jonac

This morning Coliseum booking office confirmed that recorded music is used for this performance but I nevertheless went ahead and booked Dress Circle tickets for my wife and myself.

Mandy I would be happy to say hello if spotting a group on the terrace. John

Had a lovely and marvellous night at the ballet yesterday, the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake at the London Coliseum. Denis Rodkin of the Bolshoi was superb, and what an outstanding ballerina is Irina Kolesnikova. I thought her portrayal of Odette in Act 2 had so much depth and was so moving. Is anyone else going?

I have a ticket for ENB's The Sleeping Beauty but understand Maria Alexandrova is dancing some performances. Would book a further ticket to see her but does anyone know when casting is to be announced?

Not sure whether this is relevant to the discussion but in her book Apollo's Angels Jennifer Homans mentions that during the French Revolution many women wore a simple white tunic, symbolising the nation cleansed of corruption and greed, and representing purity and virtue. She goes on to say that in the popular festivals that took place celebrating the Revolution, white-clad women, sometimes wearing tricolor sashes, moved gracefully, not marring their beauty with speech. In the Festival of Reason a woman played the lead role, supported by girls in white. Thus, the origin of what became the corps de ballet; before the Revolution the corps generally comprised men and women dancing as couples.

A year or so ago I was told by a good authority that the reason there is no DVD is a copyright issue..

I have a DVD of a 1978 performance of Don Quixote, Kitri danced by Nadezhda Pavlova and Basilio by Vladimir Lasashev. Their dancing of the last Act pas de deux is marvellous, I have not seen it done so marvellously. Last year I twice saw the Bolshoi performance of this ballet at CG and on Tuesday the Mariinsky's. I thoroughly enjoyed these performances and the dancing was excellent but in the pas de deux the dancers were a lot less adventurous in terms of lifts etc and bravado than the pair in 1978. Might it be that dancers are a lot more cautious these days, or maybe the quite justifiable wellbeing of dancers, or a Company's health and safety liability playing a part?