Fonty

I think there was advanced booking for that, and I know there are (or were) standing tickets for £25. But having said that, the show is virtually sold out.

Yes, we all know and accept that injuries and illness can change casts. But projected casting would be sufficient to know who is likely to be dancing the leading roles, and when. This is especially important with some of the more mature principals, who may well be performing a specific role for the last time. I am making a point of trying to see Lamb in everything I can, while I still can. I did exactly the same thing with Morera before she retired. But I can't always afford to wait until exact casting is announced, when many of the reasonably priced seats will have gone by then.

I think Mr O'Hare is between a rock and a hard place. It cannot be easy trying to maintain a classical ballet company and satisfy the requirements of the Arts Council, which from what I can make out seems to be a tick box exercise in political correctness. Ashton seems to be the embodiment of all that the ACE would disapprove of. Classical ballet, characters such as fairies and nymphs, stories that to not contain nitty gritty realism of every day life in modern day Britain with the emphasis on sexism and racism....I am astounded we manage to get anything by him. One thing though. I do wish the Ashton triple bills would be part of the live screening schedule to the cinemas. For two years a mouth watering selection has been performed while I am abroad, with no hope of seeing it.

Well, I shall continue to say ROH or Covent Garden. It is just so much easier to refer to the Royal Opera House, rather than the Royal Ballet and Opera House. I am curious. Who are the people who thought ballet was performed somewhere else? The people "who should have known better" according to Mr O'Hare? Please, please tell me they are NOT working for ACE. Although, from what I have heard of that organisation, nothing would surprise me. I am not sure if I read it on this forum or somewhere else, but there was an article about a noted classical orchestra receiving a visit from a representative of ACE with regard to funding. I can't remember it exactly, but the gist of it was that while they were playing, let's say, a violin concerto, the rep was looking bored and fiddling with their phone. Then they asked a question along the lines of "Do you play anything a bit more modern that doesn't involve violins?" Edited to add I have used ACE for the Arts Council, because people seem to use it on here all the time, but is that its official acronym? When I did a quick search I got several other organisations, but none for Arts Council England.

RBO? My first thought was Royal Body Odour. I wonder how much money was paid to some organisation to come up with that. No doubt the seat prices will have to go up again to cover the costs.

Oh, that really is sad news. I love those books. RIP Mr Sansom.

It seems extraordinary to have no classical work scheduled, especially as many of the remarks about the current run of Swan Lakes comment on how well the lower ranks are dancing at the moment.

And no Fille.....

I must admit I have had mixed success with VPNs. I have tried in Portugal to get the BBC, and we manage to get half a programme before we are hunted down and exposed as the criminals we are. Even though we have a proper BBC licence. Not sure how vigilant RAI are.

We've got Dame Darcey Bussell. I would have thought she would have enough media contacts to try and organise something on the BBC. Alternatively, can we have the shows that Italian tv are putting on? I would be overjoyed to see Carla Fracci in Giselle.

I was going to mention the ENB production.

But what characters are those? Who are Odette and Siegfried bowing to? The other swans? Somebody they think might be spying on them? As others have said, it is ok to take a bow when the dancers are performing on stage to other characters, such as in the Rose Adagio. Having performed what I have heard described as the Grand National of ballerina dances, I can imagine Aurora does need a bit of a breather, and in any case the choreography makes allowances for this at the end when she bows to her suitors. In that instance the audience could be seen as further members of the spectators at court, as she bows to us in turn. But in Act 2 of Swan Lake, this is a private meeting. I can think of absolutely no way where it could be done in character. And as for giving the dancers a bit of a breather, I suspect Vadim might not have been entirely serious. Yes, we know these variations are punishing, but I would hate people to start thinking "Oh, I must show my appreciation here because I know they need a rest." I do hope it is not going to become more and more prevalent. It really used to annoy me when the Russian companies performing would automatically stop to take applause after every variation. Sometimes the bows seemed to take longer than the piece they had just performed.

On the other hand, we don't want the side kicks looking more regal than the Prince, do we?? Otherwise those princesses might start making eyes at the wrong chap! On a more serious note, visually it does help if all the main characters are of similar height.

I thought Hamilton was gorgeous in Requiem. Not sure why she would be thought unsuitable for Odette/Odile or Aurora, but should that be an obstacle? I don't think it is obligatory to dance those roles, is it? Let's not forget that Laura Morera didn't dance them either, I don't think? Nor did other principal ladies of the past. Edited to add I am sure Morera would have made a wonderful job of either of those two roles, just that she was never cast in them.

@Buddy Maybe I am missing something, but I don't understand what the Sesame Street clip has got to do with lyrical dance!

Talking of catering, I was really surprised when I went to an evening performance of the MacMillan Triple to see how few people were eating in the Floral Hall balcony restaurant. I think there were only about 4 tables in use.

Well, I get emails about everything - ballet, opera, restaurants, gift shop. But the only offers I have ever had have been for opera. Which I have never attended. And yes, the most recent one was the 40 % off for Lucia. If anyone is interested, send me a PM and I will let you know what the details are.

Gorgeous!

I can't remember the name of the character, all I can remember is that a girl was dancing something in an outfit suitable for something like Giselle with a long skirt. Someone watching remarked how talented she was, and the teacher replied that yes she was, but her thighs were too big and she didn't look right in a tutu. Consequently she would never make it as a classical ballet dancer. Considering I haven't read the books since I was about 10, I am amazed I remember that much.

Oh don't get me wrong, of course children should be encouraged to dream, and to work hard to achieve that dream. I am all for that. But I am deeply concerned that there is a trend now to make all children believe that they will always achieve that dream if they put in enough effort. And when, for whatever reason they don't achieve it, there will be the belief in their own minds that they "didn't work hard enough". Which is a shattering blow, and can and does lead to depression. I was reading an article somewhere about young boys, very talented footballers, who made it to prestigious football academies, and then got weeded out at the age of 14 or 15 for not being good enough. The number suffering from acute depression as a result was very distressing to read about. The problem with ballet (and presumably football as well) is that you have to start very young, and deal with blows at the worst time i.e. adolescence and young adulthood. To feel a failure at such a young age must be appalling. The paragraph I highlighted in the post above is really one of the most important issues. How to deal with disappointment, and channelling your energies into something else are areas that hopefully could be covered in a sensitive manner. You would hope that parents would feel equipped to deal with this, but not everyone comes from that kind of background. And yes, I realise I am being much too serious about a nice series of books aimed at young children. But if by any remote chance the authors happen to be reading this forum, they might want to give it some thought.

Not too sure about the message that if you dream big and work hard then you will achieve success. I know it is only a work of fiction aimed at younger readers, but I am certain that ballet is littered with multitudes of children who worked extremely hard and still had their dreams shattered. Either because they grew to be the wrong shape or they were simply not quite good enough. I am all for dreams and hard work, but a little realism has to be included in the mix somewhere. Talking of which, did the Lorna Hill books deal with the issues regarding physique? I have a vague memory of one girl whose legs were deemed to be the wrong shape for ballet as she reached maturity.

Ah, ok, that makes a bit more sense! There was a lot of gossiping going on during the interval bits, so I obviously misheard what Bussell said. It wasn't really explained, though.

Having worked from home for several years, I would sometimes take an afternoon off, and make up the hours missed by working in the evenings or over the weekend. Generally speaking, as long as I put in the hours and delivered on time, nobody was bothered if my phone was switched off while I went to a matinee. Just got back from my Encore screening. There were about 20 of us, and about 17 of them were definitely retired. It was interesting to compare the cinema performance with the live one I saw. I loved Danses Concertantes both times, and agree that Gasparini was terrific in this. I was fortunate enough to see Muntagirov in the live show, and although the cinema cast were good, none of the men could match him for style and personality. I have to say that I thought the whole cast were dancing splendidly, particularly the girls, with speed and precision. Would be very happy to see this ballet again on another triple bill in the near future. Unlike others, I definitely preferred Different Drummer when I saw it live. I thought some of the camera angles missed the wider picture, so that for example there were only glimpses of the Captain barking his instructions at the soldiers and dominating them. I have a slight preference for Hayward rather than Osipova as Marie, but I enjoyed both their performances. I have always liked Requiem. When I wrote my review of the live performance, I said that for some reason it didn't move me as much as it usually did. This time I was completely overcome by the fabulous music and dancing. It looked and sounded absolutely wonderful. Which brings me to the commentary. As others have said, the last two ballets required a bit more explanation that was given here. If you didn't know anything about Different Drummer you might have been completely lost. A brief synopsis of the story wouldn't have gone amiss. I heard one member of the audience asking why there was a bath on the stage all the way through. They just didn't get it. Not sure I would have done either if I hadn't read about it beforehand. Likewise, Requiem. Ok, I think everyone would have got the idea that it was a tribute to the death of a friend, but the choice of music was very specific. Would it have been too much trouble to explain the different segments, especially with someone as knowledgeable and eloquent as Petroc Trelawny? Is it going to offend anyone if the Catholic religion is mentioned? I wouldn't have thought so. It is all very well Bussell saying "It is all there in the movement", but if you don't actually know what the movement is supposed to represent so much is lost. Also, Bussell threw me by saying (or at least I think she said) that one of the cast is supposed to be a child. I didn't know that, and if so, which one? I enjoyed the interviews, but felt the one on Benesh notation was a bit wasted. It was in the wrong place, taking up space that could have been spent giving the sort of information I mentioned above, and also I don't think it really explained it all that well. As someone who actually studied this myself, it might have been more interesting to have a dancer take up one or two positions, and then show how that would have been written down in Benesh. Otherwise, I suspect it just looked like a lot of meaningless squiggles. And finally, what on earth was Bussell wearing? She is a lovely looking woman, and is always immaculately well groomed, but sometimes her outfits are somewhat....unusual? At first I thought she was wrapped up in a winter coat, but as she was inside I didn't think this was likely. It appeared to be a sort of culottes jumpsuit in coral tweed. I was so hoping there would be a longer shot of it so that I could see how long it was, but sadly my curiosity wasn't satisfied.

I wonder if they are catering for people who work from home, and can occasionally take a longer lunch hour.

I am going to one at Picturehouse Greenwich tomorrow at midday, if I can get there in time.