JMcN

BRB has announced a number of promtotions: Jamie Bond, Gaylene Cummerfield, Carol-Anne Miller and Natasha Oughtred to Principal Joseph Caley and Alexander Campbell to Senior Soloist Celine Gittens and Tom Rogers to First Artist All these promotions are well deserved. Dominic Antonucci retired as a Principal Dancer on Friday evening at the Lowry. He has been appointed ballet master. http://brb.org.uk/Promotions09.html

I'm happy to report that Celine has been promoted to First Artist within Birmingham Royal Ballet. Celine has had a terrific year so far, starting when she performed Diana in David Bintley's wonderful new production of Sylvia. On the midscale tour she performed (very movingly) the central duet in David Bintley's Dance House (with Tom Rogers) to great effect and also a leading role in Elite Syncopations. She is wonderful to watch in performance and all her fans are hoping she will get many more leading roles.

I was fortunate to see two performances of this programme on Saturday 20th June. I saw Mozartiana for the first time on the midscale tour a couple of weeks ago and, while I enjoyed the performances it did not leave a great impression on me. I must say that I enjoyed it more on the bigger stage at the Hippodrome. The cast was led by Momoko Hirata and Alexander Campbell at both performances. They were absolutely terrific together. Momoko is a tiny dancer, beautiful dancer who fills the stage with her presence. She was absolutely sublime. Alexander is another dancer with an enormous stage presence and they really both sparkled. Jonathan Caguoia danced the Gigue with verve and brought such a warmth to the stage that ir was easy to forget about the "Little Lord Fauntleroy" costume he had to wear. I just adore Ashton's Two Pigeons. Yes, I know the story is silly and sentimental but Ashton knew how to create characters that the audience can believe in and care about. I know it's a ballet with a lot of humour and a happy ending but I always end up weeping buckets! On Saturday afternoon we saw Natasha Oughtred and Joseph Caley in the leading roles (I understand that they made their debuts the night before). Their performance was exquisite. Natasha was impish and flirtatious but so broken when the young man went off with the gypsies. Joseph was both tender and exasperated. You could tell that his infatuation with the gypsy was just that - a passing infatuation. Both these young dancers gave intelligent readings of their characters. Carole-Ann Miller was splendid as the gypsy, leaping and shimmying around the stage - it was easy to see why the young man became so easily infatuated with her. Her lover was a swash-buckling Matthew Lawrence who threw himself into the role with gusto. The final, reconciliation duet between Natasha and Joseph was incredibly moving and I'm surprised I saw any of it I was crying so much! The magical evening performance was led by Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker. IMHO it was a masterclass in how this work should be performed. These two experienced performers really spark off each other and are a joy to behold. Elisha Willis and Dominic Antonucci were splendid as the gypsy lovers. My eyes took their second pounding of the day! Saturday was a most memorable day with two performances to savour.

NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE 40 YEARS ON This year, 2009, Northern Ballet Theatre celebrates 40 years. The Company was conceived, as Northern Dance Theatre, by Canadian Laverne Meyer and was originally based in Manchester. The first performances were given at the end of November 1969. Robert de Warren succeeded Meyer as artistic director in 1976, renaming the company Northern Ballet Theatre.. The first performance I ever saw was de Warren’s production of Othello at the end of 1985. Christopher Gable was appointed the third AD after creating the role of Lowry in Gillian Lynne’s television ballet A Simple Man. This work used the dancers of NBT and was subsequently performed live by them, with Gable continuing to perform Lowry. After funding issues the Company moved to Halifax and is now based in Leeds. Gable’s untimely death in 1998 led to an unsettled period and new artistic director Stefano Giannetti stayed only a year with the company. Another Canadian, David Nixon, was appointed in 2001 and is still incumbent. His directorship has brought a new era of success and stability and the company has gone from strength to strength. A new home is currently being built to house both NBT and Phoenix Dance Company and should be ready for occupation next year. So how do you plan a celebratory year and what do you include in it? I would imagine that it would be very expensive to mount any of the works performed in the first 20 years of the Company’s existence so this year’s programme has consisted of seminal works from the Gable and Nixon years plus a couple of new (to the company) goodies on a mixed programme. The year opened in the company’s home town, Leeds, with a mixed programme consisting of La Bayadere (Kingdom of the Shades), Angels in the Architecture and A Simple Man. I reported on that programme in a separate thread earlier in the year: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=29065 The following week saw a revival of David Nixon’s Swan Lake. It could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as conventional but I love it. It is set in New England in the last summer before the First World War and concentrates on a love triangle between Antony, Simon and Odilia. Antony has a fear of water and obsession with swans since his brother drowned when they were young children. The first scene shows a beach party with the young me arriving on bicycles and playing football before getting ready for a swim. His parents and some young ladies arrive with a picnic. This scene is really great fun. All the guests depart except for Simon and Odilia and it is then that we realise how angst ridden Antony is. Both Odilia and Simon try to get close to him and he rejects them both. As they go, swans start to appear out of the reeds and he is captivated by them. At the start of act 2, Antony’s mother and Simon are trying to persuade him to get ready for a party. Eventually he agrees. The party scene is very lively and there is a superb Neapolitan for two male dancers - very fast and stylish and with elements of humour. Antony is drawn to Simon and is on the verge of a public indiscretion when he realises the enormity of what is happening. He hastily proposes to Odilia, who is thrilled to accept. At the start of Act 3, Antony and Odilia are unhappy in their marriage. Simon is there, trying to be a friend to both. Eventually it becomes too much for Antony and he runs away to the lake and his final tragic destiny. The final scenes in the lake, where he drowns surrounded by the swans are visually stunning and very moving. For the second half of the Spring tour we have been treated to Massimo Morricone/Christopher Gable’s production of Romeo and Juliet and David Nixon’s Wuthering Heights. Romeo and Juliet was made in 1991 and is a landmark and signature ballet of the Company, still enjoying huge popularity.. The action is distilled into 3 enthralling acts and it is heart-stopping to watch. Using the familiar Prokofiev score, it follows the standard scenario. It was the Company’s first major collaboration with set and costume designer Lez Brotherston. The action takes place in sultry Verona during the party/festival season giving a claustrophobic feel to the crowd scenes and allowing for a very dramatic end to act 2. The set comprises broken Roman walls and pillars that can be moved to create various settings. The wall at the back carries the (broken) words “Amor vincit omnia”. Morricone has created some beautiful and sensual choreography for the star-crossed lovers and the crowd scenes are exciting to watch. This production gives much more of a character to Paris than many and the tragedy becomes just as much his as the Capulets and Montagues. The fathers reconcile in the tomb just as the curtain drops. Wuthering Heights was created by David Nixon in 2002. It tells the story of the Earnshaws and Lintons to the point of Cathy’s death. It is a really intelligent distillation of all the important action from the story. The ballet opens with “old” Heathcliff raging on the Moors and remembering his life with Cathy. As he remembers the action starts in the Heights with the arrival of Mr Earnshaw with the foundling Heathcliff. After a confrontation with Hindley, who is jealous because he feels he is being supplanted by Heathcliff we see young Cathy and Heathcliff becoming inseparable and spending most of their time exploring the moors. Nixon is very clever in portraying the innocent childhood love transforming into something more adult. As the children tire and lie down they roll off into either wing and the adult Cathy and Heathcliff roll on. It is a magical moment. Throughout the piece there are references back to the youngsters. There are some very dramatic duets for Heathcliff and Cathy and Heathcliff and Isabella . I would almost describe it as a chamber ballet as the only real sequences for the corps are a badminton party at the Lintons, where Edgar first encounters Cathy, and the wedding of Edgar and Cathy. We see the adult Hindley descending into alcoholism and constantly humiliating and degrading Heathcliff. The injured Cathy bcome enamoured of the wealth at the Lintons. Act 1 ends with her homecoming and dismay at how down-at-heel the Heights and her family seems. Heathcliff has been very excited about her return and feels that she has betrayed him. The act ends with him running off. Act 2 starts with the wedding party and Heathcliff’s return. Isabella thinks she his seducing him as he plans his revenge. For me, one of the most exciting sections of the ballet happens when Cathy is sunk into despair in her apparently loveless marriage. She and Heathcliff have a confrontation that is enthralling to watch. As he leaves, she remembers her childhood and returns to the moors where she encounters Heathcliff. They have a powerfully emotional reconciliation but Isabella sees and separates them. Cathy dashes off but has become ill. Heathcliff appears again as she is dying. The final scene mirrors the first with the aged Heathcliff prowling the moors and dying there in the snow as the young Cathy and Heathcliff dance off into eternity. Since his arrival in 2001 David Nixon has continued to raise the bar on the technical standard of the dancers and we have a company of splendid dancers. NBT has a very strong identity as a company telling story ballets with a real dramatic flair and, as you would expect, as well as being good dancers we have some exceptional actors too. This year I have seen a number of truly memorable performances of all the works on display. I was particularly bowled over by one performance of R&J in Manchester led by Pippa Moore and Darren Goldsmith. This weekend I have seen three outstanding performances of Wuthering Heights in Llandudno. On Thursday night, I did not see Kenneth Tindall dancing Heathcliff on stage - I was watching Heathcliff. His Cathy was Keiko Amemori and she was a delight as the wild child turned despairing adult. Together they were dynamite. (They performed the duet from Madame Butterfly at the Miami festival in 2008 so some readers may have had a chance to see them). The other leads this week were Georgina May and Tobias Batley. On the Saturday evening they gave an enthralling performance of wild abandon and received a well-deserved standing ovation. Of the Edgars, I particularly enjoyed newcomer Yoshi Arai who brought a real sense of weakness and vulnerability to the role. Ashley Dixon and John Hull were also excellent. Julie Charlet and Hannah Bateman were both wonderful in the role of Isabella. Christie Duncan was a delight in the role of young Cathy. Wuthering Heights is a wonderfully dramatic piece of ballet theatre and I am pleased to report that it is back in the Autumn. A holiday in Bradford is a really enticing proposition! As you will have realised we have got Wuthering Heights to look forward to in the Autumn as well as (sadly in Leeds only) David Nixon;s thought-provoking take on Dracula. Peter Pan and another signature work from the Gable era - Christmas Carol - end the year. The performance in Leeds on 5th December is an alumni performance and there is a celebratory gala on 12th December. Northern Ballet Theatre is celebrating in style and is looking better than ever after 40 years. NBT's website can be found at http://northernballettheatre.co.uk/

BRB have been posting rehearsal video footage on their website. The most recent is Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker rehearsing Two Pigeons. On another thread, I had mentioned a most memorable performance of Two Pigeons with Nao and Robert. I was even choking up watching this rehearsal! Do look at the video clips. Here is the URL for the company's website: http://brb.org.uk/

It has been reported that Alexandra Ansanelli is retiring from dance at the end of the current Royal Ballet season. There is a nice article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/arts/dan...6ansa.html?_r=1

Peter Schaufuss' revival for LFB in 1985 was the first balletic Romeo and Juliet I ever saw, just as I was getting really interested in watching ballet; I've loved it ever since. I was fortunate to see many performances between 1985 and 1991 or 2. My first R&J were Matz Skoog and Lucia Truglia at a Saturday matinee performance at the London Coliseum. Trinidad Sevillano was one of my very favourite interpreters of Juliet with both Matz Skoog and Patrick Armand. A friend of mine saw the original Danish cast at the Edinburgh Festival in 1956. I love the simplicity of this production, where Ashton concentrates on the love story and the crowd scenes are not too crowded. I think R&Js duets are absolutely ravishing. I would love to see a revival of this production.

We saw this production in Paris a couple of years ago, and it was shown at the Garnier. The lighting was fine and seemed quite bright to us. The friend I was with and another friend had seen it about 18 years earlier at a ballet festival in Copenhagen and they had never stopped going on about it since! My friend and I saw two performances. On the first night, I thought it was pleasant and that was about it. On the second night we saw Agnes Le Testu and guest Jiri Bubenicek. It was one of the most unforgettable nights I have ever spent in a theatre. I couldn't really hear the music at the end because I and everyone around me was sobbing. We sobbed all through the curtain calls and standing ovation (I gather it is quite unusual to have a standing ovation in Paris; I think the technical crew gave up on the audience in the end because they brought the house lights up and left the curtain up - but we still wouldn't leave!) and all the way back to our hotel. To this day, I can't quite fathom how someone standing at the side of the stage reading a book could have such a profound effect on me. What a shame this cast wasn't filmed.

Steven Wheeler gave his final performance with NBT on Saturday evening in Sheffield. The company was showing a mixed programme and Steven performed "Man in a Quandry" in one of the company's signature works "A Simple Man" (based on the life and works of LS Lowry). During the curtain calls, a presentation was made to Steven and David Nixon gave a speech thanking Steven for his contribution to the company and celebrating his achievements. Steven is such a strong actor that it can be easy to forget what a beautiful dancer he is. He is tall, with beautiful and elegant lines and very deft. He has created many character-based roles over the years and David particularly highlighted the role of wardrobe master in his MSND and Sharpless in Madame Butterfly. He was also the most memorable Lord Capulet - his acting was so vivid that you could feel his pain as he is trying to force Juliet into a political marriage with Paris and his grief at her "death" was heartbreaking. Even before this he was a very memorable Rothbart in an earlier version of Swan Lake and the Don in Don Quixote; the NBT production had a much bigger role for the Don as it presented three episodes from the book. Steven's partnering in the Vision scene was exemplary and beautiful to watch. All his myriad fans will miss him greatly. Very best wishes to Steven for the future.

Carlos Acosta will be appearing at the Lowry (in Salford) for three nights, 09-11 July 2009, as part of the Manchester International Festival. The tickets are already on sale. Here is the link for the details: http://www.mif.co.uk/events/carlos-acosta-2/

There is the announcement on the BRB website that Alain Dubreuil, Ballet Master, has left Birmingham Royal Ballet after 35 years. This is the link: http://www.brb.org.uk/masque/index.htm?act...son&urn=552 Alain was still dancing principal roles when I first started ballet-watching and I remember being particularly bowled over by him as the Prodigal Son at a performance at Sadlers Wells. He has always supported the BRB Friends and has given us many entertaining talks as well as taking class and rehearsals that we have enjoyed watching over the years. It has been a privilege to see him passing on his vast knowledge. I would like to send Alain my very best wishes for the future. Janet McNulty

NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE – TRIPLE BILL – LEEDS – FEBRUARY 2009 Northern Ballet Theatre celebrates its 40th anniversary in November 2009 and much of the year consists of a back catalogue of favourites. They have started their Spring Season with a triple bill that climaxes with the seminal work “A Simple Man”, based on the life of LS Lowry. The programme starts with two works new to NBT. NBT have become known over the past 20 years for developing full length narrative ballets, often based on literature, and producing their own take on the classics. How would they fare with a very traditional production of The Kingdom of the Shades (Act 2 from La Bayadere)? Ballet mistress Yoko Ichino has given us a terrific and very traditional production and the performance I saw was exquisite. The shivers were running down my spine from the second the first Shade set foot on the ramp and the shivers continued to the end. The Shades were immaculate – in perfect harmony and with all their arabesques and arms uniform. The lines on the stage were dead straight. John Hull and Keiko Amemori led the cast. Keiko was delicate and fragile as Nikiya. John has got a wonderful soft leap, and seems to hang in the air forever. They were a very well matched partnership. The three variations were danced by Pippa Moore, Georgina May and Dreda Blow and they were all super. After the interval we were treated to Angels in the Architecture by American choreographer Mark Godden. It is based on the every-day lives of the Shakers and heavily featured brooms and chairs. It is performed to Apalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland. The choreography is fluid and elegant, containing a mix of ensemble pieces and duets for the six men and six women. Some of the movements were reminiscent of every day tasks in the fields and home and others of birds flying over the fields. I feel this is a work that will bear repeated viewing and I am very much looking forward to seeing it again later in the season. A Simple Man completed the programme. This work was commissioned by the BBC to celebrate a Lowry anniversary in the late 1980s. It was the start of the late Christopher Gable’s association with the Company as he created the role of Lowry for choreographer Gillian Lynne. The work is based on his tense relationship with his mother and his painting everyday scenes all around him. The cast evoke a number of paintings (many of which can be seen at the Lowry Arts Centre in Salford) and occasionally the actual paintings are projected onto the back-cloth. The choreography for the corps is quite stylised and features much use of clogs, which would have been the standard footwear for many of the people portrayed by the artist. Darren Goldsmith was magnificent as Lowry. Nathalie Leger gave a luminous performance as his elegant and cold mother. It was a very poignant performance for many long-time fans of the company. Overall, I found this to be a very well balanced programme that allows the talent of the dancers to shine through in a variety of styles. It was a terrific evening.

Stephen Wicks and Mark Welford, ex-BRB, opened a very posh (and very attractive) florists in Covent Garden. I think they also do after-dinner talks combining dance and floristry experiences.

Congratulations to Sebastian Klobborg on his promotion. I very much enjoyed his interpretation of Romeo on Saturday night and on this viewing the promotion is very well deserved. (He was still shown as being a corps member in the programme but I expect the programees were printed ages before the promotion was announced.)

Northern Ballet Theatre has received the Patron’s Award of the 2008 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. The Award is chosen by Dame Beryl Grey, Patron of the National Dance Awards. Here is the link to the Company's News Blog: http://northernballettheatre.wordpress.com/ NBT tours the length and breadth of Britain more than any of the other main companies and, IMHO, this award is very well deserved. Congratulations to all at NBT for again being recognised for the company's commitment to spreading the joy of ballet throughout the UK.

January - a super photograph of Kyril Burlov from Rambert February - Lilia Kopylova and Darren Bennet (Latin American champions but best known in the UK for Strictly Come Dancing - both have won with their celebrity partners in previous series) March - The Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs April - Siobhan Davies Dance May - EADA (The English Amateur Dancesport Association) June - a delectable photograph of Nao Sakuma (BRB) in Two Pigeons July - Diversions Dance Co September - Scottish Ballet October - Richard Alston Dance Co November - a striking image of Northern Ballet Theatre's Romeo and Juliet (Capulet Ball) December - English National Ballet January 2010 - Hofesh Shechter The calendar is issued to subscribers of the magazine. I'm not sure if it can be bought. It's terrific!

Birmingham Royal Ballet has forged close links in recent years with Elmhurst; indeed Elmhurst moved to Birmingham a few years ago. Desmond Kelly, who recently retired from BRB (he was the Assistant Artistic Director), is now Director at Elmhurst. The company already has several Elmhurst graduates - most notably for me Laura-Jane Gibson, James Barton and Nathanael Skelton. With an interesting coincidence of timing, I noticed an bulletin on the BRB web-site today announcing that Elmhurst is holding open auditions in China while BRB is on tour there. Here's the link: http://www.brb.org.uk/4994.html

I think Memo has made an excellent point. I've just had a quick look at the BRB web-site. At senior level one of the current eight principals is British-born alongside 10 out of 18 soloists and 19 out of 32 first artists and artists. I personally don't mind a person's country of origin, or (to a lesser extent) their training background. What matters more to me is the loyalty they show their company. All the long-standing principals within BRB have devoted the bulk, if not all, of their careers to BRB and that matters more to me than an accident of birth.

Nanarina said "As in life, some people show their age more than others, they also retain their stamina. And of course their acting skills and makeup help them to play certain roles. But I find it rather off putting when you get an older dancer acting as a younger person, especially if they look old for their age. You know the rather unkind saying they look like "Mutton dressed up as Lamb". One of the best and most convincing portrayals of Juliet I ever saw was Marion Tait towards the end of her career as a principal dancer with BRB. I was sitting on the front row of the Birmingham Hippodrome and within minutes of her first appearance I was convinced she was a young teenager. It was a profoundly moving performance that I will never forget. Several years later, in her current role as BRB ballet mistress, she was coaching Rachel Peppin in the balcony scene at a Friends' rehearsal. She started to demonstrate the moves at the start, where Juliet is mainly entwining her arms. All of a sudden we were not watching Marion Tait in a track suit - we were watching Juliet - sheer magic. A long time ago a friend told me that she thought you needed a certain maturity to act young and, over the years, I have come to the conclusion that this is true.

Alternative ending for Raymonda: J de B is a wimp and Abderam is fun so Raymonda jilts J de B and runs off to live happily ever after with Abderam! (Thus shortening a three hour ballet to 2 hours!).

David Bintley/Galina Samsova's production of Giselle for BRB has a couple of dogs coming on with the hunters (I think they may have been Salukis but I'm not an expert). At some theatres Bathilde arrives on a horse! David Nixon's production of Peter Pan for NBT has a dancer portraying (very convincingly) Nana the Dog-nanny.

Northern Ballet Theatre is 40 years old in 2009. Two special celebrations are planned so far. On 5th December 2009 there will be an "alumni" performance of "A Christmas Carol" and on 12 December 2009 there will be a celebratory gala. Both these performances will be at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. Their website is http://www.northernballettheatre.co.uk/ - keep an eye on it for details!

Birmingham Royal Ballet is touring to China in January 2009, performing in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. They are performing Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet and Bintley's Beauty and the Beast. The tour schedule can be found on their web-site: http://www.brb.org.uk/masque/index.htm?act...month&srn=1

David Nixon created a new production of the Nutcracker for NBT, which premiered in Manchester in October 2007. This production is an absolute delight and a real treat for all the family. David has set the production in Regency England and the set and costumes are just devine! The Edwards family are preparing for a Christmas Party - there is Clara, her older sister Louise and brother Frederick as well as parents and grand parents. A late guest to the party is the benevolent but slighly mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer, who has travelled extensively. He brings life-size automatons to the party - some French dolls and a Chinese doll. He presents Clara wth a Nutcracker Doll. When the party is over, Clara comes to retrieve the Nutcracker doll and is surrounded by mice. Drosselmeyer appears and calls on the Nutcracker to come and save her. During the battle, Clara saves the Nutcracker by throwing a Christmas parcel at the Mouse King, whom the Nutcracker is then able to beat. The Nutcracker has turned into a young man and he leads Clara to a winter wonderland full of dancing snow flakes. Drosselmeyer appears with a sleigh and they ride of into the interval. In Act 2 they arrive in a Kingdom dominated by a giant tea caddy. Clara and the Nutcracker are introduced to Sugar Plum and her Cavalier, who are her older sister and her suitor. We then have the usual divertisements and grand pas before Clara wakes up in her father's arms. She tries to tell him what has happened but he tells her she was dreaming and sends her back to bed. As she walks off stage Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker open the door and wave to her. When I go to see an NBT performance, I always know I am in for a treat. They dance as a company and all the dancers give 110%. They all have strong stage personalities and breathe life into even the most minor of characters. Over the past few weeks I have been able to see seven Nutcracker performances and they have all been excellent with two particularly standing out in my memory. On a Saturday afternoon in Bath, I was most fortunate to see Christie Duncan and Ashley Dixon as Clara and the Nutcracker with Martha Leebolt and Martin Bell as Sugar Plum and her Cavalier. It was an afternoon of sheer magic as was evidenced by the oohs and aahs of the audience all around me. As with all the company these four dancers are excellent actors too. Ashely Dixon has a wonderful soft leap and is a lovely deft dancer, he wonderfully complements Christie Duncan's charming and vivacious performance. Martin Bell has a commanding stage presence and has become unmissable over the last couple of years. He is a perfect foil for Martha Leebolt. She is one of those dancers who is able to imbue even the tiniest gesture with meaning. On Christmas Eve in Leeds we were treated to another magical performance by Pippa Moore and Chris Hinton-Lewis as Clara and the Nutcracker, with Keiko Amemori and Hiro Takhashi as Sugar Plum and her Cavalier. Pippa Moore is just sublime in the role of Clara - she is a convincing young girl who still plays with dolls but suddenly transmogrifies into a young lady on the brink of her first romance. On Wednesday afternoon, you could actually see this moment happening as she was gently set down from a lift - it was one of those spine tingling moments that you will never forget. Chris Hinton-Lewis is everything you would expect the Nutcracker Prince to be - a fighting man capable of rescuing a young girl in distress but also achingly romantic in the duets with Clara. Keiko Amemori must have one of the smiliest and expressive faces around and she just radiated joy as Sugar Plum. Hiro Takahashi is a virtuoso dancer who gave a splendid and exciting performance as her Cavalier. In various performances Kenneth Tindall made the most of the Mouse King role - he teased and goaded the soldiers - waggling his bottom and whirling his tail at them in a performance that was very funny and enjoyable to watch. Darren Goldsmith dances the role of Drosselmeyer with gusto and huge enjoyment, he really was the puppet-master of the whole performance. Nathalie Leger is a hoot as the grandmother who is slightly out of control with festive spirit, chasing after the butler and generally causing winces from her family. The variations in act 2 are all attractive but it is the Chinese Dance, with its overtones of breakdancing, and the Russian Dance that raise the most cheers - at least until Sugar Plum comes on! This production is a real treat for all the family and I would highly recommend it.

Just an update on Desire. She retired from dancing in 2007 and is now a ballet mistress at Alberta Ballet, where her husband Jonathan Ollivier is dancing. All their fans at NBT still miss them and send them our best wishes.