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3 hours ago, alison said:

Prompted, unfortunately, by Scheherezade's thread on humour elsewhere, I am now going to ruin people's recollections of Dances at a Gathering by asking whether I was the only one to think "Monty Python" at a few moments?

 

Sorry :( 

I hope you don't mean the Fish Slapping Dance ...

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Oh dear, what have I set off?!

 

3 hours ago, Beryl H said:

 

It does make me think of The Trocks in "Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet" :)

 

I wouldn't know.  I haven't seen it since the Royal Ballet brought DAAG back into the repertoire :( 

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On 04/03/2020 at 18:55, Dawnstar said:

As someone seeing it tonight, I would have much preferred they cut the brief appearances by the children so Corrales could appear!

What a cavalier and rather quite selfish comment! 
Safeguarding of young students health let alone the fact they too have worked hard and been at rehearsals for months even for their small roles played should not be dismissed out of hand. 
I am sure you will enjoy many more of this artists forthcoming appearances ! 
 

Edited by Pointytoes
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22 minutes ago, Pointytoes said:

What a cavalier and rather quite selfish comment! 
Safeguarding of young students health let alone the fact they too have worked hard and been at rehearsals for months even for their small roles played should not be dismissed out of hand. 
I am sure you will enjoy many more of this artists forthcoming appearances ! 
 

 

I quite agree, though it was somewhat tongue in cheek as I know they're not going to cut a chunk of choreography at the last minute! For me The Cellist had a number of longeurs, including when the children were dancing, hence I wouldn't have minded if the roles weren't there. Actually unlike some of the comments on here from people who enjoyed The Cellist more on a second viewing, I enjoyed it less & found it dragging for me. I had the complete opposite feeling with DAAG, where when it got to the final scene I could hardly believe that was it, as it seemed to have flown by. And I'm hoping to see Corrales in Swan Lake on 28th, but with the coronavirus who knows if the ROH will still be open then.

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8 hours ago, LinMM said:

I actually thought the girl who played Du Pre as a child was a lovely dancer and enjoyed watching her very much.

 

Me too - I thought she was terrific, with a really strong and delightful stage personality and lovely dancing.

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On 07/03/2020 at 09:30, bridiem said:

 

Me too - I thought she was terrific, with a really strong and delightful stage personality and lovely dancing.

Yup, I commented to my friend that we might see her again on stage in a few years...

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On ‎08‎/‎03‎/‎2020 at 20:50, Coated said:

Yup, I commented to my friend that we might see her again on stage in a few years...

The first time I ever noticed Anna-Rose O'Sullivan was when she was one of the two little girls in Act 1 of Dowell's Swan Lake.  I noticed her because she had a delightful stage presence.  No change there, then!

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59 minutes ago, Sim said:

The first time I ever noticed Anna-Rose O'Sullivan was when she was one of the two little girls in Act 1 of Dowell's Swan Lake.  I noticed her because she had a delightful stage presence.  No change there, then!

 

..............and before Anna Rose, there was Sarah Wildor!

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1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

..............and before Anna Rose, there was Sarah Wildor!

Sarah was the first. Other notables Laura Morera, Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward and much later Julia Roscoe. I posted a long list of dancers who went on to join the Royal Companies at the time of the premier of the present production. It was quite a list

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  • 2 months later...

I watched The Cellist on youtube and I didn't find it any more appealing than when I saw it live in the initial run. It's too busy, too dark, the score doesn't work, many of the props feel unnecessary (the bar stool ) the choreography for the principal trio is so repetitive ..... sigh. It feels like a chamber piece that has lost any heart and soul in over expansion of time and space. 

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I've just watched The Cellist. 'In the flesh', I felt that it had both strengths and weaknesses. However, I felt that the less good aspects were somewhat emphasised by the filming. I have in mind in particular the relative absence of dance as distinct from movement and the activity of the busy corps detracting from what the central characters are doing. A pity.

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7 hours ago, capybara said:

I've just watched The Cellist. 'In the flesh', I felt that it had both strengths and weaknesses. However, I felt that the less good aspects were somewhat emphasised by the filming. I have in mind in particular the relative absence of dance as distinct from movement and the activity of the busy corps detracting from what the central characters are doing. A pity.

 

While I agree that it’s mainly movement, The Cellist is a compelling piece of theatre and music. I loved the filming and how it captured  the main characters’ interactions with family, colleagues, etc. Timing was perfect too - neither too long nor too short. 

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8 hours ago, Jeannette said:

 

While I agree that it’s mainly movement, The Cellist is a compelling piece of theatre and music. I loved the filming and how it captured  the main characters’ interactions with family, colleagues, etc. Timing was perfect too - neither too long nor too short. 


Mmm ... I still hold to my original view that it would have worked much better as a three-hander at half the length. Just the right amount of ‘movement’ and ‘theatre’, showcasing its innovative content and the emotional interaction of the protagonists without the annoying distractions or any element of overstaying it’s welcome. 

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It was my first time watching on Friday night - I'll try to re-visit while it's still available. But first impressions were very good, I found it an enjoyable and highly emotional piece. A wonderful performance by Lauren Cuthbertson particularly.

 

So far I've been a big fan of everything I've seen by Cathy Marston - maybe her style (including innovative use of dancers for props and other things) is just one that appeals to some people but not to all?

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I shall float the thought that perhaps there was too little plot in The Cellist to flesh out a full length, narrative ballet.

 

Jaqueline Du Pre was a passionate, interpretative performer whose gift of inhabiting the music that inspired her was tragically cut short at an early age. The emotional heft is undeniable and extraordinary and this was beautifully portrayed by Cuthbertson and Sambe. I still feel that Ball was underused and would have preferred more development of his role, and Barenboim's relationship with Jackie, rather than the intrusions and distractions of the other, more peripheral characters and props.

 

What The Cellist did not deliver was anything more by way of a 'story'. Quite rightly, and extremely touchingly, the performance focused upon the tragedy inherent in the loss of Jackie's gift (and the element of hope in the universality of her music) but a full length work needs something more. There has to be movement in the narrative, shifts in expectation, questions asked and, ultimately, answered, an element of tension. Deeply-felt emotion can generate audience involvement but this cannot be sustained indefinitely without more in the way of a plot.

 

I do not dislike Marston's work. I loved 'The Suit'. This work utilised the same tools as The Cellist, it also engaged the emotions, but the length of the piece reflected the limitations in the plot.

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OK - let me also float cygnets, Big Swans, odd national dances, Shades, etc, etc.  Do these not also pad out stories involving a very few characters, and way beyond 65 minutes?   For the life of me, I don't see the narrative difference in such devices - style and structure of choreography is a different matter, on which legitimate differences in taste will apply.  

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7 minutes ago, Ian Macmillan said:

OK - let me also float cygnets, Big Swans, odd national dances, Shades, etc, etc.  Do these not also pad out stories involving a very few characters, and way beyond 65 minutes?   For the life of me, I don't see the narrative difference in such devices - style and structure of choreography is a different matter, on which legitimate differences in taste will apply.  

 

Yes the cygnets, swans, shades etc don't embellish the narrative, they are simply devices for dancing but what dancing ! What incredible choreography  - truly exceptional and memorable which I guess is why they have stood the test of time.

 

I feel the Cellist is different in that although the characters seem to have been added to fill out the ballet many of them do belong in the narrative but crucially for me they are quite intrusive. So although the problem I have could be more to do with finding their choreography unremarkable, it is perhaps also that structurally these padding characters invade and deaden the central narrative of the Cellist in a way that the cygnets, shades etc don't. 

 

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24 minutes ago, annamk said:

 

Yes the cygnets, swans, shades etc don't embellish the narrative, they are simply devices for dancing but what dancing ! What incredible choreography  - truly exceptional and memorable which I guess is why they have stood the test of time.

 

I feel the Cellist is different in that although the characters seem to have been added to fill out the ballet many of them do belong in the narrative but crucially for me they are quite intrusive. So although the problem I have could be more to do with finding their choreography unremarkable, it is perhaps also that structurally these padding characters invade and deaden the central narrative of the Cellist in a way that the cygnets, shades etc don't. 

 

 

Perfectly put, annamk. Whilst the cygnets, swans and shades don't embellish the narrative they have other compelling merits and can be enjoyed as stand alone pieces which, for me, cannot be said for the contributions of the more intrusive characters in The Cellist.

 

Whilst many people will, of course, feel completely differently, for me the peripheral characters in The Cellist got in the way to the extent that they were in danger of diminishing the impact of the work generally.

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So much more preferred her Snowblind for SFB, another narrative work but without the additional personnel and duration.  Would very much have liked to have seen her 'Mrs Robinson' for them.  I'm sure it will be yet to come.  Joseph Walsh will make a splendid Benjamin.  Something to look forward to.  

 

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