Tango Dancer

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.    

7 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

I’m on the fence re Matthew Bourne. I certainly found I enjoyed his shows a lot more once I stopped thinking of them as ballets, rather as shows.

Yes I think the same.  I liked his Swan Lake as it had some innovative ideas, I'm less keen on some of his other works as they don't do much for me.  I wasn't massively keen on his Romeo and Juliet when I first saw it before Covid but I saw it again last year (at a loose end in London one evening) and thought it was better than I remembered. 

As long as you're not expecting traditional ballet they can be quite fun to watch.  I think I'd agree they're not something I 'd see more than once.  I don't think I wouldn't make an effort to see them over other things but they're sometimes quite a pleasant way to spend time. 

1 minute ago, Emeralds said:

I think that sounds like a better experience than some ROH experiences I've had, Tango Dancer! That means there were more staff to serve you  than there were customers to serve 😄 .....luxurious! 

I was quite amused that one of the staff came in during the second interval to check I was ok and whether I needed any refreshments.  I have a suspicion she wanted to see if I was still there or whether they could close early.  But she was ever so sweet.  

39 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I'm rather surprised to see the company is coming to my local theatre, as it's uncommon for ballet companies to do so. Now I don't know whether to see the programme there, which will be cheaper, or to go to Sadler's Wells, which will cost more but has the inducements of a much larger stage & added Cojocaru.

I'm going to the local theatre (York) because (given a choice) I like to support local theatres and give them the benefit of my ticket prices because a lot of them are struggling.  So I will definitely be booking there rather than Sadlers Wells.  Also it means I don't have to pay for trains, hotels etc. 

I'm really glad they're going to some of the smaller less well known theatres, it's good for people to see these ballets in places they might not otherwise catch them.  

Well just back from the cinema where I had a lovely private showing because I was the only person in the cinema tonight.  Shame it wasn't better attended.  I didn't get a cinema cast sheet because they hadn't got them.  

So I'm going by the cast on the website.  Also I am terrible at working out who is who as I'm rubbish at remembering faces.  Especially if it's not clear what part they take or their character doesn't have a name.  So apologies for not being able to credit everyone I liked by name. 

So I enjoyed Dances Concertante very much.  I wasn't massively keen on the costumes and those hats were a bit weird but I thought it was a lot of fun.   Chap in yellow and chap in green both stood out for me for their excellent footwork and technique.  Isabelle Gasparini was exquisite in the lead - she has such lovely lines.  

I didn't like Different Drummer - dull, depressing and really too long and Schoenberg doesn't do much for me.  Francesca Hayward is a lovely luminous dancer with beautiful expressive technique and gorgeous arms.  I felt she had slightly more chemistry with the drum major than with Woyzeck myself.  Francisco Serrano also was really charismatic and attractive as the drum major and some lovely jumps - he's going places I think.  Marci as always showed such depth of feeling and definitely evoked a lot of sympathy so I felt he was really throwing himself into it - he's such a great dramatic dancer.  I just wish I'd found the piece more engaging. 

Requiem was rather lovely.  Sarah Lamb was absolutely excellent, such a lovely clear and controlled dancer, every gesture fitting where it should and really mattering.  William Bracewell was lovely and moved beautifully and had such expressiveness with every movement.  The taller chap she danced with was also very impressive and seemed to be so focused on embodying the movement (nice cheekbones too I noted).   I also thought Melissa Hamilton was dancing with exceptional musicality and loved Joseph Sissens in the Libera Me.  I think the quality of the singing also really transformed it and the young baritone soloist particularly impressed me, such a lovely tone and good diction.  

So overall a good evening, one fun, one moving and one that was bearable but dull.  I'm really glad I went.  

So happy they're coming to York.  The Theatre Royal is a lovely venue.  

Also glad about Joseph Taylor, he's a really impressive dancer in my view.