GTL

Interesting and encouraging to see that Johan Kobborg is taking four into his National Romanian Ballet. If it's not too personal a question, is Edivaldo Souza da Silva a relative of English National Ballet's splendid Junor Souza?

Or they know where the bodies are buried - sometimes literally.

And aren't some of those foreign-sounding dancers British by marriage or naturalisation?

BristolBillyBob, I think the ROH is all too aware of the revenue opportunities of intervals, with their expensive dine-between-acts restaurants! As for £2 as a nominal spend, in truth you don't get much for £2 at the ROH: a cup of tea or a bowl of crisps but not much chance of finding an unreserved seat to sit on, especially in cold weather. You're not allowed to bring your own food or drink in. Ice creams £3, small plate of cheese £12 if I recall correctly. I don't think "inclusiveness" features much in the catering policy. So the sooner the majority of the audience can get out to the more varied culinary delights of Covent Garden, the better in my view! The main decider, I guess, is the need avoid overtime by not exceeding three hours of performance time.

The only time I saw the Royal Ballet do "Four Schumann Pieces" it preceded "Giselle", possibly even without an interval - this would have been the early eighties so the details are hazy now. Nowadays I welcome the shorter, cheaper programming of "Giselle" on its own. I also prefer "La Bayadère" to end with the Shades and occasionally feel the need to skip Makarova's last Act. Sometimes less is more.

To complicate it even more for you, Anjuli-Bai, thequays has described the set-up in Northern Ireland but I don't think anyone has mentioned Scottish Highers or the International Baccalaureate yet as alternatives to A level, the Bac being popular in some of our Public Schools (private schools to an American) - then our neighbour the Republic of Ireland has a completely different system altogether.

There is a long tradition of anglicising foreign names though: we don't even say Paris as its natives do, let alone Athens, Moscow, Cologne, Rome, Gothenburg - and Melbourne sounds like "Melburn" in Australia. Latin in England has long had its own pronunciation - the hard C and G for example - to the mystification of our fellow-Europeans who keep it closer to the sounds of modern Italian. I have heard a theory that this disconnect has its roots in the English Reformation when (setting theology aside here) the use of Latin became a hot political issue.

Great clip, it's fascinating to see how differently the exact same steps are executed: to my non-dancing eye, some beautifully done and a few with the gait of an earnest beginner. It must take a special kind of teacher to make it work so well.

I realise production costs are high in London, though I'd imagined that the performers subsidise it to a certain extent through a course fee or membership fee. I don't want to be unkind here but speaking realistically, in a ballet-rich city I would put that sort of money towards a ticket for a professional performance unless I was attending out of friendship with a participant (hence my original question about standard of performance and composition of audience). To end on a positive note, it's really good to know this sort of venture is financially viable when it undoubtedly gives a lot of pleasure to so many.

Seeing how you're all hogging "Giselle" etc, I have decided to stun you all as the flawless lead in Balanchine's "Ballo della Regina", my partner being the top man himself - that's God, not Mr B. I've only seen it on film with Merril Ashley and at Covent Garden with Ms Núñez and Ms Cuthbertson but it's one that looked so hard even as they sailed triumphantly through it. However we are in heaven, where generosity and selflessness reign supreme, so In a spirit of self-sacrifice I'm going to suggest we all join in a quick "Symphony in C" to Bizet's glorious music. These two are not quite up there with my favourites of the 19th century and I'm not overly reverertial to the Balanchine repertoire but they are the most joyous and uplifting ballets I've come across and must be terrific fun to dance. PS. There will be no auto-correct in heaven, the xxxx thing will type what I tell it to type.

Just want to say thanks to those who replied to this. I'm still wondering about the first bit (n.b. the filming and YouTube posting appears to be entirely official) and somewhat shocked at the upcoming gala ticket prices cited by Michelle in comparison, say, to ENB's recent acclaimed "Lest We Forget" at the Barbican. BUT best of luck with all your endeavours, reading about them feeds my appreciation of all the ballet I see and above all, you're preserving and extending into the community what some mistakenly dismiss as an irrelevant and elitist artform.

As a complete stranger to amateur adult ballet, I am wondering how close this rehearsal footage is to the actual performance standard? Assuming my link works, it's a 2013 YouTube clip posted by London Amateur Ballet. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdI_DCPj5KI I'd also be interested to know what sort of an audience pays to attend amateur adult ballet performances - in your (collective) general experience what proportion are family and friends of the performers?

I didn't see last night's cinema transmission but, reading all this praise, I have to commend the Royal Ballet for doing so well in the wake of the tragic death of their colleague Emma Maguire's mother Anne yesterday morning (see News item). http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/6728-emma-maguire/

Didn't know you can enter from the Market side, I've only been in it a few times and looked unsuccessfully for a public exit to the Piazza, thinking there must be one for Health & Safety reasons!

And some well-educated people of my acquaintance despise it, and especially "ballet music", out of intellectual snobbery.

There is definitely a Rembrandt self-portrait in the National Gallery, Isaw it myself two days ago, but I doubt the NPG has any, its collection being British and historic - however the NPG does usually have a few 20thC ballet personages on view. The V&A is too long a walk from Covent Garden, take the tube or, preferably, walk up Exhibition Road (5-10 mins) and get the number 9 bus from near the Albert Memorial: either way, leave by 6pm latest for a 7.30 curtain-up, the tube is not fast in the rush-hour. The portico of St Paul's Church (the Actors' Church) faces into Covent Garden but the main entrance is round the block in Bedford Street and there is a narrow easily-missed passageway in from King Street. If you try the (free!) Soane Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, be warned they only allow small bags.

I can't answer for the ROH but from my own observations I can say that some of the seats around the left aisle of the Grand Tier are usually occupied by RB staff and their guests (e.g. family of cast, other dancers from the RB and visiting companies). The wheelchair spaces in the Grand Tier are often released for sale as "bar-stool style" seats close to the performance date, though I can't claim to have seen any recognisable celebs perching thereupon.

A pity, Autolycus would have been a terrific part for Steven McRea, with all its dazzling, dodging and diving!

The synopsis doesn't mention Autolycus, a "star part" in the play, has he been cut from this production?

That's just what I was thinking, MAB, prima likewise. Somewhere out there is a film clip where Maria Alexandrova introduces herself as "prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre".

It's usually better to leave while the audience still wants more!

"Manon" would be a good place to test it out, with Manon as the dominant character and Des Grieux the reserved one led astray by her.

Do we think the ROH booking system could withstand an Osipova/Muntagirov pairing?

Bear in mind, thequays, that (apart from the well-known wartime destruction of records at the Four Courts in 1922) there is a problem in Ireland because the late19th century census returns had already been destroyed - this site is very informative. http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/nai/censusmemo.htm

I was at that season, or rather the programme containing the Shades scene from La Bayadere (very shaky and one girl in the front row looked injured) and the Flames of Paris pas de deux (good, I subsequently sought it out on DVD). The Bolshoi were in the doldrums then, that performance was poorly attended, while the Mariinsky were riding high and even offering mid-week matinees at their early-2000s seasons at the Royal Opera House. How quickly times change! The format at Drury Lane was compromised by there not being any free cast sheets, only expensive programmes: I remember overhearing a mother telling her daughters after the Bayadere Shades that they had just seen Swan Lake. In these compendium-style programmes, I do wish they would use the scene-change time to project onto a screen a synopsis of the next piece along with details of the dancers/choreographer/composer/designer. Even if I've bought the programme, I haven't had time to take in or remember all these details.