aileen

Can we please move away from Brexit in this thread. It is a very serious matter and, whether you are for it or against it, it has created (or, alternatively, exposed) very deep divisions in the UK which will, I fear, take years to heal.

Gorgeous photographs, Don Q Fan. Roberta looks so happy and those are beautiful flowers that she has. And there is something very chivalrous about Alexander.

I've never heard of a combined ballet and tap class even at beginners level.

Well, Michael Keegan-Dolan is bringing his radical reimagining of SL to the Wells later this year. I'm not sure whether to risk it!

Well, this particular blogger has plenty of form when it comes to slagging off dancers. MC is not alone.

I think that Scarlett will have a brief to keep the new production firmly classical in terms of both the story and the choreography. SL is a money spinner and the RB can't afford to alienate its audience with something 'way out'. It's a tough commission for Scarlett. He will obviously want to stamp his own personality on the new production but will probably feel quite constrained. Both ENB and BRB have very nice traditional versions of SL which keep both audiences and critics happy. There doesn't seem to be a lot of scope to deviate much from these two productions which are quite similar. I don't think that we'll be seeing Siegfried in a psychiatric hospital suffering delusions of marrying a swan who is actually a woman in disguise or a Siegfried, confused about his sexuality, torn between a man and a woman (perhaps these things have already been done).

Sim, I was just thinking the same thing about Othello last night. The themes of race, jealousy and domestic violence are still so relevant. The play could be written today. Has anyone done an updated version along the lines of something like West Side Story (ok, that's a musical)? I thought that the whole company was on sparkling form last night.

I had longed wanted to see The Moor's Pavane and found it an intriguing piece this evening. It's very clever the way that the action is interspersed with the formalised dance. The costumes were beautiful (and so effective against the plain black background) and the tableau which greeted you when the curtain rose at the beginning was stunning. All the characters were well delineated but Brandon Lawrence dominated them all. I'd love to see it again. I very much enjoyed Wink (which featured several of my fave dancers) and I agree with Alison that reading the sonnets in advance would have helped illuminate the piece. I enjoyed Shakespeare Suite quite a lot more than I thought I would. Some sections were more enjoyable than others. I fully appreciate Mary's point about the tastelessness of the choreography in the Othello section but I have to say that Brandon Lawrence as Othello (again) was very compelling in it. The Macbeth section was also gruesome too, of course, with a silhouette of Macbeth stabbing some hapless person. I suppose that these two sections did provide some variety in tone otherwise the whole work might have been relentlessly upbeat. I thought that the audience was very cool this evening although it did warm up as the evening went on and was very appreciative of Shakespeare Suite. The man on one side of me hardly applauded at all. I was irritated by the audience for another reason as well: some audience members seemed to take it as a personal affront that I might need / want to pass them to go into or out of the auditorium. I know that some people don't leave their seats during the intervals (and that's fair enough) but they should not regard those who wish to do as some sort of aberration or nuisance.

Yes, a very assured public debut for Hayward and Sambe. They were charming individually and together. Hayward in particular is a star in the making. She really connects with the audience without leaving her character. She's an enormously versatile dancer as well and showed that she has a talent for comedy last night. I'm sorry but I thought that Widow Simone and Alain have morphed into pantomime characters and I still have a problem with the 'village idiot' character of Alain generally. I don't know what's up with Peregrine. He did do a few pawing movements and at least he didn't attempt to destroy the scenery.

That's an awful e-mail. My son had a head a bit like that at his first primary school. He was incredibly defensive and would not discuss anything in a professional manner but just started attacking us, the parents. However, and I say this supportively, you do need to calm down and not start firing off angry e-mails as this will just inflame the situation. E-mails are a wonderful tool but it's very easy to send a message which you later regret because you are angry or upset at the time that you compose it. I don't know what the legal position is regarding schools being able to insist on a pupil taking a certain number of subjects but it shouldn't come to this if the school has the pupil's best interests at heart and the parent(s) make a compelling case for the child dropping an option / taking fewer options. It's easy to say: move schools, but is this realistic or desirable given that your daughter is now in year 10? It may take her a while to settle in and this may have a negative impact on her academically and emotionally. You need to keep a cool head now so that you don't inflame the situation and back yourself into a corner. The e-mail was unprofessional but grit your teeth and try to rise above it and see whether you can resolve this situation to your daughter's satisfaction. That's not to say that you should not research alternative schools but don't burn your bridges so that you have to remove her, possibly to an even less satisfactory situation. Perhaps some teachers on this site could contribute to this particular discussion.

So is ENB. Company class at 11:00 and another segment at 2:10, via Facebook, I believe.

The company is performing an unknown (to the audience) selection of pieces at Sadler's Wells next weekend. I don't know whether to brave it or not. Has anyone seen this company? Does its rep bear any relationship to ballet at all or is it at the extreme end of contemporary dance (what ever that means)?

Ian, Begona is featured in the video that ENB released a couple of days ago. The Dance Europe site also has some photographs. I definitely think that I have seen a full length picture of Begona's dress somewhere.

Universities are starting back next week and Freshers at some universities are only going this weekend or even early next week. Some Freshers started a couple of weeks ago but sourcing tickets for the RB is probably not uppermost in their minds, even if they are aware of the student standby scheme.

Not taking A Level Maths can rule out many Economics, Engineering and Computer Science courses and so it is a risk dropping it if you don't know what you plan to study at university when you choose your A Levels.

I've heard that many pupils find the jump from IGCSE Chemistry to A Level Chemistry huge. My daughter is considering her A Level options at the moment and, although she quite likes and gets good marks in the subject, we have discounted it because several people who presumably got an A* in the subject at IGCSE or GCSE found it enormously difficult at A Level, certainly at the beginning. Obviously, you need Chemistry for certain careers and degrees but, if you don't, it's best avoided IMO unless you really have a passion and flair for the subject. Doing a subject that you really struggle with at A Level can have a knock-on effect on your other subjects as you have to spend a disproportionate amount of time on it. It sounds dreadfully calculating but, these days, if you want to get into a highly ranked university you have got to maximize your chances of getting the top two grades and choose accordingly. Apart from the subject(s) to be studied, subject choices generally don't matter to highly ranked universities; they just want high grades and they are all chasing the three A grade students. Whilst you don't want to study too many 'soft' subjects there is no point burdening yourself with 'hard' ones that you struggle with because you think that this makes you look a more serious student. It's all about predicted grades when universities are giving out offers. Even the most fantastic personal statement won't compensate for lower predicted grades. Tbh, I'm doubtful that the personal statements are even read in most cases as many offers are made within hours or a couple of days of the UCAS form being submitted to UCAS. Anyway, I've rather digressed from the original topic..... PS I wouldn't do modern languages at A Level either. It's very, very difficult to get an A* in them unless you are bi-lingual.

Ok, I haven't seen it yet but is it possible that the audience is being told that Hilarion did actually kill Giselle, which is left open at the end of Act 1? Alternatively, does Hilarion think that Giselle is actually alive (ie she had only been unconscious rather than dead) and so he tries to kill her as before (he's a resentful rejected suitor as well as a fixer)? Alternative 3 is that he feels threatened by the ghost of Giselle and lashes out to protect himself. It would be interesting to hear from Akram Khan what he had in mind but perhaps he wanted this scene to be ambiguous so that members of audience could find their own interpretations. Can't wait to see it now.

As far as I can recollect (and this relates to ICGSEs), the extra modules seemed to be the less 'meaty' ones on subjects such as climate change and Space. My children's selective school also tells parents that pupils who take the Dual Award can go on to study science A Levels, which I find surprising tbh as the 'stronger scientists' are normally expected to take three separate sciences at IGCSE. However, the emphasis at the school is very much on getting high grades rather than the number of subjects and nobody takes more than 11 unless s/he does a 'twilight' subject which is relatively rare (often they are bi-lingual pupils who are doing a GCSE in their mother tongue and this gives them another subject option during the normal school day).

I think that the pricier amphi seats (for this ballet) are just too expensive relative to the best seats in the stalls. Yes, you have a good view but you feel very far away from the action. At most performances the stalls, stalls circle and grand tier have sold well or relatively well but it's in the amphi that so many seats remain unsold. Is it my imagination that the more expensive seats in the amphi have increased in price quite considerably in the last couple of years? £61 is being charged for some performances.

Mid-week matinees rarely sell well unless it's The Nutcracker during the Christmas holidays. You really need some school parties to fill the theatre. Sadler's Wells sometimes has shorter programmes on Thursday afternoons aimed at school groups even though they may not be billed as school matinees. I wonder why the RB scheduled this matinee when there are weekend matinees.

BlueLou, I wouldn't regard Art as an easy option. In a previous thread on this site various people commented that it was the most time-consuming GCSE of all.

Particular kudos to the composer Vincenzo Lamagna for stepping in at short notice. In the article in The Times on Saturday Akram Khan said that he and Lamagna had to work together at night and that he (Khan) only got a couple of hours sleep, between 4 and 6am. It must have been incredibly stressful pulling it all together in time and I'm delighted to hear that the ballet was so well received as there was a lot riding on it. I'm pleased that I contributed, albeit very modestly, to the production. I'm looking forward to seeing it at the Wells.

I definitely think that you should raise this with the school and point out what getting into vocational school involves. These days, I would have thought that schools would keep records of what all their leavers are doing after school and so I'm surprised that the school didn't ask your daughter what her plans were. A big deal is made of leaving school these days with proms, yearbooks etc. When my sister left school at 16 in 1981 she walked out of the school after her last O Level exam and that was that; there were no final celebrations at all.

Ticket sales often seem to pick up after a run has begun. The last outing for this ballet feels very recent to me and perhaps others feel the same. Ditto The Dream, which seems to be on every year (I know it's not) perhaps because BRB are also performing it this year (and did they perform it last year as well?) and so you are aware of it being around even if it's not being performed at your local theatre.

Well, some heads are going to roll at C4. Who contracts to buy a show for millions of pounds without ensuring that 'the talent' are signed up? It's possible that contracts have not been signed or that the deal is conditional on the talent coming on board and that we will hear that the deal is off in the next few days or weeks. I must say that I hadn't realised how many programmes shown on the BBC are in fact made by outside companies. Is this a recent phenomenon? Presumably, the poor old BBC carries most or all of the risk.