alison

I'm sure he will: I've got a ticket for his debut I see the boys in Scenes de Ballet are being cast lower than a decade ago: then, it was all First Soloists except for Josh Tuifua, who was a Soloist, if I remember correctly.

From what I read in one of the recent Gillian Lynne interviews, I understand that it's [edit: Miracle in the Gorbals] not a revival, more rechoreographed from scratch. Or am I confusing it with something else?

Interesting to note that Vadim is already learning Basilio, 3 months ahead of his scheduled debut. I hadn't necessarily realised that they started that early.

So, I've paid for 24 hours of WiFi access and will have a significant amount of time left in which I could watch some more dance streams. Does anyone have any recent recommendations? I spend so little time on YouTube normally that I don't really know what's available on there, or elsewhere. Alternatively, I could find some tennis to watch ...

GRRR!!! Why did my neighbour have to pick today to get her hedges cut back? The guy's been at it since midday, and I can barely hear Carlos over the noise!

Here are links to the individual dancers, in case you want to try identifying those in class: http://www.roh.org.uk/about/the-royal-ballet/artists There has been such an influx of new dancers recently that I'm starting to have trouble putting names to faces without having to think about it. BTW, was it just me, or were there very few principals/senior dancers in the class this morning?

Thankfully, I've realised that you can go back and watch earlier parts of the stream, so it's good to know I can get at all the bits I missed while BT was logging me out the whole time.

Aileen, it's Brian Maloney, I'm surprised to see.

My picture has just dropped out of HD, and is really blurry. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Thank you, Bruce, that was precisely what I wanted to know. Really upset that I missed La Sylphide, which I didn't see scheduled, but at least I now know when I can get out to the bank, Sainsbury's and so on. Days off are all very well, but I really can't spend the whole of it in front of a screen

Bruce has set up a discussion page for this here: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/7937-world-ballet-day-live-today-folks/#entry105438 so can we discuss the broadcast there, please.

Thank you, Bruce - you've beaten me to it

Oh, right, thanks Yaffa. The references I'd seen were all referring to pages set up on the individual companies' websites.

Is anyone actually watching this yet? I'm intending to later, but it would be nice to find a *proper* schedule, with timings for everything. Plus I hope the "departing" company is putting up a link to the "arriving" company's website to make the transfer easier.

Do we know that Des Grieux *has* religious convictions? I can't remember it from the novel, which I haven't read for a few years now - although as I've pointed out before MacMillan's ballet has so little to do with the novel that it's barely recognisable. Sure, DG is a divinity student, but I thought that back in that time in French society that didn't necessarily mean much, and that they could be as corrupt as the next man.

Would they be allowed? Would they be pro or amateur? This is what I originally thought the thread would be about. And as I've no doubt pointed out before, the Royal Ballet's only two British male principals only took up dancing because their twin sisters did it and they didn't want to miss out. It's mind-boggling how many potential dancers won't have had even that advantage. And I'm sure I've previously mentioned the former colleague of mine who blithely sent her 3-year-old daughter and only child off to ballet classes, but when I challenged her whether she would have done the same thing if she'd had a son her response was along the lines of "Good God no, we'd have sent him to rugby or something". At the time of posting, that post had 18 "Likes", which I suspect may be something of a record for this board This is very true, too. Another reason for avoiding gender-linked colouring.

*And* the oldest town in Germany, of course, going back to pre-Christian times I must admit that I didn't know it had a dance company, although I imagine the stage would be good for dance - a trapezium-shape, IIRC, so great sightlines. Sorry, I obviously haven't been keeping up with this thread over the last month

Hello, Jack, and welcome. I can see where he's coming from on this, even though I don't exactly agree with him. I've just finished reading the reviews for this in the Links thread, and will admit to being a little surprised at quite how positive they were: to my mind, it wasn't on a par with Carmen, or Giselle. And I too certainly got irritated by the patchwork of bleeding chunks of Tchaikovsky.

My reaction too. It may have been at that point that I seriously started questioning her credibility.

I'm not sure it "means" anything, Bruce - it's just a pretty typical finishing time for the Royal Ballet season these days. The days when they used to go into July are long gone, I fear.

If so, that's a bit daft - why try competing? URL for viewing is www.roh.org.uk/worldballetday

I wondered, too. I sometimes felt that some people in the US, critics and non-critics alike, actually disliked MacMillan *more* simply because he *wasn't* Ashton, and was so different from Ashton.

Frankly, I'm not surprised. I have no idea why anyone thought it would sell well at normal triple-bill prices rather than the £40 top-price ones they usually use for new work. [Edit: This was originally in response to Jacqueline's comment: "As for casting, I am wondering when we can expect some for the Brandstrup and co. triple bill run. I see there are many unsold tickets for that also. I have a ticket for the matinee but am thinking about swapping it for this Saturday's matinee of Manon with Roberta Marquez. Any thoughts on whether this might be a good idea?" which was part of a posting which has now been transferred into the "Ashton, MacMillan and their American reputations" thread which John mentions below. Hope that's not too confusing ]

But would that be a cause for nerves? I wouldn't have thought so.

WoodlandGladeFairy, welcome, in case nobody's said it before. I noticed your name as the latest newcomer a few days ago, but didn't notice when your first post was. Enjoy Manon. It does suit her, doesn't it? I always felt her Manon was far more likely to return to Des Grieux than Nunez's the previous night: she seemed more reluctant to leave in the first place, and there was quite a brittleness in her interaction with the clientele during the brothel scene. As for the final act, I agree that her eyes were hugely expressive (and I was sitting mid-amphi, with only standard opera glasses with me) - but haven't you seen her in La Sylphide? Thanks, James. I'll look it out in the library when I have a chance. I think it's not uncommon for established partnerships to work better in some roles than others: for example, there are some roles I really liked Rojo/Acosta in, and some I was less impressed by - sometimes because I'd seen the individual dancers with other partners who worked better, perhaps. I didn't like Lamb's Juliet the first time I saw her - I can't remember who she was dancing with - but then I saw her with Slava Samodurov, and that seemed to work much better. It's a case of trial and error - and hopefully not too much error before the person doing the casting finds a good combination. Double debut? Who else is making his/hers?