aileen

Wow, I can't believe how little interest in this topic there is on this forum (apart from people tut-tutting about anonymous letters). No-one seems to have gone to see the Beyond Ballets Russes programme either. I conclude from this that, with a few exceptions, most of the members are only interested in the RB. If this letter had been written about the RB I'm sure that there would have been dozens if not hundreds of responses. Is this site actually for RB supporters and I hadn't realised it? If there is a site for ENB supporters perhaps someone will point me in the right direction.

Irmgard, I am really pleased to see your response to the letter in the Dancing Times as you obviously know ENB well. Apart from what I saw as a shortcoming in Wayne Eagling (not giving the dancers enough time to rehearse because he was so late in finishing the choreography) I agree with the points which you make in his favour, most of which I had mentioned in my post. I should also add that, although WE seems to enjoy choreographing, he does not insist that all new choreography is done by him and neither has he fallen into the trap of wanting to put on (his own) new choreography and re-choreographed classics all the time at the expense of the acknowledged classics. There is a good balance between old and new choreography. It must be very hard for the dancers to cope with all this controversy and uncertainty but they are not letting this show. I have seen Programme 1 twice and enjoyed it tremendously. I thought that it was a very well thought out programme and Rite, with its new costumes, tremendous dancing and really superb playing by the orchestra, was a tour de force. I found it more exciting than the RB's last year and I thought that the new costumes improved the work particularly the hair pieces which made the dancers look more human rather than insect-like.

ZxDaveM, I love your photographs. Do you sell prints of them?

I'm not convinced that public criticism of the ENB board (and petitions and individual letters to The Arts Council) will be helpful to the ENB dancers and staff. If a grant-giving body believes that an organisation is dysfunctional it may decide to withdraw the grant altogether and fund other organisations instead. It would have been better if the authors of this letter had asked for a private meeting with the board to discuss their concerns but perhaps they have tried this approach already and have not got anywhere. We don't know who the authors are. If they are major donors they would obviously have more influence than a group of dancers and ballet-lovers.

And I meant to finish by saying that IMO WE is leaving the company in good shape considering everything. I don't know if it will be good for ENB if WE moves on. That depends on whether the ENB board can find someone "better" to replace him, whatever that means. Only time will tell.

I've been wondering who should take over from Wayne Eagling since his resignation was announced a few weeks ago. The post of AD at ENB must be one of the most difficult ones in the ballet world. ENB's position as the poorer younger sister of the RB with a requirement to tour makes it difficult to balance the need to make money with the need to keep its dancers happy with interesting repertoire. I have to admit that I was shocked by the monstrous ego (and poor time management) shown by WE when he was choreographing The Nutcracker in the Agony and Ecstasy programme. Notwithstanding this, IMO he has some positive attributes and has been successful in a number of ways. As a former principal dancer and free spirit he seems to understand the needs and frustrations of young (particularly male) dancers. He has brought some very good young talent into the company and given them opportunities to develop as dancers. He has put on some interesting repertoire eg Roland Petit, the Beyond Ballets Russes programmes and Suite en Blanc while recognising the need to balance the books. He has been innovative in trying to bring in new audiences; the recent Tate residency, the ballets for children and the Flawless collaboration are recent examples. I'm sure that some people do not approve of these types of projects but I support them as long as the company continues to perform the classical repertoire at a high standard, which I believes that it does

Bangorballetboy, I didn't repeat any of the comments made in response to Luke Jennings' article. I think that it is reasonable to ask questions about the funding of students at the RBS, particularly in these difficult economic times. I don't understand why I am at fault here. I will read the RBS's annual report.

CeliB, thank you for telling us about your DS. It's very interesting to hear about the financial side of things (and thanks also to plie) because I think that most people assume that ballet training in the US would always be prohibitively expensive and certainly much more expensive than training in the UK. CeliB, I assume that your DS is training in accordance with the Vaganova "method". Are there a lot of different "methods" followed at the ballet schools in the US? Do you know if the vocational schools in the UK all train in roughly the same way?

Nina G, perhaps the RBS's training is not as good as it thinks it is. There's possibly a bit of arrogance which prevents them from looking at what the best schools abroad are doing and adapting where appropriate. I also wonder if the School could be out of touch with what companies are looking for in their dancers today. Perhaps what the companies regard as good technique is different from what the RBS considers to be good technique (I imagine that the benchmark moves ever higher).

I am coming to the conclusion that the reason that British students struggle to get into the UK companies (and make it to the top) is a combination of the following factors: 1. The UK is an attractive place to train, work and live in. 2. Many young people from overseas have a powerful incentive to excel in something like ballet as it enables them to escape poverty and leave their home countries. 3. There is generous funding for training in the UK 4. The overseas students who come into the schools are exceptionally strong technically, mentally and in terms of self-confidence. 5. They are strong technically because they have trained intensively from a young age, something which is disapproved of (and difficult to do) in the UK. 6. They are strong mentally because they have been able to leave their families and countries behind at a young age. 7. They are self-confident because they have generally come into the schools after winning international competitions leading to scholarships. Do UK students take part in these competitions to the same extent?

Plie, how did you find out about the ballet schools in the US (there must be so many) and decide which ones to try for? Are scholarships widely available to overseas students? Did you consider ballet schools in any other country?

Ribbons, do many British students who are not already at White Lodge audition for the Upper School?

Is there a difference in confidence between the British students who get into the RB Upper School from White Lodge and the British students who come in from outside? If the second group is more confident that is a terrible indictment of White Lodge.

Well, Luke Jennings' article has produced some lively responses. What I'm not clear about is who provides the funding for the overseas students. Is it the Prix de Lausanne organisation, the schools themselves or the British taxpayer?

Assemble mum, what you say about the British students is really depressing. You would think that, having been selected for White Lodge (after an incredibly tough selection process), the British students would be full of confidence but it appears that the reverse is true. Why are the overseas students so confident? Were they not subjected to the same assessing out process at their previous schools? Are they technically better, or are they just better overall because to be able to come into the Upper School they will have won an international competition leading to some kind of scholarship? I certainly agree that self-confidence is crucial in any performance based profession. I have read interviews with Polunin and Muntagirov and I was struck by the fact that they both said that they didn't really get nervous before a performance despite the fact that that were taking on lead roles at an incredibly young age. Perhaps self-confidence is really prioritised at these overseas ballet schools. It sounds as if the British students have a real inferiority complex when they compare themselves to the overseas students, and I would guess that this leads to a less than harmonious environment at the RBS.

Apart from POB, I would be very interested in finding out about ballet companies in, say, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. Do they recruit most of their dancers from the schools in their countries or are a lot of their dancers "imported" as in the UK?

With reference to my earlier post and the overseas companies which Luke Jennings mentions, I think that the Russian ones should not be compared with the RB as historically they didn't take many students from outside the Soviet Union, as far as I am aware, and it was not really possible for westerners to join Russian ballet companies. Without wishing to offend anyone, I think that the French (powers that be) have always taken a protectionist approach to all things French and I can't believe that it is just coincidence that POB take most of their dancers from their school. I'm sure that I read somewhere that foreign nationals cannot get funding to train at POB School. NYCB are probably the best company to compare with the RB. Is it really the case that most/many of their dancers are homegrown? I don't think that this is the case (at least at the senior levels) at ABT. Why is there this difference between the two companies, if this difference does in fact exist? IMO, the English style has largely disappeared from the UK ballet companies and those dancers who embrace more of that style are probably overlooked by ADs in favour of the showier, more athletic dancers.

The statistics quoted in the article are stark. It's interesting what he said about some of the other ballet companies. I repeat a point that I made earlier: the ballet schools in the UK (certainly post-16) are international schools that happen to be located in the UK, and the RB and ENB are international companies which also happen to be located in the UK. I don't know if you would say the same thing about BRB and NB. Although we have been considering the fate of British born students the position of British trained dancers is not much better. Most of the senior dancers in the UK companies trained abroad particularly at the RB and at ENB.

Alison, at the ROH I sat in seat B33 in the balcony (restricted view seat) and it cost me £31. I don't know how many what I would call full-price tickets for seats with a restricted view there are in the ROH. There are many £10 seats in the balcony at the Coli, and they don't all have a restricted view.

Afds, good. Can I remind everyone what good value tickets at the Coliseum are: tickets in the balcony are £10 and £15. Front row balcony tickets cost £10 but you have to 'phone the Coli for these. There is less legroom and you need to peer under the safety rail but this is fine for smaller people and children. In Rows B and C the rail does restrict your view a little but this is no worse than the front of the balcony at the ROH where tickets are more than twice the price.

If he wants people to leave him alone he should stop giving interviews and tweeting. For whatever reason he wants attention. Even though I don't know him I'd hate something to happen to him. I'm just concerned for him as a human being!

Gingerbread, I have just looked at his most recent tweets and, on the face of it, they are disturbing but, equally, they may just be idle remarks designed to be provocative. As I don't know him I can't say whether we should be concerned about his well-being or not. I wonder whether he finds it difficult to be out of the limelight and away from the adulation that he was used to when he was at the RB. The provocative tweets may be a cry for help or they may be nothing more than immature ramblings which do not denote any serious underlying malaise; I can't say which they are. I just hope that he does have some genuine friends who are looking out for him.

There must be at least some subjectivity about how good any particular ballet school is, and a school which suits one child may not suit another. There are good schools in the UK and good schools abroad as well. The UK ballet companies have many dancers (particularly in the higher ranks) who did not train in the UK at all and so the schools which those dancers attended must be doing something right. Although the number of British students training abroad is currently small I predict that that number will grow.The decision to send your child abroad to train at such a young age cannot be an easy one but it will be the right one for some families.

Marianne, fantastic! She is obviously an exceptional young woman.

I'm afraid I've lost interest in him (although he is/was a brilliant dancer). There are lots of other fantastic dancers to follow.