alison

Since she no longer dances Myrtha because it's too much jumping, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here too.

I'm pretty certain I know the one you mean. That's so sad. Too much, too soon

I think what bugs me most about the outfits for Kitri's friends is that they don't get different dresses for the wedding (and, depending on what pairing you get, the dresses can be vastly different in colour). Now, what friends of the bride would simply turn up to her wedding in their normal daywear and just stick a fascinator in their hair?! The other thing that has got me every time I've seen this run is Basil's "suicide". Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but every one I've seen has to my mind fallen totally flat, compared with, well, virtually every other production I've seen, narratively *and* comedically, if there is such a word. I don't know whether it's a fault with the comic timing or what, but it hasn't once worked for me.

I don't get the impression she's retiring ...

Thanks, Katherine. I was fairly sure I didn't want to see it, so I'll save my money

Let me see ... Bolshoi Swan Lake. Do I want to go and see it? - jester?: check - Rothbart doppelganger? Can't remember much about the rest of it: can anybody remind me, please? Wonder whether it will have any impact on the RB broadcast?

Yes, I've had to get very picky - I rarely go to RB Insight evenings now unless I'm seriously interested in the subject, and I don't usually bother with RB in rehearsal unless I have a good idea of what I'm going to get, because every time I do it's at least one ballet ticket that I have to sacrifice for it. Hence my starting this thread: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/8081-rb-rehearsals-and-insights-where-are-we-up-to/?hl=insights

Well, yes, but have you seen what the FT is charging? Minimum of £5-something *per week*! Much as I enjoy reading its dance coverage, I can't afford to pay that sort of money just to do so.

I would perhaps mind less if the site wasn't telling porkies. I've only read one review this month, yet it won't let me get at any more

Didn't ENB get into some trouble a few years ago when they pictured a ballerina (Desiree Ballantyne, I think it was) on their flyers for Sleeping Beauty (I think) when she wasn't cast in the lead?

Oops, Irmgard and I were actually posting at the same time. I stand corrected.

When I stupidly did an excessively keen clean-up and accidentally deleted the FT cookies or whatever it is, I discovered it would only let me have 3 articles per month when I logged back in. That is totally ludicrous. I don't think the Prince's solo is Ashton, is it? (I had a feeling Deane had choreographed it). Are you getting confused with the one in Sleeping Beauty? But yes, as I understand it the pas de douze and the Neapolitan are Ashton's. It also used to have his pas de quatre, which you can see on the LFB Swan Lake, which I believe is available on DVD (and featured a young Leanne Benjamin). I'm not sure why it's changed to a pd3, although given what I've read about the number of men off injured I'm starting to wonder if that's actually an emergency measure to reduce the number of soloists needed. (Does anyone ever actually do things like that?)

She was doing Big Swans the other night when I saw it.

There's another thread on this from last year: I don't know whether that will be any help, too? http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/6302-phyllis-bedells-bursary-competition-2014/?hl=bedells

Out of interest, what do you do for flats? I have a very wide forefoot, too. Seems to me that it's equivalent to wearing an overpadded padded bra (there are loads in M&S these days, I noticed recently).

Thanks, BBB. I don't know how I managed to miss spotting that one.

Did I mention how much I liked James Hay as the White Rabbit, too? I can't remember now.

Perhaps it's a rights issue or something? I know there was something recently that you couldn't watch because you were in Germany, whereas we in the UK could.

Said before the Age of Anxiety bill this autumn, of course. Even then, though, I can't see why they couldn't have done The Dream if they wanted an hour-long work, given that that's appearing in the US tour as well.

Isn't it just. Lucky USA. Thanks, John, for saving me from using up one of my precious NYT visits

Nothing like having high ambitions, I suppose. Best of luck to them.

Thanks. I spotted coverage of this in the Evening Standard yesterday, so it's good to have more detail.

Yup. Or scheduled to be, anyway. For the Swan Lakes. No partner is mentioned for La Bayadère. Swan Lake, 20th and 21st August; Bayadère 22nd and 23rd. Only one performance per day: presumably not even Ms Kolesnikova can manage to dance Odette/Odile twice in one day. Tickets £85-£25, it says on the flyer.

I haven't been to see a film in the cinema for months - in fact, I can't remember what the last one I saw was. Most film releases just seem to pass me by these days And I got back from Swan Lake a little while ago and realised I'd managed to miss Film 2015 - AGAIN. That doesn't help, either

Yes, nasty little rag. I bought a Saturday one maybe a decade ago because a friend had raved about how good the TV guide was, and I don't know whether it was a particularly xenophobic/racist/anti-everything-else edition, but I felt soiled when I started reading it. Lisa, I'm not sure, but with 5 million copies of CH being printed I don't think it's going to have much rarity value - most people may well have forgotten about it by the middle of this year.