Bruce

The plans are good and wide in span I think - great for the audience not to see the same old steps. I gather at the conference itself (which had tech problems and was not streamed) that they were asked if they would still be doing things around the Edinburgh Festival. The answer was yes, but the Festival makes its own announcements. So more yet. I also hear that Glen Tetley's Pierrot Lunaire is to enter the company rep - the news came too late for the press release. This will please some, if not me!

Don't know. Both have worked for many great companies in the past and I'm sure they will continue to do so in the future. Re English National Ballet I'd echo Ian's note of good wishes.

Agree with this. Casting much earlier please, but we need to be grown-up and appreciate these are real bodies and can't always be there exactly when planned for.

Good. Don't know how to do clever stuff like merging! But do know its good to only have one thread and the one that goes first is the one to build on!

A thread was already set-up (by Alison) for discussion of this production - including a link to casting discussions etc. Best to use that thread please: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/1595-english-national-ballets-swan-lake/

I'm not at all sure ENB has the Nureyev DonQ. For the record I believe that MainaG has been given the right to stage DonQ by the Nureyev Foundation... which is what she did in Boston.

Those who go a lot naturally lust for new experiences (and I'm no different!) but when I look back while I have enjoyed some new debuts the performances I really remember come from experienced dancers - some even older then 30! The way to challenge new generations I Think is by doing more rep - I've been very impressed by ENB lately where within a couple of months the company split to: 1) Tour to Australia 2) Do DanceGB tour 3) Do the lido mini-season One company really getting out there and giving audience and dancers many more experiences. There is always talk about promotion and dancers being held back. I think if fans had their way then within three years half the company would be principles and the others would all be soloists!

But surely at BRB nearly all the new work is done by one man only? A good man, but one steeped in tradition - hard to see BRB doing a Titian type of night when other choreographers are hardly ever invited. I do like the company and if you want to see youth being rapidly challenged in trad rep they are the company to see. yep!

It's not and never has been. There is a lot of thought, care and knowledge from many here. Nobody will agree on what the best companies in the world might be like and that variety is there to be appreciated and enjoyed. I certainly agree that RB could be better, but I doubt many of us would agree on what would make it so. And in other places dance goers are inevitably having similar debates in the lust for more of what the other man has. I can make a robust point with the best but we all might do better then cast slurs on the community here.

This is a generic response to a generic problem - and what I always used to say on the old forum... I would not advise anybody to compose text in a web site/browser text box, other then the odd rapid sentence. Sooner or later the web, the browser, the site, will screw up and all your words will be lost. The best solution is to compose text on your PC or Mac in a text editor or word-processor. And when done, and happy, then copy the words and paste into the web site text box concerned. If anything goes wrong, anywhere, then you have your local copy. For the record I have a day file, called 'day-file.txt', permanently open from when I switch the PC on until it goes off and I use that for most writing and editing and usually only transfer words elsewhere when done. The file gets rather long and each 6 months I chop off the oldest stuff from the bottom. The file contains things from personal email text, to posts, to reviews, to reviews by others, action lists and goodness knows what else and I split up the different contents by pressing F5 which generates this text automatically as a separator: ################################################### 20/07/2012 The text file is also automatically set to back itself up every 2 minutes - so that's my maximum loss of work. I've had this setup since the early 90's and it really does save pain. Needless to say this response was composed that way.

Sorry - just another angle on Rojo going. Overall a principal has left and not been replaced as such - nobody has been promoted. This fact alone means there are more roles available for a variety of others - some senior and some coming through. For those who want the roles this is a 'good' position - better then the position they were in before. However it doesn't mean all Tamara's slots have to go to insiders and a few being given to somebody of Osipova's powers seem no bad thing in the overall mix.

Bravo to O'Hare I say. I'm sure he has lots of faith in the permanent company and the announcement of one major star doing 3 nights is hardly abandoning the flock. It will also generate excitement for some and those who bought tickets for Rojo will not be shortchanged by some much much loved choice of a few fans only. Back in the early 90's Dowell brought in guests and I thought it worked well. I'm not campaigning for a full ABT model but a few guests on stage, as in life elsewhere, enriches us all (or most of us anyway!)

I'm sure they do. However they are trying to fill the shoes of Rojo and not put on a matinee cast I fancy.

Saw it last night and it's a good show I thought - Les Rendezvous, DonQ and a good contemporary piece by Cameron McMillan all caught my eye.

I picked this up off Twitter this morning: @naomip86: David Bintley steps down as Artistic Director of National Ballet of Japan in Sep 2014, Noriko Ohara will replace: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/culture/news/20120622-OYT1T00517.htm?from=tw

Most sad to hear of the death of John Percival on Wednesday. A colossus of dance criticism he had been unwell for some time. Our thoughts are with Judith Cruickshank, his wife. Back in 2002 Judith interviewed John for Balletco - at great length. Its a wonderful read from somebody who helped make dance criticism what we know today and influenced so many: http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_02/dec02/cruickshank_int_percival.htm

Bluebird / All You got the message because the Admin/Moderator had a full inbox - 100% capacity used. The forum software appeared to do the right thing and tell you the message was not sent. It's analogous to the messages we get in email sometimes telling us that the message we tried to send a friend was not delivered because their inbox was full. The way the forum seems to handle capacity limits is just to count the number of separate PM discussion threads you have used. The default appears to be 50. After that no new threads can be started, but old discussion threads can be added to. This explains why replying to an old message got through. For regular exchanges email is best and no forum software is ever going to provide a setup as robust, well known and easy to use for all concerned. PMs are fine to initiate contact with new people but are no long term repository for important 'stuff' and serious exchanges should rapidly move to email which can be properly archived, searched etc. Everybody should periodically remove old PMs and keep their message storage quota/capacity from hitting 100% used. You can see how much Quota you have used by: In the drop down associated with your forum User Name (top right of web page) select the 'Personal Messenger' option. In the column on the left is a section called 'Storage' and that shows your use of quota On the same page are listed your PMs and there is a facility to delete them as needed.

I look at a number of technology sites and one had news about Pinterest 'poaching' a senior Google legal beagle who well knows IPR issues. It was of a number of links off that. Can't remember which site now! But do any Google search on Pinterest and copyright and you get a lot of interesting/scary links. If you got rid of all the illegal images I doubt that Pinterest would be anywhere near as big as it is.

Either we read the same old links John or you follow my Twitter feed where I called up the link earlier! Hadn't seen this thread at the time - it was a general warning to all on Twitter. I despair about people stealing images and thinking it ok or not even seeing it as stealing. Even BRB when they started putting up images they had rights to, didn't credit as they should. It was rapidly fixed but somehow typical of folks jumping in without reading the small print about having clearence to use and if you do have clearence complying with any conditions attached. In BRBs case their contract with Bill Cooper would have had clauses about him being credited. These things happen and in BRBs case they are all legal now (or appear so), but so many Pinterest pages are just a collection of stolen images. Its not just about crediting those who own the images, its about clearly having authority to use the images in yor space. Creatives deserve better treatment.

Now corrected - it is Brian Maloney rather than Ricardo Cervera. Duh says DaveM!

Prince of the Pagodas - Sarah Lamb & Federico Bonelli cast pictures Here are 3 from a set of 36 pictures by Dave Morgan. Different cast to the Curtain call of course.. Sarah Lamb & Federico Bonelli © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Bennet Gartside, Johannes Stepanek, Brian Maloney and Laura Morera © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Salamder Prince (Federico Bonelli) watched by Rose and the Fool (Sarah Lamb, Valentino Zucchetti) © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Dave Morgan gallery of Prince of the Pagodas - 36 pictures Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Edit: Corrected King of South to Brian Maloney. BM

My main point was that other companies generally present diversity of choreographic/production vision in what they put before audiences - be it full evening or mixed bills. Ultimately I don't believe David Nixon is the only choreographer capable of producing pleasing works that sell in the theatres Northern Ballet visit. And I believe that diversity is good and other directors are wise to go that time-honoured way. BUT we will never agree and I know you value his work very much. I'm not against popularist work, or an all dramatic repertoire, but one man doing "virtually every production" seems too narrow. Finally I should say I liked Nixon's Midsummer Night's Dream and who can say I may like his new Ondine and Great Gatsby when they emerge in September and March next year. He certainly seems to knock 'em out that's for sure.

Prince of the Pagodas - Opening Night Curtain Call Pictures Great thanks to the Royal Ballet for allowing Dave Morgan to take Curtain Call pictures of the first cast of this important revival. Lots of happy faces! Finale tableau (Marianela Nunez and Nehemiah Kish split by Alexander Campbell © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Tamara Rojo © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Marianela Nunez & Nehemiah Kish © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Dave Morgan gallery of Prince of the Pagodas - Curtain Calls Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

Agreed. However I think my point was how low the 7% seemed (tending to assume its true, otherwise you would have mentioned!). I think the other companies achieve more by way of fund raising, be it from a number of corprorates or whatever. Be nice to settle down and try and compare the companies - hard numbers are always nicer. Ultimatly all companies need to get bums on seats. I think this is is not a good or fair comparison with ENB or any other UK company. In Mark Skippers own words re David Nixon: "...he's been the choreographer of virtually every production we've done for the last 10 years". No other company is in this position by a long margin. And I don't see any significant moving forward really. You mention Christopher Hampson but he was one part of a quad bill put on in a 200 seat studio theatre over a few nights in one location. The other 3 pieces were all in house. You mention ENB, but they, having done much popular rep, treated themselves and their audience to 2 weeks in the Coliseum to celebrate Diaghilev with new works and old by a mix of choreographers including Balanchine, Petit and MacMillan. Their normal rep has work set by a variety of choreographers also. Birmingham is a little narrower on rep creation but has recently toured mixed rep in the regions. All these companies are facing the same proportional loss in Arts Council grant I believe. Not sure on Scottish Ballet, but I'd be surprised if it was business as usual on grants. But again there is wider rep from a range of choreographers and I don't see this narrowing at all. I think its very true to talk of a "Northern/Nixon bubble set aside from wider artistic exchanges and endeavours around ballet and dance." Of course that is not to say its not enjoyed by many who follow the company.

Nicely said John. It was a "bleeding obvious" the company didn't seem to get at first. All companies are having to deal with Arts Council cuts and all face challenges in doing it. The most surprising thing I thought was that only 7% of their funding comes from their own fund-raising. That seems very small. Perhaps I misheard - apologies if I did and strike the rest of this para! Although people are getting vexed about how they ask the audience and fans for money, the money that makes a huge difference is corporate and that's where they would seem to lack punch. I can't recall a big sponsor since Halifax did so much for them - probably a decade ago now. Northern are tenacious in doing things their way - a way like no other company in the UK. They do their stuff, the existing audience love them and so it goes on, almost in its own Northern/Nixon bubble set aside from wider artistic exchanges and endeavours around ballet and dance. Be interesting to see where their strategy takes them in the longer term.