SheilaC

I saw the ballet company at Odessa about 40 years ago. My father and I shared a small box with a couple from Siberia. My father, who was learning Russian, chatted with them and afterwards they corresponded. We saw Esmeralda, unfortunately I couldn't get a programme or cast list. The opera house is very beautiful. Two weeks ago the Guardian showed photos of the main company in Kyiv rehearsing for a performance that week as the theme for its photo spread in the centre pages. (I don't think it was in Links, presumably because it wasn't an article or review; and when I later tried to search for it on the paper's website I could find no reference to it).

I booked a performance weeks ago, for the music even more than the dance!- Kolesnikov is an absolutely superb pianist. He and Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker have already performed this piece in Paris, to rave reviews. It has recently announced that she will be performing it again in Paris, I think, next season, but next time it will be with a different pianist.

In addition to the TV showings of full works, the BBC showed ballet excerpts as part of wider programmes, when I was a girl. Children's TV often had some ballet; I first encountered Bournonville, danced by Henning Kronstam and Kirsten Simone, no less, on children's TV. And if my father was out in the evening, teaching drama at night school, my mother would let me stay up to watch Eric Robinson's concert programme if there was ballet included, as there often was. What's important about both these examples is that ballet was then treated as mainstream, not some weird elite art form.

She would be a good choice, although I think there's been some unrest among her dancers in the past. Is there any chance Irek might get it? It's true he's not had a lot of directorial experience but years ago he ran a very good little company, but he's been at POB several years now and could be Nureyev's heir! (Although that would be truer still of Legris, Le Riche, and various others)

Yes, but so are Nicolas Le Riche (Sweden) and Manuel Legris (La Scala, although he's only been there a year and a half.) Indeed, there are other former Paris Opera etoiles directing companies successfully. Hopefully they will choose someone who values classical ballet more than Dupont, Millepied or Lefevre...... very unlikely in the present climate!

The performance last night was very successful and raised nearly £27k for Unicef's Ukraine appeal. It had sold out within 3 hours of booking being opened to the general public. Prior to the performance I had reservations about the format, with the first part concentrating on class. However it worked well as the director, Ivan Kozlov, introduced each part of class humorously and explaining aspects of ballet training, from the five positions to the number of years necessary for training. Given that many in the audience were likely to be sponsors rather than a regular ballet audience it probably gave them more insight into what ballet involves and enabled them to see dancers as individuals with different personalities before watching them as performers, projecting very different personas, in the second part. The second part included excerpts from no less than 12 ballets. It opened with Odette's pas de deux from Swan Lake, backed by 12 corps members on the tiny stage. Kristina Kadashevych danced it with authority; later she gave a moving version of The Dying Swan. Her hands were very expressive, a feature of most of the dancers. I remembered the last time The Dying Swan was danced in York; by Marienella Nunez, no less, but dancing a different version, one danced by Ninette de Valois who taught it to Margeurite Porter who then coached Nela. The other excerpts were very varied, including classical solos, from Paquita, Corsaire (two solos, one male, one female), Don Q, plus the corps and two soloists dancing the waltz from Nutcracker. There was an interesting modern solo and a pas de deux from yet another version of Carmen, and the Bulba solo by Lopukhov, which looked familiar, energetic Russian folk dance. There was an amusing duet, which the audience loved and finally 8 male dancers erupted n a lively show off piece. Altogether a varied programme and the in the finale the dancers took their applause by each dancing a brief dance related to what they had performed earlier. Understandably the music, both for the class and the excerpts, was recorded. In the absence of decor the lighting varied for each piece and the costumes were attractive. The flooring was loaned by Northern Ballet. The production was professional, I've been to less slick galas in London. The standard of dancing varied but there were some good dancers. The audience was highly enthusiastic. I see today that the company will be touring in the States later in the year. It struck me last night that there might be theatres in the UK that might book them to dance some of their full length productions, given that the various small Russian companies that toured here regularly will no longer be able to come. Ironically, much of their rep is Russian!

It started about 6.15, with an interminable excerpt of music from one of his musicals. Eventually he talked about some of his ballets, the Tchaikovsky ones, inevitably he was asked about Swan Lake, but said he hadn't expected it to be such a huge hit until the opening night, when Cameron Mackintosh and the audience absolutely loved it. There was music from Swan Lake, some discussion of his new version of CarMen for the Royal Albert Hall, but with few details and it ended with an excerpt of the opera Carmen. It was about 25 minutes altogether. He is a very interesting interviewee, came over very well (and I'm no fan!).

In Tune, on Radio 3, this evening (about 15-20 minutes in) had interviews with Joby Talbot and the guitarist Tomas Barreiro to discuss Like Water. The programme played a piece from the new ballet, plus an excerpt from Alice and started with an extract from Talbot's Ink Dusk Moon. Sorry if this should go in the new music theme!

Jerome Barnes gave a stunning performance at yesterday's matinee, well danced, coping well with the difficult partnering, and charting persuasively and movingly Rudolf's psychological decline. The greater focus on the relationships, due to cutting some of the more general scenes, intensifies the emotional impact of the tragedy. Constance Devernay as Mary Vetsera and Bethany Kingsley-Garner as Princess Stephanie were also compelling. I was disappointed that the audience wasn't bigger, apparently about 500, and only about 650 on the Friday night. The orchestra had been considerably extended so the production must have been expensive, with the new designs, very effective, so the company must have lost money on it. Londoners who are considering travelling to the regions for ballet will save money on travel costs by booking as far ahead as possible. Theatre tickets tend to be cheaper away from London which can help.

The beautiful (Matcham)York Theatre Royal has just announced that there will be a fundraising gala on Tuesday June 14 by Kyiv City Ballet, the company that was stranded in Paris in February and has since performed in several theatres in France. The first half will be class, the second part excerpts from Swan Lake and Nutcracker, 23 Ukrainian dancers will be performing. All ticket proceeds will go to go to the UNICEF Ukraine appeal. The performance is being supported by many local hotels, Bettys, and other York organisations, plus Eurostar and LNER.

Thanks for highlighting this worrying development Janet. Tickets have been on sale for several months now for 2 performances in York in the autumn. Presumably they are now unlikely to go ahead. The news is desperately disappointing given the wonderful programme of works from their history that they have recently presented and the excellent gala they gave in Leeds to celebrate their 40th anniversary. It is not clear what Dane Hurst's position is. The website has continued to list him as artistic director, and he is scheduled to develop a new work for the company in association with Northern Opera. But his departure was announced some months back, on the grounds that he needed to return to South Africa for family and artistic reasons. A couple of insiders I have mentioned it to have been very tightlipped. Very worrying altogether.

The Guardian 's article today on the extensive lineup for the jubilee concert includes the Royal Ballet. I've been wondering what short piece would be most appropriate for this TV celebration.

I contacted them yesterday to ask what Alina will be performing and they replied ‘We will announce the special ballet Alina is performing very soon... we look forward to announcing the full programme shortly’.

Yes, exactly, they increasingly work together on topics of mutual concern, and some are on each other's boards (eg Kevin O'Hare is on the Northern Ballet board).

No-one here has commented on the panel but I am concerned that, in my view at least, there is no-one currently associated with ballet, as opposed to dance. Obviously Deborah Bull is a former RB principal and then involved with the Linbury for some years but now has a much broader role in the arts and HE. Spalding, although he does put on some ballet at the Wells, prioritises dance more generally and although there are now links between ENB and SWT the emphasis is very much on contemporary ballet. There is a representative of the Arts Council but many of us have doubts about the way ACE appears to be emasculating classical ballet. I would have liked a representative of a UK ballet company to be involved. Christopher Hampson, AD of Scottish Ballet, would have been an excellent choice (assuming that he isn't planning on applying).

As a fan of Cuban ballet I saw Javier dance several times in the six years before he joined Northern Ballet. He was quite a good dancer then but, once he had adjusted to the very different style and approach of Northern Ballet, he gradually developed into the magnificent dancer and artist that he is today. A testimony not only to his own commitment but also to the artistic direction of David Nixon.

The Ailey documentary is very well worth watching on I-Player. It's a bit long in places but the archive material is all fascinating, often moving, and there are excerpts from his masterpiece, Revelations, throughout; surely one of the greatest dance pieces of the last century. And for this Seymour fan there are 2 very brief shots of her dancing parts of Flowers in 1971, the piece he created on her (one hour in, exactly, for anyone who's interested).

I dread to think what the New Lost Dog is about; the recommended age is from 14. That's 2 years older than for Mayerling which features rape, drug taking, murder and suicide (in my view the recommended age should be higher than 12). So how does The New Lost Dog require an older age? I'm appalled at how McGregor dominates the programme: 43 performances altogether (Wolf Works : 12; his own company at the Linbury : 25; his new ballet in the mixed bill that includes the original Anastasia: 6) And how can a bill celebrating 60 years of the Royal Ballet not include an Ashton or even one of MacMillan's very good one act ballets?

The Balanchine ballet is the wonderful 'black and white' ballet, The Four Temperaments. Created in 1946 but still seems more modern than many contemporary works. A good triple as it includes a Van Manen piece. There's also a Forsythe programme in June.

I've now booked to see the new production of Mayerling at Edinburgh. Today the Paris Opera Ballet has announced that they will be mounting Mayerling in the autumn (22 October to to 12 November). They will also be doing Manon as their final ballet (19 June to 15 July) Best of all, they are going to do Balanchine's Ballet Imperial although unfortunately there's only one other Balanchine ballet in that programme, Who Cares (6 February to 10 March). The one classic is Nureyev's Swan Lake. They are doing a very mixed bag of ballets, no Robbins, no Roland Petit, various contemporary choreographers, plus Bejart, Pina Bausch and, as has been posted already, MacGregor's Dante Project.

What has poor William Bracewell done to deserve selection as Edgar? And the roles of young Cathy and Heathcliff are important, who would you choose? Isabella Gasparini is very familiar with David Nixon’s choreography from her years at Northern Ballet and might make a good young Cathy.

The pyrotechnics were, indeed, absolutely exhilarating, but given the theme of the show it was the sadder and more reflective pieces which moved me most. Several were, in different ways, about death. The opening pas de deux showed Ukrainian Katja Khaniukova and Aitor Arrieta in Liam Scarlett's No Man's Land. As there was no information about pieces, other than title, choreographer and composer, not everyone in the audience may have realised it was about grief in the First World War. I found the interpretation dancing and music incredibly poignant. That was followed by The Dying Swan, Javier Torres in one of his final performances in a powerful and harrowing solo that started with natural sounds like wind followed by the famous Saint-Saens score. Later Luca Acri performed Lacrimosa to Mozart and the ENO chorus, Natalia Osipova in Ashes, to music played by Nigel Kennedy, culminating in MacMillan's Requiem, the wonderful Ukrainian Aud Jebsen dancer, Marianna Tsembenhoi. Altogether a wonderful programme, varied and well balanced, with fabulous dancers. It's amazing that Ivan and Alina put it together in so little time. Their comments at the start were moving. The ambassador was sat in the royal box, so close to the stage that he couldn't see much of the action, but he kept leaning forward to catch as much as he could, and applauded very enthusiastically. Inside the printed programme (again, very professionally presented, with some lovely photos of each dancer) there was a slip with a message from Alina encouraging us to donate to the charity of which she is a patron, Hospices of Hope, which has a Ukraine appeal, to extend its support to refugees, to provide medical, palliative, counselling support and medical supplies and food. https://www.hospicesofhope.co.uk/Appeal/help-for-ukraine

The policy of controlling British companies' touring venues and, arguably, schedules has impacted, in my view, the scale and spread of the ballet audience across the country. The discussion of Liverpool audiences being conservative made me recall all the wonderful performances I used to see in Liverpool by LFB, most notably a terrific triple bill that included Petit's L'Arlesienne with Schaufuss and Mireille Bourgeois. The audience wasn't conservative then, their caution now is likely to be due to the significant reduction in varied performances over the years. Likewise, the variety of ballets on offer by BRB has declined markedly since the creative days of John Field and Peter Wright during the RB touring group and SWRB. In a rare attempt to declutter I've come across a leaflet for SWRB in Sunderland in 1987. In that week there were 5 performance of Fille (casts: Karen Donovan, Petter Jacobsson; Nicola Katrak, Michael O'Hare; Sandra Madgwick, Roland Price; Leanne Benjamin, David Yow; Marion Tait, Patrick Armand). Yes, SWRB even announced casts well in advance. Still a standard rep choice you may think. But in addition there was a triple bill, 2 performances, of Paquita, (Marion Tait, Patrick Armand; Miyako Yoshida, Roland Price), The Picture of Dorian Gray, an overdramatic ballet by Derek Deane, (Roland Price, Samira Saidi; Petter Jacobsson, Leanne Benjamin) and Facade (Galina Samsova, Alain Dubreuil, at both performances. And there was a special schools matinee that included Facade (June Highwood, Stephen Wicks) and the Sleeping Beauty pas de deux (Leanne Benjamin and a certain Kevin O'Hare- not even a soloist then). If I went through my filed programmes for that era I would find many similar examples of varied and interesting repertory for SWRB- and LFB too. There was so much choice that someone who initially attended the ballet just for a social occasion could be tempted to try a more adventurous programme and would gradually become a more educated ballet goer. Wonderful though Swan Lake is, a diet of that classic offered by all the main companies doesn't encourage people to try out something new- there are so few options. I deliberately listed the main casts because many members of the forum will recognise some of the names- dancers who went on to become ballet stars, dancers who have since contributed significantly to dance teaching, even both parents of an up and coming RB dancer. People who think Carlos Acosta is the first to reinvigorate the company that is now BRB couldn't be more wrong. But the reduction in touring (venues, number of performances per week- halved in the case of Sunderland) and having to play safe by choosing well known ballets, is a self-inflicted wound by the Arts Council. In these difficult times they are unlikely to change policy.

So,once again the North loses out. Raymonda was scheduled to premiere at Manchester, but will they show it there?- no. Instead, yet another Swan Lake. BRB had already announced that they will be touring Swan Lake next season.

Did Shang not perform in Birmingham Janet? She was scheduled to and is listed in the cast lists. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing her in Sunderland, Covid permitting.