chrischris

How full are the friends rehearsals usually? Never been, and just wondered whether they were performing in front of a full house, half full, just a few people etc

Would be interested to hear from anyone that went tonight what Apollo was like with Lamb, Pennefather, Mendizabal and Cowley. Pennefather and Lamb is one of my favourite partnerships. Also still hearing such widely differing views on 24 preludes and Aeternum

I agree Alison. I wish they'd do Manon and Mayerling more regularly and cut back on The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. I know they are the money spinners, but still....

Apparently all but one of the advertised cast for 24 preludes today was replaced. Not sure why, but i'm guessing illness.

Anyone go last night?

It's an interesting point, and I agree that there is a danger that a lot of the comments you see on twitter are just PR, but i'm not sure if, at the moment, professional critics are really contributing anything substantial. When I was a teenager, in the late 90's, I used to save up my pocket money to buy the monthly film magazines and used to read them religiously, as it was, at the time, one of the few places where you could find out about castings and read reviews of the latest releases. With the advent of social media, I don't think i've looked at those magazines in years, as you can gauge opinion on things like twitter and FB, and the long, detailed in depth reviews now appear on blogs, often written by people who are more knowledgeable about the genre than the professional critics. Similarly with music; I don't think i've read NME or Q in about a decade, and most of the music I listen to know i've picked up from social media, or have been sent over social media by friends in different countries recommending things. I think traditional media still has its place, but I often feel that newspapers, magazines and radio are now responding to public opinion and social media, whereas in the past, traditional media led the way. I'm new to ballet, and i'm not sure what kind of impact the loss of newspapers etc would have on an artform which is relatively niche, but to be honest, i've learned more about ballet in the couple of months since I discovered this forum than I have in the last year or two of just following ballet through the newspapers, so for me personally, it wouldn't be a great loss. I think the next few years will be interesting. For example, I love tennis and athletics, and there is a huge issue at the moment with a lot of the athlete interviews and match reports being covered by bloggers and general sports fans on social media and forums, reducing (and sometimes completely eliminating) the need for professional sports writers from the major publications to attend events; in a lot of cases their articles and reports are already out of date the minute they are published. They argue that if they don't attend events, player interviews and press conferences simply won't happen, and want the access of bloggers and laypeople curatiled, but how do you stop it? I would imagine ballet might face a similar problem.

I've just found this thread, and found some of the comments really interesting. I said on another thread that I never really pay much attention to critics, being of the generation where news and views are sourced from social media and traditional reviewers are largely obsolete and seem quite pretentious, and I do think it would be interesting to look back on this thread in 10 years time to see whether publications still have professional critics (or whether the newspapers mentioned still run print editions).

I guess I don't know enough about previous dancers or dancers from other companies to compare. Actually, thinking about it, the dancers I like best tend to be the ones who get the worst reviews, and the ones who are international stars and everyone raves about, i'm more 'meh' about. Guess it proves how subjective views are, and how people want/ get different things out of each performance.

Really? I find Soares, Kish, Watson, Pennefather, McRae & Bonelli all pretty impressive, with some good up and comers. They could maybe do with a couple more, but I think the danger of adding new ones is that it denies the current principal's the opportunities to develop.

I don't generally pay attention to critics, but I read this one by Graham Watts and he says this bill illustrated the weaknesses of the royal ballet male principals, in comparison to the females. Not sure I agree. I think actually the royal has quite an impressive lineup of male principals at the moment, albeit with some coming to the end of their careers. http://londondance.com/articles/reviews/royal-ballet-apollo-24-preludes-aeternum/#.USuK_w1NSlY.twitter

Some more photos of this bill here. I think the photographer is Rupert Pennefather's sister. http://alicepennefatherdancephotography.wordpress.com/the-royal-ballet/apollo-24-preludes-aeternum/

Thanks Sim. That's interesting.

That made me laugh out loud

I've never really understood how flower throwing works. Do people in the audience have the bouquets on their laps throughout the performance and then pick stems off to throw after the performance, or do ushers give them out? It's always puzzled me. I remember when Darcey retired and the stage was covered in flowers. I'd be too worried i'd miss and chuck it at another audience members head.

Quote I was referring to, from http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/stage/dance/article3658465.ece "Reid Anderson, the artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet who owns the rights to Onegin, is famously picky when it comes to casting decisions and, as far as I can remember, there has never been a blond Onegin. “Just because you are blond doesn’t mean you can’t be aloof,” Lamb retorts. “But I think Reid felt that Valeri has more of a stereotypical dark brooding face.”

In the recent article in The Times with Sarah Lamb, she indicated Anderson didn't want Pennefather to dance in Onegin and the journalist indicated it may be because he didn't have the right look. I saw a funny interview with Tamara Rojo ages where she said that after Anderson told her he was taking her off the ballet, she was really upset and he couldn't get out of her dressing room because he didn't know the combination for the lock, so she told him that she was going to take the opportunity to kill him. She said seeing how scared he got made her feel slightly better about losing the role.

It seems like Reid Anderson is very particular about who he lets dance Onegin.

He doesn't come across as a very sympathetic character, but he's from a different culture/ country, and had a childhood that was economically much tougher than is the norm in western Europe, so it's difficult to judge. I have to subscribe to the Times/ Sunday Times for work, so can't help lining Murdoch's pockets. People can PM me if they want to see articles.

Good news. ENB needs all the help it can get.

I've read interviews with male principal's where they have lamented the lack of opportunities to dance, on account of the number of dancers, so maybe they are all jumping at the chance to take advantage of the gap left by Polunin.

I guess Kobborg and Acosta will be retiring soon? I wouldn't be surprised if Alexander Campbell was promoted to principal soon.

Don't get me wrong, I think Polunin is great and i'm sure he's wonderful in this, I just think sometimes he is praised so much, and so many adjectives are thrown about, the actual performances can't always live up to such hype. A bit like being underwhelmed by a Meryl Streep performance. I can't really comment on the actual comparisons to Nuryev. I don't really know much about him, and never seen any footage of him dancing.

I disagree. His dancing has been enormously hyped (i've lost count of the number of times he has been referred to as the next Nuryev) and I have been left a little underwhelmed by him in the past, though I haven't seen this or any recent performances.

Interesting to read some of the views floating around. I think Polunin has been hyped so much it's understandble if, for some people, he doesn't quite live up to it.

Hasn't it also been an issue with male dancers and Mayerling? Probably the most difficult ballet for male dancers, everyone wants to dance it, so people only get 1 or 2 performances and then have to wait a few years for it to come round again.