JMcN

I adore Two Pigeons - it's a real Ashton masterpiece with just about the most moving duet you can imagine. I first saw it at a Christmas season at Sadler's Wells in around 1989/90 and have loved it ever since. Although it has a happy outcome, most people I know are reduced to sobbing emotional wrecks by the end! Someone once asked why everyone was crying when the ballet had a happy ending - and the answer is, of course, that it's exactly because it is happy. The reconciliation duet at the end it just sublime but I can't exactly tell you why. It is very gentle and there are no spectacular moves but it just moves your soul from A-Z Two performances from BRB last time round stand out in my mind. One was a Saturday afternoon in Birmingham with Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker. We couldn't hear the wonderful, soaring music at the end because everyone was sobbing so loudly. Then later in the year at Sadler's Wells, Ambra Vallo and Chi Cao had a similar effect. I have seen the pigeons misbehaving occasionally. I remember a performance in Plymouth when Three Pigeons were sitting on the Parisian rooves and two of them were being very naughty indeed! Most of the time, however, they behave impeccably on stage. BRB are doing some wonderful mixed programmes in their 2008/9 season. Highlights for me are Two Pigeons, Dream and Enigma Variations (all Ashton); Galantries and Dance House (David Bintley), Serenade (George Balanchine). I'm currently stockpiling paper hankies!

I saw Jesus Pastor dancing with Scottish Ballet some years ago and was absolutely bowled over by him. I've just read on the Ballet de Espana thread that he is now back in Spain. Does anyone know if he is dancing with a company - I'd love to see him on stage again!

When I had been watching ballet for about a year, Katherine Healy (with Trinidad Sevillano too) joined London Festival Ballet as a principal dancer at the age of 16. I think she and Trinidad were touted as the modern age's equivalent of the "baby ballerinas". She was with the company for two or three years and I always enjoyed her performances. She seemed far more mature than her years.

I agree about the Owen Wilson look - all he needs is the broken nose!!!

Northern Ballet Theatre presented David Nixon's glorious ballet version of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Manchester last week. I was lucky enough to catch five performances. The people of Athens have been transposed to a post-war era ballet company rehearsing Romeo and Juliet prior to travelling to Edinburgh on the sleeper train. The evening starts before it starts as the dancers are on stage warming up and rehearsing as we enter the auditorium to find our seats. It is definitely worth arriving early. The ballet proper starts with the end of the class, moving into a rather disastrous rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet. Theseus is the Artistic Director of the company, Puck is the ballet master and Hippolyta is the senior ballerina at the end of her career but not wanting to give up. The young lovers are four young principal dancers and the technical crew form the basis of the Rude Mechanicals. During the end of the class and the rehearsal the characters are established and there is some very witty choreography - especially for Demetrius and Helena and Demetrius and Hermia. The dancers gradually filter away and the scene moves to Kings Cross Station. The dancers arrive and start embarking, which is a queue for more comedy moments as the rivalries surface and the company tries to make the most of the cramped space on board. This act ends with Puck ensuring all the company are tucked up in bed as the train moves off. The costumes are all shades of black, white and grey and very much in the style of Dior New Look. David Nixon designed the wonderful costumes for this production. Act 2 is the Dream sequence as most of us would recognise it with Titania and Oberon sniping at each other and the lovers getting deliciously confused. In contrast to Acts 1 and 3, the costumes are a riot of colour. Nixon has also used a role reversa theme to illustrate some of the themes. For example, in Act 1 Theseus is trying to persuade Hippolyta to give up dancing and in the Dream sequence he is trying to persuade her to continue. The much putupon Assistant Stage Manager rules the roost and bosses the rest of the crew around. The plot and the comedy is advanced through the choreography - there is an incredibly funny sequence for the lovers with Helena chasing Demetrius and losing him. When Lysander and Demetrius both end up chasing Helena and Hermia is trying to work out what is going on there is the most amazing tangle of bodies that causes gales of laughter within the audience. All is eventually sorted and Oberon and Titania are reconciled with a beautifully romantic duet. Act 3 covers the arrival in Edinburgh, the end of the performance of Romeo and Juliet and the final celebration. As the company have been touring this revival since the Autumn they have really got into their stride and all the performances I saw fizzed and sparkled. NBT mostly concentrates on story ballets and all the dancers are strong dramatically and they all look as though they are enjoying themselves immensely. I saw two and a bit casts over the five performances. Keiko Amemori is just delicious as Hippolyta, strongly partnered by Hiro Takahashi as Theseus. This is one of his best roles (he created it four years ago) and it is the role where he finally realised his full dramatic potential. The other partnership I saw in these roles was Martha Leebolt and Martin Bell. Martha gives a multi-layered and intelligent performance as Hippolyta - she is absolutely radiant in the role. She is absolutely regal as Titania in the Dream. Martin has a terrific stage presence and absolutely commands the stage throughout. It is easy to see why the wardrobe master withered under his angry stare! They are fabulous together and I was particularly moved by their reconciliation duet on Saturday afternoon. Georgina May is a very expressive dancer and her facial expressions were a joy to behold when she was trying to ward off the unwelcome attentions of Demetrius. Lori Gilchrist was new to me in the role and she was also a delight. Their Lysanders (Kenneth Tindall and Yi Song respectively) were both dashingly romantic. Chris Hinton-Lewis and Tobias Batley both showed their perfect comic timing as Demetrius with Pippa Moore and Christie Duncan managing to be both hilarious and touching as the love struck Helena. At one performance Michela Paolacci and David Ward were also excellent as Helena and Demetrius. Victoria Sibson is as surprise choice as Puck, but on reflection the role of Puck could be considered androgynous and she is absolutely brilliant in the role. Ashley Dixon, in the same role, is particularly mischievous. This really is a spledid production that demands repeated viewings and I can't wait to see it again in Llandudno in a couple of weeks.

I've just seen Anette performing Kitri (with Joel Carreno as Basil) in Copenhagen. I've posted some thoughts on the "Recent Performances" forum. Needless to say she was magnificent!

The Royal Danish Ballet has recently taken Alicia Alonso's NBC production of Don Quixote. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the performance on 25h April. When we got to the theatre I must admit to being a bit miffed that we would be seeing guest artists in the roles of Kitri and Basil. That changed when I picked up a cast sheet and realised that we would be seeing Anette Delgado and Joel Carreno from NBC. The RDB has maintained the set and costumes from its previous production and they are very handsome. I did notice that they use "cooler" colours than the more vivid ones I have seen in past productions but. for me, they still evoked the Spain of my imagination. I adore the "Bournonville style" and thought that its virtuosity would well suit this production. In that assumption I had overlooked the differences in the styles and while the Danish dancers obviously enjoyed dancing in this ballet it did not always seem to sit comfortably with them. Sebastian Klobborg was an elegant Espada who tried to give a flavour of toreador arrogance and had some lovely flourishes. He looked as though he was having a whale of a time with the role. His Mercedes was Amy Watson, who was deliciously flirtatious. Yao Wei was brilliant as the Queen of the Driads in Act 2. One of the highlights was the entrance of the toreadors in Act 1 with all the young Danish dancers making the most of their opportunity. Erling Eliasson was a gentle and dignified Don Quixote, giving a beautifully subtle characterisation. Anette Delgado and Joel Carreno were magnificent from their first entrances right through to the standing ovation at the end. I had seen and adored them in Giselle in Paris last year and their performances in this ballet were a delicious contrast. Anette Delgado has got such a formidable technique and in her characterisation of Kitri she was all flashing eyes and flirtatiousness. Joel Carreno was a gently flirtatious Basil, deeply in love with Kitri and with a smile that lit up the whole auditorium. One of the things I really love about these dancers is the fact that they have the technique to roll out the party pieces with apparent ease but without over-egging the pudding and without over-shadowing the rest of the dancers. It means that we see and enjoy the complete performance and not just a series of tricks. I'd seen NBC perform this production in London a couple of years ago so was ready for the show-stopping one-handed lifts in Act 1. It was great hearing everyone in the audience gasp in amazement, especially after the second one when Joel Carreno virtually ran across the stage with Anette Delgado still held way above his head. The grand pas in Act 3 was similarly spectacular. I would love to know how they achieve the gravity-defying leap into the fish dive! At the end of the grand pas, some of the audience gave a standing ovation, which I have never seen before during a performance. Needless to say that at the end of the performance the entire audience was on its feet cheering and all the Danish artists were applauding these two wonderful dancers. It had turned out to be a fabulous evening.

Are the tickets on sale for Madrid yet?

Iain Mackay (principal at Birmingham Royal Ballet) is joining Angel Corella's Ballet de Espana as a principal dancer. http://www.brb.org.uk/4441.html Is there any other news of company members yet?

Here is the link to Chi Cao's biography on the BRB web-site. There's a good photo gallery, including one shot of Oliver Hindle's Summer (from Four Seasons). This is reminiscent of a photograph on Li CunXin's website. http://www.brb.org.uk/masque/index.htm?act...son&urn=162

All my friends know that tears leap from my eyes at the drop of a hat both from seeing a tragedy such as R&J and from something that is happy (Two pigeons) and/or beautiful (rose adagio). Some performances have me sobbing uncontrollably (which can be very embarrassing!): Robert Parker and Nao Sakuma in Two Pigeons Carolin Cavallo and Andrew Bowman (RDB) in Manon (March 2006, Copenhagen) Desire Samaii and Daniel de Andrade in Madame Butterfly Eva Evdokimova and Alexander Sombart in Onegin Agnes Le Testu and Jiri Bubenicek in Lady of the Camelias In the final of the listed performances I started sobbing towards the beginning of the last act (I had never realised that someone just standing at the side of the stage could have such an effect) and continued right through to the end, plus all the curtain calls and standing ovation and all the way back to our hotel. My friend was similarly affected and we couldn't speak for about an hour afterwards. We had seen the previous evening's performance and, while I very much enjoyed it, it did not have the same emotional impact so this was definitely down to the leading dancers. The performance occurred in Paris in July 2006.

Some of my favourites are: The Grand Pas from Sleeping Beauty Oberon and Titania's duet from The Dream Butterfly and Pinkerton from David Nixon's Madame Butterfly Cinderella and Prince (I'm an ordinary man) from Christopher Gable's Cinderella All the above are, to me, so beautiful that they bring tears to my eyes And finally the greatest and happiest tear-jerker of them all - the final duet from Two Pigeons (especially as danced by Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker on a sunny afternoon in Birmingham a couple of years ago and in the same weekend to similar effect by Ambra Vallo and Chi Cao) Does this cover just the pdd itself or particular performances that have elevated the dance to the status of unforgettable. In this case I would also add two perfornances of the final duet in Manon - one danced on a Bank Holiday afternoon by Alina Cojacaru and Johan Kobborg and the other on a cold February evening by Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman.

Birmingham Royal Ballet have issued a press release about principal dancer Chi Cao starring as the adult Li in the film. http://www.brb.org.uk/4433.html

Sorry - I can't get the second link to make sense. Here is the full URL: http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/dancing-el...3788344468.html

Some more info and casting for the film: http://www.fab.org.au/events/maos-last-dan...production-news SMH article

I've just come across this article which gives some interesting casting: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...5003420,00.html

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET – SWAN LAKE – BELFAST 08-09/02/2008 When I saw BRB’s Spring Tour schedule a couple of months ago, the prospect of a short trip to Belfast seemed such a good idea that a friend and I went ahead and booked! BRB were performing Sir Peter Wright’s production of Swan Lake in the delightful Grand Opera House, a more intimate setting than we are sometimes used to seeing them in. We really were very close on the front row of the stalls. This is a really handsome production with sets of black and silver (brightened with red and copper highlights in Act 3) and uses the traditional choreography. The opening scene is of the funeral procession for the King and sets the stage for Siegfried’s melancholy that his companion Benno is trying to alleviate by organising a gathering for his birthday. The one time we see the Prince happy is when he is presented with the crossbow. The Queen is not amused when she arrives and tells Siegfried in no uncertain terms that he is to get married and she shows him portraits of potential brides. This heightens the sense of melancholy and even the arrival of the courtesans cannot lift his mood. The flight of swans across the lake is imagined by mime and Siegfried and Benno set off to hunt them. There is a pause between Acts 1 and 2, and Act 2 is the very beautiful and traditional version with 18 swans. There are three Princesses and their attendants in Act 3, Hungarian, Polish and Italian as well as a pas de six for Benno and five dancers and the black swan pdd. I always find Act 4 very moving. The curtain opens on a sea of mist from which the swans rise up. Even though I know they are there, I never fail to get a tingle down my spine as they appear and the gasps of amazement around me would indicate that most of the audience were similarly thrilled. Odette appears and laments her betrayal before being prevented from killing herself by Von Rothbart and the two leading swans lead her away as the music starts to soar and the distraught Siegfried runs on to find her, There are some beautiful patterns formed by the swans, including a v-shaped wedge that is so typical of the migratory swans we see flying overhead near where I live. Odette and Siegfried have a battle with Von Rothbart and their love starts to destroy his power. Odette signifies that she is going to kill herself and runs off to throw herself into the lake. Siegfried has a further duel with Von Rothbart before he is able to free himself to join Odette in death. Benno arrives and as the swans are watching the lake and we see Odette and Siegfried‘s souls joined Benno brings the Prince’s body from the lake. The Company were on splendid form throughout, with the corps of swans outstanding in all three performances we saw. We were lucky to see a variety of the dancers performing as the Princesses, as leading swans, in the pas de six, Neapolitan and Spanish dances. We also saw three casts in the leading roles – all bringing something different and all superb. On Friday night we were privileged to see Nao Sakuma and Chi Cao as Odette/Odile and Siegfried give a sensational performance. These two dancers are supremely classical and also give a tremendous depth of characterisation. Nao was so fragile and terrified in the white acts – you could almost feel her heart beating the way you would a sparrow’s caught in your hand. This was a total contrast to her manipulative vamp of Act 3. Chi was very angst-ridden and melancholy as Siegfried, really looking as though he had the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders. Again this was a stark contrast to his joy at meeting the false Odette at the ball. Both danced with magnificent precision and Chi’s solos in Act 3 were so exciting to watch. It was a magical performance from start to finish and well deserved the standing ovation. This production was filmed some years ago by the Royal Swedish Ballet – oh how I wish we had available a recording of BRB performing it.

There are some location finding pictures on Bruce Beresford's website, bringing the start of filming that much closer. Is there any news on the actors? I read the book when it was first published and found it an inspirational read. Having read the earlier posts I would like to add that I can remember reading an interview with Li where he said he had written so many words that about half of them were edited out. Perhaps he may do a second volume with more detail of his life in America and beyond. I saw Li dancing with Houston Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival in around 1989 and have always remembered him. His wife Mary was the first Giselle I ever saw when she was dancing with London Festival Ballet (now ENB).

BRB uses a "lead mandolin dancer" rather than Mercutio (and the costumes for this version of the dance are absolutely hideous!). The only comment I can make on the RB is that in the few performances I have seen there, it has not been Mercutio.

Northern Ballet Theatre had two of the most beautiful girls around, both have fantastic bone structure and seem unaware of their looks - they are Charlotte Broom and Charlotte Talbot.

As a tone-deaf, two left-footed none-dancer, I have come to realise over the years that some of the spectacular high lifts are much easier for the dancers than some of the very low lifts twisty lifts. I think this is because the lower lifts may place more strain on the lifter's back. There are added complexities when someon like David Nixon choreographs a piece where the male dancer is on his knees the whole time (Bess, You is my woman now from I Got Rhythm). Some of my chums thought this piece looked odd but I just fell in love with it. Goodness only knows what it does to the male dancer's knees. I have seen La Fille Mal Gardee many times and have occasionally seen dancers be a bit precarious in the one-handed bum lift in the fields scene. I suppose, however, I had taken it for granted that most partnerships accomplish it till I saw POB last summer where one dancer did not attempt it - using 2 hands but the other did. Subsequently reading reviews I discovered that there was only Mathias Heymann who had done this lift and that at only one performance. I have seen many mixed fortunes in Giselle over the years with the ironing-board lift in Act 2. Again some dancers have not even attempted this. When it works it is breath-taking. I've never seen anything like the way the Cuban National Ballet dancers get into the over-head lift immediately prior to the swan dive in the grand pas on Don Q. When I saw them perform it in London two years ago, I was rendered speechless! I am looking forward to seeing if the RDB do it in the same way when I see them performing Alicia Alonso's production in Copenhagen in April. A personal favourite is not so much a lift as a landing from a lift. This is in David Nixon's Madame Butterfly. At Pinkerton is gently setting Butterfly down from over his head she is performing walking movements as though she is coming down stairs. It sends shivers down my spine every time I see it. I think it illustrates the point that the set-down from the lift is just as critical and can make the dancer being lifted look as though she is floating (or, if it doesn't work, is a fairy elephant!). Another favourite section of mine (if it classes as lifts) is in the brothel scene in Manon where Manon is passed from man to man and does not touch the ground. Do lifts have technical names or do people make up illustrative names for them as I have tried to do?

I saw Shannon dance many times during her years with Northern Ballet Theatre. She was a glorious Juliet, Lucy Westenra and Giselle and she lit up the stage in most of the roles I saw her perform.

The glasses in the picture look like mine, which were a gift to me about 20 years ago. They have got 2.5 magnification. (I had previously bought some Pentax binoculars which I think were 7x25. They were brilliant - adjustable eye and small and lightweight - but I found them too powerful for most of the theatres I go to (I think our theatres are smaller than the ones in the US)). I have found these opera glasses ideal for me, although as I tend to sit on the front row of the stalls these days I very rarely use them. The one thing they do not have is an adjustably eye but it didn't seem to matter as much possibly because of the lower magnification.

I often find that if I have read the book first I may not enjoy the film (I'm sounding more Irish by the minute!) but if I have seen the film first I usually enjoy the book more. There are two exceptions that I can think of to my own statement - I finished reading Chocolat the day before I saw the film. For the first 10 minutes of the film, I absolutely hated it but then I just had to try and divorce the two in my mind. Being a Gemini, I was successful in this and I enjoyed the film too. Discussing with many chums the film of The Da Vinci Code I discovered two trains of thought. People who had read the book when it first came out (like me) or who had not read it at all enjoyed the film but more recent readers didn't. I am often interested to see what film makers do to books. I could not see at the time how The Name of the Rose could possibly be filmed but I thought it was a very fine film and succeeded because the film told the basic story and cut out a lot of the elements of the book that dealt with the religious politics of the day. I had read Bridget Jones Diary and absolutely hated it. I went to see the film because I was on a business trip with a spare evening and bored (and also because Colin Firth was in it!). I absolutely loved the film because it cut out all the things I hated about the book!

Robert Harris' other books are also very entertaining. Enigma is about the efforts of the British to break the German Codes in the 2nd World War - the Enigma Machine (this was also filmed, starring Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott). Pompeii is about the last few days before the eruption of Vesuvius and the eruption itself. I thought it very well researched and absolutely unputdownable. I've recently started Imperium but am finding that more of a struggle.