Ian Macmillan

Alison: I'm rather hoping that that is NOT the case. The definition used suggests active browsing, and for 15 minutes afterwards, is what counts. And I have to correct my last post, because I've realised that the amount of data storage on the site does increase with the amount paid - so perhaps no totally Open House on Blogs etc!

Alison: Interestingly, the software package in use now is costed according to the number of online users, taken over a 2-day rolling period. Size of the package in use appears not to be an issue so, in due course, once we all know a lot more about it, it might well be possible to add Blogs and Galleries. As you've noticed, the format does appear to allow this. So, basically, the more popular we become, the more it will cost to keep the show on the road. I believe I'm correct in saying that there has already been one increment from the package first bought by Bruce to get this going - and we might not be too far from having to go one higher still. After that the increments are wider spread by number, but the cost increment goes up accordingly!

Links - Thursday February 16, 2012 Review + Comment – RB “Dream/Song” Bill but mainly l’affaire Polunin: Giannandrea Poesio, Spectator Book Review – “The Master’s Muse” by Varley O’Connor, on the life of Tanaquil Le Clercq: Holly Brubach, NY Times UK: New plan for cultural education in schools: Mark Brown, Guardian Review – San Francisco Ballet, Chroma, Beaux, Number Nine: Mary Ellen Hunt, SF Chronicle Preview – Holly Johnston & Ledges and Bones: Want: Claudia Bauer, SF Chronicle Reviews – Amanda Loulaki, Levi Gonzalez, Untitled, Counterfeit Scenario: Monica Bill Barnes, The Snow Globe Show: Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal Film Preview – “Joffrey”: Mavericks of American Dance: Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times Review – New York City Ballet, Les Carillons, DGV: Hanna Oldsman, California Literary Review Review – Perth Festival Fringe, Miscellaneous Works: Rita Clarke, The Australian Ballet classes for Aston Villa under-15 squad: Paul Suart, Birmingham Mail

Links - Wednesday February 15, 2012 Review – Atlanta Ballet, Princess and the Goblin: Robert Greskovic, Wall Street Journal Preview – Alberta Ballet, Cinderella: Bob Clark, Edmonton Journal Preview – Cuban National Ballet, Don Quixote: Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun Review – Ballet West, Don Quixote (new cast): Kathy Adams, Salt Lake Tribune Review – Antonio Gades Company, Fuenteovejuna: Ismene Brown, Arts Desk Review – Flamenco Festival, Sadler’s Wells: Sanjoy Roy, Guardian Preview – Crystal Pite, The You Show: Susan Reiter, CityArts Valentine’s Day Video recommendations: Robert Johnson, NJ Star-Ledger Toronto – Dancers and Urban Activism: Paula Citron, Globe and Mail

Links - Tuesday February 14, 2012 Review – Perm Ballet, Triple Bill: Laura Cappelle, Financial Times Review – Manuela Carrasco, Suspiro Flamenco: Clement Crisp, Financial Times Preview – Ballet Next (Michele Wiles & Charles Askegard), Exhibitions Series: Broadway World Review – Random Dance, Entity: Janet Smith, Straight.com Review - Earthfall, At Swim, Two Boys: Judith Mackrell, Guardian Review – New Chamber Ballet (Miro Magloire), Mixed Bill: Claudia La Rocco, NY Times Dance Awards for Baryshnikov and Forsythe: Julie Bloom, NY Times Review – Northern Ballet, Perpetual Motion: Charles Hutchinson, York Press Ex-NYCB dancer Zina Bethune killed in road accident: LA Times Birmingham Royal Ballet helps local project:Chris Henwood, Birmingham Mail

Links - Monday February 13, 2012 Wayne McGregor and “Infra” for Joffrey Ballet: Roslyn Sulcas, NY Times Critic Judith Mackrell on star-rating reviews: For whom does she write? Guardian Review – Atlanta Ballet, Twyla Tharp’s The Princess and the Goblin: Brian Seibert, NY Times Review – Akram Khan, Vertical Road: Deborah Jowitt, Arts Journal Not entirely dance, but an interesting article on a lost version of “Eugene Onegin”: John Freedman, Moscow Times Review – Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, Cleopatra, CEO: Laura Bleiberg, LA Times Review – Ballet West (Utah), Don Quixote: Kathy Adams, Salt Lake Tribune At Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Cupid's arrow strikes more than usual, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Review – West Australian Ballet, Ballet at the Quarry: Rita Clarke, The Australian Review – IDJA Dance Theatre, Lu’arn: Chloe Smethurst, Sydney Morning Herald

For a combination of domestic reasons, I'd vote for a Triple Bill comprising: "Solitaire," "House of Birds' and "Les Rendezvous" - ideally with the first and last in their original costumes. And, as others have suggested, a return of "The Concert" would be most welcome - it was one of the earlier ballets I saw, circa 2000/2001, with Sylvie Guillem. I'm sure Miss Yanowsky would bring as much zaniness to the part and would prove every bit as much an object of desire to the Groucho Marx chap (Ed Watson?)

Links - Sunday February 12, 2012 Reviews – NYCB, Seven Deadly Sins, Vienna Waltzes: Marina Harss, Faster Times Leigh Witchel, NY Post Review – Royal Ballet, Dream, Song of the Earth: Luke Jennings, Observer Russell Maliphant, Rodin Project Review – Manuela Carrasco, Flamenco Festival: Jenny Gilbert, Independent Review – Akram Khan, Vertical Road: Robert Johnson, NJ Star-Ledger Reporters try Tango with Flavia and Vincent! Sunday Express Review – CanAsian Dance Festival, Highlights: Paula Citron, Globe and Mail Gallery Review – Black artists in Motion: R M Vaughan, Globe and Mail Preview: Choreographer Heather Maloney: Jordan Levin, Miami Herald

Alison: Like you, I wonder why/how Ticketmaster has those tickets - the more so given that my son-in-law (not a ROH regular) has tried valiantly since Tuesday for 'Alice' tickets, to find that there are now none available. I wonder if the ROH knew it was passing tickets to a parallel organisation? And it couldn't possibly be some 'understanding' arising from Ticketmaster handling the O2 tickets for "R&J" last summer ..... surely not ...... no .... not possible ...... but it hasn't happened before, has it?

Webfoot: Thanks for the Thanks on Links - we're doing our best to keep the service going at a reasonable cost in personal time! But as John infers, you've broken the ice now. It wasn't so difficult was it? I know, because I lurked for a good year or so, measuring the temper of the forum, before daring to post. Please don't feel overwhelmed by anything you see here. If you enjoy ballet and dance, we'd be happy to hear from you - gradually at first, if you wish, but who knows where it will take you?

Cathy: Good to hear from you, and I hasten to say that I have no deep-down dislike of an all male troupe and the energy that one can demonstrate, as The Talent most certainly did that night in Cambridge. It was the staging overall that I thought did them less than justice. However, moving on to 2faced - let's remember that the Balletco review archive is still available via the Reviews button on the Dance Tabs homepage. The Advanced Search function is available here and, if you enter '2faced' in the Company box, you'll get what's there with, I think, your review at the third from the top: http://www.ballet.co...h/db_search.cgi Happy Memories!

From today's links and worth repeating here - New York critic Joel Lobenthal takes a calm look at the pros and cons of having 'guest stars': http://cityarts.info/2012/02/07/the-takeover/

As a postscript to today's links, and in tribute to all of the 'old' Links team, I thought I'd check if the ever-eclectic Brooklyn Rail for February had emerged and, sure enough, it's there, albeit much smaller this month than oftimes in the past: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2012/02/dance/

Links - Thursday February 9, 2012 Review – NYCB, Stravinsky Violin Concerto: Apollinaire Scherr, Financial Times Review – Dance Theater of Harlem II, Mixed Bill: Gia Kourlas, NY Times Preview – Joffrey Ballet, “Winter Fire” programme: Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times Joffrey Ballet announces 2012-13 Season: Zachary Whittenburg, Time Out Chicago Preview - Vadim Muntagirov and Daria Klimentova: Valerie Lawson, The Australian Queensland, West Australian & Australian Ballets: Cameron Pegg, The Australian Preview – Ishmael Houston-Jones at Danspace Project: Brian Seibert, NY Times NYCB commissions two works from Justin Peck: Daniel J Wakin, NY Times Review – Matthew Bourne, Nutcracker!: Amy Burns, Express & Star Charles Dickens discovers a dance in New York: Ismene Brown, Arts Desk La Scala dancers rebut anorexia claims: AP item, Guardian When Guest Stars Rule Dance: Joel Lobenthal, CityArts Preview – Lar Lubovitch in New York: Susan Reiter, CityArts

Mr Polunin's delphic tweets continue, it seems. "Immortality is leaving a life worth remembering" was sent late last night but, as I believe he is due at a Gala in Japan in a few days time, I doubt that he plans anything overly apocalyptic before then.

Alison: 45 minutes for a single seat - no wonder there's a queue. But I see on Twitter that they feel your pain, and that they "are working on developing a painless new system of buying tickets." And yet I seem to recall that was pretty much what was promised with the last system change/upgrade?

I know this won't help - but you've all gone through this many times before, and I wonder why you subject yourselves to it! In the RAF, this would have been seen as an example of what was called "practise bleeding!" I fear I lack your admirable dedication, Alison.

The Talent's tour continues and I have seen rave reactions on Twitter. Out of our 390 or so Forum members, and Heaven knows how many lurkers, is there really nobody else out there who has seen the show? I'm sure many must have done - so, is there nobody at all who feels strongly enough about what they saw, good or bad, to add anything here, from a full review to a short comment?

"......there has been lots of chatter recently about how ABT is having to constantly bring in male guests." Earlier today I saw that our (sorry, Balletco's) Eric Taub tweeted on these lines, possibly tongue in cheek: "Who is Vadim Muntagirov, and why does ABT need him?" I know the answer to the first part but ...........

I suspect we've got as much from this question as we're going to get, and my thanks to those who replied. However, what seems clear is that there is an appetite for this service - the current thread has something over 1200 views in the past 7 days, for example - and JohnM and I are exploring ways of continuing to provide one, but at a personal cost of considerably less than 3 hours per day, which had pretty much become the norm. In essence, it's likely that all we will do is point at links found from a more restricted search than hitherto, but the detail of presentation is probably not yet final. And if things continue into the longer term, I'm sure we'll be looking for one or two others to share the load!

Alison: Quelle insomniaque! But congrats on making the Poll feature work. After our recent offline exchange, I tried setting one up down in 'Test' (on the perennial issue of "Why did the chicken cross the road?") but, on pressing 'Go,' it vanished into cyberspace! As to the questions, I've gone for some/not all rehearsal shots, but it's the tendency to rehash articles that bothers me most at £6 a pop.

FRIDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2012 Reviews Royal Ballet : “The Dream & Song of the Earth” Zoë Anderson Independent Judith Mackrell Guardian Clifford Bishop Evening Standard NYCB: Balanchine/Robbins Programme Claudia La Rocco NY Times San Francisco Ballet: “Onegin” Paul Parish Bay Area Guardian Scottish Ballet : “Sleeping Beauty” Sean Watson Edinburgh Journal Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet: Mixed Bill Laura Capelle Financial Times Interview: Akram Khan Roslyn Sulcas NY Times “Pina” reaches Washington DC Sarah Kaufman Washington Post Dance in Movies: “Pina” and others Marina Harss Faster Times Chunky Move’s New AD, Anouk van Dijk Philippa Hawker Sydney Morning Herald Bolshoi Ballet Academy to see first U.S. graduate. Chicago Tribune Australian Ballet: Couple vie for ballet's top gong! The Australian

I don't see that it adds anything new to what the Telegraph had yesterday, but the Guardian has picked up on the Work Permit issue: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/feb/02/sergei-polunin-loses-right-work

Review: Royal Ballet “The Dream/Song of the Earth” Ismene Brown Arts Desk Review: San Francisco Ballet “Onegin” Geri Jeter California Literary Review Review: NYCB Balanchine/Robbins programme Claudia La Rocco NY Times Review: NYCB All-Wheeldon Programme Robert Johnson NJ Star-Ledger Review: ABT Mixed Bill Sarah Kaufman Washington Post Review: “Men in Motion” Gerald Dowler Classical Source Preview: Russell Maliphant “The Rodin Project” Judith Mackrell Guardian + slideshow companion piece Guardian New York: Dance on Camera Festival Robert Johnson NJ Star-Ledger Video + Article: Move Tube – Josephine Baker Judith Mackrell Guardian Reviews: “Midnight Tango” Clement Crisp Financial Times Laura Thompson Telegraph Clifford Bishop Evening Standard Zoe Anderson Independent Neil Norman Express Reviews: Jin Xing “Shanghai Tango” AlastairMacaulay NY Times Leigh Witchel NY Post

I claim no expertise in the law and regulations in this area. However, as the RB (or ROH) presumably had to sponsor him for the work visa that he has, I would be very surprised if it is not legally required to report to the appropriate Authority when his employment there is terminated. And I assume that action would not necessarily preclude another organisation making an application to employ him. (I would be surprised if ENB were to do so, unless Wayne Eagling wants to upset Vadim Muntagirov ... and Miss Klimentova.) As to his status as co-owner of a business, that may well offer another route to staying in the UK ..... if that is what he would like to do.