FionaM

Yu Kurihara was more confident and expansive on Saturday, just one week on from her Aurora in Bristol that I also saw.  Her portrayal was more interactive with the 4 princes and she covered the larger stage easily.  I look forward to seeing her develop further.  
 

She and Lachlan Monaghan had a super chemistry together also.  Lovely end to the run.  

Lovely performance from Celine Gittens and Yasiel Hodellin Bello last night.  She’s a classy and clearly very experienced ballerina. His Act 2 solo was all gorgeous lines, floating jumps, and soft landings.  Act 3 wasn’t as good. Though he makes any stage look small with his long legs on the jete manège! 
 

Carabosse and Lilac Fairy, Eilis Small and Tori Forsyth-Hecken, embodied their roles.  I still wish the Lilac Fairy’s costume was more lilac.  
 

Others to catch my eye ..

• Riku Ito as a fairy cavalier
• Beatrice Parma as a fairy and Bluebird princess
• Yu Kurihara was sparkling as the Fairy of Joy (elsewhere known as Lilac Fairy solo).  Her arabesques were held for ages.  I’m looking forward to seeing her again as Aurora tonight.
• Alisa Garkavenko as the Fairy of Song and in corps roles in all the other acts.  Wonderful poise and radiance. New joiner this season.  Trained in Kyiv, Vaganova and Princess Grace Academies

I posted on Instagram stories from Bristol shows and BRB replied thanking me. 
 

I suggest the problems at Sadler’s Wells are with unclear briefing of ushers.  

Not surprisingly

• Daniil Potaptsev, Bolshoi, won his section (young dancers).  
• Maria Iliushkina and Even Capitaine, Mariinsky, worn the senior couples
• Kamila Ismagilova, Stanislavsky, won Senior female soloist
• Kubanych Shamakeev, Chelyabinsk, won Senior male soloist
• Nikita Ksenofontov, Novosibirsk principal (not competing), special award for acting/artistry

All the videos including the gala finale here:

https://smotrim.ru/brand/70604

Daniil’s final solo (contemporary).

2 hours ago, Silver Capricorn said:

Vadim pointed out to me that the organizer of the Gala does not have permission from the individual performers to live stream, so he does not believe that the live stream can take place.  So we'll see.

thank you for this alert.  
 

I wonder who would withhold their permission 🤔.  Or is it a case of being paid extra?  
 

Other galas with these participants have been recorded by the organisers and uploaded to YouTube afterwards. 
 

Rehearsal clips

https://www.instagram.com/stories/jameskpett/3354036269849175909?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTg0Ynd2YjRrcXUwag==

Hardly comparable!

It’s a great poster and idea for BRB and Black Sabbath to collaborate.  I found the actual ballets (there are 3 separate acts) … to be fun but trite.  Think ‘high school musical’.  

Search “Creole Giselle” or “Dance Theatre of Harlem” Giselle on YouTube for clips of legendary Virginia Johnson in that version.  

I’ve also seen only short pieces … at the Icons gala and atprevious Ballet Night’s galas.  
 

Each one has impressed me with their emotional intensity, musicality and the arc of the choreography.  No idea how just two dancers will sustain this in an hour long programme. 
 

I am looking forward to it too.  
 

@Sebastian thank you for mentioning the tempi.   I completely forgot to and I was rather shocked at the time by the pace of the music.  I hadn’t known it was intentional.  It caused me some anxiety on behalf that the dancers.
 

I did notice the conductor was paying close attention to all the soloists.  
 

Bravo to the dancers for dancing at this speed.  👏👏👏

News that a gala in Belgrade Serbia will be livestreamed on YouTube 

SATURDAY 27.4.2024

19.00 Belgrade, Serbia

UTC+2

18.00 BST / UK

https://www.youtube.com/live/0YNhN5D48I4?si=_CLfghXgYikJNnX3
 

Impressive participants and programme:

Fumi Kaneko & Vadim Muntagirov

(Royal Ballet)

BLACK SWAN

COPPELIA

Anna Tsygankova & Giorgi Potskhishvili

(Dutch National Ballet)

TANGO by Xin Peng Wang

DON QUIXOTE

Shiori Kase & Gabriele Frola

(English National Ballet)

CORSAIRE

NO MAN’S LAND by Liam Scarlett

Nao Harada & Guilio Diligente

(Finnish National Ballet)

TALISMAN

AYE solo for male dancer by Emrecan Tanis 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6ItXCtIxbi/?igsh=aHVtcjZ5ZHN4dGpk

Arranged by Petar Dorcevski, former first soloist and assistant artistic director with Slovenia National Ballet in Ljubljana.  Trained in Belgrade, Princess Grace in Monaco, and Vienna State Schools. 

Diamonds pdd with Jakob Feyferlik at Artwave gala in Taipei in May.  
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C58Yn3ICsL-/?igsh=M25nczMyNW9qb2xi

2 hours ago, Birdy said:

Someone posted short clips of the performances on Instagram. I decided to follow the poster so I could see clips of my DD. The poster then inexplicably blocked me from seeing their profile or posts. I have a private Instagram and didn’t repost anything they had posted. The irony of being blocked from viewing photos of my own child by someone who was illegally recording the performance is not lost on me.

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

1 hour ago, Sim said:

Marcelino Sambe is not long legged and he is playing the prince.  Joon-Hyuk Jun, playing Benno, is tall and long legged. Ditto Teo Dubreuil. 

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.  

6 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Did your friend offer more detail - on the face of the comment I would judge it as damning of the overall standard of the dancing or at least characterisation rather than staging but maybe I misunderstand?  

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

On 21/04/2024 at 15:57, RobR said:

I preface my remarks by making it clear that I have no particular connection to any of the dancers referred to in this this post, apart from having watched most of them dance and develop over the last twenty or so years.

 

I accept that this forum has members who have great experience and expertise in all aspects of ballet whether as watchers or with professional experience.

 

That said, I am concerned about this post. The poster may not have enjoyed this performance but I don’t understand what is meant by 'the cygnets danced in sync but felt heavy'. That seems to be critical but unclear. The poster may not have enjoyed it but without any information about the poster's critical experience or expertise I just don’t understand it.

 

 I am, however, more concerned by 'the two swans were a disaster'. This is criticism without clarity and worse, it comes across as a personal slight. Again we are given no clue as to why they 'were a disaster'. No explanation, just personal criticism.

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. 

17 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Magri's tumble in DQ last Autumn was edited out of the Encore screening let alone subsequent streaming/DVD.  I was impressed that they must have got a new version out within 48 hours!  

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