Two Pigeons

Darcey always speaks very warmly of her days with SWRB and she has kind of returned to the company as she is (or at least was) the figurehead of BRB's fundraising campaign. Regarding her retirement, from what I remember she asked that her last performance should be in Song of the Earth which the RB was presenting. I cannot recall ever hearing that she wanted to finish at Sadler's Wells.

Wonderful photo Janet, bodes well for the future. If the casting for A Month in the Country is as the photos on Facebook, Delia Matthews and Iain Mackay then Sahara Downs and Jamie Bond I will not argue with that either.

Obvious I meant 'are', not 'ate'. Sorry.

I was lucky enough to see Baryshnikov dance Rhapsody and he was astonishing. However, i also remember Anthony Dowell in the role and he was remarkable in an entirely different way. Never a virtuoso but someone who understood Ashton's choreography and whose elegance carried it.

There ate different ways to present the ballet and it doesn't have to be totally 'in your face'.

They were/are still a vast improvement on the redesign imposed in the 90s.

Why one know why there is no Singleton Gittens cast? I do hope neither is injured.

I quite agree Janet. We played it at my mother's funeral and I blubbed for England.

I would like writing for both film and television to return to the days when the 'f' word just didn't happen. Most modern screenwriters would not know where to begin. Maybe then a class of writers would emerge who delivered original plots and genuine wit.

He also said he thought he was the first knight not to come from the Royal Ballet, by which I think he meant Royal Ballet umbrella. Not quite right. There was Sir Anton Dolin.

P.s. I see Macaulay continues his long term habit of missing no opportunity to take a swipe at Sir Peter Wright.

What an interesting exercise Janet. I found the relative slowness of the ladies from BRB something of an eye opener. I had not appreciated how much the performances have slowed down. These things are so gradual you don't notice it.

Markova takes the palm for me. I am always grateful for any film of her performances as they are always illuminating.

I think it should be pointed out that Darcey's programmes are shown on BBC which has a higher audience than the more recherche BBC to which David Bintley, Deborah Bull and Tamara Rojo seem to be confined. Darcey is mainstream, the others just aren't. However, they do tend to produce programmes of greater interest to balletomanes. They are just a bit harder to find.

I am fascinated to know how much Carmen cost to produce and perform. When I was watching it I was staggered that the budget had allowed for (I think) 2 vocal soloists, orchestral soloists and a chorus.

I agree that this programme was much better than the companion piece on ballerinas but I still cannot believe she left Vassiliev out. Surely he was the other dominant force of the 60s and 70s.

My only issue with Darcey as a presenter is that I keep remembering that there are at least two other candidates who are much better. However, given Darcey's tie in with Strictly and given the BBC's habit of cross pollinating its programmes I think we must accept that we should be grateful for everything we do get.

I am sorry that Sky Arts are unlikely to produce any more programmes of the calibre of Deborah Bull's Dancing in Russia.

Did she not mention Vassiliev? If ever there was a ballet hero surely it was him.

I am watching this [Carmen, Christmas Day] now having seen the slating reviews and the comments on these pages saying this was the turkey of the year.

Well, it's even worse than that. No quibbles about the performances but it is such a mess and in poor taste as well.

I should have appreciated how bad it was the way so many people were trying to talk it up in Darcey's preamble. Why was it not strangled at birth?

Anything involving Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton

Anything involving Delia Matthews and Brandon Lawrence

This next remark is NOT to be taken as Xenophobic

We had two casts of seminarians in Carmina Burana in Birmingham which made a total of 6 male dancers. Of those 5 were British. If you include Iain Mackay that is 6 out of 7. This makes me feel that there is real hope for British dance students that they can achieve worthwhile careers within ballet.

The exception was Mathias Dingman and I would like to say how fortunate we are to have him as one of our principals.

'Twas ever this with ENB. So many of their directors seemed to do well and then got the boot. I am sure Tamara will be very aware of this and it may be one of the reasons she has made herself so high profile. If things do go wrong I am sure she will be able to walk into another job without breaking her stride.

Very well said FLOSS.

I remember a period in the early 80s (the Morrice years) when the RB was similarly in the doldrums. At the same time LFB/ENB was revitalised under the leadership of Peter Schaufuss. He had terrific guest artists such as Patrick Dupond, Eva Evdokimova, Natalia Makarova, Denys Ganio, Dominique Khalfoni and Alessandra Ferri. He had good relations with Ashton and built on the company's own rep.

The RB started to get bad press and it started something of a roll among the critics to the effect that it could not do anything right. This was compounded as SWRB was on the crest of a wave as well with the new productions of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. It was presenting terrific triple bills. The Royal wasn't. I remember being part of a discussion in the old amphitheatre asking why the RB was being slated all the time.

A very elderly lady who had been watching the company since the 30s just said 'because it's fashionable'.

I think we are getting elements of that now. ENB is 'in'. RB is 'out'.

The wheel will click round again in tone.

Probably not. But they are paying for it.

My main irritation with the RB is that they don't tour and they offer very few matinées. I realise that a lot of posters spend a lot of time, energy and money travelling to London to see the company. I used to but a change in my circumstances means that I have not seen the company live for over 12 years.

FLOSS is quite right in pointing out that the grant given to the two Opera House companies is so much larger than that given to other ballet companies so I would describe the RB as elitist as 75% of the country will never have the chance to see them.

Anything by Elgar. There have been a few ballet's danced to his music, not least when LFB performed The Sanguine Fan which is his only specified written ballet. I cannot leave out Ashton's Enigma Variations and I have very happy memories of Michael Corder's Wand of Youth.

Specially I would suggest his Elergy for Strings and Serenade for Strings. His Introduction and Allegro for Strings is my very favourite piece of music in all the world but I think it would take a really great choreographer to make that work.

For years to be director of ENB was a sort of poisoned chalice, always fighting too little funding and a high turnover of dancers. Rojo seems to have hit a wave on its way up and she is riding it to success. The Royal did not have so many funding issues and the company has the inestimable benefit of appearing at The Opera House. A real 'go to' destination.

However, the flip side was the RB relying on stars who have moved on and a repertoire so vast you just cannot please everyone. The company has yet to find a choreographer to match those of the past. The levels of success expected from the RB are greater than those of ENB. To have a director /ballerina/intellect of the magnitude is a huge advantage. But I think she is going to be allowed more failure than O'Hare. I feel his is now the poisoned chalice.

If both my wished for Juliets get their regular partners I will be a very happy bunny. Actually I think the casting for the Ashton double bill will be more interesting.

I thought Laura would be an absolutely wonderful Vera. I suspect the queue of Juliets might be a bit too long this time around. I am really hoping for Celine and Delia to be the debutantes and you won't need to be Inspector Morse to work out which new Romeos I would love to see.