World Ballet Festival: Tokyo, August 2018

[Allison]

Has anyone attended the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo?  I'd love to go one day and so it would be great to hear from anyone who has been for tips on the best places to stay, how to buy tickets securely, etc.  Thanks, Allison 

[Bruce Wall]

Take a goodly amount of money, Alison.  The CHEAPEST ticket is nigh on £55.  (Of course I realise that everything is relative and this may not appear expensive to some.)  

[Allison]

Thanks for the warning Bruce!

[Naomi M]

Here are the dancers participating in this event.

https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2018/wbf/cast.html

 

And the schedule, tickets

https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2018/wbf/schedule.html

 

There is also 2 performances of full length Don Q (with Tokyo Ballet) in Tokyo and one in Osaka

https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2018/wbf_pro/

 

July 27th Myriam Ould Braham/Mathias Heymann

July 28th Alina Cojocaru/Cesar Colares

 

August  18th Osaka Festival Hall, Maria Alexandrova/Vladislav Lantratov

 

 Unfortunately not enough information in English, but you can purchase tickets or ask questions from here (by email)

https://www.nbs.or.jp/english/ticket/index.html

english@nbs.or.jp

 

Tickets are not for sale yet. 

 

[alison]

You're confusing your Allisons, Bruce

[capybara]

3 hours ago, Naomi M said:

Here are the dancers participating in this event.

https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2018/wbf/cast.html

 

Thank you for this, Naomi M.

My computer's translation has just listed Stephen McRough (!), among others.

[Balletfanp]

Marine Rad-manufacturer 😂

[now voyager]

Allison, I've sent you a PM.

[alison]

Uh-oh, I'm doing it now!  Just went and checked my inbox

[Allison]

Thanks for your comments everyone.  Yes I had heard about the humidity and that's partly the reason for asking for hotel recommendations. 

 

Thanks also for the tip on emailing the box office direct with an order for tickets.

[Naomi M]

Hotel fees are relatively cheap here, and also food and shopping thanks to the weak Yen. The venue Tokyo Bunka Kaikan is located in Ueno, where there is a zoo, several museums, parks. The venue is in front of Ueno Station and is very convenient. There are some hotels available in Ueno, and also Asakusa which is popular among tourists has many hotels. 

 

I live in Tokyo, but as a result I do not have enough knowledge of hotels here. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask me via PM. 

 

A small video introducing this festival, with some comments from participating dancers.

 

[toursenlair]

I have some travel tips and hotel recommendations here:

http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2012/07/travel-tips-for-ballet-lovers-japan.html

[Nina G.]

On social media DanceTours also announced the http://www.royalelegancenight.com taking place in Tokyo with Royal Ballet dancers Lauren Cuthbertson, Vadim Muntagirov, Yasmine Naghdi, Matthew Ball, Akane Takada, Ryoichi Hirano, Ricardo Cervera, Alexander Campbell and Joseph Sissens.  Can't figure out the date. I don't know if this runs alongside the WBForum? 

[John Mallinson]

The Royal Elegance events seem to be between August 30 and September 1, whereas the World Ballet Festival (aka International Ballet Festival) is August 1 - 12. I think!

 

[Naomi M]

It is World Ballet Festival, not Forum.

 

And here is the information of A Night of Royal Elegance in English

http://royalelegancenight.com/english/tickets.html

 

This gala is run by Dance Tours, which is a company led by Justin Meisner and Laura Morera.

[Bluebird]

Here is the programme and cast list:

 

http://royalelegancenight.com/english/programme.html

[zxDaveM]

that's a gala menu I'd be tempted by, that's for sure. 🙂

[Jan McNulty]

There’s a gala on 28th July that features Japanese dancers dancing abroad and features dancers from NB, BRB, RB:

 

http://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/english/productions/detail_012361.html

[Lizbie1]

3 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

that's a gala menu I'd be tempted by, that's for sure. 🙂

 

I'm very jealous of anyone who gets to go to that one, a real cut above most gala programmes.

[Naomi M]

And information of the program of World Ballet Festival in English. Some more dancers are added.

 

https://www.nbs.or.jp/english/stages/2018/wbf/program.html

 

Tokyo does have a lot of ballet performances in the summer indeed, and the program for A Night of Royal Elegance is fabulous too. 

But please note it is really so hot and humid here if you plan a visit! 

[Bruce Wall]

So wonderful to see that Corrales is recovered from his injury 

[Odyssey]

Has anyone on the Forum been fortunate enough to attend this event or read any reports about it? It is an impressive gathering of dancers including quite a few from our own companies from the present and past, The dancers take part in two programmes and include - Sarah Lamb and Frederico Bonelli, Melissa Hamilton (dancing with Roberto Bolle) , Tamara Rojo and Isaac Henandez, Alina  Cojocaru ( dancing with Johan Kobborg) plus Alessandra Ferri , Iana Salenko . 

I have posted a link to the two programmes which include extracts from works by several of our home-grown choreographers. It would be interesting to know how it was received.

https://www.nbs.or.jp/english/stages/2018/wbf/program.html

 

[capybara]

It's a lovely programme with Cesar Corrales dancing with Cojocaru as well as all the usual suspects.

Edited August 11, 2018 by capybara

[Sharon]

On 30/06/2018 at 10:14, Bluebird said:

Here is the programme and cast list:

 

http://royalelegancenight.com/english/programme.html

Would love to see this particular gala, the ballets and dancers chosen is just great!

[_emeralds]

Odyssey, I don't know if you have Instagram, but Ashley Bouder posted some great footage from the wings on her stories, gives a little taste. It seems to be of Programme B.

[Odyssey]

Thanks I will check this out.

 

[John Mallinson]

The banddana throw after their last performance yesterday - courtesy of Mr Bolle's Instagram. There's still the final gala to come on Wednesday.

[Odyssey]

Well that looks like fun - almost a reverse flower throw. Some of the artists seem to be really getting into the spirit and Roberto appears to have a ready supply of bandanas. Wouldn't it be brilliant if this festival was broadcast worldwide?

[capybara]

27 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

Wouldn't it be brilliant if this festival was broadcast worldwide?

 

. YES. So much of what is performed in Japan seems exclusive. We do live on the same planet of dance, after all.

[Jane S]

Dozens of pictures here 

 

(thanks to Dansomanie for the  link)

[Naomi M]

I don't have enough time to report about the World Ballet Festival at the moment, but I did see 2 performances each of the programs A and B and tomorrow I will go to the final gala. Each gala is about 4 and a half hours long, performed every day from Wednesday to Sunday, very short intermissions (10 or 15 minutes) and people rushing to the bathroom. It is even exhausting to the audience given the current extreme heat in Tokyo.

But it is of course enjoyable with such stars gathered together, and there is no gala like this I think.  For me the highlight of the performances was a heartbreaking dramatic performance of Onegin with Alseesandra Ferri and Marcelo Gomes, and the performances given by Alexandre Riabko, Silvia Azzoni and Maria Eichwald. (I hope to report more later when I have time)

 

NBS the impresario for this event also started their own Instagram account so you can see glimpses of the gala and its backstage.

https://www.instagram.com/nbs_japan/

 

[Naomi M]

19 hours ago, capybara said:

 

. YES. So much of what is performed in Japan seems exclusive. We do live on the same planet of dance, after all.

 

It was broadcasted in Japan in 2012. But it might be very difficult to broadcast a gala to the international market because of copyright issues. This time there were many Balanchine and Cranko works  which are difficult to broadcast (the 2012 broadcast omitted all works by those two choreographers as well as Ratmansky) 

 

There are official curtain call videos here on the channel of NBS.  

https://www.youtube.com/user/2009NBS

such as 

 

[now voyager]

With a roster including 7 of the dancers I cheerfully cross an ocean to see, as well as a number of others I like very much, crossing a continent as well seemed worth doing, especially as I remembered enjoying the last WBF.

Perhaps it was the result of being 3 years older now and even more brutal heat and humidity than usual for August in Tokyo, but both Program A & B had some real longeurs for me.  I've seen so many gala performances in my ballet-going life that I guess I don't derive much pleasure from a less-than-great performance of great, or at least good, choreography.    WBF for me had too much choreography not to my taste (even when performed by dancers I adore), excerpts from ballets that for me do not work well as excerpts and less-than-stellar performances of the usual things one sees at a gala.  There were of course several other pieces I did enjoy, but my absolute highlights from Program A were Alexandrova & Lantratov in Pharaoh's Daughter (how I wish they'd had a performance of the full ballet in Moscow last month!),  Gilbert and Ganio in Manon bedroom pas, Sarafanov in Tarantella and Heymann in DonQ, and from Program B, Novikova in Sleeping Beauty grand pas, Sarah Lamb in Apollo (though I don't even like to see it truncated, let alone excerpted), Badenes and Camargo in Taming of the Shrew, and Alexandrova & Lantratov in the Margot pas from Nureyev.  Just shows how tastes can differ.