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Ondine

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  1. Ondine
    Sarasota to visit with an Ashton programme? Hopefully Les Rendevous. No A Wedding Bouquet though? Shucks,
  2. Ondine
    Brandon Lawrence said in the latest podcast that Ballett Zürich will be performing Les Noces.
  3. Ondine
    The wider programme including the choreographing opportunities and the 'lates' exciting too! And more than just a nod to inclusivity and community work. Federico Bonelli making a splash.
  4. Ondine
    How splendid would A Wedding Bouquet be! ‘Charming! Charming! Charming!’ 'Josephine may not attend a wedding...' and Pepe the dog. Sadly unlikely I suspect. I wonder who would be cast if it was revived?
  5. Ondine
    Interesting programming, well done to Federico Bonelli! I hope he's enjoying his move to The North. A difficult transition in so many ways. Blackpool Grand is a joy in itself, but with 'problems' as you say. However if anyone has never been, it's Matcham and lovely. (I'm fond of Blackpool, despite its wider problems!) https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/box-office-and-venue/our-venue/our-architecture Sad list of 'relatively recently lost' theatres at the bottom of that.
  6. Ondine
    Of course. But I bet she'd love to get that costume on and do it on stage! I thought she was so good in rehearsal. It's a fiendish piece, off centre turns and the rest, she rocked it! And yes the company has so many talented people it's difficult to give everyone a chance to shine in a balanced repertoire. No-one wants to spend too much of their early careers spear carrying, the men don't even get the opportunities to be swans or snowflakes or wilis!
  7. Ondine
    Such a pity. I thought she danced it splendidly, fast, furious yet controlled (as seen in the Insights clip I posted above). It's fiendish, really. As you say, some get many 'goes' though I suppose they are more senior so... It's only by actually doing it you learn and progress though?
  8. Ondine
    I thought Amelia Townsend was terrific also. Though no doubt Sir Fred would still be yelling BEND MORE at her! As for the corps being a bit ragged, of course we know not what dramas were being enacted and how many subs were rounded up and bundled into tutus at the last moment as the show must go on and all that! Unlike Beauty, Nutcracker, Swan Lake or Giselle, it was new to everyone and I suspect a few were trying hard to recall their own positioning let alone hiss instructions and counts to last minute twinklers.
  9. Ondine
    Thank you for this!
  10. Ondine
    "Oh - and 'I was there'... " Wonderful photos! I wonder how Darcey got her flowers home? Not on the tube presumably! 😐
  11. Ondine
    Ah. Laura M was certainly telling Amelia T to bend in that recent Insight session too.
  12. Ondine
    "I'd been going to say some time ago that I was sure I remembered a Royal Ballet Insight/Study day where some dancer was being coached as Autumn and was told to bend, and bend some more, yet most of the Autumns seemed to have remained fairly upright, even if they were fast and spikey. When I looked at the Cojocaru/Kobborg recording, I noticed that even Laura Morera remained relatively vertical in that role, so I thought I must have been imagining it. Hinkis has been the only one I've seen who has really "bent"." Yes it was Laura Morera coaching AmeliaTownsend in a RB Insight session. This is a 'short' version, the full session is online too.
  13. Ondine
    I'd posted the link above I was searching for then removed the tab. Doh. 2004. https://danceviewtimes.com/2004/summer/02/rb1.htm "Some of Prokofiev’s dissonance-spiced music has a dark underbelly which was reflected in these almost carnavalesque dances in which everyone, not just Cinderella, has to meet a midnight deadline. This court is not ruled by a prince, who really is quite a cipher, but as in the midwinter Lord of Misrule revelries of old, by the jester who commands and receives obeiance from his subjects. An athletically bouncy Tim Matiakis swept them on and off stage, almost like marionettes for which he held the strings. As the evening progressed, the dances seemed to become even less decorous, acquiring a quasi mechanical quality making that ghostly nightmare from which Cinderella but barely escaped, almost inevitable. No wonder that at the end of the act, the Jester spread his arms in a floor-hugging cambre and looked at us upside down if to say, this is what can happen if fools are allowed to rule the world."
  14. Ondine
    It's something else I was thinking about, also, the Jester. I watched Grant again last night. I hope the role isn't being given out to all the 'acrobatic' youth, terrific dancers though they may be, without also some coaching / discussion of the wider part he plays in the 'ballroom/ not a ballroom' scene. I'm currently searching for a piece which I thought I'd saved, where it discusses his 'Lord of Misrule' persona too.
  15. Ondine
    It was his thoughts on the stepsisters which I felt relevant here. Having rewatched Ashton & Helpmann, I feel some have perhaps lost the plot and it's now becoming all too OTT.
  16. Ondine
    This reviewer wasn't so keen either. https://seenandheard-international.com/2023/04/the-royal-ballet-exhibits-ashtons-cinderella-choreography-in-their-disneyfied-new-staging/
  17. Ondine
    Yes I did note the PdL gala lack of certain 'invitations to the ball'! And others who were never there getting the magic wand treatment. Mmmmm. I love these YAGP 'journey' compilations. How about (quote from the above review): '...a lanky teenager in a glittering red vest doing quintuple attitude turns (Alexei Orohovsky, 15, in “Paquita.” He rushed, but he’s got the goods.)' His 'tiny tot' dancing was adorable!
  18. Ondine
    What a great review, I chuckled aloud at parts of it! Thank you. It's a shame some of the current Royal Ballet 'stars' who were past prizewinners coudn't have participated, but I suspect Cinderella prep and injury (eg Mayara Magri, New York Finals 2011 Grand Prix Award Winner, age 16, Marcelino Sambe who astonished with the Flames of Paris Variation, YAGP 2009 age 14) were stumbling blocks. Both of those are on YAGP YouTube archive and wow. And while not 'Misseldine’s practically-perfect account of Bournonville’s “William Tell” solo' from the 2023 gala, here she is at a 2021 gala. I love Bournonville.
  19. Ondine
    It must have been confusing at times, remembering who he was supposed to be and 'doing' the appropriate choreography 😊 How wonderfully versatile. Shame he wasn't also The Nameless Prince, a full house! Also that ballroom which isn't a ballroom scene, back to the new coach which looks better each time I look at it, I notice the interior is all properly 'coach trimmed' with a buttoned, padded interior. The attention to detail has been phenomenal, it's worthy of appearing in the upcoming coronation procession.
  20. Ondine
    The link wasn't actually to the material, it was a link to a YouTube account, I didn't want the copyright police knocking at my door at midnight and carting me off to the local nick for questioning 😐 Apologies if that broke forum rules, in my defence I'd argue to those same police it was for study purposes and fair use and all the rest. We're all allowed a defence. 😉 In case anyone is wondering, 'someone' who isn't me has in the past day posted two short clips from Cinderella on a well known internet service, showing Ashton / Helpmann as the stepsisters (with a very VERY young Wayne Sleep as Napoleon) at the ball, and the same scene with Acri / Avis. Comparing and contrasting the two is an interesting exercise.
  21. Ondine
    My tongue was in my cheek. It's very interesting to be able to make direct comparisons however. And the old in in my opinion is vastly superior. Current casts could learn a great deal from the past., and how the original stepsisters were played. Ashton didn't like drag, and the current production does tend to lean that way.
  22. Ondine
    Interesting to note the criticisms of aspects of the production in this review: "The Royal Ballet’s new production of Frederick Ashton’s “Cinderella” is either problematically splendid or splendidly problematic. Maybe both. The former can be laid at the feet of Wendy Ellis Somes and Christopher Carr, the team who signed for production and staging. The latter belongs to Frederick Ashton." https://danceviewtimes.com/2004/summer/02/rb1.htm That was 2004! You can't please everyone all the time? Also that review has some interesting and possibly enlightening things to say about Ashton's choreography and structure.
  23. Ondine
    Thank you. Intriguing...
  24. Ondine
    Oh! 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons Sorry, this content is not available in your region.
  25. Ondine
    Alexander Grant was not Napoleon. Wayne Sleep I think may have danced both! Edited to add yes he was! "His next big breakthrough came when he was only seventeen, when he played Napoleon in Cinderella with the main Royal Ballet company. According to Sleep, “They needed a small man; I was the smallest in the school, so I got the part – and a contract with the company.” " https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/dancer-wayne-sleep He was also a step-sister, as a pair with Anthony Dowell! https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=4928 I'd say they don't make 'em like that any more but maybe they do! I suspect that he didn't dance the roles in the same run, to find that would take more delving but it could be a first for the RB and Daichi Ikarashi and maybe he could be 'given a go' as a step sister. Added as a little piece of dance history, W Sleep Highly Commended in his RAD Grade IV (1960) Muriel Carr School of Dance, West Hartlepool. http://www.hhtandn.org/relatedimages/11414/muriel-carr-dance-school
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