Mary

I think I've decided to go 'Yugen-free' after a spot of bother in the corybantics.

Agreed, Capybara: you could feel the energy from Tsvirko pouring off the screen and bouncing round the cinema! phenomenal..admirable elevation, my golly.

Some of his facial expressions were causing some giggles but to be honest it isn't a ballet one can take deathly seriously ( is it?)

The whole performance was high octane, fun and enjoyable- not what you'd call subtle, nuanced finesse. But that's OK. I also thought Denis Savin was very good in his role and and as always I loved Semyon Chudin, perfect as the arrogant doomed aristo- there is something unique in the way he carries himself: I can recognise him from behind at the back of the stage.

My cinema was half empty, the poorest attendance for a Bolshoi this season...but, maybe people were less likely to come as FoP has been live screened recently (last year?)

Amazing Matthew Ball!  how he got in, warmed up , made up, costumed etc and rehearsed in that time is incredible! One for his memoirs anyway.

How long was the interval?

I thought they used to keep 'understudies' in the theatre......

I know what you mean....

I couldn't get to the live screening, any thoughts on  the cast etc? I fear attendance might have been a lot slimmer than usual...

A  Bayadere many years ago- sets and costumes a bit the worse for wear- and an exotic jungle scene was inhabited by animals represented by stuffed toys with smiley faces that looked like the cast of Winnie the Pooh...the way they peeped through the foliage was just too much- you could feel the row of seats shaking with audience laughter

I rather thought some returns for Thursday might come up, and so they have- great- but, it looks as if it will be almost impossible to get there and impossible to get back...life's little ironies

Will try that, thanks!

I love my birds.  They have had a long hard winter and were just beginning to get ready for spring when this happened- like most of us..

If we can help them out for a few days they should make it through...

Went down to make coffee and there was a little group of birds sitting by the back door waiting for me, feathers all fluffed up, looking steadily up at the kitchen window. I sighed and put a raincoat on over my dressing gown-  went out to feed and water them- the watering can I had left full, was frozen like a rock to the path and unusable..I had to shovel snow to clear a path to put some food down and get a kettle to the bird bath....

Got shivering back into bed eventually then realised I had snow on my feet.

Looking forward eagerly to hearing more about the evening.......

Oh dear mauriceC you have put me off- (but thank you) I have seen too much bad G&S...all it needs is good singing from strong characters, clear diction and the pieces should work for themselves!

I have often come across that Geoff. Musicians can be quite narrow-minded sometimes and I have had several scornful/patronising responses to my love of ballet from them- also, from the drama people..... Some of them have hardly ever seen a ballet in their lives!

It reminds me to be more open-minded and go and see/hear things before I decide they are worthless!

I enjoyed it too. I have always thought Hirano had a lot more in him than he has quite had a chance to show- his Leontes was different but in a good way: his jealous scenes less intense than Watson's but  thoughtfully nuanced, and I found it convincing and painful: he was most frightening in the rather upsetting nursery and trial scenes.

Cuthbertson was, as previously, most moving and expressive.

Morera is ideally powerful as Paulina and I love the way she does those flexing feet. Her ability to speak with movement is outstanding and she is really a unique dancer actor- it is marvellous for the younger ones to be able to work with her but this must be one of the most challenging roles to take on, as you really have to believe in her moral power at the heart of the play

 I did feel there was a bit less spark in Act 2  than in other performances I have seen. Was the music just a shade less pacy ?

 Muntagirov a gentle -and princely- portrayal of Florizel, with Sarah Lamb  just lovely as Perdita - and he is incapable of dancing less than beautifully, but I rather miss McRae here. I think this role needs some more -fizz? showmanship? something, and this act really needs to move along at a spanking pace to work.

Anyway today some zest was missing, for me. However, I was delighted to see Sambe back looking full of vim!  he goes so well with Stix-Brunell. The stage lights up when he bounds on, as it does when Gary Avis dons his kilt and gets down to the folk dancing...

Perhaps, as ninamargaret has said , it was just a softer all-round peformance with this cast. I agree that Matthew Ball's believeable Polixenes, more of a gentle young man in Act 1, which I liked, as it actually seemed more true to the story- convincingly transformed into the angry father in Act 2 and 3- didn't quite have that exotic power that Bonelli did so brilliantly. But that was unique to Bonelli.

This ballet is certainly a great vehicle for the dancers: it is interesting to see the variations, and to think about who might bring what to these roles in the future...

Once again I thoroughly enjoyed the music: no you don't hum it exactly, but it does work well telling the story and the orchestration is so rich and  interesting.

It will be very interesting indeed to see how these performances come over on the screen.

The new documentary about Curry,  The Ice King is coming soon:  alas  NOT to a cinema near me . ..

There you go!

This is turning into Ice Dance Forum

1 hour ago, ninamargaret said:

Does anyone remember seeing John Curry dance an extremely sultry looking tango with a skater called, I think, JoJo Starbuck?.It was quite something!

I did find that on youtube..tremendous--but while I was looking I also found this film ( the Twyla Tharp piece) of John apparently skating in heaven.

May it be so...

His legs seem to go on for ever! The timing-...the line.

I've watched a lot of Robin Cousins on youtube the last 2 days  and one thing really strikes me is that he seems to be enjoying himself, almost all the time. He didn't have the easiest climb to the top and not much in the way of funding and so on,  if any. But he just loved to skate.

Watching the Olympics skating, you could see they were surrounded by every kind of support and etc but some of them looked miserable as hell! Such a shame if that is so.

Really good documentary. Made me cry too. I've always liked them both a lot but now my admiration  is even greater- they have both overcome so much and as we know many other young dancers also leave home and family and struggle with loneliness,  injury and  more. Humbling!

I do hope Steven recovers soon from his current injury, I miss him.

Wouldn't it be good if this was just number 1 in a series!

14 hours ago, alison said:

"Hashed up" is one thing, but taking 2 notes, as I think it was, (several times) out of Swan Lake is something else!  I know there are time restrictions on how long your programme can last, but really - 2 notes??!!

Couldn't agree more and there really should be a mandatory 2 point reduction for showing disrespect to the music and 5 points if it's Tchaikovsky....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21pvHxrINtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7uF7pFQ04

If you want some musicality in your skating, Sim and ninamargaret you might like these- (Youtube is a great way to lose a day...)

Robin was really a Swan on ice...

But I must correct my own sweeping statement-the exquisite Yuzuru Hanyu, for one, did edit his own music according to Cousins: certainly it is seamless and what a lovely line he has.

11 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

And on the subject of Cousins, I like his camel spins

Beautiful, thank you- 'grace on ice' indeed- makes some of the recent performances look a bit clumsy and frenetic..

4 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I've been enthralled by the speed skating (although not able to watch as much as I would have liked) but I wish I understood the rules.  The relays have been soooooo exciting to watch but I didn't have a clue what was going on!

I know what you mean.  I got quite engrossed in the women's bobsleigh but not being a sporting person am often puzzled- what is the second woman doing, who jumps in the back and crouches down, not to be seen again? At first I thought she was pedalling...

That's a very well written and insightful review- thank you Janet- and agrees with me so it must be right...

How true that the tendency to just pack in moves for points is against the spirit of ice dance, and this reviewer explains brilliantly what ice dance can be at its finest- incarnated in the French pair, Papadakis, Cizeron, and in Adam Rippon, also singled out by me ( ahem)- as a real dancer- he burnished his turns and spins rather than doing quads- quads seem to me so pointless as you can't really see them!

I'm not sure I agree about the Shibutanis though- they seem to have had  a lot of criticism for being siblings, but perhaps people should 'get over it'and focus on their skating.

The excellent 2006 documentary Ballet Russes- and now book of interviews- by Michael Meylac- (Behind the Scenes at the Ballet Russes)shows how dancers of the Russian ballet were blown by history, like seeds from a thistle,  round the world, but, of  course, their legacy could only develop if they fell on fertile ground.

In Britain we do indeed have a lot to thank Maynard Keynes for, and a government attitude of mind that art -the best art- was for everyone, as you say, Lizbie1.

I just finished watching it too- what a fantastic set of performances. I too preferred the French pair. I didn't really like their hacking about Beethoven sonatas but still,  they were very beautiful to watch, dream-like in fact- and  I strongly disliked the music for Virtue/Moir-(who danced/skated quite amazingly) a horrid racket IMO!

It is a shame sometimes, I agree, not to be able to watch the dances without commentary.

This is really not sport, as Alison says, it is all about so many different elements, and then the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Each pair is so different as well. I suppose if you wanted a fairer assessment you would make them do the same routine to the same music.

That would be a bit boring.