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World Ballet Day 2023

Benjamin
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LinMM

LinMM

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Yes unfortunately it is more unusual to get any classical music for ballet classes these days whatever level you are dancing at!! 
So if you find a good teacher who actually favours the classics that’s a bonus. Luckily I have two at the moment!! Not every single piece is classical but enough to make it very enjoyable. 
It can be a very nice surprise to be doing a tendu exercise to Mozart or ronde de jambe exercise to Chopin. 
Was there a single classical piece in the RB Company class yesterday? 
I like all kinds of music but it does seem to be getting rarer to hear classical music or even music from a ballet for many classes. 
 

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Ondine

Ondine

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26 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Was there a single classical piece in the RB Company class yesterday? 
I like all kinds of music but it does seem to be getting rarer to hear classical music or even music from a ballet for many classes. 

 

 

Cecchetti was fond of classical music for his exercises... including Beethoven!

 

https://cicb.org/discovered-torino-manuscript/

 

 

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FionaM

FionaM

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On 01/11/2023 at 19:13, capybara said:


Not wishing to diminish Harrison’s dancing in any way (I agree he looked great); but, surely, he would have been a cover and, therefore, learning/marking the role for some time.

Either way, I’m glad he has his opportunity.


not necessarily… Nakao and Ikarashi covered for each other in the previous run. 

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Sharon

Sharon

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Have to say I'm really surprised at how much I enjoyed Darcey Bussell's S.B master class with BRB.  I have a feeling these dancers really gained a lot of  valuable advice and guidance from her. Probably one of the best items on WBD this year. 👏🏽 👏🏽👏🏽

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Missfrankiecat

Missfrankiecat

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Still working through some of the output on Youtube and streaming services.  I love watching class and my favourite so far was the Hong Kong ballet.  I tuned in to see if Marianela would take class with them as she is visiting (she did!) but was hooked by the precision of their barre work and their formidable teacher barking orders and demonstrating beautifully.

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Ondine

Ondine

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Posted (edited)

The thread began with Australian Ballet and I mentioned Dame Peggy Van Praagh

 

 

I thought I'd add this here, an extract from a three part doc on the history of the company. What a woman she was. What a company! 

 

 

When I was young (yes long time ago!) there was a  series of books called 'How I became' and I still have her 'How I became a ballet dancer', 1954 long before she founded the company! Written for young people but worth reading for those interested in ballet history.

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/became-Ballet-Dancer-PRAAGH-Peggy-1910-1990/11477213022/bd

 

 

Edited by Ondine
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Odyssey

Odyssey

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15 hours ago, Sharon said:

Have to say I'm really surprised at how much I enjoyed Darcey Bussell's S.B master class with BRB.  I have a feeling these dancers really gained a lot of  valuable advice and guidance from her. Probably one of the best items on WBD this year. 👏🏽 👏🏽👏🏽

I would echo this. As well as her excellent expertise in coaching these roles and her lovely manner towards the dancers, I was very impressed by how fluent and comfortable she was in explaining the sections to a live audience. I have found her presentation during the live streamings a little stilted , so this was a revelation. 
I also found the longer time given over to this rehearsal was preferable to the short ‘bites’ that RB, in particular, favoured in their streaming. It was indeed one of the best items of the day.

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Sophoife

Sophoife

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17 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

I was very impressed by how fluent and comfortable she was in explaining the sections to a live audience. I have found her presentation during the live streamings a little stilted , so this was a revelation. 

 

Dame Darcey is dyslexic, and for the live streams she is required to read from cue cards. Speaking off the cuff as it were would probably be much easier for her.

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Emeralds

Emeralds

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Posted (edited)
22 hours ago, LinMM said:

Yes unfortunately it is more unusual to get any classical music for ballet classes these days whatever level you are dancing at!! 
So if you find a good teacher who actually favours the classics that’s a bonus. Luckily I have two at the moment!! Not every single piece is classical but enough to make it very enjoyable. 
It can be a very nice surprise to be doing a tendu exercise to Mozart or ronde de jambe exercise to Chopin. 
Was there a single classical piece in the RB Company class yesterday? 
I like all kinds of music but it does seem to be getting rarer to hear classical music or even music from a ballet for many classes. 
 

There used to be a tradition long ago whereby the teachers liked to have rearrangements of ballet music for class, then they liked using Chopin (Christopher d’Amboise when a soloist at NYCB commented “there’s poor Chopin being murdered in ballet class again!”) or “lush, dreamy” pieces/excerpts.

 

Then one day Natalia Makarova picked Lynn Stanford (he was a popular freelance ballet class accompanist in New York City) for a tv show plus video she presented where she did the exercises and he used a lot of ragtime and jazz, and gradually everyone wanted to jazz and ragtime music in ballet class like Stanford’s ! I think some companies also like that non-classical is being used in class for the variety so that the dancers get to hear something different besides the classical music they often use in their ballets.

 

I spotted a lot of clever and skilful improvising to Careless Whisper, Sing Sing Sing, and various pop songs, but didn’t hear anything classical in the RB class although I didn’t actually watch the entire class (maybe a few were added in when I wasn’t watching.)  It is very nice and reassuring to hear “traditional” class music again at Paris Opera Ballet though! 

Edited by Emeralds
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Ondine

Ondine

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On 02/11/2023 at 01:29, Sophoife said:

The last time we had any Ashton was 2015 and we haven't had a full length (Fille) since 2004. Christopher Carr staged The Dream here eight years ago, and he's done it again. We are so so lucky to have him here!

 

Just spotted on YouTube!

 

Unpacking Frederick Ashton's The Dream | The Australian Ballet

 

Guest stager Christopher Carr unpacks Frederick Ashton's whimsical ballet. Discover more: https://bit.ly/2023doublebill Frederick Ashton's The Dream comes to Sydney Opera House 10 - 25 November 2023. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ondine

Ondine

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21 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

Ashton is such a distinct style and it's pretty much a dance generation since they did any.

 

 

I keep banging this drum, but...  Cecchetti.   I think I posted this above but here it is again. Lose this and you lose so much of the essence of Ashton.

 

See second and third pieces 🙂

 

https://cicb.org/peggy-van-praagh/

 

 

 

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Ondine

Ondine

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3 hours ago, Sophoife said:

Anyone with AusBallet who has Cecchetti training got it privately.

 

Perhaps not specifically but:

 

In 1962 Peggy van Praagh returned to Australia as founding Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet. The company’s charter was to stage the classics from the nineteenth century, the most distinguished ballets of the twentieth century from all countries in both classical and contemporary styles, and new works of Australian origin. She guided the company’s growth from its beginnings to that of International status. In fact, on the company’s first international tour Dame Peggy van Praagh’s production of Giselle won the Grand Prix de Paris in 1965. Despite being a fledging company, new Australian works from the onset were included by – Betty Pounder, Robert Helpmann, and Rex Reid.

She insisted on a greater academic exactitude of technique, than had been previously experienced by the dancers she accepted in the Company.[ii] To quote principal dancer Garth Welch “Dame Peggy let no detail in class pass by…”[iii], whilst founding dancer and later Ballet Mistress, Rhyl Kennell stated:

Other things that I now know were part of her Cecchetti background were the insistence on the lower leg work, so necessary for those small fast allegros such an important part of our Cecchetti inheritance. This was all very important for the Ashton ballets especially.[iv]

Included in the company’s first programme November 1962, was the Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti production of Coppélia with revisions by van Praagh and Ashton’s Les Rendezvous.[v] Dame Peggy van Praagh’s association with The Australian Ballet spanned thirteen years as Artistic Director including a period of co-direction with Sir Robert Helpmann [vi]

 

Helpmann of course initially danced with Pavlova, pupil of Cecchetti.

 

(Tudor trained with Rambert.)

 

 

 

 

 

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Sophoife

Sophoife

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@Ondine I would very much appreciate the source of that quote, please. I do need to change my comment to "anyone currently with AusBallet who has Cecchetti training got it privately". 

 

Dear Mr Welch whose dancing I remember with much pleasure. His teacher was RAD. He left AusBallet in 1973.

 

Dame Peggy left in 1974, returning in 1978 for one season.

 

The imminent season of The Dream and Marguerite and Armand is just the third time this century AusBallet has performed any Ashton.

 

Australian Ballet School website says "The Australian Ballet School’s curriculum is unique to the School" and I am told by both current and former dancers that it is far more Vaganova than Cecchetti. Yes, the first director of the School was Dame Margaret Scott and Cecchetti was in her DNA. She was replaced by Gailene Stock more than 30 years ago, after 28 years. The curriculum has certainly altered since then.

 

 

Edited by Sophoife
Amended my comment from earlier
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Ondine

Ondine

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The source is here in the post above.

 

 

 

The point I was making is that to dance Ashton a Cecchetti training is useful, as Ashton's choreography and style is very much based on that. When Christopher Carr is talking of whole body movement, and how many dancers don't get it and so find Ashton difficult,  same with all the fleet footwork, it's because it's now not familiar to them.

 

Which is actually in my view a pity.

 

As the years go on, how Ashton would have wanted his ballets to be performed will be diluted and diluted.

 

We've talked of this on other threads.

 

BTW in the comment on that vid link above it says the Australian Ballet segment for WBD will be online 30 days so I suspect it is the same for the rest. Catch it all while you can.

 

 

Edited by Ondine
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Jane S

Jane S

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4 hours ago, Estreiiita said:

Probably somebody have already seen this, but still - a youtube video about the World Ballet Day 2023 in Royal Danish ballet, including a rehearsal of "Dante":

 

 

Yes - and I was really pleased to see the two dancers in the last section: Stephanie Chen Gundorph is a near-contemporary of Ida Praetorius but she had to wait a lot longer to reach the top: I think she's lovely. And Ditte Baltzer was still just an apprentice when I last saw the company but was already known as one to look out for.

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Sophoife

Sophoife

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6 hours ago, Ondine said:

The source is here in the post above.

 

Thanks for the reminder - I went and read those reminiscences more fully.

 

 

6 hours ago, Ondine said:

The point I was making is that to dance Ashton a Cecchetti training is useful, as Ashton's choreography and style is very much based on that. When Christopher Carr is talking of whole body movement, and how many dancers don't get it and so find Ashton difficult,  same with all the fleet footwork, it's because it's now not familiar to them.

 

Which is actually in my view a pity.


I couldn't agree more. Which is why it's a shame ABS syllabus doesn't draw more from Cecchetti.

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Dawnstar

Dawnstar

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I've started catching up on the ROH's stream. Despite my best efforts to improve my recognition of the dancers in the lower ranks, there were still several in the class who I couldn't identify (mostly girls). If only they'd all followed Sissens's example & worn jackets with their surnames on the back!

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JMFCballet

JMFCballet

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On 02/11/2023 at 17:24, Ondine said:

 

And here she is as a tiddler.  Aaaaah!

 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/singer-duncan-james-little-star-4706059

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think someone commented on the feed that the girls had different facial expressions - one portrayed it as sad piece and the other happy - how should it have been presented?

 

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Emeralds

Emeralds

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Posted (edited)

Just found this great clip today! It’s a refreshing change from umpteen company classes in studios (lovely as they are) that have been posted without any filming of the company repertoire to distinguish one company from another.

 

The ballet company of the National Opera of Ukraine don't just do a full ballet class (on stage) but also offer  working rehearsals of 3 brilliant ballets: Neumeier's Spring and Fall (previously danced by ENB and at the Royal Ballet School Performance), van Manen's Five Tangos and a rarely seen Ukrainian gem, Forest Song.

 

There are also online interviews with John Neumeier, Alexei Ratmansky, Rachel Beaujean, Alexandre Riabko, Vladimir Malakhov, Nina Ananiashvilli, etc. Not sure how long it can stay on YouTube. Great clips of their stunning opera house in Kyiv too.

 

Edited by Emeralds
Because tech is such a nightmare just to copy and paste
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