aileen

I took three teenage girls (who all dance recreationally) to see this last night and I enjoyed it much more than last week. The dancing in the ballet sequences seemed to be better and I found the characterisation more developed. Possibly seeing it from above helped as well. I think that what put me off a bit last week was Dominic North (a favourite of mine) being paired with a dancer who was far too tall for him in the salon and the Les Sylphides scenes. I felt that Liam Mower was rather more convincing in the same role (he got the camp comedy spot on) and he also had the benefit of a more suitable partner height-wise. The girls all loved it and particularly commented on the music which is so atmospheric, and beautiful at times. I was puzzled by the score. In some parts there was piano music but it was not being played by the pianist in the pit and I think that this may also have also happened with the strings at times. Are there two scores, one for when recorded music only is being used and the other for when there is also a live orchestra? An earlier poster has mentioned a problem with the amplification / distortion of the music at one performance but I experienced no such problem at either of the performances which I attended.

ENB used to employ 64 full-time dancers; I don't know whether this is still the case. The company uses students from ENBS and engages some 'freelancers' for Nutcracker but I don't suppose that any of them will dance any of the 'featured' roles.

Goodness me! What a lot of cast changes! I suppose that three injured Giselles couldn't have been anticipated but I do wonder whether the middle ranks of the company are a bit thin / are not being sufficiently developed. Unfortunately, the company is currently plagued by injury; one of the dancers has tweeted that over 25 dancers are out.

This is part of an evening event at DPG. There will be access to the Vanessa Bell exhibition plus an interview with Wayne McGregor's dramaturg, Uzma Hameed, and a poetry reading. It's the day after the vine a transmission. Details and booking on the DPG website.

Actually, I'm not keen on MB's Sleeping Beauty either (I saw it live last year).

So agree about Stina Quagebeur in the role of Myrthe in Akram Khan's Giselle. I'd love it if she won the Audience Choice award in the Emerging Dancer competition (hint, hint!) as she was exceptional.

My highlights: ENB Corsaire (various casts and dancers but I particularly enjoyed Brooklyn Mack's performances) ENB's Broken Wings (so original and I feel that it needs very little revision; slightly preferred Cao to Rojo) Swans in ENB's Swan Lake in the Round (a thrilling spectacle especially when viewed from above) Rina Kanehara as Clara/SPF in ENB's Nutcracker BRB Moor's Pavanne Hayward/Sambe Fille (delightfully fresh and engaging) My least favourite: Wheeldon's Strapless (dull and cliched) Anastasia The Invitation Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (baffling and a waste of rice) Nederlands Dance Theatre (good dancers; awful choreography)

I saw this last night. The staging and music were great and the story was (IMO) clearly told, although I did read the synopsis of the film beforehand. I did have some reservations about the ballet sequences in the first act. I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be a bit comedic or if they were supposed to reflect the lower technical standards of a small provincial ballet company of the 1940s. Many of the Bourne dancers have trained at vocational ballet schools, Central and Rambert in particular, so they will have had elite training in ballet but Les Sylphides requires really pristine dancing and I did find this section a bit uncomfortable. I had no problem with Ashley Shaw on pointe, and I wondered how the women coped with the pointe sequences as I assume that pointe work does not form part of the daily company class. Were specialist ballet teachers brought in to coach the pointe sequences? The story is very clever with so many parallels between Vicky Page and the girl in the HCA ballet. I loved the way that the HCA ballet was done and thought that it would make a good one act ballet today. Has anyone done it? Turning to the characterisation, I feel that the character of Lermontov was a bit under-developed and that more time should have been given to the 'tug-of-love' between Craster and Lermontov / Vicky's dedication to her art.

On the coughing front, coughing into a handkerchief really does muffle the sound but few people seem to carry a proper handkerchief these days.

Very interesting to hear from someone who has had to wear hearing aids from a young age, Hfbrew. I feel that, unlike with glasses / contact lenses, there is a bit of a stigma and embarrassment around hearing aids. I'm not sure why; perhaps it's because they are associated with aging and we live in a rather ageist society. I wonder whether people have traditionally been too undemanding about the effectiveness and comfort of their hearing aids. My uncle wouldn't wear his because he found them uncomfortable and he would not persist with the fitters until he found something suitable. He was rather awkward socially anyway and his deafness made conversation even more exasperating. Refusing to wear hearing aids (for whatever reason) can lead to social isolation if the person starts withdrawing from social events or becomes reluctant to speak on the telephone. There is a danger of friends drifting away if conversation becomes laborious because everything has to be repeated or the person becomes reluctant to initiate contact because they find it hard to participate in conversation. It is to be hoped that as more assertive and consumer-minded generations start to require hearing aids they will insist on having well-fitted devices which meet their particular needs and on public spaces being properly adapted to the needs of those with hearing problems.

It's amazing that a ballet like Las Hermanas was filmed for the BBC and shown on mainstream television (I must say that Monica Mason was very arresting in the clip that was shown). It demonstrates how much more high-brow the BBC was in the past. These days, there is great concern about ratings and this inevitably has an effect on programming choices plus, I think, it partly accounts for the ubiquitousness of certain presenters who seem to pop up everywhere.

I wonder whether the Peter Wright programme was made specifically for BBC4 whereas the Nutcracker and Looking for Margot ones were made for the 'main' BBC channels. They are so different in tone and content. If the BBC goes or is hobbled in some way (it has many powerful enemies) we will be much the poorer culturally. Personally, I would miss the radio more as I spend more time listening to Radio 4 than I do to watching television.

I thought that it was a very good programme. I was pleased that we saw the GPDD in its entirety plus most of FH's solo. We also saw the Rabbit Drummer in action on stage plus part of the Snowflakes waltz. AC came across as a very caring partner - FH was lucky to have him - but we knew that he would be anyway. I think that they make a lovely partnership and I hope that they will dance together regularly.

I haven't seen this programme yet (but plan to do so at some point) but I agree with Floss that programme makers seem to like to have two or three themes and in this (based on what previous posters have said) they seem to have been (a) FH's debut as the SPF with a bit of her back story and ( the students auditioning for and taking part in The Nutcracker. That just seems to be how these behind-the-scenes documentaries are done. In the three Agony and Ecstasy documentaries featuring ENB there were clear themes. For example, in the first programme they were the barely-out-of-school Vadim Muntagirov's debut in Swan Lake at the RAH, the gruelling training schedule for the Swans and the problem with obtaining a visa for Polina Semionova necessitating the late substitution of Daria Klimentova (who, in a neat contrast to Muntagirov, was described as being in the autumn of her career). The human interest side of things (difficult start in life, tough training regime, disappointments on the way to success etc) invariably takes precedence over more facts, analysis and additional footage of the people featured doing the thing that they excel at. I have to say, also, that, whilst I think that FH is an exceptional dancer and is on her way to becoming an international star if she manages her career astutely, I believe that both the BBC and the RB may have been keen to push the new star British ballerina angle and it's for that reason that she featured so prominently at the expense of some other dancers and material.

The Lilac Fairy variation is apparently very difficult. In the last run I didn't see a single really good one.

rachelv, some dance schools offer teenage ballet classes aimed at teenagers who are complete beginners or who are returners who did ballet for a short time as young children. They seem to be becoming quite popular.

Sorry, should have said a 'standing shoulder lift' in paragraph 2 of my previous post.

I do like to see a Nutcracker each Christmas and, despite its flaws, which seem to bother me less than some other posters, I find much to enjoy in Eagling's Nutcracker. So, I went along to the matinee today. Eighteen year old Rina Kanehara gave an astonishingly assured performance as Clara/SPF. She was ably partnered by Guilherme Menezes as the Nutcracker, Yonah Acosta as the Nephew and Fabian Reimar as Drosselmeyer. Eagling's choreography has a tendency to be fussy with awkward lifts, 'drags' etc and an abundance of steps but this afternoon everything (pdd for Clara and the Nutcracker, pdt for Clara, the Nutcracker and Drosselmeyer and the GPDD) went very smoothly indeed. To those in the know, has Eagling's tweaked his choreography? I seem to recollect a shoulder lift in the GPDD in previous years but perhaps I have imagined this. Shiori Kase's image appears all over the Nutcracker related merchandise and it's a great shame that she's injured as she is exceptional in the role of Clara/SPF. I was pleased to see the pointe shoe tree in all its glory and managed to get some decent photographs before the hordes descended!

Yes, it's a shame that it's tucked away in the area previously occupied by the Box Office. The dark background and lower lighting make it hard to take a good photograph of it. As earlier photographs on Instagram showed a different background the tree must have been moved, possibly for its own safety, as the entrance hall can get very crowded especially now that the Box Office has been relocated in the main part of the entrance hall.

Well, I'm giving it a miss this time but it is to be hoped that the run will not be plagued with the kind of injury problems which the production has last time it was performed, in 2014.

There is also Chelsea Ballet Company, and Bristol Russian Ballet School seem to put on adult performances.

I have really liked seeing / listening to Deborah Bull. She comes across as highly intelligent and has a more natural style of delivery. It's a shame that she's not used more.

I see that the entire run (7 plus weeks) is completely sold out. Amazing. I'll be seeing it next week.

The 'cast board' at Sadler's Wells usually seems to be positioned quite close to the front entrance.

It has an 'Arab slave trader' theme with a long whip which is brandished several times. The female dancers are a sort of harem and are dragged along the floor at one point. Clara rescues her brother Freddie who is tied up (I think that this bit has been removed or altered now).