Katia Kapustin

You are right Ashton Fan, it certainly felt as a PC exercise in order to stress their cultural sensitivity The focus of the evening was on Makarova coaching Yasmine Naghdi but in the first part we got to see Akane Takada and Kristin MacNally being coached alongside Naghdi in the Act 1 Scene 2 section. A fabulous Insight evening!

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/watch-live-the-royal-ballet-rehearse-la-bayadere-on-24-october-2018

WHEN was Kochetkova at the RB? Did she train at the Company School? Was she a home-grown talent? (as that is what I am talking about here above) Certainly not since Mr Kevin O'Hare is Director.

The Royal Ballet in London is a superb and excellent example of how to! I was in London for a while during the last months of their 2017-18Season. Impressive how the Director Mr Kevin O'Hare develops/has developed his home-grown talent! So many of their fabulous dancers have come straight out of the Company School, and the audience go crazy about them. Now there is a fabulous Company which flourishes through great career development of their home-grown/RBSchool trained talent. Barely any Guest dancer is coming in (unless totally necessary). I have the greatest admiration for UK's top ballet company.

http://royalelegancenight.com/english/programme.html Invited Royal Ballet Principals (and a few other dancers) will perform in Tokyo on 30 and 31 August and on 01 September in what looks like an amazing programme! Royal Ballet Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi will be dancing with Matthew Ball in Romeo & Juliet (balcony pd2), with Japanese Principal Ryoichi Hirano in Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations (Bethina Waltz) and with the Australian principal Alexander Campbell in Ashton's Two Pigeons.

On 19 July Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi replaced Natalia Osipova as Odette/Odile.

The RB has no lack of adequate cast at all Charlie H. Brilliant new leads would be Principal dancers Yasmine Naghdi and Akane Takada, who are both highly technical classical dancers, besides Francesca Hayward. I'd love to see Cinderella return onto the Covent Garden stage, including a worldwide cinema broadcast, for 2019/2020

Kaneko is a beautiful dancer and I am so pleased with her promotion. I saw her dance when over in London recently. I just hope she will not be plagued by injuries anymore as she suffered in the past. I believe she was out for two years after a very bad knee injury. I really really wish I could go to Madrid to see Swan Lake danced by newly promoted Principal Matthew Ball as Prince Siegfried and Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi as Odette/Odile on 19th July.

Naghdi is not cast to dance with Ball in the first half of Season 2018-2019 and on the ROH website it shows that Ball, who's been the Prince to Naghdi's Sugar Plum in the past, is now replaced by an Australian Principal Kevin Jackson? Besides the "Romeo&Juliet" worldwide cinema relay poster - on which they both feature - what will they dance together next Season?

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/casting-confirmed-for-the-royal-ballets-tour-to-spain-2018 As Natalia Osipova is injured Yasmine Naghdi is replacing her and will be dancing Odette/Odile in Swan Lake on 19th July

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/casting-confirmed-for-the-royal-ballets-tour-to-spain-2018 Just announced on the ROH website: Yasmine Naghdi is replacing Natalia Osipova in Swan Lake on 19th July, partnered by Matthew Ball.

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/casting-confirmed-for-the-royal-ballets-tour-to-spain-2018 Spanish audiences will be able to watch The Royal Ballet's hotly-anticipated new production of Swan Lake as part of an exclusive residency at Teatro Real in Madrid. Principal dancers performing will be Federico Bonelli, Ryoichi Hirano, Sarah Lamb, Yasmine Naghdi, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova, Akane Takada and Vadim Muntagirov. Spanish Company members performing during the residency include Itziar Mendizabal and David Yudes. Steven McRae and Lauren Cuthbertson have withdrawn due to injury. This is the first time the Company have performed in the city since 1997, when they performed Anthony Dowell's production of The Sleeping Beauty. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said: 'It’s an honour for us to be returning to the Teatro Real after over 20 years, presenting this hugely exciting new production of Swan Lake. Everyone in the Company is very much looking forward to performing in Madrid, and I'm thrilled to be able to share this production with Spanish audiences after it receives its premiere in London in May.’ Casting for Odette/Odile, Prince Siegfried: 18, 22 July: Marianela Nuñez, Vadim Muntagirov 19 July: Natalia Osipova, Matthew Ball 20 July: Sarah Lamb, Ryoichi Hirano 21 July, 5pm: Akane Takada, William Bracewell (Steven McRae has withdrawn due to injury) 21 July, 10pm: Yasmine Naghdi, Federico Bonelli (Lauren Cuthbertson has withdrawn due to injury)

As both casts dance on Saturday 3rd November I would definitely choose the Naghdi/McRae/Takada evening cast. The Naghdi cast also dance on Saturday 10th. No doubt the Osipova/Corrales/Nunez cast will be stunning too but they are not dancing on a weekend.

As you mentioned Two Pigeons , on the Japan Programme "A Night of Royal Elegance 2018" it shows that Yasmine Naghdi is dancing Two Pigeons with Alexander Campbell. http://royalelegancenight.com/english/programme.html

Yasmine Naghdi is scheduled to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy on 12 and 15 December with the Australian Principal Kevin Jackson. As a Principal ballerina she may dance the Rose Fairy in the Nunez/Muntagirov Opening Night cast, as she did last year. Yasmine Naghdi will also be dancing her debut as Gamzatti in "La Bayadere" with Akane Takada as Nikya and Steven McRae as Solor

Thank you Ashton Fan for all the information on those two current RB stars and also possibly the ones of the future. You are so lucky in the UK to have the Royal Ballet and I wish I could see them more often. I have totally fallen in love with their style of dancing. The RB dancers have such an ability to completely draw you (or shall I say suck you) into the story of a ballet.

I have found this Royal Ballet Swan Lake curtain call of above mentioned Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi, after dancing Odette/Odile, on YouTube. She can be seen taking her bows from 0:40 into the recording.

I have had the opportunity to watch some of The Royal Ballet Principals and Soloists during my recent stay in London and I have to say there is some AMAZING talent in that company but sadly those dancers have no international exposure at all and are unknown outside the UK. I can only hope that through the worldwide cinema relay those dancers will also become known internationally. The partnership between two amazing and very popular dancers, Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi and First Soloist Matthew Ball, ( as seen on the Royal Ballet advertising poster for international screening in 2019) will hopefully start to change that. https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/romeo-and-juliet-live-2019

Yes my friends told me all about this "phenomenon" of numerous mega talented dancers in the Company - from the Corps de Ballet dancers up to the amazing young Principals such as Yasmine Naghdi and Francesca Hayward who have all come out of The Royal Ballet School when the late Gailene Stock was the Director of the School. They also said what you stated Ashton Fan that the most talented dancers are given so many opportunities and no longer have to "sit and wait" for their turn to dance major roles until they are at the right rank. The results are there for all to see: Mr O'Hare didn't waste any time developing his most talented dancers! Apparently those dancers are "reviving" the Company and have taken it to a much higher level compared to the past decade or so.

Thank you so much Buddy for those links! My friends in London told me that Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball are a firm favourite couple on the Covent Garden stage. They are on the "Romeo & Juliet" worldwide live cinema relay poster so hopefully we get to see them here in the States too. I was told they caused quite a stir in 2015 when they both danced their debut in Romeo&Juliet. https://www.roh.org.uk/showings/romeo-and-juliet-live-2019

On a recent stay in London I was really lucky to be invited by my guests to attend the new "Swan Lake" production at Covent Garden. I saw the superb Marianella Nunez dancing with Vadim Muntagirov, what a great dancer he is! Much has been said here above about the production, some loved it others not so much. I very much enjoyed the new production, and I loved the stage and costume designs! I also saw the performance of the only Royal Ballet ballerina selected by the Director to dance her debut as Odette/Odile, Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi. That night she danced with fellow Principal Frederico Bonelli. I have never experienced a Covent Garden audience applauding and cheering a ballerina mid performance, she was clearly much loved and adored by the audience. Her characterisation of Odette/Odile was so well portrayed, her technique was simply outstanding (THAT balance in Act 3, which apparently went on and on in a previous performance of hers), her beautifully executed fouettes showed her superb musicality), she is also visually stunning to watch, I simply loved her and she surely has gained another fan across the ocean! I would love to see her guest here in NYC!

I first saw Principal ballerina Yasmine Naghdi perform here in the States when she was on tour with The Royal Ballet. Her beautiful physique and pure, clean, classical style of dancing grabbed my attention. On a recent stay in London I was lucky enough to see Naghdi dance Odette/Odile in the new Scarlett version of "Swan Lake". Commentators on a UK Ballet forum were raving about her and I found myself agreeing with all the comments! She was stunning to say the very least and I loved her performance with fellow RB Principal Frederico Bonelli. Naghdi is one of a kind, standing out amongst the current Principals as their youngest one (together with Francesca Hayward, another much talked about young principal). These two principals have a very different style of dancing and an entirely different physique. Naghdi is the most ballerina like of the two, in style, technique, facilities, and the highly classical repertoire such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker, amongst others, suit her superbly well as do the MacMillan dramatic ballets such as Romeo&Juliet (she was a sensation in London when she danced her debut with Matthew Ball in 2015). Hayward is more of an Ashton dancer but she is also good in the MacMillan roles. These two Royal Ballet School trained principals come out of the same year group and the UK ballet goers are so very lucky to have those two wonderful principals and to enjoy seeing them on the Covent Garden ROH stage. I hope the RB plans to come back to the USA very soon.

I just came across this feature about Royal Ballet Soloist Yasmine Naghdi (saw her dance in Washington and also in NY when the Royal Ballet was over here). Such a shame I can't be in London to watch her Principal debut in "Romeo&Juliet"! http://www.gramilano.com/2015/09/yasmine-naghdi-the-birth-of-a-ballerina/

I attended the Saturday Matinee and loved most of the programme. I was really taken by "Infra". It is such an emotional ballet and I adored the music. The dancers showed such strength and grace, and their flexibility is amazing. I also loved the Julien Opie background design of moving images. I was particularly pleased to be able to watch Yasmine Naghdi again, a dancer I really took to after watching her dance "Amour" in Washington. Naghdi and Ball danced the Finale pdd in "Infra" and they looked stunning together to say the least. All the dancers in "Infra" were lovely but for me it was Ball and Naghdi who stood out. I am now even contemplating flying over to London to see them dance "Romeo and Juliet" this Autumn. I did not enjoy "Age of Anxiety" and I rather forget about it. "Aeternum" was gorgeous, such a pity the RB did not show us the complete ballet. The other Divertissements were pleasant enough to watch but I would have preferred to see the Royal Ballet dance a full-length classical ballet in NY. Hopefully next time.

http://davidhkochtheater.com/moreinfoRB.html This is what The Royal Ballet posted on the Royal Opera House website re. the casting in New York.