How are the dancers faring?

[alison]

My heart goes out to all the dancers (and other staff) who I assume are unable to rehearse, take class properly, perform or anything - not to mention possibly not being paid, either.  It must be very difficult if you're unable to do what you've trained for so many years to do.  Some sportspeople may be able to carry on with some form of training individually, but I presume this is much more difficult for dancers.  If you spot anything on public-facing social media etc. which you think might be of interest, do post it here.

 

As a starter, some good news from Stuttgart:

 

45 minutes ago, Angela said:

Amidst all the bad news, Stuttgart's principal dancer Alicia Amatriain had a baby girl yesterday. The father is soloist Alexander McGowan.

The whole Stuttgart Ballet is in self-quarantine at home because after a recent tour, one of the staff was tested positive with Corona. Neither Amatrain nor McGowan were on the tour, so they and their baby are safe.

 

Congratulations, and best wishes to the new family.  I hope they remain safe.

[bridiem]

The dancers' Instagram accounts are providing welcome light relief! e.g. Yasmine Naghdi taking 'class' in her kitchen, Alexander Campbell skipping in his back garden, Vadim Muntagirov dancing in his living room...

[capybara]

All serving to show how difficult it is for them all.

[alison]

(BTW, I do include the staff and musicians etc. in among "dancers")

[ninamargaret]

i did enjoy Bennet Gartside's class from his kitchen!

[bridiem]

Yasmine Naghdi has posted that she's talking on the Today programme on Radio 4 at 8.15am today.

[bridiem]

24 minutes ago, bridiem said:

Yasmine Naghdi has posted that she's talking on the Today programme on Radio 4 at 8.15am today.

 

And very well she did too! She spoke about the need for the dancers to keep in shape, since they will very quickly lose muscle tone and get stiff, and to adapt to not having the constant routine they normally have, and not performing to large audiences. She's set herself a daily routine of breakfast, studying, training etc - the aim being to ensure that she doesn't spend all day on the sofa! She's discovered that her kitchen counters are the ideal height for a ballet barre...

[capybara]

Agree about Yasmine - a very confident and insghtful input from her. Brava!

[Ian Macmillan]

Stopped me dead during this morning's Links trawl - nicely done.  She's not alone - the Alvin Ailey dancers are also working from home, as you'll see from a NY Times link.

[bangorballetboy]

37 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

She's discovered that her kitchen counters are the ideal height for a ballet barre...

 

Thanks to Bennet Gartside, I discovered last night that my kitchen counter is a touch too low for a barre!

[bridiem]

40 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Thanks to Bennet Gartside, I discovered last night that my kitchen counter is a touch too low for a barre!

 

Just tried mine - it would actually be fine. Just no space to swing a leg!! (Not that I generally do so anyway, you understand. Can't even plié...).

[alison]

15 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

And very well she did too! She spoke about the need for the dancers to keep in shape, since they will very quickly lose muscle tone and get stiff, and to adapt to not having the constant routine they normally have, and not performing to large audiences. She's set herself a daily routine of breakfast, studying, training etc - the aim being to ensure that she doesn't spend all day on the sofa! She's discovered that her kitchen counters are the ideal height for a ballet barre...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gc46  - She's on at 2:28.

[Naomi M]

I love the Isabelle Guerin workout videos at home washing dishes, ironing clothes.

 

[bridiem]

Never have hands been washed so beautifully!

[Rob S]

Lovely to see the RB dancers together today in a virtual class thanks to technology 

[bridiem]

28 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Lovely to see the RB dancers together today in a virtual class thanks to technology 

 

Yes - that must be so helpful to them, both physically and psychologically. They clearly miss each other! As we miss them.

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

Lovely to see the RB dancers together today in a virtual class thanks to technology 

So did you watch this? I thought it was a private ‘dial in’, unlike ENB and HET which are live-streamed for all.

[Rob S]

1 minute ago, capybara said:

So did you watch this? I thought it was a private ‘dial in’, unlike ENB and HET which are live-streamed for all.

I’m referring to Francesca Hayward’s Instagram Stories as she went through various clips of dancers waving to her, plus a screen cap of her following whoever the chap was leading the class with a strip of video feeds to the right of her telly screen.

 

I saw about ten minutes of Tierny Heap’s thing she did as a live story too

[capybara]

29 minutes ago, Rob S said:

I’m referring to Francesca Hayward’s Instagram Stories as she went through various clips of dancers waving to her, plus a screen cap of her following whoever the chap was leading the class with a strip of video feeds to the right of her telly screen.

 

I saw about ten minutes of Tierny Heap’s thing she did as a live story too

 

Thank you. I hadn't seen Frankie's story.

The 'chap' was Brian Maloney who frequently takes the RB Classes - a former RB soloist (and a very fine Colas in his day!).

[alison]

Dancers' private lives are off-limits, unless they decide to make them public.

[Rob S]

1 minute ago, alison said:

Dancers' private lives are off-limits, unless they decide to make them public.

 

Which they did.....

[alison]

Not exactly.

[Rob S]

6 minutes ago, alison said:

Not exactly.

 

Do you want to explain a little further? It was you that started this thread.

 

Has Francesca Hayward breached the forum's AUP?

[Rob S]

Yasmine Naghdi has just announced on her Instagram Story that she'll be doing a barre class on Blochdanceusa Instagram at 5pm tomorrow

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, alison said:

Dancers' private lives are off-limits, unless they decide to make them public.

 

May I ask what counts as public then? I thought that Instagram, unless an account is set to private, is public. Also, do moderators not inform members when a post they made is removed? Mine has been but I have not had any message from any of the moderators to tell me that it was unacceptable.

[Jan McNulty]

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

May I ask what counts as public then? I thought that Instagram, unless an account is set to private, is public. Also, do moderators not inform members when a post they made is removed? Mine has been but I have not had any message from any of the moderators to tell me that it was unacceptable.

 

Many years ago a married couple joined a company I follow.  It even said in their biographies in the programme that they were married.  Imagine our surprise when a couple of friends and I were sitting in a pub near the theatre having something to eat when the lady of the couple came in with another dancer and they proceeded to ... well I leave that to your imagination.  We were on our way to a PPT by the gentleman of the couple and someone asked him how his wife was.  As a number of people present had seen the lady of the couple with the other dancer there was a very embarrassed intake of breath from the audience.

 

I personally find it wiser, even when in the public domain of IG, not to mention dancers' private lives on a public forum.  

 

Actually speaking of IG stories - they are only available for 24 hours so they are only in the public domain for that timespan.

[Rob S]

If Alison's post about private lives is refering to a post that has been deleted it either needs deleting itself or amending, when I came back to the forum it looked as though Alison was trying to say talking about the content of an Instagram story was discussing their private lives which they haven't made public.

[Dawnstar]

11 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Many years ago a married couple joined a company I follow.  It even said in their biographies in the programme that they were married.  Imagine our surprise when a couple of friends and I were sitting in a pub near the theatre having something to eat when the lady of the couple came in with another dancer and they proceeded to ... well I leave that to your imagination.  We were on our way to a PPT by the gentleman of the couple and someone asked him how his wife was.  As a number of people present had seen the lady of the couple with the other dancer there was a very embarrassed intake of breath from the audience.

 

That was basically why I wanted to check if I was interpreting Instagram correctly. I didn't want to assume 2 dancers were a couple only to find out later that I was wrong and they weren't, just in case that led to any embarassing assumptions.

[Tebasile]

Just now, Dawnstar said:

 

That was basically why I wanted to check if I was interpreting Instagram correctly. I didn't want to assume 2 dancers were a couple only to find out later that I was wrong and they weren't, just in case that led to any embarassing assumptions.

If this is about who I think it is, may I just point out that there is a very public Vogue article which refers to the man as the woman’s ‘boyfriend’. 

[Angela]

Stuttgart Ballet is doing fine after one week of quarantine!

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

6 hours ago, Tebasile said:

If this is about who I think it is, may I just point out that there is a very public Vogue article which refers to the man as the woman’s ‘boyfriend’. 

 

Do you have a link to the Vogue article please?  I've found 3 from between September and end of December last year (2019) and none of them mention her private life.

[Jan McNulty]

Oh, this article:

 

https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/bottega-veneta-aw20-front-row

[capybara]

It's an odd thing about dancers' personal lives. Quite a lot of relationship are now "in one's face" on social media but I wouldn't go out of my way to find out about them. What matters to me is what they show me on stage - and I like the dance images on Instagram and FB too, of course.