Terpsichore

I know her constituency well as it lies in Kirklees where I also live. Occasionally I have canvassed in her constituency though not for her party. Politics is neither pretty nor polite here but I have never heard an unkind word spoken about her. She was respected greatly by her opponents and genuinely liked by her constituents whether they voted for her or not. The same cannot be said of every other MP. Although I never met her I feel diminished by her death in the way that I would at the loss of a close friend or relation.

I saw yesterday's matinee with Erina Takahashi and Yonah Acosta in the leading roles and enjoyed the performance thoroughly. Takahashi was convincing as both Odette and Odile and Acosta was rumbustious and thrilling. They were supported well by Jane Howarth as Siegfried's mum, Michel Coleman as his tutor and MC and Fabian Reimair as Rothbart. I enjoyed all the divertissements, especially the Spanish dance for it included Sarah Kundi and the Neapolitan one with Shiori Kase and Vitor Menezes. I gather from the statistics page that there were up to 60 swans. I didn't count them but there were a lot of them and their numbers were impressive. The orchestra was conducted not by Graham Sutherland but by Helena Bayo. It was the first time I had seen her. She directed the orchestra with passion. Although I enjoyed the performance very much I do have some reservations about ballet in the round. While I like it occasionally I would not like to see too much of it.

Oh dear. Another impediment on my way to class at KNT. The last one occurred just before the Swan Lake intensive last year and caused a lot of delay and inconvenience. I am not sure bureaucracy is the answer Alison. Or at least not the complete one. And it is certainly not European red tape for look how quickly the French built motorways, high speed railways and nuclear power stations - not that that is necessarily a good thing. Also the Japanese have regulations too. I had a similar experience to Lisa's. I was caught in a train between Kobe and Kyoto when strong winds from a typhoon blew the overhead wires down. At first the carriage was plunged into darkness but shortly afterwards the emergency lighting kicked in. At the bottom of the railway cutting I glimpsed a maintenance crew in clean white overalls proceeding at the double. Within the hour power was restored and we were on out way. Contrast that with some of the excuses I used to hear for late and cancelled trains when I used to commute to London. "Leaves on the line". "The wrong type of snow" and even a cow on the line between Earlsfield and Clapham Junction.

I might be able to help here Janet McNulty. I published an article and photos of last year's class in my blog on 8 July 2015, It is clear from the report that some skill and experience is required. Certainly way above my standard.

I saw a lot of good ballet last week:Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre for Northern Ballet in Richmond on 1st June and David Dawson's Swan Lake in Liverpool on the 3rd. Christopher Moore's Pinocchio for Ballet Theatre UK was also good albeit different. I don't know whether I am the only one to appreciate the irony of a performance of Pinocchio on the very afternoon that the English Defence League were demonstrating just a few hundred yards away but I am heartened that BTUK seem to have attracted a bigger crowd than the demo and counter-demo combined and the audience might well have been bigger had there been no demo. I have a lot of time for Ballet Theatre UK. They bring fresh, colourful productions to small auditoriums throughout the UK and I know from the chat in the bar that their work is appreciated. I have seen three of their works in the last two years and I think Pinocchio is the company's best yet. It is a gorgeous show with great sets by Martyn Plant and costumes by Daniel Hope. The music is beautiful and Christopher Moore's choreography is as always delightful. Great performances by all members of the cast, particularly by David Brewer as the carpenter, Ines Ferreira as his wife, Rodoplhe Giacalone as Pinocchio and Sarah Mortimer as an aggressive little boy called Lampwick. Rotherham seems to be particularly receptive to fantasy as it has a magical apothecary called Grimm & Co in the town centre. No kodding.

I would normally go on the overground via Waterloo but I was leading an all day seminar at an hotel in Pepys Street the next day for which I had to carry heavy equipment and papers as well as dresses, bags, footwear etc for a night at the ballet and a day's business. I did not want to hump all my luggage between the Piccadilly and Northern Lines at Leicester Square or some other interchange and then again at Waterloo. It was so much easier to stay on the Piccadilly line to Baron's Court and simply cross the platform.

I saw Jane Eyre in Richmond on Wednesday and liked it a lot. In fact I thought it was the best new work that I had seen from Northern Ballet for many years and blogged and tweeted quite enthusiastically about it for that reason. There was some clever choreography and even cleverer direction, great dancing by Javier Torres, Dreda Blow, Rachael Gillsepie and others. I also liked the score and designs. Although Richmond suited me as I grew up near there and know the theatre well it is at the end of the tube and not the easiest place to reach. I hope that the ballet will be performed in larger and more accessible theatres on a future tour.

I saw it last night and enjoyed it very much indeed. Even though the ballet had been restructured and every step created from scratch I found a lot of Petipa in the ballet. All the essentials of the story are there and I think it has been distilled into a very powerful concoction. There were also echoes of Petipa even in the choreography. For instance the cygnets' dance was still a pas de quatre albeit a free flowing and individual one and in the seduction scene in the equivalent of the black act first Siegfried and then Odette danced fouettes. I must say that I travelled to Liverpool with some trepidation because I don't take kindly to taking liberties with my favourite ballet but Dawson has not done that. I think Petipa might have approved and Darrell almost certainly would have been proud of this production.

In my post of 23 April I mentioned the performance of the young Canadian dancer Danielle Gould as the white cat in the Puss in Boots divertissement in the Hungarian National Ballet's performance of The Sleeping Beauty. I am very grateful to Skydancer for bringing this clip of her piece to my attention which I hope other subscribers will also enjoy:

I try not to have favourites but I do have a very soft spot for Ballet Cymru. On Saturday night Gita (my colleague on Team Terpsichore) and I were the company's guest at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport for the launch of the company's summer tour. This year they are taking two ballets round the country: Roald Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs; and Romeo a Juliet. Both works were created by Darius James and Amy Doughty. The first marks the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth in Wales and the second the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. The show I saw on Saturday was Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs which is dance with narrative based on two of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. It is a ballet that is suitable for children (and there were many in the auditorium) but it also appeals to adults. The central character in both ballets was Little Red Riding Hood danced appealingly by Lydia Arnoux but she was supported strongly by Mark Griffiths as the narrator, Andrea Battagia as the wolf, Robbie Moorcroft and the rest of the cast which included four promising young dancers, one of whom is actually Welsh. The recruitment of those four young dancers shows a growing self-confidence in the company which will manifest itself in a performance of Little Red Riding Hood at the massive Millennium Centre with the entire National Orchestra of Wales on 4 Dec 2016. It was a long and difficult drive to Newport from the North on Saturday through driving rain, poor visibility and dangerous surface water but the show was well worth it. If anyone is interested I reviewed the show yesterday and wrote a preview on 28 April 2016.

The Swan Theatre at High Wycombe is a very nice theatre which is very easy to reach from Holmfirth. It also has an excellent restaurant that serves cranachan for pudding. I saw the Southern tour there last year and the Royal New Zealand Ballet's Giselle there in November. I think Janet mentioned that she saw the Birmingham Royal Ballet southern programme at Cheltenham last week. Unfortunately I had professional commitments all last week and Ballet Black were in town on Saturday and Sunday. There will be other chances to see Monotones and Five Tangos and I am quite content with the programme in York. This is a deviation from Anastasia. One thing I do remember from the ballet first time round is that it had some interesting special effects. I discussed the ballet with Gerald Dowler on Monday and he nearly persuaded me to watch it again. I think maybe I may watch it in the pictures if I can. I am sure I will find something to like. As I said earlier I don't go to the ballet to moan and mope but to have a good time.

If you read my response again in context I think you will find that was actually addressing Alison's point that one should keep an open mind. All my contributions to this thread have mentioned Anastasia though I have mentioned other works such as The Winters Tale as an instance when I have revised my opinion of work. I agree that mentioning a different work by a different company is distracting and in respect of that other work I have already said all that I really want to say. For that matter, I have probably said all that I can say about Anastasia unless I see it again which might happen if (1) I happen to be in London when it is on (2) I can get a return and (3) there is nothing happening that evening that I would rather do.

We are very lucky in this part of the world because Northern Ballet Academy offers a range of open classes in Leeds and Gomersal between Monday and Thursday while KNT offers classes in the studios of the Northern Ballet School in Manchester every day except Sunday. I can also recommend Fiona Noonan's open class at Huddersfield University between 18:30 and 20:00 on Wednesdays. I attend at least one improvers class for the over 55s in Leeds and one in Manchester but there are times when I can't resist a third class which is either Jane Tucker's in Leeds or Fiona Noonan's in Huddersfield on Wednesday evening. On the very rare occasions when I can spare a couple of hours in London and have my dance kit with me I like to catch Adam Pudney.

Very wise words Alison and The Winter's Tale is an example from my own experience. I did give Nixon's Swan Lake a second chance leaving a 14 year gap between shows but is still not one of my favourite ballets. My taste now is not quite the same as it was when I was 22 but it hasn't changed much since I was 55. If I did not have to work I would see even more ballet but as I do I have to make hard choices. I have just been blogging about how much I would love to see the Birmingham Royal Ballet's southern tour but that would mean taking at least one and probably two days off work to travel to Poole or Truro or missing the northern tour. If I can't get to see Monotones II and Five Tangos which I love I am certainly not going to make similar sacrifices to see Anastasia which I don't like as much notwithstanding its great choreography and beautiful music.

I am glad you love ballet. It has given me much delight over the years as it will have done for many if not most on this forum. I am pleased you share that delight. I don't think it is necessary to have seen a lot of ballet in order to form an opinion on a work. It is a matter of impression and one person's view is as good as the next. There are all sorts of reasons why a work may appeal to one member of the audience but not to another. I see an average of 50 dance performances a year, read as much as I can on the subject and have even taken ballet lessons in my latter years. That experience may have helped me understand and perhaps appreciate the choreography a little more but it is unlikely to have informed my taste in the slightest. Returning to Anastasia it was the story that I did not like. In some ballets that does not matter but in this one it did. However. when I travel a long way and pay a lot of money to see a show I endeavour to look for some good in it somewhere rather than mope or moan about it. In Anastasia's case there was some great dancing. I saw Seymour in the title role and she was one of my favourite dancers at the time.

I apologize for not responding sooner but I have been busy with other matters. As this thread is primarily a discussion of Anastasia I do not wish to divert it to a discussion of another work. I expressed my views on Nixon's in Don't Expect Petipa on 5 Jan 2016 and Up the Swannee on 17 March 2016 both of which are in my blog. If you want to discuss Nixon's Swan Lake we could do so there. Alternatively there is a thread on Nixon's work on this website.

I saw Anastasia in 1971 and I have not been tempted to see it again. I sometimes change my mind about a ballet as I did with The Winter's Tale but that does not happen often. I gave David Nixon's Swan Lake a second chance after vowing in 2004 not to go near it again but my view had not changed. I did the same for 1984 thinking that I had been spoilt by the brilliance of the opening night of the Dutch National Ballet season with much the same result. I have to stress that I have never disliked any ballet. All the ones I have mentioned have their good points which in Anastasia's case was the score. I believe I was also impressed with MacMillan's choreography. I think it must have been the story that I didn't like because even in the days before DNA forensics Anna Anderson's claims seemed so improbable. Taste is subjective and each of the ballets I have listed have their aficionados whose tastes and opinions I respect. The thing is that life is short and I have neither the time nor the money to see everything I want to see. I am not going to spend the little of each that I do have on ballets that I like less than others.

I have just received from Mr György Jávorszky, International Communications Project Manager of the Hungarian State Opera, 10 beautiful photographs of the ballet which were taken by Mr Attila Nagy together with his kind permission to reproduce them in my blog. I start with the final scene of Aurora's wedding. Over the next few days I shall show them all.

On the 28 June 2016 young dancers from the Dutch National Ballet, La Scala, the Vienna State Ballet and the Jas Art Ballet will perform in a benefit gala at the Silvio Pellico Theatre in Trecate near Novara in North West Italy to raise funds for the Italian charity Casa Alessia to carry out reconstruction work at Bujumbura in Burundi. The gala will start with a solo called Tempo which the talented young Italian dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, has created for himself. It will continue with extracts from Swan Lake, Coppelia, The Pharaoh's Daughter and The Sleeping Beauty as well several new works including Palladio which Principato has choreographed for the Dutch National Ballet. The performance will end with Ernst Meisner's Embers which readers may remember from last year's performance by the Junior Company at Covent Garden. It is one of the most beautiful short ballets that I have ever seen. The charity was founded in memory of a young Italian woman called Alessia Mairati who died in a plane crash on her gap year in Ecuador. She had been shocked by the poverty that she seen in Latin America and vowed to do something about it on her return. Alas she was killed before she could fulfil her promise but her father set up the foundation to do the sort of work that she would have done had she lived. Principato's family was very close to Alessia's and they were affected by her death more than most. Every year a concert is held in Novara to raise money for the charity. Principato had always wanted to take part but was not allowed to do so until after he had left ballet school. Now that he has established himself in the Dutch National Ballet he has been able to arrange this show. His father has not seen him dance for many years because owing to an illness that prevented him from travelling long distances so this will be his first opportunity to see what his son can do. I am sure Mr Principato senior will be a very proud man indeed. Admission to the show is free but a collection will be taken and members of the audience will be exhorted to give generously. All the dancers are giving their time for free so every penny (or rather cent) raised will go to the charity. However, anyone wishing to attend is asked to call the number at the bottom of the above poster before the 24 June. Alternatively they can contact me and I will tell Cristiano Principato.

I saw the company again yesterday at Bradford and enjoyed their performance even more than the one in Sheffield. As before, my favourite was van Manen's Solo but I was again dazzled by Gregory Lau but appreciated the other pieces and also the other dancers more this time. I particularly liked Sad Case, Mutual Comfort and Cacti. I have reviewed the work if anyone is interested.

Three great days of dance in three great cities by three fine companies on three consecutive nights: the opening night of The Sleeping Beauty by the Hungarian National Ballet in Budapest last Sunday; The Royal Ballet's excellent performance of The Winter's Tale at Covent Garden the next night; and The Nederlands Dans Theater 2's mixed bill at the Lowry on Tuesday. I enjoyed them all tremendously but for me the piece de resistance was van Manen's Solo in the mixed bill by three remarkable young make dancers. One of them stood out for me: the young American Gregory Lau though I admired the other young artists too. The programme consisted of works by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot, Edward Clug, Alexander Ekman and, of course, Solo. The company is touring the UK and has just finished performances in Edinburgh, Woking and Southampton as well as at The Lowry. It is going on to Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham, Bradford, Plymouth, Brighton, Nottingham and London. I plan to see it again this Saturday in Bradford. I spotted Janet_McNulty in the audience and judging by her posts to Facebook she was at least as impressed with the performance as I was. If anyone is interested I have written a short review of the performance in Terpsichore.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the Hungarian National Ballet's touring Germany or Scandinavia. Their repertoire includes La Sylphide which connects them with Denmark and Cranko's Onegin which connects them with Stuttgart.

Last Sunday I attended with other members of the London Ballet Circle the opening night of the Hungarian National Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty by our patron, Sir Peter Wright, at the Budapest Opera House. It was a great occasion and crowned a day in which I attended class with the Hungarian dancer, choreographer and teacher Imre Andrasi in the company with Mel Wong which I have described in the Simply Adult Ballet thread. The leading roles were danced by Aliya Tankpayeva and Dimitry Timofeev whom you can see in the photograph above. As for the other roles, the Lilac Fairy was danced by Zsuzsanna Papp, Carabosse by Karina Sarkissova and Bluebird by Maksym Kovtun who also doubled as Puss in Boots. In that latter role he was partnered by the young Canadian dancer Danielle Gould who danced the white cat and who impressed me very much indeed. The ballet was staged with assistance from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, The sets and costumes were Philip Prowse's and the lighting was arranged by Peter Teigen. I enjoyed the performances of all the dancers but Tanlpaeyeva and Timofeev danced Aurora and Desire somewhat differently from the way I remember the principals of the Birmingham Royal Ballet when I last saw it at the Lowry over 2 years ago. After the show I was lucky enough to be invited back stage for the cast party where my friend Gita Mistry took the photo that appears above. If anyone is interested I have reviewed the show in my blog.