World Ballet Day Live - live and recorded

[Bluebird]

6 hours ago, LinMM said:

And does any body know who was standing next to Olivia Cowley at the barre. At that point was wearing mostly all black ....track suit with a lilacy bit in the middle....her leotard I think and black bolero and very dark hair.

Later on she had a more flowery longish wrap skirt on with Lilac leotard shading lighter at the top. 

 

Ginevra Zambon, one of the new apprentices.

[JNC]

8 hours ago, SugarPlum2000 said:

I think they said it would be 30 days then after that would be snippets of the main bits.

 

Thank you! 30 days is great 

[Kate_N]

11 hours ago, Springbourne3 said:

It was so good to see Alfreda Thorogood and Leanne Benjamin coaching in the RB’s livestream.

 

I loved that section.

 

I noticed that the Bolshoi coverage was less thrilling this year - they moved between Akimov's class (worth the wHOLE of WBD in my view!) to Allash's women's class. That was really interesting - seeing how quickly & professionally and efficiently the women principals worked to do a shortish class. I particularly loved their seemingly endless petit allegro combinations. But the Akimov class seemed quite thin ...

 

Then I had to go to w*rk (thinking of Larkin's "Toad"). So catching up now while working on a chapter about the Romantic ballet  ... It's research! Yes, really

[FionaM]

10 hours ago, Lark said:

Shipulina complained in an instagram post that she and other primas were not invited to film, so that's the reason Smirnova was in a class of her own.  Krysanova had some time in a different segment, but that was about it. Very disappointing for those of us who had hoped to see an Akimov class full of principals as we did in the 2014 World Ballet Day!

I only saw a brief section of the Akimov class and noticed principals/first soloists Artem Ovcharenko, Anna Tikhimorova and David Motta Soares.  There may have been more - it switched over to the Allash class and also I’m not so familiar with all the faces.  Was Lantratov there too?  

Edited October 24, 2019 by FionaE
Typos

[Kate_N]

I'm also in awe at other posters here who recognise all the dancers individually!

[RuthE]

3 minutes ago, Kate_N said:

I'm also in awe at other posters here who recognise all the dancers individually!

 

I used to be better at this than I currently am.  I usually have to ask about one or two of the youngest/newest members of the company, for obvious reasons (those who have come from RBS are more familiar to those members of the forum who follow the RBS's students and activities more actively than I do).

[capybara]

9 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

I used to be better at this than I currently am.  I usually have to ask about one or two of the youngest members of the Company.

It’s far easier to recognise dancers these days as there are photographs of everyone available online and, I believe, in the red programmes.

[Richard LH]

5 hours ago, Bluebird said:

 

Ginevra Zambon, one of the new apprentices.

 

I thought it was lovely to see Alessandra Ferri  in this Class - such an inspiration for new young dancers like Ginevra.

[LinMM]

Yes I thought how brave of Ferri ...I know she's experienced and so on but it's not easy for an older lady to take  a place in a class  with so many fully energised young people in it 😳 .......That big jumping section is definitely for the under 40's!!! Or at least for all the World to view you 😩

I rather liked the look of Ginevra Zambon ( thanks for the name Bluebird) she has a nice relaxed easy style but couldn't follow everyone up in class it all moved quickly and people were changing groups a lot so never knew who was coming. Had to have eyes everywhere! 

 

Was as that Jo Sissens in the black top and lighter coloured shorts? There weren't that many men in shorts  ....but I never caught a close up shot so it was a bit ...is it him ...is it not ....If it was him he seems to have lost a lot of weight .....well I know he's never been that big  but just seemed so slight but whoever it was a great dancer anyway. 

 

 

 

 

[invisiblecircus]

It wasn't very well promoted but there was a nice segment from Teatro alla Scala presented by Frédéric Olivieri including interviews in English with Nicoletta Manni, Marco Agostino, Martina Arduino, Nicola Del Freo and Claudio Coviello. We also get to watch Roberto Bolle and Marianela Nunez in rehearsal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-hGDgXMu0

 

[Richard LH]

2 hours ago, LinMM said:

I rather liked the look of Ginevra Zambon ( thanks for the name Bluebird) she has a nice relaxed easy style

 

Yes I  also noticed her as one of the well-to-do ladies who open the start of Act 3 of Manon, and admired her dancing. 

[capybara]

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

 

I thought it was lovely to see Alessandra Ferri  in this Class - such an inspiration for new young dancers like Ginevra.

Maybe all the more so for Ginevra because, in common with Alessandra, she hails from Italy and also attended White Lodge before joining the RBS Upper School.

[RuthE]

21 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Yes I  also noticed her as one of the well-to-do ladies who open the start of Act 3 of Manon, and admired her dancing. 

 

Interestingly, five years ago in a previous revival of Manon, it was just this number in which Mayara Magri first caught my attention.

[Dawnstar]

The rehearsal of The Cellist that was shown had Cuthbertson, Ball & Sambe. I've just noticed that on the ROH's website the casting currently given is Cuthbertson/Ball/Richardson and Stix-Brunell/Sambe/Corrales. Would it be usual for dancers to rehearse together who are in different casts or is it more likely that there's been a casting re-arrange & the ROH's website has yet to be updated?

[Lark]

9 hours ago, FionaE said:

I only saw a brief section of the Akimov class and noticed principals/first soloists Artem Ovcharenko, Anna Tikhimorova and David Motta Soares.  There may have been more - it switched over to the Allash class and also I’m not so familiar with all the faces.  Was Lantratov there too?  

Lantratov was not there, nor any principal other than Ovcharenko. First soloist Igor Tvirsko was spotted in the Akimov class.  I recognized a few faces in the Allash class but again, other than Olga, none of the recognized stars were there.

[Bruce Wall]

3 hours ago, Lark said:

 I recognized a few faces in the Allash class but again, other than Olga, none of the recognized stars were there.

 

Wonder how you would define (where you would place) Ekaterina Krysanova, Lark?   She was definitely in Allash's class - as well as being one of the Giselle's rehearsing with Ratmansky.  Her partner in that rehearsal was David Motta Soares.  She made a big impact (in London at least) as Kate in Maillot's Taming of the Shrew - a role which was created on her. 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Bruce Wall

[stucha]

7 hours ago, Lark said:

Lantratov was not there, nor any principal other than Ovcharenko. First soloist Igor Tvirsko was spotted in the Akimov class.  I recognized a few faces in the Allash class but again, other than Olga, none of the recognized stars were there.

 

I thought I saw newly minted principal Artemy Belyakov in the Akimov class.

[assoluta]

Shipulina wrote: "This whole comedy here (i.e., at Bolshoi) was recorded ahead of time and those to be recorded were strictly preselected. No "live coverage" of any kind, as in other theatres" (apparently, Miss Smirnova's credo is "Bolshoi that's me".

 

 

[stucha]

4 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

Wonder how you would define (where you would place) Ekaterina Krysanova, Lark?   She was definitely in Allash's class - as well as being one of the Giselle's rehearsing with Ratmansky.  Her partner in that rehearsal was David Motta Soares.  She made a big impact (in London at least) as Kate in Maillot's Taming of the Shrew - a role which was created on her. 

 

 

Bruce, there was a dancer in Allash's class who looked a little like Krysanova but I don't think it was her.

 

The Bolshoi will now have three productions of Giselle and Vaziev seems to think that the new one will be very interesting.

 

Assoluta, I hope you will report.

[Springbourne3]

4 hours ago, stucha said:

 

I thought I saw newly minted principal Artemy Belyakov in the Akimov class.

Yes he was but he wasn’t in view very often though.

[Springbourne3]

4 hours ago, stucha said:

 

Bruce, there was a dancer in Allash's class who looked a little like Krysanova but I don't think it was her.

 

The Bolshoi will now have three productions of Giselle and Vaziev seems to think that the new one will be very interesting.

 

Assoluta, I hope you will report.

No you’re right Stucha, it wasn’t Krysanova in Allash’s class.

[Springbourne3]

On 23/10/2019 at 23:09, Lark said:

Shipulina complained in an instagram post that she and other primas were not invited to film, so that's the reason Smirnova was in a class of her own.  Krysanova had some time in a different segment, but that was about it. Very disappointing for those of us who had hoped to see an Akimov class full of principals as we did in the 2014 World Ballet Day!

Sorry Lark maybe I didn’t make it clear - I meant that ‘Smirnova stood out’ in the class (from the expression ‘in a class of their own’),  

[RuthE]

I caught up last night with the Royal Ballet company class, where I was as always hugely entertained by Robert Clark's choices of medley.  I'm not sure which I liked more: Delilah --> Oom-pah-pah --> Que sera sera --> a waltz-tempo Viva Espana, or The Muppet Show --> I Got Rhythm --> Anything Goes...

 

It was also fun to see some of the dancers who, having looked completely serious and focussed throughout the barre exercises, started corpsing/grinning when they caught each other's eye during the calf rises.  And I could DEFINITELY hear a few people singing along when Clark played "Delilah"...

 

Is that the first time we've had a live stream of one of Brian Maloney's classes?

 

Also fascinating to watch (again, as she had a very similar position at the barre as in last year's live stream) Yasmine Naghdi's method of picking up the combinations by marking the leg positions with her hands.

[capybara]

14 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

The rehearsal of The Cellist that was shown had Cuthbertson, Ball & Sambe. I've just noticed that on the ROH's website the casting currently given is Cuthbertson/Ball/Richardson and Stix-Brunell/Sambe/Corrales. Would it be usual for dancers to rehearse together who are in different casts or is it more likely that there's been a casting re-arrange & the ROH's website has yet to be updated?

 

I think that, when a piece is being made, all casts are in attendance where feasible.

Moreover, WBD is sometimes atypical in terms of portraying the reality of a working day.

[Bruce Wall]

A brief shout out for Stuttgart Ballet's WBD segment; a filmed rehearsal of Cranko's R&J that so inspired in the creation of MacMillan's version - here with the central characters being etched by the ever invigorating Friedemann Vogel and the charming Elisa Badenes, an RBS grad.  It was their first time EVER dancing the balcony PDD together and they just go for it straight off the bat.  It brought a raw freshness to the piece that I, for one, found entirely endearing.  So glad that it was able to be captured for us here ... especially with the visage of Cranko staring down upon its glory.  Magic.  

 

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Bruce Wall

[alison]

14 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

The rehearsal of The Cellist that was shown had Cuthbertson, Ball & Sambe. I've just noticed that on the ROH's website the casting currently given is Cuthbertson/Ball/Richardson and Stix-Brunell/Sambe/Corrales. Would it be usual for dancers to rehearse together who are in different casts or is it more likely that there's been a casting re-arrange & the ROH's website has yet to be updated?

 

I think this is probably not uncommon.  Certainly I've seen insight evenings where the casting hasn't been as scheduled for performance.  This might be because a dancer is new to the role while the partner is experienced in it and doesn't need the coaching/isn't available for one reason or another.  There must be a lot of ballets being rehearsed at the moment, and Richardson, as the lowest-ranking company member cast, may have needed to be somewhere else more important as he's likely to be performing in more of them than principals.  Or it could just be that management thought "Hey, let's put 3 principals on".  Or ...

[capybara]

37 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Or it could just be that management thought "Hey, let's put 3 principals on". 

As I implied,  WBD is (understandably) not an exact representation of the reality!

[Dawnstar]

Thanks for the explanation @alison & @capybara.

[Lark]

22 hours ago, Springbourne3 said:

Sorry Lark maybe I didn’t make it clear - I meant that ‘Smirnova stood out’ in the class (from the expression ‘in a class of their own’),

Olga is not really in a class of her own. She certainly appeared to be much better than the others in Allash's class but that's because nobody else of her rank was there.  If you look at last year's Akimov class you can see she's really no better or worse than the other primas who were also in that class, including Obratzsova, Stepanova, Shipulina, etc. It seems as if somebody got rid of her competition this year (except for Krysanova, who is beloved). I guess that's the Bolshoi for you.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Lark
style

[FionaM]

First soloists at Bolshoi dance principal roles almost exclusively, so I consider them in the same bracket.  Unlike at RB where first soloists do principal roles occasionally and soloist roles more often.   
 

So in Akimov’s class we saw Ovcharenko, Belyakov, Tsvirko, Motta Soares and Anna Tikhimorova.  As well as others in Alkash class that I am not familiar with.   I think that’s a pretty good representation as any that performed on the previous night couldn’t be expected to be in class at 10am .... an hour earlier than usual.  
 

There obviously is a timing overlap of the normal day between Bolshoi  and RB.  The organisers of WBD need to have a rethink about timings.  My suggestion would be to show pre-recorded rehearsals ahead of classes at normal time, and then a few live rehearsals afterwards.  

[Dawnstar]

I've just caught up with the Stuttgart R&J rehearsal. It makes me want to jump on a plane to Stuttgart to see them performing it live! This is probably a daft comment but having seen MacMillan's R&J last season with all that choreography looking perfect with the music it's fascinating to then see Cranko's R&J with different choreography but again looking perfect with the music.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Dawnstar

[Mary]

What's daft about that?

It is fascinating, indeed.

 

Thanks for highlighting this segment, Bruce, really enjoyable.

 

 

 

[Dawnstar]

1 minute ago, Mary said:

What's daft about that?

It is fascinating, indeed.

 

I suppose I feel I'm stating the obvious, since choreography is supposed to go with the music.

 

I've now just watched La Scala's World Ballet Day video to find more Cranko, with Nunez & Bolle rehearsing Onegin. It makes me regret that I won't be seeing Nunez in the full role (after Mayerling I swore off seeing Hirano in dramatic leading roles).