bangorballetboy

if we wanted to make a voluntary contribution could you tell us how (practically- and I would definitely vote for paypal), and what is the kind of order of magnitude you need (eg if only 10% of users paid, how much would they each have to pay to keep it going for a year)... if we have even a vague idea how much is needed we can contribute accordingly!

Further details will, as I said above, be available in the coming weeks.

Well I know Wayne was planning a trip to the Hockney exhibition with some of the younger dancers/choreographers with whom he is involved.

Well, here's a foray from me into "Doing Dance".

As a child I did tap then moved on to ballet and modern (as I had been told that doing ballet would strength my other disciplines, which I found it did). When I went to University I started ballroom and Scottish country dancing. The ballet training was, as one might imagine, incredibly useful for the Scottish dancing, as I had the turnout and the elevation, but with ballroom it took a while to train my legs not to turn out when waltzing (for example). Having said that, I had no issue with moving from turned out to parallel from one evening to the next. And, whilst I was having to do different things below the waist, the ballet training meant my epaulement (which is very important in modern ballroom as it's pretty much what gives the sway) made what was going on above the waist much easier.

It was very clear in the competitive ballroom dancing world which dancers had some form of ballet background.

Once during an interval I left a cough sweet on the seat of the person behind me who had been hacking all the way through act 1.

The conversation between him and his companion on his return went something like this:

Him: "Oh. Someone seems to have dropped a sweet on my chair."

Her: "I think someone is trying to tell you that your coughing is disturbing them."

Him: "That's nice but I won't bother with the sweet".

He then threw the sweet on the floor.

I showed my appreciation to the RB corps recently (after they did 7 shows in 5 days) by sending them a couple of big boxes of chocolates. I left them at the stage door and asked a couple of dancers whom I know to pick them up. They were very well received.

There has been a recent influx of presents (mostly edible or alcoholic) to Royal Ballet dancers under the pretext of a "Royal Ballet Twitter Feed" which seems to have arisen from a tweet by Bennet Gartside!

This is a message from the committee established to investigate the feasibility of continuing to run this forum.

The committee appreciates the many offers received over various threads regarding financial support, technical support and other forms of support. You'll see further down this posing that we are asking for people to come forward to assist on certain matters and, to help keep all offers to assist in one place, we would ask that you contact us again as set out below.

We have noted that in recent years the use of the ballet.co forum declined from its peak usage and usage has continued to be relatively low since the change over to the "new" balletcoforum. This is understandable given the other social media outlets available and so we would encourage all users, and particularly those who "lurk" to make full use of the forum and post.

A number of "lurkers" have mentioned to us that they think that either they "aren't good writers" or "no-one wants to read what I would write". If we have a strong community based forum then these points would be irrelevant; posting on the forum should feel like you're having a conversation with friends and, so, the committee would encourage users to enter into discussion and not hold back.

The committee notes that the number of guests reviewing the forum significantly exceeds the number of registered users online at any time. It is very difficult to gauge the real usage of the forum and whether guests are new visitors or lurkers. Given that the cost of the forum is related to the number of users, we would encourage lurkers to register (even if they don't post though we'd prefer them to) so that the appropriate level of usage can be identified and paid for.

You will have seen that the official "Today's Links" service has now been discontinued. There were a variety of reasons for this decision but it would serve no useful purpose to go over those now. You will also have seen that Ian Macmillan & John Mallinson have been providing a similar service on the new "Dance Links – reviews and features" forum and for that we as a community thank them; however, other users should not interpret this to mean that they shouldn't post links to reviews when they find them but very much the opposite. The committee would also encourage that this part of the forum is also used a place for discussion of reviews etc. rather than just a pure resource. This will add to the community feel which we are striving to achieve.

As we go forward, the forum will need to have administrators (with some technical nous about how the forum runs) and a team of moderators. If you would be interested in assisting on these fronts please let the committee know, either by posting on this thread or emailing on balletcoforum@gmail.com.

The committee also notes that whilst "Doing Dance" is the most heavily used part of the forum we do not have the benefit of input from anyone who regularly posts in that section. If you do and would be willing to join us to assist in shaping the future direction of the forum, please let us know (it would be great if any willing to do so were based in or around London).

To round up, the committee are continuing to discuss the forum going forward and are currently investigating the following matters in particular:

1) funding of the forum;

2) the technical aspects of running the forum;

3) an acceptable use policy.

The committee will be meeting again in the coming days and so your feedback on the matters raised above would be greatly appreciated.

Gleaned from the Wayne McGregor twitter feed (done by a PR not the man himself).

"Andrew Wyatt and [Mark Ronson] have written music 4 a Wayne McGregor piece. Alison Mosshart, Jonathan Pierce and Wale to perform."

"Mark Ronson Brings Rock, Rap And Gospel Together For Royal Opera House."

I spoke recently (within the last couple of years anyway) to Dame Monica about Helpmann's Hamlet. She said that she had seriously considered doing it but that it would require a full set rebuild and new costumes and was, therefore, uneconomical. The gist of the conversation was that it would cost more than a whole new triple bill to recreate and she would prefer to spend the money on new work. Shame, but them's the breaks.

I'd like to see many of the pieces listed by others in this thread (particularly Las Hermanas and The Invitation) but I feel some may suffer from the same economic problem as Hamlet.

I was rather underwhelmed by Gomes. Whilst his acting was excellent and his partnering of Cojocaru first rate (I particularly loved the end of the pd2 when he held her like a feather and looked like he could very easily break her in half), his fast footwork looked clumsy and there was nothing of Ashton in the performance. Having paid full price for my ticket I expect a full performance and so the fact that a number of steps were missed (and not even attempted) is not really acceptable. The suggestion that he may not have rehearsed much is not an excuse; surely he was brought in as a guest because he already knew the piece and, accordingly, required minimal rehearsal.

And a quasi-review of the Dream/Snog double bill (8 Feb) in the Gramophone magazine: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the-gramophone-blog/praise-for-the-royal-opera-house-orchestra

New website or not, I can't help feeling that ROH are going about it all wrong by having one booking day for both opera and ballet and for a three month block. Something's got to give.

Indeed. I've never understood why the decision to have separate first booking dates for opera and ballet for FoCG booking was not extended to public booking too. It would make a huge difference, methinks.

Oops

I've been in the queue for an hour and a half and am currently at #254 All I want is a ticket for McRae/Marquez Fille! I wonder if the new website they're planning will improve this process, or if it'll just look different.

I've been told the new site will have "infinite capacity"!

If Bayadere is on next year, why not Gamzatti?

Oooh, now there's a thought...

Not sure how to incorporate quotes, so in response to the above posting I'm afraid half of Song of the Earth is still too long for me

 

At the bottom right hand corner of the post from which you wish to quote there is a grey box marked "quote". Click on that and the quote will appear in the reply box at the end of the thread.

Interesting that no one has mentioned Claire Calvert on this thread. Les Biches?

For example, Brian Maloney got one performance of Colas with Yuhui Choe two or three years ago; Sergei was supposed to be doing it with her in the upcoming run. Now would be a wonderful opportunity to let him do it again, and show that we do have very good dancers who can do these roles if given more of a chance to dance. That is just one example amongst quite a few.

I, for one, am hoping very much that Brian will again get to dance Colas with Yuhui this season...

Oberon on 9 Feb will be Marcelo Gomes.

Not BP2 I know, but Lauren's partner for R&J and Alice will be Federico Bonelli, and Sarah Lamb will be partnered in Alice by Stephen McRae. So that means we may have a new mad hatter to see!

ROH have confirmed that Steven McRae will be dancing Oberon in The Dream on Wednesday 1 February.

A wasted opportunity in my opinion, unless they plan on having another dancer perform with Marquez.

Something interesting is happening at the moment. The information and casting page for The Dream/Song of the Earth bill is coming up as an error page (all other pages on the ROH website are working normally). I wonder if they're in the process of putting up the modified casting?

It was back online a few moments ago still saying "TBC", but it's gone back to the error page again now.

Here's my "Twitter review" of R&J posted on Twitter the day after the first night:

First R&J of the season didn't disappoint. Whilst Acosta didn't convince me in acts 1 & 2 that he even vaguely fancied Rojo, by act 3 it was very different. Technically he was sound (even if he didn't blend with the Mercutio of Martin and Kura's Benvolio at all times) and his partnering with La Rojo defied their combined age; together they appeared frolicsome teenagers. Rojo was astounding in all aspects: her characterisation exquisite and her dancing impeccable with glorious fleetness of foot and luscious lines. Rosato's nurse was nimble and the comedy not overplayed. Avis's Tybalt was staggering and a clear example of why this ballet sits so popularly within the RoyalBallet canon. His character performance was excellent (I'm sure I saw a hint of remorse when he realised that Mercutio was really dead). Martin & Kura ably captured the freedom required for Romeo's friends although, unfortunately, Martin was sometimes ahead of the music in his fight with Tybalt and this resulted in the fight looking choreographed. Not so with Tybalt v Romeo which was truly frightening in its ferocity. Able performances from Chapman, Raine & McCullough as the harlots though I felt they weren't that well matched last night. As one expects, a great performance from the corps. This really is a core ballet for the RB & I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also, a quick "tweet" re the (only public) Thianela performance: Very emotional R&J last night; in Soares I saw all the things I wanted in acts 1&2 that I didn't see in Acosta on Tuesday.

An enjoyable insight evening last Friday, with the emphasis very much on the dancing.

We started with Christopher Carr coaching Vale Zuchetti and (wee) James Hay on the various entrances for Puck (Ashton's The Dream). Both gents are covers but it transpires that Vale will be dancing on the first night; they both seem to be getting stuck into the role and could be very good in performance.

Clare Thurman then compered a Q&A session with Carr and Dame Monica Mason. A lot was made of the "Britishness" of Ashton and MacMillan and there were some nice anecdotes relating to the two choreographers, their way of working and their relationship with the company. Personally, I found a number of Thurman's questions quite confusing and not overly "open"; I think she needs a bit more guidance on this role from others in the education department.

The evening finished with Mason coaching Marianela Nuñez, Ed Watson and Nehemiah Kish in extracts from MacMillan's Song of the Earth. Watson isn't scheduled to dance with Nuñez and Kish (Acosta is scheduled to dance Death (as the part was originally known) in that cast) but will be dancing with them in the FGR on Wednesday. Watson is not new to the role and rehearsed with aplomb. Nuñez and Kish look impressive; this is the sort of role that may show why Mason wanted Kish in the company.

Thank you for adding your thoughts Ann. If Wheeldon created it with children in mind, with an eye on a Christmas show (I shall conclude this justifies it...) then I can understand the hype. After a far-too-long Act 1 - with hardly any dancing in it - I found myself wondering if by mistake I'd gone to a West-End musical instead of the ROH to watch Ballet, and I was not the only one feeling so.

 

Kids loved it, great. Not me (except the fabulous Card Dance). As far as I am concerned it was "much ado about nothing".

Just to mention that I understand the revived Alice will have 2 intervals and at least two more dance "items".