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I was so glad to be in the (very full and appreciative) audience of Ashton’s adorable ‘Fille’ last evening. The production was pretty much perfect, from orchestra to scenery to, most importantly, dancing. As Lise, Léonore Baulac was a delight. She really ‘got’ the Ashtonian style, and was both funny and touching. Her technique was rock-solid but she has so much more than that. I can’t imagine a better Lise. The new young star of the POB, Guillaume Diop, was cheeky and charming as Colas and seemed very comfortable with the technical demands, although if I were being picky I’d like to see improvement in his hands and his lifts. But these are only minor niggles – not real faults IMO. He has exactly the right combination of athleticism and elegance that I like to see in a male dancer. Simon Valastro (trained by La Scala) clearly relished the role of Mère Simone and was hilarious. Antoine Kirscher was outstanding as Alain – such a funny and technically sparkling performance. The whole corps were excellent too, as is usual with POB. The Paris school certainly produces some superb dancers. Although the patchwork of music isn’t of a great enough quality to stand on its own, as the vehicle for Ashton’s gorgeous choreography it does a wonderful job, and at multiple points the music seemed to underline what was happening on stage in a really pointed way. It was a terrific evening which went all too quickly.

The Russian State Ballet & Orchestra of Siberia are performing a collection of works across the UK at the moment including La Fille Mal Gardee, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Giselle, Cinderella, Snow Maiden. I went to see La Fille Mal Gardee at Buxton Opera House tonight and was very satisfied and enjoyed the performance very much. Lise, Colas, and Widow Simone were Elena Svinko, Marcello Pelizzoni, and Pavel Kirchev. It was almost incomparable to the Birmingham Royal Ballet production (Ashton) I saw (for the first time) a couple of months ago at the Lowry Salford. No famous clog dance music, no ribbon promenade, no maypole. However it was full of great top quality dancing and wonderfully played music and had it's own set of highlights. The Widow Simone was extremely good, having more solo work than the the BRB version, Colas and Lise had more 'showy' pas de deux and solo work particularly in Act II and performed them with aplomb. The Esmeralda solo with tambourine is inserted into Lisa's solos in Act I. Then Act II ramped up the effects and bravura from the leads and the corps (coupe jetes, fouettes etc) so the stage and theatre fairly buzzed with lively, joyous, action. Some very nice umbrella work from the corps in the thunderstorm scene. My first trip to Buxton and being in the upper circle I could not see the strange rake of the stage that has been mentioned on this forum. I did think the stage small and saw one of the corps rather flinch and duck when Colas was doing his grand manege, and Lise almost fell into the orchestra pit at the end of a diagonal in one of her solos! Really have to compliment the orchestra they were terrific and got my feet tapping to the spirited music - something I hardly ever do. Yes overall it's not the quite at the level of the major UK companies, but I'd highly recommend this company based on this performance.

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Autumn season started in their home venue last week with the sunniest of ballets, La Fille Mal Gardée. I was very fortunate to see the 2 performances on Thursday. At the matinee Miki Mizutani made her debut as Lise and was a total delight! It was very hard to believe that this was her debut as she was a total delight from start to finish. I thought she absolutely inhabited the role and her footwork could only be described as dazzling. Her Colas was Lachlan Monaghan, who had made his debut in Bristol in July. I thought it then and confirmed my thoughts on Thursday afternoon that he was just born to dance the role of Colas! They were a delight together. The Fanny Elssler pdd was so sublime that I had an unexpected attack of hay fever by the end of it. James Barton danced Widow Simone in the afternoon and he has really made the role his own. He was the the loving mother determined to try and do the best for his daughter, without realising that the best would be letting her marry her true love. James is one of the best actors in the Company, he is so subtle but even the tiniest gestures have meaning behind them. His rapport with Miki was meltingly gorgeous. Tzu-Chao Chou was excellent as Alain. What a performance to savour!! Thursday evening provided another cornucopia of delight with Celine Gittens and Tyrone Singleton in the leading roles. What can I say - both these dancers, they breathe and all is well with the world! Rory Mackay gave us a broader brush interpretation of the Widow. Kit Holder is one of my favourite Alains. He beautifully brings out all the pathos of a gauche young man who is not used to company and doesn't quite know how to behave. His final scene when he retrieves his beloved umbrella was very moving. So it was a day of contrast in performance styles, Miki and Lachlan danced with the verve and exuberance of youth where Celine and Tyrone were more polished but nevertheless still brought out very strongly a feeling of youngsters in love. I thought it was interesting that Jonathan Lo conducted the superb BRB Sinfonia at both performances but in the afternoon the orchestra played a lot faster. Thinking about it ... Celine and Tyrone are taller than Miki and Lachlan so perhaps needed more time for their longer limbs to fit the steps in. What a wonderful way to spend a day watching 2 such glorious performances. I'd love to hear what other people thought (and I know a number of forum members were there...).

I was just wondering why this doesn't seem to be booking terribly well when compared with Anastasia and the Triple Bill. I know there are a lot of performances but even the ones with Osipova still have a lot of seats left. It will be my first time for this particular ballet so I was interested in people's thoughts.

Here's a thread to discuss the current run of La Fille Mal Gardée, which opened tonight, with Laura Morera and Vadim Muntagirov, making his debut, in the leading roles.

So the RSB is coming to Belfast and Mommy got me and her tickets to go see them in January, seeing La Fille mal Gardee. I see there Giselle and it was pretty good, they are a small company so it wasn't going to be mind blowing but their Swan Lake is one of the best I've seen. It blew me away. Tatianna (Bolotova??) was an amazing Giselle. Anyway, does anyone know how I can find out who is dancing in La Fille? As I would simply love to meet the company. The Grand Opera house have told me to send in a request through them and they'll see what they can do but does anyone else have any other ideas or suggestions.

Fille starts a short run tomorrow with Nunez and Acosta, and also showing at cinemas around the world on May 16th with Marquez and McRae. Please discuss the performances here.