Ballet/Dance

RAD classes in Switzerland: www.rad.org.uk/teachersearch.asp

If none of these is in Geneva I suggest you contact: www.geneveopera.ch/section_ballet and ask them for advice. There must be classes in Geneva. Good luck

I have aGD who would benefit enormous ly from ballet lessons but I can't see any in Geneva where she lives. She has good posture loves to dance but has no opportunity and because she is growing rapidly she needs to be shown how to place her self gracefully. At times she can be surprisingly clumsy. I find it baffling the way parents just expect children to enjoy the same sports as they do. They have to ski or sail lucky if you like it hard cheese if you don't .

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We went to see Birmingham Royal Ballet's triple bill and it was very entertaining. The first ballet was Gand Tour with music by Noel Coward, lots of well known songs joined together to form the score. BRB are so good at the characterisiations of such people as Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrech, Mary Pickford, GBS etc. No virtuoso dance just great performance and acting. We loved it.

Second was David Bintley's new piece created on an Olympic theme. Originally to be called Faster, Higher, Stronger, the olympic motto but finally called Faster because they were not allowed to use the Olympic motto. It was very interesting to see classical dancers working in trainers. There was basket ball, gymnastics, swimming, fencing, running and combat, no mistaking what it was all about. As usual they aquitted themselves very well.

Third was The Dream. Chi Cao as Oberon and Nao Sakuma as Titania were brilliant. They seem to feel the music in an identical way and perfectly complement each other. James Barton was the best Puck I have ever seen, the role really suited him and Kit Holder's Bottom was so funny. When he rubbed his back against a rock he really was an ass.

All in all a great show and the Birmingham audience are great too, not a muncher or witterer ever!

It was the graduates from the Guildford School of Acting ( famous alumni Celia Imrie and others I cannot remember now!) final show at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford. They were very good..I will look out for their names in the future! The choreography was fresh and well performed!

nanaej Where was that? I love to see all sorts of dance as long as it is done well.

Saw The Producers this weekend with some good musical show dancing!

We went to see BRB's 'Far From the Madding Crowd' on Friday and it was very good. We saw it a long time ago first time round but couldn't remember it. I haven't been Jamie Bond's biggest fan but he danced superbly and it was good to see Natasha Outred in a part where she had to act too. There is a really naff circus bit which I didn't like but I think it may be deliberately so like the theatre bit in Mathew Bourne's Swan Lake.

Off to see their triple bill on Thursday and Friday this week. Will be able to compare different casts.

Oh yes, Alison - but I meant locally. Didn't make that clear.

Butternut there is dance in Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco and of course Paris and probably other places too. They used to have a summer festival in Avignon, don't know if they still do.

I've put this on the Films thread, but worth mentioning here. The film Blood Wedding is a wonderful film of dance - flamenco/ballet - the first of the Flamenco trilogy - Carmen being the second. Beautiful.

Not much opportunity to see dance here in France, but enjoy participating in the Bal Folk which is the traditional Gaelic/Breton dancing.

Spent an evening last summer dancing 'street cuban' - an evening to remember.

Yes, we liked SW more than CG, seemed to get more of a dance audience rather than tourists and corporates.

Pina was very good. Even DH enjoyed it. We go to Sadlers Wells more than CG.

Nanaej No didn't see the Pina Bausch, was it good?

We go to Birmingham for classical dance but do get a little comtemporary here in Malvern and enjoy that. We don't miss Covent Garden at all since moving from the southeast as we used to find them inconsistent. Went two nights running once to see the same ballet and it was totally different one complete waste of time and the other brilliant. I think Johnny Cope raised the game when he was on stage. We find Birmingham Royal Ballet always work hard whether or not the press are in and they seem to have more personality too. Mind you when we lived in the SE we went to see BRB more often than the RB!

Watched men's class at BRB yesterday and it was amazing. They work so hard but also have fun and were competing in the grand allegro and are very supportive and appreciative of each other.

What did you all think of the You Tube video?

I wish I could tap dance.

I enjoy dance very much. I did dance /drama as the key subject of my initial teaching qualification so taught dance to children as part of their PE curriculum in school. Have not danced myself since my 30's (except at parties!) but go to see dance. I am a Matthew Bourne fan but like classical ballet and contemporary dance too. Adam and Simon Cooper's mumwas the education welfare officer at a school where I worked and I remember her asking us what we thought, 'Should she make them do 'A' levels or let them continue with their dance?'

I enjoyed the Pina Bausch film , did you see that?

Excerpts from Birmingham Royal Ballet's latest creation just posted on YouTube. http://youtu.be/k9g2Ce8opD0

Jess Is this 'Street'? There is another programme called that next week but we will be away. I think street and breaking are different but whether I would know the difference if I saw them next to each other is another matter!

I agree that it is good for boys to dance and would say that the ones we saw last night have definitely been trained and not just picked it up amongst their friends.

It was a very different audience too.

Street dance is amazing isn't it. I like the way it engages boys with dance.

West to see Breakin' Convention last night, right outside our usual shows and it was absolutely brilliant! I still don't know what a B Boy is but they were great. There was so much choreography and what a lot of talent. One 'crew' consisted of one able bodied guy and the rest were all damaged or missing limbs but they were fantastic and had the attitude that nothing was beyond them. Makes one think.

No more dance now after this latest burst until the end of June but I will report on that, Swan Lake I think.

Hope to see all your reports as time goes by.

Tickets booked for Cubans.
Yes MK theatre has a fair amount of dance. Bourne etc. A bit less in recent years maybe. But always well attended.

Yes, *Jess8 you really must and that French group looks like fun although I have never heard of them but they sound like they got their ideas from Stomp which is a brilliant show. Do report back on these and anything else you get to see.

Do you get much dance in MK?

Oh - must try to book. Cubans coming here next month.
And in July as part of the festival a French group that translate as "at the wolfs backside" or have I got that wrong? ANyone seen them?
www.ifmiltonkeynes.org/2012-festival-programme/2012/07/26/au-cul-du-loup-score.html

crimson some ballet women just go on for ages, think of Ninette de Valois! Although she did look older at least.

BRB reproduced Right of Spring a few years ago to the best of their ability because it was never notated. The best version I ever saw was Maurice Bejart's but then I was a big fan of him.

That TV progamme was about ENB and didn't show the Director, Wayne Eagling, in a very good light and now he has been sacked. I wonder if the 2 things are related? It made much of one of the male soloists who moved to BRB but couldn't keep up so went back to ENB. I think the London press and ballet public don't appreciate how good BRB are.

I bought someone the dvd of the Ballet Russes a few years back, wanting to watch it myslelf, but it never worked it's way back to me. I'm fascinated by that period of time, dance wise; Nijinsky, the Rite of Spring and such life. So ahead of it's time. I can't believe that Sylve Guillem is still dancing. I've got a beautiful photo [newspaper cutting] of Margot Fonteyn on my desk; I wish I could show it to you. There was a fascinating series on the telly a year or so back about several weeks/months with a ballet company. Ah yes; the ballet years. Bumped into my daughters ballet teached a few months ago and was suprised that she recognised me; annoyingly she didn't look any older .