Tattin

Yes, James Hay is a wonderful Ashton dancer and that is because he has Cecchetti training IMO. I hope they will both be back on stage at the beginning of next season.

I'm going to the cinema screening. Can anyone tell me at roughly what time I will find the "full" cast on line, i.e. other than just the principals ,Queen, Benno, Von Rothbart and Siegfried's sisters. I'd like to know as I have to drive some way to pick up a friend first so shan't be able to look at the last minute.

"Ballet Shoes" was serialised on what in those days was called the wireless in the 1950s. I was a great fan.

Thank you so much Roberta for the information you gave to enable us watch the international students' class given by Élisabeth Platel. I adore her classes and always wish I had the youth and technique to do them!! I was just a bit disappointed that she didn't move the students around at the barre as they do at the Prix de Lausanne so that we saw different ones at the front. Have you watched it Birdy to see your DD? If so you must tell us what she was wearing so we can pick her out. I am definitely going to watch it again.

What a pity it wasn't streamed - I'd have loved to have seen it.

The screening wasn't available outside the UK, but this is just to say (envy apart!) that Mary you have exactly expressed my feelings about the presentations in general.

Delighted to read that Naghdi is cast for the live stream in the cinema on the 24th . I'm so looking forward to seeing her!

I agree with you, Fonty, that qualities of speed and lightness seem to have been lost, though I am sure that dancers are capable of them as they are part of their training. What has happened IMO is that choreographers largely ignore petit allegro steps these days and more's the pity ... for me, at least, as I adore petit allegro (and adored dancing it at a very humble level).

Antonio Casalinho didn't join the RB as the Prix de Lausanne top prize-winner, although he apparently wanted to, because the RB didn't have a place for a Prix de Lausanne dancer that year. It was 2021. Due to the pandemic they said that the previous year's Prix dancer (I forget who it was) hadn't had much stage experience and so was to spend two years with the company instead of the usual one.

I finally managed to watch it yesterday, as I had been in Barcelona for a few days (where incidentally I saw an unusual dance cum acrobatics performance at 11 a,m, one morning followed by a meeting with the dancers and choreographers). This is to say, however, that I agree 100 per cent with your critique above annamk. I had seen the production before as Vienna had live-streamed it when Manuel Legris was the director and .... It was definitely my favourite one until I saw José Carlos Martínez's own production for the Compañía Nacional de Danza here in Spain when he directed the company, and that, of course, was because it is the most Spanish of all productions - so many of them make me cringe with their pseudo-Spanishness. All credit due to Martínez, therefore, for staging Nureyev's much larger-scale production, and therefore more suitable for the company, rather than his own version as so many company directors would have done. I was slightly worried at the beginning that Sae Eun Park was not going to be able to express the verve and dominating character of Kitri but she managed it very well and, of course, danced superbly. It was interesting that she commented in the interval interview that she really enjoyed dancing a role that was so different from her own character, so she had really had to work on it. And as for the Noureeveries, well I have to confess that I am very partial to them. I am very fond of ronde de jambe en l'air, whether en dedans or en dehors, and I love it when the male and female dancers do the same steps and was delighted to see a bit of that at the beginning of the grand pas.

I know exactly what a tour en l'air is but what I hadn't realised (or noticed) is that the feet are reversed when landing in fifth, so thank you Alison for that information! I'll keep a sharp eye out next time I see one!

A brilliant merging - that would be the funniest comedy ballet of all time!! - but please don't mess with Minkus' score this time- that bit rather upset me in the revamping version of Bayadère.

It's going to be live-streamed tomorrow evening, but has to be paid for, and then available for a week - with the Sae Eun Park and Paul Marque cast.

As I understand it the other factor involved in the "concours" system for promotion at the Paris Opera is just how many places are available at the next level as they are always limited. So even if a dancer does brilliantly with no slips or wobbles, if another one or ones gets/get higher marks he or she doesn't get promoted because the places will already be filled.

I managed to watch it for a second time and enjoyed it more, which is par for the course for me as I get an overall impression the first time and can focus more on the technical and artistic details the second. I had seen Ketevan Papava before in streams from Vienna and found her to be a dancer with a very strong technique and stage presence, let's say, to match so I was impressed to see the delicacy, as well as the passion, she brought to acting the role of Marguerite. Timoor Afshar, who is American but completed his training at the John Cranko School, was suitably hot-headed and ardent and kept up with her on every count as far as the acting was concerned. I was also delighted to see Ioanna Avraam, recently promoted to principal, as Prudence, skittish or serious as the moment demanded. I think she must be unique in the ballet world as a principal dancer in a major company from the island of Cyprus. And the music... I was absolutely sure that some of it was also used in Dances at a Gathering . it was the leapfrog section at the beginning of Act II in The Lady of the Camelias and in DaaG the pas de six with the blue, mauve and yellow girls in which they are thrown. individually of course, from one man to another towards the end. So both choreographers had similar ideas as to what the music was suggesting! After much research this morning I have identified it as the Waltz Opus 4 Nº 1.