DavidW

How peculiar - the expanded casting was up a few days ago! Here's what was up for the opening gala night: Kitri - Marianela Nunez Basilio - Carlos Acosta Don Quixote - Christopher Saunders Sancho Panza - Philip Mosley Espada - Ryoichi Hirano Mercedes - Laura Morera Gamache - Bennet Gartside Lorenzo - Gary Avis Other casting I recall from the performance: Kitri's Friends - Yuhui Choe, Beatriz Stix-Brunell Queen of the Dryads - Melissa Hamilton Amour/Cupid - Elizabeth Harrod Lead Gypsy couple/Spanish couple - Itziar Medizabel, Thomas Whitehead

There's a nicely compact form of the casting on the Ballet Association site: Particularly pleased at all the debuts - really want to see Takada/Trzensimiech bust such a shame they only get one performance! Perhaps they might also get a schools matinee? And I'm sure many of the BalletCo forum-ers will be as excited as I am to finally see Yuhui Choe's Aurora - I'm sure she'll be a delight!

I don't know if I was one of the original people in the thread, but I've dipped in over the last year and a bit so thought I'd share how my experiences have changed. I guess the biggest difference in my dancing life since last April is that I joined a local Russian Youth Ballet Company (they stretched the definition of 'youth' to include me...!). This has completely transformed and pushed my dancing. Since then I've done things I could never have imagined! In class I've had specific male technique training (including grand pirouettes and double tours en l'air!) and I've also learned loads of repertoire with them (including awesome male variations like Don Q and Corsaire). I got to perform in their full length production of Swan Lake as Rothbart (which was the most amazing experience) and more recently performed the Corsaire Pas de Deux Adage at a local charity gala with another member of the YBC (the hardest, but most rewarding ballet piece I've done - and the only video of me performing that I actually enjoyed watching!). It really is all down to having two amazing teachers - I feel incredibly lucky to have such passionate teachers who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with me (along with the rest of the YBC and ballet school). Whilst I've had to cut down my classes per week, I still know that the time I spend with them is hugely worthwhile and I will keep dancing with them in some way for as long as possible (alas, probably only until the coming summer when I [hopefully!!] graduate).

Don't worry moomin - everyone in my class is respectably dressed! Most of the girls wear a t-shirt or vest top with leggings or shorts of a decent length, and the guys tend to wear vests and shorts. It's definitely worth trying a class out - I didn't realise how intense it would be!

Hi all! Sorry for a delayed response - I'm just catching up with the thread... I just wanted to add something to the stretching etc conversation. Recently I started taking Hot (Bikram) Yoga classes once a week. This involves doing pretty intense yoga in a purposefully heated room (I think the advert says it's around 45C?). Class always start with a slow warm up and builds to trickier poses but I've found that it's really helped my flexibility (as well as being a great workout!). This week one of the sequences culminated in the splits (!) and whilst I'm still nowhere near being flat on the floor, I'm much closer than I've ever been (less than a hand span). Outside of the yoga classes I've found in my ballet classes I'm more flexible - last week I managed to shoulder my right leg for the first time and could stretch my left more than usual once shouldered (still can't quite believe I can shoulder either leg considering when I stared ballet 3 years ago I couldn't touch my toes!). In terms of classes I've actually just dropped a couple of classes (I'm entering my, hopefully, final year of my PhD and can't afford the time) and some weeks I now only have one 90 minute class (fortnightly I still have a 4 hr youth ballet company session though, which I will keep doing as long as I can!). Slightly surprisingly I haven't seen a huge drop in my technique, and I'm finding the gym work and hot yoga I am substituting in for the classes is helpful. They're no replacement for a good ballet class, but I'm coping with the lack of ballet much better than I thought. D

That's an amazing cast! Love the mix of established principals, fantastic First Soloists and some young up and coming stars (very pleased for Trzensimiech, Cowley, Hamilton, Stix-Brunell). Very intrigued to see what the piece will be like now...!

I believe last night was Gary Avis teaching Ryo Hirano and Olivia Cowley a section from Chroma (I wasn't there but that's what twitter said!). In a related note, I was pleased to see a clip from the Insights on Ballet Evolved has gone up on the ROH youtube channel: Johan Kobborg teaching Marcelino Sambe the opening section from the Flower Festival of Genzano pas de deux: (been trying to embed the video - no idea how to do it... And now it seems to be working!)

It certainly seemed to be well received on Twitter - with most comments praising the 'danciness' and the music for the new syllabus. There was also some comment about "listening to the music rather than counting"? Any thoughts on the Adv Foundation male exercises spannerandpony? It's something I've been tempted to perhaps try in the future so would be interested to hear what it's like. Also, does anyone know when the Advanced 1 and 2 male syllabi will be refreshed? (Or if they will be refreshed at all?)

I saw the Sunday matinee and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I agree with Ian that Penelope Armstead-Williams was superb as Anita - when she broke down during "A Boy Like That" the grief was truly palpable. I thought there was some great dancing, particularly in the opening sequence and gym scene - Robbins' choreo just bursts with energy at all the right places. A couple of dancers stood out for me as really letting the choreography flow and abandoning themselves into it - the guy playing Snowboy and Rosalia (the antagonist in America) in particular (I think they danced together in Somewhere too). All in all I thoroughly enjoyed myself - and was reminded me that Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins are truly geniuses and masters of their crafts!

I believe that the Royal Ballet sometimes have different prices for matinees than evenings, but otherwise all casts are the same (for Winter booking, Jewels and Giselle have different pricing for Mat/Eve whereas the Gloria triple has a fixed price for all performances). Obviously the gala evening is different, with the tickets being priced identical to a normal performance but with an added 'donation' on top. Hence my SCS ticket is £16 rather than around £10 (although I still consider this 'cheap' for a gala performance - there's plenty of tickets still in a reasonable price range!). I just noticed on the ROH website there is now a 'ticket search' box on the front page where you can select a price range and date range and see what tickets are available that fit your constraints - quite a nice addition to the website.

There's also a new YouTube video up of Acosta talking about the production. Glimpses of corps choreography (I like what I see!) and the set designs (which look gorgeous): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xKGRD2GuJ8

I haven't seen this mentioned on the forums yet. There seem's to be a collaboration going on between composer Ana Silvera and Royal Ballet dancer Ludovic Ondiviela (I have a feeling she provided the music for his latest DraftWorks piece?). It's currently in it's 'R&D' phase and Ondiviela has been choreographing on Mara Galeazzi, Lauren Cuthbertson and Tom Whitehead for the last few days - some cool pictures have been cropping up on Twitter and Instagram. I'm not sure what the end goal is, but could be an interesting project to keep an eye on! Silvera wrote about it on her blog a month ago here: http://anasilvera.livejournal.com/23669.html

Just looking at ticket availability and the Coliseum website is showing "Secret Seat" on the main seating plan for performances. Any idea what this means?

I definitely agree - have only seen him dance once but was very very impressed. Any news on his injury?

Very interesting news! I have to admit though, my first reaction was to wonder who will be partnering her at ENB: Tamara seems to be keeping the Vadim/Daria partnership and Johan will not be dancing with ENB in the near future (in an article Tamara said he "is a very busy man"). There is a lot of male talent in the ranks in ENB but are any of them ready to match Cojocaru? It could be a great opportunity for a younger dancer to get his 'break'... I'm really looking forward to seeing Cojocaru at ENB, especially if she'll be involved in the new pieces by Scarlett, Khan and Maliphant - I think the only thing Tamara needs to do now is find a different venue to the Coliseum... And I see no reason why RB and ENB can't both succeed in London. Both ABT and NYCB do very well both being mainly based in NYC (with ABT touring like ENB), lets hope ENB and RB manage to distinguish themselves from each other and cohabitate in a similar way!

Just a small note - I believe the RAD tweeted that Murray took some ballet classes as a child. Don't know if true or not, but a nice connection for the forum if so!

Very interesting! Jewels - not sure how the split works but defintely excited to see both Nunez/Soares and Cuthbertson/Pennefather in Diamonds! I'm also intrigued to contrast the roles shared Yanowksy/Hamilton (is that the 'long legged sally' role with the four men?) and Lamb/Osipova/Choe - dancers I'd never have put in the same role! Giselle is great casting but a shame there's no sub-Principal casting. I'll certainly be seeing at least two casts, probably 3 or more! Great opportunities for Hayward/Hay (though only 1 show!) and Choe/Zuchetti in Rhapsody and Hamilton in Gloria too, alongside some stellar Principal casting. Lots to be excited about in the Spring!

Hey everyone - nice to know I'm not alone! This is the Sleeping Beauty Pd5 we we working on - here's the gold variation and the whole thing is available in its 5 parts on this user's youtube channel: (In actual fact I used this slightly adapted version: ) And here's the Pas de Trois I do think that in some sense I 'prefer' the Pd3 over the Pd5 both musically and choreographically and that probably played a part in picking them up. Also definitely think adrenaline helped - I guess my brain thrives off being under pressure (certainly true for my academic work). Thanks for all the thoughts everyone - some really interesting points have been raised (and I'll definitely look for that Chimp book meadowblythe!) David

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd share some thoughts that came to me following a performance this weekend, and see if anyone has the same experience. In the run up to a mini-gala by a group I dance with, I was preparing three pieces: a variation for Rothbart in Swan Lake, the Precious Stones Pas de Cinq from Sleeping Beauty and the Wheat PdD from Coppelia. Unfortunately, in the final rehearsal before the performance one of the other dancers ruptured his achilles (thankfully the surgery the following day was successful and he is on the mend - though it will take many months of physio) and I got informed that instead of doing Rothbart's variation I would be replacing him for the Pas de Trois from Swan Lake... eek! Thankfully I knew the two other dancers in the Pd3 well and we set about learning the choreo. It was all a bit crazy and we had about 45 minutes to learn the adagio before having a run through of it on stage. We then had a 2 hour rehearsal the day before the performance to work on the variations and coda and only about 20 minutes before the performance to practice bits and pieces (one of the dancers couldn't make the dress rehearsal). Obviously it was all a bit crazy and I spent most of those days studying YouTube videos (we were basing it off the ABT version with Cornejo, Reyes and Cornejo). However by some stroke of magic we got through the whole thing (adagio, 3xvariations and coda) without any mistakes - wish that could have been said for the other two pieces... And that's the thing - I found the Pas de Trois choreography *so* much easier to learn than the others, in particular the Precious Stones. I honestly think I was more confident about getting the Pas de Trois right than the opening/closing sections of Precious Stones (that I'd been working on for ages)! Anyone else find some choreography "goes in" much easier than others?! I guess it's even stranger that both pieces are derived from Petipa... I wonder if it could be to do with the fact I was more familiar with the music from the Pas de Trois, or the fact that I think the choreography for it has a bit more musicality. Whatever it was, it was a bit strange!

If I understand correctly, at Paris Opera Ballet they have an annual competition/exam (called the concours I think?) where everyone at a lower rank than principal can compete by performing two variations. Promotions are then decided from these performances. I assume the director may have their pre-favourites but all decisions are meant to be from those performances. The principals (etoiles) are chosen and promoted outside of the concours, and can happen at any moment (generally after a big performance).

I noticed it hasn't been mentioned here: the Nutcracker dates involving Cojocaru and Kobborg (Dec 24 mat, Dec 31 eve) have been recast with other pairs from the run - Lamb/Pennefather and Osipova/Bonelli. Still no news for Alina's dates in Don Q and R&J. Perhaps we might get Osipova in Don Q after all? Would be exciting to see her with McRae...

I went to the 3D Swan Lake screening tonight in Bath, streamed live from the Mariinsky Theatre. To get it out of the way first, I thought the 3D was okay. It wasn't gimmicky like I'd feared (e.g. not very many sweeping shots) but I also kind of didn't notice it.. For the most part I think I would have enjoyed it just as much in 2D (more so if 2D would mean higher definition!). There was a couple of nice moments though - Odette walking down an aisle of swans before the Act I Sc. II Adage was effective in 3D. Kondaurova danced Odette/Odile. I was very impressed with her Act I Sc II Odette, adding lots of character to her steps. Her Odile was blisteringly fast but she verged almost on the frantic side. The opening of her variation was impressive in terms of number of turns (double/triple pirouette fouetteing into a double attitude turn each time) but I didn't feel like she had complete control. I'm not sure if this might have been due to fast conducting by Gergiev though. Askerov (Siegfried) gave a rather nice Act II Variation and seemed a very supportive and secure partner throughout. I liked how his Act I Sc I Siegfried was quite happily flirting with all the girls - it made his change post-Odette make his love that bit more believable. A highlight was definitely the Act I Sc I Pas de Trois featuring Shirinkina, Batoeva and Xander Parish. All three shone with their technique, lines and charm. Xander Parish also helped introduce the performance before Act I and in the intervals and came across rather well - including asking the (international model) for private Russian lessons! Certainly everyone in the cinema seemed to be talking about "that British lad" as I was leaving. As always with the Mariinsky, the Corps were phenomenal. Act I Sc II was perfectly in sync throughout. I particularly enjoyed Act II's character dances and thought Rothbart died a very good death at the end (though I'm still not a fan of the 'happy ending' version!). All in all a very enjoyable performance. Pricing was a bit steep (over £20 a ticket [even for children] and £80 for a family ticket) which possibly explains the half-full cinema. RB broadcasts are always fully booked (with plenty of kids) so perhaps the price was a big factor (or maybe Mariinsky is a less well-known name that the Royal).

I'll be savouring Alina's Sleeping Beauty at ABT next month - was hoping to catch her Aurora next season at ROH! By my count this announcement takes the Royal Ballet down to 7 male and 7 female Principals (with a fair amount of injuries unfortunately at the moment). Will be keeping a keen eye out for the end-of-season promotion announcements - should be interesting!

In case anyone has missed the news - Wednesday's Mayerling will be both Cojocaru and Kobborg's final performance with the Royal Ballet. Good luck to anyone trying to get a last-minute ticket, they'll be like gold dust!

Didn't expect that! Very sorry to see them leave - was looking forward to seeing their Giselle next season. Good luck to them both for their future plans!