Sim Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 15 hours ago, alison said: It does seem to have become that way in recent years, although I don't remember it ever being like that when I first started watching the ballet. It also depends very much on the context: there have been a number of performances where I don't think anyone would have considered laughing. But I don't think it's ever been intentionally humorous. I can understand people giggling here. Those of us who have raised girls (and boys) can remember them telling us to stop hassling them and then stomping into their room and slamming the door shut and then sulking. This is the equivalent, so it raises a laugh. However, it is also very sad…Juliet desperately trying to escape from an adult world that is making her life a misery. A very clever touch from Sir Kenneth. The critic writing in Broadway World seems to think Juliet’s dance with Paris in Act 3 is funny. I always find it abjectly sad…but there’s a good example of different perceptions of the same thing! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 Really? I can’t imagine there being anything funny in that at all!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 6 minutes ago, Rob S said: That often happens and it did with Yasmine too but that isn’t the occasion I meant, it was during the pdd when Juliet is ‘dead’ I fail to see how anyone can find that funny. It’s also very difficult to dance, especially for Juliet. The whole thing is done with eyes closed. You really have to trust your partner! I often find that people laugh at things they don’t understand…or when they are scared. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 I was replying to Robs comment!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 I’m much happier being “abnormal”!!! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninamargaret Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 10 hours ago, Sim said: often find that people laugh at things they don’t understand…or when they are scared Very true. At the RSC in a production of Lear poor demented Lear, clad in a nightshirt and garlanded with flowers came on to be greeted with huge guffaws of laughter from two young girls in the front row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 11 hours ago, Sim said: I often find that people laugh at things they don’t understand…or when they are scared. …….or embarrassed. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 21 minutes ago, capybara said: …….or embarrassed. Yes indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 Once went on a school trip to see Der Rosenkavalier opera and a friend and myself got into a huge attack of giggles which we just couldn’t control during one of the big duets!! Must have been very annoying for others around us but assume must have been a schools performance. We did get told off though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 12 hours ago, Sim said: I can understand people giggling here. Those of us who have raised girls (and boys) can remember them telling us to stop hassling them and then stomping into their room and slamming the door shut and then sulking. This is the equivalent, so it raises a laugh. However, it is also very sad…Juliet trying to escape from an adult world that is making her life a misery. A very clever touch from Sir Kenneth. Oh yes, I quite agree about the teenage strop thing - it just worries me that that's how it's perceived, rather than the life being made a misery, because as I said earlier I don't remember it being that way in the past - maybe 10, 15 years ago and beyond. So, is it a change in perception by the audience in our modern lives, or a change in the way it's being portrayed? It could be something as simple as the way the bedcover is pulled over her head. I don't know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 1 hour ago, LinMM said: Once went on a school trip to see Der Rosenkavalier opera and a friend and myself got into a huge attack of giggles which we just couldn’t control during one of the big duets!! Must have been very annoying for others around us but assume must have been a schools performance. We did get told off though! I remember that happening to me at a school performance of the opera. I can't remember what set me off, it wasn't as if it was my first time at the Opera House, but I just couldn't stop. I think a dancer who reads a forum such as this has to have broad shoulders, and accept that there will be criticism as well as glowing praise. We know that the dancers are the best of the best, but at the same time we all have our own personal preferences, and we are entitled to state them. I don't recall ever seeing anything on here that I would call disrespectful, I have to say. It would be very interesting to know if any professional dancer has found our comments useful, though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 13 hours ago, Sim said: I often find that people laugh at things they don’t understand…or when they are scared. I've experienced that with film. When I saw The Shining (many years ago), someone got the giggles and that set everyone off! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Fonty said: It would be very interesting to know if any professional dancer has found our comments useful, though. They definitely do. I know that many (if not most) dancers don't read the critics, even if they write glowingly about them. They are, however, much more concerned and interested about what the audience thinks. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 44 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said: I've experienced that with film. When I saw The Shining (many years ago), someone got the giggles and that set everyone off! When I went to see The Exorcist as a teenager in 1973 when it was first released, I was still living in Queens, NYC. Throughout the film, hilarious comments were being shouted at the screen by the whole audience, so instead of the frightfest it was supposed to be, it ended up being one of the best comedy films I have ever seen...the whole audience laughing the whole time!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 34 minutes ago, Sim said: When I went to see The Exorcist as a teenager in 1973 when it was first released, I was still living in Queens, NYC. Throughout the film, hilarious comments were being shouted at the screen by the whole audience, so instead of the frightfest it was supposed to be, it ended up being one of the best comedy films I have ever seen...the whole audience laughing the whole time!! I do love this forum. Only here could we start off with Romeo and Juliet and end up with The Exorcist. 😄 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 Likewise when I saw Hang 'em High in about 1968. Full audience participation with the sad/tragic bits being greeted with hilarity! This is not to say that the ballet Romeo and Juliet merits this treatment, but there might be other productions which do! We are generally so polite these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 (edited) On 16/10/2021 at 14:05, LinMM said: I had a reply already! From Sandra. she said after consulting with the managers they advised her to tell me that my browser may have an automatic time adjustment on it if in a different time zone and to use a different browser. ... Or could just be a glitch on the ROH computer who knows!! Ah yes. The old trick of blaming the consumer. This drives me crazy. What you were told may (but only may) be one possible explanation but what this really says is, don’t blame the web team: it’s not their fault for making something complicated / incompetently / wrongly, but our fault for not handling their failing system correctly. Whenever we get told there is nothing wrong with the ROH website, booking and online systems, always worth writing back to say that anyone who has been around these last few years has noticed otherwise. By the way, the ROH website collapsed yesterday and was not up again when I checked earlier today. No doubt that was our fault too, perhaps someone was trying to book tickets. Edited October 17, 2021 by Geoff 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Sim said: When I went to see The Exorcist as a teenager in 1973 when it was first released, I was still living in Queens, NYC. Throughout the film, hilarious comments were being shouted at the screen by the whole audience, so instead of the frightfest it was supposed to be, it ended up being one of the best comedy films I have ever seen...the whole audience laughing the whole time!! When I went to see The Exorcist at my local cinema, it was in the days when you got another film to go with it. We got a nude ballet (which I think starred at least one of the RB male dancers at the time.) You can imagine how it was received by a general audience going to see a horror movie. The general atmosphere of hilarity carried over to the main picture! Edited October 17, 2021 by Fonty 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 .... Oh yes, the short film, and being able to go in whenever you arrived and staying on through the whole thing when it restarted. I'd entirely forgotten about all of that - at the Odeon or the State in Shettleston, on the east of Glasgow, on Saturday afternoons. A brief glimpse there of Memory Lane! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 3 hours ago, Sim said: When I went to see The Exorcist as a teenager in 1973 when it was first released, I was still living in Queens, NYC. Throughout the film, hilarious comments were being shouted at the screen by the whole audience, so instead of the frightfest it was supposed to be, it ended up being one of the best comedy films I have ever seen...the whole audience laughing the whole time!! When I was in uni we had a Monday evening film club in one of the lecture theatres, which gave us the opportunity to see a current film outside of the cinema (back in those days it was several years before they appeared on telly, and of course no videos back then). Anyhoo, I can't recall the film (it wasn't that good, is all I recall) when it came to quite a raunchy sex scene. Rapt silence.... until a low voice down the front exclaimed "borrrrr-ring". The film didn't survive the rest of the evening 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 2 hours ago, Fonty said: When I went to see The Exorcist at my local cinema, it was in the days when you got another film to go with it. We got a nude ballet (which I think starred at least one of the RB male dancers at the time.) You can imagine how it was received by a general audience going to see a horror movie. The general atmosphere of hilarity carried over to the main picture! Tell us who! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, Darlex said: Tell us who! I cannot remember anything at all about it, least of all who was in it. I just have a vague memory of an interview in a newspaper with one of the dancers describing the experience. I might be completely wrong about the RB connection. I did a quick on line search for details with the words "nude" and "ballet" in the search. Up came a list of filmed productions of The Nutcracker.......😅 Edited October 18, 2021 by Fonty 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 😂 That is funny Fonty!! I needed a laugh this morning! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 Could the nude ballet have been Nederlands Dans Theatre. There was quite a thing for nude ballets in the 1970s, Glen Tetley did one which also had filmed sequences. I know I saw NDT at Sadler's Wells around then, but I can't find my programme at the moment. However, yes nude ballets generally did provoke mirth. The critic John Percival (I think it was him) wrote that nude ballets would never be successful until male dancers had full control of all parts of their anatomy. I could elaborate on what I saw happening, but possibly it is not appropriate for a public forum! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 I think that may have been Clement Crisp - in which case it will surely have made its way into the recently-published book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said: Could the nude ballet have been Nederlands Dans Theatre. There was quite a thing for nude ballets in the 1970s, Glen Tetley did one which also had filmed sequences. I know I saw NDT at Sadler's Wells around then, but I can't find my programme at the moment. However, yes nude ballets generally did provoke mirth. The critic John Percival (I think it was him) wrote that nude ballets would never be successful until male dancers had full control of all parts of their anatomy. I could elaborate on what I saw happening, but possibly it is not appropriate for a public forum! It was either him or Crisp who said that one of the many reasons they didn't like nude ballets was that when the music stopped, the jiggling didn't! 😁 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Newcombe Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 I lived in the Middle East for 20 years. One day in the local news/bookshop I was delighted to find a book on Ballet Companies of the world. In the chapter on Nederlands Dans Theatre was a photograph of a nude ballet. The naughty bits had been blue-pencilled out!. I was aware that it was the responsibility of bookshop itself to carry out this censorship. Imagine having to go through all the foreign newspapers each day to check that no pictures that might cause offence. Of course someone from high up had the job of checking all newspapers and books before sending the orders out to the individual bookshops! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 😂 Someone looking at the topic title and just reading the last few posts might be ever so slightly confused! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 (edited) Perhaps one of the moderators could split the thread? 1 hour ago, Sim said: It was either him or Crisp who said that one of the many reasons they didn't like nude ballets was that when the music stopped, the jiggling didn't! 😁 That is why I am not too keen on Bella Figura! Edited October 18, 2021 by Pas de Quatre Spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 I simply do not understand why anyone would want to create a ballet to be danced in the nude in the first place. Artistically it adds nothing IMO. It isn't brave, or ground breaking, it is simply irritating, and jiggling body parts just serve as a distraction. Gorgeous costumes enhance the whole experience. Also, there is a risk of attracting people who might come purely to snigger. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 3 minutes ago, Fonty said: I simply do not understand why anyone would want to create a ballet to be danced in the nude in the first place. Artistically it adds nothing IMO. Like me, @Fonty, you’re just an audience member and ballet lover who knows what she likes. Ballet choreography, as practised by some choreographers, is about telling the audience what they should like. Some of them are very good and get it right more often than not but others ……. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 However, do not underestimate the publicity it creates. In an interview many years ago Anthony Dowell said that the only way he would ever get as much puplicity as Nureyev would be if he stripped naked and ran through the London Underground! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borzoi Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 (edited) Well, this has been a fun journey! From R&J to the Exorcist to inappropriate giggles (guilty, but mostly in church!), to nude ballet. There was a troupe named Pilobilus (I probably did not spell that correctly) that was well known for their nude productions some years back. My then boyfriend and I went to see them. I cursed my weak eyesight, as he seemed to enjoy the performance much more than I did! 🤣 Edited October 18, 2021 by Borzoi Left out a word 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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