SheilaC

I endorse what Jan says, it's well worth the £10 cost to rent, with the final viewing date for renters now extended to 15 February. The programme is a varied range of pas de deux, with a mix of music as well as choreography, from Gershwin to Malcolm Arnold. (If I remember correctly, the premiere of The There Musketeers was on the day that Arnold's death was announced, a sad coincidence).

Anyone who was able to see the recent very interesting London Ballet Circle interview with David Nixon will especially enjoy seeing some of his best work, including an excerpt from the ballet he said would be his last, The Little Mermaid.

I've just checked the announcement that Alison has helpfully posted. The ballets listed in the latest announcement are the same as listed in June, but the order is very different eg Midsummer Night's Dream is Jan 21 - Feb 10, Jewels is April 1 - 21, R&J is May 6 - 26, Swan Lake is May 20 -9 June.

The composition of the mixed bills varies too:

Feb 11 - Mar 3: Rhoden, Thatcher, Morris

Mar 4-24 : Ratmansky, Rowe, Possokhov

Apr 22 - May 12 : Tomasson, Marston, Dawson

The article doesn't seem to cover the impressive digital season the company is offering from 21 January to 9 June.

There will be 7 separate programmes. They include 2 full time Balanchine ballets (Midsummer Night's Dream, Jewels) and 2 full length productions by Helgi Tomasson himself (Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake) and 3 triple bills, including world premieres ( Myles Thatcher, Danielle Rowe, Cathy Marston- 'Mrs Robinson'), all on separate programmes. Other choreographers represented include Mark Morris, Ratmansky, Possokhov.

Subscribers paying for the full season can watch each programme for the duration that it is available (approx 20 days) and access extras. Alternatively, it is possible to rent programmes separately, available to watch for 24 hours.

I found out via an email as a supporter (the company has such amazing rep, possibly the best anywhere, and tremendous dancers) but presumably the full info is available from their website.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the streaming of a programme devoted to Nureyev's choreography, presented by the Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse. It started last night and is available until 15 January. It's free- not even a request for donations.

There is quite an interesting selection of pieces- and not a Nutcracker in sight! It opens with six dances from the Hungarian act (3) of Raymonda. That's followed by pas de deux from first, the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, then Sleeping Beauty, then Cinderella and ends with the Black pas de trois (yes, 3, not 2- von Rothbart joins Odile and Siegfried) of Swan Lake.

The standard of the dancing is variable but the ballerina Natalia de Froberville dances well in the famous Raymonda solo and as Odile. The company was rehearsed by two of the exceptional dance artists that Nureyev developed, Monique Loudieres ( who had a wonderful pure technique, she danced Juliet the first time I saw the Paris Opera Ballet) and Charles Jude ( who had compelling dramatic stage presence and personal charisma- the last time I saw him dance was as the Prodigal Son, at the Edinburgh Festival, although aged about 50 he was totally convincing). So with all their experience of Nureyev and his ballets the extracts are presented well.

The streaming is available from both FaceBook and YouTube on the company website: theatreducapitole.fr

I'm afraid I disagree with John S. Far from thinking that BRB's Drosselmeyer is too creepy I regard Jonathan Payn's performance as way too genial. After all, the character is based on the Hoffmann story. Nowadays productions such as Nutcracker and Coppelia, although based on Hoffmann, are often far too sanitised.

And the BRB production is a wonderful testament to Diaghilev's views that ballet should combine wonderful design, music and choreography where the whole comes to more than the sum of the parts. The designs are truly magical.

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."