Irmgard

Now that it has been officially announced by San Francisco Ballet, I can say how sad I am that English National Ballet is losing four very fine dancers but of course I wish them every success in San Francisco.

Yes, provided you are not expecting the traditional story. Rojo's storyline is very flawed but the piece is full of dancing, especially bravura dancing for the men, and there is just enough left of the choreography attributed to Petipa to keep the interest. Sets are nondescript but costumes are colourful, if not always helpful for the choreography in Act 3. Of course, the music is gorgeous!

Alessandra Ferri will be performing in the June performances at the Metropolitan Opera House. She told me about this back in November and she is listed on ABT's calendar of performances.

As tickets for this event in the Clore were at the bargain price of £10 and each performance lasted for under an hour, I decided to see the first two shows to fully appreciate these works, almost all of which were new to me. My opinion did not change from one show to the next but I was glad to have the opportunity to see if it did. I had enjoyed Rentaro Nakaaki’s “Cha Cha and Tiara” very much when he created it for English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Awards in 2022. As he explained, he was inspired by his parents, both of whom were professional ballroom dancers. The piece looked quite different in the hands of Miguel Angel Maidana and Julia Conway, who are very different stylistically from the original pairing of Eric Snyder and Chloe Keneally, but they captured the comedy which Nakaaki has achieved through the movement, no mean task for any choreographer! For the beginning of the piece, in silence, I thought Nakaaki perfectly captured the period after class or before rehearsals when dancers practice their virtuoso steps, sometimes in good-humoured competition with each other. When “La Cumparsita” started up, Maidana was able to give full rein to his exuberant personality and bravura dancing, with Conway also displaying a good sense of comic timing. Considering most of the other pieces had quite serious themes, it was refreshing to start the afternoon on such a joyful note. “Out of Breath”, by George Liang and danced by Alessandra Bramante and Joseph Taylor from Northern Ballet, came with a lot of baggage about the world being complicated and it being necessary to “remember to pause and take a breath” but was basically a well-crafted pas de deux, stylishly danced, although the soundtrack was too loud. I found “Other” by Jordan James Bridge to be a bit pretentious in its ambitions. Bridge told us that it was a six-minute excerpt from a longer piece. For me, at least three minutes of it was torture as the relentless soundscape pounded out mercilessly. By the second performance, the sound level had been reduced, but not enough. As such, I found it difficult to connect with the choreography, which was expressionless, although I suppose lack of expression may have been the point. “AEIOU”, the music for Breanna Foad’s piece entitled “Focus”, is not something I would like to listen to on a long-haul flight (which, she explained before the piece, she does) but Foad’s movement certainly captured the changing focus from one voice to another. Again, it was so lovely to see two dancers (ENB’s Ashley Coupal and Aitor Arrieta) enjoying themselves and enjoying dancing with each other. In her first piece of choreography, Foad has established a very interesting, individual style, and I hope she will continue to explore this. “Words to the Wind” by Denilson Almeida started from an interesting concept of fusing Brazilian rhythms with African religious influences but this was not reflected in the choreography which Almeida said was a conversation through dance. Unfortunately, I found it a rather dull conversation, although beautifully performed by the Royal Ballet’s Martin Diaz and Caspar Lench. I also found “AX.ONE” by Hannah Joseph to be on the dull side, mainly because it was expressionless. Danced by the choreographer and Elaini Koula Lalousis, it brought home to me how much I value facial expression in dance, especially when it is missing. All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I applaud the Royal Ballet for giving this platform to budding UK-based choreographers.

In previous years, Ballet Icons has been synonymous with star performances, but I felt the 2024 event was a little short on star quality, even though most of the performers were principal dancers with various companies. I felt this was especially evident in most of the classical pas de deux which should have been highlights of the evening. The programme was well balanced, in terms of juxtaposing classical and modern pieces, and the presence of the English National Ballet Philharmonic to accompany a lot of them was very welcome. The evening got off to a great start with “Grand Pas Classique” which did have the requisite star quality, being performed by Vadim Muntagirov and Fumi Kaneko. A pas de deux from “Like Water For Chocolate” received a sincere performance from Francesca Hayward and Herman Cornejo but it is difficult not to compare memories of the electrifying Cesar Corrales in this piece. Last year, it was a novelty to have the youthful António Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes close the gala, and he is no doubt a talent to watch, but I found that this year’s offering, the pas de deux from “La Esmeralda”, looked too much like a competition piece in their hands, particularly her tambourine solo which had little characterisation. I was reminded of a stunningly accomplished performance of the solo by English National Ballet’s Ivana Bueno, only a few years Fernandes’s senior, in the much more modest setting of Ballet Nights last November, in which she created a real character through the choreography, as well as being technically flawless. It was interesting to see “Two Pieces for HET” by Hans van Manen, performed by Riho Sakamoto and Constantine Allen, both personable, competent dancers but not ones I consider to have star quality. I thought “The Thinker”, performed and choreographed by Sergio Bernal, started off well and was his usual interesting mix of ballet and flamenco, but went on for far too long. Kudos to conductor Maria Seletskaja for synchronising the onstage guitarist, the orchestra and the drummer, a feat she accomplished in the only rehearsal they had together, which was twenty minutes that afternoon, which I also attended. I found “Renaissance” danced by Bleuenn Battistoni and Julian MacKay, and “Mercy Duet” by Travis Clausen-Knight and James Pett to be rather unmemorable, and the first half ended with a neat but not spectacular performance of the central pas de trois from “Le Corsaire” in its pas de deux form. danced by Evelina Godunova and Motomi Kiyota. In the second half, of the newer pieces, “Caravaggio” was by far the most interesting for me, set to a string quartet arrangement of the beautiful final duet from Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”, “Pur ti miro”. Choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti, it showed off Melissa Hamilton’s grace and beauty of movement to perfection as she was manipulated into beautiful shapes by Roberto Bolle. My least favourite was “Proximity or Closeness” by Ermanno Sbezzo, danced by Eleonora Abbagnato and Sergio Bernal which I became bored with quite quickly, so I turned my attention to the onstage piano quartet and the gorgeous Mahler music. Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” danced by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw, came off better in the more intimate setting of Ballet Nights last November than in the cavernous Coliseum. We were treated to the Diamonds section from Balanchine’s “Jewels” danced by Olga Smirnova and Vadim Muntagirov. Her technique is flawless, but I found her surprisingly unengaging, much as she was in “Swan Lake” during the Bolshoi’s last visit, almost unaware of Muntagirov, who partnered her to perfection. The Black Swan pas de deux from Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo was sadly not the standard I would expect from principal dancers and the evening ended with a messy performance of the pas de deux contained within the “Don Quixote” suite, which included variations for Evelina Godunova and Margarita Fernandes who looked more comfortable in these than in their previous solos. Sadly, Natalia Osipova was not on good form in her solo or in the coda and it was her partner, Giorgi Potskhishvili, although a little rough around the edges, who provided some much-needed fireworks to end the evening. Once again, my mind went back to last November’s Ballet Nights, which ended with a stylishly elegant and electrifying performance of this pas de deux from ENB’s Katja Khaniukova and Aitor Arrieta. Ballet Icons this year ended with organiser Olga Balakleets presenting her own awards (the Olgas?) for services to dance, which proved to be idiosyncratic to say the least: although it was lovely to see Aud Jebsen publicly recognised (but not giving any context to the award made the lady behind me conclude she must be an ex-dancer), to ignore probably the greatest classical male dancer of his generation was inexcusable. All in all, this was not a vintage year for Ballet Icons and I very much hope it will be back on track next year with its usual line-up of star performances.

I, for one, am very sorry to see him go as I was looking forward to him finally being able to dance Albrecht in Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" next season, but I am happy that he will be continuing his dance career, even if not with English National Ballet.

I returned on 4 April to see the last two casts, both making their debuts. On my third and fourth viewings, I found much to enjoy in the performances but I was, quite frankly, tired of the relentlessly percussive rendition of Bizet’s beautiful music by the evening and found nothing new or inspiring in the choreography. It also occurred to me that, by omitting any reference to the smuggling ring, so important in the novella and the opera, Carmen’s character is short-changed. Both Mérimée and Bizet make it clear that she is the driving force and brains behind the operation so that, although not always falling in love with them, as she does with Don José and the Torero (at least in the novella), she carefully chooses her prey to ensure the success of her schemes rather than flitting from one man to the next for casual sex, which is what Inger’s take on her seems to be. That said, the amazingly chameleon-like Erina Takahashi, who appears to be able to take on any role and any choreographic style with consummate ease, gave us a thoroughly independent Carmen who was not to be messed with, revelling in her power over men and flaunting her sexuality, but nevertheless showing her darker side in by far the most explosive reaction to Manuela’s taunts. And the defiance of her stance before Don Jose stabbed her said everything about her Carmen. Indeed, it was the moments of stillness between her and her Don Jose, Aitor Arrieta, which told the story most clearly. In amidst all the quirky movements of the central pas de deux, they suddenly stood still and faced each other. The way their bodies seemed to yearn towards each other, never taking their eyes off each other, spoke volumes about their desire/love for each other, which the steps did not. And it was Arrieta, slumped against a monolith after having stabbed Carmen, who was the only person to break my heart out of all the four performances I saw. He was truly a broken man. This performance also benefitted from the darkly dangerous Zuniga of Ken Saruhashi who sent shivers down my spine during his various confrontations (and the way Zuniga is manipulated by the other men after he has been stabbed is a real coup de théâtre in this production), and from Junor Souza as the Torero. His interpretation was very reminiscent of Mérimée and Bizet, being charming rather than arrogant, and more happy-go-lucky than the others, but with just enough ego to preen himself wherever there was a mirror. Fernanda Oliveira, in a role frankly unworthy of her formidable talents, brought a welcome dramatic depth to the Boy, particularly moving in her reaction to Don Jose’s murder of Zuniga. Takahashi, Arrieta and she also made the most sense of the pas de trois when Don Jose imagines life as a family, but I still find this an odd use of this beautiful piece of music. In the evening, Ivana Bueno made a stunningly assured debut as Carmen, completely in command of the choreography and of the stage. What I love about Bueno is the apparent inner calmness and strength she brings to whatever she does, allowing the audience to sit back and enjoy her beautifully clean technique and her joy in performing for us. Her Carmen benefitted from this in being the sunniest of the four but capable of darkness when required by the story. Her Don Jose was Francesco Gabriele Frola who was the darkest in temperament of the four casts, and the most sure of himself so that watching him descend into almost madness when Carmen rejected him was painful if not heartbreaking, and showed what a wonderful dramatic dancer he is, aside from his formidable technique. And, much as I feel the central pas de deux is not particularly interesting choreographically, Bueno and Frola definitely made it sizzle with their palpable chemistry! In all, I would certainly watch this production again if there were new casts to see, but I really feel that ENB needs a more challenging version to show off the high level of dramatic and technical skill within the company.

I have now seen two casts of ENB’s new production of “Carmen”, on Wednesday 27 March and Saturday 30 March (matinée). Although the dancers give powerful and committed performances, I have a few issues with the production itself. Firstly, knowing every note and word of Bizet’s opera makes listening to this version rather frustrating as it jumps about so much and I do not find it as rhythmical. Not having heard the Shchedrin arrangement for many years, I wonder if it is quite as disjointed as this one, with the added soundscapes breaking up the flow of the music even further. I particularly miss the wind sections, both brass and woodwind, which have been written out of this. However, the remaining members of the wonderful ENB Philharmonic attack the score with gusto, particularly the augmented percussion section. Secondly, my heart always sinks when choreographers of today resort to making the dancers run around the stage or roll around the floor for no apparent reason, as it makes me suspect they have run out of choreographic steam and are just keeping the dancers busy. This is certainly how I felt about sections of Johan Inger’s choreography which, on the whole, is no challenge for the ENB dancers who are so accomplished in any style of choreography. With Inger coming from a classical ballet background, I was disappointed that he did not give Carmen and Don José a more intimate pas de deux to the gorgeous melody of the aria “La fleur que tu m’avias jetée” in which José expresses his love for Carmen (Bizet was a master at portraying character through music). Instead they spent most of their time skirting around each other, barely touching. Likewise, the beautiful entr’acte (minus its lovely flute solo) which precedes Act 3 in the opera, representing their night of passion, and which was used for the iconic pas de deux by Roland Petit, here accompanies a rather naïf dance for Don José, Carmen and the Boy, supposedly Don José imagining married life with Carmen. Rentaro Nakaaki, whose formidable acting and dancing skills I have noticed in classical pieces, as well as in the title role of “Creature”, was an extremely young and innocent Don José, almost a victim, whose violence seemed almost accidental, especially the murder of Zuniga, one of his rivals for Carmen. As Fernando Carratalá Coloma played him in a similar way, I assume this is Inger’s take on this character, at odds with both the novella and the opera in which Don José is known to have a violent temper, having had to flee from Navarre to Seville after maiming or killing a man in an argument (and not over a woman). Inger seems more interested in Don José than in Carmen, making him much more prominent. The wonderfully dramatic music for the card aria in the opera in which Carmen accepts her fate that she will die at his hands is here appropriated for an angst-filled solo by Don José. Nakaaki’s dancing was particularly powerful and expressive in this, as it was throughout, and there was a palpable chemistry between him and his very sensuous Carmen, Minju Kang, who danced her unchallenging choreography with great style and a ballerina sheen. For sheer animal magnetism, Erik Woolhouse stole the show with his powerhouse Torero, dancing with a dynamism and preening arrogance which was electrifying. The Cigarreras were a delight whenever they appeared, sassy in their ra-ra skirts and adding some much needed colour to the rather dull set consisting of black monoliths which they had to manoeuvre throughout the ballet (another of my dislikes is dancers having to do the work of stagehands). It was a shame they had to morph into anonymous shadows in Act 2, dressed in black suits and masks, as did the gentlemen. I have yet to work out why the gentlemen are listed as Dogs, apart from one of them howling in pleasure in Act 1 as the Cigarreras flaunted their physical charms. Likewise, I have yet to work out the purpose of the Boy, winsomely and winningly performed by Francesca Velicu on opening night: is he perhaps Don José’s conscience (much like the character of Micaela, created by Bizet)? In the second performance I attended, as mentioned, Coloma took on the role of Don José, subjugating his naturally vibrant stage personality to fit this production but nevertheless dazzling with the fluidity of his dancing. His Carmen was the magnificent Emily Suzuki. Something I have always admired about Suzuki is her ability to completely inhabit any role she is given, along with an innate musicality so that every phrase of the music is perfectly expressed by her movement. And here was a Carmen who was most definitely a free spirit and not to be possessed, albeit a fatalist who accepted her death unflinchingly and with dignity. I only wish the choreography had matched her exceptional talents. I would also like to mention Breanna Foad as the Boy in this cast, who once again impressed me not only with the purity of her dancing but also her increasingly confident stage presence. I will be seeing the other two casts this coming Thursday and I look forward to experiencing what they bring to their roles. Although I have reservations about the piece itself, there is no doubting the very strong dramatic ability which exists at all levels of the company and which is being allowed to shine this season.

From the video, I spotted Erina Takahashi with Aitor Arrieta, Emily Suzuki with Fernando Carratala Coloma, Ivana Bueno with Francesco Gabriele Frola and Minju Kang with Rentaro Nakaaki. There is a couple rehearsing in the background who I assume were some of the dancers from Australian Ballet who have been rehearsing with the company.

Attending the opening night of this programme, I found bits to enjoy in all four works but I felt only one was worthy of permanently entering the Royal Ballet’s repertoire. “Boundless”, by Gemma Bond, was set to an almost relentlessly frenetic, percussive score by Joey Roukens and this was mirrored in the equally frenetic choreography which, at times, seemed to be a free-for-all with everyone doing their own thing at such a pace that it was impossible to notice any movement in particular. It is always a pleasure to watch the elegant Yasmine Naghdi and Ryoichi Hirano but I found their pas de deux too frequently marred by the inelegant lifts they were asked to perform. Things were not helped by the unflattering costumes for the ladies, being the shortest, flattest tutus I have ever seen on the opera house stage. Joshua Junker’s “Never Known” began well, with all the dancers en bloc moving in harmony in stylish movements which did not challenge their technique but then the volume of the soundscape was increased too much to be comfortable for me and, by the time we got to the third section (I had no idea the wonderful Icelandic pianist, Vikingur Olafsson was also a composer), I had lost interest as Junker appeared to have run out of choreographic steam, but I do hope he will continue his choreographic explorations. I found Jessica Lang’s “Twinkle” to be very twee and, in many ways, seemed to be more representative of children at play than Gemma Bond’s piece, even though Bond had declared, in the short film preceding it, that was her inspiration. William Bracewell looked elegant in the first part of the piece set to Brahms’s lullaby, and Fumi Kaneko sparkled, as she does in everything, but this was not enough to persuade me that I would like to see this piece again, despite the commitment of everyone onstage, including Kate Shipway playing her piano on a very high platform at the back of the stage, like a goddess on Mount Olympus. It was “For What It’s Worth” by Mthuthuzeli November which made the evening for me. With gorgeous lighting designs by Zeynep Kepekli which evoked either an African sunrise or sunset, colourful costumes by Yann Seabra, and a score by Alex Wilson and November himself, inspired by the great Miriam Makeba who, for me, represented the voice of African music during my childhood, this was a very accomplished piece even before considering the choreography. November’s choreographic language for this piece was an ingenious fusion of ballet and traditional African dance which showed off his cast to perfection, especially Mayara Magri in her opening solo. Looking stunning in a flowing green dress, she was the epitome of grace and spirituality, her headdress, based on a traditional African headdress, taking on the effect of a halo. Changing into a shorter, brightly coloured dress of the same design as the other ladies (and I wonder if Marianna Tsembenhoi’s dress in Ukrainian colours was a happy accident or a tribute to that country), she joined them and the three gentlemen in inventive and uplifting choreography which was a wonderful celebration of life and the human spirit, and their joy in performing it was both palpable and infectious. This was definitely a piece I could watch again and again, and it made me very keen to see more works by November.

If it was 2004/2005, it would have been the Nureyev version

Firstly, huge congratulations to Henry Dowden and Ross Freddy Ray for bringing together so many organisations which work tirelessly to make dance accessible to all and for spotlighting them in an extremely well-organised evening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. I think what I will most remember from this evening was the absolute joy emanating from all those onstage, which was delightfully infectious. And how wonderful to have this joy reflected in the new works instead of the expressionless or angst-filled experience favoured by most modern choreographers for professional companies! The stand-out performance for me in the first half of the programme was “Tight Textures” by Lucy Bennett and performed with huge enthusiasm by Stopgap Dance Company who reminded us that not all disabilities are visible. This piece was delivered with great panache in a humorous and, quite frankly, life-affirming way, beautifully reflecting the rhythms created by Lily Norton’s delivery of the witty text. A word for budding choreographer Maia Rose Roberts of the Royal Ballet School, who created a very charming pas de deux for RBS students Emile Gooding and Tianie Finn-Grainger, danced with great style. Unfortunately, “The Owl Falls” by Sebastian Kloborg left me cold. Apparently it was meant to “begin where the 1895 libretto of Swan Lake ends” but, apart from the fact that we heard the final bars of Tchaikovsky’s score before Anna Meredith’s music began, and the grey striped costumes which I suppose could have been meant to indicate the owl, or Von Rothbart, the choreography appeared to have no direction and certainly did not show Daniil Simkin or, especially, Maria Kochetkova at their best. The second half of the programme started with a film of rehearsals, mainly for the ballroom scene, of “Romeo and Juliet”, a joint project by Parable Dance, National Youth Ballet and All In!. Sadly, the whole company did not participate in the live performance but we did have a section of the ‘balcony’ pas de deux danced by wheelchair-performer Grace Thompson and 15-year-old Zak Smith who is a student at the Place. The choreographer is not credited in the programme but this was a very tender portrayal of young love. In fact, there were three duets for wheelchair performers and able-bodied dancers included in the evening, each illustrating different relationships between the performers. I particularly loved the joie de vie of “Reunion”, danced by Denecia Allen and Alice Bellini. Of the solo work by wheelchair performers, perhaps the most striking was by Joseph Powell-Main who choreographed and performed “Passionately Defiant” which reflected his journey to continue his career as a dancer after severe injury through sheer determination which can see him able to gather enough strength and courage to rise from his wheelchair, throw away his crutches and pull off a series of pirouettes à la seconde. This inspiring evening ended with a gala favourite, the showcase pas de deux from “Le Corsaire” which was much more suited to Daniil Simkin’s talents. His last-minute Medora was the always spectacular Shiori Kase of breathtaking balances and firecracker fouetté turns, all delivered with effortless grace.

When mentioning debuts, English National Ballet makes a distinction between the proscenium and the in-the-round version of Deane's "Swan Lake" because of course Hawes, Arrieta, Trossello and Frola all took the leading roles in the proscenium version in the 2022/23 season.

The finalists for the Emerging Dancer award 2024 were announced this afternoon: Emerging Dancer 2024 Finalists 24 May 2024, Sadler's Wells Congratulations to our six finalists! We look forward to the return of this special event, which celebrates the talent, artistry and individuality of our artists at every rank of the Company. Six finalists have been selected by their peers, and will work with mentors from within the Company on classical pas de deux and contemporary works. One artist will receive the Emerging Dancer Award, chosen by esteemed judges Amanda Britton, Freddie Opoku-Addaie, Edward Watson MBE and Monica Zamora. The event will be hosted by our Artistic Director, Aaron S. Watkin, and will take place at Sadler’s Wells on Friday 24 May, 2024. If you haven't yet booked your tickets, you can do so via the Sadler's Wells website or Ticket Office. The evening will feature a performance by 2022 Emerging Dancer Award winner Eric Snyder and 2022 People’s Choice Award winner Precious Adams. This year’s People’s Choice Award (voted by our audiences) and Corps de Ballet Award (chosen by the Artistic team) will also be presented. Anna Ciriano joined the Company in 2022. Anna has danced Spanish in Eagling’s Nutcracker and appeared in repertoire including Khan’s Giselle, Rojo’s Raymonda and Deane’s Swan Lake. Breanna Foad joined ENB in 2018. Breanna's notable roles include the Chosen One in Ek’s The Rite of Spring: she went on to dance the role of Chosen One in the world premiere of Miller’s Les Noces: Ascent to Days. Shunhei Fuchiyama joined ENB in 2021. Roles with the Company include Freddie and Cossack in Eagling’s Nutcracker and peasant pas de deux in Skeaping’s Giselle. Jose María Lorca Menchón joined ENB in 2022. Jose's repertoire includes Eagling’s Nutcracker, Rojo’s Raymonda, Dawson’s Four Last Songs and Quagebeur’s Take Five Blues. Thiago Pereira joined the Company in 2022. Thiago has appeared in works such as Khan’s Giselle, Rojo’s Raymonda, Deane’s Swan Lake, and Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. Anna-Babette Winkler joined ENB in 2018. Notable roles include Lead Winter in Wheeldon’s Cinderella in-the-round, Lead Snowflake in Eagling’s Nutcracker, and Moyna in Skeaping’s Giselle.

😅😊

This is because "Carmen" is a new production for the company. As I said, dancers have been selected for all the roles but, because Mr. Inger does not know the company, he will put the casts together once he has seen them in rehearsal and will cast the performances from that. It was completely different for me with "Giselle" as I knew the company so well and was able to put the casts together months in advance of rehearsals. Likewise, "Swan Lake" is a regular in the repertoire and thus able to be cast well in advance of the performances.

The company only started learning the piece on Tuesday so it is far too soon to be able to announce casting. Of course, a number of dancers have been selected for each role but it will be up to Mr. Inger as to which of them are actually given performances. However, let us hope the announcement will be a little bit earlier than that for the triple bill last autumn!

Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw are definitely dancing in this gala ("Giselle" Act 2 pas de deux). Shiori Kase will now replace Yaoqian Shang in the 'Corsaire' pas de deux as Shang is no longer able to participate. (Henry Dowden has just posted this change of cast on Instagram.)

Thank you so much for all the kind comments about my posts on this thread. I am delighted if I have been able to enhance your enjoyment of the beautiful Mary Skeaping production which I am so lucky to look after.

Glad you noticed Anna-Babette Winkler, who has such a lovely, serene quality to her dancing. She also made a beautiful Bathilde, and I cast her in that role on the strength of her Mother in "Nutcracker", as I thought she made the most wonderfully gracious hostess in the party scene.

The other men in black were Skyler Martin with Emma Hawes and Vsevolod Maievskyi with Sangeun Lee. Souza accompanied the other Giselles. It would be lovely to acknowledge them on the cast list but of course that would definitely shatter the illusion!

The organisation's Instagram but I expect if you Google it, the information will be available. 😊

If you wish to donate for air ambulances in Ukraine, it is still possible through the organisation Donate to Evacuate (details on Instagram).

I expect my views about the causes of this gala are in a very small minority but, while I applaud the first cause of this gala, of providing grants to struggling dance students in Ukraine, I do not think the second cause, of paying for Ashton’s “La fille mal gardée” to be staged by the National Ballet of Ukraine, is what Ukraine needs or probably wants at this extremely difficult time. The National Ballet of Ukraine have recently been touring Canada with all profits to be donated to the Olena Zelenska Foundation which funds medicine, education and humanitarian aid throughout Ukraine so this is obviously where their priorities lie. I was probably one of the first in line to buy a ticket for the first Dance for Ukraine gala, where it was advertised that the profits would go to registered charities (DEC), but this time I will donate the ticket price directly to a charitable cause in Ukraine. Of course, I wish this gala well and hope that, in a vast theatre like the Palladium, the net profit will exceed the £160,00 raised last time because I would like to point out, for those who are unaware, that ENB’s Ukrainian ballerina, Katja Khaniukova organised and performed in a gala last summer in the National Opera House of Ukraine, in collaboration with the Kyiv School of Economics, which raised $2 million (yes, you read that correctly, $2 million) for Medevac air ambulances, the first of which has been operational for the last few months. What an incredible achievement for her first attempt at organising a gala!

@Sim, I wasn’t sure about responding to Matthew Paluch’s article on here but, as you asked for my opinion, here goes! His article appeared on my Facebook page this morning and I have to say that I was perplexed by it, although its main thrust seems to be that, because members of the audience laughed at two very minor and fleeting moments in Act 2, there is a problem with the Skeaping production! As I previously mentioned, I attended all the performances and, yes, some audience members at most of the performances laughed at Giselle’s veil flying off and her ‘flying’ across the back but, as I and others have said on here, it was not laughing in ridicule but at the surprise of both moments, much as audiences from the baroque era onwards did when confronted with various stage effects (having worked at the wonderful perspective theatre at Drottningholm with its amazing bits of set that suddenly pop up through the stage, I can understand audiences at that time looking forward to these moments and responding to them with delight), so I see no problem with audiences expressing themselves in this way, especially “the ones who actually bothered to buy a ticket and rock up to the theatre” (and I find nothing “scary” about this). Paluch was a member of ENB’s corps de ballet when “Giselle” was performed 2005-2007 but, unless he was cast as a gamekeeper, he would have been out of the theatre by the time Act 2 happened so he would not have realised that the laughter at those moments has been happening for a very long time (going back to the 1970s) but it has always been good-natured. Incidentally, there was also laughter at a number of performances when the last two Wilis chased the final gamekeeper off the stage but, again, it was not laughter ridiculing the moment but almost saying “job well done”! He mentions Giselle being carried by a company member in black (affectionately known as “the man in black” within the company) across the back of the stage but fails to mention the skill this dancer requires, with Giselle actually perched on his shoulder, to run smoothly enough to give the impression that she is floating or flying. For those interested, it was Junor Souza at most performances, chosen by me for his exceptional partnering skills. Paluch rather messes up his “spoiler alert” because I think what he meant was that the dancer performing Myrtha does not have supernatural powers and the dancer performing Giselle cannot fly but, at first glance, it certainly reads as if he is talking about the characters rather than the dancers! I was surprised by his remarks about the mime. I have never heard mime criticised before for being musical! Of course, there are varying degrees of accomplishment in performing mime and I would have loved to have had more rehearsal time for this but almost everyone performed the mime naturally and musically, exactly as Mary Skeaping taught it to me, she in turn having learned it from Tamara Karsavina and, of course, Anna Pavlova. And I certainly do not recall anyone putting “every gesture on a beat”, as the gestures are done to phrases of music. I am not sure what he means by his sentence “Elsewhere we find other predictable moments from all areas of the theatre” but he then goes on to talk about the Wilis' “infamous (??) hops” across the stage. Why not call them what they are – temps levés in arabesque. And in ENB they are never referred to as hops but as shunts, as the ladies must only lift their heels from the floor enough to shunt the working leg forward to give the smooth, floating effect. And if someone wants to clap after a few “hops”, why not? The ladies would certainly appreciate acknowledgement of their efforts! I think Paluch must have been the only person who thought he was in Camelot in Act 1 as the designs are clearly Tudor, with the necessary Germanic influence on the buildings and the castle in the background! Since he is too coy to say which cast he saw, it is almost impossible to comment on his scathing reaction to Albrecht, although he does say “many who are cast” are “waiting for the …Instagrammable moment.” but he confesses that he only saw one cast! And I cannot think of any Albrechts who approached “the whole event as a number of competition solos with some bits in between”, although of course some are naturally better than others in getting under the skin of the character. As someone else mentioned, it does seem like he is regretting that Osipova was not dancing Giselle, to the point of including a photograph of her in the role rather than any of ENB’s lovely Giselles, but I am not sure that a Giselle “who verges on the unhinged” well before the mad scene would fit Skeaping’s production or Gautier’s original conception of the role and neither would “frenzied concern” in Act 2. As Markova says she learned from Sergueyev, Giselle still has her human emotions in Act 2 but they are muted as she is now a phantom. Paluch says right at the beginning of his article that he remembers dancing in Skeaping’s production as an “enjoyable and vivid experience”. From the ovations at the end of every performance, I would like to think that the majority of people in the audience felt the same way and had been fully engaged with it. Considering the number of dancers who have told me they cannot wait to perform this “Giselle” again, it appears they also found it to be an enjoyable and vivid experience!