chrischris

It's great to hear that SP's dancing is as good as ever and that he has matured artistically over the past year. Perhaps his departure from the RB has worked out for the best. If this run goes well I wouldn't be surprised if he were invited back to guest in other performances. You never know, perhaps he'll return full-time...The RB is going to be short of senior male dancers in the next couple of years.

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 was going to type more or less the same views as Anna above, so I won't do it and be repetitive! 

 

ChrisChris, I think most of the hype has been about the fact that he was returning to the RB at all, not actually about his artistry or what his dancing and dramatic interpretation would be like.  As a consequence, the beauty of his vastly matured dramatic and emotional depth knocked most of us for six.  Of his technique there has never been any doubt.  He has certainly grown and improved artistically in the past year.

 

I never liked Marguerite and Armand, but when these two did it a couple of years ago, all of a sudden I liked it as they made it a different ballet.  Last night they did the same....only they took it to a whole new level in all respects.

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.

Reading those articles made me feel sorry for his female dancing partners. It must have been frustrating and challenging for them dancing with someone who was sometimes late or didn't turn up for rehearsals.

Sorry, didn't realise, thanks.

I'm not shocked, unfortunately. There are some horrible people out there, and I think the anonymity of the internet allows some people to act in ways they never would in real life, although this particular case seems to have spilled over in to 'real' life. Just read some of the comments under newspaper articles.

Time for me to trot out that quote again for anyone who hasn't read it already. Some years ago, I was at a Royal Ballet performance - can't remember what it was now, but it may well have been something dramatic and/or MacMillan, certainly a full-evening work. We had just seen an absolutely marvellous performance by one of the company's ballerinas - and I can't remember who *she* was, either - but as we came out I heard a well-dressed youngish man say to his female companion something ending in "but it would have been far better if it had been Darcey Bussell dancing". I was fuming! Not only had this ballerina danced her heart out for us, but it was a role that wasn't even one of Darcey's fortes - and in fact, of the half-dozen ballerinas dancing it she'd probably have been last on my list of "must sees". I bit my tongue, but wish now I'd said something. And there was a more recent case of an audience member actually complaining because they hadn't seen Carlos Acosta dancing (he wasn't scheduled, of course), despite the fact that the dancer who was dancing was recognised as being a lot better in the role than Acosta was.

 

So I'm afraid that the hype does matter - to some extent, at least

 

Chris, I'm pretty certain there's a thread you might like to read in the dancers' section on BalletAlert, too.

Thanks, i've just found it.

I've just joined that forum. Some of the posters are pretty scathing and personal in their attacks on particular dancers. A bit uncalled for.

Also, I think a lot of her fellow dancers at the time were a lot more protective of their privacy (and who can blame them, seeing what "celebrity culture" has become over the last couple of decades?)

That's interesting, thanks. I find it odd that Deborah Bull is not better known. A very impressive person, whose career ran parallel to Darcey's but didn't seem to generate the same level of interest/ attention, despite also being British.

Might we get cards on the table here before proceeding further? Is there a feeling being expressed that being British and being excellent in this particular field are in some way mutually exclusive?

No, of course not.

I wouldn't want to detract from her achievements in any way but, unlike most dancers, Darcey had a very active agent from an early age and was therefore to be seen and heard from more widely than the ballet world. Being chosen by Kenneth MacMillan to have the role of Princess Rose created on her in Prince of the Pagodas was headline-making in itself. Her 'brand' was also, of course, very attractive - youth, beauty, Englishness, apparent niceness - and she arrived on the scene at a time when people were craving for 'the next Margot Fonteyn'.

 

There is a debate to be had, but perhaps not here, about the relative strengths of Darcey and Lauren!!! For the moment, all our fingers need to keep crossed for Lauren's recovery from injury.

Thanks Capybara. I think this is as good a place as any for that discussion. I've heard people be very critical of Bussell's dancing and imply that she achieved much of her success as a result of her Britishness at a time when there were few British dancers. I have no idea whether that is an accurate and justified accusation. I have heard similar things said about Cuthbertson, Watson and Pennefather.

This is something i've always wondered. I'm not an expert on ballet at all, but I, like pretty much everyone in the UK, have always known who Darcey Bussell is. Even before she did Strictly, she was by far the most famous ballerina in the country, and if you asked someone in the UK over the last 10-20 years to name a ballet dancer, I reckon close to 100% of them would have said Darcey.

I've never really understood why that is. Was it just because she's British and became a principal of the most famous ballet company at such a young age? Was she a particularly impressive ballerina, or did her skills lift her above other dancers? Was it just that she was good looking, photogenic and did a lot of the French and Saunders sketches?

I'm not old enough to have seen her dance in her prime, so I don't really know what she was like. It's strange that she became such a household name when other British ballet dancers (Bull, Cuthbertson etc) haven't.

just curious: how "heavy" and "deep" is this snow? The National Ballet of Canada never refunds because of snow... they'd be out of business! But then our transportation systems don't collapse because of snow either.

That made me laugh. I'm not sure what the official figures are, but it probably isn't deep by Canadian standards. The problem is we only really get snow for a few days a year, if that, so we are completely ill equipped to deal with it when it arrives. They talk about investing in some of the methods Canada, Scandinavia and Russia use to deal with their winters, but what's the point when such infrastructure won't be used for most of the year?

Cool picture. It's a beautiful building. What is the best seat in the house, view wise? The royal box?

Thanks for the replies. That's really interesting.

A salary of around £60,000 a year seems huge to me, but I can imagine if you are pushing your body to the maximum every day and dealing with the pressure of live performances, especially as a principal, I can understand that it wouldn't seem so much, particularly when you compare it to footballers or tennis players.

I forgot about galas, which must add quite a bit for the high profile dancers. I remember reading an interview with Tamara Rojo and she said she lives in Bloomsbury, which is one of my favourite parts of London but phenomenally expensive, to both rent and buy. You can't live there unless you are earning a pretty decent wage.

I've read a few articles recently that have commented on how poor the pay is for professional ballet dancers. I'm quite new to ballet, but I had always assumed that somebody as well known as Darcey Bussell would have been making huge amounts of money per year, and per performance, but I understand from a recent interview that she was struggling to get by even when at the height of her career. I find that pretty shocking. Does anyone know what the general pay is for a professional company dancer?

I guess the RB and ENB would probably be able to pay the most in the UK, and pay would increase as a dancer makes their way from artist to soloist to principal etc? Is the pay generally a steady monthly salary, or does it vary depending on the number of performances/ roles in any given month?

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I would be interested to know.

I'm sorry, I don't know whether Rupert Pennefather is injured but welcome to the forum Chrischris.

Thanks

Is Pennefather injured? If so, he seems to get injured a lot.