LinMM

Just had email from friend that Miko Fogerty is to go to BRB. I am so pleased for her and will now get a chance to see her dance for real!

Very strange I posted here about an hour or so ago and seems to not be here now. So again ....Thankyou Bluebird for the info on the 9th the day I'm going and will be pleased to see Salenko as I have never seen her dance before.

I must apologise for spelling Shechters name incorrectly in above posts. I was looking on the ROH website to see if there was any info on what Hofesh was intending with this ballet. Were there any programme notes on it? I imagine Untouchable is a reference to the fact that there always seem to be some people on the edge of any society who are not accepted by that society as a whole.....not accepted by the main group etc.

Just seen this Bluebird so thanks for the info on the 9th when I will be going. I'm happy to see Salenko as have never seen her dance.

ZxDaveM ....a good point!! Perhaps Schechter was quick to understand this!!

Well like in any group of people some will adapt quicker to new things than others. Some may need longer. So the choreographer who often doesn't have a great deal of time to teach and rehearse a group even for a new work would have to choose the quickest adapters to perform etc etc. But I 'd have a good bet that most Royal dancers ....at a party say ...could jive/twist/ salsa and generally cavort around with the best of us!! But yes agree if had NEVER done any sort of contemporary ever .......pretty unusual these days.....might find adapting to that style more difficult. Most good contemporary companies have dancers who still do ballet class as part of their routine.....The Rambert are fabulous in ballet class for example......so most dancers these days have had experience of both. But some contemporaries don't keep up with ballet(and why should they) but these dancers I would say would find it very hard then to do a "ballet" work justice. It's probably marginally easier for ballet trained to do contemporary as a general rule. Sorry going off thread here but I am very pleased that different types of choreographers are given the chance to work with the Royal.

I'm very open to new works ......though not going to this triple bill....but I was disappointed to read that Schechter himself was not keen to have principal dancers for this work. Why was that? My take is that if he is used to using a group of dancers as a whole group(no hierarchy) then why couldn't he treat the Royal in the same way. He could then see which dancers were most adapting to his style before choosing his final caste. To me that either shows he didn't have much faith that Principal dancers would be able to adapt or that he didn't have too much faith in his own work! Or to be more kind about it he just wanted to give some younger dancers a chance. I just feel he should have approached working with the Royal in his usual way with any other group of dancers. At some point I hope to see this work and if some say it isn't one of his best perhaps the next time he may be more confident working with the Royal and that they might be able to give some added value to a work of he might create ......being super trained dancers and not the other way round!! Dancers of Royal calibre should be able to adapt to any style with enough practice

Really sorry to hear about your youngest DD Regattah hoping she makes a very speedy recovery she seems to have had a particularly tough time this year. Hoping your older DD is able to go to the school she wants too.

I think if you are in for the long haul with this......there are definitely some people who put on weight much more easily than others ........then allowing for a couple of treats a week is a good idea because I think that stops the urge to gorge on "forbidden" food. I love hot chocolate but from March onwards especially once we go into "summer time" I only allow myself one once a week......in the real summer I don't fancy chocolate in any form at all so it's easy then .....but I could drink it every day in winter if I let myself. I'm sure if I absolutely banned it on a weak day I would give in and probably have two for good measure......it's psychological in the end I think. One great thing though I didn't seriously lose weight and seemed to have managed to keep it off......though still haven't reached my target weight area.......until I restarted ballet three years ago now. Somehow this became a motivation for practical reasons.......I didn't want to stress my joints with too much weight ......so I was able to be much more disciplined.....but NO banned foods .....because I also wanted to look better.....nothing quite as revealing as dance gear is there! It may be early days for you at the moment and the walking sounds good but perhaps you could aim to get back to some form of dancing and this could be a good motivation for you. Eventually anyway I found my mindset slowly changing......that I stopped thinking I was treating myself when I ate things like chocolate and cheese and started thinking I was treating myself when eating foods which I knew were good for my health(as far as anyone CAN know this at any rate) I still eat cheese but less often and in smaller amounts as I found other healthier sources of calcium etc etc. I think it's best really to eat a wide ranging diet if this is for life and not just trying to lose a couple of stone for a particular event......this nearly always leads to weigh gain again because of the mindset involved in this type of dieting. Regards your son and I agree it is easier to be tougher once your child has left home even for shortish periods(away at college etc) than when they are there all the time......18 is a landmark of sorts. You can say "old enough to vote now ....old enough to do your own cheese on toast!" Well of course he does KNOW how to do it.....but well when good old mum is around why shouldn't she!! There are many teenagers happy for mum to carry on doing all sorts of things for them......even tidying their own room up for them! Perhaps you could get him to do for the both of you ...your ONE cheese on toast allowance a week!!! With the walking home perhaps don't feel you have to do it EVERY week .....unless you happen to miss the bus......but if you can get your OWN choice into this .....even if only once a month initially .....then this is important I think......don't see it as some sort of punishment. Once it feels like a reward you will want to do it when you feel like it and that might be EVERY week or might NOT. Keep us posted on how it's all going xx

I meant invite the principals along with everyone else in the company if he just wanted to treat them as one group.....nothing wrong with that....not just invite the principals. I am still really surprised a professional choreographer invited to create something for the Royal would say this. Does it actually show a lack of faith in his own work?

I read the article John and I feel a little disappointed that he said that perhaps the principals shouldn't come along. I can see where he's coming from but it is a little prejudicial in my view I just can't stand all this sort of inverse snobbery about ballet etc If he had tried the principals and it somehow hadn't worked out that would have been more respectful and open.

Thanks Yorkshire Pud for pointing that out. Does the Northern Ballet in Leeds have a training school as well. I have been there so know they run children's and adult classes etc but am not sure then if they do any more full time training for older students.

This has been a great read thanks all!!

Sorry if this is slightly off but someone has mentioned ENB Friends charges going up.......and I just joined(on the old price) to get away from the ROH high charges for Friends. The other sad thing in the letter which arrived is that now Open days will only be for the next level of Friends up.....so even more money! Seems like slowly but surely the ENB are going the way of ROH so probably from next year will just stay with the Rambert unless they are planning anything similar.

Oh dear I'm already disappointed that Cuthbertson is not dancing on the 9th and although am clinging on to the hope that at least Muntagirov will be dancing I hope that things pick up for that performance. If the Company are tired now what will they be like in another few weeks!! Hopefully it was just one of those occasional blips.

Taxi4ballet and Jade very well done to your DD's I was at the Northern Ballet performance at Sadlers yesterday and all the dancers were just so good! So to train in their studios should Be very inspiring!

That's terrific am so pleased especially for Emma Maguire.

I don't think I could say it better than Peanut68 as that was what I felt too.....Thankyou. It was so well put together and what was good about this gala was I continually felt absorbed with what was going on and it never felt "bitty" as some galas can. Everybody seemed to be giving their all. There were some very moving moments as when Emma danced in the pas de deux from Asphodel Meadows very beautifully performed with Bennet Gartside .....a moment reminding one of why we were all there......and very much wishing Annie Maguire could have been there still to see Emma's lovely dancing. There were some beautiful moments too in the performance of Rhapsody by Laura Morera and Frederico Bonelli so at one with the music these two and more Ashton in the pas de deux from Two Pigeons danced by Helen Crawford and Ryoichi Hirano.......what a wonderful partner he is and please can we see more of this ballet at the ROH!! and Monotones with that gorgeous Satie music and way ahead of it time when choreographed I think. All of these such a treat just in themselves. We were also treated to a World Premiere called Musance by Jonathon Watkins with the Hackney Colliery Band......very difficult to sit still too(apologies to whoever was next to me ......at least I was on the end of a row!) and lovingly danced I thought and Kristen McNally was a revelation in this but all were excellent. Would be great to see this again as I really liked the choreography too. Ive already mentioned what a wow Steven McRae was in his Czardas piece with that fantastic violinist Vasko Vassilev who also played in an earlier very entertaining piece called Les Lutins all three dancers ....James Hay Marcelino Sambe and Emma managing to get the humour across superbly. Marcelino Sambe was in several pieces on Sunday and really danced his socks off. We then had the wonderful Cojocaru dancing with Kobborg(who choreographed Les Lutins) in a piece called No Mans Land by Liam Scarlett. As danced by Cojocaru this piece reminded me of why ballet is such a wonderful Art form. She seemingly from out of the atmosphere was able to create the whole of life's emotions in a very short space of time. Heart wrenching and then that stillness at the end and then it was gone .....never to be seen again in exactly that way again. I think it is truly remarkable how good dancers can do this. I haven't mentioned every piece or this post could be double the length..... but I did thoroughly enjoy every piece! Each half of this Gala would have been worth it on its own so I do hope it has raised a substantial amount towards the Annie Maguire Fund and any other events planned with this quality would be very welcome indeed!!

Well perhaps we are all washing out all the natural oils too much. My own hair is pretty short so looks like it hasn't been washed for weeks after only a couple of days!

I get periods of addiction and then my partner hides the iPad ......till at least the washing up is done.....he does most of the cooking!! Mind you he has periods addicted to eBay but it's difficult to hide the main Big Mac computer!!

Well done to your son RBM I think you'll definitely have to rethink your name though! How about "talentinthefamily"

Am going Thursday evening!

It was a really wonderful evening very varied but will have to report tomorrow. Steven McRae was absolutely fantastic in his czardas tap routine and got everybody smiling I think! But will write more tomorrow!

Will email you Michelle

I agree mostly Aileen but I do feel it still is a tragedy. There is still something awful about seeing that mental decline in somebody and it's the no.1 thing for me that I don't want to die of! Hfbrew don't talk about hair!! I don't know how my dads hair didn't just fall out in the end as he didn't really shampoo it properly......and wouldn't let anyone else do it either......for at least a year!! he just used to comb water through it and that was washing it to him!! Hope your mum makes the appointment!