Jan McNulty

A teaturette on Fallen Angels Dance Theatre: http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/9735865.From_drugs_to_dance/

NB gave performances of their mixed programme in their home town. ENB also gave performances of their mixed programmes in their home town. ENB audiences outside their home town, ie outside London, have not enjoyed mixed programmes for some years. BRB audiences in the North have not enjoyed mixed programmes on the main tours for some years and there is only one mixed programme in the 2012/13 season for Birmingham and Plymouth audiences. OK - SW are getting two mixed programmes but one of those will have been seen in their home city in June. NB's mixed programme may have been shown in a theatre that only holds 200 people but it did have choreography by 4 different choreographers even if 3 of them were "in house". Great oaks from little acorns grow and at least the company have tried to put on something different from their norm.

Northern Ballet leading dancer Toby Batley was on a "Dutch Barge" in the pageant and has been tweeting: @Tobybat

I've just got home from a fabulous weekend in Norwich seeing the final four performances of Northern Ballet's current season. As you will have realised, I LOVE I Got Rhythm. If I thought the performances in Leeds were good (and they were) the four performances I saw in Norwich were sensational! This production is such fun and all the dancers look as though they are having a ball. It just makes you want to join in (but I've got 2 left feet so no-one had to hold me back from leaping onto the stage!). More highlights: The Girl Crazy encore with everyone adlibbing and the conga line getting longer on stage by the performance! Antoinette Brooks-Daw and Ashley Dixon in Embraceable You Martha Leebolt and Javier Torres also in Embraceable You Keiko Amemori and John Hull in Bess, You is my woman now Lori Gilchrist and Martin Bell as the "red" leads in American in Paris The ultimate highlight: Mr & Mrs Martin Bell perfoming The Man I Love together in their final performance before retiring from NB. They looked radiant together and I'm sure everyone who knew it was their final performance had a lump in their throat at the end of this section (I know I did). At the curtain call (before the encore) David Nixon came on stage and gave a valedictory for Christie and Martin and there were some presentations. David gave a valedictory for Georgina May in Leeds last Saturday. She also retired from the company yesterday. Georgina, Christie and Martin have been wonderful ambassadors for the company over the past few years. Georgina created the roles of Aurora and Ophelia amongst others and has been a really expressive and fluid dancer in all her roles. It has been a delight to watch Christie over the years; as another chum said she always looked like the cat who got the cream when she was performing. A beautiful dancer, she also had a wonderful sense of comedy as realised in her portrayal as Helena in MSND. Martin had the most fantastic presence on stage; another great actor he was particularly wonderful as the Prince in Nutcracker and my favourite Theseus/Oberon in MSND. All their fans are going to miss them dreadfully andI would like to send all three of these wonderful dancers my very best wishes for the future. Thanks to everyone at Northern Ballet for a super season. Role on Ondine in September.

I have been very very lucky to see Thomas Lund dance in a number of roles both in London (in 2005) and Copenhagen. He is an exceptional artist and I would like to send him my best wishes for his future career.

Pat - if I had to take an educated guess, I believe there was a "big" musical on in the Theatre Royal for several weeks at the time of BRB's Spring Tour. There may have been other reasons but I really don't know.

We mostly get sparrows in our garden, which is good. On the beach (10 mins walk) I've seen (without bins) dunlin, redshank, (my favourite) oyster catchers, starlings, martins as well as all the usual gulls. We also see a lot of another favourite of mine, pied wagtails. Lots of fowl on the canal and marine lakes too. Another good place to see lots of wagtails is actually the carpark at Stafford Services northbound on the M6. I don't like the idea of snakes in the garden, Anjuli.....

It should also be remembered that while, IMO, the programme showed NB in a positive light - at the end of the day, how many hours must have been filmed to produce one hour of television to show off how good a troubleshooter Mr Lynch is. I don't think the concept of a major sponsor, in the way that Halifax was, has existed for any major company in the last 10 years or so. NB are trying to move in new directions and in the last year their audience have been treated to a choreographic workshop and a mixed programme (including a work by Christopher Hampson) at the theatre in the company's HQ. Sadly, at the moment, it's a case of bums on seats and that could well mean that people who want to do more are constricted by only being able to do productions seen as winners. (A situation that ENB has also found itself in). Edited to add a sentence.

It's really good fun. Your world in 140 characters!

Yes, I'm now on Pinterest. I've been uploading some of my own photographs but have also included some links to authors websites and have pinned some stuff from the BRB Pinterest site (so far). I'm not very adept yet and I'm not quite sure there is a point to it all! Edited to add the URL for my pinboards: http://pinterest.com/janetmcnulty27/ I elected to log in via facebook and when I joined it immediately followed several of my fb friends who are already on the site.

No hope for me then - I'm a tea drinker! (when not on the champagne or red wine!!)

There's a thread about this summer school on "Doing Dance". Here's the link: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/1023-new-ballet-summer-school-in-london/ I'll lock this thread so any discussion is kept together. Thanks

Hello Diane and welcome yo the balletcoforum. Enjoy posting and sharing your views with us.

A feature about Northern Ballet's I Got Rhythm, which opens in Norwich tonight: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/what-s-on/theatre/glitz_glam_and_gershwin_from_northern_ballet_1_1392121

Aileen, ENB used to present La Sylphide without any other accompaniment and I was quite satisfied with that. Their production, mounted by Peter Schauffus, was exquisite and started my love of the Bournonville style. Now I very rarely come to London to see RB, mainly because of the overall cost. I found it's cheaper to go to Copenhagen and Paris and now, come to think of it, Munich! All that aside, La Sylphide would be enough for me. I knew nothing about ballet (and possibly still don't) and even less about La Sylphide the first time I saw it but I had got interested in ballet the year before (specifically London Festival Ballet at that time) and just wanted to see as many productions as I could. I fell in love with it then. I agree that the cost has got to be a factor but there again I always try to go for quality and not just quantity.

Anna Izza, who worked for NB some years ago, has added some thought provoking comments onto Daniel's blog. After a documentary series about another company last year, this could cause an interesting discussion on the value of publicity at any cost. Please give it a look and add your thoughts.

Not that I saw this programme but I would have said that it is the quality not the quantity. I saw Johan Kobborg's production of La Sylhide some years ago and it is a wonderful production of a top notch ballet. He really teased the Bournonville style out of the RB dancers.

No - I'm just a figment of the imagination! My tag is @JanMcN

OOOOOO FizzieLou - I've just followed you!

Thanks Aileen. Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jk9nw/Arts_Troubleshooter_Episode_1/ If you've watched it, I would love to hear your thoughts. It's definitely worth a look.

Oh no - not something else to look out for! Sorry this has happened to you - something we should all watch for though.

Daniel de Andrade, ballet master at NB and currently on leave of absence for the Clore Fellowship, has put his own views on the documentary on his blog. http://danieldeandrade.wordpress.com/blog/ It should be stressed that these are his own views and not those of the company.

Tescos were selling gorgeous hanging baskets for £5 last week. My friend's husband said that the garden centres/supermarkets were overstocked because the bad weather we had been having meant no-one was buying anything. Our weeds are looking glorious!

I'll lock this thread and would appreciate any more comments on the thread started on the Performances forum. Thanks for contributing on this one Rowan. Edited to add that I have moved the "discussion posts" to the new thread: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/1053-northern-ballet-on-beeb-2/

I would normally agree with Norman's comments about consultants but I did think that his comments about how you say something were pertinent. Sometimes you are just too close to your own words to realise how they can come across to others. I worked quite a lot with contractors and soon realised that you should always try and put a positive slant on everything because people want to feel they are backing a winner. It wasn't obvious from the programme but the entry level for the sponsorship is £30 and not £50. Every little helps! I think the other thing is that a low entry level means that everyone, and not just wealthy people, trusts and corporations feel they can help. I must say that I have always found the dancers at NB really appreciate the support of their audience and hopefully the administrators have realised just how wonderful the dancers are as ambassadors for the company. As, indeed, is David Nixon. I remember years ago sitting with a friend in the cafe at Sadler's Wells. We were thrilled when David waved over to us from the doorway and totally gobsmacked when he came over and thanked us for all our support because he had noticed us in the audience at various venues. I wanted to hand over the keys to my bank on the spot!! I was pleasantly surprised after another recent documentary series at how supportive of NB this programme was. Well done to all the dancers interviewed for being so articulate and passionate about the company.