SheilaC

I thought that she learned the script by heart, that's what was claimed. It's great to see performances by some wonderful male dancers- not just Misha, but a young David Wall ( the main partner in the Rose Adagio), Desmond Kelly in one of his greatest roles, Apollo, and that remarkable contemporary dancer, Patrick Harding Irmer

According to the Observer the Royal Ballet will be performing a new Wayne McGregor three act ballet in the autumn; the much trailed Margaret Atwood based ballet, to be called MadAddam.

All three series understandably featured quite a few excerpts of the presenter dancing but this was particularly true of Makarova's. In her case several of the dance sequences were specially filmed for the series. The most riveting was of the two main pas de deux from Onegin, beautifully and movingly done. Her partner in Onegin was not the brooding Alexander Sombart, who regularly partnered her in Onegin, to his disappointment as he told me, but Reid Anderson. All Onegin fans would love it!

No, there wasn't a second Fonteyn series. However, there was another wonderful series, headed by Peter Schaufuss, I think, on male dancers, called Dancer, I think. (Can't find anything by googling). There was some very interesting film of male dancers, most notably, for me, of Vladimir Vaslilev. There was a long sequence of him and his wife, the equally great Maximova, dancing the pas de deux from Giselle, breathtaking. It must have been shown in the late 1980s as it inspired us to go to see Maximova and Vasiliev dance Giselle as guests of the Kirov in Paris in January 1989, in a most unsuitable theatre, yet the most magical performance of Giselle I've ever seen. (By going to Paris we were unable to see a very young Guillem dance Giselle in London for the first time, the same week, partnered by Nureyev, another big moment in the history of Giselle and dance). The series also showed Vasiliev in other roles, including some of his own choreography (he was not quite such a good choreographer as dancer). It would be wonderful if the BBC would show the series again, some excellent dance excerpts.

Michael O'Hare's final performance was last Friday. He was the grandfather at the party in Act 1, joined by Marion Tait as the grandmother. As ever in the past they were fully in character, never overplaying it but with some affectionate interaction between them. At the end of the performance Carlos Acosta bounded on stage. After paying tribute to Michael's huge contribution to the company, as dancer and as repetiteur, he announced that an even more appropriate speaker would follow, Michael's younger brother. Kevin spoke of the range of Michael's career and recounted how when MacMillan rehearsed the company in his early dramatic ballet, The Burrow, in which Michael was the joker, a very difficult role, MacMillan commented that he was a genius. Kevin said that it was the end of an era, very much my feeling as Michael and Marion personified for me the SWRB/BRB company of Peter Wright and David Bintley. At the end of the tribute Michael ran on stage to tumultuous applause from the audience and all the dancers.

Although general booking was scheduled to open today I wasn't able to find the season on the Coli website. However I rang the box office and was able to book my usual seat. I asked when the season would end, as I don't think it was stated in the press release, and it's Sunday 1 September.

Wonderful news. Nina A, as we used to call her, was a true ballerina, such style and technique. I have never forgotten how she, and her company, delivered near perfect performances of Giselle in Edinburgh the very weekend that the Russians were invading Georgia, such courage and professionalism when they had no idea what was happening to their country and loved ones. It is poetic justice that they are taking over a Russian slot. Jonathan Grey visited the company on home turf a couple of years before the Dancing Times folded, and he was most impressed.

No, Alexei Fadeyechev was not in the same league as his fantastic father, Nicolai, not was Kevin. But Nina Ananiashvili more than made up for the stressful journey.

Sorry, Emeralds, I should have said yes, from the last act of Dante.

Well worth listening to on BBC Sounds. He talks entertainingly about his life, from being a lad in Hull, following his sister and brother to ballet class, the boost to his understanding and training in ballet by David Gayle's Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, through being taught by Dolin, Markova and other Ballets Russes luminaries, to White Lodge and his period at SWRB/BRB, including dancing the first night of the production of Romeo and Juliet which MacMillan revised for BRB. I remember that night well, having driven from Sunderland to Birmingham in torrential rain, nearly late for the performance start only to find that Kevin had replaced the guest artist from the Bolshoi, Fadeyechev, due to the latter's injury. (He doesn't mention that!) Some quite long excerpts from ballet scores, mostly from the best known ballets but ending with Faure's Requiem which he says he loves, plus some music from a musical and a film.

Interesting that the photos of current dancers include Joseph Taylor of Northern Ballet

Last night Yorke Dance premiered the programme that will be shown in the Linbury in March. The company always presents interesting rep of works by British and American choreographers, not least Robert Cohan in recent years. And of course they revived Kenneth MacMillan's piece about Hamlet, Sea of Troubles, from which they created a film, shown at the Linbury last month. For this latest programme they have returned to a MacMillan ballet, assisted by Deborah MacMillan, in a further revision of his Isadora. As ever, the small company has excellent dancers, including two wonderful performers from the previous Rambert company, Luke Ahmet and Pierre Tappon. In Leeds there was a guest dancer from the Martha Graham Dance Company, Laurel Dalley Smith (who was previously a Company member of YDP for a year ), she isn't cast for the next performance in Banbury next month but may perform at the Linbury I would guess (casting is only available for the first two performances). The performance was in two halves. At the start Yolande Yorke-Edgell, the artistic director, introduced the bill, discussing the theme of pioneering women from California. This was helpful but equally interesting was the printed programme, given free to the audience, which gives information on the choreographers, the dancers, other members of the artistic team and, of course, the different dances. The rest of the first half was Isadora- the third and, thankfully, shortest version. It lasted about 40 minutes and Amy Thake, who danced Isadora, was on stage the entire time. She was variously shown in relationships with Gordon Craig, Paris Singer, Beach Boy and Sergei Esenin, in a series of choreographed sexual couplings requiring complex partnering. At times she danced on her own to suggest her artistic aims but it didn't convey the spirit, personal and artistic, as persuasively as Ashton's solos, Brahms Waltzes, created on Lynn Seymour. (MacMillan had originally told Lynn he would create the Isadora ballet on her but in the end he chose Merle Park). Amy Thake's performance was, nevertheless, a tour de force, sympathetically charting Isadora's personal loves and tragedies through expressive dance. There was no actor on stage, unlike the original version, but Isadora's words are voiced by an actress. The second half started with Martha Graham's famous Errand into the Maze, danced by Lalley Smith and Ed Mitton (who is also rehearsal director for the company). She was impressive, really exemplifying the Graham technique and style, so different from the current contemporary styles. Following that, there were two contributions from the choreography of Bella Lewitzky, the first, Suite Satie, two excerpts to some of Satie's best loved music, and then Meta 4, four dancers performing four movements. They were very well rehearsed, necessarily so, as at times they were dancing in parallel. I was unfamiliar with Lewitzky's choreography but found the use of space interesting and modern. As ever. the company is well worth catching and I will probably book to see them again when they perform at the Linbury (March 21-22).

I had assumed- and hoped!- that Michael would be dancing Drosselmeyer (the website gives very little information on casting) but an email from BRB today states that he will be the grandfather. However, the good news is that, for his final performance, he will be joined by Marion Tait as the grandmother. How special.

BRB has today sent an email about their production of Nutcracker. It includes the sad news that Michael O'Hare is retiring on the evening performance of Nutcracker on Friday 8 December. He has been with the company for 43 years and was one of their best male dancers (some might claim an even better dancer than brother Kevin!), wonderful in all the Ashton roles he danced and, more recently, equally wonderful in character roles (one of the most impressive, scary, Lord Capulets), including Drosselmeyer in Nutcracker, the role he will be exiting in. So special was he that I'd often select, in recent years, a performance in which he was appearing rather than the dancers in the leading classical roles. I have just booked that performance- and hope I'll meet some of his other fans.

On Thursday, before the matinee, members of the orchestra, were outside the theatre with leaflets, encouraging everyone to sign, and Federico came on stage to appeal to the audience for support- reminded me of all the times his wonderful predecessor, Christopher Gable, used to come on stage to appeal for support. It is far from the first time that the company has had to fight for its existence, as I know from working on their archives for many years. So I imagine that appeals will be made before every performance. Every member of the orchestra wore a tee shirt to keep Northern Ballet live. It had been announced that even the leader of the TUC would be there on Friday, before the performance, but as Jan doesn’t mention that maybe he was unable to attend. But certainly at the TUC conference the plight of the orchestra was discussed, it is impressive how much publicity the campaign has managed to generate.

It's because he is preparing for Mark Bruce's Frankenstein. But he is hoping to perform Minotaur again in the future.

I have just learned that Matthew Ball will take on Jonathan Goddard's role in Minotaur.

In addition to Adagio Hammerklavier the Royal used to dance another wonderful van Manen ballet- and one created on the Royal! Four Schumann Pieces was created on Dowell, Eagling, Collier and Penney, all of whom were excellent. It would be great if it were performed again, it was deservedly very popular in its day.

I hope she'll be dancing at the matinees, I've just booked 2. But as it's only a small troupe presumably there won't be another lead.

Sorry for delay, I've got on-going problems with my WiFi. I assume that Alina and Matty will dance all performances. There's a double bill of Minotaur (with Jonathan Goddard, I think and hope) and a new piece by Kim Brandstrup (who has created pieces on Alina before), Metamorphoses, for Alina, Matty, Kristen McNally and Tommy Franzen. I hope that's all accurate, I'm just going by notes I made prior to booking, so forgive any inaccuracies. It's quite a short bill, and likely to be contemporary rather than classical - but should be great!

So that's why the performances by Alina in Bath, which were due to start that week, have been put back to the following week.

I agree their production of Sylphide was exceptionally good. But as the company will apparently only have 12 dancers they couldn't do it. But Christopher Bruce's powerful Swan Song, featuring 3 male dancers, would be a wonderful dramatic piece for a well designed triple bill.

Yes, Grant Coyle and Christopher Carr- but also Laura Day, assisting Carr. She's such a loss to BRB but a lovely asset for the Australian Ballet. So lovely to see some Ashton, even in rehearsal. The sound is too low, at least on my MacBook.

I had intended to mention that there is currently another theatre in Paris showing Robbins' choreography. The famous Chatelet theatre has programmed the musical West Side Story, with Robbins' original choreography. It will be on until 31 December, ticket prices from 14,90 to 119,90 Euros. Unfortunately I didn't know about it until I was in Paris so was unable to attend.... but perhaps other forum readers who are going to Paris may be able to go.

The Robbins triple bill opened last week and I saw three performances. At a time when we are all frustrated at the selection of ballets by the Royal Ballet it is heartening that the newish artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet chose this bill, well balanced with contrasting ballets, and honouring a choreographer who worked with the company for over 20 years, rehearsing 12 of his ballets there. The first ballet, En Sol, to Ravel's Concerto in G, is a good opener, light and bright, with lots of fast movement representing swimming and beach games, and a meaty pas de deux in the middle. Like Ashton's, Robbins' choreography looks much simpler and technically easier than it actually is, in particular some of the partnering is quite tricky. Leonore Baulac and Germain Louvet coped well with all the demands but, surprisingly, Hugo Marchand coped slightly less well with the partnering of Hannah O'Neill. The middle ballet was In the Night. The first three dances are pas de deux and it was interesting to compare how well they looked on the Garnier's vast stage compared to the much smaller stage in Aix. The Royal Ballet's excuse for not presenting some of the earlier Ashton works and other ballets from its past is that the main stage is too big for them; yet In the Night, a seemingly small scale piece, benefits from being on a larger stage, which rather undermines that argument. The dancers were largely the same as in Aix. I found Myriam Ould-Braham and Paul Marque (he was paired with Sae Eun Park at a different performance) particularly moving as the first couple, he was very expressive especially in the use of his back; and Dorothee Gilbert and Hugo Marchand dramatically moving as the third couple. All performances were well received but the middle one attracted the orchestrated clapping that is now much less common in Paris than in the past. The Royal Ballet danced this ballet quite a lot before Covid, it would be great if they could do it again soon. Another ballet that the Royal used to do was The Concert, a rare comedic ballet that remains funny no matter how often you see it. The key role of the ballerina was created on Tanaquil LeClerq, Robbins' muse (and Balanchine's last wife), apparently a wonderful comedienne; Lynn Seymour was brilliantly funny in the role. At the three performances, the dancer who impressed me most was Leonore Baulac, one of my favourite dancers in classic roles, but hilarious in this one. The least successful performance was the one where the dancers were less experienced, it is a ballet where performance skills matter more than dance technique. But in that performance a dancer I had admired in Aix, Clara Mousseigne, took on the role of the angry girl in spectacles, at first she didn't get the timing (so crucial in comedy) quite right but as the performance developed her confidence grew and she was very funny. She has very recently been promoted to 'Sujet' (soloist) so it may be one of the first roles she has taken. So, a good mix: pure dance, exploration of romantic relationships, comic sendup, all to wonderful music.