Rachelm

Thank you John, I have contacted the website, but unfortunately they're all sold now. I'd love to hear whose shoes you get though!

So gutted I missed out!

I haven't had time to read all the above comments so please forgive any ideas already posted, but I've thought about this before and I think it is a lack of really inspirational music. The majority of the really successful, full-evening, narrative ballets have great music. We don't have a modern-day Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Liszt, Massenet etc. I think music is the key. 

I'm catching up on World Ballet Day. I really love watching the Royal Ballet in class and hearing Darcey Bussell relay her experiences and technical knowledge- I think she has been a great addition to the coverage. Despite the frustrating cut-off to the class, I enjoyed hearing from Olivia Cowley about ballet fashion. Eric Underwood was great fun as a presenter too and it is so lovely to see Viviana Durante back with the company.

I wonder where Ksenia will be moving to?

Thanks for that- I'd have never noticed it on the schedule. All set to record 

I think Mr Watson is very handsome, definitely not in your average pretty-boy kind of way, but who always wants that? I feel it is completely irrelevant for a dance critic to be so personal, and this particular critic seems to be quite the bully.

I think Edward Watson's performance as Crown Prince Rudolph in Mayerling is outstanding and I love the emotional depth he brings to roles. He has something other-worldly about him which I find fascinating.

 

 

Christopher Gable's Cinderella for NB (so wish we could see that again) and his co-productions of Romeo & Juliet (Massimo Morricone), Dracula (Michael Pink) and Giselle (Michael Pink).

 

I adored Gable's Cinderella! I still have the music on CD.

This is an easy one for me- Edward Watson.

Also an interview in the Evening Standard: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/francesca-hayward-a-sugar-plum-life-a3213211.html

I'd go back to my childhood love of the The Wells books by Lorna Hill.

There's also a really good autobiography by Michaela DePrince called Taking Fight. Her journey from orphan in Sierra-Leone to professional dancer is truly remarkable.

Favourite dancers I have seen live:

Alina Cojocaru

Marianela Nunez

Darcey Bussell

Tamara Rojo

Sarah Lamb

Irina Kolesnikova

Jayne Regan

Ballerinas I've admired on film:

Agnes Letestu

Sylvie Guillem

Viviana Durante

Evelyn Hart

Evgenia Obratzova

I think Sleeping Beauty isn't as magical as it should be considering it's full of fairies and an evil curse. I think that's why I enjoyed Matthew Bourne's production so much, where the emphasis was on storytelling.

In no way did I miss the Rose Adagio or Grand Pas De Deux, multiple turns in pirouettes, or high extensions. This story flowed.

The classical version feels quite static. There are elements I love in the classic version though- mainly the vision scene. Somebody else mentioned the Rose Adagio as feeling like an Olympic event- it really does! There is so much build up, and sometimes I feel quite uncomfortable watching it in case there are wobbles or worse. 

I agree with Lisa - I think the Beauty improves once the story is out of the way. For me, other bore-fests include anything by Ashton. (Go on, call me a heretic!) I also don't like that silly running about in pyjamas thing, which is known as "In the Upper Room".

I agree about a lot of Ashton- I love Thais Pas de Deux, Five Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, and Fille- but aside from that I find his choreography really fussy. It's a bit like when a blouse has too many ruffles, lace and frills!!!! That's the feeling I get from his work. Now I'll probably get slaughtered!

Jewels- I just find it really boring!

I've always wanted to ask if people have a favourite dance that they would like to do themselves, mine are Odette's second act solo, Myrthe's dances in Giselle, Nikiya's very first solo, and the Papillon solo from Fokine's Le Carnaval.

I'd love to do Kitri's first solo in Don Quixote, Gamzatti's solo in the last act of Bayadere (RB version), Amour in DQ, and the Neopolitan in Swan Lake. There's also a beautiful solo in MacMillan's Requiem. I have memories of it in a documentary about Darcey Bussell and Viviana Durante many years ago. 

BRB Nutcracker

RB Nutcracker

RB Mayerling

Mariinsky Swan Lake

POB Cinderella (Nureyev)

POB Le Dame Aux Camelias

Northern Ballet Romeo & Juliet (Morricone)

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

I also love Ashton's Thais Pas De Deux, and Five Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan.

I saw this in Southampton last week.Well worth seeing.My friend & I loved it. Stand out performance was Adam Maskell as Carabosse/Caradoc.I couldn't take my eyes off him. The rest of the cast were brilliant too. Go see!

Susan

I saw this in Norwich a couple of weeks ago and thought it was fantastic- the designs were stunning. I totally agree about Adam Maskell- I said exactly the same to my friend, that I couldn't take my eyes off him.

Mine are cheats and I bow down before all those who have shoes that have been signed and actually WORN by the dancers. When I say they are cheats, I mean that I often take pointe shoes that i have bought cheaply online, to the stage door, and ask dancers to sign them. So the signatures are genuine, but the shoes didn't belong to the dancers. Sigh.

 

None of the lovely dancers have ever said no, so I have 2 pairs of shoes signed by Alina Cojocaru, Tamara Rojo, Carlos Acosta, Gary Avis (who said that in all his long career, he had never been asked to sign pointe shoes before!),Natalia Osipova Alina Somova and Svetlana Zakharova. When they sign, they are always interested to see which other dancers have already signed them!

 

Needless to say, they live in a special glass case.

 

I suppose they might have said they didn't want to sign if they weren't their own shoes, but no-one ever has. I do wonder why more dancers don't sign and sell off old shoes. I'm sure there would be a long list if people who would want them. Me me me for one!

I think that's a brilliant idea! I would love to see those shoes! 

Oh I loved Lorena Vidal!  At the 40th Anniversary Alumni performance of Christmas Carol in 2009 she danced the Ghost of Christmas Past and it was as though the years had just rolled away.  William Walker danced Bob Cratchitt!

I'm so glad someone remembers her! I loved her in that role. It must have been wonderful to be there for the alumni performance!

Not many may remember her, but the only pair of signed shoes I have are from former Northern Ballet (Theatre) principal Lorena Vidal. I won them when I was 14 for designing a badge for the Young Friends of NBT, which was then produced and sent out to Friends. I was so crazily excited to receive them that they probably meant as much to me back then as if they were Darcey Bussell's! I also had a poster signed by my favourite dancer from NBT back then- Jayne Regan.

 If I could have any dancer's pointe shoes right now it would be Alina Cojocaru's or Marianela Nunez's.

Not many may remember her, but the only pair of signed shoes I have are from former Northern Ballet (Theatre) principal Lorena Vidal. I won them when I was 14 for designing a badge for the Young Friends of NBT, which was then produced and sent out to Friends. I was so crazily excited to receive them that they probably meant as much to me back then as if they were Darcey Bussell's! I also had a poster signed by my favourite dancer from NBT back then- Jayne Regan.

Thanks for all the info Janet, I'm really looking forward to seeing this in Norwich. Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty this week!

YES!! That's the one!! Thank you very much!! Wow- you did some digging!!

Does anybody remember a Royal Ballet School documentary a good few years back, which featured a young Anna Rose O'Sullivan, amongst other students? I was trying to remember what it was called.