 |
|
 Ballet.co mini-Poll
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
On the left are: the results of the current poll *or* a voting form. If you vote the results will then automatically be displayed to you. Or you can go straight to the results if you have voted before. We would ask you to only vote once - thanks.
New mini-polls generally emerge every week or two but we keep all the old ones for posterity. You will find the last few polls on this page, with older Mini-polls being held on separate pages for speed.
Summer 2002 Not an easy poll and not a lot in it. I guess you can say we like variety whichever way you look at it!
But the majority want more pieces, that's the number one factor: how they get done and the number of casts is secondary - just!
May 2002
Guillem reigned supreme in the last poll but given her
lower profile this season perhaps the favourites this year
are not so surprising. Rojo made a massive leap from her
0.7% 2 years ago. Few could have missed Cojocaru who danced
in virtually everything this year and Bussell will always
be a mainstayer. I'm actually rather pleased that the
balance at the top is so fine and that three favourites
have emerged rather than just one.
See our ealier poll lower down on this page
March/April 2002
One of the most interesting polls, most of us are evenly
split into two camps, variety vs. more of the same. Would
have been interesting to see the reasons behind "other" - I
wonder how many of us were dragged to Nutcracker year after
year by insistent parents/children? And pity the poor
souls who see the same ballets over and over because
there's nothing else to watch.
Jan/Feb 2002
Well its pretty clear with two thirds of us thinking that the best criticism is prejudiced and less than 20% looking for unprejudiced thoughts from critics. Thanks goodness for that, he said showing rather conspicuous prejudice!
Dec/Jan 2002 Ones always worried when 'other' comes out on top - the list is either rather off beam or there is just little by way of clear consensus. It might well be both in this case! Perhaps the most interesting thing is that about 50% of the votes have gone to those with a ballet background. Can this really be the right way forward for Rambert?
Post polling note: Ashley Page has subsequently accepted the job of Director - at Scottish Ballet...
September 2001 Perhaps I put this poll up without thinking too much about it, but I wanted to go with it while the memory of Mark Lawson's recent Guardian piece was still fresh in the mind.
I can't help but think that the 12.9% readers who found the link between ballet/dance and sex to be 'non-existent' are missing an important part of the point, but the fact that they still find it rewarding enough to pay for tickets could possibly mean that the majority of us have got rather a skewed vision of the art form! In the end, though, the only important thing is that we all love it, whatever the reason.
September 2001 We have let this poll roll for a bit and the longer it goes on the more apparent it becomes that choreography is, by a mile, the most important element of dance for the majority of us here.
I think that is exactly as it should be. I can't help being a bit pleased too that 'casting' is so far down the hymn-sheet; who says we're a 'fanzine'?!
September 2001 Firstly, our apologies for omitting Sophie Fedorovitch. It was totally accidental - she was on an original list but I somehow managed to get leave her off the final one.
There are no particular surprises in these results, I think, apart from Osbert Lancaster's lowly position given the sunny glory of his 'Fille' sets. But chacun á son goût, I suppose.
August 2001 Should we be surprised at this result, given the nature of this board? The only suprise to me is that as many as 32.5% think casting information is only 'important'. It seems to me that the only time casting information is not vital is if the company and its dancers are totally unknown.
As for the 2.5% who found casting information 'of marginal interest' only, are you sure you're on the right board, dear? (Thank you Ann!: ed)
August 2001 We are full of surprises! I never would have put the traditional Swan Lake first on this particular list - too complex and remote from real life IMO, but there you go. I'd agree about Bourne's SL though, but I'm surprised that 'Fille' wasn't placed higher - I would have put it in first place! Glad that the beloved 'Serenade' did well, though..
'Other' scored higher than either 'In the Middle' or 'Coppelia'. Hmm...wonder what it's like?
July 2001 It appears we think seatback videos for ballet-watching is not a good thing at all. A bit unfair, given that they are designed to be discreet and invisible to other audience members, but there you go.
I loved some of the suggestion though - Jim's idea of recording the show
yourself for home viewing and Brendan's earphones and alternative selection
of viewing. But think, Brendan - what if you chose to watch a comedy film
and as a result kept bursting into loud guffaws during, say, Giselle...
July 2001 Quite surprising results. I thought that both Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham would have scored higher, though I agree that Forsythe deserves his high placing given the cutting-edge nature of his work.
Personally I don't think that Matthew Bourne will survive - as much as I
loved his Swan Lake - and I'm surprised that so many here placed him so
highly; I've always thought that this was a mainly 'ballet' board but
maybe this poll proves that we are beginning to attract a more eclectic
audience. The more eclectic the better, I say...
May 2001 So, we’re not such a bunch of old cynics after all! A starry-eyed majority of us - if you can call 36.6% a ‘majority’ - thinks the RB’s future is actually going to be better under the new AD (of course, 34.1% us think it’s going to be worse, but we’ll let that pass). I’m not sure if the ‘not sure’ lot - 13.4% - are not the most honest, and as for the 15.9% who said ‘sameish’ - oh, yawn, yawn......
We’ll have a look at these results again in a year or so’s time to see how things are going, though we’ll need to give Stretton enough time to show what he’s made of.
(as in ballet movement) 5 December 2000 Well it looks like over 90% of us think it a worthwhile question and it would seem the vast majority of voters profess to even know a ballet move or two.
However I have to come clean and say I did not know what a Fondu is! Or rather I didn't - if you want to know about ballet steps than the American Ballet Theater web site has a
20 November 2000 An interesting commentary on the perversity of the web and peoples need for a dance fix I think, with over half of voters using 2 or more computers to see us.
That 1 in 5 of visitors use more than 3 computers a week to see the Ballet.co I think is perhaps the most surprising result, though I'm not entirely sure I believe that some souls use more than 8 computers. But that's polls for you!
2 October 2000 Well having failed to predict who might become the Royal Ballet's Artistic Director its a brave man who sees our polls as anything other than mad fun...
It's more or less a dead heat between
The one thing that most agree on is that the company has little money for new productions. But things can change and what's new anyway? Part of the job is being a conjurer!
4 September 2000 Another view of the sadness of those who love dance and have access to the web!
Over 40% of voters visit at least once a day and two thirds of visitors come every 2 or 3 days. Of course these are the people who vote, read postings etc and hence might not be wholly representative I suppose. Be nice to run this again in a couple of years.
28 August 2000 Hard to know how to make any statistical sense of this - it's all so personal. Perhaps best to note that few like to sit close to the stage or high up and far away.
The first circle - or grand tier at the Opera House - is *the* classic place to see ballet and dance. It's not too far away as to miss what dancers do as individuals and how they act etc but also you can see the bigger picture and how the corps are arranged and move. Theatre management, being no fools, charge the most for these seats of course!
15 August 2000 Probably one of the most interesting polls we've done - certainly of those we have done about ourselves. As ever some interpretation is required because those who vote (we think) tend to be very regular visitors who know much already. Such visitors often know who is on where and don't much use listings for example... and hence the low value put on them. On the other hand we know from the site logs that many visitors use these facilities. Dancers and interviews are big hits with visitors - the searchs that most visitors do are about dancers for example. And the world is becoming ever small and our coverage is steadily becoming more international. The area we need to do more on is around training and schools. We have quite a few pieces now but need to make more of them with an index perhaps.
But this is an interesting poll and deserve more consideration at some time, in a magazine piece perhaps.
8 August 2000 A fair few amazing things here - other than perhaps the first slot. Irek Mukhamedov continues to grab the imagination, though technically he is not in the first flush (he said trying not to upset anybody too much!). Carlos Acosta is understandable to me, but I'm also pleased that Kobborg has done so well, given that he has not been seen so much as we might have hoped. Adam Cooper has not been seen so much at all in London but still lingers in many memories it seems.
The 'others' vote was a little higher then normal. There might have been a fair few votes for Hilaire who was probably an omission from the poll in the first place. But it would be nice to know of any other 'others' were.
31 July 2000 Guillem is the one it seems and getting better all the time of course. Nice to see RB dancers (or ex in the case of Durante) doing so well with 4 of the top 6 slots.
Note that these are all ballerinas who are either London based or who have come from overseas to perform in London. We will do a UK only ballerinas poll another time.
24 July 2000
I think you need to draw your own conclusions from this one!
17 July 2000 What a bold lot those who post/vote are - 65% venturing abroad to see a company. I suspect this is not necessarily a representative sample, and that of the hundreds who look in each week many would not go so far in their seeing of dance. Just a hunch.
On the other hand it is a smaller world and travel has never been easier...
2 July 2000 Well enquires have been made of two ballet companies and the cost of a good tutu for an Aurora is £600-£800. That assumes its special but not over-the-top: obviously you can be really silly if you want. So the majority of people got it right... and I was wildly out: I thought they must be £2,000+
As it happens I do actually have two tutus - one of Ravenna Tucker's (Rose Adagio) and one of Miyako Yoshida's (from Swan Lake). If you have never seen a tutu close too I can tell you that they are amazingly complex beasts and how anybody can make them for the money defeats me...
23 June 2000 There are some polls that seem more important than others... and therfore more open to interested parties trying to turn 'their vote' out! Earlier in the poll the running order was BRB, Rambert, NBT and RB - which is a trifle different to the result we see now. Of course there is no wrong or right and none of it is rigorous anyway...
However, personally I'm glad BRB did well, and London Musici too. Given the resources and cost the ROH orchestra should have won by a mile of course. That they win prizes for their opera playing and yet are thought less than the best in playing for dance should perhaps be a cause of some concern to the new music and artistic directors.
9 June 2000 A pretty factual poll that demonstrates the importance of Yahoo as an index to the web. I use Yahoo sometimes but my main search engine is Google - its quick and seems a little more accurate than many others. That said more important in this space seems to be other web sites and friends, as ways of spreading the word. We do seem to be a social lot.
Some time ago we automated things so that folks could add links from Ballet.co to other sites and its worth visiting
29 May 2000 Well I'll warrant that few of us can remember ballet in the 30's! But like the majority I think it was the time when British ballet was effectively defined - its our roots. And while we bicker, squabble and complain at times we have so much to be thankful for in our traditions.
The 60's of course was when ballet was very much in the wider publics imagination - Fonteyn and Nureyev and all that. Plus the choreography of both Ashton and MacMillan. I have to say I wish I had been there then.
22 May 2000 A broad spread of results with not so much by way of consensus. This probably accounts for some of the 'hot' debates we occasionally have about the value of video.
I assume that the person or persons who thought that video is better than the real things must be Eugene!
8th May 2000 An interesting contrast to the last poll - about the RB touring more outside of London. No thirst here to particularly change the status quo is there!
I guess those in London will have to continue to trek to the surrounding towns, or further afield even, to see some companies. that's said ENB, BRB and now NBT have regular London seasons so we should not feel too hard-done-by.
24th April 2000 A more emphatic result is hard to imagine with over 90% of people wanting to see the company do more outside of London *and* prepared to 'pay' for it by seeing less in London. RB/ROH and Arts Council management please take note!
However the usual response is that touring costs lots of money. Given that most companies do nothing but tour I find the argument a little lame and long for the day when Darcey is seen doing a pdd in a Wigan Tesco's prior to appearing that night on a local stage. That's taking high art to the masses. (so much for the unbiased reporting of poll results!)
10th April 2000 Birmingham Royal Ballet continues to be seen in the most positive of lights, one suspects for the overall roundness and mix of its programming so much as being 'cutting edge'. Of all the companies it's the only one that regularly tours triple bills wherever it goes though. AMP is not a ballet company but it appeals to many in the ballet audience (and beyond) and in a way that no other dance company does. In this they would seem to have something to teach other companies be they ballet or dance based. And of course they don't cost tax payers a thing.
The Royal is the slumbering giant - given its massive subsidy it ought to do better. The new facilities and funding will help and Rome was not built in a day of course (or rebuilt in the case of RB).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 | ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
