SheilaC

Sorry Geoff, I have just copied it from the sheet of paper he gave me, which I assumed was accurate! I can't see anything on the sheet to suggest how to contact him. Maybe it's possible to contact the Society for advice.

I saw Hernandez, too- but didn't see you! I thought he did very well, his usual technical quality and charm and played with the humour very well. His partnership with Alice Renavand (one of my favourite POB etoiles, she has personality and style which were noticeable even when she was in the corps) worked very well until the final grand pas de deux, when there was a near catastrophe at the start, but both pulled out the stops in the remaining solos and duet and ended in triumph. And Valentine Colasante danced, too- as the Street dancer.

I booked on Friday. Was shocked at the prices but delighted that there is a 20% concession for the elderly.

Keith spoke to me yesterday when he heard me discussing ballet with a friend at my budget hotel. When I explained I couldn't go as I live nearly 200 miles away he advised me that the talk will be streamed- see https://twitter.com/nrn_str for the You Tube link on the night It sounds a fascinating talk, outlining how very different the original version was from the Giselle we love nowadays..

It looks as though ENB has been invited to contribute to the Robbins celebration in the first half of the Paris Summer dance festival (Les Etes de la Danse) There are 2 Robbins programmes in the last week of June, 2018 (25-27; 28-30) at which ENB are expected to perform, in addition to New York City Ballet, Miami City Ballet and Joffrey, plus Pacific Northwest Ballet, which will be presenting contemporary ballets in the second week (July 3-7). Given ENB are doing The Cage in their Sadler's Wells season it is that ballet that they would be likely to do. The details of the season have not yet been publicised but I have gleaned this information from the website of PNB (directed by Peter Boal, a wonderful New York City Ballet dancer in the past, and one of the best Apollos. His wife is one of the former City Ballet dancers mentioned in the Peter Martins scandal). There is also information on the website of a theatre, La Scene Musicale, in the Bois de Boulogne suburb of Paris, which will be the venue. Coincidentally, Isaac Hernandez is guesting with Paris Opera Ballet this week in Don Q (Thursday and Saturday) replacing Hoffalt.

Maximova's husband, the wonderful Vasiliev, did film one of her performances from the dress circle of the Coliseum, but obviously for personal reasons. Seymour was equally amazing. In the final act I was absolutely convinced she was going to give in to Onegin, even though I had seen the ballet so many times before so knew the plot. The first time I saw it was with Haydee and Cragun and I couldn't believe how fast and seemingly spontaneous the final pas de deux was. I assumed it was very difficult to dance but years later Pat Ruanne insisted to me that the choreography was easy. Makarova filmed the main pas de deux with Reid Anderson for a TV series she did. I felt sorry for Alexander Sombart, her usual partner in it, and when I met him later he still was disappointed not to have filmed it with her: but maybe the reason why she was allowed to do it was because of Anderson's involvement.

The Canadian contemporary company, Ballet British Columbia, will be touring England for the first time next March. Three ballets by women choreographers, including Crystal Pite, a former member, will be performed. Starting at Sadler's Wells (6-7), the company will then appear in Brighton, Newcastle, the Lowry and Bradford.

He is a wonderful dancer but his Widow Simone was an over the top pantomime dame that Alexander Grant had to tone down. Whilst enjoying the transvestite nature of the role he missed the humanity. The best Simones, including ex-BRB dancer James Barton, play the role as a woman, not as a man playing up gender stereotypes. That said, I will miss him. he was grossly underused, but his technique and personality always lit up the stage.

I think Gloria has been danced outside London, in the days that the Royal occasionally ventured out of London. Wasn't the televised performance filmed in Manchester? Unfortunately the Northern photos rather glamourise what is a deeply moving ballet.

I was at the Garnier last Saturday, and they now have big pictures of luggage which they can't accept (suitcases etc) at the entry points. These are new, they weren't there at the end of last month (but they were there before the Manchester tragedy).

I emailed ROH and have just had a reply. They are in the process of amending the advice, to allow bags up to briefcase/A3 size.

Last Saturday there was a 'soiree' to celebrate France's most famous 20th century ballerina, Yvette Chauvire. The Palais Garnier was full of distinguished ballet dancers from the past but the event was a shambles. There was no introduction. It opened with a defile of all the current Opera dancers, as impressive as ever on the huge raked stage; but from then it went downhill. In all there were only 33 minutes of live dance, badly under-rehearsed. The orchestra played so badly they were booed at the end. The Grand Pas Classique, which was created on her, was poorly danced, and brought back memories of how spectacular Sylvie Guillem was in it. There was a brief pas de deux from Lifar's Les Mirages, a pedestrian performance of The Dying Swan, a 2 minute excerpt from Two Pigeons (well performed by the POB School) and, best of all, two extracts from Lifar's Suite en Blanc. It is time that there was a revival of Lifar's ballets, he was a good choreographer. Finally- and it was finally, as the first two attempts to start it failed- there was a film compiled of extracts of her dancing, including a moving Dying Swan and her final performance, in Giselle, her most famous role, plus shots of her teaching. The whole event was lack lustre and dishonoured a wonderful ballerina.

Sorry, my comments on the Black Swan pdd were confusing, I was being ironic! By 'hit' I meant for the audience; and the reference to Bolshoi showmanship (presumably the impact of Tsisikiradze on the Vaganova) was meant negatively. The piece, and the way it was performed seemed out of kilter with the rest of the event, it was more like traditional gala fodder.

It was a long and varied evening. The Paris Opera Ballet School performed two of the ballets that were in the programme they had presented in their three School performance: Raymonda Act 3 (Nureyev) and The Vertiginous Thrill Of Exactitude (Forsythe). They were tremendous in the latter, one of his more overtly neo-classical ballets. Raymonda drew on students from many years of the school. Raymonda was confidently danced by Margaux Gaudy-Talazac but I had been more impressed on Tuesday, at the School performance, by Bianca Scudamore, who had the assured poise of a ballerina in the making. Likewise, her Jean de Brienne, Samuel Bray, had the elegant style of a danseur noble (an elegance I had noted in his dancing in Vertiginous Thrill) whereas Milo Aveque, at the gala, was untidy and technically less assured. The RBS presented the Concerto pas de deux, well danced by Hang Yu and Harris Bell. It was very well received by the audience. The hit of the evening was the Black Swan pas de deux, by the Vaganova Academy ( a tall, long legged Eleonora Sevenard, knocking out fouettes like she could go on for ever but with a brittle Bolshoi panache, partnered by Egor Gerashchenko). Almost as popular was a work by Canada's National Ballet School, Chalkboard Memories, danced by three students to a most moving record sung by Nina Simone. Coincidentally there was another piece using Nina Simone, danced very well by 4 Stuttgart students. There were clever hand movements and it was unusual; but the choreography was inappropriate for the Simone music. The Royal Danish Ballet School were represented by 4 dancers in Abdallah, dancing the Bournonville choreography cleanly and musically. The Hamburg Ballet School offered a ballet by Neumeier that was long and included a variety of styles, and six students from the San Francisco Ballet School danced a 10 minute piece. The evening ended with an impressive defile, mixing all the students of the Paris Opera Ballet School with all the participants at the gala (and including Sae Maeda and Joshua Junker of the RBS, who were the substitutes). Altogether an inspiring evening.

Nina's first ever Raymonda was in London and her control, technique and authority were unbelievable. But, many years later, she and her company were also remarkable in performances in Giselle, at the Edinburgh Festival, remarkable because their performances coincided with the development of violent civil war in Georgia, when they did not know how their friends and families were faring. Consummate professionalism.

I spoke to a member of BRB staff last night and he said there was a chance that Bayadere might be resuscitated, the project is shelved rather than definitely cancelled. Unfortunately BRB will not be performing in Sunderland in the autumn but it is hoped that they will return next spring, possibly with Coppelia in early April.

It's just not true that it's difficult to get good audiences in Sunderland, although it is the biggest theatre in the region, so more difficult to fill, and if it were located in nearby Newcastle audiences would be better still (there's not much love lost between the 2 cities). The seats are no longer cheap.... and it's an ATG theatre, which doesn't help. Nor does the inability of BRB to get key information about the following season to the theatre to enable audiences to book while they are attending BRB performances. In the autumn, booking for the spring started the week after the BRB performances finished so people had to contend with the high ATG booking fees, dreadful ATG website and long delays in answering the phone, when they could have just booked with the friendly box office staff while at the theatre. This delay has happened at least once before, more, I think. I'm not sure yet that Sunderland has been dropped, there have been times in the past that dates for Sunderland have been released later than those for other theatres because agreements having been finalised. I have had a long term debate with BRB over Sunderland, over decades (it's my nearest theatre for BRB main rep, albeit 60 miles away) but management always insist that they won't drop it. We shall see!

Northern Ballet has just announced that they will be dancing 3 of MacMillan's one act masterpieces to commemorate him: Concerto, Las Hermanas, Gloria. Performances will take place in Bradford (October5-7, 2017) and Leeds (March 16-17, 2018)

There was a preview of an excerpt at the Sadler's Wells Sampled. Six of Northern's excellent young male dancers performed- Nicola Gervasi, Kevin Poeung, Matthew Koon, Matthew Topliss, Luke Francis and Riku Ito. It wasn't clear what roles they were portraying and it fizzled out at the end, when they ran off and the audience wasn't sure if their dance had finished or not. But it was very successful in every other respect. They danced in unison, as a group, so there was no distinct individuality, but the choreography was very good, no gimmicks, contemporary, not unlike ENB's Lest We Forget, and very well danced.

Appalling news. One can't entirely blame the council when its government funding has been slashed and it struggles to fund statutory services for the vulnerable. Having followed the company, in its various forms, since I skived off school to see Seymour dance Swan Lake in 1959, I shudder at its future. What is almost as worrying as the cuts is the artistic response. The letter claims that the company will carry the cut "without reducing the quality or breadth of our artistic programme'. But Aladdin is a dreadful ballet, in my view, Bintley's worst, little more than an elaborate posh pantomime. Why replace Bayadere with that? And presumably BRB only has a joint share as it was created on a Japanese company. So will BRB have to pay them a fee? If for financial reasons it has to be a Bintley ballet, rather than another full length from BRB's rich heritage, why not do Hobson's Choice? That is popular, is dramatically strong and has lots of good roles. Artistic policy should consider works that help develop dancers as well as attract the public. BRB needs to take account of the way that 'competitor' companies, ENB, Northern, Scottish, have all upped their game. Which Bintley ballets would you prefer to Aladdin?

It has been reported in Paris that the performances already announced for New York of 3 national companies performing the three ballets of Jewels, will be reprised in September, opening the Paris season with Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet and the Bolshoi respectively dancing Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds

One of Jerome Robbins' masterpieces, Antique Epigraphs, is all-women. It has a spiritual intensity, in part due to the lack of intersexual engagement.

I have found out a bit more about the BNC programme for Paris. The venue, the Salle Pleyel, was until recently the most prestigious concert hall in Paris. It is very central (rue du Faubourg St Honore). The company opens with the programme in tribute to Alicia Alonso on Thursday 6 July. The grande dame is likely to be present. There is no news yet on the possible programme but she was such a famous international ballerina (one of the great Giselles, Balanchine's Theme and Variations was created on her, and she has contributed to productions at the Paris Opera, decades ago) that it is likely to be a very special evening. Giselle opens the next day and there are 7 performances, with matinees at 3pm on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 July, at slightly reduced prices. It is a very good production, based according to Jonah Acosta on the Mary Skeaping version, but with its own features, including the most scary Wilis ever ( well, before Akram Khan!) Don Q opens on Saturday 15 for 8 performances, including matinees on Saturday 15, Sunday 16, again at 3pm, making day trips possible. It ends on Thursday 20th. The performances of Don Q at the recent international festival were spectacular, as described in the January Dance Europe, and attracted star guests such as Osiel Gouneo. Young Cuban male dancers have a fabulous technique, well suited to the flash of Don Q. The public will be able to watch company class on the mornings of 9, 16, 20. For anyone who fancies a brief ballet vacation In Paris, there's a chance to see Paris Opera Ballet do the very interesting Lacotte version of La Sylphide (July 1 - 16: booking opens next month) or the more contemporary Drumming Live (Steve Reich/ Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker: 10 - 15).

It has just been reported that the Ballet Nacional de Cuba will be performing at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, July 6-20, 2017. They will be performing two of their best and most popular productions, Giselle (6 performances) and Don Quixote (7). The opening programme will be a tribute to their legendary founder, Alicia Alonso.

I saw them at their last performance in Edinburgh. It was wonderful to see Ghost Dances again, although no cast will ever match the original dancers. The movements are relatively simple yet the whole piece conveys deep and complex emotions. it is a wonderful piece of theatre; the South American folk music and designs (set designed by Christopher Bruce himself) and choreography all interact to produce impact. The theme of loss through political violence remains all too potent. By contrast the two other pieces (Tomorrow by Lucy Guerin and Frames by Alexander Whitley) were very clever and well danced but conveyed no meaning. Ghost Dances is now touring, with the other pieces in the bill changing in programmes at different venues, and reaches Sadler's Wells in mid-May.