li tai po

Linda and Michael supported two generations of dancers.  Linda was confident with social media, avidly following her friends, after they had moved on from England and from performing.  She followed their triumphs and successes, their students, their creations.  She was always a step ahead of me with any news.

In the last few years, their friendship with Vadim Muntagirov and some of his close colleagues brought them much joy.  It began in the ENB studios at Jay Mews, when Vadim was preparing for his debut in Giselle.  Over the ensuing years, Linda was able to follow him overseas, to Vilnius, Vienna, Cape Town and elsewhere.

Ironically it was Michael, once hale and hearty, who succumbed to cancer, in the brain.  Linda became his carer and he grew increasingly frail.  They still made the effort to meet Ernst Meisner, every time he came to the ROH to see a show.  They enjoyed the visits of his Junior Company to the Linbury, even if Michael did not have the strength to stay the entire evening.

In 2020 Michael decided to stop his medication and to let the disease take its course.  He was taking painkillers and in early March he was admitted to a hospice in Chiswick.  Three days later, the coronavirus lockdown was imposed and for three months, Linda was unable to visit Michael, although she rang him every morning.  It was a lonely time for Linda, but Vadim began visiting her frequently at her flat in Barons Court.  This inspired her to interview (? interrogate) him about his life and move on to preparing and publishing his autobiography.  Another of Linda's friends, the ex-ENB dancer, Amber Hunt, assisted with a selection of photographs.  Linda was reunited with Michael when lockdown was lifted, but he died a few days later.

Linda was radiant at the launch of Vadim's book at the Royal Ballet School, frail, but fulfilled.  I said to her that Michael would be very excited.  She told me that he had followed the progress of the book closely, during her phone calls with him at the hospice.

Linda kept going, enjoying Vadim's performances and hanging on for every next show.  She was very excited by his dramatic performance in Mayerling, recounting every detail of his interpretation.  She was speechless and tearful after the first Manon with Fumi and Vadim, exhausted, but so energised that she could hardly take herself home.  She was very much looking forward to Vadim's debut as Leontes.

Linda was a regular on this forum, sometimes posting several times a day.  A lady of firm opinions herself, she was always interested in the views of others.  She often incepted new threads, anticipating casting announcements, promotions or first nights of a new run.  Her final posts and likes were on 22 April; she passed away the following morning.

There was no funeral for Michael.  He expressed a wish for no fuss.  I expect Linda requested the same.

Linda was an inspirational lady, an unswerving friend, giving wise, but uncompromising advice.  She did not suffer fools gladly, but she was compassionate, understanding and caring.  I hope that the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet will mark her passing.

At least twice, she submitted recommendations for deserving ballet personalities to the Honours Committee, painstakingly collating a portfolio of references and letters of support from ballet directors, principal dancers, members of the corps de ballet, critics, experts and audience members.

Linda and Michael travelled for ballet as well.  They followed ENB all over England.  We met up for a gala in Suttgart.  After Nancy Osbaldeston left ENB to join the Royal Ballet of Flanders, they went to Antwerp to see her debut as Kitri.  They made several trips to Amsterdam, to follow Ernst Meisner's career as a dancer and then as choreographer.  Part of their enjoyment was to attend class and rehearsals, en route for the performance.  Linda was particularly moved by Meisner's Canta ballet, which he created for 50 dancers and 55 disabled drivers in their small cars, performed in a disused gas-holder.

Linda told me of her diagnosis well over 10 years ago during an ENB interval at Sadler's Wells Theatre.  Michael said they would give up travel and his job now was to look after Linda.  Linda fought her illness with steely determination and never complained.  Although it became increasingly difficult to travel, Linda persevered.  She and Michael w=ent to Kyiv to see Men in Motion, which was particularly challenging for her, although Michael was there to support.

Linda began to devote more of her time to ballet domestically, where she joined the committees of both the London Ballet Circle and The Ballet Association.  She brought her thorough administrative skills to the service of both organisations and was able to exploit her close connections with a wide range of dancers and dance professionals.  Latterly, she withdrew from these committees, ahead of her failing health, but with characteristic foresight, she tried to set in train effective succession planning.

As Linda and Michael befriended a widening group of dancers, they were able to focus on philanthropy and emotional support.  They sponsored one of the National Dance awards, but anonymously.  They donated their air miles to fly overseas stars into London for charitable galas.  They stored a large mound of ballet scenery in their garage at Barons Court.  They developed a deal with overseas summer schools, whereby they would fund the travel, if the school would provide a scholarship toward fees and accommodation.  Several ex Royal Ballet School students, now established in overseas companies, took part in this route.  Most of the support was anonymous.

When dancers were facing difficulties in their professional or personal lives, they provided counselling.  Linda, with her HR background, steered more than one dancer through contractual difficulties.  She assisted with drafting CVs and job applications.  They followed the careers of many dancers and were delighted to mark a major debut in Liverpool or Bristol with flowers and a big fuss at the stage door.  Linda observed that, even if the director was not there to see the performance, they were there to acknowledge the debut with enthusiasm.  They also provided theatre and opera tickets, to help young dancers encounter the wider theatrical world in London, and paid membership fees for dancers to join the Wigmore Hall and the Donmar Warehouse.  Linda wrote formal references in support of at least two dancers, who were applying for British citizenship.  After he retired from dancing, former ENB principal, Zdenek Konvalina, established himself as a professional artist in Berlin - and they purchased paintings from him.

Linda Gainsbury was a tough lady, but positive and optimistic in her approach to life.

She ended her professional career as a senior education advisor to the Welsh Government, based in Cardiff.  Her husband, Michael, was a secondary school headteacher in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.  They lived in Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley, half way between.  Jonathan Cope;'s father was headteacher of one of the primary schools feeding into Michael's school  As a bolt hole  they rented a cottage from the National Trust on the Stourhead estate in Wiltshire.

Linda and Michael took early retirement in order to travel.  They divided their time between world travel and ballet, settling in a flat in Barons Court, where they saw Monica Mason passing below their window every day to work.  They were more than regulars.  They were patrons of ENB and the Royal Opera House.

They went all over the world, but not without mishap.  In 2010, they lost a holiday, when their flight to Hawaii was cancelled, due to disruption from the volcanic ash of the Iceland volcano.  A cruise to Antarctica was scuppered by a violent Atlantic storm and the liner limped back to port.  Alas, they were never to see Antarctica.

Back in the Wayne Eagling years, as patrons of ENB, they were entitled to ring up the Friends Office and to sit in on rehearsals.  The deal was that they enquired what was on and selected the rehearsal of most interest to them.  They soon bucked the system.  A dancer gave them the password to the intranet.  They would go online, select the days and the rehearsals they wanted to see and then ring up in all innocence, feigning surprise and opting for their pre-selected choices.

Linda was a great leader and organiser.  When Ivan Putrov returned from a long injury in the role of James in La Sylphide, the curtain went up discovering him asleep in a chair.  Linda instructed us all that entry applause was inappropriate, but we would applaud when he woke up and got up out of the chair.  We duly complied.

She organised several major flower throws to mark retirements, getting into cahoots with one of the ENB dancers, to organise jointly the tributes to Elena Glurjidze at the Coliseum and unforgettably to Daria Klimentova at the Royal Albert Hall.  This amazing send off and the fruits of Linda's labour may be seen on you tube.

Linda and Michael were very dear friends of mine, but even more provided strong emotional and financial support to dancers over decades.

She had been admitted to a hospice last Sunday and her last post here was on the following evening, the night before she passed away.  I have been checking this forum daily to see if she posted again.

I am too upset to write more at the moment, but I will post a full tribute in due course.

I have just heard that my very dear friend, Linda Gainsbury, passed away last Tuesday morning (a week ago).  Her last post on this Forum was on Monday evening.

I am too upset to write more at the moment, but I will post a tribute in due course.

I am somewhat non-plussed by San Perregrino's reply above to me.

The cinema programme brings elements of the Royal Ballet season to a wider audience, in particular to citizens living beyond the daily travelling distance to London, but nevertheless paying taxes to fund the Arts Council subsidy of the Royal Opera House.

I was making the point that neither Vadim nor Fumi have appeared in the cinema this season, not together nor separately.  Anyone living furth of London can only catch their gala performances elsewhere, when they appear on you tube.

Their upcoming performances in Swan Lake are not being filmed, so how does that help the non-London audience?

I hope next season's cinema programme will feature Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov.

I don't think they have appeared at all this season in the cinema.

If I remember correctly from the premiere and the scene with the gaoler's wife, which was cut after the first season, the gaoler took the bracelet from his wife and gave it to Manon, which caused a jealous outburst - David Drew and Georgina Parkinson.

You've all said it for me.  I am feeling a bit of an emotional wreck too, Balletfanp.

I particularly relished the pas de trois, like Mild Concern, where Fumi seemed to be vacillating between revulsion, curiosity and succumbing to flattery and luxury.  What an actress!

I did not see the 10 on the balloon.  How lovely of someone to mark Vadim's 10th anniversary with the Royal Ballet last Monday.

With regard to Act One, Bridiem, I did not find that Vadim was not fully engaged.  I felt he played it downbeat deliberately, a shy adolescent student hiding in the crowd until he was knocked off his feet by a beautiful vision - and then almost stalking her from a safe distance, until he had time alone with her to try to present a case for himself.  But what an amazing performance of the opening solo - no-one can deliver that challenging solo with such legato fluidity and stunning line.  It is so difficult, but he makes it appear simple and beautiful.

I went to an Insight Evening at least 15 years ago, in which Sibley and Dowell jointly taught Thais to Sarah Lamb and (I think) Thiago Soares.  Sarah had only just joined the company and was still a soloist.  I think she was very pleased to be working with two luminaries of the past.

Sibley and Dowell kept up a banter throughout the session.  As Sibley tried to position the arms of Sarah Lamb correctly, she asked Dowell if he could remember the precise shape.  "Don't ask me," said Dowell, "I was in the middle of my variation and I certainly did not have time to see where you put your arms".

Thank you Blossom for your beautiful review. 

Dancing apart, the evening was a love letter to Ukraine and to the homeland.  We began with the National Anthem, Ivan Putrov gave a brief, but impassioned address about home and what it meant to Ukrainians and the evening ended with the pas de trois from Gloria.  A bold and highly unlikely ending to a Gala, but so appropriate and very moving.  This was Putrov's customary artistic vision trumping just an evening of fireworks, although there was much passion, lyricism and fireworks during the evening.

I counted 26 dancers on stage, including Putrov himself, who chose to dance this time, as well as putting on the show.  He assembled 8 Ukrainian dancers from 7 companies across Europe.  It was a thoughtful touch to present pas de deux from both Ashton's and Gorsky's version of Fille.

I too left the theatre on a high.

Buddy, you could combine a trip to London on 17 March, with a quick hop over to Amsterdam, where Olga is creating the lead in Wayne Macgregor's new ballet, Antigone.  There are 9 performances between 9 and 24 March, although the opening night is already sold out.  There are performances on 15 and 20 March.

https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-opera-ballet/2023-2024/jocastas-line

It is ten years since the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company was set up, only the third after ABT and Hamburg.  The model clearly succeeds in supporting the recruitment, development and high standards of young dancers - and is proliferating across the globe.  The first conference of Junior Companies will be held in London in June.

Yesterday was the first night of a programme focussed on the future.  After opening with Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie, the Junior Company presented three world premieres by Kirsten Wicklund, Joseph Toonga and Wubkje Kuindersma and Toccata, which Krzystof Pastor created last year for principals of the Polish National Ballet.  

The Junior Company alumni from the last ten years have been invited to this afternoon's performance.  The main company is now comprised 60% from the Junior Company, including several principals.

In his speech from the stage, Ernst Meisner told us that students entering the Prix de Lausanne are required to state in advance their preference for a ballet school.  It sounds a bit like UCAS.  When he went recruiting in Lausanne before the Junior Company had been set up, he had received just 2 enquiries.  This year the Junior Company received hundreds of expressions of interest from Prix de Lausanne applicants.

Here is an interview with Ernst Meisner, in which he talks about the challenges of leading a Junior Company and some of the achievements of the dancers.

https://www.operaballet.nl/en/online-programme/ten

I am at a loss to understand the negative comments appearing on this thread.  Should we not be applauding efforts to support the National Ballet of Ukraine as it goes through challenging circumstances?  Other initiatives, particularly in the Netherlands, have sought to give a boost to Ukrainian dancers and raise their morale.

No-one has the monopoly on raising funds for Ukrainian causes.  This is not a competition to raise the biggest amount.  Earlier fundraising triumphs do not preclude subsequent attempts.

I welcome the opportunity to attend this Gala and in my very small way to support the cause of spreading the glories of Ashton further afield.  I am sad that ballet professionals, whatever side of the fence they sit, are seeking to sully the noble art of ballet with petty squabbles and rivalries.  This may be the atmosphere backstage, but I am pleased to sit out front, to admire the artistry and generosity of the dancers and to enjoy the show itself.

If you are unhappy, please desist - do not dampen the spirits of dancers across Ukraine and do not spoil it for the rest of us,.

Rob S - I enjoy your curtain call photos every night.  It gives a tiny hint of casts which I did not see.

Why do you not post photos of curtain calls at ENB?

The Junior Company, set up with Ernst Meisner as Artistic Co-ordinator, is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. 

He is a graduate of the Royal Ballet School and spent more than 10 years in the Royal Ballet.

https://www.operaballet.nl/en/dutch-national-ballet/2023-2024/ten

I have just seen my first Nutcracker of the season.

Dear, oh dear - little girls playing with their dollies, only boys allowed drums and trumpets, not a child with a pronoun in sight.  Time to ban this production alongside Bayadere and Fille.

On Monday, I was fortunate enough to catch the Raymonda performance with Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili, who blew me away.  What a powerful dancer and an overpowering personality he is - an untidy finisher, but my goodness he dominates the stage with his enormous leap.  Apparently his parents run a folk dance group in Georgia and he has been dancing with them since childhood, which is where he developed his wow factor stage presence.  His younger brother, Nikoloz, is a student at the Dutch National Ballet Academy.  He was due to watch from the wings, but with several dancers down with covid, he was thrust into a costume and put on stage as a page.  Giorgi's immediate promotion to principal is richly deserved; this amazing dancer must be seen soon in London.

Just back from an exhilarating visit to Stuttgart, to see two further performances of Stuttgart Ballet's tribute to Cranko on the 50th anniversary of his death - Initials RBME and MacMillan's Requiem.  The audience sat respectfully throughout Requiem without a hint of applause until they erupted at the end.  I hope our audiences will be equally self-controlled in March.  

The Stuttgart company are on sparkling form and the soloists came close to the original 1970s casts.  Elisa Badenes and Friedemann Vogel were electrifying in the third movement pas de deux.  I also went to the first two performances of this programme in July and it was thrilling to see Birgit Keil, Marcia Haydee and Egon Madsen come on stage at the end of the performance, although sadly Richard Cragun is no longer with us.

So imagine my pleasure, on arriving back from the airport, having switched on Stuttgart Ballet's contribution to World Ballet Day, to find a complete stage rehearsal of Initials RBME filmed a few days ago.  Tamas Detrich, the director, calls it a masterpiece of neo-classical choreography - and my companion said at the end of the first performance, "Now that is what I call choreography".  Don't miss the company, either.  They are in such good form.

https://www.google.com/search?q=world+ballet+day+stuttgart+ballet&oq=world+ballet+day+stuttgart+ballet&aqs=chrome..69i57.5317j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:2b3d3c07,vid:gDSo0lP9Bxo,st:0

A friend of mine went to see Alvin Ailey at Sadler's Wells.  She entered the auditorium behind two girls, who were carrying a pizza box.  The usher told them they could not bring it in.  "We are not going to eat it", they said.  "Too right", she replied.  "You can leave it here and collect it after the performance".

At Rigoletto this week, my wife and her friend went to the ladies in the interval on the right hand side of the amphitheatre as the five minute bell was ringing.  They were very upset to find a "40-year old, stylish" man urinating in one of the toilets, with the cubicle door open.  We were wondering if they were one of the new 57 genders.  I raised it with the house manager, but she thought he was probably in a panic with the interval ending and used the ladies in an emergency.

Another exhilarating and inspiring evening from Marianela and Vadim, who bring attack, sharpness, elevation, poise, balance and elegance to the choreography by Petipa and others, qualities which are required to bring a Russian ballet to life.  The explosive atmosphere in the auditorium was invigorating - it reminded me of the Fonteyn days.  

The beggars should be sent back to Amiens and Manon - they are derivative and distracting.  Their final line-up is close to plagiarism and the collapse of the boy underneath is over the top.  Petipa's humour is much more subtle.  I love the moment in the Act I minuet, when Basilio and Kitri's friends struggle to follow Gamache and Don Q, because the steps of this dance of the nobility are unfamiliar to them.  Oh sorry - this part of the minuet is cut out, so we can watch Don Q stomping around in another daydream.  

I was very struck by Caspar Lench at the RBS summer performance and was delighted to spot him in the seguidillas.

Lindsay says that Theme and Variations was not the most 'full-out' performance.  You are telling me!  I am sure Rosalyn Whitten or Maina Gielgud would have drilled out a much more secure performance from the entire cast.  I remember a stunning performance by BRB at the Royal Opera House with Miyako Yoshida and Kevin O'Hare.  He was sitting tonight in the middle of the front row of the First Circle.  I wonder what he thought of the performance?  Maybe the second (?) cast of Katja Khaniukova and Gabriele Frola will make a better fist of it.

but - I found Four Last Songs breathtaking and exhilarating.  Sweeping choreography with echoes of MacMillan's Song of the Earth - sculptural groups, sequences of exhausting lifts and a lot of running round the stage - trademarks, I believe, of David Dawson.  Gavin Sutherland, another hero of the evening, generated a most exciting orchestral sound, rich and romantic.  Madeline Pierard's voice swept over the orchestra.  But why oh why was she miked?  Her voice would have penetrated to the back row of the Metropolitan Opera House.  She certainly did not need a mike in the small confines of Sadler's Wells.  I will be going back to see Four Last Songs again.

Dawnstar, I completely agree with your comments about the lack of an informative programme. 

The Australian Ballet administration appears to be exhibiting considerable disdain for their dancers and audience.  I understand that it is Australian Ballet policy to promote the company, rather than individual dancers, but that is not the ethos of the London ballet audience.

For the first night they failed to name the pas de trois in Emeralds in the cast sheet and it was only after a spate of direct complaints and a negative set of comments here that the company relented and named the Emeralds pas de trois and the four demi soloist couples in Diamonds.  Fortunately Sophoife came to the rescue and named some of the anonymous dancers above in this thread, before the company provided additional information.

Today, the high quality programming and performances were slightly marred by the lack of information about the repertoire.  I wanted to know about the full-length Harlequinade, how Ratmansky's version differs from Petipa, how the Australian Ballet acquired it.  I wanted to know about the Inger and Peck ballets, both of which listed a series of dancers with individual character names.  Once again Sophoife came to rescue with some information above about how these works entered the Australian Ballet repertoire.

The Jewels programme devotes three pages to the Australian Ballet company and directors, with hordes of personnel listed under marketing, audience engagement, data and analytics, digital, recording and broadcast, public relations, custiomer experience and ticketing, external relations.  I don't know what they do all day, but they seem incapable of producing a cast sheet or an informative programme book. 

Before the performance, the Australian Ballet stage manager was announcing throughout the front of house that cast sheets are digital and that programmes are on sale throughout the theatre.  How ironic, given that there were no programmes on sale!

I hope the Australian Ballet administration will be better prepared, before the company comes back to London.

I went yesterday to the National Gallery exhibition "After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art".  

In the second room, they are displaying Gauguin's sculpture, carved from a length of wood, Afternoon of a Faun, which was his response to Mallarmé's poem, a few years before Debussy or Nijinsky.  The circular sculpture is well-displayed and you can see every angle of it quite easily.  The style is influenced by Gauguin's experiences of "primitive" Polynesia.

It has been loaned by the Stephane Mallarmé Museum in Seine-et-Marne département and this is a rare opportunity to see it in London.

I understand that the website has crashed again this morning with the opening of public booking.  A friend of mine rang me in total meltdown, having put tickets into the basket, only to see them disappear.  The phone queue for the box office is apparently never-ending.  Some members of the public will simply give up and visit other West End venues instead.