MAB

I. Vasiliev couldn't fill the house for his R&J performances, so how will he fill it for Corsair?

I would not pay extra to watch Ivan Vasiliev, however I probably would to see Elena Glurdjidze who so far has inexplicably not been cast in Corsair.

Going a little off topic, can I say how much I disliked the original article and in particular the rudeness towards Nikolai Tsiskaridze. In general I don't think this Bolshoi season was as successful as previous ones. It was clever to end on a high, but apart from Jewels, there was little excitement in the frankly dull productions of the classics. And no, a star certainly was not born with Olga Smirnova's London debut and I find it disquieting that the UK critic's were either blind to her obvious technical defects or chose to ignore them.

Always difficult to define the word 'star' in the context of a ballet company, Carlos Acosta is undoubtedly a star, so perhaps we should be asking who else in the RB could pack them in at the Coli for a week - with the Bolshoi dancing at the ROH at the same time. Cojocaru might have done it and probably Osipova could, but anone else? I don't think so.

Yes, the Royal Ballet has changed a great deal, but perhaps that has a lot more to do with Wayne McGregor, Kim Brandstrup et al, than the overseas dancers currently in the company. The English style has gone by the way but the basic repertoire remains and any dancer joining the company should be able to hit the ground running so to speak and be able to dance the staple works without a stylistic clash. Would you honestly want to see Ivan Vasiliev dance Symphonic Variations for example? When he attempted Ashton choreography in R&J, in the pas de trois next to Alban Lendorf he was clearly struggling with completely unfamiliar steps that Lendorf performed effortlessly. As someone who deeply regretted Mukhamedov's joining the RB, I can't agree that he fitted in. At around the same time Alexei Fadeyechev danced in Prince of the Pagodas with Nina Ananiashvili, a performance never bettered in that ballet before or since in my view. Had the versatile Fadeyechev joined the company I would have been delighted, but that was not to be. The Bolshoi is a huge company and there is not the need for the versatility I referred to there as they have specialist dancers for different types of rep, a luxury that in the main the RB doesn't have.

Whenever Ivan Vasiliev dancers in London there always seems to be a suggestion that he could dance with the RB. As he is stylistically poles apart from the Royal I don't understand some people's enthusiasm for this. If I could single out a dancer for Kevin O'Hare to wave a contract at, it would be Vladislav Lantratov. Remember him? He danced the matinee performance of Flames and he was damn good, he danced all the steps that I.Vasiliev danced but without the show off add-ons. He is so stylish and technically assured he would be an asset to any company and has the temperament to dance most of the standard rep. My only reservation about this dancer in Flames of Paris is that he has somewhat patrician features making him not wholly believable as an uncouth peasant, it is to his credit that he worked so hard to overcome this "disadvantage" and to deliver such a compelling performance.

In Russia character dancing encompasses genre and national dance; many dancers there actually specialize in this kind of rep, though there is a bit of an overlap with some of them. MacMillan rarely touched that kind of character dance.

Ratmansky is not a choreographer to be pigeon-holed, although he has tackled three Soviet blockbusters; his original work is mainly very subtle and inventive. You don't have to go to Moscow to see his work, the RB's Twenty four Preludes was created right here in London earlier this year and was full of nuance and poetry. He understands dancers and choreographs to their strengths which is why his works are now in demand worldwide.

The older version of Flames of Paris can still be seen in some old compilation videos and clearly there was a lot to admire, whatever the underlying propaganda message was. The original romantic pas de deux for Mirelle and Antoine, which Amelia says was first danced by Ulanova, is very beautiful and I hope Misha Messerer has left it in his new (more authentic) version. Some people will never take to a ballet like Flames because of the unusual blend of character and classical ballet, but for me that is what the Bolshoi does so well: it presents a vivid canvas of actual events with Ratmansky's interpretation of historical performance. There is a lot of melodrama, pathos and over-the-top virtuosity, but having been to all three performances, I can confirm the audience was wildly enthusiastic every time and although there were nay-sayers they were in the minority. A stunning end to the season in my view.

I remember Starr Danias very well from her days with LondonFestival Ballet (now ENB) she was something of a favourite of mine.

Personally I don't recommend watching from the wings as you have to stand well back to keep out of the audience's view and also to keep out of the way of dancers making rapid entrances/exits, this means your actual view of the stage is extremely limited. It can also be rather crowded with other dancers, teachers, dancers friends etc. also jostling for position. If you can't get a seat and it is something you are desperate to see it is better than nothing I suppose. It is interesting but could never be called exciting.

This is a mine field, but art acknowledged to be such at any point in that work of art's history remains art to be appreciated by it's own and future generations. I imagine artists as diverse as Praxiteles, Shakespeare and Petipa were all considered innovators in their time.

I love the Bolshoi best when they are dancing their really extrovert rep, and from what I've seen from my DVD Flames of Paris will be something special. Am going to all three perfs,

I've a lot of sympathy for your views and I think the media hype that is concentrated so much on her didn't help. One dancer who has arrived on the scene without any Bolshoi fanfares is Kristina Kretova and what a delight she is, everyone speaks warmly of her and I will follow her career with interest. Kretova is a beautiful dancer with a personality that extends beyond the footlights. She communicates her love of dancing, a priceless quality more precious than the hyperextensions so beloved these days by Russian AD's.

Although he wasn't the original I have this memory of Peter Martins in Diamonds - and Thibault in Emeralds, odd that in a ballet celebrating the ballerina so much, for me it is two males that left the deepest impression.

The idea of putting the dancers photos further down the page was a good one, however the one of Andrei Merkuriev is wrongly captioned as Yan Godovsky. Now see what people mean when they compare Semyon Chudin with Wayne Eagling.

So if Volchkov is injured why can't Zakharova dance it with Ovcharenko? Very strange. Just remembered the last time Zakharova was taken out of a role she complained to President Vlad and Iksanov was given his P45, Someone's living dangerously.

I would have preferred to see two different casts in Jewels, is Smirnova the only other dancer with Diamonds in her rep?

Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya are legends. Olga Smirnova and Oksana Skorik are a pair of expressionless contortionists.

Might it not have been better to find guinea pigs 'already familar with the music' rather than the above mentioned pair of dreary celebrities? I got goosebumps watching Glurdjidze as Raymonda.

They haven't had these problems in previous seasons, most of the dancers already have experience of the ROH stage and anyway they tour often enough to know they must adapt to different stages.

That is not a change in the Rose adagio, Russian dancers have always danced it without the arms en couronne. The rare exceptions would be those that have been exposed to western companies as guests.

Not happy with the new production, gorgeous to look at but without the inherent magic that the ballet should possess. The columns at the side of the stage looked good in the Palace scenes but made an odd setting for the hunt. If anyone saw the La Scala version of a few years ago they’ll know what I mean. The evening was chopped down to a digestible two acts and in places the music was butchered. All in all not really an improvement on the earlier production, Actual dancing was good with a lovely Aurora from Krysanova and a gracious Lilac from Shipulina. Artem Ovcharenko no doubt earned himself some fans and even I was impressed by his immaculate double tours in the last act, but for me he didn’t quite cut it as a prince.

I'm going to have to radically disagree with the comments regarding Olga Smirnova; with her rapid ascent to stardom within the company I was expecting a lot (too much?) but found little to admire in her performance. She has a particular unattractive port de bras with her arms marring her line again and again, in fact her general epaulement was rather poor and in slow turns her back seemed almost to contort, she's not the most musical of dancers either. nor did her personality project much. I believe this dancer hasn't climbed the ranks like other Bolshoi principals but has simply been handed all the leading roles on a plate which makes me wonder why. At the same performance Krysanova gave the most satisfying performance of the evening and the Shades, particularly Chinara Alizade, were near faultless. I was enjoying Mr Chudin's performance very much until he omitted the double assembles in the last act, why was that I wonder? Comparing Bolshoi seasons? The 70's gave us Maximova, V. Vasiliev, Bessmertnova, Lavrovsky and M.Liepa. The 80's & 90's Ananishvili, Semenyaka, A. Liepa, Mukhamedov and Taranda. The 00's Alexandrova, Osipova, Tsiskaridze and I. Vasiliev. Losing Osipova and I. Vasiliev was idiocy in my view and although I believe there is talent galore within the company ranks, there has to be a question mark as to how some of that talent is being nurtured.

One other authentic version of Petrushka exists in the UK apart from Beriosoff's and that is the Serge Grigoriev version danced by the Royal Ballet, there is also the Vikharev reconstruction danced by the Bolshoi, but It varied somewhat from these two familiar and similar versions. Cyril Beaumont wrote extensively about Fokine and his powers of description were excellent, when confronted by radical choreographic changes, I start to mistrust my memories so have on occasion gone back to his book 'Michel Fokine and his Ballets' to check changed passages and usually find I am right to dispute some new interpolation. If Petrushka looks bad, Scherherazade is far worse with the famous death of the Golden Slave now omitted by all the Russian companies that have adopted Ms Fokine's adulterated version. I am very sorry this lady has now gained a toe hold in Britain.