World Ballet Day 2018 - feedback and discussion

[Balletfanp]

11 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Yep, just checked (for the squilionth time) and all 5 hours of it is up in one video...cheekily they claim it was uploaded 2 hours ago 

 

Well it was, only you couldn’t watch it! 😁

[capybara]

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

I think that's a bit harsh. I thought the RB had by far the best  presentations and I saw fewer technical glitches during these  than in other sections. 

 

I'm glad for you Richard. But I had a rotten experience.

Anyway, there's YouTube now as consolation.

[Terpsichore]

I have to say that I enjoyed this year's World Ballet Day.   I started watching at about 04:30 when there may still have been a few wilis about on Saddleworth Moor and watched one delightful performance after another almost continuously well until the evening.  

The highlight for me this year (as it had been last year) was the Dutch National Ballet's rehearsal of La Dame aux Camelias with two remarkable pas de deux - one by Daniel Camargo and Igone de Jongh and the other by James Stout and Anna Tsygankova.  The second of those two was danced with remarkable passion.   

Unfortunately, it clashed with Northern Ballet's performance though I did flip between tabs to catch the odd bit of action in Leeds when not much seemed to be happening in Amsterdam.  I am looking forward to seeing the whole contribution on YouTube over the next few days.

The only other disappointment was that the sound cut out during Birmingham Royal Ballet's presentation.  I could see David Bintley, Ruth Brill and others but could not hear what they had  to say.

There were some unexpected treats.   Just as I was about to leave for my own ballet class in Manchester I spotted the Paris Opera House's ballet's Dame aux Camelias with Mathieu Ganio as Armand.  Having seen him on Christmas Day last year in Don Quixote I could not resist watching him again.  The result was that I left it too late to set off for the Dancehouse.   I liked the Houston Ballet's new Swan Lake.  I was very impressed by the Ural Ballet of Ekaterinburg the existence of which I had not previously been aware.
 

It took me weeks to get through last year's offering and I suspect I will spend a long time watching the bits I missed today.

Despite the annoying technical problems I think I enjoyed this year's offerings more than those of previous years.   I am sorry that others were less satisfied.

[John Mallinson]

The YouTube link to the RB's segment, for anyone who can't find it.

[Xandra Newman]

7 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

Cuthbertson was definitely in class so I guess we must just assume there was a change of plan.

 

She was indeed (she was standing at the back somewhere).

 

The class was mainly filled with Corps de ballet dancers, some soloists and a few first soloists.

Of all the Principals in the RB Company I only spotted four: Kish, Cuthbertson, Nunez and Naghdi and only Marianella Nunez and Yasmine Naghdi carried on throughout the whole class. I would have loved to see some more principals at work in class. 

 

[Richard LH]

8 hours ago, capybara said:

 

I'm glad for you Richard. But I had a rotten experience.

Anyway, there's YouTube now as consolation.

Sorry to hear this Capybara... as you say, everything from the RB's own 5 hours, at least,  appears to be working fine now on You Tube so I hope you can enjoy that.

[bridiem]

8 hours ago, capybara said:

 

I'm glad for you Richard. But I had a rotten experience.

Anyway, there's YouTube now as consolation.

 

Me too. My internet connection/speed is fine for everything else, so why not for FB videos??

 

[fashionista]

8 hours ago, Terpsichore said:

I have to say that I enjoyed this year's World Ballet Day.   I started watching at about 04:30 when there may still have been a few wilis about on Saddleworth Moor and watched one delightful performance after another almost continuously well until the evening.  

The highlight for me this year (as it had been last year) was the Dutch National Ballet's rehearsal of La Dame aux Camelias with two remarkable pas de deux - one by Daniel Camargo and Igone de Jongh and the other by James Stout and Anna Tsygankova.  The second of those two was danced with remarkable passion.   

Unfortunately, it clashed with Northern Ballet's performance though I did flip between tabs to catch the odd bit of action in Leeds when not much seemed to be happening in Amsterdam.  I am looking forward to seeing the whole contribution on YouTube over the next few days.

The only other disappointment was that the sound cut out during Birmingham Royal Ballet's presentation.  I could see David Bintley, Ruth Brill and others but could not hear what they had  to say.

There were some unexpected treats.   Just as I was about to leave for my own ballet class in Manchester I spotted the Paris Opera House's ballet's Dame aux Camelias with Mathieu Ganio as Armand.  Having seen him on Christmas Day last year in Don Quixote I could not resist watching him again.  The result was that I left it too late to set off for the Dancehouse.   I liked the Houston Ballet's new Swan Lake.  I was very impressed by the Ural Ballet of Ekaterinburg the existence of which I had not previously been aware.
 

It took me weeks to get through last year's offering and I suspect I will spend a long time watching the bits I missed today.

Despite the annoying technical problems I think I enjoyed this year's offerings more than those of previous years.   I am sorry that others were less satisfied.

I am so pleased you were impressed by the Ural Ballet in Ekaterinburg - they are an excellent troupe.  I will be going out next week to see the premiere of Slava Samodurov's latest full length ballet for the company, By Order of the King (part of the Petipa celebrations).  I am glad the company participated this year as they need to be known outside of Russia.  Slava has now been their Artistic Director for 7 seasons and the troupe has improved greatly over this period.  

[Springbourne3]

‘Slight’ difference in the coaching of the Engrance of the Shades from two ‘Bayadéres’ (Bolshoi/RB) - one was shouting criticism in a humiliating way and the other was full of praise and encouragement......It made rather uncomfortable viewing (Bolshoi).  I thought the RB Shades looked so serene and graceful - cant wait to see them soon and I noticed a quietly confident Sae Maeda in the front row - a future talent to watch out for I think.

 

What happened to Mayara Magri? 

 

 

[Anna C]

13 hours ago, Odyssey said:

Does anyone know what was the thinking behind the decision to restrict live coverage to Facebook, rather than also stream through YouTube? 

 

I think the ROH likes to alternate between the two, apparently to “please everyone”.  They said that when I asked why the lovely Cuthbertson/Ball rehearsal of Marguerite and Armand wasn’t on Youtube.  I did tell them then that Youtube is vastly more user-friendly but they weren’t really interested. 🙄

[Anna C]

6 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

 

She was indeed (she was standing at the back somewhere).

 

The class was mainly filled with Corps de ballet dancers, some soloists and a few first soloists.

Of all the Principals in the RB Company I only spotted four: Kish, Cuthbertson, Nunez and Naghdi and only Marianella Nunez and Yasmine Naghdi carried on throughout the whole class. I would have loved to see some more principals at work in class. 

 

 

There never are a great number of Principals in class on WBD.  I’ve always assumed that they are involved in other rehearsals at the same time or which start halfway through class.

[Yaffa]

16 hours ago, Bruce said:

Hopefully, all the vids will go on YouTube, where they can easily be consumed at leisure. It's paradoxical, but World Ballet Day is really best seen on any day but the day itself.

I think Bruce is right on the ball here. Even with the unavoidable problems, closer attention to what viewers actually need at worldballetday.com could have made things so much smoother. But for me it is actually working out better to enjoy World Ballet Week rather than to shoot for World Ballet Day. When I heard that all the content would be available after the event I decided to restrict myself to one sessions on the day itself, to experience the 'live' atmosphere - and the rest of the sessions as 'rewards' for reaching certain goals each day this week. I'm finding it really doesn't bother me that I have read here about what to expect - rather it adds to the anticipation. Still I'm curious about how other people feel about 'live' feeds versus post-event recordings. 

Yaffa

[capybara]

6 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

I would have loved to see some more principals at work in class. 

 

The WBD class that is filmed starts at 12.00 noon whereas the normal time for RB class is 10.30am with rehearsals commencing at 12.00noon. So it is highly probable that many Principals took the earlier class and then went to rehearsals just as the WBD session started. They are rehearsing quite a few ballets at the moment with a lot of Soloists as well as Principals involved!

 

In some years, it has been noticeable that Principals have joined half way through a class (i.e. after the barre work). But "the usual suspects" were missing this year 

[alison]

I must admit, I was wondering what all the dancers had been doing to fill in the 1 1/2 hours before class, given the later start than normal!  I'd guess only half the company appeared, with the other half having done class at the usual time.

[sophie_rebecca]

I've collated all the video's from World Ballet Day barring the Bolshoi official feed as it's not yet posted (if you find it please let me know) For anyone who was unable to watch or keep up you can find all the links in this post.
 

 

[Lindsay]

Agree with Bruce that watching Manuel Legris coach Sylvia at the Wiener Staatsballett was a highlight - Nikisha Fogo looked as though she will be an excellent Sylvia.  And in case anyone is so inclined, the Bayerisches Staatsballett video includes Sergei Polunin being coached through a Raymonda variation.

[John Mallinson]

1 hour ago, sophie_rebecca said:

I've collated all the video's from World Ballet Day barring the Bolshoi official feed as it's not yet posted …

 

Very well done. Thanks.

[John Mallinson]

I've also found the Ekaterinburg video. The director there is Slava Samodurov who was a principal with the RB.

 

Ural Ballet (Ekaterinburg) https://www.facebook.com/UralOpera/videos/360626931344119/

[Richard LH]

1 hour ago, sophie_rebecca said:

I've collated all the video's from World Ballet Day barring the Bolshoi official feed as it's not yet posted

Thanks for posting these links.

Here is what is available from  the Bolshoi so far on You Tube --  just the last  1hr 48, and a poor quality recording at that   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88kZ0RI9AU

Mind you I would not recommend much of the earlier stuff they broadcast yesterday, which included a recording of a pretty excruciating school admission session, with young boys and girls wearing only knickers  having to dance  in front of a po faced Committee, plus the depressing/bad tempered  La Bayadere rehearsal already mentioned herein.  

The RB and Australian You Tube videos are technically good quality recordings, but  many of the current Facebook videos  have unacceptably poor visual or audio quality, including those from the rest of the UK (with the exception of Northern Ballet).  

[Colman]

19 hours ago, Mary said:

The Bayadere shades rehearsal brought a lump to my throat and made my arms ache in sympathy.

 

Having spent the weekend doing that piece a couple of weeks ago it's giving me sympathetic lower back pain.

[sophie_rebecca]

33 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Thanks for posting these links.

Here is what is available from  the Bolshoi so far on You Tube --  just the last  1hr 48, and a poor quality recording at that   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88kZ0RI9AU

Mind you I would not recommend much of the earlier stuff they broadcast yesterday, which included a recording of a pretty excruciating school admission session, with young boys and girls wearing only knickers  having to dance  in front of a po faced Committee, plus the depressing/bad tempered  La Bayadere rehearsal already mentioned herein.  

The RB and Australian You Tube videos are technically good quality recordings, but  many of the current Facebook videos  have unacceptably poor visual or audio quality, including those from the rest of the UK (with the exception of Northern Ballet).  

 

I saw that low quality one on Youtube & the poster is promising an HD version of part 1 & 2, the official Bolshoi team say they're working on sharing the feed,

"Большой театр России / Bolshoi Theatre of Russia Our segment will be available soon on media.bolshoi.ru, we'll inform."

So I'll keep an eye out for the official one, Totally agree with the sentiment, some bits made me super uncomfortable.

[Sim]

2 hours ago, sophie_rebecca said:

I've collated all the video's from World Ballet Day barring the Bolshoi official feed as it's not yet posted (if you find it please let me know) For anyone who was unable to watch or keep up you can find all the links in this post.

 

Sophie Rebecca, you are a STAR!!  Thank you sooo much for doing all that.  Now this is exactly what we need from the organisers next year.....but BEFORE the day, not afterwards!! 

[toursenlair]

re Facebook vs YouTube. If you post a YouTube video on facebook, on your "business" page, facebook will actively suppress it and make sure it is seen by very few people. So if you want "reach" on facebook, you have to post facebook videos. I have had this experience with my Tours en l'air facebook page and googled the phenomenon. It is quite well documented.

[Bruce Wall]

1 hour ago, toursenlair said:

If you post a YouTube video on facebook, on your "business" page, facebook will actively suppress it and make sure it is seen by very few people. 

 

I would have thought that to be against international law somehow.  Can't believe it has not been challenged.  

[toursenlair]

1 hour ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

I would have thought that to be against international law somehow.  Can't believe it has not been challenged.  

It's facebook's platform so facebook can set its own rules. How could that be illegal?

[Bruce Wall]

39 minutes ago, toursenlair said:

It's facebook's platform so facebook can set its own rules. How could that be illegal?

 

Does Facebook own Youtube ... I don't think so.  I may be wrong of course ..... things happen so quickly and ours is progressively a world I often don't completely comprehend ... hard as I may try.  

 

I think I may have read your sentence as Facebook restricting people watching a similar something on Youtube, Katherine ... That was my error ...  Again you wrote:

 If you post a YouTube video on facebook, on your "business" page, facebook will actively suppress it and make sure it [i.e., only that on the FACEBOOK SITE ITSELF or on any of its wholly or in part owned tributaries] is seen by very few people

 

Your sentence may not have been - indeed obviously wasn't - clear to me.  Mea culpa.

 

-----

In another note SFB has said that it was due to scheduling conflicts that they did not participate in this year's WBD.  They have stated their intentions to be part of it again next year.  

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Bruce Wall

[Jan McNulty]

I don't know if you are on Facebook Bruce but they are constantly changing the algorithms they use for what to display on your timeline.  A number of pages I have subscribed to no longer pop up automatically on my timeline  and if I want to look something up I have to specifically search it out.  Facebook is trying to squash the opposition out and make you use its facilities.

 

BTW BRB have just posted a lovely tribute to David Bintley on the Company's website in a feature entitled World Ballet Day:

 

https://www.brb.org.uk/post/world-ballet-day-thank-you-david

 

Perhaps they have thought better of posting the shambolic footage from yesterday!

[bridiem]

15 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

BTW BRB have just posted a lovely tribute to David Bintley on the Company's website in a feature entitled World Ballet Day:

 

https://www.brb.org.uk/post/world-ballet-day-thank-you-david

 

Perhaps they have thought better of posting the shambolic footage from yesterday!

 

What a great tribute - both touching and interesting.

[Odyssey]

They did show this lovely tribute during the main feed from the Royal ballet segment,

[RuthE]

18 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

 

She was indeed (she was standing at the back somewhere).

 

The class was mainly filled with Corps de ballet dancers, some soloists and a few first soloists.

Of all the Principals in the RB Company I only spotted four: Kish, Cuthbertson, Nunez and Naghdi and only Marianella Nunez and Yasmine Naghdi carried on throughout the whole class. I would have loved to see some more principals at work in class. 

 

 

My understanding is that of the three Company Classes which take place daily at the RB, Principals are at liberty to choose their preferred one of the three while other company members are assigned to one or another. So the Principals not shown in this class would have chosen one of the two alternative classes, either because it covered material specific to their upcoming repertoire of because - presumably - it was at a normal time of day, whereas this noon class wouldn’t have suited the rehearsal requirements of all.

[Sophoife]

24 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

My understanding is that of the three Company Classes which take place daily at the RB, Principals are at liberty to choose their preferred one of the three while other company members are assigned to one or another. So the Principals not shown in this class would have chosen one of the two alternative classes, either because it covered material specific to their upcoming repertoire of because - presumably - it was at a normal time of day, whereas this noon class wouldn’t have suited the rehearsal requirements of all.

 

This was mentioned during The Australian Ballet's class (which took place at 11am, later than usual). The co-host and AD David McAllister were annoyingly sitting in chairs between the camera and the dancers, and she asked him if this was the whole company and he said no, they had three classes and for this one day everyone had been given a choice as to whether they wanted to be filmed in class or not. As I understand it, usually principals and senior artists have their own class, while the other two are for everyone else. The class we were shown included dancers of all ranks including principals Robyn Hendricks, Brett Chynoweth and Amy Harris, plus senior artist Jarryd Madden. And Chengwu Guo and Ako Kondo were in Canberra for a gala.

[Odyssey]

51 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

 So the Principals not shown in this class would have chosen one of the two alternative classes, either because it covered material specific to their upcoming repertoire of because - presumably - it was at a normal time of day, whereas this noon class wouldn’t have suited the rehearsal requirements of all.

I guess with the recent cast changes, most were in Mayerling rehearsals ! 

[Sharon]

1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

 

This was mentioned during The Australian Ballet's class (which took place at 11am, later than usual). The co-host and AD David McAllister were annoyingly sitting in chairs between the camera and the dancers, and she asked him if this was the whole company and he said no, they had three classes and for this one day everyone had been given a choice as to whether they wanted to be filmed in class or not. As I understand it, usually principals and senior artists have their own class, while the other two are for everyone else. The class we were shown included dancers of all ranks including principals Robyn Hendricks, Brett Chynoweth and Amy Harris, plus senior artist Jarryd Madden. And Chengwu Guo and Ako Kondo were in Canberra for a gala.

And they - host & AD, annoyingly chatted right through class! I have no idea why they thought having a conversation was so much more interesting than watching company class. Big mistake!