aileen

I didn't see this production, and am sorry to read that it had very negative reviews, but I do applaud the company for doing something up-to-date. There are so many choreographers doing new versions of the classics still in a historical setting that putting a traditional story in a contemporary context is a bold step. It's just very difficult to do successfully. I don't know why.

I don't know whether comparisons with elite athletes are productive but there are certainly Olympic medallists who have had to contend with many years of disappointment before they achieve success. Kelly Holmes particularly comes to mind; she won her two gold medals when she was in her thirties. Not everyone achieves success in their teens or early twenties. I know that there are many other competitions between the Olympics Games but it's the Olympics that everyone takes notice of and they only come along every four years. If you have to miss one Games because of injury or a bad patch which means that you don't qualify you have to wait eight years for another try.

I recollect that Dave from Davetriesballet attended classes in either Bristol or Bath. Dave, if you're reading this, how are you getting on in San Francisco? Some unfriendly girls grow up to be unfriendly women, sadly. It's not as if professional male ballet dancers are a rarity.

Isn't this a summer school?

So sorry to read this, Lisa. You must be so upset.

Don't forget to get her (assuming it is a her) spayed otherwise Biscuit will become a grandmother before you know it! Some vets and animal charities offer free or low cost neutering to people on lower incomes, sometimes a few times a year. It might be worth enquiring around.

Any chance of a discount on a cruise holiday, Tulip?

Was funding more generous in the past, or were the fees for lessons, vocational schools etc lower relative to parental incomes? I do know that fee increases for academic independent schools have far out-stripped inflation and average pay rises in the last decade so that education at such schools has become much more expensive. There have always been dancers from modest backgrounds at the RB who have come up through the RBS. How did they manage it? By going to the School at 11 and benefitting from full funding by way of grants plus scholarships from outside foundations and donors?

I cried when we gave away three of our five kittens. Happily, we gave two of them to our neighbours and so I see them quite often. Would any of your friends or neighbours like a kitten?

Goodness me. I thought that the dancers were deep in rehearsals already. I did wonder why AK didn't use Jocelyn Pook who I thought was his usual collaborator or, indeed, Gavin Sutherland who provided the re-orchestrated score for Corsaire. I hope that the company can put it all together in time.

I appreciate that this is a very sensitive topic for you. You don't say where you live but in the UK good quality minced beef is relatively inexpensive and forms the basis of dishes such as spaghetti bolognese and chilli con carne which are quite easy to make and can be re-heated if extra portions are made. I'm not an expert on vegetarian cooking but dishes made from pulses (eg lentils and chickpeas) can be cheap, tasty and nutritious but people who are not very adventurous in their tastes can be reluctant to try them. They generally need onions and / or garlic plus herbs or spices to make them flavoursome though. Tinned tuna is a cheap source of protein but it's best not to eat it more than once or twice a week. It can be mixed with drained tinned sweetcorn, a little mayonnaise and cooked pasta to make a wam or cold pasta salad. Alternatively, it can be mixed with some drained tinned chickpeas and a little chopped red onion which has been sprinkled with some lemon juice and left for a few minutes (this takes away some of the sharpness of the raw onion); this can then be eaten with some bread or a roll. Cheese, of course, is a good source of protein but you don't want all your protein to come from cheese. You need iron and there isn't any iron in cheese. Eggs in any form are a cheap and nutritious source of protein and iron. Perhaps you should start with learning how to make scrambled eggs and omelettes if you don't already know how (many teenagers don't) as these would provide a healthy meal when you are in a hurry. Good luck. It must be very difficult for you.

I like the 'When is a swan lake not Swan Lake?' question. The Maillot Swan Lake is the most radical I've seen. I can't remember whether it uses the Tchaikovsky score. I think that it does but the music is re-ordered (and parts of the score are probably omitted). I don't think that you could have a R&J without the basic ingredients of some sort of forbidden love and the two protagonists ending up dead at the end. With Swan Lake there seems to be more scope for psychological interpretations (eg dreams, alter egos) and different endings but perhaps that's because the origins of the basic story seem to be rooted in folklore whereas R&J is an established written work of literature.

I don't think that you were unduly negative, jillykins. Your review was mixed and you were very positive about several aspects of the performance. When I saw the Bolshoi SL on a previous visit I thought that it was pretty awful, actually. In particular, Siegfried's dancing was really rocky in places, which is not what you expect of the Bolshoi; I said as much at the time.

Sorry to hear that you're having cancer treatment, jillykins. Perhaps a little trip to see Corsaire a week later might be in order if you can get a return. Hope the chemo on Wednesday is not too arduous.

I don't think that gymnastics is a problem at a young age. Many East European and Russian ballet dancers started off doing gymnastics before switching to ballet. Daria Klimentova and Sergei Polunin are two who come to mind.

Well, I suppose that you could say that the RB has 'lost out' in not taking lots of talented dancers over the years. There just aren't enough places for all the promising graduates which it might wish to take. Some who accept contracts with other companies do make their way back to the RB after a year or two. I wonder whether the RB will continue to offer fewer full contracts to graduating students and offer apprenticeships under the auspices of the Aud Jebsen programme instead with the possibly of a full contract at the end of the year.

It seems very strange to me that the Bolshoi would risk its reputation by casting such a junior dancer in a principal role during a prestigious international tour. Are no other female principals or senior soloists available? I'm glad that I didn't pay £145 for that performance.

Have you seen Dance Moms on television, Sascis?! I don't think that any UK ballet mums are as bad as that.......Or perhaps some are.

Kate, I'm surprised by your comment that technique only starts to be taught at around 8 years of age. I recollect that my daughter took at least two RAD exams before she was eight. Sascis, children take more classes as they get older if they are serious about ballet. However, there are plenty of children who continue with ballet as a hobby right through their teens taking one or two ballet classes a week, perhaps with an additional pointe class. They manage to achieve respectable or more than respectable marks in external exams on this basis. A child can enjoy ballet without it becoming an all-consuming activity if s/he wants to. Large numbers of one or twice a week dancers at my daughter's school have got to Grade 7 or 8 standard.

Also bear in mind that young children's enthusiasm for a new hobby can evaporate very quickly! With ballet in particular, it's often the dressing up, pretty ballet bag and all the 'accessories', necessary or otherwise, which are the appeal rather than the actual classes. Conversely, your daughter may take to ballet from day one and remain passionate about it for many years. Personally, I feel that it's important to give a new activity a fair go before allowing a child to give it up. For ballet, this should (IMO) be at least a term unless your child absolutely hates it. Some schools allow children to try a taster class before you have to commit to a term or half a term's fees and might allow a child to turn up in street clothes and dance in bare feet for that class so that the parent doesn't go to the expense of kitting out his/her child only to find that s/he has given up the idea.

I don't know, alison. Duck, yes, the ceiling was a bit low for high jumps but, on the plus side, the studio was nice and deep. Sometimes I've seen dancers perform on very shallow stages in professional theatres. There was a nice little programme, with photographs, on sale. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a few lines by the choreographers talking about their works, perhaps instead of the chit-chat about the dancers. However, I appreciate that this is yet another thing to organise on top of everything else.

I wasn't specifically thinking of David Bintley or David Nixon. My question was prompted by the number of Spuck works being programmed in Zurich.

I saw this gala at Chisenhale Dance Space last night. I think that nine dancers were featured including a champion tapper called Spencer Darlaston-Jones. Unfortunately, pointe work had to be abandoned due to the floor and this meant that the Flower Festival pdd was replaced by a modern piece and the Corsaire pdd became a short solo. It's always fun to see professional dancers so close up. The pieces included solos, duets, trios and quartets and, as might be expected, some were more successful than others (IMO). They were largely contemporary in style and some incorporated what I think of as trademark European vocabulary ie fluttery hand movements, twitches and spasms. I think that I liked a couple of duets best: one very short duet for two men called Zweisamkeit, choreographed by dancers Theophilus Vesely and Alexander McGowan, and the other called Zamia choreographed by Edvin Revazov for a man and a woman which was performed last year and included a rather arresting image of the woman being swallowed up by her harem pants.

Which ballet companies are privately owned and receive no public funding, trog?

Having scanned the upcoming programmes for a number of companies, I have been wondering whether ADs are staying too long in their posts. Some remain with the same company for decades. There's a lot of talk of artistic freedom but if an AD is at the helm of a company for years then that freedom is funnelled down to a very small number of individuals. If the AD is a choreographer then it's easy for him or her to fill up much of the schedule with his/her own creations. On top of that, s/he may restrict outside commissions to one or two favourite choreographers. Both of these practices can crowd out up-and-coming and even other established choreographers. Ballet companies are not owned by the artistic directors and, as far as I am aware, they do not invest any of their own money in the companies. Most British and European companies receive significant amounts of public money. I have no idea whether ADs receive additional payments for the works which they create for their home companies. Does anyone know if they do? Whether they do or don't, is it desirable that one person determine the vision of a publicly funded artistic institution for years and years, perhaps creating the vast majority of the new works for the company and seriously restricting access to choreographic commissions to outside choreographers? It's very striking how many of the AD's own works are being shown at a number of European companies in the 2016/2017 season. Does anyone else have any concerns about this or is this just the way that ballet is, always has been and perhaps even should be?