Beryl H

ENB have got themselves to blame for empty seats, on Tuesday nearly the whole back central row of the dress circle was empty, I used to be able to sit in these for £40 but this season they are £55, hence the cut-price offers, I got a side seat for £40, seems like others did too. Although this production looks less impressive each time, the dancers are fantastic, especially as I had the chance again to see the flawless partnership of Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov, am really keen to see him dance with Alina Cojocaru next week.

That would be such a help, if Companies marked dates with A,B,C casts so we could book knowing we had different ones, that shouldn't be too difficult. Still, it will save me much needed money at the moment!

The ROH news section shows Don Quixote as being on BBC4 at 8pm on Christmas Day, something to look forward to!

Well, there are now nearly 49 tickets for every performance available, all prices, I've actually ended up with what I wanted in the beginning, a decent cheap seat for the Saturday matinee and evening, and I'll probably have 2 to sell, because I can't wait til my next trip to the ROH to swap!

There are quite a lot of tickets for Hansel and Gretel on 24th and 25th January evening, at least there are if you don't sign in first, if you are signed in as a Friend they are not available! That was my experience a short while ago anyway.

The ENB website now shows Junor Souza as the Nephew/Prince dancing with Tamara Rojo on 13th and 17th December evenings at the Coliseum, Max Westwell is the Nutcracker.

Very exciting programme which got better, apart from Cranko's Hommage au Bolshoi I wouldn't really want to see the other pieces in the first section more than once, but good fun. The middle section was beautiful, basically 4 pdd, loved R.B.M.E. which had a corps de ballet but was mainly for Maria Eichwald and Kevin McKie who is very tall with a wonderful line. I've never seen Cranko's R and J so a marvellous chance to compare balcony scenes, this one is very lyrical. Best of all, and the most emotional excerpt of the evening, was Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias, danced by Sue Jin Kang and another of the Stuttgart's amazing men, Marijn Rademaker. The third section had 2 standouts, as others have said, Fanfare LX and Mono Lisa.

I don't go to R and J much these days but managed to get a return ticket for Obratsova and McRae on Thursday (already had one for Osipova/Acosta which is an event not to be missed) and the whole cast rekindled my interest in the ballet, Obratsova is one of nature's Juliets, so young and charming, she also has a soft, light style which worked perfectly, and Steven McRae partnered her well (don't know how she fitted it in with 3 perfomances at the Bolshoi last week too). Really liked Trystan Dyer, Alexander Campbell, and Valentino Zuchetti in their roles, the ballet seemed invigorated by the younger cast, although Gary Avis made a huge impact as Lord Capulet, he made every gesture and step mean something in the Act 2 court dance.

Nice to see Iana Salenko and Steven McRae again, also Thiago Soares, just been reading the Radio Times and there's a sensible article about Black Swan tomorrow, might just watch it to see the advert on a bigger screen!

I'm going to see it in January at the Barbican, just hoping and praying the weather and train situation will be okay, there's so much on in January!

Kings of the Dance doesn't seem to be selling well, prices are very high, still haven't booked yet. This new programme looks good but clashes with Giselle at the ROH!

Made in Germany details are now on the SW website, casts are the same both nights, also Taming of the Shrew casts!

I've noticed these Wednesday to Saturday/Sunday seasons at the Coliseum too, really irritating if you want to go twice or more. Nice to see Scottish Ballet at SW.

I was surprised when I read the article in yesterday's Times that Alastair Spalding thought the core audience for his new 500 seat modern dance theatre would be the over 65's, I'd agree that two thirds of the audience at the ROH are that age but mainly for the classics, of course SW draws en entirely different audience anyway and maybe lots of them are "twirly's"

I've just checked the programme, and as I thought , I saw Michael Coleman at my first ever ballet, dancing the pas de trois in Swan Lake at Covent Garden in 1965! I'll think of that when I see him as the Pasha in January.

I don't feel intimidated at all at the ROH and agree the staff are very friendly, but I don't like the way the foyer spaces have been taken up by the catering, I don't feel I can enter the Crush Room just to look around anymore, too many waiters hanging around, the same goes for the Floral Hall, there used to be costume displays but now it's more tables and chairs, actually there's a new "informal" eating arrangement now, trays which you can buy (£18/£28) and eat standing in the Hall, the only place left to me is the outside amphi terrace which I love, I can sit there admiring the view in peace

Details and booking are on the Coliseum website, date is Sunday 9th March 2014 at 7pm, no specific details of dancers but the theme is the history of Russian Ballet, Companies include RB, ENB, Bolshoi, Mariinsky, POB, Berlin Staatsoper, and NYCB, sounds very exciting!

H and G is sold out again now, but there do seem lots of seats for Giselle, even Osipova ones.

I've had another weird experience this afternoon but third time round have just got a R and J ticket, in fact what I like to think of as "my seat" the same one I could have bought at the Friends booking! First around 2pm it was available, then wasn't etc, kept trying and gave up, tried again at 3pm, same thing, tried many times as it was always showing as available, just tried again, managed to buy it, can't fathom what's going on either! There are lots of seats on sale this afternoon, I've been trying for H and G, didn't buy one but it was available (really available) and I can't imagine they are all returns.

I too thought Fumi Kaneko was lovely on Friday, she got noticeably more relaxed after act 1, the one-hand lifts were excellent, especially the second one, Thiago Soares is such a secure partner and his dancing was very stylish, by the last pdd they looked really happy and pulled off some great dancing, a feelgood evening! Last night was another happy one, what can I say about Marienela Nunez and Carlos Acosta except they seemed even more radiant than usual, and Ryoichi Hirano rightly got an ecstatic reception for his Espada, Johannes Stepanek was good on Friday but there's only really one Espada. I've never seen a ballet that produces so many thrills and spills, last night it was Yuhui Choe's turn to slip, she was replaced in the last act by Akane Takada, shouldn't think it was serious. I thought the toreadors looked more cautious again last night, compared to Friday.

I'm glad to know that Vadim Muntagirov dances Ali at some performances, am excited about seeing several casts at the Coliseum!

I've just booked another ticket and when it was in the basket, I went back to the seating plan and the seat WAS unavailable, so presumably the problem only occurs in overload situations like yesterday, in a way the success of this new system in letting everyone in at once has created another problem, getting tickets for Natalia Osipova will be frantic!

I found out this morning that you can have a seat in the basket and it still shows on the seating plan as available, I suppose it stays until paid for.