aileen

Sorry, I misread an earlier post. Maintenance LOANS are, of course, still available. It's maintenance GRANTS which are being abolished, I think. As others have said, the loans are often insufficient to cover living costs. Parents have to top them up and / or students have to work during the holidays and perhaps during term time. However, the nature and intensity of upper school training would probably make a term time job impractical if not impossible.

I thought that maintenance loans were being abolished.

Well, I found the ROH rather cold last week. There was a blast of cold air in the corridor outside the amphitheatre. I was glad to be wearing a long sleeved top plus jacket plus fleece (and I put my coat under my seat). I can quite understand why staff working near the front door would want to be warmly dressed.

I strongly suspect that the agencies (Sadler's uses them as well) have taken a lot of the tickets. It's always worth keeping an eye out for returns for ENB productions as good (ie pricier) tickets often appear on the websites close to the performances. My pet theory (which I've mentioned before) is that a tranche of tickets is held back for ENB's major supporters and if any of the tickets are not wanted they are put back for sale on the website a day or two before the performance or even a few hours before. I believe that patrons of Sadler's Wells can also get tickets for apparently sold out performances and so a certain number of tickets must be reserved for them as well and, presumably, any unused tickets are put on sale as well.

I am wondering if the tickets haven't officially gone on sale yet (although I managed to buy one a few weeks ago). I don't think that booking for the autumn period has opened yet. If I'm wrong about this then who has bought all the tickets? The ticket agencies? The performances were shown as sold out almost immediately.

I saw this live this evening and enjoyed it more than in the last run. In particular, there seemed to be fewer longueurs in Becomings and I wondered whether the choreography had been tweaked. As I think I may have said last time, I felt that Becomings perhaps should have ended after Osipova's wistful solo. I wondered whether some sections of Becomings would be too dark on the screen and how the horizontal triangles of coloured light would come across but it seems that the lighting / lighting effects worked well in the cinema. It is very dramatic to have the lasers at the end crisis-cross the auditorium but I seem to remember them being more multi-colored last time. One other thing that I wondered about (and I know that we've discussed this subject before) was whether Osipova's duet with Watson, which involved quite a few lifts in which her legs were splayed directly towards the audience, made uncomfortable viewing. How close up were the shots of Osipova's crotch?

I'm sorry to hear about your hands, cackles. However, nobody should be giving you any kind of look. As a paying customer, your only duty is to sit quietly during the performance. Whether and how you applaud (ie enthusiastically or perfunctorily) is up to you.

I would like to see Ballet Black (I've never seen them) but I'm afraid that I've given up going to the Barbican as the journey is convoluted from South London and I always find it difficult finding my way there (or around once I'm there). Apparently, the High Walks are currently closed and, even when they were open, I never enjoyed walking up and down dingy staircases and around the virtual ghost town of the Barbican complex in the dark. I'm not a nervous person but I didn't feel particularly safe getting to my bus either. It's pretty dead around that area at night.

Booing a replacement dancer is horrible and completely unjustifiable however disappointed you might feel. Actually, at the ROH I have also witnessed the opposite: people applauding the announcement of a replacement for a dancer who could not appear.

I don't see the need for booing. You can just not applaud and that sends the same message. If I haven't liked something I don't clap or I clap half-heartedly.

I wonder whether Tamara Rojo attended / stayed for the whole of the Prix this year as she had the Critics Circle Dance Awards yesterday. Academie Princesse Grace seems to be producing some very good dancers. Marina is there as was the talented Rina Kanehara who is getting so many opportunities at ENB, plus a couple of their (female) graduated have gone to Northern Ballet recently.

The TfL website is extremely good. It shows bus routes, plus the location of the stops on a map. If your Travelodge is the one in Union Street then it is a short walk to Blackfriars Road where you can get the 63 bus to Kiing's Cross, which is just across the way from St Pancras Station. You will have a slightly longer walk to Waterloo Road for the 68 bus for CG. I usually get off at the stop immediately after the bridge and walk up to the ROH past the theatre where The Lion King is on (I can't remember its name). I'm not sure how you'd get to Victoria Station but the TfL route planner should be able to help you with this. On journey times, you'd only be going one or two stops on the 68 bus - just taking you over Waterloo Bridge. The 63 route is longer and can be slow depending on traffic so you need to bear this in mind when planning your journey.

A few years ago I complained about an usher at the Coliseum. I spoke to the FoH manager who was very sympathetic but asked me to put my complaint in writing, which I did. I received a very prompt written apology saying that the usher in question had been spoken to. I was also offered some kind of compensation. I can't remember what it was (possibly a reduction on a ticket) and I didn't take it up because that was not the purpose of my complaint. Actually, I think that my seat was upgraded for the performance after I complained and I felt that it was a bit greedy to take up the offer whatever it was. I haven't seen that FoH manager recently. Perhaps he's retired or moved on. So, the Coli, which I have complained about on this site, actually dealt with my complaint very well on that occasion.

I frequently have difficulty using the revised Coliseum website on my iPad. I have to scroll down for ages to find the booking pages and sometimes all I get is a dark blank screen.

Is there a fox or a new intimidating cat in the garden? Has something about her outside environment changed? It sounds as if she has lost confidence or become frightened of something outside.

A poster asked about Cordelia Braithwaite. I saw her yesterday and thought that she was very good. I don't think that the ballet sections are supposed to look as polished as we would expect to see them as performed by a top classical company today. Technique and dancers' physiques have changed so much over the years and the company featured is supposed to be a small provincial company, I think. Liam Mower's classical training at the RBS certainly shines through but I think that he was meant to be partnering his ballerina in that rather overblown affected way. I actually didn't like Bourne's Sleeping Beauty. It was just too camp for my taste. As they say: each to his own.

An excellent post, Harwel. I agree that you have to get your parents on board with this. It's not possible to do it alone. You need their support in terms of finances, transportation and time. It's only in places like Cuba and Russia that the State / the school will underwrite the training and living expenses in their entirety. Actually, yesterday I got chatting to a dance teacher working in a school who said that she had got a (female) student who had only taken up dance in year 9 (the start of the CGSE course) into Laban so it is possible to start late. However, Laban is a contemporary school and I do think that it's much harder to start late in ballet. You hear of the odd dancer who started at 12 but they trained intensively from when they did start and they often had a background in other forms of dance or gymnastics. More boys than girls seem to be able to start late for some reason. As Harwel has said, you need to have a frank 'round table' discussion between you, your parents and your teacher. You may have to widen your aspirations. There is a world of dance beyond the Royal Balket School and, whilst places in contemporary schools are still very competitive, there is more opportunity to enter these schools at 18 or older which would give you more time to work on your technique and artistry.

I feel very far away from the stage in the amphitheatre at the ROH and this definitely seems to (negatively) affect my enjoyment of the performance. Is the amphitheatre actually further back than the balcony at the Coliseum or am I imagining this?

All's fair in love, war and booking tickets provided that you intend to use them (IMO).

I am a Friend and I was going to post something about this. Tbh, I can't really begrudge the changes as the scheme was extremely generous if you booked the more expensive tickets and went to see half a dozen performances a year. The two-for-one voucher alone was worth a lot. I don't think that priority booking is a particular advantage as the shows don't sell out that quickly. The scheme is still worth it if you tend to book shows individually but everyone benefits from the 20% discount if they book for two different productions at the same time.

I have checked my e-mail account (inbox and junk) and there's no e-mail from the ROH today. I may have received one on a previous day but I can't be bothered to check.

Oh, I must have missed it then among the advertisements for opera and the cinema broadcasts. I'll have to try for a return for the Watson cast nearer the time.

I'm going to see this next month. I'm pleased to hear that it stands up to a second run. One of its strengths is that the three pieces are so different in mood and staging.

I normally get a reminder when public booking is opening but I don't seem to have got one this time. Did other people?

I feel that the competition is more balanced this year with all the candidates having danced at least one leading role. As for Stina Quagebeur, I've already voted for her in the Audience Choice Award.