Quintus

Given a significant chunk of the population is now self-employed in one way or another, bank holidays are for many people a direct and painful strike to the wallet - a day with no pay. I can't think of any impending national event where I would to sacrifice a day's revenue!

According to the theory, whether it's true or not, Charlotte was many, many generations away from her 'Moorish' ancestor so could have had children looking pretty much anyhow. But from the journalistic / apartheid point of view if you have even homeopathic levels of African DNA you're still 'black'! Obama is referred to as black despite being mixed race, and now ditto Meghan. My Asian wife is a firm pillar of 'county Suffolk' along with representatives of a few other ethnicities, so I don't really buy the London v the sticks argument. I do get that the Royals are however a case apart, as they've been brought up in a different bubble to the rest of the world, so the poor dear does have my sympathies and best wishes. Having said that, my mixed race eldest son is friends with a minor royal from school days, goes to her parties in one of the London palaces from time to time and has never encountered any issues, so maybe it's only the senior-senior inner core that's remained hitherto entrenched.

The coverage has majored on the fact that the Royal Family has crawled sufficiently far into the 21st century to countenance a mixed race marriage in a 'statistically off-succession' branch. We have a mixed race marriage and find the whole emphasis on this extraordinarily dated. What also got less coverage was today's news that the Catholic Meghan is however being baptised into the CoE - some habits die harder! She seems bright and energetic and has made her own way in life. I hope she isn't suffocated by the environment and sticks it out..

Thanks for these photos in particular as I was right at the back of the upper circle last night for this ! Out of interest, how did you come to be taking photos at all these events? As a keen photographer I'd love to have a crack at it! Merging in a thread on this from the tickets forum, this was much more than a vanity project (been to one of the from another Russian big name..). I had positive preconceptions about the first two pieces but was dreading the promise that the third would show us SV's humorous side... In the event it was only the middle, Bana piece that left me cold - da Rimini had some great dancing despite the bombast of the stage set, and the 'humorous' piece overcame a few street-artist moments to deliver some genuine chuckles and a far less regal view than usual onto the main artist. It was a good evening and the audience was very enthusiastic. Lots of bling and Bentleys around as you might expect, with the local oligarchs and their companions turning out in force.. As a trivial aside, I can't quite get my head around how everything on Svetlana appears so very long - logically if you have either long legs or a long back then the other should appear at least 'normal' to compensate as there's only so much body to divide up, but she seems to have both a very long back and very long legs (and arms!). Must be some kind of optical/ psychological effect based on how our eyes and brains perceive relative proportions from particular cue points; for example a small head relative to the body or 'short' pelvis area?

I didn't notice it on their website. It appears to be similar to the British Council. https://www.nehrucentre.org.uk

Not ballet of course, but there may be some enthusiasts on here.. Mrs Q and I went to see two performances from the Darbar Festival at Sadler's Wells last week. The festival was curated by Akram Khan, giving it a strong element of dance as well as the usual classical Indian music, which was what attracted us. Akram himself gave a performance n Thursday of X, which is in effect a preview of a longer piece called Xenos, which he said will be his last solo work. The dance was kathak style, with some contemporary overtones, and was excellent, as was the accompanying music, with Western instruments on one side of the stage and Indian on the other. It was followed by what I can only describe as a drum battle, though it's probably known as a tala, with three different sorts of tabla going hell for leather for about 70 minutes - even Spinal Tap would have baulked at that! Bamboo flute and tabla pieces concluded a very long but enjoyable evening. The other performance we saw had two dance works sandwiching a highly virtuosic sitar and tabla raga. The first dance was a bharata natyam piece with Mavin Khoo, playing a female role. It was a remarkable performance full of emotion and contrasts - I particularly like the high energy, angular passages which remind me of karate kata. The final dance by was Aditi Mandalgas, a renowned kathak practitioner - again, wonderful stylised acting surrounding frenzies of foot-stamping , ankle-bell clashing and whirling.. Got a deserved standing ovation from the whole house. I haven't seen this kind of thing advertised much so went looking - and have discovered the Nehru Centre in Mayfair, who seem to put on regular classical dance performances. I just booked one for free in December, so worth checking out if you fancy something different!

There's a blurred line between supportive and creepy. I guess the new stage door for many is social media, and during the #metoo campaign one of the RB dancers published a message she'd had from some stranger saying he was well off and wanted to meet ballerinas, so where did they hang out.. I left a couple of Facebook ballet fan groups when I thought some of the pictures and comments were heading in the wrong direction. Stage door, flowers, social media comments - all minefields, and particularly for a man, less is definitely more..

Yes on reflection you’re right. More programme notes would have been useful for me in making the roles clearer,though given the programme was free I can hardly complain.. It would be interesting to hear how the company dancers found the whole experience too.

Really enjoyed this last night, and having Mara Galeazzi and Tim Podesta stay on for Q&A afterwards was a great bonus. Ballet Cymru danced their socks off - in particular Beth Meadway, who is a recent recruit and not a very experienced dancer, took a lead role and shone in it. The choreography started off being rather derivative of McGregor but then developed more of its own voice, and there were some very effective passages. I thought for a small company, they were generally punching above their weight - the presence of a heavy hitter must have been very beneficial (Tim said he told them "she's really good - if you don't give it everything she'll make you look like students"). Dare I say it, and it may well be down to the assigned choreography rather than the dancers, but there were times when I preferred the young dancers' performances to Mara's, where I thought there was some initial stiffness around the head and neck - again that may well have been interpretation rather than limitation. Anyway, an evening that delivered beyond expectation and I hope this collaboration continues.

Ditto. I saw Ballet Cymru there with Cerys Matthews, which was excellent, and have never seen Mara Galeazzi, so very much looking forward to it.

Yes, we went tonight with friends. There were some empty seats in the second circle, which surprised us, given that this is prime seasonal fare and deserved to be sold out. We all thoroughly enjoyed it - it's obviously lightweight, fun stuff but spectacularly staged and thoroughly well danced. The flying ducks had me laughing out loud.

Hamilton/ Rojo casts. T63 upper amphi restricted view/tall seat. Face value £6; happy to take a fiver. Paper ticket so would need to pick up from my office reception in Broadgate Circle. PM if interested.

Giotto's Judas is going in for the lips, not just betrayal but caddish etiquette too! I am probably in a small minority in having preferred The Judas Tree to Lied. It's a painful watch and must be even tougher to dance, particularly for the Mary dancer, but it is thought provoking and engaging. I find Lauren Cuthbertson generally rather cool and was slightly disappointed when I saw the casting, but in the event I enjoyed her performance. I'd like to see someone like Semionova in that role. For the Mahler, I have to admit that I struggled with the singing - to my uneducated ears it all sounded rather uniformly ominous. The dancing was impressively executed (aside a couple of slips) but for the most part didn't really engage me. By the lengthy Song 6 I was yawning, as were the students next to me. Sorry Gustav, it's me, not you... I've got another cheapo ticket for next Tues; I'm undecided as to whether to go and see just Judas Tree again - I don't think I could take another Lied.

That's why Mozart's follow-up, Le Pizze di Figaro, sank like a stone.

Just been catching up on the RB Youtube. There's something very hypnotic about watching class - I sometimes go to watch the ENB do class, and it's almost as good as a performance. It's that mix of virtuosity and the occasional touches of human frailty... Enjoyed it all, with the Francesca Hayward and Beatriz Stix-Brunell segments my highlights. Having discovered BS-B's sense of humour on her Instagram however, I now find it difficult to watch her without expecting one of her sardonic commentaries!

For those of us who have to go to work this is sheer torture!!!

Not ballet, but a notable premiere tonight at Sadlers.. I have a 50% hit rate with Mr McGregor's creations, but this was definitely one of the ones that worked for me (though not my neighbours, who slipped out). The music was performed live, though backstage, as far as I could tell from the back of the second circle. It's by Jlin, who creates striking electro music, sometimes industrial and rhythmic, sometimes more lyrical. The dancing was quite virtuosic and mostly high energy - I'm amazed at the stamina of this company and not surprised they all look like walking anatomy diagrams. It was in a very different style to his trademark angular ballet repertoire (though I did spot a couple of those leg shakes, like a dog leaving a lamppost), with elements of street dance and even some moves reminiscent of kung fu techniques. I don't know if there's a hierarchy in this company but the dancer who always catches my eye is Fukiko Takase, who is extraordinarily compelling. I didn't get a programme so I have no clue what was supposed to be going on - I expect it was something about DNA and quantum physics - I just sat back and enjoyed the dancing!

They go into a different inbox. In Messages there's a 'filtered messages' button (or similar) - if you turn that off it shows your messages from non-friends. When I discovered it the messages in there were already a year old!

Political conferences. I don't get paid to take a week out to lounge around listening to nonsensical rants, so why should our MPs?

Great shots Dave, must be hard to expose for some scenes in this production as the lighting was very high contrast. These also reminded me that it was great to see Begoña back on stage..

Those priority seats first past the door on the Tube where there's a big blue sign asking that they be given up to disabled or pregnant people... Great idea but it just doesn't work, because being next to the door they attract the lazy, pig-ignorant oiks who deliberately crank up their headphones and stare down into their iphones to avoid any possibility of becoming aware of the one-legged 8-months pregnant diabetic about to collapse in a heap in front of them. Several times recently on my commute I've seen people from the middle seats on the train call up to offer their seats to someone standing right in front of a priority seat occupied by a perfect healthy person. Men of all ages, women, girls in these supposedly 'religious' headscarves - I've seen them all holding onto their seats with no shame whatsoever. Pah!

I might go again I that case. Saw the full stage rehearsal last night, with a great cast of Rojo, Streeter, Corrales, Quagebeur. Stina fits the Myrtha role like a glove; aside her great characterisation, I think even her natural physical geometry and willowy looks are just made for this part! Corrales was spectacular too.

"Indescribable" ?

I grabbed a ticket as soon as I heard of this via Ballet Cymru's Facebook page. I saw them do a show there with Cerys Matthews, which was excellent. I'm very much looking forward to this.

Out of curiosity, if a student at an all-girls school follows through on the gender-realignment, do they have to leave?