Roberta

Ready for Christmas 2024? Not many shopping days to go so be prepared. Even fewer days to get that cake baked and soaking in brandy. I have literally baked scores and scores of fruit cakes, Christmas, celebrations, friends, family, charity bakes and the rest. I like cake baking, I find it gently therapeutic! Radio on, and a nip of brandy to test it's not gone off. A few thoughts, based on trial and error and a certain amount of success. Yes buy an oven thermometer, Lakeland sells them. Ovens are notorious for being nowhere near the temperature at which they say are. Fan ovens IMO are not the best for fruit cakes though possible. Too aggressive. I gave up up on my old fan oven, even though turned down to a lower temp, and used the smaller top oven in the end which wasn't a fan oven. I now have an oven which can be used without the fan and used as a conventional oven with top and bottom heat only. It's really good for cakes. I have had success in a fan oven though. Better to cook longer and lower temp than burn the cake. Stand the cake on several sheets of brown paper on the oven shelf. Make sure the tin is lined and also tie on the outside with string a double layer of brown paper rising well above the top of the tin. You can buy fancy gadgets for this job too, but brown paper and string has served me well. Part way through cooking, once danger of sinkage is passed, put a piece of baking parchment or three or a circle of foil on top of the cake. Keep checking to ensure it isn't browning too much. Test the cake with a skewer long before the stated time is up, though I now also use one of the bundt cake testers which change colour when the cake is cooked. Lakeland sells those too. I use an old Good Housekeeping Cookery Book recipe I've used for years and it says bake at 150C / 300F gas mark 1-2, though a fan oven is hotter than non fan so check check check and adjust accordingly. Take the cake out of the oven and remove the brown paper to cool on a rack, leave in the tin until cold. Hope this helps for next time.

Exactly that. (You missed some deleted posts BTW.) I don't know how far along the line the case which, last time I looked, Leigh Day said was being brought before a judge has progressed. However, making adverse comments about someone unable to come on here and challenge / defend themselves is maybe a little unwise at this time. The 'it's my opinion' defence of course applies, though we should take care how those opinions are expressed and also that they don't fall foul of what the forum rules say. There is an entire disappeared thread on a similar theme. We none of us can know the entire story. We all have our theories and opinions and experiences, we don't have a completed jigsaw.

Yes. In some productions he's also Albert. Not so romantic (apologies to Alberts everywhere).

Not if it was a shed filled with wood and other such things and only enough room for Albrecht to do his quick change act. If Albrecht lives locally and isn't simply visiting his prospective in laws you'd have though someone would have recognised him. The Duke & entourage are there to seek a tasting of the new wine, and the wreath on her cottage indicates it's the turn of Giselle's mother to host that for the day. It's a lovely autumn day so they are enjoying the sunshine.

Whose shed is it anyhow? How is it Albrecht has access? If it is his as part of his estate how is it that no-one recognises him until the hunting party with potential father in law & fiancé arrives? Does it belong in fact to the Duke? So many questions!

I've always thought he was fully aware that Albrecht was 'up to no good' and trying to shield Giselle from her youthful folly and possible deception. Sadly, his beard in many productions and his rough clothing don't show him in the best light. It's clear Giselle's mother no father around) would like him as a son in law, she sees him as someone good who would look after them both, bringing food from the forest, though with Giselle's weak heart marriage was always going to be risky. So many died giving birth. It's doubtful Giselle would have survived that. (Yes it's not real, but it is such a wonderful drama you get sucked in to the story.)

More Mary Skeaping https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100509668 Between 1948 and 1951 she was ballet mistress of Sadler's Wells Ballet and she directed the first live full-length classic for the BBC, Sleeping Beauty (1951)

The door was open and he wasn't really stealing.

More Drottningholm and Mary Skeaping https://www.facebook.com/Dansmuseet/videos/fiskarena/1472169909503769/

Yes I was about to mention that one of Mary Skeaping's reconstructions featured in Magic of Dance! She worked at Drottingholm for a number of years. The theatre itself was accidentally preserved with all its effects and machinery as it was basically used as a glorified garden shed, for storage! https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/26/archives/drottningholm-a-200yearold-theatrical-jewel-a-200yearold-jewel.html

I think maybe we are straying into the territory here of saying things that could be prejudicial and that's really not to be recommended if a court case is pending. We don't want the forum moderators (who are ultimately responsible for what appears on this site) to be clapped in jail, do we? See @Anna C post above.

Yes. All very fascinating and maybe we should have a separate thread on Margaret Craske, who Cecchetti chose to carry on his work at West Street. Mary Skeaping also taught at Nesta Brooking's studio I think? (Nesta Brooking I found quite terrifying but that is also a separate issue!) Nesta Brooking was Monica Mason's teacher when she first arrived in the UK. It all used to be such a small world.

Margaret Craske herself had a very interesting life, though this is not the thread for her history she also played a major role in ballet history and her name should not be forgotten.

I'd also like to add my voice of thanks to @Irmgard for taking all the time to clarify & expand on Mary Skeaping's production and her intentions. I did see it way back when it was new, with LFB, and it made a lasting impression. It's wonderful it is still being performed in 2024. Mary Skeaping's contribution to dance, dance scholarship and dance history was immense and should not be forgotten. Alongside her dancing, then research and reconstructions, she also taught Cecchetti ballet and was one of those who participated in the demonstration of the first attempts to formalise the 'method' exercises for exams, a new concept at the time. https://cicb.org/the-early-days/ She was one of the very earliest holders of the Maestro Cecchetti Diploma.

I don't think I am missing the point, I'm being very mindful, however, of what I said above about pending court action which brings constraints on discussion. The quote you gave is really very good and one with which we can surely all agree. It is possible the current AD thinks that only by being a participant, as judge and teacher, in these competitions can they be changed to become a far more healthy environment for the young people entering, and an enriching experience. I think there have been changes over times, which is all to the good.

Actually they are gorgeous! Thank you. They convey the other world nature of the final act!

Knowing Lorna Hill books I'd have thought WAS a mark of age! Do people still read them (apart from people like us?)

I love the Peter Wright RB production also but it's certainly in the melodrama (the hair, the sword) & crowd pleaser (the entrechat six, the lifts, the pas de six) category. I'm simply also thankful for the gentle Romanticism & history of Mary Skeaping's version, and long may it continue as it is (only better lit). Also Ratmansky. And then there is the Ulanova / Fadeyechev Bolshoi Giselle, which is on YouTube still I think, and everyone should watch it. It never fades. It still makes me cry. I cried in the cinema so many years ago.

If I told you her name you'd be astonished. I'm actually astonished at what she achieved. One year of Saturday ballet with a good teacher launched her life in dance, with a great deal of hard work after. Good for her and really, a story of following your dream. It can't have been easy and she wasn't wealthy or from a wealthy background. She could equally have landed flat on her face of course, but sheer determination won through. The problem is many have ambitions to be Odette or Siegfried who will never make it. Hard to accept. Many who don't make it train to teach, and that's fine, ballet / dance lessons are a worthwhile activity in their own right, they give enjoyment and wider life skills, as well as making an informed audience, but is this perpetuating the supply / disappointment problem?

I think that was in earlier centuries when faces were painted with lead paint. This was more like shoe whitening. (I've recently junked a cache of ancient Leichner grease paints and heaven only knows what was in those too. They didn't smell too wonderful, after all this time. Possibly I should have sent them to the V & A! Also liquid brown body paint, for 'gypsies'. All very incorrect these days.) Edited to add this link. It's about racism in ballet and other things. I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with its argument. Wet white wasn't a figment of my imagination. https://www.city-journal.org/article/beside-the-pointe "Since the nineteenth century, dancers in a corps de ballet often applied white body paint in works, such as Giselle or Les Sylphides, that feature a supernatural element. The intent was to create an impression of ghostly creatures from beyond the grave who might doom any red-blooded prince who crosses them. The use of white makeup was not a statement about white supremacy: there were virtually no black dancers in Russian or Parisian ballet troupes at the time against which a statement about skin color might be made. If one is looking for slurs, the body paint could be seen as anti-white, in its association of whiteness with death."

Also it used to be the case that dancers in white acts painted themselves in something called 'wet white'. I'm really showing my age here!

My goodness though, so much reality in that. It's all a very long way from five bob in the church / village hall on Saturday morning for ballet, tap ballroom and modern stage, with Auntie Nelly (yes I knew an Aunty Nelly who taught dance) or Miss Dora, which was what a great deal of dance teaching used to be. Very few even considered a career, it was fun, a show every year, medal tests, a few grades, and then the real world of work hit. The lucky few went on, few ever made a ballet company or west end show, but panto, cruise ships, summer shows at seaside resorts, and all the rest, gainful employment. Of course there were professional studios, but in reality small in number. It's a huge business now is dance teaching, and ever expanding, with ex pros needing work after retirement, and the unending, expanding stream of those taking full time teaching courses too. In order to gain a teaching reputation, students need to be seen to be achieving, to be 'sent on'. And yet, jobs are still not in abundant supply, would-be employers can pick and choose, everything is much more international, and it is difficult for aspiring dancers to see they aren't going to make the grade no matter how nurtured. A fortune has been spent, and parents want to see a return. Careers can be made that are dance related if a young person has the gumption and drive, but again, that's often a case of luck rather than planning. (I know of one person who took her Grade three ballet as a young adult and left what she was doing to go on to make a hugely successful career in the dance world, not dancing, but possibly that isn't something that would happen now either. (If she reads this she knows who she is...) I have few answers, I simply see the reality, and that piece covers so much of it.

Yes, and that means Giselle's desire to perform has context.

Yes. I can see that the six gives more dancing for soloists which is important in a large company and a long run, but the deux is historically more accurate and sort of makes more sense dramatically (though historically it was inserted to please its original female dancer). In the days when Giselle formed only part of an evening's programme, not so very long ago really, other dancers could be given roles in any additional ballet performed. Nowadays, Giselle is performed as a standalone. So, to keep people busy, a pas de six.

The AD can't be both present on a daily basis overseeing two sites, teaching classes at all levels, and also acting as the international face of both schools, working on an international stage. And I suspect that international presence is going to still be very much part of the job of Artistic Director.