Bravissima35

Really enjoyed seeing Ryoichi Hirano and Melissa Hamilton in Mayerling last night. They had amazing chemistry and really felt the connection between them. Was good to see the gun fired in the right place in the par de deux in the second act. Claire Calvert was great as Mitzi Casper and Reece Clarke as the lead Hungarian Officer, oozed intrigue and looked very fine in his Hungarian Officers Outfits! Gina Storm-Jensen was the surprise for me as thought she might have been too young for Empress Elizabeth but she conveyed the coldness of her very well. All in all it was a great night and wish they had filmed this cast for the cinema relay.

Maybe Frederico Bonelli will go for it as he took time out to do the Clore Fellowship course?

I would love to see the RB dance Mayerling as wasn't particularly enthused with the pairings for the last run and agree that they should cast William Bracewell as Crown Prince Rudolf. A Triple Bill of Glass Pieces - Robbins Infra - McGregor Momentum pro Gesualdo - Balanchine La Sylphide La Jeunne Homme En Sol Les Sylphides with Nunez, Morera and Cuthbertson and either Bonelli/Clarke or Muntagirov.

I grew up watching the Kirov 80's Giselle and much prefer the pas de deux than the pas de six in the RB version and I believe, it is they who are given the flower crowns and stand up on the cart, not Giselle and Albrect, which makes sense. I always thought it was to do with a celebrating the picking of the grapes/Bacchus? I really enjoyed Naghdi and Ball in the Live Stream and think Naghdi finds so much space in the music, especially in the second act. Beautiful dancing! It was lovely to see Olivia Grace Cowley and Melissa Hamilton as M and Z, they came across really well as Nunez's very elegant, icy henchwomen! Nunez as Myrtha was imperious as ever. Her characterisation is second to none! Another hark back to the Kirov 80's version in that I still prefer Albrect doing the Brise's across the stage. I find the entrant six very jarring as if they are just 'dropped' in there. The Corp were really good and had such a sense of unity and they got the hunting pack mentality in the small groups doing the Jetes across the stage before they bring Albrect back. One of my fav bits of choreography of the Willis. Really enjoyed watching the doc made by Anton Dolin about Giselle and talking to all the famous Giselle's. Such an insight into it.

Just finished watching the Live Stream of the Beauty Mixed Bill and really enjoyed it. After the Rain was particularly moving. Combination of beautiful dancing and playing by Vasily Petrenko. My takes from it Thought Anemoi was very well danced. What a joy to see the younger dancers have their chance to shine and having proper costumes was lovely to see. Is it really bad to say that I thought Yasmine Naghdi and Joseph Sissens were better in the Morgan Par especially Joseph Sissens. He just ‘got’ Mcgregor’s sense of movement. I would like to see Francesca Haywood dance it with Sissens. Voices of Spring in my opinion was put in the wrong place in the Programme! It did not feel right following After The Rain. Loved everyone in Sleeping Beauty and the majesty of Nunez and Muntagirov A throughly enjoyable evening and hopefully can get tickets to a performance in the Autumn Season!

I really enjoyed Dances at a Gathering and thought Laura Morera was simply splendid! She totally understood Robbins and the music. I now want to see the Company do Glass Pieces. The Cellist, not so much. I play the cello and couldn't get used to her cello being portrayed by a man. It's hard to explain but my cello when I play it is an extension of myself. I would have preferred her without the 'cello' and just her dancing to the Elgar Cello Concerto or even with a female dancer being the cello. Marcello Sambe did portray the cello very well but I just couldn't get into it.

I really enjoyed the cut down version of it and thought the dancing was lovely. It was great seeing the costumes in detail as I have only seen it via the Mikado Yoshida DVD from the 90's. Not quite sure on having a genial Drosselmeyer compared to the Joseph Cipolla (sp?) on in the DVD, who was very charismatic 🤗 and had an air of danger about him.

I would like to see more of the South Bank Shows from the 90's where there ones on Darcey Bussell and Vivana Durante and another one on Irek Mukhamadov. Loved watching them.

I enjoyed it a lot and thought Francesca Haywood lit up the screen. Some of the filming was interesting and although some things looked a bit odd I think being able to film from all angles was something different and will be improved on the more they do. It did make me notice things I hadn't seen in the Stage production and I liked that in the tomb scene Haywood was not wearing point shoes. Hope they go on to film Manon and Mayerling.

The NYO at The Proms played a selection from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet which was played marvellously! They even had Gary Avis talking to the musicians in a rehearsal and showing them a sword fight while they were playing. It is still on iPlayer and would recommend watching it.

I really enjoyed the performance last night. Ball and Naghdi have the most gorgeous chemistry and he is so secure with his partnering. Yasmine Naghdi was stunning as Juliet. She made it her own role and like another poster said, she was part of a noble family and danced accordingly and this made the third act even more heart breaking as her dancing was more wild, desperate. I thought Matthew Ball played Romeo as a very 'British Lad' which might not be accurate in character but he did come across as being romantic and dreamy. I would love to see him as Des Greiux! I liked Nicol Edmonds as Paris but I always see Paris as being played by a very tall dancer but he did have the right amount of Haughtiness in the Dance of the Knights. There were a couple of blips in the orchestra but marvelous French Horn playing! IMHO Romany Padjek should have been playing Romeo's Harlot as thought she captured the character more and I hope she gets promoted. Beatrix Stix Brunell would have been better as Mercutio's but obviously with this casting it would have made her too tall for Zuchetti! My main bug bear was with the filming of it. There were bits where they focused on the back of the stage and not on the dancing. Some of the Harlots and crowd scene choreography was lost by this. In the scene in Act three where Juliet is sitting on the bed thinking on what she is going to do, I wish they had panned out from her face to show the whole stage and the sense of the music being all around her and showing how alone she is. I hope they bring it out on DVD

I really enjoyed the stream and thought Ashley Boulder was amazing in Rubies. She had so much sass and confidence and for the first time I rally got the link between the music and the dancing. Her energy lifted the whole corp de ballet! Emeralds was the weakest of the three though. Most of the Faure music is quite dreamy and I thought the dancing was a bit 'hard' for the music. Diamonds was lovely and good playing by the Orchestra. Think Somova could have been more 'regal' in her dancing but Shklyarov embodied the role well.

I'm guessing if you are selling the used point shoes for a good cause then there is no harm. I know Olivia Grace Cowley did this last year with a certain amount of point shoes to raise money for Alzheimer Support, a cause close to her. I donated an amount and got a pair signed by her, my sister got Yuhi Choe and mum got Fumi Kaneko. It was all random in that you didn't know which dancers point shoe you would get. It was all done openly on Twitter and Instagram so the RB must have no problem with it.

I think it is a hard ballet to make sense of but having watched a few different versions over the years my favourite is still the Baryshnikov/Harvey/Jaffe version from the 80's. The problem I have with it that in a lot of versions the music is played too slowly. In the Baryshnikov ABT production, the music goes at a fair pace and makes it exciting plus the dancing and spirit of it is spot on. The current Royal Ballet version is not the best with the added choreography by Acosta. I think they should have got Koborg to do it as the one he has done for the Leonid Yakobsen Ballet Theatre is really good and tries to make a coherent and fuller story than the flimsy one in some other versions. Pet hate is in the dream scene, Cupid should not be in a tutu but think that is another discussion!

I would love wear the following dresses: Aston's La Valse: Any of them! The Golden Age,: The black flapper style dress in the Nigh Club Scene. Onegin: Tatania's Red dress Macmillan Romeo and Juliet: Juliet's dress in the ballroom scene. Nutcracker: Rose Fairy Tutu!

In regards to the list I think that is quite fair and it is interesting to see how one poster is moved by a performance/dancer and another poster wasn't. I'm glad we have a variety of dancers in the RB who are maybe better in some roles than others. The company as a whole is really strong at the moment and has dancers for all the different repertoire that is required in a 21st Century dance company. It always makes me happy to discover new dancers and be surprised by others. I had never really warmed to Sarah Lamb but when she replaced Lauren Cuthbertson in Manon with Vadim she was really good in it. I do wonder how much this was down to him though! He just brings the best out in all his partners! Do posters who have done ballet or other types of dance to a high level find it hard to switch off in a performance with analyzing it about technique etc? I know having played the cello for a long time and having done a music degree, it took me ages to just 'enjoy' and listen to it as a 'whole', some of the music as I was always thinking about the cello part, chord progressions, dynamics. Does this effect how they see dancers and their opinion of them? Anyway enough of my rambling!! An interesting and thought provoking thread.

Some of the works I would like to see are: Ashton: Cinderella MacMillan: Requiem, Gloria Robbins: En Sol, Petit: La Jeunne Homme, Bolero La Bayadere Suite en Blanc

I've stood outside the stage door a few times with my sister and mum at the ROH to see the dancers and all I have met have spoken to us. You can tell which ones are just wanting to leave quickly. Vadim Murgitrov was lovely and despite having arm full of flowers, managed to sign our programmes and a photo with us. My fav was seeing David Hallberg at Moscow Domodovo Airport. I had to look twice and then took a sneaky peak at his luggage just to make sure it was him. This was at 6 in the morning but he was great as well and didn't mind me asking for his autograph and a selfie with him. We had a chat about Moscow and what he was performing in at the Bolshoi.

There was a programme on the TV a few years ago about her and the International Ballet. I cant remember the name of it but it bought up those same sentiments that she was overlooked and written as a footnote in the history of British Ballet.

I was at the Evening performance yesterday evening and I thought it was just beautiful. Emeralds was flowing and Nagadi and Ball were so together. I was pleasantly surprised how good Akane Takada was in it and think she had the right amount of slinkyness (is that even a word!?) and technique to go with it. I'm sure she was doing Quadruple Pirouettes at one point! Tierny Heap had that great Vegas Show girl act going. I thought the Cor really captured the feel of the music and that 20's Jazz age. Diamonds was just sparkling. Vadim was as light as a feather when landing his jumps! and Lauren Cuthbertson was majestic. They compliment each other so well. Overall it was lovely seeing some of my favourite dancers just dancing with no plot and seeing their technique and purity of the dance which Mr. B shows so well!

Wish they had the casting up for Le Jeunne Homme as that would depend on the male dancer for me booking it. If Nicolas La Riche came back to do it I would snap up the tickets immediately as love his interpretation of the role but other male dancers, not so sure.

But think they vary from production to production. In the 70's version by the RB The Fairy of The Golden Vine does the pointing bits a lot softer which I quite like.

Hmm, Did a bit of googling and one says: 'As the fairies are happily granting gifts of honesty, grace, prosperity, song and generosity' www.cami.com/worddocs/.../THE-SLEEPING-BEAUTY-PROGRAM-NOTES.PDF

I saw Nagaldi and Ball at the matinee on Saturday and they were just beautiful. They compliment each other so well. Nagaldi's characterization was spot on for me. She portrayed all the gifts that the faeries gave Aurora as a baby. Mathew's Prince was very assured. He had the right amount of haughtiness in the second act that changed as soon as he saw the vision of Aurora. He was not a cut out cardboard Prince. Anna Rose Sullivan stood out and had such joy in her dancing. Loved the Orchestra and especially the Cello Solo in the Vision Scene. The one thing that annoyed me on Saturday was the audience. The talking between Act 2 and Act 3 while the interlude was playing. Terrible and very rude and disrespect to the Orchestra! I wanted to listen to the music and good on those who clapped it at the end of it. (Rant Over!)

Ooooh! It is a bit cheesy but for the dance sequences alone The Turning Point is still my favourite. The opening credits with the Entrance of the Shades and the famous dancers of the time they use in it! Guilty pleasure is Centre Stage. Mixture of styles I like 'Save The Last Dance'.