annamicro

Would the second part of the parkett start around row 12? That's when the top price suddenly reappears.

I don't remember exactly but it seems a reasonable row for rake start, especially if supported by ticket prices.

The seats in balconies in Hamburg have a great view (that first one has the same price as the orchestra stalls as the grand tier in London, but since the theatre is smaller it has a closer view).

The first part of the parkett is not raked so the view is very good only in the very first rows, but the second part is raked and it's excellent.

Loges can be risky, but the ticket price reflects quite well the view you can expect.

There are children pillow (real ones, made in the same tissue if the seat, not white plastic inflatable as at the ROH) to ask for and they can add 5 cm.

Btw Liliom tickets have been in sale fir months: sales up to the 31st of October opened in April or May.

It is the same situation for all casts, in principle. If demand were overwhelming for Gomes/Part, they would have put up the prices for them too. If there was a premium on Vasipova, it was because demandacceptage. All casts start out at the same price.

I'm surprised that this is not only accepted, but even considered LEGAL. In Italy there are people who live buying tickets and selling them, against low, at an higher price, but I've never heard of a theatre doing that. I think this is not legal in UK too.

I think it would be more acceptable a higher price for some casts, but we should start talking of refunds in case of cast change!

In Hamburg first nights have a higher price, but it doesn't change over time.

Alina's appearances with the RB have not been very frequent over the last couple of years, and that she has withdrawn from a number of her scheduled performances

It's such a pity she was not cast in some production (like Sleeping Beauty and Manon) for exclusive management decision, but this fact cannot be ascribed to the dancer.

Anyway, to not be just a slander, your statement has to be supported by numbers.

Given  that she broke her foot at the end of March/beginning of April this year and that Voices of Spring was cancelled because she and her partner had to rehearse the new Ratmansky, can you give us the number of shows Cojocaru cancelled in the "couple of years" preceeding her last Ratmansky? so from since February 2011?

I made my count, inluding guesting, I'd love to check it with yours.

Well, that's incredible news, particularly as I had read somewhere that Tamara and Alina were rivals at the RB. I'm pleased that I will still be able to see Alina dance but I feel that her addition to the roster will upset the current female principals and up-and coming female dancers whose performance opportunities will be reduced. Of course, it's possible that there are personnel changes at the company that we are unaware of. Perhaps there are known departures or perhaps Tamara wants to scale down her performing commitments at the company. The burning question is: who is Alina going to dance with?

I have never had the impression that Cojocaru and Rojo were rivals, but I know they had something unpleasant to share and suffer in the last few years. Two great artists now working together: I was hoping this but didn't think it was feasible. Rojo is too clever and dynamic and loving too much ballet and dance to let Cojocaru free to go: no true balletoman as she is would have accepted it. Thank you Tamara!

It has now been confirmed by an almost direct source that Cojocaru will be dancing in Rome. :-)

As a matter of interest, have you seen this production?

 

I would agree it is a poor do if theatres are advertising specific dancers without contracts being in place.  If the contracts are in place and dancers pull out for no good reason (ie not through injury) then that is reprehensible too.

No and I'd be interested to see it, but not with any dancer and definitely in a proper dance theatre and I don't think it is the case of this Globe.

I don't want to be unrespectful, but I really cannot travel to Rome, sleep in a hotel, buy a ticket to stand (or worse, as afds wrote) and not see the cast I booked for or a at least a slightly similar level one: the organizers are simply not offering this kind of alternating cast. She is definitely not the worst dancers around, but I'm not sure if Toromani has danced in a proper ballet production or in a proper theatre in the last 10 years.

I don't think the show has been advertised at all in Italy so far, at least outside Rome. I knew about the project since January and I've been searching for news: the web site has been updated in the second part of June.

I'm editing for the second time to try to fix typos. This is the LAST attempt, so please forgive me for the remaining...

Cojocaru has been missing performances through injury. Maybe that's still the case.

Maybe, but she danced without apparent problems the full lenght Liliom (on June 25th) and a Peer Gynt pdd (on June 30th, the night she was asked about Rome) in Hamburg. Of course they are not as physically demanding as the Swan Lake and Seeping Beauty she cancelled in the last few weeks. I have not idea of how this choreography is but usually modern choreography are less demanding for a recently broken foot than Petipa's one....

Personally I'd trust to her being there only when this is added to her web-site (not the most accurate place for cancellations, but I hope it is trustable at least for addition....)

Having always to travel to see ballet (well, for once I'm going to La Scala to see Osipova and Coviello in Swan Lake the next week: 15 min by bike :-) ), I need to plan where to invest my money and unfortunately IMO the alternating cast (her especially) cannot justify the expense. I have some concerns also about the stage, very small: the theatre is usually used as you expect for a theatre called Globe and imitating the original.

She's advertised on the website.

I know!    but it's an Italian web site.

The production with Cojocaru and Bonelli cast was "sold" to other Italian theatres from at least January even if none of the two had signed a contract yet.

Until 10 days ago (the advertisement was out before the 21st of June for sure) Cojocaru wasn't willing to answer "yes" when asked if dancing in Rome. Sometimes is strange to undestand what is passing in a dancer's head :-) but honestly it seems a strange attitude...

I was planning to go, but I'm not going anymore. With all the respect, it's quite a poor thing if Cojocaru is not dancing and I cannot run the risk to spend 200 euros to travel to see the other cast, also because I've been in Rome many times and if I want to have just an holiday there I know there are much better season than super hot Summer to visit the town.

The Slovakian National Ballet is performing (Northern Ballet's) Massimo Morricone's Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre in Rome from 31st July - 3rd August.

 

Federico Bonelli and Alina Cojocaru are scheduled to perform the eponymous roles on 31st July, 2nd and 3rd August.

 

It looks like the Rome Globe is a copy of The Globe so it should be really exciting!  Wish I could go!!

 

http://www.globetheatreroma.com/707/

This announcement is around since more than 20 days, but has Cojocaru presence really been confirmed? I was unable to have any kind of information from her and also an Italian ballet critic asking her on the 30th if June had vague answers about "being studying the production".

The stage is reported to be very small.

The alternating cast is Alessandro Macario (a good dancer of San Carlo Theatre) and his fiancé Anbeta Toromani, an Albanian dancer very famous in Italy for having been a partecipant and then a professional demonstrator in a talent/reality show (she is around 30, with a good technique but also known for her lack of expressiveness: maybe this is her big opportunity to demonstrate the opposite), these two will also dance in some shows of San Carlo in the next season.

According to Hamburg Ballet 2013-2014 brochure, Alina Cojocaru is guesting with the company to dance Liliom on 10, 11, 18 and 19 October 2013 and 3 July 2014 and Romeo and Juliet on 31 October, 3 and 5 November 2013 and 11 July 2014.

She is also joying the company tour to California in February 2014 to dance Liliom.

"If the differencies were between Herheim and Kobborg, why should dancers be replaced by those from outside the Company?"

I was asking myself the same question. As many others it woudl probably remain without an answer. :-(

The only thing i can think about is that Herheim doesn't want classical dancers in the production.

I don't think Alina is very computer minded. I noticed that Johan on a tweet said in astonishment that she had recently got an ipad or tablet. Her web site has never been at the sharp edge of her thoughts, she went months and months without updating her page on their.

He wrote she got an I-phone, but she has always had a Blackberry so not a big change and not a change to the fact that she is not (admittedly) computer minded.

Her web-site was updated with a note from her and Spring/Summer performance just before her gala, when many date (La Scala and Royal Balet) for the Autumn were already public. Maybe this means something.

Don't know whether it has been otherwise noted here but Alina has now CANCELLED her Swan Lake with ABT on 21/6.  I wonder if this puts a cloud over her appearance on 5/6.  It would be, of course, understandable if she were not able to perform due to injury.  Her health is obviously paramount.  One sends all best wishes for the speediest of recoveries to full health for this talented artist.  

 Mary Vetsera has not to do 32 fouettes so I hope to see Cojocaru on stage tomorrow.

Regarding her web-site, it does not include also the Romeo and Juliet shows she is dancing in Tokyo in September (with Vogel) for La Scala: maybe they are waiting to be able to put there all the news together. And maybe they updated it so far only to this Summer just to avoid questions about Royal Ballet missing dates, who knows?

Major flower throws are usually organised by the Ballet Association (though not this time I think), or the ROH or generous others. You could try phoning the ballet office at the ROH to see if they know what's happening.

The person who organised the last two flower throwns for Cojocaru and Kobborg is working on it. She is not on ballet.co, but some poeple here are helping her, maybe they can give their contacs :-)

Has there been confirmation they would no longer be dancing the autumn performances?

The specification that they would dance on the tour seems to indicate so, but the announcement leaves the door clearly open for guest work, and they are still showing as performing in Don Q, R&J and Nutcracker although that might just be an oversight.

Alina's webiste also looks like it hasn't been updated in a while, did the performance page at one point feature anything past July?

On the press release page comments a ROH person says casts will be updated before fruend booking. I don't see the point to guest in those shows having decided to leave.

Not surprising news, anyway: I was expecting this announcement, the only surprise is about the timing;: I thought it was to late for the next season. Clearly it wasn't; it would be interesting to know if it was kept silent for Cojocaru and Kobborg decision or for RB one.

ChocChip, annamicro means that the dancer is sticking out her (I'm pretty sure that it's a her) tongue.

????? I must have missed this lady. Good for me. And for her.

Talking about high extensions... Today I watched a short video with Natalia Osipova dancing a variation from Esmeralda when she was 17 years old. I had never seen such monstrously high arabesques. I don't want to post a link but if you copy and paste this

"Natalia Osipova at 17, Esmeralda variation"

in YouTube the first video on list will be the video I am talking about.

I went through the video a few times and paused each time she did the arabesque to check what angle it was - at the first arabesque her legs did a 180 degree angle, and at the second and third - 170 degrees perhaps.

 

I being a ballet watcher feel frustrated watching such incredible but inappropriate technique. I can't imagine how bad the professional young ballet dancers feel watching these over-stretched ballerinas and wonder how are they gonna get this.

 

For me classical ballet is art that makes me feel "my soul reaching for heaven" not "my body reaching for heaven".

But we are all different and have different opinions. Some people are fond of the the high extensions.

In that video (as Janet notes, BTW that was gala celebrating the 190° anniversary of la Scala ballet School, not a competition) she is also beating the tambourine over her head with the opposite foot (keeping a good hip line, it must be said).

The video is 7 years old and has been watched almost 2 million times and it’s still watched around 5000 times per week. Every other day a comment stating “the best Esmeralda ever” is posted, something I don’t agree with even if I think that the performance was incredibly charismatic for such a young girl (eve more charismatic was her other piece Liturgy).

It’s strange to think that she is doing only one jump and relatively small by her standard in that variation, anyway that video has a huge success among young people and that says a lot about the impact of a certain type of virtuosity.

Few years later I’ve seen Osipova ending Dulcinea variation in the wings because she was not able to moderate her hops on pointe, something that can generate a laugh the first time, but not the second, nevertheless she is one of the most interesting and electrifying dancers of today. I cannot say the same of many other hyper extended gymnasts presented by ballet companies.

Some ballet companies and ballet dancers seem to think that the audience is just looking for extreme gymnastic and virtuosity and not for artistry. I feel a lack of attention to details and refinement: some performances are just obtuse as their angles.

Anyway the worst thing I’ve seen on stage is not a hyperextension but the perennial out of mouth tongue of a recent Royal Ballet acquisition: the most annoying bad habit I’ve ever seen and I cannot believe that a major ballet company is allowing it on stage. Another sign of the superficiality of this time.

I can't get that link at all, Josephine: is there something wrong with it?  Anyway, despite a typo in the Dutch, that's how I read it.  ASsuming it's not a different Royal Ballet, of course.

The link works for me.

"28 en 29 mei 2013, haar debuut als gastsoliste bij The Royal Ballet in de Royal Opera House in Londen. De Jongh danst een van de hoofdrollen in Symphony in C. van George Balanchine."

I cannot think of a different Royal Ballet so similar to the one subject of this thread! :-) RB is often not very quick announcing cast changes: is this one of those many cases?

De Jongh has danced Symphony in C second movement with HET earlier this year.

 but that's the second time I've seen Matthew Golding and the second time I've been disappointed in his performance (Onegin last time).  

I didn't know he danced Onegin and I cannot imagine him in the role: where did he dance it?

Matthew Golding has great elevation and delivered his solos at least as well as the RB men 

Really? I'm not sure about that...

But I think that his performance was good but not memorable and agree about the lack chemestry and thin characterisation.

All hypes seem to demonstrate that a large part of London audience instinctively carves good male dancers more than they are ready to admit or not even suspect.

The best of the show in my opinion were the ladies of the corps in the white act: amazingly precise.Yesterday night I saw them from the stall circle side and they were almost shocking: the ensamble was just perfect (they lost it just for few seconds)!!! Brave!

Why am I not surprised?

Good question: why? :-)

Schaufuss has already presented many works in London and some people enjoyed them.

Nevertheless I'm happy to know that Polunin has never been in it, despite Independent initial statement.

Maybe is it just that "enviable location, secure funding, appreciative audiences and exciting repertoire" as important and appreciated as they are, become, after a while, a little less relevant than "family, friends, home"?

Dutch National Ballet is a great company and ENB is making great things. Amsterdam and London are fantastic cities.

I don't see anything of surprising in a moving. :-)

Hamburg Ballet the

In June 2014, Neumeier will premiere his very own version of Pushkins "Evgenij Onegin", a ballet called "Tatiana", exposing the female character as the "real hero" of this story (as opposed to Cranko’s famous version, of course). The music will be composed by Lera Auerbach. As Hamburg Ballet had a revival of Cranko’s "Onegin" last season, this is a very ambitious enterprise, with Neumeier scratching on the surface of John Cranko’s glory, who had once hired him for Stuttgart Ballet and to whom he has ever since been compared as a storytelling choreographer.

Not only they had a revival the past year, they are dancing Onegin also in the next! It will be interesting to see two different readings of the poem.

I think that the female character is the "real hero" also in Cranko ballet (of course if danced by a dramatic Ballerina, a species so rare that should be protected by WWF).

 

And look at what The Express wrote:

 

"The Ukrainian dancer left bosses at the English National Ballet frantic after failing to turn up for rehearsals last week (begs01Apr13).

The company's artistic director Tamara Rojo has now revealed Polunin is "in Moscow and is ok".

In an interview with the BBC, she adds, "Sergei is an amazing artist and a complicated man.

"Sometimes the price people have to pay for that level of artistry is that it is not consistent or predictable."

 

Everything is in one pile: Midnight Express, Cervera, Polunin, English National Ballet, Schaufuss, Rojo.

I cannot see the name of the author: maybe it was self-generated, like balls of dust in the corners of my flat...