bangorballetboy

Luckilly I was born in Northern Ireland where the school admission year runs from July, rather than September in England, so summer born (like the Leo I am) are more likely to be advantaged rather than disadvantaged.

Possibly because Degas and Toulouse Lautrec were in Paris not London (but then again, so was Sickert for quite a while too, which is why the theories are generally discredited). If you do any reading on the subject, you'll see how the theories develop (and it's not just because of one of the paintings).

but also because the title is reserved for the heir apparent, which Eddy never was. We digress...

Doesn't arouse me either (but then I think one of the sexiest moments in ballet is the blue girls in Les Patineurs looking up and smiling as they "walk" across the stage). I found that looking at the Sickert pictures after my first viewing of the ballet brought a number of narrative (and choreographic) threads together.

I see that nowhere in Melody's long post of interview extracts is there mention of Yanowsky believing Mason was treating her as a soloist.

Oh yes. The Albert Hall programmes used to say: "Gentlemen are requested to refrain from striking matches during the music."

*ahem*

This has been discussed by the moderators in response to a report on the thread and the decision was that there is no breach of the AUP. In my opinion, facial expressions of a performer are a valid subject for criticism. Some may like MG's funny pout; I do not and find it distracts greatly from what he's doing from the neck down (which is often, but not always, very good). We know that MG can smile (it's there in one of Rojo's TV programmes), and it's a very nice smile, but he chooses to have a different facial expression when performing. This, in my opinion, is valid criticism. On a similar vien, I wish Osipova would lose the facial gymnastics in DGV. A neutral face, as her predecessors in the role maintained, would be far more in keeping with the feel of the piece.

And I think it's a valid criticism. Each to their own.

If that were the case, then why did Yanowsky not leave? Roles include Odette/Odile, Chosen One in Rite, Manon, Sylvia, Myrthe, Terpsichore, Black Queen in Checkmate, Nikiya, Natalia Petrovna, Queen of Hearts in Alice (created on ZY), Marguerite(!), Raymonda and principal roles in The Lesson, La Fete Étrange, Ballet Imperial and Rubies. Other principal roles created on ZY include Seven Deadly Sins, Electric Counterpoint, Castle Nowhere and Three Songs, Two Voices. Doesn't sound that much like a soloist to me.

Balderdash! You only have to look at the ROH Collections performance database to see that is far from the truth.

Not sacrilege at all. I prefer the turns to be on the music and this can be done. For example, when the music in the Swan Lake 32 changes tempo, and you get the ya-da-da-da-dum at the end of the phrase, that's perfect for a double.

Hi Janet. To get the pedantry out of the way first, the question is about fouetté turns, as fouetté just means "whipped" (literally) and applies to a large number of steps. In layman's terms, a fouetté turn is a pirouette with a whipped leg action. If there's a double pirouette before the whip, it's a double fouetté turn.

I'm seeing EO next Sunday.

Indeedy!

??? Bonelli is married to Hikaru Kobayashi.

Connect as in connect and ome as in home.

Here we go, to quote from the ROH obituary for Gailene Stock: "In 1999 she took over from Merle Park as Director of The Royal Ballet School. Her many developments to the curriculum included ... introducing a third year into the Upper School to allow students to manage their studies with overseas auditions, furthering the School's touring opportunities, expanding the choreographic course and re-introducing a teachers’ course for professional dancers and a teacher exchange programme."

??? Where there does it say the upper school course was 3 years long, rather than 2 years as I said?

Pretty sure the upper school was only 2 years pre-1990 or so.

Bruce, the Coliseum page yesterday mentioned Petit's Carmen and BSJ. I wonder why it no longer does.

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev are doing at show called Solo for Two at the London Coliseum from 6 to 9 August 2014. Details here.

As it didn't make it into Today's Links, here's a link to a short article (filled with the usual mistakes) about yesterday's wedding: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2619711/The-Nutcracker-Bride-Its-suite-story-handsome-prince-slipped-Will-marry-note-beautiful-ballerina-pirouetted-Tchaikovskys-classic-And-yesterday-did.html Some nice pictures.

Sounds to me like colloquial terminology that could apply to many things. Neither term is one I've come across in any standard ballet teaching method (though there will always be movements which are not covered by those methods and their terminology) and so I'd say it's probably up to the teacher and his/her description of a position. Any differences are likely to be in the degree of widening of the arms and the straightening of the oval.

R&J is normally just under 3 hours, including 2 intervals. I haven't seen the ENB one yet though.