RuthE

He has had quite a lot of time out with injury in the last few years (wasn't it his shoulder that's been particularly troublesome?) though whether that's why he chose to leave is just speculation at the moment. Actually, what with his injury issues and the fact that he often partners dancers I'm less keen on, I've realised that in the few years I've been attending the RB regularly I've barely seen him in anything!

How did I not notice this before (while I could have still got a MG standing ticket) and why does it have to be in the middle of the one week of the autumn when I am already stupidly busy??

Off-topic musing... there seem to be so many ballet dancers called Grace!! Nominative determinism, or a high proportion of pushy parents who are hoping their daughters might have what it takes for a ballet career from the point of birth? (I'm thinking Grace Horne and Grace Horler named above, Grace Blundell in the corps at the RB, and at least two other RB dancers with Grace as a middle name - Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Olivia Cowley...)

Goodness - imagine recruiting two young dancers with almost identical names at exactly the same time! They're destined to get mixed up with each other for as long as they're both with the company...

I'll start by saying I know nothing about ballet exams so hope this isn't too off-topic! I think I'd agree that the upper three grades of music exams (ABRSM ones at least) are seen as falling into a different category from Grades 1-5 - this is perhaps acknowledged by having Grade 5 Theory as a prerequisite to taking them. On the other hand, I'd tend to think of DipABRSM, LRSM and FRSM (the three levels of diploma above ABRSM Grade 8) as being the vocational levels. On the other hand, I know a lot of musicians at pretty much all amateur and professional levels, and while for instrumental study it's common even for serious amateurs to go through the whole graded process at least up to DipABRSM, most of the professional singers I know didn't get as far as Grade 8 with it but went on to pursue full-time vocational study. I think the main difference with singers is that serious study tends to start at a much later age than with either classical ballet dancers or instrumentalists, and once somebody has left full-time education it's rarer to continue with strict syllabus study.

I went last night and enjoyed it very much, though was grateful for its short length as I was exhausted! The last RB run was as two-thirds of a double bill, and even with the additional numbers in the Queensland Ballet version which have been mentioned in previous posts, I was out of the theatre within 1hr 50m. I'm no technical expert but I very much enjoyed Mia Heathcote's performance as Effie in particular, and thought the little girl (is that Effie's sister, as mentioned on the cast list? in which case it was Constance Bowles) was excellent as well. Thought it was played considerably more for laughs than the RB version, which is the only other Sylphide I've seen - Madge really hamming it up, and that mime Gurn does twice ("BUT I'M TELLING YOU I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES!" followed by his impression of the Sylphide) came across with a lot more humour than I recall. The story-telling was very clear. I'll echo Jane S's disappointment about not being able to obtain a cast sheet without buying a (not cheap) programme. They literally only had one cast sheet per programme, which would of course mean if you went to multiple casts you wouldn't be able to obtain extra cast sheets even if you'd forked out for a programme on your first visit. Very poor show - the usher did at least allow me to take a photo of the list so I knew who I was watching. Oh... and the orchestral playing was... not brilliant. Ensemble all over the place and with some fairly spectacular fluffs in the horns.

Are "family performances" similar to "welcome performances", as in designed for people who probably haven't been before? I have no idea how one comes by a family invitation to those. I got taken to one once by a member of my extended family (my dad's then-partner) and got several surprised comments from ROH ushers who know me as a regular, asking what I was doing there...

To add to my previous post, it's also obviously good to see Anna Rose O'Sullivan making her Clara debut (I've booked to see her, twice) - but the reason I picked out Leticia Stock particularly was that she's been in the company a while, and until quite recently with a series of featured roles and promotion to First Artist, would have seemed to be one of those dancers that might for whatever reason remain at Artist level indefinitely. Whereas O'Sullivan was being cast as Cupid in Don Q when she was only a few months out of school, and I can't see that she's destined to remain an Artist for long (in fact I imagine if she hadn't been out for so much of her fledgling career with an injury, she might have been promoted this year).

All of the Claras this upcoming season are dancers who have all at least been regularly featured in minor roles, which suggests that they are all people who the company is regularly keeping an eye on for development. Good to see Leticia Stock making her debut(?) as Clara in the upcoming run - I'd noticed her being increasingly cast last season in small roles and was therefore unsurprised to see her promoted to First Artist in the recent end-of-season announcement. I don't currently have a ticket for one of her performances but wouldn't be surprised if I end up adding one to my collection at some point. Last time round I remember Sabina Westcombe (who I know has since left the company) being a lovely Clara - I think Akane Takada might have been the Sugar Plum Fairy that night - and she, conversely, never seemed to get much else in the way of soloist roles.

In general, by "obscure" I mean things like mid-run performances of Nutcracker which don't have any principals in at all (not so much this upcoming season, but I've noticed in the past that sometimes you'll get a Clara who doesn't get many featured roles in other things, for example). I would go out of my way to see a cast like that *because* of seeing somebody unusual in a soloist role. As for dislikes, it's all a question of personal taste...

The pizzicato (which is the only music I know from Sylvia, never having seen it) has definitely been in at least one annoying advert, though I can't recall the product, which probably doesn't say much for it as a piece of advertising! "Everyone's a fruit and nut case" also leads neatly in my imagination (and in the score...) into the Flash Liquid lady waltzing around her black-and-white tiled kitchen floor with a mop!

I'm very fortunate to live in London where I have the luxury of having access to live ballet almost whenever I want, although it's a constant labour of love to hunt down cheap tickets that become available (especially when there's a really interesting cast change at the last minute...) I've only been going to ballet regularly for less than four years, and that was as the result of a very deliberate effort to educate myself. I am a long-time opera fan but a love of ballet didn't happen spontaneously - I loved *some* of the specific few things I saw prior to that, but I really didn't have an appreciation for it as an art form at all. I decided that I was going to start seeing everything that was on, preferably several times, so I got to understand not only what kinds of repertoire appeal to me but also what dancers - or rather, what KINDS of dancer - I prefer to see in different choreographic styles/types of dramatic role. Most of the things I saw in my first year or so of regular Royal Ballet attendance have now come round again, or are about to, so I've recently started to feel I have the knowledge to be a lot more selective about which casts, and indeed which ballets, I do or don't want to book for. If I was in your position, without super-regular access to live ballet, I would be doing exactly what you're doing - watching as wide a range of repertoire on film as possible. In fact those of us who are based near a major company can have a tendency to become a bit blinkered by seeing mostly the work of that company... which you don't have to do. Alison's advice: "it may not be the ballet which grabs (or doesn't grab) you, but actually the performance. So you may see a very ho-hum performance from one dancer and wonder what all the fuss is about, but see someone else in a role and think it's the greatest ballet you've ever seen" is spot-on. I'm totally in love with Onegin with the right cast, but the first time I saw it I was so underwhelmed I thought I never wanted to see it again. Admittedly that first time I saw it was when I was only going to one ballet a year, if that.

Time Out offers do have a habit of selling out, though. Just be warned.

Most likely not, once you actually get in through the door and see them on stage - but certainly in the days before I went to ballet regularly and only went to the occasional Christmas Nutcracker, I would only book for things if I'd heard of the dancers. Which basically meant I maxed out on Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope for a few Christmases as I would have had no clue who else was good. Like most novices (I think?) I took fame as a guarantee that I was getting the best. Nowadays I go out of my way to see the more obscure casts, as long as I know I don't actively DISlike the dancers!

Time Out has a generous discount deal today for Queensland Ballet's La Sylphide at the London Coliseum (thanks bangorballetboy for posting it on Twitter this morning!) https://uk-offers.timeout.com/deals/entertainment-la-sylphide

This is why I don't quite understand, if performers can see it, why ushers can't - or claim not to be able to! (The other night at Opera Holland Park I happened to find myself sitting next to the redoubtable Ann from front-of-house at the Coliseum, who I swear can spot a rogue texter from the other side of a solid wall...) One thing I like when I'm in central Balcony Standing at the ROH is that there's an usher seated directly behind, and as *I* have a panoramic view of the Balcony from there, I can immediately alert the usher to any bright lights that shouldn't be there.

I don't *think* so... hasn't he been saying since long before the casting was announced that his days of full-length roles are now over?

Well, given that it's a matter of personal taste, and my opinion therefore carries no weight as a judgement on dancers' quality or ability, I don't think it unfair to say that the example you mention is just one such that almost (but didn't) put me off booking - I'm not a Golding fan at all and am rather disappointed that Osipova is cast opposite him for Giselle - I'd have loved to see her cast with McRae. Not keen on Nehemiah Kish either, but he often gets cast opposite ballerinas I don't feel I can miss seeing. I am trying to recall whether Ed Watson danced Romeo in the last run. Was he with Melissa Hamilton, maybe?

I couldn't agree more! The number of times recently - especially for Swan Lake this season and R&J next - that I've looked at the cast listing and gone "Ooooh, so-and-so!!! ... with... oh."

Oooh! Nela and Vadim together in Giselle...

Yes, I was in the dress circle. I agree, I've usually found Coli staff to be very good in that respect - it varies with regard to which ones *notice* people getting their phones out, but once noticed, it's usually dealt with swiftly. And quite frankly, if they were having a particularly unobservant night, the repeated complaints combined with precise information about which seats the offenders were in might have given them a clue.

I had a bad audience behaviour experience the other day at Cinderella. Two women two rows in front of me kept whipping out their phones and starting to film parts of the performance (this after they'd taken a good three or four minutes after each act started to stop texting in the first place). I spoke to an usher in the first interval, who seemed sympathetic and said something would be done about it. Sadly, they were still there and still filming in Act 2, and in Act 3 after I'd complained again! Not impressed at all, particularly given that there are other ushers at the Coli who would have immediately noticed the filming themselves and put a stop to it (none of whom were on duty in the dress circle that night).

I haven't seen the Ashton (rather envious of several friends in New York who've recently had the opportunity to see Marianela Nunez guesting in it for ABT) so didn't miss anything!

So much of it reminded me of Winter's Tale, from the colour scheme to the giant tree and the two little boys growing up together!

I haven't been into ballet for long enough to know how this issue has varied over time - and also I've never lived in the USA, where it seems there are much more prominent and visible issues of racial politics in general than there are here. However, I don't think I'm wrong in saying that in ballet there is perhaps considerably more prejudice (overt or otherwise) towards black women than black men. Men don't tend to have to spend the beginnings, or majorities in most cases, of their ballet careers playing swans, sylphs, snowflakes, wilis, and all manner of other things in which it's preferable if you look (a) identical to your neighbour, and (b ) as unobtrusive in a white tutu as possible. I've had a couple of very uncomfortable conversations with audience members who would not otherwise consider themselves to be racist, about how such-and-such a black dancer "stuck out like a sore thumb" in the corps of Swan Lake (for the record, I didn't agree - I *noticed*, processed it briefly, resumed my suspension of disbelief, and moved on, just as I do at an opera if I see a black singer and white singer playing close relatives). I bet female black dancers get commented about like that a lot when they're in the corps, and I'm sure some of it must get back for them to hear. It must be very liberating to be promoted out of the realms of corps work. There's just so much whiteness and paleness in the female side of classical ballet, from what passes for the standard colour of a pointe shoe or a pair of tights, to the fact that audiences still go wild for a "white act".