Two Pigeons

I found it genuinely that Archie really stood out in the ballet final but not at all in the overall one. Either way, I really enjoyed his Les Bourgeois solo and I feel he has a very good career ahead of him. No wonder NBT have snapped him up. My other two memories were that Darcey, bless her, should not try to conduct interviews and that Samira Saidi has got no less beautiful over the passing years.

Thank you. I can rest more easily now.

Please will someone put me out of my misery. What is Ben Van Cawenburgh's brothers name? It was niggling at me for the rest of the programme. I agree entirely that the right person won and that the programme contained far too little actual dance.

Amelia, thank you so much for that link but even more so for the additional film of Maximova and Vassiliev doing the Don Q in a courtyard. Was he style and elegance personified or what!

Now, there WAS a great ballerina. The story of her early life was pretty incredible too.

One of my Sky Arts highlights was Deborah Bull's programme about dancing in Russia. Another was Madam and the Dying Swan. I hope we will still have a chance to see programmes like that. I will be a bit disappointed if pretty much everything we get on dance hs the occasional programme on BBC4 and fronted by Darcey Bussell.

My goodness. No more Andre Rieu round the clock at weekends! Apart from that I will miss Sky Arts 2. There have been some interesting dance documentaries over the years as well as performances.

A few years ago Lady Macmillan gave a talk to the friends of BRB and I asked her specifically about The Four Seasons which I remember with great affection. She told me she had been considering the piece but I do wonder if too many other people were doing works on much the same theme around that time, albeit to different composers. I would love to see it again, danced by either RB or BRB.

There is an article about dancing Ashton in the April edition of Dancing Times. Reading that I felt it vindicated our points that dancing Ashton's choreography is hard. Dancing Ashton as he intended is REALLY hard.

I remember seeing Peter Schafuss saying that he didn't like Les Sylphides until Markova rehearsed it with him. After that it became one of his favourite works. This is a lesson which touches on so many threads on this site.

I agree about Clem. Given that all the current critics seem to be of a younger generation we are losing all the people who saw Markova and Ulanova. Oh well, Tempus Fugit

Having just read this thread there are two points that have struck me. The first is that I once heard a talk with Jennifer Penney and she was asked about Lise. She said she had no strong desire to do the role as it was 'much too hard'. I don't remember ever even seeing her name on a casting leaflet. The second is that there is a rare 5* review from Clement Crisp for the Marquez/ Campbell Fille. That is a performance I would liked to have seen.

All the Ashton previously quoted plus Theme and Variations and possibly Serenade, providing the lighting is bright enough for the audience to see it properly.

Nao is on maternity leave. Given that they are also without Natasha for they same reason and they are already a girl principal down there should be some chances for some soloists to shine. Knock 'em dead Tyrone and Celine!

I think there is one thing we can all agree on Sir Kenneth made an extremely happy and sensible choice in his wife and making her his custodian of his works. I am sorry Sir Frederick did not ensure that his legacy was in such capable and protective hands. To get back to the original point, well done Iain and Maggie and I am very envious of the Sarasota audience. Incidentally, when I knew Iain as a member of SWRB it was always his dream that the two of them could appear in A Month in the Country. It has only taken 25 years but at least BRB are finally having a crack at this next year. We can only dream of what Iain and Maggie would have made of it.

The point I was trying to make is that the attitude of the RB towards the Ashton rep seems ambivalent at times, despite having access to some great Ashton dancers who could coach. I would put Lynn Seymour at the top of that list. Conversely Ashton seems to be becoming more popular abroad. I do agree that the RB has no control over the performance of the European performances .

A very fair suggestion MAB. Actually I should have made myself a bit clearer. I was thinking of all the versions of Marguerite and Armand which are sprouting up all over the place.

I find it very ironic that Ashton was still alive less than 30 years ago and that so many of his dancers are still with us yet his work doesn't seem to get the urgent protection by the RB it deserves. However, at the same time versions of his works are springing up all over Europe. How true they are to his style is probably a very moot point. At least there are pockets where his works get something near the right respect. BRB is one (although the style issue is a bit patchy) and Sarasota another. Had the RB found a choreographer to match either Ashton or Macmillan the drive for so much new work would be understandable. I would suggest that they have not so please take better care of what we do have.

I agree with your comment that she should present on TV more. Having seen some of her excellent documentaries on dance I feel she has a lot to offer the discerning viewer and lover of dance.

The set was pretty simple, sort of bordering on a small grecian temple. The costumes were a bit over the top glittery and there were lots of mutterings about the costumes for the men being too fussy and camp. However, the whole work was created as a celebration for the 80th birthday of a Queen (mother) who was famous for her glittery, over the top, camp style. I mean this in the best possible way. I was lucky enough to see Baryshnikov and Collier and I can assure you that not once did the costumes bother me in the slightest. It was all part of the occasion. Ditto when I saw Dowell and Collier and had redesigned his own costume. When I saw Kumakawa and Durante in the 'playing card' version the outfits annoted me intensely and I found parts of them very distracting. In particular I remember being transfixed by Durante's wrists. This is all a question of personal taste but I welcome the return of Ashton's original vision. Any hope of a return of Les Rendezvous in the proper frocks and setting please?

Now I'm torn. Given that there are so few performances I cannot decide whether Will should be Belaiev or Oberon. Oh well, I have seen him as Oberon so Belaiev gets the vote.

This company deserves more recognition than it receives. It has stayed in business all this time with (I would suspect) no public funding. They have filled a very valuable service for 35 years in places which would not see live classical dance without them.

What an interesting topic. I agree about Ivanov being undeservedly less than well known. I would imagine that the Imperial Ballet was probably very political. Not a lot has changed, has it.

You're right about the length Fonty but I would still rather have a short evening of wonderful Ashton works than a longer evening of a lesser choreographer.

My husband is devoted to Elvis. Once when I said that I would rather have seen Freddie Mercury live I was nearly served with divorce papers. As I remember Freddie was both a friend and a fan of Wayne Eagling. A friend of mine, fellow balletomane and also a fan of Wayne's met Freddie in Wayne's dressing room. She said he was very quiet and unassuming. Put him on stage in front of an audience and he was an utter god!