PetitDi

More than 'fine' would be difficult, as it already means 'the best' (as in fine wine)   

I heard that Claudio Coviello was technically excellent, though his acting skills need to be developed. He's a 'bit of a Bolle', so I understand. A friend said that the final act was wonderful from both dancers, and that Sarah was magnificent in the gaoler's scene. Graham/Gramilano wrote on Facebook (?) or another forum, that the company was sloppy and wondered whether the dancers were already letting their hair down now that Vaziev is going (they apparently didn't like discipline he required, though I saw Swan Lake at La Scala and the corps were excellent!) Whatever Vaziev is like, he certainly got results, as I read in the Giselle reviews when the company visited Paris. It would be a great shame if the company loses this in the change over next year.

Some more comments from Tsiskaridze about the Russian supremacy, but more watered down than before:

http://www.gramilano.com/2015/07/nikolay-tsiskaridze-on-the-vaganova-academy-and-russian-ballet/

David Hallberg has had to pull out of engagements until the end of the year to recover from surgery on his ankle:

http://www.gramilano.com/2014/08/david-hallberg-cancels-engagements-recover-surgery/

Ludovic Ondiviela pushed to have Mara even though she was no more part of the company, and she is thrilled to be asked back.

And by the way, Nina G., the BBC got it wrong: the Teatro Solís in Mon­tevideo, Uruguay, was built thirty-six years earlier than the Bogotà theatre, and is quite beautiful (http://viajes.elpais.com.uy/2011/05/16/teatro-solis-que-lo-merezcamos/).

Asylmuratova,  and her husband Zaklinsky who also teaches at the school. I've just read that the outgoing director of the school will become deputy director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. What a complicated web...

PS Tsiskaridze was born on 31st December 1973, so the performance would be on his 40th birthday!

Gramilano reports that Tsiskaridze's final appearance hasn't been quite confirmed as Urin revealed in an interview today: (Urin: "I like the idea. I hope that it will be pos­sible. There is still not a final decision; we need to speak about some organ­iz­a­tional issues.") http://www.gramilano.com/2013/09/bolshoi-theatre-director-filin-ratmansky-tsiskaridze-opera-image/

Hope this is the right place to post? Reading around the internet the origin of some authors is obvious, but I'm curious about The Ballet Bag and above mentioned Gramilano: who are they, what do they do, etc? I've read the blurb on their respective blogs, but it doesn't give much information. Thanks!

I think the Guildhall problem was that the student (now international opera singer!) was singing in the streets, before Christmas, therefore he risked damaging his vocal chords and interfering with the technique he was learning. The same reason ballet schools don't want their students studying with other teachers, or 'performing' without prior permission so that they can value whether the extracurricular activity could interfere with their teaching.

Thank you for the welcome Janet!

In an interview in May when Rojo was in Moscow for the Benois ( http://www.gramilano.com/2013/05/interview-with-tamara-rojo/ ) she was asked:

So will you be com­pet­ing with Cov­ent Garden?

"It will be a friendly com­pet­i­tion. It’s great when in a city like Lon­don, there are two com­pan­ies who want to suc­ceed. It keeps us on our toes, and gives the audi­ences a choice."

It certainly does! Hooray!!!

New girl here... 

I went back to Gramilano's article and from the quote from the school rule book I think it's quite obvious that they mean 'dancing' when they say 'performing', which is a normal school practice. A music student friend at London's Guildhall got into trouble because he was busking, but if he had been stocking supermarket shelves I don't think there would have been a problem. Same here, if he had been doing a more usual out-of-school job nobody would have commented, it's the pornography that gave the school directors problems. But, as noted earlier, a warning would surely having been the right thing to do.