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Posted (edited)

I will try to add something later ... but it may have to wait a couple of days (I'm at work right now) as I have a huge amount on my plate.  Suffice it now to say that it was an enjoyable event - and the two dancers from the RBS did us proud and received amongst the loudest cheers of the evening for their rendering of McMillan's central PDD from Concerto.  They were both superb.  Grateful to others who may have been present to add their reflections.  It was my great delight to see one BcoF member who has become a cherished friend there.  A wonderful pleasure as ever.  I'm sure there may have been others. 

Edited by Bruce Wall
  • Like 3
Posted
5 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

I'm sure there may have been others. 

 

16 hours ago, balletsoccermom said:

Would love to hear feedback on how the gala went.  Bruce, understand you are super busy.  Anyone else able to see the performance?

 

 

I would have bought a ticket had the programme for the gala been confirmed on the OdP site somewhat earlier.

 

So I am in Nice this weekend for their current triple bill.  Comments to follow later in the week. ☺

 

 

Posted

We were fortunate enough to see the recent Royal Ballet School 'Solo' evening which included the Concerto PDD in practice for this gala.  The PDD was a highlight of the evening, truly memorable, and I'm very much looking forward to reading more from Bruce and others about the gala.

Posted

It was a long and varied evening. The Paris Opera Ballet School performed two of the ballets that were in the programme they had presented in their three School performance: Raymonda Act 3 (Nureyev) and The Vertiginous Thrill Of Exactitude (Forsythe). They were tremendous in the latter, one of his more overtly neo-classical ballets. Raymonda drew on students from many years of the school. Raymonda was confidently danced by Margaux Gaudy-Talazac but I had been more impressed on Tuesday, at the School performance, by Bianca Scudamore, who had the assured poise of a ballerina in the making. Likewise, her Jean de Brienne, Samuel Bray, had the elegant style of a danseur noble (an elegance I had noted in his dancing in Vertiginous Thrill) whereas Milo Aveque, at the gala, was untidy and technically less assured.

 

The RBS presented the Concerto pas de deux, well danced by Hang Yu and Harris Bell. It was very well received by the audience. The hit of the evening was the Black Swan pas de deux, by the Vaganova Academy ( a tall, long legged Eleonora Sevenard, knocking out fouettes like she could go on for ever but with a brittle Bolshoi panache, partnered by Egor Gerashchenko). Almost as popular was a work by Canada's National Ballet School, Chalkboard Memories, danced by three students to a most moving record sung by Nina Simone. Coincidentally there was another piece using Nina Simone, danced very well by 4 Stuttgart students. There were clever hand movements and it was unusual; but the choreography was inappropriate for the Simone music.

 

The Royal Danish Ballet School were represented by 4 dancers in  Abdallah, dancing the Bournonville choreography cleanly and musically. The Hamburg Ballet School offered a ballet by Neumeier that was long and included a variety of styles, and six students from the San Francisco Ballet School danced a 10 minute piece.

 

The evening ended with an impressive defile, mixing all the students of the Paris Opera Ballet School with all the participants at the gala (and including Sae Maeda and Joshua Junker of the RBS, who were the substitutes). Altogether an inspiring evening.

  • Like 6
Posted (edited)

Bless you, Sheila ... You have taken the pressure on me  ... at a VERY busy time :) 

 

I largely agree with Sheila's take - although I must confess not being anywhere as much impressed with the Vaganova contribution in the Black Swan PDD.  For me Sevenard was oft unbalanced ... (the variation was an entire mis-mash) ... and resolutely off her music throughout.  This partnership's attention was definitely out rather than towards each other.  They oft appeared - for all their intents and purposes - as a circus novelty act.  (I was reminded - many decades ago - when being in a production at Stratford, Ontario - following Maggie Smith and the late Brian Bedford into the vomitory.  Brian turned to the redoubtable her and said - under his breath - 'If you do that again, Maggie, I'll pick my nose.'  His comment would not have been out of place for these dancers last Friday.)  Special applause for the Paris Opera Orchestra for being - as close as possible - a composer's best friend.  These dancer's, however, paid little mind (or ear).  They were - unnecessarily as far as I was concerned - entirely self-congratulatory.  

 

Was disappointed on the whole with the Ecole de Danse de l'Opera's take on Nureyev's Raymonda Act III (especially as they had danced it recently).  Much did not snap into the necessary focus.  That said I adored the concerted sweep of Loup Marcault-Derouard's Abderam and the richly zealous Margherita Venturi in the soloist variation.  As Sheila suggests the Forsythe was much more of a piece and the male soloists - Alexandre Boccara and Daniel Lozano-Martin - brought the celebrated French plastique into vivid frame. In this instance we could easily share in their dedicated smiles.  

 

Wasn't sure at first about Goecke's A Spell On You from the John Cranko Schule/Stuttgart - those single long beaded strands flying about from off the black dance pants I found quite distracting.  Still I was brought round by the quality of the dancing (and the commitment) of the four.  Happily they showed most effective in those sections actually rooted in ballet (and, yes, they did exist).  That too applied for the Canadians in Chalkboard Memories by Denis Volpe.  The dancing however by all three was outstanding - truly.  Ryan Tomash will be a name to watch I think.  Myles Thatcher's Panorama for the SFBS was more of a piece and certainly more generic - but the dancers again proved themselves a wonderful ensemble.  The Ballettschule des Hamburg Ballett suffered slightly by taking Neumeier out of context and awkwardly trimming it on the side.  That said Airi Suzuki was a phenomenal partner for one so young.

 

For me the two standouts had to be the British and the Danes.  My favoured McMillan has always been early and the Concerto PDD is high on my list of cherished segments by that particular dance maker.  Hang Yu hung rapturously melded in the confident arms of Harris Bell.  The audience cheered.  Rightly so.  There was much to celebrate here as there was in the RDBS' Abdallah.  This was a feast of dance to speed with refreshing modesty.  Here the ensemble fully allowed the genius of the choreography to shine in all its generosity.  (Thank heavens this had not been danced by the Russians.)  The female trio blistered in their rapture across and around the Palais Garnier's magical stage.  They were, for record, Ditte Baltzer, Emilie Palsgaard-Jensen and Emma Rits-Kofued.

 

The Defile Des Ecoles was - as it always is - and in every way - grand ... with that long stage stretched to its full pencil like stealth - and what joy - as ever - to once again catch a glimpse of that beacon of classical joy, Isabelle Guerin.  To this day she remains a lady of a very definite light.  Age certainly does "not wither her".  

 

Edited by Bruce Wall
  • Like 5
Posted

Sorry, my comments on the Black Swan pdd were confusing, I was being ironic! By 'hit' I meant for the audience; and the reference to Bolshoi showmanship (presumably the impact of Tsisikiradze on the Vaganova) was meant negatively. The piece, and the way it was performed seemed out of kilter with the rest of the event, it was more like traditional gala fodder.

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, SheilaC said:

The piece, and the way it was performed seemed out of kilter with the rest of the event, it was more like traditional gala fodder.

 

...which I find, by the way, a lot more proper for a ballet school showpiece than all those modern pieces combined. Having been to a lot of those ballet school concerts, I am sorry to report that the preponderance of modern pieces in the gala was more due to inability of many of those kids to dance decently, without simplifying steps, serious pieces of classical repertoire...

  • Like 1
Posted

Are you suggesting that the schools that performed something contemporary in last week's gala in Paris did so because their students would not have been able to dance anything more classical?

 

Most companies nowadays have a mix of classical/ neoclassical/ contemporary choreographies in their repertoire so they need dancers who are versatile enough to dance all of these, and this will inevitably feed through to schools. A gala that shows only one of these categories would IMO not give sufficient credit to the full range of the student's skills.

 

  • Like 2
Posted
On 11.4.2017 at 15:41, assoluta said:

 

I am sorry to report that the preponderance of modern pieces in the gala was more due to inability of many of those kids to dance decently, without simplifying steps, serious pieces of classical repertoire...

I don't understand: How can you say that without having seen the kids in a classical piece? Isn't that one of the basic rules, to judge only what you have seen? 

  • Like 4
Posted
On 4/13/2017 at 02:18, Angela said:

I don't understand: How can you say that without having seen the kids in a classical piece? Isn't that one of the basic rules, to judge only what you have seen? 

 

I keep seeing them in class, on stage, I know many of them, know their pedagogues, I know the realities of ballet schools, from the top to the bottom.

Posted

Apparently you don't know what the mixed repertory in bigger and smaller companies demands from them - if you want to get a job today it's not enough to have a fine classical technique (which, without any question, is necessary), but the students must adapt to many different styles quickly, depending on where they audition. There are so many smaller companies with modern/contemporary/mixed repertory that in some cases the kids will be better off with with additional virtues like velocity, smoothness, stage presence, personality, panache. Or there are companies with a chief choreographer who is looking for open-minded dancers who love to create new work. So why not show these qualities to an audience in a modern piece, if the students train them and have them? I admire a good modern piece at a school performance more than an endless series of nervous classical pdds which will hardly ever look as perfect as they should.

  • Like 3
Posted
2 hours ago, Angela said:

Apparently you don't know what the mixed repertory in bigger and smaller companies demands from them...

 

This seems to be a rather bold supposition...

  • 1 year later...
Posted
On 11/04/2017 at 06:57, Bruce Wall said:

Ryan Tomash will be a name to watch I think.

 

You have a good eye, Bruce! - Ryan Tomash has joined the Royal Danish Ballet and will be dancing Golfo, the sea spirit, on the first night of this season's run of Napoli.

  • Like 2
  • alison changed the title to Gala des écoles de danse du XXIe siècle
  • 7 months later...
Posted

... and now he's just danced Armand on the opening night of the RDB's revival of Neumeier's Kameliadamen. Astonishing for someone only in his second year with the company. .

  • Like 3
Posted

I saw Ryan Tomash both as Golfo in " Napoli" and last Sunday as Armand in " Kameliadamen". What a brilliant young dancer, I liked him enormously and especially as Armand he showed himself as a very good partner to our lovely Ida Praetorius ( Ida was superb this season - great Giselle, wonderful Cinderella and beautiful Marguerite, the true one!

  I look forward to see Ryan Tomash in other significant roles next season!

  • Like 4

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