Angela Essex

9 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Where are you looking to sit, Angela? There appears to be a good spread of availability for both, though no SC standing unless any are kept back for public booking.

 

Like Bluebird says, seat map for 7th Nov is greyed out so no tickets can be purchased. Coupled with the mysterious email it must mean more than just a cinema broadcast, but what? I'm hopefully seeing Magri/Coralles in their earlier performance which is also down as being filmed for back up presumably, but does this mysterious behaviour mean a cast change? Special guests? I do hope not as I was looking forward to seeing them at the cinema with friends as well as at the ROH.

Thank you for replying @jmhopton I’m looking to 2 tickets and to get the best seats I can for up to £60 per seat. 

Good evening! I’m hoping that some kind person would please let me know the pricing structure for Don Quixote? I’ve looked on the roh website but I can’t see it on there. I’m not a friend so I’m trying to figure out what I can afford before general booking opens tomorrow morning and any assistance would be very gratefully received. I’m ideally looking to book 3/11 or 17/11 so if anyone can give me a steer on the availability for those performances please I’d would be extremely grateful. Thank you. 

On 29/07/2023 at 08:06, Jan McNulty said:

This book extract, including a video, is about a lady of 108 (Eileen Kramer) who is still dancing:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/29/eileen-kramer-life-keeps-me-dancing-book

 

What an inspirational lady. Thank you for sharing. 

So sorry but just seen the comments - I returned the ticket to the box office yesterday. Apologies. Hope you both are able to find a ticket. 

PS @Missfrankiecat if you need another ticket for a friend for Sunday I’m selling a SCS for the matinee as sadly I’m unable to attend.

7 hours ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Thanks to everyone posting their first reviews and photos, as well as the cast list.  I am so excited to go on Sunday.

You are in for such a treat - so many highlights and it was so lovely to see Marianela dance with Carlos - they were beautiful in the Manon pdd and the white swan pdd. Marianela is perfection. It was the first time I’ve seen Celine Gittens dance and she was just beautiful in Apollo - such personality and was quite cheeky to Apollo - I loved her interpretation. She was my favourite of the 3 ballerinas in Apollo by far. I’m so sad I’ll never get to see her & Brandon Lawrence dance. I hope BRB comes to somewhere near London? as I’d love to see them perform. 

D6

£14

1 minute ago, Lynette H said:

Proof the elixir of life exists. Carlos seems to have an inexhaustible supply. 

Yes he is amazing isn’t he? Can’t believe he’s 50.

I was at the ROH tonight. Too tired to be eloquent. Just here to say what an absolutely stunning dancer Brandon Lawrence is. His performance of Liebestod moved me close to tears. I couldn’t work out whether it was the emotion of the performance or that it’s the first time I’ve seen him dance, and now he’s going to Zurich I probably will never be able to see him perform again, that bought tears to my eyes. Love the way Carlos chucked the bouquet he was presented with at the end out into the audience. I’ve never seen Carlos dance before either and loved the way his personality really projects into the audience. He really commands the house. Thoroughly enjoyed each and every performance. The Corsaire pdd by Carlos’ nephew and his wife was amazing too. One of my favourite nights at ROH since I started going 3 years ago. 

13 hours ago, capybara said:

I’ve ‘liked’ all these posts because I think it’s time to ‘stir the pot’ in terms of RB partnerships.

 

Fumi Kaneko and Yasmine Naghdi (please note alphabetical order) are absolute ‘top drawer’ Principal ballerinas (there are, of course, others!!!!) who seem to be appreciated as such more abroad than they are here.

One has to wonder why that is but I would probably need to run for cover if I shared my thoughts on that conundrum.

Ooh please do share your thoughts I’d be very interested to hear them. 

Bumping since date is coming closer.

Bumping this since the date is coming closer.

I just had a stab at calculating my marks and think I’ve got 44 - 50 overall so a pass but sadly not enough for a merit: barre 7, port de bras 3, en dehors pirouettes 2 (1 if they’re being harsh), em dedans pirouettes 2, Allegro 1 -2, Allegro 2 - 1, Allegro 3 - 2 (optimistic might be a 1 as I got out of time after nearly slipping during a run), Free enchainement - went not too bad but it involved changemant battu and I didn’t get many of the beats so 5 I think, Pointe 5 or maybe 6, Musicality 7 performance 6 variation 1: technique 5 and performance 6 or 7: so 45 at worst and 50 at best. 
 

Let’s see if my prediction is accurate. I’m a bit sad not to be thinking I’m in line for a merit, but I’m not going to let that take away from the achievement of doing it at all at my age. Thanks all for your kind words and encouragement it really means a lot to have some people who understand. 😊

6 hours ago, The_Red_Shoes said:

Well done Angela. You should be really chuffed with your progress. Don't fret about a few mistakes like the head or the behind the music, as the marks will balance out across the exam as a whole and if you mostly had correct coordination or timing then you can still  get a good mark for that component.

 

You are very brave doing an exam that late in the day. And after doing a run through? I like to take exams late morning or early afternoon while I've got myself going properly but still have some energy left. As Carlos Acosta says in the Observer today about being a mature age dancer:  dance in a way that you can still walk off and not need an ambulance!

 

Fingers crossed now. At least with the RAD's new speedy marking you shouldn't be kept on tenterhooks for long. Onwards to Grade 6 (which is a very nice exam).

Thanks @The_Red_Shoes I asked if I could go in the morning, and my teacher did ask if I could go first, but the studio owner wanted to get the little kids done first. To be fair the little ones pay the studio for their classes whereas I have private lessons with my teacher so I pay her direct so I was just using the studio as a venue to video the exam (my teacher usually teaches me in a different hall). That is, the studio owners priority is with her clients which is fair enough. Hopefully now the studio owner knows me I’ll get a better bite of the cherry beforehand and not do a run through on the same day next time. I think Carlos is 100% spot on 🤣

19 minutes ago, Fiz said:

What a shame you weren’t feeling well and felt that you didn’t do yourself justice, Angela! Hopefully it went better than you thought. My youngest dd did her Grade 5 after a vile tummy bug and couldn’t remember a thing about her exam whilst her partner in the mazurka was coming down with flu! They both got Highly Commended for their performance!

Thanks Fizz - keeping my fingers crossed. Congratulations to your daughter on a fantastic result. 

Interesting perspective. I thought that Marianela Nunez’s Odette at ROH last season was the same - enticing Vadim  to pursue and chase her, in a very innocent and ladylike way though. Definitely topping from the bottom too. 

11 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Great achievement Angela. It’s so annoying when you know you have danced something better on other occasions…the same thing happens with performances…but I’m sure your dedication showed through and us dancers are always our own worse critics!! 
Hopefully you will get at least a Merit and who knows you may surprise yourself! 
Did you have a chance to have a practice run through of the exam (under exam conditions) as this is often a good idea especially stamina wise and can help to get rid of some nerves. 

Thanks Linn 😊 Yes it really is isn’t it? I ran the exam through this morning with my teacher which went much better and I had a mock exam about a month ago. I wasn’t overly nervous I was literally just lacking the stamina to do my best effort in some of the exercises. My exam was at 5.30pm and I was up half the night with a sore throat and blocked nose which didn’t help. By the time it got to 5.30pm and I’d warmed up I was feeling hot and tired. To be honest if I do scrape a merit it will be a miracle as technically I’m highly average in the centre. We will see. I’ll take a pass as a major win though seeing as I only started taking classes as an absolute beginner 2 years ago. 

So I did my intermediate foundation exam today by film which went okay. I did the best I could with my 47year old mum body and am really pleased that I’ve managed to get this far. Forgot to curtesy at the examiner (my teacher) at the start though.
 

Barre, port de bras and adage went off without any drama. I let myself down by a couple of suboptimal pirouette landings and managed to nearly fall over in the run in allegro 3. Luckily I managed to self correct, but then got late and was out of time to the music for a couple of bars which I’m annoyed about. 

I had a bit of a wobble in Variation 1. I’ve definitely done the centre work, allegro 3 and the variation better before, but I did the best I could in that moment.

By the time I got to the pointe work I was struggling stamina wise and so I’ve definitely held myself up more effortlessly before. It was taking a monumental effort not to press down on the barre and the barre kept creaking every time I pressed down on it which really gave me away. Plus I did a wrong head in the echappe releve courus at the barre.

I asked my teacher at the end if she thought I’d passed and she said I definitely had so I’m taking that as a major win. Next stop grade 6 and maybe one day intermediate although I need to gain a lot more strength and technique before then. 

3 hours ago, Michelle_Richer said:

Things have moved on a bit since my last posting.

 

Having heard nothing from his Urology Surgeon by the 1^st of July, I wrote to him on Adrian's behalf, even offering to fill a cancelled slot at a moments notice if it came up, as I was convinced it would be another lengthy wait and we may not even get the Prostatectomy Operation done by the end of September.

But with in a week we had a date, the 16^th August with a telephone pre-op consultation on the 7th, that's worked out extremely well as all my Ballet will have shut down by the end of July and I'm freely available to take him anywhere that's required, in any case I would have cancelled my classes if it had come up before as Adrians health takes priority.

Although my classes are shut down, I must still maintain a certain amount of pointe practice to keep my pointe fitness level up for the next term, but that I can do any time.

 

That news has really perked Adrian up. I'm not sure how quickly he will start to regain his fitness afterwards, but it may be just possible for us to go on holiday during his birthday week, the 18th September, fingers crossed, as I know he would like to go back to Scotland.

 

Another mile-stone passed this Friday, Adrian stops taking drops in his eye after his Proton Beam Therapy Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, that's 25 days, another job I don’t have to do 4 times a day, Whoopee the end to this nightmare is in sight.

Awww I’m so pleased for you guys about getting a date for the op. I hope it goes really well and it’s great news the course of eye drops has finished. As someone who didn’t start ballet until 45 what you have achieved is an inspiration @Michelle_Richer.
 

Apologies this is off topic but may I please ask where you get your pointe shoes from? My first ever pair have died (inconveniently my intermediate foundation exam is in 3 days time) and my usual fitter has no availability until September. Thanks in advance. 

On 06/07/2023 at 09:59, balletbean said:

Again from personal experience I would totally recommend Leanne Bisson who goes under the title “Straighttothepointeballet” on Instagram. Her links are on that forum.
A Grishko Master fitter.

Due to circumstances my DD was unable to have an in person fitting. supplied photos, drawings & measurements. Leanne also takes into account the level and hours spent en pointe to gain a greater understanding of the dancer. Best Pointe shoe fit ever. Never looked back. 
 

Works freelance as far as I know who travels all over the country fitting pointes including visits to several of the well known vocational schools  🩰☺️

Another vote for Leanne here. She’s extremely knowledgeable and thorough and really takes pride in finding the best fit. She has so much choice of shoes that she found multiple different pairs that were a good fit for me and then narrowed it down from there. I ended up with Streampointe 7 XXX with reinforced shank which have been perfect.  She can do custom orders to get the shoes especially made for your foot too so she can literally fit any foot.  She gets booked up far in advance though so get booked in early if you’d like to see her.

Amphi B81

Face value £30

£10 face value 

SCS D10

On 23/04/2023 at 17:48, Alexander said:

The sort of correction where all attempts at verbal communication have been terminated and they creep up behind and (I cannot quite describe the effect) they have a good rummage to sort things out around the haunches...and it's OMG! What have you done?!...It feels..ODD.

 

And then they walk away... probably to do stealth rummaging elsewhere.

Yasss! 🤣🤣🤣 It’s very disconcerting and usually results in me promptly mucking up the exercise. I do appreciate the correction though. 

11 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I think the printed cast list at the ROH was trolling us! I nearly fainted when I couldn’t spot Melissa Hamilton’s name in Untitled 2023 and the list looking like there were too few dancers (no Ashley Dean nor Anna Rose O’Sullivan either who’d shared the same role). Unsure of whether she had been replaced or what was going on, I walked to my seat feeling utterly miserable, to much concern from my friend. I was so relieved when I spotted Hamilton in her role  (the one briefly seen in the trailer) and spotted Dean (I think). I agree with what @JohnS observed about the slicked down (or gelled down) hair.....it made Calvin Richardson, Leo Dixon, William Bracewell and Harris Bell all look alike if you were seated further back. Will post a bit more tomorrow (home extremely late after a very delayed last train).

Yes I couldn’t tell which dancer was which with those hairstyles and costumes either 😭

7 hours ago, alison said:

Waiting to see whether tonight's performance will also be the last by certain other of the company's dancers.  I guess we shall find out in due course.

Ooh who were you thinking of?