San Perregrino

The Judas Tree as I’m keen to watch things that I haven’t yet seen.

I had to faff around a lot with the calendar. I couldn’t find a simple list. @Bruce Wall can you help? Thanks

Link still not working. I think it’s possibly got something to do with booking not opening tomorrow and/or there being a queuing system in operation.

Royal Danish Ballet 2024/2025 season includes: Giant Steps: Balanchine Evening: Serenade, The Four Tempéraments, Symphony in C. The Princess & The Pea Bournonville’s (Englund and Hübbe) A Folk Tale Blood Wedding (new work by Eukene Sagues) Balanchine’s Nutcracker Wheeldon’s Sleeping Beauty Hübbe’s Don Quixote The Great Gatsby (new work by Arthur Pita)

i don’t think the prices are expensive for central London in mid-December. They range from £20 for rear stalls up to £72 for front stalls depending on the performance with the weekend being slightly higher. The price range for Richmond in late November and Woking in January is broadly similar. Richmond also has premium seats inc drinks & nibbles at £105. For comparison stalls seats for: A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic range from £25 - £180 and for: ENB Nutcracker at the Coliseum range from £85-£115 (child reduction is available)

I’m always surprised with events that present/showcase students that parents dont automatically receive a pair of tickets or at least ‘first refusal’ to buy some ahead of the general public. Were it a ‘grown up’ evening sponsored by ‘X,Y & Z S.A.or Ltd’ I’m sure these sponsors would have received an allocation. In this instance I’d suggest parents are the equivalent of the sponsor.

It wouldn’t surprise me if R&J was programmed along the same lines as Swan Lake this season i.e. spaced out from March until June with things inbetween, say another full length like Onegin and, in my dreams, there’d be a Triple that included my favourite ‘Symphony in C’. Separating Alice from Cinderella with Maddaddam would certainly help even out the ‘sweetness’ quotient of the first two thereby potentially attracting a different demographic. The scheduling of Maddaddam and Onegin could easily be reversed too. Is Like Water For Chocolate due for a revival?

As I said he’s got a lot to do once out of the starting gate. Partnering is dancing surely as it’s integral to the choreography? Another random thought is, in an era where obviously great store is given to chaperoning princesses and young women, why is Odile allowed to disappear alone with Siegfried running off after her and what could the pair of them possibly be doing together out of sight of their elders?

It randomly crossed my mind last time I watched SL what would the reaction be if, rather than saying no to dancing with his sisters, Siegfried decided that a bit of a dance might be just what he needed to dispel his melancholy tendencies…? though perhaps then he wouldn’t need to slip off to the woods and the lake which would make it a shorter ballet as he wouldn’t see the swans. Personally I’d keep the Benno dancing because it means better opportunities for more male dancers. Siegfried does have a lot to do once he’s out of the starting gate. As far as costumes go, I’d get rid of all black tights and shoes. A lot of the choreography especially in Act 3 is lost to view because black blends in to the richness of the Palace background rather than standing out. What’s the point of making all that effort for the audience not to be able to the skill involved?

A bit hard to do if you’ve been knocked unconscious. This Siegfried has shown us in previous scenes that he’s under his mother’s thumb and somewhat afraid of Von Rothbart at court. So having him taken out the action with a single blow sort of makes sense.

That would be the obvious man triumphs over monster macho fight, the St George slays the dragon etc Much more subtle is the girl power of the massed swans rising up in revenge for Odile’s death. Perhaps Liam Scarlett foresaw that times were changing and so gave us this seemingly unconventional ending.

Equally baffling is that it looks like Hansel & Gretel is being revived.

Is it Taisuke Nakao’s debut as Benno? Good to see Liam Boswell & Madison Bailey will dance Neopolitan too. (First time this run I think?)

I dont know the answer to your question as such. Here’s a few musings: Perhaps the balcony being closed off on opening night would give a negative impression and the producers have decided that there are enough less affluent ballet fans to buy up the tickets so I’ve put the balcony on sale. Perhaps those lucky to have balcony seats are a ‘reserve pool’ on hand to be ‘upgraded’ on the night to fill any empty seats lower down to give the ‘full house on opening night feeling’. Making cheap seats available at the start of the run can help with promoting the show to the widest audience through social media and word of mouth. And/or whetting the appetite to encourage people to come again and buy a more expensive seat. Again group bookings may have taken up the first two dates that you mention, either at a discounted rate or maybe they have been invited by the producers. Again the combined power of young fingers and social media can be a huge promotional asset if harnessed correctly. In the case of BRB Sleeping Beauty at the Mayflower in Southampton earlier this year, once all seats in the stalls and dress circle had sold for a date, the gallery was then put on sale. This might happen with the balcony at the Coliseum.

And one can’t help but wonder if a RB dancer will be a guest casting like Matthew Ball was to great effect in the 2018/2019 run at Sadlers Wells. (I can’t believe it was that long ago!).

it was August 2nd in 2023.

in this context it was my phrase, I didn't pick it up from any earlier postings. possible, but I find it unlikely given the logistics of organising something like this can be years in advance. the " hey, (our ticket sales are very low so) let's stay an extra week as some people who might buy a ticket are on holiday" premise seems farfetched to me at least.

yes: "The Red Shoes is a ballet choreographed by Matthew Bourne using the music of Bernard Herrmann. It is based broadly on the 1948 film The Red Shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The set and costume designs are by Lez Brotherston." and though not a ballet, as part of its 2024/2025 season the RSC is presenting: "The Red Shoes Kimberley Rampersad directs a magical new staging of the classic fairy tale The Red Shoes for families, adapted by Nancy Harris with music by Marc Teitler."

including Joseph Taylor from Northern Ballet. I wonder if this will be during the summer break for Northern as dates for the LCB tour are: Bath Theatre Royal (July 17-20) Cambridge Arts Theatre (July 23-25) Latitude Festival (July 27) Cheltenham Everyman (August 2-3) Windsor Theatre Royal (August 9-10) Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and five further cities in China to be announced (August 16 - September 1) York Theatre Royal (Sept 6-7) Sadlers Wells London (Sept 11-14)

I suspect this extension was already lined up at the original planning stage and is more of a marketing tool. it can't be claimed as 'due to demand' as there are plenty of seats left for the original dates.

Also, and I have no data to back this up, but it would seem that dancers careers are going on for longer now due to better support, care, physio & nutrition etc which creates a 'glass ceiling' for more junior ROH dancers to expand their repertoires and slows down the possibilities for promotion.

ahahah IMHO, I think that is an alien concept among that particular demographic so self-obsessed be they in starring in the movie of their life.

Current bugbear is people who are so intent on posting to the virtual world of social media at the end of a performance that they block the stairways and corridors because they are not looking where they are going, are totally unaware of their real time environment and the negative health and safety impact of their behaviour on those around them. As my grandmother used to say “An accident waiting to happen!”

I clicked on the link and got “Feel the heat from “The best seats in the House” …. It doesn’t specifically mention Stalls seats? Or at least not the ad that popped up for me. (No discounts either). Previous discussion on the forum concluded that the best seat could be anywhere depending on the production and personal preference (and budget). edited to add: my apologies it’s there right at the top of the ad “BOOK YOUR STALLS TICKETS NOW”, I didn’t even see it! Haha oops

It’s worth flagging up here that people, including dancers, may have more than one social media identity, account or profile, that they may have one or more personal ones and /or one or more business profiles. Not all profiles are public. In addition, there is no way of knowing if the posts are by the individual or if they have been ‘sub-contracted’ to a partner, friend, third party or organisation including specialist image and social media consultants. As such I wouldn’t claim to know nor be able to judge a person by what is or isn’t posted on their social media.