Don Q Fan

I always think it would help if cast sheets said which fairy is in which colour tutu as I never know which one is which in Sleeping Beauty unless I know the dancers and then in Swan Lake the different Act3 national dances, apart from the Spanish and Russian which are obvious I never know what is Neapolitan or Hungarian, Polish etc... 

In Sleeping Beauty which fairy is the one that does the flitting dance with "twiddling" fingers solo? 

I hope that theatres will continue to stream especially while they may have limited audiences.  I certainly do not want to sit in a theatre any time soon. Maybe 2022 but it remains to be seen how the public behave.

On 22/02/2021 at 15:49, oncnp said:

Giselle from Vienna State Ballet Sat 27 Feb

 

Saturday, February 27, 2021, 7:00 p.m. - Ballet

Adolphe Adam

GISELLE (performance of September 28, 2017).

Conductor: Valery Ovsyanikov

Choreography: Elena Chernishova after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa.

Featuring Performances: Nina Poláková, Masayu Kimoto, soloists and corps de ballet of the Vienna State Ballet

 

 

: https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/

Just be careful of the time as UK it is GMT  this is probably on at 6pm in the UK not 7.

Really pleased that a newer performance of Vienna Waltzes will be screened!  I have only seen this once live in NYC as it got cancelled on the Paris tour a few years ago due to rights issues with the music not being allowed to be played in Europe??!!!

According to the Bolshoi's Twitter feed 3 members of the Company have been awarded honours by the State.  The translation reads:-

For his great contribution to the development of Russian culture and art, many years of fruitful activity, the honorary title "Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation" was awarded to the conductor of the orchestra Pavel Klinichev and the ballet troupe's premieres Artem Ovcharenko and Semyon Chudin. Congratulations!

Oh yes wouldn't a full Royal Ballet Company Grand Defile at ROH be fabulous!  Think I have only ever seen the RBS do it in their annual gala.  Dutch National Ballet always do a full GD at their season opening gala and it is wonderful to see the whole company glittering on stage - here's the GD at DNB from 2018.

On 31/01/2021 at 17:18, DanJL said:

True enough. I have seen and greatly enjoyed other very recent performances to empty theatres (San Francisco Ballet virtual gala and last night's La Scala Giselle for example). But since everyone else seems to have enjoyed the POB gala, probably it's just my own lack of ballet watching experience. Or maybe the style just happens to not be to my taste.

It may have been because these 3 ballets are more or less plotless as well. Nonetheless I enjoyed them. 

The POB gala was great. Really lovely selection of works. So glad I caught it whilst it is free. I was pleased to see Valentine Colasante as I witnessed her promotion to Etoile after a DonQ in Jan 2018. Such a special event! I thought her balances were pretty good and her pointe work in the solo in Grand Pas Classique was great. That was my favourite of the 3 works for sure and really enjoyed Thrill and the latter part of In The Night. A lovely way to spend just over an hour, or which was good because my attention capacity is somewhat reduced at the moment (too much time staring at a phone no doubt!) (I did post the event on the calendar yesterday but it's disappeared for some reason) 

On 13/01/2021 at 15:22, Bruce Wall said:

Think DonQFan's list is excellent.  Would just like to add for the Royal Ballet FILLE ... because I have a feeling we all need its sun just now ... If there ever was a ballet to evoke smiles that is it in my book.  

Thank you!  Yes La Fille Mal Gardee  as well - I did think of that AFTER I had shut the pc down!!

My wish list would be for - although most would probably need the dancers to be vaccinated as well! 

I would love for The Trocks and The Mikhailovsky to tour to the UK (when safe to do so)

For The Royal Ballet

Don Quixote

Jewels

Onegin

Swan Lake

Month in The Country

Les Patineurs

In The Night

Any other Ashton

Any other Balanchine

For Dutch National Ballet

Frida 

Onegin (which is/was in 2020/21 season)

Don Quixote 

Paquita (which was in 2020/21 season but was cut short by quarantines)

Cinderella

Five Tangos

For ENB

Raymonda

Swan Lake

Cinderella

Suite en Blanc

Etudes

Giselle - one or both versions Skeaping/Khan

On 03/01/2021 at 22:52, Odyssey said:

I enjoy reading dance biographies and autobiographies, and over the years have read quite a few. Among my favourites are Dancing on My Grave, the first of Gelsey Kirkland’s two autobiographies, Nijinsky, a biography written by his wife,Romola Nijinsky, Nureyev biographies by both Peter Watson and Diane Soloway. Different Drummer, a comprehensive biography of Kenneth Macmillan, Lynn, Lynn Seymour’s autobiography, two meaty biographies of Ashton & Fonteyn: Secret Muses, the life of Frederick Ashton  by Julie Kavanagh and Margot Fonteyn by Meredith Daneman, Dancing Away, Deborah Bull’s account of the period when the Royal Opera House was closed for redevelopment Wrights and Wrongs, Sir Peter Wright’s refreshingly frank autobiography, Diaghilev by Richard Buckle and Hope in a Ballet Shoe, Michaela DePrince’s uplifting story, co-written with her Mum.

Thank you for all these suggestions! 

Thank you

I have been reading some biographical type books about ballet just lately and I thought it may be nice to have a thread where we share thoughts on the various books out there?  Some books are also hard to come by so this be a place where we can exchange info about where to find books or arrange a loan or swap etc...

The first book I read was "Balanchine and The Lost Muse, Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer" by Elizabeth Kendall which I got cheap 2nd hand on Ebay (my go to place for books!)  

This was an interesting read starting from George Balanchine's childhood and education in St Petersburg and going up to his early 20s.  It also looks at Lidochka Ivanova who was his peer but she sadly died in somewhat mysterious circumstances.  This book is best read before the Gottlieb book about Balanchine as it predates his life in that second book which I have got here to read.    As a consequence of reading this book I have ordered a book about Danilova but it has yet to turn up (ordered in November!) I hope it does come.  I am also on the hunt for a cheap copy of "I, Maya Plisetskaya".

The second book I read was "Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance" by Daria Klimentova.  It was a nice book to read - an easy read - and contains a fascinating chronology of all the performances Daria did and with whom.  It was interesting to read what it was like working under different Directors and with different dance partners and I was quite surprised at some of what I read.

Then I read Margot Fonteyn's Autobiography - this was also an interesting read although I wished it had more about Nureyev in it. I found the chapters about her married life a bit tedious as I just wanted to know about the ballet side of her life!  

I would love to hear about other books you may have read about dancers or ballet in general.  

May I add my thanks to everyone behind the scenes that keeps BCo going!  Happy New Year and stay safe and well everyone!

I tried to see the RDB Nutcracker but is geo-blocked.  There are however loads of Nutcrackers on youTube such as Mariinsky, Kieve Ballet, Bolshoi....plus ENB will stream from Thursday.

Really pleased about this as I like Eagling's Nutcracker.  It will be interesting to see how they do it!   I have added the event to the calendar.  Plus we get to see their newest principal Natasha Mair.

Such a shame the live stream has been cancelled.  However, I know it's not RB, but ENB managed to record their Nutcracker Delights and will show this free from 24 December 2pm for a month as a gift to patrons in their 70th anniversary year.  Details in the Events Calendar.

I saw that Marque was promoted to Etoile.  Unfortunately I can't say I had heard of him, but congratulations to him anyway.  

I find it disappointing that Francois Alu is still not an Etoile.  It seems Aurelie Dupont has a downer on Alu, such a shame as I was so impressed with him when I saw him in Rubies and again in Swan Lake, albeit as Rothbart.  Personalities really should be set aside and promotions made on merit.  I have to say I joined the comments on instagram questioning why Alu has not been promoted (not that he appeared in this particular show) as there were many others asking the same.

How many people are allowed in the auditorium now? 

The YDA have mentioned on Instagram that you can "purchase access" to view the show on demand, still can't see anything on their website as to how much or where to buy so it must be on the day. 

This showcase looks rather nice especially as there are guest dancers from the Royal Ballet - Nunez, Muntagirov (Nutcracker), Naghdi, Ball (Corsaire), Bracewell (Swan Lake).

It seems to be free but no idea how long it will be up for so best watch at the stream time of 6pm GMT.

I have put it in the events calendar.

https://www.youngdancersacademy.com/

I really enjoyed this gala, surprisingly!  It is probably the quirkiest show I have ever seen but it was most enjoyable.  Despite it all being modern dance the music and they way it was presented in short works suited my tolerance level for modern stuff.  For me the highlight was the "Buzzard and Kestrel" premiere from William Forsythe with Tiler Peck as the female lead, and she was wonderful.  Osipova's piece was nice too I liked the music but agree her dress was awful!  The most fun pieces were The Wine Dance and the piece with the Soweto dancers.  Hofesch Schechter was just bonkers!  I enjoyed the rather hip hop piece with Matthew Ball as well.  I didn't know where Guillem featured but now I know I will go and look at it again.  I have never seen her dance so I may as well see her picking olives!  All in all a great watch IMHO!

I cant find a recording of Wayne's record online.

Of course I forgot to add that the whole programme was excellent and well worth every bit of the €12!  Makhateli and Choi were wonderful in Corsaire.

Not wishing to rain on the parade but the show broadcast on 28 November was actually a recording of the real live theatre show from 13 October.   Subsequently the stream due for 4 December was unfortunately changed as there is a covid infection in the company and the dancers had to quarantine so they showed the 28 November show/recording again instead.  Hopefully the other 2 streams will go ahead with respective casts although I was rather hoping to see Maia Makhateli in Paquita on 4th.  I will save my money now for the Christmas Gala on 19th which looks good (and includes an Onegin excerpt!)