chrischris

Of course in an ideal world of unlimited money nationalities shouldn't be important, but in an era of limited money and cuts to public services, when the threat of further cuts hangs over every company, who would prioritise giving money to a company that doesn't employ that many people from the country that provides the subsidy (I'm referring to dancers, not the behind the scenes staff)? If the BBC began employing non-British performers in all their new programmes, and started picking overseas stars for all its new dramas, sitcoms etc, it would very quickly become a political issue and the long term viability of a subsidy by british taxpayers would be discussed. Don't see why subsidised ballet companies should be different. And to be honest, i'm not sure if schemes trying to bring new people in are working. Still comparatively few people go to the ballet (do people that see them in the cinema actually go to the opera house to see the live ballet, or do they just wait for the next cinema showing?), and whether or not it is great for the image of the country is debatable; i'm not sure if it registers internationally at all, outside of the very small ballet world.

I don't know all the details. It's just there's been so much debate about arts funding recently and specifically whether funding on ballet can be justified, given less than 8% of the population visit the ballet, and I think that, if ENB and RB and the other ballet companies can continue to justify British taxpayers' money subsiding them at a time when more important, essential services are being cut, they simply have to employ British dancers. If they don't want to be a national company, and want to market themselves as an an international company employing international dancers, they should lose their subsidy and try and find their way on the free market. I know it is an issue people shy away from discussing, but at a time of economic stagnation, how can it be sustainable that public money is subsidising an art form that doesn't have many British nationals among its top ranks? I don't see how that can be viable in the long term. I'm thinking mostly about the RB, as that is my nearest company. I have a bit of knowledge of the ENB, but not the other companies.

Thanks GrandTierLeft, I didn't know about that. Interesting. I agree with the poster 'restor' in the thread you linked to. If the ENB and the RB are to have any future as publicly subsidised companies they need to spend less time worrying about visas for foreign dancers and more time worrying about the lack of British dancers in their top ranks, but that's an argument that has been covered elsewhere.

What happened with the visas?

Interesting article about the future of arts journalism http://www.thestage.co.uk/columns/shenton/2013/04/the-future-of-criticism-is-already-here/

The only two I know of are the two below, and that's only because their work is posted on here. No idea what they would cost, but I think there are contact details. http://dancetabs.com/author/dave-morgan/ http://alicepennefatherdancephotography.wordpress.com/

If the RB gets any more principals, both male and female, it does seriously limit the amount of dancing they can all do, though. There are some principals you hardly ever see on stage.

I'm quite happy with the castings. While I can understand serious ballet fans might be fed up with seeing the same people, and admittedly it would be nice to see some new Juliets, most people don't get to go to the ballet that often, and when they do, it's nice to see the well known principals performing the classic roles. I'm one of those people, and the RB has to cater to us too.

Cheers jm365. To be honest i'm not expecting to see it all and have really comfortable seats with loads of leg room (people that expect first class services for third class prices really get on my nerves), I was just curious how restricted the view would be. I'll find out soon enough.

We'll see. I've seen mayerling on dvd and I don't understand half of it anyway :-)

It must also be really frustrating for the healthy partner who has to miss out on performances. Obviously a lot easier then having an injury, and something you probabloy get used to pretty quickly, but I think it would drive me mad.

I'm not really too bothered about what has happened between them. To me, it just shows a lack of respect for the crew who have spent a lot of time preparing for this, the other dancers and the fans who have spent money on tickets. There are lots of times when I feel like blowing off work but I don't, as I have respect for my colleagues and understand that the world does not revolve around me. Obviously, if we find out he has an injury then I take this back, but I just find everything a bit immature and unprofessional, and I don't think you should excuse behaviour considered unacceptable in most people just because the person involved happens to be able to jump quite high.

Thanks for the answers everyone. The tickets would be for Mayerling, and i'm not sure what the stage direction is like. I can get them for about £10, so it's not like i've wasted loads of money if I can't see much, and I can always just listen to the music.

Does anyone know what the view from the ampitheatre slips is like (left view, A30-35). I've never sat in the ampitheatre before, and i've got the opportunity to get some tickets here for upcoming performances. They are officially restricted view. The photo on the ROH website shows a pretty good view of the stage, but I know from other areas of the house that the photos sometimes don't give that an accurate picture. The tickets are so cheap, i'm not expecting much, but just wondered. Cheers

I don't want to judge until I know the details, but that was my first reaction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9971399/Sergei-Polunin-pulls-out-of-Peter-Schaufusss-Midnight-Express.html

I hope the RB take this opportunity to develop and promote their existing dancers, and don't just try and pick dancers from other companies to replace Leanne and Mara.

Ah that's a shame. Good luck to her.

Thanks a lot Janet

Thanks. It was more that I was curious about how an Ashton piece differs from a Macmillan piece etc. Is the choreography very obviously different etc.

I'm sorry if these are really stupid questions, or they have been asked before. I'm relatively new to ballet, and enjoy it just for the spectacle. I don't understand many of the technical aspects of ballet, I don't know the name of all the moves the dancers do, and I don't know whether the way a particular dancer is doing something is the correct way or not. I just go to the ballet, and some ballets I love and am moved by, and others i'm not moved by at all. Similarly, some dancers I seem to like and others not so much. I only ever go to the royal ballet as it's the nearest, and i've heard people refer to some dancers being good at a particular style of repertore and others not. Someone referred to Mara Galeazzi as being a good Macmillan dancer. What does that mean? How is a good Macmillan dancer different from a good Ashton dancer? Is it just that Macmillan's roles tend to be very dramatic, more dramatic than Ashton's ballets? I've also heard people being described as a good Belanchine interpreter, but I don't have a clue what the Belanchine style is. To be honest, I don't know who the choreographers of most of the ballets i've seen have been. I can tell when something is clearly modern, but I don't know the differences between styles of the same era. I would be grateful if someone could explain.

I agree with you. However, the problem is that people, particularly younger people, are now so used to getting things for free, it's very difficult to suddenly change things. I know it's completely unreasonable, and 5 years ago I probably would have felt differently, but I am now so used to reading newspapers for free that I just feel annoyed when I am asked to pay. A completely ridiculous attitude I know, but I think that's the case for many people. I don't know much about BBC/ Iplayer, but I know lots of people now just download films for free from the internet, and rarely go to the cinema, or rent them. One of the reasons blockbusters has gone under.

With the news that the Telegraph (and the Sun, which I don't read) will soon be going behind a partial paywall, I will need to rely on social media and blogs more than ever, as unless my work get a subscription, I won't be paying to access them, and I rarely buy, or even see, print editions of newspapers anymore.

Finally got round to seeing this on Monday night. I enjoyed it. Stix-Brunell was a good Alice, Pennefather was impressive and I enjoyed the whole cast of characters. I don't really think it's one for me though. A little bit too much like a pantomine

Good for him. Thought they would have given such a huge role to one of the other principal's, but great opportunity for him, and nice to see lower ranked dancers given such a chance.