Marieve

That's such a shame for her if it's true. It does make me wonder though, especially given the comments from the Bolshoi on her apparent difficulties with learning choreography, whether she was only accepted into the Bolshoi company as a kind of enticement to encourage more foreigners to pay to study at the Bolshoi school. They may be increasingly reliant on income from foreign students and perhaps the acceptance of one of them into the company, even if she wasn't quite up to the ideal standard, would have been quite an effective recruitment tactic.

Stucha, I'm not sure if you're allowed to put the links up but if not, then maybe you could post the names of the dancers with their Russian spellings and also the Russian spellings of Onegin, so people can cut and paste into the YouTube search bar? If it's not too much trouble, obviously!

There were barely a handful of people at the screening at my local picturehouse cinema. I don't think the Ashton bill was even added to the schedule until the last couple of weeks as I'd checked the Screen Arts section of the website about a month ago and was very disappointed to see no ROH productions whatsoever for the next year. (VERY relieved to see that they are going to be showing the RB live broadcasts after all!). Am sure it would have been far better attended if it had been added to the schedule sooner. Anyway, I really enjoyed the first four performances but struggled to stay awake after that - due to tiredness and pregnancy, not boredom - and missed most of Marguerite and Armand because I couldn't stop nodding off Gutted about that.

Perhaps Kevin O'Hare feels that it could be unfair to ENB, who sometimes struggle with ticket sales, if the RB were to borrow one of their star performers - it may take sales away from ENB if audiences can go to see Vadim Muntagirov dancing elsewhere in London.

Just watched some of it on YouTube. Gorgeous She is such a beautiful dancer.

Watching this topic with interest as I don't have many ballet DVDs and am curious to see what everyone else rates most highly! LinMM I've got a DVD "Great Dancers Of Our Time" that includes the bedroom scene from Manon danced by Diana Vishneva and Vladimir Malakhov. It's in a studio, not taken from a performance. I came across the clip on YouTube and loved it so much that I had to find the DVD it was taken from

Also, you seem to be implying that there's some kind of tokenism going on with regards to Japanese dancers - that there's only room for so many and that they should be compared against each other rather than against other dancers in general. Who is to say that Kevin O'Hare would want a Japanese dancer rather than just a world class dancer?? Who is to say that he's "choosing from a certain ethnic pool" when hiring or promoting dancers? Perhaps you are right, and the people who are in charge of ballet companies do see race as an important factor when they're deciding who to promote. I wouldn't know. I find it a depressing thought though.

Really? Why would it be too many? Are you implying that the RB should not have more than one non white female principal? Until a year ago they had five Spanish/Latin American principal ballerinas. That obviously wasn't considered to be a problem so why would it be undesirable to have as many as three Asian ballerinas??

Absolutely no idea! I'm not that familiar with ENB, just noticed on their website that they have a different ranking system from RB - seven ranks, not including character artists, as opposed to five. And three levels of soloist rather than two. I just thought that if there was any question about a RB soloist's readiness for promotion to principal, it might be a less enormous leap and maybe a less questionable decision if the promotion was only to second/ordinary rank principal and not a declaration that said dancer was now one of the company's biggest stars. I hope that makes sense, not sure I've explained it very well. Apologies if this is too off topic by the way.

Perhaps a two tier principal ranking like ENB's would be the answer in this case?

That's exactly how I was during that scene on Saturday! Paul Kay was fantastic but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Thiago and Melissa.

Me too, Blackqueen. It was my first time of seeing it and to be honest, I found Thiago's performance so moving that I almost feel like I don't ever want to see anyone else dancing Rudolph.

I saw the Soares/Hamilton matinee too and also feel incredibly lucky to have been there. It was so moving.

So sad to hear this, I saw them for the first time in Romeo & Juliet last year and thought it was one of the most beautiful performances of anything, not just ballet, that I'd ever seen. Was hoping to see them again sometime. Wish them both all the very best for the future.

Fascinating to read Xander Parish's diary, thanks for posting that Amelia Sounds like they work unbelievably hard at the Mariinsky. I was amazed to see that they sometimes have to go back to rehearsals after finishing a show! And it looks like Xander Parish is doing really well there too. I wonder if the Royal Ballet will try to get him to come back now that he's proved himself to have enough talent to dance principal roles on the Mariiinsky stage.

I found this quote from the guardian article interesting: "Brind herself was performing during the 80s, at a time when foreign artists were in a minority in the Royal: yet while she and her fellow principal Fiona Chadwick were rightly hailed as examples of new British talent, I remember the overall standard of dancing as relatively lacklustre." I realise that this doesn't necessarily mean that if foreign dancers were still in the minority, the overall standard would still be lacklustre. Perhaps it was just coincidence. And may not have been every ballet goer's perception of the 1980s RB either! But IF the standards WERE lower then, then it does sound as if the influx of foreign artists may possibly have raised the overall game? And perhaps that the RB dancers of the 80s could have been slightly complacent because there was less competition from outside? And maybe if the RB did go back to having mainly British dancers, there might be a danger of the "lacklustre" period repeating itself for the same reasons as before. At least, that's what I think the article was getting at.

I have been wondering about that too

That's an interesting point but it does seem a little like splitting hairs to say that Margot Fonteyn couldn't be classed as British because she had a foreign parent. Does this mean that young UK born dancers don't count as British dancers if one or both of their parents is foreign born? (Just editing to say that I didn't mean that to come across as rude or argumentative - apologies if it does! Can be very hard to get the tone right when writing )

It is sad that our main ballet company has so few high ranking British dancers. It's hard to imagine that that would ever be the case in a Russian company. When did it all change? I mean when was the last era when most RB principals were British? And did it change because the talent was (thought to be) no longer there or did standards remain the same BUT weren't perhaps seen as quite high enough any longer? I hope that makes sense!

It sounds like all of the casts so far have been amazing. I hope Soares and Cuthbertson are as good on 1 June! I saw Melissa Hamilton in Las Hermanas last November and although I haven't a clue about technical prowess, I thought she had fantastic stage presence Wonder if she'll be promoted this year?

I'm starting to think that certain posters are here with a hidden agenda Sofia National Ballet look fab

Yes it does. Many, many people outside of London only to to see live ballet performances when a touring company is performing nearby or only a short distance away

Well, the first ballet I ever saw was Raymonda when I was eight. I don't remember much of the dancing except for the duel near the end when I had to cover my eyes because I could tell that the Turkish sultan (as he was called in the programme) was going to get killed I felt sad for him because we were obviously meant to dislike him and I've always had a natural sympathy for outsiders. He also had cool clothes and a very dashing villain's moustache. Actually, it's possible that he may also have had more stage presence than the other dancers, thinking about it now. The only other thing I really remember was Raymonda's big frothy white dress. Then I saw a triple bill with Les Sylphides, La Sylphide and something else. The other two pieces made no lasting impression on me but I was completely entranced by Les Sylphides and its beautiful music and dreamy atmosphere. I still think it's utterly gorgeous now although I've only seen it on screen since then. I would absolutely love to be able to see it live again sometime. After that, I lost all interest in ballet until a few years ago when my mum asked if I wanted to go and see BRB doing Romeo and Juliet as she had a spare ticket due to her friend not being able to make it. I went because I didn't want her to have to go on her own. I wasn't expecting to particularly enjoy the dancing but I do love the Prokofiev score so was looking forward to hearing that. Anyway, I ended up being completely blown away by the ballet itself and found it incredibly involving and moving. It was so, so beautiful. Since then, I still haven't managed to see that much live ballet but have seen BRB again when they tour down this way and have started venturing up to London to see the RB from time to time. Next time is the Mayerling matinee on 1st June - VERY excited about that one!! Have also really enjoyed seeing Ballet Theatre UK when they toured last December and am seeing Ballet Black in a couple of weeks time and am going to see ENB's La Corsaire in November. I do envy people who live in London and can just pop over to the ROH on the tube and see as many performances as they like but I'm grateful for the live cinema screenings and am delighted that there are going to be five of them next season

It's a lot easier for me to see touring companies too Janet as I'm quite a distance from London. I've only got into ballet fairly recently and so far have seen (and loved) BRB and Ballet Theatre UK. Am seeing Ballet Black in a couple of weeks time and very much looking forward to seeing La Corsaire when ENB tour it later in the year Apart from anything else, it's such good value when the best seats in the house are a maximum of £45! I do love travelling up to see the RB but its so expensive in comparison (understandably so), especially when travel costs are factored in. Hmm maybe ENB should tour smaller productions in smaller venues, as well as the standard ones, to even more locations... I'm sure there are loads of people who'd come along that wouldn't necessarily travel long distances to see a ballet

With respect chrischris, your frequent posts, on more than one thread, questioning ENB's existence seem somewhat odd coming from someone who's supposedly a supporter of ballet. They come over as being posted by someone with an agenda rather than someone who's participating in a discussion in good faith. Of course you have every right to post about your concerns but this constable banging of the "waste of taxpayers money" and "they're not even british" drums seem a little strange in this context. Apologies if I'm wrong. I hope I am.