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13 hours ago, Candleque said:

It felt privileged to attended the rehearsal and I can't wait until next week so we can talk about the show.

I had never seen Ashton’s Cinderella before, so had no (choreographic) expectations. Have to say it felt liberating as an audience member not to be waiting for the iconic fouettés or famous fish dives that symbolise other well-known classical ballets. So I could just watch and enjoy.

My main shareable take-away thought atm — which may belong in the ROH Marketing thread and frankly did not occur to me until I actually saw the show — is a genuine befuddlement programming-wise as to why would the Royal Ballet choose to do Cinderella in the same season as Sleeping Beauty? A beautiful damsel in distress is rescued by a prince. Lilac Fairy Godmother and gorgeous side Fairies giving gifts. Déjà vu all over again. Maybe that's why the ROH poster looks more like Aurora 😄

 

my thoughts about Cinderella are these:

Cinderella does not want to go to the ball so she can meet the prince and marry him, she just wants one night for herself, where she is not abused by her family. Meeting the prince and they falling in love is something that happens but she’s not too hopeful about it ( given her circumstances). When she is back at home and prevented from coming forward as the girl the prince is looking for, she fights to free herself and try the glass sleeper because she is tired of the life of servitude and literal abuse she was forced upon by her step mom and sisters. The Prince does his part but Cinderella is part of the reason they meet again at the end. 

Now, I don’t know how that comes across in the Ashton ballet and to me if the narrative is one similar to the one above it should be different enough from SB and Aurora.
 

I never thought of those 2 characters as being similar before anyway.

On 11/01/2023 at 11:01, Dawnstar said:

 

I'd love that but suspect it's not that likely as they rarely seem to get cast together. If I had to place a bet I'd bet on Hirano, given he's just been partnering her in Nutcracker. Though I'll be disappointed if it is because I'm planning to see him with Lamb in May & given I'm only seeing 3 SB casts this year I'd rather not have the same Prince for 2 of the 3. Oh well, at the moment Clarke's still down for 19th & Nutcracker on 14th so fingers crossed...

As for a possible Magri and Ball casting I don’t think the problem is that they don’t get casted very often but that they would have a short time to prepare given he’s in Tokyo right now. It would be lovely though and they have done guests together which bodes well for her and their director to fell secure in casting him. I believe he also replaced Hay for O’Sullivans debut very last minute, right? 
 

I wouldn’t be mad if they go with Hirano, plus I liked those 2 in The Nutcracker.

My hopes though are that Clarke is good to go by the 19th and no more change needs to be made.

On 04/01/2023 at 13:08, Sim said:

So Clarke will be dancing with Mayara?  Bit of height discrepancy there.  Much as I love both of these dancers, I bought a ticket for the 19th specifically to see Cesar in the role.  Very disappointing, but I hope he's ok. 

 

We have actually seen footage of those 2 dancing together so I think they will be just fine. And given that he is a solid partner should be great for Mayara’s debut in the role.

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I'm very interested to see how they will go together in Swan Lake. I remember when I saw their debut in Coppelia thinking that in the grand pas they were excellent in their solos but some of the partnering looked like a bit of a work in progress so it'll be interesting to see what the Swan Lake partnering will be like, with a couple more years of experience for both. (I was musing on this after seeing Magri's Sugar Plum Fairy debut last month when the very experienced Hirano partnered her beautifully.)

Me too Dawn.

I like Corrales but I think his partnering skills still needs to be more developed. And since the Royal has amazing first soloists partnering principals, it's fair of us to expect a bit more from him. He's still young, so I hope we see that skill getting more refined as the years go. 

Can I post a small clip (1:00 minute) of the performance that I found on instagram here?

29 minutes ago, Sim said:

As long as the information is in the public domain, yes.  

Oh it’s public domain but it’s in portuguese. 

25 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

The Prix website says the choices of this year's winners will be published in a month - have some already said something? 

One has. She said it on a public social media so anyone can know but it’s in portuguese. I actually really love her choice because though all former dancers from this school have gone to The Royal Ballet School, she ended up choosing something kind of unexpected - since her school’s history with the Prix always made it seem like RBS was the place she’d go.
 

Given the support she received to go to her choice of school and also her personal liking to the school and company, I think she’ll have a incredible future ahead of her there.

When all the info is made available by the prix oficial channels, I’ll be sure to comeback here say more things in detail and other tidbits about the competition ( from her point of view) that I though were very interesting and insightful.

Can we share or talk about any of the dancers choice for schools in here?

14 hours ago, capybara said:

The SPF solo makes very different demands on a ballerina’s body to those for Giselle.

Very sad for Akane, especially as the cinema broadcast is involved, but nice for Yasmine to have two ‘streamings’ in a row.

Has it been confirmed she is going to be on the Nutcracker stream? 

4 hours ago, Rob S said:

Talking of Aud Jebsen dancers I need your assistance….who is the dancer that isn’t Mica? 
 

 

could she be a student? Because I don’t believe she is one of the Aud Jebsen dancers.

6 hours ago, maryrosesatonapin said:

She danced it well at the Ukranian gala last night.  I think she will be more comfortable with Bracewell as partner!

I think they also had more rehearsal time together ( 2 weeks I believe) while she had maybe 3 days for the Ukrainian Gala. 

Mayara Magri and William Bracewell will be dancing Victor Gsovsky’s Grand Pas Classique. And from the snippets I’ve seen on Instagram it looks incredible.

Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball will be dancing Concerto ( 2nd mov.) 

8 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Also Tatiana in the Dream. Is there anything in Shakespeare that means she always has to be a strawberry blond, especially as many of the dancers have dark hair? It looks very strange.

My thoughts exactly! I wish they adapted certain styles/hair colors more often.

I could be wrong but does this program actually impacts the RB repertoire? I know a few pieces from previous holders of the position were presented on mixed programs but it seems more like what this program does it to help choreographers understand, develop and work inside a huge company like RB. 
 

I do agree with the general sentiment that maybe they could’ve appointed someone with ballet background or even someone more focused on exploring and developing within the grounds of classical ballet. 
 

22 hours ago, FionaE said:

Joy Womack had been public in the past about the ‘pay to promote’ culture in Russia.  

Joy has certainly talked about it but more in the sense “that’s the reason I wasn’t the star I thought I would be in Russian soil” which ends up tainting her arguments to be honest. 

After reading the Guardian review I really wish Woman with Water was part of the streaming, but as I was informed by Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød it won’t due to rights to the piece. 

Leticia Dias let it slip a rehearsal for a ballet that I don’t recall being announced for the 2021/2022 season (There is actually 2 casts for it) . Would they announce something else for the season still or could this be for a gala?? Any idea? 
 

I didn’t put the name of the ballet because I think this might infringe on the forum’s guidelines.

I’ve been wondering if there is a reason behind Cinderella not being performed in so many years by the company. And if they were to do it again I imagine it would be very much like Coppelia was, a brand new ballet for the majority of the dancers.

On 23/03/2021 at 12:06, Beryl H said:

I'm most pleased with The Dante Project, Giselle, and Water For Chocolate (never heard of it until today but what I've just read sounds promising and perfect for Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales!  

I believe Hayward will be performing opposite Sambe on Water for Chocolate, though there could be a casting with them too I suppose.

I’m going to be watching the stream for this programme later and reading the replies in this post got me thinking about the performance a lot. 
 

I may have to get back to this after watching it, but from everything that has been announced for the 2021/2022 season it seems like the company didn’t want to rush the company into classics straight away in a effort to let the dancers gradually go back to their top physical form before the pandemic ( also avoiding unnecessary injuries). That’s not to say that what they are delivering now isn’t physically demanding but I’m sure the body can only take so much and be pushed to a certain limit. Given how they generally rehearse things in parallel the current programme may be a option that it’s better to start and warm up everyone for whats to come.

I’ll probably be back to give my impressions later this weekend of the performance 🎭.

What a great interview! 
 

I think what stuck to me the most during it was a sense o true partnership between Matthew and Mayara, they are very in tune with each other. Indeed a lovely couple ! It’s interesting how they pointed out that it was during lockdown that they really got to develop this exciting new stage partnership too (for the Royal Ballet and personal projects) .

Having seen them dancing together twice during the ROH online streams, I truly hope they are more often cast together now that life is slowly getting back to a certain normal at the Royal Ballet. They showed such incredible chemistry in the two pieces shown, “Within the Golden Hour” (they’re  still have my favourite interpretation of that pdd) and “Carrousel”, that made me wish we had more of them on the streams overall.
 

Given the many opportunities for debuts next season where Magri will be a Principal with the company, I expect a few of them to hopefully be shared with Ball, maybe R&J or Giselle. 

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I don't know which roles she's said she would like to perform but I can think of a couple that I wish I could lobby for her to be cast in!

She has spoken about specific roles a lot on her interviews in portuguese especially recent ones. I do wish I could translate them but the dancersdiary interview is a good alternative for people that wants to hear more about her story.

7 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

 

Polunin was 20, Cojocaru was 20, Nunez was 20 (or there about) - all are undoubted stars. Polunin has gone off the rails a bit yes. Cojocaru was frankly underused in the RB recognised as one of the best dancers yet not a single full length creation by the RB on her. Nunez thankfully is still glorious at the RB (although no full length creation either I don't think). Who are the precocious talents coming through? May Magri is 26/27 and has yet to conquer the major roles. Hayward is probably the closest recent promotion and hopefully she will keep on developing. 

To me Fumi’s best season was her last one and I believe she was 29 then. In my opinion Mayara was supposed to have hers, kicking off with Swan Lake, when the pandemic happened. I have talked about this elsewhere but I think ballet has a serious problem with profiling that keeps certain dancers performing certain roles and not others. Gonna give as an example Morera and how long it took for her to dance Giselle. Other dancers I think this has happened to are Magri and Calvert ( Heap too to a certain extent ). I hope my point about “profiling” is understood as english is not my first language.

I also hope that with the promotion Magri can now lobby for roles that I know from interviews that she wishes to be given the chance to perform.  

 

I’M SOOOO HAPPY FOR MAYARA! 

BUT also Fumi and Anna, all 3 were my bets to be promoted together actually and it happened! 
 

I’m surprised for Corrales not gonna lie. I did expect to see as principal eventually but didn’t know when. I’m happy for him though! 
 

For those sad, I think Clarke and Bracewell will be promoted as well but they didn’t want to have six dancers promoted to principals at once. That’s my guess. 
 

I feel for Hay because I love all his performances I’ve seen. I remember watching him in Mayerling and just thinking how wonderful he is. 
 

Grace, Richardson, Sissens and Dias are not surprised in my mind at all and I’m very happy for them.

In all, I wanna congratulate everyone that was promoted!

30 minutes ago, Ian Macmillan said:

With a bit of thinking time now past, a very considered piece by Dr Laura Cappelle:

 

https://www.dancemagazine.com/liam-scarlett-cancel-culture-2652839315.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4

 

 

Good article. 
 

I feel like I can’t  properly put into words my sentiments about Liam’s passing. 

I certainly extend my condolences to his family and friends. The loss of any friend and/or relative is always something incredibly tough to deal with, especially someone as young as Liam.
 

About the article, I’m gonna be brief. The mindset that cancel culture is responsible for what happened is to honestly disregard the fact that a investigation happened. And people spoke up. But also the many other variables that leads someone to a situation like the one that happened. I know this from experience in my own family.
 

Thats about as far as I’m going to be talking about this subject here on the forum.