Pas de Quatre

I think there are many wigs in the RB repertoire that could be retired, they now just look dated.

Odyssey, I am with you. Why should the two be mutually exclusive?

There is also the question of costumes. In Fonteyn's day bodices were boned like corsets with firm satin or cotton, so dancers couldn't move their torsos in the same way as they do today with stretchy materials. Leg height was thus able to go up with the invention of lycra!

Yes, as funded places are in the minority, the majority of places are self funded.

I believe there is a sort of "get out" in that the dancer has to have completed the compulsory education of their own country before joining a UK company.

Another problem with heat pumps is that they will not run with existing pipework and radiators. All will have to be replaced. It is mentioned towards the end of the link Fonty posted, but how many people read to the end?

The pain of practice is not the child's alone! Dd insisted on learning the violin because a great aunt was a gifted amateur. It was a relief when eventually she decided to drop it and concentrate on piano.

Lovely news congratulations to Meaghan Grace and her fiance. There was an email a few weeks ago saying that there wouldn't be performances at Athelhampton this year, but they would be back in 2024.

An excellent article - Richard Morrison is right! I have The Times anyway so could read the full article. I don't know if people can get past the paywall, or can it be added to today's links?

There is little doubt that there is climate change, but how much is due to human activity is debatable. The earth is still warming from the last ice age 22,000 years ago. There was the little ice age around the North Atlantic 1300 - 1850. A large volcanic eruption throws gas and ash far into the atmosphere, which has a cooling effect. Mount Tambora erupted in 1815 and the following year 1816 is known as the Year without a Summer. Temperatures dropped and crops failed globally causing famine. There are currently many major active volcanoes. Norway is not a good comparison. It is a very mountainous hence the availability of hydro power, and I agree we could do more here. However, most of the population lives around the coast. Travel is by boat. There are few roads into the interior and so car use is totally different. Here in UK it is small towns and rural communities who are reliant on cars as there is no public transport. I am not an expert, just a concerned person who does research rather than accepting doom and gloom headlines.

I am afraid it is another bout of virtue signalling. We cannot do without fossil fuels. The hype over electric cars is another example. We are now being asked to restrict normal domestic consumption of electricity between 5 pm and 6 pm. Imagine if everyone arrives home from work and plugs in their car to recharge.

I think it a great way of raising awareness of Contemporary dance. She trained at Doreen Bird, still one of the top performing arts colleges, so had good grounding in dance as well as singing.

Looks good, but if main BRB tour to Mayflower, Southampton please can we have BRB2 somewhere in South or Southwest.

There are so many influences across the world between companies & schools that it is impossible to rigidly categorise them. Directors of the POB school are always former dancers with the company. However, the company has had many choreographers and directors from elsewhere. Alicia Alonso mounted Giselle and Sleeping Beauty in the 1970s and of course Nureyev was Director from 1983 to 1989, both from Vaganova training.

That seems a strange observation, implying that Vaganova training is somehow not a true classical training! Or am I misunderstanding your point? My own training was Vaganova and all my professional contracts were in France, alongside dancers who had trained at the POB and sometimes with ADs who had been Etoiles there. Any minor differences in training methods were hardly noticeable and never an issue.

I adored The Silver Sword too. There was an excellent TV adaptation, probably BBC, in the 1960s.

What amazes me about the need for trigger warnings on well known classics, is that it sits alongside the quite horrific content of mainstream media masquerading as entertainment!

That I fear is one of the reasons why so many get assessed out of WL later. Hyperflexibilty means it is very hard to gain enough strength for more advanced technique.

Just done a little more research. Yassaui Mergaliev was competing on BBC's Greatest Dancer in 2019 and 2020 and possibly is now based in UK. Googling the names of the listed soloists, I have yet to find any Russian dancers. A couple are from Romania, one from USA, one Armenian, two from UK, and one Japanese whose profile says she trained at the Bolshoi. For three I couldn't find any info about them online, but their names are not Russian sounding. So I think it is a shame to jump to conclusions.

I have just researched the three principal dancers I named in my review, Assel Askarova, Azamat Akarov and Yassaui Mergaliev. They are all from Kazakhstan, an independent country, and danced in London with the Kazakhstan State ballet in 2019.

Moderators - I just posted a review in the Lesser known companies thread as I had forgotten about this one. Could you move it here? To be honest, if the company is not promoting itself as representing the Russian state, then good luck to all those dancers who have found employment. Is anyone thinking of boycotting Chinese restaurants because of the Chinese government's behaviour and threats to Taiwan? Or all their exports such as mobile phones and technology which are produced under very dubious conditions.

Thanks Fiona, I shall probably see them in Bournemouth in March. The International Classic Ballet Theatre, Swan Lake at Lighthouse Poole, Friday 6th January. This was an enjoyable experience, better than I had expected. There was a glossy programme for the whole of their season, with an inserted cast sheet. The programme itself did not name dancers, but had nice photos and history/synopsis of the ballets Swan Lake and Nutcracker. I had to look up AD Marina Medvetskaya. She is Georgian and previously a Principal in Tiblisi. The company was small but adequate. The corps were generally quite good with a couple of slightly weaker members. Soloists were good and the principals were excellent. Dare I say even better than seen at ENB matinee of Raymonda in Southampton. Odette/Odile was Assel Askarova and Siegfried Azamat Askarov. Beautiful technique and interpretation, they could belong to any major company. Also the Jester Yassaui Mergaliyev was of Principal quality. Both men had excellent entrchats and tours en l'air with soft secure landings. The principals all looked mature, not recent graduates. Palace scenes had drop cloth, and lakeside a nice projection of a lake. The live orchestra was patchy at times but did manage to pull it together for the lakeside scenes. What would normally be Act 1 & 2 ran straight on for 65 minutes followed by an interval of 20 minutes, then the next Act, Odile at the Palace was 35 minutes followed by 15 minute interval and the last Act 25 minutes. Anyone thinking of going next week in Bromley or the following one in Bath, it is worthwhile.

Not sure that it ever came to Southampton, the Christmas season always has a huge panto production. According to recent articles in the press about theatres dire financial position, most are dependent on their panto season to generate a large proportion of annual ticket revenue. Dawnstar- Nureyev did that lifting one leg when he danced Nutcracker at RB, but I don't know where it came from, probably brought it with him from Russia.

Context is important RBS - Royal Ballet School or Royal Bank of Scotland!

In May there was a long article published in Bounemouth Daily Echo by Kirill Karabits, the Ukrainian Chief Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He talked about the programme for the 2022-23 season beginning in October. Here are a few quotes, I found the whole thing so interesting I cut it out and kept it. "When I conduct Russian music I have to find an argument as to why I am doing it. I have to justify it as to why I am conducting Shostakovich or Rachmaninov." "Some orchestras have refused to invite Russian artists or have excluded Russian music from their programmes but I do not think this is the right way." "I do not believe by cancelling Russian culture one can achieve peace in Ukraine. I really don't". I can only see the conflict going deeper and deeper if people choose this direction".