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RB Woolf Works, May 2015


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There was an item on Woolf Works - with brief interviews with McGregor, Ferri and Richter - on the BBC Radio 4 TODAY SHOW just before 8.00 am.  I'm sure it will be on the radio iplayer and/or accessed through the well captioned TODAY SHOW web pages.  

Edited by Bruce Wall
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Hamilton was already in the first night cast. Interestingly, the third named female dancer seems to have disappeared from both casts - Nuñez from the first cast and Calvert from the second cast.  I wonder if this is a website error.

 

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/woolf-works-by-wayne-mcgregor

 

Edited to add link to ROH website

 

 

Calvert has now reappeared at one performance only (May 14) Something very strange going on with the website!

 

 

We discussed this on the previous page. The conclusion seems to be that it's a website error - hardly a rare occurrence - which might explain why there hasn't been an announcement.

 

Interestingly, Calvert has now disappeared from the May 14 performance as well.  

 

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/woolf-works-by-wayne-mcgregor

 

This would seem to indicate that the removal of the 8th female dancer (the third on the list) might have been intentional and not an error

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Here's a new one. A short section of the Today programme given over to a piece about Woolf Works.Does this reflect a new spirit of openess or a degree of concern about slow ticket sales?

I doubt it. Both morning TV and morning radio do sometimes cover the arts, and new productions, and have been doing so for years. I suspect the tie-in with Woolf means that it's deemed sufficiently "arty" for R4 to take an interest.

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I really enjoyed both clips! Edward Watson is an inspired choice for movement derived from Orlando, imho. Will definitely try and get to see this now. I hope people will give it a fair viewing.

 

Whatever you think of McGregor's work, he always comes across as a very involved and engaging presence in these videos.

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I've now watched both rehearsal clips - and found that I've enjoyed it so much! Not enjoyed McGregors work so much since Chroma! 

 

What are your opinions?

 

I am hugely looking forward to the opening night of this ballet.

 

The fluidity in movement & accompanying music for the PDD by Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli reminds me of the final PDD in Infra (Infra was "love at first sight" for me and still is the McGregor ballet that I have enjoyed most to date), and the energy in the solo by Edward Watson lets me think of Chroma. With the style of dancing and music so different in those two rehearsal clips, it'll be interesting to hear the music/ see the movements for the first part of Woolf Works.

 

I sometimes buy the music before I attend a ballet performance so I can familiarise myself with that element beforehand. Woolf Works is the first ballet where I have been reading books in preparation (Mrs Dalloway, currently Orlando, though I'll only have time for a summary description of The Waves), and I can't wait to see how, in a non-narrative ballet, elements of these books have been used to create choreography. In fact, I keep highlighting text in Orlando that, based on the Insight Event, I would enjoy seeing in a ballet.

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Thanks for that link, Duck.  I'd assumed it would be on the ROH website, but they seem to have missed a trick there.

 

Thanks Alison & I agree. I only picked it up as the link was posted on Twitter by someone who I presume must have spotted the video on YouTube, and I would have assumed that it would be on the ROH web site by now. With the style in The Waves being so different to Orlando, watching the clip from The Waves may attract additional audiences. Though maybe they are holding back some information until next week?

 

 

Judith Mackrell has quite a substantial preview piece that went up too late for today's Links.  So, advance notice for tomorrow:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/02/royal-ballet-virginia-woolf-works-wayne-McGregor

 

Many thanks Ian for posting this link. The article provides imho so much insight into the creative process as well as the finished product.

 

Interesting to see that Mrs Dalloway will have a quiet atmosphere; I had imagined this part of Woolf Works to show a flurry of hectic movements among clocks ticking (though I guess I was thinking too much of Septimus rather than Clarissa). Wayne McGregor did mention the female/ male sets of costume for the cast for Orlando at the Insight Evening however there is so much more information in this article about the ballet as a whole.

 

The content of the article is the type of information that, in an ideal world, I would wish to see on the ROH web site for a new ballet. Though maybe some information is held back until next week in order to have a steady stream of news (not sure as I would have thought that information such as the content of the article helps with ticket sales)?

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Comments after the Guardian piece are quite entertaining. Mr MacGregor himself, I assume it is the real Mr MacGregor and not someone pretending to be him, has replied to some particularly negative feedback. Our own BillBoyd also features!

Despite residual misgivings, I am actually looking forward to the matinee, not least for the opportunity to see Miss Ferri. I cannot believe she would involve herself in anything less than interesting. 

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And I find those Guardian comments pretty depressing, if I'm honest.  I'm in my mid-twenties and probably among the demographic that ROH are keen to attract.  Chroma was the very first performance I saw at Covent Garden and I'm looking forward to Woolf Works.  I've been contacted by several friends (the same age) who have spotted the adverts and are intrigued enough to look for tickets.  The overwhelming negativity towards McGregor and anyone interested in seeing or discussing his work is, however, really off-putting.  I might be tempted to go and see a play or something instead.

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And I find those Guardian comments pretty depressing, if I'm honest.  I'm in my mid-twenties and probably among the demographic that ROH are keen to attract.  Chroma was the very first performance I saw at Covent Garden and I'm looking forward to Woolf Works.  I've been contacted by several friends (the same age) who have spotted the adverts and are intrigued enough to look for tickets.  The overwhelming negativity towards McGregor and anyone interested in seeing or discussing his work is, however, really off-putting.  I might be tempted to go and see a play or something instead.

 

 

There will inevitably be different opinions on specific ballets. As you already have a ticket and been looking forward to the performance, go for it. :)   

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Here a link to a rehearsal clip with Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli for the third part of Woolf Works, based on The Waves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oz3gNlnQFA&feature=youtu.be

 

The rehearsal clip with Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli is now also on the ROH web site http://www.roh.org.uk/news/watch-alessandra-ferri-and-federico-bonelli-in-rehearsal-for-wayne-mcgregors-woolf-works

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BTW, I used to enjoy reading the comments on the Guardian website: they used to be quite informative and/or entertaining.  It seems to me that since the powers that be tampered with redesigned the website the quality has dropped rather drastically.  I wonder how many people, like me, are now blocked from posting on there at all?

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Incidentally, has anyone picked up on the approximate number of dancers WW will involve?  To what extent is it more or less those dancers listed, or is there much work for, say, a corps? 

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The Times has a long interview with Alessandra Ferri today (in T2, written by Debra Craine).

 

Thank you for pointing to this article, it made me buy The Times today. In reading the article, I learnt that Alessandra Ferri will feature in the 1st and 3rd parts of Woolf Works (my previous understanding had been that it'd be in all three parts).

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If nothing else, the bill has inspired me to finally read Orlando (superb) and accept that I will never get past the first 10 pages of Waves.

That's what cliff notes are for, right?

 

The rehearsal clips are great. I might find McGregor more interesting than some of his ballets, but that changes as soon as he moves away (as he seems to for this bill) from trying to express scientific / highly intellectualised content through dance towards expressing emotions / impressions / moods. If the rest of the bill is comparable to the pdd with Bonelli and Ferri, I'm going to be a very delighted punter.

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