aileen

I think that you should be discussing any concerns which you have about your height and weight with your parents and, possibly, your GP and ballet teacher. Forum members can only give general advice about nutrition for dancers in training. They can't give you specific advice as they don't know you. I do hope that your parents know that you post on this forum.

Becoming a professional ballet dancer is in no way equivalent to, say, going into the law or training to be a doctor in your 20s, 30s or 40s. It's better to think in terms of becoming an elite gymnast. If you've watched the Olympics you'll know that elite gymnasts are usually teenagers or perhaps in their early twenties. If you read their biographies you'll see that they have trained intensively from childhood. With respect, you are rather arrogant in thinking that you can take up ballet as a complete beginner at 23 and seriously aspire to a career with one of the top ballet companies in the world, or any professional ballet company for that matter. Unless you have neglected to give us some vital pieces of information I don't think that you have taken on board how unrealistic your dream is. Yes, there is the odd professional dancer who started 'late', but 'late' in a ballet context means starting to train intensively in one's teens, and it's much rarer for female dancers to start late than male. It's not just a question of learning steps. The whole body has to be trained and that takes years of intensive training; the process can't be accelerated.

There's no doubt that MC14/22 is a challenging piece. As Bruce said above, it's too long. Certainly, a few minutes could usefully have been shaved off the opening section which quickly became tedious. The middle section with the men being manipulated and slapped around on the tables was the best for me. One particularly forceful slap down draw audible winces from the audience. The tableaux which clearly referred to the famous painting of the Last Supper were also very arresting. I didn't envy the dancer who was tied up in the parcel tape. It must have hurt when it was removed. This section made uncomfortable viewing and there were a few nervous laughs in the audience. I was slightly concerned that the dancer might actually suffocate so squashed together was he with a lot of tape wound round his chest. I enjoyed Emergence a lot. Pitie's great strength is movement for large groups of dancers. It was nice to see the women on pointe as well.

Ex-dancers and dance students go onto a variety of careers. Some go to university or take open university degrees; there is no age limit for studying for a degree. Some continue to work in the field of ballet eg as coaches or ballet masters/mistresses in companies, teachers in local or vocational schools (some open their own schools) or on associate schemes or as choreographers. Others go into related fields and retrain as pilates teachers, physiotherapists or fitness instructors. There is an organisation specifically aimed at dancers who are retiring from dancing and looking to retrain. I see see that my post crossed with Picturesinthefirelight's.

I'll be going to see this. Is there anything that I particularly need to know about the works shown and is the programme informative?

From a professional POV I was surprised to read that Madison Keesler is moving as she was beginning to get more featured roles including Giselle in the Akram Khan production. However, sometimes dancers move for personal reasons and perhaps that's the case here. Whilst I admire much of what TR has done I feel that one thing that she's weak on is nurturing junior and even soloist dancers (notwithstanding the Emerging Dancer Award). The same few people tend to dance all the main roles (sometimes dancing more than one main role in a production) and it can take ages for a junior dancer to dance a featured / soloist role. Obviously, there are one or two exceptions to this eg Cesar Corrales and Rina Kanehara. Certainly on the female side, there is a bit of a gap in the middle ranks and, with a number of female principals out this season and next, the company has been stretched and has needed to bring in principals from outside.

I've not heard of this company before. Is it new? I certainly value your accounts of the performances that you have seen in France, Duck, particularly those by regional companies.

Ghost Dances really was the main event here. I'd been longing to see it as I'd heard so much about it and I'd never seen it before. It is a very compelling piece and the three masked dancers in particular performed superbly. I wondered whether Bruce had ever seen Jooss' The Green Table as the masked dancers performed a similar role to that of Death (again, I think that the dancer is masked) in that work. I felt that the Collins work rather outstayed its welcome after the witty opening section with the characters on a continuos loop. I actually enjoyed the Veldman piece more than the last time that it was shown at Sadler's Wells. I wonder whether it has been tweaked / tightened up a bit. Last time I felt that there some longueurs. It's time that someone revived Swansong. I'd love to see ENB do it but I'm not sure that they have the right (male) dancers for the prisoner character although I think that there are several dancers who could take on the guards roles. I believe that the parts can also be taken by women, which would give some interesting possibilities. It would be intriguing to see alternating male and female casts and see what each gender brought to the work.

Well, I hope that she's not ill or experiencing personal problems. Personally, I feel that her approach to her career may have been misguided. I feel that you cannot become a star without putting in several solid years with a company first. I don't think that the peripatetic, freelance approach works for very young dancers. You need the discipline of company life at the start of your career.

Lisa, make sure that Sean does actually apply for student finance. There are deadlines. From recollection, it's a date in May in England.

It's sad to hear this. Perhaps Polunin has legitimate reasons for withdrawing. If not, then I think that too many bridges have now been burned for him to have any future relationship with the RB.

I see what you mean, Bluebird.

Well said, Penelope. It's a matter of personal choice how people spend their money, however much or little they have. Some people would balk at paying £100 for a ticket for the ROH but would happily spend that amount on a new dress or five times that amount on a weekend away. Everyone has different priorities and preferences.

Are the seats in the arena going to be raked then?

STUNNING news! I've only followed part of your son's journey but I know that he has had setbacks and difficult times and so it's wonderful to hear where all his hard work, grit and determination have got him. Many congratulations to him and to you too.

I agree with Huddsballetmum about trying to reopen the application. Young people are often not quite 'on it' when dealing with queries and requests for information from admissions teams. A friend's son who was applying for engineering was asked whether he had taken a particular maths module and he just said 'no', which looked a bit negative and could imply that he had chosen not to take it, rather than saying (truthfully) that the module was not offered by the school in year 12 (that particular year?). My friend found out about this afterwards and made him go back to the university and explain the situation more fully and in a more positive way (possibly the module was offered in year 13).

Well, to put the Mariinsky's prices in context top price tickets for some of the RB's productions have been £127 recently and the RB/ROH receives a substantial grant from ACE. I don't have a burning desire to see the Mariinsky this year and so I'm not prepared to pay top whack for tickets but they are probably not excessively expensive given the costs of bringing a full company of dancers plus a full orchestra over to the UK. Having seen a few plays in London recently featuring a handful of actors live ballet performances accompanied by live orchestras seem good value to me; plenty of tickets for popular plays in London are approaching £100 these days.

I assume that the ROH makes 'more of a profit' because by holding back tickets it prevents the agencies from buying blocks of tickets and then selling them to people who would otherwise have bought direct from the ROH. However, this strategy will backfire if people seeking tickets for sold-out performances don't think to recheck the ROH site at regular intervals to see if tickets have become available.

It's all a bit mysterious and annoying, isn't it? I hope that your friend didn't pay too much of a mark up for his/her ticket(s).

Whilst I thought that his Sunday Express review was rather harsh and rather personal about Lauren Cuthbertson I too felt that she was nondescript in the role and was completely outclassed by Vadim Muntagirov.

I stand by what I say. Questions about the number of classes, private lessons etc taken should be directed to you, the parent, not a child of eight. The teacher may have the best of intentions but that doesn't mean that her behaviour is appropriate. As has been mentioned on previous threads, ballet teachers are often given far too much leeway by parents because of all the mystique surrounding ballet and most parents' lack of knowledge about ballet training and the world of ballet in general.

The teacher should not (IMO) be questioning your daughter about the number of classes which she attends. That is a matter which should be directed to you as the parent as there are all sorts of reasons why a parent may not take a child to a particular classes / particular classes. I feel that the teacher's behaviour is inappropriate and bordering on bullying, particularly if she can see that your daughter is getting upset. Personally, I would have a firm word with the teacher about this and, if her response , is unsatisfactory, move schools. Your daughter should not be afraid of her teacher.

Well, I don't know much about YAGP but the Prix de Lausanne's roster of prize winners is a roll call of soloist and principal dancers in companies around the world so clearly the judges in that competition are awarding prizes to dancers who are very much employable. Is YAGP any different in this respect?

This sudden appearance of a whole raft of tickets (sometimes dozens) happened with ENB's recent sold-out triple bill. I've not noticed this happening with the RB before. As you say, Penelope, it's often the high priced and best located seats that become available, sometimes only a day or two before the performance in the case of ENB. My theory is that seats are held back for patrons, major donors and VIP guests. They can't just be random returns when virtually whole rows suddenly go on sale all at the same time. Alternatively, the ticket agencies may have the option of returning unsold seats a week or two before the performance. As I've said on other threads about ENB, it's always worth checking (and rechecking) the theatre's website regularly from about a fortnight before the performance and particularly in the 72 hours before the performance. Good tickets can pop up even on the morning of a matinee but you may not have enough time to get to the theatre. You could of course go on spec. I sold a ticket at Sadler's Wells (via the box office) for the last ENB Triple after arriving at the theatre just before 7pm.

I saw last night's performance and the one on the evening of 1 April with a different cast apart from Lamb and McRae who appeared in both. I enjoyed both performances rather more than I had when I had seen Jewels at the ROH a few years ago. In the earlier performance I thought that Hay out danced Hristov who was pretty pedestrian. Stix-Brunell and Morera were beautifully lyrical. Naghdi was exquisite and I felt that she outclassed Ball whose solo dancing was a bit heavy (Muntagirov is the person to go to for lessons in refined classical dancing and soft landings). I thought that Lamb and McRae were terrific in Rubies. I often find the latter a bit cheesy but for this piece I think that being bit pleased with yourself and playing to the audience really works. Lamb was a revelation: pin-sharp dancing and full of wit and fun. Heap was a more vibrant presence on the stage than Hamilton. I thought that Cuthbertson was a bit insubstantial in Diamonds which (IMO) requires the pomp, grandeur and expansiveness that Nunez brought to the role. Soares was a very good partner to Nunez in this (I felt that the Cuthbertson/Muntagirov partner work was not as smooth) but his solos did not show him at his best. Muntagirov's solo dancing was, as we all now take for granted, elegance personified. I think that he's the best classical dancer in the company currently.