Tango Dancer

Glad it's Francesca and Will for the cinema relay.  I agree with @jmhopton it's not worth an overnight stay in London for me.  I'll see it in the cinema locally and enjoy it just as much.  

Also sad at the lack of Vadim in the casting.  I hope he's doing something somewhere else that I can get to see.  

7 hours ago, Colman said:

Just to note: some people can do recorded classes, some can’t: my wife will happily do a recorded zoom class, I will not. Just doesn’t work for me at all, no idea why: I need the live person on the other end.

 

Best to know which type you are.

Me too.  I need someone on the end of the class telling me what to do or I lose focus.  

I currently only do a short online class with my tango instructor on a Saturday morning.  But i'm planning to check our Hannah Frost's class in the summer when my in person classes stop. 

If you're free in the daytime Bennet Gartside's Everybody Ballet school has online classes during the day on Mondays and Thursdays with Leire Ortueta.  I do them when I'm on holiday but can't while working.  Leire is a very good teacher who gives really good feedback.  

Laetitia Lo Sardo also does a really good repertoire class but again it's during the day in the week so I can't do it on a weekday.  

14 minutes ago, Farawaydancer said:

I agree, I thought it was lovely too. I went primarily to watch my son perform but thoroughly enjoyed the whole programme, especially the final piece and the piece for Kevin and Ruben. Some beautiful dancers at Northern at the moment. 

I agree there are some really talented dancers there.

I thought they were all amazing tonight. I hope your son was very pleased with himself.

I'm just back from the Sketches programme at Northern Ballet which is running tonight and tomorrow at NB HQ in Leeds. 

I thought it was a lovely programme of choreography by different choreographers from the company and elsewhere.  There were 7 different choreographers including one of the stage managers.  I thought it was a great evening.  Naturally some of it worked better for me than other pieces.  

High points included a lovely piece by Heather Lehan which was inspired by Hollywood musicals and reminded me of "Singing in the Rain" I thought it was really interesting and lively.  Heather performed in one of the earlier pieces and she was a delight to watch, such lovely extensions.   

Aaron Kok also did a lovely piece for 4 dancers set to 2 different pieces by Astor Piazzolla which I really liked.  Aerys Merrill shone in this as she always does.  

George Liang composed a lovely pas de deux for Kevin Poeung (I think)  and one of the dancers from the Ability network (who was amazing but I didn't catch his name).  It worked incredibly well and the two dancers had great chemistry.    

The only piece I wasn't madly keen on was the first one by Carlos Pons Guerra which was a take on Ovid's Metamorphoses because it didn't hang together for me and the music didn't quite suit the mood he was trying to set.    

All the dancers were really talented and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I don't know if there are tickets for tomorrow but I'd fully recommend it if you can get.  It's brilliant seeing so much talent and innovation by the young choreographers.  

Very funny @RobR.  Having had a fairly stressful day at work you cheered me up no end with the idea of dueling dancers.  😀

I suggest we don't share the idea of dueling over choreography with Akram Khan given the views expressed on the board (by me and others) on Creature.  I don't want him coming after the board with one of those poles the Wilis dancers used in Giselle and challenging us to a deathmatch.  

23 minutes ago, OnePigeon said:

Music and dance are intrinsically linked for me: you need to breathe the music in and dance it out, to slightly misquote Edward Watson.  If there’s nothing to really dance out then you’re missing the vital component of the art form and that’s why so many of us can’t find an emotional connection to this work. There’s a blandness and  a slightly shallow feeling to it, for me, so that I can’t get to the depths of the emotion and be transported on the journey and the emotional turmoil of the characters in the way that Manon, R&J or Onegin, to name a few, plunge you into their world and mesmerise you. 

 

This so much.  If the music doesn't add to the emotion and connect to the dance then you might as well be dancing to muzak.  For me, music is a key component of the ballet.  I agree none of Talbot's music add anything to the way the ballet feels.  I mean they're a not unpleasant background music but they don't do anything to inspire depth of feeling in me.   

I know what your quote means,  my ballet teacher tries quite hard to get us to feel the music and respond to it rather than just doing the step.

4 hours ago, LinMM said:

For me I don’t think it’s so much his choreography as the music he chooses. I would love him to choose a different composer to Joby Talbot whose music I find very bland not unpleasant but just unmemorable! 
It probably just about works for Alice but for me not for The Winters Tale which needs a bit more bite and not that appropriate for Like Water Like Chocolate in my view. 

I think for me it's definitely the music.  It's just not inspiring.  When I think of my favourite ballets regardless of era the music inspires me and goes with the dance (Giselle, Coppelia, Requiem etc).  It doesn't have to be classical music (I mean the Nina Simone music for Mthuthuzeli November's Nina for Ballet Black is electrifying) but it needs to move me somehow. 

I'd have liked LWFC a lot better with more inspiring music.  I quite like his choreography and subjects but the music is just so bland and uninspiring.  

6 hours ago, Sim said:

Yes, and he seems to love dancing tap as much as he does ballet.

 

Donald Thom was also brilliant in the role.  

He's a joy and seems to really enjoy it.  He was the best thing about the terrible film of Cats and it was worth fastforwarding through large parts of the rest of the film just to watch him dance.  I just love his tap skills as Skimbleshanks.  I could watch him do that for ages.  

So if he's in Alice on the day they do the cinema relay I will definitely get a ticket.  

14 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Did they think that somehow the empty seats were actually better than your seat?  So didn’t understand why you weren’t keen to move.  Otherwise they had no good reason to ask you to move to a worse seat if even only a slightly worse seat!! 
 

Yes.  Also sometimes people have different views on what is a better seat.  I always like an aisle seat and will sometimes book an objectively worse seat if it gives me an aisle where I want one and am not inclined to move from a seat I've carefully selected.  

I think you have no obligation to move from your seat and they should have moved if they wanted.  

3 hours ago, JNC said:

 

This is bad audience behaviour and incredibly rude. It's ok to not like something and share an opinion (if asked or once someone has experienced in their own terms) but I wouldn't say anything in the performance itself as we are all different and I wouldn't want to spoil others' enjoyment. Imagine if you were wearing a bright red dress you loved and someone said to you 'oh I hate red, no one suits it'...it's cruel and unnecessary.

 

If she was so annoyed about Cojocaru not dancing why did she still attend? Sounds like it would have been better for her to return her ticket so someone more appreciative could have gone! 

 

This so much.  I've booked for things before now to see a particular person and then not had them, that's just how it goes.  It's not the fault of the substitute and they need as much support as possible.  I mean sometimes you can be surprised by how good they are and enjoy what they bring if it's someone you're not regularly seeing.

7 hours ago, JNC said:

 

It feels a double insult to not have a Balanchine matinee and it's not being 'compromised' by having a live cinema stream either. We also didn't get the Ashton triple from 2022 streamed, nor the one this year. I'll try not to take it too personally (I am half-joking...!) 

 

I can understand why they have chosen to stream Alice, Cinderella, R&J as those are the 'well known' names. But the Wheeldon mixed bill is an interesting choice, particularly over Maddaddam. 

 

Despite the fact I won't see it in person, I would have been interested to see Maddaddam in cinemas as it's something that I would give a go if I lived in London (price dependant) but it's not worth the expense of additional travel for me now. I imagine if Onegin was advertised well it could be a draw in cinemas too.

 

Yes, I'm disappointed by the fact there are only 4 streams and one of them is the Wheeldon.  I'd much rather have Ashton, Onegin or Balanchine.  I mean I'll probably watch the Alice and Cinderella livestreams and (depending on cast) the Romeo and Juliet one but it's a bit annoying that there aren't more.  There's not much I'd go to London for though.  

Nothing that massively excites me this time, I mean I'll probably do the cinema relay for Cinderella and may venture to London for Onegin depending on who is performing.  If they do a cinema relay for Balanchine I might also go.  

Otherwise it's a bit bland for me.  

27 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Reading the reviews in today's Links, I'm baffled by these sentences in the Seen and Heard review.

 

 

I thought one of the four Princes was played as a bit arrogant & self-important but I liked that there was an attempt to provide some character & differentiation between the Princes, as often none of them show any character whatsoever. Is a male character being a bit full of himself really considered "toxic masculinity" nowadays?! Also, when does Aurora reject any of her suitors? I thought she succumbed to sleep before she had time to make any choice among the Princes. I feel like I was watching a different production to this reviewer.

Yes, I always read it that she was enjoying being 16 years old and at a party and being courted by these princes and wasn't really sure which if any of them she wanted, but was enjoying getting to know them.  It's never felt to me like she made any decisions about them.  

20 minutes ago, Josette said:

 A number of years ago, I was at a performance of Turandot.  When it came time for Nessun Dorma, which the entire audience was waiting to hear, the woman sitting directly behind me started humming along (and off key, though that is beside the point).  I turned around, looked at her, and, genuinely begging, said, "Pleeeease."  She was surprised and stopped,  but it was too late, the spell of the aria had been broken by her contribution. 

I hate it when people sing along to opera.  I mean I don't go to these things for audience participation.  It's not the Rocky Horror Show with a call and response script.  I had someone singing along to La donna e mobile when I went to see Rigoletto the other year and my regret was they were too far away to work out who it was and shut them up.  

I mean I went to a Lieder recital last week and I was singing one of the songs very badly on the walk home, but I waited until I was walking back so I only annoyed the people in the street.  

1 hour ago, OnePigeon said:

A bit like the awful My Fair Lady revival at the Coliseum a few years back where Eliza rejects Higgins and walks off on her own.  I know she doesn’t end up with Higgins in Pygmalion, but this wasn’t Pygmalion and I left feeling so deflated - and I say this as someone who much prefers Freddie to Higgins, largely because of the gorgeous Jeremy Brett and because if anyone sang On the Street Where you Live about me I would fall at their feet 🤣.

Jeremy Brett was gorgeous in his youth - so handsome.  

I'd agree she doesn't walk off on her own.  I'm not sure she ends up with Higgins.  I always took My Fair Lady as being a bit ambiguous.  She might stay and she might not.  She might marry Higgins or Freddie or she might get Higgins to support her setting up a flower shop, meet someone else and marry them or even marry Pickering.  The thing I like about the film ending is that she doesn't fall into anyone's arms, but she might.  I like that they make up as friends at the end, even if I don't buy them as a couple.  

@Silke H I love your photo of Rothbart.  He looks so creepy and effective in it.  You forget when you see it at a distance quite how scary he looks.  That's a great shot! 

I can't comment on the ballet side of it but the Hague is a lovely city that I've visited a lot for work but also for city breaks. It's beautiful, spacious and very green.  There's a good public transport system (trams and buses).  You can get a tram to Scheveningen and walk by the sea if you like.  There's a lot of culture and art there and several lovely parks to walk in.  I like the Mauritshus (art gallery) and the Escher exhibition.  The shops are good.

The Netherlands has really good public transport so you can get around fairly quickly.  Also the cliche of the cycling Dutch is true in many ways because you can get run over by bicycles easily.  

I think it's probably a safe place to live (insofar as anywhere is).  You can walk around at night without feeling worried.  

I like it much better than Amsterdam because it's a bit classier and doesn't have as many drunken Brits falling out of bars.  

1 hour ago, alison said:

"appropriate moments". That leaves a lot of leeway for interpretation, doesn't it? What happens when there's a difference in interpretation?

In my view no part of Les Illuminations is an appropriate moment for taking pictures or filming, especially when you have the pleasure of Ian Bostridge performing it.  

7 minutes ago, Blossom said:

David Bintley wise I would love to see Still Life at the Penguin Cafe danced by the Royal Ballet. I fulfilled a childhood wish seeing it with my daughter in 2017/18 when she was 10 or 11. I remember first seeing it in a ballet book when I was 8 or 9 along with Elite Syncopations. I don’t think either ever made it to Manchester where I grew up. I know the digital rights situation makes it a little difficult but would love the Bintley even if it only made ROH Stream.

I saw the BRB version of that in Brandon Lawrence's farewell performance last year.  It was lovely.  

56 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

 

if we are to have more new works can we please have Zucchetti. And/or commission Tyler Peck, Mthuthuzeli November, Arielle Smith, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa or David Dawson instead of more McGregor or Joseph Toonga. 
 

I think Tiler Peck is definitely really worth them getting something made, she's incredibly talented.  I'd love to see a mixed bill of female choreographers perhaps to tie in with International Women's Day, maybe new pieces from her, Kirsten McNally combined with something more traditional like something from Ninette de Valois to pay tribute to the founder.  

I'd also agree with having more Zuccheti, he's really talented.  I also liked Ben Ella's piece for Northern so think he has potential.  

7 minutes ago, Balletbloke said:

Well apart from Hirano's injury, there was some kind of ruckus in the upper seats during DD, and a few minutes later a gentleman next to me in the SCS fainted, which entailed a bit of scurrying about, with doors opening etc...whether or not the performers were aware of any of this, we'll have to wait and see!

What happened to Ryo?  Is he ok?  

4 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Sambe has been an absolute trooper.

Yes hasn't he!  He's so good to pick this up at short notice.  Woyzeck looks like a piece that's emotionally draining and really hard on the performer, to do that and Swan Lake back to back must be really tiring.  I hope he gets some time to rest after before he has to perform again.  It looks like he's not scheduled until Thursday so I hope he can relax.  

34 minutes ago, Sim said:

Or, you just might not have liked it simply because you didn't like it!  It's allowed!

Definitely things don't always work for us and we just don't like them. 

I agree it's not my favourite version of Act 4 either.  I like Siegfried to be more active.  

I'd suggest trying Bennet Gartside from RB.  His website is everybodyballet.com and he teaches a regular class at the ROH and probably does privates too.  I've never had a private with him but he's a really good teacher and I did his group classes in London while I lived there (and do when I go back) and he does a lovely class.  He gets RB dancers to cover sometimes and I've had classes taught as cover by Luca Acri (adorable, great class and so charming several of us wanted to keep him as a pet) Julia Roscoe (really sweet, very nervous and really good at breaking down turn sequences) and Isabelle Gasparini (lovely charming person but her sequences were a bit too long and complicated for me).  

Most of the RB dancers are fairly responsive to instagram messages so if there's someone you'd like to book, message and ask them if they teach and what they cost.  Not all of them teach (and not all of them teach well).  Vadim, Fumi, and Marianela all teach via Danceworks masterclasses so may be open to it but would be more expensive.  

14 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Yes, I arrived late, and also got back late after the first interval, so missed some of the talking, but thought some more explanation could have been given about the plot - such as it is - of Different Drummer, just to put it into context.  After all, you can't really expect your audience to have read the play - or even seen the opera - especially in this day and age.  Did I miss something?  Or does the company seem to be as reluctant to talk about it as it does in its printed programmes?

No they didn't give much information on the plot.  I think they should have done more talking about some of the detail of the story for Different Drummer and talked more about the different parts of the music for Faure because people may not understand the different parts or the meaning of the words. I know the Faure quite well but if you didn't they didn't say much about it.