Sophie_B

Linbury Theatre, 28 March 7:45pm, Row A, Seat 8, Stalls. £35

Let me know by Tuesday evening if anyone would like this, otherwise I will return it to the box office. (Please send me a DM if you would like it).
 

Ticket returned to box office

I got a regular Friends membership for the first time this past autumn (the final straw was being overseas for the opening of general booking. I didn't fancy waking up at 3am to do it). This is the second time I've booked as a Friend, and everything went smoothly. I waited 10 minutes today while I hardly had a wait time last time, but there were no bugs or being thrown out of the system, which had happened to me previously. 2x Winter's Tale, 2x Sarasota, 1x Swan Lake.

1x ticket for New York City Ballet at Sadler's Wells, Sunday March 10, 2pm for sale.

Bought with members' discount so it's £30.40. Second circle Row C Seat 7.

DM and / or comment here if you'd like it!

Thanks for this discussion! I've watched as much of the PdL as work allows for the last 5 years or so and I always thoroughly it. And learn a lot about ballet! Plus, as others have said, it's worth watching so you know who the Royal Ballet principals will be in 10 years' time  

Row A, seat 11/12, £35 each. Will return to box office tomorrow Thursday otherwise.

Oct 28 matinee 1pm, Magri/ Ball, Balcony standing C-64 for sale £14. 

Hi Fiona, 

Sorry - for some reason it didn't alert me to there being a reply here! If you still want the tickets, I have them - will also send you a DM.

Sophie

Hello,

Due to malfunctioning website (checking out all tickets in my basket because I was unable to amend the basket) I have ended up with some spare Don Q tickets for September 30 (Nuñez/Muntagirov). Based on past correspondence with the box office, I am confident I could get a "proper" refund without the admin fee for these, but before I try to contact the box office I wanted to check if anyone on here wants them?

All in the Amphi, at £52 each: C-79, C-78, C-34.

2 hours ago, emmarose said:

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I check out separately. I have different windows open for each performance and then go through them separately. 

 

At least if there's a problem at the end it won't affect all of the tickets, you might be lucky with them all, or unlucky with one. But all of them in a basket together means if it all goes wrong you have to start all over again.

 

That's just what I've found and have had no issues.

Absolutely, and thank you for the tip. However, when coordinating booking for a group (which I usually do), it can be very helpful to have 2 sets of tickets in my basket for about 20 mins to double-check that everyone is happy. Or putting a semi-expensive seated ticket in the basket while checking whether there's the option of SCS if I booked on that cast's other date... When the website *does* work as it should, it can be very handy for these situations! 

Adding another voice that this morning was the worst ticket-buying experience ever. A long queue, then managed to put tickets for approximately 6 dates in my basket. Then suddenly at the stage at which I wanted to remove one of the shows from the basket and check out, it wouldn't let me see my basket, then declared my basket empty, then went to a full hour of seatmap not loading, Error 500, you have exceeded your ticket limit, etc etc. Eventually I managed to purchase most tickets I wanted, but it took 2 1/2 hours! Tried 2 browsers, logging in, logging out, incognito window, phone on 4G instead of wifi...

Also annoyed about the price rises of course. Opera is looking decent value in comparison - bought Rigoletto amphi tickets for £49 that would be £52 for Don Q!

1x ticket to sell at £18.40 (members' discount pricing) for Olga Pericet "La Leona" at Sadler's Wells, 11 July 7:30pm

Centre of stalls row CC - 2nd row in this auditorium constellation I believe

All tickets now re-homed

Hi Fiona I'll send you a personal message

3x Sleeping Beauty SCS for sale, Friday 26 May 7:30pm ROH - D 5, 6, 7, £12 each. Happy to sell individually, though might wait a day or two to see if anyone wants 2 or more.

I have two for March 11, will DM you.

13 minutes ago, Thelittleswans said:

I have really enjoyed watching 318 Soomin Kim

From what I saw of her in classes and selection, I wouldn't be surprised if she won the whole thing! But as I said above, I have about 8 other favourites too

On 31/01/2023 at 10:20, Balletdoodah said:

 preparation must meet opportunity

This! To me, the PDL looks like it provides an opportunity for dancers to be seen by top companies in Europe and the US, if that's where their career aspirations are and they come from a country / training system where those opportunities are not necessarily available. The quality of dancers from Brazil, Japan and S Korea that make it to the PDL is phenomenal. So yes, these are precocious young talents but it's not a level playing field in terms of opportunities to be noticed, is it? So they have to be amazing to make it. It's not like a "training background of intense private coaching" as Peanut68 describes it is the norm in, say, Brazil or Mexico either and is even less accessible for the majority of the population there than it would be in the UK... these are all very exceptional young people who have been lucky to have some exceptional training and opportunities already. But even if all that makes the PDL feel a bit "extreme" and Olympics-like, isn't it wonderful that there are talents like this and the schools / companies get to see them?

I am just a ballet watcher, not a dancer... does anyone know if the Royal Ballet for instance ever has any kind of "open" auditions for the lower levels? Because my impression is that the Aud Jebsen dancers only come from the Royal Ballet School, so if you're not there already and want to join the RB, being "the PDL dancer" seems to be the only other option.

I’m excited to watch the finals this afternoon. Many of the young dancers that stood out to me in the live stream earlier this week have made it to the finals (well, what I saw of the live streams anyway, there is so much to watch!). The overall standard really is very high. I started writing a list of my favourites but ended up with about 10 names!

Last night’s performance was so very beautiful. Marianela and Vadim really seemed on top form. Fumi Kaneko, Joseph Sissens, Yuhui Choi were predictably great. Enjoyed Gasparini’s Florine too. Aurora’s friends were very much on fire - luxury casting all around.

Sleeping Beauty is not usually my favourite - I know I know, there are so many iconic moments, but sometimes all the divertissements and mime and slowly making their way to the palace drag on a bit for my taste. But I found myself even enjoying those yesterday - Kristen McNally’s Carabosse was fantastic, and I found the prince’s bemused reactions to the rats particularly charming. “You said there was a princess here… why are there rats?”

I also saw Salenko and Frola on Wednesday and found it deeply moving. Salenko was gorgeous, I was so happy I booked for this cast. Her delicate Odette was completely heartbreaking, and the Act 2 pas de deux was especially beautiful. I liked her Odile too, but I admired her in Act 3 more for her technical brilliance than her pizzazz. Frola was marvellous throughout, with him I did like Act 3 the best - that jump at the entrance to his solo! In smaller roles, I enjoyed Francesca Velicu's lead peasant and Precious Adams's Pas de Trois.

Having previously seen Swan Lakes elsewhere incl the RB, it was my first time watching this Derek Deane version and I liked the first act corps dances in particular, and the apotheosis ending. It really does suit the music so much better than the strange RB ending. I liked the faster tempi in the music compared to the RB when it came to Act 1, but whether because of the faster music or the general staging, found Siegried's heartbreak at the end of Act 3 and their death in Act 4 a bit too quick. I thought those moments were over before they had even arrived and I had no time to get emotionally involved.

I know others have mentioned dark lighting before. I noticed this particularly in Act 1, where it seemed unfair to Precious Adams in particular, since she danced such a delicate solo but I found it just too dark to see her legs properly (in dark brown tights). I did have the same issue with Frola's dark leggings in Act 3, but it seemed particularly strange during the Pas de Trois because I could see Emily Suzuki's legs, but not Adams's. If letting dancers wear skin colour tights is one of the small gestures towards ballet becoming a bit more inclusive, should companies not also adjust the lighting rather than standardising it for almost-glow-in-the-dark bright white tights?

I was also very confused by some of the audience behaviour including the chatting before Act 2 and the very late arrivals. I was quite lucky though, I did smell wine throughout the performance but at least nobody was munching popcorn next to me!

Hi everyone,

I have a ticket for sale for Acosta Danza at the Linbury Theatre, Spectrum programme, this Tuesday 24 Jan. Row A side left, £27.

If you’re interested, please message me by Sunday afternoon, otherwise it’s going back to the box office first thing Monday.

Best,

Sophie

16 hours ago, Finnbarr said:

But, pray tell me, Ballet experts, what is the significance of the two stuffed lions that come on with Saint Nick? I don't remember them in the Christmas tradition. Am intrigued.

I wasn't seeing them as lions but as possibly a toned-down, not-too-scary version of "Krampus" who is St Nicholas's evil sidekick in Central Europe. On the ROH stage, they seemed to be carrying some sort of stick or trident to scare kids with, which I why that was my guess - but happy to be corrected by someone who actually knows! I believe depending on your alpine region, you can have more than one Krampus. [What is the collective noun for those? A "frightening"?  ]

Just to also say thank you - I just used this link to buy discounted tickets for ENB's Swan Lake in January, so it's still (or again) active for at least some of the shows mentioned!

Sorted now, with many thanks to Rob and the brilliant forum as always!