Jamesrhblack

I really love Nunez and Acosta in these roles but must admit was completely bowled over by Baryshnikov's performance when he did it all those years ago.......he just put such energy into it and had a great cheekiness too. I still remember seeing Baryshnikov with Ann Jenner in 1977 and the sheer speed of the end of the Fanny Essler Pas de Deux is clear in my mind's eye. Looking forward to Campbell with Marquez this evening :-)

If she can regain her fitness, I'd tip Fumi Kaneko to go all the way. She is exquisite in this Masterclass and the Dish is splendidly supportive too. Wonderful to see Collier and Cope coaching, and to see Cope's gallantry to towards Lesley Collier. https://youtu.be/TAVd5lsbonE

Possibly not, although given her excellent physical presentation and seeming ability to choose the repertoire she wished to dance, not inevitable. The fact remains that there wasn't one female First Soloist deemed suitable for promotion even under slightly dramatic circumstances.

Watson certainly used to dance Albrecht, although not this time round if I recall correctly.

And Reece Clarke was mightily impressive in Symphonic. Nevertheless, these are both very young dancers and recent recruits. It's the gap in the middle that is becoming ever more obvious.

(Quote) He supposedly does have a "regular" partner: she just doesn't seem to be being used very much these days. (Quote) Well, increasingly, he seems cast with Sarah Lamb rather than Roberta Marquez. (Quote) Lack of foresight? Well, perhaps a bit, but I don't really think that Rojo, Cojocaru and Galeazzi could all have been expected to leave at more or less the same time. (Quote) Of course, Benjamin left as well. Whilst I'd agree that nobody might have anticipated losing four principal ballerinas at the end of one season, surely there should have been at least one female First Soloist deemed suitable for promotion if due care to Company structure were being observed. Mind you, there wasn't a suitable male First Soloist at that time either.

Although the chances of either happening seem sadly unlikely ....

Perhaps. But possibly also something to do with profile raising ..

As I wrote, willing to be corrected and didn't know that. It explains her absence although I stand by my reservations over her Myrtha.

Which article is that?

(Sorry, pressed send too soon) However, I can absolutely see that he is extremely useful at First Soloist level. With Acosta due to retire and rumours swirling around Yanowsky and Cervera being taken out of Colas cracks seem to be showing in the hierarchy. The long term future of Morera and Watson, neither of whom has much of a presence in the classics (particularly Watson) cannot be guaranteed either surely, and I'm not sure that there's much left for Marquez either. As others have pointed out, Hamilton rarely convinces in the classics, Crawford had one go at Lise which hasn't been repeated, Kobayashi has danced Nikiya and Aurora which I didn't see but seems to have been in nothing all this season until the approaching In the Night (and I was not convinced by her Myrtha), Hirano has danced Beauty, Nutcracker and Pagodas (I think) but also seems to do some character roles (Gremin), Stepanek is no longer cast as Lensky (in which I thought be was terrific) but as Gremin and, even so, seems an unlikely candidate for principal roles. Hristov has been at First Soloist level for a long time and despite the occasional principal role (and I thought he was great in Winter's Tale) would surely have been promoted by now if it were to happen. Mendizabal again I like very much (and she did get Tatiana and Firebird by default) but would surely have been on the Swan Lake debuts if she were going higher and Gartside might get Character Principal but that's a different line of duty. It seems to me that this lack of backup at First Soloist level is a current weakness of the Royal Ballet. O'Hare's wish to promote carefully and provide opportunities for lower ranking dancers is laudable but it can't disguise the existing problem as I see it and I'd think it inevitable that a couple of principals will be brought in from outside. Does anybody else feel that the current situation shows a loss of managerial foresight and even control? I'd always thought very highly of the previous Director (and in many ways still do) but this situation does seem to have developed on her watch. Perhaps I'm being unfair and, as always, I am very open to correction from those mor informed than I.

I think if Choe were to have been appointed it would have happened after she replaced Osipova in Beauty and the fact that Odette/Odile did not come her way despite a plethora of cast changes would seem to confirm that she has gone as far as she is likely to go in terms of promotion, I'm not quite sure when the new Swan Lake is due but if it is in a couple of seasons time, ungallantly, it probably might also be said that time had passed in terms of that particular debut. Indeed with Takada cast this season (for the second time after her debut cancelled through injury a couple of seasons back) and Fumi Kaneko hopefully fully restored to fitness and seeming a more likely candidate for casting I would definitely think that has now passed her by. It's a pity: I don't rate Choe quite as highly as some on here but I do remember the delicate freshness of her Dances at a Gathering when it seemed she was set to escalate especially after being featured in one of the Royal Ballet films and, without wishing to speculate, I can guess at the frustration and disappointment this may well cause her, although you'd never guess it from her smiling ease on stage. Campbell I like very much indeed. Hasn't he danced Beaity, Don Q and Nutcracker male leads ahead of his Colas debut? His relatively compact stature shouldn't necessarily be a problem (as it hasn't been for McRae)

I believe Steven McRae had a year out with an Achilles tear....

It's a shame for Zucchetti but lovely that Alexander Campbell can dance Fille with Marquez. They worked together so well in Don W. Have booked my tickets already after this news :-)

There was a TBC for a while but it's definitely listing her again and also on her ROH People page. According to the website Lamb is fit for Tatiana and Zucchetti is back too....

Im not a conspiracy theorist but how unfortunate that in her last weeks with ENB, having not performed regularly for the last couple of years, Elena Gluedjidze has has to lose performances of both Swan Lake and Nutcracker because of injury to her partner....

That's a shame for Marquez. She doesn't seem to get many performances these days and is rarely injured. Mind you, I can imagine Takada and Campbell being great together. Morera is also rarely off, so that's sad too (and she should surely be dancing some performances as Kitri)....

I'd hoped to get to Mknday's performance and am particularly sorry to have missed Deidre Chapman's last performance. She doesn't seem to have featured in anything much recently and my impression was that she had been taken out of many of her dancing roles but I have very fond memories of her as Myrtha and, in particular, Mitzi Caspar, whiskey earlier this year, her mime as Berthe was superb vivid, and, happily, preserved on the DVD.

Of course, it's on opinion, with the disclaimer cited, but at a dispassionate level i'd stand by what I wrote.

With respect, I did write "from the Balcony Stalls." Some years ago, I really enjoyed seeing Yuhui Choe in Dances at a Gathering and am sorry that the promise displayed then doesn't seem to have been fulfilled. I don't know if the stalling of her career is due to management prejudice or a levelling out of her own achievement, but dance also deals in absolutes, and I'm afraid I see no reason further to modify my comment beyond what I had already done.

Finishing my posts, as I've had stallings and lost material hence writing separate reports, Scènes de ballet (which I don't know well, admittedly) seemed out of sorts last night. The men were heavy in their landings, the girls out of sync in a way that certainly didn't look intentional and although Yuhui Choe has her admirers who lament her lack of promotion, from the Balcony Stalls she was certainly giving a First Soloist performance last night, lacking in projection and brilliance. Zucchetti seemed most successful to me, although I absolutely take on board a previous poster who found his performance demi-charactère rather than danseur noble.

James Hay did look at the sky but he didn't really tilt off centre. I should have said that Reece Clarke's unison dancing with his considerably shorter male colleagues was impressively in unison - schooling shows. I also enjoyed Romany Pajdak's spontaneity in the Brahms. You could hear her exhaling before she launched into movement. Reading the programme, I was surprised to learn that she had been in the company for ten years and yet has done so little of solo import before this how incredibly frustrating for her, and what a waste of talent and potential.

Symphonic Variations is so beautiful but I don't understand the constant switching of casts. Shouldnt cohesion between the six dancers be paramount, and that can only come from repeated performances. Although technically precise and disciplined, I thought that with the exception of Nunez, incongruously leading a very junior cast, the dancers maintained technical and musical precision but at the expense of the glow that comes from total control of the material. Both James Hay and Tristan Dyer seemed winded by the end. Opposite them were Mayara Magri (the third dancer for this role? Emma Maguire is photographed in rehearsal in the programme but I don't she's danced a public performance) and Letitifa Stock, neat and well matched but seeming small scale. Reece Clarke did excellently. A handsome physical presence with some beautifully articulated dancing, although the effort of some of the partnering was apparent. Nevertheless, hugely commendable and great to see him seizing this opportunity so well.

I'd been looking forward to this programme very much, quite as much for the choreography as the dancers, so perhaps the anticipation had proved too great as enjoyment proved very muted until Month in which Osipova was truly exquisite (not a trace of exaggeration, quite the reverse - she's the only Natalia I've seen not to get an embarrassed laugh at the melodramatic exit through the side doors) with her astounding fluency and musicality illuminating score, choreography and character in a remarkable way. She wasn't afraid to show Natalia's irritability and her bleakness at the end was manifest. If her first performances had been overblown this just shows how a true artist will learn to strip away what is unnecessary to convey the simplicity of truth, Bonelli seemed more varied and involved than I had ever seen him while his high extensions and lyrical line spoke of sensibility allied to a certain narcissism. Hayward and Hay were also outstanding and although I read criticism of the pianist in earlier posts I actually found myself at one point during the final pas de deux noting how very beautifully she was playing. Terrific. As my iPad has a disconcerting tendency to freeze and then lose text, I will continue my thoughts in a further post.

Not sure if it's rats per se - more the implications of poverty and squalor...