londoner

The Vogue article about Erdem's costumes for the new Wheeldon mentions a PDD for Cuthbertson and Hirano and confirms some other dancers, including Ball, Stix-Brunell and Heap. Naghdi isn't mentioned in the article but she confirmed on instagram that she'll be performing too. http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/erdem-royal-ballet-costumes

Good news - Lauren Cuthbertson was onstage for the Winter's Tale stage call today.

Naghdi doesn't do The Winter's Tale either, does she? That would affect Hayward's comparative rehearsal load into March, even though it's a role she's done before.

The blonde girl second from the left looks like Rachel Ware, who was featured in the BBC documentary about ENB that was on five or six years ago - the episode about Derek Deane's Swan Lake. I think she teaches now.

I'd love another outing for Woolf Works, if only because I'm trying to introduce my boyfriend to the concept of the plotless ballet and I think WW might be a good halfway point!

You might enjoy this website by Olivia Cowley, who's a soloist at the Royal Ballet - she takes loads of photos of what she and the other dancers wear in the studio, and there's a huge range! http://www.ballet.style/studio-line/

They also keep at least four tickets back for students - it may be more but four is the most I've ever seen available on student booking day.

I liked the Tharp a lot, although I wondered if the ending could have been set up better with more Lamb/McRae during the middle section. My standouts in the ensemble were Magri, Sissens, O'Sullivan and Storm-Jensen. Naghdi, Ball and Heap always draw my eye but I wish they'd been given more to do - the pas de six seemed oddly underpowered, especially compared to the larger ensemble work. I didn't actually hate The Wind. I liked the general look of it, there were a lot of visual moments which I'll remember, and I did find the wind itself interesting - I think it really came across as a character in its own right. I remember quite liking the music at the time although it was very much tied to the work. I certainly couldn't hum it to you twenty-four hours later. The problems all seem to stem from the fact that the story demanded longer than a forty-minute slot in a triple bill. With only one scene to illustrate the slow descent into madness - crushing cumulative effect of prairie fever, or young bride annoyed because her husband won't fix the door? - the ending lost a lot of power. She's walking into the wind because...why? Edward Watson told her to? Psychically? Hayward and Watson were great, Ball was wasted, but they weren't given a lot to work with. Like Sim, I also wondered why the wind machines had to be onstage - artistic decision ("Look at our amazing feat of engineering!", or more charitably, "look at this brooding presence! Isn't it malevolent?") or logistical necessity? I have a feeling that machines that big couldn't be put in the wings without causing some fairly hefty backstage rerigging. I agree that the effect would have been better had they been invisible to the audience. The Schechter was...fine? It was the first time I'd seen it and the beginning made a real impression, but it seemed to run out of ideas after the first fifteen minutes and then ended about six times. The Nigel Farage thing was just plain weird. I'm sure it was making a point but there was something about the combination of the Faraging and the choreography that bordered on parody. I can believe that the dancers enjoy it, and Stix-Brunell and Kay stood out. I'd probably score it neutral overall - wouldn't avoid seeing it again but won't seek it out.

I can sort of see the logic with Hallberg, who has been Osipova's favourite partner since she was at ABT, and (correct me if I'm wrong) I think all the male principals on the home team are already involved as either DG or Lescaut except Soares, so I guess it's just a function of having so many casts! Nunez and Bolle are an established partnership at least.

The mixed bill casting is also up, although there seem to be intermittent server issues - http://www.roh.org.uk/mixed-programmes/obsidian-tear-marguerite-and-armand-elite-syncopations Looking forward to Cuthbertson/Ball as Marguerite and Armand! Also nice to see Sissens continuing to get new roles, he was a wonderful Hatter at the weekend.

I think someone said Isabella Gasparini.

The casting has now been changed so that Sissens is dancing with both Anna Rose's casts, on the 28th and the 14th - hoping it stays that way for the same reason!