aileen

Thank you , Anjuli, for such a detailed (and prompt! ) response to my post. Perhaps you know who should read this! Sadly, it appears that his dancing is already suffering, although he did put in a very good technical performance at the recent Pavlova Gala, but I imagine that his partner (who is at the RB) had a great deal to do with that. Let's hope that, having had a break from company life, he returns to the RB or joins another company.

I don't know if this is the best place to post this but, after reading some of the reviews of Polunin's performances in Men in Motion, I have been wondering how freelance ballet dancers go about their business. Firstly, how do they do classes? Do they do them at home, hire a studio and a coach, perhaps with others, or make arrangements to do classes with a friendly ballet company? How long does it take for a dancer to lose fitness and technique once s/he stops doing classes and rehearsing regularly? Secondly, is it really possible to perform a piece (particularly a piece which the dancer has not danced before) to a high standard without a coach? I know there's youtube nowadays and of course fellow dancers can help but is this an adequate substitute? (I've also wondered how dancers prepare their gala pieces and where they get their costumes from.) Thirdly, how long do you think a top ballet dancer can dance at the same or at a similar level once s/he has left the structure and discipline of a ballet company? Does it make a lot of difference if the dancer moves into more contemporary ballet?

I saw this programme yesterday afternoon. It's hard to think of a better way of spending £12.50 especially as I was upgraded to the upper circle. I preferred Two Pigeons to D&C, which I think is a bit of an acquired taste. I found the costumes off-putting: very bright colours for the dresses and fitted shirts and belted trousers for the men which looked odd for ballet to me. I was a little disappointed with the lead pairing (Caley/Sakuma). There was little chemistry between them and some of the partnering was a bit laboured on occasions. Caley did not have a lot of stage presence IMO but, to be fair, he had some rather limp choreography to contend with. There was more chemistry between Bond and Roberts in Two Pigeons and Roberts was delightful as The Young Girl. Celine Gittens was excellent as the the Gypsy Girl; her dancing was very good and she really brought out the character of the role. I loved the Parisian studio set and it was exciting to see the live pigeons play their parts (they should have taken a bow at the end). I thought that there was a reasonable audience given the programme and the time of day. I don't think that you would ever fill the Coli at a mid-week matinee unless it was the school holidays and Swan Lake or The Nutcracker was on. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon. I congratulate BRB for putting on this comparatively rarely performed pair of ballets. I'm about to book for Coppelia.

John, the ENB tickets may be on sale already but a lot of people book quite late. My daughter and I will definitely be going but we haven't yet booked; there's not the same scramble for tickets as there is at the ROH. Those people who have no particular allegiance to ENB and just want to see Swan Lake might decide to wait for the RB's which is only a couple of months later. The Nutcracker is different; you expect it to be performed around Christmas. Sim, the RB's Nutcracker may have been sold out but I don't think that ENB's was although it sold well. I seem to remember that there were empty seats at the performances which I attended, and I was able to book a seat for a performance with ENB's top pairing at very short notice.

I find it annoying that the RB will be opening with Swan Lake because this could have a detrimental effect on the ticket sales for ENB's Swan Lake in August. ENB has far less money than the RB and really relies on the big classics at the Coli to balance the books and subsidise less popular (with the public) programmes. Could they not have chosen something else from their vast repertoire to open their season? I for one will not be going to the RB's Swan Lake.

From other comments I have read, the Men in Motion programme wasn't particularly well attended last night. There's just so much ballet and dance on at the moment.

I really hope that SP does dance with the RB again in some capacity. Guesting might work well for all concerned. In the meantime, I hope that the Men in Motion programme goes well tonight. If anyone goes to see it I'd be interested to know what s/he thinks of it as I probably won't see it having already booked for so much this month.

Does the RB just have too many senior dancers? Leaving Polunin aside, I've wondered whether the dancers feel that they dance too much or too little. Some do a lot of dancing etc. elsewhere. I doubt that those dancers would like a heavier workload at the RB. I have seen American commentators complaining about how little the principals dance at ABT but many of them are pursuing other projects elsewhere (one even has his own ballet company).

I am only really thinking of the men. There are or were 10 male principals (one of whom is a guest) - you have only mentioned three- plus a large number of experienced male soloists. IMO SP was overburdened because of his exceptional physical qualities (good height coupled with great technique) and the publicity surrounding the emergence of such a talented male dancer at such a young age (and RBS trained as well). It seems to me that there may have been a lack of communication between SP and the RB in that the RB thought that they were keeping him happy by giving him so many roles whereas he wanted fewer and more time off. There are still the issues of SP not liking the daily discipline of classes and rehearsals and, if his comment to the press last week truly reflects what he feels, his lack of enthusiasm for partnering the ballerinas, which may explain why IMO there was little chemistry between him and Rojo when they performed together at the Pavlova gala last week. It's hard to know how those issues can be resolved

As far as I could see SP was cast in the leading role in every production this season, which seemed to be part of the problem as far as he was concerned in that it did not give him as much time as he wanted to guest elsewhere or even to have a bit of a break. I have noticed that many of the other principals seem to have breaks in their schedules when they are dancing elsewhere or doing other things. If the RB had not been so dependent (I said "so dependent" not "dependent" above) on SP then why did they have to bring in Marcelo Gomes (whom I personally enjoyed seeing)? IMO they should have rehearsed three casts for The Dream anyway

I'm very surprised by this news, especially after his comment in the press last week about his visa. A large wealthy company such as The Royal Ballet should never have allowed itself to get into the position of being so dependent on a single dancer. In my opinion it says a great deal about the decisions which the company has made regarding the hiring and development of dancers

Who are the tall men in the Royal Ballet (Nehemiah Kish is one)? A lot of them look rather on the small side especially when you look at how tall many of the women are. I understand that 3 inches are added to their height when they are on pointe

Thanks for this post. I popped along to Clapham Picturehouse today (I only live a couple of miles away) having booked at 1pm. The cinema was not full. I enjoyed the performance particularly as it's not a ballet that seems to be performed in the UK much. I did see an ABT performance a couple of years ago but was not impressed. I thought the Bolshoi performance good but not stunning. The Bolshoi's audience was rather restrained in its applause. I don't know if that is typical. I noticed that The Bright Stream and Raymonda will also be shown. I would like to see them as, again, they don' t seem to be performed in the UK much.

Agree with everything said above. I do though still have quite a lot of sympathy for him. He's been on the ballet treadmill since he was a young child and only took up ballet as a means of escaping poverty. His natural talent, competitive nature and the knowledge that his family were making huge sacrifices drove him to succeed but what has come across in previous interviews as well as the most recent ones is that he never really had a love of dance. We the public are a fickle lot and I agree with Ann that he will soon be forgotten as other stars appear. I for one am a huge fan of Vadim Muntagirov over at ENB. He seems to be a complete contrast to Polunin in that he enjoys dancing and loves dancing with his regular partner Daria Klimentova (I hope he enjoys dancing with the other ballerinas as well!)

This is my first post. I wonder if Polunin realises how damaging these interviews are to him although they provide good publicity for Putrov's new Men in Motion programme. He effectively says that he doesn't like partnering ballerinas! Does he really have a future in classical or even contemporary ballet? He could I suppose join an all male troupe but I'm sure they still do plenty of classes and rehearsals neither of which he likes.