How once-mighty televised dance has fallen ...

[RosiesDream]

There have been some overlooked ballet offerings on the minority TV channel "London Live". They showed Fonteyn in the Firebird and Ondine, and had Ballet Orient on for the kids a while back.

Everything is disappearing behind a paywall these days

[Emeralds]

Speaking of elitism..... I have been to rugby three times - once for free (London Irish v Saracens, a Premiership match) because it was part of a community programme, twice at Twickenham (also premiership games, where we were lucky to watch Jonny Wilkinson just before he produced his historic World Cup performances and Jonah Lomu before his untimely passing). The tickets for the latter were affordable (can’t remember how much but no more than that for cinema tickets on a weekend). Nobody in my immediate family plays rugby, and you won’t catch me doing contact sports. 

 

I haven’t made it to a cricket match yet although we nearly did get World Cup tickets once (affordable,  eg £20) until we found that the match clashed with another commitment. I would watch Wimbledon in person, but am always reluctant to miss the live matches on tv in case our favourite players end up on a different court to what we’ve bought. And I don’t like watching matches on playback if I was at the venue as they seem “stale” or “old news”. 

 

We watch opera or singing recitals if they are near enough to get to; a full length opera with Jonas Kaufmann in autumn/spring would normally not be within my budget but summer performances (often lower priced than at other times of the year) with newer singers or even stars like Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside or Kaufmann can offer decent seats at affordable prices, and symphony concerts with incredible artists at Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall nowadays  can be cheaper than a bottle of vodka from a supermarket as orchestras and opera houses now try to make them really accessible for all income groups. (I haven’t compared all price ranges at venues like Symphony Hall and The Sage Gateshead etc but I doubt they’re more expensive.) 

 

We haven’t been to Glyndebourne for some years but it’s not because of the price or “elitism” but because I no longer wish to travel that far (carbon footprint).

 

At the above so-called “elitist” events, nobody has ever scrutinised me to see if I am “posh” enough- the only behaviour expected is courtesy, ie no talking, eating or having your mobile phone turned on during a show....no different to behaviour expected in any school classroom during lessons, ie a universal code of behaviour anyone should be familiar with. 

 

Conversely, I have not been able to find affordable tickets for pop music or rock music concerts by artists or groups of similar stature for years. And don’t get me started on premiership football match prices. 

 

Elitist? Sounds like the real elitism is now in pop music and football where prices are now ludicrously sky high, while classical music, ballet, opera, cricket and rugby are getting more affordable- ok, maybe the best seats are not budget prices, but the best seats at football, pop music and rock concerts are now higher than that of operas. 

 

We pick events to go to not because of what demographic or sociographic we’re from but because of excellence. Whether it’s Yasmine Naghdi, Nicola Benedetti, Jonny Wilkinson, Harlequins, Torvill and Dean, Alicia Keys or English National Ballet, the mastery and elegance of practitioners performing at the highest level is similar whether it’s sport, music or dance. 

 

I agree with members who have noted that ballet offerings on mainstream tv (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky Arts) have become more and more unsatisfactory in the last decade. Broadcasters spending ridiculous sums of money buying reality tv shows or “documentaries” of people executing loutish antics that you can see on Tiktok for free instead of quality arts broadcasts- that’s the state of British tv nowadays. 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Emeralds

[LinMM]

Suffolkgal can you say where Sir Fred’s grave is as we will be in Suffolk in early August!! 
 

[Fonty]

The remarks about Angela Rayner going to Glyndebourne were disgraceful.  But politicians never miss an opportunity to sneer at "champagne socialism", where opera and ballet can only appeal to nobs and toffs.  So the thinking is that Rayner is a hypocrite.  Quite what she should have been going to baffles me.  A brass band concert?  Or maybe a pub back room, with someone hammering on the piano, and her sitting with a pint in front of her.  Would that display so called "working class" credentials?  

Do the voting public really fall for this sort of thing?  I remember many years ago I was told that Tony Blair was a keen tennis fan, but he kept it very quiet, as this might be perceived as being too posh.  Instead, he had to be filmed attending a football match, because that would appeal much more to the Labour voter.  Funnily enough, that working class lad David Beckham has been seen many times at Wimbledon, and is clearly a fan.  

 

[DVDfan]

My father served in WWII, with the medical corps as a technician. His 'pal' was from a working class northern family. When he visited said family after the war, he found that they lived, as expected, in a brick terrace not far from the mill. The unexpected was that the tiny front room was fully occupied by a grand piano, with which the family made their own entertainment, and made it well. Their choice of music - Chopin, Beethoven and Bach.

If Labour politicians pretend not to like anything classical, then they are joining in with the cultural attitudes that keep kids from working class backgrounds away from ballet, classical music, arts in general...ought they not to be shouting from the rooftops that such things are for everyone?