anoushka

She does a residency every year at Central School of Ballet where she teaches the Senior students. She's also doing a Spring Course next week.

She's currently teaching at the school where I work - it's inspirational to watch her in the studio!

Hello everyone I've just moved over to live in the Netherlands (just outside Amsterdam) from the UK, and as a Royal Ballet addict, I ashamed to admit I know virtually nothing about the ballet over here! But, I am willing to learn : ) I am going to get myself booked in to see a performance asap but I wondered if anyone had any recommendations on where to sit? I like to be able to see the dancer's faces & feet, so usually I am willing to sacrifice the view of the stage for the sake of proximity to the stage so any suggestions would be gratefully received. Many thanks Anoushka xx

Here is the link for the promotions, joiners and leavers for 2003: http://www.royalopera.org/News/Index.cfm?c...ccs=326&cs=1002 Its great news about Mara Galeazzi going up to Principal, and its really good to see promotions further down the ranks including Lauren Cuthbertson (whose Lilac Fairy I especially enjoyed!) Its also a shame we're losing Jamie Bond to Birmingham Royal Ballet Enjoy! xx

I'll be the at the Royal on Friday for Marianela Nunez's debut as Beauty-I can't wait! I'm also seeing several other casts in the next few weeks so I'll keep you posted! xx

Hi Bilbo, it's the same for me. I will spend quite a lot for one performance, and then just go in the cheap ones for all the others. I tend to think about it quite carefully on my booking form, to try and get decent seats for a particular performance, and then often I'll add other performances by just calling up-especially if there has been a cast change, and I suddenly need to go!

Yes Wendy, I know Roberto didn't ACTUALLY dance different things, but it did come across so differently, I was so much more aware of the beauty of the choreography. Glad you enjoyed it, when are you going again?

Apologies for the delay in posting, time has flown by and I've now seen 2 Manons and not posted about either! First on the 8th, with the Tapper, Makhateli, Harvey, Drew, Palmer, Page cast. Jamie Tapper was good to watch, and she was quite heartbreaking at the end, though I really wanted her to be meaner and vain in Act 2! I wasn't sure about David Makhateli, I agree with Giannina that his Act 2 dancing was in great contrast to Acts 1 and 3- I wonder why? Maybe he doesn't like that Act much? Though I thought his surruptitious cheating at cards was good. Martin Harvey was excellent as Lescaut, really bouncy and bright. It was also awful when they killed him, I really wasn't expecting it! It was such a relief to see him up on his feet at the end! Anyway, then I went to see the performance on the 19th with the Bussell, Bolle, Cervera, Saunders, Morera, Tuckett cast. It was amazing how different it was. I am sure that Roberto Bolle danced a different set of steps, I kept holding my breath as he held balances and extended his legs beautifully! Darcey danced beautifully too, but I kept my eyes on Roberto more! And Ricardo Cervera is stiff competition for Lescaut with Martin Harvey-he was brilliant. I thought he worked especially well with Laura Morera as his Mistress. Their pas de deux when he is drunk was really entertaining. However his death came as even more of as shock, and really was quite gruesome. Both Christopher Saunders tonight, and David Drew on the 8th were good as Monsieur G.M, suitably cold and domineering. And both Will Tuckett and Ashley Page were good as the Gaoler,they were even meaner, and you really felt for poor Manon! Anyway, that all for now, did anyone else go?

Hi Grace, I am fairly sure that Pauline Greene did refer to the Sapphire Fairy's waltz as having 5 beats not 3, but someone else may have remembered better than me! Do you remember Sylvia? xx

This was a wonderful event to go to, and I thought it was very well organised, with some excellent speakers. I'll keep it brief though, as I watched the performance of Manon tonight too! The day started off with Dina Makarova (no relation to Natalia Makarova, though they work very closely together) discussing the designs of Natalia Makarova's production of the Sleeping Beauty by Luisa Spinatelli. She explained various points in the ballet where gauzes where used for effect, and the way the action is shifted to different parts of the stage. She also showed us some props (the masked head for part of Carabosse's entourage and the Lilac Fairy's wand) as well as some beautiful examples of tutus. The day continued with Agneta Valcu rehearsing Lauren Cuthbertson and Ivan Putrov as the Lilac Fairy and the Prince in the Vision scene. It was very interesting to watch how the mime told the story-there isn't any dancing as such at this point, the Lilac fairy has a staff which she uses to conjure up the vision of Aurora. Following this Natalia Makarova rehearsed Ivan Putrov and Alina Cojocaru as the Prince and Aurora. It was fascinating to watch Natalia Makarova going through the steps with them. She was so sure of exactly how it needed to be, often demonstrating by rolling up her trouser legs, and it was great to see how here corrections became real on the dancers. We then saw Natalia Makarova rehearse Zenaida Yanowsky as Carabosse- I wasn't expecting this to be the role that Zenaida would be rehearsing at all ( I was thinking more Lilac Fairy) but she was amazing. I found her mesmerizing to watch especially because of the way she can contort her body. She danced with abandon, though at one point lost her grip on her staff and sent it flying into the audience! The afternoon sadly had no more dancing in it, but the talk by Pauline Greene on the musicality of the score was excellent., Her main themes were the way the Sleeping Beauty is a symphonic ballet score (due to the recurrign themes of Carabosse and the Lilac Fairy, in different guises throughout the ballet), and the overall Russian-ness of the ballet-discussing how Tchaikovsky included many folk dances from the era including, most bizarrely a waltz in 5 beats not 3, for the Sapphire Fairy! The day was concluded by Giannandrea Poesio who gave a fascinating talk on the historical background to the ballet. Apart from an abounding knowledge of the many symbols within the ballet (from Aurora as the Sunrise to Cattalabutte as a well known political figure of the time) he also put the ballet into its political context. Anyway, that's the end of a lovely day, I am sure there are loads more things I have forgotten to add in which some other people will remember! xx

I'm not sure, but for some reason I didn't think Anton Pankevitch was Russian. I know Valeri Hristov is Bulgarian.

Hmm, Ivan Putrov was born in Kiev-which I thought was Ukranian?

Dear me I really musn't leave it so long to review, but seeing the Triple again with only three days gap, I think I needed to get some perspective! The second watching of Scenes de Ballet confirmed to me how much I liked it! I am certainly glad we'll have another chance to watch this one, I'd like to see it from higher up-both times I was at stage level so didn't see the patterns of the dancers properly. Winter Dreams was still lovely, and I could watch Sir Anthony dance all night. He's just so wonderful, and his pas de deux with Darcey Bussell was heartbreaking. Sinfonietta also got better and better the more I watched it. I really wish I could see it again. The pace is so fast and I love all the jumps which just see to sail across the stage. It was also great to hear Monica Mason talking about the possiblilty of new works versus perfomance of heritage pieces, and so on. Especially as it was a total shock to me that she'd speak! xx

I'm just wondering who the 'Russian' was, as there aren't any in the company at the moment. xx

Here's the link to the ballet.co.uk posting about the National Dance Awards, with some good news for RB dancers (and many others too, so take a look.) http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/1638.html They are: Outstanding Young Female Artist (Classical) Marianela Nuñez for her performances as a Soloist with the Royal Ballet Outstanding Young Male Artist (Classical) Ivan Putrov for his performances as a Soloist with the Royal Ballet The Richard Sherrington Award for Best Female Dancer Alina Cojocaru for her performances as a Principal with the Royal Ballet And here are some of the finalists from RB: Jenny Tattersall for her performances as a First Artist with the Royal Ballet Miyako Yoshida for her performances as a Principal with the Royal Ballet Adam Cooper for his performances with the Royal Ballet and in On Your Toes Jonathan Cope for his performances as a Principal with the Royal Ballet Enjoy! xx