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Roberta

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  1. Roberta
    I'm unsure these sort of objections will not carry on. Kevin O'Hare, in discussion with dancers at the Royal Ballet, had Sir Peter Wright re-choreograph the Nutcracker Chinese dance after the dancers expressed concerns, as I understand it. It remains to be seen if La Bayadere is revived at the Royal Opera House anytime soon. The Hindu statesman said the Theatre in Wales' capital should not be promoting the production, which he has said appropriates Hindu traditions. In a statement released from Nevada, USA, he suggested the "deeply problematic" ballet was a belittling of a rich civilisation, exhibiting that of 19th-century orientalist attitudes... Mr Zed's statement continued: "It was highly irresponsible for an establishment like New Theatre Cardiff to allow such a ballet which had been blamed for patronizing flawed mishmash of orientalist stereotypes, dehumanizing cultural portrayal and misrepresentation, offensive and degrading elements, needless appropriation of cultural motifs, essentialism, shallow exoticism, caricaturing, etc. President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed
  2. Roberta
    Current difficulties with staging La Bayadere can be found in this article from last year. It is a brave AD who gambles with the adverse publicity and possible demonstrations when faced with accusations of religious insensitivity. In Wales, it was cancelled. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/cardiffs-new-theatre-drops-culturally-25631887
  3. Roberta
    In the interests of fairness to the ROH programmers and to Wayne McGregor, Untitled, 2023 was actually only 35 minutes long and part of a triple bill. If you hated the design and choreography, which many did not, you could always escape into the music by a highly regarded composer. https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/40/new-wayne-mcgregor-corybantic-games-anastasia-act-iii/cast-list/51732
  4. Roberta
    I did find this image. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/american-ballet-comedienow-defunct--175218241724560583/
  5. Roberta
    Also, this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/07/27/american-ballet-comedys-slapstick/f27280b6-16ec-40e3-a344-47bd601a8470/
  6. Roberta
    Possibly this? https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/26/arts/bowyer-and-bruggeman-troupe-offers-ballet-for-the-fun-of-it.html There's a ''Duet for Mating Organisms,'' done to Samuel Barber's ''Adagio for Strings,'' in which two creatures with abstract froglike heads couple in a manner suitable for family viewing - with their feet.
  7. Roberta
    It works in the UK, what a special occasion. Thank you for posting the link.
  8. Roberta
    It is lovely. What a wonderful choice. I suspect this will be one of the recorded pieces, singer and orchestra.
  9. Roberta
    Yes. Totally different. Two different companies, two different schools. The Royal Ballet's Meaghan-Grace Hinkis had a major part of her training at ABT's JKO, via a YAGP scholarship, then she was with ABT2 and the main company. https://balletassociation.co.uk/pages/reports-2021-meaghan-grace-hinkis
  10. Roberta
    The ABT school has a long, interesting and complex history. https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/j/ja-jn/-jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-school-at-american-ballet-th/ The School was eventually renamed in honor of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was the Honorary Chairman of ABT for more than 25 years. https://www.abt.org/training/dancer-training/jko-school-pre-professional/ There's a short film included in that link, of students rehearsing and talking and it's certainly worth watching. ...the JKO School follows the ABT National Training Curriculum, co-authored by Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens Raymond Lukens, with a link to the ABT National Training Curriculum here. https://www.abt.org/raymond-lukens-named-directorof-abts-national-training-curriculum/ Franco De Vita https://www.abt.org/people/franco-de-vita/
  11. Roberta
    Yes it is, I Googled and it is still there on Marquee. Also, I know this is stretching 'dance' rather, however, the Gondoliers is on BBC4 this evening, 8pm, Scottish Opera. It should be on iplayer for catching up. It's a really pretty production. Further information and a link to iplayer here, hum along. https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/the-gondoliers/ My excuse is this. Giuseppe. But never mind that — the question is, how shall we celebrate the commencement of our honeymoon? Gentlemen, will you allow us to offer you a magnificent banquet? Gondoliers. We will! Giuseppe. Thanks very much; and, ladies, what do you say to a dance? Tessa. A banquet and a dance! O, it's too much happiness!
  12. Roberta
    Carla Fracci was a beautiful dancer, though it's difficult to really believe she's an unsophisticated girl of tender years and she didn't immediately appreciate that Albrecht was perhaps not all he pretended,
  13. Roberta
    You can buy one here - Tonight and Every Night [1945] [DVD] https://www.vicpine.co.uk/Tonight-And-Every-Night.htm The feeble plot involves red-headed Rita falling for pilot Lee Bowman and blonde Janet Blair for dancer Marc Platt. Platt was a weak actor but a good dancer; here he has a bizarre number in which he mimes to one of Hitler's speeches.
  14. Roberta
    Thank you, for bringing this lovely production to life again with such clarity of purpose and, well, love, and treating us to these detailed explanations.
  15. Roberta
    Of course. And Santa bring us all presents at Christmas, otherwise how would our stockings be filled?
  16. Roberta
    Of course they are, most of them. And still they endure, for whatever reason you think they do. Love conquers all etc. I hope audiences will still be watching Giselle and the SXF in the next century, though I still enjoy knowing that in the age of computers, and doubts about the existence of the afterlife, she flies from her other world in this one with the theatrical, time honoured trick of being aided by a bloke in black, and her veil is whisked off by wire.
  17. Roberta
    Going against the grain here, but I do like to know about magical stage effects and how they are achieved. Demon traps to raise Giselle from her grave, often quite thrillingly at speed? Yes, I have in the past quietly smiled at a turbo charged resurrection. I suspect many a Giselle has been surprised at how rapidly she has been propelled from the bowels of the earth / theatre, summoned by Myrtha's wands of rosemary (for remembrance), still with her tutu pristine. (Not only this production has magic, there are others with varying 'SFX'.) Mary Skeaping, of course, had a good grounding during her varied early career (which included panto) and at Drottningholm, with all the preserved stage machinery. Knowing how things work doesn't, for me, at all detract from the fact they do. We must face it, Giselle is actually pretty ridiculous, designed to give 19th century audiences a thrill of vampirism, ghoulies, ghosties and things that go bump, as well as a love story, a story of dastardly (or not) betrayal, a villain in Hilarion, and a splendid 'mad scene' and death. That we leave the theatre wrung out by the drama, the music, the acting, the mime, the dancing, doesn't alter the fact it is so (wonderfully) ludicrous. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400832477/html I'm unsure if it's as ludicrous as Swan Lake, I'm weighing up the pros and cons.
  18. Roberta
    MacMillan wrote his own libretto (altered as you say from that of the novel, as with Romeo and Juliet, which doesn't stick slavishly to the narrative of Shakespeare's play). Wiki tells us The ballet's narrative structure is based on that of MacMillan's earlier Romeo and Juliet, with hero and heroine meeting each other as young innocents and their love being revealed through a series of pas de deux.[4]
  19. Roberta
    Thanks for that, I did think it was Markova, I couldn't find the ref! Markova said she always travelled with a pair of wings in her suitcase as you do, just in case. She also had a wry, dry sense of humour so who knows. Wings, the forerunners of 'beaming up'?
  20. Roberta
    This piece was added to Eric Taub's blog, the aptly named Demicontretemps, in 2019. It is deliciously wicked, hilarious on hair. https://demicontretemps.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-kings-of-dance.html Fly high, Eric Taub, along with Boris, and all the cats who went before, over that Rainbow Bridge. 🌈 Edited to add the full blog link https://demicontretemps.blogspot.com/
  21. Roberta
    I'm sorry to say, I think Mel Johnson has joined Giselle in another realm. https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/43749-mel-johnson/
  22. Roberta
    It's interesting to watch the mechanics of the wire from the wings removing the veil. It isn't magic after all. How disappointing. Talking of 'wings' (sorry) I've been searching for days (for 'searching' read rummaging in my mind, through books, via Google) for the source of a remembrance of Giselle sprouting wings. I do know the context was a production where Giselle rises from the grave, bows to Myrtha, Myrtha touches her (with myrtle wand?), all the while Giselle has her hands crossed in front of her chest. At that point in some productions the veil is removed and her wings sprout from her back. She then launches into that frantic sequence of hopping turns, as she has become a Wili. So, the mechanics of the sprouting? The wings were held down with a thin thread passing to her front, and Giselle had to break the thread to allow her wings to spring before she could hop and hop and hop. During my searches, one discovery was this post 'Do Wilis have wings?' and it is truly remarkable. https://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/13115-do-wilis-have-wings/
  23. Roberta
    Boris had a shrine, with an urn containing his ashes, documented in several photographs on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/manhattnik/p/Czczb3qgU6r/
  24. Roberta
    I think part of the success of Marguerite And Armand should be credited to the great designer Cecil Beaton, with his 'gilded cage' set, and the magnificent and immensely glamourous gowns he designed for Margot Fonteyn. Here is an album of six photographs from the Royal Opera House collection, both the red and white costumes. Later productions carried on the theme, though the details altered.
  25. Roberta
    From the Guardian. A sad loss. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/jan/24/emma-gladstone-dancer-and-former-artistic-director-of-dance-umbrella-dies-aged-63
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