A frog

It was overall an amazing evening, everything was close to perfect; the only piece I could criticise would be the Don Q pas de deux by Akane and Sergei, and really only because the Mikhailovsky performances are fairly fresh in my memory. The Rose adage in the beginning was indeed a very nice bonus, I have never seen Alina dance Sleeping Beauty, but if it's not quite as good as usual, I really hope she will be cast in the next run (although I think Johan had said she wouldn't dance it with the Royal anymore ). My highlights were Ballet 101 and Les Lutins, which are more or less the best you can expect in an evening of this format, short fun displays of virtuosity which you would pretty much never see anywhere else. I also loved the Dying Swan by Isabelle Ciaravola. I was also very surprised that the evening wasn't full, I wonder if all the injuries the dancers sustained before have something to do with it.

If I'm not mistaken, in her time, dancers in the RB had to be English or from the Commonwealth; does anyone know when this ended? I also remember reading here or there (mostly articles from Alistair Macaulay) that the standard of the company got relatively bad in the 80's, if that was while the company still only employed British dancers, maybe that's why they changed the rule, or maybe once they had to open the pool to European dancers they thought they might as well hire the best from all over the world? I also believe that around that time the training from the Royal Ballet School was inadequate for the company (the symbolic example being brought up was that the Ashton step was no longer being taught), it could also explain why the company started hiring from all over the world. As a ballet watcher, I don't have any problem with dancers not being British (especially coming back from the Alina Cojocaru gala at Sadler's Well), however I understand why it can be frustrating for ballet students and their parents, but the fault is that of the schools, not the companies. It also seems the Upper School cares more about making sure their students can find employment when they graduate (which is understandable), which will also be an incentive for them to have the best students from all over the world rather than students from White Lodge. The other point is that a British born dancer would great publicity and would increase awareness for ballet in general, I perfectly agree, even if the days of the superstar dancer are probably over in this country, but I have the feeling the RB is actually trying to increase publicity around British dancers (I don't recall dancers as junior as Claire Calvert and Melissa Hamilton receiving as much press, and add to that Lauren Cuthberson being in most of the cinema relays before her injury). But they don't yet have a British dancer who deserves to be considered THE ballerina the way Darcey Bussell was. Again, if there is a fault, it is probably that of the schools. One last note, the RB seems to be seen pretty much the world over as one of the dream companies a dancer can aspire to, in part because it is open to all regardless of training, as long as it is the case the competition for places will always be between all the best dancers in the world, and I hope it stays the case for longer.

The cast for the first night of Manon was apparently Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, David Wall, Monica Mason, Derek Rencher, David Drew

On the topic of principal roles danced before promotion to principal, does anyone remember which among these roles Lauren Cuthberson had danced before her promotion? It seemed to me that the past few years, every other role she danced was a debut (certainly Manon was).

It's true that she hasn't done any of these (I think), but she has done La Fille Mal Gardee and Cinderella. They've announced there would be debuts for the next run of Sleeping Beauty, maybe it will finally be her turn?

I agree about Yuhui Choe, it seems high time, and she really deserves it. As much as I like Melissa Hamilton and have little doubt that she will eventually be a principal, I don't see her being promoted yet, wasn't she promoted to soloist just last year? I also wish we'd see a bit more of Itziar Mendizabal, she seems to be given really few roles for someone who joined the company relatively recently at a rather senior level.

I'll chip in some praise for the general standard of the whole RB company in MacMillan in particular. I saw Manon by the POB last year, it was technically the best performance I have seen, but also the least involving. It really made me realise how much the whole company gives to the performances.

I don't disagree, and since these days the RB seems happy to let younger dancers have a crack at principal roles, I'm definitely ok with the principal ranks thinning out. Even if they're mostly looking at it in terms of savings, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I also sometimes wonder how much the more general public is influenced by this, and whether they will rather see principals, even if they don't know who they are. I remember a comment on another blog where someone was complaining that he had booked to see Prince of the Pagodas to see principal dancers and that cast change meant he would see more junior ones (in that case they were Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Ryoichi Hirano), he definitely didn't seem happy about it.

I have a loosely related question. I was looking at a 2008 programme recently and noticed that, on top of Tamara, Mara, and Leanne this season or last, since then Miyako Yoshida and Alexandra Ansanelli have also left the principal ranks, with no promotions. Does anyone know if there is more or less a rule about the number of principals in the company, or does it depend on the needs and if there are dancers deemed suitable?

I'm not supporting the idea of forced retirement, but it also allows the influx of new blood. And in the case of POB, I wonder if that's not part of the reasoning, given the strong links with the school. Dancers can also still guest or pursue their careers in other ways, it's not necessarily the end. And in the case of POB (and I assume RDB), the (full) pension they are allowed to draw from the state is most likely far more interesting than what one would get in the UK. A quick search seems to indicate that corps dancers are helped to find and have training for their post-ballet career as well, even if that's a realitevely new development.

I suspect the comments will give you pretty much all active dancers. You've already mentioned Edward Watson who would have been my first choice, other male dancers from the RB I would single out in that respect would be Johan Kobborg and Thiago Soares. For female dancers, Tamara Rojo would often qualify (some roles can prove an exception), Alina Cojocaru, Lauren Cuthberson, and Yuhui Choe (even if she hasn't been given as many roles); I'm also curious to see how Beatriz Stix-Brunell's career will develop, she was the best Alice, and I also found her very good in Las Hermanas.

I haven't seen enough performances to be able to compare with anything else, but it is indeed hard to imagine a better team (if I could nitpick a little, I'd replace a couple of singers with some from the previous run) Alison: Anja Harteros just cancelled her performance tomorrow (and it is likely Sat will be the same), maybe there will be some returns. It would still be more than worth it for Kaufmann and Furlanetto.

Hi chrischris, I don't think anyone thinks art should be subsidised as a matter of principle, it just is the economic reality that anything involving an orchestra cannot survive with tickets sales alone. The LSO on their programme when having an advert asking for donations points out that even a sold out hall only covers about 50% of the costs involved in putting on a concert, I imagine the numbers are fairly comparable for ballet and opera, and bearing in mind that Covent Garden has a better occupancy rate than any concert hall, even the Coliseum is most night positively packed compared to most concerts by one of the London big three. And as you point out, the subsidy mostly allows to have cheap tickets available and to make sure that a company making the necessary investments to have a new full-length evening doesn't end up bankrupt. I vaguely remember seeing massive figures being circulated about Wheeldon's Alice, the show proved popular enough that it's probably been will be worth it, but any private company probably would have thought about it more than twice before going ahead. It is possible to bemoan that ballet (for it is what concerns us here) cannot fund itself without the state, and it is of course possible to think of alternate ways to finance it, but none seem a lot more realistic these days, at least not in the short term, and not if we want to keep the same quality and variety of works. In the end, whether or not the state spends money on the arts depends on the society they want (I'm reminded of an old Dilbert comic, where one character was in a meeting with Human Resources and was screaming: "I am not a *** resource"). It's probably the first time I agree with Rupert Christiansen on something, but the comments on the article are quite dispiriting.

Since it's now pretty clear that Restor is just trolling (see also his comments on Ecstasy and Death and the Sofia ballet), should we just ignore him?

I first went to the ballet because I could, I'm generally rather curious, and when it comes to culture, lucky enough to live in London where so much is available, I just figured I'd give it a try. I was already into opera, so the Royal Ballet it was. The spark started with Chroma in 2008 in a triple bill with Different Drummer and the Rite of Spring. It wasn't my first ballet (Sleeping Beauty by La Scala Ballet the previous summer which I already really liked) but it's the one that made really me pay attention; it was like nothing I had ever seen before and I was utterly transfixed for the whole ballet, I loved the Rite of Spring, I'd probably appreciate Different Drummer more today. For a couple more years I would mostly go to triple bills (more variety which was great for a newbie, cheaper, and easier to get tickets) and didn't really try to know much more or read on the topic, when the RB had their recent-ish MacMillan bill with The Judas Tree, I managed to take a friend who I knew was rather into classical, pretty, and nice thinking that as he had been resident choreographer surely it would be fine... Little by little I went to more productions, see more companies, catch different casts, see shows abroad; and when I changed job earlier this year, my card was a picture of me photoshopped on stage in Swan Lake.

@Alison, yes, my comment was a little ill-phrased and I was probably projecting today's discussions. I'm sure that she fully deserved to be a principal, and even to considered one of the top ballerinas of the company, but her profile was so much more. But anyway, this discussion has already been had on these boards.

chrischris: I'm guessing you are referring to Swan Lake and Nutcracker when you mention that ENB and RB do the same repertoire. These are performed because they fill the halls, and if you view the more or less duplication as a problem, it would only be worse without the subsidy. ENB is also primarily a touring company, their tour just happens to go through London, and the subsidy most likely benefits the audience outside of London above all.I also assume that in the general economics of it, the London season to an extent subsidises the tour. I understand that you are new to ballet, and I hope this whole discussion is not putting you off, but one of the beauty of the art form is that it is creating a new language based purely on movement and the human body, nationality is irrelevant, and as Marianela Nunez and Yuhui Choe are proving these days with Ashton, you don't have to have grown up in the culture of a choreographer to be the best exponent of it either. You mention Darcy, I started going to the ballet after she had retired so have never seen her, but from what I hear and read, while she was of course gifted, part of her fame was publicity caused by her nationality, not purely talent (I believe there was a topic on her not too long ago); ballet companies are only trying to attract as big an audience as possible, ultimately, they need the best dancers, not dancers that will somehow develop a sense of patriotic pride in the public (most of whom, certainly every single person I've taken to the ballet, really couldn't care less). And if they could, they would jump on the opportunity to have British dancers at top level.

There will always be someone to complain that public money is being ill-used, but some people's insistence (not just chrischris or restor, some comments in newspapers too) that what amounts to a few pennies a year per taxpayers is an outrageous waste and the first step to economic irrelevance always sounded very curious to me. And if we're going to go with :"some people don't care so why pay for it?", I want to stop paying for public education, I didn't get to enjoy it here and it's unlikely my kids will; I'm sure it's a much bigger savings (to be clear I'm being sarcastic, I am definitely not advocating this).

It is very disingenuous (to be polite) to say we could just get rid of all subsidy and follow the American model; they historically follow a system with private money subsidises in very large amounts the arts and many other things. It seems unrealistic to expect any other country to be able to replicate this model without at the very least 10-15 years adaptation period. And for as much as people complain about there being strings attached with state money (usually making sure things are affordable and accessible to everyone, the horror…), this is still vastly preferable to have a very rich patron conditioning his donations to having a say in all aspects of the policy of the various institutions, for all the talk of the Royal Opera House being a bastion of conservatism, it is still positively experimental compared to the Met.

I find it a bit sad that regular ballet-goers could have been put off by an advertising campaign that wasn't aimed at them in the first place. I assume that ENB thought that the names of the choreographers (and Nicolas Le Riche, although I only realised he would be dancing when the press release about Ivan Putrov was issued, maybe they should have done a bit more here) would be enough to convince them to attend or not. Regarding the nationality of the dancers, I understand how as a parent this can be frustrating, but if the schools do not train to the standard the companies expect, this can hardly be blamed on the companies. At some point (I hope and assume this has now been addressed), there was an almost complete disconnect between the RBS and RB, a very symbolic sign being that the Ashton step wasn't taught anymore. I don't know if anyone here has heard or seen an America TV show called Bunheads, I was quite surprised that teenagers who more or less dream about becoming ballet dancers would go to a normal high school, but this is apparently quite normal there, and yet they have very good dancers. And to take an actual example from around here, Camille Bracher was hired by the RB over dancers who had trained in the British system for far more many years far more intensively; this is of course more symbolic than anything, but still. Sorry for going off topic, I'm sure this has already been discussed extensively somewhere else, and it's great that ENB is apparently developing links with the school. After all a new British ballerina would be a publicity bonanza for any company lucky enough to have her (and an all-British partnership would be even better). Edited to add seeing the new posts: A ballet company mostly has an obligation to its audience, the subsidy is here to benefit the audience; should we also have different ticket prices for non-EU patrons? I find it hard to believe that the nationality of a dancer would somehow compensate for lesser skills. Being facetious and pessimistic for a moment, I'm quite curious to see what the comments will be if/when Yasmine Naghdi makes it to principal; I can't help thinking (I hope wrongly) that she somehow won't be British enough.

Thanks Alison. What I meant by TV news was probably very uninformed and for all intents and purposes would never happen. In France, the news often end with a small cultural bit, effectively a puff piece for something about to open or be released (ballet, opera, or theatre (the subsidised kind) included). A one or two minute or so segment before the show opened in London mentioning the show would then tour in … would probably be a very effective starting point for publicity. This is probably just wishful thinking, I never watch the news here so don't know if this could happen, neither do I know if the news are as watched as they are in France. And for all I know maybe this is already the case.

Hi Timmie, The author told the whole story at an insight evening last week, they were filming it, I expect they'll have parts of it on Youtube before it opens(the book was also on sale but I didn't have cash on me, maybe someone else bought it and will be able to give more details or correct mistakes). If you, or anyone, want to know the story beforehand, it follows on the Amazon description more or less with: The Raven girl has a human body but a Raven voice and cannot talk. She gets to university, one of her professors specialises in chimeras (animal and human hybrids), she asks him to give her raven wings and he agrees. In the meantime, a very shy boy who likes her notices she went missing, he finds her in the hospital after her operation and his horrified, (I'm not sure I remember the following exactly, definitely missing some details), in the commotion, Raven Girl escapes through the window and flies away, she meets with the Raven Prince, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Some casting info; Sarah Lamb will dance Raven Girl, Eric Underwood the prince (we saw them rehearse a pas de deux, apparently from the end of the ballet), Edward Watson the postman, Thiago Soares and Bennet Gartside the professor/doctor.

Does anyone know why ENB often seem to finish their tours in London? For works that are unfamiliar to the more general public and are (even) harder to sell outside of London, maybe it would help to change that. I assume it would be easier to have press and publicity (ideally a small item on the TV news or the like) if journalists don't have to go anywhere, it would then set the word for the rest of the tour. I believe problematic attendance to unfamiliar works outside of London has always been an issue (if I remember from parts of Zoe Anderson's RB history correctly), and I rather think that Le Corsaire would be a rather good choice as it is classical and immediately enjoyable; but this cannot change if no one goes out there with "new" works, and, unfortunately, probably has to make a loss every so often. Regarding the unfamiliarity with the source, the only proven box office draw I can think of where the source text may factor in in people's decision to attend (as in, I like this story and I wonder what it would look like in another media) is Romeo and Juliet (and maybe Alice in the future if it remains as popular). I think it's too early to pronounce any conclusion about the effectiveness of the new image and advertising policy, and I actually found the Ecstasy and Death poster in the tube rather stylish; it is all part of a whole with where they apparently want to take their programming policy, we just need to see in a couple of years how things have turned out, but I certainly hope they will be successful with it. It however cannot be ignored that there were many in attendance with discounted tickets, and I hope they will be careful to make sure any new audience they are pursuing doesn't get used to it and starts buying full price tickets.

Thanks Billboyd, I started doubting my sanity as I was pretty sure the date I checked wasn't the first night. It seems that they have different prices for the weekend, which is an ENO policy as well. Spannerandponny: Le Corsaire has school offers at the Coliseum, £8.00 a ticket.

One day I'll look into quotes, but for the moment, I'll just follow up on some points raised. I've just had a look at the ENB website, I couldn't find a link offering me to join any mailing list whatsoever, there were links to FB and Twitter, but info is so much more easily lost there than in an email (or flyer/brochure), they really should fix that. I also found out that the London run of Le Corsaire in Jan 14 is already on sale (has been for a couple of weeks), the link takes you to ENO website, but there is nothing on the ENO home page under ballet & dance which I assume is where most people would look, another little detail that points to shoddy work from ENO/Coliseum, and from ENB too to be fair, I'm surprised they haven't yet complained to have this fixed. They however seem to have reacted on pricing, top price is now only 55, and the seating plan has more price bands. There are also a few ticket deals (the most interesting being 2 for 1 tickets for under-30's), but once again, all this information is only available to those who will actively make the effort to look it up, my guess is that they are already very likely to buy tickets. I'm pretty sure Bluebird is right, stand-by offers depend on the venue. And I don't think they should advertise those more than they already are, it's all very good to expand the audience and have a full hall, but they should be careful to make sure people will pay for tickets; you won't sit in the stalls or front of the dress circle, but normally priced tickets can be found for 20 and cheaper, I've never sat in the balcony, but sightlines were good anywhere else, and I understand they are there too. The last thing they (or any company) want is what is currently happening to ENO, it is just assumed that the shows won't sell out, and a sizable portion of the audience now waits for discounted tickets. I'm sure these are all points they are aware of, but I hope someone from there is reading this thread (I know the ROH would), they have a free focus group of there core audience right here.