38 replies to this topic

[CM]

Pharoah's daughter performance at ROH

http://www.thesun.co...rticle58338.ece

[Rosa]

In 2003 the premiere of Makarova's The Sleeping Beauty performed by the Royal Ballet with Bussell/Bolle was not a total success: sets got stuck or did not appear, and Bussell pulled out with an injury after the grand PDD. I believe Marianela Nuñez finished the performance.

[Ostrich]

jonellew, on Mar 3 2009, 06:13 PM, said:

I know there is at least one video of ballet bloopers out there—does anyone know of it? It may be a Russian video. I remember it had lots of uninteresting falls and such, but also things like a dancer doing a circle of jete en tournant and getting wound up in a curtain and  having to stop to move backward and unwind himself before continuing on.

This is not the video you're thinking of, but it features Dmitri Gudanov of the Bolshoi in a series of minor accidents. I love the first one (Giselle).

[smokeyjoe]

Performance outdoor in Monte Carlo by Monte Carlo Ballet a piece by J.Ch.Maillot Vers une Peysage the stage became wet cause of the humidity and after about 15 dancers fell in about 5min they had to stop the performance. Well lucky that nobody got hurt!!!

[smokeyjoe]

Zurich Ballet Performance the fixed wings on the side stage became loose and fell like a domino the last one broke the back prospect and was falling on one of the dancers on stage. He jumped sideways like spiderman without changing his position. It was really spectacular. Again nobody got hurt! The show continued in 10min.

[duffster]

In a Harkness Ballet performance of Firebird, the huge egg that Koschei was holding fell out of his arms and rolled straight into the orchestra pit.They stopped playing for about a half a minute but resumed the Stravinsky score with no problems.

[sandik]

A couple of years ago at Pacific Northwest Ballet, in their production of Sleeping Beauty.  After the vision scene, the Lilac Fairy and the prince get into the little boat to "go and find her!," but alas, no going occurs for several uncomfortable moments.  They stand there valiantly, the LF holding her wand in the "I say go!" position, until finally the boat starts with a lurch, and they almost fall over.  

I know this particular glitch has occurred in almost every theater where they have some kind of transport other than your feet -- boats, carts, carriages -- whatever.

[ViolinConcerto]

I'm glad that most of these reports end happily.  I wouldn't want to count the times when dancers are injured onstage, that's more sad than funny.  

But back to the funny ones, I know that the little donkey in "Union Jack" has left deposits onstage at various times.  And once, in "Mozartiana" with Suzanne Farrell and Ib Anderson in the leads, in the final section of the coda where the children are dancing with the principals, one girl's slipper came untied.  She just kept up the the choreography.... I forget if she kicked it off at the end, but she never stopped smiling or dancing.  A real trouper!

[diane]

The most wrong thing I ever witnessed was when I was still dancing, and during a performance of "Romeo and Juliet".

In this version, there is a huge bed in the center of the stage for that big pas de deux -which is managed around and over and on top of said bed.
Immediately afterwards is a "black out", and when the lights come back up,
the stage is empty, and everyone for the next scene are all standing around the sides, in position.

Except it wasn't.
Empty, I mean.  

When the lights came back up, the bed was _still there_.

We all looked at each other, made a few fervent nods and eye-brow raisings, and then we started the dance, just going around this humongous bed for the entire scene.

I wonder if anyone in the audience even noticed; perhaps they thought it was an interesting twist to the story. ;)

-d-