Beryl H

I have an E-mail to say Friends Booking has been postponed from 22nd September to 29th September, opera also from the 23rd to 30th, due to technical difficulties needing to be sorted out!

La Fille Mal Gardee DVD and Blu-Ray release date 2nd November according to ROH.

I bought a ticket to see this on a complete whim about 2 weeks ago knowing nothing really about it, so am pleased to read good things, I have the Chaconne DVD that I will watch tonight, there's obviously quite a large amount of dance music in this production.

Very informative programme, and some beautiful locations, I didn't realise the POB is in such a direct line from Louis XIV, with free entry to the school. The King Dances is quite a strange mysterious work and I am glad to have the opportunity to know more about it, my thought was that onstage it would be another "darkie" but Janet says the opposite, so it will be very exciting to see it at live in October at SW, William Bracewell looked wonderful as the Sun King, and what a difference that long wig makes, liked the dreamy pas de deux, although modern looking the ballet probably needs it.

Really looking forward to this, with Darcey Bussell's Ballerinas beforehand at 7pm, this makes 2 hour 40 minutes of good ballet on BBC4, plus the history of horse ballets (which I believe came before the human ones) on Tuesday!

I'm pleased to read the comments about the ridiculously low level of lighting for the first two ballets, can only add my wishes for more light to see the dancers by, the most frustrating part is that at the end we actually see them when it's all over! I was so fed up that I left after Second Breath, also train problems for the return journey helped that decision, I have another ticket for Friday but don't feel much enthusiasm, I'm sure the lighting wasn't so bad at the Barbican? The photos are quite clear too, perhaps last night was particularly bad and things will improve during the week, keep posting!

I thought the casting for Two Pigeons on 28th January evening was the same as 23rd January evening, i.e. Choe/Zuchetti in Rhapsody and Stix-Brunell/Ball in Two Pigeons, I'll make sure to book for the 23rd now!

Good to see the RDB issuing a new Blu-Ray and DVD at long last! This is a revamped production, there's a review of it from Jane Simpson on Dancetabs in 2014, with completely new music for the second act and set in the 1950's, at least it's something different, as are most of these new releases

You should have seen the ending to La Bayadere, Solor has a Cleopatra moment and dies from a snake bite, has that ever been used before? Sublime dancing from Irina Kolesnikova and Denis Rodkin though, he certainly shows the influence of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, he has the same charisma, I think I have a new favourite! This is another old fashioned production like Swan Lake, good dancing from the 3 Shades, the Idol, and Natalia Matsak who looked much more confident with Denis Rodkin than she had in the afternoon, think she was too tall for Kimin Kim for the partnership to work, what a fantastic dancer he is though, flying through the air like a bird! The corps in Bayadere were very good too, apart from a few wobbles. There were some strange sounds coming from the orchestra, the tunes didn't always sound correct but the musicians were very young with lots of English names in the programme, this might have been their first Bayadere. Couldn't help comparing the almost packed matinee including the Balcony which had only been on sale for 2 weeks, and the much sparser crowd at the only Bayadere night, my programme says Don Q, Carmen by Shostakovich (?) and a Gala Night for next year, but Nutcracker and Swan Lake sounds more like it unfortunately, hope they go with Carmen and the Gala! September is a good month, won't clash with the Bolshoi.

Might be Russians, they just sit in a seat they fancy and hope the owner will go somewhere else, they used to do this in Russia when I went to the ballet there , I've noticed it in London too and particularly at the Coliseum, you have to be firm! Wasn't the noise in between acts 1 and 2 awful last night, I was looking at some of the orchestra who were trying to play above it, they couldn't believe it. And the late start resulted in me not getting home until 1.15am, happy days!

I was pleasantly surprised last night, thought Swan Lake looked much better than the reviews suggested, I suppose I've never seen this Company in a large theatre before where they can dance properly, but they seemed bigger and better than in the past, Irina Kolesnikova was a marvel, no signs of fatigue at all, perhaps Vadim Muntagirov as a partner helped , they are similar in height and willowy qualities , although some sections were taken very slowly indeed I thought it worked and am really glad I saw her. Liked the production, old fashioned and pretty scenery and very well lit! Was sorry not to see the Ivanov pdd in the last act, but the waltz with 2 leading swans was there at the beginning, Irina Kolesnikova made the happy ending tolerable, she illuminated the lovely quiet music at the end usually used for the "journey to the world of eternal bliss" her joy at realising the spell was broken was heartfelt and made me feel sad, looking forward to seeing her Nikiya. No cast lists unless you bought the programme, I actually liked the jester, or at least his dancing, very airy, and the Japanese girl was lovely in the pas de trois and a leading swan in act 4, Dimitri Akulinin was another face from the past and it was just good to see him, didn't think his Rothbart was any worse than the others, don't take Rothbart too seriously I'm afraid.

Sarah Lamb dances well with McRae, Muntagirov and Bonelli, but they have their own performances around the same time, to risk injury the best answer might be a guest. Isn't it depressing that the cast changes have started at the very start of the season?

Yes, the audience for La Sylphide was well behaved, for Cinderella I was sitting in the front row of the Balcony and at both at the matinee and evening the person next to me kept a drink on the board, it could have gone over me or over into the audience.

The Times was at the opening night and gave it a very good 4 star review, it may have been optional.

Going by their performance together in M and A at the Nureyev Friends Gala, I wouldn't be surprised either, possibly as Tamara Rojo's partner. That's if Rupert Pennefather does want to remain dancing, wish him lots of success!

This is a tribute to Maya Plisetskaya on Sunday 6th March 2016, booking now on the Coliseum website.

This is a very interesting topic, I think the sad truth is that there is a big decline in the regular ballet audience, possibly they have been priced out, or else ballet just isn't as popular as it was when I started in the late 60's, I don't really know why this is, definitely there was much more ballet on the BBC, intelligent programmes too, including documentary series by Margot Fonteyn, Peter Schaufuss and Natalia Makarova. I think the huge rise in ticket prices has to be a major factor which is why the ROH doesn't suffer so much as they have some very wealthy patrons. Audience apathy has to be blamed too, who would have thought that Osipova and Vasiliev coudn't even sell out one night at the Coliseum, one thing I noticed at Cinderella recently was lots of little girls in ballet dresses at both matinee and evening, why didn't their mums take them to La Sylphide, surely another little girl ballet? Cost probably, the Coliseum is a huge problem , and their ticket policies, interesting to see what happens to SPBT, there are large adverts appearing the in press now and the Balcony has been opened for some performances (another irritation to people who wanted the Balcony in the first place!).

Really pleased to see this for myself yesterday after reading so much about it, completely agree with Irmgard and Bruce Wall as to the excellence of Qi Huan as James and Janette Mulligan as Madge at the matinee, marvellous light fast dancing from him, and that was the best Madge I've seen since the one and only Sorella Englund, in the evening Greg Horsman was very dramatic at the end but not so much earlier on. Two Sylphs with differing styles, Tara Schaufuss more playful, Yanela Pinera more dramatic, Yanela Pinera reminded me of Alina Colocaru in the role, so light and fast. Liked both Gurns and Effies too, and the leading Sylphs. Sets and costumes lovely but lighting down a bit too much in places, such as the very beginning. I had wondered at the rather short running time, not realising that Peter Schaufuss has restored quite a lot of music and choreography (not sure if it was Bournonville's, I would have liked an article on this in the programme) Johan Kobborg added about 5 minutes but this is longer and actually I think it makes the ballet drag rather, although I did like the new solo for James in the first act, I think what makes the version we know best so perfect is the length, and it gives a chance to see another contrasting ballet such as The Lesson, but it was very interesting to see this slightly different one. I was moved down to the Dress Circle at the matinee, but enjoyed the view better in the evening from the Upper Circle, I always like to see the corps from high up, and they looked very good indeed, All the reviews I've read have been good, The Times and Sunday Times too, an artistic success certainly!

This must have only just gone on the Coliseum website, Carlos Acosta and friends from the Royal Ballet in Classical Selection, from 8th - 13th December 2015, hope it's a repeat of the previous show which was great!

I have a stack of unread Style magazines, so I'll retrieve today's and actually look at it!

The Coliseum website has actually got Natalia Matsak and Kimin Kim down for the 4 matinees now, I found some photos of her and she does look lovely, plus Kimin Kim, think I'll have to book for the 20th or 22nd as I've already got the evening tickets.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but from the start of the Autumn Season the number of day seats has been reduced from 67 to 44.

Thanks for this info, glad I haven't booked yet!

There are now 11 performances of Swan Lake, matinees have been added for Thursday 20th and Saturday 22nd August!

This was really more of a triple bill than a Gala, although with some of the world's top dancers. When I saw Facada last time I thought it was the best item, this time I much preferred the other two ballets, especially Zeitgeist, very similar to Connectome, 3 supporting men instead of 4, and Natalia Osipova and Edward Watson excelling again in the pdd, I really like Alistair Marriott's choreography for them, they push themselves to the limit! The 3 soloists had good choreography too, the lighting varied but at least it did come up sometimes. Tristesse is another "piano" ballet where a group of dancers gather around a pianist, a bit of a cliche but it's a treat to see 4 such dancers, and the emotions in the solo's and pdd are varied. Facada had lost its surprises, best seeing this for the first time, but Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova put so much into this, especially in the very physical pdd near the end. Running time was about 2 hours 15 minutes.