alison

Well, sort of in English. Half of it . Thanks, anyway. And there were definitely performances showing as available yesterday.

Posh Friends' opera booking today, by any chance? The queue's not long enough to be normal Friends', I don't think.

Mmm, I remember keeping an eye on Jones for several years prior to graduation - rather unusual for me, since I don't really follow the dancers as students that much - and possibly Moore, too. Good to know that Badenes is doing so well.

Do keep us posted with any performance reports if you feel like it.

Stuttgart has two male British principals now, doesn't it?

I can't remember that it has: I was aware that things were pretty rocky with his company, but not that he'd filed for bankruptcy. Wonder where that leaves the Mikhailovsky - and all its recent acquisitions, human and otherwise? I also wonder whether that was behind the cancellation of the M's US tour dates?

Two mixed bills for Sadler's Wells, when Birmingham only gets one all season? Interesting.

Edit: actually, that's a bit of a shame - I'd been looking forward to seeing their Swan Lake again, but I suppose ENB's major run during the summer has put the kybosh on that.

Not unloved, with over 1000 viewings, John!

There's a review of "Scenes de ballet" in the last issue of the Dancing Times.

I think I spotted one in the new edition of Dance Europe today, too.

Well done . We're all learning, gradually.

Seats are disappearing at a fair rate for this already, to judge by the website.

Edit: and I do like the way this forum just retained all the formatting from the original text without my having to do anything whatsoever.

The last thing was "Scenes de Ballet". Wonderful. (obviously i am a bit biased:-))

I seem to remember reading good reports of it somewhere.

Seconded

It has to be said, Ann, it wasn't made terribly clear in the publicity: there was a reference to the clog dance, the flute dance and something or other else. And there *was* a clog dance - just not *the* clog dance. Add to that the fact that there's a picture of the girls in a reaping pose not dissimilar to one in the Ashton, and that they were wearing similar costumes - which I didn't recognise from the performance - and I don't think it was that clear that it wasn't the Ashton version.

Links - Sunday February 12, 2012

Rather late, I'm afraid, but I just got hold of the Sunday Times for the 12th: the Culture section had a major interview with Adam Cooper prior to the opening of Singin' in the Rain - NB: it's not a Polunin-free area.

13 Mar 2012 – 15 Mar 2012

Now with Putrov and Polunin joint-headlining, and a different cast and programme

http://www.sadlerswe...n-Men-in-Motion

Lifted straight from the website:

"Following the sell-out run of Ivan Putrov’s Men in Motion earlier this year, the former Royal Ballet Principal returns to Sadler’s Wells with an evening of works showcasing the athleticism and beauty of the male form in motion.

For this exciting programme Putrov will be joined by some of the world’s finest dancers including Sergei Polunin (former Royal Ballet Principal), Tim Matiakis (Royal Ballet of Denmark), Clyde Archer and Isaac Montllor (Spain's Compañía Nacional de Danza). The evening will include Nacho Duato’s modern trio Remanso and a new piece choreographed by Polunin himself.

Also on the bill will be Leon Jacobson’s Vestris – a solo originally choreographed in 1969 for a young Mikhail Baryshnikov after he won the International Ballet Competition in Moscow. Other highlights include one of the most famous works ever created for the male dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky’s L'après-midi d'un faune set to Debussy’s beautiful music."

(which involves half-a-dozen women, or should do, of course)

Edit: clashes with BRB at the Coliseum, but coincides with a couple of "dead" nights at the ROH.

I agree with Pas de Quatre above, which means that you can include Romeo & Juliet no problem, but not just any Romeo & Juliet - it has to be an M&S Romeo and Juliet , or in this case, MacMillan's, say. I wouldn't say that either the Ashton or Northern Ballet's were "classics". On the other hand, I feel that La Fille Mal Gardée (Ashton version) is, whereas the Gorsky version probably isn't. It also seems to me that more or less any "classic" ballet is probably going to be a full-evening one. Or is it by definition a narrative one? Hmm ...

Thanks for this very interesting selection of reviews today, how lucky Wolverhampton is to see La Fille Mal Gardee from the Siberian Ballet for a change,

Mm, it makes a change from the more obvious ballets, doesn't it. That reminds me - I was going to write a review, so thanks for the reminder.

I just got an e-mail that new student standby tickets have just been released for Don Giovanni tomorrow night so perhaps that's why there are so many people on there at the moment.

Blimey. If that's all it is, then they won't all get tickets.

Thanks

Are we back to one of the upper echelons of Friends' booking today, or something? A waiting-room of over 1300 has just greeted me.

The steering committee formed to investigate the feasibility of BalletcoForum continuing met again a few days ago. The main message which resulted from that meeting is that BalletcoForum will continue for the foreseeable future.

That's good to know. Thank you all for the hard work you've been doing behind the scenes.

Yes, I noticed this last time I attended ROH. According to the programme they offer cough sweets to help you 'manage' your cough but obviously people do not avail themselves of this offer or the sweets are not effective!

I find they take about 5 minutes to kick in as a rule, which isn't always quick enough when you realise that something has just arrived on that sensitive spot at the back of your throat.

This is, of course, a Links thread: perhaps we should start an audience behaviour thread of some description? (What's On Stage has one that, at last count, went on for 17 pages. I don't think we can manage that, but it is clearly a problem).

I think it was briefly touched on in another post some time ago, but just to confirm that the meeting on 29th February has been cancelled and Claire Calvert will now be appearing on March 9th. Further details at http://www.balletassociation.co.uk/Newsletters/news_12Feb.html, together with some other interesting bits of information

I'd gathered

I have a thought regarding payment and that is how much would a non registered user be able to see and do? I would be happy to pay a sub but are you saying that perhaps ONLY those that pay will be able to use the site?

Personally, I wouldn't want to see anyone locked out of the site (I remember a forum I would probably happily have signed up to some years ago, but the owners in their wisdom put the entire thing behind a password-protected area - you couldn't even get a sample of what was on offer - so I rejected it). Another site I'm registered with has extra benefits for subscribers - plus you get a nice big "SUBSCRIBER" under your avatar so that you can "stand up and be counted" - and I was going to suggest that might be a possibility, although I'm currently not sure about the "extra benefits".

Actually, I think most, if not all, of "his team" actually predate him, don't they? I must admit, this has come as a bit of a surprise - I had thought things had settled down at ENB.

Edited to get my grammar right.

In the Daily Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen's salute to Anna Pavlova: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/9093012/The-Swan-who-danced-herself-to-death.html