Geoff

English National Ballet School is delighted to announce that internationally celebrated Viviana Durante has been appointed as its new Director of Dance for the 2019/2020 academic year, commencing September 2019. Italian born Durante has enjoyed a distinguished career as principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Teatro alla Scala and K-Ballet, she has won multiple awards, danced many major roles, originated new work, and is largely considered one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation. Founded in 1988 by English National Ballet to train students for a professional career in dance, English National Ballet School now has a body of close to 100 students from 12 countries and is a peer of major ballet schools all over the world. As Director of Dance, Durante will oversee the classical and contemporary syllabus of dance and have a creative input into the student’s development throughout the 2019/2020 academic year, an exciting moment for ENBS as it celebrates its 30th anniversary and moves to brand new premises on London City Island. Viviana Durante said: I am thrilled to be taking up the role of interim Director of Dance at this pivotal point in the School’s history. ENBS has a proud tradition of excellence and achievement on which to continue building. Standards are very high, and we expect a great deal from our talented students. In turn we owe them the best possible training, pastoral care and career opportunities to enable them to realise their full potential. A dancer’s career has many challenges as well as many rewards, and it can take many paths. I am passionate about treating each student as an individual and creating a secure, positive and supportive environment in which all can flourish as intelligent artists and rounded young people. Steve Sacks, Chairman of English National Ballet School said: On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Viviana as our new Director of Dance for the 2019/2020 school year, working alongside the Executive Director Jon Singleton. Her deep knowledge of ballet and standing in the ballet world will be a tremendous addition to the School and to the students. We are excited that she will be joining us as we move to our new home in London City Island. Viviana Durante is appointed as English National Ballet School’s interim Director of Dance for the 2019/2020 academic year. Once ENBS is settled into its new home this autumn, recruitment will continue to fill the role, and others, on a more permanent basis.

Just received an email aimed at Friends. The relevant section reads: >>We’re aware that some Friends have experienced issues with buying tickets online in this priority booking period; we are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are working to resolve the issue. To give yourself the best chance of buying tickets quickly, Friends are advised to avoid refreshing the rehearsals page or attempting to buy tickets before booking opens at 9am. Simply go to the website after 9am, ensuring you are logged into your account, and then click the buy buttons without refreshing. You'll then be taken to select your seats as usual. Oh, so now we understand: ROH have spent months, maybe years, redesigning (and so they boast, testing) their new website - but then we, the paying customers, just won't use it right. Naughty us for trying to use the internet and online purchasing as works elsewhere. Definitely nothing to do with lousy design, testing, implementation, maintenance or monitoring, and certainly nothing to do with the quality of ROH staff (paid by the tax payers' purse). Is it me or does this fall into the category of blaming the customer?

I paid £24 for one this morning!

FOR THE ATTENTION OF ALL FRIENDS OF COVENT GARDEN (WE MIGHT ASK WHETHER WE WANT TO GO ON BEING FRIENDS, THE WAY THE ROH TREATS US) For those Friends who are currently trying to buy rehearsal tickets (9.15am on the morning booking opens) please note that ***yet again*** there is a warning alert that purchasing tickets has been suspended for technical reasons. This is only on (so far as I can see) one of the website pages so if you are desperately refreshing elsewhere you won't see it. How many times does this have to happen before the various teams involved are replaced with people who can commission, maintain and run online ticketing systems professionally?

How frustrating. Just because ROH people (perhaps) understand what is going on, that does not mean they have made things clear to those who actually use the system. Might I suggest you both write to CustomerServices@roh.org.uk (the more information they have about what is not working, the greater the chance that they might just do something)

Beryl, thank you: you seem to be the only person to suggest Osipova worth watching. There is something of an unbalanced impression so far - Osipova is a truly miraculous dance actress - so I would like to add my vote.

This seems a useful note for you to send to CustomerServices@roh.org.uk

Just to be clear ninamargaret, by “extreme side stalls circle”, you don’t by any chance mean the fabled seats we used to buy? The ones on the far sides of the Stalls Circle we could buy before the noise of the orchestra became an issue and a curtain (usually) is drawn over these two areas, only for those seats (sometimes, rarely) to be released shortly before - or even sometimes during - a run of a “quiet” show.

Today is the first day of Friends+ booking. As reported elsewhere on the Forum, the system crashed just before 9am. By 9.10 obscure error messages about the cache were appearing; 9.20 the ROH put up a general warning that no one can buy tickets at the moment. Half an hour in to this season’s booking period and everything has frozen. Is this in any way acceptable? Who is (finally) going to be fired or will the masons of Bow Street keep on protecting the status quo? Just asking.

I used to believe ROH staff kept an eye on what was written here. Now I am not so sure: we warned weeks ago that this particular season would place extraordinary pressure on their booking system. And what did they do?

Just to add, in case people draw wrong conclusions from this discussion, these packages can only be booked from the same dates as other ("normal") bookings. The advantages are the discounts, not any lead on booking dates.

This recent half hour interview has just popped up on YouTube (in some ways more interesting than the cinema/Sky film, in my opinion)

One highlight from a Friends email just received:-- >>the Box Office has moved back into our Ground Floor Foyer, alongside the cafe. Have not yet tried this in the new location: do they have enough room to deal with everybody and everything?

I hope I may be forgiven for posting this separately from the new dvd list as this is a rather different kind of production (I heard that copies have already turned up in the shop, can anyone confirm?)--- https://shop.roh.org.uk/products/the-enrico-cecchetti-diploma-dvd-bluray Given the importance some of us place on Cecchetti, this significant record of what was taught at White Lodge for decades is very welcome. Hope those with specialist knowledge will post about it; I for one would like to know more.

The person who did this lousy job is sadly also hired to conduct it, so it seems we may be stuck with it for a while. Oh for John Lanchbery!