annamicro

Hi Anna, great to meet you here too!

See you soon!

Anna

Also in Zeffirelli-Hightower version of Swan Lake (danced in La Scala in 1985-86), the roles were danced by two ballerinas. At the premiere Odette was Alessandra Ferri, Odile Carla Fracci.

http://www.archiviolascala.org/ricerca/foto.aspx?uid=e97f746b-49ee-4100-9d57-81ebd9c57356&page=1&id_allest=11048&id_evento=5870&id_fotografia=188320&id_allest_conc=&type=locandine&objecttype=base

I don't know how many times male dancers have said that it's not the size of the ballerina, but how she holds herself and how much she helps to get into the lifts, and that some small, thin ballerinas are like lifting dead weight, because they don't help.

in any case it has little sense to talk of that since none of the mentioned ladies is really heavy to lift. And the less light of Polunin partners has not been mentioned at all: in any case, it seems that they loved to dance together and I think they are/were also planning to dance together at Tokyo World Ballet Festival.

There are many more "reasonable" reasons for a young brilliant dancer to make such a decision than the weight of one or two of his partners...

And the focal point remains the complete disaster that this means for the Royal Ballet, at least from a non British perspective. I'm happy I've not bought the flights for some Polunin shows I was planning to see, now I have just to sell the already bought theatre tickets. Of course I'm not selling the tickets for Cojocau's Dream, but I was really looking forward this patnership and I'm now really worried for the change of cast. :-(

Wow, I find that unnecessarily vitriolic.

I don't think that's the reason too. He was dancing with Cuthbertson also in galas.

As far as I know in the past he has been requested for guesting by some top companies, but his ambitions have always been frustrated: that could be a better reason.

Also the fact that the company is largely promoting British mediocre stuff and not its best talents can play a role. But who knows, maybe only Sergei.

ABT?

That's a true disaster for the Royal Ballet, they remain without young top male dancers.

IThe company rented the costumes and sets from the Berlin Opera and they are beautiful. I have heard criticism that the Royal Ballet's version has sets that are rather dark and heavy, ours are not and when the curtain rises on the 2nd ballroom scene in the palace, there is always applause.

London Royal ballet is using Jürgen Rose sets and costumes, so more or less the original ones; the darker version, absolutely too dark!, in my opinion is the Pierluigi Samaritani and Roberta Guidi di Bagno one, used by La Scala and Rome Opera: especially the last scene in Gremin's home is quite dark and funereal.

The Royal Ballet of Flanders is using the lighter (both because of the luminosity and because the stage is quite empty) version I've seen, by Maren Fisher and Thomas Mika (as far as I know this version was initially produced especially for Far East companies).

With regard to other (non-Fokine versions), I am familiar only with the recent version by Blanca Li for the POB (the one with all of the pillows!) and another version by the St Petersburg Choreographic Miniatures (Jabocson's) troupe with an altogether different scenario, in which the story-telling character Scheherazade is the heroine.

There is also a version by Gheorghe Iancu

This is one ballet that really suits a mature dancer as Tatiana and I vaguely recall that there was some surprise when Alina Cojocaru was cast in her early 20s. The performance I saw proved why she is such a great artiste.

I totally agree. This pdd was filmed when Alina Cojocaru was just 23

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcbABeadE_A&list=FLIAEv-PgvhSwOne2vElOMtw&index=1&feature=plpp_video

to my taste it has been surpassed only by Cojocaru and Kobborg in later shows.

Onegin is also in my pesonal list of favourites ballet. It needs great dance actors and unfortunately can seem a poor thing when the dancers are not able to shows all the interpretative details. It seems also more suited to some companies than to others: I'm always disappointed watching clips coming from a certain European major company.

Lets' hope that the Americans will have a great result in it!!!

Annamicro, that's a great list. One tiny correction, though. Lopatkina HAD been dancing Nikiya/Bayadere a few months before the London tour. I saw her dance it in Ottawa (opposite Korsuntsev) in February 2011, although I much prefered the Terioshkina/Schklyarov casting.

I was told by herself, when I melted at her feet meeting her by chance in the street the day after... maybe I misundestood or she forgot about that performance, Anyway, the important thin is that she was absolutely FABULOUS!!!

I saw Tereshkina/Shklyarov in London and then Lopatkina in a proper show (don't remeber the partner, sorry :-( ) in Turin: I loved both, but that rehearsal was really magical and wins over them.

My top ten of the year; I'm afraid some names and some companies are returning more than once but to me it's hard to find something better than those

1. Alina Cojocaru, Sascha Riabko and Silvia Azzoni in Neumeier's Kameliendame (Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg, 01NOV2011). Probably the best show I've ever seen. Three sensitive and clever artists (surrounded by excellent colleagues!) able to give full life to this poetic and complex masterpiece , a delicate and subtle work, for sure not done for every dancer. Every detail was true, credible, colorful, well known and at the same time new, every nuance vivid and touching. The choreographic movements that can look absurd in bad hands flowed smoothly as the authentic breath of the dancers. The story was so true and absorbing that the intervals come as hurting fractures of the reality. Alina Cojocaru (already fantastic at the debut, on the 3rd of October, and grown show after show) when talking if it never fails to thank the coaching, especially by Kevin Haigen: thank you also from me to him and John Neumeier for such a ballet night.
   
2. Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Manon (Royal Ballet, London, 04JUN2011). An unforgettable night, a show of great sensitivity and intensity, with a fantastic partnership giving clever freshness and vitality to a consolidated work. The flower thrown at the end and the enthusiastic crowd at the stage door were the only possible conclusion for such a show. As Judith Flanders writes, (http://www.theartsde...and-german-dane) flak in the backstage... it even seems that the couple has been defined a "disgrace for the Company" by somebody: please, please, please give me such a disgrace every night!!!
   
3. Ulyana Lopatkina in La Bayadère (dress rehearsal, Mariinsky Ballet, London, 11AUG2011): a role she has not danced for a couple of years and a rehearsal including alternation with other Nikiyas, a fall into the misplaced sacred fire, a discussion with the conductor, but mainly some of the most marvelous musical luminous dancing I've ever seen: thank you Ulyana!
   
4. Viktoria Tereshkina in Swan Lake (Mariinsky Ballet, Turin, 29OCT2011): nowadays, she is the Swan.
   
5. Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin in Marguerite and Armand (Royal Ballet, London 08OCT2011): a passionate performance that finally brings the ballet back to its initial glory.
   
6. Sascha Riabko as Puck in Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg, 04MAR2011). a poetic and musical dancer able to be at the top also in such a comical role, another wonderful dancing and acting performance by an extraordinary artist.
   
7. Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Onegin (Royal Ballet of Flanders, Antwerp, 24JUN2011): another memorable performance of this two great ballet actors; he is one of the most credible Onegin, she is the only one able to reproduce my idea of Pushkin's Tatiana.
   
8. Vladimir Shklyarov as the Golden Slave in Shéhérazade (Mariinsky Ballet, Turin, 15OCT2011): a wonderful sensual and masculine performance, able to charm Turin audience.
   
9. Raymonda Reconstruction (La scala, Milan, 25OCT2011): a production of great interest and great prestige for my hometown company.
   
10. Liliom, new ballet by John Neumeier (Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg, 04DEC2011): Alina Cojocaru, Carsten Jung, Sasha Riva, Lloyd Riggins, Leslie Heylmann, Kostantin Tselikov and Hamburg Ballet for a new master piece. Thank you John Neumeier and Michel Legrand for such a gem. At the end of the list because the more "matured" show on the 05JAN2012 was my first of the year and is already applying for the first position of the best of 2012.
    

Worst of the year: to have not seen any show of the Bolshoi; Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the more or less 1.7 million pounds "spent" on it.

Although I agree with you about the slow tempo, I’m afraid to say that your ‘informed people’ are not very well informed.

Here is an extract from Dominic Grier’s online biography:

Thank you for the information

Maybe the few ballets in his biography are already too many, if he is so able to disappoint both dancers and audience ....

^{No Cuthbertson tonight - Pennefather is injured?}

Yes, he is.

Hamilton .... I have a ticket for her Nutcracker matinee on the 28th)

I'm afraid that yesterday performance confirmed my opinion (or suspects). People said she was much better than in the first show, but she seemed still not ready for the role. The adagio was acceptable, but the solo and the coda were quite temptative. She seems to not have the stamina needed for this killer pdd and her technique is not refined enough, the result was a quite flaccid performance. In addition her stunning beauty doesn't fit with the role, especially because doesn't have at the moment the sensitivity to act as a fairy: SPF is NOT Mary Vetsera...

Polunin was much better than in Sleeping Beauty, his solo was quite impressive. I think he is in a stage of his career where he needs to be cast with experienced and demanding ballerinas; the partnership with Cuthbertson seems put on to help to create the British star using also her partner, but it could be dangerous for Sergei development as an artist.

In the evening Cojocaru (back on ROH stage after 3 months) and Kobborg (back there after SEVEN months) were absolutely beautiful in the pdd, and capable to deal with the terribly slow tempo given by the conductor (the same of the afternoon...informed people reported he was conducing his first ballets...). Alina managed to fill the slow music in the solo and the result was excellent both technically (she is in great form despite the recent injury) and artistically event though she has made better in the past with a proper conductor to support her.

Tonight I think I think it will be Cuthbertson, interesting to see if SPF fit her better than Aurora.

the "old" ballet.co is moving to archive, but it is also still alive: thank you Bruce!

http://www.balletcoforum.com/

Yes, I think she is the girl you saw. Esthetically and technically Akane Takada is similar to Yuhui Choe, but more brilliant and, especially, with personality, the instinct to act and the desire to communicate: all things that, in my opinion and taste, make the difference between a good dancer and a relevant artist.

She is not British, yes, but she is a Ballerina.

Her Florestan pdt with Polunin (much more "present" than in this Sleeping beauty) and Choe was one of the highlights of my Royal Ballet views two years ago. The past year she was an excellent Olga in Onegin, her first major role, I think. This year she missed her Aurora debut due to an injury, but had, according to many friends reports, an outstanding debut as Sugar Plum Fairy few days ago: the fact she was wearing the tutu usually worn by Yoshida and Cojocaru is just a matter of waist size, but I'm confident that is also a sign of destiny.

Hamilton has a strong personality and stage presence and I enjoyed some of her performances in modern or not classical works. I have a bad feeling about her in classical things, but honestly I'm not sure whether I've really seen her or it's just an extrapolation of her characteristics made by my imagination. I should check the cast sheets.

Anyway, since I'm not British, at the moment she is not a dancer I'd travel for, even though I'd book for anything with her if already in London (infact I have a ticket for her Nutcracker matinee on the 28th)

Thinking to a career of international interest and relevance, I think there is only one really outstanding young dancer in the company: Akane Takada. Of course she is not British, but Japanese.

Little Mermaid is a very clever, original and subtle piece of art and touches extremely dramatic topics with sublime sensitivity. I don't like golf clubs too, but I think that it was really Neumeier's intention to disturb with it, making even more evident and hurting the distance from the Mermaid poetic dreams and the prosaic and vulgar reality that is the perfect environment of the superficial and not-that-noble Prince.

It's a work that needs and deserves a receptive and sensitive audience and great artists on stage... and what a fantastic performance from SFB: Yuan Yuan Tan, Helimets and Riggins (guest from Hamburg) were great.

As much as Yuan Yuan Tan was superb, I've been told by many people that also Silvia Azzoni (awarded with the Benois de la Danse for this role) is wonderful. I've booked for a performance in Hamburg in April and I hope she will be on that night.

She is very different physically and technically from Yuan Yuan Tan so it will be interesting to see how the approach to the role changes. For the moment I've seen only this pdd (with her husband Sascha Riabko) from a gala and I must say that here I tend to prefer Silvia's less extreme but more poetic kind of movement, I think that her slower movements give also a grater idea of underwater ambient.

The Rose Adagio (the main Suitor is Nehemia Kish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX2F5etJqi4

If Cojocaru "doesn't have the style to dance this production", they could have given it to Nunez, at least from a technical point of view she is perfection.

Interesting to hear that RB management feels that "Cojocaru doesn't have the style to dance this production". That's a point of view that I hadn't heard before. But then, I don't follow RB reports very closely.

I saw this production of SB at the Kennedy Center in DC just a couple of years after it debuted. Cojocaru led it off and danced Aurora twice to great acclaim. I also recall seeing Nunez, Lamb and Marquez as Aurora and Cojocaru was my favorite by a mile.

I wonder what the RB considers to be stylistically correct at this point in time...

It was put in writing when Cojocaru was not cast as Aurora, so somebody in the company thinks so and probably her idea of Sleeping Beauty is what she showed all over the world two days ago.

Anyway the important thing is that the future Royal ballet director, Kevin O'Hare, was in Hamburg for the premiere Neumeier's Liliom, the first full length ballet created on Alina Cojocaru, and this gives hope for the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thuJpyy2TPo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9RUIiaVXHA

Choe is actually Korean, but was brought up in Japan - and yes, I was told be a friend with excellent taste in dancers who saw the broadcast - that she was lovely, especially as Florine.

She was lovely also on Saturday. Not her partner, unfortunately, and reliable friends reported that he was even worse, with also a bad mistake, yesterday night.

The same friends said that Aurora was slightly better than on Saturday.

I think Calvert is British, on Saturday she danced with competence from a technical point of view but lacking of personality and charisma.

Hopefully, by then we will have a full casting list, as the link indicates only Polunin & Cuthbertson.

On Saturday they filmed the backup video, so I suppose the cast was confirmed tonight:

Princess Aurora: Lauren Cuthbertson

Prince Florimund: Sergei Polunin

King Florestan: Gary Avis

His Queen: Genesia Rosato

Lilac Fairy: Claire Calvert

Fairy of the Crystal Fountain: Yuhui Chohe

Fairy of the Enchanted Garden: Beatrix Stix-Brunell

Fairy of the Woodland Glade: Fumi Kaneko

Fairy of the Song Bird: Elizabeth Harrod

Fairy of the Golden Wine: Emma Maguire

Cavaliers: Jonathan Watkins, Andrej Uspenski (? I think there was a last minute substitution, but I'm not sure), Dawid Trzensimiech, Bennet Gartside, Alexander Campbell, Ryoichi Hirano

Florestan and his Sisters: Dawid Trzensimiech, Melissa Hamilton, Emma Maguire

Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat: Paul Kay, Elizabeth Harrod

Princess Florine and the Bluebird: Yuhui Choe, Alexander Campbell

Red Riding Hood and the Wolf: Sabina Westecombe, Ryoichi Hirano

Its' not just Aurora, but also many soloists.

But of course the main role is the center of the ballet and and I'm sorry for Cuthbertson: she doesn't deserve to be exposed this way. Good luck to her! On Saturday she had good balances, but she doesn't seem up to the role and the performance was quite modest. Especially I'm not used to see a ballerina ending a pirouette with her back to the audience and being unable to save or mask it at all.

Probably now it's crlear why people talk so much about costumes and not about the ballet.

If Cojocaru "doesn't have the style to dance this production", they could have given it to Nunez, at least from a technical point of view she is perfection.

Saturday I saw the same cast...

Let's hope it will improve.

Polunin is excellent.

Thank you, to confuse things even more there is a video clip of Johann Kobborg dancing in La Sylphide I think at the Bolshoi, I have also seen a very recent video of a dark haired dancer given this name of "The Royal Danish Ballet". !!!

Royal Danish/London Royal Ballet dancer Johan Kobborg (the only one as far as I know) danced La Sylphide at the Bolshoi at least twice: in 2001 opposite marianna Ryzhkina and in 2004 opposite Alina Cojocaru (the only and the one from London Royal Ballet, dancing at the Bolshoi as a guest).