Sim

I echo Alison's post, Olivia. Thanks for posting up your memories of our wonderful guy. xx Thanks to all of you who posted above. Your words are very comforting.

Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

It was me, not Jan!

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Kevin Richmond, after a brave and typically good-humoured battle with cancer. For those of us lucky enough to have seen him dance with London Festival Ballet/English National Ballet (of which he was a member for 20 years), he will be remembered in particular as a truly wonderful dance actor, who created many roles of varying types. His most famous was probably as one of the jailers in Christopher Bruce's Swansong, which also starred Matz Skoog and Koen Onzia. This formed a close bond, and it delighted Kevin that Matz and Koen visited him together in Basel last year. They had a marvellous time. I will say here that for the past 23 years, Kevin has been a close friend of mine. I missed him when he moved to Switzerland 14 years ago, but it was something he needed to do. He became an inspirational teacher and repetiteur, and was invited to ballet companies and schools around Europe to share his expertise and, no doubt, his wit and wisdom. He really enjoyed it, and always had funny stories to tell whenever he came to stay with us in London. He also had stories to tell about working with Nureyev, and travelling around the south of England with him in the car, expleting all over the place when they got lost on the way to a party. There were so many stories. Kevin , from humble beginnings, started out as a teenage actor in Nottingham, acting in films and theatre. For one role, he had to learn some dancing so was sent to a local ballet school. Everyone immediately realised he had a natural talent for ballet, and this set him on his future path. Kevin combined acting and dancing to wonderful effect; I have never seen a better Dr Coppelius, and I doubt I ever will. He made me laugh and he made me cry, and that is exactly as it should be. In his later years with the company he became their outstanding character dancer, and I will always remember his Friar Laurence to Tamara Rojo's Juliet, when she was just starting to make her name at ENB. He proudly displayed a framed photo on his wall of the two of them in these roles, which she had signed saying 'thank you for everything Kevin, with lots of love Tamara.' He was a very touching Scrooge in Christopher Hampson's production of A Christmas Carol at the Festival Hall, and a hilarious Grandpa in Hampson's Nutcracker for ENB. Hampson created both roles on Kevin. It is thanks to Kevin that I am here, on this forum. One evening, in 2003, over a glass (ok, several glasses) of wine I was (as is my wont) ranting off to him about a dreadful thing I had seen at The Place. He was in stitches, and asked if I had ever heard of ballet.co.uk. I said no, and he insisted I check it out and start posting my thoughts up there. I did check it out, but was too shy and embarrassed to post anything for a few months. He kept nagging me about it, always asking if I had posted anything yet. With each negative reply, he said 'just DO it. Don't worry what other people think. I know from performing, some people will like it, some won't. So what? Just get your thoughts out there.' So eventually I did....and 16 years later, here I am. I have interviewed many great dancers (it was he who suggested I interview David Wall, and introduced me to him at the stage door one evening where they were both hanging out together having a fag), reviewed many performances and got on the Olivier Awards Dance Panel three times, all thanks to his inspiration. I will of course remember him as a wonderful artist and a great teacher (he even allowed me into his beginner's ballet class at the London Studio Centre, but as I always yelled at him after class, his idea of beginner and mine were totally different!), but most of all I will remember him as a fun, funny, compassionate human being who always had time for a friend. I will remember the endless laughing, the free-flowing red wine, the backstage tours, the dinner parties, the talking late into the night when he stayed with us, and all the other good times. I will remember how wonderful he was to my daughter when she was a little girl and little budding ballerina; he would coach her, he would give her some professional lifts just to show her what it was like, he would come to her little dance shows. She loved him as much as he loved her. Latterly, he was so proud of her blog and of the young woman she has become, and loved talking to her about the ballet performances she had seen. A few years ago he had a brain haemorrhage and was lucky to survive it. After months of rehabilitation and hard work, he was back. It was therefore doubly cruel when he received his cancer diagnosis. Why, after all that, was he now being struck down by this, way too soon? I ask myself this often, and in anger, but there is no answer. My answer from the heart is to remember him as the great artist he was, and for all the pleasure he gave so many people, both strangers and friends. But most of all I will remember him as someone who lit up my life, and I will be forever grateful that we crossed paths and and then stayed on the same one. There are some people that you are always glad came into your life, and Kevin was one of them. The last time I saw him was last month, when I flew over to Basel to spend the day with him in the hospice. I went with another close friend of his. His dad and brother were there, Matz was there, some other friends were there. We ate, we drank, we walked, we talked, we ate some more, we laughed. We hugged, long and hard, because we both knew it would be the last one. RIP dear friend, go in peace, and thanks always for being a part of me, and for allowing me to be a part of you. Kevin Richmond 21/2/58 - 13/03/19

Congratulations Alice! Let us know what you think.

I agree. Their very hard-working performers are subjected to criticism and analysis every time they walk out onto that stage. What makes the management think they are exempt from this? If you run a public entity, be it in the arts or anywhere else, you are accountable to those who attend what you have to offer. They do pay for their tickets after all; don't they deserve a voice anymore? And if they do get heard, do they get listened to?

Agree. Maybe the marketing people should re-think their plans to push us out; our bucks do make a bit of a bang, and when many of us desist from attending (like Lindsay and many others, I am skipping Frankenstein altogether this time because I don't think any amount of changes would entice me to sit through it again) the financial implications can be felt. It may only be a few hundred pounds, but when the House is half empty, those pounds make a difference.

Not at all ageist! It’s simply a fact of life: there’s always someone older than you, and someone younger than you. Yes there are old people on this forum, and if you young ones are learning from them and appreciate the knowledge, that’s a wonderful thing!

This forum is for praise, criticism and balanced discussion. I was one of the few people who dared to admit I liked Unknown Soldier, although I can certainly see why many didn’t. I didn’t expect to be ripped to pieces for voicing a different opinion, and I wasn’t. Many people here loved Yasmine Naghdi’s performance in 2P, some disliked her a lot. Again, there was no nastiness, just differences of opinion. So you should post without worrying, Happy Turk, but that is of course up to you.

Some people think that if a certain dancer garners too much praise or discussion this forum is in danger of becoming a fan site for that dancer. I think that’s what it means, at any rate.

Good....now you can start putting that barre to good use!

To be fair, I don't think the above discussion is making the forum seem like a fan site! And injuries do engender lots of discussion a) because people are interested and worried if a dancer is injured; b) because there are many possible scenarios as to what can happen when a dancer is injured regarding replacements, possible domino effect, etc. I don't personally think there is anything wrong with speculating about who will dance with whom, who would go well together, and why. I do think there is something wrong with people discussing injuries if details of same are not in the public domain, and as far as I can tell most people on here don't engage in such discussion.

That disappointment affected her for the rest of her career, not surprisingly.

Well, she is a Dame to all of us, official or not. And she is certainly a lady.

Happy Birthday to one of my favourite dancers. Sadly I only saw her dance a couple of times, towards the end of her career, one of those times being Act 3 of Anastasia. I can still remember it all, how she sent shivers down my spine and how it was the first time I realised how acting could be combined with dancing to make something incredible. She was a real trailblazer for all who follow in her wake. Her influence is still strongly felt today and long may that continue. Very best wishes to Lynn.

Yes.....that's why I liked Penelope's post!

No I'm not. I'm simply saying that it is easy to be aware of something; it's less easy to do something about it. As far as I'm aware (and I used to belong to the BA), you have to wait for the official report of proceedings to know what happened in a meeting.

Many thanks Jenny. Being aware is one thing......doing something about it is quite another!!

Not wishing to be pedantic, but 'wherefore' in Shakespearean English means 'why' and not 'where' . 'Wherefore art thou Romeo?' is Juliet asking and lamenting 'why do you have to be a Montague?'

Ah well that's something at least.

Very disappointing. I was sooooo looking forward to seeing Bracewell as Romeo. I think he and Beatriz would have made a lovely pairing in this ballet. 😥

Thanks for this lovely review, Mandy.

Nina did you want to add a comment to the above quote, or should I delete it?

Thanks for the lovely review, Anna.

A lovely idea, but they are hardly likely to thank the very group of people they are trying to push out of the way.