Nina G.

I assume Naghdi/Ball will be given opportunities to dance R&J away from Tokyo where they demand to see Principals in lead roles. McRae & Salenko do seem to be "tied" together now but Naghdi as well as Hayward could be dancing R&J with McRae (don't know about the height differences).

"Hello" meets "Daily Telegraph" ")

I recall Darcey Bussell saying that not enough female stars in ballet are being produced in the UK. Great encouragement, support and attention have been directed towards boys and male dancers, ever since Billy Elliot. Darcey Bussell stressed the fact that it is high time UK companies focus on producing outstanding female ballet stars. Is this going to happen? A McGregor ballet with all male dancers? Fine, at least, as someone mentioned in another post, the poor females will not be subjected to those male dancers manipulating them in a way Classical ballet doesn't do.

I immediately looked on the ROH website as well and I couldn't see anything in her name. She'll probably dance "just" a soloist role. I'd have been (pleasantly) surprised if Wheeldon all of a sudden had cast Naghdi in a Principal role; this usually goes to soloist Stix-Brunel or one of the Principal dancers. Naghdi did dance "Young Shepherdess" in"Winter's Tale" last time so that's what the ST is likely to refer to.

A lovely article too on another young and beautiful ballerina. We have been spoiled this morning by The Sunday Times! A Royal B. ballerina and an English N. ballerina in the spot light.

Lovely Sunday Times feature on Miss Naghdi! She fully deserves this coverage in "New Faces 2016", and the recognition. To nail a major Principal debut as "Juliet", ST quote: "The reception was standing-ovation ecstatic", so early on in her career, given just one public shot at dancing her debut, deserves much praise. I hope Mr O'Hare will satisfy her many fans by casting Miss Naghdi in a few major roles next Season. Imo she deserved a 2015 Dance Award for her superb interpretation as "Juliet".

To be concise or not to be concise....it depends on the subject of a post I'd say.

Perhaps they all partied too hard on New Year's eve?

No FLOSS don't!!!!! Your posts are most appreciated and so full of information and knowledge. Don't change a thing!

I am not that puzzled It's an opportunity to let the TV audience know that "Ballet is for all".

I really prefer reading Dance Europe to Dancing Times nowadays. The January issue is indeed good and shows Yasmine Naghdi, as Rose Fairy, on its cover.

I have enjoyed individual performances by a number of dancers but the stand-out's for me were: "Symphonic Variations" (Nunez/Muntagirov/Choe/Dyer/Naghdi/Hay) "A Month in the Country": Zenaida Yanowsky/Emma Maguire "Onegin": Osipova/Golding/Naghdi/Ball "Song of The Earth": Lauren Cuthbertson "Fille mal Gardee": Morera/Muntagirov "Monotones I" "The Nutcracker": Hayward's Clara, Campbell, Naghdi's "Rose Fairy" BRB's "The King Dances" ENB's "Dust" Highlight of the year: "Romeo&Juliet": Naghdi/Ball Turkey of the year: Carlos Acosta's "Carmen"

AND she was stunning as "Gypsy Woman" in Two Pigeons! I agree, the "Best Female Performance" Award 2015 should go to Laura Morera.

Not at all MAB!

As national and international Ballet critics list and review their "Best of 2015", what are the "Best of 2015" performances according to us, the Audience and Forum Members?

Naghdi's classical physique and line lends itself so much more to the ultimate tutu roles. She was of course equally well suited to dance Juliet (in a long dress), Monotones and Symphonic V. but she often reminds me of those exquisite ballerina creatures I used to watch in Russia when I was young. She would look just perfect amongst The Mariinsky Ballet dancers

Well what an evening it was! The RB may have been slammed this week as "turkey of the year" but boy did the dancers deliver tonight! The whole cast was absolutely stunning and they have shown the world what a first class company they can be: Hayward probably the best Clara I've seen, Alexander Campbell so charming and wonderful, and the one and only Avis, Olivia Cowley lovely in Arabian and Yasmine Naghdi - a truly beautiful Rose Fairy - danced with such confidence, strong stage presence and superb technic. The best cast in years. What happened to Lauren? Something went wrong but she covered it up well. Kish, well I am sorry, no emotion, so dry, so indifferent, didn't like his Prince!

Indeed, we all know by now how poorly the RB Press Office handled such a big and important debut, a double debut that has marked so many people, except the absent/uninvited critics. Their combined debut deserves to be nominated as a RB highlight of 2015, not to forget their Onegin performance earlier on in 2015. There were of course other memorable performances by other dancers but the Ball/Naghdi R&J was just something so special, something we had not seen at the RB for a long time.

Morera was out of this world as the Gypsy! I hope Mr. O'Hare reads your post FLOSS, exactly my line of thinking too: If the AD wants his company to be taken seriously as a classical company in the future he needs to programme works that will develop his dancers as classicists and ensures that the company's principals can dance the both the nineteenth century classics and those created for it in the twentieth century. I hope Mr. O'Hare will nurture not only a few great partnerships (they already have a potential one) but also the dancers who do show great Classical potential: some are great dancers, others have the potential to become great classical ballerinas.

..but do you think 75% of the country, even when given the chance, would be interested in seeing a ballet?

http://static.roh.org.uk/showings/the-nutcracker-live-2015/en.pdf The cast sheet published on ROH website shows Hayward/Campbell, Gary Avis, Yasmine Naghdi as Rose Fairy and Lauren Cutbertson/Matthew Golding

Very good point Floss, about Ashton's work enabling dancers to maintain a high technical standard. I was always under the impression, and please correct me if I am wrong, that Royal Ballet school students are trained to dance Ashton from a very young age. Those dancers who did come through the school and joined the company must be very familiar with Ashton's choreography, they have such a specific port de bras and fast footwork. I am thinking of those dancers who received a full eight years of Royal Ballet school training such as Morera, Padjak, Maguire, Naghdi, Hayward, O'Sullivan, Hay (other names escape me right now) who all have such a lovely epaulement, use of their feet and great musicality (I recall the epaulement, fast footwork and musicality of Hayward and Naghdi in Giselle's pas-de-six last year, weren't they both just glorious). Under the previous AD very few students were given a contract, the AD favoured foreign investment, and the result can be seen today: it's more of a mix-and-match style. I wish we could see the RB company return to the style it was once so renowned for.

I was getting bored too of RB's Nutcracker but I felt the Opening Night cast on Tuesday blew new life into this ballet. I'd previously seen Hayward as Clara and she was lovely again, so was Campbell. The children were so well rehearsed and they looked very much at ease on the stage, a perfect bunch of very young ballet pupils. Olivia Cowley was well cast in "Arabian Dance" and looked wonderful. Yasmine Naghdi, a truly glamorous and luminous Rose Fairy, lit up the entire stage, and the Character dancers gave it their all. Salenko was just about ok for me, technically very competent but she lacked glamour and warmth. Of course we couldn't do without "our" marvellous Gary Avis! Very tempted to see this cast once more.

I never pay any attention to what Monahan has to say, and he is a prejudiced critic imo.