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aliceinwoolfland

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Everything posted by aliceinwoolfland

  1. aliceinwoolfland
    Monday 18 March 7.30pm. Seat A42. Great unobstructed view! Selling at face value (£32). I can drop off at ROH this Saturday or Sunday, meet in person this Saturday or Sunday, or can post if you reimburse postage costs.
  2. aliceinwoolfland
    I remember Tristan Dyer posting on Instagram a while back that he gave Princess Charlotte a private ballet lesson.
  3. aliceinwoolfland
    Bring back Woolf Works!
  4. aliceinwoolfland
    Francesca Hayward as Giselle and Manon Yasmine Naghdi as Giselle, Lescaut's Mistress, and Odette Akane Takada and Benjamin Ella as Giselle and Albrecht Alexander Campbell as Des Grieux Vadim Muntagirov as Siegfried
  5. aliceinwoolfland
    Did anyone see Ashley Dean debut as Clara today? Any thoughts?
  6. aliceinwoolfland
    My mother has just booked for R&J (my birthday present) and was astonished at the price increases. She last went 2 years ago and paid around £100 per seat to see 'Alice'. Top price orch stalls matinee seats for R&J are £130 each! We went for them as it's a treat, and are hoping that Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball will still be scheduled to dance that performance by the time it comes around!
  7. aliceinwoolfland
    Following them on Instagram also helps, as you get used to seeing their faces
  8. aliceinwoolfland
    My bag and tickets were checked before Wednesday's evening performance. A good thing as they were able to spot that we had tickets for the wrong day!!!
  9. aliceinwoolfland
    ^ and don't forget Alice in Wonderland! I agree that it's a shame Winter Dreams alone made this ballet unsuitable for children.
  10. aliceinwoolfland
    I saw they were selling scraps of Swan Lake costume fabric in cheap plastic baubles for £22 a pop. I probably would have bought one if it was half that price, but £22 for such a basic bauble seemed ridiculous!
  11. aliceinwoolfland
    I really liked Les Patineurs - a whirling, swirling, sliding delight of a ballet, with plenty of Victoriana and even snow! I agree that Meaghan Grace Hinkis's fouettes were brilliant. I liked Luca Acri, and I thought Anna Rose O'Sullivan really stood out. I was foolish enough to not read a synopsis of Winter Dreams beforehand. I assumed as it wasn't on the cast sheet that I wouldn't need it. Unfortunately my partner and I were confused throughout. I grasped that Sarah cheated on Gary with Vadim (poor Gary, but who can blame her??) but went back to him, and the rest was a bit of a mystery. It made more sense when I read the synopsis after....there was some beautiful dancing and very moving characterisation, especially from Sarah/Gary/Vadim/Yasmine, but the general confusion plus the repetitive and soothing music meant I was pretty sleepy throughout, and I thought it went on a bit too long. Anyway, in light of recent discussion on this forum I think it should be renamed Winter VaDreams..... 😛 The Concert was a joy to watch throughout. I've seen Kish before and always felt him to be a bit wooden, so it was wonderful to see him dance with so much humour and exuberance. Mayara Magri was very funny as the bespectacled ballerina, and I loved Hamilton and Mendizabal's performances. Fantastic piano accompaniment from Robert Clark, who was also marvellous in Winter Dreams. That said, can someone explain the bug thing to me? Do they literally turn into bugs or is it some kind of metaphor, or just silly dress up?
  12. aliceinwoolfland
    I'm at the ROH and just wanted to say how amazing the front of house staff have been. I exchanged a ticket from Wednesday to Thursday. Being a scatterbrain, I turned up tonight with Thursday's tickets. I hadn't even realised I couldn't do Thursday as it's parent's evening! Had a major meltdown when I realised my mistake, 10 mins before the ballet was due to start. 3 different staff members intervened and I was given great stalls circle seats with my partner. They had to move people to get us seats together! Sad I don't get to experience front row, but so grateful to ROH for sorting it out and being so lovely about it.
  13. aliceinwoolfland
    Someone on Instagram who goes to the ballet dozens of times each season posted an Instagram story saying they were at the Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat matinee. Can someone enlighten me? I thought that was specifically for people who had never seen ballet before, often from disadvantaged groups?
  14. aliceinwoolfland
    It seems a bit silly to start a thread just for this, but I wasn't sure where else to ask! I used to have an iPhone 7 and managed to get good curtain call photos, because if I tapped the phone screen when in camera mode the exposure was automatically adjusted. I have since switched to a Samsung Galaxy S9, because of its better camera. To my dismay, all of my curtain call photos at the first performance I saw with this new phone were massively overexposed, with most of the dancers coming out as white blobs. Editing didn't help much. There was no 'auto exposure' unlike with the iPhone, and my partner's iPhone SE managed to get better photos. We have got really good seats in Les Patineurs and I want to take some lovely curtain call photos. Does anyone have experience with a Samsung camera and can offer me some tips on advanced settings etc? Many thanks!
  15. aliceinwoolfland
    That is really bad 😔 My partner and I had the opposite experience - we were hovering near the Grand Tier entrance during the interval and were encouraged to go in by a very kind usher. Must have got lucky!
  16. aliceinwoolfland
    The sneaky drinks charge is very depressing. My partner and I don't have an awful lot of spare money - I am a fairly new teacher and he is a student. We went to the ROH recently, and he decided to buy me an alcoholic drink as a treat. They had no amaretto, but listed gin and tonic as something they could do, so I went for that. He almost had a heart attack at the bill. The double measure explains everything. The ROH is claiming to become more accessible and less elitist, but all they have actually done is encouraged the general public to come into the building, and diminished the experience of those who buy tickets. They cannot be serious about accessibility when prices of cheap seats are rising and when costs that hit poorer people hardest (programmes, ticket returns etc) are creeping up. I think that's the worst part - the hypocrisy of it all. Decrying 'elitism' while at the same time complaining that if tickets sell out quickly they are too cheap. Making ordinary regulars who spend a large proportion of their income there feeling unwelcome, while clearly gunning for new, richer audiences who have only a passing interest in ballet and opera.
  17. aliceinwoolfland
    I feel like there should be a discount for children for shows like the Nutcracker.
  18. aliceinwoolfland
    I'm slightly uncomfortable with your dismissive and combative tone, Vanartus. I don't think that dance critics in the Telegraph have an opinion less worthy than someone in a fashion magazine or another newspaper.
  19. aliceinwoolfland
    From The Telegraph: 'the costumes, by noted fashion designer Erdem, are a fright. True, in going for what appears to be a 21st-century take on classical antiquity, they do echo the old-meets-new spirit of the Bernstein. But, in striving so hard to be sexy, they miss it by a mile, while the black straps and ribbons that both encase the dancers’ bodies and flap distractingly around them might be described as “gaffer-tape chic”.'
  20. aliceinwoolfland
    According to Lauren Cuthbertson on Instagram, Erdem and the Royal Ballet have won a 'creative collaboration' Walpole UK award. Emperor's new clothes...
  21. aliceinwoolfland
    Kish had a few performances as Siegfried in the new Swan Lake this summer so I wouldn't worry too much. He's also going to be in Frankenstein.
  22. aliceinwoolfland
    I have seen all three dancers, but when I book for a cast I like it to be accurate. When people buy a ticket they are sometimes buying it for the dancer as well as the performance, and that's OK. For those who can't afford to go to the ballet very often it's especially nice to see your favourite dancer. None of this is Francesca Hayward's fault but I'm left wondering why the cast change wasn't made before public booking opened and why they swapped Naghdi's performances.
  23. aliceinwoolfland
    I like Anna Rose a lot (she was incredible in Alice) but IMO she isn't yet at the standard that Naghdi and Hayward are at - that's no bad thing as she's at a different stage in her career, but I can see why people would be disappointed if they'd specifically booked to see Naghdi.
  24. aliceinwoolfland
    What a starry line up! I wish I could be there.
  25. aliceinwoolfland
    ^ it annoys me that the Guardian gave it 3 stars when their only criticism seems to be Muntagirov's lack of charisma (what planet are they on???) But yes, why they docked it two stars is a mystery given that the review is largely very positive.
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