Jan McNulty

I don't think the Americans are wonderfully keen on most Ashton either! In fact I get the impression they are not keen on European choreographers full stop!

I would say the same for Bruges. It is a beautiful city to wander around, people watch in the cafes and just take in the atmosphere and the chocolate stalls and shops!!!! If you get the opportunity, Antwerp is not far on the train from Bruges and a similarly attractive city with the delights of Rubens' house too!

I'm looking forward to hearing your report B3! I saw RBF in Antwerp rather a long time ago. Coming from Up North it was easier for us to fly to Brussels and take the train to Antwerp. It turned out to be very straightforward. Antwerp is a very attractive and interesting city to wander around and the Rubenshuis is wonderful. The theatre was lovely. We sat up top for one performance (hated it - I am a stalls person) and in the stalls for one performance (absolutely wonderful!). Go for it Aileen!

I've come across this article via Facebook. I know most of the people who contribute to this thread are already attending classes but there may still be something useful for you! Also what do you think of the "tips"?

Thanks Bluebird!

Hello Maz340 and thanks for posting! I do hope we will hear more from you.

I love Emmerdale and Coronation Street but I have never watched Eastenders (thank goodness by the sound of it!)

Hannah Bateman (of Northern Ballet) tweeted: "young choreographer went to Natalia Horecna"

EEEEKKKKKK! How do you remove a snake from your kitchen?

A review from The Stage I'm looking forward to the Saturday matinee in Nottingham next week!

Sylvie Guillem & Akram Khan Sacred Monsters Sadler’s Wells Tuesday 25 - Saturday 29 November 2014 Performances at 7.30pm Tickets: £12 - £52 Ticket Office: 0844 412 4300 or www.sadlerswells.com “An exhilarating evening of humour, charm and extraordinary tenderness” Sunday Telegraph Sacred Monsters, the hugely acclaimed collaboration between Sadler’s Wells Associate Artists Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan, returns to Sadler’s Wells from Tuesday 25 - Saturday 29 November 2014. First performed in 2006, in Sacred Monsters Guillem and Khan explore the dynamics and language of two classical dance forms, kathak and ballet. This landmark production features additional choreography by Guari Sharma Tripathi and Lin Hwai-Min, artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, with music by Philip Sheppard. ‘Sacred monsters’ is a term that marks the birth of contemporary stardom, in which the icons of arts and sports worlds are given divine status by their audience and the media. The pressure of living up to these expectations leaves no room for failure, self-expression or emotion, and the divine status becomes inhuman and monstrous. Sylvie Guillem was born in Paris and trained in gymnastics under the instruction of her mother, a gymnastics teacher. In 1977 she began training at the Paris Opera Ballet School, and in 1981 joined the company's corps de ballet. She was promoted to the rank of "Etoile" by Rudolf Nureyev at the age of 19. Guillem has performed all the leading roles of the classical repertoire with the world's leading companies including the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov, Tokyo Ballet, Australian Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and La Scala. Guillem’s awards include the Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, Officier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite, Officier des Arts et Lettres, and, in Britain, an honorary CBE. Akram Khan is one of the most exciting dancers/ choreographers in Britain today and has, in just over a decade, created a highly imaginative, accessible and relevant body of work, including productions such as DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zerodegrees. An instinctive and natural collaborator, Khan has worked with world-class artists including the National Ballet of China, Juliette Binoche, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Antony Gormley. Khan’s work is recognised as being profoundly moving, in which his intelligently crafted storytelling is effortlessly intimate and epic. Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including the Laurence Olivier Award and several Critics' Circle National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005. Prior to Sacred Monsters, Akram Khan will be performing TOROBAKA, a new collaboration with flamenco artist Israel Galván atSadler’s Wells from 3 - 8 November, He performs his celebrated solo piece DESH at The Lowry, Manchester, on 13 & 14 November. Khan is also curating his first exhibition as part of The Lowry's Performer-as-Curator series. His exhibition, One Side to the Other, runs from 15 November 2014 to 1 Feb 2015. NOTES TO EDITORS: About Sadler’s Wells Sadler’s Wells is the UK’s leading venue for dance, bringing a diverse range of world-class international and UK dance to the widest possible audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s acclaimed programme spans cutting edge contemporary works by artists such as William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter and Wayne McGregor, sell-out runs from Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, hugely successful tango, street dance and flamenco shows, and award-winning Sadler’s Wells Productions including Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant’s PUSH, and groundbreaking cross-art form collaborations such as zero degrees and the first in the Composer Series, UNDANCE. Since 2005 Sadler’s Wells has commissioned, co-commissioned, produced and co-producedover 80 new productions. The theatre is dedicated to working with celebrated artists, performers and companies at the forefront of the arts, many of whom are Associate Artists and resident companies of the theatre including Balletboyz, Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jonzi D, Sylvie Guillem, Michael Hulls, Michael Keegan Dolan, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant, Crystal Pite, Kate Prince and her company ZooNation UK Dance Company, Nitin Sawhney, Hofesh Shechter, Jasmin Vardimon, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor and his company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance.

Hello Denver and welcome to the Forum. I can't answer your query but I am sure some of our other members will be able to advise.

Shadows of War doesn't open until 8th October in Birmingham Lin. I'm there on 9th!

The Manchester Evening News enjoyed it! Although I feel obliged to point out that it was last seen at the Lowry at the start of 2012.

Well I don't know how to express myself without being totally gushing. I wasn't overly thrilled that Beauty and the Beast was back so soon after its last outing but goodness me, I have seen three casts in 2 days and they have all been outstanding! I know people are always interested in cast recommendations but I would have to say that you NEED to see all of these casts. Yesterday I saw Momoko Hirata/Yasuo Atsuji in the afternoon and Delia Mathews/Iain Mackay in the evening. All three casts have imposed themselves on the roles - all with different nuances and all utterly wonderful! The whole company is looking in fine fettle but I must praise Celine Gittens as one of the sisters - she has become a comedienne extraordinaire and just lights up the stage. Jonathan Caguioa is a delight as the Hare in the ballroom scene.

And for non-Londoners: Birmingham casting (The page also shows the Beauty and the Beast casting) Plymouth casting

Welcome to the Forum, Emma. Laura was Wild Girl this afternoon and she was terrific!

I assume you mean the Birmingham Hippodrome website rather than the BRB company website? You can't buy tickets on the BRB website although they do provide links to the theatre websites. I've very occasionally had problems with the Hippo website although usually I have found it fine for booking. Please don't give up - BRB are on top form at the moment!

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Autumn Tour opened last night at The Lowry with an outstanding performance of Beauty and the Beast. Tyrone Singleton has an almost overwhelming stage presence as Beast. He was vicious as the nasty Prince and then was incredibly moving (a terrific feat when dressed from head to toe in distressed fur!) as the Beast and then the transformed Prince. His Belle was an incandescent Elisha Willis who gave a beautifully nuanced and ultimately moving performance. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wiping away the tears not only at the end last night but also in the Act 1 duet and the pdd before Belle leaves to visit home.. They were glorious together! Tzu Chao Chou was very fleet of foot as The Raven and Yaoqian Shang was a delight as the Wild Girl. Samara Downs and Angela Paul hit just the right note as the selfish, dizzy sisters. Michael O'Hare inhabited the role of The Merchant. Jonathan Payn is HILARIOUS as M. Cochon (how does he do that with his nose????). The whole company looked to be on splendid form, I particularly enjoyed the antics of the Engagement party guests and Jonathan Caguioa was terrific as the Hare at the Beast's party. Well, I've got the rest of the week to enjoy now, so more after the weekend. If you haven't yet got a ticket to see BRB you should immediately book one!

PRESS RELEASE WITH MORE DETAIL OF THE DAY THE ROYAL BALLET OPENS ITS ‘VIRTUAL DOORS’ FOR AN INSIDE VIEW OF THE WORKING DAY AS PART OF A GLOBAL FIRST: WORLD BALLET DAY ONE DAY OF LIVE STREAMING ON WEDNESDAY 1 OCTOBER www.roh.org.uk/worldballetday The Australian Ballet | Bolshoi Ballet | The Royal Ballet | The National Ballet of Canada | San Francisco Ballet The first ever World Ballet Day on Wednesday 1 October sees extraordinary and unprecedented access behind the scenes across five of the world’s leading ballet companies. Each company will start their day with Class – the daily discipline for every dancer – then open their rehearsal studios for audiences to see what really goes on in the hours before the curtain goes up. As part of The Royal Ballet’s contribution, viewers around the world will have a rare insight as international ballet star Carlos Acostacoaches Royal Ballet Principal Vadim Muntagirov in the role of Basilio in Don Quixote. Acosta’s production was first performed to great acclaim last year at Covent Garden and returns to the repertory this November. Principals Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli will rehearse Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon in preparation for the ROH Live Cinema screening being relayed around the world on Thursday 16 October. Hosted by TV and radio presenter George Lamb, the four hours from Covent Garden will also include rehearsals of Artist in ResidenceLiam Scarlett working with his cast including Laura Morera and Steven McRae on his new work The Age of Anxiety which premieres on Friday 7 November. Set to Bernstein’s score – Symphony no 2, The Age of Anxiety - the work is inspired by WH Auden’s poem about four disparate characters in a wartime New York bar trying to make sense of their shifting worlds. Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor will be interviewed about creating his first full length work for the Company, Woolf Works, based on the writings and life of the seminal English author Virginia Woolf. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, will talk about the Company and the Season ahead. The full Company can be seen in rehearsal for Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon’s latest one act work for The Royal Ballet, his award winning Aeternum, which premiered in 2013, and Frederick Ashton’s Scènes de ballet, the ballet Ashton himself claimed to be his favourite. Company First Artist Ludovic Ondiviela, rehearses members of his cast as he creates his first Royal Ballet commission Cassandra which premieres in October as part of the Company’s Linbury Studio Programme. The variety of choreography on show during the four hours from The Royal Ballet shows a typical rehearsal schedule for the dancers. It will clearly demonstrate the breadth of choreographic talent that has been and remains integral to its identity and which continues to attract and inspire some of the worlds’ greatest dancers. Highlights from the other companies include The Australian Ballet rehearsing Graeme Murphy’s celebrated Swan Lake which is one of the company’s most celebrated works. Other rehearsal pieces include Stanton Welch’s La Bayadère, Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, as well as a rehearsal for the Company’s Fall for Dance world premiere piece Ostinato by resident choreographer Tim Harbour, which will be performed in New York City on their US tour in October. Renowned Artistic Director David McAllister will also be on hand to answer questions. Australia hands over to Russia where the Bolshoi will be rehearsing The Taming of the Shrew with choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot which had its premiere in July this year, followed by rehearsals for the upcoming opening of Yuri Grigorovich’s Legend of Lovewhich returns to the Bolshoi stage for the first time since its renovations. Opening on Sunday 26 October, the performance will be screened lived into cinemas around the world. The Royal Ballet then follows the Bolshoi in the live stream. The National Ballet of Canada takes over from London and also features a rehearsal of Kenneth MacMillan’s dramatic masterwork,Manon in readiness for the opening of the 2014/15 Season at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts on Saturday 8 November. Anthony Dowell, former Director of The Royal Ballet, who is rehearsing the company, had the role of Des Grieux created on him 40 years ago by MacMillan. John Neumeier’s transformative work, Nijinsky, will also be in rehearsal in readiness for its opening in November, coached by Artist-in-Residence Rex Harrington and Senior Ballet Master Peter Ottmann. The four-hour live stream will be hosted by Canadian TV personality Denise Donlon and will include an interview with Artistic DirectorKaren Kain among others. Viewers will also see into the company’s extensive wardrobe department, take a look at athletic therapy and see the importance of dancer conditioning and cross training, as well as the preparation of pointe shoes, to provide a full sense of a dancer’s day at The National Ballet of Canada. The final part of the live stream comes from San Francisco where dancers will be rehearsing Yuri Possikhov’s RAkU, featured in San Francisco Ballet’s 2015 season; William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude; scenes from Tomasson/ Possokhov’s Don Quixote and Helgi Tomasson’s Concerto Grosso being performed at the company’s 2015 Opening Night Gala. The four-hour broadcast will be hosted by former SF Ballet School student and ABC-7 feature reporter Leyla Gulen who will interview a variety of SF Ballet artists and artistic staff, including Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson, Principal DancersMaria Kochetkova, Yuan Yuan Tan and Taras Domitro, Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West among others. This unusual access will throw a spot light on the differences in style between the five companies as they follow a very similar routine but approach choreography and performance in the ways that have made them unique on the world stage. Starting with morning class to warm up the body with different exercises, moving on to rehearsals for their upcoming performances the day will be a celebration of dance; the athleticism and unparalleled dedication of all those involved in creating a world-class ballet company. Throughout the day, viewers will be able to engage and interact with the Artistic Directors, dancers, choreographers and coaches who live and breathe ballet every day of their working lives, asking questions via Twitter as well as having the opportunity to contribute by submitting a film of themselves doing a pirouette wherever they are in the world. These will be edited into a film celebrating the worldwide appeal of dance. The day’s streaming will be repeated on YouTube in full so that viewers around the world can catch up on any parts of the day they missed. Edited highlights will then be made available for further viewing. World Ballet Day is a development from Royal Ballet Live which was a nine-hour live streaming via YouTube and The Guardian website in March 2012. This unique event achieved 200,000 views of the live stream and repeat broadcast and a total of 2.5 million views of YouTube Royal Ballet Live material to date. It is, however, the first time that four of the five ballet companies are taking the cameras backstage to reveal the sweat and determination of these talented dancers. --- ENDS---

Links - Thursday, September 25 2014 Reviews - New York City Ballet, Fall Gala: Morgen, This Bitter Earth, Clearing Dawn, Funérailles, Belles Lettres, New York: Alastair Macaulay, NY Times Marina Harss, DanceTabs Apollinaire Scherr, FT Fashion Review: Pia Catton, Wall Street Journal Preview – Wendy Whelan’s final performance with NYCB: Dance News Desk, Broadway World Review – Kyle Abraham, The Watershed, New York: NY Times Review – Royal Swedish Ballet, Juliet and Romeo, London: Terry Eastham, London Theatre Review – Birmingham Royal Ballet, Beauty and the Beast, Salford: Alan Hulme, What's On Stage Review – Garrett + Moulton Productions, The Luminous Edge, San Francisco: Paul Parish, Bay Area Reporter Feature – Kenrick Sandy and Michael Asante on “Return of the Five…”: Lyndsey Winship, London Dance Preview – Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, FAR, Vancouver: Janet Smith, Straight Preview – Edward Villella prepares Pacific Northwest Ballet in Jewels, Seattle: Gale Fiege, Herald Q&A – Jimmy Orrante, BalletMet: Kristen Schmidt, Columbus Monthly Review - Timofei Kulyabin, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Moscow: John Freedman, Moscow Times Review - Hagley Dance Company, Forward and Beneath, Christchurch: Emily Napolitano, NZ Theatreview Review - Joburg Ballet, Nutcracker, Johannesburg: Sue Blaine, Business Day Live

I've enjoyed Manon since I first saw it in the mid-80s but there are 2 performances that stand out in my mind as being incredibly emotional. The first was a matinee on a bank holiday with Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg when a group of us were rendered beyond power of speech at the end in the foyer. The second was a RDB performance (with the set and costumes subsequently used by ENB) with Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman. The final scene is the swamp is just a plain black stage and the power and emotion of their final duet will stay with me forever. I wish I could see more than the performance I have booked on 15th October and I would love to see Sarah Lamb, whose performances I have always enjoyed.

Links - Wednesday, September 24 2014 News – Ratmansky and Wheeldon to collaborate on (NY) City Ballet work: Roslyn Sulcas, NY Times Review – Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall @ Shinnyo Lantern Floating Festival, After the Rain, New York: Sondra Forsyth, Broadway World Review – National Ballet of Canada, Alice in Wonderland; The Third Rail Projects, Then She Fell, New York: D.S.K, Economist Prospero Blog Review – Norwegian National Ballet, Bella Figura, Gods and Dogs, Symphony of Psalms, Paris: Laura Cappelle, FT Review – Garrett + Moulton Productions, The Luminous Edge, San Francisco: Rita Felciano, San Francisco Bay Guardian Review – Ustav, A Festival of Indian Music and Dance, Washington: Alastair Macaulay, NY Times Review – New Chamber Ballet, Raw, Tilting/Leaning, Fast Forward, New York: Brian Seibert, NY Times Review – Short + Sweet Dance 2014, Final Gala, Auckland: Sue Cheeseman, NZ Theatreview Feature – Tour of the New York City Ballet Designer Costume Workshop: Chavie Lieber, Racked Review – Ballet Fleming, Long Train Running, Blind Landing, Echoes down the Hallway, Clapton, Philadelphia: Jim Rutter, Inquirer Review - Luminario Ballet, mixed programme, Los Angeles: Christina Campodonico, Neon Tommy

Roadworks have started on the M62 between junctions 12 and 21, converting to "smart motorway". The estimated finish date shown is 2017!

Good article in the Daily Mail about the health benefits of ballet for older dancers.