Chris

I was so intrigued by the poor reviews (with comparisons to Village People as if that were a bad thing!) that I got a very cheap ticket to yesterday's matinee. The disco dancing and the Stomp-style riot scene were terrific, although perhaps not to the taste of the critics. The set was also excellent and Johan Christensen was superb as Billy Hayes but the soundtrack was terribly clumsily put together - Peter Schaufuss should have got a proper DJ to do it. I enjoyed my afternoon but would have been disappointed if I'd paid full price.

The only time I have heard serious booing was at ENO's production of Britten's Midsummer's Night Dream when the director, designer, etc., came on at the first night. I thought it was appalling. To boo an ill-prepared, badly performed or badly staged production is wrong but understandable. This was an artistic decision to stage the opera in a grim reproduction of Britten's own school. I found it one of the greatest opera productions I have seen, the gloominess of the setting emphasising the beauty of the music and the brashly colourful mechanicals, and was in the other half of the audience, cheering. I loved it so much I saw it again a couple of nights later. There is too much playing safe as it is, e.g. RB's Swan Lake, and we should accept that some experiments will be failures. Even then, there is usually some aspect to enjoy (although the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre's production of Handel's sublime Julius Caesar was definitely more enjoyable with eyes closed).

I think it's a great shame that the fuss about Vasiliev and Osipova has overshadowed the other principals. I haven't been able to go out in the evening lately so only saw Denis Matvienko and Oksana Bondareva on the Sunday matinee. They were astonishing - very Russian and showy but they had plenty of ability to show off with. Like other Russians I've seen, they did milk the applause, even slipping between the curtains for more after the house lights were on and half the audience had left. Mind you, there were still plenty of flowers left to throw so someone was expecting it!

I absolutely agree - Frederico Bonelli was brilliant. It wasn't a ballet I knew at all and I was wary about the idea of 'cut and paste' from previous works by Tchaikovsky but it was more coherent than many ballets composed from scratch.

Sorry if everyone already knows this but there is a very mixed bag of short dance films on the Space. It's available on Freesat, FreeView or you can watch online http://thespace.org/. My favourite is "Alastair Fish" in the Dance for the Camera series -which bears repeat viewing. It's not really ballet but I think most ballet lovers would enjoy it. There's also a fascinating look behind the scenes at the ROH although you would sadly never know it's used for ballet as well as opera.

I only just noticed that the orchestra for the performance of La Bayadère that I booked is the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Other performances have the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as do all the other RB ballets I've booked. I know I saw the Sinfonia accompanying the Birmingham Royal Ballet when they came to London last year and my recollection is that they were very good. Does anyone know whether one is better than the other or why they've done this?

I don't know about the Coliseum but the theatre where I volunteer gets nothing from unsold agency seats and they are often not released until the day of the performance. For conventional London shows I guess that works OK - the agencies have a pretty good idea of how many to reserve and the others end up at the Leicester Square TKTS booth. ENB sales appear to be handled by ENO as almost all of the shows at the Coliseum are bookable through the ENO site.

I also saw yesterday's matinee and agree that Ksenia Ovsyanick was superb. I hadn't spotted that it was child friendly but didn't mind. Some of the mums were a bit noisy but the children were great. A nearby child's cry of "Here come the fairies," shortly followed by an excited "More fairies!" added to my enjoyment rather than detracting from it, as did the unrestrained children's laughter at Puss in Boots and the White Cat. One concern I have is that my seat was the only one in that part of the balcony shown as available yet there were lots of empty seats near me. I spoke to one of the ushers who told me it was 40% full but the unsold seats had been held by agencies.

I've just seen the matinee at the Beck Theatre in West London. There are seats for tonight but it is touring so do catch ut. BTUK is a small touring company and I did not have great expectations but this is terrific. Rather than put on a traditional favourite such as Swan Lake, they have chosen to create their own original ballet, choreographed by their artistic director, Christopher Moore. It is an extremely ambitious project but they've pulled it off excellently. The set is simple (it has to be for a touring production) but the dancing and costumes are first class. Sadly, the audience was nothing like the size that Swan Lake would pull in so I do urge everyone to watch it. Unlike a previous poster, I have no connection with them but this is a young, hard working company that deserves to do well.

I looked to see what others thought of this, having only just seen it last Sunday, was amazed to see no-one else has posted in this thread so I'll give it a go - sorry I've left it so late. In the programme Matthew Bourne says it is not a dance work but a choreographed play and it is almost entirely narrative (although some of the action takes place between dancers at a night club and dancers at a party). I thought it was far more of a dance work than a choreographed play such as Alan Wesker's Kitchen at the National last year. The story is that of Joseph Losey's film the Servant which I saw decades ago. I had forgotten the plot but had no problem following the story which deals with seduction and dominance in a very sexy manner (not suitable for young children). Pure narrative sounds boring but Matthew Bourne duplicates characters so that up to three dancers are playing the same person, allowing the beginning, middle and end of a scene to happen at once or even three 'reflections' of each other. That sounds confusing but works brilliantly. It is set to some great, live jazz music composed by Terry Davies and the dance style reflects that, although it is not 'jazz dance' as you might expect on the West End stage - it is far more inventive. I am a bit wary of modern dance and was bored by the Featherstonehaughs but I would totally recommend this. It finishes on Sunday and there are some cheap tickets around - I recommend anyone who is willing to step beyond classical ballet to grab one of the them quickly.

I didn't see the Swan Lake but was interested enough to go to Sleeping Beauty having only seen it danced by a touring company (Ballet Theatre UK I think) to a pre-recorded score. I was very disappointed that this, too, was danced to a recording (unlike the Romeo and Juliet he brought to the Coliseum last year). The first half was OK, dominated by lots of wheeling around a red bed where Beauty was conceived, born, then put to sleep by the wicked fairy. Although the dancers seemed to be very good, the choreography never gave them a chance to shine. The second part was a massive improvement ,opening with an electric duet between the Prince (Lendorf) and what I took to be Tchaikovsky (Wise). Schaufuss said he wanted to explore Tchaikovsky's suppressed homosexuality and this really came out in Tchaikovsky's attempts to cover up the bare-chested Prince while clearly desiring him. There was more excellent dancing to OK choreography from Lendorf and Oki. By 9:15 it was all over, having started at 7:30 and including a 20 minute interval! That one duet really shone and I left reasonably satisfied but if I had paid full price I would have been disappointed. There was no free cast list so I am going by the pictures above to identify who danced what and who the characters were meant to be.

I never received a confirmation email and did not even get a reference number of a couple of bookings but all of them showed up in "your upcoming events" including an accidental duplicate (it had told me the booking had failed so I'd booked again). I emailed the box office who cancelled the duplicate and confirmed that if it shows in "upcoming" then it is booked.

Twenty 12 minute new compositions were commissioned as part of the cultural olympiad (some ended up a little longer): http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/Partnerships/Flagship-Programmes/New-Music-20x12/ Many are on at the South Bank around this weekend. I only found out about it at the last minute and then only because Imagined Village are playing - it was woefully under-publicised and with so little notice I can't make any of them. What Wild Ecstasy seems to be the only new dance work but there are some interesting mini-operas. It implies that it is on with L'Apres midi d'un faune which is around 10 minutes, so I'd guess it will be half an hour altogether.

Still no email confirmation after 6 hours - I've gone back to the website and all it says is "You have no recent orders or the order code is wrong."

I've recently joined so maybe this is not the right place but no-one seems to be writing about this lovely ENB/ Seven Sisters ballet/ performance/multimedia piece. I saw it at Uxbridge Lido on Thursday. It is performed for groups of up to four (I was one of a group of three) which gives it an intimacy which makes it quite different from any other dance/ballet I've seen. I am sure there are more articulate members who could expand on this.

Thank you for the welcome. I wish I could attend but I'm ushering for a local dance school's annual show on Saturday and can't be there - but I am seeing the Titian on Monday!

I booked a couple fine then went back to book another. I went right through to the last stage before getting an error - no idea whether I got it or not. It said to email or phone so I emailed - doubtless one of many that they may get to eventually!

It does not mention it on Ballet Rambert's site but they are performing these free at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Saturday afternoon. There are still some seats left. http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/dance-performance/tickets/gavin-higgins-what-wild-ecstacy-65730