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Royal Ballet Insight and In Rehearsal discussion


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26 minutes ago, Fiona said:

I enjoyed it tremendously.  Please do continue on this excellent forum to give us a 'heads up' when these rehearsals take place.  I am sure that there are a lot of us who otherwise would not know about them.

 

Me for example as I previously posted in the Don Q Insight thread. it's great if someone posts it here as the ROH seem incapable of putting such important information on their own website.

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12 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

Marcelino Sambe and Yasmine Naghdi will surely deliver a firecracker performance (my only concern is that Marcelino Sambe is too short for Yasmine Naghdi and I hope he's able to work on partnering her well by the time they are ready to go on stage).

 

Might that have been why they seemed to be having issues during the rehearsal with moves that involved him supporting her pirouettes? I did wonder while watching the livestream if the was the root cause was that he couldn't reach high enough relative to her reaching up.

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32 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Might that have been why they seemed to be having issues during the rehearsal with moves that involved him supporting her pirouettes? I did wonder while watching the livestream if the was the root cause was that he couldn't reach high enough relative to her reaching up.

 

I saw the same. I hope that rather than just not being tall enough that he was slightly off in his positioning so his arm was on a diagonal when it shouldn't be. They said they'd danced together before, just not in principal roles, so you'd think the AD would know whether he was tall enough or not.

 

However, on to other things - that jump - I'd go just to see that.

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Sambe and Naghdi danced together in Manon but what else did they dance?  

He clearly couldn't reach high enough in order to hold her hand/finger in order to enable her to execute her routine. Hopefully he can sort this all out by the time he has to partner her in March.

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Much as I enjoyed seeing Naghdi and Sambe in rehearsal together the height problem or potential problem came across to me too. It seemed she was possibly taller than him when she was on pointe. Didn't he partner Hayward in La Fille? I always thought she would be a better partner for him especially for the classics for just this reason as she is so small. Obviously she's not available at the moment so this option isn't possible. I'm sure they'll sort it before the performance and am really looking forward to seeing them. Judging by the rehearsal they will be amazing together; can't wait!

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The Insight event at the end of January was a talk about Petipa and Ivanov which was not, in my opinion, half as insightful as it should have been. It was on a par with the talk which Alistair Macauley gave years ago on the Sleeping Beauty. I am sorry that I can't be more positive about the January event but in both cases I felt that I had wasted  my time and my money on non-events.

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9 hours ago, FLOSS said:

The Insight event at the end of January was a talk about Petipa and Ivanov which was not, in my opinion, half as insightful as it should have been. It was on a par with the talk which Alistair Macauley gave years ago on the Sleeping Beauty. I am sorry that I can't be more positive about the January event but in both cases I felt that I had wasted  my time and my money on non-events.

 

They should have hired you, FLOSS 😉

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18 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Much as I enjoyed seeing Naghdi and Sambe in rehearsal together the height problem or potential problem came across to me too. It seemed she was possibly taller than him when she was on pointe.

 

19 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

He clearly couldn't reach high enough in order to hold her hand/finger in order to enable her to execute her routine. Hopefully he can sort this all out by the time he has to partner her in March.

 

A ballerina on pointe, with long arms extended up, can work out at quite a height!

I am sure they they will find  a way around this. They did seem to manage to get it right at least once.

Watching  the RB Don Q recording recently I noticed Nunez looked slightly taller than Acosta when on pointe - though I think the  Naghdi and Sambe difference is a bit more obvious. 

 

Edited by Richard LH
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Something I noticed in the studio, which doesn't quite come across on the recording, is how closely and intently Samantha Raine watched every move the girls made when they were dancing. In giving her corrections (which she always does in a very positive and supportive way) she comes across as being really on top of the correct choreography  and positioning for every step. 

Edited by Richard LH
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9 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

the girls made when they were dancing

 

For your information Richard: the ballet world has really moved away from calling female professional dancers "girls".

Claire Calvert (if I am correct) is 30 years old, I believe Isabella Gasparini is 31 or 32 and Anna Rose O'Sullivan must be about 25 years old....hardly girls anymore :) 

During rehearsal they are called "ladies". 

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12 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Something I noticed in the studio, which doesn't quite come across on the recording, is how closely and intently Samantha Raine watched every move the girls made when they were dancing. In giving her corrections (which she always does in a very positive and supportive way) she comes across as being really on top of the correct choreography  and positioning for every step. 

Ms Raine is a truly wonderful ballet mistress. She has done great things with the corps de ballet in recent years...witness the near perfection of  🦢Swans, Shades and Wilis.  A joy to behold, over and over again.

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10 minutes ago, Xandra Newman said:

 

For your information Richard: the ballet world has really moved away from calling female professional dancers "girls".

Claire Calvert (if I am correct) is 30 years old, I believe Isabella Gasparini is 31 or 32 and Anna Rose O'Sullivan must be about 25 years old....hardly girls anymore :) 

During rehearsal they are called "ladies". 

 

The RB ballet mistress seems to use the terms "girls" and "ladies" interchangeably. 

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8 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

The RB ballet mistress seems to use the terms "girls" and "ladies" interchangeably. 

 

This absolutely isn’t intended as criticism of present company, but if I were a dancer sensitive to this kind of thing I’d probably give more leeway to a long-standing female colleague than to a man I didn’t know well.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

This absolutely isn’t intended as criticism of present company, but if I were a dancer sensitive to this kind of thing I’d probably give more leeway to a long-standing female colleague than to a man I didn’t know well.

 

 

 

Any presents I send are always addressed to "The ladies of the corps de ballet" or "The gentlemen of the corps de ballet", as appropriate.

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26 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Just looking at the cast sheet for last night's Two Pigeons....The Young Girl, The Young Man, Gypsy Girl, Gypsy Boy......outrageous 😲😂

 

...and I’d like to think we’d moved on since that was the norm, nearly 60 years ago.

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2 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

I believe Isabella Gasparini is 31 or 32

 

Gosh, I thought she was only in her early 20s. I've not seen her in any (identifiable) roles onstage but in this Insight & a previous Nutcracker one I thought she looked really young.

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2 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Any presents I send are always addressed to "The ladies of the corps de ballet" or "The gentlemen of the corps de ballet", as appropriate.

 

Spot on BBB. I once heard someone have a little giggle about that form of address (not sure whether it coincide with one of your lovely gestures) but it was a giggle of pleasure at being accorded that respect.

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1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

...and I’d like to think we’d moved on since that was the norm, nearly 60 years ago.

What's wrong with it?  Don't young girls, boys, ladies and men exist anymore? What should the characters be called today?

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Is it usual for ballet companies to have issues with male dancers not being tall enough for their female partners when they're en pointe? It's been mentioned several times in this thread & seems to crop up regularly in discussions about RB pairings. Hence I'm wondering if it's a perpetual problem or is it an exception that the RB at the moment just happens to have a plethora of shorter male dancers & taller female ones?

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On 05/02/2019 at 09:40, Rob S said:

I think it’s incredibly rude of them not to give a special thanks to the Royla Ballet for allowing their pianist to appear at this Insight, what a way to treat a guest appearance! 😱

 

In my dream role of Head of Pamphlets I would list the presenter first and then everyone in order of appearance and provide a helpline number at the bottom for people requiring counselling. 

 

Yes Michael was a stellar pianist I loved him.

Head of Pamphlets - love it! I agree it looked weird in alphabetical order I much prefer the order of appearance format! That aside it was great evening and lovely to be in the studio, I just wish the evening had been longer. 

 

I definitely agree with comments about Sambe's height.  It was clearly a problem for him and Naghdi when she was en pointe.  When KO'H took over it was much better - he appears to be a couple of inches taller than Sambe.  

Edited by Don Q Fan
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