chrischris

Lamb and Pennefather today were absolutely stunning. One of the best experiences i've ever had at the ballet.

I think they may regret putting on so many Manon's

That's a nice article. You certainly notice if the corps is ragged in a performance. I've read before about dancers feeling that they did not progress as fast as they should have done because they did not push themselves forward. How does a dancer do this? Go up to the AD and ask for a role? Complain about the role which you have been given? Enlist the support of one of the other members of staff eg the ballet mistress? Do pushier people really go further?

Didn't Rupert Pennefather go up to Sylvie Guillem and ask to be her Paris because he was frustrated about not being cast in anything? I guess sometimes you do have to be pushy and put yourself out there. Takes guts though.

What theatres don't let you book single tickets online? I've never come across any.

The Almeida often puts on restrictions, and the Delfont Mackintosh theatres do at times, though with some of their theatres I am just going by what friends have told me. At a lot of theatres it is also impossible to book double or more seats if it leaves a single one spare. Think some theatres may be a missing a trick there!

Joint Friends: presumably that would be two people living together at the same address, or something? That's single-ist.

 

Not that that surprises me: this whole society of ours is single-ist, as witnessed by the latest addition to the national Railcards - the "Two Together" Railcard - but it's no less disgusting for it.

I can't believe the amount of theatres that won't let you book single tickets online. It's crazy.

It's not modern, but I've always thought the film The Piano would make an excellent ballet, with that amazing Michael Nyman score and a story that is, essentially, about a woman caught between a man she loves and a husband she doesn't (pretty standard ballet storyline). Not sure how you would translate the lead characters silence on to a silent artform, but the imagery in that film is so striking, I can see it working well on stage.

Yes indeed....some of us were looking forward to seeing Yanowsky! and indeed Pennefather, whom I haven't seen for about 3 years due to injury, changes etc. 

But I shall go with the flow...

yeah in my opinion he is better than Bonelli in this role, but I will be interested to see Osipova.

Don't think you can beat Yanowsky in this role, to be honest......

Again, this is a general comment.

 

I think that as it is so incredibly difficult to become a classical dancer in a company, with possible rejection all along the way, it can be the case that the child and later young person can be so caught up in trying to 'make it' that s/he does not really appreciate what company life will be like. That is not a failing on his/her part. The reality is that you have to lead an incredibly disciplined life for years. You never really get a break. Even on holiday many dancers take class. You cannot eat or drink what you want. There is the ever present spectre of injuries and the issues of constant comparison and competition with your peers. You are entirely dependent on the whims of your current AD and choreographers and there is no real redress if you feel that you are being unfairly treated. You work unsocial hours and often have to work over Christmas, New Year and Easter and other Bank Holidays and have no choice whatsoever as to when you take your holidays. The pay for most dancers is poor or fairly poor compared to other highly trained and hard working professionals and promotion can be very difficult.

I think that's a really key issue, and one people always shy away from addressing, in part because it's sometimes genuinely uncomfortable to talk about money but also because there is still that expectation sometimes that people should dance because they love it, and talking about the financial side of an art form degrades it (or whatever), but people need to eat, and pay the bills, and if you are sacrificing all the things you have to sacrifice to make it as a professional, and you are still earning less than someone doing a basic admin job in an office, even the most dedicated dancer is going to question their choices at some stage.

Would love to have been able to go. You hear so many good things about the US based dancers like Kent, Murphy, Gomes etc, it would be nice to see them over here.

There are a few female principals in their late 30's, and while of course it is possible to continue dancing well in to your forties, perhaps there will be more opportunities for the younger dancers to be promoted in the next 2-3 years.

I wonder if any of the RB, ENB, BRB or NB could survive without Arts Council funding?

Given this time of financial constraint I wish ENB every continued success. However, they may be faced with the stark choice of find an accepting city who will support them or drastically reduce their ambitions.

 

I remember very well all the deliberations when it was mooted that SWRB should move to Birmingham. Thank goodness they went because for the last 25 years 60 plus dancers and all the support network have had jobs. Had they declined the offer it would not have been long before the company would have ceased to be.

 

The audience and the amount of public money for ballet is finite. ENB have done incredibly well to stay afloat for all these years but the Royal holds all the trump cards, not least the amount of broadcast coverage they are getting. I would love to see the annual broadcast of The Nutcracker or another Swan Lake be replaced by Le Corsair or something equally interesting but performed by another company. I cannot see that Tamara can possibly achieve all she wants under the current set up. I will be very happy to be proved wrong as it would be a great result for Ballet. We will see.

I think that is the key point. People talk constantly about ways to increase the number of people who go to the ballet and make it more accessible etc, and have been doing so for decades it seems. Does there come a point where you just throw in the towel and accept that it is a pretty niche art form that isn't hugely popular with a wide audience?

According to the Agony and Ecstasy programme it costed ENB £100,000 per week to tour 4 years ago and so BRB has been handsomely rewarded for touring one extra week if that's all that it is required to do for its extra money. I think that Tamara is in a difficult situation. She wants to broaden the repertoire but realistically ENB struggles to sell anything other than the classics to the regions and in London ENB is competing directly with the RB whose own repertoire is becoming more eclectic. The Arts Council is under pressure to move more funding to the regions and both the London based ballet companies have felt the consequences of this. BRB, a smaller company than ENB, was more generously funded by ACE even before the latest settlement; it will be receiving over one million pounds more in grant aid than ENB from next year. 

This is what I meant ages ago when I said I didn't see the point of ENB; it can't really compete with the RB in London and there are other companies doing similar things in other parts of the UK. I sometimes wonder whether ENB is a strong enough 'brand' to be successful as a full touring company, and have wondered whether it should just merge with the RB and be the RB touring company, marketing itself as the RB and the dancers as RB dancers, which I believe used to happen before the BRB was formed? Of course it would be better to tour to places not covered by the BRB and NB.

I may be completely wrong though and even the RB is not a strong enough brand to be a touring company.

I would be ineterested to know whether the issues dicussed here also occur in New York, with two huge companies (ABT & NYCB) competing for limited funds (of course those funds are private and not a government subsidy). Perhaps a topic for another thread.

Guess he'll be doing Alice as well.

Oh no?  One person comes to mind immediately, and there may be others.

Yeah i can think of a couple

I guess people not cast in either Onegin or SL will be having a pretty quiet period, work wise.

Kish was cast two years ago (can't remember who he was partnered with)

Thanks. Didn't know that.

I guess, but Hamilton has been rising so quickly, I just assumed she would be cast.

Really surprised Hamilton has not been cast in Swan Lake. I thought that would have been a given.

Surprised about Kish getting Onegin, but good for him. Was hoping Pennefather would have been cast in that.

I appreciate that Luke jennings has been one of the most high profile journalists to constantly raise the ridiculous opportunities given to women choreographers, as he does again here.

I know loads of people who go to Glasto who are all in their 40s and older!

 

I saw Pink Floyd when I was 16 or 17 (or both!) pre DSOM! At the second gig, they performed DSOM in its entirety pre-vinyl release.

 

I don't do camping and mud for anyone!!!

yeah Glasto, bestival, latitude etc are completely different and have people of all different ages. There are a few festivals, which i've mentioned, which seem to be more popular with teenagers.

I last went to Reading and V when I was about 22/ 23 and I swear I was about 10 years older than everyone. It was full of teenagers getting drunk and doing drugs for the first time, decked out in their regulation Nirvana and Che Guevara t-shirts. Never again.......

wasn't the stage very slippery though (in the rain/after it rained, as it wasn't covered)? I should imagine it would have been idyllic, under optimal conditions and worth having a go at it, for sure. Had there been more bands performing that I liked I would have been very tempted to have gone that year!  :-)

I can't remember to be honest.

When I was younger I used to love festivals like Reading, Leeds, V, isle of Wight, but when you get to about 22 you are too old for them. I love glasto and used to work there when I was younger, which got me free tickets. The idea of working there now doesn't appeal,and I can't afford the tickets and cost of traveling, so I skip it. I find that smaller festivals like latitude, bestival, lunar etc offer the best in terms of experience and value for money, and you can see really interesting bands and dance companies there. They are also less crowded so you can get a closer look.

At Latitude, they tried to do Swan Lake, on an 'island' in the middle of a lake - in the rain! I wasn't there, but from reading online reports, I don't think it was anywhere near as successful as 'Dust' was on Sunday. Think they got it dead right this time - the piece was striking and a real audience attention grabber, and very timely in its theme being almost 100 years to that fateful day in Sarajevo.

 

Whoever dreamed of linking up this way with Glastonbury - 10/10!!

It was beautiful actually. Beautiful setting. It may have helped that pretty much everyone watching seemed to be stoned! I think that performing at festivals is a great way of introducing people to ballet.