Shmendrick

I already have tickets for the first night so I'm already going, I would love to see Daria though so I want to get tickets for her, if she's dancing of course.

If ENB don't get their act together soon and release the Manchester casting I might cover all my bases and just book cheap tickets for every performance after reading all the good reviews.

I watch a lot of artistic gymnastics and a particular bugbear of mine is the way fans will describe any gymnast with a modicum of elegance as a "ballerina". Comparisons between gymnastics and ballet also get on my wick, especially when people try to argue one is harder than the other.

I bought a R&J poster from the ROH online shop about a year ago, it seems strange to stop selling them when R&J has just been put on again.

We used a charity called The Mustardtree and they took all sorts. Some of it goes to help people start up their own homes and some of it gets sold. They took all sorts as well as furniture but they were the only charity we could get to come out.

In preparation for our move to a smaller house we got a skip to clear out the loft and garage. When we finished it was full and even then we had to get a charity to come round three times with a truck to pick up stuff we were getting rid of that was too good to skip and even now I think we have way too much crap lying round the house.

This whole thing seems very strange. I'd like to hear the RB's side of the story but I don't think that'll ever happen. The interviews do seem to suggest that this move was already in motion well before it was announced which seems strange and unfair to the fans who had no chance to get tickets to see them one last time.

Ooh very lucky getting to see all the performances. If they were anything like Thursday night they must've been brilliant.

Jenna Roberts and Iain Mackay were wonderful last night as were the entire company. Did anyone else think that the music was faster than normal though?

I'm always a bit wary of those, I just feel like they're likely to be stale. When I was in sixth form we used to get boxes of the original glazed Krispy Kremes and sell them for a pound a doughnut, it was fairly like being in a piranha pool at feeding time.

Anyone who deliberately speeds up when going through a puddle in order to drown unsuspecting pedestrians. It has happened to me many times, sometimes accompanied with a few young men howling gibberish from the warmth of their car.

I don't suppose there's any hope it might tour?

New dancer?

I really want them to announce Manchester casting!

It was a co-production with San Francisco I think.

My copy arrived the other day and it is really good. I like the Golding/Tysgankova partnership and they had a cracking supporting cast and the whole production was fairly fab.

You'd think with Tony Hall now heading up the BBC they'd manage to shoehorn a ballet in somewhere. They wouldn't necessarily even need to film it if they used the ones that had been broadcast to cinemas, surely that's archived somewhere and could be shared with the BBC? Or they could make them available on iPlayer.

Well true. There does seem to be the opportunity for the Royal to bring in Mr Osipova as a one-off though it seems unlikely this season, it'd certainly shift tickets!

Exactly my thoughts. The Royal has a lot of potential in the lower ranks who are just waiting for their chance.

When on earth did that become a rule? I knew you walked against traffic so you can see what's coming but I used to horse-ride and we always rode with the traffic and I would assume the same rule applied to cyclists.

On the subject of cyclists I saw one t'other day cycling along on the pavement while texting. Fair play to him, if I tried that I'd end up crashing into a lamppost but I do like not being nearly run over by distracted cyclist when wandering up to the shops. Also can we put crippling heels in? I wouldn't have minded but they weren't even that high and they still made me want a bucket of ice for my feet after taking about 3 steps.

More DVDs, especially of triple bills and I would say more exciting programming for cinemas like showing Jewels instead of the Nutcracker but seeing as there were three of us in the cinema for the Ashton Mixed Bill I'm not sure that's practical. A small touring group of RB dancers would be nice, they could maybe do more modern pieces and maybe some pas de deuxs. They used to have written bios on the website, at least for the principals. It'd be nice if they brought them back. On a positive note the insight videos they have been posting are fantastic.

There's a new RB DVD out with the Nunez/Soares Swan Lake, Cojocaru/Bonelli Sleeping Beauty and either the Yoshida/McRae or Marquez/McRae Nutcracker on, depending on whether you read the Blu-ray description or the DVD description. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Classic-Ballets-Marianela-Yoshida/dp/B00E1C4R7U/ref=sr_1_13?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1376750685&sr=1-13&keywords=tchaikovsky+the+classic+ballets

In my view saying all art has to be innovative is somewhat silly. While any artist should always strive to be original otherwise they simply become a copy of what's gone before innovation is different. I would count the picture above as art, I would count the RB's Giselle as art, neither are innovative but they both have a meaning. I think people put too much emphasis on "new" and dismiss the "old" too quickly. People are quick to insult things like Swan Lake because it is overdone and a little bit silly but done properly it can be beautiful and moving. Just because it's an old classic doesn't mean that it has any less to say than something new. Also trying to write rhyming poetry is a lot harder than free verse.

I'm not sure anyone on here can really advise you on this because we haven't seen you dancing and I don't know how many people are qualified dance teachers. Most of us just enjoy watching dance. It's a shame your exam was put back through no fault of your own. If you can get private classes then that teacher should be able to advise you better than anyone on an internet forum really, even if you can't your other teachers will still know whether or not you're ready to go en pointe better than anyone here. What do the teachers at your other classes say? Good luck with your musical!