Ballet Icons Gala March 2024

[Tango Dancer]

Just starting a topic for reviews and comments on tonight's gala because I couldn't see one.

 

I thought it was good with some real standout items. There wasn't an online cast list anywhere and programmes were £10 which is more than I can afford. If anyone can post the list of items if appreciate it as I would like to know what everything was. So I can review better.

[TSR101]

 ...

Edited March 17 by TSR101

[San Perregrino]

A smorgasbord of gems to ponder, to relish and delight the most jaded of palettes even if some dishes weren’t to everyone’s taste.

My highlight of the evening: Caravaggio choreo by Mauro Bigonzetti danced by Melissa Hamilton and Roberto Bolle literally took my breath away. That was worth the cost of the ticket without anything else. 

[TSR101]

Overall I thought it was a good night - I think slightly better than last year. These things are always a bit odd to me, such a strange crowd where you mix those who never go with ballet but like the spectacle, with those who appear to have gone just to go (lots of people messaging on their phones throughout - someone by me literally sat what sapping through Osipova and Potskhishvili doing Don Q which is mind-blowing behaviour to me) and then lots of the ballet 'community' (KOH ran in late tut tut, he wouldn't like that behaviour in the ROH!) 

Initial thoughts - I likewise found Caravaggio very engrossing (how on earth is Melissa not a principal!); Osipova, Kiyota and Potskhishvili brought lots of fireworks with them -Potskhishvili is a giant of a man!; Muntagirov excellent as usual with both partners - also excellent; Bernal proved to me even if you have the body of a greek god and outstanding dance ability, beige pants with beige shoes aren't a good look; and Qualia for McGregor was actually not bad, perhaps because it was very traditional in style compared to his later works. I thought Mackay and Battistoni looked underrehearsed unfortunately, Fernandes undoubtedly an astonishing talent looked a bit panicky whilst attempting to balance and having never seen Taming of the Shrew, it seemed an odd choice for a gala. Skylar Brandt was good in Swan Lake but I couldn't help compare her performance to that of Marianela in the opening night and to be honest they weren't comparable (Marianela was sitting just in front of me too - what a shame she wasn't up there as well!!)

 

Lots of doubling up! 

Edited March 17 by TSR101

[capybara]

19 minutes ago, TSR101 said:

 ...

Proximity or Closeness was switched with Diamonds and opened the second half.

[Tango Dancer]

Thanks so much @TSR101 for posting.

 

Oh boy some of this was amazing. Some less so.

 

I absolutely loved everything with Vadim in especially the Jewels pdd. Having not had much rehearsal time I thought the chemistry between him and Olga was great and she was beautiful to watch. His pdd with Fumi also delighted me. She's got such lovely arms.

 

I loved The Thinker. I'd not seen Sergio Bernal before and I loved the flamenco roots and the guitar. It was brilliant. Just seen @TSR101 comment I agree on the beige undercrackers - a let down but amazing piece of dance.

 

I also really liked Taming of the Shrew. Camilla and Osiel had such great chemistry and the choreography and music suited each other.

 

Caravaggio was also lovely, beautiful music and lovely dancing.

 

Interestingly for me I liked some of the more unfamiliar work better. 

 

I still don't like Wayne McGregor (Qualia did nothing for me despite Reese and Yasmin best efforts - awful music and not good choreography) and the Forsythe had lovely choreo and performance but terrible music.

 

Having heard about Giorgi Potshkishvili I was interested to see him. I thought he was interesting, lovely attack on the jumps and great flair but heavier on the landings. I fear watching Vadims jumps has spoiled me for everyone else.

 

Overall though a really fun and varied evening. Great range of talent and some lovely new discoveries.

Edited March 17 by Tango Dancer
Autocorrect issues

[Tango Dancer]

6 minutes ago, capybara said:

Proximity or Closeness was switched with Diamonds and opened the second half.

I liked that and also thought the pianist and the cellist did a great job - but then I love Mahler. 

[Peanut68]

Out of interest, did this get filmed & might it be available as pay to view somewhere some time? 
Couldn’t justify another expensive ticket & travel etc so soon after Manon but would love to see these dancers & this programme:- a great way to ‘discover’ new dancers/choreography etc!

Mind you, I’m typing this reading through watery eyes with a streaming cold whilst drinking a lemsip so probably just as well I wasn’t there!! 

Edited March 18 by Peanut68

[Tango Dancer]

I don't think it was filmed but I may be wrong.

Also even with a cold you'd probably be better behaved than some of the audience. Quite a few people had their phones on and were not engaged with the show. And one person nearby was so engaged he started singing along to Swan Lake. Which did not improve the coda. 

 

And the people on my left didn't clap once.

 

Audiences are weird!

[Missfrankiecat]

Wonderful evening although I feel a little sated with my impressions of a number of pieces that were new to me and will come back when I have had the chance to mull over.  I will say I was very charmed by the youngsters Antonio Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes dancing Esmeralda with amazing drive and technical ability for their ages; Dutch ballet have some real stars - I loved Riho Sakamoto and Constantine Allen, who really convinced as a pairing; and I wish Taming of the Shrew (on the evidence of the taste we got of it tonight) was in the repertoire of an English company.  Melissa Hamilton is a class act.

Many thanks to @FionaM without whom I would not have had such a good view.  Shocked to see so many empty seats, especially in the stalls.

[Peanut68]

Gosh I imagined it would’ve been a sellout…. Maybe if prices had been a little lower??? I also think a Sunday night quite tricky… if had to be a Sunday I wonder if a matinee or late afternoon start would be better?

[TSR101]

1 hour ago, Peanut68 said:

Gosh I imagined it would’ve been a sellout…. Maybe if prices had been a little lower??? I also think a Sunday night quite tricky… if had to be a Sunday I wonder if a matinee or late afternoon start would be better?

It was a sellout - so presumably some people spent £175 for stalls tickets and then didn't come! 

[zxDaveM]

7 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

 I also think a Sunday night quite tricky… if had to be a Sunday I wonder if a matinee or late afternoon start would be better?

 

they usually have the tech rehearsal in the afternoon, which can run from 1pm til nearly 7pm!

[Tango Dancer]

5 hours ago, TSR101 said:

It was a sellout - so presumably some people spent £175 for stalls tickets and then didn't come! 

I was in the balcony and there were seats next to me unoccupied and some others in the balcony not occupied along with some of the boxes.

 

So I guess some people don't come given it was billed as being sold out.

[Peanut68]

I hate seeing empty seats & then to find they were sold (good for production) but unoccupied (bad for the dancers & rest of audience) I think the trouble is with ‘event’ ballet/theatre/concerts you get the ‘glitterati’ social set & their fixers who just buy up anything that’s expensive in case their diaries work out or they’d charges fancy that night out in the day…..ironically, if tickets were cheaper I reckon there would be very few no shows. Or it were for charity & thus they can be seen to be ‘doing good’, more of ‘the wealthy set’ would take up their very pricey seats & probably give much more in auctions etc….. I take it this gala is purely commercial? And nothing wrong with that btw - I’m all for more opportunities to employ dancers & for audiences to see more ballet!

[San Perregrino]

Even for a sold out show there will be a number of seats that are empty on the night due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances not just because someone has more money than sense. Especially now that one has to buy tickets so far in advance. I almost didn’t make last night’s show as less than two hours prior to leaving home water started dripping into my sitting room from the flat upstairs. Fortunately for me the leak was located and contained so that I was able to get to the Coliseum in the nick of time. A few hours earlier a friend had been immobilised by sciatica and was unsure whether they would attend. It’s not always possible to return or even give away tickets at the last minute even if one thinks to do so. That’s life. 
NB the top ticket price for a seat (VIP packages aside) was the same price as a ticket to RB Swan Lake. 

Edited March 18 by PeterS

[San Perregrino]

During the curtain call last night several ‘Ballet Icon’ awards were somewhat haphazardly presented and I’m not certain that the whole auditorium were aware what was happening. These included a special one to Aud Jebsen for ‘services to ballet’. I, for one, am glad to see her recognised and thanked. 

[balletgremlin]

There was signal failure on train lines coming into Euston which would have prevented some people from being able to get into London yesterday. It also overran by an hour so I saw a lot of people leaving early, presumably so they can catch trains home.

 

Fumi, Vadim and Melissa were the dancers of the night for me. I'm never going to like Wayne McGregor's choreography no matter how talented the dancers who perform it. I'd have thought there'd be a bit more variety in the pas de deux - so much Petipa it got a bit same-y. Too many wild fouettés (insane tempo for some of them). It's a shame Osipova wasn't jumping instead. 

[capybara]

4 minutes ago, PeterS said:

During the curtain call last night several ‘Ballet Icon’ awards were somewhat haphazardly presented and I’m not certain that the whole auditorium were aware what was happening. These included a special one to Aud Jebsen for ‘services to ballet’. I, for one, am glad to see her recognised and thanked. 

How pretentious of the organiser to offer her Awards. Ballet Icons is no more than another commercial venture. A BCF ceremony would have had more meaning!!! 😉

 

 

[San Perregrino]

12 minutes ago, capybara said:

How pretentious of the organiser to offer her Awards. Ballet Icons is no more than another commercial venture. A BCF ceremony would have had more meaning!!! 😉

 

 

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just reporting back. I don’t know anything about the organisation or the organisers so have no ‘opinion’ either way.

Edited March 18 by PeterS

[Missfrankiecat]

The 'award' section was rather bizarre.  To be fair, they had warned with an earlier announcement that some awards would be presented at the end but when they were it was all a bit haphazard.  As far as I could hear, all the awards were for 'special achievement' - ie the same thing and I don't think many, if any, in the audience understood what the award represented.  There were some awkward gaps, when it felt like the presenter didn't know what was happening.  I saw Olga Smirnova in conversation with Vadim during all this, with some smiling shrugs from him - I expect she wondered what on earth was going on.

[Nina99]

There was also trouble on the tube last night with the circle and district line being suspended in both directions. Fortunately , I had left plenty of time and after a longer journey than normal was still able to reach the Coliseum in plenty of time. When I finally sat down, I found myself next to actress Susan Hampshire was very enthusiastic and cheered loudly after her favourite pieces. I was very surprised to find out that she is 86. She certainly looks good for her age.

 

As for the gala, I mostly enjoyed it very much. I appreciated the opportunity to see new works, and some of them performed by dancers I’ve never seen before. Vadim was predictably wonderful in his two pieces - of the two, I think I preferred the first piece with Fumi, mainly because he had more to do. I also liked The Thinker with Sergio Bernal although I agree with somebody further up this thread that beige pants and shoes were not a good look for a dancer’s costume. I also enjoyed Esmeralda, and thought that Caravaggio with Melissa Hamilton and Roberto Bolle was very beautiful. However, I couldn’t enjoy the Forsyth piece because of the awful music which assaulted our ears! 
 

One thing I noticed, and which I think has been mentioned before on this forum and which happened a couple of times last night is the habit of dancers stopping after a series of pirouettes, or fouettes in the middle of a variation or coda to acknowledge audience applause.  To my mind, this breaks up the flow of the piece and I much prefer the RB habit of keeping going.

[TSR101]

45 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

The 'award' section was rather bizarre.  To be fair, they had warned with an earlier announcement that some awards would be presented at the end but when they were it was all a bit haphazard.  As far as I could hear, all the awards were for 'special achievement' - ie the same thing and I don't think many, if any, in the audience understood what the award represented.  There were some awkward gaps, when it felt like the presenter didn't know what was happening.  I saw Olga Smirnova in conversation with Vadim during all this, with some smiling shrugs from him - I expect she wondered what on earth was going on.

I was mostly sitting there thinking how meaningless these awards must be to those receiving them. 

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Naughty Peregrine said:

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just reporting back. I don’t know anything about the organisation or the organisers so have no ‘opinion’ either way.

oh @Naughty Peregrine I’m soooo sorry you took it that way - I certainly didn’t

intend that.

 

[bridiem]

Surely all the dancers there were, by the mere fact of being there, special achievers. 

[LinMM]

“Beige undercrackers” has just made my morning 😂

Am about to meet up with friend( going to LBC event) who went to gala yesterday will be interested in what she thought of it all. 

[Missfrankiecat]

59 minutes ago, Nina99 said:

There was also trouble on the tube last night with the circle and district line being suspended in both directions. Fortunately , I had left plenty of time and after a longer journey than normal was still able to reach the Coliseum in plenty of time. When I finally sat down, I found myself next to actress Susan Hampshire was very enthusiastic and cheered loudly after her favourite pieces. I was very surprised to find out that she is 86. She certainly looks good for her age.

 

As for the gala, I mostly enjoyed it very much. I appreciated the opportunity to see new works, and some of them performed by dancers I’ve never seen before. Vadim was predictably wonderful in his two pieces - of the two, I think I preferred the first piece with Fumi, mainly because he had more to do. I also liked The Thinker with Sergio Bernal although I agree with somebody further up this thread that beige pants and shoes were not a good look for a dancer’s costume. I also enjoyed Esmeralda, and thought that Caravaggio with Melissa Hamilton and Roberto Bolle was very beautiful. However, I couldn’t enjoy the Forsyth piece because of the awful music which assaulted our ears! 
 

One thing I noticed, and which I think has been mentioned before on this forum and which happened a couple of times last night is the habit of dancers stopping after a series of pirouettes, or fouettes in the middle of a variation or coda to acknowledge audience applause.  To my mind, this breaks up the flow of the piece and I much prefer the RB habit of keeping going.

 

She is often at Covent Garden - I've seen her multiple times for one production.  She is still a very pretty woman and obviously a huge ballet fan.  I love the novels of Anthony Trollope and always visualise her as Lady Glencora from the Palliser series (who she played in the BBC adaptation).

[TSR101]

56 minutes ago, LinMM said:

“Beige undercrackers” has just made my morning 😂

Am about to meet up with friend( going to LBC event) who went to gala yesterday will be interested in what she thought of it all. 

To be honest there is a large range of achievement - not least because of age. 

I haven't actually been to many of these Ballet Icons Galas - for years I avoided them given I have strong preference for full length ballets (or at least strong one act pieces like Month in the Country/The Cellist) - however it definitely felt this year that a lot of the established star power came from the Royal Ballet. 

[Sim]

2 hours ago, Naughty Peregrine said:

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just reporting back. I don’t know anything about the organisation or the organisers so have no ‘opinion’ either way.

How has PeterS morphed into Naughty Peregrine?!  🤔

[Emeralds]

Not to suggest I know why people didn't show up to occupy all the seats - there are often multiple reasons- but I have on various occasions tried to return tickets on the day to the Coliseum, Barbican Hall and Birmingham Hippodrome when due to unforeseen serious circumstances that people couldn't turn up on the day, that the box office refused to accept them, even for free, to resell or give away. 

 

The Royal Albert Hall box office staff were the only ones who acknowledged the offer (to give them away) with a word of thanks and once did manage to resell and refunded me. ROH will always take them back, even with only 1 hour to go, to try to resell (they always inform me whether all, a few or only one was resold and refund accordingly). But Coliseum policy is strange that they won't accept tickets back (even for free) less than 12 hours to go, even if they have a high chance of resale and a good chance to earn some money for the theatre from the second transaction.

 

Transport problems and other emergencies could have played a part as well - in addition to public transport services members have mentioned, the M25 was closed off yesterday so a lot of people who travelled by road could have been delayed too. Some of the seats in the stalls may have been "comps" - giveaways from the organisers to guests or friends, who either forgot or waited till the last minute to see if they could/wanted to attend and then didn't. 

Edited March 18 by Emeralds

[capybara]

With (mostly RB) exceptions where the dancers were concerned and a couple of interesting ‘new’ works it was no more than an evening of mediocrity for me - so I’ll be brief.

The best in the world being showcased? Some artists, undoubtedly yes, but more than half seemingly ‘making up the numbers’ as they do in galas ‘everywhere’.

 

Good to glimpse emerging stars like Antonio Casalinho but the hype which preceded Giorgi Potskhishvili led me to expect to see something quite extraordinary from him not the ragged ‘tricks for tricks sake’ he produced alongside a seriously under-powered Osipova (despite her obviously new shoes!). Don Q has been on the Icons programme for as long as I can remember and this rendition was just about as bad as it gets. 

 

’Way up there’ for me (in no particular order) were Melissa Hamilton, Sangeon Lee, Yasmine Naghdi (in McGregor!), Vadim Muntagirov (substituting in two works), Fumi Kaneko, Olga Smirnova and (in spite of myself) Sergio Bernal.

 

The atmosphere in the Coli was strange. Given all the Sold Out notifications it was surprising to see so many empty seats (for example, at least 100 in the relatively small side area of the Dress Circle where I was). A goodly number  of the people around me were busier on their phones than with what was going on on stage and the applause was often tepid at best. My immediate neighbour munched her way through two tubs of popcorn but I promise that the smell didn’t warp my judgement.

[FionaM]

4 hours ago, capybara said:

How pretentious of the organiser to offer her Awards. Ballet Icons is no more than another commercial venture. A BCF ceremony would have had more meaning!!! 😉

 

 

I agree they were pretentious.  As though they had to offer them in order to secure those dancers attending ???  (Bolle, Lacarra, Bernal, Abbagnato, Osipova, I can’t remember who else).

 

I am wondering about awarding one to Graham Watts, who advises and writes for the gala.  And Ricardo Cue (flamenco?) seemed an even more odd choice as he’d not choreographed anything at this gala.  Maybe he supports the gala in other ways.  

 

I did like to see Aud Jebsen recognised for all she does to support ballet.  Frankly without her money (sponsorship or donation  might be more elegant words but let’s be real here), a lot of ballet organisations in the UK would be floundering much worse than they are.  This effort rather lost meaning with the awards all being given in a rushed and perfunctory way.  She should be recognised in a specialist one-off way IMO

 

[FionaM]

All the seats around me were filled.  In the Upper Circle.  I could see about 10-15 in the VIP section of the stalls that were empty, and others in 2s and 3s dotted about that were also empty.  

A friend reminded me that we bought our tickets last summer … that is a long time ago, a lot can change in one’s life.  Forgetting you’ve bought them is one reason!   (I’ve friends who have done that.)  And of course last minute sickness, transport, other home emergencies, etc.    The Coliseum need to get more flexible., upgrade their system to allow online returns.  Refunds can be on resale basis only.