GISELLE United Ukrainian Ballet 13-17 September, Coliseum

[FionaM]

A new Giselle by Alexei Ratmansky for  the United Ukrainian Ballet 

(60 exiled Ukrainian dancers)

 

London Coliseum

13-17 September 2022

 

Casting info from London Coliseum so far is:

Alina Cojocaru 14 & 16

Katja Khaniukova 13 & 15

(No info on Giselle for 17, and none on Albrecht ..  fairly key in my opinion!) 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfduE_nt9Mk/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc=

 

Booking is open for ENO supporters now, public from 11 July.  

 

All profits from ticket sales to DEC Ukraine appeal and United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation.  

Edited July 1, 2022 by FionaE

[LinMM]

Ooh definitely interested in this! 

[FionaM]

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/united-ukrainian-ballet-giselle-coliseum-ukraine_56829.html

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, FionaE said:

Booking is open for ENO supporters now, public from 11 July. 

 

Can anyone else find this event listed on the website? I've tried both ENO's & the Coliseum's & can't find it listed on either. Not that I have priority booking acces but I'm hoping there will be some publically available info on ticket prices so I can plan before public booking opens.

[Candleque]

I found this page on the Coliseum site

[Dawnstar]

Thank you. Ah, prices "up to £200". Looks like I won't be able to afford to sit anywhere near the stage then!

[San Perregrino]

2 hours ago, FionaE said:

A new Giselle by Alexei Ratmansky for  the United Ukrainian Ballet 

(60 exiled Ukrainian dancers)

 

London Coliseum

13-17 September 2022

 

Casting info from London Coliseum so far is:

Alina Cojocaru 14 & 16

Katja Khaniukova 13 & 15

(No info on Giselle for 17, and none on Albrecht ..  fairly key in my opinion!) 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfduE_nt9Mk/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc=

 

Booking is open for ENO supporters now, public from 11 July.  

 

All profits from ticket sales to DEC Ukraine appeal and United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation.  

there are two matinees advertised too (Thursday & Saturday) so three shows as yet uncast. 

[capybara]

Thanks for spotting this FionaE.

The headlining Giselles are both amazing in the role and the dates fill a ballet gap.

[Lizbie1]

Seems they're holding the Balcony back for now at least - unusual at the Coli I think?

[Beryl H]

I hope the booking system will be better than it was for the the Ukraine Gala!

[FionaM]

FYI

 

I’ve managed to book today.  I’m not an ENO member, but I have booked online with Coliseum before so I have a login.  And that worked.  

[FionaM]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

Thanks for spotting this FionaE.

The headlining Giselles are both amazing in the role and the dates fill a ballet gap.

My pleasure  … benefit of my following one of the producers.  Although, the official press release followed shortly thereafter.  

[Geoff]

54 minutes ago, FionaE said:

I’ve managed to book today.  I’m not an ENO member, but I have booked online with Coliseum before so I have a login.  And that worked.  

 

 

What a wonderful thing the Forum is. I think I must count as a "supporter" (having been to the Coliseum a lot, though not a member): when I logged in I was able to buy seats at £10. Thank you everyone!

[capybara]

Well, I've booked (with difficulty although I have a sign in). Interestingly, the prices  towards the front of the Upper Circle are pretty much the same as at the side of the Stalls.

 

Only the Centre Block of the Stalls is priced at £200 with other seats at £110 and £85. I didn't check the Circle.

 

 

[Blossom]

Thanks for the link! All booked - very excited!

[Lizbie1]

Booked too - and I can catch the Trocks at the Peacock while I'm up.

[Emeralds]

6 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Thank you. Ah, prices "up to £200". Looks like I won't be able to afford to sit anywhere near the stage then!

Dawnstar, if you book  a seat in Upper Circle Box 17 or 14, you are extremely close to the stage. I got one for Nutcracker when the other areas sold out very quickly and it was so close that I felt as though I was hovering over Maria Kochetkova and Jeffrey Cirio’s shoulders, and we could see everyone’s faces clearly enough to identify them! Unlike ROH but rather like Albert Hall, you don’t have to buy every seat in the box, if you don’t mind sitting with strangers in one. These ones are £50 plus a £2.25 booking fee.

[Emeralds]

5 hours ago, PeterS said:

there are two matinees advertised too (Thursday & Saturday) so three shows as yet uncast. 

I was wondering if the Giselles on Thursday mat and both Sat shows will be cast from the exiled Ukrainian dancers. It would be great if two or three of them could be cast as Giselle, although I love the fact that Alina and Katja can join the cast. But of course, casting always subject to changes due to injury/illness/other causes. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

8 hours ago, FionaE said:

A new Giselle by Alexei Ratmansky for  the United Ukrainian Ballet 

(60 exiled Ukrainian dancers)

 

London Coliseum

13-17 September 2022

 

Casting info from London Coliseum so far is:

Alina Cojocaru 14 & 16

Katja Khaniukova 13 & 15

(No info on Giselle for 17, and none on Albrecht ..  fairly key in my opinion!) 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfduE_nt9Mk/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc=

 

Booking is open for ENO supporters now, public from 11 July.  

 

All profits from ticket sales to DEC Ukraine appeal and United Ukrainian Ballet Foundation.  

Thank you FionaE! You made my day; this is very exciting news. I’m glad that Alexei Ratmansky has a new choreography project, as this looks like it will not be his historical reconstruction, but a special version for these dancers. I think a United company for exiled dancers is a fantastic idea. Well done to BRB, Carlos Acosta and Hayden Griffiths for loaning this troupe the sets and costumes. 

 

I thought I was public but they have allowed me to book seats! I have booked mine, and pending confirmation from my friends regarding schedules, we will book an additional cast. (Or maybe it’s just a excuse for a second viewing of the production.) I love that ENO Orchestra are playing for them, and very glad to see that some of the  ticket income will go to the DEC Ukraine Appeal.

[FionaM]

More about the company of exiled Ukrainian dancers based in donated buildings in The Hague, with artistic direction by recently retired Dutch National principal Igone de Jongh 

 

http://unitedukrainianballet.com/#company

 

I’m very impressed by the efforts of Dutch and German companies to support Ukrainian dancers with places to work and providing dance performance opportunities. 

[Emeralds]

9 minutes ago, FionaE said:

More about the company of exiled Ukrainian dancers based in donated buildings in The Hague, with artistic direction by recently retired Dutch National principal Igone de Jongh 

 

http://unitedukrainianballet.com/#company

 

I’m very impressed by the efforts of Dutch and German companies to support Ukrainian dancers with places to work and providing dance performance opportunities. 

Loved Igone’s dancing when she was principal dancer at Dutch National Ballet and wonderful to see her heading this new venture which is clearly a double challenge in terms of being both an artistic director as well as a director responsible for the welfare of 60 exiled dancers  dealing with the uncertainties and trauma of war. 

 

Their next programme of Kylian, Ratmansky and a premiere from Stockholm based Ukrainian  choreographer Ksenia Zvereva sounds good too. 

[Bruce Wall]

6 hours ago, Beryl H said:

I hope the booking system will be better than it was for the the Ukraine Gala!

 

I had real trouble booking with my card for the earlier (wonderful) Ukrainian Gala - but had no problem at all booking four dates for the Ratmansky Giselle.  What a treat - and such fine guest artists.  

[Peanut68]

4 hours ago, Geoff said:

 

 

What a wonderful thing the Forum is. I think I must count as a "supporter" (having been to the Coliseum a lot, though not a member): when I logged in I was able to buy seats at £10. Thank you everyone!

Couldn’t agree more as forum has given me early heads up to do much….I also just booked 2 £10 seats & from what I recall pretty much every seat is a good view at Coliseum! I’ve recently worked out it’s best to just buy tickets as soon as I hear of things on here I’d love to go to then worry about the dates/logistics etc nearer the time!! 

[Dawnstar]

I've just tried to book & have found I was still getting the same problem that I did when I tried to book for the Ukranian Gala: I can't sign in, as it says my password is wrong, but then when I try to do the forogetten password link it won't allow that either! I've ended up having to create another account, using a spare email address. Even then I had to do a password re-set before I could check out. Argh.

 

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Dawnstar, if you book  a seat in Upper Circle Box 17 or 14, you are extremely close to the stage. I got one for Nutcracker when the other areas sold out very quickly and it was so close that I felt as though I was hovering over Maria Kochetkova and Jeffrey Cirio’s shoulders, and we could see everyone’s faces clearly enough to identify them! Unlike ROH but rather like Albert Hall, you don’t have to buy every seat in the box, if you don’t mind sitting with strangers in one. These ones are £50 plus a £2.25 booking fee.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but I wouldn't fancy sharing a box with strangers, especially if I ended up as the only single person with a group who were all together. I'd also worry there would be arguments about who got which seat. I decided to go for the edge of the stalls, as £85 is a lot more managable than £200.

[LinMM]

I agree Dawnstar …..that happened to me once …the one ..and only time I sat in a box. I knew there would be other people in the box and didn’t mind this initially but the other three in the box were celebrating somebody’s birthday and definitely saw me as an intruder even making it difficult to see!! I wasn’t unfriendly or anything so don’t know why they were so anti as they also must have known someone else might have been in the box! 
I really didn’t enjoy the ballet that evening.  
I know I would have had a different attitude myself and would have been more inclusive but I really felt their resentment at me being there so thought never share a box again!! 

[Jan McNulty]

It happened to me too at a performance at Leeds Grand many years ago.  IIRC the seats in the box were allocated and the 3 friends that were also in the box with me were most peeved that I had one of the front row seats.

 

However, once at the Opera Garnier a friend and I turned up to the box we had been allocated to discover another friend and her friend!  It was all very amicable and very nice.

[Dawnstar]

3 hours ago, LinMM said:

I agree Dawnstar …..that happened to me once …the one ..and only time I sat in a box. I knew there would be other people in the box and didn’t mind this initially but the other three in the box were celebrating somebody’s birthday and definitely saw me as an intruder even making it difficult to see!! I wasn’t unfriendly or anything so don’t know why they were so anti as they also must have known someone else might have been in the box! 
I really didn’t enjoy the ballet that evening.  
I know I would have had a different attitude myself and would have been more inclusive but I really felt their resentment at me being there so thought never share a box again!! 

 

That's exactly the sort of scenario I'd be afraid of. I am pretty useless in awkward social situations, being autistic, & would probably end up leaving altogether because I wouldn't feel able to cope. Even thinking about it is making me feel anxious!

[Jeannette]

Fascinating! I agree with earlier posts above that this is most likely NOT AR’s late-2019 reconstruction for the Bolshoi but, rather, something entirely new. Perhaps a total reimagining…set in a village in Ukraine’s Donbas region, with Graf Albert a Russian, falling for Ukrainian farm girl? Instead of dying, Giselle goes away to join an all-female resistance army? Naw…forgive my imagination running wild on a lazy Saturday morning. ☕️ 
 

(I read that the sets/costumes are being borrowed from BRB so AR can’t change the story too much.)

[JNC]

Maybe a boring opinion but I hope this is a classical production of Giselle. Would love to see Cojocaru in that as opposed to something “contemporary”. I enjoyed Khan’s Giselle but now Alina has left ENB the chances to see her in the U.K. get rarer.

the fact that costumes (presumably for a classical version) have been loaned from BRB gives me some hope! 
 

good to see profits going to the DEC appeal. 

[FionaM]

This company are also performing Giselle in the Netherlands, 13-28 August.  

https://www.ntk.nl/voorstelling/the-united-ukrainian-ballet-giselle

 

No specific info on which cast for which date/venue, though the cast team are listed as:  

 

Alina Cojocaru, Katja Khaniukova

Alexis Tutunnique, Stanislav Olshanskyi,

Iryna Zhalovska en Yuliia Moskalenko

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky
Artistic director: Igone de Jongh

I think you can be confident this is a traditional version based on the poster on the company IG

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfdsimUo5jQ/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc=

 

Edited July 3, 2022 by FionaE

[JNC]

Is it just me or have they closed off the entire amphitheatre section (I know this is called something different in the Coliseum and can’t remember what it is!)

 

Means hardly any £10 tickets (less than one row?), barely any £30 tickets (remainder of the back row), one row of £40 tickets, so essentially the vast majority of tickets are £50 and up. 

 

I understand profits are for a good cause but seems a bit cheeky to have so few tickets at £40 and under for each performance? In some ways it’s not awful as tickets in the balcony are £40 for my fair lady and having sat in the balcony before it is further away but I’m not a fan of this trend. So the £50 tickets seem “reasonable” in some ways but it’s still quite a lot of money, my ideal threshold for ballet as someone who really loves it and wants to go regularly is about £30-40. I imagine the cheaper tickets may be the ones to sell quickly so any marketing they do for this closer to the time that would attract newcomers means a lot of those will be priced out before they even knew about this! 
 

I know previously they have struggled to sell out - I remember going to see the Zakharova programme at the Coli a few years back and had the cheapest tickets in the top section. but they closed the entire section and reseated everyone further down so maybe they’re trying to plan for that but it feels a bit preemptive (the Ukraine gala sold incredibly well) and also quite unfair on those who do rely on cheaper tickets. I’m not really on board with the pricing structures seen across theatres (including ROH) of having a few price bands but not splitting evenly and with the vast majority of tickets in the higher section of the pricing. 
 

I really don’t want to moan as this looks like an excellent programme, with money going to a good cause so if anyone is going to do this higher pricing structure I’d forgive it on this one. But why not price as it currently stands AND have the entire top section priced around £30 say so there is more choice for those on a budget…? With the ROH amphi theatre prices I genuinely feel like I’m beginning to be priced out - maybe ROH don’t care that I can only afford to go 2-3 times in future rather than me preferring to go on a nearly monthly basis as I guess it’s irrelevant who they sell the ticket to, but I think I’m nearing the point of cancelling my friends membership so I can put it towards 2-3 more tickets a year! 
 

I also note the coliseum is doing dynamic pricing for my fair lady and I hope this isn’t a thing we have to contend with regularly in future…

 

 

(sorry to sidetrack the thread, I am genuinely looking forward to this programme and I do understand the cost of mounting a production is not cheap!) 

[zxDaveM]

Perhaps the Balcony (the top layer) tickets will be available when they officially open the booking? We have rather sneaked on there via the link posted above. Otherwise, I was thinking the same

[capybara]

I feel that the promoters have overcooked the prices. No matter how much one wants to support Ukraine, there are limits to how much can be afforded.

The Icons Galas have similarly eye-watering prices but they have an established (Russian!) audience for a one-off show.

I have taken a deep breath and booked for two Giselles (Alina and Katja) but seeing one of the other ballerinas (which I would like to have done as well) is an expenditure too far.............