Edward Watson is upset about ginger jibes

[Jacqueline]

*goes off into misty trance about Damian Lewis*

 

Ahem, sorry, all this talk of redheads. ;-)

Damien was on tv this morning and the subject of redheadedness came up. He said, albeit tongue in cheek, there are a lot of people currently being described as redheaded when they are not. Red hair is fashionable at the moment, although there is some confusion as to what constitutes red hair. If you are not red haired you are not joining the club! 

[bridiem]

Slightly off theme, but I find it a bit depressing that this story is not in fact about ballet at all but about redheads, and that's why the press have picked up on it. They don't, on the whole, take ballet seriously at all (apart from a few arts sections) and only cover it when they can link it to a non-story like this. But I suppose it's inevitable, since the press will generally cover what they think people will read rather than what actually matters; and people are apparently more inclined to read a story about redheadedness than about ballet.

[MAB]

Well, it's about ballet critics, and it seems some ladies were so taken by handsome Mr Watson, that they are considering going to see him dance.  That can't be bad, surely? 

[penelopesimpson]

I think Mr Watson is very handsome, definitely not in your average pretty-boy kind of way, but who always wants that? I feel it is completely irrelevant for a dance critic to be so personal, and this particular critic seems to be quite the bully.

 

I think Edward Watson's performance as Crown Prince Rudolph in Mayerling is outstanding and I love the emotional depth he brings to roles. He has something other-worldly about him which I find fascinating.

There is nothing like him in Mayerling IMHO.  When he is onstage I don't notice anyone else and I agree with your definition about his special magic.  I hate that he is 40 and unlikely to go on forever.  Intend to see all his Mayerlings!

[Ian Macmillan]

Ismene Brown gives the pot a stir in a Spectator blog (and she's maybe not a Deborah Bull fan?):

 

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/critics-must-be-allowed-to-discuss-how-performers-look-height-weight-hair-colour-race-bum-size-its-all-fair-game/

[CHazell2]

Ismene Brown gives the pot a stir in a Spectator blog (and she's maybe not a Deborah Bull fan?):

 

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/critics-must-be-allowed-to-discuss-how-performers-look-height-weight-hair-colour-race-bum-size-its-all-fair-game/

 

Just read it and just let's say that Miss Brown is not afraid to say what she thinks. Personally I like Deborah Bull, she was a good presenter on The BBC when they broadcast Coppelia back in 2000, and I like the documentary that she did that is up on youtube.

[SwissBalletFan]

Ismene Brown gives the pot a stir in a Spectator blog (and she's maybe not a Deborah Bull fan?):

 

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/critics-must-be-allowed-to-discuss-how-performers-look-height-weight-hair-colour-race-bum-size-its-all-fair-game/

 

 

I think it is a well reasoned and balanced article that addresses the key issues. I think Ms Bull is only in the firing line because she gave opposing views, nothing personal.

[alison]

Except, doesn't it miss out the key point that it's less about the red hair being commented on, and more the negative implications associated with the comments, in the same way that you could comment perfectly neutrally on someone being blonde, but you could also (with apologies to blondes) call someone blonde and bring to mind all sorts of implications of stupidity/lack of intelligence?  I don't particularly mind references to dancers' appearance in reviews (although a little can go a long way - even something as positive as having "matinee-idol good looks" can become tedious if repeated too often), but it's how they are referred to which matters - context is all.

[Bruce Wall]

Except, doesn't it miss out the key point that it's less about the red hair being commented on, and more the negative implications associated with the comments, in the same way that you could comment perfectly neutrally on someone being blonde, but you could also (with apologies to blondes) call someone blonde and bring to mind all sorts of implications of stupidity/lack of intelligence?  I don't particularly mind references to dancers' appearance in reviews (although a little can go a long way - even something as positive as having "matinee-idol good looks" can become tedious if repeated too often), but it's how they are referred to which matters - context is all.

 

I totally agree with you, Alison.  Context is all - and in the performing arts you have to - through your training or however you manage it - build a survival armour.  The work is all.  If the work is - as my mother used to say - 'on the better side of the compromise' in your own estimation then I think you should consider yourself lucky;  VERY lucky indeed.  Why?  'Cos you are.  

 

I remember decades ago a Tony winning actress with whom I'd had the privilege to work - Amanda Plummer - (the daughter of Tammy Grimes and Christopher Plummer) - was said in print by John Simon, then the revered critic of New York Magazine, to have a 'face that could launch a thousand cigar stores'.  (As Dame Diana Rigg might have it:  'No Stone Unturned'.)  I was appalled for Mandy.  I called her late that evening - after my own performance - and she just laughed.  She said in a strange sort of way she was complimented being compared to the strength of the native peoples she so admired.  Her laughter was restorative AND for me instructive.  

 

Mandy had in fact invited me to the dress rehearsal of that same Broadway production.  It was of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and starred the legendary Briton Jessica Tandy as Amanda.  During the so-called 'Gentlemen Caller' scene - one that Mandy was there performing opposite John Heard - the director - one talented Brit called John Dexter - was heard to scream over the tannoy in Mandy's direction: 'She's crippled, not retarded'.  That was I thought so much more damming.  It actually referred to the work.  I remember saying so to Mandy and again she just laughed saying 'it's all part of a day at the office'.   

 

As the noted American actor Kevin McKenzie told an inmate in a session I was running in a prison: 'Take the best and leave the rest'.  Stellar advice I thought. 

 

I well remember working with that same Menagerie director when I was 17.  I have, in fact, much to thank him for - and I mean that sincerely.  I was rehearsing to take over a role from Dai Bradley (the wonderful young lad who you may remember played the lead in that stunning film 'Kes').  A couple of days in Dexter called me to the lip of the stage at the end of one particular rehearsal.  'I think you are utter shit,' he said with a smirk and the full pride of his Northern drawl.  I was stunned into silence.  I didn't know what to do ... nor say.  I went off the stage and immediately found that fine actor Michael Jayston.  'Michael,' I said, 'John Dexter just said I was 'utter shit'.  I remember he laughed.  In fact he laughed quite a bit.  Then he said: 'Oh, don't let that bother you.  Yesterday he told me I made him puke.  It's all part of the job'.  

 

More work - and life - was to teach me that it was.  That production Dexter directed was a good one: VERY good indeed.  It's the pride in THAT I learned you should hang onto.  You are lucky to be in a position to do so.  My mother was right.  The line of the compromise is your own.  The other bits - as itemised - are best left to speak for themselves ... and I personally believe that they do and ultimately WILL.   

 

Bullying is EVERYWHERE.   

Edited May 14, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[loveclassics]

The critic is quite clearly bonkers! Tom Hiddleston has red hair and Benedict Cumberbatch can look distinctly red headed in some photos. My husband is also a red head. Lastly, if I could choose anyone out of the current male dancers at the Royal Ballet to dance anything I liked, it would be Ed Watson as Rudolf in Mayerling. What a silly man Mr Macaulay is.

I've always suspected Macaulay has never got over the demise of Frederick Ashton.  He has written excellently detailed reviews of Ashton's work and I remember him giving a very interesting lecture on the choreographer at an Insight Day years ago.  On the other hand, he can be very lukewarm about MacMillan in whose work Watson has given some mesmerising performances.  Maybe it's the dance, not the dancer he finds hard to like. 

 

Personally, I don't care if I never see ballets like Different Drummer orMy Brother, My Sisters ever again but I can appreciate just how well Watson is suited to interpreting such angst-ridden work.

 

For the record, he did dance one of the 'princely' roles earlier in his career: Albrecht in Giselle.  And very good he was too.

 

Linda

[loveclassics]

Well, that must have been an *incredibly* long time ago! You're sure you're not getting him confused with Ivan Putrov?

No, it wasn't Putrov then and I remember it too.  It was a slight mishap in rehearsal for the second act of Manon when he was one of the men at the house of ill repute who pass her around like a parcel.  To be fair, that's a very tricky piece of lifting and the dancer in question was a very famous, very tall French star.  Not the easiest (or lightest) woman to lift.  No matter how slim they are, all that dense muscle means a lot more weight.  She advised him to go to a gym to build up his upper body strength and he did.  The results could be seen in Mayerling.

 

Linda

[Sim]

I totally agree with you, Alison.  Context is all - and in the performing arts you have to - through your training or however you manage it - build a survival armour.  The work is all.  If the work is - as my mother used to say - 'on the better side of the compromise' in your own estimation then I think you should consider yourself lucky;  VERY lucky indeed.  Why?  'Cos you are.  

 

I remember decades ago a Tony winning actress with whom I'd had the privilege to work - Amanda Plummer - (the daughter of Tammy Grimes and Christopher Plummer) - was said in print by John Simon, then the revered critic of New York Magazine, to have a 'face that could launch a thousand cigar stores'.  (As Dame Diana Rigg might have it:  'No Stone Unturned'.)  I was appalled for Mandy.  I called her late that evening - after my own performance - and she just laughed.  She said in a strange sort of way she was complimented being compared to the strength of the native peoples she so admired.  Her laughter was restorative AND for me instructive.  

 

Mandy had in fact invited me to the dress rehearsal of that same Broadway production.  It was of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and starred the legendary Briton Jessica Tandy as Amanda.  During the so-called 'Gentlemen Caller' scene - one that Mandy was there performing opposite John Heard - the director - one talented Brit called John Dexter - was heard to scream over the tannoy in Mandy's direction: 'She's crippled, not retarded'.  That was I thought so much more damming.  It actually referred to the work.  I remember saying so to Mandy and again she just laughed saying 'it's all part of a day at the office'.   

 

As the noted American actor Kevin McKenzie told an inmate in a session I was running in a prison: 'Take the best and leave the rest'.  Stellar advice I thought. 

 

I well remember working with that same Menagerie director when I was 17.  I have, in fact, much to thank him for - and I mean that sincerely.  I was rehearsing to take over a role from Dai Bradley (the wonderful young lad who you may remember played the lead in that stunning film 'Kes').  A couple of days in Dexter called me to the lip of the stage at the end of one particular rehearsal.  'I think you are utter shit,' he said with a smirk and the full pride of his Northern drawl.  I was stunned into silence.  I didn't know what to do ... nor say.  I went off the stage and immediately found that fine actor Michael Jayston.  'Michael,' I said, 'John Dexter just said I was 'utter shit'.  I remember he laughed.  In fact he laughed quite a bit.  Then he said: 'Oh, don't let that bother you.  Yesterday he told me I made him puke.  It's all part of the job'.  

 

More work - and life - was to teach me that it was.  That production Dexter directed was a good one: VERY good indeed.  It's the pride in THAT I learned you should hang onto.  You are lucky to be in a position to do so.  My mother was right.  The line of the compromise is your own.  The other bits - as itemised - are best left to speak for themselves ... and I personally believe that they do and ultimately WILL.   

 

Bullying is EVERYWHERE.

 

Bruce, I was at school with Amanda in NY back in the 70s!

[Vanartus]

Alastair Macaulay used to call "My Brother, My Sisters", "My Goodness, My Guiness". He found it funny. Very funny. It made him laugh. A lot. I found it hilarious - not.

[Jamesrhblack]

Macaulay"s issue is not with the colour of Edward Watson"s hair or colouring. He is not impressed with his dance style, and, as a professional critic, explains why. People may not agree with him, but it's a personal opinion for which he gives reasons. This "anti a Ginger" misinterpretation seems almost wilful.

[bridiem]

Macaulay"s issue is not with the colour of Edward Watson"s hair or colouring. He is not impressed with his dance style, and, as a professional critic, explains why. People may not agree with him, but it's a personal opinion for which he gives reasons. This "anti a Ginger" misinterpretation seems almost wilful.

 

I agree with you, Jamesrhblack; but Macaulay does have a particularly cruel way of expressing negative views about dancers at times. I once took issue with him about a review of Bryony Brind in the 1980s, and he did eventually send me a very thoughtful reply - though it doesn't seem to have affected his approach to his writing! And since his red hair is the one thing cited that Edward Watson cannot (realistically) change it must be particularly frustrating for him to have it brought up regularly in a negative context. Though I would say that nowadays his appearance garners more plaudits than criticism, so I'm surprised he's so bothered about what one critic writes. Assuming it's Macaulay he was referring to of course.

[Jamesrhblack]

I agree with you, Jamesrhblack; but Macaulay does have a particularly cruel way of expressing negative views about dancers at times. I once took issue with him about a review of Bryony Brind in the 1980s, and he did eventually send me a very thoughtful reply - though it doesn't seem to have affected his approach to his writing! And since his red hair is the one thing cited that Edward Watson cannot (realistically) change it must be particularly frustrating for him to have it brought up regularly in a negative context. Though I would say that nowadays his appearance garners more plaudits than criticism, so I'm surprised he's so bothered about what one critic writes. Assuming it's Macaulay he was referring to of course.

Well, the reference to his hair and colouring in the NYT article cites that it helps him to make an impression on stage so I'm not sure that is "negative." I agree that Macaulay isn't complimentary about his dancing but a critic is entitled to his opinion, as is a member of the public (of course) and he gives his reasons for that, whether or not one agrees with him.

[aileen]

Surely it should be of more concern to Watson that Macaulay thinks that he is a poor dancer. In particular, he criticises him for being weak and being poorly aligned. However, there does seem to be something very personal in his criticism of Watson. He just seems to dislike everything about him including his skin and hair colour. Is there any substance to Macaulay's opinion on Watson's technique?

[John Mallinson]

Aileen, can you quote an instance in which Macaulay is critical of Watson's skin and hair colour? I haven't found one.

[Jamesrhblack]

Surely it should be of more concern to Watson that Macaulay thinks that he is a poor dancer. In particular, he criticises him for being weak and being poorly aligned. However, there does seem to be something very personal in his criticism of Watson. He just seems to dislike everything about him including his skin and hair colour. Is there any substance to Macaulay's opinion on Watson's technique?

But the point is that he doesn't dislike his skin and hair colour: he writes that they help him make an impression on stage and that he thinks he's "lovely when not dancing." He also points out that he has been extremely positive about other dancers who share Edward Watson's colouring such as Moira Shearer and David Wall,

 

In terms of technique, Edward Watson is evidently a highly accomplished dance actor and his performance, in particular, in Mayerling is surely outstanding. I didn't see his Albrecht and don't know if his non appearance in much of the remaining classical repertoire has been personal choice or an acknowledgement that his particular talents do not align with those roles. When he was appointed principal, there was some discussion on the old forum as to his suitability for promotion but judicious choices of repertoire and evident hard work seem to have silenced much of that. My understanding is that Macaulay is much more of an Ashton than a MacMillan man and it may well be that Edward Watson's highly idiosyncratic dance style is a long way removed from what Macaulay regards as his classical ideal.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Jamesrhblack

[aileen]

Well, I interpreted the reference to hair and skin colour as something negative because it apparently contributes to Watson's highly individual stage presence which Macaulay isn't keen on. I'm becoming confused by this thread now. I thought that this discussion started because Watson was upset that a critic (assumed to be AC) had been rude about his red hair.

[Jamesrhblack]

Well, I interpreted the reference to hair and skin colour as something negative because it apparently contributes to Watson's highly individual stage presence which Macaulay isn't keen on. I'm becoming confused by this thread now. I thought that this discussion started because Watson was upset that a critic (assumed to be AC) had been rude about his red hair.

The key word is "nonetheless."

 

Macaulay writes that Watson's appearance creates a theatrical impression but "nonetheless" is deterred by his technical weaknesses. He also writes in the same article that "For many British observers, Mr Watson is as special an artist as Ms Whelan (inference, to USA observers), so he makes it very clear that his is a personal observation and not necessarily a universally agreed one.

 

You can't get more critically fair than that, surely.

[Mary]

Maybe we should let this one drop now?

[alison]

Well, I interpreted the reference to hair and skin colour as something negative because it apparently contributes to Watson's highly individual stage presence which Macaulay isn't keen on. I'm becoming confused by this thread now. I thought that this discussion started because Watson was upset that a critic (assumed to be AC) had been rude about his red hair.

 

I think this discussion started because The Times decided to take a relatively small section of an interview and inflate it because it made good copy   I think we had a thread discussing Macaulay's comments - technical and otherwise - on Watson and their appropriateness elsewhere at the time they were made.

[SwissBalletFan]

Maybe we should let this one drop now?

 

Fine with me, however it seems there is no such thing as bad publicity...His wikipedia searches shot up

[alison]

Shame nobody's filled in much more of the page than when I last looked at it a few years ago, then.

[mpaley]

Macaulay is a serious critic who writes very well and has a fine analytical ability.  He sometimes (by no means always) goes off the tracks when writing about performances or ballets he doesn't like.  He has some strong (or weak) prejudices, as when he said he wasn't going to review Polina Semionova because he didn't understands what she was doing (thereby putting himself into a class one one).