same problem as the gifted Brian Shaw - too small for danseur noble roles. shaw was perfectly proportioned and one hellova dancer - check out his bluebird with the young antoinette sibley.
hi mithrilmoon1 - yes, exactly - about brian shaw - and yes and 'one hellova dancer' - nicely put - which is why is uploaded that blue bird footage. do you know if there's anything else of him on film? cheers
@nickwallacesmith At the moment I am only aware of his clog dance from LA FILLE MAL GARDEE lol. I watched this on youtube only recently.
I will go on a hunt because he really was a wonderful dancer and he, too, lamented throughout his career that he was not 'a few inches taller'. LOL.
I am trying to source a full copy of SHE DANCES ALONE. (Patrick Dupond is just fantastic in it). I taped it years back when it came on TV but have mislaid the tape!
@nickwallacesmith Nick forgive me I am new to posting on youtube. I should have known it was YOU that posted the bluebird clip! ha ha. I am crazy about ballet, too, and also have a passion for ballet history. Please keep posting because your clips are just wonderful.
hi mithrilmoon1 - look, i find it hard to remember what i upload myself - let lone what other people put on YT! i have a passion for ballet history too - which probably comes out in the blah blah blah i add to each upload. the diaghiev ballets russes era has a particular fascination for me
@nickwallacesmith ME TOO! I am nuts about the Ballets Russes - Diaghilev is one of my alltime heroes and, of course, I adore Nijinsky and Karsavina. I read everything I can find on the Ballets Russes AND on the dancers concerned. Amazon Marketplace is wonderful. I just bought Lydia Sokolova's autobiography, and very entertaining and revealing it is. (yes - Brit dancer Hilda Munnings!). I devour books and articles about this period and love to seek out new information!
hi mithrilmoon1 - we're very similar in our interests and reading tastes! do you know the big format 'diaghilev and the ballets russes' by boris kochno, his last secretary? lots of rare images. and quotes of ballets russes dancers and creative artists. by the way, did you see the video i uploaded with Lydia Sokolova talking about performing in 'le sacre du printemps'?
hi mithrilmoon1 - yes, he did hold back a generation and sibley was quite vocal about this - she said fonteyn had a similar effect on the women at the RB, getting far many more performances than others. by the way, your comment on this doesn't seem to have come through here so i've replied here.
Hi Nick,according to You Tube, the film was made in 1979,so i`m assuming he was still at the Royal then. He only had a small part in it,where he used his balletic skills to climb a wall, i think to steal a key. Can`t find the part with him in it , though, without watching the whole film. Although it IS a good film,though.! Lisa.
hi Lisa - you've encouraged me to look at The Great Train Robbery on YT - it's been uploaded by mahuikaaldaify which you probably know - looking forward to making a coffee and watching it! a bit of trivia i just read about Wayne Sleep, he established a world record, which still stands, by executing an entrechat-douze - twelve beats.
hi ilovefacebookandebay - great that Wayne Sleep's world record performance got a wide audience on 'Jim`ll Fix It' - so many great performances are in the theatre and wonderful for the audience of the night but go no further - and even for that audience memory conspires at times to forgetfulness. we all show our age and hopefully and somewhat contrarily are proud of it - LOL! good to hear fro you.
I always really liked Wayne Sleep. Felt sorry for him because of his lack of height, but he certainly made the most of it in other ways. He was terrific in the Great Train Robbery and was only one of a very few male ballet dancers in the 80`s who were famous to the non-ballet public, via his many shows and TV appearances. If he had been taller, and therefore "just" a Premier Danseur at the Royal, i`m sure half the population would never have heard of him.
hi ilovefacebookandebay - yes, he was always amusing about this lack - he once said he give anything, anything, for a few extra inches. he did an Albrecht in 'Giselle' once (1973?) and was good - the RB was at the time trying out people in roles that didn't necessarily suit. i didn't know about his post-ballet career - thanks for that! wonder whether he would have chosen fame over those inches - what do you think? cheers
hi balletnut - i've seen a number of ballets and plays where it's thought the audience would better like 'a happy ending' - and never seen it work.
luckily i saw Margot Fonteyn in the Merry Widow as a guest with The Australian Ballet in 1976, just after i returned to Australia - a soft landing for my return ! and then off to uni and a bit of a hiatus in my ballet going!
Once again, thanks for answering me so quickly. It's very much appreciated that you do.
'E.S.' was hilarious because of Wayne's height - or should I say lack of it. Other people have done it on YTube, but NOTHING equals this. I'm surprised you don't remember it. I'm so sorry he didn't carry on dancing - if only for character roles and teaching - look at Helpmann and Marion Tait.
By the way, have you seen the Birmingham Royal Ballet? They're fab.
hi balletnut. i'm surprised i don't remember it too. i was a kid and maybe that is part of the reason. though as i mentioned i remember other things i saw back then in real detail, including some/many of wayne sleep & vergie derman's other performances. memory works in strange ways sometimes. i often recall what at least seem insignificant events. i've heard about the formation of the Birmingham Royal Ballet but know much about them. again i must see what can be dredged up on the net & YT cheers
hi balletnut - i left lodon for australia in 1975 - Elite Syncopations was first shown in the previous year - and i did see the original cast - but i was a kid and while i remember a lot of what i saw at covent garden extraordinarily i can't remember wayne sleep or vergie derman! though i recall them both in many other things :< - sad for me, lucky for you to remember. tried to see if thishas been put on Y T but can only find a later R B film, cheers
@balletnut David Wall was indeed gorgeous - a lovely man and so gentlemanly, too, with that sweet and very English modesty. (I am a Scot, and longterm resident of England lol). I also have a soft spot for Donald McLeary, called by his ballerinas 'a safe pair of hands' because of his failsafe,expert partnering even at very short notice. Another lovely, modest, gorgeous man. Michael Somes, I understand, was noble onstage but a tyrant in rehearsal and a bit of a pill, generally.
He devoured space as the bleubird with electric batterie and his feet were pointed like a butcher's knives in the brise voles. The MET stage was too small for him. Also, he was very sexy and rugged, like my favorite David Wall.
hi opera72 - yes, i wasn't going to say anything but i was aware of it in a way i wasn't when i saw him as a kid - sometimes very imprecise and messy - this can get lost in the general effervescence of his performance
@nickwallacesmith It's true that he did sometimes let his own natural exuberance get the better of him and bound around rather like an over-enthusiastic puppy, but nevertheless, he did have an almost unprecedented virtuoso quality amongst RB men, a fact that was not missed by Ashton and MacMillan, both of whom choreographed many small, brilliant or comedic roles on the small, brilliant, comedic Sleep. I loved him!
hi Pearlaceous - loved him too and yes you are so right about his virtuosity - i loed the over-enthusiasm thing in fact - nicely working against english restraint. looking over his website last night i realised just how many roles were choreographed for him, as you mention. i remember seeing him as albrecht - he was tried out for prince roles at one point - pity it wasn't tried more cos he was very credible
@silkenthreaddance Yes - probably he was too "commercial" for the purists, but a lot of fun and a *huuuuge* personality! Btw, I'm sure an absent friend of ours told me he had once encountered him in a Covent Garden sauna - probably under circumstances we'd be better off not knowing! I'd love to have been a fly on the wall - appropriate attired, of course! :-)
hi Pearlaceous - yes, fast but so clean - i'd forgotten the entrechat douze! curiously his name came up in a movie i was watching the other day - 'billy elliot'. i was just looking at his website - i didn't know he'd played one of the ugly sisters in 'cinderella' looks like the helpmann rather than the ashton role
hi silkenthreaddance. great you like it too. it brings back so many memories of being at covent garden, more than some of the more famous pieces of film. i remember being in a ballet bookshop not far from trafalgar square and wayne sleep coming in with a friend and actually saying something about what he'd give for those inches. i was reminded of him again recently looking again at a doco on nureyev and him saying 'he put men on the map' meaning he'd given male dancers equality with females
I love it. Thanks a lot.
Brunno948 2 days ago
hi Brunno948 - yes, it's great what you can find in old ballet documentaries. cheers
nickwallacesmith 11 hours ago
same problem as the gifted Brian Shaw - too small for danseur noble roles. shaw was perfectly proportioned and one hellova dancer - check out his bluebird with the young antoinette sibley.
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
hi mithrilmoon1 - yes, exactly - about brian shaw - and yes and 'one hellova dancer' - nicely put - which is why is uploaded that blue bird footage. do you know if there's anything else of him on film? cheers
nickwallacesmith 3 days ago
@nickwallacesmith At the moment I am only aware of his clog dance from LA FILLE MAL GARDEE lol. I watched this on youtube only recently.
I will go on a hunt because he really was a wonderful dancer and he, too, lamented throughout his career that he was not 'a few inches taller'. LOL.
I am trying to source a full copy of SHE DANCES ALONE. (Patrick Dupond is just fantastic in it). I taped it years back when it came on TV but have mislaid the tape!
Poor Kyra. A sad life.
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
@nickwallacesmith Nick forgive me I am new to posting on youtube. I should have known it was YOU that posted the bluebird clip! ha ha. I am crazy about ballet, too, and also have a passion for ballet history. Please keep posting because your clips are just wonderful.
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
hi mithrilmoon1 - look, i find it hard to remember what i upload myself - let lone what other people put on YT! i have a passion for ballet history too - which probably comes out in the blah blah blah i add to each upload. the diaghiev ballets russes era has a particular fascination for me
nickwallacesmith 3 days ago
@nickwallacesmith ME TOO! I am nuts about the Ballets Russes - Diaghilev is one of my alltime heroes and, of course, I adore Nijinsky and Karsavina. I read everything I can find on the Ballets Russes AND on the dancers concerned. Amazon Marketplace is wonderful. I just bought Lydia Sokolova's autobiography, and very entertaining and revealing it is. (yes - Brit dancer Hilda Munnings!). I devour books and articles about this period and love to seek out new information!
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
hi mithrilmoon1 - we're very similar in our interests and reading tastes! do you know the big format 'diaghilev and the ballets russes' by boris kochno, his last secretary? lots of rare images. and quotes of ballets russes dancers and creative artists. by the way, did you see the video i uploaded with Lydia Sokolova talking about performing in 'le sacre du printemps'?
nickwallacesmith 3 days ago
hi mithrilmoon1 - yes, he did hold back a generation and sibley was quite vocal about this - she said fonteyn had a similar effect on the women at the RB, getting far many more performances than others. by the way, your comment on this doesn't seem to have come through here so i've replied here.
nickwallacesmith 3 days ago
Hi Nick,according to You Tube, the film was made in 1979,so i`m assuming he was still at the Royal then. He only had a small part in it,where he used his balletic skills to climb a wall, i think to steal a key. Can`t find the part with him in it , though, without watching the whole film. Although it IS a good film,though.! Lisa.
ilovefacebookandebay 4 days ago
hi Lisa - you've encouraged me to look at The Great Train Robbery on YT - it's been uploaded by mahuikaaldaify which you probably know - looking forward to making a coffee and watching it! a bit of trivia i just read about Wayne Sleep, he established a world record, which still stands, by executing an entrechat-douze - twelve beats.
nickwallacesmith 3 days ago
@nickwallacesmith Yes, I remember watching Wayne Sleep performing his world record on Jim`ll Fix It. Showing my age now.!!!!
ilovefacebookandebay 2 days ago
hi ilovefacebookandebay - great that Wayne Sleep's world record performance got a wide audience on 'Jim`ll Fix It' - so many great performances are in the theatre and wonderful for the audience of the night but go no further - and even for that audience memory conspires at times to forgetfulness. we all show our age and hopefully and somewhat contrarily are proud of it - LOL! good to hear fro you.
nickwallacesmith 2 days ago
I always really liked Wayne Sleep. Felt sorry for him because of his lack of height, but he certainly made the most of it in other ways. He was terrific in the Great Train Robbery and was only one of a very few male ballet dancers in the 80`s who were famous to the non-ballet public, via his many shows and TV appearances. If he had been taller, and therefore "just" a Premier Danseur at the Royal, i`m sure half the population would never have heard of him.
ilovefacebookandebay 4 days ago
hi ilovefacebookandebay - yes, he was always amusing about this lack - he once said he give anything, anything, for a few extra inches. he did an Albrecht in 'Giselle' once (1973?) and was good - the RB was at the time trying out people in roles that didn't necessarily suit. i didn't know about his post-ballet career - thanks for that! wonder whether he would have chosen fame over those inches - what do you think? cheers
nickwallacesmith 4 days ago
I saw the Australian Ballet do their version of this ballet - with a happy ending! (It wasn't the Russians, I promise!)
I'm afraid I don't like this ballet with a happy ending so that spoilt the whole thing - although it was beautifully danced.
I've got the same company dancing 'The Merry Widow' and it's fabulous. Have you seen it?
balletnut 5 days ago
hi balletnut - i've seen a number of ballets and plays where it's thought the audience would better like 'a happy ending' - and never seen it work.
luckily i saw Margot Fonteyn in the Merry Widow as a guest with The Australian Ballet in 1976, just after i returned to Australia - a soft landing for my return ! and then off to uni and a bit of a hiatus in my ballet going!
nickwallacesmith 5 days ago
Once again, thanks for answering me so quickly. It's very much appreciated that you do.
'E.S.' was hilarious because of Wayne's height - or should I say lack of it. Other people have done it on YTube, but NOTHING equals this. I'm surprised you don't remember it. I'm so sorry he didn't carry on dancing - if only for character roles and teaching - look at Helpmann and Marion Tait.
By the way, have you seen the Birmingham Royal Ballet? They're fab.
balletnut 6 months ago
hi balletnut. i'm surprised i don't remember it too. i was a kid and maybe that is part of the reason. though as i mentioned i remember other things i saw back then in real detail, including some/many of wayne sleep & vergie derman's other performances. memory works in strange ways sometimes. i often recall what at least seem insignificant events. i've heard about the formation of the Birmingham Royal Ballet but know much about them. again i must see what can be dredged up on the net & YT cheers
nickwallacesmith 6 months ago
Did you see him in 'Elite Syncopations' with Vergie Derman? It was absolutely hilarious! Then, his height was sublime, necessary and oh so valuable.
I adore him but never thought of him as sexy, unlike David Wall who was gorgeous.
I agree with silkenthreaddance - a lot of fun and a huuuuuuge personality.
balletnut 6 months ago
hi balletnut - i left lodon for australia in 1975 - Elite Syncopations was first shown in the previous year - and i did see the original cast - but i was a kid and while i remember a lot of what i saw at covent garden extraordinarily i can't remember wayne sleep or vergie derman! though i recall them both in many other things :< - sad for me, lucky for you to remember. tried to see if thishas been put on Y T but can only find a later R B film, cheers
nickwallacesmith 6 months ago
@balletnut David Wall was indeed gorgeous - a lovely man and so gentlemanly, too, with that sweet and very English modesty. (I am a Scot, and longterm resident of England lol). I also have a soft spot for Donald McLeary, called by his ballerinas 'a safe pair of hands' because of his failsafe,expert partnering even at very short notice. Another lovely, modest, gorgeous man. Michael Somes, I understand, was noble onstage but a tyrant in rehearsal and a bit of a pill, generally.
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
He devoured space as the bleubird with electric batterie and his feet were pointed like a butcher's knives in the brise voles. The MET stage was too small for him. Also, he was very sexy and rugged, like my favorite David Wall.
Qbendanny 7 months ago
@Qbendanny OMG - yes! David and Alessandra Ferri wearing not very much in Chanson - sooooo dreamy! He was amazing in Manon and Mayerling, also! :-)
Pearlaceous 7 months ago
@Qbendanny Sorry - who was very sexy and rugged? Apart from David Wall? You have me wondering now!
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago
My favorite Neapolitan dance. The best in my opinion.
sweetaliena 7 months ago
nice shame about the flat feet and not exactly refined footwork...
opera72 7 months ago
hi opera72 - yes, i wasn't going to say anything but i was aware of it in a way i wasn't when i saw him as a kid - sometimes very imprecise and messy - this can get lost in the general effervescence of his performance
nickwallacesmith 7 months ago
@nickwallacesmith It's true that he did sometimes let his own natural exuberance get the better of him and bound around rather like an over-enthusiastic puppy, but nevertheless, he did have an almost unprecedented virtuoso quality amongst RB men, a fact that was not missed by Ashton and MacMillan, both of whom choreographed many small, brilliant or comedic roles on the small, brilliant, comedic Sleep. I loved him!
Pearlaceous 7 months ago
hi Pearlaceous - loved him too and yes you are so right about his virtuosity - i loed the over-enthusiasm thing in fact - nicely working against english restraint. looking over his website last night i realised just how many roles were choreographed for him, as you mention. i remember seeing him as albrecht - he was tried out for prince roles at one point - pity it wasn't tried more cos he was very credible
nickwallacesmith 7 months ago
@silkenthreaddance Yes - probably he was too "commercial" for the purists, but a lot of fun and a *huuuuge* personality! Btw, I'm sure an absent friend of ours told me he had once encountered him in a Covent Garden sauna - probably under circumstances we'd be better off not knowing! I'd love to have been a fly on the wall - appropriate attired, of course! :-)
Pearlaceous 7 months ago
He had brilliant footwork - remember the entrechat douze? :-)
Pearlaceous 7 months ago
hi Pearlaceous - yes, fast but so clean - i'd forgotten the entrechat douze! curiously his name came up in a movie i was watching the other day - 'billy elliot'. i was just looking at his website - i didn't know he'd played one of the ugly sisters in 'cinderella' looks like the helpmann rather than the ashton role
nickwallacesmith 7 months ago
hi silkenthreaddance. great you like it too. it brings back so many memories of being at covent garden, more than some of the more famous pieces of film. i remember being in a ballet bookshop not far from trafalgar square and wayne sleep coming in with a friend and actually saying something about what he'd give for those inches. i was reminded of him again recently looking again at a doco on nureyev and him saying 'he put men on the map' meaning he'd given male dancers equality with females
nickwallacesmith 7 months ago
Comment removed
mithrilmoon1 3 days ago