James

I'd agree with Nick that sightlines from the circle at the Regent are pretty good all over, but I would add there is not much leg room in the front row. Best seats in the house, IMO, are in Stalls row K, centre two blocks - there's a spacious gangway between that row and the one in front, so plenty of leg room and no heads immediately in front. They will, of course, be the priciest seats in the house. Otherwise it is worth bearing in mind that the rake is not very pronounced in the stalls, so seeing over heads can be a problem if you're short. Best to go for seats that are adjacent to the "inner" aisles in the left and right hand blocks. It's a wide auditorium and any seats on the extreme left and right hand sides of the stalls should be avoided - some of them (but not all) will be advertised as restricted view anyway.

There is a recording of Petrushka on a DVD called "Return of the Firebird", which is available on Amazon. It was filmed in a studio, and stars Andris Liepa as the eponymous puppet, with a cast, I think, of mostly Bolshoi dancers. Although it doesn't have the same atmosphere as a theatre-based performance, it uses the Benois designs and is very colourful. I can't vouch for the quality of the interpretation, though. The same DVD includes performances of Firebird, with Nina Ananiashivili, and Scheherezade. James

There are no mothers-in-law in ballet? Surely, by the middle of Act 2,Lady Capulet is Romeo's mother-in-law.

I have the same concerns as Moomin, and am rather surprised that a registered charity like BRB is comfortable with this type of fund raising at a time when four other major charities, Oxfam, the NSPCC, the British Red Cross and Macmillan Cancer Support are under investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office for allegedly making unsolicited calls to people who are registered with the Telephone Preference Service. Offcom, too, have recently warned of the anxiety and distress such calls can cause to the vulnerable. It is very sad that Arts organisations have to resort to his type of fundraising. Floss has made some good points about public subsidy and education, but I don't think there are likely to be any changes in those areas any time soon. I wouldn't want to make any party political points, but I have just been reading Jeremy Corbyn's policy for the Arts, which does make very interesting reading - whatever your political viewpoint. When was last time you heard a politician actually mention dance? James

I don’t think anyone has mentioned the version of Cinderella that Johann Strauss II composed in 1899, shortly before he died. The scenario updated the story and set it in a fashionable department store owned by Gustav (the Prince character). Cinderella (re-named Grete) is a shop girl, and put upon by her step-mother, the head of the ladies wear department, and her daughters. Northern Ballet (or Northern Ballet Theatre as it would have been then) performed a version of this back in the early 1980s (or even perhaps the late 70s - I'd need to find the programme). It was a very charming production, I recall, especially the masked ball scene. The late Ross Stretton was in the company then, and danced the part of Gustav. Much more recently the Strauss version has been produced at the Vienna State Opera Ballet, with choreography by Renato Zanella. That production, with designs by Christian Lacroix, was also given in Athens by the Greek National Opera Ballet, earlier this year. Richard Bonynge made a recording of the full score with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, which appears to be available on Amazon (from third party sellers at any rate). There is also an MP3 album for download. James

Swanprincess I am told that Odette/Odile at the performance you saw was Ekaterina Bulgutova. The Prince was Vyacheslav Kapustin.

I think there has to be one full length Ashton. My preference would be for Cinderella, next Christmas. I may be completely wrong, but I think The Nutcracker might be rested for another year. Are two full length MacMillans likely? If so, I would love to see Anastasia again. I know it lost its edge somewhat once Anna Anderson's claim was disproved, but as someone said above, the music is very powerful, and there's plenty of scope for the dramatic stuff the RB do so well. And very much yes to Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball in R & J.

I think the Fulham Road Cineworld is showing Swan Lake. That's not far from Chiswick, is it?

Swan Princess I am going to see a couple of the performances in Ipswich this week. There is sometimes a company rep around and I will see if I can find out who danced Odette-Odile at the performance you saw last Saturday. What is the matinee you went to? James

Sorry I got that totally wrong. Looks like I assumed that the gala dedicated to Sir Fred was the first performance, when clearly it wasn't. That must have been some evening. My programme note from 1990 also says that Makarova sometimes cast different dancers as Odette and Odile. That wasn't the case when I saw it (with a young Leanne Benjamin). Who did the premiere, Janet?

For a designer, I'd go to Bob Ringwood. His designs for ENB's Le Corsair were splendid. As others have pointed out, whoever is asked to choreograph would have very limited scope to be radical. Ivanov's Act II must surely be sacrosanct, as is, probably, Petipa's Black Swan pas de deux. The tragic ending would also have to be retained, I think. Amongst British productions, only Deane's arena production has a happy ending, and I get the feeling that is more for pragmatic than artistic reasons. On the ownership of Aston's choreography, all I can add is that, according to the programme note for Natalia Makarova's production for Festival Ballet in 1988, Ashton "gave" her the dances which he had created "at various times" for Covent Garden. These included the pas de douze (i.e. the waltz) and the pas de quatre in Act 1, the Neapolitan Dance in Act III and the pas de deux for Odette and Siegfried in Act IV. Ashton died before the premiere of that production, and the first performance became a gala in his memory.

It surprises me, too. Ashton certainly gave Natalia Makarova permission to use all his dances when she mounted her production for London Festival Ballet in 1989(?) - shortly after the Dowell production premiered. Maybe the privilege was extended to later LFB/ENB producers.

Yes, in 2004, I think. It was also performed by Joffrey Ballet last year. Inspired by the Degas paintings, Acts 1 and 3 are set in the "real world" of a 19th Century ballet company's rehearsal room. A bit too left field for the RB, I'd have thought. I also imagine that choreographers of his reputation would have their diaries full for the next few years anyway. Wouldn't a new production be scheduled for 2017? They surely wouldn't want to go more than 2 years without a SL to pull in the crowds.

Alison, I totally agree. For me, setting the ballet in Tsarist Russia completely destroyed its mythic qualities. As for the "inappropriate behaviour", yes it should all go: the chaperones and dodgy tutor in Act 1, and the goosing of the guests in Act 3, the lot.

As to the lack of similarity between Odette and the swan maidens, in Yolanda Sonnabend's original design, Odette's headdress was much more like that of the other swans. Zenaida Yanowsky was, I think, the first swan queen I saw to wear the more conventional swans' feathers and crown (approx. 7 years ago?). I've never thought it odd that the Prince should be unable to pick out Odette from the swan maidens in the last act. What I do find daft is that it doesn't occur to him (or any of his fellows) that it's pretty useless going on swan hunt with just a crossbow and no bolts! I very much enjoyed the General Rehearsal on Tuesday. I know it's not really the done thing to comment on performances at rehearsals, but I have to say that the Neapolitan Dance was danced brilliantly by Paul Kay and Emma Maguire. I had to close my eyes for the opening of Act III, though - that ridiculous parade of guests and the accompanying horseplay by the Prince and Benno is excruciating.

There may be some confusion over ballet companies here. The Russian State Ballet and the Russian State Ballet of Siberia are two totally different companies. The former comes from Moscow, and the latter (which is currently touring in the UK) is from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. I have seen the Siberians a number of times over recent years, and they have always had an orchestra (20-ish musicians?) with them. Their Swan Lake is, as Alison says, a bit different. Unusually for Russian productions there is no jester (a big bonus in my view) and the character of Benno has been restored. The ending is much as Alison has described, Siegfried drowns in the lake after a fatal struggle with Rothbart. The choreographer Sergei Bobrov (the company's artistic director and former Bolshoi dancer) has clearly been influenced by Grigorovich's version for the Bolshoi in making Rothbart an incarnation of Siegfried's dark side. Trouble is, this psychological interpretation makes a bit of a nonsense of the story of Odette's plight. Another plus, though, is the inclusion of the Russian Dance (a great violin solo) in the ballroom scene, danced here by one of the aspiring brides. The sets definitely looked as if they needed a re-vamp the last time I saw it. Raymond Gubbay, please take note! The company's former prima, Anna Ol (sometimes transliterated as Aulle) was an excellent Odette-Odile, but she's now a principal with the Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow - dancing recently as Mary Vetsera opposite Sergei Polunin in Mayerling and as Nikita with a guesting Ivan Vasilev. Maria Kuimova is also a fine O-O, and I believe she is on the current tour. Unfortunately, casting isn't announced in advance but she's worth catching if you can. I can't say I particularly enjoyed their Fille, although it was quite jolly - perhaps I've got too used to the Herold score. Giselle suits the company best, in my view, as, to be honest, the male corps are not in the same league as the ladies, but I'm not sure if it's in this year's rep. James

It doesn't look as if the ents24 website has all the tour dates. I haven't found it very easy to get the full details, but they are also supposed to be in Truro (Hall for Cornwall) with Giselle and Swan Lake 19-22 November 2014, Croydon (Fairfield Halls) with Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet 23-25 November, Lowestoft (Marina) with Nutcracker 27-29 November, Watford (Colosseum) with Nutcracker 21-24 December, 23-25 Cambridge (Corn Exchange) 2-4 January 2015 and Sheffield (Lyceum) 6-10 January 2015. It's been a few years since I have seen them perform, so can't comment on their present standard. They used to have a live orchestra (and may do again now), but resorted to taped music for a while, and I think that may have lost them some venues. The Siberians from Krasnoyarsk slipped in to my local theatre. James

Re the ROH, "Joint Friends" was always a bit of a misnomer - whilst you are entitled to an extra ticket for rehearsals and events (if you're lucky - I've only managed twice in something like 12 years of membership to get tickets to an Insight evening), you still only get one membership card and one set of the quarterly magazines. This may have been mentioned elsewhere, but from 1st September 2014, Joint Friends will be no more, replaced by Friends+, which is basically an enhanced Friends membership, i.e. one extra ticket for rehearsals and a few days' priority booking - but still behind all the other hierarchies of membership. The cost of rehearsal tickets is creeping up, too. James

We happened to catch the BRB in Shrewsbury last week – quite by chance as we had only booked a short break in Shropshire the week before and hadn’t even realised that they were appearing there. We were very lucky to get what must have been the last pair of tickets for the final night of their stay. And lucky is the operative word, because I thought they were absolutely smashing. For some years now, I have read the reports from keen BRB supporters such as Janet McNulty, and now at last I can understand their enthusiasm. I am sorry I’ve missed out on them all this time. It was an extremely well planned programme – and well danced, too. Stand-outs for me were Lewis Turner (an endearing Willy Mossop) and Ruth Brill in the excerpts from Hobson’s Choice, the exquisite Momoko Hirata in the “Fanny Essler” pas de deux from La Fille Mal Gardee, and, in Façade, Jamie Bond and Mathias Dingman camping it up in the dead-pan Popular Song and Celine Gittens vamping beautifully in the Tango. It was a hugely enjoyable evening, and what a nice theatre the Severn is. James

Thanks, Alison. I hadn't realised that Alice had had so few performances on its first outing. James

It was great to see a full house in the Ipswich Cineworld last night for the live screening of “The Winter’s Tale”. Good to see so many rows of young people, too – I think there might have been a party booking organised by Dance East. It’s a really lovely ballet - dramatic, colourful, spectacular and, at times, almost unbearably heart-wrenching. Congratulations to Mr Wheeldon and his team for producing such an accomplished piece of dance theatre. I love the play – I met my wife in a student production of it – and I’ve seen it several times since. This production does full justice to the original work, and is a fitting 450th birthday present to the Bard. Lauren Cuthberston was an eye-opener for me. Rarely have I seen a dancer inhabit a role so perfectly – such nobility and serenity in the face of the ignominies inflicted on her – and she is given some ravishing steps to perform. Edward Watson carried off Leontes well, I thought. It’s a difficult part for any actor because his jealousy comes out of nowhere, like a bolt form the blue. The play has exactly the same problem. Unlike some, I didn’t feel that Watson went over the top in terms of his emotional responses – it was the steps rather than his expressions that just occasionally pushed the performance towards “silent movie” melodrama. The corps were given plenty of real dancing to do (hurray!), the silken drop cloths and video effects were stunning, and even the appearance of the bear didn’t disappoint – which I thought it might after reading the reviews. Perhaps it was one of those things that came off better on screen than in the theatre, where poor sightlines can easily mar the effect. Beautiful dancing from Sarah Lamb and Steven McRea, carrying off some extraordinary lifts in an Act II that simply burst with the joys of spring, and believable, committed performances from the whole company. Sad that Gary Avis, as the kindly father shepherd, and Valentino Zucchetti and Beatrice Stix-Brunell as swain and shepherdess weren’t credited in the programme given out. Everyone, I think, has mentioned Zenaida Yanowsky’s outstanding performance as Paulina – the compassionate but unyielding moral centre of the piece. There were definite echoes of Trevor Nunn’s 1969 production for the RSC, which I saw a schoolboy: the quick lighting changes to show the contrast between Hermione and Polixenes’ innocent dalliances and the carnal couplings witnessed inside Leontes’ head, the prominence of a rocking horse in Mamillius’s nursery and the “Bohemian” costumes – I could swear that Florizel wore the same colour “burnt orange” trousers. I really enjoyed the music – but what a pity that the wondrous musical climax Joby Talbot had provided to crown the “recognition” scene was played over a black-out –and all too obviously so that everyone could change costume for the wedding. For me, Act 3 was the weakest theatrically, apart from the final pas de deux, and does need some tweaking. The statue scene, for some reason, didn’t quite come off – not sure why, but I don’t think the moving steps helped as they added a slightly comic touch. I couldn't help picturing a stage-hand crouching behind the pedestal waiting to push them on. Is anyone else surprised that this ballet hasn’t been given an automatic revival next season? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was, and IMHO The Winter’s Tale is superior on all fronts. James

The problem I have with the Sleeping Beauty is that, as a narrative ballet, it lacks one of the essential ingredients of drama: suspense. Carabosse's spell is nullified before we've even got to the end of the Prologue, and everything that happens thereafter is pre-destined. Nor does the Princess or her Prince have to do anything to merit their inevitable happy ending. That is, of course, because the ballet was originally conceived to flatter the then Tsar, so is sufficient that the couple are both of royal blood. At least in Makarova's much maligned production the Prince actually had to fight some monsters on his way to Sleeping Beauty's bower. But I'll still be going to see it! James

I am wondering if there was a mistake in the programme, because Ceremony of Innocence to Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge is a work by Kim Brandstrup. I was at its premiere at Snape Maltings last June - Marcelino Sambé was in the cast. James

I can't access the principal casting either. As Beryl appears to have had the same difficulty, I'm wondering if there is a problem with ENB's website? James

How brilliant! I don't remember any steam, but it was fifty-odd years ago. James