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Jenny Delaney

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  1. Going completely off-topic: Steve, over here NTSC is known as Never The Same Colour, due to the worse colour quality (fewer lines per inch).
  2. UK TV uses PAL, while American is NTSC. PAL has more lines per inch, or something . . . But most UK VCRs now include NTSC playback, and prices start at £100, so any UK reader planning on investing in a VCR would be advised to check for this extremely useful feature!
  3. I have a background in theatre, and a history of ballet classes that ended badly when I moved town, and my teacher, who didn't like me, refused (despite my mother's intervention) to let me take a Grade 3 exam which I'd been working for. (She was more concerned about her results than her students.) There's very little ballet performed in Ireland, and less in small towns, so I saw virtually none when I was growing up. I did a degree in drama and theatre studies, and two years later went to see AMP's Swan Lake in the West End of London, which blew my mind. I then went along to see a classical Swan Lake at the Royal Ballet and giggled my way through it. 19th century theatre was a specialist area of mine at uni, and here it all was, carefully preserved. I also met a ballet regular, who urged me to come and see Sleeping Beauty, and then I was hooked! Then I began writing (a review of AMP's Highland Fling), sold my first review less than a year later, and got the job as dance critic of a British newspaper about two months after that. What I miss most about the closed Royal Opera House is cheap standing room - it's not the same if you have to sit down (sniff!)
  4. I'm not sure about the pas de quatre, but Ashton did one for Swan Lake that was revived by the Royal Ballet School for its 50th anniversary gala - maybe that's the one?
  5. Mel, were we separated at birth or something like that? It's probably something about "great minds" and we'll just ignore anyone who mentions fools . . .
  6. MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet definitely ranks up there. It's better than some other versions I've seen though - I sat through Derek Deane's version with my jaw somewhere around ankle level! However, I do have a glorious treat lined up for the New Year - the Royal Ballet are doing it on a TINY stage, and I can't wait for Igor Zelensky to run out of space (he did at Sleeping Beauty this year and nearly landed in my lap!). I'm in the front row, and thinking of packing a safety net just in case . . . I'd axe a fair chunk of Act I of Giselle. And absolutely, definitely and finally the D'Jampe dance in Bayadere, which I loathe and have yet to see anyone do properly. Oh, and most of the last act of Beauty, except for the Bluebird and grand pdds.
  7. I agree with Jane Simpson - mostly for me though, it's an indefinable emotional connection. I also get REALLY sniffy if people shove unwarranted virtuoso technique into a classic and ruin the language of it all for me. But then, I am a pedant . . .
  8. Well, I'd have to nominate Roberto Bolle of La Scala, purely because as a prince I can't take my eyes off him (and it's not just his looks!) He was a disappointing Romeo but a heartbreaking Siegfried, but hopefully (very hopefully), his acting will improve. Also, Paul Liburd of Rambert Dance Company - he seems capable of anything, although Rambert are now a contemporary company. Bruce Sansom of the Royal Ballet is a very English dancer and totally unflashy, but the more I see of him, the more he impresses me. Fairly or unfairly, I think male dancers have to be rated on their virtues as a partner, in which case I definitely include Jonathan Cope of the Royal Ballet. In the partners category (maybe a future category, alexandra?), I'd also add Christopher Saunders, a character artist with the same company, who is the one of the steadiest partners I've ever seen.
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