Royal Ballet: The Two Pigeons, Monotones I & II, November 2015 & Rhapsody January 2016

[MAB]

Fifty years ago takes us smack bang in the middle of those wicked swinging sixties. At the RB Fonteyn and Nureyev were at their zenith, with scores of people camped out overnight in the hope of a return or standing place to see them and the glitz and glamour in the audience on the night you actually got to see F&N vied with the spectacle on stage. In those days we were blasé about new work with Ashton, MacMillan, Balanchine, Cranko. Tudor and Robbins all in full creative flow and we were having such a good time we never realised that when they departed a nuclear winter of choreographic scarcity would descend. Modern Dance was pretty good too with Cunningham. Ailey, Paul Taylor and Martha all at the top of their games as well. If we could buy a day ticket into the past I'd be first in line

If people go to the ballet and lack the emotional faculties to understand a work that deals with a theme that is common to the human condition, in this case forgiveness and reconciliation, that is their loss, but I wonder what mental quirk causes them to insult those that do?

[Two Pigeons]

In addition to all of that there was a far higher chance of seeing the greatest of ballet stars touring the provinces. I have a friend who saw F&N at Stratford upon Avon.

[imogensevans]

On my way back from the 2 Pigeons' matinee. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole performance. I was very moved by Monotones-couldn't take my eyes off Yasmine.

The 2 Pigeons was great. Akane's portrayal of the young girl was spot on. She managed to be funny, sweet and, I have to say, quite sexy. She never seemed spoilt or irritating, which I can imagine the character could easily become. The rest of the cast danced with great gusto-they really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

A wonderful afternoon!

[Timmie]

Monotones, oh-my-gosh, the purest and most beautiful of ballets I have ever seen. Today’s matinee was danced to perfection. The recording of this really does not do it justice. I have watched the recording a few times and thought, what are those costumes all about? But seeing it live the costumes just work. I was misty eyed just from the shear beauty I was experiencing. Not a wobble in sight.

[Margaret]

We had a wonderful afternoon at the matinee today - Monotones was beautiful as Timmie has said.  I really enjoyed Two Pigeons having last seen it in 1979.  It was lovely to see younger dancers  performing - both Akane Takada and James Hay were excellent.  He did have a little trouble with the pigeon in the last scene but coped very well.  Great ovation for all the cast at the end - well deserved.

[Duck]

Beautiful Monotones this afternoon, I can only agree with the above comments about today's matinee. Superb debut by James Hay in Two Pigeons, I couldn't take my eyes off him throughout the performance. Also very impressed by David Yudes' solo in the first scene of part two.

[RK Martin]

Today's matinee was sublime- that's the word that comes to mind. Monotones ... Yasmine , Marienella and everyone ...sublime. Two Pigeons sublime . Akane Takeda sublime - as was James Hay. There wasn't a dry eye in the House at the end.... As a woman from behind said in a loud voice from the heart as the curtain went down........."Fabulous."

[Sim]

And a fabulous performance from Yuhui and Alexander tonight to finish the run. Despite the fact that one pigeon remained on the floor instead of the chair for the final pdd (at least he stayed in one place so he didn't interfere with the dancing!), by the time the second one flew on for a perfect landing at the end I don't think anyone present remained dry-eyed or unmoved. Bravo to all the debutants today and tonight, and a big bravo to Kevin O'Hare for reviving such sweetness in such a sour world.

 

Another perfect performance of Monotones 1 from Naghdi, Maguire and Dyer. Very good M2 from Nunez, Watson and Hristov, but for some reason it didn't grab me like M1. My comments at the beginning of this thread after the first night are still reflective of what I though of the last night. How lovely to see such purity of movement, so gracefully performed.

[Timmie]

In my enthusiasm over Monotones I forgot the Two Pigeons! The matinee was excellent. If this was James Hay’s debut in the role then he was amazing, he looked like he had been dancing it for years. In the final scene when the Young Man appears with one pigeon on his shoulder I remembered that I had been promised tears (by a certain Janet McNulty) and sure enough I could feel them coming, but then that pesky pigeon started playing up. He would not leave James Hay’s arm but just kept walking up his arm as James kept moving his arm ever further downwards towards the chair. This went on for quite awhile and by now half the audience (including me) were chuckling out loud. Finally the pigeon hopped off. I thought uh-oh, that has killed the mood. But no, one glance at James’s heartbroken face, and bang, right back on it. He kept fully in character and really was very good. It is possible I was blubbing at the end…

[capybara]

The last Two Pigeons of this run saw Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell giving us an absolutely delightful performance - full of humour, pathos, emotion and beautifully (and, at times, spectacularly) danced. [Edited to add that I find Alexander's portrayals wonderfully sincere and true - and touching on this occasion too.]

 

Even the avid pigeon watchers were rewarded because the one which came downstairs missed his/her footing on the back of the chair and fluttered to the floor where it duly pecked and preened through the pdd.

 

BTW, Barry Wordsworth received a big ovation from the orchestra at his final entrance in the pit. They, as we, were obviously very pleased to have him back 

Edited December 6, 2015 by capybara

[Nina G.]

Last night's Monotones 1 will stay engrained in my mind for a long time. A perfect performance by Naghdi/Dyer/Maguire. They were so in tune with each other and moved as one throughout the ballet.

 

Naghdi seemed weightless and she captured the Oriental undertone so beautifully. My eyes were automatically drawn to her and she took me into another "world". A wonderful example of pure classicism and line, her beautiful arabesques and control were impressive. All three dancers were stunning but Naghdi provided the icing on my cake, and I also very much loved Nunez in Monotones 2.  

 

I enjoyed Two Pigeons (Choe/Campbell). Campbell totally natural, Choe sweet and lovely but I can't "connect" with her, I always feel there is a distance between her and the audience. Not her fault, her technic is very strong but...

Nevertheless I appreciated her performance.

 

A lovely evening, providing a very pleasant distraction from all the horrors going on outside...

[Scheherezade]

I saw this double bill on Friday evening with the second cast.

 

I seem to remember that back in the day, the two Monotones pieces were danced the other way round but my memory could be playing tricks with me. Can anyone else remember?

 

Both casts were extremely well matched in height which, at least from where I was sitting, added to the aesthetic appeal, their timings were, for the most part, spot on, and I couldn't catch any discernable wobbles, suggesting that they have settled in since their first outing. Both seemed to catch the purity and other-worldly beauty of the choreography and of Satie's music.

 

McRae and Salenko were as pitch-perfect as you would expect in Two Pigeons and Fumi Kaneko was a fantastic gypsy although I would have loved to have caught the fabulous Laura Morera. I couldn't understand why Kaneko didn't receive a bouquet at the end. Have the other gypsy girls? In any event, she received a storming and well-deserved reception from the audience.

[Fonty]

I watched the performance last night, but I haven't had a moment to put some thoughts together yet.  However, I enjoyed it much more than the first one I saw. 

 

I found a link on Youtube, which shows Lynn Seymour speaking to Deborah Bull about 2P.  She is talking about it at about the 12 minute mark:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2oSmI0D4IA

Edited December 6, 2015 by Fonty

[Jan McNulty]

I was at the performance on Saturday evening.

 

I've not seen Monotones l before and I absolutely loved it.  I thought the performances were incandescent and it was ethereal, beautiful and enthralling.  I have seen Monotones ll before and I'm sorry to say that I don't like it, mainly because I can't stand that piece of music.  The performances were immaculate.  As BRB toured it extensively on mid-scale some years ago I have been more used to seeing Mll on smaller stages but I think it suits the big stage much better.

 

And so to, for me, the main event.  I was not a ballet watcher in the early years of this ballet but have loved it since I first saw it at Sadler's Wells in January 1990.  Because I have always seen it on the smaller stages used by BRB I was quite surprised by how sparsely populated the stage looked sometimes in the friends and gypsies scenes.  The other detail I noticed (and preferred) was that the posh folk at the start of act 2 did not over-egg the pudding with their bird-pecking- like movements.  The lighting for the gypsy encampment looked bright to my eyes (I was sat on the front row of the stalls).

 

The dancers attacked the work with gusto and I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout.

 

Alexander Campbell was all I expected him to be and more; he totally inhabited the role of the Young Man.  I love his burgeoning partnership with Yuhui Choe and I thought she was a total delight as the Young Girl.  She was a ditzy and infuriating young lady who did not realise how irritating she was to her boyfriend but realised how much she had lost when he followed the gypsies.  When she was in the studio alone, before the Young Man's return every tiny movement told of her heartbreak.  Itziar Mendizabal as the Gypsy made it very easy to see why the Young Man was taken with her - very sassy and I loved the understated shoulder shimmies.  The interaction between all three was terrific.

 

From the minute the Young Man was ejected from the Gypsy encampment I was in floods of tears.  His arrival back at the studio and the reconciliation duet was incredibly moving.  The moment when he fell down on his knees just swept me away.  It was totally glorious.

 

As ever, it was lovely to say hello to fellow Forum members, although by the end of the performance I was beyond the power of speech.

 

I am back for this cast's second performance at the matinee on 16th January and I can't wait!

[alison]

The other detail I noticed (and preferred) was that the posh folk at the start of act 2 did not over-egg the pudding with their bird-pecking- like movements.

 

I think they'd toned it down: my reaction was that they were distinctly underplaying it on Saturday night!

 

I love his burgeoning partnership with Yuhui Choe and I thought she was a total delight as the Young Girl.  She was a ditzy and infuriating young lady who did not realise how irritating she was to her boyfriend but realised how much she had lost when he followed the gypsies.  When she was in the studio alone, before the Young Man's return every tiny movement told of her heartbreak.  

 

Choe was acting her heart out on Saturday night - she really was living the role.  However, I'd be interested to know how she came over from the top of the house, because I was needing to use my opera glasses to pick it up.  In fact, that could go for some of the other dancers, too.

 

As ever, it was lovely to say hello to fellow Forum members, although by the end of the performance I was beyond the power of speech.

 

Missed you again, Janet!  One of these days ...  (And I meant to ask, how did it rate on the number-of-tissues scale?)

 

BTW, all credit to the women in Monotones I: it was the first time I'd watched it head-on, and the angles of their limbs were often beautifully matched, almost exactly parallel, which can't be easy, given the physical differences.

[Jan McNulty]

Most unusually for me, I went to the stage door afterwards and I told Alex that he had made me cry more than Robert Parker at a particular matinee in Birmingham!  That puts it on the top of my tissue-needing pile!

 

I've got a couple of matinees booked in the New Year Alison...

[Petunia]

I have a ticket for the 16th, too!

[Fonty]

When I saw Monotones 1 the first time about 10 days ago, I thought it came across as a bit dull, which irritated me because I could see the wonderful ballet it should have been.  On Saturday night I saw a different cast, and thought it was terrific, and couldn't believe the difference.  I would have liked to have seen a different cast for Monotones 11, but didn't.  However, I liked it just as much the second time around.  Again, I thought Watson looked extremely elegant in this.  I could not put my finger on why Hristov didn't look as good.  He was matching the others with every step, so the only thing I could think of was that his physique was a little bit more thick set, relatively speaking.  And he had some slightly clumsy finishes to his pirouettes, which stood out for me because he performed them right in front of me.

 

I enjoyed 2P much more the second time.  It may have been the fact that I was sitting in the stalls rather than the roof, but I didn't find the pigeon movements were too overdone, whereas the first time I thought it seemed to go on for ever.  Choe was lovely in the role - not exactly tom boyish, but I didn't feel she was too sickly sweet, and Campbell was great.  As far as the gypsy girl was concerned, although Mendizabal did a good job, she wasn't as fiery as Morera. 

 

Shame about the naughty dove at the end, it was doing its best to draw attention away from the couple, and at one point I thought Choe looked as though she was checking carefully to make sure she didn't tread on it!  Still, at least the second bird behaved impeccably.  All in all, I thought Saturday night was a great night, and the dancers seemed to be getting in to the swing of it to the extent that they all looked as though they were having a wonderful time.  I couldn't see any empty seats down below, the applause was long and loud, and everyone looked as though they had thoroughly enjoyed it. 

[bangorballetboy]

I have a ticket for the 16th, too!

 

I have a ticket for every performance of the next run.  I am a ridiculously lucky chap.

[Jamesrhblack]

I was at the performance on Saturday evening.

 

I've not seen Monotones l before and I absolutely loved it.  I thought the performances were incandescent and it was ethereal, beautiful and enthralling.  I have seen Monotones ll before and I'm sorry to say that I don't like it, mainly because I can't stand that piece of music.  The performances were immaculate.  As BRB toured it extensively on mid-scale some years ago I have been more used to seeing Mll on smaller stages but I think it suits the big stage much better.

 

And so to, for me, the main event.  I was not a ballet watcher in the early years of this ballet but have loved it since I first saw it at Sadler's Wells in January 1990.  Because I have always seen it on the smaller stages used by BRB I was quite surprised by how sparsely populated the stage looked sometimes in the friends and gypsies scenes.  The other detail I noticed (and preferred) was that the posh folk at the start of act 2 did not over-egg the pudding with their bird-pecking- like movements.  The lighting for the gypsy encampment looked bright to my eyes (I was sat on the front row of the stalls).

 

The dancers attacked the work with gusto and I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout.

 

Alexander Campbell was all I expected him to be and more; he totally inhabited the role of the Young Man.  I love his burgeoning partnership with Yuhui Choe and I thought she was a total delight as the Young Girl.  She was a ditzy and infuriating young lady who did not realise how irritating she was to her boyfriend but realised how much she had lost when he followed the gypsies.  When she was in the studio alone, before the Young Man's return every tiny movement told of her heartbreak.  Itziar Mendizabal as the Gypsy made it very easy to see why the Young Man was taken with her - very sassy and I loved the understated shoulder shimmies.  The interaction between all three was terrific.

 

From the minute the Young Man was ejected from the Gypsy encampment I was in floods of tears.  His arrival back at the studio and the reconciliation duet was incredibly moving.  The moment when he fell down on his knees just swept me away.  It was totally glorious.

 

As ever, it was lovely to say hello to fellow Forum members, although by the end of the performance I was beyond the power of speech.

 

I am back for this cast's second performance at the matinee on 16th January and I can't wait!

Thanks for this report. I'm looking forward to that matinee too :-)

[alison]

Again, I thought Watson looked extremely elegant in this.  I could not put my finger on why Hristov didn't look as good.  He was matching the others with every step,

 

Not always.  I noticed several times on Saturday night that his timing was "behind" that of the other two - whether it's a question of not hearing the music the same way I don't know.  I think right from the beginning, when the men are turning the ballerina, it seemed to me a little more laboured than I would have expected, and didn't quite settle from there.  Certainly, it wasn't as good as the two performances I saw from a similar cast last time around - which I'm sure was with Bonelli, although looking at YouTube I see that the cinema broadcast was indeed with Kish.  Looking at various recordings of the work this century (ugh, that sounds awful, doesn't it?), I'd say that Watson is more fluid in his movement, and bends more - might that have been what you picked up on?

 

There were certainly seats available for the evening performance, too - quite a lot of the back row of the stalls circle was unoccupied.

[Fonty]

I can't say I noticed a particular problem with his timing as such, which surprises me, because it is one of my pet hates in group dancing.  However, I was tending to focus more on Watson than the trio together.  I just felt that Hristov's movements seemed a bit laboured.  Yes, it could be that Watson is more fluid.  It was nice to see him performing pure, calm, classical ballet, rather than the things I usually see him in. 

 

I couldn't see the back of the stalls circle from where I was sitting, but the auditorium felt a good deal livelier than on the previous occasion.

[Wulff]

Having read Ismene Brown's somewhat bad-tempered review of Two Pigeons in the Spectator in which she dismisses the artistic value of the piece as "negligible",  I thought that I would check to see what David Vaughan's view was in his book on Frederick Ashton and his Ballets. Here is a brief extract which I think sums up very well what the ballet is about. "The Two Pigeons is an almost perfect ballet: it tells its story with complete clarity and entirely in terms of dancing. Like Fille, it is only superficially a light comedy ballet: beneath that surface is another of Ashton's profound and poetic statements on the nature of love." 

 

Many of the ballet's critics dismiss it as "saccharine" and "twee", especially the first act, but is that really the case? From the very moment the curtain goes up it is evident that the relationship between the young man and his girl is in serious trouble. He is infuriated by her childish and inconsiderate behaviour and ends up by throwing his paintbrush at her and collapsing in a fit of sulks. Her efforts to ingratiate herself back into his good books are quite ineffectual, nor do her friends, when they arrive, help by messing about with his paints and brushes. Her comparison of herself and the young man with the two pigeons (turtledoves?) that fly by is not successful; the young man only joins in her fantasy with bad grace. As Christopher Carr said when rehearsing Yuhui Choe and Alex Campbell in the Pigeon  pas de deux *He thinks she's crazy", and when the pas de deux  is over the young man's mood is no better than before Finally when the gypsies pass by it is ironically the girl who has the idea of inviting them up, presumably to create a diversion which might clear the air, but when the Gypsy enters accompanied by her all-male troupe the cat is really among the pigeons. Small wonder that the young man is immediately attracted on the rebound to the Gypsy's more mature and sensual charms, and the girl is quite out of her depth in trying to keep her man and the Gypsy apart. 

 

Now what is "saccharine" and "twee" in this scenario, unless you feel that the break-up of a relationship is fun?. True, some of the humour may sugar the pill somewhat, but, underneath, the pill is a bitter one and the young girl is left heartbroken.

 

Next we come to the gypsy camp. It may look colourful and picturesque, but it is still a dangerous place. Visitors get pestered for money and have their pockets picked (one lady loses her handbag), and when the young man arrives he has his sketchbook snatched and has to pay to get it back. During the subsequent action we can never be sure whether the Gypsy has any real feelings for the young man but is simply amusing herself by leading him on and by so doing teasing her lover who is always lurking close at hand. Ultimately enough is enough and the young man is tied up, beaten up, taunted by the Gypsy, spat upon by her lover and thrown out of the camp. The young man's adventure into more exciting territory has proved a failure and he has to return to his true love at home which he never should have left. This is, of course, the moral of the La Fontaine fable on which the ballet is based and which is similar to the moral of La Sylphide except that the latter ends in tragedy whereas Two Pigeons ends in forgiveness and reconciliation.

 

The treatment of the gypsies in this ballet has often been the subject of criticism. True they may be no more than colourful "stage" gypsies, but they fulfil their role in the plot by representing a wilder and less conventional side of life. Whatever our views may be in this PC age, it has to be accepted that in past centuries the gypsies were considered as being very much on the fringes of society and given to various malfeasances including theft of property and livestock, abduction of children and seduction of "respectable" men's wives. These ideas are rooted in folklore and appear in such songs as"My mother said that I never should/ play with the gypsies in the wood" and of course the "Raggle Taggle Gypsies" which is said to have been inspired by the elopement of the wife of a scottish earl with her gypsy lover.

 

Whatever we may think of Ashton's gypsies, I believe that the quality of the choreography that he provided for them has been seriously underrated. Maybe this is because most critics only see the dances at stalls level. But if you view them from above the complexity of the floor and movement patterns becomes more apparent. Ashton was nothing if not a master craftsman and much of the choreography for the gypsy corps is IMHO on a par with his work in his other best ballets. There is also a direct quote from the vision scene in Sleeping Beauty when the young man pursues the Gypsy through a diagonal of gypsy men.

 

To conclude, Ismene Brown thinks that the present generation of RB dancers are "brisk modern creatures with very little fantasy in their sensible heads" and therefore incapable of dealing with the twee and fake which she finds in such abundance in the ballet. Well, I happen to have spoken to two of the people involved in the ballet's revival, and both have said that the company has enjoyed dancing it. What's more, James Hay has tweeted that he is on Cloud 9 after his debut in the role of the Young Man. Could Ms Brown be wrong?

[Sim]

What a wonderful, educational and erudite post, Wulff. It shows the huge difference it makes when real thought and analysis are applied to a performance in addition to one's emotional experience of it. Thank you for taking the time.

[AnneMarriott]

What a wonderful, educational and erudite post, Wulff. It shows the huge difference it makes when real thought and analysis are applied to a performance in addition to one's emotional experience of it. Thank you for taking the time.

Oh dear - do I detect a mild rebuke for those of us who don't care for The Two Pigeons? I don't dispute the underlying theme of reconciliation and forgiveness in any way and in fact I enjoy other ballets that deal with exactly the same aspect of human nature. But no amount of thought and analysis will redeem the Two Piegeons' choreography for me.

[FLOSS]

I doubt that any mild rebuke was intended. We each of us like certain ballets and dislike others and no amount of analysis or explanation will shift us. That is life. Those who dislike Two Pigeons don't have to see it again. Although I am intrigued by the comment about not liking the choreography I am not asking for an explanation. I will simply say that not all the casts brought out what is at the heart of the ballet. Personally I thought that Salenko and McRae were least successful in getting to its heart their performance was very efficient but general rather than specific. I did not expect Salenko to be miraculously transformed into an Ashton dancer but her  portrayal of the Girl  was a generic balletic young girl and would have served equally well  for Swanhilda.The best balanced and most effective cast was the youngest one of Takada, Hay and Magri.Morera was one of the finest Gypsy Girls that I have seen but Cuthbertson was not right as the Young Girl too sophisticated perhaps? Hay and Takada on the other hand were pitch perfect as the Young Man and Young Girl and Magri was a very good Gypsy. It was the performance that for me put the heart back into the ballet. 

 

Just as those who  don't like Two Pigeons don't have to go and see it again so I don't have to go and see Different Drummer, My Brother My Sisters.Playground,Valley of Shadows, Judas Tree or Rituals again. It is nothing to do with the subject matter of the first five works.It is simply that I don't think that they are very good ballets. Different Drummer is a pale shadow of Berg's opera Wozzeck which is a masterpiece and if you want to see a ballet about war and its horrors then Tudor's Echoing Trumpets is the must see ballet. It packs a punch that MacMillan was striving after but never achieved.My problem is that management is unlikely to make up a triple bill of three of the six  MacMillan works which I have named at any one time.They will inevitably be programmed with works that I do want to see and I will have to decide whether or not the other ballets are a sufficient inducement  to make me part with my money. But that is part of ballet going you like some you dislike others.

Edited December 8, 2015 by FLOSS

[Sim]

Oh dear - do I detect a mild rebuke for those of us who don't care for The Two Pigeons? I don't dispute the underlying theme of reconciliation and forgiveness in any way and in fact I enjoy other ballets that deal with exactly the same aspect of human nature. But no amount of thought and analysis will redeem the Two Piegeons' choreography for me.

Floss is right....there is no rebuke intended at all, mild or otherwise, and am surprised you would think this is the case. I have never and would never rebuke someone for having different impressions from mine. I was thinking more of writers who say things about performances, and dancers' opinions, and choreographers' intentions, and the audience's opinions, that they really know little about.

[AnneMarriott]

Oh dear - do I detect a mild rebuke for those of us who don't care for The Two Pigeons? I don't dispute the underlying theme of reconciliation and forgiveness in any way and in fact I enjoy other ballets that deal with exactly the same aspect of human nature. But no amount of thought and analysis will redeem the Two Piegeons' choreography for me.

Late in the day I apologise for the Two Piegeons typo!

[Sim]

Don't worry, we will let piegones be piegones....and yes, BBB has already made that joke!

[Wulff]

On the subject of Piegons the ROH made the same mistake on some of its tickets, so you are in good company, Anne.

 

Regarding disliking "Pigeons"; of course this is and must be a matter of personal  taste. Some of us like rice pudding and spinach, others don't and never will do. However, I don't go along with those who say they dislike the choreography. Ashton may not hit everyone's emotional button in this work, but a critique of his choreography should surely be supported by some concrete evidence. As I have said before, I think that the choreography of the gypsy dances has often been underrated, and Isay this with regard to their structure rather than their content. Of course I like the latter too, although others may not.

 

 As for the casts, I agree with Floss that the Takada, Magri, Hay cast was overall the most satisfying even though Morera gave us the most sultry gypsy. I was particularly impressed by Hay's performance. Not only was every emotion well thought out and conveyed, but the standard of his dancing was every bit as good as that of his more senior colleagues.

[Sim]

What a shame....that is the only cast I was unable to see!

[AnneMarriott]

 

Regarding disliking "Pigeons"; of course this is and must be a matter of personal  taste. Some of us like rice pudding and spinach, others don't and never will do. However, I don't go along with those who say they dislike the choreography. Ashton may not hit everyone's emotional button in this work, but a critique of his choreography should surely be supported by some concrete evidence. As I have said before, I think that the choreography of the gypsy dances has often been underrated, and Isay this with regard to their structure rather than their content. Of course I like the latter too, although others may not.

 

 .

I only wish I could offer concrete evidence to support my view of the choreography in Two Pigeons, but I am insufficiently expert. It is just the feeling I get when I watch it. I have seen it danced by BRB on several occasions and only booked for the RB run in the hope of revising my opinion. It was not to be. To me the bird-impression steps are irritating and rather embarrassing, and I sit praying that no-one is going to burst into The Birdie Song at any moment. I don't honestly feel that it's down to the dancers rather than the steps themselves. Perhaps the structure of the gypsy dances IS what is problematic rather than the steps themselves - I can quite see that a lot of technique and pizzazz is required, especially by the men - but the shoulder-shimmying by the women leaves me cold and the ensemble effect reminds me of a sort of musical theatre production in which the corps dances to the audience in a "love me" way rather than as a group of people dancing to express their joie de vivre. Similar dancing "to the audience" in other works can convey a sense of including the audience in a celebration, such as in Coppelia or Fille, and that works. I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, but I'm trying.

 

Floss in post No. 323 above is intrigued by a dislike of the choreography. It really does cut both ways! And needless to say I shan't book for it again ...

 

Incidentally I don't seen anything wrong with asking the potential audience what they would like to see ballet-wise, although the hunt for ratings has not done television a lot of good (again in my opinion).

[alison]

I sit praying that no-one is going to burst into The Birdie Song at any moment.

 

Thank you, Anne, for leaving that comment until the run had finished

 

I'm still in two minds about it myself - think I enjoyed it more with BRB.  It may have something to do with stage size.