Ian Macmillan

In case anyone following the progress of the YAGP youngsters in the documentary missed it, scroll about halfway down in this review of a Dance Theater of Harlem bill in Saturday's Links for the latest on Miss DePrince, who appears to be fulfilling her potential: http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2013/06/a-lark-ascends/

This link is off-thread insofar as it deals with next season and beyond, but it appears that the ROH will be working with a different distribution company in future: http://www.screendaily.com/news/aam-to-distribute-royal-opera-house-season/5057667.article

If we're playing by Roy Plomley rules, people will be wanting to bring a book next - ie in addition to the provided Bible and Full Works of Shakespeare.

Links – Monday, June 24, 2013 Reviews – American Ballet Theatre, Swan Lake: Alastair Macaulay, NY Times (3 casts) Marina Harss, DanceTabs (2 casts) Kina Poon, Dance Magazine (Hee Seo cast) Patrick Kennedy, Broadway World (Veronika Part cast) Melbourne Reviews – Australian Ballet, Swan Lake: Jordan Beth Vincent, DanceTabs Chloe Smethurst, The Age Brisbane Review – Queensland Ballet, Giselle (3 casts): Deborah Jones, The Australian ‘Sadler’s Sampled’ Season Review : Made at Sadler’s Wells, Afterlight Part One, Faun, UNDANCE: Vera Liber, British Theatre Guide Review – The Forsythe Company, N.N.N.N., Study #3: Nouska Hanley, Daily Express Reviews – Royal Ballet & Royal Ballet of Flanders, Britten Dances: Jane Simpson, DanceTabs James Hayward, East Anglian Daily Times Feature – NYCB’s Sara Mearns & NY Phil, A Dancer’s Dream: Gia Kourlas, NY Times Preview – Compagnie Käfig, Correria, AGWA: Jack Anderson, NY Times Sydney Review – Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggai, Opal Vapour: Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald Paris Review – Le Théâtre du Corps, M et Mme Rêve: Judith Mackrell, Guardian Cash injection for South African Mzansi Ballet: Dimakatso Motau, Sowetan Opera and Ballet street protests continue in Cairo: Ati Metwaly, ahramonline Whilst the first Ballet School opens on the West Bank: Dalia Hatuqa, Aljazeera

I suspect this very positive-sounding news item may come as a surprise to many: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/06/2013616113641548168.html It did to me.

Links – Sunday, June 23, 2013 David Wall – Additional Obituaries: Telegraph LondonDance Review – Hubbard St Dance & Alonzo King Lines, Little Mortal Jump, Scheherazade, Azimuth: Lewis Segal, LA Times Reviews – The Forsythe Company, N.N.N.N, Study #3: Luke Jennings, Observer Jenny Gilbert, Independent on Sunday Feature – Mark Morris talks to Gerard Mortier: Michael Posner, Globe and Mail Preview, of a kind – Bolshoi Ballet’s London Visit: Holly Williams, Independent Interview – Guillaume Côté, National Ballet of Canada: Deirdre Kelly, Globe and Mail Review – 8cho, An aerial Tango show: Jordan Levin, Miami Herald Tour Feature – Birmingham Royal Ballet: Laura Kelly-Walsh, Independent (Ireland) Tour Preview – Ballet Revolución: Elissa Blake, Brisbane Times News – First Direct increases sponsorship of Northern Ballet: Peter Latham, British Theatre Guide News – LA Dance Project Gala raises $250,000: Ellen Oliver, LA Times Gentlemen, as you face a new week, redemption may be variously at hand: Richard Dennen, Daily Mail George Allen, Evening Standard

I appear to have missed something. A number of Tweets this evening, including at least one from Vadim Muntagirov, imply that tonight's performance was Daria Klimentova's last in Swan Lake. Am I showing my ignorance in asking if there has been an announcement that she is about to retire?

Lin's post reminds me that I meant to contribute days ago. I'm sure about the first two, and have had to think a bit about the others. First - The RB's Firebird & Les Noces from around 2001/2 - not so much for the first, though no objections to being marooned with memories of Benjamin and Cope, but for Zenaida Yanowsky's Bride in Les Noces and David Drew's droll Extra, with his reminiscences of rehearsing the first production with Nijinska. I saw Les Noces for the first time during that run, and have been captured by its music, mass movement, and pervasive sense of ritual, ever since. Inter alia, David tells how Nijinska chose the first Bride. She had all the ladies in the company line up in a particular pose, went along the line looking into their eyes, and chose Beriosova as a result. Of course, I cannot say Beriosova looked, but I feel sure that Yanowsky's look of perfect resignation throughout this performance must have been very much what Nijinska had in mind. My second choice would be the RB's DVD of the first run of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with the initial long First Act - primarily on account of Yanowsky demonstrating the other end of her character spectrum as the manic Queen of Hearts. I also happened to be there the night that I think most filming was done, and her Rose Adagio spoof is never-to-be-forgotten! I've also found that watching the CD with its close-ups has given me a much better sense of what Lauren Cuthbertson was doing as Alice in that 70-minute Act I, and my respect for it all has increased accordingly. I'd need something of a contemporary nature and, as there is no commercial recording of Cathy Marston's work, I'd go for Leipzig Ballet's The Great Mass, recorded in 2005. Choreography by Uwe Scholz, using Mozart's C Minor Mass and a number of other pieces, including an Arvo Pärt Credo, it would satisfy on dance and music grounds. For light relief, one of the Trocks' DVDs, probably the one with Swan Lake Act II (the swan on a trolley, Benno being monstered by swans) and the quasi-Balanchine Go for Barocco, which slips in a Brandenburg on the musical side. Are boxed sets allowed? If so, how about No 5 being a set of RB MacMillan ballets: Ferri and Eagling in R&J, Penney and Dowell in Manon, and the Bussell Prince of the Pagodas? By the way, are there any ENB DVDs out there at all? I can't think of one, and I'm sure there ought to be.

This Arts Desk review might help: http://www.theartsdesk.com/opera/gloriana-royal-opera Edited to add: Beryl, you mention music of the period. BBC Radio 4 has just broadcast an hour-long play, Suspicion for 10 Voices, with Simon Russell Beale as William Byrd being charged and questioned about his tendency to hide Catholic references in his work. Excellent - with, Beale, I think, starting the Mass for Four Voices, right at the end before a recording took over. Presumably it'll be on iPlayer for the next week.

Jane: Understood - and I fancy we might be on a similar wavelength regarding that notion. Could Zen be squeezed in too, perhaps .... and I suppose I'd be pushing my luck for Cathy Marston as choreographer?

For me, the biggest bouquet for last night's second performance of Britten Dances at Snape would go to the Britten Sinfonia - absolutely assured playing in the first Britten pieces under Benjamin Pope and in the after-Britten Larry Goves piece, for which I did not greatly care, and then a performance of Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge under Barry Wordsworth that was possibly matchless. The looks on his and the players' faces at the end told me, at least, that they knew they had just done something rather special, and I think the dancers felt it too. I'm pretty much with Minder, above, on the dances. I certainly preferred Ashley Page's two pieces for the Royal Ballet of Flanders to the third, by Cameron McMillan. In the first, If Memory Serves, using Britten's Young Apollo, there are distant echoes of Balanchine, save that in this case we have three young men dancing attendance on one woman. The second, Courting the Senses, a pdd for Principal Genevieve van Quaquebeke and Soloist David Jonathan, served to demonstrate how inherently danceable most Baroque music is - in this case, Britten's arrangement of Purcell's Chacony in G minor. ("No Albinoni Adagio, every note is Purcell's," insisted Catherine Bott on a recent Radio 3 Early Music Show.) The longer Dream Weaver by Cameron McMillan, for 12 dancers in all, meandered and rather lost me, I'm afraid. As I've said, the score did not appeal, despite some very nifty guitar playing by Tom McKinney, and it appeared to include a couple of danced movements of John Cage's 4'33" that I could have done without. I had not seen anything by this company before, and with its new Director, Assis Carreiro's previous DanceEast connection, I imagine there may well be welcome opportunities to see more of them in future. The evening concluded with Kim Brandstrup's Ceremony of Innocence, set on a group of Royal Ballet dancers, led by Edward Watson and Mara Galeazzi - for whom last night was presumably her last in the UK. Background to the piece can be found in a recent interview with Brandstrup for DanceTabs (where I was particularly struck by his wish to have Edward Watson and Tenor, Ian Bostridge, in the same work ... one day): http://dancetabs.com/2013/06/kim-brandstrup-choreographer/ It's an effective piece. Perhaps reflecting the title, the youngsters - Marcelino Sambé solo, and the two couples - seem to get most of the action, with the two Principals brought in and out to give a sense of story, with just the one significant pdd, as I recall. Ed has to sit or stand looking pensive or anguished for much of the time, something he does rather well. I'd certainly be interested to see it again. Edit: I forgot to mention that there was a Spitfire doing some general handling over Snape during the first Interval. Merlin bliss!

Links – Saturday, June 22, 2013 100 Years On: Igor Stravinsky on The Rite of Spring: Robert Craft, The TLS How Walt Disney got ‘Rite of Spring’ right: Sarah Kaufman, Washington Post Reviews – Royal Ballet Dancers, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Britten Dances: Judith Mackrell, Guardian Zoë Anderson, Independent Feature – NYCB’s Newest Principals: Marina Harss, Playbill Arts Review – Akram Khan Company, iTMOi: Judith Flanders, Blog Preview Q&A – Mikko Nissinen, Boston Ballet: Graham Watts, LondonDance Review – Royal Ballet, Hansel and Gretel; Raven Girl: Judith Flanders, Blog Review – Dance Theatre of Harlem, Mixed Bill: Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal Review – Savion Glover, STePz: Robert Johnson, NJ Star-Ledger Sydney Review – Nederlands Dans Theater, Quad Bill: Valerie Lawson, Limelight Preview – Mondial des cultures: Victor Swoboda, Montreal Gazette Review – Avant Garde Dance, Monteverdi Ballets: Cristina de Lucas, One Stop Arts Q & A – Ambra Vallo, BRB’s Retiring Ballerina: Rebecca McKnight, Her.ie Review – Birmingham Royal Ballet, Giselle: Alan Poole, Coventry Telegraph

I have today received an email from ENO, stating that one can now book Dress Circle and Upper Circle tickets, normally £50, at half-price for all performances. This has to be done by 1 July. The booking code to be used is 'BOSTONARTS'.

I'll be on my way to Snape to see the second night shortly - and, in the interests of balance, have adjusted the thread title a little.

As there must be readers here who are unfamiliar with the Royal Albert Hall, a tweet from ENB earlier today links to an instagram photo taken from up top that may convey some idea of the spatial challenge that mounting ballet productions there involves: @ENBtweets: Great photo taken by @BalletandPhotos! We're lucky to have such a great audience every night! Thank you! http://instagram.com/p/axhfKov5GY/

In Bern tonight, Cathy Marston’s Bern Ballett presents the final performance of Hexenhatz, the production that the Company brought to London last month as Witch Hunt. The two performances that I saw remain fresh in my memory and I have often found myself drawn back to Dave Morgan’s gallery here to retrace the action. I confess to being ambivalent about our present-day need to apologise for misdeeds in the distant past when there is nobody from that time from whom we can seek restitution or forgiveness, so the first words spoken by the ‘modern’ Annamiggeli – “The dead …. are done” – have some resonance with me as they set the scene for what follows. It continues to strike me as a compelling and intelligent piece of theatre, one I am likely to polish in memory for years to come. Tonight also brings to a close Cathy’s six-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Bern company, where some years previously she had been a dancer. I’d say that she has a good deal of which to be proud – not least that there is a company to hand on. Not long after arriving in 2007 she found a proposal on the table that the company should close to balance the Stadttheater’s books and she led a very public, and ultimately successful, campaign to keep it going. Her commissioning policy for new work, some 30 ballets in all, and imported pieces by other contemporary choreographers can stand comparison with that anywhere. She has raised the Company’s international profile - the three visits to London (2009/11/13) under her leadership were its first outside Switzerland. Musically, she’s eclectic - whilst Hexenhatz was accompanied by Camerata Bern, her second collaboration with one of Europe’s leading Early Music ensembles, other work has used a local rock band and a local beatbox artiste, and her 2011 Ein Wintersnachtstraum mixed elements of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with bits of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Turntable Concerto. Of her own work that I’ve been able to see there, I would dearly like to see her 2009 Julia und Romeo again, ideally recreated on a UK company – and I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed! Life goes on, however, and she plans to freelance from Bern. Her first commission, Orpheus, using the Stravinsky score, opens in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday, with others to follow over the summer in Copenhagen and Scotland. I have little doubt that she’ll be kept busy, and still less that her experience and achievements over the past six years should one day commend her as the Director of another company – hopefully back here.

Somewhat unusually for a ballet dancer, but clearly marking his significance, David's death has been covered on the BBC Radio 4 News this morning, and there was a item on the Today programme just before 8-30 in which John Humphrys interviewed Deborah Bull about him.

Lin: It's at the end of the Millbank stretch, on a corner of the junction facing Vauxhall Bridge, where the road takes a slight curve. Once you're there, you can hardly miss it as he executes his jeté over the road.

Looking back through the Forum's Twitter timeline today, there has been a very notable reaction to the news of David Wall's death from dancers, critics and fans. Supplementing Sim's reports above, I have selected just two - from Daria Klimentova, replying to critic Graham Watts, and from ENB's dancers. @DKlimentova: .@GWDanceWriter -I don't know how I will dance tomorrow but I will be dedicating my performance to David - without him I would not be at ENB @ENBtweets: We dedicate tonight’s performance to David Wall, who passed away this afternoon. His memory will forever live on in all our hearts. RIP x

The remarkable statue of David that I mentioned earlier can be seen via this Dance UK tweet posted earlier this evening: @DanceUK: A favourite London statue, Jete by dancer David Wall. Sculpture by Enzo Plazzotta 1975. Cast by Morris Singer Foundry http://fb.me/KerWDAMN

My wife became aware through former Company colleagues a few weeks ago that David was very seriously ill, but it's still a shock to hear of his untimely death. RIP. A thought - if anyone has a picture of that most striking statue on the Embankment, it would seem fitting if it could be posted here. Edit: A link to a picture is now at No 14, below.

Regarding overseas touring costs: 1. I see from a piece in today's Sunday Times Culture magazine ( Richard Brooks, Biteback, p14) that Boston Ballet expects to lose some $1.6 million on the forthcoming visit to UK. Despite this - and somebody will presumably have to cover that sum at some point - their Director feels "it is worthwhile to put down a marker and tell London what Boston Ballet can do." (A little earlier, Brooks states that he had been told that the Company has less than 1% public funding, with more than 80% coming from private individuals.) 2. The programme for the recent visit of the small Bern Ballett company to London acknowledged financial contributions made by both Pro Helvetia (the Swiss Arts Council) and a private individual towards making the visit possible. (Despite this assistance, the Company was unable to have Camerata Bern, playing for the production at home, come to London on cost grounds and had to use a recorded score.)

This link may be of some interest: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1186243/

ENB's Great War bill has attracted some attention in an appropriate place: http://www.1914.org/news/english-national-ballet-to-create-centenary-inspired-works/ The logo at top left is, I understand, the official Government one for all Centenary arrangements, so we can expect to see much more of it in the months to come.

Interesting! I know of one young man who, having attended one of our major vocational schools for some years, took himself out having decided it was not a path he now wished to follow, went home, completed his A levels and, on applying for University, found that his ballet years made him a desirable chap at interview, that very fact making him stand out from his competitors.