Fonty

Goodness, you must have sharp eyes. I missed that, and I also thought it was odd that Bussell had turned up. I did wonder why she was examining the cast lists so intently.

Ah, ok, thanks Capybara. The boy was older than I thought.

Like everyone else, I also found this a very enjoyable programme. I liked the way it concentrated on the students, from the youngsters at White Lodge, to the ones who are in their final year and will be looking for jobs in the near future. I thought this contrasted nicely with the preparation of the principals, and showed what all those students are hoping to achieve themselves in the future. And it seems entirely right to concentrate on a British dancer who has been through the whole school herself. Of course, it would have been nice if we could have seen some of the soloists as well, but the programme would have had to be a lot longer. As it was, I thought the BBC got the balance right. And great to have a professional voice over for a change. A couple of things struck me. First of all, the boy who had only been at White Lodge for about 4 weeks seemed so keen, but Christopher Carr just went for the senior boys, without even seeing him audition. Such a shame, and the sort of thing that could be quite demoralising for anyone, let along a child. Secondly, I may have misheard, but I could have sworn the commentary said something about its being the first time that Alexander Campbell had danced a principal role. Please tell me I got that wrong!

I can't really remember the Lilac Fairy variation very well. I do remember Lucette Aldous performing it when the BBC showed the Fonteyn Beauty. Is it the same choreography? Edited to add that I can remember some very slow sort of arabesque half turns (sorry, I cannot describe them any better than that.) It looked as if it required terrific balance and strength, together with the ability to make it look authoritative while remaining delightfully fairy like.

I didn't see the Bussell programme, it seemed from the write up to be full of clips I have seen before. However, I did see her live many times. There is no doubt that she was a superb technician, and was at her best when she simply had to move without having to portray too much emotion. She had a lovely creamy quality of movement that, combined with a wonderful physique, was ideally suited to non acting, pure dance roles

Is it really 5 years? Huge thanks to the Moderators for doing such a good job of keeping everything under control, especially when things get a little bit heated. But I would also like to thank my fellow posters, for your entertaining and informative posts. When I am travelling, I rely on this forum to keep me up to date with events in the ballet world, and I really appreciate the wonderful reviews and discussions on here. Really looking forward to 2017. Happy Christmas. Fonteyn

Yes, well, this ninny here forgot to record it. However, I am no fan of Miss Bussell as a presenter, because I always feel that the focus is frequently on her, rather than the subject of the documentary. I realise that the idea is that she will bring in a larger audience to watch a programme about ballet, but I find this in itself rather sad. I am a lifelong fan of ballet, who is being put off watching because of her. I just find her to be rather amateurish, even after all this time. She simply isn't a natural at it. Do people only watch a programme because A Famous Person is presenting it? I've seen loads of programmes presented by people I have never heard of, on subjects I have no particular interest in, and the reason I continued watching was because the subject matter was brought to life by a person with the ability to convey their knowledge and passion for the subject without gushing, giggling, or grinning at the camera every 30 seconds. . I wish Darcey could be paired with someone else. Jonathon Cope came across as a natural presenter when I saw him, and he and Darcey know each other very well. Could they not share the role?

I think I had better make a point of deliberately booking a Golding performance when he is next around. I am puzzled as to why this particular young man should be attracting such negative comments. Looking at the current crop of male Principals, I would say that there are several there who have obvious limitations as far as I am concerned. But I won't mention any names, as my response is purely personal. And this will be my last word on the subject.

Maybe not the ROH stage, but I could see Matthew Bourne having a field day with some of these. Edited to add that I got distracted there, I meant to respond to Floss's post about the number of SB productions. I am not sure what qualifies as "umpteen", but the fact that Bussell was in four different ones during her career suggests a fair few changes in a relatively short space of time for one ballet.

I used to enjoy his Thought for the Day as well.

I shall be very interested indeed, because this must be the umpteenth adaptation for the RB. I think Darcey Bussell said she was in about three different productions, didn't she? Although I love the music, I have found in the past that sections have tended to drag, particularly in the Prologue. However, I have purchased a ticket for February, so I shall keep my fingers crossed.

Speaking personally, while there may be some interesting ideas in this, the little clip seems to show an enormous waste of all that gorgeous music.

I meant to comment on that as well, Alison.

My post above was in response to several rather dismissive posts regarding Mr Golding. Reading all the reviews of his Romeo to Hayward's Juliet, that did seem to be a case of miscasting. Finding the right partner is vital for both males and females. surely? I remember similar comments about Jonathan Cope in the past - superb partner, elegant dancer, but lacking in the acting department was the view of many, myself included I have to say. That was before I saw him in Mayerling, with Tamara Rojo.

I've never seen Golding in anything, but he doesn't appear to have many fans on here, poor chap. Looking at his CV, he seems to won several prizes, included a Prix scholarship to study at the RB when he was a student, so he must have something!

Jacqueline, I do sympathise. I had a similar problem, in that the neighbours on either side of me let their back gardens run wild. As the houses are town houses, with the living room upstairs, I had a wonderful view on both sides of a jungle of weeds, old furniture, newspapers...the lot. In the end, I told them their gardens were very overgrown (understatement) and offered to do the gardening for both of them, and charged them an hourly rate. Both were delighted with the arrangement, especially as I can access their plots by climbing over from my side, so I don't need to go through the house. They said they didn't like/have time for gardening, and never really noticed the mess. And I got three small gardens to play around with.. If you don't want to do it yourself, maybe you could suggest politely that they get someone else to do something about it?

I wouldn't call many of Wayne McGregor's offerings ballets either.

As a matter of interest, where does Matthew Bourne fit in? He is hugely popular with audiences, and I assume the critics like him as well. I think his takes on the classics are wonderful, but I don't have a clear idea of his artistic style in terms of the movement.

Exactly how much grooming does an eyebrow need?

I agree that some of the camera work is very odd, given that the director is an ex dancer. I can only assume that the film course he went on trained him to use tricksy angles, and told him that feet were very dull in comparison to faces.

Oh dear. What a sad year this has been.

Unfortunately, I could not make yesterday's film showing, and I am out all day Sunday. What a pity.

Good heavens. Sacrilege! That wonderful music is the highlight of the evening, and the whole point of going to see the Nutcracker (for me, anyway), I find it deeply moving. I've never seen Balanchine's Nutcracker. Where did he move it to, and why did he do it?

I read a snippet of the Anne Darwin book in a newspaper, along with various interviews she gave the press when it was published. I felt the same as you, Fiz. How a woman could put her children through so much pain is just beyond me. And then she seemed totally astonished and hurt when the truth came out, and they refused to speak to her. How did she expect them to react? I am currently reading Philip Roth's American Pastoral for my book club. According to the reviews on the back, it is a work of genius "full of insight, wisdom, ironic twists and sheer good fun". I must be very stupid, because so far I have failed to find any of those qualities in this turgid tome. Give me a good Agatha Christie any day.

I never use fabric conditioner, after discovering that the design of my dispenser is awful, and that section is impossible to clean out completely. I have wasted many hours in the past, scraping out black gunge from it. However, the one positive was that the gunge did have a lovely smell!