alison

I missed out on this - saw some vague headlines, but thought it probably had to do with the Cadbury's Cream Eggs! Anyone want to fill me in briefly?

Don't forget you have to *pay* it by the end of the month, too! I'm afraid the taxman isn't getting much from me this year.

Yes, but he's not a ballet prince.

I was bemused, I must admit: it had certainly sounded rather more fevered at the Saturday matinee. I felt the mirror pdd felt very flat, and I don't think it was the fault of the dancers. The final act was another matter entirely. And can I say, what gorgeous dancing from Muntagirov (now, there's a surprise! ) My only problem was that I found him too "princely" when he was merely walking around the stage during Act I: Lensky isn't an aristocrat, let alone a prince, is he?

Well, really it helps if you have a completely convincing quartet, too I know Olga and Lensky are effectively gone by Act III, but they are catalysts for everything else, so need to be regarded as principal rather than secondary roles. BBB says that Lamb's performance is full of detail: can anyone tell me whether that detail reaches as far as the amphitheatre?

I didn't even know that NB were coming. How did I miss that?

The podcast can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ecps

That's very interesting, Angela, thank you. I can't say the RB corps has ever struck me as "cold and condescending" in Act III, even if they're not smiling joyously. Floss, yes, I found I was missing characterisation from various of the main characters, but wasn't sure whether it was actually missing or whether I was just not picking it up from the amphitheatre. I'm hoping that will come in time.

Well, I did *finally* manage to get some tickets, about an hour after booking had opened, but needless to say there were no tickets for the Ashton insight left

Well, I'm glad someone actually got as far as getting their hands on their tickets - I couldn't even get to the seating plan

What on EARTH is a Error 503 backend read error?!

Me too I'm sure they had an orchestra when I last saw them in Wimbledon for Swan Lake a few years ago: I seem to remember thinking that it was a rather sparse one, but it was an orchestra of sorts. The production of Swan Lake is a bit different, and is certainly not one of my favourites: IIRC correctly, it ended with Siegfried committing suicide and Odette grieving by the lake, I think to a repeat of the Act II "White Swan" adagio. I also remember a lot of "courtiers" during Act I who looked rather ungainly and unballetic. I think I was going to write it up for the site, but have mislaid my notes. I enjoyed their production of Fille on the whole, once I'd got used to the fact that it wasn't the Hérold music for the most part, and that Widow Simone was somewhat draggy. It has a very nice pas de deux in the second act. Again, I did take some notes, but don't know where they are at present. BTW, there's a £5 off selected ticket prices offer for Oxford if you book before 7th Feb - quote "New Year Offer" at the box office, or "NEWYEAR" online.

I think you're getting a little confused here, gdallas: it's the Siberians not the Swedes

Well, in case anyone else wants to know, you click on the member's name (or look them up in the membership list if necessary) and you'll find a "Send me a message" link towards the top on the right.

Congratulations are due to all the winners, in what I think must have been a set of very difficult decisions, given the quality of the nominations. But perhaps particular congratulations should be given to the Mark Bruce Company for running away with 3 of the awards! It's good to see one of the small companies holding its own.

Just for the record, should the Dancing Times page ever vanish, these were the nominations: Nominations DANCING TIMES AWARD FOR BEST MALE DANCER Jonathan Goddard, Mark Bruce Company, New Movement Collective and HeadSpaceDance Vadim Muntagirov, English National Ballet and The Royal Ballet Steven McRae, The Royal Ballet Edward Watson, The Royal Ballet GRISHKO AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE DANCER Alina Cojocaru, English National Ballet Marianela Nuñez, The Royal Ballet Natalia Osipova, The Royal Ballet Diana Vishneva, Maryinsky Ballet STEF STEFANOU AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING COMPANY English National Ballet Mark Morris Dance Group Northern Ballet Stuttgart Ballet Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch BEST INDEPENDENT COMPANY Ballet Black HeadSpaceDance Mark Bruce Company New Movement Collective BEST CLASSICAL CHOREOGRAPHY David Dawson, The Human Seasons for The Royal Ballet Arthur Pita, A Dream Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Ballet Black Liam Scarlett, No Man’s Land for English National Ballet Christopher Wheeldon, The Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet BEST MODERN CHOREOGRAPHY Richard Alston, The Britten Bill – Hölderlin Fragments/Illuminations/Barbican Britten: Phaedra for Richard Alston Dance Company Mark Bruce, Dracula for Mark Bruce Company Akram Khan, Dust for English National Ballet Arthur Pita, Facada in Solo for Two for Ardani Artists Crystal Pite, The Tempest Replica for Kidd Pivot EMERGING ARTIST AWARD Francesca Hayward, dancer, The Royal Ballet Drew McOnie, choreographer, The McOnie Company Kevin Poeung, dancer, Northern Ballet Marcelino Sambé, dancer, The Royal Ballet Alexander Whitley, choreographer, Alexander Whitley Dance Company OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) Alina Cojocaru as Medora in Le Corsaire for English National Ballet Francesca HAYWARD in Rhapsody for The Royal Ballet Natalia Osipova in the title role of Giselle for The Royal Ballet Kristina Shapran as Terpsichore in Apollo for the Maryinsky Ballet OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (CLASSICAL) Yonah Acosta as Conrad in Le Corsaire for English National Ballet Alexander Jones as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew for Stuttgart Ballet Vadim Muntagirov as Conrad in Le Corsaire for English National Ballet Xander Parish in the title role of Apollo for the Maryinsky Ballet OUTSTANDING FEMALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) Fang-Yi Sheu in PresentPast and Two x Two at Sadler’s Wells Wendy Houstoun in Pact with Pointlessness Carys Staton in Still Current for Russell Maliphant Company Clemmie Sveass in If Play is Play for HeadSpaceDance OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE (MODERN) Miguel Altunaga in Rooster for Rambert Jonathan Goddard in the title role of Dracula for Mark Bruce Company Akram Khan in Dust for English National Ballet Liam Riddick in Illuminations for Richard Alston Dance Company

Yes. There was a stage, early on, when I liked Rojo and Kobborg better in Giselle than I did Kobborg and Cojocaru . Plus I still wish the two had been cast together in Romeo & Juliet, because their individual debuts were so powerful.

Thank you for this, SPD. We look forward to hearing the rest of the results. I'll merge it with the rest of the NDA thread once you've finished

I must admit that the thought did occur to me during Act III, too Good debuts by all, I thought (although I don't believe it was actually a debut for Kish - hasn't he danced Onegin before? I seem to remember thinking it odd when he was cast as Lensky last time around). I'm not going to comment excessively because I had an unfortunately restricted view during several important parts, and couldn't see the main characters. That in itself reminds me, though: do they usually put the card table quite that far over to the left in Act II? There were even a lot of people in what I thought were supposedly unrestricted-view seats leaning over to see what was happening, and I couldn't see at all. Not a good idea to have your main protagonists out of view during crucial moments of the ballet.

Just a side note: anyone intending to go and see this in Wimbledon might need to be aware of major engineering works and lack of trains from Waterloo - I believe Thameslink services are still running. Looks as though this probably applies every weekend until the end of February.

I must say, Onegin is a breath of fresh air after the Christmas season!

Looking again, it appears that it's Saturday only, for some reason.

I can't wait to get my teeth into some meaty ballet for a change. Only 12 hours or so to go ...

If I read it correctly, there are no trains serving London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross all weekend.

Except that Nicol Edmunds was from Elmhurst, wasn't he?