If I had one suggestion for the Royal Ballet it would be ....

[Shmendrick]

 Well true. There does seem to be the opportunity for the Royal to bring in Mr Osipova as a one-off though it seems unlikely this season, it'd certainly shift tickets!

[Nina G.]

Thinks its about 117 and counting....  lol

They've been promising for the past 365 days (or more)

[cackles]

My first experiences of going to the ballet as a child (a long time ago!) were when The Royal Ballet were on tour in Brighton - and I still have the autographs to prove it!

I agree that it would be great to have the potted bios of the dancers again on the ROH website.

ENB had a little booklet each year for Friends when Wayne Eagling was there but this seems to have been dropped now with the re-launch.

[ENBlover]

Either way, new blood is needed.  After losing people in the last year you can't just rely on promotions from within/Osipova.  Maybe not permanent principals, but why would anybody object to having guest artists? 

[bangorballetboy]

Either way, new blood is needed.  After losing people in the last year you can't just rely on promotions from within/Osipova.  Maybe not permanent principals, but why would anybody object to having guest artists? 

 

Well, for a start, guests often (but not always) perform in the style of their home company rather than that of the company at which they're guesting.  This is particularly an issue for the Royal with the Ashton & MacMillan rep.

[Pas de Quatre]

I think RB ought to take a risk with some of its own dancers.  You only become a Principal by dancing Principal roles, and not once, but regularly!  In the early days of the company, Ninette de Valois groomed Margot Fonteyn who was still very young simply because Alicia Markova had left.  Some dancers will rise to the opportunity, others may not, but it is worth trying.

[ENBlover]

Fair enough, but I'm afraid there aren't too many Ninette de Valois' around.  With the exception of Carlos Acosta I just can't see too many top dancers who would become great teachers for the young.  If that's the case then why the likes of Johan Kobborg are allowed to leave? 

 

As for the style, there's little to argue with here.  Having said that, wouldn't you improve the non-traditional RB repertoise with guests?  I suppose it all really depends on how you feel about promoting within/hiring from other companies.

[Bruce Wall]

Well, for a start, guests often (but not always) perform in the style of their home company rather than that of the company at which they're guesting.  This is particularly an issue for the Royal with the Ashton & MacMillan rep.

 

Then so too the reverse where bringing in guests with more/different expertise in dealing with other choreographers ... to share their lights with other RB residents.  I'm thinking here of Balanchine in specific ... or, indeed, Petipa ... .  The idea there is to share and share alike and I am talking here about 'guest' status and certainly not PERMANENT GUEST STATUS which is, I think - and always has been - a contradiction in established terms ... but then that was the glory of Guillem all over ... and surely very few others .... and that was largely figured by a global market.   When she left (or was forced out ... does it matter now...) that wealth should have been spread more wisely among a number of world noted experts so any other performer funds such as now are used could be focused for the benefit of the resident all - e.g, the home team.  If that had been the case perhaps all these various postings would of necessity be about other issues, on say the rep itself.  (Let's use a specific example.  The company La Scala:  Nunez (RB) is dancing MacMillian's R&J with resident Murru, Osipova (who will have danced it with our local company as well as with ABT a goodly number of times both in the States and Japan) is dancing with ... erm .... ah, yes ... her partner, Vasiliev (shared - as are indeed both whether as principal or as now guest - with ABT) ..... and still they don't forget their home team using a complete set of Zakharova (shared on the La Scala boards with the Bolshoi) and Bolle (shared as we know with ABT).  Surely it's a two-way road for all to travel.  Again I'm speaking about 'guests' .... not here permanent company members.  It will, of course, be the permanents' job to profit and share from such experiences.    

 

Also, .... and I think this needs to be said ... as in so many other places/realms, sometimes you have to leave as one thing to come back as another.  Doubly impressed therefore with Kain's continuity vis a vis Jelinik .... If that had otherwise been the case you would, I think, have seen Alina additionally guesting with the Royal in those roles they felt most appropriate.  Still, she too had to leave to involve herself in more new work ... understandably so.  Or, perhaps, the Royal might finally have been able to appreciate/profit from the extraordinary talents of someone like Jose Manuel Carreno.  Sadly it was not to be.  Time waits for no (wo)man.  .  

Edited August 22, 2013 by Meunier

[LinMM]

Well it is true that Ashton and Macmillan ballets because they were created originally with RB dancers may have taken on or become associated with the "royal" style but that doesn't mean they have to be forever only danced by RB dancers!!

 

Every good Principal, Royal or otherwise, is going to bring their own special interpretation and nuances to a role. So I don't see why if there was a dancer from the Bolshoi say, dancing the role of Manon say, with the Royal that that would somehow be such a big problem.

 

Balanchine ballets were not created on RB dancers but that doesn't mean RB dancers would be no good at doing Balanchine roles.

And if an RB dancer was to go to an American or Russian company to do a Balanchine role I would expect that possibly they might even perform better in the "home" territory of the ballet and vice versa of course!!

[Bruce Wall]

Good point LinMM ... I have begun to wonder: did original Balletcouk posters have the same problems with Nina Ananiashvili doing Manon when she guested with the Royal?  I must confess I don't remember ... but I seem to recall her performance was celebrated at the time.  I also seem to recall that Laurent Hillare was popular in the same ballet when he was brought in to dance it with the Royal.  Did they storm out in horror at the prospect of having to see Asylmuratova infect Makarova's take on Bayadere?  I don't recall so.  I recall it was difficult to get tickets for her performances.  Am I wrong? ... Oh, and wasn't Nicholas La Riche applauded for his performance in M&A with Guillem???  I realise I am old and my memory is wont to be infirm.  Please do refresh it by detailing the damage done at the time ...  or perhaps these were mere figments of my imagination.  Certainly, none of those dancers were, I believe, ever resident RB principals and yet they didn't seem to 'effect' the performance of those works by legions of Royal residents - now many past - in a negative fashion at the time (did they?) and yet they did, I think, offer on at least occasion the excitement that Bruce is understandably desirous of.  Well, at least for some.  I remember Darcey Bussell going on in the most complimentary terms about dancing with both Bolle and Zelensky.  (Placing her shoe on an entirely different well heeled foot - I well remember seeing Darcey Bussell (then firmly the RB's 'star' principal - well, if you BELIEVED the British Press) - dance the central pas in Agon with Lindsay Fischer (now head of the NBoC's second company) at NYCB.  She (e.g., Bussell) was much celebrated there.  That I DO recall.  How could one forget it.  It was great.  Certainly that didn't take away from Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto's brilliant take on that brilliant piece at the same time in the same (e.g., their home) company.  They were both differently exciting.  (I also remember Bussell in Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream at NYCB.) What of Obraztsova doing Sleeping Beauty with the Royal .... or Merrill Ashley for that sake .... or Gelsey Kirkland .... or Baryishnikov doing Rhapsody (which I think was created for him by Ashton at the time that he was a principal with ABT???) or, say, Makarova doing Swan Lake with Dowell ...or MacMillan's Romeo & Juliet. The list I think could go on ..... could it not???? .... What of Angel Correa, what of Ethan Steifel (now both ballet company directors)... Indeed, what of Wendy Whelan coming in to do Herman Schermann (the role I believe was created on her ... e.g., before Guillem) ..... Something is, I fear, not quite adding up for me based on the Royal's own past history and vis a vis some of the arguments above. 

Edited August 22, 2013 by Meunier

[stucha]

... get a new Swan Lake!!!!!  Restore all the Ashton choreography as well.  RB could do as they did with Sleeping Beauty and revert to a previous production - the one danced by Markarova and Dowell is excellent.  That's my penny's worth!

[bangorballetboy]

As a Friday aside, here is a link to some wonderful video profiles from lawyers at a German firm.

[taxi4ballet]

 

More to the point what is being done with all these live recordings? Not that many seem to be making their way to dvd and why can't they be shown on tv? I thought the BBC had an arrangement with the ROH that if they helped with the filming they would have the rights to show so many on tv, or is this out of date, now? A few years back SkyArts broadcast all the 3 ballets shown that year; Bayadere, Nutcracker and I think Swan Lake but nothing since. My main plea would be for more ballets to be shown on tv and what better than the ones already filmed for broadcast.       Joan

 

I agree; there's so little in the way of ballet on TV, especially on the regular channels, since many people don't have Sky. Surely there must be a huge pool of archived material somewhere that could be put to good use... 

[alison]

... get a new Swan Lake!!!!!  Restore all the Ashton choreography as well.  RB could do as they did with Sleeping Beauty and revert to a previous production - the one danced by Markarova and Dowell is excellent.  That's my penny's worth!

 

It's certainly time they had one.  Who knows, if it was decent, I might actually start going to see it again.

 

I agree; there's so little in the way of ballet on TV, especially on the regular channels, since many people don't have Sky. Surely there must be a huge pool of archived material somewhere that could be put to good use... 

 

Yes, the much-heralded BBC collaboration seems to have fallen short somewhere.  Not sure whether that's the fault of the ROH or the BBC, though: the latter keep making a fuss about how difficult it is to fit ballet into the schedules.  *How* many Proms have they televised so far this season?

[MargaretN7]

.

 

 

Yes, the much-heralded BBC collaboration seems to have fallen short somewhere.  Not sure whether that's the fault of the ROH or the BBC, though: the latter keep making a fuss about how difficult it is to fit ballet into the schedules.  *How* many Proms have they televised so far this season?

I've often commented on this scheduling problem. BBC has no problem scheduling football matches. I accept there are (probably) more people wanting to watch football than ballet, but why can't we have as much ballet per month as there is football per week?

[Shmendrick]

 You'd think with Tony Hall now heading up the BBC they'd manage to shoehorn a ballet in somewhere. They wouldn't necessarily even need to film it if they used the ones that had been broadcast to cinemas, surely that's archived somewhere and could be shared with the BBC? Or they could make them available on iPlayer.

[jmhopton]

In a question and answer session published a few months ago in the Radio Times Tony Hall did make a commitment to more ballet and opera on tv so we'll have to keep an eye on scheduling this autumn and see if he keeps his word.   Joan

[LinMM]

Tony Hall has just been criticised in the current Radio Times(letters pages) because he also promised to do something about info about the next programme intruding into a preceding one and apparently this spoilt a drama that was on last week!

 

Perhaps he needs a bit longer to get some things changed.....it's not a year yet is it?

[zxDaveM]

Tony Hall has just been criticised in the current Radio Times(letters pages) because he also promised to do something about info about the next programme intruding into a preceding one and apparently this spoilt a drama that was on last week!

 

 

 

oh I really hate that - the Beeb not the only culprits. Sky did it the other week over the first words uttered by a brand new character's introduction at the end of the episode. They must have had LOADS of complaints, as they actually wrote to apologise for the 'mistake' after I'd been one of the complainants. Of course, if they didn't do that in the first place (and the even more infuriating split screen thing, where you can't read the credits which is particularly annoying if you're trying to catch the casting) there wouldn't be the opportunity for that mistake to be made. An example of the use of clever technology for clever technology's sake, rather than the interest of the viewer. And they wonder why so many people are now watching via the web...

[Bruce Wall]

Vis a vis the opening suggestion.  I thought this an effective introduction to a season representing a stylistic whole understandable to many in a brief but inviting fragment.  http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=554014  Refreshingly clean, not cluttered. 

Edited August 27, 2013 by Meunier

[Margaret]

I agree - really liked this video

 

Margaret

[lakeylakes]

The Royal ballet should try and tempt Maria Kochetkova back the UK from San Francisco. She is fab.

[alison]

Mm.  I got the impression she seemed very settled there, and was loving the opportunity to do so much new work.  Might be difficult to tempt?

[Bruce Wall]

One thing I would like the to have the Royal Ballet attempt because I think (a) it would be popular for them (as it has a complete two act narrative and is both for and with children) and ( as it would serve as a wonderful vehicle for some of the less tall male dancers like James Hay is Balanchine's HARLEQUINADE ... or for Ricardo.

 

I know I have mentioned this before ... but have never found a video segment from it before and I know many will have not had a chance to see it in New York.  Now I have found one.  This is one on a very small make-shift stage of Jimmy Carter's White House.  The chandelier is almost as large as the stage.  (You will see Robbins in the audience's second row).  This segment is of the central second act pas de deux between Harlequin and Columbine and is danced by Baryshnikov (what a glorious balletic artist he was) and the ALWAYS enchanting Patti McBride ... as well as two small groups of very young children from SAB in the interlocking interludes.  

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL_OJbNK-Sw&feature=youtu.be

 

I very much hope that you might enjoy this.  

Edited August 30, 2013 by Meunier

[Bruce Wall]

Sorry duplication ...  Would remove if I could ... See above .. 

Edited August 31, 2013 by Meunier

[taxi4ballet]

I've often commented on this scheduling problem. BBC has no problem scheduling football matches. I accept there are (probably) more people wanting to watch football than ballet, but why can't we have as much ballet per month as there is football per week?

 

Perhaps the BBC & other broadcasters simply don't realise that there are thousands and thousands of children (and adults) who take ballet classes each week,  (not to mention modern, tap, jazz, contemporary etc etc.); who are completely obsessed with dance and would relish the opportunity to be able to see more on tv.

 

When dance is arguably the most visual of the arts, it seems ironic really that they spend so much time and money broadcasting classical music concerts... you can't watch ballet on the radio!

 

There are occasional programmes on childrens' tv containing street dance - but other dance styles never get a look-in.

[jmhopton]

I know I've already had my wish (more Royal Ballet on tv) but another thing I think would be great is if the Royal followed the excellent examples of Northern Ballet and ENB and created short, narrative ballets aimed at very small children. They have the space in the Linbury and it would be excellent experience both for budding choreographers, and upper school and new corps dancers to gain valuable stage experience. it would also be a great way of introducing young children to ballet. So many young children seem to learn dance but I don't know how many actually experience the thrill of attending a live performance. I think Northern ballet have a policy of charging £5 for children and their Ugly Duckling was very well received by both children and adults. I Know the Royal has the schools matinees but I think more could be done to introduce very young children to ballet.  They are, after all, the adult attenders of the future. Joan

[Bruce Wall]

I know I've already had my wish (more Royal Ballet on tv) but another thing I think would be great is if the Royal followed the excellent examples of Northern Ballet and ENB and created short, narrative ballets aimed at very small children. 

 

Dear Joan, That's exactly why I suggested HARLENQUINADE ... Something all can enjoy while not compromising on the choreographic or musical artistry.  Call me prudish, but I for one am progressively distressed when I see ever more British parents/relatives bringing (very) young people to works like Mayerling where I fear the youngsters might well be forgiven for identifying (with justification) the art of ballet alongside a certain level of societal depravity inclusive of rape, drugs and homicide.  They will, I'm certain, have plenty of time to read/learn about the later well away from the opera house/theatre itself.  I suppose it's all a question of what people wish to have their children experience and certainly in this regard the RB offers a wide array of options whilst aspiring to celebrate the dictum:  'to each their own'.. 

Edited September 1, 2013 by Meunier

[proudpapa]

I must indulge in some trivia and put right the identity of the “very young children” in the Harlequinade video. As the proud papa of one of them (Alison Crosby, second from left, front row) I can say that at least the youngest were not from SAB, but rather from the Maryland Youth Ballet and other schools in suburban Washington. It was/is the practice of New York companies “on the road” to use local students when possible, and this was also the case in putting together the White House program (These same children danced at the Kennedy Center while Baryshnikov was in town that snowy week in February 1979). MYB has a rather remarkable track record as the training ground for three principal dancers with ABT (Susan Jaffee, Cheryl Yeager, and Julie Kent – Julie may well have been present in the video as another of the ten-year-olds). Another alumnus was Peter Fonseca, ABT soloist, whose mother, Tensia, founded MYB.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Proudpapa and welcome to the forum.  Thanks for that interesting correction - no wonder you are a proud papa!  We look forward to hearing more from you.

[Fonty]

From a personal point of view, I don't really like watching live ballet on television or at the cinema.  I just don't think any live theatre comes across well when shown in that way.  I feel the same way about opera, where the close ups make you feel as though you are disappearing down the singer's throat, or the occasional live theatre snippet, where the actors seem to be pulling faces and shouting.

 

If a ballet is to be filmed, it needs to be a performance designed specifically for the cinema, with the acting style and possibly the staging altered so that it looks at its best.  I know why they don't do it, of course - too expensive!

 

I remember when the RB touring company used to come to my home town, which is about 15 miles from central London, and put on full length productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and so on.  This was in the days when we still had the huge cinemas converted from the original music halls.  When these were changed into multi screen cinemas, I assume the ability to stage live productions of this size was lost. 

Edited November 27, 2013 by Fonteyn22

[proudpapa]

I have a horror story about watching live ballet on television. The International Ballet Competition was held in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1980s, in rotation with other venues (still is held there, but not sure about the rotation now). During one of the performances, the soloist fell. The filmed sequence of the moments of the fall was repeated at least once, the "instant replay" so beloved of sports broadcasters, so the viewer can fully absorb the trauma, blood and gore a bonus!!