John Mallinson

Links – Tuesday March 20, 2012 Review - The Royal Ballet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Lynette Halewood, DanceTabs, Photo gallery 3 stars, Zoë Anderson, The Independent Lise Smith, Londondance Interview - Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director of ABT: Zachary Whittenburg, Time Out Chicago Interview - Diana Vishneva: James Tammy, Bloomberg Review - Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, FAR, London: Ismene Brown, The Arts Desk Review - Paul Taylor, mixed bill, NY: Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, Slideshow Review - The National Ballet of China, The Peony Pavilion, Melbourne: Heather Bloom, Australian Stage Review - Martha Graham Dance Company, mixed bill, NY: Claudia La Rocco, New York Times Review - Ballet Preljocaj, Blanche Neige, Davis, California: Harmony Wheeler, LA Broadway World Review - Hubbard Street Dance, mixed bill, Chicago: Zachary Whittenburg, Time Out Chicago Interview - Nina Goldman (stars in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake in 3D): Pat Cerasaro, Broadway World Review - ODC/Dance, mixed bill, San Francisco: Toba Singer, California Literary Review Review - Riverdance, Chicago: Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune

As some of you will be aware, this forum has been being overseen by an interim committee (details here) appointed by Bruce Marriott when he decided to archive ballet.co.uk. In light of the huge amount of disappointment many people expressed at the thought of life without Balletco, Bruce created a new forum which was named BalletcoForum so that there would be some continuity from the previous site. The committee’s mandate comes to an end on March 20th 2012, when the permanent committee takes over the day to day running of the site in all of its aspects. In this regard, we thought we’d give you some information as to how it will be run for the time being; however it is very much a work in progress and we will be looking to improve and enhance the site as time goes on. We would very much appreciate your thoughts, comments and suggestions at any time, so please do contact us if you have anything you’d like to put forward. Similarly, if you have any questions please contact us. The members of the new committee are: Annabel Cowdrey – Moderator Simonetta (Sim) Dixon – Chair and Forum Relations Moderator Ian MacMillan – Moderator and Secretary John Mallinson – Site Administrator Bruce Marriott – Site Administrator (resigned 15 January 2014) Lee McLernon – Moderator and Treasurer Janet McNulty – Moderator Dave Morgan – Committee member Alison Penfold – Moderator Julie Woodhams – Moderator Trog Woolley – Site Administrator Big thanks go to Anna Merrick, who was a member of the interim committee and whose contribution has been most valuable in enabling us to be ready to take BalletcoForum into the future. Use of the Site In About BalletcoForum you will find some instructions and help on how to use this site. You will also find the Acceptable Use Policy which we have changed slightly from that of Balletco. Anybody registering to use the site agrees that they will abide by this policy. Financing of the Site The interim committee has agreed to finance the site for three months whilst proper arrangements and governance are put in place. The plan is to ask members to make a voluntary annual donation and we hope that all who value the site will do this. The level has yet to be set, but we think it will be in the range of £10-£15 per year. The more who contribute the less it will be of course. It is one of the priorities of all involved to get this in place soonest. The financial side of things (including the setting up of a bank account and accounting) will be administered by the BalletcoForum Trust, which will be comprised of the following BalletcoForum committee members: Simonetta (Sim) Dixon (Chair) Lee McLernon (Treasurer) Ian MacMillan (Secretary) John Mallinson (Member) Bruce Marriott (Member) (resigned 15 January 2014) Technical Administration of the Site The day-to-day administration of the site will be overseen by John Mallinson, ably assisted by Trog Woolley. We will be reviewing the look of the site and coming up with some improvements to its appearance. Site Members Anybody who registers to use the site automatically becomes a member. We heartily encourage you all to contribute to the discussions, and indeed start them too! It will be up to all of you to make this site a success, so please do use it! We would love to hear from all of you lurkers out there, don’t be shy… everybody’s views and opinions are of interest. We especially welcome reviews and news from members who are outside the UK as it is a great way to keep everyone informed of what is going on in dance in places that we don’t necessarily hear about on a regular basis. Daily Links The daily links on balletco were always a big undertaking for anyone who volunteered to do them, sometimes taking two or three hours. We are very lucky that Ian MacMillan, Janet McNulty and John Mallinson are continuing to do a sterling job of the links every day, but again, we would welcome contributions from all of our members: if you see anything that would be of interest and is appropriate to the site please add it to the relevant (or new) postings in the Performances, News or Doing Dance forums. The Future The committee is very keen to start increasing membership, and usage, of the site, so please do spread the word. We look forward to a creating, with our members, an active, harmonious, fun and interesting site for dance lovers all over the world, so… let’s get to it! Finally… …and most importantly, the committee wishes to extend its heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to Bruce Marriott for the 16 years of hard work, love and commitment that he gave to ballet.co.uk. Balletco was one of the first online dance forums, and it is thanks to Bruce's vision and continuing dedication (and financing!) that the site grew into a successful, worldwide community. It was respected by both dance lovers and those within the dance world, and has given rise to all kinds of friendships and online groups. We all owe him a deep debt of gratitude, and are very grateful that he has agreed to continue as a member of BalletcoForum. His knowledge and experience will be a great asset in helping the new committee go forward. We wish him great success with his new venture, DanceTabs.

Links – Monday March 19, 2012 Review - Royal Ballet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Mark Monahan, Telegraph Preview - Liam Scarlett’s new ballet, Walter Sickert and the dance of death: Judith Mackrell, The Guardian Review - Birmingham Royal Ballet, Coppélia, London: 4 stars, Clement Crisp, Financial Times Review - Birmingham Royal Ballet, Spring Passions, London: 4 stars, Zoe Anderson, The Independent Jane Simpson, DanceTabs Review - Diana Vishneva, Dialogues: Alastair Macaulay, New York Times Review - Martha Graham Dance Company, mixed bill, NY: Marina Harss, The Faster Times Preview - Ballet Preljocaj, Snow White, LA: Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times Review - National Ballet of China, The Peony Pavilion, Melbourne: Deborah Jones, The Australian Book review - Two books on Fred (and Adele) Astaire: Arlene Croce, New York Review of Books Spring Dance Preview, NY: New Yorker

Another live streaming event, this time from the Tate in London. March 22, 8pm (UK time), the interesting French choreographer Jérôme Bel's Shirtology. .

The following whose names (or nicknames) should be familiar are involved in the smooth running and development of BalletcoForum. Administrators John Mallinson (John Mallinson) Trog Woolley (Trog) Bruce Marriott (Bruce) (resigned 15 January 2014) Moderators Annabel Cowdrey (Anna C) Sim Dixon (Sim) Ian Macmillan (Ian Macmillan) Lee McLernon (bangorballetboy) Janet McNulty (Janet McNulty) Alison Penfold (alison) If you wish to contact any of the above you can do so by clicking this link which will take you to a complete listing. Click the envelope icon against each person's name to send a private message. See also…

An interesting new venture: live streaming from the RB on the ROH YouTube channel, throughout next Friday, March 23, 10.30am - 8pm. So far this seems to have had remarkably little media coverage apart from our friends at DanceTabs. Here's the RB's trailer, and here's inviting you to submit your best grand jeté video effort.

Absolutely not - just one of Bruce's willing helpers!

Links – Sunday March 18, 2012 Obituary - Ethel Winter, dancer with Martha Graham: Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times Review - Royal Ballet, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Judith Flanders, The Arts Desk Review - Royal Ballet, Romeo and Juliet: Luke Jennings, Observer Review - Martha Graham Dance Company, gala performance: Brian Seibert, New York Times Review - Reggie Wilson, theRevisitation: Claudia La Rocco, New York Times Review - DV8, Can We Talk About This?, London: Jenny Gilbert, Independent on Sunday Review - Shobana Jeyasingh, Classic Cut, London: Jenny Gilbert, Independent on Sunday Lise Smith, Londondance Letter from India - Alastair Macaulay in Nrityagram: New York Times, Slideshow Film preview - Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake in 3D, USA: Jocelyn Noveck, Boston Globe Heads up - Royal Ballet triple bill: Holly Williams, Independent on Sunday Review - Men in Motion, London: Luke Jennings, Observer Review - Cincinnati Ballet, mixed bill: David Lyman, Cincinnati.com Yonah Acosta, ENB dancer and famous nephew: Stephanie Merritt, Observer Drew Lovejoy, all-American stepdancer: Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times Denise Vale, rehearsal director of Martha Graham Dance Company: Corey Kilgannon, New York Times Hochhauser sues O2: Tim Walker, Telegraph

Don't know whether to say congrats or commiserations Ian: 27 links, quite like the old days!

Carol, sometimes there is more than one photocall with different casts but not all the photographers get invited. The photos the RB released for Alice last season were of Cuthbertson and Polunin (first cast) rather than Lamb and Bonelli who did the Friends' rehearsal.

Yes, there are various features here (Galleries, Blogs, Chat) which are part of the default package but which may not be relevant to our current wants and needs and which maybe should be disabled or banished. We will not have the rich collection of photos here that there was on the old Ballet.co site (and is still accessible via DanceTabs where new galleries can also be accessed) but we will have some photos related to current productions. Ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated here in future as they have not been here or on Ballet.co in the past. The new moderation team that takes over in the next few days will keep an eye on that.

Please use this forum to seek help from other users or members of the BalletcoForum team about problems you have using the site or understanding how to do things. This is also a good place to make suggestions about how things might be improved.

This is the policy with which members have to agree before signing up to BalletcoForum: The site administrator reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of the user agreement without prior notice to the user. It is the responsibility of the user to regularly review the terms of this agreement. These terms and conditions superseded the previous agreement on March 12, 2019. * * * * * * * * * * BalletcoForum is a place for ordinary dance lovers to exchange thoughts and information in good faith. We are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of this bulletin board. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by clicking the Report link. 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BalletcoForum was started in December 2011 as a place for dance and ballet enthusiasts to come together and talk about their mutual interests. It's a place for discussion and exchange of information, descriptions and reviews of performances seen, announcements of interesting things to come. A very active part of the site is used by 'ballet mums' to share concerns and tips about their dancing daughters and sons. There is also a forum for ticket exchange and a unique resource in the form of a daily listing of links to dance news and reviews from around the world. The forum is funded by its users. (The costs incurred are for licensing the software and the use of an internet server.) Our first funding drive in August and September 2012 generated enough to keep things going for at least a couple of years. A second appeal in June/July 2015 was equally successful. Many thanks to all who contributed.

BalletcoForum did not arrive out of the blue in December 2011. It has its roots in the website Balletco (www.ballet.co.uk) founded in 1996 by Bruce Marriott. Balletco (now in archive) was one of the first dance/ballet sites on the net and the emphasis was on giving the audience a place to talk and exchange views, both seriously and playfully. It also provided a magazine full of reviews and interviews. This was years before the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter became a widely used means of spreading information and interacting with others. This link back to Balletco explains the name of the present site, BalletcoForum. Early in 2012 Balletco was put into archive – it had really become too unwieldy and unfit for purpose. Bruce Marriott initially funded this version of the forum for three months and asked a committee to look into the long term viability, funding and governance of the board. The members were: Lee McLernon (Chair), Sim Dixon, Ian Macmillan, John Mallinson, Anna Merrick and Dave Morgan. They concluded that a much loved forum had a future and put in place what that future should be. Incidentally the magazine aspects of Balletco have been made more professional and taken forward by Bruce Marriott in an online magazine called DanceTabs (www.dancetabs.com).

Would this be Monica Mason's leaving gala? She should have one. There will probably never again be someone with such continuous long service with the company.

I would rather doubt that. The London ballet audience may be starting to get withdrawal symptoms by August, especially as the Russians aren't coming this summer. The ENB shows are on sale already, the RB ones won't be for a few months yet. ENB's Coliseum season coincides with the Olympics which I would have thought would be a good thing for them though some anticipate the London theatres losing out. Both companies (all companies) rely on Swan Lake as a banker.

I think once we have Doing Dance moderators in place we'll be in a better position to see if the present structure meets their needs.

Flickr doesn't seem to make it easy and they are fussy. They say about direct linking (as here): Per the Flickr Community Guidelines "pages on other websites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr." Linking directly to the photo file doesn't do this. This means that for every photo you put here you have to provide a link back to the image on the Flickr site. To get the URL of the image so that it shows here go to the Share drop-down above the pic (in Flickr) and select Grab the HTML/BBCode. You then need to extract the actual link from that by pasting the code into a text editor and removing all the fluff so you're left with something like http://farm8.staticf..._4fba9aff33.jpg i.e. a link to the jpeg image itself rather than the page it's on. Then when you click on the Image icon here you paste that code in and hey presto! Flickr To get the mandatory Flickr link (as above) you go to the Share drop-down and select Grab the link and copy the link and paste it in here via the Link icon. No doubt Bruce will come along in a minute and tell us the easy way to proceed!

Quick, go outside, it's a pretty sight - look towards where the sun set. Guardian guide.

I completely accept the probity of the source. I hope it's true, but…

Done.

If this is an O'Hare schedule then he's a man after my own heart. I'll excuse all those Swan Lakes and Nutcrackers - the dancers have to be paid somehow.

12 main stage programmes, 123 performances, (m = matinée) Swan Lake x20 performances - Oct 8, 10, 11, 12, 13m, 13, 15, 17m, 17, 23, 25, 27; Nov 6, 9, 10m, 10 15, 22, 24m, 24 Viscera (Scarlett) / Infra (McGregor) / Fool’s Paradise (Wheeldon) x6 - Nov 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14 All-MacMillan programme: Concerto / Las Hermanas / Requiem x 6 - Nov 17, 21, 27, 29, 30; Dec 5 The Nutcracker x19 - Dec 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 23m, 27m, 27, 28, 31; Jan 1, 2m, 2, 5m, 8, 12m, 12, 15, 16 The Firebird (Fokine) / In the Night (Robbins) / Raymonda Act III (Petipa & Nureyev) x6 - Dec 22m, 29, 29; Jan 4, 9, 11 Onegin (Cranko) x13 - Jan 19, 22, 23, 25, 26m, 30, 31; Feb 1, 2m, 2, 5, 7, 8 All-Ashton programme: La Valse / Thaïs pdd / Voices of Spring pdd / Monotones I & II / Marguerite and Armand x5 - Feb 12, 13, 15, 21, 23 Apollo (Balanchine) / NEW Wheeldon / NEW Ratmansky x5 - Feb 22, 23m; March 7, 9m, 14 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Wheeldon) x11 - March 15, 19, 21, 23m, 25, 27, 28; April 2, 6m, 11, 13 La Bayadère x12 - April 5, 9, 12, 20m, 27m; May 1, 2, 6m, 6, 13, 14, 22 Mayerling (MacMillan) x 13 - April 19, 25, 30; May 3m, 30; June 1m, 1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15 Raven Girl (NEW McGregor) / Symphony in C (Balanchine) x7 - May 24, 28, 29m 29; June 3, 8m, 8

Nice piece by Margaret Atwood about Twitter from the New York Review of Books.