tim b

Regret I am not having any success getting into messages on the forum - that is why I suggested using ordinary my "ballet" email for contact / communication.   Otherwise I do not know what your message says - sorry!  

Would like your ticket D46  -  if you want to email me to arrange it, please send to snowy6cat@yahoo.com    

Think I am okay now - just had a flash of inspiration  - would do a smiley face if I knew how  Ta

Can someone kindly remind me how to send a private message - senile decay has set in I'm afraid 

TX everso - everyone's efforts very much appreciated!

Does anyone have details (or know where I can find) of la Scala's coming tour to Japan?  Their website seems to die at the end of this month!!

Flowers - my GUESS is they were from Daria

wonderful news & she's got a great partner for a debut performance - any other news on casting on the grapevine?  I'm hoping for Shiori and Ksenia debuts as well - love them both  

Did anyone catch the Gala in Nuremberg last evening - wondering who was dancing & what? (being naturally nosey) - I heard only that Esteban Berlanga & Tamara Rojo danced in it

Just looked at the website for the Marlowe Canterbury and it says both nights (tomorrow & Wed) SOLD OUT

- good for them but I'll have to look elsewhere!!!

PS I notice he is also listed for the Gala there on Sunday March 10th

Thanks v much for this link - gives the first confirmation from the Mariinsky that Vadim will dance Solor there on 7th March - next question with whom?? 

It was the famous solo variation from Nijinska's Train Bleu (Anton Dolin via Stephen Beagley) that the matchless Vadim Muntagirov stole the show with in the Ballets Russes programmes of ENB last spring - magnificent cartwheels, look Mum - no hands!!!

Just to add twopennorth - Tallinn is well worth a visit - nice ballet company run by long time ENB star Thomas Edur. In Karlsruhe Birgit Keil - another shining star formerly in Stuttgart - directs a medium sized company. I have always booked my Stuttgart tickets by telephone - no problem speaking English and extremely helpful booking staff

PS Alina Cojocaru dances quite a lot with Hamburg Ballett - great if you want to see "home" stars guesting abroad.

By coincidence was dipping into my biog of Markova yesterday and found this letter from Lilian Baylis dated May 1934 discussing pay for the next season - she says "I hope you will feel you can do so (ie return to the Vic Wells) for the weekly salary of £12.0.0 with an additional fiver to cover extra performances in the week." Sounds all very easy going - as a comparison my parent's newly built semi in Bristol cost £455 only 2 years later and they required a 25 year mortgage to be able to pay for it.

Wondering Don Q Fan why you felt the Don Q was dumbed down? Certainly you did not get the "etoile studded" cast which maybe was being saved for the N Yrs Eve "gala" next night but I have been told by others who visited earlier in the month that it was the usual production - shall I look out for your thoughts on the Don Q in Paris thread where we discussed before?

meunier - wow - I would have loved to have seen that

I have been told Makarova would smoke a cigarette in rehearsal while standing on point on one leg with the other positioned somewhere alongside her right ear!!

Yes I too am with Clement Crisp when he calls for "more light; more light" in pretty much everything and what does one want to watch generally in dance? - legs & feet - that's why Rudolf usually wore white tights even for the Black Act of Swan Lake

There is a (maybe apocryphal) story that when he needed a black pair during the filming of Don Q in Australia he did not possess any and had to borrow a pair from his ballerina Lucette Aldous

Thanks absolutely agree with you

I had a look at the website for 24 seven arts which seems to be organised by Zdenek & Ksenia - who by the way was back on stage "Butterflying" on Friday after whizzing off to Athens to step in there as Aurora at short notice - a performance I would have loved to see as she is quite mesmerising and fresh in the way she dances the role - any way back to the plot - how did you manage to price the photos as try as I could I found no info about pricing anywhere - can you help, possibly aileen?

I believe there is a perennial argument about the good taste of Raymonda's claps - loud like a pistol shot hopefully in time with the music or an almost soundless brushing across of the hands? My recollection is that it may even have been debated earlier in this forum I do recall watching Patricia Ruanne coach this solo in a large class at the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars and her explanation for many things in the variation was fascinating eg., the facts that historically Raymonda was over 70 at her wedding and quite possibly a bit squiffy from "the drink" was the basis of the way many of the steps & port de bras might be executed Others may know more - it would be interesting to hear

Yes aileen and she with him too - her smile lights the stage when he comes on to dance with her - a friend told me it was Daria's own idea to have the balloon festoon presented to him & he knew nothing b4hand

re the cast changes it appeared to us in the stalls that James Forbat danced the Nutcracker for the first act as listed but after an unusually long interval Max Westwell took over unannounced - as I always say I may be wrong but certainly Max took the curtain calls as Nutcracker unmasked at the end

Back to the presentations we had discussion in the forum sometime ago about Sam Lauron who was THE flower man at Covent Garden for many years - some will be interested to read Michael Foreman's letter to the Guardian on the subject entitled "Saying it with flowers, trees and swans" in 23 Dec edition of the paper - sorry I'm not up to giving links but the Guardian's search function brings it up quite efficiently

As with recent Schaufuss extravaganzas (my Latin plurals have momentarily - it is 4am - deserted me - mea culpa) I guess it is the casting which will suck most of us in?

Well it's a long story and you're too young to have a bus pass - didn't buy our tix till 1230 on the day - it's a risk but there's always Friday & capybara is right IMO - you have to see them

Ta much for the info Alison