FionaM

probably a student who got worried they’d be reported!

I was making a joke! I’m personally glad that the RB has moved away from type-casting.

@Missfrankiecat I guess the prince should stand out as different to the rest of the court, so this physical difference helps 😉 And so we return to typecasting !!! The elegant slim and long legged dancers are the Prince and the virtuoso short ones are his friend or jester. It was ever thus 🤣

Sleeping Beauty at the Bristol Hippodrome on Saturday 20/4 (evening): I’d not seen this production before. Loved it. Beautiful sumptuous sets and very French costumes. Though I found the fairies costumes to be too samey. I enjoyed having the Lilac Fairy as a character walk on part to counter Carabosse. The Lilac Fairy has a beautiful lace costume which I wished was more lilac. It seems off-white which is lit by a pale lilac spot. But this is a small gripe and may be different in each theatre. Bravo to the cast on coping with what seemed like a cramped stage (diagonals having to be foreshortened, corps de ballet waltzes looked cramped, etc) and clearly narrow wings squashing tutus on exit. I believe this theatre is known for its very limited backstage space. I had thought it was reasonable size for ballet … we’ve had the ENB Akram Khan Giselle with its huge wall without a problem. I do hope the space problems won’t deter BRB from continuing to tour here. We don’t get much good quality ballet in Bristol. One visit annually from ENB and one from BRB. And both only for 3 days since Covid. Yu Kurihara was a sparkly Aurora who interacted well with the 4 Princes. I enjoyed their individual characterisation and their more obvious admiration for her than I’ve seen in other productions. I don’t mind that more than one balance of Yu’s had minor problems. She covered well. They are a menace in my view! She clearly is a very good turner and has beautiful lines, musicality and grace with a lovely smile. I enjoyed her performance very much. Lachlan Monaghan had super high and fully completed double tours in the very difficult act 3 Prince Florimund solos. Good partnering too … which highlighted some of the less good partnering by the 4 Princes earlier. He coped well with the interminable ‘come hithers’ from Aurora and ‘not yet’ from the Lilac Fairy in the dream sequence. Eilis Small has a super aura of calm as the Lilac Fairy. I felt everything was safe in her hands. And Daria Stanciulescu was clearly having a ball letting rip as Carabosse. Bravo to both!!! A few of the soloists who caught my eye were Sofia Liñares as both a fairy and the Bluebird Princess. Olivia Chang Clarke flew across the stage en pointe in her fairy solo, and principal Miki Mizutani whose class shone through as the Fairy of Modesty. (No idea if she was covering unexpectedly. Is it usual for BRB principals to do such solos on tour? I’m looking forward to seeing the Celine Gittens and Yasiel Hodelin Bello cast later this week in London.

I’m gutted that this ballet has gone from the repertoire for now. I would very much have liked to have seen it live.

It was a lack of elegance and grace in all the swans. I disagreed re Marianela (although there was occasional flatfootedness) but I saw her point about the corps of swans. Some of this I’d say was due to the ‘busy’ and complex choreography for the corps. It needed more rehearsal to my eyes. And the swans generally needed more lightness in their action. All of which should have been addressed before first night

it is this type of response to an honest personal and individual opinion that turns forum members away and scares others from commenting. It is irrelevant what anyone’s expertise is. Any reaction is valid. I didn’t take the original comments to be rude or disrespectful. Everyone’s turn of phrase is different. Perhaps we should ask for clarification first. I took the word heavy to mean the cygnets were perhaps noisy or even thudding. They can be, the choreography and music almost requires it. The art is to transcend that. The cygnet quartet are not always successful. The disaster of the two swans I took to mean that they were not coordinated, had bad style or were poorly rehearsed. Maybe there were other problems. I will finish with a quote from an audience member friend, who is hugely experienced and well traveled to the major theatres of ballet, who said of the opening night of Swan Lake at ROH : ”Vadim is the only swan on this lake” That’s fairly damning of the staging of this production. I do hope it has improved over the run.

The RBS students are higher calibre and the RB cannot take them all. The Aud Jebsen young dancers scheme at RB is 6 only I think, and there are up to 30 graduating dancers at RBS each year. Some go abroad of course. It shouldn’t be surprising that many of the graduating group go to BRB and ENB.

Anastasia Smirnova (rising star and first soloist at Mikhailovsky) performed at Segerstrom Arts in California and Montana with Julian Mackay both in Summer 2023 without any opposition that I heard. So it was reasonable to assume this would be ok. It’s a gala to inspire young dancers. It’s brave of YAGP to try to break the barriers. I’m sure YAGP and the Mariinsky dancers knew the risks they were taking. Classical music doesn’t seem to suffer from these same barriers. I see many Russian based performers continuing to tour with European orchestras. I am guessing that’s because the musicians have long term contracts with Western music organisations (Warner, Sony, etc). It’s always about money 🙄

The RBS students seem to have been the sensation of the gala night … performing excerpts and variants of Rhapsody. You can find clips on their instagram stories, and on others. (Look at Guillaume Giraudon for instance) Emile Gooding (male solo) Rebecca Myles Stewart and Ravi Cannonier-Watson (duet couple) There was a fourth RBS student in the Grand Defile, taller girl with brown hair, Katie Robertson. I haven’t yet found what she danced. https://www.instagram.com/p/C55kkkvIcLV/?igsh=aXEzNmw5NTZ0aXRu

@Suffolkgal I agree that the relays transformed how live ballet can be shared more widely. There is a frisson of excitement for audiences in the cinemas watching the live relay in real time, like being an extension of the audience in theatre. It’s transformed my RB experiences. The close-ups adding to what cannot be seen however close your seat is in the theatre itself. The atmosphere isn’t quite the same for the encore, stream or any other recording even if only a few days later. Personally I don’t like the ballet being seen too much through someone else’s eyes, which is why the choice of close-ups can grate … eg.The Requiem example. I’m still wondering what those dancers were doing that was deemed insignificant that they got cut. (It could have been a mistake on the night … it is live filming on top of live dance. Anything can go wrong. Maybe the wide view camera had a blip for instance.) I’m 100% sure MacMillan didn’t choreograph for dancers on stage ‘not to be seen’.

@Ginny it’s the wartime setting that is the weakest part. It is glossed over and the scenes near the battlefields are very tame. A couple of non-dancing extras are bandaged and attended to on the sides of those scenes. No reality there! The dancing for the men in particular including both leads is exhilarating and challenging. The pas de quatre retains all the beats, unlike other versions.

that is good to hear, though her tumble was still in my encore screening.

Munich has the Ray Barra version of Raymonda. Not performed since pre COVID I think. It has beautiful flowing costumes for Raymonda in the earlier acts. Traditional Petipa style tutus in third act. Lauretta Summerscales has performed the title role. Clips and photos in her instagram if you scroll back to 2018/19. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_XIpiCgYKJ/?igsh=ODc5MTI4MTQzZ3Ew

I love The Winter’s Tale as a story and I think the ballet is Wheeldon’s masterpiece. The story is a good contrast to R&J where the love of the children of the warring families leads to the children’s deaths, whereas in TWT the love of the children reunites eventually the parental relationships. (Though tragedy remains with the death of one child.). The genius of Shakespeare.

In Requiem there was a close up on the soloists in one of the scenes which cut the corps elsewhere on the stage. That’s ok and actually welcomed. It’s one of the much appreciated benefits of recordings. Although I did find Sarah Lamb’s highlight makeup to be odd. However after this close-up when the camera panned out the corps had vanished. He missed their movement and exits. I found that a really strange choice. And not complementary to the choreographer’s vision. Given the comments in n this thread about the filming of Different Drummer being sub-optimal vs the live experience, would others agree it’s time to replace Ross MacGibbon? I’m reminded that he missed the shooting of Lescaut in Manon. I am increasingly disappointed considering how he is an insider on all these ballets. Not only is he a former RB dancer (who I always looked out for … he was lovely), but as he explained he was part of the creation of many of these MacMillan ballets. I appreciate that he pioneered these relays, for which I am very grateful not being London based! I feel he’s behind the times in filming skills now, and, is making mistakes that matter.

And it was fabulous! Vadim is going to make a fine Leontes (debut). Ed Watson seemed genuinely impressed with him and Fumi together. (Not her debut). High praise indeed considering Ed was the creator of this role. To me this seems another level of Vadim … first Mayerling, now Leontes. We await Onegin 🤞 Luca Acri and Sae Maeda were lovely in the Florizel/Perdita roles. It seemed odd to me that this will be Luca’s debut. I guess mostly principals have been cast before. Good to see former dancer Nathalie Harrison hosting.

@Ginny Rojo’s Raymonda is definitely a family friendly ballet. All ages. The storyline is easy to follow and there is more to it than the traditional classical tutu version. Lots and lots of lovely dancing, beautiful sets and colourful costumes, and of course the wonderful music re-arranged to fit the new story. My only gripe with the production is that the ballerinas costumes are so long that their choreo is harder to see. Most of it is the historic choreography and those solos are tough! I think anyone who is not expecting the traditional version or doesn’t know it, will enjoy this ballet. It’s akin to Coppélia or other light hearted ballets.

Gosh. Good for her. Most others at her age are retiring … not taking on new challenges!

I wish Ratmansky would not choreograph to existing ballet music … he’s using Paquita for his new NYCB ballet. That’s the sort of thing choreographers for ballet schools do. I find it disrespectful to Petipa’s wonderful choreography. it’s also lazy as he’s created a version before. Paquita (Ratmansky reconstruction) | The Marius Petipa Society There is so much other fabulous music to be explored.

Interested to hear of the vote for less intervals. I’d vote for this. Definitely for mixed bills. It might not be possible for some full length. But, for instance, many companies run Acts 3 & 4 of Swan Lake without an interval. Additional advantage to dancers (and audience) as it would mean spreading the roles to more of the company. Regarding catering / bars … these could stay open afterwards. I’m often looking for somewhere to chat and come down off the artistic high with friends. so it’s a 👍 from me.

@Peanut68 Regarding your YouTube or Google suggestions … you can improve this to show what you are interested in by watching more! Then the algorithm will suggest similar. At the moment it is guessing a wide range because it doesn’t know you. (My children were highly amused by my Instagram suggestions … entirely ballet!) You can switch off the auto play feature in YouTube: Open YouTube . Tap your profile photo Select Settings Tap General. Select Playback in feeds. Tap Off to turn off autoplaying videos in your YouTube feed

all I could find was a subscribe button. No listing of the new season? 🤔

I was at an encore screening in Bristol. About 10 people. All older than me. Aka retired.

It’s been interesting to read the varied reactions to the ending of the RB’s current version versus the previous one. I’ve been reflecting on the version I first saw and grew up with in Cape Town (I don’t know whose choreography it was). In that one Siegfried and Odette fight Von Rothbart together breaking one of his wings. He then dies which breaks the spell and they are united as humans. I was subsequently shocked by the ‘both die’ version of RB when I first saw it. And then I read up about different endings. I’m therefore not disappointed now by any ending. Indeed when I go to a new version it is an intriguing anticipation for me. How will this version end? I particularly like the emotional pdd that Liam added to this act. The rehearsal of Liam with Marianela and Vadim was the most inspiring insight, revealing Liam’s intelligence in conveying his intentions to the dancers, and in showing his own dancing abilities. Sigh. i also like the swans corps overcoming Rothbart, with their backs to the audience. Very effective. And yes Siegfried is a flawed man duped by Odile and Rothbart. That’s real life right there!