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simonbfisher

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Posts posted by simonbfisher

  1. Hello,

     

    I’m not sure this is the right place for this post : dear Moderators, please move it if necessary...

     

    We are travelling and have reached South America... I wonder if anyone has any thoughts or tips about Ballet or contemporary dance that we might see?

     

    We are in Santiago at present, but will be leaving before the next performances, it seems. In Buenos Aires we have tickets for a Gala and for Corsaire in the Colon (twice), and in Montevideo for a Bolshoi Giselle in the cinema and for the Sodre’s Sleeping Beauty (twice). As I don’t speak Spanish and only read it at a snail’s pace these bookings have been agonising!

     

    Mexico in May has so far defeated me : Monterrey? Mexico City? Help!

     

    Finally, if anyone reading this lives in any of these cities and would like to meet us for a coffee, we would love to have contact to fellow dance lovers!

     

    Many optimistic thanks!

    Simon

     

    • Like 3
  2. We had a wonderful evening of ballet in the cinema, and I shall not comment further on the dancing, as others have so eloquently said all I would have done.

     

    However, re the  two presenters... My tuppence worth is this : one was enthusiastic, likeable, professional, male and black, which in these days of outreach and the absolute necessity of bringing ballet, and all that it can do for us, to a wide public is ticking all the right boxes. The other is enthusiastic but makes mistakes in her parsing and reading which render some of the sentences gobbledygook and others just odd. Changeling = challenging? Astaire = Ashton? New worlds of possibilities open up, but this is not how the Royal Ballet should be presenting (yes, presenting) itself to the world.

     

    Rant over, until, I fear, next time.

    • Like 2
  3. We are leaving the UK, on the first stage of a year travelling, in mid July and would very much welcome advice on seeing dance on our travels. It will be, in this hemisphere at least, the summer ballet gap, but we shall be in Moscow 17th to 21st July (and have booked Eifman) then Perm, Omsk, Ulaan Ade, Khabarovsk - with a final few days (5th to 8th August) in Vladivostok.

     

    We shall then be in Seoul until 20th August before heading to Tokyo for two months.

     

    The Russian and South Korean legs in particular are proving a challenge - does anyone have tips about dance, or culture generally - museums?, galleries?music venues? - that we should look out for? Any ideas, however apparently random, would be very gratefully received!

     

    Thank you in advance!

     

    Simon.

  4. "Presumably that is Deniz Ozaydin in video..."

     

    Yes, LinMM I think so! I have sent him a link to this thread and an explanation (via Facebook). I am certainly very pleased to be able to put a name to the chap we see every day on our landing wall, and who knows, maybe we shall see him dancing one day!

     

    Jacqueline - I do not know any more than what is on here! But certainly Istanbul has gone up a few places in the "must (re)visit" list!

  5. I don't know what to think about this afternoon's incident ....

     

    We went to the Odeon in Basingstoke to see the Bolshoi S B - and very fine it was too. But unlike our normal pleasant and attentive audiences, this one seemed to consist largely of a group outing from the local Home for the Bewildered. Seats could not be found, tickets were misplaced, sweets were sought, drinks were balanced and then knocked over, updates on the plot were "whispered" helpfully to friends in adjoining rows (not seats, rows) ... you get the picture.

     

    As Act 2 started I asked, very politely, if a lady near me could please stop talking as we were finding her commentary very distracting. She did fall silent, more or less, but at the end of the performance marched up to me and said that she supposed that when she died of cancer I would be pleased! How would my fellow Balletco-ers have responded to THAT?

  6. The mystery is, I think, solved.

     

    Mr Okurer has very helpfully named the the mystery man as Deniz Özaydin, a colleague of his at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, and something of a choreographer as well. 

     

    All that now remains is to contact Mr Özaydin directly and thank him for gracing the walls of our staircase for the last couple of years! I do hope he won't mind!

    • Like 7
  7. IMG_0564_1.jpg

     

    Wow - it worked using the Méthode Mallinson!

    Now to see if I can do it for real in the right bit of the Forum. Thank you everyone for your help - it is very much appreciated.

    And Janet, I certainly didn't mind you "liking" my whimperings ....! One of the things I really miss about teaching is the ready access to Sixth Formers to sort put my tech problems!
     

    • Like 1
  8. Hello - I'd be grateful for your help : I have 5 pictures of an unknown (to me) dancer who I should love to have identified by the knowledgeable folk on here. 

     

    The photos are on the Photos app on my iMac and, as of this evening, on Photobucket. But I can drag and drop as much as I like from either place  and they will not let themselves be shown in a new Post on here. What do I do next, please? 

     

    Sorry to be pathetic ....!

    • Like 1
  9. I agree with everything that Nina G writes above, and would add that Bennet Gartside was a superb Drosselmeyer - he was charismatic (without overshadowing the work going on around him as we have occasionally seen with A N Other Drosselmeyer), energetic, humourous at times, on top of his magic, and showed as usual his ability to project right out into the auditorium. A really excellent performance.

    • Like 9
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