TSR101

There were definitely people who left half way through in the stalls - presumably got their picture for social media and taste of some ballet and then off somewhere else. To be honest, I thought that they looked surprised to be called out to come and get them - Bolle and Osipova particularly. I am not sure I would have described Osipova as underpowered, more ragged and lacking in her normal precision. It was all rather wild end of gala fare. Potskhishvili - I think slightly unfair to say tricks for tricks sake. The particular element is all about tricks and it is a gala! I am not sure what he would be like in a more nuanced ballet when he was trying to tell a story. Well its a nice way to reward your friend and get them up on stage lol

To be honest there is a large range of achievement - not least because of age. I haven't actually been to many of these Ballet Icons Galas - for years I avoided them given I have strong preference for full length ballets (or at least strong one act pieces like Month in the Country/The Cellist) - however it definitely felt this year that a lot of the established star power came from the Royal Ballet.

I was mostly sitting there thinking how meaningless these awards must be to those receiving them.

It was a sellout - so presumably some people spent £175 for stalls tickets and then didn't come!

Overall I thought it was a good night - I think slightly better than last year. These things are always a bit odd to me, such a strange crowd where you mix those who never go with ballet but like the spectacle, with those who appear to have gone just to go (lots of people messaging on their phones throughout - someone by me literally sat what sapping through Osipova and Potskhishvili doing Don Q which is mind-blowing behaviour to me) and then lots of the ballet 'community' (KOH ran in late tut tut, he wouldn't like that behaviour in the ROH!) Initial thoughts - I likewise found Caravaggio very engrossing (how on earth is Melissa not a principal!); Osipova, Kiyota and Potskhishvili brought lots of fireworks with them -Potskhishvili is a giant of a man!; Muntagirov excellent as usual with both partners - also excellent; Bernal proved to me even if you have the body of a greek god and outstanding dance ability, beige pants with beige shoes aren't a good look; and Qualia for McGregor was actually not bad, perhaps because it was very traditional in style compared to his later works. I thought Mackay and Battistoni looked underrehearsed unfortunately, Fernandes undoubtedly an astonishing talent looked a bit panicky whilst attempting to balance and having never seen Taming of the Shrew, it seemed an odd choice for a gala. Skylar Brandt was good in Swan Lake but I couldn't help compare her performance to that of Marianela in the opening night and to be honest they weren't comparable (Marianela was sitting just in front of me too - what a shame she wasn't up there as well!!) Lots of doubling up!

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‘Caravaggio’

Fair enough - I don't really use FB anymore. I was just surprised it was private since its seems quite a innocuous public thing, a forum about a dancer 🤷‍♂️ Was there something in it you were referencing Amelia?

Afraid this is a private group (which is a bit odd).

Natalia Osipova is dancing with Giorgi Potskhishvili tomorrow... interesting

I so agree with this. It's not even like they are trying to sell tickets, they are already sold. The people I have seen who have confirmed themselves are: - Vadim Muntagirov - Fumi Kaneko - Julian Mackay - Olga Smirnova - Sergio Bernal - Eleonora Abbagnato - Osiel Gouneo - Yasmine Naghdi - Roberto Bolle - Margarita Fernandes - Antonio Casalinho - Syklar Brandt - Bleuenn Battistoni

This is definitely not up to date. It is just the original potential cast from several months ago. It's missing late attendees like Bolle, Potskhishvili and Kaneko. It has people we know are injured such as Ol and Tissi was down to do a performance with Smirnova and has been replaced so I am guessing won't be performing. There are also people like Semionova for which nothing has been said for some months. I haven't seen anything from Nunez either to suggest she will be there.

Sergio Bernal and Eleonora Abbagnato will be performing 'Proximity or Closeness'

I have edited the above, as I was referencing the earlier post!

Olga Smirnova has updated her website. It now says she will be doing the Diamonds Pas de Deux ... with Vadim.

Sorry!

Julian Mackay and Bleuenn Battistoni are performing 'Renaissance' pas de Deux by Sebastien Bertaud

I know he was invited for Raymonda I think, but they didn’t happen because of strikes. I believe he then later did perform there.

Interesting that Sambe is debuting at the POB with Fille, and Nunez is with Giselle in the same half a year. I know Vadim has been invited before but have many other RB principals over the years?

This is such a strange few lines. I am surprised he is still in Russia. I would imagine life would be hard there for him, particularly I would imagine a lack of opportunity given his citizenship of a country that the Russian Government regularly threatens. Which is perhaps what these strange lines mean.

No advice from me but I went first to see Nutcracker/Swan Lake around this age (I already loved the music) and I loved the experience!

I am sorry but what Emeralds has said is not spamming at all. Regardless of where else it has been posted, it is relevant for a discussion of ROH's marketing prowess. Not only is your tone condescending("If you are unable to understand why an organisation might use a targeted offer campaign then I really feel sorry for you.") but by trying to suggest its spam, as a moderator of the forum, this comes off as threatening to me. ROH's use of targeted offers is fine, but to not include your core supporters, the ones who keep on subscribing and keep on coming, is insulting and is a terrible way to build your membership base. If they were smart they would use the occasional discount offer as a selling point of membership rather than offend members who might have paid full price. All of which falls under marketing. Admittedly their failing aren't limited to this - by not having thought of a way to imaginatively demonstrate what the ballets (MacMillan Triple) are and what customers would be buying, they have undoubtedly caused their own failure to shift tickets. They didn't even tie any of their names to it until late in the day and haven't used them to market the ballet at all either - constantly spamming me and others with 'Casting Announced' on social media does not make a sold marketing campaign. How about using some interviews with principals on the ballets instead, clips on their roles, what it means to them, what the challenges are, why its interesting, what the ballets mean within the context of ballet history, why people should come...

I don't personally think it's worth paying top price for tickets before Row H. I actually think its bad form that ROH prices these seats the same as the middle of the stalls.

I see no reason why the code shouldn’t be shared - if ROH wanted they could make the code single use - like most discount codes are - to prevent sharing. The fact they haven’t done this is on them, they haven’t asked for it not the be shared and I have limited sympathy given the way they have distributed this one. The fact they haven’t provided it to all paying supporters is disgraceful treatment of their dedicated supporter base imo. I don’t see why moderators are essentially compounding this by acting as unpaid guardians of the ROH, enforcing a moral code not even required by the institution itself.

Are they actually doing this now for the Macmillan Triple?