Royal Ballet: The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering (change of programme)

[Scheherezade]

Scrolling down the ROH website just now, I noticed that the new Cathy Marston ballet, now entitled 'The Cellist' , is to be shown with a revival of Robbins' Dances at a Gathering rather than the previously-scheduled but otherwise undefined Scarlett ballet. Does anyone have any further information regarding this change in scheduling and, for that matter, when the casting is likely to be released?

[Bruce Wall]

See all changes - and there are a number - in the ROH News item on their website - including the cancellation for the 2019/20 season of Ratmansky's Preludes ....  (the pitch size by the way is that of the ROH's website preference ... copied as is):-

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-ballet-announces-programmenews-for-the-royal-ballets-201920-season

Edited September 24, 2019 by Bruce Wall

[Lizbie1]

Crikey - that is very unusual. All the substitutes are pleasing from my perspective though

Edited September 24, 2019 by Lizbie1

[Bluebird]

5 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

See all changes - and there are a number - in the ROH News item on their website - including the cancellation of Ratmansky's Preludes.

 

 

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-ballet-announces-programmenews-for-the-royal-ballets-201920-season

[Scheherezade]

Thank you all for the updates.

 

Bruce, I never bother to check the News section any more since there is so rarely anything that conforms to the definition of 'news'.

 

And, Lizbie, I tend to agree with your reaction to the changes.

[Lizbie1]

As I said - I’m not displeased about the changes, but having already booked for the Marston programme I wonder how long it will take them to notify me.

 

(One small negative for me is that I might now have to book for the Prodigal Son programme - April was already looking tricky enough!)

[Lizbie1]

16 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

As I said - I’m not displeased about the changes, but having already booked for the Marston programme I wonder how long it will take them to notify me.

 

 

Just had the email.

[bangorballetboy]

Disappointed about the Scarlett, (as with others) Prodigal Son will probably mean that I now book for that programme after all and ecstatic that Preludes is replaced by Monotones.

[Scheherezade]

Along with Lizbie and BBB, I am now also likely to book for the Prodigal Son programme, having previously decided that I could give that one a miss.

[capybara]

30 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

Along with Lizbie and BBB, I am now also likely to book for the Prodigal Son programme, having previously decided that I could give that one a miss.

 

Yes - I've been waiting for this and the delicious casting that there could be!

[Lizbie1]

It is a shame that we won’t be seeing the new Scarlett and the re-worked Ratmansky - but how wonderful (and unexpected?) that we’re getting three copper-bottomed masterpieces instead!

[ElleC]

Extremely disappointed about the new Scarlett and revival of the Ratmansky. At least it mentions the Scarlett in a future season but with no such promise of the Ratmansky, so I hope it is still planned to schedule a revival. 

[Blossom]

Just seen the email from ROH. Thrilled as Dances at a Gathering on my hit list. Can’t wait!!!

[ninamargaret]

delighted at the prospect of Dances, so much so that I've just bought another package with an extra Onegin! There should be done super casts for Dances given the number of stellar dancers that we are blessed with these days. I have seen Prodigal Son and very powerful it is. So changes of programmes that suit me well!

[LinMM]

Love Dances at a Gathering so that programme looks great.

I am disappointed about the Ratmansky but Monotones is always a pleasing watch.

The other triple  programme I don't know ANY of the pieces so a long time before been in this position! 

[Coated]

I fervently hope that Corybantic Games is not the middle piece in that triple bill.

[zxDaveM]

 

Disappointing about Prodigal Son (probably my least favourite Balanchine) completing that bill. I'm probably in the minority here, but I liked Live Fire Exercise, and apart from the ghastly costumes, liked Corybantic Games. Was hoping for a third piece to make it a grand triple for me

Disappointing about the Ratmansky

Monotones is fine, though seeing one half of it in the Linbury next month will be interesting to compare large vs small stages

Disappointing about Liam Scarlett's new work (hoping when it does arrive it is one of his abstract greats)

Dances at a Gathering always seems a bit too long, but none of the individual dances seems suitable to be cut out. A case of the sum being less than its parts, perhaps?

 

And have to say its rather an oddity, all these changes to the rep inside one season. Has so many changes ever been done before, so close to a season start? 

[zxDaveM]

4 minutes ago, Coated said:

I fervently hope that Corybantic Games is not the middle piece in that triple bill.

 

nah - probably be Live Fire Exercise...

[Coated]

I'll give it Corybantic another go, but suspect that I won't want to see it more than once or twice unless something has significantly changed.

 

I join the slightly disappointed, was looking forward to a new Scarlett, especially after seeing Hummingbird earlier this year. I'm not convinced that people who booked for 2 new ballets will be thrilled with Dances at a Gathering. I don't mind it, but like Dave find it a little too long.

[LinMM]

When I saw "Dances" with original casts it was the exact opposite ....never wanted it to end!

 

I have seen it a couple of times since and definitely found it danced more blandly then but am hoping this time around there are enough dancers in the Company who can do it justice. Does anybody know who will rehearse the dancers?

[alison]

Given that two of the ballets have been on my wishlist for possibly the last decade or longer, I can hardly complain, although I suppose it means I'm going to have to go to the Corybantic Games bill now.  Hoping there are no particularly adverse reasons for the changes, although I wonder how long it will be before Ratmansky has a sufficient gap in his schedule to rework Preludes (which I had been looking forward to seeing again).

 

I had hoped to see DAAG again before some of the more senior dancers departed - I seem to remember it being said that it tended to suit more mature artists better.  I suppose we won't get Cuthbertson in it because she'll be in the Marston, which is a shame.  Mind you, I can already visualise some of the younger dancers in the company doing great things in it.

[Dawnstar]

I hope that the casting for Dances at a Gathering will work out in conjunction with The Cellist in the same way that the new Scarlett was supposed to. As in, I've booked 2 performances with the aim of seeing both casts of each piece so I hope the Dances at a Gathering casts are arranged so I end up seeing different casts each time rather than the seeing same cast twice & missing another cast (I'm assuming there will be at least 2 casts). As I know nothing about any of either the substituted or substituting pieces I can't comment on them, except to say that no matter how good the Balanchine piece is I don't think anything will make me sit through Corybantic Games based on the reviews & production pics from the previous run.

[Geoff]

5 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

It is a shame that we won’t be seeing the new Scarlett

 

I fervently hope that being relieved of creating-new-ballet duty frees Scarlett up to spend more time working on revising his Swan Lake. There was enough dodgy and/or non-existent stagecraft in that show, despite gorgeous designs, to warrant taking a good hard look at the production before throwing it back on to the stage. 

[Coated]

15 minutes ago, Geoff said:

 

I fervently hope that being relieved of creating-new-ballet duty frees Scarlett up to spend more time working on revising his Swan Lake. There was enough dodgy and/or non-existent stagecraft in that show, despite gorgeous designs, to warrant taking a good hard look at the production before throwing it back on to the stage. 

I'd happily watch his Swan Lake as it is, but it would be lovely if someone could persuade him to tighten up and revise a little - particularly Benno, of whom I'd like to see significantly less, or at a more interesting solo if he must have that much stage time. 

 

Does Scarlett revise his work much? It seems to me that he hasn't made significant changes to the second outings of his pieces (that I've seen.)

[Beryl H]

Booking was nice and easy this morning, the only time I didn't get exactly the seat I wanted was for the Osipova/Muntagirov Onegin, The Cellist is going to be interesting as cellists usually sit still a lot, but perhaps it will show what she is dreaming as she plays  The replacement I'm most happy about is Prodigal Son, any Balanchine is welcome but this will be good to see again.    

[Sim]

I would love to see Prodigal Son again, but only if it's on first in the triple.  Nothing would ever induce me to sit through Live Fire Exercise again...that's 40 minutes of my life that I would never get back.  I would rather not sit through CGs again either, but it's preferable to the other one.  So....I will wait and see. 

[Lizbie1]

Based on this thread there may be some fluctuation in seat occupancy for the Corybantic Games programme (I know I’m half-planning to duck out early / show up late as well).

[Sim]

I am thinking that our late and much-missed friend and fellow mod John Mallinson is sitting up there with the gods of ballet and blessing us with Dances at a Gathering.  Some of you may remember that about ten years ago he and I started a campaign on this forum saying that at the end of the season we would chain ourselves to a tree or a railing outside the ROH and stay there until Dances was brought back into the rep of the RB.  Lo and behold, it was so....and he and I always laughed about it being thanks entirely to us !! 

 

So I will be attending, for my own pleasure but mostly in honour and memory of John, who would have loved to see this piece again. 

[RuthE]

1 hour ago, Beryl H said:

The Cellist is going to be interesting as cellists usually sit still a lot, but perhaps it will show what she is dreaming as she plays  

 

I'm reminded of that ballet that the RBS did excerpts from at some of their 2018(?) end-of-year performances, with the dancers "playing" other dancers as musical instruments.  I loved it - really imaginative. I'm sure somebody will remind me what it was!

[Lizbie1]

7 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

I'm reminded of that ballet that the RBS did excerpts from at some of their 2018(?) end-of-year performances, with the dancers "playing" other dancers as musical instruments.  I loved it - really imaginative. I'm sure somebody will remind me what it was!

 

Multiplicity by Nacho Duato. I loathed it - to me it reeked of misogyny and abuse. Though I fully accept others will have received it very differently.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Lizbie1
Got the name wrong first time

[FLOSS]

Sim ,I too am very pleased to see that Dances at a Gathering is being revived but I can't help thinking that you must have threatened to chain yourself to a tree or railing outside the ROH in order to secure the revival of Ronbbin's masterpiece more than ten years ago as it was revived during  Mason's directorship in both the 2007-8 season and the 2008-9 season. That of course in no way detracts from the wish to see it again.I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed by those revivals ten and more years ago as I did not feel that the casts in either season had the same sense of cohesive community and friendship which the stellar cast from the mid 1970's had brought to the work. Allowing for the lapse of many years; the change in performance style; the presence of far more dancers in the cast who had not known each other for years and the personalities of the dancers who appeared in it in those revivals I was surprised at how different the ballet seemed from what I remembered it being. The recent performances did not evoke the feeling of warm friendship and connection which I remembered it doing . The most recent couples seemed to have far less connection with each other and were far more like ships passing in the night than a group of people held together by invisible emotional ties.

 

What  was it that caused the marked difference in the mood which the ballet created in performance at its most recent revival when compared with that of the original cast? It could be the rehearsal process that each experienced. The ballet's original London cast was a small cohesive unchanging group of dancers hand picked by Robbins,coached rigorously by him who ended up knowing the ballet inside out and from every possible angle, as they were not told until the first performance which roles would be theirs. At the recent revival the company fielded two separate casts not all of whom seemed ideally suited to their roles, perhaps the company was too  thinly spread and there were too many compromises in the selection of dancers or it could be that the real difference is that Robbins wanted his local cast to give the audience their own take on his choreography rather attempting to imitate how NYCB danced it. At the time it was first staged in London it was said that the Royal Ballet dancers' approach was markedly different from what New York casts did with it so perhaps the fundamental difference is that the original London cast were allowed to dance it in their own expressive style while the most recent performances  were staged according to the New York style of performing it.

 

"Dances " it seems to me ,based on my earliest experience of it , is a ballet about friendship and community.No doubt there will be those who disagree with me, but I never felt that  Kobborg saw himself as part of the communal group of dancers in his cast in the way that Nureyev had been when he appeared in the ballet. When he  danced with Wall in the  pas de deux the choreography suggested two friends showing off to one another. it did not do so when Kobborg danced the Nureyev role. I found Acosta far more integrated into the cast with whom he was dancing than Kobborg seemed to be. Where Kobborg was somewhat aloof Acosta was one of the group and his dance "contest " with Martin Harvey evoked something of the cohesion and fun which the same section did when danced by Nureyev and Wall. It will be interesting to  find out who is to dance it at this revival and whether the cast or casts selected to appear in it  get anywhere near the Royal Ballet's original cast which brought an incredible sense of community and amity to the work. I don't think that anyone who saw the ballet in the 1970's would have thought it a minute too long or would have complained if they had been offered a mixed bill of back to back performances of Dances ai a Gathering it really was that good.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by FLOSS

[LinMM]

Absolutely agree FLOSS. .....it can't have been my favourite ballet for years for no reason!  The bit where they all just stand on the stage with their backs to the audience and appear to observe something passing across I found really moving and you felt some sort of loss in the group parting .....and of course that wonderful humour of Seymour and playfulness of Nureyev that they got right into the movement. 

I know I'm going to be a bit ageist now but that original cast was truely superb. 

However with the right rehearsing and right dancers I'm sure they can be equalled.

[ninamargaret]

Didn't one critic  at the time of the original London production also say that the ballet was about exiles and grief for their homeland, particularly poignant with Nureyev ? It's always seemed to me a very bittersweet ballet. I haven't seen it since the original, and am very much looking forward to it.