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Royal Ballet - Nutcracker (Christmas 2013)


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Fonty, in answer to your question about children being used in child roles, ENB's current Nutcracker has children (from Tring Park) playing Clara and Freddie who are replaced by adult dancers at the beginning of the battle scene. I think that all the current Nutcrackers have children in the party scene (and ENB's has children playing mice in the battle scene).

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I share the teapot memory! I think it was in the London Festival Ballet Nutcracker, which I saw a couple of times in childhood. Sadly I remember very little of the producton, apart from this image of a huge willow pattern teapot in the Chinese dance. I think one of the dancers had to lift the lid and jump out!

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I share the teapot memory! I think it was in the London Festival Ballet Nutcracker, which I saw a couple of times in childhood. Sadly I remember very little of the producton, apart from this image of a huge willow pattern teapot in the Chinese dance. I think one of the dancers had to lift the lid and jump out!

That sounds like the one! I wish I could remember more about it. Glad to know it wasn't false memory syndrome.

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Well they used to do the Nutcracker at the Festival Hall for years and then started to use the Coli. I only dressed for them at the Coli.....at least Im pretty certain I didnt dress when they were at Festival Hall......so must have moved there mid 70's (74-76?)

Will have to check this out with friend in Oz as she did it with me and will remember whose production had the big teapot!

 

Wasn't there quite a good Old Mother Hubbard character as well with children dancing out from under her huge skirt?

I'm sure I'm muddling up productions but will get back to you about the teapot!

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Ronald Hynd's production started in 1976 so it probably is this one with the teapot.

I only dressed for a few seasons so think most likely 76-79 .....Certainly Beryl Grey was still Artistic Director and Evdokimova seemed to,be their main ballerina along with Miklosy and another dancer who was constantly smoking! The memory gets a bit hazy before the 80's one forgets so many details!

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Well they used to do the Nutcracker at the Festival Hall for years and then started to use the Coli. I only dressed for them at the Coli.....at least Im pretty certain I didnt dress when they were at Festival Hall......so must have moved there mid 70's (74-76?)

Will have to check this out with friend in Oz as she did it with me and will remember whose production had the big teapot!

 

Wasn't there quite a good Old Mother Hubbard character as well with children dancing out from under her huge skirt?

I'm sure I'm muddling up productions but will get back to you about the teapot!

Ah yes, the Mother Hubbard and children coming out from under the skirt. But that rings a bell from my very early ballet-going days, back in late 60s. I need to hunt through old programmes at my mother's house to see what I can turn up. Unless ENB have an archive going back to their earlier days.

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hello LinMM, yes ¡¡¡ :) the 6th december ,  FINALLY, my dream came true and I saw   Lauren Cuthbertson ¡¡¡ and I have no words to express my impressions. She offered a SPECTACULAR dancing. she's first of all a fantastic dancer, that's for sure, everybody knows that, of course, she's pure excellent technique ( graceful port des bras¡¡¡ so beautiful ¡¡¡, but the special thing about her, at least is my impression , is that she is kind of listening the music while dancing or following it or dancing with it,I'm sorry if I can't express myself better, but maybe you know what I mean, she gave me the impression as if she were dancing for and  with the music ¡¡¡, enjoying it, following it ,I mean, I was sooo amazed by that, and of course, her variation was WORTH the trip to London....SHE WAS something really magic , special and unique, I saw then ,while she was on stage, why she is a principal star of the company, she's a real star that shine for a lot of things not only for her great dancing, she has something unique that only the true stars are distinguished from good dancers, so I enjoyed  a lot that night at the ballet.

 

The sad thing about the performance was that I was really really wishful to see Iohna Loots, as I enjoy a lot her DVD performance that I was kind of happy to see her on stage live, but she was replaced  :( by another dancer, I dont remember the name, I got the cast information in that paper with all the cast names that I took at the tables at the entrace hall but I don't know where that paper is now, so I don't remember the name of the dancer, but the truth is that she was GREAT, :) and actually, I loved her a lot, and I hope to see her again in the future ( actually I'm planning to travel again to London to see Sleeping Beauty )so even if I missed this time the beautiful smile of Iohna, I've discovered a new dancer that I did not know and that she got a tremendous success and lots of applauses¡¡¡, she was perfect for the role.really. so good for her.

by the way, can you or anybody find out the name of that dancer, she danced Clara the evening of  6th december , the night that Lauren danced.. Thank you,Merci¡¡¡¡ ;)

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Could well be.....it's a character I remember may have been based on Old Mother Hubbard but perhaps in the ballet was called Mother Ginger.

Still don't know if this was also in "the teapot" version.

 

 

Friend in Oz says we did dress at Festival Hall as well so not sure which Nutcracker version was BEFORE Hynds one in1976.

I wasn't a paid dresser just a volunteer when they were in London which meant The Festival Hall or Coliseum usually. I actually only have a recollection of watching from the sidelines occasionally at the Festival Hall and was very admiring of the dancers for coping with the cramped conditions. My memory is much stronger of the Coli and I associate that theatre with the teapot!!

 

It's incredibly hard to find details of past productions so long ago in fact. There is a very good "old programme covers " site if you search for a company and a year etc but it won't tell you the production details just who the main dancers were etc.

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Sorry we seemed to have got onto a discussion about ENB ' s Nutcracker (or older versions of!!) and just remembered this is RB thread!

 

It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that it was an old RB production that had the teapot and my memory doesn't serve me correctly but right now would put £5 on it being an ENB production!!

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Sorry we seemed to have got onto a discussion about ENB ' s Nutcracker (or older versions of!!) and just remembered this is RB thread!

 

It happens :).  Don't remember seeing anyone complaining about it being hijacked by ENB fans, though :)

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Did anybody else go to the performance at ROH on 4 jan? For me it was worth all the travel difficulties (buses and trains etc). I thought it was a magical performance, especially the Christmas tree. I have not seen the RB Nutcracker for many years - it must have been the previous production that I saw. This one was very enjoyable. I thought that Natalia Osipova danced in the style of a grand imperial Russian ballerina, which surprised me. The pdd was very grand indeed!

 

Thanks to all the gracious and charming dancers who signed autographs after the performance. I wish them all a happy New Year. Pleased to see Francesca Hayward in the Observer as one to watch in 2014 - well deserved.

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For the RB Nutcracker what do they do about the choral part during the Waltz of the Snowflakes? In the ENB Nutcracker at the London Coli they had a choir of children in a box (no, not a cardboard box, you know what I mean!).

 

Just curious as to what the RB do.

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For the RB Nutcracker what do they do about the choral part during the Waltz of the Snowflakes? In the ENB Nutcracker at the London Coli they had a choir of children in a box (no, not a cardboard box, you know what I mean!).

 

Just curious as to what the RB do.

They use a choir and they sing from the orchestra pit

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