Quintus

oh dear, we've slipped from the entirely plausible and scientific monkey-powered home cinema into the realms of fantasy.. in that case, so as not to be greedy, I'll settle for being marooned with Polina Semionova

That 'extra extreme stretching class' her mum referred to at the end clearly paid off!

we've been getting a rabbit a day from our Maine coon for the last few weeks - unfortunately it's usually the postman who gets confronted first by the grisly remains.. I've managed to save a few shrews live and well, but he's welcome to the rabbits and gets a big pat for a mole!

phew, moment of panic having shelled out for two events at what seems to be double the usual price, but my chosen leads are still in place..

I think we have to stick to commercially published DVDs, so the rest of us stand a chance of getting hold of them if they inspire us... And only 5, otherwise there's no challenge - any attempts to smuggle more on will be foiled by trained crabs. I too really enjoyed the Agony & Ecstasy series on TV, and it has found its way onto a dvd-r chez moi via Youtube for safe keeping; I'm surprised they didn't release it as I think there would have been enough buyers. No-one's come up with Auerbach's The Little Mermaid, which would seem appropriate viewing!

that's a scops owl in our local sanctuary - cute little things, they huddle together and bob up and down.. I've just ordered the RB Manon with Rojo/Acosta, which I've never seen, so that's something to look forward to. I'd love a Polina Semionova release of that, as I've seen some some great clips of the pdd - she's another one who's a bit underrepresented on disc..

I never realised ballet watchers were such an unruly bunch!

I was originally going to say 3 DVDs only, but then I couldn't do my own challenge so I went soft! My other mean wrinkle was the huge TV - many of the older recordings, and YouTube clips, actually look distractingly poor quality on a big screen.. LinMM - There is a remarkable dearth of Diana Vishneva material available, other than isolated pdd etc on compilations. I did ask on her website and was pointed to a Japanese website that supposedly has a couple of full length performances on locally published discs - but it doesn't work properly when you click the 'in English' button, so that led nowhere. There was talk however of a DV Romeo and Juliet bluray coming out sometime this year. I really don't understand why this scarcity should be - she has a huge fan base that would surely buy up any release, so it seems like the production companies are missing a trick..

zxDaveM, for your cheating you are banished for a week to the adjacent island and compelled to watch X-Factor repeats!

Janet - they have to be real, available ones. I'm afraid you'll have to sit under a palm tree and just imagine your fantasy productions..

and answering my own challenge.. 1. La Fille du Pharaon, Zakharova bluray. I got this a couple of months ago and it's already a firm favourite. Zakharova is just gorgeous in it and the quality is superb. 2. Swan Lake, Lopatkina bluray. There's no perfect SL recording out there as I like different bits of different productions, but this one is a good all rounder 3. Caravaggio, Staatsballett Berlin, Semionova/Malakhov, blurry. A curate's egg with some iffy corps choreography but Polina Semionova and Beatrice Knopp in particular are wonderful and the lighting is fantastic. 4. Giselle, hmmm, tough one as I like both the Alina Cojocaru bluray and the Zakharova DVD. I'll plump for Alina as I already have my Svetlana fix sorted. 5. Chroma/Limen/Infra triple bill ENB bluray - love this one and it has a cast of many familiar faces..

forgive me if there's another thread on top ballet recordings that I've overlooked, but I thought it would be interesting to see what folks' favourites are (not least because I'm always scouting for new gems).. So the rules are - on your desert island you have a 65 inch TV and bluray player, with a ready supply of monkeys on treadmills to power them, but you can only choose 5 recordings..

just an addendum to this thread - I found this bill served as a great introduction to ballet for young people with no previous exposure. I took my son and his girlfriend, who were around 17 and into the wilder fringes of fashion, art and hip hop, with the dismissive certainty about what's cool and what's not that only a teenager can have... They would frankly not have agreed to come and see a 'tutu ballet', but were absolutely enthralled by Carbon Life in particular - my son afterwards said it was the best thing he'd ever seen. They've since been to see Swan Lake and enjoyed it (despite a dire production, but that's another story), so I think this really opened up their views on dance. A 'gateway' bill

From a relatively passive starting point, my enthusiasm for ballet suddenly took off just a few years ago, prompted by an almost random purchase of the Lopatkina Swan Lake blu-ray. That blew me away and led me to looking out other interpretations. The Agony and Ecstasy documentaries got me interested in ENB and delving into their MacMillan and McGregor triple bill recordings, which exposed me to more contemporary work and I wanted to see what they’d missed in Polina Semionova, so I bought Caravaggio – another jaw drop moment. I then started going to performances, so far at ENB, ROH and Berlin. I’ve never danced, but have done a lot of martial arts – principally karate - and I think that was one of the initial ‘hooks’ for me that I could relate to; a huge respect for the technical proficiency, stamina and dedication, which was then overlaid with a growing appreciation of the grace and artistry. In karate, you have to be strong and flexible (and to an extent interpretive in kata) but you don’t have to look effortless