "Dance inside a block of wet cement"

So we're sticking our noses out from under an enormous blanket of masks and lateral flow tests....I am told that summer intensives are BACK. I missed 2019 for reasons and as a result I haven't been since 2018 IMAGINE THAT. This thread is devoted to collecting adult SI information. As far as I know The Place isn't doing one or at least they haven't announced it yet..

would it be, perchance, Renato?

"The barre is your prince's hand...he won't be there in the centre when you need him, like all men"

"It was all right up to the passé. Then you all went to Seven Dials." To Seven Dials? Eh? "Flick up, but allow yourself to overcross a little" *tries* huh.

Three! from Anna: "If your arm is not over your head, there is no centre line to your body. That's where a partner will support you" "Port de bras cannot be added on as an afterthought, it is an integral part of the whole. Start the port de bras on the "and", like a singer taking a breath" "if you're overcrossing in front you're probably undercrossing behind"

I'd especially like to thank the moderators for their service in keeping the inevitable studio drama to a minimum:-)

Strong.

"Could you try dancing what I set? I've marked it four times and I'm going to have a breakdown"

I thought you were pretty good in Anna's today

One for the corrections thread.