RB 2020/21

[Guest oncnp]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

OK, here goes off the top of my head:

 

• telling us what the ROH/RB is doing for the dancers (classes? fitness sessions? pilates sessions? psychologist on call? dance mats? dietary advice? phone calls?- we know some of this from individual posts and interviews, but not officially)
•  
• say how donations will be used specifically for the RB as distinct from the ROH overall (possibly an input from Kevin O'Hare here -- he has been invisible thus far)
• get items from among those listed above onto the ROH website, not just on social media or youtube etc.
• set up a proper comments facility on the ROH website related to the above

 

 

I like these ideas especially - Due respect to the opera but I attend for the ballet. I would be much more inclined to donate if I knew how the money would be spent, ROH not having a great track record IMO.  Sort of a "Here's what we are doing for the dancers. Would you like to help? Click donate".  

 

[capybara]

5 minutes ago, MAX said:

Capybara,  😀

 

You are just a member of the audience....  

 

 

I know that, MAX, but you asked what I would suggest and I answered you. 😁 I would not necessarily avail myself of all, or any, of the things I listed. But my thoughts were, if you recall, set in the context of ROH requests for money and communication with the audience is surely key to maximising donations and carrying the Company’s public with it going forward. In my view, ENB (which is admittedly more manoeverable  than the RB/ROH) has ‘got that’ and has kept the necessary staff in place to keep the company’s foot on the pedal.

 

 

[alison]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

(possibly an input from Kevin O'Hare here -- he has been invisible thus far)

 

I'm thinking KOH may have rather more important things on his mind at the moment.  He may still be madly revising next season and trying to deal with other aspects of the fallout, for all I know.  It must be a huge headache.

[MAX]

I am a friend of ENB.

 

Friend of ENB because I want to support the excellent and visionary work of Tamara Rojo.

 

On the other hand I find ridiculous to see her giving barre in her kitchen and her husband turning and jumping in the same kitchen.

 

Just very cheap to my eyes, I could do without all that !

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

 

• put the spotlight on the corps members in some way - mini-features, perhaps: "Get to know the Corps" [An opportunity waiting to be seized!]
•  

 

that would be super - and not just in this crisis time. A day in the life type feature (seeing which rehearsals they go to, etc etc), focus a camera on them during a performance maybe, to see how they interract with the rest of the cast, how they act on their cue to get on stage, that sort of thing, would fascinate me, for sure.

However, I always get the impression (and it purely an impression to me personally, though others may feel the same) that 'management' always view the dancers as 'the company'. Its as if they don't feel the effort to feature corps members (even up and coming, ones for the future type dancers), that they may spend on some of the Principals is worth it, surmising that it would only be of interest to the relatively small number of people that are balletomanes and would know many of the corps anyway. I'd love to be proved wrong of course! 🙂

[zxDaveM]

2 minutes ago, MAX said:

I am a friend of ENB.

 

Friend of ENB because I want to support the excellent and visionary work of Tamara Rojo.

 

On the other hand I find ridiculous to see her giving barre in her kitchen and her husband turning and jumping in the same kitchen.

 

Just very cheap to my eyes, I could do without all that !

 

Well, don't watch it then. Not rocket science

 

[MAX]

I don't, thank you for your clever advice !

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, MAX said:

Classes are for dancers not for the audience,

 

 

They do have open classes that you can pay to go and watch (usually in the Clore, though sometimes in the Floral Hall).

Plus of course the morning class they show during World Ballet Day. If any dancer doesn't want to be watched in class that day for any reason, it isn't compulsory they attend the 'public' one, they can go to an alternative.

[zxDaveM]

2 minutes ago, MAX said:

I don't, thank you for your clever advice !

 

my pleasure

[Dawnstar]

I confess that I'm actually pleased the the ROH is only screening one production a week & isn't doing much eles apart from that. So many other companies are screening opera & ballet at the moment that I'm enjoying being able to see the work from companies that I'm never going to be able to see live. If the ROH was doing daily screenings then I'd feel obliged to prioritise watching theirs, whereas as it is I've been watching loads of operas from the Met & Vienna plus a handful of ballets from Stuttgart, La Scala, the Mariinsky & the Dutch National Ballet.

[MAX]

I confirm what I wrote :  classes are for the dancers not for the audience.

 

 

 

[zxDaveM]

3 minutes ago, MAX said:

classes are for the dancers not for the audience.

 

 

Next time they have a public class you can stand outside with that on a banner - and chant it too, if so inclined

[Scheherezade]

Boys, boys ... Pistols at dawn perhaps?

[MAX]

😀   you need a third time ? 

 

classes are for dancers not for the audience

 

have a good afternoon !

[Scheherezade]

Now why do I think that last comment is meant to suggest precisely the opposite? Woe, woe and thrice woe!

[Jan McNulty]

3 hours ago, MAX said:

I confirm what I wrote :  classes are for the dancers not for the audience.

 

 

 

 

All four English companies have classes available that supporters can watch.  I don't think it's unreasonable and funnily enough both BRB and NB have had classes via IG that we have been able to tune in to.

 

In fact BRB's Saturday classes during their time on tour are open to members of the public and NB supporters can see their classes in theatre on a Saturday morning in non-lockdown times.

 

I think your comments are offensive and unnecessary.

[Anna C]

6 hours ago, MAX said:

I confirm what I wrote :  classes are for the dancers not for the audience.

 

 

 

 

In your opinion, MAX.  Over 100,000 people would seem to disagree with you, given the number of views on Youtube alone of one of Tamara Rojo’s recent “kitchen classes”.   That doesn’t include those who watched via Facebook or Instagram.

 

Lots of people, including non-dancers, love watching dancers take class, for all sorts of reasons, just as they enjoy watching the rehearsal progress.  If there was no demand, why would companies offer the chance to watch, in person or via the internet?  As has been said above, if the dancers don’t want to be watched during company class, for example on World Ballet Day, they don’t go, but most of them do.  What harm does it do you? 

[capybara]

The item on my list wasn't actually about watching the dancers but of being given a peek at the kind of class they were being offered by the RB.

 

7 hours ago, alison said:

I'm thinking KOH may have rather more important things on his mind at the moment.  He may still be madly revising next season and trying to deal with other aspects of the fallout, for all I know.  It must be a huge headache.

 

Like you, Alison, I cannot begin to imagine the enormity of the challenge which is facing every Dance Company Director throughout the world. But taking your audience with you is surely part and parcel of that conundrum, not least where bringing in donations is concerned. 

[HappyTurk]

Can we all just respectfully disagree with each other? I'm not sure why anyone is getting personally offended by any of the comments made from both sides of the discussion. 

[FionaM]

Still waiting for 20/21 season announcements .... must be so hard to decide what to plan and announce when even September onwards might be cancelled 😢

[LBC]

Not news about the next season, alas, but the report on Kevin's O'hare's talk at The London Ballet Circle on 9th March ( a mere three days before the last RB performance this season) might prove interesting 'lockdown' reading:

https://www.tlbc.org.uk/resources/92-in-conversation-with-kevin-o-hare-cbe

[bridiem]

Not sure how plans for the season can be announced when no-one yet knows how long the season will be or when it will start.

[FionaM]

On 30/04/2020 at 18:53, bridiem said:

Not sure how plans for the season can be announced when no-one yet knows how long the season will be or when it will start.

   
Well they could be multiple plans for different start dates ... Sep, Nov, Jan, March etc

[bangorballetboy]

45 minutes ago, FionaE said:

   
Well they could be multiple plans for different start dates ... Sep, Nov, Jan, March etc

 

And what would be the point in announcing hypothetical situations (with the resultant disappointments that would arise when things don't happen)?  Why not just wait and an announcement of what is going to happen will be made once a workable position is known?  There are plans being worked on in the background; the ROH and company management are not just sitting on their hands!

[Jan McNulty]

21 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

 There are plans being worked on in the background; the ROH and company management are not just sitting on their hands!

 

Exactly BBB and not only at ROH.  I am sure all the other companies are in the same boat and working hard behind the scenes.

[alison]

Sir Cameron Mackintosh suggested that there could be different alternative resumption dates - but that would be for ongoing theatre productions.  Where a company (or companies) is performing in rep, that must be far more difficult - and particularly for the ROH, where the ballet company rather has to fit in around the opera company's already-booked schedule.  I do wonder whether we shall end up rather more with performances in blocks than is normally the case, if it makes rehearsing and getting back in shape easier.

[Scheherezade]

I shan't mind in the least if we have block performances, Alison. Whatever the performance it will be very, very welcome.

[Bruce Wall]

I would imagine that whenever a date is announced it will be some months in advance of the actual start - simply to get things back up to speed and to allow for appropriate notification and booking periods for that forward date by the various ROH booking categories.   That would be only reasonable.   As someone said on the news tonight - and I paraphrase - in many instances it will have been easier to shut down than it will be to start up again.  

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Bruce Wall

[SheilaC]

There are two Royal Ballet performances that haven't yet been cancelled! The galas in Doncaster at the first weekend of July are still listed and available for booking by the Cast Theatre. The galas were to have been curated by Federico Bonelli, to celebrate a joint RB/Doncaster council project to introduce dance in all the schools in the area. Obviously the galas won't go ahead but we await news of their cancellation.