Shmendrick

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.

Is it not the case that if a person is going to make it to principal s/he will be promoted to that rank within a few short years of joining the RB, regardless of how many principal roles s/he has danced?

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.

The opera seems to bring in a lot of big names such as Angela Gheorgiu, I can't imagine they're particularly cheap and I think they've restaged a couple of things recently but some of the new work at the RB has been fairly expensive so I don't know how exactly the money would be split.

balletnews.co.uk normally puts a list of promotions up as soon as they become available. Hasn't Kevin O'Hare already said he thinks there were too many principals so there may not be as many promotions as we'd like but I can think of at least one dancer who deserves a principal promotion and a couple who deserve promotions lower down.

I went to the live screening and it was fabulous. So much excellence from everyone. Gary Avis and Christina Arestis were fabulous and when she threw Sarah Lamb out of Rudolf's apartment it was possibly the most heartbreaking moment of the ballet. I have no words for Ed and Mara they were on a level entirely their own.

Lucia Lacarra kindly demonstrates.

http://www.theballetbag.com/2009/10/31/bag-of-steps-turns/

Scroll down a bit and there's a short explanation.

Oh well just wondered I don't know the ENB that well myself. I think it could be interesting to introduce it at RB but I can see it ruffling a few feathers. I agree it would a good way of acknowledging a dancer's work without taking as big a risk on them.

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

That would be interesting, do you know how often the principals dance compared to the lead principals? I suppose the Paris have a similar system with the etoiles and it appears to work well there.

I agree that if the soloists are continually taking on principal roles they should be correctly rewarded for it, it seems unfair to deny the title of principal if they are essentially a principal in all but name. I also hope this might allow for people like Laura Morera to take on roles she hasn't been allowed to tackle before.

I really enjoyed the screening. Kondaurova is absolutely stunning and I thought she and Askerov danced well together. After watching some of the videos of Askerov on yt my expectations weren't particularly high but he did extremely well. The pas de trois was well done, how did the Royal let Xander slip through their fingers? The corps were of course bang on. The sound came across as a bit flat in quality during the white acts but that was probably the cinema sound system rather any fault of the orchestra. I thought the presenters did okay but seemed nervous at the start (does anyone know who the dancer they filmed in the tutu during the Vaganova segment was? She looked familiar for some reason).

I'm surprised to hear it cost £20 for some people, at my local it was slightly more expensive than for the RB but it was in 3D, which worked surprisingly well. The cinema was absolutely packed when we arrived and by the time the broadcast started the only seats left were by the very front and a smattering of single seats.

As happened at the Mariinsky broadcast tonight, audience member humming along out of tune and out of time as well as pretending to conduct. The cygnets tune isn't hummable!