LinMM

Have mentioned this on the "other" thread I personally liked Jacob as a dancer but thought the young Connor who did most of his own choreography was amazing too They said for the final there would be the winners from each category plus two wild cards. It's early days yet of course but wouldn't be surprised if Connor was one of the wild cards.

There seems to,be another thread for this in the Doing Dance section

You may be talking about inter city trains of course. Most of my advance fare journeys are on Suburban lines(into London) where the trains are more frequent. Intercity trains can be a problem because you have to reserve a seat usually so if it's delayed or cancelled then you won't be guaranteed a seat if on another train than the original one!

I have never ever found this on Southern fortunately. Whenever there has been any mishap on the railways Ive always been allowed to get on the next train if it's after the time on the ticket. If you miss the train then too bad but if the railways have the problem I must say have always found very accommodating

I only caught the last three dancers but have recorded it so will look more closely tomorrow but the three I did see Jacob Diana and Connor were all terrific. I did particularly like Jacob as a dancer but thought the young Connor was amazing in producing so much of his own choreography at such a young age Lovely to hear he has a place at the Rambert ......he will definitely be in the right place there and they particularly nurture young choreographic talent I believe.

Normally advanced fares are attached to a particular train.... so even if you do get an an earlier one the ticket will not be valid. This is one of the sometimes annoying things .....you've got the really cheap fare etc but if you arrive 30 mins early at the station you just have to hang around for your train. If you have one of these tickets it has the time of the train you can use it on printed on the ticket. There may be other advanced type fares which are cheaper but not tied to a particular train of course. The very cheapest ones will be though.

So glad a new "Alain" has been found!! As so far have never seen Alexander Grant bettered. I'm already going to this on May 5th with the main roles a differently cast of course......but reading these reviews makes me want to rush off and get another ticket......though I don't think Morera is cast with Muntagirov again?? I hope the other roles will be the same on the 5th but thanks everyone for your lovely reviews. Incidentally was on a no.11 bus on Wednesday afternoon and saw a white pony being lead along Whitehall causing a bit of a stir as passers by wanted to chat to the man leading him along. It did look suspiciously like the one on the ROH website ......perhaps just out of rehearsal? Or just a coincidence!

I wouldn't mind it saying "in the next life Linda, in the next life" but for very different reasons! If I knew I could come back being able to dance like her then Death would definitely lose it's sting!!

Hopefully will catch this on 16th May in Croydon

Do you think Von Rothbarts costume in this production detracted from the role......or is it just me making excuses for perhaps some not so good coaching of the dancers for this role? It may have been elaborately designed in itself but that doesn't necessarily make it suitable.

It's Thursday night for me.....have no idea who is dancing though!

I'm going to can't remember which day off hand!

I'm really sorry to have to miss this as have been looking forward to her doing some of the things she has been doing in USA in recent years here in UK. It's all pretty modern stuff so might not be to everyone's taste but just hope she comes again as am disappointed to have to miss her this time round. She is one of my favourite dancers too.

Well it already seems an age ago but last Thursday went to see Swan Lake. This was the somewhat jinxed performance which should have been Cuthbertson and Muntagirov but was danced by McRae and Salenko. I don't know whether it was because I haven't been to a Swan Lake for three years(I had thought it was two years ago) and I was sitting in a particularly good seat in the Stalls Circle but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I thought McRae was a really excellent Siegfried as he seemed to bring so much life even a touch of playfulness to the role and he just gives so much on stage .....he must be great to dance with! And after all Siegfried is a character who is prepared to sacrifice himself to be with his love ......so there should be evidence of some passion there and McRae had it in abundance. Salenko was beautiful and elegant rather than passionate though the role demands some reserve as she is not convinced she can find someone to release her from the spell. So there has to be some suspicion on her part but I felt Salenko could have let go a bit more eventually so as to make the betrayal that much more poignant. However her dancing was beautiful and superb especially in the "black" Act.....so very satisfying on that level. On Thursday I thought all the supporting roles were really well done including the "infamous" pas de trois. Yuhui Choe and Anna Rose O Sullivan are very different dancers. O Sullivan has wonderful ballon and is a very light in the air sort of dancer. Yuhui Choe has a very graceful and soft style and I really liked her in this. She sometimes doesn't project that well but on Thursday I thought she did in a very unfussy and charming way. She seemed fairly relaxed and to be enjoying herself. Dyer always seems to give his all so I thought this PDT was extremely watchable! In the waltz which again was danced with a great deal of energy I found my eye being drawn to two dancers in particular ......and again very different in style .....one was Francesca Hayward who uses her upper body and head so well and has such attack ...lovely to see and the other was someone I wasn't familiar with so had to look her up when I got home.....this turned out to be Gina Storm Jensen. All of the others danced well but I kept being drawn to these two in particular that evening. All the set dances in Act three were well danced and I didn't sense a "tired" dancer among them so perhaps because it was the last performance everyone was pulling out the stops so to speak. There was a bit of a mishap with the tambourine in the Neopolitan(James Hay and Francesca Hayward) but this was turned to some humorous advantage in regaining possession so didn't detract one bit. The two swans danced by Melissa Hamilton and Itziar Mendizabal both danced their variations very well .. .....I almost didn't recognise who they were at first as they blended into the corps of swans so well.......(this is a compliment!!) ....as both these dancers have a very strong individual presence on stage usually but they got the ambience of their performances just right I thought. I still love the ending to this production much more satisfying than the end to the current ENB one in my opinion ......a dramatic send off to that glorious lilting music ....but I must admit the one letdown .......and not the dancers fault ....was Von Rothbart!! He just wasn't scary or evil enough for me! And how could anybody be in THAT costume. Poor Alistair Marriott as it was on this occasion. I got into conversation with a very young man sitting next to me and it became a bit of a joke between us. He said maybe he gets scarier later on but everytime he checked with me ...in the end just with a look ....and of course we got into fits of giggles especially once full attention to the costume had been drawn!! He didn't rate this Von Rothbart as very evil either and both of us wanted to be a bit scared!! Anyway I loved it and got a lot out of the whole performance in general ......but perhaps the secret of enjoying the Swan Lakes and Sleeping Beauties is not to go too often. But then I keep forgetting .... I am fairly ancient ...if you are new to ballet watching you probably can't get enough of them both!!! I did queue for 13 hours once for Sleeping Beauty so have had my fair share of crazy moments ....but will look forward to my next Swan Lake in a couple of years especially if danced as well as this.

Oh yes visiting places is something I like doing.......especially if connected to Musicians. I went all the way to Poland to see Chopins birthplace and also to Bonn to see where Beethoven once lived .......this was all when very young. Chopin I can say was the composer who got me into ballet. It was listening to some old 78 records my mum had of Les Sylphides which got me investigating ballet classes after mum said it was ballet music when I was 8!

I agree Alison I do think it's the music which has benefitted me the most. Sometimes of course one does know the music and has some knowledge of the composer before going but there have been some wonderful introductions to new composers for me that I did not know before ... ...such as Poulenc .....after seeing Gloria. The complete piano works of Satie after seeing Monotones in Oxford many moons ago .........and college friends coming into the room asking me what the music was ......so hopefully others being influenced unexpectedly too! Songs of a Wayfarer is another stand out for me too and Stravinsky via The Firebird when I was 13! But it has also lead to me reading a few biographies particularly of Fokine and his era and of Nijinsky and Diaghilev. And of course of Fonteyn and Nureyev. I also read a lot about the Mercury Theatre and Marie Rambert at one time ....but this was more from taking part in ballet (Chelsea Ballet) than going to see performances as the then leader had danced with the Rambert appearing in the film "the Red Shoes" Occasionally I might have to read around the story of a ballet but this is usually afterwards as well ........most recently The Great Gatsby! But it didn't really get me to read the original book!

Thanks Moomin. I'll have a look in a few shops in London tomorrow and then if I can't find the colour and length I like then indeed will have a word with Sheila!

Going back to Muntagirov and when he will,be appearing in Swan Lake I called into the Coli in person last Friday and they couldn't give any info on who would be performing on which days etc. I only want to see the Swan Lake if he is dancing in it so guess will have to wait and get a ticket at the last minute.

I think McRae carries of Princely roles superbly Ive been excited by everything Ive seen him in to date but that might not be as much as some people's. Will report back on last weeks Swan Lake later today. I'm not going to speculate on who I think deserves promotion especially not in the lower ranks as quite a few eye catching dancers there but I will say am glad Fumi Kaneko is back as just as I thought "who is that" she sort of disappeared. She seems to have a lovely radiance about her. The thing is (and I'm sure there are posters on here who are more privy to this) I don't see these dancers day in day out in class and in rehearsal etc however am assuming the management do so they should have a better idea of who would cope with certain promotions......especially to Principal level......and some of this is bound to be down to other individual qualities other than being a fantastic dancer.....however good you are in that respect. Maybe some dancers don't actually want to go on to Principal level even if others think they do have the abilities required to take this on. This may be one reason why some don't seem to get promoted who audiences as a whole seem to like. Hopefully Cuthbertson will be able to play a greater role next year as well.

Talking of pink tights I don't suppose anyone knows who does the nicest colour pink? By that I suppose I mean paler am not so keen as it gets towards what I call salmon pink! I usually wear Bloch tights as they are nice and long but anyway if anyone has any ideas would be appreciated before I go on the trial and error route!!

I will probably give it it's first airing on that half term Wednesday he has added at the RAD .......I need to buy some pink tights!! Not sure what we are wearing for the Manon bits but hopefully it won't be another tutu ......it looks like nice longish skirts that some have been wearing in class not sure if it can be any colour yet etc. Definitely like those anyway......well that's the good news ......the bad news is we may be wearing wigs for the second half bit. My last experience of wearing a wig or in fact any headress ....unless a tiara of course...is that it will,be very HOT. The worse one I ever wore was the wolfs headress from Peter and the Wolf (great little ballet though) I couldn't really see properly though I loved the part just hated the costume.....and couldn't wait to take it off!!

Thanks for that info have just managed to book three tickets!!

Well maybe a bit sad too Swan Princess. My partner thinks Im a bit of a train and bus nerd!

Well Osipova as well MAB!! She may even be too strong a force for this role but I usually love everything she does. Can't wait till May 5th to see her in Fille.

It's one of those test of love sort of stories really......the grass may be greener somewhere else etc.... There are two lovers but one is dissatisfied and restless and I think runs off with some gypsies where he tries flirting with one of them. But then they steal his things and is eventually thrown out and he returns to his lover very contrite and realising what he had was okay in the first place......and as this is a romantic ballet she of course is all forgiveness!! There is a lovely pas de deux at the end in which two live doves are also used and are supposed to settle on either side of a chair Probably the main tension in the ballet is hoping these two doves behave themselves!! It's a gentle piece and should give a chance to some up and coming dancers to have a go at the main roles.