jorgen

I would be surprised if that poster inspire anyone at all to go see a Bournonville ballet or even capturing anyones attention! (Sorry for sounding so negative today).

I found the Kermesse very well danced and acted on most parts. Kristoffer Sakurai's style is very clean and clear. Susanne Grinder is a wonderful Eleonora, with fine technique and full of life. She is really one of my favourite ballerinas, with a future as principal in head of her. Thomas Lund saves the comedy side. But what about the scenery and costumes? I don't like this new "less-is-more" philosophy. The Brugges silhouette reminds me of a WW II bomded city with a few walls stilll standing. The costumes are mostly very simple. Which period is it supposed to be? Or is it just an absurd fantasy mix of styles? The Slovanka all red costumes look just out of place. Adrian is dressed like Don Johnson in Miami Vice. Overall the set looks very thin, making it difficult to put charm and warmth into it. I really hope Napoli and others will not undergo the same treatment in the future, but I fear that's the way we are heading.

La Ventana or "No Ventana" is mainly presented as a showpiece with flashy dancing, but seeing Seniorita Gitte Lindstrøm and others showing off their skills is pure joy.

Mary, I agree totally about Alina Cojocaru. I only saw here only in those two Tatiana performances and impossible not to love her.

Johan Kobborg and Alina Cojocaru was here guesting in Onegin twice already. A wonderful couple of course, but I think the audience of the Royal Theatre knew "what ballet is really about" long before that...

I hope you enjoy it, Natalia!

No one else coming? Alexandra?

I will be there every night.

I think that Sleeping Beauty video was recorded in 1981. Kolpakova was then 47-48 years old so it hardly does her justice! One has to watch it and immagine how she was 10-20 years earlier.

I have the "Ave Maya" book. It is very beautiful with hundreds of photos. A unique thing is that many of the photos have Maya's own handwritten comments. The text is in both Russian and English. The author is a friend so I got it from him.

I think that after a long slow beginning of the first act the drama gets more and more intense and in the second act it excalates all the way until the end of the immortality scene. The last very dramatic scenes makes you forget the kind of boring start.

For me the whole evening was a big triumph of Marie-Pierre Greve. She showed her flexibility and surprisingly very strong acting skills. She was convincingly longing, loving, helpless, misplaced and dispairing. It must be a very demanding role to dance both mentally and physically. Kenneth Greve was the perfect Prince. As Effy says it's hard to immagine anyone else in these roles.

This was the first time for ballet in the new Opera House. It's a luxorius building with all the facilities and a big stage. As expected it lacks the atmosphere and intimity of the good old "Gamle Scene". Maybe it takes some time get used to it, but I don't think it will ever feel like my second home as the Old Stage does.

I. on the contrary, am very happy with the cast.

I find Marie-Pierre Greve a wonderful ballerina and love her in everything lately. She was the best Anna Karenina in my opinion and a stunning Rosita. Also perfect in In the Night. I am glad the company most promising ballerinas Susanne Grinder and Yao Wei (Christina Olsen is another one) get the chance. The three princes cannot fail. But it is of course difficult to comment the cast choice when we don't yet know the choreography.

I agree Silja Schandorff is the company absolute number one and is underused. I won't miss Cavallo.

Bojesen and Watson are princesses, not witches:

Sea witch: Jean-Lucien Massot / Morten Eggert

Prinsesse Henriette: Gudrund Bojesen / Amy Watson

I would say Nikolaj Hübbe is:

Ni-ko-LYE HY-beh

It is really depressing, I agree. It seems the new ambition is to get into world's top 5 modern ballet companies instead of classical. :-( I think that every season there should be at least be either La Sylphide or Napoli. Let's hope Kermessen turns out to be a good production.

The good news is that the Bolshoi Ballet finally is coming to Copenhagen!

Maggie Cheung! (In the mood for love, Hero etc)

There will be a real stellar cast for the Etudes at the Lander gala on February 25 2005:

Ballerina: Agnès Letestu

Solodancers: Jean Guillaume Bart and José Martinez

The Konservatoriet cast:

Monsieur Dufour: Flemming Ryberg

Bonjour: Kirsten Simone

Elisa: Gudrun Bojesen

Victorine: Gitte Lindstrøm

Alexis: Thomas Lund

Ernst: Morten Eggert

I thought Rose Gad was far from her best in Manon, she looked uninspired. Silja Schandorff on the other hand was outstanding in the role. I too would love to see Gitte Lindstrøm and Gudrun Bojesen in it.

Kenneth Greve got good reviews for his RB Swan Lake by Emma Manning in the magazine Dance Europe, February 2005. She writes "his technique is pure Rolls Royce", which I suppose is a big compliment. :-) There is also a beautiful picture of him and Zenaida.

Emmanuel Thibault, Premier danseur of POB, is guesting in Etudes tonight February 3rd.

The cast:

Ballerina - Gudrun Bojesen

Solo dancers - Emmanuel Thibault, Andrew Bowman, Fernando Mora

Polina Semionova is really a wonderful ballerina. I have only seen her in Malakhov's Cinderella that was broadcasted on German TV last year. You cannot avoid falling in love with her!

If there is someone who like to have a DVD recording of the ballet parts of this gala you can send me a PM.

I haven't seen them, but here is some info from their web site:

"St.Petersburg Ballet Theatre of Konstantin Tachkine, established in 1994, develops traditions of classical Russian ballet. The troupe consists of 80 professional ballet actors - graduates from Vaganova Academy and other merited ballet schools in Russia. The teachers - ex soloists and actors of Mariinsky Theatre:

Juri Gumba

Lubov Kunakova

Svetlana Efremova

Irina Kovaleva

Margarita Alfimova

During its creative activity Tachkine Ballet Theatre performed tours in Great Britain, Germany, USA, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the actors have repeatedly become prize-winners of prestigious international competitions of ballet actors, including Arabesk-2002 and Varna-2002."

Web site:

http://www.spbt.ru/about_en.php

The star of the company is Irina Kolesknikova:

http://www.ballerinagallery.com/kolesnikova.htm

It looks like Zenaida found her dream Prince!

I wish we could have Swan Lake in Copenhagen next season. With Z. Yanowksy welcome as guest artist!

I agree totally with Effy on the casts. Those are the ones that must be chosen for the festival.

Natalia, a quick reply:

5 La Sylphide (simply the best)

5 Napoli (a must see)

4 Far From Denmark (beautiful)

4 Abdallah (lots of dancing)

3 Lifeguards on Amager (charming but new sets not to my liking)

2 A Folk Tale (hopeless production)

The others have not been up yet.

Yes, let's hope Silja Schandoff will be fit for fight now. Her usual partner Kenneth Greve will guest with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on December 28, as Siegfried partnering Zenaida Yanowsky.

Some Danish stunning beauties:

Mette Hønningen

Silja Schandorff

Mette Bødtcher

Kirsten Simone

Rest of the world:

Altynai Asylmuratova

Alina Cojocaru

Violetta Elvin

Margot Fonteyn

Carla Fracci

Irina Kolpakova

Agnès Letestu

Anya Linden

Elizabeth Loscavio

Svetlana Lunkina

Ekaterina Maximova

Ludmila Semenyaka

Polina Semionova

Moira Shearer

Antoinette Sibley

Olga Spessivtzeva

Svetlana Zakharova