Wulff

He was putting the angel on top of the Christmas tree. Edit for spelling.

I saw Melissa's debut, and I agree with annamk that she looked very elegant and took to the stage with confidence. There were no accidents, and she showed musicality in the pdd and in her variation. I thought Sergei was doing his very best to support her and get her through any difficult moments, but although his partnering has improved a lot over the past year or so, she might have done better with a stronger and more experienced partner. At present she still has problems with pirouettes and turns of all sorts. Supported pirouettes needed to be faster and better centred, and the final manege in her variation was taken rather slowly and she appeared to run out of steam at the end. The same went for the diagonal of fouettés in the coda - she performed them, but seemed to be flagging at the end. Nevertheless, the overall impression created by the pdd was good and it was very well received by the audience. Melissa is a very determined young lady and very much wants to succeed in tutu roles. I am sure she is well aware of her weaknesses and will be working hard to overcome them. Her future performances should be interesting.