cavycapers

It seems to me that the Bolshoi and Mariinsky tutus are wrong, much too wide. Lovely Nella's tutu is more like it, but the NYCB is the correct one really, being much more Balanchine in its shape.

Oo, triple b, you are a star!

I am cross with myself now. I really wanted to see Cesar Corrales in Le Jeune Homme, and I booked hotel for Thursday night, thinking he was dancing in the evening, but i now see he's doing matinees only. i might have to stay another night to see him on saturday afternoon. Anyway, the point of this is, does anyone know if the Coliseum tend to do special offers on tickets, eg through Travelzoo, nearer the time? If i am seeing it twice, I could do with cheap tickets!

I like the Fonteyn tutu best of these too! The russian tutu is just standard issue everything as extreme as possible tutu but in red and the NYCB tutus are too pared back to represent a firebird. However, I am just reading Gelsey Kirkland's autobiography (heavy going!) and there is much about her hatred for her Firebird costume. Looking at images, i think she may have a point! I like the second picture, at the fitting, she looks well pissed off! Leanne Benjamin's tutu verynsimilar to the Fonteyn one, now I look at it.

I see that all the broadsheets have pictures of Darcey as ballerina (Odette and Sylvia) whilst the tabloids have pics of her from Strictly i don't think she received the award for services to Strictly. Sir Craig Revel Horwood...?

What a shame that BBC breakfast news programme, even though they kept referring to her as a ballerina, couldn't find a clip of Darcey actually doing ballet, instead of her performing on Strictly.

Sometimes the extreme flatness (almost to the point of looking like an inside out umbrella) seen in the Russian tutu is merely because they are brand new, and need to 'drop' slightly. You can see in a corps who is wearing a recently replaced tutu! This clip makes me smile as someone obviously hadn't told second dancer from the left that tutus were being worn slightly droopier this year. 😃 makes me want to chase them round with a steam iron! Hilarious how they overlap each other though, the taller girls' tutus over the shorter ones! I love the little swans' tutus in this clip though. The squashing together of these four tutus produces a lovely 'taco' shape. The four of them in a row makes a very pleasing effect.

I was looking at designs for older ladies to wear and came across these pics. These ladies are all very slim but look much larger than they actually are wearing the romantic tutus. How much better they look in their second choice of costume. In fact, some costumiers construct their romantic tutus in 'gores' which helps to disguise that ghastly bunching up of many layers of tulle at the waist.

Oh, those are glorious tutus! The Ratmasky ones. How elegant and beautiful you must feel wearing one of those. How much more suitable, too, for women rather than girls to wear.

Re the ENB Corsaire tutus, nycitybird, there is a third category of short tutu design, and this is the 'bell' tutu. It is not hooped and is softer than the pancake tutu so comes down to mid thigh. It is not often seen, but I am led to believe that it is traditional for certain ballets, Bayadere being one of them, although I don't know if it's the same for Corsaire.

Like Janet I like some of the Balanchine/Karinska 'powder puff' tutus, but not all of them. I love Suzanne Farrell in one in this Diamonds clip, but then maybe I just love Suzanne Farrell full stop! Even if she had been in a bin bag! How much easier is it for the man to get really close in partnering when the girl has this kind of tutu on, by the way, shown to wonderful effect here.

I think, by calling some tutus 'Russian tutus' i am referring to the styles that are offered for simplicity by tutu makers. Obviously, not all tutus used by Russian companies conform to this style, but it is far more the norm there, as is the 'English style' here. Classical Tutu skirts are available in the softer English Tutu style or the Russian Pancake Tutu style. The Russian Tutu (Kirov) is more tightly tacked and flatter in appearance. The English Tutu slopes gently from the High Hip-line and the net is tacked slightly looser so giving it a much softer fluffier look.

Watching ballet clips on YouTube, as you do in the holidays, reminds me again of my horror of Russian tutus. I mean, I adore tutus (in fact I even make them!), but those horrible ultra wide and flat pancakes tacked to within an inch of their lives that flap about and reveal ruffled behinds (not becoming to any ballet dancer over 16, in my opinion, and certainly not to women in their thirties) are ghastly. How much lovelier is the gentler English tutu.... Thiswas the clip that prompted me to post...

Hmm, still not convinced that these few exceptions disperse an impression I have built up over the last few years. I don't understand why she is not dancing with members of the ENB exclusively, even at the risk of not always appearing at her very best herself.

It has been my impression for a long time, that Tamara Rojo chooses to be partnered herself by guest artists, rather than using a younger permanent dancer of the ENB, (I know people will find exceptions such as in Khan's Giselle!) especially when we know what the partnering of an experinced ballerina with a younger inexperienced partner can produce (Klimentova/Muntagirov). I have often wondered if this gives the impression to the male dancers in her company, as it does to me, that she doesn't have full confidence in them.

I don't know whether to be very sad about this or very happy! Very happy for him obviously, but sad for the ENB that they had this amazingly talented dancer for such a short time.

Others have mentioned Daria Klimetova. Four years ago, I saw the ENB's Sleeping Beauty with Vadim Munatagirov and Tamara Rojo as the leads, but it was Daria's lovely lilac fairy that really moved me for some reason.

Elyse Borne mentions in this clip of Marianela and Thiago rehearsing 'Diamonds', that she can see the joy of dance in her, I paraphrase, but that is always how Marianela makes me feel.

Everything Marianela Nunez does moves me, always making me feel the same joy she feels in her dancing. I don't often cry at ballet, but Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo as R and J were definitely the exception.

I wish there were a trailer that represented what the BRBs Nutcracker in the round at the RAH was going to be like, instead of a few shots of Clara dancing around, although I perfectly understand why there isn't, but I am trying to persuade friends to go, whilst being a bit unsure myself of what to expect.... I am only basing my enthusiasm on the ENB's Swan Lake and R and J in the round, which were lovely experiences. I am hoping that there will be 60 twirling snowflakes, but maybe I have got it all wrong! Does anyone else have a better clue?

So, my friend and I were sat up in amphitheatre, and there seemed to be a point in the third act, when Marianela was running towards Vadim, and a tutued corps member got in her way. Did anyone else see that? Maybe it was deliberate! I did think that everyone from soloist up was divine, but that the corps for once were rather ragged, not something I've ever felt before with the RB.

The star of the show tonight was all of English National Ballet and their orchestra! As a whole, it was utterly glorious. However, although Erin's Takahashi and Jeffrey Cirio danced beautifully tonight, it did rather show how beautifully Jurgita Dronina and Aaron Robison acted their roles in their two performances this week. I'm afraid I was much more engaged with R and J than I was tonight. However, it gave me a chance to see James Streeter's glorious many layered Tybalt. When he was onstage I could look nowhere else! Pedro Lepetra was in all three performances I saw and was a very funny and engaging Mercutio. Overall glorious though, and I am already suffering from withdrawal symptoms...

When I saw Cesar Corrales dance Mercutio, I couldn't tear my eyes away! It seems odd that if Pedro Lepetra is of the calibre to dance Mercutio, and has done so many times, that he has not even had a promotion to first artist.

Lucky lucky me! ENB bring R and J to my home town for 5 nights! There were a couple of first night hiccups, but Jurgita Dronina and Aaron Robison were glorious, and Pedro Lapetra (I know, who? - plucked from the corps apparently) was a wonderfully cheeky Mercutio. By the way, does anyone know why Laurretta Summerscales and Cesar Corrales seem to be absent from these performances? I was looking forward to seeing them both. My only gripe was the business on the bed when Romeo is lifting Juliet about in the Morning Pas de Deux. Because Aaron Robison has such long legs, it seemed particularly inelegant when all we can see is bent-over bum in white tights (if you know what I mean). I have seen other casts handle this section better, although it is hard for any of them to make it look elegant. Once again, however, my favourite is Romeo's dance with Benvolio when the latter comes to tell him of Juliet's death. Gets me every time.

I saw their Midsummer Night's Dream a few weeks ago. Overall enjoyable, but a funny mixture of the lovely and the frankly odd! The white unitards hand-painted with flowers were absolutely gorgeous, but why top them off with frightful kitchen mop wigs? The use of projection of foliage for scenery was a fantastic idea, but i don't know if it was UV light or what, but all the dancers' teeth were picked out (remember when you used to go to discos and your teeth glowed?) in a most distracting fashion, so that they all appeared to be wearing false teeth. When the lights came up at the end, i was surprised at how normal looking they all were. Much better! With a few tweaks, this would have been lovely.