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World Ballet Day 2018 - feedback and discussion


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3 minutes ago, Sharon said:

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!

 

David says (because he does it every year and I complain every year) that the audience is not just people like me, he's explaining things for the less knowledgeable.

 

Also, all those people wearing T-shirts promoting various upcoming events? Not normal.

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Thanks Sophie Rebecca for listing all of the links - so helpful! 

Finally managed to watch the Royal Ballet's section which was so slick (barring some glitches) and am just astounded at their excellence when it comes to creating and publishing great digital content.  In constrast, given Bolshoi was not so live, it was exceptionally clunky.

Enjoying catching up on all of the other content from around the world - will it really only be up for 30 days? Great to get insight into rehearsals in particular. Really enjoyed Pacific Northwest's Dances at a Gathering rehearsal for one. 

On ‎02‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 20:31, Rob S said:

 

You may have seen the multiple uses of the phrase We've taken the decision to share the stream on Facebook in order to reach as many people as possible, on the ROH website.....every year I watch the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Youtube or Facebook (they use both) on the days that I don't go to the event in person, it works well for hours and hours a a time and throughout the day links on their FB page which followers will also pick up on their newsfeed so clips of interesting incidents which also serve as reminders that this event is on to see.

I have no idea why the ROH can't do the same or very similar unless it's down to Youtube fees

There will be tech costs for both YouTube and Facebook and it's possible that streaming on both could require additional resources (people, potentially cameras...) which would need costing too. I think I actually prefer watching the content at my leisure after the event anyway, plus avoids buffering issues. As long as they are publishing on YouTube after the event, I think they are probably making the right decision with Facebook as they genuinely do have greater opportunity to reach more people overall.

 

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On 03/10/2018 at 01:07, Naomi M said:

 

I was also watching from Japan, and during the stream of Australian Ballet, in our own National Ballet of Japan section, the streaming was frozen for quite a while and when it was back the section was finished. (well the Australian Ballet part full video is already on YouTube) It seems it was not only me but the majority who were watching. Also sometimes the quality of the streaming was not good during the Unknown Soldier segment.    

I watched the Australian Ballet section in the morning and had no issues at all  - in the evening, the only problems I encountered were with the BRB section and with a bit of the Mayerling review.  Many issues with streaming are not necessarily the source...people are predisposed to thinking this for example when they are watching on a device that is connected using wifi not realising that this affects how you receive what you see

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16 hours ago, Sophoife said:

 

David says (because he does it every year and I complain every year) that the audience is not just people like me, he's explaining things for the less knowledgeable.

 

Also, all those people wearing T-shirts promoting various upcoming events? Not normal.

 

In previous WBDs I have generally felt that the Australian Ballet section was one of the best; usually slightly better than the RB section, and much better than the Bolshoi. However this year I found the AB section rather disappointing.

 

In previous years I haven't found the chatting through the class and the rehearsals annoying, and would agree with David McAllister that explanations for the less knowledgeable (such as myself) are valuable. But this year, there was too much chatting. More objectionable, to me, was the fact that the chat quite often had no relation to what was going on at the time in the class or rehearsal. As someone who finds it quite hard to concentrate on two different things at the same time, I thus found much of the chat a distraction rather than a help in understanding.

 

I also found one of the presenters rather annoying. However as it was possibly the first time she had presented something like this, that is forgivable, and I hope that she will improve if she is employed in a similar role in the future.

 

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2 hours ago, Jam Dancer said:

I watched the Australian Ballet section in the morning and had no issues at all  - in the evening, the only problems I encountered were with the BRB section and with a bit of the Mayerling review.  Many issues with streaming are not necessarily the source...people are predisposed to thinking this for example when they are watching on a device that is connected using wifi not realising that this affects how you receive what you see

 

There were many comments on the FB feed saying that the streaming was frozen at the National Ballet of Japan section (included in the Australian Ballet part). I was watching on my home computer, not wi-fi.

But the Bolshoi section had no issues, and most of the RB streaming was okay (except for of course the BRB part with no sound) 

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So far I’ve  managed to view the Australian Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Houston Ballet and Norwegian National Ballet sections of WBD (lots more to see as yet) and watched all the RB section on the day.

 

Love love love the Australian ballet but the company class was ruined in my opinion, and as mentioned by others here too, by the continual chatting between the AD and the presenter (who was parading around in a tutu at the very beginning??🙈) - just so annoying that it went on during the whole class and for most of the Australian section.....

They have an amazing studio space (and pianist) to dance in and Ive always loved their grand allegro/pirouette sections on WBD as they all seem to have so much athletic attack and such great elevation - good to see some talented new dancers (Yichuan Wang in particular) in the company too.  Would love to see their ‘Sleeping Beauty’ production.

 

It was good to see the work of the Norwegian National Ballet and introduced by the AD, Ingrid Lorentzen, as I’ve never had an opportunity to see much of their work before - great to see Zenaida Yanowsky coaching Manon’s solo to the lovely Melissa Hough. Must definitely try to get to see this company at some point.

 

Still lots of WBD to catch up on - highlights for me so far were the RB Shades (Romany Padjek, Sae Maeda, Isabella Gasparini and Katharina Nikelski looking particularly beautifully and appropriately dreamlike), the 2nd year Upper School RBS students looking like they were absolutely loving what they were doing in their PDD coaching class (Julie Petanová shone in group 1) and Joe Sissens in the Charlotte Edmonds piece (he stood out in the RB class in my opinion too).  

 

Still much more to catch up with though.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Springbourne3 said:

Would love to see their ‘Sleeping Beauty’ production.

 

Good news, Springbourne3! If you can be in Paris in July 2019, TAB are presenting the McAllister Sleeping Beauty and Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow at La Seine Musicale!

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1 hour ago, Springbourne3 said:

the presenter (who was parading around in a tutu at the very beginning??🙈)

 

Turns out she's a successful comedian, as in that's her real job. Presenting is apparently something she is relatively new to, as is ballet. Can't remember last year's "host", but 2016's was a [male] TV weather presenter.

 

She stuffed up, too. The "cold open" as I believe they call it on Saturday Night Live was her in a tutu waiting at a tram stop, getting on the tram and (surprise!) being met by senior artist Jarryd Madden, who was "on his way to work". Strange, no sign of either his wife, new principal artist Amy Harris, or their daughter Willow, on the tram. Later, talking with McAllister, she said "...when I drove in this morning..."!

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2 hours ago, Springbourne3 said:

Would love to see their ‘Sleeping Beauty’ production.

 

It was shown in cinemas a couple of years ago, and I believe is available on DVD now.  The final act is very much reduced.

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Oh, and as Alison says, the final act is reduced. By which we mean not much in the way of divertissements. It's a costume ball, the members of the prince's court we have already seen at the hunt are dressed up. The story of this version is given in full here, with the list of characters. And it cost private donors several million dollars. It does actually look the millions of dollars TBH.

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Do you know what the thinking behind that was, Sophoife?  Shortage of numbers?  Keeping the running time down?  Total disregard for the ballet's history and original intentions?  (I'm waiting for FLOSS or someone to weigh in with how SB was originally supposed to reflect a variety of styles of dance other than pure classical ballet)

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it was a time constraint thing, according to an interview I read with David McAllister but can't find now. With intermissions it comes in at 167 minutes, perilously close to the 3-hour limit beyond which musicians, stage crew etc start requiring to be paid overtime (at least in Canada, I expect it is the same elsewhere)

There is no pussycat pdd :(

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Thanks, Katherine. Alison, Katherine has hit the nail on the head. Having seen the production live a number of times, I think they could have cut a bit of the fairies-running-around-the-forest section, especially as that was apparently one of the complaints about the previous (Stanton Welch) production (the others included the costumes) - which production did not end in everyone being glamorously displayed around the happy couple, but instead with a grand promenade from downstage right to exit upstage left, with Carabosse arriving and owning the scene after everyone else had left. Very effective!

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The Royal Ballet manages to bring its Beauty in at under 3 hours (2 x 20-minute intervals, I think), albeit sacrificing some of the dances in the hunt scene to do so.  If I weren't busy firefighting, I'd look up the comments I made after the cinema screening and see what AB did differently.

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On 03/10/2018 at 19:21, Lindsay said:

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.

Well you were correct. Apparently she was such an excellent Sylvia that she was promoted to Principal Dancer immediately after her debut performance on Saturday evening (10th)!

Edited by Jam Dancer
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