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Jamesrhblack

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  1. Jamesrhblack
    So, Marquez out of Symphonic. Looks to be a thin season for her so far...
  2. Jamesrhblack
    I thought Dust was one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen. Days afterwards (I went on Friday) the music and images continue to haunt me.
  3. Jamesrhblack
    I absolutely agree. I don't condone Maria Miller's expenses but she managed to ensure that cuts in the Arts budget were smaller than in some other departments. You don't necessarily need empathy and if you're arguing a case the arms length principal can be beneficial. In times of austerity when there isn't a lot of public money thanks to the last incumbents spending all the money and then eating all the pies it is inevitable that cuts will need to be imposed - the alternative is higher taxation which nobody welcome,
  4. Jamesrhblack
    I'd also intimate that despite Yuhui Choe's replacing Osipova again, Francesca Hayward's casting in two principal roles against Choe's know suggests that management is still ambivalent to promotion for Choe.
  5. Jamesrhblack
    Gosh, Francesca Hayward is being fast tracked. One should never speculate, but does anybody else think Zenaida Yanowsky is being allowed to return to Manon (and with Roberto Bolle) as a valedictory treat in a final season....
  6. Jamesrhblack
    But which principal? Cuthbertson is up to her ears with the Wheeleon and has already been pulled from one Beauty and you don't want to see Nunez. Marquez is surely too small for Golding and her replacing of Cojocaru in Bayadère wasn't well received by all. Indeed, Marquez seems increasingly marginalised after a brief flurry as Steven McRae's principal partner dancing a smaller number of performances than many other dancers and in a more narrow repertoire.
  7. Jamesrhblack
    With no disrespect to Yuhui Choe, although Natalia Osipova's long term reputation as amongst the greats remains to written in future years, she commands an international respect and has generated a huge amount of excitement meaning that the damage limitation involved when she cancels of necessity a major, high profile debut is greater than with many other of the current Royal Ballet dancers. I wasn't there, but it could also be interpreted that Kevin O'Hare was trying to make things easier for Choe in front of a possibly hostile audience by explaining the situation in person,
  8. Jamesrhblack
    Thanks. So, no Marquez or McRae let alone Osipova.... I can appreciate there may be have been a height issue to Choe's replacing Osipova (and she seems to have done very well) but was it odd to replace a very starry principal with a First Soloist in her debut season. I imagine Cuthbertson will have been busy with A Winter's Tale (and had already ceded one performance), Nunez already busy (and in the Wheeldon) but does Marquez seem to be not overly prominent for a principal these days in number of performances...
  9. Jamesrhblack
    Is there a link somewhere to the tour casting?
  10. Jamesrhblack
    If it's not too complicated, does anyone have a tally of exactly how many dancers are now off with Soares added to the list ...
  11. Jamesrhblack
    Another one...
  12. Jamesrhblack
    Is anyone able to advise who the Lilac Fairies have been for this run? I guess Claire Calvert still isn 't stage fit but so far have the others only been Melissa Hamilton, Tierney Heap and Laura McCulloch? I'd have thought Itziar Mendizabal would have been obvious casting, but I thought she would have been obvious for Myrtha too and that didn't seem to happen..
  13. Jamesrhblack
    Thank you for this. When I was a JA in the '70's David Wall was the dancer we all wished to emulate. Even at that young age, it was apparent that as well as being a fine dancer he had a command of the stage that was absolutely involving.
  14. Jamesrhblack
    Stage management error? Years ago at a Hatley / Mukhamedov Beauty occurred the incident when Gillian Revie hadn't checked the call sheet and Deborah Bull, due to dance Florine, noticed that Florestan was sporting only one sister so climbed into a spare tutu and took to the stage in a solo she had t previously danced. She recounts this episode in Damcing Away and Gillian Revie confirms it in a Forum interview.
  15. Jamesrhblack
    The Lilac Fairy always used, like Myrtha, to be a principal role - Deanne Bergsma, Vergie Derman, Monica Mason come to mind from my early days - I would think not just because of the surprising difficulty of the solo but because the role needs a stage authority in the mime. These days, perhaps as there are fewer principals, both roles seem exclusively danced (apart from the broadcasts with Nunez) by First Soloists or below (and, without naming names.pretty shakily the last couple of times I saw Beauty, which I haven't this season).
  16. Jamesrhblack
    The RB Aurora I always wanted to see was Deborah Bull and had booked for her scheduled performance in Hammersmith. Unfortunately,she was ill and was never scheduled again. I know she danced it a few times as substitute and there are one or two beautiful pictures of her in the role. Did anybody on here see her in the role and, indeed, as Kitri? She writes most interestingly about dancing both roles in Dancing Away and The Everyday Dancer.
  17. Jamesrhblack
    Not sure where to post this, but there's an announcement on the ROH website that Iohna Loots has retired... http://www.roh.org.uk/news/royal-ballet-leavers-and-joiners-mid-season-update
  18. Jamesrhblack
    Not wild about Galas but went to this to see Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov one last time (I can't get to R & J). They are indeed wonderful to watch together and their matching of line even when moving backwards at speed wonderful to behold. I didn't agree with all her textural choices in her solo but he certainly got the audience cheering. Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg were also great. I'm not sure how much dancing he has left in him but they also radiate a magic together showing the importance of a regular partnership. Up to that point things had felt a but thrown together. Igor Zelensky seemed in a foul temper during Corsaire and didn't make the final curtain call (embarrassingly long drawn out) and Sergei Polunin also seemed decidedly grumpy, and not just when his partner ran out of steam in her foutées. Is it ungallant to suggest that Elena Glurdjize is carrying a little more weight than necessary? After all the lovely words about her I'd been so pleased to see that she was dancing and was rather taken aback. Kimin Kim was rather astonishing in Diana and Acteon and the most sheerly beautiful moment for me was Larghetto with Silvia Azzoni and Alexander Ryabko. Exquisite music of course (and the ENB Orchestra always does so well) and made me want to see more Neumeier. The whole programme felt rather flung together which may be the way of Galas but I wasn't sure how much of what we saw referenced the story of Russian ballet until a sublime rendition of the Dying Swan which seemed really to capture the spirit of that time. Writing this up ahead of a meeting, don't have programme with me and ashamed to say I can't recall the dancer's name.
  19. Jamesrhblack
    I was at Ann Jenner's Sleeping Beauty in 1973 when she collapsed with appendicitis. I was a JA at the RBS and had loved her in The Firebird when the RB was at the Coliseum and had pestered to be taken. It was indeed dramatic with Brenda Last, not even in the company, taking over the role of Aurora for Acts 2 and 3. Later I really enjoyed her Giselle, my mother thought her much more musical than Makarova who we saw a week later, and, particularly, in Fille with Baryshnikov in 1977. I can still see their speed in the coda of the Essler Pas de deus. She was a terrific dancer.
  20. Jamesrhblack
    With no disrespect to Hikaru Kobayashi would it not been possible for Lauren Cuthbertson to have danced with Federico Bonelli (they work well together and have danced Beauty together before) if Matthew Golding was not available, unless Cuthbertson is herself unwell or concentrating on the new Wheeldon. It also seemed odd that Pennefather was scheduled to dance additional performances when he was himself injured...
  21. Jamesrhblack
    Also available on amazon kindle. Thursday's Children was an unexpected pleasure on a return journey London to Newcastle....
  22. Jamesrhblack
    I've booked to see Marquez with Campbell too, as much to see him as her (and again no disrespect to Miss M). A regular parter for MvRae will certainly now be an issue. Given that he is dancing Albrecht to Marquez it would seem that KO'H is perhaps going to return to that regular pairing. Takada would cfetuanlt be interesting. Isn't Choe a little tall for him and also, given the recent discussions o here, perhaps less likely to be cast ...
  23. Jamesrhblack
    Pace Aileen, I'm not sure that Yuhui Choe is being side-lined. With featured roles in Jewels and Rhapsody, the casting is probably commensurate with her First Soloist status. If she had been given Giselle, then Laura Morera would not have been, and that would also have occasioned upset. Kevin O'Hare's apparently stated belief that there were too many principals is borne out by the fact that even having lost four Giselles, the RB only has programming space to bring in two new ones. This is not intended to discredit Yuhui Choe, who is,I think, a most lovely dancer. However, as I wrote in an earlier post, she does seem to have stalled a little, and if there is to be a new Aurora, which is to be hoped for, but not a given as Osipova will certainly do some of what would have, as it were, been Rojo's shows (and am I correct in thinking that Cojocaru wasn't cast last time), then I am fairly sure it will either be Fumi Kaneko or Akane Takada (whose scheduled debut had to be cancelled a couple of seasons ago). Does anybody else think that the TBC for the Steven McRae Don Q might turn out to be Osipova?
  24. Jamesrhblack
    Well, I was correct in that there would be no principal promotions, also re Melissa Hamilton, Olivia Cowley, Francesca Hayward and Tristan Dyer. Was over optimistic for Fumi Kaneko but she did go up one ladder. Managed to overlook Harrod and was wrong about Dean, Hinkis, Hay and David T and didn't see Forskitt coming. Claudia Dean made such an impact in Raymonda and is down for the Chosen One so thought it was a given. What has Forskitt done? I've managed to overlook her thus far ...
  25. Jamesrhblack
    Deborah Bull? Lauren Cuthbertson? Weren't Leanne Benjamjn, Alina Cojocaru and Matianela Nunez all trained, albeit sometimes briefly at the RBS? That's just from the Royal Ballet...
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