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At the end of September I was lucky enough to catch three performances by the Paris Opera Ballet in Aix en Provence. The company has an outreach programme, like the one the Royal Ballet has had in Doncaster, using a couple of junior dancers from the company to engage with young people in Aix, to get them dancing, and culminating in a number of performances in the splendid newish Grand Theatre de Provence. It was an exceptionally well balanced programme, starting with Grand Pas Classique (Victor Gsovsky), Robbins's In the Night, the solos and pas de deux from Balanchine's Who Cares?, all in the first part, with the second part focusing on extracts from Nureyev's Raymonda (pas de six from Act 2 and grand pas classique from Act 3). The dancers included a clutch of etoiles, Paris's principals, as well as some new up and coming dancers. There were two casts for each programme- I saw two performances of the second cast and one of the first cast. Unfortunately the one disappointment was of two young dancers in the Grand Pas Classique. This popular piece is technically very difficult, requiring sustained control by the ballerina, especially in holding her balances, and considerable partnering skills by the male. Guillaume Diop has yet to fully develop his partnering, very obviously 'paddling' Ines Mcintosh; my companion commented that she had never noticed a dancer paying so much attention to his partner but I suspect that the best partners are unobtrusive. Nor could either cope fearlessly with the technical demands, it was a matter of getting through the steps. Hannah O'Neil had originally been announced as Diop's partner so McIntosh may not have had much chance to practise the piece. I couldn't help remembering how Sylvie used to do it, not just spectacular balances but also a witty take off of the over the top piece. In the first cast, the much more experienced Valentine Colasante and Marc Moreau coped much more successively. Who Cares had an impressive picture of New York at the back, applauded at each performance, and the dancers of both casts seemed to enjoy dancing it as much as the audience enjoyed watching it. The male stars were Mathieu Ganio, first cast, and Marc Moreau in the second, and each had the relaxed charm and sense of swing so important to this ballet. Marine Ganio (Mathieu's sister, who has not been given as many opportunities under previous ballet directors but seems to be faring better under Jose Martinez; also their parents were dancers in nearby Marseilles so they are local to Aix) was in both casts but taking different dances. The main women were Colasante with Ganio and Amandine Albisson with Moreau, and Bianca Scudamore was in both casts. Altogether it was enjoyable although not as fast and sassy as City Ballet do it. (The music was recorded, as were all the pieces apart from the Robbins, and all the recorded music was a bit too slow). There was no account given of the story behind the Raymonda excerpts so it could have been a bit confusing for many in the audience and they may have wondered who the character of Abderam was in the Act 2 excerpts- and there was surprisingly a different dancer as Raymonda in the two sections. Nureyev's choreography is typically over fussy and difficult and it looks better on a larger stage but it was good to see some classical dance. In the first cast I was delighted to see Myriam Ould-Braham and Mathias Heymann resume their partnership, which I first saw when Alexander Grant selected them for La Fille mal Gardee. Heymann's career has been blighted by many long periods of injury so it's great that he's back again. Ould-Braham is retiring in Giselle in the spring. In the other cast Sae Run Park was very reserved but her partner, Paul Marque, was spectacular. The character of Abderam was more convincingly played by Auric Bezard in the first cast whereas Antoine Kirscher looked far too young and less sinister. The second cast Raymonda were Park, again, and Bleuenn Battistoni. A soloist I don't know, Clara Mousseigne, was impressive in both casts, she has lovely epaulement and movement quality. The main draw for me to travel so far was to see In the Night. When Robbins was alive the extraordinary dancers that Nureyev had nurtured were unparalleled in this ballet, even better, in my view, than City Ballet, but the company still does it well. My favourite of the three duets is the final, fiery one, and in this Auric Bezard conveyed the anguish superbly, with Albisson a worthy foil. The first cast had a difference balance, with Dorothee Gilbert superb as the temperamental woman and Florent Melac as her unhappy lover. The first duet, often conveyed, when the Royal used to do it, as by a young couple but less so with the Paris troupe, was performed by Ould-Braham and Germain Louvet in the first cast, and Sae Eun Park and Paul Marque in the second, and the middle duets by Colasante and Moreau in the first cast, and Colasante (replacing Heloise Bourdon from the announced casting) with Moreau, in the second. All performances conveyed the emotional shifts in the relationships that Robbins reveals movingly through his fluent choreography. In The Night will be the middle ballet in the excellent Robbins triple bill that POB will be dancing later this month (the other pieces are En Sol and The Concert). I think other Forum members will be attending as I will. That is why I have given this thread the title I have, as others may want to make their comments on that programme.

The Royal Ballet in Sweden have just presented a wonderful triple bill, varied and well balanced, comprising three masterpieces: Robbins' In The Night, The Concert, and Balanchine's Theme and Variations. (When will we see a good triple bill again?) I was able to attend two performances. According to a video discussion available on the company website it was the first time the company had performed works by either choreographer so the level was competent rather than exceptional. The Concert never fails, one of the very few funny ballets where the humour survives, and mostly the dancers didn't overdo the humour, always a risk as Robbins coach Ben Huys said on the video. (He himself was amusing when describing Robbins' own notorious rehearsal technique, describing how he would make the dancers spend infuriating hour after hour gazing into the distance at that passage in Dances at a Gathering when the dancers are together, immobile, at the end.) Robbins' choreography, like Ashton's, looks much less difficult than it is, and it can be difficult for dancers new to his work to capture his style, but overall the dancers did well. The second pas de deux in In The Night almost invariably presents partnering problems ( true when The Royal did it) and this was no exception. But at the second performance I saw Rikako Shibamoto and Kentaro Mitsumori were exceptionally good in the first pas de deux, musical phrasing , capturing the delicate emotional engagement wonderfully. The theatre is grandly baroque inside but the auditorium feels quite intimate. There was a display of Swan Lake costumes and information on the history of Swan Lake in Sweden. It turns out that the first time Swan Lake was danced in Sweden was 1908, with the Mariinsky and Anna Pavlova in her first performances outside of Russia. But it wasn't called Swan Lake- but Swan Pond! The Ballets Russes also called the ballet Swan Pond when they took it to Stockholm in 1937, starring Igor Youskevich (who created Theme and Variations 10 years later, with Alicia Alonso, a coincidence that the theatre didn't note). The company itself has had seven productions, including by Mary Skeaping, Mts Ek, Peter Wright and Nureyev. There is a dance museum, quite close to the theatre and all the royal and government buildings, and on a main shopping street. Currently it has an exhibition on Nureyev that includes many of his costumes and many photographs, including some not seen in public before, owned by Charles Jude, one of the wonderful dancers Nureyev nurtured, and who, with his wife, did much to support Nureyev in his final months. The general material in the museum includes information about Pavlova, including the film of her in The Dying Swan, and a sculpture of one of her feet! It also has a pair of tiny pointe shoes owned by Galina Ulanova, and a huge sculpture of her dancing. There's a considerable amount of information on the Ballets Suedois in the 1920s and other key figures in Swedish ballet history. Well wort visiting.

Perm Opera Ballet have a performance of Robbins' "The Four Seasons" and "The Concert" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2foDsIg-hvg&t=1012s Teatro Colón in "Swan Lake" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2foDsIg-hvg&t=1012s So much ballet about, making the lockdown bearable

This programme starts this evening: thoughts here, please.