volcanohunter
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Posts posted by volcanohunter
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Thank you for the schedule. It's depressing that Covid-19 has forced Austria back into lockdown. But I admire the Vienna State Opera for trying to boost morale by opening up its video library once again, and I'm really grateful to them for sharing with the rest of us.
The announcement is also available in English, and it contradicts Helene's claims about the quality of her German.
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Maria Kowroski's farewell performance included an intermission, because a set had to be installed for Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, so this scenario has already been tested.
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Hopefully the performances of XENOS will go ahead as scheduled. Shows scheduled for Chicago at the end of last week were canceled because the set didn't make the trans-Atlantic journey on time, another victim of the disrupted global supply chain.
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The Royal Danish Ballet cited "offensive" and "abusive" behavior during rehearsals with the company in 2018 and 2019 as the reason for calling off a production of Scarlett's Frankenstein.
Hypothetically, if star dancers refuse to work with a choreographer, it can throw the viability of a big production into question.
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The allegations against Scarlett were not tested in a disciplinary hearing because he chose to terminate his employment before it took place.
The Royal Opera House has come under fire for not revealing the nature of the allegations, thus potentially putting other dancers at risk.
But it appears the theater wouldn't have made them public one way or another.
Quote“We had an obligation to protect the identities and welfare of all individuals involved, and it would therefore have been wholly inappropriate for us to disclose any specific details of the investigation during or after the process.”
https://www.classicfm.com/artists/royal-ballet/liam-scarlett-died-suicide-allegations-misconduct/
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The inquest into Scarlett's death was held today. The head of the Royal Opera House legal department said that press reports claiming the allegations against him involved children were incorrect.
Quote“Broadly they included inappropriate physical contact in rehearsals and other settings, sexual behaviour out of the workplace that was felt to be inappropriate, improperly made casting decisions,” she said.
She said there were “sufficient grounds to proceed to a disciplinary process” and Scarlett was informed of this in January 2020. She said press reports at the time incorrectly said the allegations involved children.She said that after the reporting, further allegations were received via a whistleblowing hotline.
Scarlett had been taking Prozac for 15 years. A psychiatrist told the inquest that Scarlett suffered from social and situational anxiety and drank heavily, up to six pints of beer and a bottle of whiskey a day, to block out his feelings.
Scarlett's mother testified that he denied the allegations made against him.
Quote'He told me they weren't true and he couldn't understand why people would make allegations against him,' she said. 'He was deeply upset.'
She said that after the allegations emerged he 'wasn't the same Liam that I had known but he kept himself busy and he kept himself as bright as he could really'.
She said: 'We feel Liam would not have taken his life if his name hadn't been dragged through the press with inaccurate allegations.'
His mother said he had 'seemed in very good spirits' when they had Sunday lunch the day before finding him at his flat.
Incidentally, the report in the Telegraph makes several references to ballet students, but doesn't quote the testimony of the ROH lawyer at all.
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Thank you for this information, @Lynette H. I am glad to read that the Royal Ballet plans to continue streaming, because for several years nearly all of North America has been without the Royal Ballet in cinemas. (Indeed, Canadian cinemas have also abandoned the Bolshoi, which had been screening in Canada from 2010 until the pandemic struck.) For many of us, streaming is now our only option short of visiting London in person.
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It's notable that Bleuenn Battistoni, Inès Mcintosh and Jack Gasztowtt are being promoted for the second time this year, after last season's concours was delayed until spring.
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The men's promotion competition was held today.
Jérémy-Loup Quer has been promoted to premier danseur. (Finally.
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Jack Gasztowtt and Alexandre Gasse have won promotion to sujet. (It's been ten years since Gasse's last move up the promotion ladder. Good for him for not giving up!)
Guillaume Diop, Nicola Di Vico and Isaac Lopes Gomes have won promotion to coryphée
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17 hours ago, lmspear said:
The first was an ode on David Hallberg's arches and the other was a review of Janie Taylor and her hair.
Although I appreciate Macaulay as an exceptionally astute observer, I have always found his preoccupation with feet and hair absolutely maddening. (Particularly how willing he seemed to overlook obvious artistic shortcomings as long as a dancer had insteps he admired.) We'd be hard pressed to find another writer so preoccupied with the minutiae of dancers' appearance. I don't really think there's a problem with "critics" here, only one in particular. Honestly, didn't his editors find those dithyrambs nauseating?
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Peck has a larger head than you'd see on the stereotypical Balanchine "pinhead." This alters the proportions of her body and makes her appear shorter than she actually is.
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On 10/31/2021 at 1:45 PM, dirac said:
it seems to me a dancer can be too heavy and still not reach the bar of actually disfiguring the choreography or failing to get across artistically
Perhaps this becomes a matter of aesthetic preference? In my experience, dancers who fail in putting across the choreography usually come from the other end of the spectrum: they are so thin that they lack the necessary strength. Not that I expect the very small and slight to be powerhouses, and that's okay with me, too. There's far too much razzle-dazzle in ballet for my taste anyway. (If I wanted that, I'd go to the circus or a sporting event.) Rather, the tension in their necks, their spiky fingers or general lack of centeredness make me acutely aware of their exertion, and that takes away my pleasure in watching.
I suspect there's a lot in the aesthetic of ballet that's simply learned. I know there's a great deal in it that I absorbed in childhood and continued to accept, until I thought about some of those elements and realized that objectively speaking, they weren't aesthetically pleasing. (Unfortunately for me, ADs the world over continue to fetishize qualities that I now perceive as distortions.)
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The women's promotion competition was held today.
Roxane Stojanov has won promotion to première danseuse
Bleuenn Battistoni and Inès Mcintosh will be promoted to sujet.
Clara Mousseigne and Claire Gandolfi will be promoted to coryphée.
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12 hours ago, canbelto said:
Vaccine mandates are causing some orchestra members to be fired
Strictly speaking, it appears no one has been fired yet. Where a mandatory vaccination policy exists, those who refuse have been placed on leave--paid for now.
The interesting thing for me is the nugget on audience reaction to vaccine requirements and the fact that only 1% of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra ticket holders have asked for refunds as a result. That would suggest that requiring proof of vaccination isn't resulting in an exodus of patrons.
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18 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:
I also wondered if perhaps the POB sets were better scaled to a smaller stage, as I believe they traditionally perform the ballet at the Palais Garnier rather than the Bastille.
The Garnier stage is very wide, so I doubt the Giselle sets are scaled small.
During that tour Giselle had eight girlfriends, there were 24 grape pickers and the hunting entourage included 16 nameless aristocrats, and I don't remember thinking that the stage looked cramped. But with many, many productions I wonder why the cottages jut out so far onto the stage.
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On 10/21/2021 at 7:00 AM, abatt said:
The Koch stage looked very cramped. I'm pretty sure they were using fewer Wilis in Act II because the stage was too small
In years past the Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi had fielded a full complement of wilis on that stage. I'm looking at a POB program from 2012, and there were 24 wilis (including Amandine Albisson, Valentine Colasante and Laura Hecquet), plus Myrtha, Moyna and Zulme. My guess is that under the circumstances ABT decided to put fewer dancers into its studios for rehearsals.
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29 minutes ago, Helene said:
in Russia, the schools look at families when they choose children for their elite schools, believing that their adult parents are indicators of future physique
Not just in Russia. This is part of the audition process for Canada's National Ballet School also.
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2 hours ago, California said:
Stearns did the brises and they weren't very impressive. They don't work as well with tall dancers.
2 hours ago, abatt said:Maybe it's true that the brises don't work as well on tall dancers, but I thought his basic form was not even correct for the brises. He just looked lazy.
I've seen brisés look great on tall dancers and bad on short dancers. It depends on the quality of the jumps and especially the angle of the upper body.
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1 hour ago, Mashinka said:
This thread has been of great interest. We had seating restrictions in the summer, but that's all over now. No masks, no tests, no proof of vaccination required at ROH, though they do provide hand sanitizer. Some of us do wear masks. By us I mean the older audience members only.
Meanwhile infections and hospitalizations are on the rise. Morocco has today banned all flights from the UK. I expect other countries to follow suit.
A few weeks ago I read about a Plan B of additional restrictions. Is it likely to be introduced?
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@cubanmiamiboy, there were striking differences in my most recent theater outings. In New York theaters were at capacity, but everyone was vaccinated, and everyone wore masks. It seemed to me that everyone was wearing them properly, and there lots of KF94s and KN95s in use.
Although masks are legally required indoors, in Moscow I'd guess that about 30% of spectators actually wore them in the auditorium, and there was no telling how many people were vaccinated, but only about a third of the population has been fully vaccinated. Furthermore, the Bolshoi has a creative interpretation of 50% capacity, closing off the rear rows of the side rings so that a larger proportion of top-price orchestra seats can remain open, and people didn't hesitate to move to a blocked-off seat. (In Saint Petersburg there are no capacity limits even though its infection rate is twice that of Moscow.) I relied on my American vaccine and Korean mask to protect me, and they did their job, but I felt a whole lot safer in New York.
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The POB posted quite a bit of stage rehearsal footage for World Ballet Day.
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Thank you for clarifying @Kathleen O'Connell! I was also thrown by the asterisk on the cast sheet. Indeed, it would have incomprehensible if Danchig-Waring had been forced to wait so long for the part. (The last male lead I saw in Chaconne was Philip Neal at his retirement performance 💔, which tells you exactly how long it's been for me!)
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12 hours ago, nanushka said:
I'd love to hear how LaFreniere and Danchig-Waring do in their Chaconne debuts tonight, if anyone's there!
They were confident debuts, very well received by the audience. I enjoyed Danchig-Waring in particular: the rapid changes in direction, emphatic croisés and elaborate style were all there. I'm at a loss to understand why he hadn't danced the part a lot sooner.
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The AP story on vaccine tourism mentions some of the issues holding up the Sputnik V review.
"But the WHO has said global approval is still under review after citing issues at a production plant a few months ago.
On Friday, a top World Health Organization official said legal issues holding up the review of Sputnik V were 'about to be sorted out,' a step that could relaunch the process toward emergency use authorization.
Other hurdles remain for the Russian application, including a lack of full scientific information and inspections of manufacturing sites, said Dr. Mariangela Simao, a WHO assistant director-general."
That's why another person quoted in the article says approval probably won't come until next year. By April? Who knows? It turns out it may not have been necessary for the National Ballet of China to cancel its tour, since the U.S. will accept two of the Chinese vaccines. There's no way, though, that the other two Russian vaccines will be listed by spring, so dancers who received those may be out of luck.
2021: Free Streaming during COVID-19 Crisis
in COVID-19: Ballet and the Arts
Posted · Edited by volcanohunter
Thank you. Here is the updated link for Eagling's and Van Schayk's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King now that the live stream has ended. The ballet will be available on demand for about six months.
https://oopperabaletti.fi/en/stage24/the-nutcracker-and-the-mouse-king-recording/