Answers to the last Balletco Quiz of the Year – 2011

by Jane Simpson January 30, 2012 Balletco
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Here you go – the answers to the last Balletco Quiz of the Year – 2011.

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Book – Royal Danish Ballet in Photographs

by Jane Simpson January 13, 2012 Galleries
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What a nice find! A casual Google search, a few weeks ago, led me to a book I’d never heard of but which has turned out to be doubly interesting as well as, already, a source of a lot of pleasure.

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Book – At the Sign of the Harlequin’s Bat, My Years with Cyril Beaumont

by Jane Simpson December 31, 2011 History
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Fifty or sixty years ago, no true ballet-lover would have dreamt of visiting London without calling in at Cyril Beaumont’s famous bookshop in Charing Cross Road. The great and the good of the dance world went to learn from his vast store of knowledge, to reminisce about the golden years of the Diaghilev company, or just to exchange gossip…

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Review of the Dance Year in Hong Kong – 2011

by Kevin Ng December 31, 2011 Interviews / Features
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I have saved the greatest dance event till the last – the seven sold-out performances of two rewarding programmes of the New York City Ballet in Hong Kong in March.

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Interview with Elena Glurdjidze, English National Ballet Senior Principal

by Simonetta Dixon December 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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“For me, to be a ballerina is to be individual, to have something no-one else has… but it is a never-ending process and we are always searching.”

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Reflections on Dance in London – 2011

by Lynette Halewood December 26, 2011 Interviews / Features
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This is not a “best of” the year: it’s a reflection on those events and performances that have stuck in the mind for the right or wrong reasons…

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The last Balletco Quiz of the Year – 2011

by Jane Simpson December 25, 2011 Balletco
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The last Balletco Quiz of the Year – 2011. And don’t worry we will give you the answers before we go!

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DVD Review: Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland on Opus Arte

by Rym Kechacha November 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Breathtaking as Lauren Cuthbertson as Alice is (and she really is perfect) the ballet belongs to the exotic undulations of the Caterpillar, the feverishly tapping feet of the Mad Hatter, and the bloodthirsty hysteria of the Queen of Hearts.

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Dance’s Question Time – TheArtsDesk Debate in London

by John Mallinson November 12, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Dance’s Big Guns at the Riflemaker – A debate on the future of dance, November 4 2011

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Book Review: Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet

by Rym Kechacha October 31, 2011 Interviews / Features
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“…, ‘Where snowflakes dance and swear’ is an engrossing read and treats its huge cast of protagonists as ordinary people who happen to do extraordinary jobs in an extraordinary world.”

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Rosemary Lee – Square Dances for Dance Umbrella – London

by John Mallinson October 20, 2011 Galleries
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John Mallinson with not so much a review as a piece of reportage on a rather different event. The full gallery includes nearly 30 pictures.

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Postcard from Australia

by Valerie Lawson October 12, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Valerie Lawson with a roundup of thoughts and latest news from Oz including: Australian Ballet, the Cranko legacy, Royal New Zealand Ballet and Sydney Spring Dance with DV8 and Pina Bausch…

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Carlos Acosta on creativity in Britain

by admin October 6, 2011 Interviews / Features
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In a Foreign Office film launched today, Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta talks about the UK’s artistic flair and why he chose to join the Royal Ballet in Britain.

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Interview with Cassa Pancho, Artistic Director and Founder of Ballet Black

by Simonetta Dixon October 3, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Eleven years ago the half Trinidadian, half British 21 year-old Cassa Pancho was wondering why there were almost no ethnic minorities in classical dance companies. She was studying for a degree at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), and to try to find an answer she made it the subject of her final-year dissertation. And [...]

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Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement Exhibition

by Margaret Willis September 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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While Edgar Degas’ works on the nineteenth century ballet world are revealing and fascinating documents for the dance historian, balletomane and general public, he did not glamorize the art but skilfully showed the hard work involved by the ballerinas to capture those magical moments on stage. This exhibition offers a truly satisfying and intimate glimpse into their extraordinary and dedicated lives.

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Book Review: ‘The Everyday Dancer’ by Deborah Bull

by Rym Kechacha September 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Deborah Bull: “I was frustrated at the often distorted portrayal of dancer’s lives, particularly on film. The lifestyle doesn’t need enhancing; it’s special and unique in its own right.”

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DVD Review: 1958 Giselle with Nerina / Fadeyechev on ICA Classics

by Jane Simpson September 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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What really surprised me was how affecting her mad scene is. She plays Giselle in the first act as a very simple, unsophisticated and trusting girl, and when she discovers Albrecht’s duplicity it’s as if her whole world has shatterd and her mind simply can’t cope. It’s a plain, unornamented reading and I found it really quite moving.

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English National Ballet & School tour ‘My First Sleeping Beauty’

by Margaret Willis September 30, 2011 Interviews / Features
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Sleeping Beauty is going to get a lot less sleep in 2012. In fact her life-span on stage is going to be cut from the usual three hours to approximately ninety minutes. But there is a very good reason—it is to introduce young children from the age of three upwards to ballet performances in a time framework that will hold and keep their attention.

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Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake for Sky 3D & Christmas 2D

by John Mallinson September 24, 2011 Interviews / Features
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For all sorts of reasons there is no way that, even with the most advanced and immersive 3D technology, film can replace live theatre or dance. However things have advanced to the point where we can expect that many more dance recordings will be released on 3D as well as on Blu-ray and ordinary dvd media.

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Tamara Rojo Collects Major Award/Decoration at the Spanish Embassy

by Bruce Marriott September 8, 2011 Galleries
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10 pictures of a happy night… The Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order granted in recognition of services that benefit the country. The King of Spain (currently Juan Carlos I) is Grand Master of the Order.

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Hamburg Ballett-Tage & Nijinsky Gala – Four Summer Days & Nights in Hamburg

by Margaret Willis August 31, 2011 Interviews / Features
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To keep us fit for the prospective five-hour gala in the evening, we had a two-hour cycle ride, followed by a boat trip on an Alster steamer and by 6pm we were in our seats for the Nijinsky Gala XXXVII, an annual event launched by Neumeier in 1975. Tickets sell out as soon as booking opens and outside the theatre were many people holding notices requesting to buy a ticket.

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Exhibition: Frederick Ashton, the ballet and Suffolk

by Jane Simpson August 27, 2011 Interviews / Features
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“Frederick Ashton, the ballet and Suffolk” could well be a sub-category of the delights awaiting us in heaven; for the moment, though, it’s the title of a series of exhibitions and events running through the summer in Ipswich, Suffolk’s county town.

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Interview with Vadim Muntagirov, English National Ballet Principal

by Simonetta Dixon August 22, 2011 Interviews / Features
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I am so lucky. I was supposed to do Giselle with someone else, and when she got sick they gave me Daria. At first I was so nervous; what was she going to think? I was a young boy, just out of school, and she is a prima ballerina.

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Postcard from Australia

by Valerie Lawson August 19, 2011 Interviews / Features
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The “ballet last” problem is now so ingrained in prize giving in Australia that there should be a separate award for this dance form.

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