aileen

Wow! That's an amazing analysis. The percentage of the company in the artist and first artist ranks is particularly striking. Whilst ENB has had a fair turnover of dancers in the last few years the number of departures this year (both during and at the end of the season) is exceptionally high by recent standards. I do think that the company needs to carry out a root and branch review, looking at company structure, career progression, pay and working conditions. Whilst some turnover is inevitable and probably healthy haemorrhaging large numbers of experienced dancers is not. Whilst not all dancers will be a great loss to the company if morale generally becomes very poor even the 'stars' and the most talented dancers will move on because nobody wants to work in an unhappy working environment if s/he has other options.

I saw that tweet by Madison Keesler and thought that the timing of it was interesting. I did wonder if she had been reading this thread. Jinhao Zhang is apparently joining Bavarian State Ballet as a soloist. As an aside, the dancers' summer break is starting very late this year and they must be back in the studio by early September at the latest for Giselle at Sadler's Wells later in the month which makes for a rather truncated holiday. I suspect that workload is also a factor in these departures. The international touring must be a great experience for the dancers but it's tacked onto an already very heavy workload. The September performances at the Wells were a late addition to the schedule and preparation for these will be on top of the rehearsals for the Autumn tour and the performances at the ROH (all new rep for most dancers) and, of course, the rehearsals for the marathon Nutcracker season at the Coliseum. Various dancers have alluded to the workload and to the scheduling of performances, particularly the intense Christmas period (usually with only Christmas Day off). I can understand why corps dancers who appear in practically every performance of the big classics might want to move somewhere else where the workload is more reasonable. I've thought for some years that the Nutcracker performances should be cut back (giving the dancers a few days off over Christmas) as they don't all sell out at full price and the law of diminishing returns applies.

And amazingly, as far as I could tell everyone in the programme turned up - unusual for a gala, in my experience.

The ballet pieces were: 1 a pdd from Esmerelda performed by Rina Kanehara and Aitor Arrieta from ENB; 2 the White Swan Adagio performed by Ekaterina Chebykina and Xander Parish from the Mariinsky; 3 an excerpt from Three Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan performed by Romany Pajdack; 4 a Christopher Marney piece entitled performed by Sayaka Ichikawa and Jose Alves from Ballet Black; and 5 Qualia performed by Olivia Cowley and Ed Watson. All the dancers had to contend with some rather large standing lights which encroached upon the available space but all performed very well. Kanehara was obviously nervous about her balances and had a slight wobble early on in her fouettés but recovered very stylishly. The performance received a lot of loud applause. I couldn't take my eyes off the willowy frame of Chebykina. The were no lifts accompanying the diagonal 'hops' across the stage but I don't know whether this was due to space or Heath and Safety considerations or whether the lifts do not occur in the Mariinsky version. Again, it was well received by the audience. Pajdak performed very winningly but it's a very slight piece IMO. Ballet Black's piece was charming and I was really taken by Ichikawa but, like the Brahms Waltzes, it didn't go down terribly well with the audience, which was a shame. Qualia received the most applause for the ballet contributions. The combination of Cowley's tall, slender physique, so well suited aesthetically to this work, and the extraordinary shapes created by the dancers make it a very striking piece.

My husband and I went to this tonight and I must say that we really enjoyed it. The huge mixture of dance styles and the (mostly) swift links between pieces prevented one from flagging even though it was a long evening with two acts of approximately 70 minutes each. A decision was made that the dancers should perform in their practice clothes (in acknowledgment of the fact that the Grenfell Tower survivors lost everything when they fled for their lives) and there was no scenery and minimal changes of lighting. It was interesting to see which pieces worked best in this setting. Standouts for me were the hip-hop piece choreographed by Tommy Franzen (I can see why he's won so many awards) and performed by him and Xena Gusthart, an excerpt from ZooNation's Mad Hatters Tea Party (which Franzen also performed in) and a duet from An American in Paris performed by Leanne Cope and her very engaging partner, Ashley Day. I was also very taken by Danny Collins who performed in an excerpt from Drew McOnie's Jekyll & Hyde. Arlene Phillips is to be congratulated for assembling such a huge cast of dancers at such short notice in such a worthy cause.

Surely TR's remuneration reflects the fact that she is still performing as a lead principal dancer with all that that entails in terms of retaining technique, fitness and stamina and rehearsals etc. I appreciate that recently she has not appeared in every programme but in those that she does appear in she has a full workload.

That's a blow that Mukhamedov is leaving. I thought that his was an inspired appointment and he seems to have been very appreciated by the dancers.

Yes, I'm not suggesting that professional jealousy was a factor here. However, many dancers seek promotions for artistic, financial and other reasons and, naturally, will move if the opportunities are not forthcoming at their current company. Nancy Osbaldeston was never promoted beyond first artist (and that only very latterly) and is now a principal at RBF. Ksenia Ovsyanick was only promoted to soloist right at the end of her time at ENB (despite dancing soloist and principal roles for several years) and moved to take up a principal position in Berlin. TR has many strengths as a director but dancer development does not appear to be one of them unless you are one of the tiny group of favoured dancers. Of course not everyone can be promoted but, IMO, there are too many dancers who never move out of the artist rank and it's not surprising that some of them will become dissatisfied. Perhaps money is a factor here and the company can't afford to make many promotions.

Well, from an outsider's point of view I speculate that there is some natural churn (some dancers are moving or have moved onto other projects), some 'doubling up' as the result of couples moving together and some dancer dissatisfaction. It's not really fair to put everyone who has left since TR took over in the 'dissatisfied' camp. I think that ENB's huge corps of artists is part of the problem. Many dancers are never promoted at all in terms of rank. A tiny number move up rapidly through the ranks. The others do get promoted but may have to wait several years to reach even the rank of first artist let alone a soloist rank. Some dancers are happy to remain as artists - and there's nothing wrong with that - but others will move on after a few years if opportunities to dance featured and soloist roles and promotions are not forthcoming. Looking at the dancers who are departing, a number of them have been in the company for about three years and I would say that in most fields that's about the length of time that people give to a job before moving on if career progression is important but is not forthcoming. IMO, the other part of the problem is TR's policy of focussing on a small number of favoured dancers at the expense of the rest. This is a risky policy as the favoured dancers get injured, go on maternity leave or leave for pastures new which leaves the company in a precarious position as other dancers have not been brought on in sufficient numbers - plus it's very bad for company morale. Bringing in guests then becomes a necessity (and an expensive one at that) rather than an artistic choice and again this is bad for morale and does not solve the underlying problem which will persist for as long as the policy of developing only a small number dancers continues.

Hmm, two principals gone, albeit one on a temporary basis. That leaves the top ranks a bit sparse with two principals on maternity leave and one only returning after a long injury break. Without getting too personal three of the departures are dancers following their partners to other companies. However, it is a huge amount of churn and does perhaps indicate dancer dissatisfaction. I'm particularly pleased to see a promotion for Katya Khaniukova. I feel that it is overdue and hope that she will be cast more prominently as she has been rather underused. Good luck to all the dancers leaving for pastures new.

Eighteen is a huge number. I only know of three. Does this number include dancers who have left at any stage during the current season? I know that there can be 'bunching' in departures from any organisation but eighteen seems a worryingly large number. I appreciate that running a ballet company is very challenging but IMO TR needs to focus more on dancer development and company structure. I'll be interested to see the list of leavers from which I might form some more conclusions (although this might be risky!)

A few years ago there was a flurry of companies visiting the UK but more recently (with the exception of regular visits by the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky) visits seem to have rather dried up. I think that the last overseas ballet company that I saw was RNZB. Has anyone heard of any companies coming to the UK next year?

Yes, I saw that message when I booked my ticket but the booking still seems to have gone through (fingers crossed).

Just got onto the site via this morning's e-mail and booked a Sea of Troubles ticket - and gave even had an e-mail confirmation.

Nor me.

Yes, there was very little left for the Baiser de la Fee programmes and nothing for the Jeux and Sea of Trouble performances. I'm not too sure that my booking has even got through as I haven't yet received an e-mail confirmation.

I'm surprised to see that there are still so many tickets available for Don Quixote which opens next Monday. There are also plenty of unsold tickets for the mixed programme, which is perhaps less surprising. IMO, it's a mistake to bring Infra to its 'home theatre'; surely, the company could have shown something else.

It's been announced that Marcelo Gomes of ABT is to join the cast on the American tour.

Thanks, Fonty. It's amazing to think that in the 70s my school organised coach trips to Wimbledon from Hertfordshire arriving at about 11:00 whereupon we would queue up for ground passes and get into the grounds without difficulty. In the late afternoon people who were leaving the show courts would give you their tickets for free.

Is this the first year that the RB has not taken any students from the RBS straight into the company? Is this the shape of things to come ie that promising dancers will join the Aud Jebsen programme before being taken into the company?

Can any posters give their experiences of getting tickets for, and attending, Eastbourne and Edgbaston as possible alternatives to Queens and Wimbledon which have become so expensive and hard to get into.

I don't think that Golding was a natural fit for the RB but he was dogged with injury in his three years with the company and that can't have helped his artistic development or with casting in repertoire which played to his strengths. I wonder what he will do next. No other company is mentioned in the press release.

ENB has a huge number of artists, some of whom have been at the company for several years. At the RB it appears that everyone is promoted to soloist eventually. Why does ENB have so many artists who are never promoted despite, in some cases, dancing soloist roles? Is it the programming of so many performances of the classic staples (eg Swan Lake, Nutcracker) which require a large corps? ENB often bring in dancers on short contracts and use students at ENBS as well for some of their productions. Nurturing talent has to be balanced with attracting audiences and keeping standards at the highest level possible. The middle ranks at ENB are rather sparse at the moment and, on top of that, there are and have been absences among the female principals due to maternity leave and injury which has necessitated TR bringing in senior dancers (she herself is dancing less as well). TR definitely has preferences and there are some dancers who are IMO under-used.

We had a large number of overseas ballet companies visiting the UK a few years ago but have had very few recently apart from the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. San Francisco Ballet sold very well at Sadler's Wells but the others, certainly those at the Coliseum, had a harder time. I suspect that many companies lost money touring to the UK and that word has got around.

I saw this programme last night. It was the first time that I had seen the company. The evening started with a curtain raiser called Glint choreographed by Alston and performed by some of the second year students at the Rambert School. Connor Scott of BBC Young Dancer fame had a prominent role in this. I found Martin Lawrance's piece Tangent, for four couples, rather long and repetitive. The music did not have enough variety for such a relatively lengthy piece. Chacony was in two parts, the first to Britten's arrangement of Purcell's Chacony in G minor and the second to Chacony from Britten's Second String Quartet which he wrote after accompanying Yehudi Menuhin on a musical tour to two of the death camps at the end of the Second World War. I enjoyed this piece much more than the first. The evening finished on a high with Gipsy Mixture, also by Alston, which was great fun. There were all sorts of moods and musical influences in the score and the high energy piece was danced with obvious enjoyment by the whole cast but my eyes were repeatedly drawn to the powerful stage persona of Liam Riddick.