Irmgard

I posted on here last night but my post appears to have been removed for no reason and with no explanation. I posted that I had contacted Madison Keesler, with whom I had the pleasure of working in 2017, (and I am posting on here with her permission), and she confirmed that she is leaving San Francisco Ballet and heading for New York . She will keep dancing but will also be spreading her wings to hopefully do some acting.

I am rather late in posting about this but, now that the streamed version is now available, I thought better late than never! It was a privilege to attend this beautifully programmed and presented evening on 19 March, and how wonderful it was to see the Ukrainian flag draped above the entrance to the London Coliseum. It was also heartening to see the English National Opera orchestra and members of the English National Ballet Philharmonic joining forces in the pit for the evening under the baton of Alex Ingram, who has conducted for both companies. From the powerful rendition of Ukraine’s national anthem (“Ukraine has not yet perished, neither her glory nor her freedom”) sung by mezzo Ksenia Nikolaieva, with members of the ENO chorus joining her for the reprise, to the cast standing shoulder to shoulder while the apotheosis of Glazunov’s “Raymonda” was played to bring the performance to an end, this was truly an evening to remember, and I am delighted it was filmed so that those who missed out on tickets can watch it and those of us who were there can re-experience this very special event, raising even more funds for DEC. My favourite moments included the Royal Ballet’s Mayara Magri and ENB’s Francesco Gabriele Frola, both electrifying in the famous pas de deux from “Le Corsaire”, ENB’s Emma Hawes and Junor Souza bringing a cool classicism to the first prelude from Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes” (previously a staple of ENB’s repertoire for many years), and the Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nuñez sparkling like a diamond in Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” elegantly partnered by Reece Clarke. It was entirely appropriate that the dance section of the evening began and ended with Ukrainians, and these were the two pieces which moved me the most. ENB’s Kyiv born and trained Katja Khaniukova and Spaniard Aitor Arrieta performed the heartrending final pas de deux from Liam Scarlett’s elegy to the First World War, “No Man’s Land”, accompanied by the exquisite, sensitive playing of ENB’s company pianist, Julia Richter. The complete ballet opens with female workers in a munitions factory bidding farewell to their menfolk as they leave for the front, leading to several emotional pas de deux but, in this final pas de deux, the ghost of one of the soldiers appears to his sweetheart in an anguished but dignified lament to lives and loves lost. The pas de deux took on an extra poignancy as every movement and gesture seemed to represent Khaniukova’s emotions for her homeland. Marianna Tsembenhoi, an Aud Jebsen Young Dancer with the Royal Ballet, gave a very touching performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s choreography for the Pie Jesu from Fauré’s Requiem sung by fellow Ukrainian Inna Guseva, draped in the Ukrainian flag. Guseva has a brighter voice than is usually associated with this solo but it gave it an added plangency which led naturally to the understated but deeply affecting finale of this outstanding evening curated by Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov, who are to be congratulated, not only for taking the initiative but also for accomplishing so much in such a short time.

Returning for the last weekend of this effervescent programme, the Saturday matinée was my only chance to see the company’s exquisite leading ballerinas, Fernanda Oliveira and Erina Takahashi, in “Blake Works I”, having inexplicably only been given two performances, the dates of which were not even announced until last weekend! They gave the first number their ballerina sheen and, as with everything she does, Oliveira added her unique touch of glamour to it. She also added a new dimension to “The Colour in Anything”, highlighting the delicate hand gestures and infusing them with emotion. She then danced up a storm with fellow Brazilian Junor Souza in the fourth piece (‘I Hope My Life’), bringing a touch of Rio’s Carnival to the proceedings. Erina Takahashi brought the ballet to a close with a very wistful performance of ‘Forever’, partnered by Joe Caley. Ivana Bueno impressed once more, particularly in the sizzling “Put That Away And Talk To Me”, replacing an injured Isabelle Brouwers. If I could give a prize for best male performance in dance, it would have to go to the entire male contingent of ENB for their fabulous dancing in both these Forsythe pieces at all the performances I have seen but, if I had to choose just a few of them as truly outstanding in this afternoon’s show, it would have to be Rentaro Nakaaki, Matthew Astley, Fernando Carratalà Coloma, Rhys Antoni Williams, Erik Woolhouse and, above all, Francesco Gabriele Frola whose astonishing corkscrew turns in ‘Playlist’ drew audible gasps and whoops from the audience. Overall, as per last Saturday’s matinée, it was Katja Khaniukova who captivated me and the entire audience in ‘Playlist’, not only for her electrifying dancing, especially with Rhys Antoni Yeomans, but also for bringing on the Ukrainian flag for the bows, applauded by her colleagues who persuaded her to take a solo bow with it, a testament to their love and admiration for all the tireless work she is doing on behalf of her homeland, through raising awareness and funds, while turning in superlative performances. Booking the Sunday performance far in advance of the casting being announced meant that I saw the same cast as Saturday’s matinée, apart from Shiori Kase and Junor Souza returning to dance “The Colour in Anything” and Haruhi Otani dancing ‘Forever’ with Joseph Caley. In ‘Playlist’, the company pulled out all the stops with a wonderfully friendly rivalry amongst the men to be the most dazzling. Of course Woolhouse won whoops and cheers for his solo at the beginning of ‘Impossible’ but the loudest cheers went to Frola once again, for his extraordinary pirouette into an extremely fast corkscrew turn. Khaniukova and Yeomans once again won the hearts of the audience with the cheekiness and nonchalance with which they threw off their fiendishly difficult choreography, and Angela Wood and Daniel McCormick added an extra sensuality and flirtatiousness to their pas de deux “Location”. It has been truly wonderful to see Wood have the chance to blossom over this run of performances and I hope she receives the recognition from the artistic team that she so richly deserves. But this was the final performance of junior soloist Anjuli Hudson after fifteen years with ENB, and her colleagues made sure she knew how much they value her by organising a flower throw from the auditorium (carried out not only by those not in the last piece but also by former members of the company who were at the performance especially to pay tribute to her) and pushing her to the front of the stage to take solo bows. She was also presented with a bouquet by her fiancé, Jeffrey Cirio. This lovely tribute ended with her being surrounded by all onstage and tossed joyfully the air. She told me it was her wish to give her last performance in London, rather than on tour, before beginning her new career rehearsing works instead of performing in them. Hudson is one of those delightful artists who always give their all – and more, whether in the corps de ballet or in a featured role, evidenced by her sparkling performance this afternoon. I personally found her to be an absolute joy to work with on Mary’s Skeaping’s “Giselle” from the moment she joined in 2007 and I, like everyone else who has the privilege to know her, will miss that sunshine smile very much. It is very sad that ENB has no more performances scheduled in the UK until September but at least their London season has ended on such a high with this thoroughly entertaining programme which has highlighted so much talent within the company, especially of those dancers who have not previously been featured very much.

Having attended two exhilarating and joyous performances of the Forsythe Evening (a bit of a misnomer for the matinées!), it seems a bit churlish to have any niggles but I do have a couple. With the excellent ENB Philharmonic available, it seems a shame that both pieces were danced to taped music, especially as I personally found James Blake’s music for the first piece on the bland side and, to be perfectly honest, completely unmemorable. I do not know the whole canon of Forsythe’s work but surely he must have choreographed something to live music! Also on the subject of music, I found it sad that ENB did not follow the lead of other large performing arts institutions and play the Ukrainian national anthem as a mark of respect, at least at the start of the opening night performance, instead having an anonymous voice read out the very brief statement which appeared on the cast sheet and even this had disappeared by the Saturday matinée. As the ENB Philharmonic had made a wonderful recording of the anthem, I asked ENB’s executive director why it was not played and I received the response that it was going to be played but an artistic decision was made on the day to just concentrate on the statement about donating to DEC. I do feel that the omission of the anthem was out of step with the mood of the general public and, in particular, the UK’s artistic community. I have absolutely no niggles about the dancing, which was a joy from start to finish. “Blake Works” owes a lot to Balanchine, with its motifs of hips thrust forward and spiky hands, along with the fast and furious dancing in most of the numbers, highlighting the strength and talent of the company as a whole. I can just see the Paris Opéra Ballet, for whom it was created, dancing it with their usual mix of arrogance and insouciance but ENB dance it with a generosity of spirit which is immediately and totally engaging, and my eye was continually caught by Ivana Bueno who epitomised this. In the opening number, the three leading ladies were perfectly matched physically, with their long limbs and beautiful feet, and it was good to see Angela Wood as one of them, bringing her innate elegance to the choreography, as she did in the pas de deux in the fifth number (“Waves Know Shores”), partnered by the equally elegant Ken Saruhashi. She is a dancer I have admired since she enchanted me in one of the intensely moving pas de deux in “No Man’s Land” in 2014 but whose undeniable talent has not been nurtured since then by the current artistic regime, in my opinion. Emma Hawes and Emily Suzuki were also captivating, with Suzuki displaying such refinement and beauty of movement in the adagio “The Colour in Anything”, partnered by Isaac Hernàndez, that I feel sure she is ripe for promotion to one of the soloist levels. Likewise, Hawes and Aitor Arrieta brought elegance and graciousness to the final pas de deux. It is almost impossible to single out any of the men for particular praise in this piece because they were all breathtaking in their technical abilities, as they were in the extended version of “Playlist”, now entitled “Playlist (EP)”, but of course I must mention the phenomenal Jeffrey Cirio who is sadly making his last London appearances as a member of ENB in this double bill. His unique talent will be very much missed. Apart from the aforementioned Hawes and Suzuki, who also appeared in ‘Playlist’, Precious Adams sparkled in the quirky “Location” and in the final number, “This Will Be”. The evening ended with an impromptu dance party onstage and it was wonderful to see all the dancers thoroughly enjoying themselves and still entertaining us with their infectious exuberance. I returned for the matinée on 2 April, which featured an almost complete cast change from opening night. It was lovely to see Alison McWhinney, sadly absent during the Coliseum season, back on top form and bringing a wonderful lyricism to the pas de deux in the fifth number of “Blake Works”, partnered by the equally impressive Rentaro Nakaaki. Again, the highlight of this piece for me was “The Colour In Anything”, this time danced by Shiori Kase and Junor Souza with a chemistry that was almost palpable. On opening night, I had thought that the technical abilities of the male dancers were much better served by Forsythe than those of the female dancers. However, at this performance of “Vegas”, the all-female number in ‘Playlist’, the diminutive Katja Khaniukova burst onto the stage like a human dynamo, with a dazzling smile and a heady mix of sassiness, sexiness and glamour (very Vegas!), as well as her flawless technique, (always a credit to her training at the Kyiv State Choreographic Institute), making the choreography her own and lifting it to a completely different level. Her charisma and technical brilliance were well matched in “Sha La La…” by the mercurial Rhys Antoni Yeomans, and the two sparked off each other to create real electricity in a highly entertaining display of bravura. Angela Wood impressed again, this time in the “Location” pas de deux partnered by the always watchable Daniel McCormick, bringing to it a different quality from that of Precious Adams but equally compelling. Although there was no dance party onstage after this performance, and the audience was not as vocally appreciative as on opening night, nevertheless the huge ovation demonstrated how much we had enjoyed this immensely entertaining and fabulously danced programme and I, for one, had no issues with the shortness of the programme, due to the third advertised piece being withdrawn, and I look forward to being able to see two more performances before the end of its run on Sunday.

I have just discovered this fundraising gala which takes place on Monday 4 April at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, with a wonderful line-up of dancers and a varied programme. With the top ticket price at just 50 euros, I would love to be there, if it wasn't such short notice! I have dowlnoaded the English translation of the programme from the theatre's website, hence some of the unusual wording! BALLET FOR PEACE Gala Fundraising for the Ukraine Artistic Coordinator | Alessio Carbone Program “Other Dances” Music : Fryderyk Chopin Choreographies : Jerome Robbins Interpreters : Maria Yakovleva , Denis Cherevichko performed by permission of the Robbins Rights Trust “La Halte de Cavalerie” Music: Ivan Armsheimer Choreographies: Marius Petipa Interpreters : Iana Salenko, Dinu Tamazlacaru performed by permission of the Robbins Rights Trust Piano : Igor Zapravdin “Concerto” Music : Dmitrij Shostakovich Choreographies : Kenneth Mac Millan Interpreters : Luisa Ieluzzi , Stanislao Capissi “Echoes of life” Music : Maurice Ravel Choreographies: Thiago Bordin Interpreti : Oleksandr Ryabko , Silvia Azzoni Extrait du ballet « L’amour en notes bleus » Music : Fryderyk Chopin Choreographies : Oscar Chacon Interpreters: Kateryna Shalkina , Oscar Chacon ”Once a had a love” Music : Blondie and Philip Glass (Crabtree remix) Choreographies : Sebastian Kloborg Interpreters : Maria Kochetkova , Sebastian Kloborg World creation for the event Ballet for peace Music : Myhailo Skoryk Choreogrphies : Oscar Chacon Interpreter : Kateryna Shalkina ”Giselle” Music: Adolphe Adam Choreographies: Jean Coralli / Jules Perrot Interpreters : Anastasia Gurskaya , Stanislav Olshanskyi “Les bourgeois” Music : Jacques Brel Choreographies : Ben Von Cauwemberg Interpreter : Dinu Tamazlacaru “Radio and Juliet” Music : Radio head Choreographies : Edward Clug Interpreter : Anastasia and Denis Matvienko ”The Swan's Death” Coreografia : Michel Fokine Musica : Camille Saint Saëns Interprete : Anastasia Matvienko “Theme and Variations” Music : Piotr I. Tchaikovsky Choreographies : George Balanchine Interpreters : Anna Chiara Amirante , Alessandro Staiano performed by permission of The Balanchine Rights Trust ”Caravaggio” Music: Bruno Moretti da Claudio Monteverdi Choreographies : Mauro Bigonzetti Interpreters : Timofej Andrijashenko , Nicoletta Manni ”L’histoire de Manon” Music : Jules Massenet Choreographies : Kenneth Mac Millan Interpreters : Katja Khaniukova , Gabriele Frola “Corsaro” Music : Adolphe Adam Choreographies : Jules Perrot Interpreters : Liudmila Konovalova , Alexei Popov “Raymonda” Musica : Aleksandr Glazounov Coreografia: Marius Petipa Interpreti: Olga Smirnova, Victor Caixeta Teatro di San Carlo | SPECIAL EVENT Monday 4 April 2022, h 21:00 Gala Fundraising for the Ukraine - The contribution will be given to Croce Rossa Italiana Comitato di Napoli ODV

Booked my ticket! I also had problems logging into my ENO account to pay for my ticket but the very nice chap on the chatline sorted it out for me. Speaking of Kaneko and Bonelli doing the matinee at the Royal Opera House beforehand, Maria Kochetkova, Jeffrey Cirio and Katja Khaniukova had a complete run of "Raymonda" ending at 6.30pm before the Ballet Icons gala in November (7pm start!) - and they took public transport from London City Island to the Coliseum. There was a rather wonderful photo on Instagram of Kochetkova in her tiara on the tube (no seats so they stood)!

They only did one performance of "Giselle" and that was at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking at the end of the company's season-long tour of Skeaping's "Giselle" in 2009/2010, not part of splitting the company into different touring groups which I believe last happened during Derek Deane's directorship. (Ovsyanick and Souza were fabulous so it was a real shame they only had the one performance!)

I returned to the Coliseum for Friday evening’s performance led by Emma Hawes, Aitor Arrieta and Fernando Carratalá Coloma, which, due to the cancellation of all shows the previous week, is the only one they have this season. Needless to say, they gave it their all! Hawes is a sweetly lyrical dancer and her Raymonda was gentle and hesitant, both in her commitment to the Jean de Brienne of Arrieta and in her attraction to the Abdurakhman of Coloma (I really cannot bring myself to use the versions of their names which appear on the cast sheet!). And if anyone can use an arabesque to express her emotions, it is Hawes with those beautifully long limbs of hers. Yet again, I had trouble with the ending Rojo has imposed on the ballet, as Hawes had appeared so reluctant to hurt either man that I could not believe she would sneak out of her own wedding celebrations, despite the sadness with which she imbued her solo and the coda. Coloma who, along with Arrieta, had been so charismatic as de Brienne’s friends in the opening night performance, built on this charisma and was a most ardent suitor. His dancing skills were very impressive, with his solo in Act II being particularly spectacular, especially the series of jumps which are like inverted barrel turns, with the body facing the floor rather than away from it, rather like the flying camel manoeuvre in ice skating, and which I recognise from Grigorovich’s production and which I believe are Cossack in origin. Arrieta brought the most wonderful warmth to the role of Jean de Brienne. He is innately noble, both in bearing and in character, with what I can only describe as a beautiful soul shining through everything, which made his Jean de Brienne immensely touching. For the first time, I noticed that when all the men partner up with the girls for the big waltz in Act I, he is left standing alone and looking lost, and his feeling of hurt that Raymonda has not come to him was almost palpable. Rojo has given the two characters a leitmotif which, I have to say, started to grate on me by Act II of the opening night. Each time they start to dance together, their first steps are in the opposite direction to each other, and this happens in all three Acts. Having watched Loipa Araujo’s streamed rehearsal of this, her explanation was that this is to show that they should not be together because they want to go in different directions, which might be fine once but it is annoying to keep drumming it into us. However, Arrieta’s reaction each time was so chivalrous and charming that it made me warm to his character even more, and his smile was heart-melting! It made me want to tell Raymonda not to run away from him at the end – this one is a keeper! As for his dancing, it was both elegant and virtuosic, with the Act III solo being especially breath-taking for the height of his jumps and the beautiful clean positions achieved both in the air and on landing. This was a magnificent performance from Arrieta in every way. Of the rest of the cast, Junor Souza was wasted in the small role of the Field Marshall but brought his usual elegance to it, and one can only wonder how magnificent his Abdurakhman would have been, had his recovery from Covid (documented by him on social media) not prevented him from being ready to dance it this week. Julia Conway’s Henriette is still underdeveloped in both character and style, and the pas de trois with Bernard and Beranger (the wonderful pairing of Henry Dowden and Miguel Angela Maidana, although the cast list does not distinguish who is whom), which is reminiscent of the opening pas de trois in Act II of Wayne Eagling’s “Nutcracker”, did not have the delightful, carefree feeling that the Wednesday night cast gave it, when Katja Khaniukova was swung around with such ease by Erik Woolhouse and Victor Prigent. Khaniukova was simply outstanding in the show-stopping Ratchuli dance with Daniel McCormick replacing Matthew Astley who, in turn, replaced Noam Durand in the Spanish dance. Khaniukova gave the dance an innate elegance, so that I was reminded of the beautiful Georgian female dancers who move serenely but very fast at the same time. McCormick danced with great panache and, with these two exceptionally brilliant dancers, I was very sorry that the dance was over in a flash! I was surprised that they were not given a solo bow at the end of the performance and did not even appear in the company line-up: a major oversight on Rojo’s part which I hope is rectified next season. I can only presume it was because Emily Suzuki danced this and led the Hungarian dance on opening night and her partner McCormick also had another role in Act III that evening, and so they got solo bows but not for the Ratchuli dance. On Friday evening, it was also a delight to see Stina Quagebeur in the Hungarian dance, showing all the flair and style with which she led this number in 2013, albeit it in the version attributed to Petipa and not Vadim Sirotin who choreographed it for this production. As has been reported all over social media, during the curtain calls Hawes and Arrieta were both promoted to the rank of principal dancers, much to the delight of both their colleagues and the audience. One can only hope there will be a few more well-deserved promotions before the end of the season! In fact, as I am writing this, the news has just been announced that Shiori Kase was promoted to Lead Principal at the end of this evening’s performance! Many congratulations to her!

One would hope it is solid silver, given Takahashi's amazing catalogue of performances and her loyalty to ENB!

Corrales was promoted to Principal on the Bunka Kaikan stage when the company was performing in Tokyo. I have a feeling Caley's and Frola's promotions were announced in the press only, along with promotions at all the other levels at the end of the season.

@Dawnstar Oops! In my haste to answer you before heading off to yesterday's show, I missed out a word in the step name! It is relevé retiré en passant! (relevé: the supporting leg rising onto point with a ‘snatching’ movement; retiré: the working leg drawn up the supporting leg at the same time so that the toe of the working leg touches the knee of the supporting leg and the working leg makes a triangle shape; en passant: the working leg moving from the front to the back of the supporting leg to close in 5th position behind it).

@Dawnstar The name of the step you mentioned with the feet disappearing under the skirt is relevé en passant. Shame you couldn't see Oliveira's feet in this as they are the most beautiful in the company! Emily Suzuki is known for changing her hair colour quite often! She is blonde at the moment but has to wear a black wig when she does the Ratchuli dance ☺️

I have loved Glazunov’s score for “Raymonda” ever since my ballet teacher used the Grand Pas Espagnol from it for a choreographic workshop when I was a teenager, and I still have the LP I bought at the time! Unfortunately, music for the ballet has always suffered from choreographers and producers who ignore the harmonic progression the composer has carefully thought out and who remove, displace or interpolate pieces to suit their own ends, so the fact that Tamara Rojo has done that in her new production for English National Ballet comes as no surprise. There are a couple of rather grating changes of direction in the music but I do not consider that a problem in comparison to what she has done with the story. Marius Petipa was a master craftsman and consummate storyteller, choosing scenarios (in this case by Lydia Pashkova) set far enough in the past to be almost regarded as fantasies and with storylines which allowed for plenty of dancing appearing to evolve naturally out of the situations. In the case of “Raymonda”, it is set in medieval times, in Hungary according to some sources and in France according to others. Nevertheless, King Andrew of Hungary appears in the original synopsis and both he and the real Jean de Brienne were once kings of Jerusalem so Pashkova obviously used this connection to allow Petipa to indulge his love of national dances, this time Hungarian. The simple plot involves Jean’s fiancée, Raymonda, and her carefree friends excitedly preparing for her birthday celebrations the following day (cue dancing) and anticipating Jean’s return from the Crusades. A visitor arrives at the castle, of which Countess Sybille (Raymonda’s aunt) is the châtelaine, to pay homage to Raymonda’s beauty, a very chivalric notion. He happens to be Abdurakhman, a Saracen knight, “Saracen” being a term in the middle ages to denote anyone from Arab, Persian or Turkish lands (cue exoticism, another love of Petipa’s). The Countess invites him to attend the party the following day. That evening, the mythical protectress of the castle, the White Lady, appears to Raymonda in a dream and conjures up a vision of Jean (cue more dancing) and then of Abdurakhman, whose ulterior motive to marry Raymonda at any cost is revealed. The following day is the birthday ball to which Abdurakhman brings his entourage of entertainers (cue for a lot of dancing). Raymonda, disturbed by her dream, asks the Countess to ask him to leave but she reminds Raymonda of the strict rules of hospitality to which they must adhere. Abdurakhman, realising Raymonda will not go with him willingly, attempts to abduct her just at the point when Jean returns with King Andrew. The king commands the two men to fight a duel for Raymonda’s hand (giving the dancers the chance to show off their sword-fighting skills) and Abdurakhman is killed. The final Act is, of course, the wedding celebration which is one long series of divertissements in the Hungarian style. Petipa created the ballet for the Italian superstar Pierina Legnani (the fouetté queen), with the rising young star Sergei Legat as Jean and the older Pavel Gerdt as Abdurakhman, principally a mime role. ENB’s production was originally scheduled to premiere last year, marking the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth but, to try to transplant the story to the Crimean War, in an attempt to ‘reclaim’ the ballet and make it relevant for today’s audiences, Rojo and her dramaturg have created some anomalies and, in my opinion, have trivialised both war and nurses in the process. My problem starts in the camp where we see only four walking-wounded occasionally being tended to by nurses who have so little to do that they can indulge in dancing with the fit soldiers, when history relates that the extremely high numbers of casualties in this bloodiest of wars meant that nurses were run off their feet and, most of them having been recruited from religious orders, would neither have danced nor intermingled with what the cast sheet refers to as “women in the camp” but who are clearly prostitutes from their state of undress, a point driven home by the appearance of the Field Marshall from his tent with two of them on his arm. The situation becomes more absurd in Act II when it appears that Abdurakhman (an Ottoman officer), has organised a lavish party and has brought a complete retinue of entertainers to the battlefield. So, according to this scenario, the war was a time for endless jolly parties for both the nurses and the soldiers, although Jean (does come back from one battle with his uniform slightly tattered so we assume he has actually done some fighting. We then return to England for Act III and, to get round the fact that most of the music has a Hungarian theme, the explanation is that Hungarian farm labourers are helping out on Raymonda’s estate, so Petipa’s wonderful Grand Pas Hongrois becomes a peasant dance, albeit it a very entertaining one, instead of the dance of the courtiers he envisaged and I doubt he would ever have conceived of the men slapping various parts of their bodies as part of the dance! I have only see Grigorovich’s full-length production of “Raymonda” , which watered down some of the narrative but did make Abdurakhman into a formidable dancing role, but otherwise my benchmark for style is Nureyev’s sumptuous, both choreographically and in design, staging of Act III which also includes favourite numbers from Act I and which the Royal Ballet and ENB have in their repertoire. ENB’s performances of this in 2013, especially with the magnificent, much-missed Elena Glurjidze as Raymonda, for me outclassed the Royal’s recent performances in terms of imperial Russian style, the Grand Pas Hongrois being particularly majestic. It was therefore disappointing to see that Rojo has stripped away all the Russian style from the ballet, especially from the exquisite Pas Classique Hongrois, which appears to be one of the few pieces of Petipa left in the ballet. Most disappointing for me was changing the dynamic of Raymonda’s Act III solo and her series of relevés en passant in the Coda from grandeur to soul-searching anguish after she has married Jean (the synopsis in the programme refers to them as newlyweds so we must assume the ceremony has gone ahead). As she has just married him, I find Raymonda’s final act in the ballet of sneaking away to a new life particularly callous and not the behaviour of a courageous woman in charge of her own destiny, as all the publicity for this reimagining has been declaring. Musically, the substitution of a cimbalom for the piano in Raymonda’s Act III solo to give an ‘authentic’ Hungarian flavour, does not work for me. Although on opening night everything was co-ordinated between the pit and the stage (where the cimbalom player sits at the back), they were out of synch at the rehearsal I attended on the Saturday, and then on Wednesday there were problems with some of the notes sounding. Both instruments may be percussive but the piano not only has a sustaining pedal but its keys respond to the touch of the pianist so that the sequence of one repeated note while Raymonda performs a series of bourrées travelling backward sounds smooth and magical which is not the case with the cimbalom which just sounded staccato and rather tinny – surely not what Glazunov or Petipa had in mind! My main problems with the production aside, the music is fabulously played under Maestro Gavin Sutherland’s galvanising command, and the dancers respond with superb performances, sometimes making the new bits of choreography appear better than they really are. I found a lot of Rojo’s choreography derivative, which I suppose is to be expected for her first work, and there was nothing original about it, her modernist tendencies sometimes jarring with the pure classicism of the retained Petipa choreography, and there was certainly no pas de deux work which took my breath away. The dream sequence with the nurses had some nice touches to it, although the repeated runs at the beginning were marred by some very noisy pointe shoes, but I did not like the reference to the Shades entrance from ‘Bayadere’ with the men coming down the ramp (which was the main feature of the very bare and, in my opinion, cheap-looking set for each Act) in a rather clumsy-looking arabesque en l’air. The dream sequence also went on for a bit too long, not having enough choreographic invention to maintain my interest. The opening night cast was led by the radiant Shiori Kase who has been a favourite of mine since her first season with the company. The delicacy of her footwork is always a joy to behold and belies her incredibly steely technique which allows her to throw off fouetté and chaîné turns at breakneck speed but, as Raymonda, the beautiful lyricism of her dancing is what I will remember, with occasional glimpses of her phenomenal ability to balance en pointe to the final millisecond of the music, which always takes my breath away. Her Raymonda was a shy, very gentle soul who seemed almost surprised at the attention paid to her by Jean (or John as this production has renamed him, despite leaving all the other names in French) and Abdurakhman (for some reason broken into two names in this production). Jeffrey Cirio’s Abdurakhman was an utterly appealing mixture of chivalry and tenderness, wooing Kase with a very touching gentleness while, at the same time, dancing up a storm but never losing his innate elegance, especially in his Act I solo to the music for the Danse Orientale from Act II. Together, the two of them charmed with the gentleness of their feelings. Her fiancé was danced by Isaac Hernandez who wowed with his bravura dancing but who was lumbered with the rather earnest but dull personality which has been bestowed on Jean in this version. This production seems to have been designed to show off the prodigious talent amongst the men in the company, most notably Jean’s friends (Raymonda’s troubadors in the original) Bernard and Beranger, danced on Tuesday by the beautifully matched Aitor Arrieta and Fernando Carratalá Coloma who oozed charisma and delighted with the stylishness and brilliance of their dancing. Raymonda’s friend Clemence has taken the veil in this production and now appears to be a combination of the Countess and the White Lady, providing a moral compass for Raymonda when she appears to be straying from her commitment to Jean. Precious Adams made her a very pious nun so that her solos at times were rather reminiscent of the Prayer solo in “Coppelia” . Raymonda’s friend Henriette is a rather puzzling character as she is neither a nurse nor a prostitute so it begs the question as to her role in the soldiers’ camp. Julia Conway took on the role at the premiere and danced the steps but did not imbue them with any personality, appearing rather bland, so it was a mystery as to why various soldiers were chasing her. Standout in the character dances was Emily Suzuki, firstly sparkling away in the Ratchuli, a Georgian dance which used the music for the Entrée des Sarrazins, partnered by the equally effervescent Daniel McCormick, and then all elegance as the lead couple with Henry Dowden in the Grand Pas Hongrois. I was pleased that it appeared most of the choreography attributed to Petipa had been retained for the glorious Pas Classique Hongrois. In this, my eye was constantly drawn to Katja Khaniukova, inexplicably relegated to ensemble work, firstly as one of the nurses in the dream sequence in Act 1 and then one of the bridesmaids here. Her impeccable Russian style shone like a diamond, from the perfection of her classical line to the beauty of her ports de bras, so in tune with Glazunov’s ravishing music. Staying over in London to attend the second performance, I was delighted that Khaniukova was dancing the role of Henriette, giving her a totally enchanting personality, especially when dancing with the equally charming Bernard and Beranger of Erik Woolhouse and Victor Prigent. She was vivacious, mischievous and flirtatious, with a smile to light up the whole theatre, making it obvious why all the soldiers wanted to flirt with her and even attracting the attention of Abdurakhman during the party scene. Each of her exquisitely danced solos was kept in character while retaining that gorgeous Russian lyricism, and her rapport with the Raymonda of Erina Takahashi was a delight, encouraging her in her adventures. The divine Takahashi is quite simply a phenomenon, dancing with all the elegance and beauty of the prima ballerina that she is and making every moment onstage matter, which is pretty much for the entire ballet. It is clear she is fond of her fiancé, danced with his usual pristine technique by Joseph Caley but again suffering from the rather dull personality of the character, but it is the Abdurakhman of Daniel McCormick who awakens passion within her, much to her surprise, in their pas de deux in Act II when Takahashi shows us with her whole body and her wonderfully expressive face that she is has never felt like this before. McCormick is very powerful in the role, with all the bearing of an entitled aristocrat yet with a smouldering sensuality that is immensely attractive. And it goes without saying that the fiendishly difficult solos are thrown off with gusto. Takahashi’s final solo and the series of relevés en passant are done with an anguish that was extremely moving, with the beautiful bourrées backwards almost faltering as she cannot face life with her new husband. This was truly a performance by a ballerina in her absolute prime. Of the other characters, Natascha Mair’s Clemence radiated a calming serenity throughout, although she did not appear completely in command of the choreography for her solos at times. Jung Ah Choi and Noam Durand danced a very spirited Ratchuli and it was good to see Fabian Reimair, rather wasted as the Field Marshall the previous evening, relishing leading the Grand Pas Hongrois with vigour. There was also some lovely dancing by the bridesmaids in the ravishing in the Pas Classique but my attention was always drawn back to Khaniukova for the style which truly belongs to Petipa’s masterful choreography. All in all, I do not think this is a classic production and its success rests solely on the committed, accomplished performances of the dancers and on the fabulous music played with such energy and love by the ENB Philharmonic, and I guarantee to anyone else who attends that you will have at least several of the glorious melodies in your head for days afterwards.

They don't check ID, just that you have a ticket for that particular performance! Covid checks are done before you enter the theatre, then ticket checks, then bag checks - all very speedy.

For anyone who is not familiar with it, this is the "La Llorona" pas de deux from "Broken Wings" by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

Yes. they were meant to be performing it in Japan in the summer of 2020! Someone with a real connection to ENB who could be a possible candidate for AD is Thomas Edur who led ENB as a principal for twenty years from the age of twenty and then directed Estonian National Ballet for ten years, bringing a very diverse rep to that company.

Last week was a bit of a disaster for me when the shows I was hoping to watch on the 28th were cancelled so I rearranged for the 30th, only to have those cancelled as well. I was therefore absolutely delighted when ENB announced that performances would resume on 4 January and I managed to attend the evening show. There were inevitable cast changes but there was a real buzz about the performance, helped by the energising playing of the orchestra under the baton of Maestro Gavin Sutherland, back from his guest appearances with Munich Ballet. Stina Quagebeur showed once again what a gracious and elegant hostess she is in the party scene and Amelia Clark charmed me once more as the young Clara. It was such a pleasure to see Alison McWhinney for the first time this season as Louise, accompanied by a particularly graceful set of friends, lyrical and elegant in her little pas de deux with suitor William Simmons, and then all delicacy in the Mirlitons dance partnered by the wonderfully benevolent Drosselmeyer of Fabian Reimair. She did double duty as an enchanting lead snowflake with Precious Adams, with that wonderfully engaging smile of hers enveloping the auditorium. The rest of the snowflakes were also on particularly sparkling form. A word of praise and appreciation for the sassy army of mice, being a mixture of company members and students, some particularly petite, who have made the battle scene particularly entertaining each time I have seen it. The Mouse King of Alexander Nuttall, whom I also saw at a previous performance, has developed a very cheeky, almost nonchalant personality reminiscent of the much-missed Shevelle Dynott. As Nuttall is not listed on the company’s website, I am not sure if he is a new recruit to the company or still a freelance dancer but he is a very welcome addition to the roster of memorable Mouse Kings. Although I heard murmurs of appreciation from the people sitting directly behind me, especially for Mirlitons and the solos in the grand pas de deux, it was difficult to gauge the audience as there seemed to be only polite applause at the end of each number in Act II but thankfully there was a huge ovation at the end of the pas de deux and a tumultuous reception for the whole company during their curtain calls. It was strange that the divertissements did not garner more applause at the time because they were given particularly lively performances, especially Anjuli Hudson, Adriana Lizardi and Fernando Carratalá Coloma bringing great panache to the Spanish Dance and Noam Durand an absolute firecracker in the reduced version of the Russian Dance (the Arabian Dance was omitted at this performance). The Waltz of the Flowers is a glorious piece of choreography to even more glorious music (especially at this performance with Sutherland to galvanise everyone) and was led by the vivacious Emily Suzuki whose effortless style is a joy to behold. She was well matched by Rebecca Blenkinsop (replacing Tiffany Hedman) who always catches my eye with the elegance and beauty of her dancing. Their cavaliers, Victor Prigent and Henry Dowden, partnered attentively and showed their own stylish technique in their solo dancing. Of the three leads, only Aitor Arrieta as the Nephew/Prince remained from the originally advertised cast, with Erik Woolhouse replacing Junor Souza as the Nutcracker and Katja Khaniukova replacing Emma Hawes as Clara/Sugar Plum Fairy. I have written about this trio’s previous performance but I would say that the pas de deux between Clara and the wounded Nutcracker was given an extra poignancy by the impassioned rendition from the orchestra of what is my favourite piece of music in the ballet, drawing infinite tenderness from Khaniukova towards Woolhouse, who partnered her effortlessly, especially in the Act II pas de trois with Drosselmeyer in which Khaniukova was totally enchanting. Her radiant smile and excitement when the balloon landed made one believe they really had arrived in a wonderland instead of the rather drab giant puppet theatre which was all that the budget given to Eagling for his production allowed. Apart from his appearance in the party scene in Act I, where he was charm personified, and brief moments at the end of Act I and the beginning of Act II, we have to wait for the last twenty minutes of the ballet to enjoy Arrieta’s supremely elegant dancing and partnering in the grand pas de deux. With a slightly more upbeat tempo for his solo than previously, Arrieta’s diagonal of cabrioles was even more impressive, as was the height of his double tours at the beginning of the solo, with beautifully stretched feet and legs, and wondrously soft, clean landings from all his jumps. Likewise, Khaniukova benefitted from a slightly more magical rendition of the Sugar Plum Fairy music, highlighting her delicious, delicate footwork, particularly her bourrées backwards in which her feet were a blur, and her exquisite ports de bras and upper body movements. In the adage and coda, Arrieta and Khaniukova were perfectly matched in style and temperament, imbuing Eagling’s challenging version of this beloved pas de deux with that rare majesty I previously described, even during the fireworks of the coda which were done with the finesse I have come to expect from these consummate artists.

I was actually lucky enough to see four performances but the fourth was the same cast as the second performance I saw, hence I just mentioned it very briefly ☺️

It was wonderful to be back in the Coliseum for the opening night of English National Ballet’s “Nutcracker” on 16 December, and it hardly felt possible that this was the first time the company has performed a full-length classical ballet, and in front of a live audience, for twenty-three months, such was the assuredness of the performance. Having seen Peter Wright’s production by the Royal Ballet a couple of weeks previously, not having seen it live for many years, I was struck by how much there is to enjoy in Wayne Eagling’s production: the snow scene with skaters (although the men probably knock each other over once too often), the battle scene, the beautiful dance of the snowflakes (from a 20th century Russian production) accompanied by a live choir of children from Tring, Eagling’s clever martial arts take on the Chinese dance, the exhilarating Waltz of the Flowers and, above all, the lovely pas de deux/trois for Clara and the wounded Nutcracker at the end of Act 1 to some of the most glorious music in Tchaikovsky’s score, and the joyous pas de trois/quatre at the start of Act II for Clara, the Nutcracker and Drosselmeyer. The dancers’ joy at being back on the Coliseum stage was palpable, and the orchestra responded with a sublime reading of the score under the baton of Alex Ingram, as Maestro Sutherland is currently in Munich. I was glad to see that the antics of the grown-ups in the party scene had been toned down from the last couple of pre-Covid seasons, and it was lovely to see the gracious and graceful Stina Quagebeur as the Mother, demonstrating the beautiful style with which Eagling originally imbued the first dance. I have seen the child Clara and Freddie danced and acted better than the two who took the roles at this performance but there was no doubting their professionalism when the head of the nutcracker toy fell off long before Freddie had had a chance to pull it off: they improvised very well, so that anyone seeing the production for the first time (probably most of the audience in this case!), would not have known this was not meant to happen. I booked my ticket months ago, just for the joy of being back in the Coliseum, and when casting was finally announced I was delighted to discover I would be seeing the eternally youthful Erina Takahashi as Clara/Sugar Plum Fairy, celebrating her 25th season with the company and just as magical as when I saw her début as Michael Corder’s Cinderella when she must have been barely out of her teens! She was partnered by the always elegant Francesco Gabriele Frola, replacing Joe Caley who was self-isolating, and their grand pas de deux in Act II definitely lived up to its name, showcasing their technical brilliance and artistry. Aitor Arrieta was the Nutcracker, who dances the pas de deux with Clara in Act I, and, as always with this wonderful artist, he managed to transcend the mask to display genuine pathos with his injury and a heart-warming devotion to Clara. In fact, casting him with Frola, it was very easy to believe the Nutcracker morphing into the Nephew/Prince as they both have such a charismatic stage presence. Presiding over events was the benevolent Drosselmeyer of Fabian Reimair, with the very cheeky Mouse King of William Simmonds making the most of the comic moments and certainly not outstaying his welcome in Act II. Of the divertissements in Act II, I noticed that there is no longer a male dancer in the Arabian dance, leaving just the four females, and I have to say it did not quite gel for me, as having the male dancer in the mix allowed for some rather spectacular partnering. Otherwise, there was a very lively Spanish dance from Jung ah Choi, Francesca Velicu and Daniel McCormick, a particularly vivacious Chinese dance from Katja Khaniukova, with her firecracker fouetté turns, accompanied by Van Le Ngoc and Victor Prigent (and I notice she is the only female who has literally high-kicked away the scimitars of the men in the Coda in the four performances I have now seen), a bravura Russian dance from Noam Durand, and a particularly lovely Waltz of the Flowers led by Precious Adams, Emma Hawes, Skyler Martin and Erik Woolhouse. But the evening rightly belonged to one of the company’s crown jewels – the glorious Erina Takahashi – and how wonderful to see that fabulous, undiminished technique of hers after the recent waste of her talents in “Creature”. I had a double-show day on Monday 20 December. The matinée started fifteen minutes late and was preceded by a heartfelt speech from Tamara Rojo, explaining that a lot of the dancers had tested positive in the morning and therefore they had had to recast and rejig some numbers to ensure the performance went ahead. She thanked the audience for being there (from being a sold-out show, there were a number of empty seats where people had reacted to the omicron crisis) and for our continued support. No doubt spurred on by the enthusiastic applause following Miss Rojo’s speech, the company, both onstage and in the pit, gave a sparkling performance, eliciting tumultuous applause, especially at the end of each Act. The performance was notable for several débuts, including a very debonair Drosselmeyer from Giorgio Garrett, an exceptionally well danced and comical Mouse King from William Yamada (making a welcome return to the stage, having been off since the Emerging Dancer competition in September 2020), and a very stylish Lead Flower from Emily Suzuki who had caught my eye the previous Thursday for the exquisiteness of her dancing as one of the corps of snowflakes and who brings a ballerina sheen to everything she does. New to me was the Lead Snowflake of Rebecca Blenkinsop (it may have been her début, but the cast sheet – a real one and not a virtual one! – did not mark it) who was elegance personified. Also new to me was Shunhei Fuchiyama in the relatively small role of the older Freddie, who only appeared in the battle scene but who was noticeable for his very clean technique. In the divertissements, it was good to see Pedro Lapetra continuing to dance up a storm in Spanish, accompanied by a sparkling Emilia Cadorin and Chloe Keneally – the first time I have seen this lovely dancer emerge from the corps de ballet. Noam Durand replaced Rentaro Nakaaki in a pared down version of the Russian dance, being accompanied by only two ladies instead of the usual four, and this was the only noticeable adjustment in the whole performance, although I am sure there must have been a number of other replacements. Erik Woolhouse gave very strong support as the Nutcracker, especially in the Act I pas de deux. Aitor Arrieta, replacing an injured Ken Saruhashi at relatively short notice, was a very gallant Nephew in the party scene, with his heart-melting smile as he partnered the charming child Clara of Amelia Clark (although I was sorry to note that both Claras I saw seem to have been coached to make the first infatuated walk towards the Nephew rather pantomimic instead of the naturalness I remember from previous years). Clara/Sugar Plum Fairy was the exquisite Katja Khaniukova who brings a wealth of tiny detail to her character, along with her flawless technique. She totally engaged in the battle scene and then brought great tenderness to the pas de deux with the wounded Nutcracker. A magical moment for me was when she did the simplest of port de bras beside the kneeling Nutcracker, perfectly expressing the soulfulness of the music, before her bourrées backward around him which literally shimmered. In the pas de trois with him and Drosselmeyer at the beginning of Act II, her joie de vivre was infectious and she looked as light as thistledown (as I heard an audience member remark) as they swung her around. Whenever I watch Khaniukova in the grand pas de deux, I feel I am transported to the Mariinsky and am watching a ballerina in the great Imperial Russian tradition, and this was especially so at this performance with Arrieta, as conductor Daniel Parkinson who so far had given an excellent reading of the score became a bit self-indulgent, no doubt carried away by the gorgeousness of the music, and took the adage of the pas de deux at a very stately pace but Arrieta and Khaniukova are so innately musical that they filled out every phrase and gave a performance of such rare majesty that the audience spontaneously started to applaud rapturously some time before the finishing pose. I have long admired the elegance and technical beauty of Arrieta’s dancing, and his solo reflected both these attributes, with his forward diagonal of cabrioles derrières particularly breathtaking for their lightness and precision. Khaniukova started her delicious solo with the most delicate walks en pointe which seemed to float on air. There is a softness about her in adagio dancing, especially her port de bras, which perfectly disguises her steely technique. The delicacy of her footwork also made another magical moment for me when she bourréed backwards, weaving upstage, perfectly matching the scintillatingly delicate celeste accompaniment from company treasure Julia Richter. In the coda, both dancers gave explosive yet always tasteful displays of their technical brilliance, with Arrieta’s stunning leaps and turns, and Khaniukova’s immaculate fouetté turns which always elicit huge applause from the audience. In fact, at their next performance on 22 December, which I also attended, she decided to do single fouetté turns in double time, instead of doing double turns, and the effect was so electrifying that the audience broke into applause halfway through. It was one of those moments when I found myself wondering “Did I really just see that?”! After all the uncertainty over the start of the performance, I concur with some people who had travelled from Sheffield to see it, that this was a performance well worth waiting for – and more! The evening performance (sadly, more empty seats) also had some cast changes, most notably Fabian Reimair replacing Junor Souza and repeating his wonderfully genial Drosselmeyer. Luckily the leading trio of Shiori Kase, Jeffrey Cirio and Daniel McCormick was unchanged. In the Act II divertissements, the Mirlitons pas de deux for me will forever be associated with the Louise of Ksenia Ovsyanick on whom Wayne Eagling created it during his first major revamp of the production for its second or third season. Ovsyanick had that rare quality of demureness and other-worldliness which gave an ethereality to this butterfly-inspired piece, and I was delighted to see that Emma Hawes gave it much the same qualities in a charming performance, sympathetically partnered by Reimair. Erik Woolhouse danced up a storm in Russian and I greatly admired the lovely Angela Wood with her radiant smile as a Lead Flower. The partnership of Shiori Kase and Jeffrey Cirio was ideal, as they both dance with quiet elegance but are capable of fireworks when required and both are possessed of great charm which carries to the very back of the vast auditorium. Thus the adage of the grand pas de deux was danced with a heady mixture of sweetness and grandeur. It was wonderful to see Cirio soar into the air in his solo, after his choreographically earthbound Creature in September, showing what an amazingly versatile artist he is, and his beautifully clean landings were a joy to behold. Kase’s solo was as delicate as spun sugar, with her dainty, filigree footwork, and then of course, she brought the house down with her stunning fouetté turns in the coda. All in all, this was a magical day at the theatre in very trying times and I was therefore very sorry to hear that, after coping magnificently last week in keeping the performances going, the company took the heartbreaking decision on Boxing Day to cancel all performances until 29 December due to the unprecedented number of positive tests yesterday morning. Let us hope they can start again on Wednesday so that others have the chance to experience the magic!

Copied from a posting on the English National Ballet Alumni page on Facebook. The celebrated ballerina, choreographer, and former Director of Scottish Ballet, Galina Samsova, passed away peacefully in London last night, 11 December, following a short illness. Galina’s international career started in 1961 with National Ballet of Canada. She joined London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) in 1964, quickly becoming the Company’s Principal Ballerina. Her partnerships first with David Adams and later with André Prokovsky during this period mesmerised audiences worldwide for a decade. In 1978, Galina joined Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) becoming Principal Ballerina and teacher for ten years. During this period she staged a celebrated production of Swan Lake in collaboration with Sir Peter Wright, performing the principal role of Odette/Odile in the same production. In 1999, she collaborated with Birmingham Royal Ballet’s then Artistic Director, Sir David Bintley, in a much acclaimed production of Giselle. In 1991, Galina became Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet, succeeding the Company’s founding Artistic Director, Peter Darrell, who had died in 1987. During this time, Galina placed huge emphasis on the Company’s classical repertoire and introduced many new and up-and-coming names to the British ballet world, including Daria Klimentová and Tamara Rojo who both went on to join English National Ballet, becoming Principal Dancers. Tamara joined The Royal Ballet in 2001, and has been Artistic Director of English National Ballet since 2012. Galina was as gifted in her lyrical interpretations of the great classics such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Cinderella, as she was in virtuosity in such show stoppers as the pas de deux of Spring Waters and Le Corsaire. But we will also remember what a inspiring and hard working colleague Galina was, always interested in developing young talent, maintaining the highest standards, not to mention her unforgettable sense of humour. Born in Stalingrad (Volgograd) on 17 March 1937, died London 11 December 2021.

It does seem a shame for ENB to Anglicise Jean de Brienne - doesn't sound nearly as romantic!

I believe the photograph for the "Raymonda" poster, showing Takahashi and Hernandez, was taken before the first lockdown, and the company's roster of principals has changed substantially since then. The short publicity videos posted on Facebook show Takahashi, Kochetkova, Oliveira and Hawes sharing the role of Raymonda, and I believe there are a couple of others who have not been featured yet in any publicity.

I have never attended a Ballet Icons gala before as the ticket prices have always seemed so high and I had been warned that they sometimes run badly overtime but this year there were so many dancers I wanted to see and it was a chance to be in the gorgeous Coliseum auditorium for the first time in almost two years. Therefore, I bit the bullet and bought a ticket which actually cost me less than the most expensive ticket I bought for the Bolshoi in 2019. Happily, although the performance started about fifteen minutes late, it finished by 10pm so it only slightly overran on the advertised time of two hours and forty minutes. It would obviously have been a bit longer if Natalia Osipova had not had to withdraw. The evening started with the Black Swan pas de deux, danced by Nicoletta Manni (La Scala) and Jakob Feyferlik (Dutch National) which I found a bit underwhelming at first, as I was expecting more electricity between them in the opening section, but they pulled out all the stops in the coda. Of interest was her solo which used the musically darker-sounding variation than the standard one used in most UK productions (Ashton used it in his pas de quatre included in some productions of “Swan Lake”). If memory serves me correctly, Erik Bruhn used it for Odile in his production for the National Ballet of Canada but with different choreography. It would have been helpful if the programme had indicated who had choreographed this particular version. Next came an excerpt from Wayne McGregor’s “Chroma” danced by the Royal Ballet’s Yasmine Naghdi and Marcelino Sambé. I am not a fan of McGregor’s choreography but Naghdi and Sambé gave a very polished account of it and proved how remarkably fluid their bodies are. The Act II pas de deux from “Giselle” is always difficult to pull off in a gala, as it does not follow the usual pattern of entrée, solos and coda, and it is difficult to create that other-worldly atmosphere it requires. Léonore Baulac (Paris Opera) and Julian MacKay (San Francisco) performed a standard version of the choreography and were partially successful in creating the atmosphere but for me Baulac was still a little too human, and I really dislike the current trend of seeing the mechanics involved in the overhead lift, with Albrecht squatting with his back to the audience to lift Giselle instead of it appearing that she is suddenly floating above him. We then had the first novelty of the evening, a duet entitled “Passo Continuo” by Mauro Bigonzetti and danced by Filipa de Castro and Carlos Pinillos from the National Ballet of Portugal. My heart sank when it started with Pinillos slapping himself because I thought it was going to be very reminiscent of 1970s modern dance but it actually turned out to be quite a humorous piece (although far too long for a gala) along the lines of “anything you can do, I can do better”. After that, came a gorgeous solo choreographed and danced by Sergio Bernal (Sergio Bernal Ballet), who was last seen dancing the Farruca in English National Ballet’s 70th anniversary gala last year. This piece was entitled “Overture” and was a glorious exhibition of zapateado, with the occasional ballet step thrown in, to a soundtrack provided by the Iberian percussion orchestra which included rhythmic vocalisations. This was followed by “Snow Storm” , based on a story by Pushkin, by Yuri Possokhov for Lucía Lacarra (Dortmund) and Matthew Golding (currently freelance), which started with a film projection and then dissolved into some very stylish dancing, especially from the exquisitely long-limbed Lacarra. The choreography had the same yearning quality which I admired so much in his work for ENB’s digital season, “Senseless Kindness”. The first half ended with a firecracker performance of the “Don Quixote” pas de deux by the Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nùñez and Vadim Muntagirov. The cheers which greeted their first entrance confirmed that they are the most famous ballet partnership in the UK today. Nùñez was particularly vivacious in her solo and what can one say about Muntagirov other than he is perfection itself. His immaculate series of barrel turns circling the vast Coliseum stage were nothing less than spectacular. The second half of the programme began with the pas de deux from “Paquita”. It is many years since I have seen it, so it was lovely to rediscover this lovely piece by Petipa, danced by ENB’s Katja Khaniukova and Francesco Gabriele Frola. I can only repeat what I wrote about their Ballet Nights dress rehearsal last month, that they are a supremely elegant pairing, perfect for this pas de deux. It is not as showy as Don Q or Corsaire but it requires beautifully clean technique which is the hallmark of these two dancers, particularly evident in Frola’s panther-like jumps and Khaniukova’s immaculate fouetté turns. After this, we were treated to “Mesh”, a pas de deux created by British choreographer George Williamson for Ksenia Ovsyanick and Denis Vieira (Berlin Ballet). It was wonderful to see Ovsyanick gracing the Coliseum stage again some five years after she left ENB and, as she was one of a number of ballerinas who had babies during lockdown, this was also her return to the stage following her maternity leave. She and Williamson were students together at English National Ballet School and she has been his muse since then. He took full advantage of the remarkable fluidity of her movement and the beautiful, soulful quality of her dancing to make a mesmerising pas de deux for her and Vieira which was a skillful blend of classical and contemporary movement. This was followed by the grand pas de deux from “The Sleeping Beauty” danced by Maria Kochetkova and Jeffrey Cirio (ENB). Kochetkova’s footwork is delicate but, given her Russian training, I was surprised that there was no real breadth to her ports de bras or use of her upper back which, for me, are essential for the solo. That amazing chameleon, Jeffrey Cirio, showed what a fabulous partner he is, pulling off a perfect set of fish dives, and then displaying his formidable technique in a beautifully elegant solo – so different from his almost animalistic Creature in September! Baulac and MacKay returned in a contemporary pas de deux, “At Sunset” by Kirill Radev which allowed them to let their hair down, quite literally in Baulac’s case, but it did not appear to me to correspond to the synopsis supplied in the programme. Giuseppe Picone contributed a pas de deux for himself and Liudmila Konovalova (Vienna) entitled “Vivaldi Summer pas de deux” which was a joyful interpretation of part of the Summer movement of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” which began life as a solo streamed by Picone from his home during the first lockdown and was remarkable for its bright yellow costumes! I was delighted that an excerpt from Edward Clug’s “Radio and Juliet” was included, which I saw in its entirety almost exactly two years ago at the Coliseum and was totally captivated by it. At that time, it was danced by Khaniukova and Denis Matvienko guesting with dancers from Ballet Maribor. Khaniukova reprised her astonishing interpretation of Juliet, this time joined by her ENB colleague, Aitor Arrieta, as Romeo. For those who do not know the piece, it might have been helpful to mention in the programme note that this was the moment when they first meet, hence Romeo’s mask. I do remember that Romeo and his friends wore surgical masks instead of eye masks in this scene, almost foreshadowing the events of 2020! With movement that at times is fluid and other times jerky but always fascinating, and danced in silhouette after the removal of Romeo’s mask, Khaniukova and Arrieta captivated me all over again. The evening closed with the ever-popular pas de deux from “Le Corsaire”, danced by Maia Makhateli (Dutch National) and Daniil Simkin (Berlin). Makhateli is a sophisticated dancer but I would have liked a bit more personality to shine through. However, with many audience members having been well-lubricated during the interval and being allowed to bring their drinks into the auditorium, her series of fouetté turns inspired them to join in by clapping along. This was followed by some spectacular jumps from Simkin to bring the gala to a rousing conclusion. All the classical pieces were accompanied by the English National Ballet Philharmonic, conducted by Jonathan Lo. I did not feel his conducting was particularly galvanising, as he did not consistently draw from the players their usual ravishing sound, but it was certainly great to have live music for much of the evening. I understand another gala is planned for March 2022 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Serge Diaghilev so I will watch for further details with interest!

Bonynge's recording is of the complete 1841 score using Adam's own orchestration and I believe (but cannot swear to without getting out my copy of it) that it includes Giselle's Act I solo attributed to Minkus (the only one for her in Act I in most productions) which was interpolated into the Russian production in the 1860s plus the Act II waltz solo (probably by Pugni) interpolated around the same time, plus the Burgmueller peasant pas de deux (or pas de six in Wright's version) interpolated into the 1841 premiere. Mary Skeaping's production uses the original order and almost the whole score (with the Minkus solo and the peasant pas de deux interpolated at different places from Wright's production), apart from the Act I Galop, a very slightly shortened version of the mad scene (but still longer than most productions, or so I have been told by guest artists), and some smaller cuts in a few other numbers. She also uses the original ending composed by Adam, rather than the one used by Wright which is probably a rewrite for a later Russian production. As to the Fugue, it works extremely well because it leads seamlessly into the Act II pas de deux and therefore obviates the need for a bridging passage (or a silence) into the key change. Skeaping also followed very closely the directions in the piano reduction of the score (published just after the premiere) which gives dramatic instructions by Adam for this whole scene. For Myrtha, Skeaping uses all the music Adam composed for her, giving her probably almost 75% more dancing than the current Wright version, again following the dramatic instructions, so that it really is a tour de force performance, and I know dancers who have done her Myrtha, followed by other productions (including Kathryn Wade who danced the role in the 1971 LFB premiere), find the other productions very easy! Incidentally, as Skeaping had been using the original score since the mid-1950s, she was about fifteen years ahead of Bonynge's recording. I hope that answers your query.

Although I have been the guardian of Mary Skeaping’s production of “Giselle” since her death in 1984, the first performance I saw of “Giselle” when I was a child was Peter Wright’s production for the National Ballet of Canada (with Lynn Seymour guesting) in the late 1960s. There were a number of differences from the current Royal Ballet version but, even then, I remember not being enamoured with the score, something which did not happen for me until I saw a performance by English National Ballet and finally heard Adolphe Adam’s original orchestration and in the correct order. A few years ago, the Royal Ballet approached ENB for access to this orchestration which Skeaping found in the Paris Opéra archives in the 1950s and used for her productions thereafter, reinstating passages not heard since the 19th century. However, as Wright’s version does not follow the order of pieces in Adam’s score and cuts a number of them, there are still some jarring key changes, awkward transitions between pieces and some recently composed bridging passages, which makes it uncomfortable for me to listen to at times. At the performance I attended on 19 November, this was not helped by the rather earthbound reading of the score by conductor Boris Gruzin, especially in Act 2 (which also contained some rather vulgar sounds by the horns) when the dancers need to be propelled by the music rather than held back by it. As for Wright’s production, there is little in it to suggest the ballet’s Romantic origins, not just in the lack of Romantic style in the dancing (in particular, I felt the central pas de deux in his pas de six did not have the required delicacy for a Romantic piece) but also in the way the characters are drawn. As the story is essentially about the collision of two worlds, the nobility and the peasantry, I would expect to see some delineation between the two and yet some of the male peasants were far more noble in bearing than Courland and the other male courtiers, including Wilfred who, as Albrecht’s squire, is meant to be from a minor aristocratic family. Gina Storm-Jensen had the correct bearing for Bathilde but Wright’s conception of her is far removed from the gracious young lady envisaged by Gautier who loved the character so much that he wrote a poem about her! Having her as a bored, rather unpleasant female who is not at all interested in Giselle instead of intrigued by her, makes her gift of a necklace to Giselle rather puzzling and, because Wright chops up the scene of their first encounter, it loses its dramatic cohesion. I also found that this lack of dramatic cohesion hampered the establishment of the relationship between Giselle and Albrecht, who spend very little time together in Act I. Indeed, immediately after Giselle is crowned queen of the vintage, she and Albrecht have to sit on opposite sides of the stage for what seemed like an eternity, only getting to dance with each other again at the end of the Galop, immediately before the mad scene. I have to say that I missed Skeaping’s many magical touches in Act 2, especially for Myrtha. I like Annette Buvoli very much as a dancer (her lovely “Dying Swan” for Distdancing on a floating stage in Regent’s Canal during the summer of 2020 was a lockdown highlight for me), but I felt she was not given enough scope to establish Myrtha as a truly majestic, powerful character, not least because her opening solo was so short in comparison with the tour de force version for Skeaping’s Myrtha. Akane Takada was a very pretty Giselle and danced with delicacy and charm in Act 1, if not quite managing to be truly ethereal in Act 2 (not helped by Gruzin’s erratic tempi) but, for me, she has yet to explore the emotional depths of Giselle’s character. This was a shame because her Albrecht was the very passionate César Corrales. In 2017, at the tender age of twenty, he gave performances for English National Ballet of such emotional intensity and, of course, spectacular dancing that he literally took my breath away every time. From his initial interaction with Wilfred, it is clear that Wright sees Albrecht purely as a cad who is only toying with Giselle’s affections to begin with. As expected, Corrales demonstrated this admirably, sweeping Giselle off her feet with his charm and ardent attentions, only realising the consequences of his actions as Giselle’s grasp on reality slips away. His grief is then overwhelming, as he violently pushes away anyone who tries to prevent him reaching her lifeless body. In Act 2, his Albrecht has acquired a new maturity and dignity in his remorse as he searches for Giselle’s grave. What I particularly loved about Corrales was the realism he brought to the character, especially once he has been captured by Myrtha and the Wilis and is being forced to dance. With each solo, while never compromising the power and purity of his technique, his increasing anguish and exhaustion were almost palpable, and he appeared to be so broken by each fall to the ground that it was almost unthinkable that he would be able to get up again. When Giselle has returned to her grave and Albrecht is left alone, Corrales’s quiet despair was heartbreaking. Although I find the production as a whole disappointing, I was happy to be there to have my breath taken away yet again by Corrales’s mesmerising performance.