Jane Simpson

No, I wasn't there - I've forgotten, and can't even begin to imagine, why not. If I could choose one gala out of all history to go to, that would be it. Maybe Leonid or one of the others from London was there? If not, I have a list of the items and could post some of them.

Fonteyn danced the Nocturne solo at Ashton's retirement gala in July 1970 (34 years after she created the role) so this clip is presumably from that. (This was one of 37 pieces from different ballets in the gala - what wouldn't I give for a film of the whole thing?)

The Royal Danish Ballet still does The Lesson, of course - a couple of years ago it was chosen as part of Denmark's 'cultural canon' (the other dance works being La Sylphide and Etudes). They often do it on a bill with La Sylphide, as Johan Kobborg also did with the Royal Ballet. I've seen Kobborg and Edward Watson as the Teacher at the RB, and Thomas Lund and Morton Eggert with the RDB, in the last couple of years - I'd be quite happy to see any of them again, though I particularly remember the shattering effect of Lund's performance. It was Flindt's first ballet, of course, and I'd imagine it's much the most widely performed of his works these days.

Bart, it may be relevant that after the recorded performances, Svetlanov 'withdrew' from the rest of the run - no explanation was ever given, that I remember. One of his replacements was Andrea Quinn, who was said to have got through the Act 2 pas deux more than half a minute quicker than Svetlanov.

Just for the record, it wasn't Putrov who replaced Kobborg in the RB Nutcracker recording - it was Jonathan Cope. The cast originally announced for that performance was Yoshida/Kobborg as Sugar Plum and the Prince, with Marta Barahona and Jonathan Howells as Clara and the Nutcracker. I think both the men were injured and Cojocaru and Putrov were moved into the two junior roles, from another cast, whilst Cope did the Prince. This was in 2000, when Cojocaru was still relatively unknown and before her partnership with Kobborg was established.

Returning to Ansanelli, I'd say she's still looked on as someone with something to prove. (Sarah Lamb was accepted much more quckly.) One of the problems of forming a 'consensus' is that she seems to be extremely inconsistent, so that it's really only possible to discuss her with someone who's seen the same performances. For example, someone who only saw the very interesting Natalia which I saw would have very little common ground with someone who missed that but saw her really disappointing attempt at the Ashton pas de deux in Homage to the Queen. I think she needs really careful coaching to help her win over those who doubt her. I'd have cast her in the revival of MacMillan's Isadora myself. Further to Leonid's posts, I get the feeling that Marianela Nunez has won a lot of new admirers over the last season or two and would appear much nearer the top of a popularity poll (where she's been for some time in my own estimation); and that Edward Watson, omitted from Leonid's discussion, is extremely popular with a large segment of the regular audience.

She danced Natalia, earlier this year. There was quite a lot of negative reaction to her debut, but I didn't see her till her second performance and I thought she was rather good. She does tend to go over the top dramatically but this is quite easily fixed, and for me she had more of the spirit of the way Lynn Seymour originally did the role than several of the later interpreters.

Ansanelli danced her first Ondine last week. I haven't seen her yet (she's doing it again in the summer) and so far haven't seen any press reviews. But private opinion says she was good. She's certainly getting some of the RB's plum roles - Month in the Country and now this. Did anyone else see her?

It's just a matter of personal taste, I guess, like so much else.

Though I've never actually watched this video, I was at the performance which was filmed, and I remember being rather disappointed with Cojocaru - I've seen her do better Giselles. I wondered at the time how much she was put off by the constraints of the filming - remembering where the cameras were and when to look at them etc. I do agree with Leonid about Kobborg's acting (except occasionally I think he overdoes it a bit) and at this performance particularly I thought he was very,very good during the mad scene. As for the heights of the other characters, I think that when you're starting with a Giselle who - at her own estimate - is slightly under 5'2", a 6' Albrecht and a 5'8" Myrtha would look badly out of proportion. (Though I don't personally think of Nunez as 'shortish' - not in RB terms, anyway.)

I was one of those who started learning about ballet 50 years or so ago, largely from the pages of Dance& Dancers. I feel I owe Clive Barnes a lot, and I'm sad to hear of his death.

There's a long series of pictures of Christina Michanek in one of the Danish papers today - it was her big night last night, the premiere of Cinderella (Askepot) in which she created the title role. First reports speak highly of her, less enthusiastically of the ballet as a whole.

It was announced this morning that Kizzy Howard and Christina Michanek have been promoted to soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet. Kizzy Howard is English - she had her early training with Leo Kersley and then the Central School of Ballet, and danced with the Royal Swedish Ballet for 3 years before joining the RDB in 2003. She's been getting some big roles recently - Queen of the Dryads, Myrtha, and the Princess in Kenneth Greve's Nutcracker. There are some pictures of her in the last of those in David Amzallag's blog. Christina Michanek (formerly Olsen) is Danish and entirely trained at the RDB school. She's already danced the title role in La Sylphide and next week she dances the lead on the first night of Tim Rushton's new Cinderella. Amzallag's pages have some nice photos of Hubbe rehearsing her in La Sylphide. These are the first promotions of Nikolaj Hubbe's tenure. The RDB is a 3-tier company and with these two additions there are still only 7 female soloists (5 Danish, 2 English).

Sharon McGorian and Elizabeth McGorian are the same person - she changed her name some time in the 1990s, I think. From a quick look, the other dancer is Stephen Beagley and the choreographer is Nicholas Dixon. There seem to be a few references to his piece on Google, if you want to check.

Looking at this again, and sparing some attention for the four Princes, I found my eye drawn to the second one from the left, the one with the zigzags on the front of his costume - Frederick Ashton, surely? Both Carabosse and the King were actors, incidentally - John Greenwood (Carabosse) appeared quite often with the company, I believe.

ABT is to appear at the Coliseum in London from 25th March to 4th April 2009. They are bringing Swan Lake and Le Corsaire - Swan Lake will be playing in direct competition with a solid week of the Royal Ballet's production at Covent Garden, both of them at ferociously high prices. I think I'll wait to see the casting before I book.

Here's a find: an organisation is putting up on YouTube some very early television snippets - here's the Vic-Wells Sleeping Princess, with June Brae as the Lilac Fairy and Fonteyn as Aurora. No sound, so far as I can tell.

rg is right about it being Keith Money's film; it was made when Fonteyn was 50, and she's dancing with the touring section of the RB (the first Prince is David Wall) - on a Sunday in Bournemouth, if I remember rightly - and Money never found the cash to film the rest of the production. The film was forgotten about and he found it in his barn, years later. (Posting at the same time as Mme. Hermine - slightly different from what I said before so I'll leave it here!)

The Royal Ballet's website is showing that Cojocaru has been replaced in all her planned performances before her Bayaderes at the end of January - no explanation so far but possibly it's a continuation of the problem with her neck which has caused her to cancel a lot of performances over the summer. Roberta Marquez replaces her in Swan Lake and Ondine, Leanne Benjamin in Manon, Marianela Nunez does her Nutcrackers with Kobborg, and there's no replacement yet shown for her her in Voluntaries or Theme and Variations. Benjamin herself is replaced by Mara Galeazzi in the Manons she was originally scheduled for, with Edward Watson.

Astafieva's Chelsea studio was in the Kings Road, in the Pheasantry, a building with an interesting history. The accounts I found of her from NYPL (searching on Asta'ieva gets more results than Astafieva) claim she always wore high heels to teach (though not here apparently) and also favoured an orange wig. (She was Kchessinskaya's sister-in-law, which I didn't know till now.)

Photos of the first two casts have now appeared on the RDB website

The charitable view of the new ROH site is that it's not finished yet, and that company information (for the opera as well) will be added before the season starts. Even if this is true, though, I think it's poor planning that they haven't left some stubs to tell us that. (The thing that really annoys me about it is that if you want to know what's on next March, say, you have to know to go the press release page and then download a PDF document. Anyone who knows a better way, please let me know!)

I hadn't realised how lucky we were! (though in fact it was 1979)

Sad, and interesting - especially as they've danced Vienna Waltzes abroad in earlier years.

The casts for the first three performances have now been announced: Silja Schandorff/Nehemiah Kish/Amy Watson Gudrun Bojesen/Mads Blangstrup/Tina Hojlund Yao Wei/Ulrik Birkkjaer/Kizzie Howard I thought Yao Wei would get Giselle but Birkkjaer as Albrecht is more of a surprise - it's a big opportunity for him. (That pairing also does the Peasant pas de deux on the first night). The first night won't be Kish's debut with the company, as I implied above, as he's also cast in the re-run of the highly successful Kylian programme, which opened the season last night. The casting also lists an 'old couple' who could be the nanny and her husband, as described by Alexandra above. Full details