Terpsichore

Is there something special about a student's relationship with his or her first or main teacher? I have had lessons from four teachers since I came back to ballet last year and I have appreciated and learned something from each of them (I might add en passant that I have picked up some really useful tips from all the all teachers who contribute to this section of the Forum) but it is the teacher who led me back into ballet who somehow draws the last ounce of energy and concentration. And I dig deep for that last ounce out of respect and even affection for that teacher. Both Dame Antoinette Sibley two weeks ago and Madame Glurdjidze last Monday spoke about their principal teachers with similar affection. Also en passant, I love this clip from today's Manchester Guardian, don't you?

Well I shall be there come Hell or high water and the weather forecast does indeed suggest a little of both. I shall be very pleased to say hello to any member of this forum who would care to meet me in the bar in the first interval. If we have not already met please message me. This promises to be a great weekend for ballet: Le Corsaire tomorrow, Northern Ballet's open day on Saturday and Cinderella on Sunday where I hope to make the acquaintance of Dave of Dave Tries Ballet who I suspect is also a subscriber to this Forum. I have already been treated this evening to a riveting performance of Coriolanus by the Donmar Warehouse with Tom Hiddleston as Cajus Martius, Nirgitte Hjort Sorensen as Virgilia and Deborah Findlay as Volumnia, This is my favourite work by Shakespeare and I think this is the best production of the play that I have ever seen.

Really looking forward to tomorrow's performance - weather permitting - with Fernanda Oliveira as Medora, Zdenek Konvalina as Conrad and young Yonah Acosta whom I have never seen before. My present to myself and I will review it afterwards. Anyone else going?

Thanks LinMM, mmi66 and Balleteacher. I don't really hold out too much hope of getting in or of keeping up if I am allowed into the class but if you don't ask you certainly don't get. Paul Lewis or the School can only say no. Also, as they say in America, if you aim for the stars you may clear 2 feet. I am just so lucky to be dancing and working at a job I adore at an age when many people are forced to retire. We had such a nice class in Leeds today. I have a good teacher and delightful colleagues all of whom have lived very full and interesting lives. When we leave class we chatter like teenagers especially when it goes well as it did today. If I get into Mr Lewis's class it will be like icing on the cake but even if I don't the cake itself is still really yummy.

I would love to take that class but what do they mean by "some previous experience of ballet"? In particular, would I be good enough? I have requested what we lawyers call further and better particulars of the phrase. Here is the relevant part of my requisition: "I would love to take Paul Lewis's classes but I am uncertain as to what is meant by the phrase "some previous experience of ballet." To be more precise I would like to know whether my "previous experience" comes anywhere near Mr Lewis's required entry standard. I never studied ballet as a child but I did take some classes when I was an undergraduate at St Andrews between 1970 and 1972. I took up ballet again last year and spent one day a week in a mixed age, mixed ability class in Huddersfield. These classes were supplemented by Northern Ballet's weekly classes for students aged over 55. I am very keen and I work hard but I am rather elderly (65 tomorrow) and I am certainly not as strong as I used to be. I wobble like a jelly in arabesque and I cannot always get pirouettes from 4th or pose pirouettes right though I try. I live in Yorkshire but I work in London could contrive to be in London every Wednesday except the 19 if I were good enough and if there were space on the course." I will let you know what the Royal Ballet School says. I can but dream and a cat can look at a king after all.

My parents lived in Molesey in Surrey between 1956 and 1989. It is dormitory suburb of London a few hundred yards from the Thames. In September 1968 the river burst its banks and the whole of our neighbourhood was inundated in stinking, muddy water. There are some pictures from that time on the Molesey History website. For several nights our little community was on national television and I remember we did get some help from the army. The water subsided after several days but it took months for our home to dry out. Even after the house had dried out the smell of the water lingered for at least another year. I escaped to St Andrews at the end of September but the damp and smell were still there when I returned for vacations. I have these memories constantly in mind when I read about the floods in Somerset and the Thames Valley. We get a lot of snow here in the Pennines - in fact yesterday's ballet class was cancelled because I was the only student who could make it into Huddersfield. It is disruptive for a time but we cope with it. It stays for only a few days and generally does very little lasting damage. Flooding is quite different. All the folks affected have my sympathy and I wish I could do something to help them.

Michelle_Richer "Terpsichore: As RAD have had to cancel the Romeo and Juliet repertoire Workshop in Edinburgh on the 23rd Feb, it extremely unlikely I will see the girls at Northern Ballet on the 25th, as I’m becoming heavily loaded with Rep and rehearsals for the immediate future." I am sure that everybody in the Over 55 "Improvers" and "Choreography" classes at Quarry Hill will be sorry to miss you but we all know you are busy. I hope you are looking after yourself well. You seem to follow a very rigorous (some might even say punishing) regime for which you have my respect and best wishes. At the same time, rather you than me.

Last night I mentioned the Silver Swans programme. I emailed Louise Wilkie of the RAD for some more information and she responded this morning which is impressive in itself. Here is the material bit of Ms. Wilkie's reply: "Royal Academy of Dance Silver Swans events are specially designed mornings including two classes for the over 50’s led by RAD teachers taking place in March 2014. For some, these mornings will be an opportunity to try out dance for the very first time. Others in attendance may have danced in the past and want to rekindle their interest. For those who have previously experienced ballet and want to further their interest, the workshop includes a second class in which participants will be introduced to another dance genre for example tap or jazz. Recently featured on BBC News, these classes are aimed at the mature dancer and include gentle ballet and non-ballet classes that will get your whole body moving to music. The workshops, which include both classes, costs £10 to attend and take place at the below venues. Venues; Tuesday 4 March Manchester Road Methodist Church, Haslingden Ballet & Jazz (teacher Charlotte Omerod) Saturday 8 March Richmond Dance Centre, North Yorkshire Ballet & Jazz (teacher Maureen Mundell) Wednesday 26 March Heatherlea Dance Studio, Glossop Ballet & Tap (teacher Joanne Craven) Timetable 10.00-11.00 Ballet class 11.00-11.30 Cakes and coffee 11.30-12.30 Non-ballet class Anyone over 50 who is either new to dance or is keen to re-join, or wishes develop an existing interest can attend. The mornings all include the essential social aspect where participants can meet new like-minded people, enjoy refreshments and hopefully make plans to get ‘back to the barre’ at the next available dance class or RAD event." Ms. Wilkie attached an application form and flyer to her reply. I think this is a wonderful initiative. A similar scheme in Scotland seems to have worked very well. I shall certainly try to participate but the timings and locations are inconvenient. The nearest centre to me is Glossop but I work very long hours and I already do ballercise and core on Wednesday afternoons and ballet on Wednesday evenings at Huddersfield University. The Saturday class would be ideal but Richmond Dance Centre is nearly 80 miles from my home and and between 90 minutes and 2 hours drive away. Never mind. I will try to find a way and will report back to the forum as to what happens.

According to the RAD a new programme for mature dancers will be marketed under the sign "Silver Swans". Here is the material extract from an article I have written elsewhere: "According to the RAD Silver Swan workshops offer a specially designed morning programme for the mature dancer. They includes "a gentle ballet class alongside the opportunity to socialise with other like-minded people, as well as providing the chance to experience another dance genre". They are aimed at the over 50s who either already enjoy ballet and want to improve and develop their interest in dance or for those wanting to start dancing again after a break. The classes can also accommodate complete beginners for whom this may be their first experience of dance. These workshops take place at St Peters Community Centre in Haslingden, Richmond Dance Centre and Heatherlea Dance Studio in Glossop. Further information can be obtained from Louise Wilkie of the RAD. Northern Ballet already runs wonderful beginners and intermediate classes for the Over 55s in Leeds.. Prospective students can attend a taster class as well as many other events at Northern Ballet's Open House at Quarry Hill on the 15 Feb 2014."

If this is not too far off topic the Royal New Zealand Ballet has been touring the USA and they danced Giselle in Lost Angeles.a few days ago. One of my favourite bloggers @adultbeginner, a lady who started ballet lessons in her 30s, attended that performance and she has written two articles about it which some may find frivolous but I enjoyed: This is what happens when you don’t read the plot synopsis; and Giselle Commenting on her second article, I told her about the Royal Ballet's season and also about this thread. I hope she signs up to BalletcoForum because she has lots to contribute to the "Doing Dance" section as well as "Performances". @davetriesballet describes @adultbeginner's blog as hilarious and I agree. I hope some of you dip into it and enjoy it.

I wish I had known you were there yesterday. I would have loved to have met you. Yesterday was only my second meeting and I networked as much as I could before everybody pushed off. LinnMM "Slightly off topic but I'm rather hoping this Bristol Russian Youth Ballet will eventually run some workshops/ masterclasses etc open to adult ballet goers (well I really couldn't get away with attending anything with "Youth" in the title!) Either in Bristol or here in Brighton.....,,," I am sure it would be worth an email or phone call. Dave is much younger than us but he must be would also fall outside most definitions of "youth" too.. I believe he started his ballet lessons as a graduate student at Rutgers which was even later than me for I had my first lessons as an undergraduate at St Andrews and gave them up only went to UCLA for graduate studies. "I always thought The London Ballet Circle was biassed in its support towards the Royal Ballet as I looked into joining this a couple of years ago but decided,obviously erroneously, that it might be a bit like an RB supporters club and if I mentioned liking a non RB dancer I might not be too popular!! I also thought you had to be a member to attend events. Maybe I will attend one of their events as a non member then initially!" That was not true when I was last a member in the early 1970s and it is certainly not true now. Our David Nixon, Birmingham's David Bintley and Newport's Darius James are Vice-Presidents. All meetings are open to the public. Members get in for £5. Non-members pay £8. Do come for Tamara Rojo, Ruth Brill and/or Peter Wright :-)

I have just nipped down to London and back to see Elena Glurdjidze. On the train back to Luton Parkway to pick up my car I tweeted: "@DaveTriesBallet I have just seen and spoken to Elena Glurdjidze at @BalletCircle. So lovely and so gracious. Looking forward to Cinderella" For those of you who don't already know, @DaveTriesBallet keeps the Dave Tries Ballet blog of which I am a great fan. One reason I tweeted Dave about the talk is that he is a member of the Bristol Russian Youth Ballet Company which will dance Cinderella this Sunday at 16:00 at the Stockport Plaza to raise funds for Reuben's Retreat and Glurdjidze and Arionel Vargas will be the guest principals. Glurdjidze described it as a wonderful charity which indeed it is, The other reason I tweeted Dave is that he alerted me to Glurdjidze's dancing The Dying Swan in the Gala for Ghana. I had intended to give this event a miss but I changed my mind after learning that Dying Swan was to be performed. As I said previously my late mother saw Pavlova dance the Dying Swan at The Grand in Leeds when my mother was a small girl and it made such an impression on her that I resolved to see a modern ballerina dance it one day. Last week at the Royal College of Music I fulfilled that resolution. I think Glurdjidze made on me a similar impression to the one that Pavlova had made upon my mother all those years ago. The meeting took place in the dining room of the Civil Service Club which is a few hundred yards from Charing Cross station. I arrived just before the meeting was due to start. I did not count the audience but there were about 7 or 8 rows of chairs of about 20 each and not many empty seats. The room was big enough to require a public address system. Glurdjidze sat at a table with an interviewer facing the audience. She was dressed very simply but elegantly. The speaker and interviewer were introduced by our chair, Susan Dalgetty-Ezra. Speaking softly but very clearly from the table our guest answered questions put to her by the interviewer. She said that she had been born in Georgia. Her father was a scientist. Though talented in other ways, none of her family was in ballet. She was sent to a performing arts school where she took up ballet. She showed such promise that her teachers directed her to theVaganova Ballet Academy where so many great dancers and choreographers were trained. Baller school was not easy. Discipline was strict and classes were demanding. Everything was in Russian which was a new language for her. She had to board. She missed her family and her family missed her. She said that she cried every night for the first few weeks at the school. Nevertheless, she survived and graduated into one of the new companies that were established by former dancers of the Kirov after the fall of communism. She came to the notice of the English National Ballet who recruited her as a principal in 2002. She said that at that time she spoke very little English and that even now she makes a few errors. One of her personal ambitions is to perfect her knowledge of our language. I have to say that if she still makes errors I did not spot any last night. I could not help reflecting after hearing Eric Pickles's performance in the House of Commons on the drive back home that Elena Glurdjidze could teach our Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government a thing or two in that regard. While in London Elena Glurdjidze met her husband, also a dancer and also a Georgian. They have a 9 year old son who is very bright with a good voice and shows talent in many directions. They are not pushing him into ballet though, of course, he could not have a better start in that career if that is what he wanted to do. Glurdjidze talked about her roles. She has, of course, performed all the classics, Odette-Odile, Giselle, Juliet and so on. She said she had never danced in Le Corsaire and would like to perform in that ballet. She will be dancing just one matinee with Vargas in Romeo and Juliet at the Albert Hall in June. As for the long term she hopes to teach dance and it was then that she mentioned her work with the Bristol Russian Ballet School. Remembering an earlier tweet from Dave that she had trained with this teacher I asked her to say a little more about her connection with the Bristol School and her performance in Stockport on Sunday when the meeting was opened to the floor. She spoke about her friendship with the founder of that school from the days when they were both at the Vaganova Academy, about the impressive work that her friend was doing, about the request to dance in a charity show and about the cause being a wonderful project. The clip that is embedded in this post is a rehearsal for that ballet. My admiration for Glurdjidze increased all the more. She is not simply a great dancer. She is also a lovely human being. Others asked her about her pointe shoes; about the differences between the regime in the Royal Ballet School and the Vaganova Academy; whether she had considered choreography and her plans for the future including the performance at the Albert Hall that I mentioned above. After we had asked her everything that could reasonably be asked of her our Chair presented her with a gift from the Circle. However, she stayed for a few minutes to talk to her fans, sign programmes and pose for photographs. Forming an orderly queue we each had a few words with her. A gentleman in front of me said that he was a schoolmaster and he could tell that she had much to give her pupils. That reminded me of Clement Crisp's conversation with Dame Antoinette Sibley and I told her about Dame Antoinette's affection for her teachers and her advice on teaching. Glurdjidze replied that Sibley had taught her a lot particularly about the role of Manonwhich, of course, was created for Sibley. When it came to my turn I told Gurdjidze how I had longed to see Dying Swan ever since I had heard about Pavlova in Leeds and how I had been moved by her performance. I added that I was looking forward to Cinderella this Sunday. Glurdjidze accepted everybody's compliments including mine with grace. As soon as I could get a signal on the train to Luton I texted my teacher who, like Glurdjidze, leaned ballet in a sunnier clime and cheers me up and motivates me with her antipodean enthusiasm: "Oh Jane xXxX I can imagine how special the moment was sXsX ur lucky woman to be given such as opportunty" And indeed I am although any member of the public could have shared my good fortune by turning up at the Civil Service Club yesterday. If you missed Glurdjidze you can still catch Tamara Rojo on the 3 March, Ruth Brill on the 24th and Peter Wright on the 14th April. Ruth Brill has already tweeted that she is looking forward to her talk. The Circle hopes to increase its membership outside London and our Chair sent me North with a stash of brochures which I am going to take to every class, every ballet and every ballet related event that I attend outside London until I have got rid of them all. So be warned. Incidentally one can join the London Ballet Circle through its website. I would urge you to do so even if you can't get to London because the Circle supports financially young dancers from all parts of the nation with scholarships to events throughout the land including in particular the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School. I shall give the last words about Glurdjidze to Dave. His response to my tweet was "...... So glad to hear! Was so sad to miss the talk. She's truly the loveliest dancer to rehearse with." About her teaching, he added that although he could not take her class because of injury "I still learned so much watching her teach class in the summer. And was amazing to see her coach the girls in the Raymonda Act III variation! Got goosebumps seeing her demonstrate even the simplest moves - sheer perfection!" I can understand that. I got goosebumps watching her last week and I expect to get more when I see her, Vargas and Dave in Cinderella this Sunday.

carmen67 It seems that there will be an earlier chance to see the Monica Loughman Company if not Loughman herself because it is dancing Giselle at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on 4 and 5 April 2014. According to the theatre's website "The role of Giselle will be danced by golden cross of the stage winner and principal of Lithuanian National Opera Ballet, Olga Konosenko. The coveted role of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, will be performed by Irish ballet artist, Leanne Sexton." It continues: "Monica Loughman’s production uses Marius Petipa’s classic version, which was first staged in St Petersburg in 1884. Her style of choreography is classically Russian and comes from her years as principal ballerina of the Tchaikovsky Perm State Ballet where she went as a child to train at the age of 14." I have not been able to find out anything about Konosenko but I see that Leanne Sexton dances with the Monica Loughman Company. I also googled the Perm Opera Ballet Theatre and found that they have a very user friendly website in English which I find easier to navigate in many ways than those of the Bolshoi or Mariinsky. They seem to do a lot of touring and market themselves very effectively. Perhaps someone is taking a leaf out of Diaghilev's book who also came from Perm.

Perhaps I will catch her in something else. I see about 20 shows a year mainly in the UK but sometimes abroad and I was thinking of making a trip to Limerick to see Carmen in May. I like Ireland and enjoy my little excursions there. If that is the case Bradford Council have kept it to themselves. I could find nothing on the website or indeed the newsletters they send to subscribers,

I wish I had known about The Nutcracker because I would have taken an awayday to Dublin. Never mind. I will try to catch Loughman and maybe your daughter in Swan Lake when it is staged later this year. Welcome to the forum by the way.

I have discovered the following information about Monica Loughman if anyone else is interested: her company has The Nutcracker, Giselle and La Sylphide in its repertoire; it plans to add Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia; it has just finished touring the Republic of Ireland with The Nutcracker; it intends to tour the Iirish Republic with Swan Lake this year and has even registered a website for the tour in the Irish country code top level domain space at www.swanlake.ie though if you click that link it redirects to The Nutcracker page mentioned above; and there is some footage of Parts I and II of La Sylphide which I think are quite good. ​I wouldn't mind buying enduring 30 minutes of Ryanair to see Swan Lake when it opens. Perhaps whoever looks after announcements will keep a weather eye for the dates and venues for Swan Lake and let us know in case I miss them. Incidentally, I have also found confirmation that Monica Loughman's is not the only company in the Irish Republic. There is indeed a National Ballet of Ireland which will dance Carmen in Limerick and with prices between 10 and 20 euros the tickets seem very reasonable even if one has to endure Ryanair to get there. I will review the performance and report back.

Yes, she mentions her training in Perm a lot doesn't she. It even found its way into the newspaper story of her finding love at Tesco's. However, if the footage of The Dying Swan is anything to go by she would be worth seeing.

The first ballet I recall on stage was either Petrushka or Firebird when I was about 19 or 20 and I think it must have been by Festival. However I saw ballet on television much earlier. Graduation Ball sticks in my memory as well as the Royal Danish Ballet's La Sylphide. My mother took me to see some outdoor performances on Streatham Common by various companies when we first moved to London in 1954 and I think one of those was a ballet but I cannot recall the name of the work. I had .to wait until I went to university to see my next live performance because my father disapproved of ballet. My mother on the other hand had been enchanted by seeing "Madame Pavlova" at The Grand and she told me about the impression that the performance had made on her. That seeded the ambition of seeing the Dying Swan for myself which I achieved only last Sunday. Nevertheless I learned quite a lot about ballet before I actually saw one. I found out about Leon Bakst from a wonderful exhibition at the V & A and of course all the other artists who had been commissioned by the Ballets Russes. I listened to a lot of ballet music which was when I developed a taste for Aaron Copland. I would love to see Appalachian Spring live though I have seen footage of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham many times and Northern Ballet staged a work called Angels in the Architecture last year to the same music. I also got to know some ballet students at that time because their school was just the other side of the Cromwell Road from us and we occasionally bumped into one of them on our tube. As they did not have to prepare for Oxbridge entrance we did not take them very seriously but of course I discovered that they would have had to work at least as hard as us in different ways.

Ellie and lisabeds Many thanks for your responses. I had already picked up the references to her training in Perm and the Ballet Chancers from her Wikipedia entry but I also picked up this clip of her dancing The Dying Swan which is the reason I am showing an interest in her. The google search reveals a lot of sensational stories about her such as meeting her lover at the checkout, turning hip-hop dancers into ballet dancers and of course the programme that was on last night but I think she deserves to be taken a bit more seriously than that. That's why I would like to see her for myself on stage. I think Diaghilev came from Perm if I am not mistaken.

A point of information if I may. The email from Northern Ballet to which I referred yesterday described Monica Loughman as a prima ballerina. I must confess that her name did not ring any bells which surprised me because I read the reviews in the papers (well, at least, the Independent, Guardian and FT) as well as Dancing Times and follow blogs like Ballet News so I usually know what's going on and who's who even if I have not actually seen the dancer on stage. It is not often that a prima ballerina escapes my notice altogether. Feeling somewhat surprised and ashamed at this lacuna in my knowledge I googled Monica Loughman and found her website and her entry in Wikipedia. I was rather surprised to read in Wikipedia that she claims to have created Ireland's national ballet because I attended a performance of a company that purported to be the national ballet of Ireland at either the Gate or the Abbey on my honeymoon as long ago as 1982. Moreover, my ballet teacher is Irish although she trained in Australia and, of course, Dame Ninette de Valois came from the Emerald Isle. However, that is by the by. The information that I seek from my fellow members is (1) whether anyone on this forum has seen Loughman dance and, (2) if so, in what ballet and role, and (3) what was his or her opinion of Loughman's performance? If anyone knows when and where she will next be on stage I should like to see her. If she dances regularly in Dublin that would suit me very well because that city is actually cheaper and easier to reach than London,

I hope you both enjoy it. The reason I am not watching it is that it clashes with "Inside Science" and "In Our Time" on Radio 4. I am just as interested in science and history as I an in ballet I agree that one cannot comment on a programme that one has not seen but I have already contributed all that I can usefully add to the topic.

I received the following email from the Development Co-ordinator of Northern Ballet this morning: "I wanted to let you know about a new three part series called ‘Big Ballet’ which starts today, 06 Feb, at 9pm on Channel 4. Episodes 2 and 3 will be broadcast on the following two Thursdays at the same time. Ballet legend Wayne Sleep and prima ballerina Monica Loughman work with a troupe of plus-size amateur dancers to realise their dream of dancing Swan Lake. Whilst the programme is not about Northern Ballet, much of the filming takes place in our Quarry Hill studios and the Northern Ballet Sinfonia accompany the live performances at the conclusion of the series." I don't know whether they were there for the Big Ballet series but the car park next to Northern Ballet where I usually park was full of caravans and trailers for filming on location when I turned up for my ballet class this morning. Much as I admire Wayne Sleep and remember his Neapolitan divertissement with affection I won't be watching this series.

London Ballet Circle has just posted to its Facebook page a link to this article by Jessica Cartner-Morley on Elena Glurdjudze's costume for The Dying Swan.

Petunia Although I am also very new to this forum I should like to be one of the first to welcome you here. As a very unpromising and somewhat over mature ballet student I am very grateful to my teachers who show bottomless patience. My classes mean a lot to me and I have learned a lot more from them than just pliés and tendus. As I posted on another thread I was at a talk by Dame Antoinette Sibley on Sunday when she expressed her adoration for her own teachers who included Tamara Karsavina and Pamela May. She talked about tradition in ballet and about how every class represents every teacher, choreographer and dancer who has gone before. I am delighted that you are teaching students like me in your country and I wish you and them all the best. Oh and I forgot to add my own congratulations and best wishes to Fiz.

Anyone who saw Elena Glurdjidze dance the Dying Swan on Sunday may wish to attend her talk to the London Ballet Circle on 10 Feb 2014 at 19:30. It takes place at The Dining Room, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HJ. Incidentally a number of other interesting talks are to be given at the same venue by Tamara Rojo, Ruth Brill and Peter Wright. All those talks are open to the public though persons who are not members of the Circle are required to pay a modest premium to attend. Glurdjidze will also dance Cinderella with Arionel Vargas at Stockport Plaza on 16 Feb 2014 in a benefit performance to raise funds for Reuben's Retreat (a project "to provide a retreat in the North West of England countryside that will relieve the distress of families and their close friends who have suffered the bereavement of a child or have a child suffering from a life limiting or life threatening illness") in memory of Reuben Graham, a small boy from Mottram who died of a brain tumour shortly before his second birthday. David Wilson who keeps the entertaining Dave Tries Ballet blog will also dance in that ballet. I believe that his ballet teacher trained with Glurdjidze at the same ballet school. There is some footage of a rehearsal by Gluirdjidze and Vargas (in which I understand the blogger also appears) on YouTube. As you will recall from my review of Gala for Ghana above I was impressed by Glurdjidze even though I did not recognize her (for which I apologize) and I want to see more of that ballerina. I plan to attend her talk in London on the 10 Feb 2014 and her performance in Stockport on the 16 Feb 2014 and shall report back to this website on both.