GTL

About eight years ago, I sat behind a family of four at a Royal Ballet Nutcracker at Covent Garden. I suspect the two teenage sons were dancers, the four of them talked knowledgeably in Australian-sounding accents, but on seeing on their cast-sheet that their Sugar Plum Fairy was Belinda Hatley, they asked each other in disappointed tones, “Who's she?”. I thought,“Just you wait and see!”. They were on their feet cheering her at the curtain-call, so I'd say she had at least four Antipodean fans.

Too true, I think the lighting needs to give more help. Someone near me recently couldn't even work out what happened to Vetsera at the end. I went home frivolously pondering how much time the Royal Ballet spend dressed in orange and brown: this, a lot of Manon, Romeo & Juliet, Giselle and Swan Lake 1st acts, Rite of Spring - any more?

A dancing dog - it can't fail here!

Sheer application and hard work can take you a long way in the academic world. I'm thinking of two people I once knew well: one very average at GCSE level, the second only a little bit more, but they each found a subject they loved and they got themselves into good universities. The second is now a professor at a well-regarded university, so no more clues .

Plus, Gatsby is based on the well-known Robert Redford film and R+J was of course a Baz Luhrmann film with Leonardo DiCaprio. The trick is to get Natalie Portman interested in their next Triple Bill.

My tuppence-worth of reaction: Fonteyn was a DBE by the time she was 37 (1956). Moira Shearer was also highly regarded and well-known through her appearance in “The Red Shoes” in 1948 but did not supersede her as #1 at Covent Garden. Robert Helpmann also had a high-profile acting career, so she didn't lack competition pre-Nureyev.

This radio programme, first broadcast in January 2012, is being repeated tomorrow at 12 noon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018sn1g

This is quite a statement to make. The National Theatre and British theatre training is one of our most highly-regarded achievements internationally and the UK – mainly London – has centuries of experience to draw on. Ballet does not have that tradition here. It got a foothold thanks mainly to the efforts of those who trained abroad, brought their skills here and raised our standards. The best of our own can get to the top but having world-class colleagues alongside helps them get there (as with footballers). Artistic snobbery is not something I want to endorse but it would be a very sad, uninspiring and ultimately brain-dead world if everything was reduced to the lowest common denominator, which is more likely to happen if subsidy is withdrawn and market forces are the only consideration.

The "Arts" feed off each other, in a good way. In London we have so many live performances and exhibitions near at hand, those of NW Europe in easy reach and we're not much further from New York than San Francisco is. In that respect, I'd say it must be good for career development.

Yes, I've been aware of this happening every so often when the Stalls are full with a very large number of student-age occupants for programmes that showed online the previous night with many unsold seats. I hope it's generating the full-fare audiences of the future. Sadlers Wells does not have good transport links: a few buses and one small Underground station at Angel. Remember what happened to the Royal Ballet when they had to relocate to Hammersmith during the ROH redevelopment: many of the audience did not follow. Which reminds me, during the Coliseum redevelopment (2003 or 2004?) ENB did a week in mid-summer at the ROH: I went to a Saturday matinée and it was pretty empty but with the new ENB image the ROH could be sold to sponsors as a more glamorous venue if the economics are better than the Coliseum. Although it's even smaller with about 1,000 seats, perhaps the second Sadlers Wells house, the Peacock Theatre, would suit for the more adventurous stuff. It's much more central in Portugal Street, just 5 minutes east of Bow Street, it's used by the Trocs on their London visits and the sightlines are fine.

In early discussion of this triple bill, someone wondered what common ground the pieces shared in relation to the “Ecstacy and Death” title. Having seen last night, I would suggest exhilaration and danger: the swords in Petite Mort, the doomed Jeune Homme and the need for absolute precision in Etudes, especially as ENB have a reputation to maintain in this one. To pick upon Bruce's point (#10) , I see that Yohei Sasaki is now on the staff of ENB. I always admired his very precise and musical style as a Royal Ballet dancer and I was delighted to see the ENB men jumping last night with much more coordination than I usually notice “round the corner”. I hope the BBC coverage brings them more custom, ENB deserve full houses for this bill.

To continue in rambling vein, I saw him do Basilio with Alina Cojocaru in 2001, then saw her again a few weeks later with another Basilio whom I much preferred: I held forth at length to my neighbour during the interval, only to realise that the reddening ears in the seat in front of me belonged to one Ivan Putrov. The irony is that I can't remember who it was I admired at that performance: I'm guessing Johan Kobborg but it's Putrov I remember.

It would be interesting to know, especially as Tamara Rojo warned of this in January - see the thread http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/2744-enbs-tamara-rojo-on-dancers-visas-in-london-evening-standard/?hl=visa

This also gives relief from period-pain, ladies!

Well, it is an old-fashioned, propagandistic, Soviet-era ballet. I thought the projections before the last scene and, at the very beginning, the front-cloth spelling out Laurencia (Лауренcия is the nearest font I can find here) in the style of that era, served to set the piece in its historical context without labouring the point. I was glad of the opportunity to see it and commend the Mikhailovsky for presenting it rather than a lucrative crowd-pleaser like Swan Lake but yes, once is probably enough. The crowd advancing menacingly towards the audience in the last moments reminded me of the ending of The Flames of Paris: does anyone know whether it featured in the original staging of Flames and was emulated in Laurencia, or does the reconstruction of Flames of Paris we see nowadays pick that up from Laurencia?

One consideration might be that most of the 1994 cast worked closely with Sir Kenneth MacMillan before his death in 1992.

Dischuffed, thanks. I'll obviously have to change the pills before I risk a Bayadère, heaven knows how many stuffed tigers I might see, let alone Shades.

The review in The Arts Desk mentions an Act II corps of 24. I could have sworn I counted 32, am I going mad? I know it's trivial in the overall scheme of things, but I hate to think I might be mis-remembering such a memorable evening.

John, yes, ideally I'd like to see most things uninterrupted by applause but I imagine the dancers in general would find it pretty disconcerting: I know from my own observation at the ROH that their own teachers/management do not stint in their mid-performance applause. Compared with, say, the Bolshoi performances I've attended here in London, I thought last night good - nothing mid-variation, thank goodness. The ballet is some way behind the theatre - at least the subsidised bit - in this respect so let's start by abolishing entrance applause, It's ridiculous in my view. Perhaps a new thread on when to applaud?

I too was, as ever, hugely impressed by Osipova and Vasiliev at last night's performance . They are very much young lovers at the moment, which leaves room for their interpretation to develop, especially his. The audience response was also impressive, restrained until an appropriate break allowed applause, sometimes even ignoring the moment, completely absorbed in the drama and unwilling to break the mood with very little coughing or talking over the music. I noticed a neighbour preparing to clap some of the most perfect technical achievements but stopping herself. swept on by the emotion. However I am surprised by Jann Parry's statement that the audience was “stunned into silence even after the curtain descends" because I particularly noted that it began, enthusiastically, before: that silent ending before a crescendo of applause is a very rare occurrence in my experience (excluding new works, where there's an element of doubt) and this wasn't one, but it leaves them something to aim for – there can't be much else they haven't conquered. Joan, the final applause was indeed tremendous, indeed good for the whole company and Osipova and Vasiliev were encouraged out in front of the curtain, twice I think, house lights down, then came out again after the lights went on, some people still applauding and others on their way out, so a standing ovation, at least in part.

There's another locked thread about this but now fuller casting for ENB's "Ecstasy and Death" bill 18 - 21 April 2013 at the London Coliseum is on their website http://www.ballet.org.uk/whats-on/ecstasy-and-death/ , currently showing : Petite Mort 18 Klimentova, Osbaldeston, Oliveira, Ovsyanick, Summerscales, Fumero, Streeter, Bosch, Reimair, Forbat, Berlanga, Muntagirov 19 McWhinney, Glurdjidze, Takahashi, Zehr, Ramirez, Stott, Streeter, Forbat, Bosch, Young, Atymtayev, Westwell (Matinee) 19 Klimentova, Osbaldeston, Oliveira, Ovsyanick, Summerscales, Fumero, Streeter, Bosch, Reimair, Forbat, Berlanga, Muntagirov 20 McWhinney, Glurdjidze, Takahashi, Zehr, Ramirez, Stott, Streeter, Forbat, Bosch, Young, Atymtayev, Westwell (Matinee) 20 Klimentova, Osbaldeston, Oliveira, Ovsyanick, Summerscales, Fumero, Streeter, Bosch, Reimair, Forbat, Berlanga, Muntagirov 21 McWhinney, Glurdjidze, Takahashi, Zehr, Ramirez, Stott, Streeter, Forbat, Bosch, Young, Atymtayev, Westwell (Matinee) Le Jeune Homme et la Mort 18 Rojo – Le Riche 19 Zhang – Acosta (Matinee) 19 Rojo – Le Riche 20 Rojo – Le Riche (Matinee) 20 Zhang – Acosta 21 TBC – TBC Etudes 18 Takahashi, Muntagirov, Forbat and Berlanga 19 Kase, Gruzdyev, Saruhashi and Vargas (Matinee) 19 Takahashi, Muntagirov, Forbat and Berlanga 20 Kase, Gruzdyev, Acosta and Vargas (Matinee) 20 Rojo, Muntagirov, Forbat and Atymtayev 21 Rojo, Muntagirov, Forbat and Atymtayev (Matinee)

The Membership Events section of the Spring 2013 V&A Magazine (issue 30) lists a talk on “his career to date and his vision for the future of the Royal Ballet” by its Director, Kevin O'Hare, at 6 30 pm on Friday 3 May. See page 79 for booking details.

"In the final act, the haughty Queen of Hearts steals the show with a hilarious ‘Tart Adage’, a send up of the classic Rose Adagio that keen ballet-goers will recognise from The Sleeping Beauty." I can't help feeling that putting this in a press release (the ROH, that is, not Janet) rather spoils the fun. A send-up works better when the audience discover it for themselves rather than having it sign-posted for them.

Sadly not - I liked them and queried their disappearance but I was told there are no plans to replace them. The National Theatre has used a very similar type for several years, successfully in my personal experience. However, if you have your booking reference and card, I find the Box Office at both ENO and the ROH will issue your tickets at any convenient time so I usually manage to avoid the ticket collection queues.