Jane Simpson

From the links page, here's an article about the Mother Theresa piece: http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.htm...105&sid=1407642

The Eifman Ballet is also coming to London in February, with Red Giselle and Tchaikowsky. It's the first time we will have seen any of his long ballets here. In the same month we get Bejart's piece about Mother Theresa, with Marcia Haydee.

Lolly, I also have that Gordon Anthony book - I think one of the most extraordinary of the photos is one of Michael Somes: he's wearing the tights and headdress from Symphonic Variations but no top, and is posed to look absolutely gorgeous - it's easy to understand how so many people fell for him!

Merlyn Severn's first, and probably best known book, was called Ballet in Action, published in 1938 - the title defines her(!) interest. She went to Arnold Haskell and persuaded him that photographic technique had advanced far enough to make a book of action photographs possible and he agreed to write a foreword and comments on the photos. She compared studio shots of dancers with photos of animals in a zoo, and said that she wanted to do the 'natural history' version. Hence, presumably the predominance of jumps and 'movement' in her photos. Ballet in Action also has a long piece by her on the techniques she used, speed of film etc. Being made in the 1930s, it naturally concentrated mostly on the various Ballets Russes, but there are some early Sadler's Wells pictures - Giselle with Fonteyn (and Ashton as Hilarion), Wedding Bouquet and Les Rendezvous so far as I remember. I agree how different the Symphonic Variations photos in her later book are from what we see on stage today - but I happened just to find some more taken at the same period by Peggy Delius, which make the ballet look equally free and almost impassioned - SV suffers badly from over-reverence, I think.

No, I think it's the Messel production - they never did the earlier one at Covent Garden. No doubt bits fell off it over the years!

Trinidad Sevillano, Sarah Wildor

I can promise you the RB has given us much, much worse Oberons than Nureyev.

Advance publicity from Sadler's Wells: Premiered in Havana, Tocororo - A Cuban Tale unites the world of classical ballet with the richness of Cuban dance in a spectacular and moving story about a son who leaves the traditions of the Cuban countryside for an urban future.

Tchaikowsky Fokine Nureyev

I can't agree with you about Urlezaga, Lolly - though of course I saw a different performance (the first one he did with Yoshida). He's very different from the RB's other Siegfrieds, but to my eyes he's going back to an older performance tradition which is less 'naturalistic' than we usually see in this production. My husband remarked that he reminded him of the way Donald Macleary did the role, and as we saw Macleary in the audience that evening I wonder if he has been coaching Urlezaga. Urlezaga's dancing looked a bit tentative (except for the bit in Act 1 which I thought was beatiful), but he's been off for a long time and maybe just needs some more performances to get back his real form. When I saw Yanowsky (with Jonathan Cope) I thought that she, like Urlezaga, looked as if she was in a different ballet from everyone else (thought not the same different one as him, if you see what I mean - they must have looked rather odd together.) She's so strong - I thought she was holding back dramatically in Act 2, and if she really let go I felt she might bring the whole ridiculous production crashing down around her. I liked her very stern interpretation in Act 4 - when Siegfried arrives there was none of the "Never mind dear, I forgive you" that you often see - she knew he'd ruined everything and that there was no way out but death.

Would either Deborah Bull or Bruce Sansom really want to spend 4 years as Assistant Director, with no guarantee of getting the top job at the end of it? I'd have thought they could both more usefully do something else. And does Monica Mason need an assistant anyway?

She'll be 65 at the start of the 2006/2007 season, which is compulsory retiring age in the company. (At least, it is now, but our government seems to be moving towards a 'work till you drop' culture, so who knows what it will be by that time?)

He certainly did. It was not a success.

It's more or less the same as the epilogue, except that it starts a bit later so you don't see Mary Vetsera being taken out of the coach and put in the coffin.

There was a notoriously bitchy obituary of Helpmann in The Times*, which had just started a new policy of 'warts and all' obituaries, but so far as I remember it was about Helpmann's personality rather than his nationality. And it raised a lot of protests, from de Valois and Ashton among others, which made front page news in another newspaper - so presumably was not typical of what was written in other papers. The dance magazines' tributes were, as Alexandra says, laudatory. * not written by their dance critic

She would have been the Empress Elisabeth, Prince Rudolph's mother - she created the role.

Robert Tewsley, who gave his first performance as a member of the Royal Ballet three days ago, has announced he is to leave the company at the end of the run of Mayerling, quoting his wish for more performances than he can get with the RB.

She may have been working as a waitress, but she was, and is, an artist (painter) - fairly well known I believe.

matthew Bourne has already made his own version of La Sylphide, called Highland Fling, and I don't imagine he'd want to do another one. (It did not owe much to Bournonville.)

There's a long and very interesting piece on this Nutcracker on ballet.co today, by Richard Jones, who took a party from his school to see it: http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/happening/3116.html

It's actually Cojocaru/Tewsley, jude - Kobborg is dancing with Yoshida this time.

To be fair, the press release does say they're celebrating Nureyev, not his connection with the RB. At least no-one can accuse them of being parochial. And of course one of the ways in which Nureyev influenced the RB was by introducing Guillem to the company and to us. I should think Guillem's take on him will be fascinating.

Ross Stretton has resigned as Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet, with immediate effect. Assistant Director Monica Mason will run the company until a permanent replacement is found. The official announcement is on the Royal Ballet's website at http://www.royaloperahouse.org/AbouttheHou...?ccs=312&cs=692

I just got back from the first night of this. the programme was: In the Night - Borree/Marcovici, Somogyi/Boal, Whelan/Soto Triple Duet (new piece by Benjamin Millepied) - Ansanelli/ Hall Duo Concertant - Borree/Boal Polyphonia - most of original cast The whole evening was very warmly received - highlights for me were Polyphonia and Peter Boal in Duo Concertant - but it's wonderful to see NYCB dancers in London and I only wish they were staying longer and doing more!

Drew, I think 'unseasoned' is just the right word for Putrov - undoubtedly talented, but so far nowhere near convincing me that he's ready to be a principal. A few other things: Darcey Bussell was taken out of Don Q not because she was injured but because there was no time for her to prepare properly for the role - no comment necessary, I think. I agree about Tattersall as Amor - Cojocaru was also very good, in the earlier series of performances. One problem is that the costume only suits the very smallest dancers, like these two. Luke Heydon actually left the company at Christmas and is well into a career in horticulture. Let's hope he can continue to find time off to make guest appearances. Like you I was impressed by Nunez - I thought she was the most satisfactory of the Kitris I saw. I can see her becoming a ballerina of a distinctively individual type - she's much more convincing in adagio than some of the RB's other leading dancers, for instance - if she's not pushed to do too much too soon. It's easy to forget how young she is - younger than Cojocaru though she looks far more mature. In general by the end of last season I felt I'd seen more than enough of Don Q, Onegin, etc etc etc, and the thought of next season, when half the performances are given over to the 3 Tchaikowsky classics, fills me with gloom.