Ondine

He had a fair few positive things to say. He may well have bought his own ticket of course, and the show may well have been less than perfect. It's his job to say so.

Sadly I fear the ballet class pianist is a dying breed, recorded music is allowed for exams now it seems! Many were indeed very talented in a rather specialist field, playing away in large and also small studios and draughty church halls and the rest throughout the land, for generations of budding dancers, who loved their ballet classes, adored being part of something special, worked hard at it, even if they had no ambitions (or indeed the talent) to become professionals. I still have never quite grasped how people like Rambert and Cecchetti managed to whistle and teach at the same time, though Cecchetti did play the violin and also beat time with a stick I believe. There must be thousands of people who hear a few bars of a particular piece of music and are transported back in time to ballet class, and remember the steps they did to it week in week out, or the 'grade' dance they performed!

My word, what a link to the past! How wonderful! He was a student of Rambert. We don't appreciate all this when we are young, do we? His obit here is well worth reading. His name should not be forgotten. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jul/17/leo-kersley The school he founded in 1959 is still going! The Harlow Ballet School is proud to continue that noble tradition, passed on from Maestro Cecchetti, through his pupil Stanislav Idzikovsky to the founder of the Harlow Ballet School, Leo Kersley. Leo Kersley's pupils, Michael Branwell and Claire Hickles, pass on these tried and trusted methods for safe and effective teaching. The Harlow Ballet Association performed Coppélia with Cecchetti's choreography in 2002, 2010 and 2016. https://www.harlowballet.co.uk/the-cecchetti-method

I doubt very much he cares about your review here TBH. He won't be filling pages on a forum fuming about it I'm pretty sure. 😏 You appear to have missed all the positive things he says. The art of being a critic, however, is not about being uncritical. It's a tough old world out there, in the arts, and if you want to carry on getting state funding, you need to ensure it's warranted. I'm sure BRB will be taking all that he says into consideration. It may choose to reject it, I'm not sure that would be wise but hey.

He's entitled to his opinion, which is an informed one, he's an experienced critic, and he gave praise where he felt it was warranted. It's his job. This was a professional performance by a professional company of professional dancers and it has to be viewed in that context.

Well no as they haven't been to my part of the sticks. Were you there when RC was in Peterborough? Anyhow we are currently discussing the critical review not the performance? Possibly he has a few useful things to say?

I've just watched one of those of whom he was a tad critical describing how she was rehearsed and who rehearsed her. I'd suggest perhaps a bloke who dances Seigfried and tells her to bend her elbows to be a swan perhaps isn't the best choice of coach and possibly this wasn't the greatest choice of extract for an inexperienced dancer. I note also: Arts Council England’s embattled chief executive Darren Henley was in attendance; I wonder what lessons he drew from the performance.

He did dish out praise where he thought it was due. Seems fair enough to me to be critical where he felt it was warranted. That's his job. it was supposed to be a 'showcase'. Unbridled balletomania is all very well, but...

He was being ironic about Peterborough. I'm wondering if I'm reading the same review as some. However: Honourable pass marks to them all, but it’s not just quibbling to crave a bit more.

I didn't think it was. He gave praise where it was due and yes some of it was ironic. It is the Spectator and he knows his audience? Being a critic isn't always about telling everyone they are wonderful. Presumably the company is in receipt of public funding and it is charging for tickets to see professional dancers so perhaps there are areas where it can be improved? If it is to take ballet to areas where it is in short supply, then maybe, just maybe, it requires a rethink for the next time. People in 'the sticks' deserve nothing but the best even if it is on a smaller scale.

I read it in the more than slightly tongue in cheek context of the entire sentence. Fulfilling its sacred duty to serve regions that higher culture tends to avoid And surely the ref to the far from diverse audience was in that context also. If it makes for some rethinking it can possibly only be good for the future of BRB2. Great that it has happened at all, but to move forward at times you need to listen and learn from informed criticism. Let's just pause for a moment and look at a certain critic's CV in the context of the arts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Christiansen And yes, look also at how other successful small 'second' companies work and programme.

I didn't see him as patronising the people of Peterborough by suggesting they deserved better than the mixed bag BRB2 served up. Also as it was hardly a full house, then some means of attracting / building an audience needs to be given a passing thought? As @FLOSSsaid above, standard Gala excerpts possibly not what should have been provided? Anyone with any sense would recognise that a showcase of ballet for young dancers would need a very different choice of excerpts from that for a star vehicle Well yes. Christiansen in Spectator: Only Olympian virtuosi should be allowed anywhere near a flamboyantly vulgar circus act such as the Diana and Actaeon duet: Beatrice Parma and Riku Ito aren’t yet of that gold standard and so the choreography looked merely banal. I love a vulgar circus act in the right place with the right dancers as much as anyone, but you have have to be pretty outstanding to pull that one off and charge money for it.

Ballet For All used to do that. I recall it being warmly received.

I'm not implying anything, I haven't mentioned those companies, I'm suggesting that some serious consideration of what he says about BRB2 is possibly worthwhile as he isn't a local rag hack, who rarely attends ballet, but a seasoned balletgoer, and that further thought is given to how this company presents its rep and that the rep itself possibly requires careful consideration before a second tour is planned. Being a critic at times means you have to be critical when you feel it is deserved? Yes I am fully aware of what and who BRB2 is.

Whatever you think of Rupert Christiansen's opinions and reviewing, I don't think there's any doubt about his knowledge of and commitment to ballet. I can't speak about his Diaghilev book as though I have bought it, it's still in the 'to read' pile and I've got little further than a flick through and the preface. (Currently I'm re-reading Judith Kavanagh's Ashton bio, Secret Muses, it's been a long time, and I may be a while, so Diaghilev is having to wait his turn.) The preface is worth reading, note especially the footnote about Edward Gorey and his devotion to NYCB. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Diaghilev_s_Empire/MA5jEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP10&printsec=frontcover I thought the Spectator review was measured and had some possibly pertinent things to say, and praise was given where it was due, TBH. If you're charging money and people are investing their time going to watch, especially in areas where ballet is in short supply, then second best possibly isn't good enough, and a more suitable programme for young & inexperienced dancers could have been devised. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/patronising-to-the-people-of-peterborough-brb2s-carlos-acosta-classical-selections-reviewed-2/ "But what stood out most positively for me was the American-born Jack Easton... this coltish Royal Ballet School graduate seemed to be dancing because he had to, not because of what he’d been told or learnt. There was musicality and imagination there, and a dash of personal style lacking among his colleagues. He has just the sort of talent that BRB needs to invest in right now."

Judith Mackrell's March 2008 reviews from NYCB at the Coliseum are worth reading, and reflecting on. Four different programmes. Programme one https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/mar/14/dance Serenade, Agon and Symphony in C "Symphony in C is one of Balanchine's most purely classical works, and to a British eye the American dancers are classical in neither detail or style. Nor do they make sufficient musical distinctions in the choreography, so that Sara Mearns, in what should be a rapt dreamy adagio, barely stands out from the romping allegro dancers around her. The collective exuberance is infectious - in Gonzalo Garcia's dancing, exceptionally so - but it is a performance lacking elegance and variety" Programme two, all Robbins. Mixed reception. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/mar/15/dance1 The third programme wasn't altogether well received either, though Christopher Wheeldon's Carousel (with Tiler Peck) "...this is an ecstatic little moment of stage magic" However, Peter Martins' Zakouski & Ratmansky's Russian Seasons got the thumbs down. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/mar/20/dance Programme four had Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht dancing Balanchine's Tarantella and she loved them. Who wouldn't? West Side Story Suite, "a compression of Jerome Robbins' 1957 musical, the whole company excel". Another of Peter Martins' pieces was deemed 'hammy and clunky' https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/mar/21/dance "Still this has been a very good season for NYCB and London will be ready for a return visit soon." Then we had the global financial crisis. There had been rumblings befor this. Perhaps that's why there hasn't been a return until now, and yes, I suspect they are playing it cautiously, and giving the venue what it wants. Yes I also suspect Tanowitz and Abraham as they have been seen at the ROH... Just be thankful there is still some Balanchine? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–2008_financial_crisis And here we are, post Covid and with a cost of living crisis & I suspect all involved all playing it safe. Incidentally, it's worth searching out a rather 'artsy' film on YouTube Duo Concertante: Kay Mazzo & Peter Martins (Balanchine) posted by attitude - devant Infuriating when it cuts off the dance, and parts of the dancers, to show the (pah!) musicians, but it's all there including the 'blackout' and after and oh the dancing! The dancing!!

Dancersdiary has made a documentary about Mukhamedov and posted it on YouTube Jan 31, 2023 Irek Mukhamedov, a documentary I quote, The Life story of one of the Iconic Ballet Dancer - Irek Mukhamedov. so privileged to be able to interview him about his journey to became a Ballet Star. the dance footage in this film has been put together from different sources on YouTube

To be clear as there appears to be confusion. There is footage in two separate clips of the Bolshoi Ratmansky Giselle posted by The Bundu Ballerina Krysanova Ovcharenko Shipulina - Ratmansky Giselle Excerpts Act 1 & Act 2 (about half an hour) and Kokoreva & Gusev - Ratmansky Giselle Peasant PDD Variations & Coda Both of those I believe are from the same performance. There is another YT of the Bolshoi Ratmansky Giselle also, different dancers, posted on YT by maya which is a cinema broadcast in full. Giselle - Olga Smirnova, Artemy Belyakov The Kokorova & Gusev Peasant PDD was what I referred to. Yes he's a little untidy at times but my goodness they dance it so joyfully! The full cinema version obviously has the Peasant PDD, and yes beautifully and flawlessly danced It can also be found as a clip posted by Notas de Ballet GISELLE - Pas Paysant (Daria Khokhlova & Alexei Putintsev - Bolshoi Ballet) but the verve and bouyancy of the Kokorova & Gusev pairing was a delight to watch. As with anything on YT, these could vanish at any time. There is other footage also, but I thought I'd clarify what was posted here.

Ah well. Given the length of the piece from which I quoted, by Alistair Macaulay, it was actually quite a brief quote I felt, setting up what was in the scholarly history of the ballet Giselle and the discussions with noted Giselle experts. Whatever. Here is the link again, for anyone seriously interested (as I am) in the lengthy and ever evolving history of the ballet Giselle. There's even a picture of Robert Helpmann as Albrecht / Albert dead at the end. Albrecht hasn't always stood alone as dawn broke, a tragic figure bereft. https://www.alastairmacaulay.com/all-essays/giselle-questions-answers My last post on the subject, apart from to recommend again that Bolshoi Peasant PDD. Proper steps, beautifully danced.

There's a review here of the United Ukrainian Ballet's Ratmansky Giselle https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/sep/14/united-ukrainian-ballet-giselle-review-coliseum-london The fiancee Bathilde (Ksenia Novikova), often played with a sneer, is here kindly, distraught at Giselle’s distress. Although the ballet can’t speak directly to events in Ukraine, Ratmansky’s excavations also reshape the ending, facing towards the future. It honours terrible loss – and the courage in finding reasons to survive.

This one must be a VERY posh shed, it has a leaded window! 🙂 https://www.ft.com/content/c0381392-451a-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8

Thank you. As it doesn't mention Ratmansky it's hard to find. And the lovely Katya Novikova! That's my Bank Holiday sorted. The Ulanova film is out there too, the first Giselle I ever saw many many years ago and still worth watching. One of the greats.

It seems to depend on the version. In some it is more a posh shed, in others a humble cot.

Thank you. As it doesn't mention Ratmansky it's hard to find. And the lovely Katya Novikova! That's my Bank Holiday sorted.

The Ratmansky isn't like that, Bathilde comes cross as a sympathetic character, and watch the ending. Giselle, Bathilde and Albrecht all look so very young too, which adds another dimension. The so called 'mad scene' is beautifully done, and the Elizaveta Kokoreva & Georgy Gusev Peasant PDD simply lovely.