Balletfanp

Terrible. I remember watching the Royal Family Christmas special a few years back and thinking what an incredibly clever mix of comedy and heartbreaking sadness it was. Genius. So very sad.

That brought a tear! How lovely, thanks for posting, Bluebird. Congratulations to Shiori - she has always stood out for me with her beautiful dancing and lovely big smile.

It's definitely a function on my phone and my tablet. I keep telling myself I must turn it off, but often it is quite useful, and besides, it would be a shame to miss out on the inadvertent laughs it occasionally gives me! Incidentally, there is actually a website called Damn You Autocorrect, which is a collection of unfortunate typos as a result of, you guessed it, autocorrect, some of which are hilarious (but be warned, some are quite "adult" in nature, which makes you wonder what the designers of the feature were thinking when they programmed them in!).

Mayara Magri! I'm really going to have to figure out how to switch off autocorrect....!

I saw last night's performance. I had also seen the general rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, and hadn't really engaged with Obsidian Tear then. It did improve on a second viewing - brilliantly danced, of course, and certainly quite compelling - but I did find it a bit repetitive after a while, and as someone else said, there was an awful lot going on on stage. I found I couldn't keep up with it all and my attention wandered a bit. I did find the ending, with Matthew Ball silhouetted against the orange glow before throwing himself into the abyss, quite effective. I really enjoyed The Invitation (if "enjoy" is the right word...). I suppose it has dated a bit, but the overall story and message is so compelling that it overrode any small flaws in my eyes. Needless to say, all the main performances were superb. I thought Muntagirov and Hayward made the most adorable pairing. They hit off the naivety, playfulness, and coy, innocent adolescent flirting perfectly - which served to throw into even greater relief the contrast after the terrible deed has taken place. I found it almost unbearably touching how she runs to her cousin for comfort after the rape has happened - only to recoil when he becomes a little amorous. Gary Avis was quite wonderful (for a nice chap he plays villains awfully well!), and Yanowsky also brilliant. When she sides with her broken husband after the rape, it seems that she has finally taken control of their relationship (and him) and has gained the upper hand - at the expense, of course, of two innocent lives ruined; although on the face of it, the boy hasn't really suffered, but he has lost the cousin he loves. All quite hard to watch but quite brilliantly acted by them all. And a word for Mayara Matrix as the hen - really good - and Isabella Gasparini as a very annoying little girl! I loved Golden Hour! So beautiful, flowing and uplifting after the first two ballets, and the music gorgeous. I find the end, with the curtain closing on them all moving fluidly together onstage, very effective. I fully intended to try to find fellow Balletco-ers in the interval, but I was ragingly thirsty, and by the time I had queued for water, then queued for the toilets in the intervals I had to rush back! I did bump into Janet purely by chance, though!

I love the photo; makes me smile every time I look at it!

And Ryoichi Hirano only appeared to be wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Pay me a fortune, and I'll design that for them.... (Edited to correct Hirano's surname, which autocorrect had decided must be Hitachi! - second time around just now, it tried Hudson....)

I didn't notice the height disparity when Muntagirov and Hayward were dancing last night. I only thought how adorable they were together and plainly had chemistry. More on that in my review on the other thread which I will write later. I don't think Muntagirov's height made the character unconvincing as an adolescent either. My own son shot up to over 6 foot at the age of 14 or 15 and towered above most if his contemporaries for a long time (and at 6' 4" now, he still does!).

And seeing her and Vadim dancing together this evening, it strikes me that there is another potentially strong partnership. It's a shame they have partnered her with McRae (no disrespect to him) in R&J in Japan, because I can't help imagining her and Vadim in it....

They let me in with my e-ticket - and if they'll let me in, they'll let anyone in!

Fonty, I had the same thing when I booked late for the general rehearsal. I think you can do either. When you get the e-ticket you can either print it or just show it to them on your phone. Or you can collect the ticket in time-honoured fashion from the box office.

That's such a lovely video.

I too thought they were fantastic - absolutely gripping - in the rehearsal, but assumed it wasn't correct protocol to comment on a rehearsal.

I didn't know about this before I bought a ticket for the 11th. It sounds extremely unattractive so I sincerely hope I don't blunder onto it by accident!

Saw not a single badge wearer, either last night or at the rehearsal this afternoon. Although I did almost accost a lady with blue buttons on her blouse - realised my mistake in the nick of time!

....And I have just got to London only to find my badge is still back home in Plymouth....???? However, I will keep my eyes open tonight for other badge wearers!

I'm not being defensive - and yes, this is a discussion site. But since there have been a number of quite negative comments about Frankenstein (and I wasn't intending to single out anyone's in particular), I just wanted to make the point that a number of us really enjoyed it.

Not all of us see Frankenstein as poor new work - improvements needed, yes - but not poor.

I must say I can't understand the very negative comments and reviews this has been getting. I saw it at the cinema on Wednesday. I was there with my sister and mother in law, and they both thought it was one of the best things they had ever seen. Whilst I wouldn't go quite that far, I did enjoy it very much, and thought it imparted the required atmosphere - I was certainly on the edge of my seat and very tense. I agree that it needs some work - most of the "filler" pieces with the Corps I found overlong and need trimming down (no disrespect to the Corps -as ever they danced wonderfully) and some of the storytelling needs more clarity, but these are faults that can be fixed, and overall I thought it was excellent and that Liam Scarlett is a real talent. Having said that, there were some unintentional comedy moments for me - the moment when the Professor sticks the probes in the corpse and activated the machine, and the arm jerks up (it looked a bit "low budget"!). And when Victor decides to put the severed arm and leg back on, and it just takes a couple of seconds of twiddling about under the sheet! I am generally very good at being able to suspend disbelief in ballets (if the you start questioning why and how you would never stop!), but that was a step too far..... The pas de deux between Victor and Elizabeth were beautiful, and gorgeously danced by Laura in particular - the more I see of her, the more I like her. And the final pas de deux between Victor and the Creature was fantastic. I have to say that I thought McRae was extremely good in this. I'm not his biggest fan but I think I can stomach him in this kind of role much better than I can as the romantic hero. Maybe he has found his niche! I loved Laura Morera - apart from being a lovely dancer she has an emotional quality all of her own. I generally like Bonelli without being blown away by him, and it was much the same in this - he was very good, but left me wanting a bit more. I couldn't help but wonder what Muntagirov would have made of the role. I have to say as well, I thought the little boy who played William was wonderful. A real star in the making. Judging by the extremely enthusiastic audience reaction at the end (standing ovation from many), what some of the critics are saying won't ultimately count for much. There was one funny moment where they were interviewing Kevin O'Hare in the Paul Hamlyn Hall in the interval. A man, who seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they were filming, appeared and stood RIGHT next to Kevin, and just sort of loomed.... until escorted away by an amused sound technician ! It provoked lots of mirth in the cinema.

I will look out for you! You have been warned....

I have mine now too. Will be wearing it on the 27th to Frankenstein, and 11th June for the triple bill. Not sure how visible it will be!

No you're not! So annoying.....

I fear so...

Muntagirov and Morera were wonderful last time. But I suspect Muntagirov and Nunez will also be a cast to be reckoned with...oh, dilemmas!

Either that or we need badges the size of dinner plates to attract attention!