Coated

They just released a few balcony front row tickets for the Sun matinee, they definitely weren't there when I checked last week. Couldn't resist and now get to see both programmes . I'm rather curious to see how Take me to Church looks on a large stage presumably without the rather nice video set (I'll be a little disappointed to watch a roof instead of Polunin). Does anyone have an educated guess on how long the Sun performance will be? 2 1/2 hours?

Tickets are now sold

I have SCS D44 & D45 for sale on Nov 17. They are etickets, so prefer to sell as a pair

Plenty of Celine Gittens, be still my heart I was already really looking forward to the triple bills, after seeing the casting I can be best described as exceedingly excited.

I really enjoyed this, and not just because it only had one intermission. Putting these 3 ballets together made me reflect abut the use of music and I thought it was fascinating to see 3 very different pieces set to the same music. The company looked great to me and I hope they bring more of their work to Sadlers Wells. On the day I probably preferred the more classic beauty of Lucinda Child choreography, and Keersmaeker''s piece which appeared both aloof and engaging to me and its modern interpretation of the music made me listen to it in quite a different way. But the thing that stayed with me afterwards is the raw emotion of Maguy Marin's piece.

There are some tickets available over the Christmas period. Definitely worth it. Pulcinella, I didnt know who Josephine Barstow was before I saw Follies, but I'll certainly remember her beautiful solo/duet with younger self for a long time to come. It really grabbed my attention.

Interesting. Has Chebykina danced many Nikiya's before? Personally I don't quite see that type of potential in Chebykina, who is not a recent graduate, and her characterisation didn't grab me emotionally . Her eyes are expressive, but they weren't enough to distract me from the at times too insecure delivery. Obviously mileage varies and we all have different favourites. All I all, I loved this run of Bayaderes and think I enjoy them for the pure spectacle that they are.

Fab advice, thank you, and it sounds like he'll have some choice. Nice to see that there are initiatives for latestartets and to get more boys dancing

I think the conceptual meaning of infra becomes obvious once someone reads the programme notes or similar, but it''s not necessarily clear by itself. I asked a very analytical friend what he thought it meant after the show, and said it seemed to be something about random people.

Thank you all, that''s really helpful

Yes, it would be evenings or weekends, he is probably looking at one class per week.

A friend's son is nearly 17 and just about to start his A-levels. His main passion is for musical theatre and he does a lot of amateur dramatics productions. He seems to have a natural ability in dance which he wants to pursue further (in the first instance to augment his musical theatre, but who knows what will develop). In talking with (stage) friends, the place to begin seems to be a beginners' class in classical ballet (as a solid foundation to all other forms of dance). He had recommendations for Pineapple Studios in central London and also looked at Trinity Laban in Greenwich which is easier to get to for him. Is Trinity Laban a good place for someone like him? Are there any other alternatives he should consider near Plumstead or Sidcup? And is an adult beginners' classical ballet class the right place to start, or should he look at some other type of classes? Thanks for any advice you knowledgable people can offer

Just to chime in to agree with pretty much everything that has been said about the Saturday DonQs. Yevseyeva has the rare combination of exquisite comedic timing, awe inspiring dancing and real stage presence and charm. She didn't just quickly shake her tabourine in the one handed lifts, she did something different each time and managed to convey the equivalent of a cheeky wink at the audience. Her variation in the dryad scene was beautiful an ethereal, and her fouettés were to die for. Her arms went above her head for some, and she finished with having one arm on her hip, making it all look so easy whilst turning perfectly and finishing with a little flourish. Yermakov was a little underpowered which I didn't expect after his Rothbarting, but hopefully he'll get that ironed out. I thought Matvienk and Askerov were competent, but not desperately exciting in their Swan Lake, so it was lovely to see them come properly to live in their DonQ. Matvienko is probably never going to be what I would think of as a dance actress, so I was pretty chuffed with her Kitri - not exuberant, but light and charming, a little exasperated with her Basilio at times. They appeared like a charming couple of long standing and I thought their partnership worked really well. Gimadieva's Cupid was once again a real delight, and it was great to see a bit more of Shakirova in the act 3 variation - she's such a beautiful dancer and I hope to see her in a bunch of leading roles when the Mariinsky comes back for its next London season. The Saturday performances were a perfect antidote to the initial slow start of the DonQ, and I'm exceedingly glad that I didn't return one of my tickets.

It's D36

I have one spare ticket, D3* (sorry, can't look up tickets at the mo) for the 2nd. It's an eticket, pm if interested

The prime minister also gets free travel and accommodation, up to £115k public duty cost allowance and a pension mortals can only dream of. Unless ADs get similar perks, an exact comparison can't be made. A 17% pay rise seems fairly hefty, considering that the average wage increase for 2017 is forecast at around 3.5%.

I felt similar about the performance and that was without annoying neighbours. Parish has a very beautiful line, and I quite liked his Albrecht with ENB earlier this year but his Siegfried doesn't do much for me. I don't get who the character is, and the dancing felt conservative and careful, especially in act 3 after a mishap in an earlier act. I dont think Parish and Tereshkina are a match made in heaven, it doesn't seem to me that they bring out the best in each other. Her Odile seemed to have a lot more connection with Rothbart than her Odette had at any point with Siegfried. There was some smiling and a lot of somber acting that came across as somewhat expressionless to me, but the partnership never came to live. it wasn't a bad swan lake per se, but it didn't really rise above run-of-the-mill for me, with the exception of a couple of Tereshkina's solos. Andrei Yermakov makes a fine Rothbart, which helped a bit as well.

Xander Parish has been promoted to principal after today's performance, according to Graham Watts on Twitter.

You win, though I'd nominate the Barbican site for worst booking any day of the calendar - I often only find things in their labyrinth because I definitely know they are on at the Barbican before I get to their site. For general crashing I'd also like to nominate the Young Vic and for length in queue, Glyndebourne is definitely up there with the best of them (6hrs was my 'best' recently). Most of these places are victims of their own success, and you'd never please a prospective audience when everyone is after your (good) tickets. Sure, these places could spend millions of getting a super speedy, crash proof IT system, but I'd rather they have something that mostly works and the cash gets spend on art and artists.

Shklyarov can come back and guest with the RB anytime. Anytime at all. He is just so incredibly beautiful to watch, sometimes he's just standing on stage with such presence and poise that I nearly forget to watch other proceedings. He made an adorable, bouncy Basilio. A bit more understated than the previous 2, which worked very nicely, and genuinely funny in his 'death' scene. When he rejected Kitri's advance after she had her hands kissed by his 'love rival', he mimed 'excessive hand kissing' in a wonderfully jealous and annoyed way. He then repeated a ghost of that gesture just before he lay down on his cape in such a droll way that most of the audience around me (self included) caught the giggles. I thought Shakirova was very impressive, even more so when someone told me she only graduated and joined the company in 2015. Her movement has a really light quality to it without appearing delicate or fragile and her Kitri had a proper zest for life. And I really didn't expect someone that young to throw out fouetté with such ease and grace. Those two made a really nice stage couple with lovely chemistry and a bit of mischief thrown in. It felt like they were both taking risks at times to take it up yet another little notch and there were a few bits where the dancing became a little messy, but it was exciting throughout and at times even exhilarating.

The Almeida, National Theatre for anything popular - it's really not that uncommon

I got on with the production much better on the second night. It didn't have the fabulous fireworks delivered by Tereshkina and Kim on the first night, but it it was more evenly cast with Alexander Sergeyev as an excellent Espada and Ekaterina Chebykina as Street Dancer which tightened up the first act a lot. Nadezhda Batoeva was beautiful as Kitri, warm and sunny, nice chemistry with Filipp Stepin's Basilio. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her. Somehow this cast managed to make the unwieldy first act more engaging and I didn't experience quite as many longueurs. Sadly, still no fix for the Gypsy scene and oriental dancer. I can admire the arms of the oriental dancer for a little while, but then really notice how the movement has nothing to do with the music. Tamara Gimadieva did Cupid again and she was as quick-silvery gorgeous and slightly mischievous as the night before. She's definitely someone to look out for and I hope she'll pop up in more roles throughout this season. Edited to add: during the dryad scene, there are 4 ladies standing at the very back in flowing dresses. 3 of them look like slightly benevolent older dryads watching proceedings. The one standing on the very left looked like she was either held on stage against her will, or she was plotting to overthrow the dryad queen. I couldn't help but glance at her quite a lot since it amused me, and at no point did she not look heavily displeased.

Disclaimer: I'm not a huge DonQ fan and it takes a lot to work up a real enthusiasm for any version There was a bit of a dearth of spirit in the first act, and I didn't think that there was a lot of chemistry between Kitri and Basilio, which didn't help the glacial speed of the performance to feel less long. I still liked it better than the Acosta version overall (if I never had to see the infernal guitar playing scene again, I'd be ok with that, though his horse is fun) and adored a lot of the tutus in act 2&3. Yes, a lot more Russian than Spanish, but utterly gorgeous. I have yet to see a DonQ where I don't like the dryads, and this one was no exception. I particularly enjoyed Cupid (wrong wig though), some lovely solos and the relentless prettiness of the CdB. Tereshkina and Kim really were rather amazing in the Grand Pas, as well as some of the act 1 stuff.Though I couldn't help imagining in what other ballets I'd rather see these amazing dancers. I always feel that the first shows of a season can be less inspiring than what a company is capable off, and hope that's the case in this instance. Either way, I felt I got enough for my money's worth, but it didn't grip me.

Oh, how horrible for your mother - hope she's alright and not too upset at missing the Mariinsky run.

This is indeed a lovely round of promotios and I'm thrilled to bits about Naghdi and the principal character artists - the RB wouldn't be the same without these dancers and it's lovely to see them acknowledged. It's also nice to see a promotion for Benjamin Ella who joined as artist a fair few years ago, it showed that you can grow as a dancer at any point in your career.