Douglas Allen

Wendy Whelan (soon to be ex-NYCB) and Edward Watson are due to give a programme of new (presumably contemporary) works which are to be premiered at the Linbury in 2015 followed by performances at City Center in 2016. I can't find any mention of this programme in the announcement yesterday. Dies anyone know if any mention of this was made at the press conference?

I'm not so naïve as to think that planning a season is easy - I realise that there are budget constraints, income forecasts, teaching and rehearsal time, the need to have a "balanced" rep and so on - even the co-ordination with the opera company all have to be taken into account. I would be interested if someone did an interview with Kevin O'Hare about the mechanics of developing a season's programme and who actually participates. It's not a job I would relish myself, though I quite fancy myself in a Diaghilev-type role!! Having said that, I think that what is planned for next season looks pretty good. I can even force myself to say that the McGregor full-length looks interesting - something I never thought I'd ever say in public. So praise to Kevin O'Hare and the others involved for an interesting well-thought out series of ballets. What concerns me is not what is in the plans, but what isn't. Only three new works all season with both women and some other choreographers not present. The other concern is the imbalance between full-length and short ballets. Seven full-length ballets with 109 performances and only 12 short ballets (in four, fixed, programmes) with only 23 performances. With this ridiculous bias towards full-length ballets (about 83% of all ballet performances are of full-lengths), the Royal Ballet can't possibly do justice to its major chorographers such as Ashton and Macmillan, whilst preserving its very-wide ranging rep of ballets from the Diaghilev era, as well as Balanchine, Robbins, the Nureyev productions, etc, etc. The opportunities to commission new ballets from a wider range of choreographers is bound to suffer. Is the budget forecast so dire that the anticipated fall in box-office receipts wouldn't allow some slight reduction in the number of performances of the full-lengths (20 for Swan Lake, 19 for Alice, 18 each for Manon and Don Q) to allow for another two or three programmes of shorter ballets? Incidentally, I think a pick 'n mix approach to the mixed programmes would be helpful in stimulating box-office interest.

If it's not too late to respond to LinMM above, Ann Jenner did dance Lise with Baryshnikov as Colas on his debut in 1977. He danced two further performances of the ballet, both of those being with Lesley Collier. I always thought that Ann Jenner was a lovely dancer with particular lightness, speed and elevation. In many ways she was a notable victim of the Royal's "graduated casting" policy that was particularly in evidence under de Valois and Ashton, where after a few years of being a notable lilac fairy or prologue fairy in a Nerina or Grey Beauty, you moved on not to Aurora but to being a lilac fairy or prologue fairy in a Fonteyn Beauty! Her debut as Aurora was shamefully delayed, but when she did eventually return to the role in the 1977 production she was predictably very good indeed. I thought she flourished in the seventies especially in Dances At A Gathering and Anastasia. She was also really effective as Dorabella in Enigma where she was able to show off her speed to great advantage. Really, I enjoyed pretty much everything she did and was sad to see her leave the company. No arguing with love, though, I suppose.

Might I add a little bit in response? I was mainly expressing a feeling that since the re-opening of the Royal Opera House, the repertory and the performance schedule has become more restricted compared with earlier years. It wasn't particularly a comment about changes over the last ten years. To take the comments about the size of the company. Currently it is in the mid-nineties. In 1964 the total was 132 of whom sixty five were members of the old touring company leaving 67 in the Covent Garden company. Guest artists were not included in these numbers, so it wouldn't include Fonteyn or Nureyev, but it did include those people on the staff of the company (e.g. Henry Legerton and Gerd Larsen) who appeared on stage in mime or character roles. At the end of the sixties the Covent Garden company had 77 dancers and the touring company had 63. The source for this is the 1969 Arts Council report on opera and ballet in the UK. The contracted size of the company can usually be tracked through the Royal Opera House annual reports (though these don't usually differentiate between the two companies and the Ballet for All group). When I made my comment about the range of the rep, it was an impression I had rather than an exact measurement, but I've since looked up the details of a few years and I've noted the following: 1959-60 149 performances in London 1968-69 127 performances in London 9 full length 26 short 1980-81 135 performances in London 9 full length 22 short In addition for much of the time between the late forties and the mid seventies there was a very extensive overseas touring programme which is nowhere near as prominent today. In 63-64 in addition to 120 performances in London the main company did 96 performances overseas, in 67-68 they did 127 performances in London and a further 118 in North America. I accept that the rep then was perhaps more homogeneous than that of today, but with a company size in the mid seventies and a performance schedule of well over two hundred a year it suggests that today's dancers could be being underused. This led to my point about the Royal Ballet's non-use of the Linbury.I don't see why the company can't put on performances of either new ballets created for the space or put on works from the repertory appropriate for the space and using small numbers of dancers. There are a number of ballets using a few soloists or principals which wouldn't need rehearsal time for large corps numbers. Afternoon of a Faun, Apollo (especially in Balanchine's truncated recension), some of the early Ashton works created for Camargo, Rambert and the Vic-Wells, Jardin aux Lilas and so on. It would also be possible to commission works from up and coming choreographers who wouldn't necessarily benefit from a main stage exposure. Also, the old Choreographic Group which Leslie Edwards ran for many years until Dowell brought it to an end has never been satisfactorily replaced - why not try out a successor at the Linbury? The reason given for not using the Linbury seemed to me entirely spurious - too much work and needing too much rehearsal time, thus impinging on main stage work is just absurd. It is much more likely to be rooted in convenience and cost. The final point I made was about the "long, continuous season" in London. This was just me trying to suggest that if there is competition for stage time with the opera (as has seemed to be the case for decades), why not move out of the Opera House for a month or two each year allowing the Royal Ballet to get 50 or 60 performances continuously. They did that from 9 June to 18 July 1964 at Drury Lane; in 1973 from May8 until 3 June they appeared at the Coliseum and they subsequently had two "Big Top" experiences in Battersea Park. I was simply suggesting a way in which the company could perform more frequently and continuously in London while retaining the Opera House as their home and main performance venue. I hope this is helpful in clearing up any ambiguities in my initial post. I hope this isn't too long, irrelevant or boring!

It would be good if there were one or two revivals of major Ashton works, e.g. Scenes de Ballet, Daphnis, Symphonic or Illuminations. I'd also dearly like negotiations with the Robbins' Trust to regain a performing licence for Dances At A Gathering and , if possible, to get the rights to perform NY Export: Opus Jazz. Other revivals I'd enjoy would be the Nureyev production of the Kingdom of the Shades from Bayadere (different from and superior to the Makarova version performed as part of the complete ballet) and Les Biches. New works from Russell Malliphant, Mark Morris and Liam Scarlett would be welcome. I won't hold my breath, though. Do other people feel that the number of performances and the number of ballets in a season has declined in recent years? It seems a long time since the company did a long continuous season in London (or elsewhere). Even discounting when the ROH was closed, I remember seasons at Drury Lane, the Coliseum not to mention in the "Big Top". Why not again? I also think the reason given for not performing at the Linbury is a load of old rubbish. Does the PR department think we're stupid?