FionaM

Did anyone else from this forum attend either of these shows? I will write about the dancers and the pieces, but first to say what a well presented show this is … both in content and slickness of the show itself on the night. There were no awkward pauses between pieces or obvious lighting errors, as I’ve recently experienced elsewhere. The sold out audience at the Saturday night show applauded each piece enthusiastically. As an extra bonus, there was the opportunity to meet the dancers after the show in the bar. Professional photos too.

Rhapsody pdd with Akane Takada was another wonder for me. Such musicality and grace. From one of the Covid divertissement galas in late 2020

talking of Isobelle, I’m thrilled to see Davi Ramos has joined Aus Ballet ( 🇧🇷 -> RBS -> Dutch National -> Australia) and is partnering her. She’s great and deserves chance to do the great pdd as well as solos.

On Joe Sissens’ Instagram story today he says it’s his debut as Lescaut tonight alongside Leticia Dias … in addition to first full run of Swan Lake with Mariko Sasaki earlier!!! What a special day for him. https://www.instagram.com/stories/joseph.sissens/3308985071505020509?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=NGtxejNqbjd6YWd3

Munich have an audition height for men of 1.8m. Maybe it’s guidance only because clearly Antonio Casalinho and Shale Wagman don’t match that.

completely agree! Wonderful

Watching Leo Dixon and Teo Dubreil rehearsing / learning the role of Benno, only serves to remind me of how easy Alex Campbell made this part look when it’s clearly very tricky. It was created on him. Going to be a challenge for the newbies.

Takumi Miyake (top male graduate of RBS 2022) performs tonight in the opening night of ABT’s Swan Lake season. He is one of the Neapolitan duo, alongside Jake Roxander. I believe this is his first soloist role since progressing into the main company from ABT2. Cast list from ABT instagram story https://www.instagram.com/stories/abtofficial/3307908526403960731?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=dGM4cTg4bHNyOWFi

Corrales was very good in Rhapsody last time around. He has the panache, though not the purist of classical techniques. (Hips wide open on jetes which should be forward facing, for instance. But this is a purist quibble that doesn’t matter to many.). I didn’t see Sambe … I assume he was super in this role. McRae was on return from previous injury and it was substandard for him. I was surprised that Vadim wasn’t cast last time… perhaps it clashed with him being in the other parts of the triple bill. I can’t remember the details. Daichi Ikarashi should be doing Rhapsody. His technique surpasses dancers in higher ranks including Corrales. And he’s done it at school level. He could show the panache too, though it was rather dampened in his Acteon solo at the Erik Bruhn competition. That’s a fault of RB coaching IMO. I wonder which of the other other technically advanced dancers like Nakao, Jun, Lee, Masciari, Sissens, Hay, Rovero, Boswell … have all the attributes to pull this role off. I’d hope some of these are shadowing. Where is Valentino Zucchetti? Shame David Yudes isn’t around. Both would be good. The virtuoso technique required is beyond what I’ve seen of Ball, Bracewell, Clarke. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by the casting 🤞

I should think Kevin O’Hare would be approached for suggestions of people for roles such as this.

Wonderful memories of recent performances - brilliant Des Grieux with Francesca Hayward in the last run - clever Lescaut only last week with Osipova, Clarke and Magri. Never seen the brother sister relationship work this well - audience stunned into silence by his Romeo with Yasmine Naghdi - masterful lead role in Dances at a Gathering I could go on!

We do need a 😢 button. This is disappointing news when Birmingham City (it seemed to me) has been so supportive of the arts and culture.

https://www.royalacademyofdance.org/rad-announces-alexander-campbell-as-its-new-artistic-director/ Royal Academy of Dance announces Alexander Campbell as its new Artistic Director Alexander joins the RAD in his first Artistic Director position since departing from The Royal Ballet Today the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) announces Alexander Campbell as its new Artistic Director. Alexander will begin his tenure in April 2024. Succeeding the RAD’s previous Artistic Director Gerard Charles who retired last year, Alexander comes to the RAD after over a decade at The Royal Ballet. Alexander has performed across the breadth of The Royal Ballet’s classical and contemporary repertory. Principal roles have included Albrecht (Giselle), Basilio (Don Quixote), Franz (Coppélia), Prince Florimund (The Sleeping Beauty), the Prince (The Nutcracker), Colas (La Fille mal gardée), Young Man (The Two Pigeons), Oberon (The Dream), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Des Grieux and Lescaut (Manon), Florizel (The Winter’s Tale) and roles in Dances at a Gathering, Jewels, Within the Golden Hour, Woolf Works and Carbon Life among others. Born in Sydney, Alexander trained locally at Academy Ballet. He has longstanding connections with the RAD, completing all RAD examinations up to Advanced 2 and winning a silver medal at the 2003 Genée International Ballet Competition (now The Fonteyn) which was held in Birmingham. Through this experience Alexander was introduced to Birmingham Royal Ballet, the company he joined upon graduating from The Royal Ballet School in 2005. In 2011 he joined the Royal Ballet as a Soloist; promoted to First Soloist in 2012 and Principal in 2016. As well as having an exceedingly successful career as a professional ballet dancer, Alexander runs a production company called Alexander Campbell Productions which has spearheaded projects for theatre and dance including Sleepwalker, featuring the differently-abled dancer Joseph Powell-Main, and The Limit in association with The Royal Ballet for which he provided the original dance concept and performed in at the Linbury Theatre with fellow Royal Ballet Principal Francesca Hayward. Alexander’s last performances with The Royal Ballet will be as Des Grieux in Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon on Saturday 2nd and Friday 8th March 2024. Speaking of the news, Alexander Campbellsays: “I’m thrilled to be joining the Royal Academy of Dance and feel privileged to have been offered the role of Artistic Director. The RAD was formative in my training and I believe has the power to shape how people interact with ballet and dance. I am motivated and excited to play a part in how we develop and offer these exceptional and positive interactions, not only for our current and future members and students but also for society in general. I have been fortunate to enjoy a wonderful career performing with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet with experiences and friendships I will cherish for a lifetime. My thanks to Kevin O’Hare for supporting me in this next step in my career and I can’t wait to get started.” Tim Arthur, Chief Executive of the RAD, says: “I am delighted that Alexander is joining the RAD at such an exciting time for our organisation. We have big plans for the future that we can’t wait to share with the world, and Alexander will play a key role in helping to define and be part of that journey. He has a wealth of experience, passion and knowledge, and is admired by so many of our RAD students and members. I can’t wait to start working with him to build on our Artistic team’s brilliant and diverse body of work.” Dame Darcey Bussell, President of the RAD, says: “As a friend of Alexander, I’m thrilled by this news. He has such great passion for dance, and I look forward to seeing all the exciting developments his time at the RAD will bring.” Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, says: “Alexander has been a key member of both our Royal companies for almost two decades. His passion for dance has always been obvious from across his many stage performances in a vibrant and diverse range of roles, to his great aptitude in more recent years as a presenter for World Ballet Day and his concept production for The Limit. I know he will continue as a wonderful advocate for dance in this exciting new role and I look forward to our continued working relationship providing more people with positive experiences of our powerful artform.”

What?! Here’s the link https://www.instagram.com/p/C3m9hO3oflc/?igsh=bzhjcmhweGt5a2h3 I can’t believe he’s no longer going to dance. This is too soon.

Maybe this thread should be labelled legacy UK TV channels? I watch these digitally online, as with everything else. Sometimes on big screen (TV if you will) or on tablet and smartphone. Occasionally on my laptop/PC.

oh! So it’s worse than I thought. Tamara is either a poor people manager, or doesn’t want anyone else getting the limelight. Possibly both. Sad to see when she has so many other great skills.

@Naomi M thank you for the information on Asami Maki and the Asuka ballet. And for the video of Lunkina and Skvortsov. Both superb Bolshoi principals. Lovely to see clips of them performing with this company. I’ve since scrolled through the company Instagram to see other top quality guests in prior years. Clearly a company of influence and connections.

@JNC completely agree that the Pina Bausch version was good. And agree that the experience of working with Mats Ek is a gift for any dancer. His version was less of a gift for the audience, IMO. Though I did appreciate parts of it and the roles were challenging for the dancers. The other less successful Rite of Spring type work was in the recent triple by Andrea Miller, though called Les Noces. Hopefully not to be repeated.

I was fascinated by Creature 😉 Jeffrey Cirio was extraordinary as a creature (or human treated as a creature) showing more humanity than the humans around him. And then surprised by Isaac Hernandez in the role. Quite different Curio and easily the best and most honest and committed portrayal I’d seen Isaac perform.

I am personally very happy with Aaron doing more or less the same as Tamara. I think ENB is positioned well as it is. I wouldn’t want him changing the repertory drastically from here. As others have said he may not have the finances to do it yet, and a new Nutcracker has long been in demand and won’t be cheap. It is too early to determine whether he has vision and creativity to step in a new direction in terms of repertory, and will that be a direction that takes the audience with him. I too am very encouraged by his nurturing of the company members as individuals. And I am especially looking forward to soloist/lead roles for the many talented dancers in this company, which I’d say have been too long delayed. I hope Aaron will ditch Tamara’s mistakes … too many unsuccessful versions of Rite of Spring, plus her own Raymonda which hides the actual dancing of the ballerinas under those long heavy skirts.

All is not going entirely Tamara’s way in San Francisco. She has made at least one big mistake as far as audiences are concerned. I read that audiences are upset with the lack of the usual farewell performance for the retirement of principal Yuan Tuan Tan. Until now the tradition has been to have a whole show dedicated to the retiring principal with their choice of rep. She is so popular I’ve no doubt the show would have been sold out. This post and the comments are interesting: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3ejBv6gEMW/?igsh=dmZpanR6cHQyZmk3 I wonder if this discontent is widespread.

Some of my local cinemas now announce to turn off phones and not to talk during movies so as not to distract others! Hooray!!

@Nogoat thank you so much for posting the full running order and your review too. Like you, I always attend galas with the attitude that some things will change (pieces get pulled due to injury, visa problems, director’s calling more rehearsals, etc etc). There are always pieces and dancers that pleasantly surprise and then others that disappoint. My impressions in running order: FOREST SONG pdd - intrigued by this, having heard much of it. Would love to see the whole ballet. Pleasing performance by the two Ukrainian National Company members, Olga Golytsia and Volodymyr Kutuzov, who Ivan said had flown in from their two month tour of Canada and haven’t been home yet. R&J balcony pdd - super emotional chemistry from Lauren and Matthew. Her technique was particularly effortless, light and beautiful. She is at her peak. Cannot wait to see her on ROH stage in a full length. METAMORPHOSIS duet - more organic chemistry in the lyrical dancing of Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw. How lucky we are to have these fine artists join the ENB. It cannot be long before Gareth is promoted to principal. I also want to thank them for bringing more David Dawson choreography to us. LE CORSAIRE trio - bravo to Luca for his flashy eyes and technique, and to Vladyslav Bosenko (Soloist at Slovak National, previously soloist at Ukraine National) who is an elegant dancer with especially lovely and dynamic grand pirouettes a la seconde. The partnering was a bit ropey (probably lack of rehearsal time as is too often the case with galas), however Marianna carried it all off with tremendous aplomb. Including the fouettés. SUITE EN BLANC solo - Denys Cherevychko’s dancing had nice humorous touches and he has the neatest execution of any male dancer. Beautiful legs and pointed feet especially. PRELIWD solo - premier of lyrical choreography by Andrew McNicol, accompanied by live Rachmaninov played by Sasha Grynyuk, and the graceful dancing of William Bracewell. I wish he hadn’t been topless. It felt gratuitous. DYING SWAN solo - I was very pleased that the audience applauded Olga’s entrance in her first appearance in the UK. Gorgeous tutu. I wasn’t convinced her swan was dying. Too controlled and too energetic. TWO BY TWO duet - intriguing contrast of co-ordinated and non co-ordinated moves by Russell Maliphant. Always good to see Ivan dance. Grace Jabbari was new to me and she was fantastic! AFTER THE RAIN duet - I’ve seen this lots of times and to be honest it’s not my favourite. However Nela and Lukas were fascinating in it. Both were expressively honest with seamless partnering, and Nela’s sublime technique elevated this to another level. A highlight for me, when I was expecting ‘meh’. ASUKA duet - the dancing was nice, though I wasn’t sure what the piece was about. No doubt thanks are due to the Asami Maki Ballet company in Tokyo for supporting this event financially and sending their dancers to participate. I don’t know this company, although I see that Nela and Vadim guested in their Sleeping Beauty in December 2023. LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE pdd (Gorsky/Petipa) - loved this. Francesca Velicu (ENB) was superb, such control, speed, neat batterie and airtime in her light jumps all delivered with charm. I hope to see her given more lead roles soon. It was 2017 that she won the Olivier for her knock-out performance in The Chosen one. She was well partnered by Dmitry Zagrebin (Royal Swedish Ballet) who was joyous in his virtuoso performance, though I struggle with his musicality at times. CARMEN extracts - Denys Matvienko (ex Mariinsky, ex Kyiv, ex Mikhailovsky) positively smouldered as Escamillo. The Carmen role requires more allure and intensity than Olga could deliver. I’ve seen many dancers perform this role and although she can do the technical stuff quite easily, she’d have benefitted from (more) coaching for the dynamics of the expression. You can find clips online of Plisetskaya (originator of therole) to Zakharova, Vishneva, Sevenard LA FILLE MAL GARDEE ribbon duet - charming and faultless performance by the dancers from Latvian National Ballet were this ballet was staged first in November last year. The ribbon behaved too (always makes me nervous). GOPAK from TARAS BULBA ballet - thrilling crowd-pleasing virtuoso solo often performed at galas and enthusiastically done here by Volodymyr Kutuzov (google Vadim Muntagirov Gopak for two videos of him performing it many years ago) GLORIA trio - how wonderful to end with one of my favourite MacMillan ballets. Heartbreakingly performed by the trio of current and former Northern Ballet dancers. In conclusion, for me it was an interesting gala of pieces (Ivan avoiding too much of the usual) lasting over 2.5 hours (without the Giselle, not needed) with a large cast of special dancers all supporting Ivan’s worthwhile initiative. A real treat for the audience! Thank you 🙏

thank you for the donation link. I have contributed in addition to my ticket and buying a programme. It’s worth highlighting from the programme book that the Jean-Pierre Gasquet has gifted the rights for La Fille Mal gardée to the Ukrainian National Ballet company. He says: My decision to gift the choreographic rights of Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée to the Ukrainian National Ballet was motivated by unstinting admiration for the bold entrepreneurial flair of Ivan Putrov, and his tireless work in bringing the tragic situation in his homeland to the attention of thousands of people in the United Kingdom. My respect for the unquenchable spirit of his compatriots is inexpressible in mere words, and their courage in the face of naked tyranny is an inspiration to the entire free world. Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, his undoubted masterpiece, embodies the joy of life, respect for the natural world, and romantic and filial love. I hope my gift will lift the spirits of the artists and people of Ukraine and happily acquaint them with the poetry of an English genius. Also in the programme are these words from Nobuhiro Terada, AD of Ballet at the National Opera House of Ukraine: Despite this terrible war, we are continuing to perform and are striving to keep the spirits of our dancers and our audiences high. I can't imagine a more inspiring way to do this than to add this most delightful and heart-warming gem of British ballet to our repertoire. We are hugely grateful to all of those working to make this possible. We send our thanks and gratitude to Jean Pierre Gasquet, for his generosity, to all of the artists taking part and, of course, to the audience for their support. The dancers of the national company deserve new repertoire while not being able to perform the great ballet classics. I hope others here will be able to donate also.

And the Palladium is for a good cause!