How did you come to be a ballet watcher?

[Margaret]

1961 New Coventry Cathedral consecration celebrations. Ballet festival organised by Markova and Dolin. The great, beautiful Carla Fracci.

 

I think that was the performance I attended - wasn't sure of the date - but Dolin danced (Le Roi Soleil) and Carla Fracci with John Gilpin.  A wonderful occasion - with many other great dancers.

 

Margaret

[alison]

Davis House: it is set back from the road a little on South End.

 

The Davis Theatre was beautiful, rather Victorian and ornate inside, you can tell it was an important venue because the Bolshoi toured there in the 1950's.

 

Ah.  Like most people, I suspect, I rarely venture as far as South End.  I think I'd vaguely heard of the Bolshoi coming to Croydon at some stage, but clearly hadn't thought about the venue: clearly it couldn't have been Fairfield (if that actually existed back then).

[Spax]

My first ballet was through my dc ballet teacher (who taught Miyako Yoshida in Japan) told me to take my dd to watch a ballet. A couple of years later ds got into RB at age of 8 and Christopher Wheeldon picked him to be the first Hedgehog in Alice Adventures of Wonderland. Then he did Sleeping Beauty, Prince of Pagodas, Alice again and Swan Lake at ROH and Don Quixote with Milkhailsky Ballet. Watched each one more than once as we lived in Oxford then and just wondering around Covent Garden, became hooked on ballet. Sons fault!

Edited May 13, 2013 by Spax

[Quintus]

From a relatively passive starting point, my enthusiasm for ballet suddenly took off just a few years ago, prompted by an almost random purchase of the Lopatkina Swan Lake blu-ray.  That blew me away and led me to looking out other interpretations.  The Agony and Ecstasy documentaries got me interested in ENB and delving into their MacMillan and McGregor triple bill recordings, which exposed me to more contemporary work and I wanted to see what they’d missed in  Polina Semionova, so I bought Caravaggio – another jaw drop moment.  I then started going to performances, so far at ENB, ROH and Berlin.  I’ve never danced, but have done a lot of martial arts – principally karate - and I think that was one of the initial ‘hooks’ for me that I could relate to; a huge respect for the technical proficiency, stamina and dedication, which was then overlaid with a growing appreciation of the grace and artistry.  In karate, you have to be strong and flexible (and to an extent interpretive in kata) but you don’t have to look effortless

[neil]

I'm a (competent amateur) musician, and had been to a few operas but never ballet. About 12 years ago, the company I was working for was a corporate sponsor of ENB and some tickets were available for Nutcracker - I bought a few tickets and took my wife and parents-in-law.

 

I enjoyed it a lot more than (m)any of the operas I'd seen, largely because the story-telling of the dancers was much better than that of the singers, I thought.

 

Since then my wife and I have had 3 children so opportunities have been limited, but we've been to Sadler's Wells, Covent Garden and Coli a few times - mainly to see classics such as Romeo & Juliet. My wife took our daughter to see Alice during the opening run at the ROH, and the whole family saw Wind in the Willows in the Linbury on 31st December last year.

 

To be honest I'm slightly reticent about going to see more modern ballets since I don't have great insight into the art form.

 

Away from ballet I've seen my fair share of musical theatre. "Guys and Dolls" at the NT sticks in my mind from a long time ago (as does "Mamma Mia", but that's for all the wrong reasons.. )

 

Neil