Irmgard

It all looked a bit manic, there were some very strange gestures and it certainly did not clearly tell the legend of the Wilis as taught by Karsavina to Mary Skeaping, plus the music for it was drastically cut.

As well as the news footage, someone has posted some secretly filmed footage from the balcony on Belyakov's Facebook page which someone alerted me to. Sadly, in the bits I have seen, the mother's mime is not only badly done but is quite bizarre and is nothing like the one Karsavina learned from Petipa which she passed on to Mary Skeaping (and is now done in the Royal Ballet production, as it was in Ashton's and Karsavina's staging in the 1960s). I shall wait to see the whole thing before commenting on the choreography but it will be interesting to see if Ratmansky has got rid of all the lifts in the Act II pas de deux which were added by the Bolshoi in the production they brought to England in 1956. Many thanks for all the kind comments about the Skeaping production, of which I am the guardian for the Skeaping family. With regard to the peasant pas de deux, Skeaping keeps this in her production (but with each having one solo rather than the two in the original Perrot/Coralli version) but, because it was an interpolation, she places it much earlier so that, as Alison remarks, it does not detract from Giselle and Albrecht (its position in the original was a purely 'political' move) who then have the whole of the Pas de Vendanges pas de deux before the denouement. This was cut drastically at some point in Russia so will not feature in the Stepanov notation. I did see that some of the music is retained in Ratmansky's production but since the person filming was only interested in Belyakov I have no idea at the moment how much of it comes before the bit of solo I saw. Bathilde and her father arrived on "white steeds" in the original 1841 ballet because there was room on the old Paris Opera stage for it, as there is on the Bolshoi stage. It will be interesting to see the original ending to the ballet. Skeaping uses the original music in the original orchestration but the one thing she thought would be difficult for today's audiences to accept was the original staging in which Giselle blesses the union of Albrecht and Bathilde as she disappears back into the earth! It will be interesting to see how this works out in this production!

Conrad is most definitely the largest role in terms of stage time and he is the Corsair of the title. It is basically the story of his quest to regain Medora (who is repeatedly kidnapped in this plot!) but, being essentially a 19th century ballet, Medora dominates. If you want a synopsis, there is one on ENB's website (www.ballet.org.uk). However, as Capybara has said, the other male dancers also have strong roles and can sometimes steal the show, especially Ali who hardly appears in Act I apart from rescuing Medora for Conrad, and then only has the pas d'action (pas de trois) in Act II in which he has the most famous solo in the ballet and shares the partnering of Medora with Conrad. I well remember Junor Souza as Ali in 2013 almost stealing the show from Vadim Muntagirov's Conrad on the strength of this one scene and his amazing stage presence (similarly in 2016 when Brooklyn Mack was his Conrad). I am hoping he is cast in this role again for the Coliseum performances! Interestingly, when ENB first announced the casting for Milton Keynes, they only listed Conrad, Medora and Lankendem (the slave trader), adding the other main characters later. Birbanto and Lankendem have about equal stage time with Birbanto probably getting slightly more dance time. Hopefully this will help you in deciding which performance to book for! On the strength of the Milton Keynes performances, bearing in mind I missed one cast, I found the cast in which Cirio was Conrad was the most uniformly satisfying but I would not want to miss some of the dancers in the other casts, particularly the other Medoras. It will be interesting to see if the Milton Keynes casts remain together for the Coliseum or if there will be a bit of mixing and matching going on.

Having watched three performances on 21 and 22 November in Milton Keynes, I have not changed my initial impression in 2013 that “Le Corsaire” is a ballet generally without soul and very little heart, given that it treats its subject matter of selling females into slavery in such a pantomimic way. I imagine the original French version by choreographer Mazilier with libretto by playwright Vernoy de Saint-Georges (of “Giselle” fame) was much closer to Byron’s epic poem than this reworking by Anna-Marie Holmes of numerous Russian versions, most notably by Petipa, and therefore the only reason for adding this to a company’s repertoire is for its virtuosic dance opportunities for a large cast. That said, the generally naff choreography for the pirates is saved only by the gusto with which the admirably straight-faced men of ENB perform it. As this is the first purely classical ballet the company has performed since January (and I do not consider Wheeldon’s “Cinderella” to be purely classical), it seems inevitable that some of the female solos and the ensemble in jardin animé occasionally suffered from imprecise ports de bras, and the footwork could have been neater. Likewise, I hope the ham acting of the peripheral action in Act I will have settled down by the Coliseum performances, as it became tedious to be distracted by various slave girls at the back of the stage being dragged around in a supposedly comic fashion. The only thing to stop this version being an endless series of gala-style solos and pas de deux etc. is the considerable acting skill of leading dancers in bringing their somewhat two-dimensional characters to life. It was therefore wonderful to have the scene-stealing Junor Souza as the swaggering slave-trader, Lankendem, in the Thursday matinée. His solo work was very powerful and his jumps ending in the deepest of grands pliés were especially impressive. I remember Souza’s elegant and noble Ali in previous seasons (and I was very surprised he was not given any performances of that role this week) and I marvelled at his ability to completely inhabit the mercenary, amoral and occasionally grovelling slaver who appears to have a momentary crisis of conscience after he has sold Medora to the Pasha. Ali at this performance was the marvellously lithe Ken Saruhashi who, like Souza, is adept at creating totally believable characters. His solo during the pas d’action (sometimes referred to as the pas d’esclave) was both elegant and dynamic and he partnered Medora to perfection. As before, I find it bizarre in this production that, after all Ali does to reunite Conrad and Medora, he perishes during the final moments of the ballet, along with Gulnare. Making his début as Conrad was Joseph Caley and, for all his beautiful, exceptionally clean dancing and secure partnering, he did not convince as the leader of a band of brigands, perhaps being too much of a gentleman and a little bland. Medora was the fabulous Fernanda Oliveira. Taking into account her maternity leave and the fact that she was not given a performance of Odette/Odile or Manon at the Coliseum in January (two of her finest roles, in my opinion), this marked the first full-length classical lead that she has danced in almost two years. Medora is a tour de force for the ballerina and Oliveira sailed through it with her customary exquisite technique, especially her pretty footwork, looking dazzlingly beautiful in her many changes of costume (and kudos to the dressers who also managed several quick costume changes for the large ensemble of ladies). In the rare moments of stillness for Medora, Oliveira looked every inch the imperial ballerina simply by the way she stood and, in the adagio in the jardin animé, balancing serenely as she took the roses from her attendants (perhaps a forerunner for Petipa of his Rose Adagio in “The Sleeping Beauty”). Yet she also delivered all the expected fireworks in the coda of the pas d’action. However, for me, the standout moment was in the romantic, Soviet-style, pas de deux for Medora and Conrad which follows this: a spectacular lift in which Conrad holds her almost upside down over his head and she gradually releases her hand from his shoulder so that she has no support apart from his hands. This was breath-taking in the beauty of her line and in the stillness of the position, held for just an extra fraction of time but not so as to be unmusical, which, if this had not been a matinée audience sitting on its hands, would have brought the house down! In the Thursday evening performance, if not possessing the beautifully clean technique of Caley, Brooklyn Mack gave Conrad the bravado he needs, powering his way across the stage in his solos and confronting the rebellious Birbanto of Erik Woolhouse who gave an extraordinary performance of this hot-headed pirate (having made his début the night before) whose machinations drive what plot there is (and it is a shame that the poisoning of the rose is played for laughs rather than injecting a bit of drama into the piece). His Act I solo matched Mack for technical brilliance and he made much of his dance with the delectable villager of Adela Ramirez in the Act I dance for the pirates and the village girls. The woefully under-used Ramirez also impressed as one of the Rose attendants in Act III with her beautiful style and technique and I cannot understand why she was not cast as an Odalisque this week, and I personally think she has all the makings of a lovely Gulnare. Medora’s friend Gulnare was Julia Conway, making her unexpected début due to the indisposition of Rina Kanehara. She can certainly dance the steps but has yet to find a way of adding character to the role and her dancing. Daniel McCormick made his début as another elegant Ali, making his mark in the pas d’action, delivering his bravura solo with ease and partnering the lovely Shiori Kase as Medora. Kase’s Medora has a delightful youthfulness and her face lights up whenever she sees Conrad, starting with throwing him the rose from her balcony. There is a charming demureness to her Medora, even in her gently flirtatious dealings with the Pasha in Act I, and her heartbreak at being sold to him was evident in the way she beseeched Lankendem (Aitor Arrieta in another excellent début) not to do it. In Act II, her natural elegance was infused with an overwhelming love for Conrad which shone through the pas d’action and the following pas de deux. A highlight of Kase’s flawless technique is her ability to turn, perfectly exhibited in the coda of the pas d’action in which she threw off an immaculate series of fouetté turns, alternating singles and triples in the first sixteen. Her dancing in the jardin animé was a delicious confection of delicate footwork and, like, Oliveira, serene balances in the adagio section. Kase’s gentility and Mack’s bravado made this an irresistible combination and lucky audiences in Liverpool will be able to experience this on the opening night of “Nutcracker” next week. For me, the Friday night performance was the most uniformly satisfying and featured further débuts, including Francesco Gabriele Frola as the volatile Birbanto. Apart from his solo in Act I, I particularly liked his dance with lead villager Emily Suzuki. I was very pleased to see her in a featured, if small, role lighting up the stage with her charming personality and my eye was also drawn to her beautiful style as part of the ensemble of flowers in the jardin animé scene. Gulnare was danced by Emma Hawes. I thought her début at the Thursday matinée was rather tentative but on Friday she appeared happier with the dancing and gave us some lovely, delicate footwork in her Act III solo. She had the advantage at both performances of Souza’s Lankendem in their Act I pas de deux, making the high lifts look effortless and allowing the lift in which he holds her aloft in a backbend to show her despair at her predicament. This performance also benefitted from Anjuli Hudson’s first Odalisque solo in which I finally saw diagonals of beautiful, cleanly beaten brisés. Hot on the heels of his amazing Birbanto, Erik Woolhouse impressed even more in his début as Ali, almost matching the panther-like quality I admire in Souza’s interpretation, and wowing the audience with his pyrotechnics in Act II. Jeffrey Cirio also wowed me in his début as Conrad, with powerful dancing that always showed Conrad’s strength of character, making him a thoroughly believable leader of the pirates, tough but capable of magnanimity and kindness, as well as being totally in love with his Medora. This was Katja Khaniukova’s UK début in the role, having previously danced one performance on tour in Poland. Gulnare was the first leading role I saw Khaniukova dance with ENB and I remember being very impressed with the way she brought depth to the character, as well as by her elegant technique. Having had a sneak preview of her Medora when she danced the pas de deux version of the pas d’action two weeks ago in the Dancing for a Dream Gala, I knew her dancing would have all the required panache for that, especially her series of fouetté turns which she started with a sensational multiple pirouette. She was outstanding in the jardin animé scene for her accomplished execution of the choreography in which she was so assured that she played expertly with the music in the series of gradually speeding up relevés in retiré, so much so that I longed to see her as Raymonda in the Act III sequence. Gavin Sutherland, garnering luscious sounds of the patchwork score from the orchestra, accompanied her perfectly. My breath was also taken away by her amazing balances in the adagio section in which, having let go of her attendants’ hands, she serenely balanced en pointe and slowly brought her raised leg from arabesque through retiré before closing it in front, not once but several times, each as steady as the first. As with her Gulnare, I was impressed by the many fine details and depth of character she brought to Medora, always reacting naturally to whatever was happening on stage, especially in the confrontations between Birbanto and Conrad, culminating in a powerful moment when she exposes Birbanto as the attempted murderer of Conrad. But it was the wonderful chemistry between Khaniukova and Cirio which took this performance to another level, evident from the moment she threw the rose down to him with such tenderness, through their meltingly beautiful pas de deux to their final embrace as they survive the shipwreck, giving this ballet the heart it so desperately needs and, for me, endorsing their recent Critics’ Circle nominations for Best Female and Male dancers.

Just as a little addendum, I should add that Khaniukova is dancing with the fabulous Jeffrey Cirio in "Le Corsaire" next week in Milton Keynes, and having loved them together in "Cinderella" last season (as Clementine and Ben), no doubt this will be another partnership to treasure in this ballet.

This was an evening of delights, made even more special by the announcement at the end that enough money had been raised to send the inspirational Dexter, nephew of Laurretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta, to the USA for his vital treatment. It is testament to the high regard and affection in which Summerscales is held by her friends and colleagues in the dance world that everyone on and offstage gave up their Sunday to rehearse and perform, and that copyright owners had allowed their works to be performed for this most worthy of causes, especially the Cranko Trust, the MacMillan Trust and the Balanchine Foundation. Four local dance schools with associations for the Summerscales family were welcome additions, with their highly disciplined, enthusiastic performances. I thought Summerscales organised the programme very well, with a good mix of dramatic and lighthearted items, ending each half with a well-known show-stopper. In the first half, it was wonderful to see a pas de deux from “The Taming of the Shrew” by John Cranko danced with such spirit and humour, and a fine sense of comic timing, by Summerscales and Acosta, taking on the roles of Katerina and Petruchio for which they have won critical acclaim in Munich. This contrasted very well with the romantic lyricism of the Act I bedroom pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s “Manon” danced by Alison McWhinney and Aitor Arrieta. They danced the complete ballet with different partners last season for English National Ballet but have recently performed “Cinderella” together and again I was struck by the chemistry between the two of them, bringing a delightfully youthful passion to their performance. There were also two interesting solos in the first half, the first being a change to the programme, danced with great style and sensuality by Osiel Gouneo but unfortunately I did not make a note of the name of the piece or its choreographer. Javier Torres gave a particularly soulful interpretation of Michel Descombey’s “Dying Swan”. The first half was brought to a rousing conclusion by the perennial favourite, the adagio and coda from “Le Corsaire” danced with great panache and technical brilliance by Cesar Corrales and Katja Khaniukova. With his ardour and her exquisite delicacy, they perfectly complement each other and this was especially evident in the beautiful lifts in the adagio. The coda brought all the expected fireworks with much audience delight at Corrales’s sensational turns in second and Khaniukova’s immaculate series of at least 32 fouetté turns. She will be performing the complete role of Medora with ENB next week in Milton Keynes but sadly not in her dream partnership with Corrales. The second half opened with a joyful performance of Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky pas de deux” using less familiar music from “Swan Lake”, danced with lovely style by Yaoqian Shang and Mathais Dingman. Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel” is a piece of music I love but I felt “After the Rain”, Christopher Wheeldon’s interpretation of it, ran out of choreographic steam halfway through, despite being beautifully danced by Fumi Kaneko and Reece Clarke. It was a shame that compère Wayne Sleep did not explain the context of the final pas de deux from Liam Scarlett’s “No Man’s Land”, especially as it was being performed on Remembrance Sunday, although no-one in the audience could fail to be moved by the exquisite beauty and poignant interpretation of Begoña Cao and Junor Souza. To watch Cao is to watch an artist in her absolute prime, and she was partnered to perfection by the equally impressive Souza, the two of them never failing to bring me to tears with this most elegiac pas de deux. I very much hope this is not the last time we see this magical partnership in performance. The evening ended with a glorious rendition of the “Don Quixote” pas de deux by Summerscales and Acosta, performing it together in the UK for the first time. I have always regarded Summerscales as the most joyous of dancers, whose love of dancing is tangible whenever she takes to the stage, and this was evident as she completely ‘owned’ the stage as Kitri, sailing effortlessly through the technical difficulties and giving us an enchanting solo. As with Khaniukova, her series of fouetté turns was immaculate and thrilling. Likewise, Acosta’s Basilio was full of charm and equally impressive in his pyrotechnics. I hope it will not be long before we see the wonderful partnership of Summerscales and Acosta onstage in the UK again. All in all, this was a highly entertaining way to spend a Sunday evening and in the most deserving of causes.

Apologies, I left out "Manon" as the title of the Act I bedroom pas de deux Arrieta and McWhinney will be dancing next month!!

The Royal Ballet’s current triple bill is nostalgic for me in several ways. I have loved “Concerto” since I first saw it in the late 1970s. The solo at the beginning of the third movement was the first one I had to teach from notation three months into my course at the Benesh Institute. I then sat in on rep classes at the Royal Ballet School, trying to notate the corps de ballet for the whole of the third movement, both of which are happy and scary memories for me! I have seen many performances over the years but the one that stands out in my mind was the Royal Ballet School performance in 1980 which introduced to the general public the divine Alessandra Ferri in the central pas de deux, partnered by the late, lamented Michael Crookes. To my mind, “Concerto” is the one truly joyous piece by MacMillan from start to finish, reflecting, as it does, so beautifully the music and demonstrating what wonderfully fleet-footed dancers he had in Berlin in 1966 and then in London, a talent which is not always appreciated today when pyrotechnics can sometimes take precedence over beautiful footwork. The piece is first and foremost a piano concerto, composed by Shostakovitch for his formidably talented 19-year-old son Maxim, and I wonder if it was his recording which inspired MacMillan in his creation of this technically brilliant piece. On Friday evening (25th), the first movement was given a performance of sheer joy by the exuberant Cesar Corrales and Francesca Hayward who breezed through all the fiendish choreography with infectious smiles which lit up the auditorium and were admirably on the music, taken at the rollicking pace I remember from the days when Anthony Twiner was the featured pianist. Likewise, the corps de ballet matched their enthusiasm and danced up a storm. Then came the beautiful central pas de deux, such a deceptively simple idea by MacMillan, inspired by Lynn Seymour’s port de bras at the barre. Melissa Hamilton was simply stunning, with beautifully expressive legs and feet to die for, plus the most exquisite ports de bras which filled out the music to perfection. Lukas Braendsrod was a handsome, elegant partner and made the ‘dead’ lifts (in which the girl is lifted from pointe and turned just off the floor without the usual help of a small plié) look completely effortless. The third movement calls for a human dynamo and I felt Claire Calvert was too lyrical in her approach to it but the whole company gave a rousing finale to one of my all-time favourite pieces. I have not seen “Enigma Variations “ for some time and again it holds special memories for me. One of the privileges of being on the Benesh notation course was attending stage calls at the opera house and, in my first term, I remember going to one for ‘Enigma’ taken by Michael Somes, with Ashton in attendance, as well as Sir Adrian Boult, the great interpreter of Elgar’s music. It was a truly unforgettable experience, hearing the occasional comments from Ashton and Boult, with Somes being very particular about the musicality of the piece. Good as the dancing was, this was something I felt this cast were still getting to grips with. I noticed that the Winifred Norbury of Annette Buvoli was slightly off the music and the Dorabella of Meaghan Grace Hinkis did not really reflect the syncopation in the music which illustrates Dorabella’s slight hesitation in speech. However, this was created on the legendary filigree footwork of Antoinette Sibley and the last dancer I can remember dancing this role perfectly was another dancer Ashton admired, Karen Paisey, so it is a big ask for a dancer not steeped in the Ashton style to take on such a mantle! I was also disappointed in the lack of épaulement from Fumi Kaneko in the charming pas de deux with Nicol Edmonds, especially when Mayara Magri did this effortlessly in the dress rehearsal. Even the men in the Nimrod variation (Gary Avis and Thomas Whitehead) lacked the necessary gravitas in the recurring simple step onto demi-pointe with the back leg in low arabesque to convince me they were having a conversation. However, my criticisms aside, it is always lovely to revisit any Ashton work, particularly one which holds special memories of performances past. Act III of “Raymonda” is simply a wonderful excuse for a feast of fabulous dancing and stands alone as such, with the story told in the first two Acts almost incidental. I remember reading about Pavlova reminiscing, probably with Karsavina, about their performances in St. Petersburg when all the company’s ballerinas would perform the variations in this Act, each tailor-made by Petipa for them, and what a line-up it must have been! This performance left me feeling nostalgic for English National Ballet’s performances of Act III in 2013 when their casts were led by Daria Klimentova and Elena Glurjidze as the eponymous heroine with a very young Vadim Muntagirov and an older Dmitri Gruzdev, respectively, as Jean de Brienne, all bringing a gravitas and instinctive Russian Imperial style to their dancing. All were outstanding but Glurjidze, in particular, brought an exceptional presence to her solo and the series of relevé en passant, gradually speeding up as the dancer moves downstage. Lauren Cuthbertson brought an aristocratic feeling to her Raymonda but did not match Glurjidze in either the magnificence of her relevés or in the luxuriant use of her back. Federico Bonelli lacked the power and style of both Muntagirov and Gruzdev and I am very happy to have the chance to see how Muntagirov has developed his interpretation when his performance is televised. Pavel Sorokin whipped the orchestra into a passionate reading of Glazunov’s glorious score but with exactly the right delicacy for moments such as the deceptively difficult Variation1, stylishly danced by Fumi Kaneko. In all, a great way to end an evening!

It was a pleasure to make the trip to Southampton on a very wet Thursday afternoon (24th) to watch a matinée full of débuts and to see an outstanding performance in the evening from a dancer who made her début the previous week in the title role of Cinderella. This was the first time I had seen a live performance of the proscenium version of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Cinderella” and it suffered in comparison with the Royal Albert Hall version, relying as it does on theatrical effects rather than choreographic content, appearing cramped on the large Mayflower stage. This was mainly due to only the front of the stage being used for various scenes to, I assume, accommodate all the technical machinery in other scenes, particularly noticeable in the Seasons which, although pared down to just the soloist and four attendants, brought the rather awful choreography into sharp focus, despite being danced with excellent precision and ebullience from all involved. The stunning construction of Cinderella’s coach also lost impact from being confined to the small space and from a scrim being lowered halfway through, presumably for an unnecessary projection, so that it failed to win the spontaneous applause with which it was greeted at every performance I attended at the Albert Hall. However, as always, ENB gave the performances in Southampton great energy onstage and in the pit and there was so much to enjoy despite my continued disappointment with the choreography. In all the years I have been watching her, Alison McWhinney has never failed to enchant me technically or dramatically, and so it was with her début performance as Cinderella. There is such a sweet lyricism to her dancing which makes her perfect for this put-upon heroine, evident from her firstly meltingly soft solo. However, it was a moment of non-dancing which I found the most moving of all. Having sent the prince away the first time (when he and his friend have exchanged places to deliver invitations to the ball and he has dressed himself as a hobo), and her stepmother has cruelly burned Cinderella’s invitation, she collapses in tears over a chair. But these were not melodramatic tears. It was as if everything she has been through with her stepmother suddenly hits her and there was such a resigned feeling throughout her body which was absolutely heart-rending. Then the prince returns to comfort her. Aitor Arrieta, also making his début, is a natural prince with the most aristocratic of bearings. What I have noticed with him as he has been given principal roles over the last couple of seasons, is that he has a wonderful ability to form an instant chemistry with his ballerina and this was most certainly the case at this performance. When he invited Cinderella to dance with him on the table, there was a wonderful moment of stillness when they both looked into each other’s eyes and kept up this contact throughout this little dance. Likewise, in the ballroom scene, it was obvious from the way their eyes met again that, despite the change of clothes and her mask, they instantly recognised each other and I loved the tenderness of their pas de deux. What I like about this production is that the prince leaves it to his friend, Ben, to deal with all the ladies (and others!) wanting to try on the golden slipper and, as soon as they arrive at Cinderella’s house, he wants to know where she is as he knows this is where he will find her. Again, their final pas de deux was magical because of the depth of feeling they both brought to it. I am therefore very much looking forward to seeing them dance the Act I bedroom pas de deux together at the Dancing for a Dream gala in Woking in two weeks’ time. Making his début as Ben was Henry Dowden, and he was well matched with Arrieta in their exuberant dances together, as both possess great style and lovely, soft jumps. Of the other débuts, it was fun to watch Adela Ramirez, in recent years mainly given solos to which she always brings great charm, take on the role of the Stepmother. Being so petite, it was fun watching her bossing about the much taller Cinderella and the prince (when she thought he was a good-for-nothing). In the ballroom scene, her solo when she has drunk too much champagne was a great piece of comedy, helped by Daniel Kraus as her long-suffering husband. I loved the anxious expression on her face as she tried not to spill a drop of champagne as Kraus turned her in arabesque but by her raised leg rather than her hand. When she had completely collapsed (another brilliant moment of a well-controlled backbend given great comic effect) and Kraus had dragged her back to the sofa, she immediately slipped off the sofa again into a heap on the floor and I loved the way Kraus had to lift her most unceremoniously back onto it where she proceeded to sleep off the rest of the scene in a drunken stupor. In Act 3, the demented expression on her face when she takes a mallet and proceeds to try to hammer the slipper onto stepdaughter Edwina’s foot (another excellent comic turn from Jung Ah Choi in her début) was priceless! In the evening, the performance was given an extra sparkle by maestro Gavin Sutherland bringing a touch of magic to Prokofiev’s gorgeous music, as befitted the totally magical Cinderella of Shiori Kase. She is a dancer of such lyricism and musicality that the music seemed to flow throughout her whole body. She also has the most wonderful ability to sustain a balance to the nth degree of the musical phrase, not so that it is a balancing act but so that it expresses great emotion which, throughout the performance was breath-taking. She also has the ability to look completely vulnerable which was very touching, especially when in the clutches of monster Stepmother Hortensia (Tamara Rojo) and her mini-me Precious Adams as Edwina. Her prince was Jeffrey Cirio who is perhaps less aristocratic in bearing than Arrieta but is most definitely a Prince Charming in the way he responded to Kase and their dances together were beautifully warm and tender but with a lovely sense of fun at times. His sense of fun was also apparent in his dances with Barry Drummond as Ben, who matched him in exuberance as well as in beautifully clean technique. The lovely romance between Ben and stepsister Clementine was also brought into focus in this performance, with a lovely rapport between Drummond and Anjuli Hudson who also brought a touching pathos to the moments when she is being mistreated by Edwina. After Ben and Clementine had danced together at the ball, I loved their little nod to “Giselle” when he sat beside her on the sofa and gradually nudged closer to her, to her delight and to that of the audience whose attention had obviously been caught by this charming pair. At this performance, the opening scene touched me almost as much as it had at the Albert Hall, with Fabian Reimair bringing great depth of emotion to the role of the Father in that very small scene, especially after Cinderella’s mother had died. And here, despite being performed behind a scrim, the lovely Angela Wood projected a beautiful sense of serenity as she ‘floats’ above her daughter, especially as the spotlight caught her face at exactly this moment. I was also impressed with the young Cinderella of Bonnie Bradfield whose acting was very natural, especially as she clung to her father following her mother’s death. Reimair continued to show his love for his daughter throughout in small ways, but the best was when he finally stood up to the monstrous Hortensia, stopping her from beating Cinderella with the ladle and she crumbled, although not for long as she was back in wonderfully demented mode to hammer the slipper onto Edwina’s foot before tossing it triumphantly into the fire. I would also like to mention Jia Zhang who danced the Winter solo at this performance. Her serenity and beautiful upper body movements and ports de bras were a joy to behold and most definitely took my attention away from the not-very-interesting footwork of the choreography.

Thanks. This thread didn't come up when I searched which is why I started a new one.

For anyone who is not aware of this gala organised by Laurretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta, former principals with English National Ballet, it will be taking place on Sunday 10 November 2019 at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, Laurretta’s hometown. It is to raise funds for treatment for her severely disabled nephew to receive treatment only available in the USA. The line-up of dancers currently includes Laurretta Summerscales, Yonah Acosta and Osiel Gouneo from Munich State Ballet, Reece Clarke, Cesar Corrales and Fumi Kaneko from the Royal Ballet, Mathias Dingman, Delia Matthews, Brandon Lawrence and Yaoqian Shang from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alison McWhinney, Begoña Cao, Katja Khaniukova, Aitor Arrieta and Junor Souza from English National Ballet, and Javier Torres from Northern Ballet Theatre. The event will be hosted by Wayne Sleep. The programme will consist of pas de deux from “The Taming of the Shrew” (Cranko), “Swan Lake” (Act II), “Le Corsaire”, “Don Quixote”, “Manon” (MacMillan - Act I bedroom pas de deux), and “No Man’s Land” (Scarlett – final pas de deux), as well as “After the rain” by Christopher Wheeldon and the Tchaikovsky pas de deux. (The usual caveat of casting and programme being subject to change applies.) There will also be three group dances from ballet schools in the local area. A silent auction is now underway with items donated by Carlos Acosta (who is also sponsoring the dancers’ travel expenses), Tamara Rojo, Vadim Muntagirov, Roberto Bolle, Marianela Nuñez, English National Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and more! Full details are on the Facebook page – Dancing for a Dream. Tickets can be booked via the theatre’s website. It promises to be a very special evening and hopefully it will get Dexter Summerscales-Heard to the USA!

Meaghan Grace Hinkis replaced Anna Rose O'Sullivan in "Raymonda" - grand pas and Variation 2.

I expect you are talking about a cabriole in which 'underneath leg' (the one last off the floor) beats against the first leg which is swept up to the front or back as the dancer jumps. As the underneath leg hits the other leg, the other leg should go a little higher. I'll have to see if I can find it on Youtube as my "Manon" DVD is in storage! I hope I was clear about the girl dressed up as a boy - MacMillan didn't mean her to be a boy but he was just observing men's predilections at this time for girls to dress as boys!

See my post above. ENB lists the cast for each act and lists four courtesans in Act 1 and five in Act 2. There are definitely five in Act 2 in the Royal Ballet production - they just don't bother to list the addition on their cast sheet.

Not sure I can answer all your questions but I'll have a go! I think the opening is a great piece of theatre, especially with a charismatic Lescaut, but I am not sure about MacMillan's reason for starting the ballet like this. Jann Parry's biography, which I have not read in full, may answer this. I am not sure which movement you are describing for Des Grieux but if you mean that the lower legs intertwine while he turns in the air, this is a beaten tour en l'air. With regard to bourrees, each dancer has an individual speed for these (some shimmer, others undulate!) but all should start and finish within the same musical phrase. I can't really comment on the lighting as I have only seen a few performances of this ballet by the Royal Ballet in recent years but I did think the costumes looked rather washed out at yesterday's matinee so maybe this is a change in the lighting. I also remember years ago a more evocative lighting in the Gaoler's office, making it feel as if it was pervaded by an oppressive heat. When I first heard the new orchestration a few years ago, I thought it was far too overblown, especially as the Leighton Lucas orchestration seemed nigh on perfect to me! However, to my ears, the new orchestration has been toned down a bit and is now closer to the original. I love the recording that is available of the original orchestration and I do not think you will be disappointed if you buy it. In fact, you may hear even more orchestral colours in the recording. I have just checked ENB's cast sheet for "Manon" and it lists four courtesans in Act I but five in Act II. Perhaps RB should do the same? Yes, there could be some rather disturbing reason (and probably is as MacMillan liked to explore sexual practices onstage!) why there is a harlot dressed as a boy (usually one of the shorter dancers) but in that period it was common to have girls playing boys in operas (where the term 'trouser role' comes from), i.e. Cherubino in "The Marriage of Figaro", and a lot of this was so that men could appreciate the female form, i.e. their legs, which they wouldn't normally see outside the bedroom because of the length of skirts at this time, even for ballet dancers, so this may be just a nod to that practice. Hope this helps to answer your questions.

When the score was re-orchestrated, a piece was inserted before the gaoler's pas de deux to cover the scene change. I am not convinced by it or by its necessity! The interlude before the bedroom pas de deux in Act I has always been there , or at least as long as I have been watching the ballet which is since the late 1970s!

I wish I could rave as much about the Saturday matinée on 19 October of “Manon” as I did about ENB’s performances of the ballet last season but, with a few honourable exceptions, it felt decidedly flat which was very disappointing, especially as my ticket in the Stalls was almost double the price of my Stalls seat at the Coliseum! There was an immediacy to the ENB performances which seemed to be lacking in this one by the Royal Ballet, as it did at the dress rehearsal last week, not least because of the pedestrian and passionless reading of the score by conductor Koen Kessels whose erratic tempi hampered all the pas de deux for Manon and Des Grieux. All the way through, I kept thinking how privileged ENB is to have Gavin Sutherland as its Musical Director, who understands how MacMillan expected his choreography to flow with the music and who is instinctively sympathetic to how the dancers respond. This might have been why there rarely appeared to be any spontaneity in the performance with almost everyone looking as if they had done it all before instead of making me believe events were happening for the very first time. Of the smaller roles, Paul Kay was an amiable and sprightly Beggar Chief and Bennet Gartside made a thoroughly nasty Gaoler, if lacking the authority the character demands. Teo Dubreuil stood out among the gentlemen in Act I for his engaging personality and beautifully clean dancing, repeated in Act II as one of the pas de trois of gentleman, although the three of them were not always in unison. I found the courtesans and harlots a bit too genteel, even in their battles with each other, and lacking in individual personalities. I also realised that I prefer Mia Stensgaard’s minimalist sets for ENB (if not her costumes!) which bring the dancing and acting into sharp focus, as I found details got lost against the background of Georgiadis’s almost overwhelming designs. As Monsieur GM, Thomas Whitehead was a disappointment, being neither aristocratic nor dangerous enough. Indeed, he seemed to have little sexual interest in Manon, especially in the Act II pas de trois which lacked eroticism, despite the best efforts of Lescaut and Manon to display her wares. Whitehead seemed more intent on the mechanics of the choreography rather than using every opportunity of touching Manon’s leg or foot to indicate his increasing arousal which MacMillan’s well-known foot fetish surely demands. Mayara Magri was a breath of fresh air as Lescaut’s Mistress, bringing a vivacity and intelligence to the role which was evident in the moment after he brutally forces her to look at the tumbril of prostitutes about to be deported and she realises this could be her fate – a wonderful moment of soul-searching stillness. Her use of épaulement in her solos was lovely and indeed my only wish would be for slightly better definition of some of the intricate footwork in them. A very accomplished debut performance! Magri was a perfect foil to the Lescaut of Cesar Corrales, also making his début in the role. From his wonderful, brooding presence at the start of the ballet, his Lescaut was a blend of elegance and bravura, perfectly displayed in his Act I solo with his beautiful footwork and perfectly executed turns with panther-soft landings. A charming, manipulative, chancer who also showed his volatility when his mistress was distracted by a man other than the one he had chosen for her and later when forcing money on Des Grieux, I loved the way he rushed to ingratiate himself with GM as soon as he alighted from the carriage and almost seemed to be orchestrating all of the happenings before and after Manon’s arrival. There was genuine affection between him and Manon but it did not prevent him from getting his way and sending her off with GM. In Act II, his drunken solo and pas de deux were the best and most genuinely funny I have seen on the opera house stage since Stephen Jefferies in the role, coached of course by MacMillan himself, in the early 1980s. Both were masterclasses in comic timing, aided and abetted by a wonderful chemistry and rapport with Magri, which belied the fiendish difficulties of the choreography. With his wonderful talent of completely inhabiting a character, his Lescaut did not sober up too quickly and it was only in a wonderful moment when he cut through the sword-fight of Des Grieux and GM with a mixture of terror and anger in his eyes that he appeared to be fully sober again. Showing his bravura until the end, there was a feeling of defiance about him as GM brought him, battered and bruised, to the lodgings of Des Grieux until the shocking moment, reflected on his face, as he is shot and killed. Alexander Campbell looks like the youthful and amiable, other-worldly Des Grieux of Abbé Prévost, if not possessed of the long, lean lines of Anthony Dowell on whom the choreography was created. However, I felt he relied too much on his appearance and did not imbue the actual choreography with enough personality or emotion. In the solos, he was definitely hampered by the tempi which were often too slow and would have challenged even a dancer with a longer arabesque line to fill out the musical phrases. The pas de deux also suffered from tempi that were too slow and did not move forward, making it almost impossible, despite his secure partnering, for Campbell to bring any sense of reckless abandon and ecstasy to the first two, and very little risk-taking or sense of urgency to the final one. Even the moment which usually takes my breath away – Manon’s final, off-balance arabesque - did nothing for me at this performance because of the lack of urgency in the music which meant that Kessels was not with Campbell as he caught Manon by the wrist to prevent her falling. Manon was the lovely Francesca Hayward whose waif-like physique and expressive eyes were used to perfection. Hers was a Manon already perfectly aware of her allure who has her eyes opened by her brother as to how she can use it to obtain the luxury she so obviously desires. However, I would have liked her footwork to be more expressive at certain points, most noticeably the signature step (a series of walks en pointe and relevés travelling forwards) danced to her theme music (“Twilight”) which occurs each time Manon first appears in each Act. Likewise, her legs and feet could have been more expressive in the beautiful aerial walks in the first pas de deux with Des Grieux, and there could have been more voluptuousness in the little ronds de jambe and dégagés in the sensuous Act II solo. Her dance with the seven gentleman after that solo was hampered by a plodding tempo which meant the lifts were difficult for the men to sustain and must have made her ‘dives’ particularly challenging but she floated serenely through it with a beguiling sensuality. Her descent into the broken Manon of the last scene was very touching and, if I was not as emotionally engaged by her Manon as I was by her Juliet last season, I would say this is because of the unhelpful tempi for the pas de deux and perhaps not as strong a chemistry with her Des Grieux as she had with her Romeo.

Apologies, it is the New Victoria Theatre, Woking. This is a rather wonderful way of crowdfunding for treatment for Laurretta's nephew who has severe cerebral palsy. She is gathering a great roster of dancers for it.

As the ENB publicity machine has only seen fit to allot one sentence to the departure of principal Begoña Cao, I thought I would try to rectify this by paying my own tribute to this exceptional artist. Cao was born in London of Spanish parents and trained at Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School. Upon graduation, she was immediately offered a contract by Derek Deane to join English National Ballet and has remained with the company ever since, notching up an amazing twenty-two years. Her early chance to make her debut as Odette/Odile at the age of twenty-one was cruelly snatched from her by a dislocated knee and she had to wait a number of years to take on all the classical ballerina roles, although she did appear as Giselle in Deane’s production. At that time, I was not going to many ballet performances but, in 2005, she caught my attention in the revival of Mary Skeaping’s “Giselle”, dancing the second Wili solo (Moyna in this production). When I say dancing, I really mean ethereally floating through it in a way that gave me goosebumps by the sheer beauty of her movement. She had to wait until 2009 to take on the title role, dancing with no fewer than three Albrechts during the season, and I remember with great pleasure working with her on the character of Giselle, particularly in honing the mime scenes, and how hungry she was to learn all she could about the character. Before that, I tried to get to as many of her performances in other ballets as possible. These included her amazing debut as Odette/Odile in 2008 at the Coliseum, partnered by the very young Esteban Berlanga in his debut in a major role. She has the perfect body for Odette, with her long, expressive limbs and her swan-like neck, as well as an innate musicality and those luminous eyes which express such depth of emotion. As to her Odile, in 2008 it was so polished and displayed such fireworks that it was hard to believe it was her debut. Since then, she has sadly only danced a few handfuls of performances of the dual role, being given just two in the last season, both of which I am grateful to have seen, as she established yet another partnership (with Aitor Arrieta) that I would love to see continuing but sadly it is not to be. There are so many roles at which she excelled, including Manon in 2008/2009 with Berlanga and last season with Arrieta. Their performance in Southampton in 2018 was one of those rare, magical nights at the theatre which lives on in the mind forever, especially the final act when Cao’s fragility was intensely moving and, for me, her Act II ‘Spanish’ solo is simply the best of all the beautiful Manons I have been privileged to see. With Berlanga, she had an unforgettable chemistry which reached its peak in Nureyev’s “Romeo and Juliet” and for which he was brought back to partner her in 2015. She was meant to dance with him in Deane’s production at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014 but, due to his injury, she was partnered with Junor Souza with whom she also developed an extraordinary chemistry, being perfectly matched both physically and temperamentally. I was privileged to see her radiant Aurora, a role she was not given the opportunity to repeat in 2018 but gave a touch of class to the Lilac Fairy instead with her stunningly secure series of fouetté arabesques and a benevolent smile which lit up the Coliseum. In “Nutcracker”, no-one has ever done the series of walks en pointe at the start of the Sugar Plum Fairy solo as exquisitely as Cao, and her bourrées, particularly travelling backward, are to die for with that magical, floating quality I noticed in her dancing in 2005. It is not only the classical roles at which she excels but I will also remember her scene-stealing solo in “In the Middle Somewhat Elevated” where she appeared to insouciantly stalk the stage looking for victims. Then again in Forsythe’s “Approximate Sonata 2016” performed in 2018 with Francisco Bosch, there was a wonderful rhythm and dynamism to her dancing which eluded some of her colleagues. In the same programme, she and Souza added a touch of class to Barton’s “Fantastic Beings”. Last season, she repeated her interpretation of Frida Kahlo in “Broken Wings” which had me hooked on the ballet when I first saw it in 2016. I also remember a number of years ago her beauty being exploited to the full in “Afternoon of a Faune” by Jerome Robbins which she danced with Carlos Acosta at one of his Sadler’s Wells performances. I will also never forget her appearances in two ballets by Roland Petit: as the beautiful but merciless figure of death in ‘Jeune homme’ and as an extremely sexy Carmen to Fabian Reimair’s Don Jose. At the dress rehearsal, their pas de deux were incredibly steamy but did not reach quite that level of eroticism in the performance. When I asked why, I was told that the person staging it had asked them to tone it down! However, it led to Cao being asked to guest in Petit’s ‘Chauve-Souris’ (a version of “Die Fledermaus) with the New National Ballet in Tokyo. Speaking of steamy, the poster for the Ballets Russes programme at Sadler’s Wells Theatre a number of years ago featured Cao and Arionel Vargas in a clinch from “Scheherazade” that was so passionate I am sure it had something to do with the performances selling out! In the past few years, Cao has twice been on maternity leave and has returned both times stronger than ever technically, with an even deeper understanding of her roles but sadly has been woefully underused, even though she has gained rave reviews from the critics for the roles she has been given the chance to perform, latterly stealing the show as the Stepmother in “Cinderella”. Last year Cao attained her teaching certificate from the Royal Ballet School and has been teaching at various summer schools for some time (she was also a mentor for BBC4’s recent Young Dancer of the Year) so it is reassuring to know she is passing on her passion for dance and her artistry to the next generation. She will be one of the dancers in the “Dancing for a Dream” gala being organised by Laurretta Summerscales at the New Woking Theatre on 10 November 2019 and I sincerely hope this will not be the last time we see the miraculous dancing of Begoña Cao on an English stage. I know there are many more of her performances that have given me such pleasure over the years and I hope other contributors will add their memories here.

Actually, I believe it was Wayne Eagling who introduced the rank but he called it Senior Principal. Being promoted to 7th Year Artist relates to a higher pay grade only. I will pay tribute to the magnificent Begona Cao later.

Not THE most important thing - that for me would be musicality - but a beautiful line, which dancers take years perfecting, is one of the things I enjoy most in choreography. Like Lizbie, I have no problem with the use of flexed feet when it enhances the choreography (thinking of "Two Pigeons", "Taming of the Shrew" and the third song in "Song of the Earth" etc.) but not when it appears to have been done at random, adding nothing to the choreography.

Dawnstar, I am surprised by your reaction to the music for “Cinderella” as I have had lovely melodies swirling around in my head since the dress rehearsal. I would say that “Cinderella” is magical, as befits a fairy story (although I lament the lack of a fairy godmother in this production) whereas “Romeo and Juliet” is passionate. As you saw the Friday matinée, you did not have Maestro Sutherland at the helm and I expect this makes a difference (as I will find out this afternoon). I agree with your comments about Wheeldon. I, too, hate his use of flexed feet, which I especially noticed in “Within the Golden Hour”, for no apparent purpose apart from destroying the line of some of the most beautiful feet and legs on the planet! I was at last night’s performance (15th) and again it was a mixed bag. Cojocaru did not always look particularly comfortable last night, which may have been issues with her shoes, but she looked radiant as she circled the auditorium atop her fabulous coach. Similarly, Rojo did not seem as ‘into’ the Stepmother as I have previously seen her so the comedy was not quite as well done. However, I think it would be hard for anyone to match the towering comic performance of Begoña Cao that I saw on Wednesday. She brought this same comic brilliance to the ghastly role of the Russian princess (a role really beneath her position as one of the company’s leading principal dancers, as is the solo in Spring which Shiori Kase is performing when she is not Clementine which gets lost amongst the corps de ballet), threatening to steal the scene in the few minutes she was onstage for this. Dancing honours went to Hernandez who provided the pizzazz the performance needed with his wonderful, joyful leaps, especially in his duets with the very classy Cirio as Ben. Yet again, the most poignant moment for me comes in the ballroom scene when Clementine has been pushed to the ground by her sister and is lying in side splits with her face on the ground. Khaniukova’s crumpled body expressed such humiliation and dejection as she lay there. Then Cirio helped her up and tenderly adjusted her glasses, and the moment they just looked at each other spoke volumes. It helps that this happens to the gorgeous, other-worldly music heralding Cinderella’s arrival. In the second-last performance of the run, the corps de ballet, most of whom have done every performance, looked as fresh and enthusiastic as on opening night.

On Wednesday 12 June, guest artist Maria Kochetkova took on the role of Cinderella. I have not seen her since she left ENB, at soloist level I believe, to join San Francisco Ballet about twelve years ago. I remember her beautiful Russian style and lovely, fleet footwork, especially running en pointe when she was so light that she appeared to fly. All these qualities were present in her Cinderella, with her body responding rapturously to Prokofiev’s magnificent score, particularly in the pas de deux so that, partnered by the warmly responsive Jeffrey Cirio as her prince, these were imbued with the romantic quality not inherent in the choreography but which it so desperately needed. And she did indeed look lighter than air just before the final scene when the Fates lifted her beautifully to retrieve her golden slipper from the mantelpiece. (A slight digression here about ENB not announcing cast changes as at both this performance, and the previous evening which I also attended, Aitor Arrieta replaced Francisco Bosch as one of the Fates, who play such an important part in the production, yet no announcement was made which I feel is very disrespectful to the dancers.) I do not know if Kochetkova’s eye make-up was too subtle or she has yet to discover the projection needed for the auditorium, but I did not find her face particularly expressive, which made her Cinderella less interesting than her stepfamily, played by three of the company’s leading ballerinas (what luxury casting!). They are also three of ENB’s most soulful Odettes but, having realised there are no dramatic depths to the characters in this production (Wheeldon’s production has the sisters behaving like eight-year- olds rather than teenagers), they played them for laughs, which they gave us in abundance. The beautiful Fernanda Oliveira, making an extremely welcome return to the stage after a prolonged absence, portrayed Edwina as a narcissistic ‘mini-me’ of her mother, who had to be the centre of attention at all times and either lashed out at her sister or went into a deep sulk if she wasn’t. Her facial expressions were an absolute picture without ever descending into mugging. Watching her antics on the sofa at the back of the stage during Cinderella’s dancing in the ballroom, when she hung her legs over the side of the sofa and moved her feet to the music in such a bored fashion, was actually more entertaining than the choreography for Cinderella. Oliveira’s Swanilda established her as an accomplished comedienne a number of years ago but the revelation was the lovely Shiori Kase as her much-put-upon sister, Clementine, whose reaction to every insult and injury from Oliveira was priceless and bound to win her the audience’s affection. With both dancers disguising the natural beauty of their dancing, their awful duet at the ball was a comic delight, especially when Edwina was unable to perform the same rolls on the floor as Clementine and Oliveira ended up in a humiliating heap after both painfully unsuccessful attempts at a somersault. Presiding over them was the magnificent Begoña Cao as their tiger-mother, Hortensia. With her costume and wig (complete with white streak) resembling the stepmother in Disney’s classic cartoon “Cinderella” but her amazing cheekbones and elegant glamour more suggestive of Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent, Cao ruled the family through a mixture of fear and awe. From her first appearance with her new husband (Fabian Reimair, who appears to be single-cast for the entire run), she moved like a predatory black widow spider and, when impatient with Cinderella at their first encounter, drummed her long fingers on her folded arms with a deceptive languor that was full of menace. When relegated to the sofa at the back of the ballroom after their disastrous encounter with the royal couple, with Oliveira reluctant to make room for the hapless Kase who ended up squished between the two of them, it was more fascinating to watch Cao become steadily inebriated, sending the waiter off for yet another glass of champagne, than the dancing (however beautifully performed) happening in the rest of the arena. Her ensuing drunken dance with the champagne glasses, aided and abetted by Reimair’s wonderful support, was the comic highlight of the performance as her elegance disintegrated, . The expression on her face, and especially in her huge eyes, as she covered her glass with her hand so as not to spill a drop of it while Reimair turned her in arabesque by grabbing her raised leg, was an absolute picture. Then that final, slow backbend when Reimair held her raised leg in front, showed her fabulous technique being used to wonderful comic effect. I only wish I had been sitting on the other side of the auditorium so that I could have seen her facial expression as she began her descent. But her drunk act did not end there. After Reimair had dragged her back to the sofa, with a silly grin on her face all the way, she proceeded to sleep off the alcohol in a very comic but natural way. In fact, all three ladies kept their characters interesting with tiny details even when not visible to most of the audience, showing exemplary stagecraft. Cao’s hangover the next morning was equally as comic as she tried to regain her dignity and then she became truly demented as she tried to hammer the golden slipper onto Edwina’s foot. This was another comic moment from Oliveira, who is possessed of the most gloriously arched feet: sitting on top of the table, she wiggled the toes of her bare foot, displaying that beautiful arch, with a grin on her face as if her character thought this toe-wiggling would entice the prince. Having seen Jeffrey Cirio as Ben last week, and with the roles of the prince and Ben being quite similar, I think I was as confused as the two sisters are at the ball when they see the two of them together! Ben at this performance was danced by Francisco Gabriele Frola who was an excellent match for Cirio in their exuberant duets. Just as Cirio was charm personified as the prince, so was Frola as Ben, particularly when he helped the dejected Kase up from the floor where Oliveira left her at the end of their duet. So, yet again, this tender romance between Ben and Clementine was the heart of the ballet for me with the rest of it brought to life by the wonderful comedy team of Cao, Oliveira and Kase.

I attended the Sunday performance to see what a different cast would bring to the production and my gripes about the production in general still stand. This time my seat was in the Grand Tier, which is the row of boxes above the Stalls. Sitting in the third row of the box, I had an excellent view of all the special effects (projections on the screen, projections on the floor etc.) and saw a lot that I had missed at the dress rehearsal and opening night, sitting in the first few rows of the Stalls. My seat was also at the ‘front’ of the arena which did mean that I could not see what happened in about the first ten feet of the arena. However, at the other performances, I noticed that very little happened in this area, so perhaps some sightlines have been taken into consideration. I looked very hard for lovely floor patterns (captured in some of the publicity photos) but didn’t really notice any so perhaps these are only fully visible to those in the Gallery. I have to conclude that the best seats to see all the special effects and still be able to see the dancers clearly are probably the boxes at the back of the Stalls, for anyone who is still planning to see the show. This performance was led by the exquisite Erina Takahashi who has been dancing Cinderella almost since she joined the company. Indeed, I remember sitting in the upper reaches of the Coliseum (never again!) because it was the only seat I could get for her matinée with Jan-Erik Wikström in Michael Corder’s production, probably on its third or fourth outing at the Coliseum. I was enchanted by her then and I was enchanted by her all over again on Sunday. She has performed in all the company’s productions at the Royal Albert Hall and she knows how to project to its vast reaches so that everyone in the audience is totally involved with her character. Whereas Cojocaru remained wistful throughout most of the ballet, Takahashi expresses a whole gamut of emotions, from distress when she is first confronted by her new stepsisters, clinging onto her mother’s headstone as if the sisters have intruded into her most private thoughts, curiosity when they invite her to dance with them, and incomprehension when first the stepmother and then Edwina is mean to her. There is such sad resignation in her body when she is serving her stepfamily and father, as the table is manoeuvred round the arena by the Fates, and then this changes to a delightful mischievousness followed by a quiet joy as she and the prince, disguised as a hobo, dance on the table when the family has departed. She really becomes involved in the dances of the four seasons, with a lovely expression of wonderment. Her emergence in her ballgown with train flowing as she ran around the arena, was magical, with the most radiant of smiles which lit up the auditorium. This led to what has to be the production’s coup de théâtre, the coach ride around the arena. As a small correction to my previous post, the man holding Cinderella aloft does not run but he walks very fast! Takahashi also makes the most of her solos, ironing out the awkwardness of the steps with her lyricism and exquisite footwork. Her prince is Joseph Caley who is genial but a bit bland. I preferred the coltish charm of Isaac Hernandez and the sheer brio of his dancing in this vast space. However, Caley’s dancing is beautifully neat and elegant, and he partners Takahashi extremely sympathetically, bringing a much-needed rapture into the inherently unromantic choreography for their pas de deux. Caley is especially well matched by Barry Drummond as Ben, both of whom use their feet beautifully, not least in their wonderfully soft landings from jumps, and have a true sense of classical line. It is lovely to see Drummond finally featured in a major role, especially as he has huge charm and, like Takahashi, a smile to light up the auditorium. Fabian Reimair, as Cinderella’s father, brings a touch of class to the production with his palpable grief at losing his wife, his flight from her graveside being a truly touching moment. Cinderella’s mother was the beautiful Angela Wood who does appear truly angelic as she hovers over the child Cinderella with a benevolent serenity, her ‘wings’ skilfully manoeuvred by the puppeteers. The always elegant Sarah Kundi is more of an uptight control freak than Tamara Rojo as the stepmother, subtler in her initial mistreatment of Cinderella, but definitely a force to be reckoned with, and this made her loss of control as she descends into drunkenness at the ball even funnier, especially in the pas de deux with the hapless Reimair (always a master of comic timing) trying to stop her from grabbing any more champagne from the obliging waiters. Alison McWhinney plays against type by showing that Edwina’s beauty is only skin deep as she bullies Clementine and Cinderella and disguises her lovely technique as she tries to do the same roll on the floor that Clementine manages so effortlessly in the duet in the ballroom, ending up in an ungainly heap on the floor not once but twice. As at the previous performance, it is the lovely relationship between Clementine and Ben that moves the heart. Here, Clementine was danced by Anjuli Hudson in a delightfully gauche yet adorable manner, trying whenever she could to apologise to Cinderella for the meanness of her mother and sister and obviously loving finally having a father-figure in her life from the way she leapt on Reimair like a young child at every opportunity. The blossoming romance between her and Drummond was a joy to behold, especially given the lovely chemistry between them whether dancing together or just looking at each other. Once again, the hardworking corps de ballet danced with great energy and enthusiasm, belying the fact that this was their sixth performance in four days, not to mention all the dress rehearsals since arriving at the Hall at the beginning of last week. Overall, this still feels more like a West End spectacle rather than a ballet but there are some wonderful performances to savour and I look forward to seeing at least one more change of cast before the end of the run.

The company's previous, beautiful award-winning production by Michael Corder, in which the story was told simply and clearly through exquisite, musical choreography with little or no recourse to pantomime, is a hard act to follow and I found Wheeldon's version to not even come close to it in so many areas. For me, the choreography is uninspired and looks awkward at times. It is neither purely classical nor neoclassical and ends up being pseudo-classical, at times its bittiness not reflecting the gorgeous phrasing of Prokofiev’s hauntingly beautiful score. Of course, there are many enjoyable moments but most of these come from the way the extremely talented dancers of English National Ballet develop their characters through their considerable acting skills rather than being able to develop them through the choreography itself, although for my taste there is sometimes a bit too much pantomime acting. I thought the production had not been particularly well adapted for the Royal Albert Hall’s arena, especially from the viewpoint of those sitting in the Stalls, as I was for the dress rehearsal and the opening night. Too often my view of what was important was obscured, a case in point being the second scene, played by the young prince and his friend, Ben, when their antics with Madame were completely blocked from my side of the arena by the huge archways, signifying the palace hallways. I have seen the DVD by the Dutch National Ballet so I knew what was going on, but other people on my half of the arena may have wondered why the people on the other side were laughing. Adding extra people to the four seasons episode is not particularly successful as it looks too busy and the soloists are often hidden. As with the photographs posted on the company’s Facebook page, it seems the best view of all that is going on will be from the cheapest seats in the Gallery. This is definitely a production which relies on stage effects, rather than choreographic substance, and some of these are spectacular. One which stood out for me was in the opening scene, in which Wheeldon shows us the young Cinderella with her devoted mother and father (played by two of the company’s finest dance-actors, Fabian Reimair and the beautiful Stina Quagebeur). We see the mother suffering from consumption and, as she dies, she is held aloft by the puppeteers (mercifully there are no puppets in the production, only puppeteers) who manipulate her white ‘cloak’ like wings as if she is flying up to heaven with the most lovely look of serenity on Quagebeur’s face. The other is at the end of Act I when the four Fates (who replace the fairy godmother in this production) plus two others become the horses to draw Cinderella’s coach which is mesmerisingly put together by men in black manipulating wheels and Cinderella herself borne aloft in a spectacular one-handed Bolshoi lift by another man in black, who is sadly uncredited but deserves a medal for his strength in maintaining this lift and running at the same time as the ‘coach’ and Cinderella make a complete circuit of the arena with Cinderella’s train billowing out behind. This drew spontaneous and extremely well deserved applause from the entire audience on both evenings. The reliance on back projections to act as scenery has a downside in that the screen is so tall that the orchestra on their raised platform are completely hidden from view, until they are revealed but still behind the screen in the ballroom scene. The screen does the sound no favours, especially for those sitting close to it, which is a shame as the orchestra play the score magnificently under the baton of Maestro Gavin Sutherland who, as with all these arena productions, has to follow the dancers on a small screen. Another thing I do not like is the reliance on cheap humour in places, such reactions to the huge bosom of Madame by both the young prince and his friend and the friend’s father (a woefully underused Michael Coleman). In fact, apart from the excellent dancing of the two youngsters (Matteo Bynoe and Ayan Hall-Jurkovic), this is a scene which could be cut with no detriment to the storyline. There are also crude references to the bad breath of stepsister Edwina, who also appears to have had an orgy with four courtiers after the ball (is that really necessary? – at least in the proscenium production it is just one courtier) and I find the depiction of a one-legged girl who wants to try on the golden slipper particularly disrespectful to the disabled. Having had my rant about what I dislike about the production, there are of course wonderful performances. With her waif-like appearance, Alina Cojocaru is ideally cast as Cinderella, immediately gaining the audience’s sympathy as she mourns her dead mother then has to suffer bullying, particularly by stepsister Edwina and stepmother Hortensia. I would love her to have more interesting choreography for the various solos, as to me they are just a series of step, however beautifully danced. Tamara Rojo has great fun as the control-freak of a stepmother, looking like a demented but glamorous Jean Simmons and sporting a white streak in her hair reminiscent of Cruella de Vil, defining the term ‘stage mother’ as she pushes her daughters to perform their particularly awful dance at the ball (danced with great skill in disguising the true talent of the dancers). Isaac Hernandez looks perfectly at home as the spirited young prince and there was a real tenderness in his partnering of Cojocaru although, again, I would have loved the choreography of the pas de deux to flow better and to reflect the rapture of the music. There were some rather awkward lifts which were definitely the fault of the choreography and not of Hernandez, who I have mentioned before is a very secure partner. The best choreography is left for Hernandez and Jeffrey Cirio as his friend, Ben, in their exuberant duets together. Stepsister Edwina, danced by Emma Hawes, is the least interesting character but Hawes does her best to show her as a spoilt brat and a bully, whether towards Cinderella or her sister Clementine. The relationship between Clementine and Ben actually becomes the most interesting and believable one in the production. Her natural prettiness barely disguised behind a pair of thick glasses, Katja Khaniukova, as the myopic, somewhat clumsy Clementine, makes much of the role, showing that she is the only one of her family with any heart and, when Edwina tells her to kick Cinderella as she lays on the floor, gently taps her with her foot and then immediately apologises for it. It is clear that she immediately falls for Ben from his first appearance in their home when he is disguised as the Prince, and their growing romance is beautifully portrayed by Cirio and Khaniukova. Their energetic pas de deux at the ball, although not the best choreography, is a joy to behold. There is a lovely moment in the last act, sadly not entirely visible to the audience on one side of the arena, when Khaniukova joins the line-up of girls to try on the golden slipper. As he holds out the slipper, Cirio shows his disappointment that she wants to try it on but, with the most delightful smile, Khaniukova mimes that she does not want the slipper, she wants him. It is therefore lovely that this charming couple are included in the wedding scene which concludes the ballet. A word of praise for the hardworking Fates of James Streeter, James Forbat, Junor Souza and Francisco Bosch who drive the action forward and engage in some very energetic dancing amid their scene-shifting duties, although I would love them to have more balletic choreography to suit their formidable talents for the music those familiar with Corder’s production and Ashton’s masterpiece will recognise as the dance of the stars. The corps de ballet also work especially hard with multiple costume and wig changes, not to mention running up and down the stairs in and out of the arena, but always appear engaged and committed, even when given not very rewarding choreography to dance. I will be seeing at least two other casts so it will be interesting to see if the production is tweaked to overcome some of the sightline problems I have mentioned. If anyone has not bought tickets yet, I would recommend avoiding the first five rows of the Stalls if you want to see all the action, although people around me on Thursday night, who had never been to a ballet before, enjoyed being so close to the dancers. The cast received a well-deserved rapturous ovation from the opening night audience.