rosefairy

@eloisedo you still have the ticket? I'm from Germany and very nervous at the moment because this might be my last chance to get one.

I'm looking for a ticket to the final Don Q performance on 17/11. Max. price would be around 40-50 pounds

After seeing the cinema relay this week in Germany, I'm really looking forward to experiencing the final Don Q show with Osipova and Clarke in the leads in one week! I bought my ticket back in August but now a friend wants to join me and even though we both tried yesterday at 1 pm on the dot, we couldn't get a Friday Rush ticket for her (max. 40 pounds). Is anyone here possibly selling one? It doesn't matter what view/seat category.

Thank you! I've now picked the Stalls Circle seat and just purchased it. Hope the confirmation email will come through soon😅

I've now got two options in my basket: either Balcony Row A seat 44 or Stalls Circle Row A seat 60. Which one would you prefer for Don Q? (With Natalia and Reece in the leads) I'm quite short so Row A is always good for me because nobody is in front of me.

I'm trying to get just one ticket for a specific performance of Don Q. It's very important to me since I've planned my next London trip around this date (17th of November) and I've been waiting for today for weeks now, only to be put into a 30 Minute queue? I've gone through this process twice already from Germany (in 2021 and 2022) and so far, there's never been a queue, is this new?

Fairly last minute to be fair, but is anyone at tonight's performance and would accompany me to stage door afterwards?☺️ I've been to the ROH only once during Covid, so stage door was closed at the time. To be honest, I don't even quite know where it is😅 I have been to the one in Vienna though, so could help with that in return

@jmhopton I'm getting really excited now that my travel date is fast approaching (only 3 days to go!) and I'm sure I'll love it! Exactly, with a city the size of London it's such a common mistake (happened to me as well in the past) to plan things on the same day only to discover that they are on opposite ends of the city! Maybe one of the next times I'm in London you'll also be there - I would love to meet some forum members on my trips! @munchkin16 Thank you for the great advice! I'm signed up for the 30€ day tickets now and hope to get one on the 6th! I'll just try it at 10 am on the dot, hopefully that will work out. Also thinking about the 10€ Matilda tickets, just not sure how early you really have to be there to get one - maybe I would try that on the 7th! Also I've activated the notifications on the TodayTix app for Daily Rush tickets now! @gdallas Thanks - I've just installed CityMapper now and will definitely be using it a lot! Primrose Hill has been added to my list now! @Scheherezade Richmond Park is also where White Lodge is located, isn't it? I've got the Dorich House Museum on my list which is also located there, they currently have an exhibition called Spirit of the Ballet until the end of April!

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful range of answers - you really made my week with this! @oncnp @Lizbie1@LinMM@Sim@Fonty@Sabine0308@bridiem@JNC@jmhopton@Sebastian@Jan McNulty I've now updated my Google Map with all the recs and this weekend, I'll start making a day-by-day itinary (yes, I'm that kind of person😄) Will definitely be using this map not only for this trip, but also for the next! I think there's a good chance of me being in London again in 2024, the ROH's spell on me is just too strong! The V&A museum was on my list already because I've been there once before as a child and have a great memory of it. I was 10 years old and remember these little backpacks with a sort of "treasure hunt" in them that were rented to children who could then explore the whole museum trying to find all the answers to the riddles and solve the puzzle/find the treasure. There were different themes of these backpacks, I think mine was fashion history themed. I loved it and have always wanted to go back! As to musicals, I've had a look at all the West End shows that are on at the moment via the TodayTix app and have found two favourites - Phantom of the Opera and Matilda. Phantom feels like it's THE classic London musical and would be a great place to start. Matilda is just a book very dear to me (I read it in primary school, but still recall it vividly) and I think the storyline would make for a very fun musical too. I'll have a closer look at ticket prices and availibility tomorrow and decide then, but maybe I can even go to both, let's see! @Sophoife I'm so glad the thread helped you too! And it's a pity that we won't overlap in London, otherwise I would have loved to meet you! Maybe next time though One more thing I wanted to add: just a couple days ago, I started a ballet blog on Instagram. I know quite a few forum members are active over there too, I will try and find/follow all of you soon, it would be great to stay connected there too! The handle is @thebeautyinballet if anyone wants to follow me already, I've only got some introductory posts so far but more will follow so stay tuned

Hi everyone, I'm going to London in about 3 weeks and staying for 4 nights from April 4th to April 8th. The whole trip was planned around watching the new Cinderella production with Marianela and Vadim on the 5th of April (😍), but aside from that afternoon/evening, I'm still pretty much free for the rest of the trip. I've been to London twice before (as a child and as a teenager), so not a complete newbie, but by far not an expert either. I figured that since many of the Forum members live or have lived in Greater London and know the city very well, maybe this would be a place to find the kind of niche travel tips that you can't easily research. I'll try and list all of my interests down below: first a quick intro to who I am: 22 years old, MA student in social sciences, not into nightlife at all, but apart from that very open to all kinds of activities and sights I'm very interested in (art) history, so I've always liked "typical" sightseeing and never found it boring - which of the famous historical sights in London do you find particulary rewarding to visit? I also like guided tours if they are not too long (1-2 hours is fine!) anything related to ballet (exhibitions, museums, shops, maybe even cafes or restaurants where dancers are among the regulars) would of course be very appreciated! I'm a Harry Potter fan, but have already been to the Studio Tour and Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross as a teenager, is there anything new to see recently? I love the work of Jane Austen, so have briefly thought of a day trip to Bath - not sure if it's worth the hassle though because it would take a whole day out of basically only 2-3 days that I have in London I'm a bibliophile! Have already been to the British Library and the Sherlock Holmes museum last time I visited, but I haven't explored any of the sights around Shakespeare or Charles Dickens for example... anything regardings literature would be worthwhile to know! I don't know anything about the West End, have never been to a musical in my life... maybe it's time to change that? I wouldn't know where to start though... on Instagram, I always see roads with really pretty, picturesque houses in Kensington or Notting Hill for example, but bloggers never tag the exact location, so while I would really like to explore these parts of the city, I'm unsure where to start I've already got a long list of food places I want to check out, so don't really need any more tips for that. I think there was a store called Dance Books or something like that and it closed down due to the pandemic? That would have pr

I think I'll ask my friend about this, she should know a bit more about Marianelas personal preferences when it comes to these little presents! Good idea, I'm opening the separate thread right now before I forget about it again😊

I just read the article, now I'm even more excited about Cinderella! I've been a forum member for a year now, even if I rarely post, I always follow the discussion threads around the current ballet productions and now, I can finally say that this is a production I will be watching live in Covent Garden! I'll be in London for 4 nights from April 4th to April 8th and will see Nela and Vadim on the 5th🥰 I'm travelling alone, but a friend of mine will be in London at the same time and she knows Nela personally (she is good friends with some of Nelas closest friends in London, but currently lives in Germany like me) so I'm hoping there's a chance, if even a slim one, that I'll be able to join them for a coffee break or something like that. It would be a dream to get to know and talk to Nela and her other friends/supporters for an hour or so, but of course she is super busy and I would also understand if her schedule didn't allow. What me and my friend will definitely be doing is visiting Stage Door after the performance. Hoping to meet Vadim there too! If I wanted to bring a little present to Stage Door without knowing them well, what would be appropriate? Flowers, chocolate, something else?😊 Since many of you know a lot about both London and ballet, I wanted to also ask if you have any recs for me about sightseeing and shopping? Already on my list are White Lodge and the Dorich House museum in Richmond Park. Also shops like Freed, Bloch and Capezio in Covent Garden. But aside from that, are there maybe any shops for dance related books or keepsakes (things like old magazines, postcards, posters...)? Sorry if this is diverting from the thread topic too much, I think it probably is. I'll open a seperate thread tomorrow asking specifically for travel tips I think.

@Sim @CeliB @Emeralds Sorry for the late reply - it's exam season and I'm busy with presentations, essays etc. (needless to say I procrastinated a lot this week by watching Prix de Lausanne livestreams😅😂) so I just saw the replies now. No, it's not United Ukrainian Ballet - I found a lot of information about them online so I wouldn't have asked here! This company is the one Emeralds described, led by Ivan Zhuravlov. I found the Facebook page too, only for me as a really new, inexperienced ballet-goer, there still wasn't quite enough information to find there, for example I didn't find a list of all company members or short biographies of the company members. These often help me since they show which schools the dancers went to, in which style they were trained and how much experience they have. For example, I was really surprised when I looked at some other touring company about 2-3 years ago online (State Ballet of Russia or something along those lines) and found out they had multiple Vaganova graduates on the roster! Unfortunately didn't end up seeing them live but I'm sure they were great too. @Emeralds I've decided now that I'm going to give it a go! The performance is on Valentines Day at the city hall of Aschaffenburg, Bavaria (my hometown). They are also touring to many other midsized German towns in February and March, so maybe someone else on the Forum will have the chance to go as well. I will definitely report later on that week!

Hi everyone, my German hometown of about 70 000 people usually doesn't see any ballet performances at all (aside from the ROH cinema screenings that I always watch there!), but today I was in town and saw an advertisement for a performance held in February at the city hall. It is Swan Lake, which I have seen by the RB and the Mariinsky so far (impossible to top, I know). Tickets are around 60 euros for good seats, which is about half of what I would pay for a good seat at a renowned company and of course, I would not have any travel costs. Still, I only want to go if it's a decent quality production in terms of the quality of dancing, music, stage/costumes and so on. Otherwise I'll just wait for April, when I'm going to London to see Cinderella!😍🤩 So I wanted to ask if anyone here has had any experience with this company yet? I did a bit of googling, but without many results...

Thank you to everyone for the very helpful answers! @SebastianI've answered your message today. Thanks again for the great tips! @SheilaC I'll be avoiding the stalls for sure in this case, I'm 5'3 so not tall either! @Jan McNulty @Lindsay @Angela Okay, so I think front row of the central boxes (so the ones directly opposite the stage) would be the best option! I've just had a look: There are three different levels of boxes, so the ones I'm interested in would be either front row of Mittelloge (lowest level) or of Balkon Mitte (mid level) or of Galerie Mitte (highest level). Which one of these would you prefer or perhaps do you remember at which level you sat?

Aside from attending all the Royal Ballet cinema relays, my next time attending ballet live will probably be in December, when I'm going to see Frederick Ashtons "La fille mal gardee" at the Vienna State Opera. I'll be able to see two nights, 13/12/22 and 14/12/22 😀 Casting hasn't been announced yet and regular booking only opens on 1/10/22 for the whole month of December, so I still have plenty of time to think about this, but I already wanted to ask if anyone here has been there before and can recommend certain seats? Since I'm going twice, I wouldn't exactly be keen on the highest price ranges (everything above 100€) but I would be willing to pay quite a lot since I go so rarely, so maybe the price range from 80-100€ would be fine. I'm attaching two links: The first one is just the event itself, the second one is the seating plan with prices. Even if you haven't been to Vienna but have a lot of experience with seating for ballet in general, I think you could give me some helpful seat recommendations based on the seating plan. I'm such a newbie to live ballet that I often don't really know where to start when it comes to booking.... La Fille mal gardée | Spielplan & Kartenkauf | Wiener Staatsoper (wiener-staatsoper.at) Saalplan & Preise | Karten, Abos & Zyklen | Service | Wiener Staatsoper (wiener-staatsoper.at) Thanks in advance for your help!

@FionaE I saw Elizaveta Kokoreva in the cinema relay of Jewels back in January (she was in Rubies) and she absolutely stood out! I didn't know her at all before that night and immediately followed her on social media afterwards because I was sure this would be a dancer and a career worth following closely. So I'm really happy about her promotion!

@Jeannette I completely agree, it's so refreshing to see this!! Do you know if anything has been decided yet for the 2022/23 figure skating season? It would be utterly ridiculous to let an entire season without the Russians happen in this sport - in my eyes, the World Championships back in March should have rather been postponed/cancelled or the athletes should have been allowed to compete under a neutral flag (like they were in some other winter sport disciplines, btw!) Excluding one of the top figure skating nations for a prolonged period of time is just plainly unfair IMO and I hope it won't happen. Recently I read a post by @Buddy in a different thread about when we will see more of Russian ballet again - I hope it will be very soon! @The Sitter In this is the first (very little!) sign of normalcy I have seen regarding the Russian ballet world since the war started. Things are very far from actually being normal... So many European dancers who loved their lives and careers in Russia left, leaving back not just gaps to fill in a company, but also wounds to heal. At the same time, their Russian colleagues, their close friends mostly didn't have the option of leaving. I can only imagine how many of them must have felt at the beginning of the war and probably still do. They didn't want, they didn't cause the war. Still, they have to stand up for it in many ways every day. Harsh sanctions leading to a disastrous economic situation, being closed off in your own country, feeling the hate of the world every time you open social media, feeling uncertain of your personal future as well as the future of your home country... doesn't exactly sound easy, does it? So even if it doesn't fit the black-and-white way of thought so many people have adopted since February, believe me when I say that Russians, especially those who don't belong to the elite, have been through some very tough times these past months too. I could write a very long essay now, but I'll save my energy and just say: empathy is never a bad idea, even in a war situation, our empathy should extend to both sides - otherwise it isn't worth a lot IMO. Maybe for the young Russian dancers participating as well as for their coaches and just the general ballet-loving public, it is a small sign of hope for the future? We should allow them to have this. PS: Back in March, I checked a Russian ballet forum a couple times since I was very curious how they would pick up on the international dancers leaving. I was pleasantly surprised. No bad blood at all, they all said that they would've probably done the same in such a situation and wished them well for future careers in the West. Of course many Russians will think differently too - I'm not delusional. But it's worth noticing the nuances...

Thank you for the tip! I just had a look into the first round junior group video and to me, they looked (age-wise, but also skill-wise) as if they could have been seniors too! Perhaps they are around 15-17 years old, does anyone know at what age they start to compete as seniors? Also I noticed that all moderation announcements are made in English and Russian, but the interviews in the intervals are sadly Russian only. Subtitles would be great as I saw some quite interesting guests and would love to understand what they're talking about. Maybe I'll watch the second round live - I saw that Sofia Valiullina has made it into the second round for example, which I'm pleased about! I've been following her on Instagram for quite a while and find her a great young dancer.

First of all, sorry for not replying all week long. Life was incredibly busy and I just got round to placing my order today, so I'll tell you what I've decided now😊 I'll remember Presto Music for the future, but for now I found a shop from Germany called JPC that also has quite a good range (but a bit less than Presto), so I've ordered from them. No shipping fees for me! @Rob S Thank you, I hadn't heard of the 22 ballets box set and had a look at it when you mentioned it. Like @JNC while I think it's obviously the best value for money you can get, I'll also go down the route of buying a few singular DVDs at a time and taking a bit longer until I have a full collection. @Emeralds and @JNC thanks a lot for your recommendations of specific casts/performances, they were very helpful for my decision making! I've ordered the following (for a total of 140€): - Nutcracker with Nunez/Muntagirov - Don Q with Nunez/Acosta - Sleeping Beauty with Cojocaru as Aurora and Nunez as Lilac Fairy - Giselle with Cojocaru as Aurora and Nunez as Myrtha - Raymonda with Novikova and Vogel in the leads - La Bayadere with Nunez and Osipova

before I get to the main point, a bit of complaining about the ROH shop: For my upcoming birthday on the 1st of June, I wanted to order from the ROH shop - a mix of a few items from the gift section and some ballet recordings on DVD. When I had my shopping cart ready, I learned that although it's been 18 months (!) since Brexit came into force on 01/01/2021, the ROH shop is still "currently unable to ship to EU countries". How is that possible? Does anyone here know who could be the best person to complain to about this? Even if I wasn't interested in ordering at all, this would still astound me. From small etsy shops to the big corporations, all UK businesses that I know managed to find a way to deal with Brexit within the first couple of weeks, 2-3 months max. So what is their excuse? all anger aside, I then started looking for alternatives to assure I'll at least get my DVDs in time for my birthday - the other items can of course not be easily replaced, but who knows, maybe I'll be in London again soon enough or they'll finally update their delivery policy. Until then, as an alternative, I came across the shop Presto Music, which seems to have a broad selection of ballet recordings from different companies. Has anyone here ordered from them before? How was the experience? Or can someone recommend another shop for EU countries? My second question would be: if you were to choose about 3-4 dvds (or dvd boxes) from the time period of the last 15-20 years, which would you pick? I was thinking of the following: ( but I'm not sure if these are really the best picks for these ballets?) Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66 - Opus Arte: OA0995D - DVD Video | Presto Music (with Cojocaru, Nunez and Bonelli in main roles) Ludwig Minkus: La Bayadère - Opus Arte: OA1296D - DVD Video | Presto Music (Nunez, Muntagirov and Osipova in the leads) Ballet Spectacular - Opus Arte: OA1182BD - 3 DVD Videos | Presto Music (this contains La fille, Coppelia and Giselle, all from the era around 2005 with Acosta, Cojocaru etc. still at RB) The Art of Marius Petipa - Raymonda - Arthaus Musik: 109268 - DVD Video | Presto Music (at Teatro alla Scala, with Olesya Novikova and Friedemann Vogel) I'm unsure with Ballet Spectacular - at 38€ for 3 ballets it's a good price, but are these really the casts I want to have on DVD? For example I've heard great things about Osipova's Giselle, which is not included here.... Also I would like a Don Quixote in my collection, but was undecided which version. Also, does anyone have favourites when it comes to the Nutcracker?

@Angela a bit confused, I thought the new season would only be announced at 6 pm today via the livestream? but still, nice to have a bit of information already! I'm interested in all of the Revivals I think.

Hi, I stumbled upon this posting when I searched the forum for "Ballet DVDs". I know it's been 9 months, but do you still have any of these?

@bridiem Thank you! Yes, I hope so too - first of all I'm hoping for 2022/23 to be the first season without Covid restrictions and aside from that, hoping my finances will be sufficient to take a few "ballet short trips" to different European cities. At the moment I'm thinking of seeing the new Cinderella production in London (everything else I'll see in the cinema) and as I'll probably visit a friend in Vienna before Christmas, I could see either the new Sleeping Beauty production or a revival of La fille mal gardee during that period. Other ideas include Munich and Milano, but both of them haven't announced their upcoming season yet, so I'm excited for that @LinMM I had the same idea sometime last year and at first thought it impossible because, while I've always been in a weight region that would be deemed appropriate for ballet, I'm the most unathletic person you could think of. No strength in arms, legs or core and no flexibility either... but then I set my mind on trying anyway, so I bought a yogamat and started doing Pilates as well as stretching. During my final 3 months of my undergraduate degree I had to pause because I just felt like I didn't have the time, but after submitting my BA thesis I re-started and in June, I'll finally start taking a 10 week Absolute Beginners course😅 @alison Thank you very much, it's lovely to hear that coming from a native speaker! I think so too about the livestreams. Two I've already managed to see are Sleeping Beauty with Marianela Nunez in January and "Marguerite and Armand" in March. Maybe there'll be more offerings from various companies during the summer break, since there are no live performances in that period?

I loved reading this thread back in February when many forum members posted their stories of getting into ballet and wanted to add mine too - I thought it would be the perfect first post, but I have had an incredibly busy few months since then, so even though I read the forum daily, I never got around to posting, so I've reviving this thread now😅 For context, I'm 21 years old and from Germany (near Frankfurt am Main). As a small girl, I took ballet lessons briefly (once a week for about one year from age 5 to 6) and loved the idea of tutus and pointe shoes, as many children that age do. For a long time after that - I would say from age 7 to 18 - I didn't have anything to do with ballet or related art forms. My main interest growing up was literature, I spent most of my free time reading books and dreaming of writing novels myself (a dream that I still have, we'll see). After graduating with my Abitur (=A-Levels) in 2018, I moved to a different city and started a BA degree in social sciences. When I was half done with this degree, the pandemic started and we switched to online learning, so I decided to stay at my family's house for the time being. I had more free time now and one day in summer 2020 discovered a teen TV series called "Find Me in Paris" which plays at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Soon the YouTube algorithm recommended the ARTE documentation "Die Ballettschüler der Pariser Oper" to me - a great project which followed a number of POB ballet students in 2011 and then again in 2016, to see at which point they were 5 years later. After watching this, my fascination with ballet training/growing up in the ballet world started and I searched for more documentaries - Vaganova Academy, RBS, SAB, I pretty much watched them all and a landscape of the different ballet techniques practised around the world started forming in my head. At this point, I was still quite clueless about ballet history and repertoire though. In 2021, I found the "ballet side of social media" and started following many ballet dancers who are also active on YouTube and Instagram, like Maria Khoreva and Kathryn Morgan for example. Through their posts and videos, I kept hearing the names of ballets, choreographers, company members and so on and basically clicked my way through it all, step by step becoming more familiar with them. By this time, it was summer 2021 and I had unfortunately missed the whole "pandemic livestream era" but I now became aware of the options I have in my hometown, which were a) going to see Bolshoi and Royal Ballet cinema screenings in and b) watching livestreams by various companies. At the same time I started planning my first post-pandemic travel trip, which was a week in London in December 2021. Of course, I had to book for the Nutcracker - I saw a matinee performance with Lauren Cuthbertson and William Bracewell, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Leo Dixon in the leading roles. My very first live ballet performance and it was amazing! A few weeks later back home, I went to Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and saw the Mariinsky doing Swan Lake (Maria Iliushkina and Timur Askerov in the main roles) - I loved it and also liked the happy ending which I know most other versions don't have. So far, those are the only live performances I've seen, but I'll start making plans for the 2022/23 season soon.