Shmendrick

Lack of rehearsal time with Ovcharenko? Have they danced together before? Did that actually happen?

Isn't Rojo's partner for Le Corsaire unconfirmed as well? This could be interesting Ignore my gibbering I had a look and it's Golding. Still it could be interesting to see who does end up partnering "The Boss".

Off to Amazon to pre-order that one then

I think it did, he didn't drive for a while and I think his insurance afterwards was quite expensive.

I have a friend with a black box and they seem quite pleased with it and it does knock a decent chunk off their insurance, they may still be on their parent's insurance though. I knew someone else who had a student insurance deal which let build their no claims faster by counting every claim-free nine months as a claim-free year, not certain how much this is or who it was with though but the deal might still be around. I also had a friend who told the insurance his dad was the main driver when he was and had almighty trouble when they found out. Then there was the friend quoted £10,000 a year for a £500 car. Oh the wonders of insurance.

I like 4. Is it just me or does the dancer in 5 have really dirty pointe shoes? The polo one looks a bit odd. Last one is quite good.

I noticed a few people with fans or using programs and you can get fans in the shop, which we found useful.

I saw the matinee performance and for me it was so-so. Some bits were really good, namely the scene between Nikiya and Gamzatti, everything Gamzatti did and the three shades all danced well but for me the ballet never really got off the ground and sparkled. The dancing was lovely overall, don't get me wrong, but I felt it never really got going and I prefer the version the RB use with the final act at the temple, the story seems more finished.

I saw Giselle and the Swan Lake matinee, both with Vesa Tonova and Emil Yordanov in the lead roles. Unfortunately I think they lacked chemistry although she was better in Swan Lake, noticeably as Odile but he was fairly flat and some of his solos lacked polish. The orchestra was pretty bad both times. The first act of Giselle was nice, the corps were the highlight. Ivanka Kassabova did quite well in the peasant pas de deux. The corps de ballet did well in the second act as well as did Myrtha. I think the second act suffered from the staging. The lighting was quite soft for the most part and combined with the wings on the Wilis made them look like Sylphs though Myrtha's entrance through the dry ice was impressive. They opened Swan Lake with a prologue showing Odette's transformation into a swan, which was interesting. I generally hate Jesters but the urge to murder him was quashed by Todor Angelov who managed quite an amusing portrayal, trying to balance a cup on his nose and hiding behind the queen's skirt as he caught sight of Von Rothbart. Vesa Tonova seemed more at home with Swan Lake than Giselle and she was good as Odile. I prefer the sad ending and felt Act 4 suffered from dull choreography as a whole but the corps were spot on at all times. Act 3 was definitely the stand-out of the evening, the national dances were well done. I don't think I'd rush to see the Sofia National Ballet again but I definitely enjoyed their Swan Lake. The female corps de ballet were very very good, they must have been utterly exhausted but it didn't show. The company as a whole seemed more comfortable in Swan Lake than Giselle.

I'm not sure Judith Mackrell is part of some conspiracy against him. She wrote a very even-handed article about his dismissal from the Bolshoi http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jun/10/bolshoi-nikolai-tsiskaridze-dancer-out.

There were three of us in my local cinema, which was a shame. I didn't like La Valse too much but I think that had more to do with camera work than anything. Hikaru Kobayashi did well as one of the three girls. I don't like Thais too much but Leanne and Valeri danced it well. Voices of Spring was absolutely charming. Monotones 1 and 2 was interesting, well danced as expected but suffered with costumes. M and A was very good, Christopher Saunders did well as the father and Tamara Rojo's shambling walk offstage en pointe was heartbreaking.

Talking of negative publicity: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jul/22/bolshoi-ballet-nikolai-tsiskaridze#start-of-comments.

The opening night of SB later this year is also mid-week, it seems to be quite common at the Lowry.

It does seem strange that they would link to that, very unprofessional IMHO, especially after Tamara Rojo claiming it's not a rivalry but friendly competition. On a side note, having read the article I don't think that having the RB tour the UK would help it any. We already have three major touring companies (four if you count the Rambert) struggling to sell tickets. The RB would just hurt them more because people would go for the name. Plus they wouldn't fit on the stage. While I think it's good for ballet to have more publicity in general some of the recent coverage hasn't helped matters. After all the complaining about Black Swan there's been an awful lot of drama that in some cases is more extreme. It does manage to make ballet look slightly insane to the casual reader.

IIRC the ballet being like porn comment was based on the fact that the choreography comes from a male-dominated viewpoint as does porn not from the idea of them being scantily clad.

Just when you think all you'll ever see is Sleeping Beauty someone surprises you. Very good news it's coming to the Lowry

I book for the company mostly, mainly because I mostly book for the BRB and I book when tickets become available not when casting is announced and I only tend to find out casting on the night, same for NB. When I first booked for ENB I did wait to find out casting and then booked for the Rojo/Muntagirov show because I really wanted to see them and then when I got tickets for an extra show I went for the same casting because I wanted to see them again (Still would've gone for a different partnership, I just got lucky) and now Cojocaru is dancing with them I'm going to try and get tickets for her but I don't think it would make a difference to most people. Though for the Bolshoi I got tickets based on what nights I could go to, which I suspect a lot of tourists will do and maybe not look so much at principal casting unless they want to look them up. I suspect casting only has an influence on people who already follow ballet and are going for a particular dancer.

I haven't really seen Takada dance so I'll have to find that clip you mentioned. I watched the rehearsal with with Kaneko and Kish and she actually reminded me of Miyako Yoshida, they have a similar quality to their movement. I think you're right re Morera unfortunately. That's a shame about Cervera because I remember some grumbling in other places about them bringing Gomes in. I wish the RB would hurry up and update the casting.

Oh right, I assume before because the RB yearbook says she joined as a principal in 2000 and for Roberta Marquez it says joined and promoted to principal in 200 so I assume it would something similar for Tamara.

I would love to see this unfortunately round me all we're getting is Sleeping Beauty. I may have to go om a little trip to Birmingham to see Prince of Pagodas and Fille.

Tamara Rojo joined at principal level rather than being promoted after joining. Marianela Nunez's bio on her website definitely suggests she was doing some fairly major roles, doesn't say what they were but she appears to have danced quite a lot so that wouldn't surprise me. I wasn't entirely certain but I couldn't remember coming across a reference to her dancing Giselle, I would've liked to have seen that.

http://www.tightsandtiaras.com/2010/08/we-are-going-on-a%e2%80%a6-summer-holiday/ This was written by a corps de ballet dancer in Hungary (I think), unfortunately he seems to have given up on his blog but there are several posts on there which give an interesting insight to life as a dancer.

I can believe the RB bring in more because they do things like the Nutcracker which is a Christmas tradition for a lot of people and I can't think of an opera equivalent, also something like Swan Lake is always popular. I think opera has a much lower profile overall and people are a bit more wary of it if they're newcomers. I have no idea how much the top singers charge for a performance or a run of them but I think it's likely to be a fair bit, there was a discussion on here that said the baseline for an RB pricipal is 60 grand a year, I don't know if that's accurate or not though. I'd forgotten about private sponsors and of course the cost of Alice was offset by sharing the production with the NBoC.

Very true, none of those three have danced Swan Lake/Sleeping Beauty and I think only Watson has done Giselle, although I have sincere hopes for Morera to get some big roles this season. She's had good reviews for Manon and Larisch so perhaps she'll get a chance at Juliet now there's a gap with Cojocaru's departure.

Not necessarily, Mara Galeazzi, Laura Morera and Edward Watson were all in the company for 10 years or more before they became principals and Rupert Pennefather was in for 9 years before his promotion. Those who've quickly climbed the ranks appear to be those who've done principal roles in other places such as Alina Cojocaru and Leanne Benjamin.