Viviane

Ed, isn't the new word "Eurotrash" ? A word Clement Crisp also uses to indicate the contemporary works that come from Europe's 'mainland'

Just discovered this one Alexandra, don't worry ! Thanks to Rosas, Les Ballets C.de la B., Ultima Vez and unfortunately so many others !... Belgian balletomanes has developed an extra sense to avoid these 'events'. To answer the question : a good or a bad review never stops me from going to see a performance.

I'm not so impressed by the high numbers of competitors from Japan and Korea. Cultural background is totally different and for a lot of dancers, the training too ! The main goal of the Prix de Lausanne is to win a scholarship for one of the world-reknown top-balletschools in the West. I learned from some Japanese dancers that it's an honour for a family to have a balletdancer. Well, I know - we feel the same way - but we are far more sensible about it.

A big 'thank you' from me too, Jean-Luc ! Your post revived the wonderful memories I have from this ballet :-)

Indeed Marc, the case of Nadia Dimitrova was very sad. Oh dear ! Did they really performed 'Giselle' again in 1999 ? It's possible, I skipped them a while from my agenda ! Now that I think about it, there was another AD in Antwerp, who's wife was the principal : Valery Panov and his wife Galina ! But that was another story

It's obvious that an AD, being married with the principal isn't a good thing for the atmosphere in the company. Marc, indeed the only thing you could do to avoid Sunal was taking a matinée . Herman, I'm not so sure we will see the other dancers more...as it's very likely the repertory will be changed with the new AD. Among my favourites are Olga Voloboueva and Aki Saito. A young dancer to look out for is Annabelle Hellinckx. Agalie Vandamme left for 'Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo' and I miss her ! You're right to see Aysem Sunal as Giselle, a role that suited her perfect ! But, that was 8-9 years ago ? and if I'm not mistaken, it hasn't been repeated. Sunal is a fine technician and I have seen really good performances with her, but she's not the type that can dance it all (who is ?!) ! And after years you really stays hungry when not seeing other dancers.

Since I discovered the Kirov, I'm intrigued by the Bolshoi : what has that other famous Russian company to offer ?. Given that they appear in both Paris and London this season, comparison of the repertoire made me travel to Paris : I felt I absolutely needed to see their "La Fille du Pharaon". This ballet, being a reconstruction of Marius Petipa's ballet of 1862, consists of 3 Acts, 8 scenes and is based on a novel by Th.Gautier.. This production was created for the Bolshoi in 2000 by France's best choreographer : Pierre Lacotte. I couldn't guess that a cold and grey Paris-on-Sunday and a fully packed Garnier would be the background of a heartwarming first encounter with the Bolshoidancers. I hardly can find the right words for it, they bowled me over completely ! So, I even don't know where to start. Maybe I take the story, the most feeble element of this ballet (not that you hear me complaining !). "Seaking shelter for a storm in one of the piramids, Lord Wilson (an English tourist) shares opium with Arab merchants and thanks to his hallucinations that follows we have a wonderful ballet ! He became Tahor and meets the Pharaoh's Daughter, Aspicia (resurected from her sarcophague), and they fall in love. A love with all the complications and misunderstandings one can have in a ballet. In an heroic act he rescues her from a lion - becomes arrested by the Pharaoh who don't understand the situation and is later guided -in triumph- to the palace. His servant Passiphonte (John Bull) follows his master's adventures in despair. Alas there is already a diplomatic marriage (with the King of Nubia) arranged for Aspicia, which she rejects. With the help of her servant Ramzé both lovers escape to a fishermens-place along the river Nile. When discovered by the King of Nubia, Aspicia sees only an escape in drowning herself in the river. Tahor and Passiphonte are taken into prison. The God of the river Nile welcomes her in his kingdom but Aspicia's mind is still with Tahor. After seeing his image appearing here and there, the Nile-God fulfills her wish to return to the earth. When the Pharaoh was just about to order the death of Tahor (by the bite of a sacred serpent), his daughter returns and can explain the betrayal of the Nubian King and her profound love for Tahor. After another menace to kill herself, the Egyptian Pharaoh accepts the unison of Aspicia and Tahor. Instead of ending with a joyfull party, we find Lord Wilson awakening from a deep sleep : a smile on his face because of his marvelous dream !" If you ever saw Lacotte's "Paquita", you can imagine what joyful ballet and great dancing was on offer. (btw, "Paquita" is now available on DVD). Pierre Lacotte not only signed for the choreography, he also designed the costumes and scenery. And I can't deny he masters this part of the art too ! The scenery is simple but very effective, well balanced but eyecatching too, thanks to it's contrasts. Here I'm thinking f.i. of the contrast between the underwaterworld and the bright scene and colours of the piramids-environment. I had the reaction to close my eyes for the burning sun The costumes are splendid, not some strange, odd 'reconstructed' ones but made with a great reminiscent to the era, fitted for dazzling dancers of today. I have to think hard to find another ballet with so much harmony and continuity. The numerous scenes ask for many scenery-changes but everything went smoothly : I saw this ballet nearly in one breath, it was all over too quick. The light-hearted story has enough room for a laugh and a wink, not at least with the monkey who appeared in the wood, the fight with the lion, Aspicia's descent into the underwater-Kingdom, the funny 'deadly-snake' and for surprises : the -immaculate white- real horse on the stage. The harmony and continuity was even more prominent in the dancing ! "La Fille du Pharaon" is jam-packed with fine dancing, little steps from numerous feet that never seem tired. You can't find 'dead points', solo's evolve into pdd and ensemble-dancing seamlessly. The role of the corps and demi-soloists is delicately intertwined with these of soloists and principals : all these layers of creativity give a massive support to the ballet and make it a real "grand ballet". I have to think hard to find another ballet with so much detail and delicacy.Detail in the costumes of course, but even so in attributes : the arches and spears in the hunting-scene -all perfect in line. The different, impressive tableaux they made at the end of a scene. Detail also in the 'scene-in-scene' : sometimes you hardly knew where to look ! The so important "mime" in this ballet was of an unseen quality : strong and fine at the same time with a cristal-clarity. The dancing was crisp, clean ...fast and with -unseen for this part of Europe- such delicate arms and upperbodies ! I was more than lucky to find Maria Alexandrova in the role of Aspicia : what a wonderful and beautiful dancer ! Her dancing is very strong and powerful although with the necessary delicacy. I couldn't believe I found her as a soloist in 'le programme !'. I don't know if she can be seen as an example of the 'Bolshoi-style', but she seems to me one of those scarce vivid dancers with a real stage presence : I love her. Rouslan Skvortsov as Tahor was impressive as well. Fast (very fast !) legwork to die for ! This must be a hell of a ballet for the dancers, at some moments hardly any chance to find some recuperation, so I forget about some small imperfections. I was rather disappointed with Elena Andrienko in the role of Ramzé, not technically but a blank performance such a stark contrast with Alexandrova ! Some other names I'll learn by heart : Anastasia Yatsenko (a lovely dancer) offered us together with Anastasia Goriacheva a fine Pas d'Action in Act II, although the boys were not of the same quality. Ekaterina Shipulina and Dimitri Gudanov as the fisherscouple for their natural dancing in act III. I adored the whole scene and the variations in the kingdom of the God of the Nile, again Yatsenko (as river Guadalquivir) and Shipulina (as river Congo) were eyecatching. This ballet was a perfect way to start a new 'ballet-year' : hat-off for Mr.Lacotte and the whole Bolshoi-company.

Great to hear someone, based in Amsterdam ! Herman, please let's know all about what you're seeing at DNB

Amy, we aren't talking about the skills of the new AD, but the new direction our balletcompany is taking. The official statement is that they stay a 'classical' company with a mixed repertory but all interviews are emphasizing the contrarary. To keep the balance they also nominated Jan Nuyts. Nuyts, a dancer trained in the Antwerp school, former dancer at the RBOF, NDT, Béjart and San Francisco Ballet became co-director of Béjart's Mudra school and is now AD of Yuu Kikaku Ltd in Tokio (?). Not exactly a pure classical career ! Marc, I just read that the next two months Kathryn Bennets will by staging "In the middle..." with the Kirov in Sint Petersburg

After an 8th months-search, the RBOF- board of directors, announced the name of the new artistic director : Kathryn Bennets. Katrhyn Bennets is Australian, former dancer with Australian Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet. She's a pedagogue and currently assistant to William Forsythe at the Ballett Frankfurt. She will take the position in July 2005 for 5 years. Jan Nuyts is nominated as assistant AD. I heard this news a couple of hours ago and was hoping that it wasn't true ! So I waited anxiously to the official announcement in the papers : and there it was at 16.27pm I'm devastated : today, we lost classical ballet in Flanders too ! Maybe I should seriously consider emigration ?

Casting for Cinderella you can find here : http://info.royaloperahouse.org/Performing...?ccs=492&cs=894 I would recommend -without doubt !- the stellar-cast on 30-12 matinée : Alina Cojocaru & Johan Kobborg, but it's very unlikely that there will be tickets left 1st January, matinée : Leanne Benjamin & V.Samodurov, can be interesting although Somodurov is a new principal at the RB and have been distrubed very little so far !. 2nd January, matinée : Yoshida & Bonelli. I not a big fan of Yoshida, Bonelli (another new principal) can be interesting 'if' he has settled down with his new company in the mean time.

Thank you Marc, it was worthwhile waiting

Royal Ballet of Flanders, triple bill "Circles & Mind Games" 08th November 2003 - Opera of Ghent. Although the new balletseason started at the end of September, I only managed to see the opening triple bill last Saturday in Ghent. Before the summerbreak all kind of rumours reached me about lots of dancers leaving the company due to internal disputes. I already knew that Agalie Van Damme left for 'Les Ballets de Monte Carlo', Jeroen Verbruggen and others changed cold Belgium for more sunshine in Madrid. As always the company kept silent, no official statements wether it is concerning leaving and new members or about the appointment of a new Artistic Director for the 2004-2005 season. So I was pretty curious to find out who had left. Leavers seemed to be most from the half-soloist and corps de ballet-rank, the principals and first soloists made no changes. But with a total of +/-14 (most male-dancers) I was anxious to see how the company was looking now ! And I can't wait to say : they looked marvellous and even more coherent ! The biggest surprise being the return of Geneniève Van Quaquebeke. She spent 3 years in Monaco and was now -stronger as ever- back on stage in her home-town. The evening was filled with 3 dancepieces based on contemporary music. The openingnumber "Journey", choreographed by Mauricio Wainrot on intriguing music (Harmonielehre) by John Adams, was seen as an hommage to the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Flanders and their Director, Robert Denvers. Since 1991, Wainrot is working with them on a regular base. On an assymetric divided stage (a slightly higher stage on the left) Wainrot introduced us into a competitive (apathic ?) man/woman-world. The dancing -clearly based on strength- was rather a confrontation between the sexes than an unision and the highly ritmic music created the right atmosphere. Apart from an impressive duet from Aki Saito and Priit Kripson I can't remember any 'slightly' emotional sign. This duet was perfectly placed -after a complete silence- and gained on impact thanks to that. I found it a high demanding choreography and the 18 dancers were -as always- perfectly trained. Some of the dancers -who moved up in rank since the last season- were a delight. It was good to see a coherent and strong group but I left again with that undestined feeling that these dancers need a worldclass choreography to do themselves justice. House-choreographer Danny Rosseel served us "Unveiled senses" on (violin) music by Peter Sculthorpe. So far, I think Rosseel used all possible home-attributes in his work. This time the focus was an oversized -immaculate white- sofa on a black square background and 3 ballerinas : Ninon Neyt, Joëlle Auspert and Miho Akahane. These 3 'femmes fatales' in black minimal-dresses with high-split skirts (lined in red,blue & green), played an entertaining "toned legs"-game. Starting from a cosy place they discover the environment and the others, music and dancing creates a field of tension between them but a rapprochement seems impossible. All by all, I only remember the dramatic lighted sofa and legs, legs, legs.... an entertaining piece but nothing more. "Circle of Fifths" was supposed to be the highlight of the evening. Created in 1997 by Christopher d'Amboise for the NYCB on a violinconcerto by Philip Glass. It was the first time this neo-classical creation was staged in Europe. Atleticism was my first thought : close-fitting leotards with slightly piped trousers for the ladies , leggings and prés-du-corps t-shirts for the men. The ritmic music, evoking lots of jumps and running underlined this thought. The use of space was great and sometimes surprising and I was quite impressed by the trios and ensemble-dancing. But I found more sensitivity in the music (which is great !) and I couldn't find this on stage, it made me feel like an alien I certainly missed something here ! OK, pointe-work was rather marginal and I missed more fluent movement. In recent years I seriously get annoyed by that 'breaking of movement', that 'dissecting' of movement and using ballet-elements as choreographic elements on their own (like the battements). I hope I can express myself here the right way ? But...but : the dancers were marvellous ! I bet an uninformed spectator would immediately try to find out who this company is This performance was another proof that they find their way into the neoclassical rather than struggling with amputated classics. Geneviève was great and impressive, she gained so much force, real professionalism ! : so good to have her back

Well, I'm waiting patiently...has no-one seen Daria ? So far, I've found confort in the reviews of C.Crisp (F.T.) and Ism.Brown (The Telegraph) ! Wow, while reading that, I could beat myself for not travelling to London. It's obvious that she's at a key-point in her career and no-one in London can comment on her performances ? Spotting a real ballerina isn't that difficult

Klaus, you have another chance to see it on the 4th of November. I must agree, 'La Sonnambula' didn't made it for me either. I liked the Spoerli-bit with Sting on guitar, the close-ups of her great feet and the partnering of Laurent Hilaire in "Carmen". I'm Belgian ! Here and there you still find some strange specimens of balletomanes who survived

I don't know if some of you have access to "ARTE" (a french/German broadcastchannel). Tonight -8.15pm European time !- there is a programme about Ferri's career. And...I found some additional info on Arte's website : http://www.arte-tv.com/emission/emission.j...=440666〈=fr We will see excerpts from 'La Sonnambula" with Baryshnikov, Mc.Millan's "Romeo & Juliet" with Julio Bocca, "Prélude" de Spoerli with Sting and "Carmen" with Laurent Hilaire. There is a great video-fragment on the site with pdd. from "Carmen" : enjoy !

Just found Dance Magazine's warm-up for the Kirov Tour ! In this month's edition they are focusing on Fokine and have a *great* cover :rolleyes: http://www.dancemagazine.com/contents.htm

"18 balletperformances in September" ? Sigh ! What a wealth ! :rolleyes: I still need to learn EVERYTHING about the Bolshoi !

No thanks Silvy, I'm completely amazed that someone on this board already heard about the Royal Ballet of Flanders ! The ballet "The Three Musketeers" is choreographed by André Prokovsky on music by Giuseppe Verdi. Our company danced it in 1996 and 1998 and took it on tour to the USA some time ago (2 years ?) where they got positive reactions

Silvy, I searched in my programmebooks and can add the following : Mauricio Wainrot was a dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, the Ballet de Carnare in Caracas, Ballet Contemporaneo in Buenos Aires and the Grupo de Danza Contemporaneo at the Teatro San Martin. From 1982 until 1985 he was artistic director of the Grupo de Danza Contemporaneo, where he created works like : Anne Frank, Libertango, Symphony of Psalms, Fiesta, Reflections, Three Argentine Dances. Since 1986 he was invited by numerous European and American dancetroupes. Royal Ballet of Flanders has the following ballets in their repertoire : 'Beyond Memory, 'Firebird', 'Messiah', 'Looking through Glass', 'Carmina Burana', 'Tango Fiesta', 'Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen', 'Le Sacre du Printemps' and 'Eight Seasons'. He is indeed, since 1999, artistic director of the Ballet Contemporaneo Teatro San Martin. I've also read that he was a guestteacher at Béjart's Mudra-school in Brussels. Agalie Van Damme was a great 'choosen one' and one of my favourite dancers at my home-company. Sadly I just heard she left for 'Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo', the same move Bernice Coppieters and Geneviève Van Quackebeke did before her !

Silvy, the Royal Ballet of Flanders has an extensive list of Maurizio Wainrot's choreographies in their repertoire. I can't say I have seen them all (!), but I agree with you on "Le Sacre du Printemps" (that's how we call it here), this is a very powerfull and impressive creation. I can even say more : it's my favourite "Rite" , the water-element in it is amazing and add to it's climax. We had some extremely moving performers for it too ! I say 'had' because half of the company seems to have changed now :-( I haven't seen his "Eight Seasons" and wasn't impressed by "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen" on music by Mahler. His work is performed by companies as English National Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Florida, North Carolina Dance Theater, Juilliard Dance Ensemble, Bat Dor Dance Company in Israel, Hannover Opera and Wiesbaden Opera in Germanary, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, National Ballet of Mexico and Chili.

Alymer, I enjoyed your 'Kirov season in a nutshell' thoroughly The more your impressions and vision is spot-on ! I too, am enjoying 'La Bayadère' more and more. Marc, I'm surprised to read that the openingdance of the 2nd.Act is only performed in their homecountry !? It would be interesting to know what's the reason. Speaking about the ROH sightlines : this is indeed a big let-down. Every time I'm there I'm annoyed by it. It's obvious one has chosen -along with a conservative restoration- for the highest possible number of seats without taking into concern the confort these are bringing to the spectator. This is a point of view that's no longer favorised in todays approach of architectural conservation. I can't imagine this idea found his source in the architects-masterplan for the site. For the "Contrasts"-programme, I had a 45£ seat at the Balcony...and I had to stand the whole time to see the dancers I'm pretty convinced to travel more to Paris next season ! I also have serious doubts about the safety precautions they used : it takes too much time to evacuate the theatre when you're sitting on the right-side. In Italy there was an uproar when one heard that only a part of the original auditorium of Milan's 'La Scala' will be conserved. I'm looking forward to see the result !

The most wellknown are : "Scuola di ballo del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma " in Rome, and "Scuola di ballo del Teatro alla Scala" in Milan. Don't know of a website though and don't expect it to have an English translation ! You always can ask on the most known Italian balletwebsite runned by a group of balletdancers from La Scala : http://www.balletto.net

Writing something about a ballet is always a pleasure, Alexandra "Cool purity" yes, that's right. I don't know another Kirov-ballerina who's able to perform the whole scala of emotions, Pavlenko has. If people speak of her coldness, I think they missed all subtleties she can add to a character. She hasn't the dazzling technique of Vishneva and Zakharova, but I think she's completer as a performer. Sorry it sounds like I start raving :rolleyes: Well anyway, she has everything I'm looking for in a ballerina !

Marc, have you seen Daria's Swan Lake in London ?