nycitybird

Also, there were so many people on stage, so many different costumes and the movement from those in the background hardly stopped in the first act, which made it hard to focus on kitri and basilio.

I do find watching the Bolshoi exhausting though. They dance as if they might be taken off to the Kremlin if they give anything less than 100% I feel like I danced all three acts myself.

I agree, it all seemed a bit manic. I guess I'd only watched excerpts before and loved them but the whole thing was exhausting and got a bit tedious at the end. It's possibly put me off seeing it live.

I'm excited for Woolf Works again, Mayerling, Anastasia, and my dream (no pun intended) Ashton triple bill as I haven't seen any of those ballets yet but they're all top of my list. I'm quite surprised Fille is back again as I feel like I saw it 5 minutes ago. I've only got into ballet in the last couple of years and I didn't realise ballets were revived with so little time in between.

I saw the first bonelli cuthbertson performance and a couple of the pd6 boys struggled to land their jumps.

I enjoyed the autobiographies of Daria Klimentova, Darcey Bussell and Monica Loughton as well as Maggie Shipman's Astonish Me (fiction).

I recently watched the documentary First Position which I enjoyed.

I had a cold combined with asthma when I saw Onegin and I needed to cough soooo badly during Lensky's solo that I missed the whole thing as I was trying to hold it in while turning bright red and nearly exploding.

Maybe Sleeping Beauty seems long because the story is essentially resolved in Act 2 and it goes on for another act! I do like the faeries though.

Thanks for the link, I loved these and read many of them. I especially like Xander Parish's, Gary Avis's and Vadim's. I'd like the whole Royal Ballet to do it, I'd read them all!

Thanks for the replies. The Swan Lake does sound good but doesn't fit in with my dates (and is sold out!) But that's made me think a future trip to Zurich could be in order.

I might be going to Italy in late May/early June and I'd love to go to a ballet when I'm there. The only company I know is La Scala and they don't have anything on at that time. Does anyone know any other companies worth seeing in northern Italy or as far south as Florence? Thanks ☺

I totally agree with Mary. Even if I cared about the story (which I didn't), the random, tuneless and harsh sounding music would have put me off. I quite liked the ending but not enough to justify what came before. And in my opinion all black costumes should never happen in ballet, especially on a black background. If Strapless reminds me of anything it's Carlos Acosta's Carmen. Ouch!

It's interesting that both abstract ballets were much more emotional than the narrative. The After the Rain pdd was mesmerising, but I'm not sure that it connected with the ensemble part before it.

Within the Golden Hour was definitely my highlight and judging by the applause the audience agreed. It's the best abstract ballet I've seen so far in my short ballet-going career. The music is perfect for ballet and the choreography was clever, funny at times and moving. The ending was so exciting it made it worth the ticket price alone! I'd like to see it again but don't think I could put myself through Strapless a second time.

Golding is still down to dance Within the Golden Hour.

Bolshoi Babylon is now available to rent on Sky.

Does anyone know whether the working hours are longer at the RB than other companies? The interview makes it seem like it. I knew the hours at the RB were long but I assumed this was the norm at top companies.

It's been one year since I saw my first ballet (Don Q, which I am apparently in the minority for loving?). Since then I've seen everything the Royal Ballet has done, plus some ENB and contemporary. My highlights are:

Woolf Works. Loved the music, and it made me wish that other productions amplified the music. Edward Watson made me sob with one facial expression.

Untouchable. Loved the (amplified!) music for that too and for me it was an introduction to Shecter's work.

Onegin. Beautiful performance by Osipova.

Alice in Wonderland. First time seeing Francesca Hayward and I loved the creativity of the production.

Disappointment of the year: Romeo and Juliet. I saw the first performance of Lamb and Muntagirov and I know Lamb was a substitution due to injury, but for me the production didn't gel or have an emotional impact. Surprisingly, Muntagirov's Romeo left me unconvinced.

Thank you, I'm watching it now! Do you know if they youtube all their cinema broadcasts?

Does anyone in the world have a more joyful, contagious smile than Marianela Nunez? Although Vadim gave her a run for her money tonight!

I was torn between Nunez/Muntagirov and Cuthbertson/Bonelli. I was going to do both but in the end I went for C&B as I can watch N&M on the live cinema relay.