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I've remembered there is a website which allows you to compare different forms of exercise. Here is the section for various styles of dance. The site says taking a ballet class is the same as erecting supports for coal mining, mowing the lawn or skateboarding with moderate effort.

AFAIK dance belts are treated as underwear and they probably wouldn't accept a return, not that I've tried. Personally I prefer these https://dancewear.co.uk/products/details&prodid=3079 to the one mentioned by CeliB above. I used to have a Bal Togs one which gave support in all the right places and was extremely comfortable, but I don't know of any UK outlets.

They are probably used for rolling under the soles of the feet to help relieve strain. In the film "A Bunny's Tale", the Gloria Steinem character is given the advice to roll a bottle under her feet after her first session, and I think Steinem mentions this in her book too, but it has been a very long time since I've read that (although a did see the film again a couple of years ago).

Here's what Joseph Pilates said about exercise in "Return to Life Through Contrology" : 'Practice your exercises diligently with the fixed and unalterable determination that you will permit nothing else to sway you from keeping faith with yourself. At times you may feel tempted to "take a night off." Don't succumb to this momentary weakness of indecision, or rather, wrong decision. Decide to remain true to yourself. Think of what would happen if the stokers firing the boilers of a giant oceanliner were to decide to "take a night off." You know the answer. If they were to repeat this action, you know the result. I take this to mean you should peform the Pilates routine daily. Personally, I find Pilates a fairly dull routine to follow, but I do follow his advice and I do something physical every day; either ballet class, gym, riding my bike, brisk walking, etc Pilates also says : 'If you will faithfully perform your Contrology exercises regularly only four times a week for just three months as outlined in RETURN TO LIFE, you will find your body development approaching the ideal, accompanied by renewed mental vigor and spiritual enhancement. Mind you, not all of what he says makes sense : 'NEVER TO REPEAT THE SELECTED EXERCISE(S) MORE THAN THE PRESCRIBED NUMBER OF TIMES since more harm will result than good by your unwittingly or intentionally disregarding this most important advice and direction. Why? Because this infraction creates muscular fatigue -- poison. To pick up on Becky's point about cardio being dull. It can be but there are ways to make it interesting. Riding your bike along a nice scenic route is one way. I find riding the bikes in the gym very tedious. I have been known to fall asleep doing it. Some people find step or similar classes enjoyable. I'm lucky in some ways. When I'm running on the treadmill, it's brain out, switch off and 30 minutes later it's done and dusted and I haven't noticed. On the other hand, I hate running outside. You have to look where you're going and dodge obstacles. There are many forms of exercise which can build aerobic fitness - swimming, roller skating, etc If you have Sky, there is http://www.fab-tv.com/ You might also find it on FreeSat, athough it has fallen off mine. They regularly have short programs which are a DVD from one of the many sets available, such as Sleek Technique, XTend Barre, Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels, Ladan Soltani, Surfer Girl, Kino Macgregor, Nicky McGinty, Pop Physique, Kettleworx, etc, etc. You can watch the programs and see which ones you like before splashing out.

I saw this triple in the Severn Theatre, Shrewsbury last night The opener, Les Rendezvous, is a ballet that I am fairly indifferent too. I like the colourful costumes but I think the choreography is very dull (a typical Ashton piece). Still with Elisha Willis and William Bracewell as the principal couple, it was enjoyable enough. If Elisha simply walked across the stage, that would more than satisfy me. Her radiance is unquestioned. Next came Kin. When the curtain rose, my immediate reaction was "Oh joy, another of the ballets performed in the dark where you can't see anything." After a short while, they found 10p to put in the meter and it was a little brighter, but generally this is a very dark piece with dim lighting and all black costumes. That is my one gripe with this otherwise brilliant piece. It's very angular and very fast moving. Yijing Zhang, gave us a star turn and it was impossible to take your eyes off her. So much so, that I missed a lot of what the other dancers were doing. I hope to see this again very soon. As a finisher, it's hard to beat Elite Syncopations. The audience applauded as the curtain rose and continued throughout at the end of each number. For me the stand out was The Alaskan Rag by Yijang Zhang and Tzu-Chao Chou. They turned the hamminess up to 11 and the audience loved it! I wonder why the company omitted "Ragtime Nightingale" from this outing? It has been included in previous years.

I found this on the BBC website: Can ballet be good for my health? As I regularly do classes, I say "yes"

A very happy 91st birthday to Zizi Jeanmaire

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/birmingham-royal-ballet-dancer-kit-4042836

The World Book Encyclopedia and Groves Encyclopedia of Music both give 22nd April.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet says Taglioni died on 22nd April but Cyril Beaumont in Complete Book of Ballets says 27th April.

Did anyone watch this last Saturday evening on ITV1? Just like the US version, the UK version is a pale imitation of Sasuke, the Japanese TV series which has been running since 1997. Discerning Freeview viewers will know Ninja Warrior from transmission by Virgin 1 and later Challenge. Of special interest to ballet viewers, was the very first competitor; Daisuke Miura, formally of Ballet Cymru - it's a shame he didn't do very well.

It's on the BBC news site today too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32236406

The best free stretching resource that I know of is Stretching and Flexibility FAQ which is quoted in the references for several books. This book Stretching for Sport by Bob Smith, is worth getting if you can find a copy. I've had mine for years and it is well thumbed. There used to be some stretching books to download at http://pdfbook.co.ke/ - I can't confirm if this is still the case as the site is blocked at work Basically you have to work at flexibility in the same way as you work at learning ballet, building strength through weightlifting, martial arts, etc. It takes time and constant practice. I often stretch while I'm watching the TV.

Speaking as an older audience member, and I know that I am in a minority, but if I never saw another Ashton or MacMillan piece, I really wouldn't care! I'm much more excited by watching new works than seeing any of the old war horses. Mind you, it would be good to see some of the pieces that have fallen by the wayside, as well as some classic ballets that have never been in the repertoire.

I caught this at the MAC in Birmingham last night and as I had hitherto never seen any of Jeyasingh's work, I was hoping to see something that would further expand my appreciation of modern dance. Putting into the pot Petipa's "La Bayadère", the internet, an account of an 1830s European tour by real Bayaderes (as recorded by Theophile Gautier), her own experience of viewing of the ballet and giving it all a big stir, the result is, in my opinion, largely what you would expect. The work starts strongly, with clever use of projections, as a précis of "La Bayadère" is presented. The characters from the ballet are introduced, and elements of Petipa's choreography are recognisable. This could be described as the ballet for the YouTube generation and I thought it was very clever. After telling the story so familiar to ballet goes, we end this section with the shades. The second section starts with the aforementioned 1830s tour and the score includes repeated snippets from a contemporary account of the dancers, probably that of Gautier. I could see that this was quickly going to degenerate into the typical rolling around on the floor, that to me seems to be a feature of modern dance. I was proven to be correct. Later we were presented with seemingly random movements, some drawn from yoga, some from ballet but mostly the dancers contorting their bodies and sticking legs into the air as high as possible. A measure that I use as to the success of a work, is how much my mind wanders during it. In the second half I was wondering why all the men had green tops under their main costume, while the women had red? Is her hair really that colour or is it a trick of the light? To a score by Gabriel Prokofiev (a relation?), which I rather liked, the nine dancers clearly worked hard to deliver. In the program notes, Jeyasingh describes how she watched a performance of the ballet, and how this left questions unanswered. This work does not answer them, nor does it ask any new questions. I'm sure many will enjoy this immensely; your author found it very patchy, starting well but finishing poorly.

If you live beyond the bounds of the M25, there are plenty of places that you can see The Trocks September 15 - 26 Peacock Theatre, London, UK October 6 - 8 Theatre Royal, Newcastle, UK October 9 - 10 Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, UK October 13 - 14 The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, UK October 16 - 17 Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, UK October 20 - 21 Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, UK October 23 Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, UK October 27 - 28 Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, UK October 30 - 31 Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, UK November 3 - 4 Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK November 6 - 7 The Lowry, Salford, UK November 10 - 11 Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham, UK (info copied from Trocks website)

An excellent ballet dictionary is "Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet" by Gail Grant, which is £5 on Amazon. I found this extremely useful when I taking Cecchetti classes having done RAD & BBO for years. Cecchetti has different arms, for example there are three 5th positions. "Mime in Ballet" by Beryl Morina is an expensive book, but it gives a lot of information about performance of ballet. How the story is told throigh the dance. "How To Enjoy Ballet Without Really Trying" by John Cargher is a cracking read if you can find a copy. It is about attending a ballet performance and what you can expect. He also did similar books about opera and music. Cargher was well known to Australian radio listeners. A nice book is "Beginning Ballet: From the Classroom to the Stage" by Joan Lawson, which is an update of the original "Kay Ambrose Ballet Companion". It's probably a bit outdated, but it is one of the few books that I know of that includes anything about boys doing ballet. Of course, the best way to learn about ballet, is to watch as much of it as you can.

When I did syllabus classes, one of the RAD 6 class I did was 13 year old girls, and one uni student. This didn't worry me, but the young girls were understandably cautious when I first started. They quickly realised that I was just there to take class and they soon asked me to stand where they could copy me. I'd been dancing longer than they had been alive and I knew the syllabus well, which they liked. They also used to like to dance with me from the corner, but I never knew why as I'm not renowned for my travelling ability. Assuming you are prepared to dance with teenagers, I think the most difficult problem you might face is getting the teacher to accept you in the class. In my case, the school was running classes in two locations, but the one I went to wasn't making enough to cover the rent, so we all had to move to the main location. I know somebody who passed BBO 8 in her late 50's.

There are two Swan Lakes which stick in my mind as being terrible. The first was by the Royal Ballet with the extra set of swans, comprised of students from White Lodge. They mirrored the line of the normal swans, but really added nothing to the production, apart from cluttering up the stage. The other is by the Royal Ballet of Flanders, with the dwarf the kill the swans, who jump up dance continue dancing. This also features the live owl, the parrots on the shoulders of the men and them wringing out their hankies to create the lake. All 2 1/2 hours of it without an interval.

I fully concur. I went in a few weeks ago for tap shoes and the two ladies were very helpful. I came out with tap shoes and new ballet shoes too.

You can certainly do ballet for fun and recreation. I take two classes a week, one a beginners and another an advanced. After 20+ years of class, the beginners is too easy, but time wise, it fits in with the pressures of life. When I first started, I used to take 3 or 4 classes a week, but it is too hard to fit that many in. Ballet is good exercise, both for the mind and the body. I also lift weights three times a week, which is great exercise for the body, but completely mindless. I think both activites are excellent ways to unwind after the tedium and stresses of the 9 to 5 drag. The places I take class, generally do an annual show, which is nice to take part in. I get to "do" something with my ballet, even though I'm a rubbish dancer. I took it up way to late in life (I was 34) and with the passing years, my knees like it less and less. I'm taking a term off from one class, doing a tap class instead. I used to do tap when I was in my late teens, but it wasn't for me and it still isn't. Having said that, I do like to dance and while I can, I'll contine to take class. One of my ballet teachers is 70 and still looks fab and dances beautifully. She started when she was 15 and although she finds some things very difficult these days, I find her an inspiration. I like to get to class early to watch her warm up at the barre, hoping I can be a fraction as good when I'm her age.

The Eurovision Song Contest is open to members of the European Broadcasting Union. Egypt, Israel, Jordon, Libya, Morroco, Tunisia and Turkey are all members and so are eligible to enter the ESC. Morroco entererd once, in 1980, Tunisia were to perform in 1977 but withdrew. The other African countries have never entered. Lebanon, who are eligible, were due to enter in 2005, but withdrew due to their TV laws preventing the broadcast of Israeli content. Australia are associate members of the EBU, as are Canada, Japan, the USA etc and any of these countries could be given a wild card entry. With it's large number of Eurpoean immigrants, ESC has always been of interest to Australians. Hence it's one off entry. Also, Jessica Mauboy performed at last years conntest. The contest has always been transmitted in Australia, starting on ABC but there was very little advanced build up. The exception to this, was when Sandie Shaw entered. The Rolf Harris Show was broadcast on the ABC and Shaw was a guest singing Puppet On A String. In 1985, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) launched nationally, with 90% non-English programs and ESC was a natural program for them. Their coverage has gone from strength to strength. Initally, they just took the BBC feed (as did the ABC) but now local commentators host it. What happens if Australia wins? They will co-host the contest in a European city, most likey London.

A metal guitar string is an excellent tool for threading elastic through shoes. You can push it from the end, so no fiddly feeling for something in the channel.

The Wikipedia article about the Peacock is interesting. Did anyone hear the ghost of the dolphin when they visited? I didn't... As to the ballet - superb!

I was watching FAB TV on FreeSat the other day and I saw a new ballet inspired workout Sleek Technique. There are several of these types of programs on the channel, but this one looked different. Checking their website, I found out that Victoria Marr, one of my favs from the BRB, developed it, with her friend Flik Swann. There are lots of nice photos on their website. The idea of doing a class via a Skype conference call is an interesting one, and this is the first site that I have seen that offers this. While obviously not as good as taking a class live, it should be superior to sticking on a DVD and following along. Since the instructors can see you via web cam, they could offer correction and encouragement. I assume they have a large screen which displays the web feeds from the participants in small windows. In schools that I have worked in, lessons in specialised subjects have been delivered by teleconferencing, and the students were not disadvantaged by the teacher not being physically there. I expect the remote delivery of excercise programs will increase. Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with this company.