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annamk

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    BEST PERFORMANCES OF 2018

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    Best memories

     

    Cojocaru/Caley Manon (Milton Keynes)

     

    Muntagirov/Lamb in Winter Dreams - above all Muntagirov but most of the cast deserve a mention (Mendizabal, Naghdi, Avis, Bracewell) for such a detailed, masterly performance.

     

    Bonelli/Morera Mayerling - should have been filmed. 

     

    NDT in Pite's The Statement - so original. 

     

    Performances involving these three terrific RB 1st soloists: Bracewell, Corrales, Hay - wishing the latter 2 an injury free 2019. 

     

    • Like 7

    Bolshoi Cinema Broadcasts discussion, 2018-19

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    I hadn’t focused before I went to the live relay that this production and choreography were by Yuri Grigorovich. Perhaps it was unfortunate to see it barely 24 hours after Sir Peter Wright’s beautiful version for the RB. Obviously, it follows the same structure: Clara, her brother, Drosselmeyer, the Nutcracker, dancing toys, rats, soldiers etc etc but it doesn’t bother to make it into a coherent, narrative in the way that the RB version presents a family Christmas in a Victorian (?) house. In the pdd for Clara and Nutcracker towards the end of Act 1 they are surrounded by the toys which I found a distraction. The snowflakes are wearing what look like white swimming caps, and carrying cotton wool balls on sticks all of which would have been neither here nor there were the choreography for them not so uninspiring. I’m sad to say that for me mediocre choreography was the big failing of this Nutcracker. 

    The dancers were excellent - although both Chudin and Shrainer had minor wobbles at the end of their Act 2 variations - but IMO the choreography was simply not worthy of them.

    The Royal Ballet: Les Patineurs, Winter Dreams, The Concert, December 2018

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    Loved Patineurs, an all round fabulous cast led by Sambe. His BlueBoy has it all: great elevation, super fast spins and unaffected joy - he truly lit up the stage and lifted the ballet ! 

     

    The change in mood to Winter Dreams is err quite extreme and although it was warmly received, it was a slightly lukewarm reception - my daughter saw it for the first time and didn't like it at all. The cast was excellent with one caveat in that whilst Soares acted convincingly IMO it's not enough in a role which requires a significant amount of dancing.  I'm sorry to say that Soares execution of the steps was fudged at best and that really takes something meaningful away from the role. 

    • Like 4

    The Royal Ballet: Ballet Studio Live

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    2 hours ago, alison said:

    Yes, that's why I only booked for 2 - and restricted view, at that!

     

    I omitted to say that class was taken by Matz Skoog - looked like a nice one - and good to see him including chassés, as we know dancers don't really seem to know how to do them these days.  Wouldn't have minded doing it myself if I were anywhere near that level :)  Would anyone like to have a go at listing all the dancers involved?

     

    In addition to those already mentioned I think 

     

    Harrison Lee

    Harris Bell 

    Stanislaw Wegrzyn

    Aiden O’Brien

    Joshua Junker 

    Davide Lorricho

    Joonhyuk Jun 

    Taisuke Nakao 

    • Like 1

    The Royal Ballet: Ballet Studio Live

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Quintus said:

     

    Today's dancers were mostly from the Aub Jebsen programme , which I hadn't been aware of before. Several were quite impressive, so fingers crossed for them getting full contracts in due course.   Taisuko Nakao had some serious height in his jumps, and of the girls Katherina Nikelski and  Yu Hang looked very neat and accomplished, while Lania Atkins was also both graceful and striking.

     

    More of this kind of thing!

     

    Most impressive of all was 1st soloist William Bracewell, what great control he has. 

     

    The second rehearsal was the Nutcracker pdd : Fumi Kaneko and William Bracewell coached by Lesley Collier and Gary Avis. 

     

    It was a terrific event although I agree with Alison about the acoustics. 

    • Like 4

    The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker, December 2018 - January 2019

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    9 hours ago, FrankH said:

     

    As for Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov, of course they were excellent. And yet, I didn’t find their performances as compelling as previous performances in other ballets. I realise that this is because of the rather unsatisfactory nature of The Nutcracker as an example of “narrative ballet”, in that the two leading parts in terms of the choreography, are given to characters who are peripheral to any dramatic thrust the “story” might have. When I have seen Núñez and Muntagirov previously (Manon, Two Pigeons, La Bayadère etc.) it has generally been in ballets where they have to dance and act out situations of great emotional depth, which of course they do wonderfully. Here in The Nutcracker, they were required merely (!) to dance excellently, while their facial expressions were frozen into rather vapid grins (please forgive me for these heretical thoughts).

     

     

     

    Interesting ...... because I actually prefer them (either individually or together) in those ballets where they don't need to act;  there is not a trace of tension in their execution of the steps, they just show us how technically superb they are. 

    • Like 2
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