Pamela Moberg

I was deeply saddened to learn that Nadia Nerina has passed away. When I lived in London she was one of my favorite ballerinas. My fondest memory of her (which I have probably told before) was when she used to come to Madame Cleo Nordi for private class. Very often she stayed on and did at least barre with Madame's regular pupils. One tried hard not to stare in awe with gaping mouth! She was so kind and gracious and a real role model to us all. There is an anecdote (true) that I would like to share with you. Miss Nerina was very fond of cats and in her apartment in Davies Street in London's Mayfair she had a room for her pets. One of the lesser English papers wrote a venomous article about that she ought to give that room to a homeless family in stead. What a privilege it is to have been in class with her - I miss her very much. RIP my dear Nadia Nerina.

Definitely not Mercury - was there myself. Maybe not so long ago as the photo, but I was told the main structure hadnt changed for a long time. That fireplace though, looks suspiciously English. The dancers look rather amateurish to say the least.

I had the fortune to attend master classes she held at the RAD in London. I thought at the time it was a pity she had given up performing, she was extremely beautiful. R.I.P.

Inspired by this thread about Maria Alexandrova I got out my DVD collection and found what I was looking for. In 1995 in Lausanne Switzerland she took part in the EBU ballet competition. Very rare indeed for Russians to compete there. She did a variation from Coppelia in a horribly sugury pink costume, but she was good, and remember she was only 16 then. Her second variation was from La Bayadere, equally good. I have a very faint recollection of at that time I was yelling "Here is the winner". Not so... And the Swedish commentator made rather sneering remarks about her - in my view totally unfounded. 1st prize that year went to Ruth Miro and Jesus Pastor from Spain, Nadja Sellerup from Sweden got 2nd prize and Jeroen Hofmans from Belgium 3rd. Masha was totally ignored to my great consternation, I really thought she was good and well deserving. Now that she has hit the big times, it is wonderful to have this DVD of her as a youngster. Just hope to see her live one day!

Nice to know you, Angelica, hope you will post often. I am also what we would call "not a spring chicken". I did dance professionally in my youth, then sustained some injuries - so that was that. I think it is very brave of you to have started taking class to get the feel of it. I firmly believe that you cannot fully enjoy ballet unless you have a clue about what they are doing. By the same token, I have many times felt that as an ex-pro I just sit there and look for faults and that I cannot not enjoy a performance fully. OK, we must be honest, there are a lot of performances out there that you just dont enjoy.

Today, that Felia Sidorova thing sounds a bit ridiculous to say the least, but back in those days it was like that. Just think of Alicia Markova! Must have been low self esteem or something, unless you had a Russian name you couldnt dance. Apart from the aforementioned Markova, there were masses of dancers Russianising (is that correct?) their names.

Sorry Angelica, cant help you here. I got mine from the Swedish television network (in the days when they actually did broadcast some worthwhile stuff - now you mainly get silly game shows). I had it originally on video, but now I have scrapped that system and I successfully made a DVD of it. Maybe some other members can be of assistance, maybe it is even commercially available. But it is worth looking for!

Yes, just remembered the name of the movie, it was "Sombrero". She was to die for then...

She was an idol of many of my friends in the theater school -OK, she was my idol too. Any of you folks seen her in that unfortunately seldom played film on old movie channels. I refer to a movie from the fifties. Remember that Mel and I had an argument about her dress, Mel said it was black, I said it was green. Maybe vice versa, never mind, Cyd was just fantastic. What a dancer and what a beauty. I am glad that we saw her and enjoyed her in those days.

This you really have to take a look at! I believe that books are more expensive in the US than in England and now there is an opportunity. Dance Books in England are selling out stuff so please have a look at: www.dancebooks.co.uk/catalog/sale.asp I looked and there are some books I want to order. Please note that orders must be placed before June 30.

I think Dame Monica deserved that. She was never a great classical dancer - I think she did some Swan Lakes but I have never seen those. She was a character dancer, a dancer-actress and as such formidable. Thats is good to know, I think she totally merited this title.

My dear friend Ulf Gadd has passed away. We met as children in the theater ballet school in Gothenburg, Sweden. Already as a child Ulf showed great promise - he was truly multi-talented. He created complicated sceneries for his puppet theater and educated himself in the world of art and music. I remember vividly how I as a child sat in the tram on my way to school avidly reading the libretto of "Idomeneo", of course lent to me by Ulf. He soon moved to the Royal Opera House in Stockholm and also did a season with Harkness Ballet in NYC. But it was obvious that he was becoming increasingly bored with classical ballet which he felt had stagnated. I remember him joking about "tulle mummies". Never having been a danseur noble himself he turned to choreography of dance-dramas. A trip to Buenos Aires inspired him to make the ballet that became very successful "Tango Buenos Aires 1907" about the very origins of tango. Then he went to Bali to study Balinese dance. He learnt the language, converted to Hiduism and remained there. "It was like coming home, dance was there like a natural part of life", he said. He also said: "Dance in Sweden is considered odd, an alienation. One always has to explain that one is needed, that dance is a necessity". As it is in Swedish I will translate the last passage from renowned dance critic Margareta Sörenson's obituary in Expressen.se "Ulf Gadd received the adulation of the public, but with it also came his own demands. Facing the innermost question we are left without an answer and Ulf Gadd leaves the image of the artist who was successful but who chose to continue searching. That is an image as beautiful as it is bewildering and sad". I leave it to others to write more in detail about Ulf's artistic achievements. For me he was perhaps the greatest friend I ever had and the sense of loss is overwhelming. I feel grateful to modern technique, my first radio interview with him I have preserved and can listen to any time. Thankyou for everything, my dearest Ulf. R.I.P.

It has been announced here that Ms Renee Fleming and the pop group Pink Floyd will be awarded the annual Polar Prize. Havent got the paper in front of me, but the prize sum was astounding.

How very interesting and how lovely! Thank you so much for posting these clips! Toumanova was really beautiful and so young then. Unfortunately I have only seen her in some Hollywood films - well, she was good in those as well.

As a fellow countrywoman I feel obliged to wish you welcome to the board. I am almost a founder member and during these years I have enjoyed BalletAlert tremendously - I normally pay a visit every day and I must be really pressed for time not to visit. There is such a wealth of accumulated knowledge here that it is unbelievable. Hope you will post what you see in Stockholm - I never go there these days and my local opera house (Gothenburg) only does modern which I dont appreciate much.

The book that rg refers to is called "Victorian ballet girl" - it must be very old and only found in antiquarian shops or try your library. I read it ages ago, it is indeed by Ivor Guest and is about Clara Webster who was born 1821. Tragic story, she died very young when her costume caught fire - a fairly common occurance in those days. Hope that helps.

The Championships are over and the gala event was broadcast this afternoon. I have it on DVD - of course it was wonderful. A couple of falls, but no display of nerves as nothing was at stake. To sum up the event - in a personal way I would like to add. I will tell you what appealed to me. First of course I was very glad for the two Swedish guys, they were great. The one Swedish girl participating was competent, but without a doubt she will improve. Norway and Denmark were nowhere to be seen, but Finland! Three really talented girls - no guys though. I assume all Finnish guys do hockey in stead. We had Kiira Korpi whom I have seen before, very classical and calm. Two new ones, Laura Lepisto and Jenni Vähämaa (yes, one writes it like that in Finnish). Jenny is only 15, but if she progresses well and slowly and doesnt get injured, this is a girl to keep one's eyes on for the future. A great talent I would say. Then I must say that I have always been rather fond of Elena Gedevanishvili, but sadly she hasnt progressed much. Then there was a girl from Spain, she was actually born in the Canary Islands, she also showed promise. Good for Spain. And I even saw a Turkish girl, would you believe it. The coverage was reasonable only, yet I saw everything there was to see. And for me, the absolute highlight was that wonderful beautiful, exquisite Masquerade waltz done by Maxim Shabalin and Oksana Domnina (Russia of course). That to me at any rate was perfection So now we have Gothenburg to look forward to 18-23 March! Hope to meet you all then!

Tonight it was the turn of the guys. Unfortunately it was the usual old guys, they did not show any newcomers at all. That, I think, is very interesting when they show some people real low on the list and you sit there and figure who will be a medallist in a few years time. Some of the more notable results:- 1. Thomas Werner - Czech Rep. 2. Stephane Lambiel - Switzerland - liked his flamenco a lot! 4. Sergei Voronsov - Russia - a very stylish tango 6. Adrian Schultheiss - Sweden :blush: - hope I dont sound too patriotic, but he has improved immensely. 7. Kristoffer Berntsson - Sweden Much more confident and assured this season. Good for Sweden, two guys! And what new won confidence they both had, and attack, a new "here am I" attitude. Tomorrow there will be ladies, one Swedish girl I think. Here I am more doubtful, up to now they have always struck me as too timid, almost as though they are apologising for being on the ice. Well, tomorrow we will see.

The European Skating Championships started this week in Zagreb, Croatia. (In Europe, countries change their names faster than one changes ones clothes, so FYI, Zagreb is in the former rep. of Yugoslavia). Unfortunately the TV schedule is not easy to follow, but there have been some fine moments that I have been able to catch. Heavy Russian dominance as always - Plushenko has retired though, he is only doing gala shows these days. The pairs event was won, deservedly so, by the German couple Aliona Sawchenko (although she is Russian, but has moved to Germany) and Robin Szolkowy. Two Swedish guys have really improved enormously since I saw them last, Kristoffer Berntsson and Adrian Schultheiss. No medals, but they were in the top ten. I will report from other events as well during the next few days. The World Championship will take place around Easter in Gothenburg Sweden, I live just a few miles from there so I hope to attend. Any BalletAlerters coming for this? In that case you are most welcome, it would be so nice meeting you.

Further to Dirac's posting on Links about the Royal Swedish Ballet appearing at the gala. Well, I saw it televised, wish I had been there... During an intermission - the banquet is a three hour affair - there is always some kind of divertissement on the magnificent marble staircase in the Town Hall. Some years it has been really unsuitable stuff for the occasion - well, I think this year was no exception. Dont misunderstand me now, the Pippi Longstocking ballet which I admittedly have only seen excerpts of, is great fun and a wonderful matine show for younger children as they are so familiar with the story. But this was not the right venue as the average age of the guests must be over 60. That is not to say that it was not very well done by the opera dancers. Pippi herself - danced by Anna Valev who was perfect for the part. Mr. Nilsson, the monkey was very cute and so was the horse done by two dancers. Must be awfully hard to do the rear end! But to my mind, what made it so touching was that at last Astrid Lindgren was honored in this way. For many years one had hoped that she would get the Nobel Prize for litterature, but no way. Now it is too late as the prize can only be given to living authors.

Ostrich, sorry to disappoint you - forever. If you are content with just reading, it might not be so bad, but the pronounciation! Must admit that I only get reasonably good at it after quite a few "aquavits" However, just consider that you get a limited understanding of two other languages thrown into the bargain as they are fairly similar, Norwegian and Swedish. Why not attending an evening course?

Thanks Dirac, for posting that. I can no longer access The Telegraph - they want money - but somehow a link like this works. Anyway, recently I bought The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath in a book sale. In Swedish unfortunately, but it was cheap. It would be most interesting to read these two books side by side, it is quite a hefty tome, 863 pages. I havent had time to read it yet, just dipped into it here and there. She seemed definitely unhinged and for that matter so did he. Such tragic lives.

Sorry about that - just took it from the top of my head in the excitement. Doris Lessing was actually born in the then Persia, but moved as a small child to Rhodesia -she now lives in London. Anyway, a very astute lady, she is now 88. Hope that she will feel up to attending the ceremony and banquet. My apologies once more

It has just been announced that the South African born writer Doris Lessing has been awarded the Nobel Prize. Just checked the better English papers but they didnt have the news yet, so you are the first to know! Well, that was good news and I think well deserved.

Do wholeheartedly agree with everything Canbelto says - I would especially like to read about Dame Ninette. But there is her memoir "Come dance with me", OK, published in 1957, but IMO the early days were the most interesting in British ballet history. It is in fact quite a good read.