Pas de Quatre

In Germany, following on from the previous posts. But this height limit is common in parts of Europe with a corresponding minimum height for men. Also in some companies worldwide. The are others who need smaller dancers so a maximum height may be specified. Always read audition notice carefully. It isn't discrimination, new dancers have to blend with existing employees and fit the costumes.

Jane Landon who graduated RBS in the 1960s was 5ft 10ins. She was in the same year as Wayne Sleep and they were good friends according to his biography, quite a contrast! She joined Sadlers Wells Touring Company and I saw her dance several times - absolutely gorgeous. Eventually she moved to Germany where there have always been more taller dancers. In many auditions nowadays the minimum female height is 5ft 6 ins, 1.68 m.

Pupil of a teacher friend is at Rambert and loving it.

Is there a library near you that might accept them as donations? My late mother was a keen follower of classical music. Although only an amateur player she attended various residential weekends with lectures and had a season ticket to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. When clearing out her belongings I found a box full of music scores. I couldn't bear to dump them so I enquired at Bournemouth library music department. They gratefully accepted them. The librarian said any that were good could go on the shelves and others or duplicates were often donated to music students.

Do you still have the receipt? It should show the exact model, size and width, so you can check whether it is different to the shoe. Although if a mistake was made it might have been before they put it through the till.

In today's Times 2 there is a lovely double page article on Olga Smirnova who will be appearing in Dance for Ukraine on Sunday.

Unfortunately we had booked early, before the offer came out, so we were not happy to have paid substantially more! As a result we are not going to book for Cinderella next year at present and will wait for offers.

I rather liked Carabosse being a woman. In this production you could read it as a mirror image of the Lilac Fairy, good versus evil. Also referring back to our conversations about BRB's Cinderella, in this case Evil isn't ugly all the time. Carabosse is very beautiful and elegant until she gets angry and then the spite distorts her. Daria Stanciulescu captured this perfectly and gave a wonderful dramtic account of the role.

I lent my programme to one of my companions for a few days, so I can't double check, but I am sure it said the role of Carabosse will also be danced by a man. Perhaps someone else can confirm? Alison, I agree the Awakening is somewhat underwhelming.

Thanks, I am glad you like my review. Baby Aurora is literally and figuratively centre stage in the Prologue. All the decor and other costumes are lovely so as she is the focal point Aurora should have a more elaborate christening gown.

BRB have a real winner with this production of Sleeping Beauty. Lots of good things and only a few minor niggles. The programme is very good value at £5 with lots of photos and articles. A cast sheet for that performance was given out with it. I don't know if you can just ask for a cast sheet. The audience was very much as you would expect for a Saturday matinee, but all were very well behaved. Unfortunately as normal for this time of year there was qute a lot of coughing - but there were moments when the magic took hold and there was total silence - you could hear a pin drop. The overall production and costumes are very sumptous, set in 17th Century for the Prologue and Act I, very Louis XIV in feel. All the Courtiers had cloaks with long sweeping trains and there were a few moments when the person behind stepped on the hem or the wearer did when turning the corner. The six fairies were wearing a sort of short bell tutu.. Very pretty, but the colours were a bit similar and there wasn't enough to differentiate them. The Lilac Fairy in this production is a "walking" role, with a beautiful full length costume, elgantly portrayed by Eilis Small. This provided a good foil for Carabosse, danced by Daria Stanciulescu who was excellent as were her attendants! This role is also danced by a man at other performances. The Fairies danced their solos prettily but I feel need more time to settle in to their roles. The sixth Fairy was the Fairy of Joy, dancing the solo normally performed by the Lilac Fairy. Their Cavaliers were excellent. My only niggle is that the baby was not realistic and didn't seem to have much of a christening robe. I would have expected something more ornate. An interval of 15 minutes followed. Act II followed the normal pattern. Aurora was danced by Yu Kurihara who is only a First Soloist at present, but will surely have a bright future. She was gorgeous, possessing a beautiful classical line with lovely use of upper body and epaulment. She had masses of stage presence and a radiant smile, and a sensitive musicality. You really believed in the excited 16 year old enjoying her birthday party, apparently delighted to be presented with four suitors. The Rose Adagio went well with just a few moments of tension in the early balances, and she had more confidence in the later promende turn and balance. The forest growing as the Lilac Fairy sent everyone to sleep was excellent! This was followed by a three minutes pause. Act II again followed a traditional pattern with Lachlan Monaghan as Prince Florimund with the hunting party, and then the vision scene which was beautiful. My only caveat here is that Aurora asleep is framed by an opening through the forest, and it seemed rather small, I am not sure whether everyone would be able to see what was happening. A 15 minute interval folowed. Act III had lovely decor in warm tones and made me think of the lost Amber room. The Court were now in the 18th Centruy all wearing powdered wigs and appropriate costumes. The Fairy tale characters all danced well and entertained the children around us. The Grand Pas de Deux really was grandiose and provided a perfect climax to the performance. Yu Kurihara was every inch a ballerina, well partnered by Lachlan Monaghan wose own dancing is light and good technically. So all in all an excellent afternoon, and I would recommend getting your tickets to see this production which deserves congratulations to all involved. As a last comment I must mention the orchestra who played well conducted by Paul Murphy. The cast sheet has Robert Gibbs as the leader and I presume he played the violin solos which were lovely, and my companions and I felt he should have gone on stage at the end for a bow!

Totally agree with Alison, a splendid show. I will write in more detail tomorrow.

That's why I always go by train. The station is only a few minutes walk away. Even without roadworks the traffic is a nightmare. Looking forward to seeing this on Saturday at 2pm.

Having quickly read through the link Garnier posted, I would suggest it is looking at movement through dance science, which has made great advances in recent years, possible incorporating the work of Laban and also Alexander technique.

But what message are all the young girls (& everyone else) going to take away from watching this? To succeed as a young woman you must be perfect, neither too fat nor too thin. Remember, the original production in USSR was under Stalin. If he didn't like it the creators risked being sent to the Gulags. So it is not surprising they played safe with stereotypes. We shouldn't be perpetuating them.

That is refreshing. I was a bit disappointed that in her acceptance speech for her lifetime award Alessandra Ferri didn't mention any of her teachers or training. She said her ballet journey started at the PdL, but how did she get there? It sounded as though like a butterfly, a fully formed dancer had emerged from a chrysalis!

Hardly revolutionary to ask that dancers respect the music. It is not a good idea to cram in too many turns and then be off time. I also noticed that in the classes Elizabeth Platel had to tell the girls to keep their legs lower in fondus rather than lifting them too high, and thus use correct technique as opposed to flashy extremes.

Yes, those are the tables I was thinking of. I suspect it is just too cumbersome for admin to compile charts of all details for all those who entered!

There is a table that PdL published when it first announced those selected to take part. It shows name, nationality, school and country. I will see if I can upload later. Another one shows number of entrants by country and number selected.

An interesting question, I don't think male dancers have an advantage as such, but by their very nature their solos tend to be more spectacular. I did pretty much agree with the jury's decisions.

I agree, the Arts can be a great catalyst for healthy discussion - isn't that what we are having now? My concern is that at the moment, the two schools associated with BRB, Elmhurst and RBS are both being sued by former pupils for the way they handled eating disorders and mental health issues. As it is sub judice we are not allowed to discuss, but I don't think mentioning that these cases exist contravenes anything. So for BRB to portray weight issues as comedic does not feel right.

If you watch the Finals you will see that there are several prize winners. They can then choose which of the partner schools or companies they would like to go to. Their choices are published in a few weeks time. The institutions offering prizes are listed on PdL's website.

Exactly! There are many things considered normal in the past that are no longer acceptable.

It isn't the same thing, using padding to create a character or make an accurate historical costume. The problem is in creating a costume specifically to mock a young woman because she is too fat and thus ugly. Likewise the other sister is mocked because she is too thin, unacceptable and totally out of touch with modern thinking about mental health issues.

How do people feel about one of the Ugly sisters wearing a fat suit? It made me feel uncomfortable when I first saw it, and today when there are highly publicised issues about ballet dancers being fat shamed perhaps it should be discarded.