jack.b

A beautiful dancer indeed and a name ,but do great dancers make great pedagogues . As Miss Durante has only recently got her teaching diploma it will be hard for her to choose the 4 teachers needed for next year and assess students auditioning due to inexperience it takes a seasoned eye to do so ,also will she be able to reduce the women 's class sizes that grew from about 17students  to 26 over the last dance directors tenure . Is she carrying on with her company at the same time ?

I wish her well but she has a lot of work to do to remedy the last two years .

will they be paid in cheese as Alex James makes cheese 

Ivan Rabovski used to do 16 consecutive double tours at the end of his variation in Don Q ,he and his wife Nora Kovacs  were guests with London Festival Ballet in the 60's

Hungarian couple who escaped in 1956 

Not as tidy as Sarafanov I will admit .

I saw Prokovsky and Dubreuil doing 4 consecutive doubles in Etudes in the early 70's where now Sarafanov does 8 and Kimmin Kim does 9 (9is not musical but impressive Harold Lander must be turning in his grave )

Poor students and just before the big move .The end of year performance was disappointing this year .

Should not be long Janet as someone has been open about getting the job . 

Well over 10 years ago I had a conversation with Chi and commented how he had become so much more emotional and sincere in his performances , he told me it was always difficult for him to release his emotions on stage ,but with the help of his coach at BRB ( who had worked with him and Nao from their first Nutcracker at the Lyceum in London ) he found the way to be the artist he is today . I was appalled that BRB did not make a huge to do about his film "Mao's last dancer " not only did he act wonderfully his dancing was supreme .

Nao Sakuma was always a joy to watch a supremely confident dancer with a technique to match . 

I wish them both the very best in their new adventures 

It is now on you tube ,mixed bag from the sublime to one IMO below average ,well worth a look 

15 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

It seems a rather badly managed press release given the omissions - given that it is the official announcement, one would expect it to be complete and correct.

Damage limitation, it does not look good when so many left or are leaving. The board will have to ask questions. Auditions were held last wee k ,late in the day as most dancers have already got jobs for next season . 

Also ENBS is loosing its director of dance and three teachers , the reports I got from the school show this year were excellent .

I believe this year 12 dancers are leaving or have left the companythis year,the latest a principal,is Miss Rojo loosing confidence of the dancers by her directorship style. She has done wonders in getting great ballets for the company but if the dancers are leaving there must be an issue with the management. Aaron Robison is a good asset a lovely dancer but only 2 lead principal dancers !! Until perhaps the new defection from BRB (sorry Janet McNulry )

i admire these dancers they all work so hard and always give their all .

As usual these competitions are won by , unemployable dancers with great technique but  wrong proportion or too small to employ .

The judges have a huge dilemma as they have to give points on technique,and some of the winners were really not what directors were looking for .

the Gala was amazing :

Legris .Guerin

laccara ,Dino

I think miss Rojo is a good dancer but please be musical you spoil pas de deux by balancing for ever and turning too many pirouettes, 

I saw it on Todo el Munro Harla I thought it was genuine sorry for the misinformation

It was announced that Alicia Alonso has died at age 94

How diisappointing was this prerfonrmace ,,the choreography of most of the items was poor ,Elite needs good performances a hard ballet to get across even with pr.os

I was also not impressed with the standard of the lower school ,poor foot work and port de bras

It is my opinion ,many will have love,d it

3 hours ,perhaps cutting down the Flamenco might reduce it .Good luck for tomorrow ,looking forward to seeing the performance .

A thoroughly enjoyable performance ,under the directorship of Samira Saidi the school is improving so much .I agree the first year men so good . second years in Scottish Dances by Bintley spot on and third years in contemporary and classical showed a clear understanding of both styles .Well done to ENBS teachers too .

40 minutes of contemporary now classical ladies ,only 20 mins left !!

The claque is a group of people who are paid to clap for certain artists ,this mainly happens in France or Italy .

Private lessons with Petipa !! Please !

Excellent Royal Ballet class ,I liked one of the young men ? Red bandana grey cut off tights lovely work .

It is very difficult for UK students at this time, although many attend summer schools, to have intensive coaching prior to the Genée unless they pay a private coach,

Lets see tonight ,I hope the best wins ,some losers have had great careers so if you don't win don't despair .

Still disturbed about the coaching though !!A man coaching the men perhaps as in Prix de Lausanne 

What I meant was that the vocational schools in the UK only started in September so it was a vey short time to coach students in their variations ,so Antipodeans or South African  students would have had more time .

But then the Aussies  and Kiwis are always ready it seems

Will be watching on line after paying (Prix de Lausanne is free and a more prestigious competition !!) shame on you RAD you would have much more people watching otherwise.

I think that UK trained students have only been in full time training for only 3 weeks ,the timing of the competition does not favour them .

I was surprised to see on the RAD website class that the leading arm is not used for en dedans pirouettes ,ok for one turn but for many !!!!!!! 

BRB did Choreatium choreographed by Massine and wonderfully staged by Tatiana Leskova ,the all women second movement was beautiful ,I agree Le Tricorne was a disaster it was staged by Lorca Massine need I say more !!!!

The only one left is Clement Crisp ,he is in my opinion the best critic of ballet in the UK living ,John Percival and Richard Buckle were in their time outstanding because they loved ballet and dancers so much .Richard Buckles Diaries are a gem .T