Lolly

Golly, I go to London and see NYCB dancers for one night, turn my back and look what happens!;) Shocking news. I really am shocked to the core. It is sad about Ross Stretton only staying for a year. Were the problems really insurmountable? I'm glad Monica Mason is in charge though - I really like her.

Oh, I had such a great evening! My goodness... Your dancers are so different! And so similar... watching them dance I could see so many similarities with RB dancers, I was able to instantly cast RB in these works! Okay, I saw Borree/Marcovici, Somogyi/Boal, and Whelan/Soto in In the Night. Ansanelli/Hall in Triple Duet. Borree/Boal in Duo Concertant. And Whelan/Soto, Somogyi/Marcovici, Ansanelli/Hall and Tinsley/Fowler in Polyphonia. The men were very broad shouldered - I think RB are much more finely built. The all had ARMS and not just arms! (If you see what I mean!) Are they all like that or is it just the selection we got to see? I was disappointed that they weren't taller, but that was my only disappointment so I don't have anything to complain about really! The dancer who I thought was the most American in the way I was expecting, was Jennifer Tinsley - she was quick, expansive, long limbed... Wendy Whelan was lovely, gosh, I wish I looked like her! Alexandra Ansanelli was my favourite, she looked like she has personality and was very sparky, lively, fun. From the men, I liked Sebastien Marcovici and Peter Boal. In the Night was gorgeous. I kept thinking of The Leaves are Fading for some reason, it had a very similar atmosphere I think, a bit drifty, wistful. Beautiful costumes, I would have happily worn any of them! I liked the sort of cartwheeling turns of the final couple, so you could see the bright orange underskirts! And there was a lovely backdrop, with fairy light pinpricking across the back of the stage. it was funny, when the house lights went down, before the curtain went up, I thought, "It is so dark!", it was completely black, very unusual. Then the curtain went up, and I gasped silently and thought "And so pretty..." Triple Duet was cool... I really liked it, and I wanted it to be me dancing! (I don't always think that - sometimes I am happiest to watch but I wanted to be up there last night!) Will you get to see it in USA this season? I hope so. Duo Concertant was... Balanchine. I did like it, I just can't articulate why! It was interesting to have the dancers acknowledging the presence of the musicians. Maybe the musicians were giving the concert and the dancers were a sort of accessory? Though I was sorry for the dancers standing next to the piano for ages before they got to do anything, I thought they might be getting cold! I liked the minimalist costumes, the white looked very pretty. Polyphonia was wonderful. The only Wheeldon I have seen is Tryst, and I could see so many similarities between the two, it was fascinating! I was wrapt (or do I mean rapt? Or is it the same?!), after each section I had to take a moment to come back into the world, it was mesmerising. It was similar in that it followed the same pattern with a pas de deux and then all the dancers coming back on stage together and using 5th positions a lot... is it a Wheeldon characteristic?! (I loved them working from 5th, it is so neat... my favourite part from both Tryst and Polyphonia was the end, and I wished it hadn't been the end already, in both!) The central pas de deux was great, but I think that in both Tryst and Polyphonia they are too careful and precise, there are a lot of peculiar positions that could end in disaster. Risk is good, but so is abandonment. I missed that. The costumes were nice although I am not sure about the girls' plastic belts! The sort of purple/dark blue was streamlined and a bit like school uniform! You know, I think I need to see the programme again! With both the dancers and the works being new to me, it is hard to keep them separate in my mind. Reading this back I see I haven't said much about the actual choreography. Maybe that is why I instantly cast RB dancers into the roles as I watched, I needed something to relate it all to. I should have written things down! I am going to try and go again tomorrow I think. It is sooooo definitely worth a second look! I enjoyed it all so much. The Millepied and the Wheeldon tie as my favourites.

The programme was fascinating - I especially liked the slow motion replays of the dancers, you could really see how their bodies worked. Ivan Putrov's feet in the Bluebird solo were amazing - the beats too! And Marianela Nunez in the Don Q fouettes, watching her supporting leg and foot as she did them was very enlightening. And the information about spotting was really helpful. Now I know what to aim for! I can't wait for the next programme.

Drew, your report really cheered me up this morning! It was nice to read another opinion of RB, I am missing them a lot, it is still ages till the season opens! It's cool you got to take a tour too - it is a nice House isn't it? (Albeit bright clean and hi-tech in some areas!) The guides don't always have accurate information - I walked past one tour once and overheard the guide putting the wrong names to the dancers who were rehearsing... I am glad you liked Marianela, she is my favourite. She was a wonderful Kitri. I'm surprised you thought Ivan didn't land his jumps well though - I think he has beautifully clean jumps! I was delighted with their promotions and can't wait to see what they do this season - especially Marianela's Aurora and Ivan's Siegfried (if I ever think up a good excuse to get the afternoon off to go and see it!!) Alexandra, William Tuckett was promoted to Principal Character Artist, he is very good (fabulously expressive eyes!) so don't worry about the character side of things just yet.

Hmm... except for the loud coughing after the balcony scene!

Is anyone listening to it? Gosh it still sounds fabulous!

I thought the coughing en-masse which happened between movements was considerably more distracting than it would have been had there been applause! It got funny after a while, it sounded like people were too embarrassed to clap! Maybe the audience had been holding their breath so had to let it out very quickly at the end of each movement?;) I remember when I first saw the Kirov Ballet a couple of years ago I couldn't believe how much they took advantage of applause and came downstage to receive it automatically after doing anything! That definitely broke the spell as coming out of character and acknowledging the audience's presence made you realise they were dancers and not princesses ot whatever. If there is a triumphant ending to a movement, or a soloist part or something, it feels natural to applaud... I obviously need more practise as at the moment I just feel rude not clapping! It felt strange too that the house lights didn't go down when the conductor came on - so it was light in the auditorium! Very strange after being used to ballet! I have learned a huge amount about music just by going to those two concerts, it has been great fun. My problem now is fitting in the ones I want to go to this autumn when the ballet season starts! Previously I only missed a class if I absolutely had to see a particular ballet casting, my teacher didn't mind as I would learn about ballet just watching it. But what do I do now if there is a concert I just have to see? I want to learn an instument too! Aarghh it gets complicated! My dad called me a "culture vulture" yesterday - I am not sure what that means but it sounded derogatory. Also, those nice people at BBC are broadcasting highlights of the R&J Prom on the World Service (MW)! It is on Wednesday, at 7.05pm-8pm. On the world service website http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedule...radio_wed.shtml it says 6.05pm, it must be a time zone thing, I hope you can work it out for wherever you all are! (Just realised the world service times are GMT, so the full broadcast on R3 will be at 1pm GMT, but 2pm here in England (BST)- how complicated do they want this to be?!) The schedule says it is R&J so hopefully it wll be most of it as they don't mention the Debussy and Bartok. You can listen online there too. Two chances to listen on that day now!

The repeat on BBC Radio 3 is on Wednesday at 2pm-4pm. Debussy's Iberia and Bartok's Piano Concerto No 1 are first but they aren't that long - I expect R&J will be on about 2.45 pm. I hope you manage to listen! I watched tonight's Prom on TV earlier with the same orchestra and conductor, and the BBC symphony chorus (200 strong!) performing Shostakovic's 2nd symphony and Beethoven's 9th symphony, it was great! In the interval there was an interview with Esa-Pekka Salonen from his summer house in Finland - an inspiring place! The Last Night is September 14th - you can read about all the Proms at www.bbc.co.uk/proms There are "programme notes" on there too so you can find out about all the works/arrangements/composers. It is back to the traditional stuff for this year's Last Night - although I thought the Barber Adagio last year was incredibly moving. I went to the Prom last week with Joshua Bell and Sir Roger Norrington and Camerata Salzburg too - that was fabulous. (But then I do LOVE Joshua Bell!) It was also the first concert I have been to!:eek: Momentous occasion!

The concert was great! I had been kind of worried about hearing the music without the dancing, but I wasn't disappointed! I think because I know the ballet so well I could imagine the dancing as I listened and could take the best bits from all the performances I have seen to fantasise along with the music! The sound was HUGE (especially the Dance of the Knights and Tybalt's death) and quite different to the ballet, somehow the emphasis was different, I heard different parts than I do at the ballet - I don't know how that happened as I know the music really well! I also fell in love with the conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen... I was sure he was going to start dancing Tybalt's role - in Tybalt's death scene he was so physical! I kept smiling to myself as I thought about what the dancers would be doing - especially the Masks - the pas de trois for Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio. But the excerpts were sometimes in the wrong order - it was very strange as the programme said they had been structured to follow the story of the ballet! But it flowed quite well nonetheless. I wonder how it sounded to people who didn't know the ballet? Very different I bet. In the interval we went to the entrance foyer where we were told we could listen to the discussion. There was a speaker inside a glass cabinet broadcasting it. Well soon the foyer filled up so we had to press our ears to the cabinet to hear! (No one else was interested). There was already a lady listening when we got there. However, the sound was so distorted it was impossible to make out what was being said! (caught snatches of "Somes" "Ellis" "MacMillan" etc) The lady asked why we were so keen to hear it so we told her it was because it was about ballet, then she asked why were so interested in ballet and we told her where we go to ballet school etc, and you will never guess who she was! The examiner I had for Grade 6 last month! I didn't recognise her at all, I felt really bad... Another coincidence was that she had been at a conference with my teacher today! I was amazed that out of the 6000 people who were in the RAH, only 3 huddled around the radio to hear the discussion, one was my friend and one my examiner... freaky. She guessed why we had gone to that particular Prom anyway! I found it very hard not to applaud after each part of R&J... after being able to applaud at the ballet whenever I like something, I felt very restricted at the concert - why is it not done to clap between movements? I had to clasp my hands together to stop myself... it felt so wrong not to! You can listen to the concert again on the Radio 3 website (I am not sure when though as there is a Shostakovic one up there at the moment, there must be a backlog! But it is repeated on R3 next week (sadly minus the discussion) I will find out what time, just in case anyone wants to hear the concert! I forgot to say it was the Los Angeles Philharmonic) So did anyone hear the discussion?;)

The Proms are all broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 (you can listen online too www.bbc.co.uk/radio3) The second part tonight is exerpts from Prokofiev's R&J. In the interval the radio presenters have a discussion about the music, and tonight it is called "A Moving Inheritance" - the newspaper says "Ballets, like jewels, are left to people in wills. Critic and historian Alastair Macauley considers the consequences of some distinctive legacies." It is 20 minutes long - the discussion starts at 8.15pm and R&J is after it. I thought it sounded like an interesting topic - I will be at the Prom so I won't be able to listen to it though! (I thought I better go to the concert as I won't see the ballet for ages and it is my favourite! It is a shame they don't have the discussions on stage.)

I know the picture you mean. In that RB production, there are 8 Little Swans from RBS, but they don't dance the Cygnets which I think is the 4 Swan dance you are thinking of. The Cygnets are usually just four dancers from the company who are not very tall!

Beckster, at RB the coryphees are now called First Artists. It's a great book, isn't it?

Thank you rg! It is in lots of US media library catalogues on the internet, but I haven't been able to find it here though! No one has seen the ballets?:confused:

Oh how lovely that you could watch! Did you see a lot of performances that way? Golly, that would be a dream job for me...

I don't even know where Guam is!! I hope you get a reply, it is quite exciting!

I love the piece of music by Vaughan Williams so I wondered if there was a ballet set to it. I found out there is one by Alvin Ailey and one by Bruce Marks. Has anyone seen either and could tell me what they are like? Thank you.

I found this site, http://www.uog.edu/research/ with this presentation title listed; " Making Ballet American: Catherine Littlefield¹s Choreography for the Philadelphia Ballet, 1937-1938." 2000 Feet. World Dance Congress. Philadelphia, PA. April 1999 There is an email link to the author, Nancy Brooks Schmitz, she might know if there is a book as she has written a paper on the topic?

It's in the Evening Standard too. Oh dear.http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hott..._text_id=634820

I like the way they describe a brooch containing 41 diamonds as "spare".;)

I have just had great fun playing with the new feature on the ROH website - you can take a virtual tour! There are 20 locations around the house you can see, and the camera pans around and you can zoom in if you want a closer look. Cool!www.roh.org.uk

Not sure where to put this really! I heard an interesting radio programme last night (called Case Notes) about feet, on BBC Radio 4. It discussed a lot of foot problems such as plantar fascitis, bunions, tendonitis etc which might be of interest to dancers, although I thought it was strange they didn't mention dancers once - the podiatrist mainly worked with footballers! The main advice given was to wear appropriate fitting shoes - they said something like, "your feet aren't narrow and pointed so don't put them into narrow pointy shoes!" I think they were referring to fashion rather than pointe shoes however... Anyway, it is repeated on the radio this afternoon at 4.30pm, but you can also use the "listen again" feature on the BBC website and download the 30 minute programme. Here is the link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/casenotes.shtml

Don't worry Juliet, check ebay regularly! People were talking in the queue to get in about how they would sell things there if they overspent - and how they would check there if what they wanted had gone by the time we got in. I will email ROH too and ask what they are doing with the surplus - I am sure they won't want to take bits and pieces back to Wales.

Thank you for the advice Juliet! The dresses are quite heavy, both just over knee length with boned bodices, and they both have loops attached to the skirt part inside to hook onto the hanger so the straps don't carry all the weight. They are gorgeous - I am going to leave them on my wall until I find a cotton bag to store them in - I woke up this morning and saw them hanging there and was so happy! The shoes are lovely - black suede with red cuban heels and a big gold buckle on the top! The sale was the first one since 1996, I don't know how often they have them but I think they should have one every year! I wish I had taken some photos of us trying things on (I forgot I had a camera with me) so I could remember what it was like there and what costumes I liked but didn't buy. Also you can't tell from a photo that the tutu you are wearing doesn't have the hooks done up at the back! Gosh some of those dancers are TINY! It was handy knowing the names of the dancers as we knew whose costumes would never fit - "Yoshida? Nope. Tattersall? Nope..."!! Now if only I had bought Ivan Putrov or Johan Kobborg's Basilio costume, or William Trevitt's Bluebird shoes, or...or...;)

I went too - I am exhausted after having got the first train into London this morning, but still only actually getting into the sale at 1pm after having queued for 4 hours!!:eek: The queue was a sight to behold I can tell you - stretching right around ROH and then some... and the queue to pay was almost as long - I stood in that queue for over 1 1/2 hours! It was fabulous in there, and a great cameraderie with the rest of the "shoppers" - everyone was saying, "ooh that's nice, who wore that?" all the time, and everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over strangers in the changing rooms, doing each other's hooks up and saying how wonderful we all looked! I had such a fun day! It was great looking through all the costumes and reading the name tapes to see who had worn them (during an enthusisatic shrieking session, a cameraman asked to film my friend and I browsing the racks, so if you have CNN you might see us!). I could have bought so much more, it was really an Aladdin's cave in there. It was also hard to look at the costumes while you were holding another one - they are so heavy and bulky and there wasn't much space to move - the Floral Hall really was packed with racks of costumes. People seemed to be mostly interested in dressing up rather than ballet or opera though I thought - there were people wanting costumes for historical re-enactment type things, and art/fashion students. I would have loved to have seen the tutus before the sale started, I wish they had had a preview. There weren't many tutus left by the time I got there. I bought Marianela Nunez's "friend of Kitri" purple dress from Act III Don Quixote. It is a lovely dress with layers and layers of coloured net underneath, it feels so Spanish with all the ruffles. I also got Zenaida Yanowsky's Garland Dance dress from Sleeping Beauty, (pale green with coloured ribbons) it is beautiful! That SB was the first thing I ever saw at ROH. Both dresses fit me so now I have to find an occasion to wear them! They are hanging on my wall at the moment - any ideas on what to do with them?! I don't have a wardrobe to put them in. Should I take more care?:confused: And I got Nicola Tranah's Fandango shoes with the red heels from Don Q - I love the dance so much, and I will have to learn it now I have the shoes, haha! And finally a pair of Zenaida's cast-off pointe shoes, which amazingly, are my size and fit me perfectly!

Promotion news is now up on the ROH website:http://www.royalopera.org/News/Index.cfm?ccs=228 Looks like all good news to me! Pretty much a list of my favourite dancers. Congratulations to all.