alison

Yes, the RB have tapped into the Boy George and Ronson fan bases and combined that with the live stream and saturation press coverage (one day on the Guardian website there were about half a dozen articles on this programme). Very clever.

That's why I put "and assuming that you don't have the luxury of access to "big name" collaborators/performers to attract audiences" in my original post . After all, the RB does have something of an unfair advantage.

I've started a thread for the actual performances at http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/600-royal-ballet-polyphoniasweet-violetscarbon-life-bill/, so please post your views there. Thanks!

This bill, with two world premieres, starts tonight. Please discuss the performances here.

Casting and other pre-performance information is here: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/224-polyphonia-triple-bill/page__pid__7216__st__30#entry7216

What he liked the most was Suite en Blanc, where he felt there was no pressure to follow or understand the "story"; whereas with Apollo or Jeux there was a story of sorts which he had to concentrate on and work out who was meant to be who and what they were meant to be doing. With Suite he felt he could just enjoy the dancing.

So, this was his reaction *on* seeing the ballets, rather than before? That's very interesting, because it totally contradicts the assumption that most people want to see narrative ballets. I think the truth is that people *think* they want to see narrative ballets because they think that's what ballet's about, and then they probably want to see something where they have an idea about the story in advance so that it's not too "difficult", whereas in fact what they might well be better off with is something without much or any plot, and just being plonked down in front of it and told "listen to the music and see how the dancers react to it"! So then the music becomes more important, and the person might like to hear something familiar so that they can appreciate better how the choreography interacts with it. Which brings us back to the idea of linking to it from the website, which presupposes that you've got people to visit your website in the first place ...

As you say, Petrouchka is very much dormant at the RB (don't think its's been done since the Fonteyn/Nureyev period as I certainly haven't seen it there and I've been going to performances since 1977(!)

Mukhamedov and Kumakawa danced it, I think - to not very good reviews, I remember - so I'd guess it was last done in the mid-90s. David Bintley at BRB was reputed to be one of the best Petrushkas ever.

Crib sheets which might be of help prior to the first night :

Sweet Violets - http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/mar/19/walter-sickert-dance-of-death?INTCMP=SRCH

Carbon Life - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus

I would say that what remains of the Ballets Russes rep is split pretty evenly between the two companies with RB having the two Nijinska works, both companies having Petrouchka and Les Sylphides with different producers, both companies having Apollo, ENB having Scheherazade and Spectre (possibly RB has this somewhere in its history) etc. There are also the Massine works with both companies at some point having Tricorne in the rep (would love to see those Picasso sets again). These are off the top of my head but there are probably many more.

Don't forget BRB in all this . They have Petrouchka (which is pretty much dormant at the Royal, I'd have to say), and they've done Tricorne far more recently than the RB, assuming they used to do it in the first place. RB does indeed also have Spectre, although hasn't done it since about 2004, I think.

Thanks for bringing up a subject I must admit I'd frequently wondered about, but never liked to ask

I certainly remember hearing about a rather hirsute dancer who was wearing one of those chest-exposing all-in-ones getting his chest hair trimmed (but not shaved) so that his ballerina didn't get a mouthful of hair during one of the complicated lifts in the ballet.

Exfoliating pads are fine for legs, except that they may miss out the odd hair in dips in the skin (like around the ankles), and can't be used on the feet, so a backup method will be needed for stray hairs.

Messing around with your hormones is not something that can be done long-term without risk to the body, of course.

Jack Widdowson - Ballet dancer spins back to health after assault damaged his spine: Steven Morris, The Guardian; Bella Battle, The Sun

So glad to hear how well he's doing: I was horrified when I heard of the attack. It seemed somehow worse that he belonged to a company that I was quite familiar with.

Also, pleased to hear about the streaming of Breakin' Convention: that really ought to build bridges with the wider world.

I've been wondering about this too. I have a recollection that some time in the 1990s (I think) there were adverts in the dance press for a production of Le Train Bleu which a French or German company was planning to bring to the UK - maybe the Coliseum ?. But it never happened. It gave me the impression that there might still be a production "live" out there somewhere. Does anyone recall this ?

There was a French company (Bordeaux Ballet?) which brought some, I think, Ballets Russes works to Woking, and Le Train Bleu may have been on the list. Unfortunately, it was a really busy week and I couldn't get down to see it. Mind you, I think I have a flyer for it ... somewhere ...

Just reminding those readers living in the London and possibly S.E. area that if you have Freeview or analogue TV only (as opposed to cable/satellite) you need to retune for the first time today. If you don't have some form of Freeview device, and no cable or satellite, you will have lost BBC2 by now.

That was my assumption when I read the news earlier, too. A sad ending, but not unexpected, I suppose.

"I don't suppose that it will ever be performed by ENB now that Wayne Eagling is going."

I doubt it would have been, even if he were staying. It's the Royal Ballet who have the link to Nijinska, surely?

(This is what happens when you leave a page open for several hours without actually hitting "Post": wulff's response sneaked in unnoticed , so I've added aileen's quote for clarity)

I believe that in previous runs the casting for Alain and Simone has eventually been added to the website, but we all know how erratic that can be.

And I'm studying "US automobile-speak"

A bit late now, but did anyone see these? http://www.google.co.../multitask.html

https://mail.google..../tap/index.html

Best of all, there's http://www.w3schools...ml/lastpage.htm

Oops, sorry, just realised the Google Tap one seemed familiar: John posted it above!

New nail polishes tied to NYC Ballet: Sara Bauknecht, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I get the feeling someone at Ben & Jerry's may have had some input into the product names!

Alison, I think the casting is correct. Morera and Cope may be swapping roles.

Well, as long as they don't get confused as to which roles they're supposed to be dancing (as has happened in Onegin, and with ENB/Festival Ballet's multiple Romeo & Juliets!)

Well, it frequently doesn't work. On the days when all "What's On" does is take you into the Calendar, you still get shoved into the waiting-room. I've just managed to get into the waiting-room by clicking on the "Casting for this date" link on the triple bill page - there's a first!

Hello, Leinstergarden, and welcome. I've seen your name somewhere else, I think.

If you've never seen a ballet and want to give it a go then picking an established, full length, narrative piece is a bit like looking for a kitemark when you're shopping.

Although it may turn out to be a kitemark illegally applied to some substandard article "Made in China", of course . There are enough poor productions of "big name" ballets around for people to experience that they may well go to something, think "I didn't really like that" and not bother going again, not realising that it may not have been them at fault but the production.

With regard to the Internet, which I don't think anyone's really mentioned so far, I'm sure that venues'/companies' websites, Facebook pages and even Twitter accounts must potentially be a very good way of attracting audiences, but realistically I think that if potential audiences have got that far then the company is preaching to the (at least semi-) converted already. How do you attract the people who don't actually go that far?

So, Zucchetti's out of Polyphonia. And I suspect there may be something wrong with the order of the second cast of Sweet Violets, but of course I can't check because the website is in waiting-room mode again. Alternatively, you go to the home page, find the section featuring the triple bill, click on "Find out more" and ... find yourself in the waiting-room! Aaagh!

Hello, HPool, good to see you back. You've reminded me of my early triple-bill experiences: as a student, my first Festival Ballet one was one I wouldn't have chosen myself (I'd booked for the full-length, natch ), but a German student on my corridor wanted to go to it and wanted someone to go with, so I went. As for the Royal Ballet, since all my first half-dozen trips there were on standbys (in the days when they were available more widely than just to students), it was a case of what casts and what ballets were available. Having held out for full-length ballets for about the first 4, I eventually went to my first mixed bill, which was Requiem, Agon (which I really struggled with, unsurprisingly) and something else which escapes me at the moment, and enjoyed it, so then I became a bit less cautious.

AK has sold quite well, Onegin rather less so. Possibly something to do with the dates, possibly because Onegin as a novel is probably less well-known here?

I sometimes wonder if they are joking... :-s

No, just ignorant. And they're by no means the only ones: I wonder about Guardian readers too, sometimes, and ...

Thanks for the above, everyone. I was bemoaning the fact that, it being Sunday, I wasn't going to be able to read them in the papers. My favourite BMW one is I think still the one with the BMW badge which is provided with its own "windscreen wiper" (I think that's "windshield wiper" to you, Anjuli?), although there was another really good one many years ago which escapes me.

Hugely depressing. But then Sunday performances aren't always easy ones to sell.

And if anyone is still harbouring guilt at spending so little, there's always http://www.ballet.org.uk/editorial.php?ref=donatetoenglishnationalballet

particularly of the principal dancers who find their number of performances much reduced (with the exception of the mixed bills) once they have been promoted to this level because they are no longer expected help out in corps de ballet work.

But, Irmgard, with the exception of Muntagirov (and possibly Cao), the other principals have been principals for years. It'll have been a long time (over a decade in the case of some of the most senior) since they've danced in the corps, if ever.

There are loads of reviews on the old Ballet.co site, if you want to get an idea of what the pieces are about: http://www.ballet.co.uk/cgi/reviews_database_search/db_search.cgi?return_to_frontpage=y