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The Royal Ballet: Les Patineurs, Winter Dreams, The Concert, December 2018


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1 hour ago, RuthE said:

Oh, come on, capybara. If it is genuinely the case that you don’t understand the above mild innuendo (which I accept some won’t, especially if English is not your/their first language), I suggest a logical first step would be to google the word “muff”.

 

English is my first language and I've no idea what the joke is either. And (as I suspected) by the sound of it I probably don't want to know! May those who understand enjoy it, and I will remain in blissful ignorance.

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2 hours ago, Rob S said:

win dre 1.jpg

 

Always lovely to see photos of the performances - especially those one has been to. I was in row E in the stalls last night, so you must have been in the front row! 

 

I think it was a bit of a shame that the ensemble dancers don't get a curtain call.

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1 hour ago, LinMM said:

I thought at first you were being facetious Capybara....and am still not sure you are not! 

 

I genuinely didn't know (I do now!) and thought that I would say so. After all,  posters on here who don't give dancers' full names are called to account so I felt that the same rules should apply to talk which was mumbo jumbo to me.

 

When at school (rather a long time ago), my chief claim to fame was as the girl who put her hand up and asked what 'dung hill' meant. The teacher berated me for what she saw as a 'send up'.  I really didn't understand the term but, for some strange reason, the episode seemed to lead to my being elected Form Captain the following term.

 

 

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27 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

I genuinely didn't know (I do now!) and thought that I would say so. After all,  posters on here who don't give dancers' full names are called to account so I felt that the same rules should apply to talk which was mumbo jumbo to me.

 

When at school (rather a long time ago), my chief claim to fame was as the girl who put her hand up and asked what 'dung hill' meant. The teacher berated me for what she saw as a 'send up'.  I really didn't understand the term but, for some strange reason, the episode seemed to lead to my being elected Form Captain the following term.

 

 

Thank goodness you really didn't know, capybara! Not just me.

 

So funny about your election as Form Captain! :D

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1 minute ago, MJW said:

 

Great pics. Do you have any more from The Concert?

 

I do but this forum restricts the amount of pics you can have hosted on here to 1mb so every time I post a new one a previously posted photo has to go....the one of Sarah is probably my favourite of the Concert ones but I'll go through them properly tomorrow evening and see what I can do. 

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Sorry Capybara there's no reason really why you should necessarily have known ....there's quite a few words I didn't get to know till my 40's!!

 

Actually your school story reminds me of an incidence at school too. 

I do share a birthday with Sir Winston Churchill ( unfortunately not any of his his leadership qualities though) 

Anyway  one year when I was about 9 the Headteacher said on that Nov 30th "Now does anyone know whose birthday it is today"

Well this Head was extremely strict usually but nevertheless I started thinking things like oh she knows it's my birthday....perhaps I'm getting a present ...so I put my hand up and she said "Yes Linda" and I said "its my birthday Miss" She looked puzzled for a minute smiled and then said and is it anybody else's birthday!! 

I cannot remember if anybody knew or we were told in the end but I remembered ever since that day that Winston Churchill had the same birthday as me!! 

This was in the 50's much closer to the end of the war when that question wouldn't have been unreasonable to ask. 

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1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

I genuinely didn't know (I do now!) and thought that I would say so. After all,  posters on here who don't give dancers' full names are called to account so I felt that the same rules should apply to talk which was mumbo jumbo to me.

 

When at school (rather a long time ago), my chief claim to fame was as the girl who put her hand up and asked what 'dung hill' meant. The teacher berated me for what she saw as a 'send up'.  I really didn't understand the term but, for some strange reason, the episode seemed to lead to my being elected Form Captain the following term.

 

 

 

Also reminds me of a manager at work who persistently kept using certain words and terminology that were - let’s say, inappropriate.... the meanings of which he was clearly ignorant, and it was provoking odd looks and/or stifled giggles in meetings. In the end a friend of mine emailed him links to the specific words in the Urban Dictionary. They have not been uttered since....😳

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7 hours ago, LinMM said:

Actually your school story reminds me of an incidence at school too. 

And that mix-up reminds me of the time at my primary school when I was  a sub on the school under 11s football team, which included the important duty of handing out refreshment in the form of  22 slices of oranges to the players at half time. The Head instructed me to serve the guests first, so I dutifully started offering slices to the visiting parents standing on the touchline...

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Here is a question which perhaps one of those who thought the use of word "muff" was packed with all sorts of hidden meaning may be able to answer. It is this. What should one call the tubular shaped piece of fur or fabric used as hand warmers which the girls in brown used to wear and use in Les Patineurs but are now firmly attached to one sleeve of their jackets ? These items of clothing  seen in seventeenth century Dutch genre paintings, where they may be intended to hint at the morality of the women depicted in them;  more innocently in pictures of Victorian skating scenes, which is probably where Chappell got the idea for his designs for the ballet and even found their way onto the lids of tins which contained Quality Street toffees, are properly described by a word of Dutch origin as "muffs". What would you have me call them? I am not aware of a synonym and "tubular hand warmers" is an exceptionally long winded way of describing an item of apparel which has a proper, if giggle inducing, name. 

 

Edited by FLOSS
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All vulgar giggling aside....

Your use of the term was irreproachably correct, Floss.

I had a muff, inherited from an aunt,  when I was a very young girl. It hung from a lovely green silk cord round the neck, and the purpose was to warm both hands in it (lovely green silk lining) . (Mine had a matching hat with hanging bobbles but my sister commandeered that.) Happy memories. You don't see them much these days but I agree some of the sweeping two-handed movements Ashton choreographed for them were delightful and should not be lost.

 

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4 hours ago, Mary said:

I had a muff, inherited from an aunt,  when I was a very young girl. It hung from a lovely green silk cord round the neck, and the purpose was to warm both hands in it (lovely green silk lining) . (Mine had a matching hat with hanging bobbles but my sister commandeered that.) Happy memories. You don't see them much these days but I agree some of the sweeping two-handed movements Ashton choreographed for them were delightful and should not be lost.

Mary, how lovely. However I suspect  that by describing your muff  as you have ( I won't  highlight the particularly sensitive parts) you will not  help to  improve the tone of this discussion when it comes  to those posters on this Forum who are determined, vulgar gigglers...

Edited by Richard LH
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Just now, Richard LH said:

Mary, how lovely. However I suspect  by describing your muff  as you have ( I won't  highlight the particularly sensitive parts) you will not  help to  improve the tone of this discussion when it comes  to those posters on this Forum who are determined, vulgar gigglers...

 

A titter ran around the auditorium...

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9 minutes ago, Mary said:

Come along now, children......'we're all grown-ups here', as my primary school teacher used to say.

 

Or maybe not... :D. Even I am tittering now, in spite of still being oblivious to the original joke. Where is Joyce Grenfell when you need her.

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4 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

Or maybe not... :D. Even I am tittering now, in spite of still being oblivious to the original joke. Where is Joyce Grenfell when you need her.

Or Frankie Howerd:  titter ye not!!  :)

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1 minute ago, Mary said:

Well I was going to give a fuller description, with photos, but now I won't....

 

Probably best not JUST IN CASE it caused further widespread titillation.

 

Honestly, how did we sink from the sublime heights of Les Patineurs to these tittering depths.

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20 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

Probably best not JUST IN CASE it caused further widespread titillation.

 

Honestly, how did we sink from the sublime heights of Les Patineurs to these tittering depths.

Someone  bemoaning the absence of *****

Edited by Tony Newcombe
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BTW, bringing us back to the subject of this far-too-short run: I'm sure I recall a publicity photo of the "white" couple in London City Ballet's production back last century where the "upturned" lady was not anywhere near 180 degrees, more like perhaps a "10 past 8" position.  Has it really always been nearly a horizontal line?  In recent performances, doing it that way rather seems to have "flattened" her partner, and I don't find it a particularly attractive pose any more.

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On 03/01/2019 at 12:18, FLOSS said:

The girls in brown no longer have usable muffs. Who authorised the costume change which reduces the muffs to an item firmly attached to one arm

 

 

 

 

 

I spent minutes trying to find Gina Storm Jensen's muff in my Les Patineurs pics until I realised you meant the red girls....and blue girls. I'd never even noticed that part of their outfits.

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