RB Nutcracker Dec/Jan 23/24

[Minniethemoocher]

15 hours ago, FionaM said:

me too.   Booked a last minute late return for this 😉

I also booked a last minute return for this 😜

[Richard LH]

44 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Is the stage very dirty?  I only ask because all the pointe shoes look rather grey in places.

 

 Isn't it just something to do with the light, and reflections,  at the front of the curtain? Becuase Meaghan's shoes, for example, look the usual colour when she is holding her flowers with the rest of the cast, just a minute or two earlier. Earlier photos in the run show a similar effect. @Rob S would know, I expect!

[Sim]

Just now, Richard LH said:

 Isn't it just something to do with the light, and reflections,  at the front of the curtain? Becuase Meaghan's shoes, for example, look the usual colour when she is holding her flowers with the rest of the cast, just a minute or two earlier. Earlier photos in the run show a similar effect. @Rob S would know, I expect!

Yes, I was going to suggest that it's the lighting....

[Rob S]

I wouldn't try to look too hard in to the colours of things, out of the camera all the curtain call pictures come out orange 😄

[zxDaveM]

I think it's a colour cast from the spotlights, which are a blueish white (for the red runs). The general lighting for the stage curtain calls is more 'rosy' (and Rose's spot is definitely very pink). Our eyes/brains just naturally adjust; the camera tells it like it is though!

[zxDaveM]

I really enjoyed Sarah Lamb's SPF last night - exquisite is a neat summation. I have an observation/question though for her solo variation. When doing the Gargouillades (googlies!), instead of three runs of three in each, she sorta stepped out of the last googly, and did an elegant hop/step and crossed her lower legs. At first I thought it was a 'oops!' moment, but she did it on all three runs. It was an elegant, beautiful step, so much prettier than the googlies, putting a rather lovely full stop to the diagonal. Did anyone else notice it? Has any other SPF done this (ie it it a Peter Wright change)? Or have I just been blind to it all these years!

[Sim]

10 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

the camera tells it like it is though!

Which is why I hate being photographed!!   😁

[Fonty]

12 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

I really enjoyed Sarah Lamb's SPF last night - exquisite is a neat summation. I have an observation/question though for her solo variation. When doing the Gargouillades (googlies!), instead of runs of 3 in each, she sorta stepped out of the last googly, and did an elegant hop/step and crossed her lower legs. At first I thought it was a 'oops!' moment, but she did it on all three runs. It was an elegant, beautiful step, so much prettier than the googlies! Did anyone else notice it? Has any other SPF done this (ie it it a Peter Wright change)? Or have I just been blind to it all these years!

 

Interesting.  I've always thought that step looks rather clumsy, and wonder why anyone would do it in the first place.  

[Silke H]

41 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

I think it's a colour cast from the spotlights, which are a blueish white (for the red runs). The general lighting for the stage curtain calls is more 'rosy' (and Rose's spot is definitely very pink). Our eyes/brains just naturally adjust; the camera tells it like it is though!

 

58 minutes ago, Rob S said:

I wouldn't try to look too hard in to the colours of things, out of the camera all the curtain call pictures come out orange 😄

 

I agree, I always have to adjust the general colour of my curtain call photos, from an orangey-pink to a more palatable hue

 

[San Perregrino]

1 hour ago, zxDaveM said:

exquisite is a neat summation

Last night Sarah & Ryo were what one used to describe as ‘a class act’. Cool, calm & refined.
Meaghan GH & Giacomo Rovero were a delightfully engaging Clara/Hans-Peter couple.

Mariko Sasaki & Francisco Serrano were seductive in the Arabian. 

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

Interesting.  I've always thought that step looks rather clumsy, and wonder why anyone would do it in the first place.  

 

'googlies' make it look distinctly refined though...

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, Rob S said:

I wouldn't try to look too hard in to the colours of things, out of the camera all the curtain call pictures come out orange 😄

 

1 hour ago, Silke H said:

I agree, I always have to adjust the general colour of my curtain call photos, from an orangey-pink to a more palatable hue

 

I'm glad to hear it's not just me who is getting oddly coloured photos. Recently, for Don Q & now for The Nutcracker last night, I've been having some photos coming out a fairly normal colour then suddenly some come out looking much more orange. If the orangeness is due to the stage lighting then do any photography experts have any idea how the colour of my photos can suddenly change when the stage lighting hasn't changed? For instance the two photos below from last night of Sarah Lamb with her bouquets were taken only a few seconds apart, with a zoom in between photos, yet the colour looks normal in the first and too orange in the second.

 

 

 

Or, in case the above pair of photos can be explained by the zoom in upsetting something, does anyone have any idea how the two photos below, taken within the same second & otherwise virtually identical, can look a such a  different colour?

 

 

 

(Apologies if this is going too off topic. If it is please let me know & I'll delete the post.)

[Rob S]

7 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

 

I'm glad to hear it's not just me who is getting oddly coloured photos. Recently, for Don Q & now for The Nutcracker last night, I've been having some photos coming out a fairly normal colour then suddenly some come out looking much more orange. If the orangeness is due to the stage lighting then do any photography experts have any idea how the colour of my photos can suddenly change when the stage lighting hasn't changed? For instance the two photos below from last night of Sarah Lamb with her bouquets were taken only a few seconds apart, with a zoom in between photos, yet the colour looks normal in the first and too orange in the second.

 

 

Basically, I don't know. I use spot metering and the colour can change depending on exactly where I'm pointing but not during one burst of shots. Don Q and Nutcracker are particularly bad for strong orange colour casts. 

[art_enthusiast]

6 hours ago, Blossom said:

This will be one of the episodes of the 3 part 'Agony and Ecstasy' - I'm sure that I've seen this on YouTube.

I think only the Swan Lake ones are on YouTube in full, unfortunately 

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

I really enjoyed Sarah Lamb's SPF last night - exquisite is a neat summation. I have an observation/question though for her solo variation. When doing the Gargouillades (googlies!), instead of three runs of three in each, she sorta stepped out of the last googly, and did an elegant hop/step and crossed her lower legs. At first I thought it was a 'oops!' moment, but she did it on all three runs. It was an elegant, beautiful step, so much prettier than the googlies, putting a rather lovely full stop to the diagonal. Did anyone else notice it? Has any other SPF done this (ie it it a Peter Wright change)? Or have I just been blind to it all these years!

Every so often, there is a gargouillade discussion for The Nutcracker (just like there's- more frequently - a Fouettes/32 fouettes discussion for Swan Lake 😀). Good to see @zxDaveM starting this season's one. I'm not totally certain I understand zxDaveM correctly, so am going to ask if it looks the same as what Sarah did many seasons back on the live cinema relay (on the YouTube account called Notas de Ballet): she does a tap tap of the right foot and the left foot sort of flicks out elegantly, in a series of three each time. She did this tap flick in 2021 when I saw her too.

 

Many ballerinas (Marianela Nunez, Lauren Cuthbertson, also on YouTube) seem to do only half- the right foot does the tap tap but the left foot doesn't do any tap or flick: it's almost like half gargouillade and half pas de chat. It could be that the conductor is taking the tempo slightly too fast and the ballerina doesn't want to be too "late" for the music. Fumi Kaneko's (very difficult recording to find although I've watched her live- it's a Tiktok recording where you have to zoom in or use a magnifying glass to see the gargouillades) are very interesting- the left foot does a mixture of tap and flick: not a full tap tap and not a flick like Lamb's! In real life on stage, it's can be hard to remember ll if the ballerina has done a half, full, or otherwise because the solo goes by so fast. 

 

Rather disappointingly, someone put a recording of Yasmine Naghdi's solo (beautifully danced) but cut the ending out just before the gargouillades began!!

 

The Balanchine Nutcracker gives the gargouillades to Marzipan (soloist of Mirlitons) instead, and that solo is a killer- harder than any classical solos in the Petipa/Ivanov repertoire - because the gargouillades come at the end after she's already finished an exhausting section. Tiler Peck (the Queen of stamina and speed) does halves in these, as does Emma von Enck in another NYCB recording but maybe the fast tempo doesn't allow them to do "full" ones with the "tapping" movement in both feet.

 

There's also a fast series of gargouillades in Balanchine's Theme and Variations for the ballerina, which is interesting to compare because it's also in RB & BRB's repertoires along with Peter Wright's Nutcrackers (although RB & BRB haven't performed it in a while, but ENB & NYCB have).

 

Miyako Yoshida, who was & is my queen of all SPFs in Peter Wright's productions (because she danced both versions so often and was first cast in BRB's), has two very interesting versions on record (TV then YouTube, the RB one is on DVD too). In the BRB production a long long time ago with Mukhamedov, she does the half version, in the RB production with Steven McRae more recently, she did full gargouillades, tapping both sides.

 

Julia Conway had the most impressive sets of gargouillades this season that I've ever seen since Yoshida in both T&V (not recorded sadly) and  Nutcracker. Conway taps both sides, very crisply, and fast as well. Iana Salenko has also done crisp full ones twice as a guest with RB pre Covid. I actually haven't seen Conway as Clara yet so when I do (next season maybe) it will be interesting to see how her gargouillades in the SPF solo turn out (pun not intended), although the ENB production doesn't do 3 in a row, but a set of 3 in combination with different steps following the gargouillade. 

 

I do like the tap-flick that Sarah Lamb does (there's another ballerina abroad who does it too, whose identity escapes me for the moment) but it's even more impressive if the ballerina can do taps on both sides without getting late for the music. 

 

Obviously I haven't seen every dancer in every single show, so I'm sure there are many excellent ones I don't know about. 

 

PS love Sarah Lamb's fast, neat and crisply timed fouettes (with a double!) in the Nutcracker coda with Steven McRae in the Youtube/cinema relay recording!

 

Would be interested to read opinions from any dance teachers/dancers who have watched a number of recent performances and what they think of the gargouillades in them.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

49 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

 

I'm glad to hear it's not just me who is getting oddly coloured photos. Recently, for Don Q & now for The Nutcracker last night, I've been having some photos coming out a fairly normal colour then suddenly some come out looking much more orange. If the orangeness is due to the stage lighting then do any photography experts have any idea how the colour of my photos can suddenly change when the stage lighting hasn't changed? For instance the two photos below from last night of Sarah Lamb with her bouquets were taken only a few seconds apart, with a zoom in between photos, yet the colour looks normal in the first and too orange in the second.

 

 

 

Or, in case the above pair of photos can be explained by the zoom in upsetting something, does anyone have any idea how the two photos below, taken within the same second & otherwise virtually identical, can look a such a  different colour?

 

 

 

(Apologies if this is going too off topic. If it is please let me know & I'll delete the post.)

Am no photography or IT expert, Dawnstar, but I too have had what you describe on my smartphone and I can only put it down to the software in it trying to choose filters and focus automatically for us and sometimes not being fast enough in some shots. I used to have digital camera which was just a camera, not a phone or tablet, and it never did that orangey thing. By the way, beautiful photos of Sarah Lamb and the cast. I think the darker or more orange ones give it a soft, "olde worlde" look - still flattering. 

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

Basically, I don't know. I use spot metering and the colour can change depending on exactly where I'm pointing but not during one burst of shots. Don Q and Nutcracker are particularly bad for strong orange colour casts. 

 

Yes, my camera is on spot metering so it sounds like that could be the cause then. I guess I'll just have to put up with it as without spot metering my photos are even worse!

 

26 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Every so often, there is a gargouillade discussion for The Nutcracker

 

PS love Sarah Lamb's fast, neat and crisply timed fouettes (with a double!) in the Nutcracker coda with Steven McRae in the Youtube/cinema relay recording!

 

May I just check that the gargouillades are what I think they are? The dancer jumps sideways with her legs curved apart & shakes her legs while jumping?

 

I'm pretty sure she put a double into her fouettes last night as well, though admittedly I'm terrible at distinguishing between single/double/triple fouettes so I could have been mistaken.

 

19 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Am no photography or IT expert, Dawnstar, but I too have had what you describe on my smartphone and I can only put it down to the software in it trying to choose filters and focus automatically for us and sometimes not being fast enough in some shots. I used to have digital camera which was just a camera, not a phone or tablet, and it never did that orangey thing. By the way, beautiful photos of Sarah Lamb and the cast. I think the darker or more orange ones give it a soft, "olde worlde" look - still flattering. 

 

I'm using a digital camera, not a smartphone, yet I'm still getting it! Thanks. The orange colour doesn't actually look quite a bad on a computer screen as I find it does when I'm going through on my camera after a performance deleting all the hopelessly blurred photos (usually at least half of them).

Edited December 19, 2023 by Dawnstar

[Sim]

8 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

May I just check that the gargouillades are what I think they are? The dancer jumps sideways with her legs curved apart & shakes her legs while jumping?

 

 

Yes.  In my opinion, a very ugly step in classical ballet.  One or two dancers can make them look elegant, but not many!

[Dawnstar]

2 minutes ago, Sim said:

Yes.  In my opinion, a very ugly step in classical ballet.  One or two dancers can make them look elegant, but not many!

 

Thanks. I can't say I was very impressed by seeing them in close up at the cinecast.

[Pas de Quatre]

I am not sure where the idea of "tapping" in a gargouillade comes from. It should be a small circle with the foot on each leg like in a double rond de jambe. First leg starts from 5th front and ends 5th back  so the mini circle is en dehors (outwards). The second leg starts 5th back and ends 5th front so the mini circle is en dedans. The dynamic is the same as a pas de chat. It isn't actually that difficult if taught properly. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to happen these days!

Edited December 19, 2023 by Pas de Quatre

[Emeralds]

13 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

I am not sure where the idea of "tapping" in a gargouillade comes from. It should be a small circle with the foot on each leg like in a double rond de jambe. First leg starts from 5th front and ends 5th back  so the mini circle is en dehors (outwards). The second leg starts 5th back and ends 5th front so the mini circle is en dedans. The dynamic is the same as a pas de chat. It isn't actually that difficult if taught properly. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to happen these days!

Thanks Pas de Quatre. Like you, I know it's meant to be a ronde de jambe done by each leg but didn't want to give fellow readers who aren't dancers/dance students a headache by trying to explain the ronde de jambe (in different directions) as well as  comparing the different dancers' offerings they can see nowadays on stage or on YouTube.

 

The "tap" and "flick" were just visual descriptions of what they would see on the social media or YouTube videos. It's not actually supposed to be done as a tap or two taps, folks, although visually it's so fast that most non-dancers will just see that, or as many friends who don't dance tell me, if even that. 

[Dawnstar]

I've just looked up the cast for the first ever performance of this production back in 1984 (for some reason during yesterday's encore screening I found myself wondering about it) and among the names for the Waltz of the Flowers is a Joanna Allnatt. Does anyone know if she is the mother/aunt/other relative of Sophie Allnatt? Also it's amazing to see that Christopher Saunders was in the very first performance & is still managing to look enthusiastic appearing in it 39 years later!

[Emeralds]

34 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Yes, my camera is on spot metering so it sounds like that could be the cause then. I guess I'll just have to put up with it as without spot metering my photos are even worse!

 

 

May I just check that the gargouillades are what I think they are? The dancer jumps sideways with her legs curved apart & shakes her legs while jumping?

 

I'm pretty sure she put a double into her fouettes last night as well, though admittedly I'm terrible at distinguishing between single/double/triple fouettes so I could have been mistaken.

 

 

I'm using a digital camera, not a smartphone, yet I'm still getting it! Thanks. The orange colour doesn't actually look quite a bad on a computer screen as I find it does when I'm going through on my camera after a performance deleting all the hopelessly blurred photos (usually at least half of them).

I think your digital camera might have more "smart" technology than mine (which has now retired)! I presume the creators think we can easily edit it afterwards so they don't cut out the orange. 

 

Just so I haven't misunderstood, gargouillades are the little jumps starting at 1:29 of this ROH video. 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzV1qLYukTH8&ved=2ahUKEwippoXg7puDAxX6UEEAHS4TASYQwqsBegQIDhAB&usg=AOvVaw2A1LQcx8D228dsP4Pkqhrg

 

And my apologies to Ms Cuthbertson-they are full gargouillades in the first set, only halves in the second set, in a beautifully performed solo. (I wouldn't even have really cared too much in a real live performance because there are other things to take in- arms, arabesques, turns etc)

 

 

[LinMM]

Yes I was puzzled by the description of “tapping” 🤔

Because of the speed it is a difficult step to make look really elegant and well executed. 

[Emeralds]

34 minutes ago, Sim said:

Yes.  In my opinion, a very ugly step in classical ballet.  One or two dancers can make them look elegant, but not many!

It's what I call a "law of diminishing returns" step- you spend a lot of hours and effort  making then look beautiful and elegant, and over 70% of the audience don't even notice you've performed them, let alone elegantly and neatly!  But everyone remembers the series of fouettes in the coda or lots of 180° arabesques! So I guess many students spend more time perfecting fouettes and increasing their flexibility. If you ever get to see Julia Conway doing them, Sim, let me know what you think. I'd also like to see Shiori Kase's but her shows were cancelled (once Covid, the other injury) when I booked to see her.

[Emeralds]

4 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes I was puzzled by the description of “tapping” 🤔

Because of the speed it is a difficult step to make look really elegant and well executed. 

Sorry LinMM! Didn't mean to confuse the members who actually know what a ronde de jambe is! 

[Dawnstar]

5 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

I think your digital camera might have more "smart" technology than mine (which has now retired)! I presume the creators think we can easily edit it afterwards so they don't cut out the orange. 

 

Just so I haven't misunderstood, gargouillades are the little jumps starting at 1:29 of this ROH video. 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzV1qLYukTH8&ved=2ahUKEwippoXg7puDAxX6UEEAHS4TASYQwqsBegQIDhAB&usg=AOvVaw2A1LQcx8D228dsP4Pkqhrg

 

And my apologies to Ms Cuthbertson-they are full gargouillades in the first set, only halves in the second set, in a beautifully performed solo. (I wouldn't even have really cared too much in a real live performance because there are other things to take in- arms, arabesques, turns etc)

 

My camera's coming up for a decade old so I don't think it's very smart!

 

Thanks. So what I described as "shakes her legs while jumping" is the ronde de jambe part of the movement? I had been under the impression a ronde de jambe was a much bigger circling movement, but that's because my only knowledge of a ronde de jambe is from Phantom of the Opera (musical) where Madame Giry is criticising the dancers and says "Such ronde de jambe" while describing a circle with her foot so I thought she actually does a ronde de jambe but evidently not!

 

3 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

It's what I call a "law of diminishing returns" step- you spend a lot of hours and effort  making then look beautiful and elegant, and over 70% of the audience don't even notice you've performed them, let alone elegantly and neatly!

 

To be honest they don't really stick out for me when seeing the DPF's solo live, it was only when seeing them in close up at the cinecast that I twigged that that movement must be the oft-referred to gargouillades.

[Emeralds]

Speaking of ronde de jambe, that reminds me of something I've meant to say for some time about fouettes not being done properly by some dancers but I'll leave that to the Swan Lake threads in March and June, where they are probably more topical. 😉 (Even if the Sugar Plum Fairy's solo has some fouettes.)

[LinMM]

No need to apologise I just thought I’d forgotten some aspect of it lol! 
I thought Cuthbertson was not bad at them …have seen worse!

They can look quite ugly if not performed well and as most dancers wouldn’t come across the step that much I can see why they don’t find easiest step!
There’s a Russian dancer who was really good at them but name escapes me at present.  

[Emeralds]

31 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I've just looked up the cast for the first ever performance of this production back in 1984 (for some reason during yesterday's encore screening I found myself wondering about it) and among the names for the Waltz of the Flowers is a Joanna Allnatt. Does anyone know if she is the mother/aunt/other relative of Sophie Allnatt? Also it's amazing to see that Christopher Saunders was in the very first performance & is still managing to look enthusiastic appearing in it 39 years later!

Yes, they're related- aunt and niece I believe. @bridiem checked the info for us.  👍 

 

Re: the ronde de jambe, you're doing very well to recall  Madame Giry in Phantom! There can be large or small rondes de jambe. In the gargouillades they are small (and very fast). You may see some pas de deux where a ballerina does larger ones on pointe with her partner holding one hand over her head and the other out to the side.

 

Nureyev was also very, very fond of them, and would add them to most of his solos eg Don Quixote, Swan Lake, etc. It's a signature of his- debatable as to whether that's a good or bad addition 😉.  

Edited December 19, 2023 by Emeralds

[Dawnstar]

23 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Yes, they're related- aunt and niece I believe. @bridiem checked the info for us.  👍 

 

Re: the ronde de jambe, you're doing very well to recall  Madame Giry in Phantom! There can be large or small rondes de jambe. In the gargouillades they are small (and very fast). You may see some pas de deux where a ballerina does larger ones on pointe with her partner holding one hand over her head and the other out to the side.

 

Thanks. I knew someone on here would know.

 

I have seen Phantom 30-odd times over the years so I know rather a lot of lines from it! I can't really visualise the larger rondes de jambe that you describe (admittedly I have very little visual imagination) but I will try to look out for them in the future.

[Sim]

Tonight's cast sheet:

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/the-nutcracker-by-peter-wright/cast-list/54522

 

[alison]

Another new Arabian couple?  And was someone saying they hadn't spotted Lara Turk recently?

 

BTW, I thought Tara-Brigitte Bhavnani had retired?  Was I wrong, or is she guesting?