Two Pigeons

And/or Tyrone's first Romeo!

Yet another performance I have missed and you can tease me over!

A great friend of mine saw Delia Mathews and Brandon Lawrence in Plymouth. I will quote her - 'Dancing of the highest quality, complete understanding of the characterisation, fun loving and tender........joyous Ashton.' This is someone in whose experience and judgment I have total respect and faith. Must confess to being a bit jealous too.

What a lovely young man. Can't wait for Hobson's.

Excellent point Bruce.

Ditto Delia Mathews and Brandon Lawrence. I would have thought their casting would have helped with building up the audiences.

Me neither! Coming up for 35 years and counting to page 94.

I read said item a couple of hours ago and thought it was bang on. Do they have a mole on this site?

It was also a shame that the diverse make up of other ballet companies was not mentioned. Most people watching the report have a far greater chance of seeing ENB and/or BRB than the RB.

There was a very widely publicised offer of £10 a seat.

Hi there Susan. My original home is Worthing and I remember when SWRB used to appear at both the Mayflower and the Congress theatre at Eastbourne. However, your point about Southern Rail being basically useless is a very fair one. My brother and his wife have to divide their working time between West Sussex and London and they have their fair share of horror stories about missed appointments and general stress over the service (or lack of it). I wish you all the best and really hope that things will finally improve on Southern Rail.

I was told by an impeccable source that David Bintley said that his biggest disappointment in recent years was that the Ashton double bill of a couple of years ago sold so badly. Not only did it consist of The Dream but immaculate and rare chances to see A Month in the Country. I would suggest that this was not 'pants' and it was pretty heartbreaking to see such sparse audiences for a programme which was an artistic triumph for the Company. Triumph or not, we all commented on the forum as to the lack of coverage by critics of the national newspapers. I am afraid this is becoming a vicious circle. Insufficient coverage leads to ignorance for the general public leads to smaller audiences. None of this bodes well for the incoming director, whoever he or she may be. This is all doubly sad as I doubt the company has ever had such a depth of talent as it does now.

When caught out just blame spellchecker George C. It is amazing some of the alternatives it comes up with when you know exactly what you mean!

I would like to add a point relating to the poor houses for Fille. I don't live in Birmingham itself, I live in Worcestershire which is not that far away. I knew it was Fille to be scheduled in September as I am a friend of BRB, a friend of the Hippodrome and a past BRB subscription holder. Everything I saw about Fille was contained within those parameters. This smacks of preaching to the converted but I cannot remember seeing anything about it in the local papers or on Midlands TV. This comes up time and time again with BRB. Matinee performances can be very well attended as Fille as it is ideal for coach parties but the evenings are very sparse. The Hippodrome and the company cannot rely on the corporate core audience as the theatre is not a destination venue the way the the ROH is. It is a similar situation when the company appears at Sadler's Wells or the Coliseum. Unless the performances are Nutcracker, Swan Lake or Romeo and Juliet the audiences just aren't there any more. I am not sure what the publicity department does but it clearly isn't working.

As I was sitting with Janet on Thursday night I feel obliged to put my thoughts down as well. Come what may this was going to be a very special performance for me as my husband was coming with me. (I am unable to attend performances by myself any more due to a heavily impaired sense of balance.) This was to be his first three acter but, more importantly for me, his first experience of an Ashton ballet. We had a very happy evening, enhanced by meeting old friends and Alan enjoyed the ballet more and more as it went on. I must report that EVERYONE I spoke to who had been at the matinee show just raved about Miki and Lachlan so this can only endorse what has been said above. I do hope that George C is right and Lachlan gets to do Will Mossop next year. We have our tickets! This was an odd BRB experience as the company is fielding several casts for both Birmingham and on tour and I would have very happy to have seen any of them. Had I been less keen on a Lise, the Colas made up for it. Had I seen Cesar Morales, whose performance as Colas I have enjoyed before, I would have been very happy to see Maureya Lebowitz for the first time. She seems absolutely ideal for the role. Having gone on about whom I didn't see I will now rave about the perfomance I was lucky enough to attend. Had I been asked which couple I would like to have seen most it would have unhesitatingly been Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton. For me they are the A team in anything the do either separately or - better still - together. I thought they were terrific and an absolute lesson in the joys of seeing a partnership who are so used to dancing together, are great friends and have real rapport on stage. If I had a quibble it would be the one that Janet mentions and we discussed it at the time. Tyrone's two solos were slowed down to allow for his height. that minor point the Fanny Elssler was an utter triumph for both of them. I was holding Hubby's hand and when they got to my very favourite bit, very close to the end when Lise and Colas unite to do that sort of hoppy, skippy trip across the stage (please note my incredibly explicit ballet terminology) just before theypart and then go into the bum life I was beating time with both our hands as I got so excited about it all. there was one slightly ironic moment as when Tyrone, the most dependable and strong partner, was lifted by the corps at the very end of the ballet they almost dropped him. I must also recored that I was very impressed with Kim Holder as Alain. I found him very affecting and Janet's point about him being a gauche outsider is a very pertinent one. I really confused Hubby when I told him Lise is actually married to Alain I had to explain it again later. It has been a while since I have seen Fille and I had forgotten how much the gimicky lighting annoyed me. the Act 2 storm only needs for someone to come on and say 'Blow wind and crack your cheeks' for what used to be a passing rain shower and is now a full blown tempest. However, the worst bit was at the very end it so gloomy I was amazed Alain could find his red umbrella on the far table. without appearing overly sentimental I did muse on the fact that my first Lise was Lesley Collier in about 1981. She was my great ballet goddess and I have very many happy memories of her with several great partners and then other lovely shows with Marion Tait, Myako Yoshida, Sandra Madgwick with Michael O'Hare, etc etc etc. If this performance was the last live Fille I will see for some time I am very happy that my Lise was my current favourite ballerina dancing with my favourite man.

Ballet and dance - my role in its success! Sorry, not a fan personally, but I remember him starting out.

I am sure that story is well founded Janet, I read somewhere that when Tudor and Hugh Laing first attended the reopened Covent Garden and entered the Crush Bar everyone turned their backs on them in protest. The story went on to say that it was believed Ashton himself had encouraged the snub. FLOSS does have a very valid point that Tudor as a choreographer is far too important and ground breaking for his legacy not to be respected and performed. Great men can have great flaws and make misjudgements but their work should still live on. After all, with all the problems at NYCB, past and present, no one is suggesting in this 'me too' age that we no longer have the works of George Balanchine. He is a man who took his level of control over his dancers to a new level but I still want to see Serenade, Symphony in 3 Movements, Theme and Variations etc.

My fear for BRB is that the new regime will slash the number of dancers and prune the orchestra to result in a company near the size which carries out the mid-scale tours. When the move to Birmingham was first proposed there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the idea of London losing SWRB. Anyone who looked at the overall picture at the time could see that either the company took up Birmingham's offer or it would either be scaled down or dissolved all together. The City Council made good all its financial pledges but it must be accepted that the current situation is very different. If the company is greatly changed I will hang on to the notion that the company of around 60 dancers, creative staff and a full orchestra have had almost 30 very successful years. The Company has benefited from a good following wind from the Council. However, given the changing demographic of the City we may find that the future composition of the Council could be very averse to some cultural activities.

One of ballet's greatest people. Ever. A successful and fulfilled life and we are the richer for his contribution. RIP indeed. We were so fortunate to have had you in our lives.

I am always staggered that Petrouchka is still allowed to be performed. I realise that given the fact that it is a combination of choreography, music and history which makes a complete work of art but there are elements in it which are likely to cause offence to somebody. Having said that I really do hope it continues to appear. I really love it when the snow comes down and I did see David Bintley give great performances in the title role. He moved me ( as he did as Alain in Fille) and I would not have missed those great memories.

We can but hope!

P.s. Lucky Plymouth and Salford. Some really interesting casts coming up.

yippeeeeee. I get my favourite pairing. It's Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton on the Thursday night. I would have been very happy to see Lachlan Monaghan but my first preference is always to see Tyrone and Celine in anything.

I have to agree too. I have only had Blu-Ray for all the new ballet issues of the past couple of years. If it is a historic performance DVD is as good as it gets which is probably why so few are issued in both formats. I am also regretful to have to admit the Blu-Ray does make a difference for modern recordings.

Dupond was invited by Peter Schaufuss to dance with ENB in the early/mid 80s and he absolutely oozed star quality. I was lucky enough to see him in Etudes a number of times and once with the POB as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He had Charisma by the bucket load and, as you say, you couldn't take yours eyes off him. The Etudes , well bits of it, are available via some amateur footage on YouTube. P.s. I always felt really sorry for the other male dancer. Even when it was Patrick Armand he barely got a look in once Dupond was sharing the stage.