Sim

Wonderful and very interesting interview TTP. Thanks for sharing it.

?????

No.....but please let us know if you find out anything!!

Thank goodness they have finally let everyone know!! A great shame for Lauren Cuthbertson (and those of us looking forward to seeing her), but I am absolutely thrilled that the one performance of hers for which I had a ticket is the 18th!!

Who said the word 'mere' ? All I said was that, in the absence of one fabulous classical dancer, we were very lucky to get another one of equal stature to fill the void left by the first one, and so quickly. That doesn't often happen in a ballet company. I don't think anyone would or could ever consider Vadim "a mere gap filler".

Well that's your opinion Alison. In my opinion he certainly is. I and many others would have felt bereft of a great male classical dancer after Polunin left had it not been for Vadim's presence in the company.

Thanks Richard.....I'll have a look when I'm not in the office!!

Yes there is.....Tchaikovsky wrote this pdd music soon after his beloved sister had died. So it does make sense to have something sad to this music, but it just seemed a bit random out of context of the whole. Has Cherkoui choreographed the whole ballet? I hadn't heard of this before.

I thought ballet came over much better than opera last night. I was quite disappointed with the singing overall. Maybe it's because I was standing in the SC and the sound does get a bit snuffled there, but not much stood out for me. I think my favourite was 'Kuda Kuda' from Eugene Onegin. Sung with real feeling by Liparit Avetisyan. Also wonderful to hear Pappano conducting any opera at all. The Forza del Destino overture almost made me cry with its beautiful playing here. Agree about Symphony in C....a fabulous rendering and on the female side Naghdi and Kaneko really stood out. I liked what I saw of The Unknown Soldier and thought that Ball/Hayward danced it with lots of feeling. I look forward to seeing the whole piece in the autumn. I wasn't too enamoured of the Cherkoui Nutcracker pdd. I didn't think the choreography fitted the music, and this seemed like something sad or tragic unfolding. Yes, interesting to see something that is so completely opposite to what we are used to, but it didn't float my boat. Maybe I'd have liked it more if I'd had some context. Vadream was lovely in the Ashton piece; so much feeling in every move he made. What a star he is. Loved the Grand Pas de Deux. Great to see Cope/Fairchild onstage together once again. On the whole I thought this was a rather muted affair, and for some reason didn't have that usual 'gala feel'. Not sure why....maybe it was just me.

He was in the audience at the gala last night, looking very handsome in a lovely suit. I wonder if there is a little piece of him that misses dancing on that stage. I thank the ballet gods for sending Vadream to fill the gap!

My daughter and I were saying the same thing tonight!

I am in total agreement with you there, Lindsay. I would say that Mayara Magri should definitely be promoted to First Soloist at the end of this season, and Gasparini moving up to fill her empty space as a Soloist.

John, did you put that poster on the ROH website straight about this?!

Naghdi stole the show because she is a much better dancer and actor than her partner is. She didn't need him to be self effacing in order for her to shine.

Not necessarily effective, but forgivable. And the drama would have to be very strong. We don't always expect fireworks and bravura dancing from the men, as not all can do this. However, what we (or I) always DO expect from a principal dancer in one of the world's great companies is a pretty high technical standard....and we didn't get that yesterday. Maybe the next performance will be better. I heard that Kish's DG was very good indeed, so maybe there was a touch of nerves yesterday.

Awww thanks so much, Xandra. I had great inspiration!

I am still overwhelmed by the beauty of Yasmine Naghdi’s debut yesterday. Wow. As with her Aurora and Giselle debuts, I was astonished that this was a first performance, especially when she has had almost no stage time this season. Not only was this a technically assured performance, but dramatically and emotionally, it hit all the right spots. Her Odette is so warm, so vulnerable, so sad….but somewhere underneath that we get a feeling of inner strength. Yasmine has the most beautiful soft arms. They flutter, they melt, they say so much. So do her eyes, and her Act 2 mime was crystal clear, and not rushed. This is so important. If the mime is left in the ballet, it should be conveyed clearly, and here Odette’s story was heartbreakingly told. The sheer beauty and languid movement in the Act 2 pdd was a joy to behold; here was a young woman full of hope, full of love, but somehow with a foreboding that all was not well, so she wanted to enjoy this moment while she could, and not rush it. Here is where the English training and Russian coaching came together so effectively. In Act 3, Yasmine’s Odile was a true temptress…..joyfully cruel, revelling in her power over the hapless Siegfried, playing with him like a toy, and always laughing at him with her eyes and her ironic smile. Look but don’t touch….unless I say so. Again, those eyes; they pierced Siegfried to the core and what man wouldn’t be spellbound by such magic? This wasn’t Yasmine enjoying herself playing Odile, this WAS Odile, enjoying herself playing with Siegfried’s emotions and vulnerability. Technically, she kept in character by really attacking the choreography but without making it look like a circus trick. Timmie mentions ‘a big wobble’ in the fouettes. It wasn’t big at all; she came off pointe for a split second and recovered so quickly that many people didn’t notice at all. Personally I don’t make a big deal about the fouettes. I always think that it’s a bonus if they are perfect, but this ballet is about so much more than these spins. The whole of Odile’s variation is to seduce Siegfried, so the fouettes are not her only means. That incredible balance, the best I’ve seen for ages, the speedy maneges around the stage, the teasing…..this is a totally credible and convincing Odile, who could if necessary seduce with just her eyes and those arms: pulling Siegfried close, then tossing him away like a piece of paper in the wind, all with the most subtle of movements. The contrast between white and black was devastating, as it should be. We should think at the end of this ballet: how could this be the same ballerina, dancing two such different roles in one ballet? And that is how I felt after the heart-wrenching Act 4. Gosh it was so very sad; Odette’s despondency translated through liquid movement of arms and head, and the abject sadness in her eyes, had all of us holding our breath. How could this same dancer have been so cruel just half an hour before? I really got the sense that Odette’s death was necessary not only to break the spell, but so that she could finally get the peace that she was so close to attaining but that, through a cruel twist of fate, eluded her. Her solitary ghostly presence above the rock at the end just exacerbated her loneliness, but as I said after the first night, in the absence of an apotheosis there is a slightly uplifting aspect to the ending in that Odette will be there to keep watch over Siegfried. Yasmine is such a thoughtful and intelligent dancer, and it is very clear that she has given months of thought and preparation in her mind as to how to interpret this most difficult of roles. It has paid off, in spades. Sadly, her Siegfried was no match for her in any way: not technically nor dramatically. I really don’t know what Kevin O’Hare was thinking with these castings. I haven’t seen Ball/Osipova yet, but when Ball/Naghdi debuted so beautifully together in Sleeping Beauty, R&J and Giselle, why not in Swan Lake? Technically this ballet is no more difficult than SB, so I just don’t get it. Yasmine had nothing to feed off here. Yes, Kish was a good, solid partner in that he lifted her and supported her well, but that was all I got. Yasmine carried all the drama and emotion alone, which makes her debut all the more remarkable. With regard to the rest of the performance, I was so happy to see Gary Avis onstage as Von Rothbart. For me, his subtly menacing interpretation was most disturbing and therefore very believable when the Act 3 denouement happened. As someone said, less is definitely a lot more, and someone with Avis’s years of experience understands that. He has much to teach the other character actors in the company, and I hope they listen to him. His is a rare talent. I don’t often say this, but I am very glad he got resoundly booed; it shows how brilliantly he did his job!! J I thought that Ben Ella was superb as Benno; beautifully executed high jumps which, a la Nijinsky, seemed to hang in the air. Soft landings, pinpoint turns….simply stunning. I loved Isabella Gasparini in the pdt, but I too thought that Tierney Heap was totally miscast in this role. The choreography simply didn’t sit well on her, and I found myself wishing that the third person was Anna-Rose O’Sullivan instead. I loved Nathalie Harrison’s portrayal of the Queen; she just made me feel sad the whole time, which I quite liked. I have written way more than I meant to so I won’t go on. As far as the ending is concerned, an easy way to make an apotheosis (that wouldn’t cost any money to change) would be for Siegfried to follow Odette into the lake, and at the end both of them could appear together in the sky whilst the swan maidens pay homage at the lakeside. Or would that be a bit too much like BRB’s ending? There are other comments I could make about the production, but yesterday I decided that for this performance it was just going to be about the dancing of a special artist. I would say, after only one performance, that she will become one of the great swans, one for our time and for a long time. Huge bravo to her.

I notice that VR removes the crown from her head, like he does to the Queen in Act 3. Clearly has a power complex!

Meryl Streep can do ballet?!! 😳

In the Dowell version the flunkeys appear, catch the tambourines, then disappear again.

???

I couldn't resist....here it is! His arms are as beautiful as any ballerina's! Think swan wings....

And here is a fine example of how hip hop/street and ballet can complement each other beautifully. It's well worth you looking at the video of Lil'Buck doing this piece with Yo Yo Ma playing the cello. It's beautiful. Both of these depict a swan coming to the end of its life, but fighting hard against it. Enjoy!

Djaamila...you should check out this short video on Ballet Black, who are based in London. Some of these dancers have also done hip hop, but always come back to ballet! LIke all professional ballet dancers, they possess strong athleticism but are very graceful at the same time. So difficult to achieve, and believe me they are the last type of artists in the world who should be disdained or mocked. People who laugh at ballet simply don't know anything about it, or understand it. If you want to do classes, you go and do them and, hopefully, enjoy them, even if that's as far as you go. It's about the enjoyment. And believe me....it will help no end with your core strength and posture. A contemporary dancer told me once that classical ballet is the type of dance around which all others revolve, and to a large extent that is true. The main thing is....try it, enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it, and least you will know that from experience!!

Dances At A Gathering (Robbins) Fancy Free (Robbins) Symphony in C (Balanchine)