EVWS

For anyone with tickets on Friday, Steven McRae has just posted on his Instagram that he won't be dancing the Sugarplum Prince - ROH website not updated yet though

Sorry wrong thread!

I remember sometime ago someone asking Lauren Cuthbertson on her Instagram about Giselle's hairstyle in Act 1 and she said it was up to the dancer to choose how it was styled up to the point where Berthe takes all of the clips/hair pins etc. out during the mad sene

They've updated it to 3 men and 1 women as well - small wins!

At least on the Times website you're allowed to comment on articles to highlight incorrect facts (unlike the Telegraph)

I was there last night, so lovely to see it return to 'normal' after the Covid version last year! Anna-Rose was a lovely Clara, I especially liked her interactions with the White Lodge children; she danced the whole performance beautifully. I think there were some nerves from Joseph Sissens as the Nephew/Nutcracker (hadn't realised it was his debut) - some of the partnering in the pas de deux just before the snowflakes looked a patchy, but he seemed to have settled into the role for Act 2. They’ve kept the Covid version of the battle scene which I do prefer, but feel sad for the White Lodge students who will no longer get to perform in it. I think they've also kept a reduced number of snowflakes (could be imagining that), which I thought made that scene under-whelming – or maybe I’ve got used to seeing the massed ranks of the Willis…. Marianela Nunez & Vadim Muntagirov were as fabulous as expected – they dance together so beautifully and instinctively; a pure masterclass in a grand classical pas deux and technique, but then I love them both so could be biased!! The ‘new‘ Arabian dance was, to my eyes, nearly the same as previous years with just a few tweaks to make it into a pas de deux – Melissa Hamilton and Lukas B. Brændsrød danced it beautifully. It was also so lovely to see Yuhui Choe back on stage, such a musical dancer. William Bracewell was a stand out Rose Fairy cavalier – why he’s not a Principal yet is beyond me!! Gary Avis was wonderful as Drosselmeyer, almost goes without saying!! Wayne McGregor was also in the audience – would be very interested to hear what his thoughts were!

The full casting for tonight is available on the webiste: Giselle: Yasmine Naghdi Albrecht: Matthew Ball Hilarion: Luca Acri Wilfred: Harry Churches Berthe: Kristen McNally The Duke of Courland: Gary Avis Bathilde: Christina Arestis Leader of the Hunt: Tomas Mock Pas de six: Meaghan Grace Hinkis Pas de six: David Yudes Pas de six: Isabella Gasparini Pas de six: Leo Dixon Pas de six: Ashley Dean Pas de six: Joseph Sissens Myrtha: Marianela Nuñez Moyna: Olivia Cowley Zulme: Melissa Hamilton Peasants, Courtiers and Wilis: Artists of The Royal Ballet

Just seen on Instagram that the Royal Ballet in Reherasal - Giselle with Julia Roscoe, Yasmine Naghdi & Matthew Ball will be on the ROH Youtube channel at 7.30 tonight. Guessing that it will be available for a few days afterwards as usual...

I emailed the Box Office and got the following reply: Thank you for getting in touch with us. Our website is currently experiencing some technical issues which is causing problems with making bookings, such as performances not being visible on our calendar or not being able to log in. We are aware of this and are working on a fix, so please bear with us while we find a solution. Our phone lines open from 10am if you would like to call us to make your booking.

I'm locked out of my account as well & get a technical error if I click the link to Swan Lake that was in the email they just sent

Nunez dances Myrtha in the Cojocaru/Kobborg Giselle DVD from the early 2000s. I might be imagining it, but I think she also danced it during the last run of Giselle as well, opposite Natalia Osipova?

That would make sense, thank you!

Package booking went very smoothly this morning - only performance that wasn't available to book at all was the opening night of The Dante Project, not sure if it's already sold out or just not open to package booking but it didn't have that date listed as an option to book at all

Cast changes for this week have just been announced: Our records show that you are due to attend a performance of Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III. We are contacting you to let you know about the following cast changes: Friday 20 December, 1:30pm Beatriz Stix-Brunell is replaced by Isabella Gasparini, and Tierney Heap is replaced by Fumi Kaneko in Concerto. Yasmine Naghdi is replaced by Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Dorabella in Enigma Variations. Friday 20 December, 7pm Akane Takada is replaced by Anna Rose O’Sullivan in Concerto.

They're in all the performances Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia at the moment and were also in all the Manon performances earlier this season

Having been a ‘watcher’ of the forum for a while, I’ve decided to take the plunge and sign up! Would not a picture like the below explain the width of platform that the dancers balance on? (I hope I inserted it correctly!) If the platform where to be any narrower I’m not sure where a dancers toes would go! If you were to use a platform that was wider than the width of all of your toes when on pointe, then surely that would be dangerous for the dancer as there would be a lot more room for movement within the shoe when on pointe/balancing and therefore a lot less support from the shoe. The box of the shoe is designed to encase and support the toes, to keep them straight and aligned when on pointe. This Wikipedia article does explain about the history, development and construction of the pointe shoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_shoe A properly fitted pointe shoe should match the shape of a dancers foot especially their toes and support the correct alignment of their foot: e.g. if you have long tapered toes, then you can use a narrower box/platform, but if you have shorter even length toes then you would need a wider box/platform. Useful article here on RussianPointe.com: https://www.russianpointe.com/perfect-fit/finding-your-perfect-fit/perfect-pointe-shoe-fit/ I know that most professional dancers have customized shoes, but as I understood it they alter the length of the vamp, how high the shoes comes up on their heel and along the sides of their feet, how long the shank is etc., but I'm not they would alter the width of the platform?