annamk

Following the cast change I'm looking for a stalls circle standing if anyone has a spare. Please message me.

I saw the matinee and Act 2 this evening.

There was plenty to enjoy in both performances but my particular highlights were James Hay’s outstanding Hans Peter, (not only in his ability to execute the steps faultlessly but in his attention to all the little details that flesh out a character) and Fumi Kaneko’s exquisite SPF. 

I thought William Bracewell acquitted himself very well, particularly considering it was his debut in a principal role at the RoH and as such was probably pretty nerve wracking.  He was an attentive and careful partner, his solos were tidy, his pirouettes finished with control. Job well done IMO.

Fumi was outstanding: she has the most gorgeous fluid arms and she moves exquisitely, through and beyond the music. I was talking to a friend this morning who said she has soul and I thought that captured perfectly the very special quality that she has. 

Actually I just found one on the RoH website so I'm sorted. 

You could ask the box office to reprint it and leave it for me - if that’s not too much trouble ? 

Does anyone have a spare ? 

Bumping up - D34 still available. 

I messaged you. D45 is yours. 

Message me if interested. Anna 

All tx spoken for. 

D6 has gone 

D7 spoken for. 

£9 each. Message me. 

I have 2 tickets to the sold out NFT showing of the film Bolshoi plus a Q & A with the director Valery Todorovsky. It's this Friday at 8.30 pm and the seating is unallocated. The tickets are £16 each and I could post them. Message me if interested. 

£5 - it's an e-ticket, message me if interested. 

Tx now gone.

D44 & D45 £5 each. E-tickets. 

I enjoyed The Illustrated Farewell. The first half of the pdd for McRae/Lamb was terrifically exciting with plenty of opportunity for them to show off their tricks. The second part had to be quieter, if nothing else to give them a chance to recover, but I felt it flagged (I had an involuntary shopping list moment) and the transition to the original piece might have worked better if other dancers had been introduced earlier. I thought the second part showed off the RB dancers very well, they looked fabulous dancing the interesting Tharp choreography - I agree that Sissens and Magri stood out although I was impressed with the other five soloists too. At times there was so much going on on stage it was sometimes difficult to know where to look. 

The Wind - well on the positive side the music was evocative , the staging and lighting created some memorable images but the choreography could have been made by a child. What a waste of talented dancers especially Osipova thrashing around at the end for far too long. The characters were caricatures none more so than Tom Whitehead strutting around as Wirt Roddy which brings me neatly by biggest issue - why oh why, in this day and age, do male choreographers think it's still ok to depict abuse against women on stage ? 

Interesting that the RB feels the need to invite 2 male guest principals ..... Bolle, talent though he was, at 42 is surely past his prime for a role like Des Grieux ? 

On 10/5/2017 at 09:35, Angela said:

Here's a review of the Munich Shrew with pictures:

https://www.ilona-landgraf.com/2017/10/a-patchy-beginning/

Thank you for posting this review Angela - very interesting to read and I would never have found it myself. 

I can no longer make this insight so I'm selling C9 for £17. I can leave it at the box office. PM me if interested. Anna 

I've admired this small company tremendously since I first saw them at The Place a couple of years ago. They recently appeared at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh and when I read the reviews of the bill via the links 

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/dance-review-richard-alston-dance-company-festival-theatre-edinburgh-1-4570266  

I checked out their tour venues and off I went to Woking yesterday evening. 

Alston's pieces are simply terrific : the choreography is so clever, imaginative and beautiful it needs no fancy staging to embellish it. The company dance it with feeling, sensitivity and modesty, not a weak link amongst them. The standout dancer is the phenomenal Liam Riddick, who IMO is one of the most mesmerising performers around in any genre of dance. 

There are more dates here 

https://www.richardalstondance.com/performances?category[]=69&field_venue_tid=All

worth catching if you can. 

Phenomenal, mesmerising performances this afternoon.

Poor Fernando Bufala limped off injured less than 10 minutes in and the performance was restarted 10 minutes later with Altor Arrrieta stepping in to dance with Fernando Oliveira. So good were they that you would never have guessed they weren't scheduled to dance together.

Jeffrey Cirio (Hilarion) & Sarah Kundi (Myrtha) were terrific. 

The was my 2nd viewing this run and it feels slightly different to the first run but I can't say specifically what, if anything, might have changed. 

Anyway, I think it's a triumph of a production & a fantastic showcase for the company which plays to its strengths. 

43 minutes ago, MAB said:

 

Infra ......... if it had "failings" it wouldn't have been revived, let alone taken into the repertory of anther company.

Really ? Plenty of new works with "failings" have been/are being revived  :, Untouchable, Raven Girl, Strapless ...... 

50 minutes ago, queenofspades said:

Sorry to bother, but who has a perfect technique? I'm afraid no one.

Yes, there are 6 assembles (I never thought an excuse would be necessary, but nevertheless), 6 of those, then chainees according to the music and a double on a knee), but in the first part of the coda he does  2 very high and exquisite  double  grand Jete Entrelace (some person above called them split jumps ). Exqusite, because those jumps of this dancer are unique indeed: he does them from the left foot, one-two-three, on three, he is a lefty. Probably his special technique makes this jump higher and generally humm wider, than the same performed by non-lefties, they do it on one-two... if you count steps before the jump itself... Btw he does those famous jumps in DQ also, 4 times.   But back to Bayadere. coda...  and then after a grand jete he does a very sharp  pas de ciseaux, .. and a very spectacular saut de basque landed on a knee. Only after  that assembles go. 

 

Why am I mentioning those pas? That's why: if some ballet lovers are inclined to count elements Ultra C (those of highest difficulty rating) included in one solo, then all these makes his coda the most intense,  technically challenging and, what is important, balanced, because those Ultra C pas (jumps) occur not only in the last part of the coda, but actually from the first till the last second of this iconic male solo of the Bayadere Shades act.

 

And about his DQ. First of all, this dancer is 6 feet 4 inches tall and obviously given his height he must be a very unusual Basilio.  Earlier this role was considered being against his emploi (if he had one). Now he made it his own. He is one of the best partners in the company, elegant and tidy soloist and his DQ solos are quite dynamic and fast, if the conductor gives the right tempo. Repnikov managed to set a right fast tempo. Sorry, but I'm surprised that few people even  considered that matinee (and the evening perf too) better than previous three or even the best  and yet the same people were not quite impressed with the soloist. How can that be? An unimpressive soloist obviously destroys a performance, so how come this didn't happen? Were there any errors or missteps?

Or maybe this dancer just breaks local audience's stereotype re this male part of DQ ballet?

 

Thanks to all for their very interesting reviews and have a good day. 

 

 

It was me talking about "split jumps" and I can now understand from your comments that the jump I was referring to was not the grand jete enterlace but the "pas de ciseaux". Kim, Shklyarov and Askerov all just seemed to make a combination of double grand Jete Entrelace and/or an assemble. The pas de ciseaux seemed odd.