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An incredibly emotional night at the ROH last night. Ed and Mara danced as if it were the end of the world. I don't think I have ever seen such a passionate, heartfelt and emotional Act 3 of Mayerling as they did last night. They both were sobbing during their final pdd, and I could hear it up in the amphi. Their dancing was just superb, and thus their bodies and their souls told everybody the pain each of them was privately going through. They were saying goodbye to each other, an intensely private moment necessarily shared by the ROH audience and those watching on the big screens around the country. This performance was a painful reminder of the huge gap that is going to be left at the top of the Royal Ballet tree with the departure of yet another wonderful dance actress. The Watson/Galeazzi partnership has been one of the RB highlights of the last decade for me, and it will be a good while before we see another such....two artists who totally trust, love and understand each other, and who are equally matched technically, emotionally and dramatically. Spare a thought for poor Ed Watson...he is losing both of his regular partners in the space of 48 hours....I wonder who he will partner in the MacMillan rep going forward? I think Melissa Hamilton is a good possibility, but although the potential is there, she has very large pointe shoes to fill with the departures of the four great RB dance actresses of this generation. Time will tell if she can, but I have high hopes. Meanwhile, a huge thank you to Mara Galeazzi for all the amazing performances (her Juliet was one of the best I've ever seen, and I always remember being able to almost hear and feel the scratching of her fingernails on the marble as she clawed her way across her tomb at the end), and for her dedication to the Royal Ballet for all these years. I hope that she is happy in her future life. Her little girl will be so very proud of her one day, as we already are.

I loved last night's performance. I love the way Soares adds so many little touches to make the role his own: I like the way when, in the bedroom pdd, Mary first points the gun at him, he opens his arms out as if to say 'come on baby, bring it on', and then how the bravado changes to abject fear when he thinks she really is going to pull the trigger; I love how he danced his brothel solo with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth; I've never seen that before. I love how, after he's shot Mary, instead of pointing the gun to his temple like the other dancers do, he puts it in his mouth. There are other examples too, but these are the first ones that come to mind. I love his vulnerability, and the deep, deep sadness conveyed from within. Elsewhere on the forum there has been a discussion about the future of the MacMillan rep with the departure of the three ballerinas who have embodied it the past 10-20 years (Rojo, Benjamin and Galeazzi); I'd say that its future is secure with the likes of Melissa Hamilton and Emma Maguire. Melissa as Mary was sensual, sexy, manipulating, comforting, and technically brilliant. I hope that a good partner will be found for her, someone who can grow with her and carry the MacMillan rep into the next generation (rather like Ed and Mara have). Hats off to Melissa, who gave two wonderful performances of this difficult role in 48 hours, and with two very different partners. Marianela Nunez played Larisch with relish and delight once again; she clearly enjoyed playing her as a jealous, resentful and vengeful woman, but one who, deep down, is capable of love and sympathy. I love the little touch she does in the ballroom after Rudolf is made to take Stephanie away; her husband gives her his arm, and instead of putting her arm through his gracefully, she rolls her eyes and sticks it through his quite viciously, with an 'okay, if I must' look on her face. Quite amusing! Nela received many wonderful bouquets of flowers, and I assume it was from all her friends and fans thanking her for the lovely season and the amount of pleasure she has given all of us who watch her dance regularly.

I agree with some of the comments above that, leading the MacMillan field going forward, will be Lauren and Melissa, and Sarah Lamb. Emma McGuire is also showing great promise in this respect, having seen her wonderful interpretation of Princess Stephanie. Interesting that she was paired with Valentino last night; I was watching them dance together a couple of weeks ago and was thinking then that they could be a very good, dramatic partnership in the future.

Thanks John. Ian...I've seen it danced by the Martha Graham Company and if you can ever catch it, it is well worth it as a piece of dance history!

Yes, she definitely said Madrid and 'two or three other Spanish cities' in summer 2014. She also said that things had calmed down now regarding the CE situation.

Oh Julie....I've only just seen your email and would have loved to have met you last night!! Please let me know when you will next be in London...Bolshoi perhaps? ENB Swan Lake? Chrischris I agree....wonderful performances from Rupert and Melissa last night, and Itzy was much better than she was when I saw her a couple of weeks ago.

I was at the press conference this morning wherein Tamara Rojo and Akram Khan elaborated on what is in the above press release. Here are the highlights of what they said: Tamara welcomed everyone and explained that she felt English National Ballet should really do something to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, so Lest We Forget will be a four-part tribute in dance to that anniversary. She has commissioned four British choreographers (although she says she is very keen to invite choreographers from around the world to create works for ENB, she wanted on this occasion to only use British ones) to make works (see PR above). She said that Liam Scarlett will be creating a requiem piece (which will be a co-production with Queensland Ballet), and Akram Khan said he doesn’t know yet what he will be doing, except that he wants to concentrate on the residue, the effect of the war on those left behind, and how they dealt with the tragedy. Lest We Forget will be performed at the Barbican Theatre in London. Tamara chose this because they are doing a whole commemoration in the arts of this anniversary, and she thought it would make sense to include ENB’s offering at the Barbican. The Company is very much looking forward to this as they have never performed at this theatre before. Tamara hopes it will be the beginning of future collaborations there as well. She also informed us that she was delighted that 50,000 people had seen the ‘My First Cinderella’ performances, and that young, up-and-coming dancer Laurretta Summerscales will be participating in the Beijing International Ballet competition later in the year. She was also thrilled that Vadim Muntagirov had recently won the Benois de la Danse. Akram Khan then took the floor and said that in the past, when he was approached to work with classical ballet companies, he always had anxieties as he didn’t necessarily trust the vision of artistic directors, so this will be the first time that he’s agreed to work with a classical company. He said that what changed his mind was Tamara Rojo’s clear vision, and the fact that not only is she a wonderful dancer, but also an artist, so those things are inspirational to him. He is actually terrified of ballet dancers because he wanted to be one; he was inspired by seeing Nureyev, but when he was told by a ballet teacher to stick to Indian classical dancing, his life took a different turn! He is looking forward to seeing how far these classical dancers can go doing something a bit different. He is very honoured to be working with a wonderful company such as ENB. A summary of answers to our questions by Tamara Rojo: - She does not need to supervise the four choreographers for Lest We Forget as they are all different people and artists so she is sure none of them will be doing similar things to any of the others. - She doesn’t look at what the Royal Ballet are doing programme-wise; she doesn’t have time. She has her own vision of what she wants to do with ENB and isn’t worried about what anyone else is doing…she is very keen to develop a personal identity for ENB. - Her intention is to get some of the world’s best choreographers to come and create new works on the company in the future. However, she also respects the classics very much and will be keeping them in the repertoire. They are bringing back Corsaire and Coppelia within the next year, as well as doing Nutcracker at Christmas. - She will continue to invite world-class guest dancers to the company and no, she doesn’t think it takes anything away from the ENB dancers. When she was a young dancer, she learned a lot watching Sylvie Guillem (and others) on the same stage as her; and she had very good feedback from some of the men in the company after Nicolas le Riche guested there recently. Also, there is plenty of work for all the dancers in the company, between the classics and the triple bills. - She said that ENB’s financial reserves are currently good and in the black. They are investing in new productions which does, of course cost a lot of money, but they are doing fine right now. - On the whole, attendance figures have been good this year, although for the recent triple bill at the Coliseum there was only a 50% attendance rate, which they do hope to improve on. - It is important to choose a theatre for artistic reasons, not only numbers of seats. So if a performance will work better at the Coliseum, that’s where it will be. If it will work better at the Barbican, that’s where it will be. Maybe in a couple of years they will have something that would suit Sadler’s Wells, so that’s where it will be. Of course they’d like all theatres to be full, but it’s about more than that. - Yes, she will be dancing in Lest We Forget. Will I be using any ‘star power’? [big smile]. We will see! - Sergei Polunin would like to dance with the company, and she is in discussion with him now, but nothing is firm. - She does intend to keep touring, as that’s what the company is, a touring company. They currently tour for about eight weeks a year around England, and there is definitely room for them as well as for, say, Northern Ballet Theatre. - She will be taking the company to Spain in 2014. There was also some interest from Russia, but they invited them at the same time as they were going to be in Spain, so they have to look at it again. - She is very excited about this company and her vision for it; there are many things going on and these will be exciting times for ENB and its audiences.

That's often the case....it almost seems as if it's more important just to get to the final, which is then often a disappointment. I often find that in World Cup football, too...the semis are almost always better than the final, which is often, IMHO, a damp squib.

Bonelli was dancing in the second cast when I went a couple of weeks ago.

Tamara said simply that they would be 'exchanging dancers'.....

A Chat with Tamara Rojo on the occasion of her being presented with the Santander Bank Foundation Award for Anglo-Spanish Relations On the early evening of June 5th, a few members of the press gathered at the Spanish Embassy in London for an informal chat with prima ballerina and Artistic Director of English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo. Her long black dress, contrasting with her luminous white skin, and her long jet-black hair were in stark contrast to the opulent surroundings of the drawing room at the embassy. She wore no jewellery at all, so that you were just drawn to those dark, expressive eyes when she looked at you directly, which is also how she answered her questions. It is always a pleasure to be in the company of this open, honest and very intelligent woman who has done so much for the arts both in England and in Spain, and as such was very proud and delighted to be receiving this award, only the second recipient to do so. The prize was a sculpture by Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias and 10,000 euros, which Tamara donated to The Healthier Dancer Programme (promoted by Dance Association UK), a research programme into the improvement of dancers’ health and wellbeing. Once we were seated on the plush sofas, the questions began (much of the chat was in Spanish, so what follows is the English bits and a bit of the Spanish that I understood). How was your first year as AD, and what surprised you most? Well, it’s been tough as there was a lot to do. But it has also been some of the biggest joy in my life. I couldn’t believe how wonderful this company is. The biggest surprise is how everyone around the dancers, the people behind the scenes, are so wonderful, and believe so much in ENB. As for the dancers, they are just fantastic. So hard working and full of belief. One of my favourite moments of the year is a photograph, taken by a dancer, of me watching a performance from the wings. I have a huge smile on my face because I was just so happy to see those amazing dancers performing so well. What has been the toughest part of the job so far? Inevitably in these tough economic times, money is always the big problem, and much effort has to be spent in finding financial support for the company. Some Spanish companies in London are interested in supporting ENB and we are in discussion with some of them. Also, it is a very busy job; I start very early in the morning so that means if I’m physically tired, I’m mentally tired too....and I need to try and make the right decisions on a daily basis. But I’m used to it now! Do you intend to keep dancing in addition to doing the AD job? Oh yes, for now. I will stop dancing slowly. If I’d just stopped suddenly it would have been very bad for my body and very bad for me. I have people I trust who will tell me when I should stop dancing certain things, and then stop altogether. You have an amazing new poster for the company. What has been the reaction? Well, as with anything new or different, it’s been varied. But I wanted this to be a very different approach; I wanted to show that dancers aren’t only beautiful princesses and princes, but are also intelligent, dark and complicated. Vivienne Westwood, the designer, was amazing. I can’t believe I could just pick up the phone and ask her to be involved, and she jumped at the chance. I really want this company to have its own identity, and be different, and that’s what we’re working on. You’ve invited some world-class guest artists to ENB this past season….will you continue to do so? Oh yes. As a young dancer, I learned so much watching guests who I was lucky enough to be onstage with. I want to give the ENB dancers the same opportunities to learn from some of the world’s best dancers. You’ve been quoted in the press today as saying that the arts in Spain is ‘corrupt’. Is that true? First of all, I want to categorically deny saying this. It was a very long interview from which my words were, as is often the case, taken out of context. In Spain, the arts are largely based on individual people. They succeed because of the character of the Spanish people, who are hard-working and believe in themselves. In England we have good quality people too, but in addition there is sustained investment; the governments understand that art is an intrinsic part of the human being. We also have bodies like the Arts Council, which is so important. What is the current situation in Spain with regard to dance, and training the next generation of dancers? There are excellent Spanish dancers in many companies around the world. They are very talented and work very hard. I was very lucky to be young and start dancing when I did. Spain has excellent teachers and schools, but the economy is affecting schools and companies, making things difficult at the moment. A few years ago, you shadowed National Ballet of Canada AD Karen Kain for a few months. Did this experience help you in your first year as AD of ENB? Oh yes, very much so. Karen helped me so much, and both she and the whole company were so open and transparent. I was invited to all Board meetings and other meetings, and given all the information they had. I learned not only about the artistic aspect of running a company, but the business and financial side as well. I will always be grateful to them. There is also Dance East, which is such an important forum for artistic directors from around the world. All the directors talk to each other, exchange ideas and advice and even dancers. We are going to be doing an exchange with Queensland Ballet, for example. Dance East is really marvellous. This first season has been very successful for you artistically. You’ve shown some very eclectic programmes. Will you continue to do this, and will you commission new, contemporary works to attract a younger audience to ballet and dance? Yes, definitely. But it’s not only young people I want to attract to the company, it’s older people too. Older people love the arts, but may not know so much about dance, and I want older people who are new to ballet to come along as much as I want younger people to come. There is no age involved, I would just like to add to the audience we already have, new and different people. Do you ever see yourself moving back to Spain? Not in the near future. I have my contract at ENB, and hope to be there for a few years to come. I will take the company to tour there soon, I hope. I would like to spend more time there, but I am too busy here in London!

A very lacklustre performance by Tsonga. I like him very much (my daughter calls him 'the teddy bear') but he just seemed to phone in his match yesterday....and paid for it with an easy win by Ferrer. As for the women's final.....I'm not going to watch it as I'd rather go to London Zoo if I want to hear animal grunting and monkey screeching!

A very emotional farewell to Alina and Johan at the ROH tonight. Both were in fine form....although you could see that Johan hasn't danced for a while. But tonight, it didn't matter. He acted his socks off and touched our hearts, as he always has. Alina was in great shape and they both were totally engaged with each other and with what was happening to them and around them, as they always have been. I was remembering all the performances I've seen of theirs these past ten years, way too many to count, but I was remembering their superlative Giselles, Manons, R&Js (no-one screams a silent scream louder than Alina did), Mayerlings and, best of all, those Onegins which reduced me to tears each time and which I can't imagine being bettered in my lifetime. A huge thank you to them for providing me/us with those memories that will never fade, and all best wishes to them for their future happiness and success. We saw them off with a flower throw, loads of bouquests on stage, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Johan. I'm sure this will be one he never forgets!

Sounds wonderful!

Yes, it will be their last performance in London with the RB. They are still going on the summer tour to Japan.

I hope so....this Wednesday should be as well!! For sad reasons, though....

Ballet_dad, that is a good proposal. I'd email the ROH direct and ask the question. Do please let us know what the response is.

Indeed we are, Arky. I'm lucky enough to be seeing this cast again on the 12th. Can't wait!

Great news....looking forward to it. Thanks Bluebird!

Many thanks for that report, Mayerling79. Most interesting to read your opinions, and to see what the programme was.

Do we know if Frankie will be dancing the role again on either 10, 12 or 13 June? Those are the three I have left! I do hope so.

Ha ha....am glad my typo made a good word! I do know how to spell vicious....but my mind must already have been on 'visceral' with my fingers trailing on behind!!

I'd also like to mention yesterday's matinee performance with Soares/Hamilton/Nunez/Choe. A devastatingly good performance from Thiago Soares....very different from Ed Watson's, but just as effective. He has such an expressive face, one that can reduce me to tears when it conveys the pain in Rudolf's heart. Not only is he a brilliant actor, but his dancing is getting better and better, and the two things combined make for a truly classic performance. Melissa Hamilton is a sensual but sensitive Mary Vetsera....at first using her feminine guile and the promise of Rudolf's kind of sex play to snare her prince; but then, when things get emotionally excoriating, she comforts him and is with him, even to their violent deaths. A wonderful dance actress in the making. Marianela Nunez, who at the moment just can't go wrong in anything she does, is, as Larisch, much more of a vengeful schemer than the portrayal by, say, Sarah Lamb. But the deep love she has for Rudolf shines when most needed; you wonder why they couldn't be together! The pdd between her and Soares in Act 1 was so very tender, yet passionate. They have danced together much more this season, and long may the trend continue. A lovely debut from Yuhui Choe as Princess Stephanie. The pdd between her and Soares wasn't as vicious and visceral as that between Watson and McGuire, but just as terrifying, with Soares egging her on and challenging her to fight him, and she responding, uncomprehendingly. When she was dancing her solo before Rudolf's entrance, I kept getting visions of Juliet....come on RB, please cast her in this!! With Paul Kay's touching Bratfisch, the matinee performance was so very moving and deeply emotional. I had to go home and drink a glass of wine to recover! I'm really looking forward to their next performance on the 12th.

Sadly, it has been confirmed that Lauren Cuthbertson won't be able to debut as Mary Vetsera this run of Mayerling, so is being replaced by Melissa Hamilton, who will dance it with Thiago Soares in both performances he had been due to dance with Lauren (matinee June 1st, and June 12th). I feel so bad for Lauren as last time she was scheduled to debut as Mary she was ill. It must be devastating for her to miss this opportunity too. Maybe third time lucky in the next run. Well done to Melissa for stepping up to the plate and dancing it with a different partner. Best of luck to her, and best wishes to Lauren for a full and speedy recovery.

Timmie, I agree with you. I was really disappointed with Raven Girl. No disrespect to all the wonderful dancers involved; they did their best and Sarah Lamb in particular really shone. The final pdd with Eric Underwood was beautfifully danced, and if there had been more of the same I might have liked it more. As it was, I thought the narrative aspect of the story didn't work; I had purposely avoided reading anything about this ballet in advance, but panicked at the last minute and got one of the other 'regulars' to give me a quick synopsis of the plot. I'm very glad she did, because without I'd have been totally lost (and probably asleep). There was nothing to move it along; the first ten minutes was Ed Watson (sadly underused) sorting out envelopes and sitting at a table in the gloom. The whole thing was way too dark; those of us up in the amphi also have to pay for our tickets, and we deserve to see what is going on down below! I don't know if the people sitting closer had a better view, but most of the time everything I could see was in gloomy, dark lighting. We've discussed this on this forum before: why do modern choreographers think that everything has to be dark? Do they think their work is so poor that none of us might like to see it? That can't be the reason, and I do wish that some of them would explain. I hate it when that gauze is kept down (my only quibble with Bayadere). We have to have projections these days, therefore we have to suffer with a dark screen that cuts the audience off from the dancers, and adds to the general gloom. The costumes were interesting and I liked the sets, but if there isn't enough dance content, no character development and no storytelling success, a piece drags along....and drag this did. A few people sitting behind me left, and I noticed others fidgeting and looking at their watches. I don't have a watch, otherwise I'd have been doing the same. There were some good ideas here, but I think it needs to be looked at again, and perhaps made shorter and more punchy. As it is, I don't want to sit through it again. Which puts me in a difficult situation, because Symphony in C, as Timmie says, was the opposite altogether: brightly lit, bright costumes, fabulous music and another fabulous cast, this time used to the best of their abilities. Always a joy, Symphony showcased the lovely Nela, Zen, Yuhui and Laura, plus other dancers who were looking good and having fun. For me, it's a pity it's the second piece of the evening as I'd love to see the other two for which I have tickets, but artistically it's a good thing as it makes everyone feel happy, so an excellent way to end the evening.