alison

Thanks, Bruce. I can't see any indication that anyone else RB apart from McRae will be dancing, though.

Thanks, Lynette. I was rather hazy about the details, so hoped someone else would be able to fill in the blanks. I think the first time it was scheduled they couldn't get hold of the score, or something, but danced it later?

Yes, I'd agree with that. She always was one of my favourites.

Not impressed. Do we know where, and in what price bands?

I know: I keep the Translate function on my Chromebook switched on just for the entertainment value!

I was rather disappointed to see that they only had the one public performance *and* the sole (Saturday?) matinee in the run. I have no objection to junior casts making their debuts out of the public eye, so to speak, but would have appreciated a chance to see them at some other time. The combination of a single public performance and a Saturday matinee (which always sell out, especially for something as popular as R&J) meant that this one was always going to sell fast, regardless of cast, which is why it was second on my shopping list after the Osipova/Muntagirov ones.

Here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0639jpj Thanks, Ann.

Well, it's about time that was admitted. I had visions of her being on her knees by the end of the (extended) run. It's just a shame that her name featured so highly in the publicity.

You mean that Kolesnikova isn't dancing every performance?!

Oh yes, the Talisman pdd. I remember when Irek Mukhamedov was supposed to be dancing that at the ROH ...

No indication of whether it's the new version: I would tend to assume so, except that, it being Sadler's Wells, there's no Monday performance, so it certainly can't be live.

I just had to copy this bit over from Luke Jennings' Observer review of the Ardani Dance Gala: "Set to fado music, played live onstage by Frank Moon, Facada is a riotously entertaining slice of choreography. It certainly seemed to speak to the woman sitting next to me. When Osipova danced maniacally over Vasiliev’s corpse, she looked up from her texting and nodded with profound fellow-feeling." http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jul/26/ardani-25-dance-gala-review-coliseum-natalia-osipova-ivan-vasiiev-edward-watson?CMP=share_btn_tw

Ridiculous, isn't it? I was just saying, it's a good job it wasn't like this last weekend, or we'd never have got the Davis Cup tie finished. (At least Wimbledon could be played under the roof). If I haven't already put them there, I'd like to add the people sitting in window seats on public transport who seem to think it's perfectly acceptable these days not to say "excuse me" when they want to get out, but just get up and expect you to move for them regardless. I'm happy for them to say it in their native language if they don't speak English: it would just be courteous to acknowledge the person next to you, wouldn't it?

I've read something else recently where someone was bemoaning the trend towards sweeter apples, but I think that may have been more because of the sharper types becoming less available, rather than health issues. Apples are *supposed* to have a bit of a bite! I don't much like Pink Ladies, find Royal Gala dead boring, and as for Golden "Delicious" - well, at least the French don't break their version of the Trade Descriptions Act, simply calling them "les Golden" . Still, it should be time for Discoveries very shortly, and then the British apple season will be really under way. *And* they seem to be pretty low in salt, too. Nice! Lisa, I don't know how I didn't manage to spot that you'd updated this, but I'm fully caught up now!

Perhaps it was only local - whereabouts do you live, BFP?

Ooh. Hope the local library hasn't chucked that bit thinking it's just advertising.

Definitely not ...

Oh yes, 4 Temps and La Sylphide would definitely be something I'd be going for were I on the other side of the pond!

I had a friend at university who used to rave about it, too. I was surprised, as he didn't seem to have any obvious interest in ballet: then I heard the score

It does, doesn't it? Can you imagine someone taking over a factory, or a company or something, deciding they didn't like half the staff, getting rid of them and replacing them with new people? In the UK, I think the redundancy laws would prevent it, for a start.

Wow, where to start? (Well, actually, that's pretty much what you're asking, isn't it?! ) As to what kinds of ballet you like, the person might have been thinking historically (Romantic, Classical, contemporary, etc.), contrasting abstract and dramatic works, thinking of different choreographers (Ashton, Balanchine, Cranko, MacMillan, Neumeier, Petipa, to name but a few), or all sorts of other things. There are various books, some recent, some not so recent, which explain this sort of thing in more detail: I have a flyer here for a new book called The Ballet Lover's Companion, by Zoe Anderson, which at least has the advantage of going right up to The Winter's Tale, although I have no idea what it's like. One thing I *have* found out over the years is that it may not be the ballet which grabs (or doesn't grab) you, but actually the performance. So you may see a very ho-hum performance from one dancer and wonder what all the fuss is about, but see someone else in a role and think it's the greatest ballet you've ever seen. And of course no two performances are ever the same anyway: a dancer can be "off" one night and "on" the next time, because they're human like the rest of us. I would also recommend not necessarily discarding a work you've seen once and not enjoyed: in the case of the "major" ballets there are often different productions/versions which can be as different as chalk and cheese, or you may have got the wrong dancer in it, or it may be that you just weren't ready for/receptive to it for some reason. There are several ballets I really didn't appreciate the first time around but which have now become some of my favourites; whether it's due to increasing age, knowledge, familiarity or maturity I don't know. If you were UK-based, I'd probably tell you that your local library is your friend: you can borrow books on ballet and dance (and possibly DVDs from bigger branches), but I don't know whether the situation is the same in the USA. Another possibility is DVD rental/streaming. You've mentioned being blown away by various of the DVDs you've bought, and that's something else to consider: watching a performance on screen, where you can get the sort of close-ups you don't get in the theatre means that it is quite a different experience - and of course you have no control over what part of the stage you choose to view, which can be a disadvantage. Where do you sit when you go to the theatre? I know that from the cheap seats I clearly miss a lot of the fine detail, but on the other hand I don't think I'd be happy sitting in the front row either. There are ballets which reward sitting close to, but there are others where you really need to be further away and more elevated in order to appreciate the patterning, etc. Just a few thoughts: I'd better stop and do some work now if I want to be able to eat next month!

I know: it's dreadful. It seems so hit and miss as to what works. And thanks for the reminder, Coated - I'm not sure I've sorted the problem which prevented me from booking online for Sweeney Todd earlier this season.

I'm really surprised that German culture allows this. Everything I've ever picked up about German employment conditions would seem to contradict it.

Me too. Lucky LA. I'm assuming it's the full version and not the cut-down one we saw in London a few years ago.

Casting info here: http://www.eno.org/whats-on/other/la-sylphide#CAST Other info in this thread: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/7760-additions-now-made-to-coliseum-dance-calendar-for-2015/page-3 I'm glad the booking deadline is a few days off, so I can get the booking in a different credit-card month from my ROH bookings (such as they were).