SheilaC

Paul Marque is only 23 but, according to Danses avec la plume (DALP), his promotion has been expected for a year, most probably after a performance of Raymonda, which got cancelled due to the strike. Apparently he won the Golden medal at Varna in 2016 and the following year was voted by AROP (the Opera organisation, a bit like the Friends of Covent Garden) as dancer of the year. He is especially strong on classical roles, having chosen to dance Siegfried in a key promotion competition. As DALP states, the current preference under Dupont, the director of the ballet company, is for neoclassical and contemporary works, which won't benefit his career, although DALP stresses that Dupont, like Millepied before her, has encouraged his career, giving him many opportunities. And after the new Opera director(Alexander Neef) had announced his promotion, Dupont embraced Marque very warmly. It was all very emotional, Paul Marque looked overcome and the theatre erupted with loud applause. This contrasted with the performance, where there was absolute silence each time the dancers took their bows, quite weird. (There was no audience). The decision to allocate different dancers to each act didn't work well for me, the Nikiyas and Solor's were so different. The company does occasionally have different dancers in key roles in a full length ballet, most frequently for a well known etoile's final performance. Joan has replied while I was typing this so I will miss out some points which would have repeated hers, but in addition to the 2 intervals, nothing happens for the opening 30 minutes, before the first act starts.

There was a change in the cast for the third act. Instead of Pagliero as Nikiya it was Myriam Ould-Braham, who is Mathias Heymann's usual partner. I first saw them dance together in Fille when Alexander Grant mounted it for Paris: and very fine they both were in that. She wasn't entirely on form in Bayadere, and the standard was a bit variable across the company, but it was lovely to see the company dance the ballet, despite some of the out-dated elements in Nureyev's production. But one of the highlights came after the ballet had finished when it was announced on stage that Paul Marque, who had danced the golden idol, had been promoted to etoile. It's available for six more days.

This is absolutely wonderful news. He is such a thoughtful man, with strong values and a lively creative and innovative impulse, that he is capable of moving Phoenix on at a time when all companies are fighting for survival. I spoke to him early this year, when I bumped into him at ROH, asking if there was any chance of him performing in Leeds again, and he indicated then (somewhat to my surprise!) that he was keen to be more involved in Yorkshire but that a performing contract had prevented him to take up some opportunities that had been mooted. My only query is whether he will continue to perform- I can't find any reference in the Phoenix email I got, or the press release Janet has kindly posted, on his future career as a dancer. He has the most marvellous movement quality, as beautiful as Michael Clark's when young. It would be a great loss if he feels he has to give up dancing in order to prioritise the onerous responsibilities of directing the company in these difficult times.

I've now checked the streaming of Paris Opera Swan Lake. It seems to be an old filmed version, presumably a 'Live' film. It costs £7.99 and you can watch for 30 days - whereas Bayadere is only available for 7 days. Odette/Odile: Amandine Albisson Siegfried: Mathieu Ganio Rothbart: Francois Alu Pd3; Leonore Baulac, Hannah O'Neill, Germain Louvet Neapolitan: Melanie Hurel, Emmanuel Thibault

Paris Opera will be streaming a filmed La Bayadere for £9.99. It starts on Sunday, 13, at 2.30 (I presume that's GMT, it's the time I was given in statements in English- although live matinees at the Opera on a Sunday start at 2.30 local time which would be 1.30 here). It's Nureyev's production of course; his final production- and one that the Paris Opera took to Salford to open the Lowry. The cast is studded with etoiles as there are different principals for each act (Nureyev's production only has 3 acts). Nikiya: Dorothee Gilbert; Amandine Albisson; Ludmila Pagliero Solor : Germain Louvet; Hugo Marchand; Mathias Heymann Gamzatti: Leonore Baulac; Valentine Colasante Shades variations: Sae Eun Park, Silvia Saint-Martin, Hannah O'Neill The Opera have set up a new VOD platform as a separate unit ( my usual password didn't work). They are planning to issue a series of streamed productions and have a catalogue that already includes Swan Lake. For details see chezsoi.operadeparis.fr

Apparently New York City Ballet has announced the death of Sara Leland. She was a remarkable dancer in the last years of Balanchine, very fast and with a great personality, creating roles in Dances at a Gathering and Symphony in Three Movements, amongst others.

Has anyone managed to see Sylphide? Jeannette's link didn't work for me and none of my attempts to find the screening on the RDB website has worked, either.

It's impossible to exaggerate what an important contribution Marion made to SWRB and later BRB. An amazing dramatic dancer with great theatrical presence, no matter what role she was playing. Several years ago I read through 9 years of Dance and Dancers, from late '60s, for some research I was doing on the company that is now Northern Ballet. Of the many patterns of British ballet that I noticed, the most marked was how frequently Marion's performances, in a wide variety of roles, were highly praised. I am convinced that the rich repertory that her company used to boast was partly due to her compelling acting ability so that important dramatic works by Tudor and de Mille were introduced (will we see works by either of these great choreographers on the British stage again?). As a company coach and assistant director she helped to hold the company together by supporting the director when he had other commitments. BRB is a strong family and Marion's warmth and commitment to the company, her dancers and to fans (she invariably acknowledged you as a friend, unlike others) have been fundamental to that culture. She will be greatly missed.

I enjoyed watching class and was especially pleased to see Joe Sissons who doesn't appear to have danced in recent streamings. But the reason for posting is to quote some of the text, supposedly repeating the comments made by Christopher Saunders, who took the class, in his element. The machine transcribing the text seemed to be even deafer than I am yet also had magical predictive skills, occasionally showing the words before they had been spoken! (Presumably the rehearsal wasn't live and the text was added afterwards). Quite a lot of technical terms were correctly spelt but some were wildly inaccurate. In some cases I couldn't relate the words on screen to what I heard but the following examples I found amusing: adagio: a dodge, a dirge port de bras: pour the broth, spot a bra, porta bra, put a bra tendus: Tom Jews, tongs you, single tone due tombe: Tom May Hardware Tendu battement: Tan due Batman rond de jambe: Rhonda Jam/Jean/John assemble: Assam Blah grand battement: groan but glissade: Glee sod plie: plea, pee a petit jete: jetty

What gets me is that the company doesn't even get all of the money- £1.67 of the £10 goes in tax.

Apologies, I tried a different search and finally got it. Lovely to see everyone dancing so well, not least Momoko, and Cesar, a true classical dancer. They were wonderful in Giselle last year- seems so much longer! Good to see and hear Jonathan Higgins, the pianist, one of the unsung heroes of BRB. And Brandon was in his element. Nice to see Tom Rogers given a bigger role than usual.

Has anyone had problems accessing Lazuli? Although I paid for a ticket on 20 October I can't find an email confirming the purchase anywhere on my computer and the BRB system doesn't recognise my email address, the way the ROH does when I access a RB streaming so I can't watch it, at least without buying another ticket.

Am I right in thinking Dowell has narrated it? I was hoping he'd refer to Wedding Bouquet when he was asked which role he might return to the stage for, during the fascinating Q&A in the first Sarasota streaming.

The Sarasota streaming has a good selection of excerpts from Ashton's work. But in addition the (longer) 'extra' package includes a rehearsal of Monotones (despite the disappointment that we couldn't hear Maggie Barbieri's comments, although we could see some of her gestures); and the contributions by Anthony Dowell, both in rehearsing Meditation and his responses to the dancers' questions at the end, are fascinating. Well worth watching.

Joseph Sissons has, from today, an instagram series of messages about Black History month., on the ROH instagram channel. He's as inspirational and sincere a thinker as he is dancer. There are contributions from other dancers, including Joseph Aumeer, Beatrix and Will Bracewell.

Several years ago I visited the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam. There was an exhibition devoted to Sonia Gaskell which featured photos and information on Audrey Hepburn, who trained with her from 1945, before some years later training with Marie Rambert. The photos suggested she was a highly promising dancer, hence her continued love for ballet.

I'm confused ( a frequent state!). The streaming is advertised as available for 7 days. But when I bought my ticket I got a message that it would be available for 3 days after my first viewing. Has any one else had a similar message?

I was slightly disappointed by the programme, given the company is one of my favourites. I enjoyed the Jewels excerpts, although I was surprised that the Diamonds pas de deux, which Sarah Lamb danced so well in the Royal's streaming, wasn't included. But I was very impressed by Lucien Postlethwaite in the opening solo of Dances at a Gathering. He performed it so much better than in the recent Royal performances, much like Johan used to. It's very unusual for an opening section of a ballet, seemingly tentative at first and very atmospheric, it must take a lot of confidence to pull it off.

The Guardian article said there would be some Balanchine but none is mentioned in Capybara's detection work. I was hoping that one of the great black and white duets would be included, although Apollo may be more likely... if there's any Balanchine at all.

LinMM, the BRB autumn show will be filmed. Caroline Miller states they want "to test 'ticketed' online performances so that our fans who can't go back to the theatre yet can still see a full BRB performance this autumn."

I have today received an impressive magazine from BRB, 'Back to the Future'. It's very positive and contains an optimistic, albeit cautious, article by Carlos Acosta, and briefer pieces from a range of staff across the company. It lists performances of Cinderella in February in March (Southampton, Salford, Plymouth, Sunderland, Bristol) and a season at the Hippodrome, 31 March to 10 April. Elsewhere there is a reference to the season at the Birmingham Rep in May. There's an article on the new brand and its vision, not that it's particularly clear what the brand is! It seems to be taking Ballet Everywhere! ( their capitals and exclamation mark). That's encouraging, perhaps they'll start touring more and reintroduce the 2nd season in Sunderland, which they had for decades. Speaking of Sunderland, an article written by the programming director of ATG, boasts that their relationship with the Sunderland Empire is to 'engage with an area that would not normally have access to a company of the calibre of BRB'. That theatre was the only one outside of London that hosted the Bolshoi in 1956 !- and had the Bolshoi again in later years. And since the 1970s, when I moved to the North East, there were 2 seasons a year until relatively recently. (End of rant). There are several references to increased use of filming in the future. There is frequent reference to new work, still no indication that there is any intention to show any of the rich rep it holds, Ashton, Balanchine, Cranko, MacMillan (not just Romeo and Juliet) etc. I live in hope!

I got an email thanking me for the donation- I preferred to give a financial donation so that it could be Gift aided. ENB also sent me an email. But BRB rang me and Vail Dance not only emailed me but sent me a letter. So ROH doesn't compare well.

Slipped Disk today claims that 3 of the ballet coaches at the Mariinsky are seriously ill in hospital. No details were given.

The Public Campaign for the Arts also has a petition, to support the arts in general, and starting a map locating arts organisations near your postcode.

I found that I couldn't get the official link to Cinderella to work at all well. As it's Facebook I went on YouTube and found the same performance was there (slightly augmented by interesting videos of David Bintley talking about his ballet and in discussion with some of the dancers), it must be from the BBC programme shown years ago. So presumably you can get the YouTube version in the US, Japan and elsewhere. It's worth catching, there's some nice choreography and Elisha Willis (never one of my favourite dancers) is very good in the role. And the cast includes Alex Campbell, Joe Caley, Delia Matthews, with Celine Gittens in the corps- and the inimitable Marion Tait as the (very wicked) Stepmother.