Tango Dancer

I saw Reece Clarke dance with Marianela at the Ukraine gala and thought they worked really well together. I love her with Vadim (and he is my favourite) but I felt she and Reece have good chemistry. I mean I tend to pick a date by whenever Vadim is dancing so mostly he's with Marianela but not always. If I can't find a date for Vadim I tend to look at whether Bennet Gartside has a good part and pick a date when he does (because he's my ballet teacher and I want to support him) which sometimes results in my seeing partnerships I didn't expect. I find Anna Rose O'Sullivan seems to dance very well with Marcelino Sambe always as she seems really comfortable with him. I also really like her partnerships with Joe Sisssens (admittedly not a principal) because they seem to have a good relationship.

Well tonight's cinema relay was rather lovely. I liked some parts of it very much indeed and others slightly less. I thought Marianela was lovely, engaging and charming. She always lives the parts so fully. I also really liked Fumi as the Fairy Godmother. She really excels in fairies and non-human characters, always capturing something eerie and ethereal in her beautiful arm movements and elegant turns. Vadim was wonderful as always but criminally under-used. The ballet would have benefited from twice as much Vadim and half as much stepsisters in my view. I mean he looked fantastic and danced like a dream as always and I'd be his Cinderella any day, but he really needed more to do. I was not a huge fan of the stepsisters. As my great aunt would say "they were a good turn but on too long." I mean Gary Avis is always great and Luca Acri had unexpected comic depths but their pieces went on too long and weren't that funny so I'd have been glad with much less of them in Act 2 and more of the corps dancing which was really lovely. Lukas BB looked really fantastic as Wellington - nice cheekbones and great legs. But I'd have been happy cutting that bit as it did nothing for me. I really loved Taisuki Nasao as the jester. He had some great jumps. I also liked the fairies especially Mayara Magri as Winter because the variation seemed to suit her. I liked the music especially the third act and the set and most of the costumes. So overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't say it's my favourite ballet but it was a lovely way to spend an evening and there were some really great performances.

Me too. I'm really excited to see it having seen all of the different reviews of the piece.

People have to follow their own career. In my work (which is very non-ballet) we took on a young person (let's call her Margot) as an apprentice. We gave her good experiences, mentored and supported her and exposed her to a range of things that were challenging for her and at which she excelled. I supported Margot in going for development programmes to help her get on and she soaked up learning like a sponge. She has now got a more senior job in another parallel organisation in the same field. I could be a mardy cow and moan about "after everything we've done for her Margot deserts us." But I don't. I'm please she got the more senior job and glad we gave her experiences that she could use to get promoted. At the end of the day people have to do what's right for their careers and developments and it's a tribute to the support given them when they do well with it.

He looks pretty young now still. I do the masterclasses at Danceworks and especially the ones Vadim teaches (also Brandon Lawrence's who is another good teacher). Vadim still looks ridiculously young and unassuming when he's teaching in leggings and a t-shirt and could pass for early 20s pretty easily. He's a lovely teacher as well, kind and supportive and gives really good constructive comments on technique.

Definitely. I've booked for the cinema relay too and I always think the more Vadim there is in anything, the better I feel.

It's a forum for debate. Fonty is perfectly welcome to comment on her views on any aspects of the production as long as it's not constituting a personal attack on someone. She didn't say "dancer x sucks" or "the costume designer should be ritually burnt at the stake". She explained what she liked and what she didn't and it was really interesting. I like knowing what people didn't like as well as what they did as it allows me to decide if I want to see something and I value diverse perspectives. I may not agree with all the reviews (I think I was in a minority for not liking the tap based piece at the Tiler Peck performance for example). But just because someone didn't like something, doesn't mean they should hide it.

Oh my! He even looks a bit like Wellington. The costume definitely suits Lukas. Thanks for sharing.

I think you're absolutely right, it's hard to say why you prefer one dancer to another, sometimes it's just an emotional connection and a particular dancer connects better with you and you don't always know why. Sometimes it's aesthetic (I love the way Joe Sissens looks when he jumps) or the way they do a particular thing (like Fumi's lovely port de bras), or the way they relate to a particular partner (Matthias Dingman at BRB always partners so thoughtfully it draws me in to his world). But sometimes I couldn't say why some move me more than others. Also it's ok to choose the cast you like best. I can usually only afford to see each ballet once so I pick the casting I like best. Sometimes that means I miss out on a good cast but that's the way of things. I didn't seen Reece Clarke in ballet for years because he never performed in the casts I'd booked for. I only saw him in the Gala for Ukraine and realised I'd been missing out on a dancer who really impressed me. I'd also agree that I've never been disappointed with Royal Ballet. I like some dancers better than others and some works don't please me as much, but I am always impressed by the calibre of the dancers.

I like this one, it shows when you can dance you can do anything, even run a country at war. I enjoy watching him when I'm struggling with my dancing and it makes me feel good. There's a link to the clip in the article, but I didn't want to link to Youtube directly as it's not my clip. Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Ukraine clip from 2006 goes viral (nypost.com)

Yes I think times have changed. I mean I went to pantomime as a child and didn't like it then (we went because my grandmother did) so kind of viewed it as something I had to suffer at Christmas on the occasions we couldn't persuade her to go to Nutcracker instead. I don't like drag either, never have. Somehow it doesn't work for my sense of humour. I tend to prefer comedians and artists like Victoria Wood, Sarah Millican, Dillie Keane to that type of thing. I quite like Widow Simone in La Fille but I'm not hugely into men dressing as women in ballet. It just seems a bit pointless and irritating when a woman could do the part perfectly well.

Went to my lovely local theatre tonight to see a talk about theatre ghosts which was a lot of fun. The small audience was great, laughing at the jokes and being quiet in between. Much better behaved than the last couple of professional large scale shows I've seen.

Yes. I mean if I wrote reviews they'd be full of "Vadim is amazing" and "Vadim looks perfect in the costume" and "Vadim partners and jumps sublimely and I should be dancing with him." But I'm not a critic and not being paid to review things. Professional critics should be a bit more dispassionate and not let their massive preference for one dancer interfere in giving fair reviews.

This so much. If you're charging gala prices you need your most reliable and top-draw stars to give satisfaction and open the show. That's what people expect. I mean it's ballet not a 100m race. There's not a "best" dancer like there's a "best" time in a race. Different interpreters do different things. That's why it's lovely to have a choice so you can pick the cast you want to see.

Definitely! Obviously he psychically knows that Francesca will be amazing in the role because he has magical powers or something. I mean honestly, she probably will be amazing but there's no way he can be sure until she actually performs it. It's pretty obvious that his problem with Marianela is that she isn't Francesca.

Oh dear, that's very biased. I mean we all have our favourites. I book for the dancers I like best as well because I can usually only afford one showing of each ballet (usually I check which days Vadim is performing and book one of those) but that doesn't mean the others aren't as good.

Yes, I always think winter is blue because snow often looks blue and a snowy sky always looks light blue. I can also see pink making sense for summer because a lot of summer flowers are pink. I've not seen the show yet but I was the Opera House last night for my ballet class and I saw Fumi with her crown on heading from the practice room to get changed and it looked really stunning close up, sparkly and quite heavy looking. She's really beautiful in close up (I've only ever seen her from the back of the amphitheatre) and has such a lovely smile.

Well that was interesting. I am full of thoughts afterwards. The theatre was quite full tonight. I can't say I massively enjoyed the piece but I am glad to have seen it given the different reviews I've seen of it last time. I thought the music was dreadful and was glad of the ear plugs. I don't know why it needs to be that loud. Also why do they mess with Bolero? It's a lovely piece of music that doesn't need whatever the heck they did to it. The last piece with the singing was the least bad. I think my major problem was that the plot didn't really work for me and it wasn't always clear (even with the synopsis) what was going on. I felt Marie had more chemistry with the floor mop than with Creature so the bits with them together really didn't work for me. As a result the bit where Major assaulted and murdered her made no sense because I couldn't see a clear rationale for him doing so. I also had no clear sense of what Marie wanted, whether she cared for Creature or what. She was an object for Creature to love and Major to covet and I had no sense of who she was as a person. I mean none of the characters had much sense of identity but in her case it was more problematic. This lack of personality meant that none of it resounded with me on an emotional level. So I think this didn't work for me as a piece because the premise didn't make sense to me. That said the dancing was nice. I liked the group numbers, especially the one at the end of the first act. The company moved beautifully together and the lines were beautiful and synchronised. Aitor Arrieta is a lovely dancer with good lines and a lot of acting skill. Emily Suzuki was beautifully light and elegant and Emma Hawes is a lovely classy dancer. I also liked James Streeter as the major as the costume suited him very well. I think I liked the group parts more than the pas de deux which were a bit brief and unfinished for my liking. So overall I'm glad I've seen it but don't think I'll go again and Akram Khan does not make my list of favourite choreographers. It got a very good reception with lots of cheering and clapping from some people (so obviously it appealed to some people more than me). So I am glad for the performers they got a good response.

Oh I'll miss him. He's such a lovely dancer, such lovely movements and style in his jumps. I liked him in Don Quixote and in Coppelia and the BRB gala. He's also a great teacher. I love his masterclasses on Danceworks, he's got such a nice way of explaining the combinations and giving positive and helpful feedback. I may have to find a reason to go to Zurich.

I would agree the James Blake music was not overwhelming and was repetitive. I liked the choreography though and thought it was well done. I'd also agree on Time Spell as the tap didn't hugely capture me.

Yes, I go to Bellydance performances and shows and you're encouraged to whoop and zagharit (ullulate) at the exciting bits and when someone does something really impressive (I suppose the equivalent of applauding after Odile's 32 fouettes or an exciting coda or variation). But that doesn't mean you talk and make noises throughout and you'd be fairly well silenced if you did. So they're louder as a whole but that doesn't mean you don't listen quietly most of the time.

Well I quite enjoyed that. I think I must be the only person who didn't like Time Spell. I just didn't like the music and the singing did nothing for me. I just didn't find the piece worked for me as a whole. I loved the Forsyth though, the choreography was wonderful and the interpretation was really exquisite and delicate. I also really liked the first piece that Tiler Peck choreographed, it was rather meditative and the choreography and the music really worked for me and I found it very satisfying to watch and really quite meditative. I also liked the costuming as it really suited the dancers and was bright and colourful. I also liked the pas de deux as it worked well and the pair had really good chemistry and struck sparks off each other. So overall a thoroughly interesting evening.

Just back from seeing Phantom of the Opera with a friend. More fun than I remember (although I'd forgotten what a creepy weirdo Eric was). Lovely except for the 3 people sitting behind us who kept talking throughout. I mean it's a fairly engaging, almost melodramatic show with a loud orchestra. Why would you come to this and talk?

He's got such a lovely infectious smile on that video. Thanks for sharing.

I've booked as well. Looks really good.