RB Summer Period Casting

[Linnzi5]

3 minutes ago, OnePigeon said:

I’m on it!  The Festival of New Choreography 2025 will feature a debut piece by yours truly danced by Bracewell and hopefully Muntagirov.  I hope they’re ok with my grade 4 limitations - it will be basic, undoubtedly derivative, but hopefully very moving.  

I’d pay to see that! 🤣

[OnePigeon]

5 minutes ago, Linnzi5 said:

I’d pay to see that! 🤣

You might be asking for your money back.

 

I’ll have to watch Corybantic Games now for the Bracewell Ball partnership - I’ve never got past the hideous costumes to watch more than the first 5 minutes to be honest.

[Linnzi5]

15 minutes ago, OnePigeon said:

You might be asking for your money back.

 

I’ll have to watch Corybantic Games now for the Bracewell Ball partnership - I’ve never got past the hideous costumes to watch more than the first 5 minutes to be honest.

Without going too off topic, I’m one of the few people who don’t mind the costumes. 🤣

[LinMM]

Songs of a Wayfarer would be perfect! 
Love this ballet. 

[Nogoat]

On 22/02/2024 at 15:49, Linnzi5 said:

I got my reply. Basically said that the offer of not paying a fee to return tickets is one that comes with being a Patron only and is standard for that level of membership only and therefore would not be extended to Friends.  Apologies were given for the lack of casting -  it was stated that it's because they don't want to give casting they are uncertain of and then it be necessary for it to change. So, I didn't get anywhere really. 

 

This type of 'corporate non-answer' is all too common nowadays, and it's really exasperating! 

 

In response to a perfectly reasonable request for an existing policy (fees for ticket returns) to change (waive said fees for ticket returns) to address an exceptional circumstance (lack of casting info at the time of ticket purchase), a bland restatement of the existing policy (waiving of fees is standard only for Patrons) is issued; there is no attempt to engage with the question itself and so provide an explanation as to why such a change cannot be accommodated. Grrr!

 

It's especially frustrating given the recent celebration of the Friends' 60th anniversary, with its copious praise of the importance of such Friends to the RB.

The disconnect between the supposed importance of Friends and the continued failure to provide casting information at the time of Friends' booking or mitigate its effect either means the RB really hasn't a clue about the motivation behind why people becoming Friends, or that they prioritise income over customer relations, in which case that very public, celebratory praise of Friends starts to sound a bit hollow. Either possibility is worrying.

 

In case anyone from the RB management or customer relations team reads this forum (and I'd like to think they do!), here's my view of why people become Friends, and why casting information *at the time of booking* is so vital.

 

There may well be folk who become Friends simply for the magazine, or access to a handful of rehearsals, or a 10% shop discount, or as a way to donate, or for the kudos - but I've yet to meet any.

The overwhelming majority become Friends because it allows them to reduce uncertainty around (and thereby increase control over) the purchase of preferred seats or seats in preferred areas (in terms of view and/or price), and the higher up the Friends ladder you are, the greater the advantage conferred (and upfront cost, of course).

 

Unfortunately, on the basis of their approach to the summer booking period, the RB management seems to be of the opinion that priority access to seat booking is sufficient, along with the pre-existing information about programmes and dates, to make successful bookings. 

I would argue that those three aspects might be necessary, but they aren't sufficient for a large number of Friends (to the extent that the opinions expressed on the BCF reflect Friends in general). 

In exchange for handing over a large wodge of cash each year I would expect, when priority booking opens, to be able to make informed decisions about ticket purchases - for that, I need to know the programme, date, and ticket availability but, importantly, I also need to know the cast. Three out of four is not sufficient.

 

The RB management seems unable or unwilling to acknowledge the importance of casts to, I would argue, the majority of Friends (at least, those on BCF - a cursory glance at the forum shows how members, including myself, tend to favour seeing particular dancers). 

Because of that, the upcoming booking (on the 28th for me) will be essentially a lottery, and one that will cost £4 for each failed gamble on trying to see the cast(s) I'm interested in. 

That might be good for the RB's cashflow (the cynic in me is mentally calculating the effective price-hike of returning half the tickets for repurchase on other dates, and - if in desperation I buy many more tickets than I need - the short-term effect on their book balances of 'returning' my excess expenditure as vouchers to be spent next year) but it undermines the rationale to becoming a Friend, especially if casting is not made available until after general booking opens.

For those travelling to London by public transport and/or having to book hotels, the additional costs incurred by missing out on early-bird offers may also be significant.

 

The RB needs to recognise that we all have favourite composers, choreographers *and* dancers, and many of us need to know all three to make informed purchases. Otherwise it starts to resemble the ballet equivalent of Henry Ford's 'you can have any colour as long as it's black'.

 

If the RB fail to recognise and address the issue of providing timely information on casting, then there are likely to be subtle and damaging effects on the relationship between Friends and the RB; folk are already starting to question the value of being a Friend, and who knows if those relationship concerns might end up affecting other ways of giving?

 

I appreciate that casting is the most difficult aspect for the RB management to control and schedule (programmes, dates and seating are trivial in comparison, mainly due to long lead-ins for the first two and real-time booking for the last), and maybe casting is becoming more difficult every cycle, but accepting the importance of casting to a potentially large segment of the paying public would be a start - but on its own it is not enough. 

Rather than recognising the problem but dumping the consequences onto that Friends and the paying public, the RB management should ensure that scheduling is not being slowed down by insufficient resources or inappropriate internal processes (eg if marketing/accounting considerations take precedence over casting activities/customer relations in the setting of booking dates).

If resources are sufficient, then at a minimum, RB management should put in place measures to mitigate adverse effects (ie waive the admin fee for returned tickets).

 

The ideal solution, of course, would be to withhold ticket sales until casting is known (not necessarily full casting across the run; even partial casting or a staged release as performances are cast would be better than nothing - though the response to @Linnzi5's question suggests the RB can't even see the merits of something that obvious. Perhaps they think it's difficult to implement? It isn't - just setting values in a database.); only releasing performances to book once casting is known would be a marvellous way to focus their minds! 

It's not that there isn't 'slack' in the system - the lead-in from first booking to performance for the summer season is around 3.5 months! I'm not privy to the internal workings of the RB, or how efficient they are, but that does seem very generous. Could they not put booking back by a month? Surely casting will be complete within a month from now?!

I'm getting very twitchy about Wednesday (over and above the usual, unavoidable nervousness that comes with competitively spending large sums of money in a short space of time!) and that is not helped by the RB 'apologising' to @Linnzi5 for casting issues and then ploughing on as normal.

How do we ensure this behaviour doesn't become the 'new normal'?
 

 

Edited February 26 by Nogoat
usual typos

[zxDaveM]

Perhaps the Ashton casting influenced by 'who's left' after the Swan Lake runs...

And as for the old stand-by of "it's the company you come to see, not the individual dancers" is such a crock, as nearly all of us, I imagine, aim specifically for their own favourites, and avoid the cast(s) they are not keen on. Hence the pleas for casting knowledge from early bookers, who are after all, filling their coffers

[Scheherezade]

10 minutes ago, Nogoat said:

 

This type of 'corporate non-answer' is all too common nowadays, and it's really exasperating! 

 

In response to a perfectly reasonable request for an existing policy (fees for ticket returns) to change (waive said fees for ticket returns) to address an exceptional circumstance (lack of casting info at the time of ticket purchase), a bland restatement of the existing policy (waiving of fees is standard only for Patrons) is issued; there is no attempt to engage with the question itself and so provide an explanation as to why such a change cannot be accommodated. Grrr!

 

It's especially frustrating given the recent celebration of the Friends' 60th anniversary, with its copious praise of the importance of such Friends to the RB.

The disconnect between the supposed importance of Friends and the continued failure to provide casting information at the time of Friends' booking or mitigate its effect either means the RB really hasn't a clue about the motivation behind why people becoming Friends, or that they prioritise income over customer relations, in which case that very public, celebratory praise of Friends starts to sound a bit hollow. Either possibility is worrying.

 

In case anyone from the RB management or customer relations team reads this forum (and I'd like to think they do!), here's my view of why people become Friends, and why casting information *at the time of booking* is so vital.

 

There may well be folk who become Friends simply for the magazine, or access to a handful of rehearsals, or a 10% shop discount, or as a way to donate, or for the kudos - but I've yet to meet any.

The overwhelming majority become Friends because it allows them to reduce uncertainty around (and thereby increase control over) the purchase of preferred seats or seats in preferred areas (in terms of view and/or price), and the higher up the Friends ladder you are, the greater the advantage conferred (and upfront cost, of course).

 

Unfortunately, on the basis of their approach to the summer booking period, the RB management seems to be of the opinion that priority access to seat booking is sufficient, along with the pre-existing information about programmes and dates, to make successful bookings. 

I would argue that those three aspects might be necessary, but they aren't sufficient for a large number of Friends (to the extent that the opinions expressed on the BCF reflect Friends in general). 

In exchange for handing over a large wodge of cash each year I would expect, when priority booking opens, to be able to make informed decisions about ticket purchases - for that, I need to know the programme, date, and ticket availability but, importantly, I also need to know the cast. Three out of four is not sufficient.

 

The RB management seems unable or unwilling to acknowledge the importance of casts to, I would argue, the majority of Friends (at least, those on BCF - a cursory glance at the forum shows how members, including myself, tend to favour seeing particular dancers). 

Because of that, the upcoming booking (on the 28th for me) will be essentially a lottery, and one that will cost £4 for each failed gamble on trying to see the cast(s) I'm interested in. 

That might be good for the RB's cashflow (the cynic in me is mentally calculating the effective price-hike of returning half the tickets for repurchase on other dates, and - if in desperation I buy many more tickets than I need - the short-term effect on their book balances of 'returning' my excess expenditure as vouchers to be spent next year) but it undermines the rationale to becoming a Friend, especially if casting is not made available until after general booking opens.

For those travelling to London by public transport and/or having to book hotels, the additional costs incurred by missing out on early-bird offers may also be significant.

 

The RB needs to recognise that we all have favourite composers, choreographers *and* dancers, and many of us need to know all three to make informed purchases. Otherwise it starts to resemble the ballet equivalent of Henry Ford's 'you can have any colour as long as it's black'.

 

If the RB fail to recognise and address the issue of providing timely information on casting, then there are likely to be subtle and damaging effects on the relationship between Friends and the RB; folk are already starting to question the value of being a Friend, and who knows if those relationship concerns might end up affecting other ways of giving?

 

I appreciate that casting is the most difficult aspect for the RB management to control and schedule (programmes, dates and seating are trivial in comparison, mainly due to long lead-ins for the first two and real-time booking for the last), and maybe casting is becoming more difficult every cycle, but accepting the importance of casting to a potentially large segment of the paying public would be a start - but on its own it is not enough. 

Rather than recognising the problem but dumping the consequences onto that Friends and the paying public, the RB management should ensure that scheduling is not being slowed down by insufficient resources or inappropriate internal processes (eg if marketing/accounting considerations take precedence over casting activities/customer relations in the setting of booking dates).

If resources are sufficient, then at a minimum, RB management should put in place measures to mitigate adverse effects (ie waive the admin fee for returned tickets).

 

The ideal solution, of course, would be to withhold ticket sales until casting is known (not necessarily full casting across the run; even partial casting or a staged release as performances are cast would be better than nothing - though the response to @Linnzi5's question suggests the RB can't even see the merits of something that obvious. Perhaps they think it's difficult to implement? It isn't - just setting values in a database.); only releasing performances to book once casting is known would be a marvellous way to focus their minds! 

It's not that there isn't 'slack' in the system - the lead-in from first booking to performance for the summer season is around 3.5 months! I'm not privy to the internal workings of the RB, or how efficient they are, but that does seem very generous. Could they not put booking back by a month? Surely casting will be complete within a month from now?!

I'm getting very twitchy about Wednesday (over and above the usual, unavoidable nervousness that comes with competitively spending large sums of money in a short space of time!) and that is not helped by the RB 'apologising' to @Linnzi5 for casting issues and then ploughing on as normal.

How do we ensure this behaviour doesn't become the 'new normal'?
 

 

 

Nogoat, I do hope that you send your post to the ROH. Each and every one of the points that you make should be addressed - and satisfactorily addressed- by way of a reasoned and informative response, not dismissive corporate-speak which, lets face it, is either patronising, insulting or both. And if you wish others to add their names before approaching the ROH, I will be more than happy to provide mine.

 

 

 

[capybara]

The problems began (casting not available until about a week ahead of the first tranche of Friends’ booking) when (a while ago now) tickets went on sale even further ahead of the first ballet in a sub season than had been the case.

In other words, they want our money a.s.a.p. but didn’t fully think the implications through. Is the RB’s AD consulted about timelines (which might vary from one booking period to another)? That should surely be the starting point before any booking dates are set.

 

I agree with so much of what has been said above. Exceptional circumstances require flexible responses.

 

But why can’t Friends even be given an insight into the reasons for the casting delay? Repeating the same standard response is only aggravating the situation. 

[Richard LH]

2 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

And as for the old stand-by of "it's the company you come to see, not the individual dancers" is such a crock, as nearly all of us, I imagine, aim specifically for their own favourites, and avoid the cast(s) they are not keen on. Hence the pleas for casting knowledge from early bookers, who are after all, filling their coffers

Perhaps nearly all of us on the Forum book according to our favourites wherever possible, but from experience of chatting to neighbouring seat holders it is quite  surprising how many people in general just seem to be out for a night at the ballet with little or no knowledge of the particular dancers they are seeing.

[Dawnstar]

58 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Perhaps nearly all of us on the Forum book according to our favourites wherever possible, but from experience of chatting to neighbouring seat holders it is quite  surprising how many people in general just seem to be out for a night at the ballet with little or no knowledge of the particular dancers they are seeing.

 

Are those people likely to have access to Friends booking though? I would have thought that anyone who went often enough to make having Friends membership worthwhile is highly likely to have seen more than enough ballet to have cast preferences.

[Lizbie1]

3 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Are those people likely to have access to Friends booking though? I would have thought that anyone who went often enough to make having Friends membership worthwhile is highly likely to have seen more than enough ballet to have cast preferences.

 

Remember, a lot of Friends' main interest is opera. (I don't know how relevant this is to the broader argument.)

[OnePigeon]

I’m no apologist for the RB and it is very frustrating to not be given casting yet again, but I’m sure they would like to have casting sorted too and we’re just not privy to the reasons they aren’t ready to announce it yet.  It could be incompetence and bad planning or it could be due to a perfect storm of unforeseen circumstances.  Dancers are only human and have to deal with injuries, illnesses, pregnancies, break ups etc just like the rest of us and these things can have a big impact on what is eventually brought to us on stage.  I can only imagine what a delicate balancing act it is to get the casting right, especially for triple bills and particularly when you might have rights holders wanting some input into casting choices too.  I can understand why they might not wish to tell us that casting is delayed, if it’s a case of Dancer X has just announced her pregnancy and we’re not sure if she can dance the role we wanted her in, Dancer Y and Z have just split up and can’t be in the same room as each other, we’re not sure if Dancer S will be fit enough by June and Dancer C, who we thought would be good in a certain role, is really struggling.
 

I’m not a friend, so the financial annoyance of paying a premium and not being able to take advantage of that must be galling and I do agree it would be good if they could waive the transaction fee in the event of your casting not being the one you prefer, but I would also say there is a cost to them to facilitating the ability to swap and cancel tickets, so I don’t think it’s a case of them making a nice bit of extra profit.  

[Jan McNulty]

I can understand the angst about wanting to know casting in advance but you should try following a company that very rarely gives any casting in advance!  At most, if we get any at all, it is a couple of weeks in advance and then usually only the first half of the week.

[Mary]

I am disappointed too, but  as OnePigeon says, this is about people.

 

Also I am a Friend not just for the advantages, but  partly just to support ROH - a theatre where noone eats popcorn, a theatre I love -  and the Royal Ballet, a wonderful company - and ballet in general.

 

I do want the casting, but I imagine so do they - and  I can forgive them on occasion.

 

I booked many months in advance for ENB and didn't get any of the casts I booked for...

 

But perhaps ROH might think about staggering the dates for booking a bit more in future. I do find it tricky to have so much in this booking session - it is too much to manage, for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JNC]

I’m no longer a friend (for many reasons, personal finances particularly when balanced against seat price increases, a bit of a protest against seat price increases and also the lack of diverse repertoire). But I was a friend for two reasons - advance booking and supporting the Royal Ballet. I would be very frustrated if I didn’t have casting available when I booked as I would feel that would negate a big part of my membership. 
 

I do sympathise with ROH here though, we don’t know what’s going on (there may well be personal and private reasons why they can’t explain why casting isn’t finalised yet, dancers are people with personal lives too). 
 

But I think it’s a fair compromise here to negate any ticket swap fees (this may be logistically challenging to administer perhaps, I feel the website might not be able to manage it and manual phone refunds seems an administrative nightmare), OR perhaps they could acknowledge the frustration by giving Friends some other sweetener (maybe a free programme and champagne for example, I would have suggested a month or two of free membership but logistically I imagine that’s near impossible to coordinate administratively). 
 

Ultimately we are fortunate to have casting available (usually) at time of booking so I’d be willing to cut them some slack on this. My only concern would be if many people didn’t mind they might start making it a regular thing! (But given the number of people who seem to have written in to voice frustrations over this I doubt it’s gone ignored!) 

[Swan]

3 hours ago, Mary said:

Also I am a Friend not just for the advantages, but  partly just to support ROH - a theatre where noone eats popcorn, a theatre I love -  and the Royal Ballet, a wonderful company - and ballet in general.

Me too, @Mary 

[jmhopton]

Also, if the free returns applied to everyone, not just patrons, some Friends may be temped to buy more tickets than they really need to hedge their casting bets and then if they're slow to return them, make the ticketing situation worse for everyone. 

[TSR101]

4 hours ago, OnePigeon said:

I’m no apologist for the RB and it is very frustrating to not be given casting yet again, but I’m sure they would like to have casting sorted too and we’re just not privy to the reasons they aren’t ready to announce it yet.  It could be incompetence and bad planning or it could be due to a perfect storm of unforeseen circumstances.  Dancers are only human and have to deal with injuries, illnesses, pregnancies, break ups etc just like the rest of us and these things can have a big impact on what is eventually brought to us on stage.  I can only imagine what a delicate balancing act it is to get the casting right, especially for triple bills and particularly when you might have rights holders wanting some input into casting choices too.  I can understand why they might not wish to tell us that casting is delayed, if it’s a case of Dancer X has just announced her pregnancy and we’re not sure if she can dance the role we wanted her in, Dancer Y and Z have just split up and can’t be in the same room as each other, we’re not sure if Dancer S will be fit enough by June and Dancer C, who we thought would be good in a certain role, is really struggling.
 

I’m not a friend, so the financial annoyance of paying a premium and not being able to take advantage of that must be galling and I do agree it would be good if they could waive the transaction fee in the event of your casting not being the one you prefer, but I would also say there is a cost to them to facilitating the ability to swap and cancel tickets, so I don’t think it’s a case of them making a nice bit of extra profit.

I think this argument - to give them a break since they do usually provide casting and there could be other reasons which have made it difficult - would have more weight, if they hadn't just done the exact same thing with the MacMillan triple. To do it back to back on the triple shows lack of competence or just lack of care for the impact. It also indicates potentially a worrying trend. 

I also do not buy the - other companies don't provide casting until [insert any stupidly short time period before the performance] argument. Those other companies are in my mind doing a poor job of engaging with their customer base (they are certainly with me given it is will result in me not spending money with them) and it is not something that RB should be seeking to replicate. 

Like others, the fact that I can use advanced booking to get to see the performance I want, in the seat I want - is by far the most important driver behind my membership and the membership level that I am willing to pay for. The membership is also vastly more important for ballet for this reason - there is almost no opera performance where I have not been able to pick up tickets last minute, even in prime locations - with the exception of when someone like Kauffman performs etc. 

[Linnzi5]

2 hours ago, JNC said:

I’m no longer a friend (for many reasons, personal finances particularly when balanced against seat price increases, a bit of a protest against seat price increases and also the lack of diverse repertoire). But I was a friend for two reasons - advance booking and supporting the Royal Ballet. I would be very frustrated if I didn’t have casting available when I booked as I would feel that would negate a big part of my membership. 
 

I do sympathise with ROH here though, we don’t know what’s going on (there may well be personal and private reasons why they can’t explain why casting isn’t finalised yet, dancers are people with personal lives too). 
 

But I think it’s a fair compromise here to negate any ticket swap fees (this may be logistically challenging to administer perhaps, I feel the website might not be able to manage it and manual phone refunds seems an administrative nightmare), OR perhaps they could acknowledge the frustration by giving Friends some other sweetener (maybe a free programme and champagne for example, I would have suggested a month or two of free membership but logistically I imagine that’s near impossible to coordinate administratively). 
 

Ultimately we are fortunate to have casting available (usually) at time of booking so I’d be willing to cut them some slack on this. My only concern would be if many people didn’t mind they might start making it a regular thing! (But given the number of people who seem to have written in to voice frustrations over this I doubt it’s gone ignored!) 

I'd take a glass of free champagne any time! 🤣  For me, as I'm sure it is for some others, it's more about seeing the cast I want so I don't have the hassle (and potentially not the seats I want) or rebooking while financially losing out. Alas, I cannot book to see every performance and that booking period is pretty chaotic and fitting it in around real life and commitments I already have is tricky enough. 

 

I do not solely support ROH so I can book early - I take that as a bonus. I did it after Covid to support them and will continue to do so even if I have the odd gripe about booking or casting. 

[alison]

It's clearly a lot more difficult to sort out announceable casting for a mixed bill - especially if you're trying to avoid doubling up on casts - and perhaps even more so when all the works are by one choreographer and you have dancers who are "specialists". But one would hope that had been taken into account from the outset. Non-availability of dancers for whatever reason is of course another matter.

[Blossom]

39 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Also, if the free returns applied to everyone, not just patrons, some Friends may be temped to buy more tickets than they really need to hedge their casting bets and then if they're slow to return them, make the ticketing situation worse for everyone. 

Completely agree with this

[Linnzi5]

7 hours ago, alison said:

It's clearly a lot more difficult to sort out announceable casting for a mixed bill - especially if you're trying to avoid doubling up on casts - and perhaps even more so when all the works are by one choreographer and you have dancers who are "specialists". But one would hope that had been taken into account from the outset. Non-availability of dancers for whatever reason is of course another matter.

Totally agree with this. When I looked at all the scheduled performances that will be going on at the time, I can see why casting must be a nightmare. I also thought, yes, that's true but someone had to schedule and approve the performances in the first place and surely they considered how challenging  casting would be?

[Jan McNulty]

10 hours ago, TSR101 said:

I also do not buy the - other companies don't provide casting until [insert any stupidly short time period before the performance] argument. Those other companies are in my mind doing a poor job of engaging with their customer base (they are certainly with me given it is will result in me not spending money with them) and it is not something that RB should be seeking to replicate. 
 

 

 

Those companies may not be able to announce casting due to their smaller than the RB size meaning that much may have to be taken into consideration if there are last minute injuries...

 

If you don't go and see a company because you need to know the cast when you book how do you know which casts to book for if they are given in advance?

 

You are potentially losing out on a lot of pleasure if you don't give a company/dancers a try.

 

I don't know where you live but I, for example, do not live near London and if I want to see a production I may have to take what performance I can make rather than having the privilege of selecting a cast I would like to see.

 

 

[Sophoife]

10 hours ago, TSR101 said:

I also do not buy the - other companies don't provide casting until [insert any stupidly short time period before the performance] argument. Those other companies are in my mind doing a poor job of engaging with their customer base (they are certainly with me given it is will result in me not spending money with them) and it is not something that RB should be seeking to replicate. 

 

Then you'd be watching basically no ballet in Australia as none of the three main companies (AusBallet, WA Ballet, Queensland Ballet) provide casting more than a couple of weeks out, and on many occasions that interval is more like a week. It's extremely frustrating as someone who doesn't live in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Perth as I have to organise my travel and accommodation well in advance, I can't just think, oh yes X is on tomorrow, I'll get a ticket today.

[Silver Capricorn]

I don't live in the UK. For me, attending a ballet performance in London means buying a plane ticket and booking a hotel in time. And yes, I only visit the casts that interest me. That is why I am also a Friend+, so that I can choose the ticket that suits me. In the case of Ashton's evening, it probably won't work, so I'll probably skip this performance. All I know is that neither Fumi Kaneko nor Vadim Muntagirov are likely to appear in Ashton's performance on June 10, as they will be performing at Vladimir Ippolitov's World Ballet Stars Gala in Geneva that day. 

For example, in the Paris Opera, the cast is not known far enough in advance to be able to buy tickets according to it, however, you can buy tickets for several performances and return the unsuitable ones to sale after the cast is published. The box office will refund the money back to my account within three days after the tickets are sold. And they always sell out, because performances of the Paris Opera Ballet are always sold out.

[Celine]

17 minutes ago, Silver Capricorn said:

I don't live in the UK. For me, attending a ballet performance in London means buying a plane ticket and booking a hotel in time. And yes, I only visit the casts that interest me. That is why I am also a Friend+, so that I can choose the ticket that suits me. In the case of Ashton's evening, it probably won't work, so I'll probably skip this performance. All I know is that neither Fumi Kaneko nor Vadim Muntagirov are likely to appear in Ashton's performance on June 10, as they will be performing at Vladimir Ippolitov's World Ballet Stars Gala in Geneva that day. 

For example, in the Paris Opera, the cast is not known far enough in advance to be able to buy tickets according to it, however, you can buy tickets for several performances and return the unsuitable ones to sale after the cast is published. The box office will refund the money back to my account within three days after the tickets are sold. And they always sell out, because performances of the Paris Opera Ballet are always sold out.

Hello, fellow ballet lover from the continent🤣

 

I do think ROH is already so much better than many of the other leading ballet companies in terms of website design and the amount of information available. So I'll give them that! 

 

It's not my turn to book the tickets yet, but I am eagerly waiting for any news about my preferred dancers (Lamb/Osipova/possibly Takada). For those of us who are flying and staying in London, I imagine the £4 return fee is no problem compared to flight and hotel costs that increase so much in summer

Edited February 27 by Celine

[JohnS]

It wouldn’t surprise me when the casting is announced that we see each evening has a unique cast rather than there being alternating casts. With overlaps between the programmes and some dancers no doubt scheduled for two or more ballets, plus other commitments, retirements, injuries etc, I can imagine casting being a major headache.

[Emeralds]

On 27/02/2024 at 09:36, Celine said:

Hello, fellow ballet lover from the continent🤣

 

I do think ROH is already so much better than many of the other leading ballet companies in terms of website design and the amount of information available. So I'll give them that! 

 

It's not my turn to book the tickets yet, but I am eagerly waiting for any news about my preferred dancers (Lamb/Osipova/possibly Takada). For those of us who are flying and staying in London, I imagine the £4 return fee is no problem compared to flight and hotel costs that increase so much in summer

Celine, you'll be pleased to know that Sarah Lamb and Natalia Osipova are dancing in the same cast of the triple bill Danses Concertantes. Different Drummer and Requiem on Wed 27 March and Sat 13 April- Sarah is dancing the lead role in Requiem (as the woman in the white dress who dances to Pie Jesu) and Natalia is dancing the role of Marie that was created for Alessandra Ferri. Additionally Natalia is also dancing Marie on Friday 22 March although Sarah is not in that performance.

 

After that, Sarah Lamb is dancing Swan Lake on Sat 20 April (7pm), Mon 29 April, Sat 4 May,  Natalia Osipova is dancing Swan Lake on Wed 12 June, Thurs 20 June,  Friday 28 June. Akane Takada is scheduled to dance Swan Lake - if she has recovered from her injury - on Fri 14 June and Tue 25 June. In addition, Sarah is due to dance Hermione in The Winter's Tale by Christopher Wheeldon on Tue 21 May, Tue 28 May  and Sat 1 June (7.30pm). 

[Celine]

18 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Celine, you'll be pleased to know that Sarah Lamb and Natalia Osipova are dancing in the same cast of the triple bill Danses Concertantes. Different Drummer and Requiem on Wed 27 March and Sat 13 April- Sarah is dancing the lead role in Requiem (as the woman in the white dress who dances to Pie Jesu) and Natalia is dancing the role of Marie that was created for Alessandra Ferri. Additionally Natalia is also dancing Marie on Friday 22 March although Sarah is not in that performance.

 

After that, Sarah Lamb is dancing Swan Lake on Sat 20 April (7pm), Mon 29 April, Sat 4 May,  Natalia Osipova is dancing Swan Lake on Wed 12 June, Thurs 20 June,  Friday 28 June. Akane Takada is scheduled to dance Swan Lake - if she has recovered from her injury - on Fri 14 June and Tue 25 June. In addition, Sarah is due to dance Hermione in The Winter's Tale by Christopher Wheeldon on Tue 21 May, Tue 28 May  and Sat 1 June (7.30pm). 

 

Thank you so much for such detailed information!!

 

I am, of course, very pleased that they continue to dance a good range of works (esp. that they are both extraordinary in contemporary pieces). I have important exams myself until 8 April and already have a weekend trip booked for 20 April, not to mention the possible trip in June for the Ashton works, so it would take quite a lot of convincing for me to book an extra trip for 13 April😥 (Who knows - if the casts for the Ashton triple bill don't work for me, I might still book a last minute flight to Danses Concertantes!) Sometimes it does feel that ballet is a major reason for me to want to move back to the UK as soon as possible. 

[Jamesrhblack]

4 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Copy and paste the text?  

 

I've scanned and uploaded as a PDF. I hope it works...

AshtonCasting.pdf

[Roberta]

It does work! 🩰

 

Delighted to see the return of Romany Pajdak who has danced the Five Brahms (Isadora Duncan) piece before!

 

 

Edited March 28 by Roberta

[TSR101]

Ashton casting is now out...

[lady emily]

The Ashton Celebrated casting is finally announced