MAB

I agree with Mary, dreadful misrepresentation of Walter Sickert, an artist who captured for all time the magic of late victorian theatre and a personal favourite of mine. How an idiot came up with the theory he was Jack the ripper is beyond me, something to do with one of his paintings being of a man sitting beside the inert body of woman (more likely asleep than dead). French artists were exploring the same brutal realism but no one accuses Degas or Toulouse Lautrec, for example, of being the ripper.

That's because they operate without a subsidy.

Just read a piece in tonight's Standard about a demonstration that greeted Gergiev at an open air concert in Trafalgar Square. Wonder if something like his will await the Kirov.

I only sit in the slips for opera, so not sure if they are there for ballet too. My first experience of this was during a performance of Faust when an usherette came in halfway though the first half with a folding metal chair that she noisily opened up and sat down on. The explanation I was given was that altercations have broken out over bad behaviour and that a number of people were bringing picnics and making a mess.

Indeed, the Kirov has slid downhill since Vinogradov was in charge when there was so much talent throughout the ranks it could rightly be called an embarrassment of riches but sadly things are very different today. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with the Bolshoi as I saw some terrific performances, though I will concede that there was a cast I saw that certainly didn't thrill me. The Kirov is at a lower standard than the Bolshoi currently and their reputation won't be helped by leaving three of their best dancers at home. I wouldn't go so far as to tell you to save money, but Kirov performances depend very much on who is dancing the leading roles and with the common practice of last minute cast changes you may be saddled with those dancers that us old hands endeavour to avoid. Frankly these days my favourite visitors from St Petersburg are the dancers of the Mikhailovsky.

Anjuli, just thinking about it has made me decide to dig out a DVD with Taranda as the Shah tonight, sadly I don't have a record of Tsiskaridze in the ballet though.

Unlike the general consensus I would like to be a bad girl of some sort, there are various witches and Wilis of course but all very unsexy, so..........after a lot of thought.........Scheherazade. My Golden slave has to be Tsiskaridze and the Shah will have to be Taranda, wouldn't mind dancing the ugly queen in Legend of love either, again with the same two dancers. Taranda's company dances a brilliant version of Carmina Burana how erotic it comes across depends on the cast; therefore I will dance it with their most torrid interpreter: Nariman Bekzhanov. When I get to heaven I will be very agile indeed.

I've looked at their website and they seem to be able to do something about the order in which comments are presented, pushing the bad reviews out of the way somehow, but surely that must include some form of hacking which is why I asked if what they do is strictly legal. As for LBC, I don't believe they have any scruples at all, after all they regularly allow ads for loan sharks.

You mention the nearest station being Victoria, don't forget that virtually all trains stop at Clapham Junction about five minutes down the line and from there you could catch a train to Hampton Court with the Palace, maze, gardens and grounds which is about 35 minutes on the train. Also by changing at the Junction you could go to Eton & Windsor Riverside to visit Windsor Castle and check out the historic Eton colleges; avoid on fine weekends though as the place can be heaving. That journey takes about 45 minutes.

There is currently an ad running on LBC offering to change negative reviews on the internet, e.g. a rogue builder wrecks your kitchen and walks away, you post a review telling the world he's a cowboy and said buider contacts this outfit and effectively makes your warning comments disappear. Funnily enough the first I ever heard of this practice was when a continental critic told me that a moderator on one of the ballet fora (not this one!) earned a living from this kind of sharp practice. Does anyone have details on how this works? Is it actually legal? I can't see it as moral.

If you have only seen the company for ten years then you have only seen it in decline. Having looked again at the casting I can't help feeling that London is being short-changed yet again by the omission of Novikova, Osmolkina and Pavlenko.

Thanks for the 'heads up', As they will be performing new works, I'll certainly go to see them, wonder how the ticket sales will go?

In my experience of this company under the present management,changes tend to be political.

My response was a measured one, it is impossible to know what expectations of technique any of the posters here have but I assume they are very high indeed, to assume otherwise would be to seriously mislead. A trip to see the Kirov isn't cheap and London is hardly a ballet-starved city, so please bear in mind that the two dancers I mentioned may be first rate contortionists but in the main London tastes don't run to that style. As someone who has been watching the Kirov for forty years I have never seen the standards so low as they are today. I mentioned only the female contingent, but bear in mind that this company is actually importing male dancers now and you will search in vain for a Nureyev, a Soloviev a Baryshinikov or a Ruzimatov, though hopefully the recent changes at the school may see things picking up. When you buy a ticket for this company it is very much 'caveat emptor' and booking blind without casting becomes a version of Russian roulette.

Apart from Vishneva, try to see Tereshkina and Kondaurova, also Lopatkina if you've not seen her before. Avoid Somova and Skorik.

Depends I suppose on whether you even believe that things can be haunted, I once stayed in a hotel in Italy and my pal was convinced it was haunted, it really freaked him out. I was fascinated by the actual building and when I got home I did some research. Seems the place IS haunted and there was even a link to a US ghost hunters TV programme where they saw something scary in the basement, funnily enough I was very struck with how cold it was at he foot of the basement stairs when I went down to the basement breakfast room and I understand a sharp drop in temperature is supposed to indicate supernatural activity. The ghost though is supposed to have been benign, a lady who loved the place so much she never wanted to leave,

On that occasion I bought the ticket at Kings Cross station, but I've heard of other people having the same experience.

On a similar subject I hate being sold an expensive return ticket only to discover that there are no trains actually running on the day I'd booked to return, only an excruciatingly slow bus replacement service. I feel they take money under false pretences..

Bennet Gartside is very good at stepping into leading roles as he proved before in Mayerling. I admire any dancer capable of upping his game in the way he does.

I remember reading a modern dance review that went on line (not this website) a day before the professional critic produced hers, and she had obviously borrowed so extensively from the first review that it was a clear case of plagiarism. And no doubt the critic was paid for rehashing what someone else had written; leaves a bad taste doesn't it?

I found out who wrote that earlier letter to Dancing Times regarding the 'certain artistic directorship'. but I'm 99% certain he didn't write this latest one.

Thanks for jogging my memory, yes, you are right, he was accused of lurking at stage doors to pass on overheard comments as his own, though it was a dancer who told me that, not someone who had had their thoughts passed off as his own. I find a lot of critics problematic, my pet hates are the ones that produce a generic review for something they didn't actually go to - remember you guys that in tiny venues we can see everyone in the house and for small performing groups there is a buzz if a known critic turns up. It comes a surprise the next day when we read something from someone who wasn't there.

By an awful coincidence I heard a teacher who has a book published this week being interviewed on LBC at the weekend, he had serious concerns about the level of violence towards teachers in the classrooom and the book was about worrying examples that he had collated from teachers around the country. When I was a kid I can remember the 3rd year boys coming into school with flick-knives and knuckle dusters, but at that time it was just for bravado, I can't remember them ever using the things. Have heard ideas about metal detectors in schools which sounds extreme to me but perhaps if such things were introduced it might prevent a further tragedy. The whole thing is quite terrible and it seems Mrs Maguire was so loved by generations of pupils that an awful ripple effect is affecting a very large number of people in her community too. Unspeakably horrible.

I have read few articles by idiot critics that have angered me more than this one. My first reaction was Pot, Kettle, Black as I have been told by dancers that in his day Mr Macaulay was himself a major stage door irritant. His reference to the black-clad female fan is unforgiveable as the unhappy lady in question was clearly emotionally unstable and in drawing attention to her in his article he is cruelly mocking the afflicted. SHAME ON YOU MACAULAY!!! When it comes to partisanship I think the writer displays his own, as his resentment of the farewell accorded Nina Ananiashvili must have been a major irritant to someone who was rumoured to display an irrational dislike towards her. The comments on partnerships are incomprehensible: how many times have we suffered a great ballerina saddled with an earthbound porteur? Too damn many. To see two equal stars together is a rare and special pleasure and I will out myself here and now and confess to having been a major fan of Fonteyn and Nureyev and an admirer of Sibley/Dowell and Farrell/Martins. Macaulay’s incomprehension towards the ovation awarded Gediminas Taranda simply emphasizes his woeful ignorance of the politics of Russian Ballet at the time as this was Taranda’s first appearance in London. He had been excluded from the earlier tour but his reputation had preceded him and the fans were ready to afford him the warmest welcome possible. Is there a lunatic fringe? Yes, in Russia things get very overheated. Perhaps next time you watch a You Tube clip of a Russian dancer you should start reading the comments beneath – frightening a lot of them, but it does I suppose confirm that there are lunatics out there, but London and New York are the wrong places to look for them.

A Shakespeare play is either a history play i.e. about English kings, a tragedy where someone ends up dead or a comedy where it all comes out right in the end. Wasn't aware of any 'romances'.