Irmgard

Actually, they do have standing but I believe these are not sold until all the seats are sold. If you look carefully on the seat map for the Dress Circle and the Upper Circle (helps to enlarge it), there are standing places indicated but they are not on sale at the moment. I stood through many opera performances at the back of the Dress Circle in the 1980s.

I have been to a lot of schools matinees over the years and I have to say, for the most part, the school children behave much better than most adults (especially these days!). The schools have usually had some input, such as a workshop, from ENB before arrival, so they usually know the plot of what they are about to see. I love the fact that they know to be quiet as soon as the conductor appears! In the last few I have attended, they are not allowed food during the performance but get their 'goody bags' during the interval. At the end of the interval, one of the supervising adults collects each and every bag. Because of the way the tickets are distributed, I have often found myself next to or behind members of a school party and it is rather wonderful to experience the spontaneity of their responses, not to mention engagement by almost all of them, and their extremely enthusiastic applause at the end. The first one I remember attending was ENB's "Manon" in 2009 and you could have heard a pin drop in the last scene!

I have mentioned to Aaron, and to Patrick Harrison (ENB's Executive Director), the interest and thanks publishing the casting has generated (and the upswing in ticket sales), and I know it is Aaron's policy (now that he is officially Artistic Director, instead of 'Designate') to publish casting as early as is feasible.

With "Giselle", we started off with the title role. As I previously mentioned, I have been able to watch a lot of performances and had a very strong idea of who I would like to cast, based on musicality, dramatic ability, charisma and, of course exquisite technique. It was then a case of matching Albrechts to them in whom, as well as the aforementioned qualities, I was looking for elegant and secure partnering techniques. With only one male Lead Principal and one male Principal in the company at the time Aaron Watkin and I started talking about casting, we obviously looked at the other ranks to see who fitted those criteria. We then observed two days of classes, which the dancers were informed were "audition classes" and which contained various centre-work exercises related to the choreography for "Giselle" to help reinforce our thoughts, especially useful in the casting of Myrtha, with her fiendishly difficult solos in Mary Skeaping's production. After that, we had to decide who would get performances in London and who would learn it and be coached for future performances. As a new artistic director, Aaron was keen to introduce the dancers he had brought from Dresden and so they were "added into the mix". I hope this gives you a general idea of the process involved in casting the production.

|We have some lovely casts "waiting in the wings" for future performances and in the supporting roles for the Coliseum performances but, as the dancers involved have yet to be informed, I cannot say more at present.

I can only speak for Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" but I can certainly give you a bit of insight into the casting process for that. I have obviously known the company for a long time and have worked with a number of the dancers previously but, during the past season, I tried to watch even more casts in each production than I usually do. Therefore, when Aaron Watkin and I discussed casting for Giselle and Albrecht we considered which dancers looked good together physically and, of course, had that all-important element of chemistry. Some of the partnerships we chose have already been 'tried and tested' in other productions, and then we both came up with suggestions for new partnerships which we think will be exciting. We used the same process for the Peasant Pas de Deux. Of course, it goes without saying that they are all exceptionally fine dancers ☺️!

When Aaron and I were doing the casting together for Mary Skeaping's "Giselle", I asked if the Peasant Pas de Deux casting could be included on the website as I know it is of interest to a lot of people. I also hope the casting will remain as planned and I am glad it has received such a positive response on here.

In this instance, Stora Scenen means the main stage/auditorium. Manon and Corsaire are definitely being performed at the Royal Opera House (Operan) in Stockholm.

The auditorium of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm is wonderful. I have sat in various areas over the years (but not the very top level) and they have all afforded an excellent view. The foyer is a replica of the Paris Opera's golden foyer.

I was so very sad to hear of the death of Monica Parker, who had been in ill health for some years. She was Director of the Benesh Institute (now Benesh International) when I did the professional dance notation course and, on completion, she hired me to run the library of Benesh Movement Notation scores, which I did for nine years at the lovely premises in Barons Court, behind the old Royal Ballet premises on Talgarth Road. It was also thanks to her that I met Mary Skeaping and became her assistant, now being responsible for her beautiful production of "Giselle". Monica's dynamism was amazing, as she was principal choreologist for the Royal Ballet at the same time as she was running the Institute. This meant that notation students at that time had the unique privilege of notating rep classes at the Royal Ballet School, watching stars of the future! Monica mostly worked with Kenneth MacMillan, to whom she was invaluable, but other choreographers whose works she notated included Glen Tetley, and I remember her demonstrating a fiendish section of his "Voluntaries" for us to notate. As the Royal Opera House obituary says, she was a wonderful ambassador for notation and was highly respected by choreographers and dancers alike for her incredible eye for detail and her clarity and no-nonsense approach in rehearsals. The last time I saw her was when she staged an immaculate production of "Manon" for English National Ballet in 2008, which may have been the last ballet she staged, as I know her health began to fail soon afterwards. However, at that time, her energy and her irrepressible enthusiasm for her work were still very much in evidence, and that is how I will remember her.

Dawnstar, casting the performances for the triple bill is much more complicated than for "Giselle" and "Nutcracker" because it involves three different choreographers/stagers. Victoria Simon, from the Balanchine Trust, is not due to join the company for another couple of weeks, and she will want to see the dancers in action before it is decided which casts do which performances - and this has to coordinate with the two new pieces. Therefore, "Giselle" and "Nutcracker" performance casting will be announced prior to the triple bill casting, and I do think it is great that Aaron Watkin has taken on board requests for major casting to be announced much earlier than it has been in recent years. Of course, as always with ENB's mixed bills, you will probably see almost all the company's principals in whichever show you book for 🥰

I have checked with Aaron and he is happy for me to let you know that the announcement about the "Giselle" casting is imminent (once the dancers have been informed, of course). Irmgard Berry Adviser to the Skeaping Estate Artistic Adviser for Mary Skeaping's "Giselle"

Callum Lowden, along with Guilherme Menezes, danced Albrecht in Act II of Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" by ENBS in 2010 before moving to the RBS for a year. (Ken Saruhashi was also meant to dance Albrecht but injured his foot shortly before the performances). I met up with Callum again in Stockholm in 2019 and 2022 when I was invited to watch rehearsals and performances by the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Yes, all three pieces will be done to live music - so a feast of music for the wonderful ENB Philharmonic!

From my conversations with her, Amber Hunt has completely retired from dancing to pursue her photography career.

What a lovely tribute to Amber Hunt! I agree she has always been the backbone of the corps de ballet and I am surprised she was never awarded the Corps de Ballet prize, started a few years ago. If I remember correctly, she left at the very start of this season so there probably was no opportunity for a public send-off but no doubt there was some sort of celebration for her within the company. And she is thankfully still very much present, as one half of ASH. Photography.

Gareth Haw is her regular partner so no doubt he will be doing all the principal roles without the title currently of Principal, just as Ken Saruhashi has been doing for a number of years.

Revisiting English National Ballet's production of "Cinderella" at the Royal Albert Hall over the past two weeks has reinforced my original impression of it from the 2019 performances, that it relies heavily on spectacle and the imagination of the dancers to create their characters because Christopher Wheeldon's choreography is, for the most part, awkward and uninspired. I longed for a really romantic pas de deux for Cinderella and her Prince befitting Prokofiev's hauntingly beautiful score, much as I longed for exquisite solos for Cinderella where she did not spend time rolling around on the floor. I note that there have been some improvements, such as the omission of the three vying princesses and their dreadful dances in Act II, and the toning down of some of the more vulgar elements in the humour. Expecting the audience to laugh at a one-legged girl wanting to try on the golden slipper has been modified to have her with feet that face the wrong way, something I still find offensive and would hope this is completely rethought for subsequent stagings. At one of the performances I saw, one of the Fates, still wearing a horse's head, sat in the line-up wanting to try on the slipper, which caused the Prince or Ben to stroke its head, something which elicited far more spontaneous and warm laughter from the audience. My gripes apart, the company delivered performances filled with energy and enthusiasm and, where the choreography allowed, some very classy dancing, all accompanied by the ENB Philharmonic on a platform suspended above the usual stage used for Proms performances, making absolute magic of Prokofiev's score, especially when under the baton of Maestro Gavin Sutherland. For the 2023 opening night cast of principal characters only Katja Khaniukova remains from the opening night of 2019, playing the myopic, slightly clumsy stepsister Clementine with a heart of gold who hides both her light and her beauty under a bushel due to a lifetime of bullying by her older, beautiful but vain and spiteful sister, the magnificent Fernanda Oliveira who has a ball with the role of Edwina (no pun intended). She is the mini-me of the even more vain and spiteful stepmother Hortense of Sarah Kundi. All of them have added more fine details to their characters to keep us thoroughly entertained, even when at the sidelines in the ballroom scene. Khaniukova and Oliveira who, for some unfathomable reason, have not so far been cast as Cinderella in this production, both have formidable, exquisite technique which they must hide, for the most part, to make their characters appear to be terrible dancers. However, their beautiful footwork shines through even in the simplest of steps such as the glissade, of which there are many, and walking en pointe. Clementine, to Edwina's fury, is actually the better dancer, which allows us to see some of Khaniukova's trademark firecracker fouetté turns until she is unceremoniously stopped by Edwina. Kundi shines in her drunken dance with a couple of champagne glasses and her long-suffering husband. Her final backbend is a masterpiece of control and humour (and I was very glad to be on the right side of the auditorium last night (24th) to see the priceless expression on her face before she totally collapsed). As with my viewings in 2019, it is the love story between Clementine and Ben which runs alongside that of Cinderella and her Prince, which melted my heart, especially with Khaniukova and her Ben for this run, the charismatic and charming Ken Saruhashi with whom she has a palpable chemistry. The moment when Clementine is left humiliated by Edwina, in a flattened heap on the ballroom floor, is touching enough but, when Ben helps her up and straightens her glasses, Khaniukova and Saruhashi make it clear by their body language as they look into each other's eyes that they have fallen in love. Their very brief, tender pas de deux at the end of Act III, is a moment of sheer delight. Saruhashi also gets to show off his more bravura side in the exuberant, boisterous duets with the Prince, which contain much of the best choreography. Due to injury sustained by Emma Hawes a couple of weeks before the run, which necessitated casting changes of the principal couple for all her scheduled performances, Francesco Gabriele Frola danced the Prince on opening night and was all youthful coltishness until, disguised as a hobo, he meets and immediately falls in love with Cinderella, their tenderest moment being waltzing together on the kitchen table. Cinderella was the exquisite Erina Takahashi and it stuns me to realise that I first saw her as Cinderella probably over twenty years ago, in Michael Corder's beautiful production, and yet she does not look a day older and dances with the technical finesse and quiet virtuosity I have always associated with her. My favourite moment is when she runs around the auditorium in her ballgown: something deceptively simply but which she makes into a masterclass on how to run gracefully and with élan. There follows the best coup de théâtre in the whole piece, when the four Fates plus two extras become the horses to pull her carriage, which is formed by men in black operating the carriage wheels. Kudos to the uncredited Alexander Nuttall who is the man in black who carries Cinderella aloft in a one-handed lift around the auditorium, a feat he undertook at each performance. Other delights in this performance were the graceful and elegant Stina Quagebeur as Queen Charlotte and the ethereally beautiful Angela Wood as Cinderella's doomed mother, as well as the extremely hard-working quartet of Fates: Fernando Carratalà Coloma, Henry Dowden, Skyler Martin and Erik Woolhouse. At the end of this performance, we were invited to stay for the presentation by Artistic Director Designate Aaron Watkin of the 2023 People's Choice Award, which went to the very elegant Paige Bestington, and the Corps de Ballet Award, which went to Breanna Foad. Both recipients were enthusiastically applauded by colleagues and audience alike. The complete Emerging Dancer event will be back in 2024. Saturday 17 June was a matinée full of débuts. Shiori Kase performed Cinderella in the proscenium version in 2019 but this was her début at the Albert Hall. It was so good to see her back dancing at full strength again after injury forced her off the stage for most of this season (I was lucky enough to catch her lovely Odette/Odile in Manchester shortly before it happened). Her lyricism and musicality always shine through everything she does, including her remarkable ability to sustain balances en pointe to the absolute end of a musical phrase but always to express an emotion rather than being a pure balancing act. Her hurt and incomprehension when being abused by her stepfamily was very touching and, again, it was the dance on the table with the Prince which stole my heart. Her Prince was Lorenzo Trossello, making his début in the production. He has a very attractive personality and lovely, clean technique, well matched by Henry Dowden, as Ben, in their duets together. Making her début as Clementine, Francesca Velicu was sweet and adorably skittish, and there was a lovely chemistry between her and Dowden. Eireen Evrard and Natascha Mair had great fun with their débuts as the stepmother and Edwina respectively, with Evrard being particularly entertaining in her drunken solo. The Fates at this performance, giving sterling support to Kase, were Rentaro Nakaaki, Ken Saruhashi, Junor Souza and Erik Woolhouse, their most magical moment being when they manipulate Cinderella at the end of the Prince's search for her, so that it appears as if she is floating on air as she retrieves her golden slipper from the very high mantlepiece. In the evening, Precious Adams and Daniel McCormick received an extra performance, having made their débuts the previous afternoon. Excellent dancers though they are, I felt they were still finding their way through the awkwardness of the choreography to be able to put their individual stamp on the characters or for there to be much chemistry between them. Their loveliest moment was when they were dancing together on the kitchen table and I could see the beginnings of chemistry but it did not develop much more than that. It was therefore the enchanting relationship between Khaniukova's Clementine and Saruhashi's Ben which again melted my heart. At this performance, Fabian Reimair as Cinderella's father brought a touch of real emotional depth to the performance as he grieved over the death of his wife. Ella Zieglmeier, as the young Cinderella, was very moving in her response to him. A word of praise for Angela Wood who, having serenely floated up to heaven as Cinderella's mother, reappeared as one of the two female soloists in the Winter section of the Seasons, bringing the same serenity and elegance to the otherwise not-very-interesting choreography. On 21 June, I attended another performance by Takahashi and Frola with their scheduled supporting cast, most of whom had made their débuts the previous Friday evening. Emily Suzuki, usually a very soulful dancer, revelled in her chance to be the obnoxious Edwina while Angela Wood, as the Stepmother, proved that her character's beauty really was only skin-deep, delighting in her cruelty towards Cinderella and the Prince when he is disguised as a hobo. Her drunken dance, ably supported by Fabian Reimair as her husband, provided the comic highlight of the evening, closely followed by her demented hammering of the golden slipper onto a terrified Edwina's foot. Rhys Antoni Yeomans, as Ben, showed off his splendid dancing skills in his duets with Frola, and Julia Conway was a suitably goofy Clementine. I found their love story cute but not involving. It was Takahashi and Frola who provided all the heartwarming moments of the evening, not only with their beautiful dancing but also with their portrayal of young love. Ivana Bueno has lived her own Cinderella story this week. She is someone whose elegance of movement I noticed immediately when she joined the corps de ballet in 2018. Two weeks ago, she went from being the understudy for Cinderella to suddenly being scheduled for two performances, due to Emma Hawes being injured. I did not see her début, but I saw her performance on the evening of 24 June, which was truly magical. She had a stellar cast to support her, including Aitor Arrieta as her Prince. As I have noted before, Arrieta has the wonderful ability to form instant chemistry with his ballerina and this was immediately noticeable from his first meeting with Bueno's Cinderella. This, along with Arrieta's aristocratic bearing and elegant partnering, plus Bueno's generosity of movement, especially the glorious freedom in her upper back, made their pas de deux particularly expressive and made the choreography look better than it actually is. There was a wonderful mixture of serenity and radiance to Bueno's Cinderella, and it is to her credit that she managed to hold the audience's attention when up against the formidable comic talents of Khaniukova and Oliveira, welcoming their third new stepsister of the run and still adding subtle details to their interpretations. I found the caring relationship between Clementine and Cinderella particularly sweet and believable. Ken Saruhashi reprised his charming Ben, showing a wonderful rapport with Arrieta, especially in their duets, and, above all, captivating the hearts of the audience as well as his adorable Clementine as their delightful romance progressed. Millicent Honour gave a touching portrayal of the young Cinderella, particularly in her response to Fabian Reimair as her grieving father. He added more comic details to his relationship with his monstrous second wife, portrayed for the last time by Sarah Kundi, and the two of them had great fun during her drunken dance and its aftermath. This was Kundi's last performance with the company in a featured role, although she danced in the Seasons segment in today's performance (25 June), as she has accepted a teaching position at the Royal Ballet's Upper School, and it was wonderful to see the company honour her as a much-loved colleague during the bows, pushing her forward to receive applause and recognition from the audience. As a fitting ending to the evening, just after she emerged from the stage door after the show, a fireworks display suddenly erupted behind the Royal College of Music opposite, creating a party mood amongst all those of us present. Despite the disappointing choreography, it has been fun to spend so much time watching the extremely talented dancers of ENB, including all those taking part in the Seasons, ballroom and wedding scenes, as they drew in the audiences with their spirited performances and, above all, to hear Prokofiev's glorious music filling the vast space of the Albert Hall, although it is a shame that the orchestra is hidden for all of the first act. My one reservation about the Albert Hall as a venue is the fact that latecomers were allowed in, generally during Cinderella's solo in Act I and then after Act II had started, which I found rather disrespectful to the performers and to other members of the audience. I hope it is rectified for "Swan Lake" next year - and I hope munching on popcorn in the auditorium is banned!

Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" last toured to Manchester and Liverpool in 2009 under Eagling's directorship. Under Rojo's directorship, it only toured to Belfast in 2017 following performances at the London Coliseum.

I went to Southampton for the matinee on 1 December 2022 which featured the last two debuts in principal roles of this run. It is always a pleasure to be in the Mayflower Theatre where I saw my first ballet at the age of five (when the theatre was called the Gaumont and the company was called London Festival Ballet, giving one of the fabulous Ballet Russes triple bills which were a staple of its touring rep back then). Sitting in the front row of the stalls for a change, with a great view of the orchestra pit and the stage, people on both sides of me remarked how wonderful it was to have a live orchestra, with which of course I concur. Brooklyn Mack took on the role of Jean de Brienne for the first time, and I found that, compared to his appearances with the company in “Le Corsaire” a few years ago, his dancing was rather untidy and laboured. He also did not appear particularly interested in his Raymonda, Natascha Mair, also making her debut at this performance, although he partnered her well. She is pretty but, to me, seemed to dance steps without any real flow of movement, especially in her solos which are among the precious few moments of Petipa remaining in this production. Of course, it does not help that the sequence of relevés retirés en passant for Raymonda in Act III is done in a bridal dress, looking like it was borrowed from Lise in La fille mal gardée, which has a skirt too long for us to see the beautiful retire line or that Rojo has imposed a sentiment on it completely at odds with the grandeur of the music. I felt both dancers were still getting to grips with the choreography and had not fully explored their characters, even as sketchily drawn as they are in Rojo’s production. In fact Mair made such a timid Raymonda that I could not believe she would walk out on her own wedding, let alone take herself off to Crimea to nurse wounded soldiers. I much preferred her Clemence, which I saw last season, when she radiated an aura of serenity which was perfect for the solos allotted to her then. Both dancers were outclassed and outshone by the intensely charismatic Katja Khaniukova as Henriette and Fernando Carratalá Coloma as Abdurakhman. I was impressed by Coloma’s Abdurakhman last season, and he made even more of an impression this time, with his intoxicating mixture of elegance and sensuality. There was a wonderfully sinuous quality to his Act I solo which made some of the awkward movements Rojo has given him look intriguingly exotic. His dancing in Act II was nothing short of spectacular, especially his manège of ‘flying camel’ Cossack turns, and everything was done with finesse. And he certainly made his presence felt in Act III, gazing with dignity at his lost love. I still find it an anomaly to have a high-born party girl such as Henriette in a bleak military encampment, but Khaniukova, as always, lit up the stage with her megawatt smile whenever she appeared, and made her such fun, especially when flirting outrageously with her enamoured suitors, Daniel McCormick and Noam Durand. In the solos she was allotted in each Act, her impeccable style in these Petipa gems shone through, characterised by her exquisite footwork, delicious épaulement and beautiful ports de bras. The perfection of her classical line was also showcased in the Pas Classique Hongrois, especially in the shoulder lift where she was the picture of elegance, with secure support from McCormick. Amongst the other bridesmaids in the Pas Classique Hongrois, Chloe Keneally showed the beautiful style and elegance which made her Aurora in last season’s Emerging Dancer the standout performance for me. Another delight in this performance was the vivacity and charm with which Adriana Lizardi and Miguel Angel Maidana led the Grand Pas Hongrois. On the whole, the company danced up a storm throughout and were rewarded with a very enthusiastic ovation from the audience. This week marked Maestro Gavin Sutherland’s final performances as ENB’s Music Director but thankfully he will remain as Principal Guest Conductor so we can look forward to many more performances of outstanding music-making from him and the ENB Philharmonic, starting with the first week of “Nutcracker” performances. He is quite simply the best conductor the company has ever had, with his intuitive understanding of the support dancers need to be able to give of their best and he is certainly the best ballet conductor I have ever come across in all my years of attending performances all over the world, bringing his Midas touch to even the most mediocre of scores.

Revisiting Tamara Rojo’s “Raymonda” on English National Ballet’s opening night in Bristol (23 November 2022) reinforced the issues I had with the production on its first outing in London in January, its trivialisation of war and nursing above all. Rojo’s vision of the Crimean War appears to be of one long party for the nurses and camp followers, at odds with the projections during the overture which depict it as bloody and relentless. Given that there is currently a brutal war raging in Ukraine, of which Crimea is a part despite its annexation by Russia, all this frivolity seems particularly insensitive, although I realise Rojo decided to update the setting for the ballet before the current war started. I noted again how derivative her choreography is. For example, the opening scene of the ladies embroidering is inspired by the first scene of Cranko’s “Onegin”, the pas de deux/pas de trois for the three main characters in the dream sequence is heavily influenced by MacMillan but without his genius, and this time I recognised steps in the Act II dance for Abdurakhman’s guards which were very similar to the pirates’ dance in “Le Corsaire”. I also despair of the changes Rojo has made to Act III. Watching the Grand Pas Hongrois which has been changed into a Hungarian folk dance, despite this being led with brio by Emily Suzuki and Fabian Reimair, I longed for Nureyev’s version with its reverence for Petipa’s choreography and style and, of course, the sumptuous costumes which reflect its origins as a court dance. Mercifully, most of Petipa’s choreography has been kept for the Pas Classique Hongrois but Rojo has stripped away the style so much that, apart from Raymonda herself (Fernanda Oliveira), it is only Katja Khaniukova amongst the lovely bridesmaids who, steeped in the tradition from her Kyiv training, instinctively imbues it with the aristocratic style this mini-masterpiece deserves. Of course the crowning glory of this ballet is Glazunov’s fabulous score which sounded even more ravishing in Bristol with the ENB Philharmonic on the same level as the Stalls, instead of relegated to the pit, under the baton of Maestro Gavin Sutherland who brought forth all the beautiful colours and harmonies with his customary genius. The four main characters on opening night were performed by the same dancers who gave the last performance at the Coliseum in January about which I did not have time to write, and this cast appears to be the only one which has remained intact since the departure of various dancers at the end of last season and some current indispositions. Francesca Velicu, as Henriette, was a delightfully silly young girl, leading her suitors, the dashing Henry Dowden and Ken Saruhashi, a merry dance but her character is still one of the anomalies of Rojo’s production. What would a young girl who looks barely sixteen and is neither a nurse nor a prostitute be doing in a military camp? Jean de Brienne (or John de Bryan as Rojo has decided to rename him) is burdened with a particularly dull personality in this production and Francesco Gabriele Frola subdues his usual magnetism to accommodate the production but still makes him a man of honour and earnestness. Of course, his dancing is nothing less than superb, especially in Act III, with his elegance and effortless, gravity-defying jumps. Erik Woolhouse’s Abdurakhman is a mixture of entitlement and gallantry tinged with danger in his relentless pursuit of Raymonda. His Act I solo was tailor-made for the compact, mercurial Jeffrey Cirio but the more imposing Woolhouse overcame this very well and really came into his own in Act II where his dancing and command of the action was electrifying. As his character is killed off at the end of Act II in the original scenario, Rojo has had to create something for him to do in Act III which unfortunately consists of nothing more than unsettling Raymonda each time she sees him but Woolhouse certainly made the most of this: even when almost disappearing into the wings whilst on the periphery of the action, his gaze never left her. Raymonda was the glorious jewel of a ballerina, Fernanda Oliveira, so rarely afforded an opening night during Rojo’s regime. I have long considered her a great dramatic dancer, as well as a superb technician of beauteous lyricism, all qualities which she brings to Raymonda, especially in the dream sequence where those exquisite legs and feet of hers were so expressive in the pas de trois when being manipulated by Frola and Woolhouse. In her Act III solo, even when her innate musicality has to go against the grain with Rojo’s conception of it as a solo of despair, contrary to the majesty of the music, Oliveira brings great dignity to it. I find Rojo’s ending an act of calculated callousness on Raymonda’s part (she has a nursing colleague standing by with suitcase and coat to exit the wedding celebrations so it is obviously planned and not a spur of the moment decision) but Oliveria’s beautifully expressive face was very moving as she spurns Abdurakhman for the last time. Despite this being a very flawed production, this was an evening of superb, committed dancing and music, and the audience certainly rewarded those onstage and in the pit with the huge ovation they so richly deserved.

No, this is separate from the in-person classes so that she concentrates solely on the online participants.

As I can’t see any other mention of this on the forum, I am letting everyone know that Daria Klimentova is giving four online ballet classes, 8-11 August (11.30am-1pm UK time), from her summer school in Prague next month (intermediate and advanced level standard). There is a charge of £25 per class. These are excellent for those who cannot attend a summer school in person or for those of us who just want some summer exercise! I did them last year and noted that Daria gives individual attention and corrections to everyone who has their cameras on. As one would expect from this international ballerina and teacher at the Royal Ballet School (upper school), the exercises are beautiful (and fun!) and the corrections are extremely thoughtful. The address is masterclassesinprague on Instagram or .

I have two tickets for this performance in the Linbury Theatre on 7 June at 7.45pm which I can no longer use. This is the collaboration between the Royal Ballet and Queensland Ballet. The seats are Upper Circle A12 and A13 and are £15 each.

The nominations for the 22nd Annual National Dance Awards have just been announced and make for interesting reading. Congratulations to all the nominees!