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Foteini Christofilopoulou was at the rehearsal of Balletboyz: 'Life' at Sadlers Wells, featuring two new pieces, from Pontus Lidberg and Javier de Frutos. Here are some sample photos... Fiction by Javier de Frutos: BalletBoyz © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Fiction by Javier de Frutos: BalletBoyz © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Rabbit by Pontus Lidberg: BalletBoyz © Foteini Christofilopoulou. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Set from DanceTabs: Balletboyz: Life Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

... and the dancers that caught it made out it was part of the action too - great stage craft!

Emeralds is my favourite section, of one of my favourite pieces (Jewels, that is). Don't the Balanchine Foundation's coaches teach/coach the RB dancers anyway?

they have a schedule?

Was that all - I thought I'd missed something (as per Ruth's explanantion of 'wardrobe malfunction' above)

well, if I ruled the world, apart from making every day the last day in May (as the first day of spring way too cold!), I'd promote Ms Naghdi in a flash

Your cursor should end up in the white bit just outside the box containing the quote. Start typing in there, not in the box (Click on there to get a cursor if you don't have one) You can practice in the 'Test' forum

you on commission or summat? lol

Oh, I don't know - I'm convinced and off to Boots tomorrow for a pot of face cream. Do you think it will shrink beer-tummies too?

TheaG - welcome! If you are going to an upcoming show, just say on here that you are and I'm sure there'll be plenty of people willing to say hello in person, at the same show

meant to say.... Before the performance was a short piece by Stina Quagebeur (an extract from 'Unsilenced', part of Dance Journeys), for children of ENBYouthco, with students from Burlington Danes Academy, Copthall School, Hammersmith Academy and Holland Park School. The full performance is at the Britten Theatre (Royal College of Music) on Saturday, 30th April - 3.30 and 5.30. The piece is inspired by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl the Taliban tried to murder for wanting an education. I don't think I need to add anything to that

Was at the matinee this afternoon. The performance featured many of my fave ENB dancers in featured roles (e.g. Begona Cao, Ksenia Ovsyanick, Alison Mcwhinney), so I was particularly happy. Begona Cao in Broken Wings was superb - vivacious in the happy sections, almost painfully sad in the less than joyful scenes. Her eyes almost told the story on their own! The piece is so colourful, with dazzling imagery, that some comments that the choreography wasn't spectacular didn't matter to me - the dancing just seemed appropriate where it was, and did more than enough as a piece of theatre to be a big hit for me. Hoping Tamara repeats it before too long. Ksenia Ovsyanick in M-Dao (with Fabian Reimar and Alison Mcwhinney) stepped up another level for me. I have always enjoyed her dancing and today she owned the stage in Yabin Wang's mythology piece. The piece itself is just a little baffling in the plot after the threesome between the lead dancers, but the solos, duets and threesomes are engossing - though not wholly convinced by the one pointe shoe. Another piece I would like to see again. The finale of 'Fantastic Beings' should have gone first I reckon. There was some dramatic and exciting dancing in this, but so many sections I really struggled to see due to the low lighting. The parts I could see I thought were terrific and the slinky costumes I thought were a definite enhancement - excpet the hairy ones at the end. Thought they were a bit ropey to be honest. I think I'd like to see it again - but with an extra 50p in the light meter...

Ah - when someone sneaks in a glass or a bottle into the ROH Stalls - and then inevitably kicks it over, that loud rumbling roll across the wooden downhill floorboards. Atmosphere - gone

I know! A gag reflex has to be overcome - and a scurry up to the odour free outdoors on the amphi bar veranda (well, near odour free, we used to get the occasional waft of seared beef from the restaurant opposite - but that's closed at the mo, behind all those mirrors as they redevelop) Hmmm - that answer was longer than the pithy one intended! :-)

I was at Sad Wells this afternoon, and I think I was one of about half a dozen who DIDN'T have a drink and/or nibbles. Think we're fighting a losing battle... :-(

Well, I love beer, but with you on this bridiem. It never ceases to amaze me that people cannot sit still for an hour or two without the need (compulsion?) to eat and drink at the same time.

so ended the run of Giselle last night, and once again, young Akane Takada was utterly glorious. I was sad that Laura Morera couldn't do her Giselle shows, but Akane was certainly more than adequate compensation. Earlier in her career I was really taken with Ms Takada, but then for some reason, she seemed to lose a lot of spark (an injury perhaps, or slow recovery from one?). Anyway, that seems to have passed now and her performances this run have been breathtakingly great. No sign of ego, as in, this is dancer X dancing Giselle - no, she WAS Giselle. I can't think of a higher complement than that. Definitely my favourite Giselle of the run

At the Friends rehearsal Tuesday, with the second night's cast. Some photos from that: Vadim Muntagirov, Beatriz Stix-Brunell © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Bennet Gartside, Marianela Nunez © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Set from DanceTabs: RB - The Winter's Tale (2016) Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr By kind permission of the Royal Opera House

Yes - the injury would have prevented proper rehearsal time for such a major role as Giselle, as the run already under way. Probably same applies for Winter's Tale sadly. I would have thought that creating a new role, and the huge amount of rehearsal time that takes, would be a priority, especially when coming back from a nasty injury.

I was at the rehearsal Tuesday night - so here are a few pics. Broken Wings (Annabelle Lopez Ochoa) - Irek Mukhamedov, Tamara Rojo (plus artists of the company) © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr M-Dao (Yabin Wang) - Madison Keesler, Laurretta Summerscales, Fernando Bufala ©Matthew Golding, Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr Fantastic Beings (Aszure Barton) - James Forbat © Dave Morgan. Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr See more... Set from DanceTabs: ENB - 'She Said' (triple bill) Courtesy of DanceTabs / Flickr

I hate bring told 'there's no demand for X' when I've just proved that statement wrong by asking if X was available

We only had the photo call today, at Friends Rehearsal (the General Rehearsal). Downloading pics from camera to laptop, as I type...

Sounds like a Gene Wilder/Peter Boyle 'Putting on the Ritz' moment :-)

Well, as I've not seen the last one (didn't know there was one, to be honest) and like almost everyone else have seen about 8-12mins of rehearsal of a couple of snippets from Liam's new version, pretty hard to compare

At least she had the night off from dancing as a Wili, bless 'er! :-)