Lynette H

Singapore Dance Company are bringing what is described as Goh Choo San’s Birds of Paradise to the Peacock Theatre in London (offshoot of Sadlers Wells) next March - is this the same choreographer ? It's described here http://www.sadlerswells.com/peacock/2005_2006/singapore.asp

Yes...he was in Wedding Bouquet, I should have remembered. It was in a very small role though, I'm puzzled that they aren't using him more this season. Curious to hear what you say about covering both Oberon and Puck - rather different sorts of roles ? I didn't know that covers were officially announced anywhere. I do agree re Nao Sakuma, she was very impressive guesting with the RB in Scenes last season sometime.

I was thinking about replying to this, and kept coming up with names of people no longer dancing. Sarah Wildor. Bruce Sansom. Muriel Valtat - a first soloist who left a couple of seasons ago, she always did a very beautiful account of the Fonteyn solo in Birthday Offering. I saw Trinidad Sevilliano as Chloe in the 90s....that was very beautiful, and she just seemed to look so right. Of the dancers there now, Yoshida has the speed and the precision but is ultimately more Petipa than Ashton, perhaps. Ricardo Cervera, who I don't think I've seen this season yet. He was scheduled to do the Devil's Holiday variation in the latest mixed bill, but didn't. Cervera did the "Lord of the Sea" role in Ondine very persuasively a couple of seasons back. Jonathan Howells was a very fine Alain. I think I will have to diasagree with Natalia about Jamie Tapper. She was very light and bright in Les Rendevous when she first joined, but never seemed to settle in the Ashton repertory. She looks more at home in different, sometimes more modern work - Wayne McGregor made a very quirky solo for her last season in Qualia, and she looked much more imprressive in that than any Ashton.

The lady that Wyatt is referring to in the poem is usually supposed to be Anne Boleyn - hence the reference to Caesar i.e Henry VIII. Not relevant to anything at at all, really, but it is a lovely poem.....

At the ROH - Swan Lake (Rojo / Acosta) on 22nd, Cinderella on 20th and 23rd. The Swan Lake performance is the opening night. At the Royal Festival Hall, Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet have their opening night of the Nutcracker on 22nd December. ENB are doing the Nutcracker at the Colisseum from 21 December. (I think you can book these online via the South Bank Centre and ENB web sites respectively) Tickets for the Royal will be rather more expensive and harder to come by than for the other companies. Bourne's Swan Lake has a lot of fans, but it is not a bellet, whatever the posters tell you. I can't remember how many times this production has returned - this must be its fourth of fifth time in London, maybe more ? New casts this time, so don't expect Adam Cooper.

"The sensibilty of the piece was very British. It was kind of like Ashton's Facade on some very strong drugs." I saw this production in London in summer. Er, speaking as someone who is British, I didn't find the sensibility of the piece very British at all. Not remotely. I thought the choreography and mannerisms of the work (like the shouting) were very heavily derived from European models. A "tribute" if you like to Mats Ek. Ashton would be the very, very last choreographer which came to my mind in this context.....

Macmillan choreographed a piece to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem as wel MacMillan's Requem is set to Faure. Lloyd Webber --eek.

At Festival time, the Scottish papers have an enormous job on their hands trying to cover everything that's on with the resources they have. Looking through reviews of many items (not just dance) at the Festival, it's clear that many people are used in writing reviews who would perhaps not usually do so in the rest of the year. Ballet and dance suffer particularly, I think. Though quite possibily, devotees of other artforms might also have their gripes.

"It's a great shame there's no record of Sibley's Swan Lake -- she was SO eloquent in the mime scene" You might be interested to know that there is a video from the Royal Academy of Dance called Mime Matters which features Dowell and Sibley doing the mime scene from Swan Lake. As they are now, and in ordinary street clothes. Still quite remakable, all the same. (The same video also has Cojocaru doing the mime from Giselle, where she touches Bathilde's dress. Sarah Wildor does the mime from Fille).

About the Ashton elements: the production is by Sir Peter Wright. The choreography of the pas de six is mainly his, I believe, apart from one of the girl's solos. In the programme at Covent Garden, this is explicitly credited to Ashton. It certainly used to leap out at you that this was Ashton's work, but this now very much depends on who is dancing it. Not all the Royal's dancers have that particular accent any more.

BRB's 2004/5 programme includes the following at their home base in Birrmingham 6-9 October Such Sweet Thunder - Bintley / Duke Ellington Triple Bill Nutcracker Sweeties / The Orpheus Suite (new) / The Shakespeare Suite 13 - 16 October 2004 Concerto Barocco (Balanchine ) / Enigma Variations (Ashton) / Western Symphony (Balanchine) 3 - 15 Dec The Nutcraker (Sir Peter Wright's production) 1 - 5 March 2005 Romeo & Juliet (MacMillan) 9 - 12 March 2005 The Four Seasons (Hindle) (new commission from former BRB dancer) / Prodigal son (Balanchine) / In the Upper Room (Tharp) 8 - 11 June 2005 Stravinsky programme Duo Concertante (Balanchine) / Scenes de Ballet (Ashton) / The Rite of Spring (Hodson Archer reconstructed version, sets and costumes loaned from the Joffrey Ballet) 17 - 18 June 2005 Allegri Diversi (Bintley) / Broullards (Cranko) (not done by the company since 1981) / Elite Syncopations (MacMillan) This is just what's on in Birmingham - they are also touring, and The Two Pigeons (Ashton) and Western Symphony and the Bintley triple come to London in late October. This is an usually large amount of mixed bills for a British company to put on at present - I hope they sell well.

I must say I am really puzzled by the general statement that British critics don't like or don't appreciate Balanchine. I'm racking my brains to think of any major critic in the broadsheet press, or in publications like Dance Now or Dancing Times who have referred to Balanchine's work in anything but admiring and often passionate tones, particularly in many articles in this centenary year. I can't bring anything to mind, at least in the last ten years or so of avid reading. I'm not familiar with Ms Mannings work though - it certainly struck me as a very uncharacteristic remark from the critical fraternity here. Are you thinking of some points from earlier in time or do you have any specific more recent examples you would cite ? This isn't to say that the critics don't find fault with the execution of the works if they don't think the choreographer has been well served (especially when done by UK companies without the stylistic background). As it happens, Apollo is probably the best loved and most widely performed Balanchine work in the UK. The Royal have had it in their repertory for many years (the older version, with the birth) and have performed it about 70 times now according to my last cast sheet. ENB and BRB both have also performed it in the last season or two, and other visting companies: Zelensky will be performing it at the Albert Hall in a couple of days time. Peter Boal's group has also performed it in London. The first Apollo I saw was way back in the 80s sometime when someone whose names escapes me from Dance Theatre of Harlem appeared with the Royal. I don't think the DTH version that I saw recently was a particularly strong performance, and it was a shame that it was to recorded music. I hope that doesn't make you think that I don't like this work, but I think it could be better served and that maybe DTH aren't on their top form at this time. I think it is a great shame that the Balanchine we do get to see in the UK is limited in terms of the repertory. Visitors such as Dutch National Ballet, the Kirov, SFB, PNB and NYCB at the Edinburgh festival have brough over a number of works, but it is a limted range with many reliable items repeated rather than new introductions. It is lovely to see Apollo or Agon again, but I'm sure that there are many works which are key that we just don't get to see. BRB used to do Theme and Variations in the early 90s: they don't do it now, and no visting company has brought it. That's just one tiny example, but Balanchine made hundreds of works and I wish we could see something a little more unfamiliar than another version of say, Symphony in C.

Marriott and Howells are excellent as the ugly sisters in Cinderella - far more touching than Dowell and Sleep, in my experience. You even get to see real steps. Benjamin is very good in Thais - can be a tricky piece to pull off, very atmospheric. All the divertissements look very tempting to me....pity they aren't doing this in the UK.

Birmingham Royal Ballet are presenting a Gala "Sir Fred and Mr. B" on March 11th, to celebtrate both Ashton and Balanchine. As well as BRB members, this will feature dancers from the Joffrey, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School. The Balanchine items include excerpts from Tarantella, Concerto Barocco, Agon, Slaughter on 10th Avenue, Western Symphony. The Ashton items are from Monotones II, Patineurs, Fille clog dance, Five Brahms Waltzes, Thais pdd, Tango from Facade and Conderella pdd. The full running order is given on http://www.brb.org.uk/webpack/bin/webpack....mode=wbFullItem I can't go sadly, but it's an interesting mix.

These sort of approaches in the UK certainly aren't reserved just for the Royal Opera House. I've had various letters from different companies or venues. Most pushy were representatives from Sadlers Wells who phoned more than once asking very pointedly for a donation and suggesting how much.

Perhaps they might invite more than one company. A few years ago, they concentrated on Hans van Manen, and Dutch National Ballet, NDT I, II and III all appeared, some on the same bill. I'll be interested to see what venue they appear in. Ballet often appears in the Playhouse - a huge place with a shallow stage. I think Tudor (Lilac Garden, for instance) might benefit from a smaller , more intimate auditorium with better sightlines.

I saw Cojocaru and Kobborg last Wednesday. I thought she was excellent, a very young and innocent Juliet. Kobborg didn't quite seem to be on the very top of his form to me (I am being picky here), but his partnering was beautifully sensitive. Overall though I've seen better performances of R&J in the past: I think it needs a rest from the rep to regain some freshness and zest. It should look like a matter of life and death for everyone on stage, not just the principals. Somehow this just didn't. It's difficult to put a finger on what individually wasn't quite right, but it didn't come off with the impact that it can do.

Are you sure it was Sarah McIlroy at the Dance Umbrella Gala ? Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur of ENB appeared at that, in a Wayne MacGregor piece that was very popular, but I didn't see Sarah McIlroy's name on the cast sheet on that occasion. I did admire Sarah in the lead role in MacMillan's Rite of Spring earlier in the year - a very gutsy performance. She was promoted to principal immediately afterwards, I think.

The pas de deux from the Talisman was danced by the Royal Ballet some time in the 1990s I think - Yoshida and Mukhamedov. I think from your references to costume that it might be this that you have seen ? There were some very attractive costume designs by Elizabeth McGorian, a dancer with the RB. I don't remember the context other than he was supposed to be a god of the winds or somthing: there was a deliberate cotrast in styles between the boldness of his steps and the extreme delicacy of hers. I don't know if this was staged specifically for Mukhamedov - maybe The Talisman or excerpts are still performed in Russia ?

Well, as an aside I think this is the same Godani who made a work for the Royal Ballet a couple of years back. It was part of a short season of new work in the Linbury Studio theatre (not the main stage). It was very much school of Forsythe. I didn't care for it much. But he isn't a total unknown as a choreographer. As regards permission to work in the US, don't similar rules apply to actors ? I recall hearing things about London theatre productions transferring to New York but having to be recast in part because only a limited number of slots for non US actors were permitted.

It was certainly performed in the early to mid 90s with Kumakawa as the Prodigal, and Bussell as the Siren.

Nice to see that Wheeldon's There Where She Loves is being staged somewhere else. I liked it very much when it was done for the Linbury Theatre (Covent Garden's small stage) but they've never revived it. It doesn't require a huge cast, and I think just had a piano and two singers - so maybe it's not too expensive to stage.

Dark Elegies was (I think) made for Rambert when they were Ballet Rambert (rather than Rambert Dance Company as they are now). They did perform this in about 2000 (may be a couple of years out here) when they had a season at the Coliseum in London, and I remember seeing it then. But they haven't performed it since, which is a pity. I think there was some controversy about the version they performed. There is a note in one of the books about Rambert (one produced to commemorate their 70th year, which contains details of all their repertory over time) that the version they performed was one which had been passed down within the company, but that this is not necessarily the same as the version the choreographer later felt happy with. I think the text indicated that they had an agreement with the estate that they would not perform 'their' version more often than a specified period - maybe it was five years ? If anyone's interested I will look up the details, I don't have the volume to hand.

I saw the Jan Fabre production of Swan Lake at the Edinburgh Festival last year. Unquestionably my worst ever experience in a theatre. It was played straight through without intervals in a effort to stop people walking out. A psychotic dwarf, a live owl tethered to the top of Rothbart's head, a man in a suit if armour with a TV aerial on his head and the most prententious programme notes ever. AAAAAAAAAGH. I did feel rather sorry for the dancers. I haven't booked for the Sadlers Wells run. I was wondering whether to weaken for the triple bill, but I think I may spend my money elsewhere...

A pas de deux (at least) from The Talisman survives and was in the repertory of the Royal Ballet a couple of years ago, performed by Miyako Yoshida and Irek Mukhamedov (I don't know if this was brought in specially for him, if it still survives in Russia somewhere). It was about 10 minutes or so - a reasonably substantial chunk, with some very attractive costumes designed by Elizabeth McGorian (a character artist with the Royal). The premise, if I recall correctly, was that he was some kind of god of the wind and storm, and she was some delicate summer breeze being courted by him - it cetainly featured some very fine and delicate steps for her and huge leaps from him.