Terpsichore

I am sorry you missed the show. I guess the equipment costs a lot and no doubt the Opera House or its intermediary charged a hefty licence fee. There was a quite a lot of price variation in Bradford where there was a big screen in Centenary Square and folk could see the show for free. I saw it in the Pictureville in the National Media Museum which us a particularly civilized venue. The top price was £20 and students and pensioners were allowed in for £15.50. There were also generous concessions for disabled people with carers. It probably pays to shop around. I hope you will see the repeat on Sunday where prices should be lower.

Ballet Cymru did it with even fewer. They have only 9 dancers on their payroll. I think I reviewed it somewhere on this forum and if it's not there it is in my blog, They called it Romeo a Juliet and had an extra character called Cerys instead of the nurse. I thought it was jolly good.

I have no dancing children but I am proud to be a non-dancing associate of that company even though I live 200 miles away. I have seen two of their productions and enjoyed them both. I think I have reviewed those shows somewhere on this forum and if I have not you will find a lot of articles about the company on my blog. It says a lot for a company that can première a new work by Christopher Marney who is one of the company's patrons The other is Doreen Wells. I have a lot of time for company's chair Marion Pettet and its artistic director Annette Potter. If you want to find out more about the company you could attend the AGM or ask to view a company class on the first Monday of most months. You could also see one of their shows. They usually do a Christmas show with Brentwood Choral, a children's workshop called "Let's make a ballet" and an annual show at the Civic Theatre in March. This year it will be The Sleeping Beauty.

I have moaned quite a lot about the Royal Opera House's transmissions while I have subscribed to this forum but yesterday they got it just about right. It was as good as any screening I have seen from Moscow. The use of a trained presenter in Ore Oduba helped as it freed Bussell for other things in which she really shone. Well done Ross MacGibbon and his team. As for the performance itself I adopt and repeat everything that Sim said in her latest post. I have always been a great fan of McRea and Lamb and Avis has always been a special favourite. Georgiadis's designs still impress me as they did when I first saw them nearly 50 years ago.

Someone did ask about the salute and triangles. I forgot to mention it in my summary because I ran out of space on the back of my cast sheet and didn't take a full note of his reply. To the best of my recollection Watkins said that it was inspired by the book and the depictions of the Ingsoc sign in subsequent dramatizations and illustrations. Yes, I also found the reference to children strange because I couldn't remember any from the novel. I thought I must have forgotten that detail when the question was raised. I am not sure that it was necessary to set the ballet in any particular era though I agree that there is no reason why it should not have been the immediate post-war years. The thought did cross my mind that we now have telescreens (monitors with webcams), data mining and the power to bump off people with unmanned aircraft which was not the case when the novel was written. It would be possible to stage 1984 as a satire of out times if a choreographer or anyone else wanted to do so. Not that they need to, mind. It's just a thought. There was an interesting programme on the wireless which I listened to earlier today called "I was .......George Orwell's pupil". Apparently Orwell taught at a little prep school in Hayes in the 1930s and one of the boys recounted his memories of his old schoolmasters. I have to confess that Orwell is not one of my favourite authors. I read his books with gritted teeth when I was younger and 1984 was my least favourite of his novels. It has been many years since I last read the book and I am not tempted to take it off my shelves again.

At the beginning of this season several of us lamented the untimely death of Richie Benaud. Now as the season comes to an end we have lost another of my cricketing heroes - the great Yorkshireman Brian Close. Close played his first test match at age 18 the year I was born and his last first class match at age 55 in 1986. A very sad day indeed for sport and also for Yorkshire.

I saw 1984 at West Yorkshire Playhouse on Friday evening. Batley, Leebolt and Torres danced Smith, Julia and O'Brien respectively. I am still making my mind up about the ballet. I saw it while my senses were still overwhelmed by the marvellous things I had seen in Amsterdam three days earlier and I probably didn't do it justice. Indeed I am not sure that I could do any work justice until Amsterdam wears off. I hope to see 1984 again in Manchester and then I will review it properly. In the meantime I attended a Q & A with Jonathan Watkins after the show and this is my summary of what he said:

On Tuesday I attended the opening gala the Dutch National Ballet's season in Amsterdam. It was the best night that I have ever spent at the ballet. I have been to some great performances including some great galas in my time but this was the one that I enjoyed the most. The event took place at the Stopera (or Music Theatre) of Amsterdam. That building is impressive by day but becomes magical when floodlit by night. On Tuesday it was even more impressive because almost everyone was in evening dress. The evening began with the grand defile of the ballet students, Junior Company and each rank of the National Ballet. All the stars were there including Matthew Golding, Igone de Jongh, Casey Herd and Anna Tsygankova. After the Grand Defile the company's artistic director Ted Brandsen took to the stage and welcomed the audience in Dutch and English. He introduced Alexandra Radius in whose honour a prize for the company's most outstanding dancer had been awarded. This year it was awarded to Maia Makhateli. The evening started with Van Dantzig's Voorbij Gegaan which he had choreographed for Radius and her husband Han Ebelaar. On Tuesday it was danced by de Jongh and Herd. They were followed by extracts from La Bayadere, Juanjo Arques's Rewind, David Dawson's On the Nature of Daylight and Golding and Tsygankova in the pas de deux of Siegfried and Odile from Swan Lake. During the interval when all manner of drinks and tasty nibbles were served I met Helen McDonough from this forum and Alison Potts from the London Ballet Circle. After the interval there was Ernst Meisner's Narnia which was my personal favourite followed by extracts from Le Corsaire, Neumeier's La Dame aux Camerlias. the Diamonds pas de deux from Jewels and Wheeldon's Concerto Concordia from Cool Britannia. After the show there was a party with a disco. I actually danced at the Amsterdam Music Theatre. How many others can say that? There were a lot of people so I couldn't find everybody I wanted to meet but I did see Ted Brandsen and Juanjo Arques whom I had previously met in February and Michaela DePrince who is one of my favourite dancers. If anyone is interested I have published a longer and more detailed article in my blog.

On Tuesday I hope to be in the audience for the opening gala of the Dutch National Ballet at the Stopera in Amsterdam. I had to work all day and well into the night yesterday which meant that I missed the opening night of 1984 which was an enormous sacrifice for me but if Tuesday is anything like this video it will have been worthwhile. The company's website suggests that it will be a great evening, "Nearly two hundred dancers, including the dancers of the Junior Company and pupils from the National Ballet Academy will make their appearance. And after the performance, it’s party time!" Here are some of the delights in store: "This year, the festive programme will consist of new creations, famous pas de deux, work by the Netherlands’ greatest choreographer Hans van Manen and highlights from the repertoire. Artistic director Ted Brandsen will make a selection from the company’s varied repertoire, which will include some ‘appetisers’ that give a taste of special ballets in the coming season. The complete ensemble will perform in a Grand Défilé alongside the youngest dance talents of the Netherlands: the pupils of the National Ballet Academy." There should be quite a substantial British contingent. DonQ Fan will be there for a start as well as the immediate past president of the London Ballet Circle. After Ernst Meisner had addressed the London Ballet Circle a gentleman who introduced himself as a friend of Meisner presented himself to me and suggested that we might form a British branch of the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet along the lines of the American Friends of Covent Garden. I think it is a great idea and have written about it more than once in my blog. If anyone is interested I would love to hear from them. Finally, for the last two years the Junior Company have performed at The Linbury. That auditorium will be closed for a while next year so I hope it will be possible for them to dance somewhere else. I suggested the Stanley and Audrey Burtin Theatre in Leeds and Meisner did not rule it out, If they did come here Team Terpsichore would spoil them to bits.

It may be different in Northern Ireland. They have their own legislature and courts system which looks like ours but is in many ways just as different as Scotland's.

On Thursday Gita Mistry and I were guests of Chancery Dance Company at their rehearsal studios in Grantham, We attended their company class and a rehearsal of Vincent - a stranger to himself which is part of a double bill that the company is taking on tour later this month. The company will visit Grantham, Stamford, Birmingham, Worcester, Halifax and London. I understand that their opening night is already sold out. Also, they have just received an excellent mention in the London Ballet Circle's latest newsletter. The company has come a long way in the three years since it was founded, It is on its second national tour. Since the last one its principals, Paul Chantry and Rae Piper, have worked in Japan, at Covent Garden and the Rome Opera Theatre, performed or held workshops, schools, care homes and prisons, established their own school which will actually teach the students how to get work after they graduate and have recruited three talented young dancers: David Beer, Rebecca Scanlon and Sorel de Paula Haniks. Vincent which is Chantry and Piper's latest work quite bowled me over. Rarely have I been more excited by a new ballet. It is about the life and work of Vincent van Gogh. There is a gripping narrative and powerful choreography constructed around a beautiful musical compilation which includes Satie's Gymnopedies which has been used no less effectively than in Ashton's Monotones. After the rehearsal Gita and I explored Grantham which has a magnificent parish church with a massive spire and a chained library, a pub called The Beehive with a hive of living and no doubt stinging bees as its inn sign, the school where Sir Isaac Newton studied and the corner shop where the late Baroness Thatcher was born. If you have not been to this town it is surely worth a visit. I am looking forward to seeing the double bill in Halifax on 26 Sept and I shall review the show here afterwards. If anyone is interested I have posted a few articles about Chantry Dance here and many more in my blog.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately I don't think that the programme is accessible here even through the internet. When I tried to view another of the site's videos I was met with the message "Erreur Cette video n'est pas disponible dans votre pays." I am very interested in this topic. I have actually written an article on Le Ballet de la Nuit which was the subject of the 6th Oxford Dance Symposium in 2004 and I watched and reviewed Bintley's The King Dances earlier this year. You will find them in the blog with links to other sources if you are interested.

I used to go to school on the other side of the Talgarth Road during the 1960s and our playing fields known as "Bigside" abutted the A4. Dame Margot's house was one of several artists' studios with massive windows called St Paul's Studios almost certainly after the school (see Hidden London, Barons Court and Studios with an artistic past 15 Jan 2010 Country Life). Those windows presented a very tempting target for batsmen on Bigside though nobody managed to hit a ball over the boundary, a fairly high wall and a 6 lane dual carriageway while I was there. Legend has it that a boy once accomplished that feat in a match against Eton for which he was simultaneously punished with a beating and rewarded with a half holiday. For many years the Studios housed the Royal Ballet Upper School and I believe they still accommodate LAMDA (London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art). We did not see much of the ballet students but I seem to remember that one came from Richmond and very occasionally took our tube. That was before I admitted to an interest in ballet and I can't remember her name and have no idea happened to her. My school moved to Barnes the term I went up to St Andrews and of course the Upper School is now in Floral Street. It would be nice if some philanthropist or foundation could purchase Dame Margot's house and dedicate it to the public for a dance museum or something similar. The London Jewish Cultural Centre bought Ivy House (Anna Pavlova's old home) and used it for talks on dance and music. I remember the thrill last year of sitting in what may have been the great ballerina's sitting room and watching James Hay re-create a fragment of Le Baiser de la Fee under the supervision of Donald MacLeary and with the help of the choreologist Diana Curry.

Thanks Janet. I think there is a good chance that you were my 100,000th visitor this morning.. Blogger provides a meter showing the number of all time page views. This morning just before 06:00 the meter registered 99,999. A few minutes later I heard a ping and noticed that you had "liked" one of my articles on Facebook. That article was in fact the one you commended above. I refreshed the screen and the meter jumped to 100,004. There is therefore statistically a 1 in 5 chance that you were my 100,000th visitor but as I heard the ping while the meter showed 99,999 visitors I think that that 100,000th visitor was almost certainly you. Just before my lesson with Josh a lady told me that my blog had inspired her to return to ballet after a gap of 2 years. If that is so then I am delighted. I started the blog for personal reasons not expecting anybody to read it. If it brings people back to the barre that's a great bonus.

You are generous in saying that everybody who attended kept up well. I don't mind admitting that I struggled but somehow managed to keep going. I found it harder than any class I had ever taken before but you are right to say that it was not so far advanced that any of us was put off. I certainly agree that none of us was bored. It was a great experience and if I were young enough and fit enough I would certainly do another of those intensives. As for suggestions for another intensive, I have just seem La Bayadere for the first time at the Coliseum and was bowled over by it. There are some lovely bits of choreography that would be a joy to do. The descent of the shades with all those lovely arabesques and the drummers' divertissement. Not very seasonal for Christmas I know but there will be so much Nutcracker at that time of the year which may be why Manchester City Ballet are doing Giselle for their Christmas show..

I saw La Byadere for the first time at the Coliseum this afternoon and was blown away much as I had been many years ago the first time I saw Swan Lake. Up to then the only part of the ballet I had seen before had been the descent of the shades in the last act. I had assumed there was a reason why this ballet is not performed as often as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. Having seen it I regard it as a masterpiece. Great diverissments, spectacular choreography particularly in the last Act and Minkus's gorgeous score. Having seen him in HDTV transmissions from Moscow I expected a lot from Rodkin and was not disappointed. I expected less from the other dancers because I knew nothing about them but they were good. There were some glitches as frog has said but they did not spoil my enjoyment. I saw this ballet with my friend Gita who is of Indian as well as British heritage. I shall be interested in her impressions of the show.

What is a fascinating series! All credit to Australia for fighting back. I am torn between my two passions: watching two finely matched teams at the Oval or Rodkin in La Bayadere at the Coliseum.

I notice that this will be my 500th post to this forum since I joined it in 2013. Goodness! I can't think of any better way of marking this moment than reporting back on KNT's Adult Ballet Intensive based on Swan Lake which took place in Manchester between the 17 and 19 August. This was a great success. We had a first class teacher in Jane Tucker but I also have to commend and thank Karen Sant, the principal of KNT, who organized the workshop, her staff members who joined our class from time to time and encouraged us and also all the other participants who made me feel so welcome and put me at my ease. I don't mind admitting that I was a bag of nerves when I turned up to the Dancehouse on Monday morning because I couldn't see how I could possibly stay the course. It was indeed very, very, very hard work with back to back warm-up, class, rehearsals and more rehearsals and cool-down from 10:00 to 16:45 for three consecutive days. I reminded myself that that is what dancers do every day and then they have to perform in a show (or sometimes two shows). I take my hat off to those folks. We learned four dances over the three days: the cygnets' pas de quatre, the Hungarian dance, Siegfried's solo and the entry of the swans. I can't pretend that I mastered more than a very little bit of each dance Many of the steps were quite beyond my physical strength and ability. But at least I tried. I attended every single class, all the rehearsals and I took part in the end of workshop show. I think I shall experience the full benefit of the course when I next see Swan Lake which in my case will be Birmingham Royal Ballet's this year and David Nixon's transatlantic version next year. I shall be looking out for all those changements, echappes and pas de chat which nearly made me trip up my companions in cygnets, the jumps and turns in the prince's solo which nearly killed me, the proud Magyars and the temps leves and chasses of the enchanted swans. Despite all the physical rigours I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was a great experience and in my case literally a once in a lifetime opportunity for I don't think I will ever be able to do it again. It was well worth the £200 and the time off work. I do hope that Michelle enjoys Giselle as much as I enjoyed Swan Lake. If anyone is interested I kept a diary over the three days of the course which I published in my blog,

Hear, hear! We have spent a lot of money on this intensive and taken 3 days off work. I for one am determined to enjoy myself. That's good to know. I shall look out for you. By the sound of things there will be several other familiar faces from the regular classes. I am sorry you are not happy with aspects of the intensive. I think it will still be worth doing simply because Jane Tucker is such a good teacher. I've just taken two vacation classes with her this month and I did a class with her last year and enjoyed them all. She is in fact the main reason why I put my name down. Much as I am looking forward to this course I would have thought twice about this course had we been asked to procure tutus. I have already spent £72 on a white leotard, black skirt and black and flesh coloured tights on top of the course fees and I think a tutu would have been the last straw for me. On another point, do give my kind regards to Gillian when you visit Taynuilt. She looked radiant in her photos. I am looking forward to seeing Ballet West's Nutcracker next year and La Sylphide in 2017. Finally, I do hope to see you in Annemarie's class at least occasionally. Enjoy yourself in Manchester - it happens to be my home town - and also in Argyll.

I am glad your foot is better and I look forward to making your acquaintance. I have been crossing the Pennines occasionally for KNT's classes for nearly a year and I recommend them. I think I have taken classes with all the instructors and I like them all. There is always buzz in the classes - particularly in Ailsa's.

I have just received my joining instructions for KNT's adult ballet summer intensive in Manchester starting next Monday and I can barely contain my excitement. I am a bit apprehensive too because I am 66 years old, horribly overweight, badly coordinated and one of the least talented ballet students who ever clutched a barre but chances like this don't grow on trees. For three glorious days I can pretend to be a real dancer. When I told my junior clerk in London that I was taking three days holiday between Monday and Wednesday he asked me where I was going. "Manchester" I replied. The silence was palpable. Eventually I heard: "You serious Miss." "Yes!" I exclaimed and I don't think I have ever looked forward more to a holiday even though I have been to Tiwai Island, the Khyber pass, Mount Aconcagua and lots of other wonderful places in previous years. I am also looking forward to one other performance. Our over 55 class are dancing in A Feast of Music and Dance by Older Performers at Morley town hall on 26 Sept 2015 as part of The Time to Shine project. The show is open to the public and tickets are free but must be booked in advance on 0113 2438765. As this will be my swan song I am looking forward to a flower throw but I guess that is too much to hope for.