Nina99

I remember Alex Campbell, saying on a podcast, that if the opportunity arose he would love to appear in anything with Vadim. I think they would be great together, especially if there was comedy involved.

Actually, one lovely solo that Vadim has done was posted by him on his Instagram in early August 2021, when he was on holiday in Russia with his parents. This post showed him dancing very beautifully round the empty halls of the Chelyabinsk Opera house, accompanied, by the song “Once upon a December” which, funnily enough, is from the 1997 animated movie Anastasia.

Surely even Nela and Vadim wouldn’t be able to declare themselves unavailable in December because of guesting commitments. I would’ve thought that the needs of the RB would be paramount. It may be, as PeterS suggests that the RB want to boost post Christmas sales of the Nutcracker.

I really enjoyed the class on stage today. It was the second time I had seen it and I will definitely go again if I can. It was a real pleasure sitting in the stalls, listening to lovely piano music, and watching such a wonderfully talented group of people. I just got a bit frustrated, trying to recognise who they all were. As usual, Rob Clark, accompanied them beautifully, and we got everything from Tom and Jerry to romantic show tunes. My favourite bit was at the end when they were doing their pirouettes and fouettés etc to huge appreciation from the audience who gave them all a big and well deserved cheer at the end.

Muntagirov and Lamb were fabulous together in Manon but I would also love to see Muntagirov partner Kaneko in this ballet. Maybe Bracewell and Nunez will do Manon together since Nunez’ usual partner Bonelli is no longer around.

One thing I omitted to say in my post above, was that I found out, as I was leaving the cinema (in Croydon), that the person sitting next but one to me, was Alfreda Thorogood, who was, of course, married to David Wall. I didn’t get to speak to her but I must say she still looks good for her 80 something years.

I’ve just come back from the cinema relay and I really enjoyed it. This was my second viewing since I was there in person on opening night. I enjoyed being able to get a better look at the performers expressions, and in particular, the sets and costumes most of which I liked very much. I also enjoyed the extras that one habitually gets with cinema relay. DarceyBussell and Petroc Trelawney are engaging hosts and Darcey, of course, knows what she’s talking about. I agree with Tango Dancer and Linnzi5 that Marianela was superb, but that Vadim although also terrific but very much under used. No wonder he could afford to take time in the middle of final rehearsals for Cinderella, to go off and do a couple of performances of Swan Lake with the BRB! I also agree about the sisters, whose antics, I thought, wore a bit thin after a while. Maybe seeing them in close-up at the cinema, make them a bit more dominant.

I thought it was a wonderful, enchanting evening. Lovely performances all round and I really like the costumes and designs, especially the last scene which I thought was absolutely gorgeous. Compared with the Sleeping Beauty which was the last ballet I saw, it all seemed very fresh and new. Loved the music as well. All in all, it was the perfect antidote to the rubbish day that I had had.

I absolutely agree with this. It’s a very attractive poster, but it certainly doesn’t relate to the production in my opinion. Something akin to the picture used on the website to advertise the gala performance would’ve been much better. i’ve seen several large versions of the flower poster in the tube, advertising the production, but I wonder if the marketing department didn’t rather waste their money.

With all the talk about filming, I noticed that Marianela, has reposted on her IG an audience members video of part of the Rose Adage from last night’s SB. Looking at the angle, I wonder if they were in one of the boxes where filming is possibly less disruptive to other audience members. Even so, I still think that dancers should, at the most, only repost curtain calls.

There was no glitch in the cinema in Croydon where I watched it. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Being a rather cinematic work I thought LWFC really benefited from being seen on the big screen where are you could see their expressions and really appreciate the performances which were universally excellent. I was slightly confused at one point having not read the synopsis beforehand. We were actually given a piece of paper with the cast list and a QR code on it which provided a link to the full synopsis but unfortunately I couldn’t get the link to work. This is the second ballet that I’ve seen at the cinema, and although nothing beats the thrill of seeing a live performance, I still found it a really enjoyable experience to see ballet this way, and at a fraction of the cost of a seat at the ROH.

This was my first full length live Sleeping Beauty and I really enjoyed it, even though it's not my favourite ballet. I saw Act 3 at the ROH when it was done post Covid as part of a triple bill and found it rather sparse and unengaging. However seeing the whole thing is much better especially with such great performances all round. I can't really add anything to the above reviews with which I agree absolutely. I thought Marianela's Rose Adagio was incredible - and deservedly got a very warm round of applause from the audience. The biggest cheer went to Vadim for his Act 3 solo which was just breathtaking. Talking of Vadim, I noticed that at the end of the clips on his IG stories he's posted a picture, obviously taken on his way home, of him standing on a tree stump, holding a bunch of flowers and doing an arabesque! Bit different from the usual post performance pictures!

I recently took out a subscription to the stream and have been enjoying it. However last night I decided to watch Coppelia but found it very difficult to watch because it was so juddery and jerky with oversaturated colour. I know it’s not my television since other performances on the stream look perfectly normal. I was wondering if anybody else has had this problem.

I do voluntary part-time work as an usher in a certain medium size concert hall in London and I would say that taking photos by the audience is one of our major problems. The thing is with it anything can be done about it it’s often a matter of where the person is sitting. If they’re in the middle of a row towards the front of the auditorium it’s very difficult to get them to stop filming while the performance is going on, without causing disruption.

I could be wrong, but I think that Class on Stage is only available online if it’s been part of the world ballet day, which this year was early in November. I certainly didn’t notice any filming being done yesterday.

I was there yesterday, sitting in the orchestra stalls which was certainly a treat for me. I was lucky that I had a good view since there was only what looked like a couple of young ballet students sitting in front of me. I think that Marci Sambe was the only principal there – that was an interesting knitted onesie that he wore to start with! I don’t remember seeing James Hay. This was my first time seeing the class on stage and I will definitely make the effort to go again sometime. It was quite instructive to someone like me who knows very little about the technical side of ballet. It was also exciting to see the men at the end doing their manèges round the stage which they mostly managed to finish off in style. I’m glad someone mentioned Francisco Serrano – I take it he was the one with a mass of dark curly hair. He certainly stood out at the end along with Junhyuk Jun who was amazing.

I absolutely agree with your review Tango Dancer. I saw this at the cinema and really enjoyed it. This was my first ballet cinema relay, previously I had only seen a few plays. However it was great to have the best seat in the house and to really be able to appreciate close up, all the fabulous dancing, the costumes and, of course, that gorgeous music. All the cast were excellent but I must just say – Melissa Hamilton and Lukas BB in the Arabian dance"….…wow!

I really enjoyed my evening seeing the Gala yesterday. As has been said before Meagan Grace Hinkis was injured warming up for her performance in Fille and was replaced at very short notice by Anna Rose O’Sullivan. In spite of this I thought she and Luca Acri were both very good and even managed the bum lift at the end with seemingly no problems. This and the following PDD from Manon made me long to see both works live in full. To date I have only seen them both on DVD. I quite enjoyed Qualia although it seemed more an exercise in flexibility on the part of Melissa Hamilton. Much more to my taste, being something of a Wheeldon fan, was For four which I loved. It certainly played to the strengths of the different cast members and I hope that this work is kept in the repertoire of the RB. It’s certainly got the biggest cheer of Act 1. I really wasn’t very impressed by Joseph Tonga’s See Us – although you couldn’t fault the dancers commitment. The music wasn’t too bad but the rather grungy costumes and dim lighting didn’t do it any favours. Dispatch duet was ruined for me by the awful music. Such a shame really, with two such great dancers as O’Sullivan and Bracewell. I quite liked concerto with its pleasant If a bit sugary music. It suited Osipova and McRae very well although I agree that McRae looked as though he had just got out of bed! I enjoyed Prima but like others was somewhat distracted by the costumes, although they didn’t look quite as bad from a distance as they did in the photos I had seen previously. However, why someone thought it was a good idea to put the gorgeous Frankie Hayward in a dress that looked as though it had a couple of dinner plates stuck to the hip, I can’t imagine! Diamonds, which I’ve never seen before in full, was lovely and beautifully danced by all. I was sorry not to see Marianela Nunez but Sarah Lamb was superb and very well partnered by Ryoichi Hirano.

The way I read this is that it is not so much a "drinks do" as an opportunity to purchase mince pies and a cup of tea/coffee from the bar after the Class on Stage. Still, we are promised "an insight into the importance of ballet class with an exclusive discussion with special guests from The Royal Ballet."

Actually looking back on the autumn casting thread it’s interesting to see that some people were initially a bit lukewarm about Muntagirov’s debut as Rudolph and were more interested in seeing what Sambe could do with the role. Of course the latter may surprise us but I think it will be difficult for him to come anywhere near the magnificence of Vadim’s performance.

Absolutely agree!! Vadim really inhabited the part - he was Rudolf!! Amazing evening!

@dancersdiary has posted on his IG some lovely photos of some of the performers in the MiM gala on Sunday. There are several reviews today in the dance links and I was pleased that they are mostly favourable although there were differing opinions about some of the individual items. All the reviewers thought that Matthew Ball was one of the stars of the evening and I would certainly agree with that. IMO his duet with Joe Sissens was a definite highlight and I also loved his performance of the Matthew Bourne Act 2 PDD with Luca Acri. Luca appeared in Spectre de la Rose and I must admit to being slightly disappointed with his performance and wishing that Vadim Muntagirov had danced it instead with Fumi Kaneko who was gorgeous. Vadim himself performed two items both very well, as one would expect, although there was some disagreement among reviewers about the second one, a Russian piece name Adagio. I agree that it was very reminiscent of Dance of the Blessed Spirits but danced by someone of Vadim's calibre I enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed the two Arthur Pita numbers especially Ed Watson in a spangly leotard and heels which was definitely worth seeing and showed that he still has his old flexibility. I thought Leo Dixon also did very well and I thought that it was very funny the way the curtain came down before the second to last number and some people made a rush for the bar thinking it was the interval, only for Dixon to appear in front of the curtain and strip down to a Spiderman costume. This, incidentally wasn't recognised by one of the reviewers who thought he was dressed as the devil. As far as I was concerned the only number that was a real dud for me was Affi, the second number by Matteo Maccini which I found tedious and far too long. However the rest of the evening was for me on the whole pleasingly varied and enjoyable with the added bonus of being able to admire, as FionaE says, so many sculpted male bodies! Bravo to Ivan Putrov for getting it all together and I hope this gala is repeated in London before too long.

I went on one of the ROH backstage tours today and found it very interesting and enjoyable. After the usual talk in the ground floor area about the history of the buildings that they have been on the site and a look at all the pictures and photos round the walls we went downstairs and walked through the lighting department where the different sort of lights were explained and then we also walked through the costume department where we saw all the costumes lined up for La Boheme and the upcoming Sleeping Beauty. We also had a look at the area at the back of the stage and saw how the various sets are manoeuvred around for different performances. We were able to look in the windows of one of the rehearsal areas for ballet, and we were lucky to be able to see a bit of Fumi and Vadim rehearsing for Mayerling together with their coaches Alexander Agazhanov and Zenaida Yanovsky. I thought Vadim looked rather sweaty and tired which is hardly surprising considering how demanding the role is and all the other things he’s got going on at the moment. I’m surprised they had to do some extra rehearsal since what I saw on their first performance look pretty good to me. Obviously, it’s just a matter of luck when you get to see anybody rehearsing either backstage or in the auditorium. On our tour we were also able to sit in on a tech rehearsal of the opera Alcina. Sitting in the amphitheatre we could experience how good the acoustics are and how sitting at the side of the amphi you still get a good view. Good PR from the ROH. The guide also showed us the restaurants and Cafes and was able to take us into the Crush Room which, I must say, is very beautiful.

I agree with this and I really hope that if Manon is revived in the 23/24 season, that they are partnered together. That would be a performance I'd travel a long way to see - luckily I'd only have to come from South London! There was just so much to take in and enjoy last night, especially having never seen Mayerling live before, I really can't wait to see it again on November 11th. I'm sure the cast will be even better, if that's possible!

Totally agree with what everyone has said. Great performances all round but for me Vadim was an absolute revelation. I was on my own and there was a lady sitting beside me also on her own who agreed that he was brilliant. I think that the coaching Vadim had from Irek Mukhamedov must’ve really helped him find his ‘inner Rudolph’ as Balletfanp calls it. i’m so glad I’ve got a ticket for the 11th of November. Can’t wait to see it all again!