GTL

Dramatic licence gets in the way of crediblity in so many, I think you would have to look for a documentary - try Frederick Wiseman's 2009 "La Danse", beautifully filmed over a long period at Paris Opera Ballet. 

As has been mentioned before, some women carry handbags that are the size of small suitcases.

Guilty, and I am grateful the ROH staff are as accomodating as they are. The National Theatre has at various times of heightened tension limited handbags in the auditorium to evening bag size, which I find a real nuisance, but my point is that there is a bigger picture in this uncertain world. 

Many theatres and galleries have brought in these restrictions, not just ROH.

Yesterday's Sunday Times carried an article attributing the ban on large bags at many cultural venues to the expectation of a suitcase bomb attack.

Seven dead and fifty injured in the Croydon tram crash to date, according to the BBC website, though I had to scroll down a bit to find it, and it will headline the local BBC  6.30 pm news programme.  Perhaps there isn't enough top talent left in London to cover it more prominently.

Edit: tram not train. And it's been brielfy covered as "one other major item for you tonight" on the extended national news before the sign-off live from Washington.

Ricardo Cervera too and the Roberta Marquez / Alexander Campbell partnership continues!

.....Morera’s and Muntagirov’s dancing was a pleasure to behold but the whole evening performance did come across as a more mature and sophisticated partnering which took away some of the joy....

I only saw  yesterday's evening show so can't compare, but I did feel, more than ever in my many viewings of "Fille",  that they were playing it as a secure and well-established relationship: for instance, on several occasions when Lise was discomfited, such as the married life mine, Colas stressed, "But it doesn't matter, this is me!". Given that they have danced it together quite a few times, perhaps this is how they keep their interpretation fresh and that works for me.    I do envy those of you who are seeing the new pairings as well, this run has come at too busy a time for me to manage it.

On the positive side of the poor sales uptake, I felt there were a lot of ballet "novices" in last night's audience: good they saw some Ashton rather than a "Swan Lake".

Pleased to say I only scored 8/15 with a final admonishment to eat more chocolate. No one seeing my figure would have predicted that.  What a clever marketing tool!

While I greatly appreciate the long, detailed, informed, professional-standard critiques, what I get uniquely from this forum is a sense of what it was like to be in the audience, especially if it is a big occasion like a gala, a debut or a flower-throw - the sort of thing a professional reviewer cannot indulge in. 

So, do we harbour a professional crossword-compiler on board our forum?  I think we should set them the challenge of getting "dodgy Italian fouettés" into next week's puzzle.

I'm not a crossword-doer and this must be too obscure for an answer in a general publication but - Shipulina (as in the Bolshoi's Ekaterina)?

"....... I would love to see Macrae with some of the young dancers coming up through the ranks......"

I so agree, penelopesimpson (but can't get the quote function to work just now).

This more outward focus, I feel, would also be career development for Mr McRae, who, with a business studies degree under his belt and a vibrant personality, has the potential to be a great company director.

Vive la France.  However much we squabble, we are lifelong neighbours and when you suffer like this, we feel it deeply.

just want to wish you and Sean all the best, Lisa, and to thank you for this very important reminder. I would be very proud to have raised such a sensible son.

I've been trawling the web in search of information on what is in store for us and have found surprisingly little that I would care to post. Here are links to two, pre-referendum from very different perspectives but I think thoughtfully written (which is not to say that I necessarily agree with the views expressed or wish to debate them here): 

this from a member of the Vote Leave board 

http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/nothing-fear-leaving

and this from a Greek journalist for Aljazeera America  

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/is-europe-in-cultural-peril.html

Moderators:

I haven't as yet had any personal message from you but I note that you have hidden my post at 1:22 pm yesterday afternoon, 25/06/16, the 'post 38' to which I referred in my post at 6:29 pm yesterday evening.  

I am concerned that my later post is still showing (as post 47 currently).  Read in conjunction with others, starting with lartiste's at 5:04 pm yesterday evening, it could give the impression I am apologising for things I did not actually say.

Please hide my later post while the matter is under review.

From the most recent comments, I can see I've upset some posters with with my post 38, for which I sincerely apologise, it was not my intention to pigeonhole anyone. As far as I am aware, the demographic analysis of the referendum vote is generally accepted, but by its very nature a generalisation.

To clarify, I admire anyone studying ballet seriously and sympathise with their parents who make many sacrifices in supporting them. I think the footballer/ dancer idea a good one and given the support for football and the ballet tours visiting Liverpool (which of course was pro-Remain), not to mention the very enthusiastic forum members based in there, it seems a better place to run such a thing than most.

I think that emphasising what ballet training has in common with football is beneficial as there is much greater understanding in this country of football than ballet. To go further, there are still, sadly, many in this country who despise ballet, either as posh and pretentious on one hand or as an intellectually inferior art on the other. I also think one has to learn from the best by training alongside them as well as competing, so I would be sorry to see our youngsters denied international experience.

As for my comment on Mr Gove as an arts reviewer: memories are hazy now but I seldom found myself in accord with him. That is, obviously, my personal opinion but not entirely out of place on an arts forum in that context.

Finally, to forestall assumptions: not everyone who lives is London is unfamiliar with or unsympathetic to the rest of the country and not everyone who has sat in a grand tier is rich. I also like fish and chips on occasion.  And please bear with my multiple edits of all this on a tablet.

That sounds like a good idea, Goldenliy17.  Given the analysis of the social/ educational/ geographical/ cultural background of most of the 17+ million Leave voters who are "the majority of the nation", I think there would be more sympathy towards the plight of proper fish-and-chip-loving local aspirant footballers than (insert your own adjective) ballet dancers.

I remember Mr Gove as a critic on the BBC Newsnight Review arts programme early in his career. Please don't put him in charge. 

But perhaps it could be run from Liverpool which appears to have a great love of ballet alongside football. 

One of the company's best partners IMHO, with the advantage of height.

Pure consumer gold for the Royal Opera House and its themed menus in that case!

How can that compete with the exoticism and sheer glamour of the Gatwick Express?

Ah but the Sussex platform side is much more respectable than the Kent side at Victoria, hence Jack Worthing's reassurance to Lady Bracknell that his handbag-cradle was found on the Brighton line. Unfortunately she reckoned the line is immaterial.

The scarcity of lifts and escaltors at crucial points on the route from the Underground to the main line platforms at Kings Cross/St Pancras is my gripe. Allegedly it was deliberate because LUL didn't want passengers with bulky luggage.

Thanks all!

I'd say broader and slightly taller.

Further to the deliberately anonymous "third principal" references: in case anyone gets the wrong idea, it's not the third principal named in the official announcement, Ryoichi Hirano, whose promotion I welcome.