JMcN

How could I forget to mention one of the most joyous ballet experiences known to mankind - August Bournonville's Napoli, especially as performed by the Royal Danish Ballet. We saw the most glorious performance in Copenhagen last November. Also by Bournonville, I particularly enjoyed The Kermesse in Bruges when I saw it during the Bournonville Festival in 2005.

Celine Gittens was mentioned in the Race,Culture and Ballet thread and it was suggested there that news of her be posted here. You will have realised that I am a big supporter of BRB, where Celine is a dancer and have had a good opportunity to watch her dance. Celine was absolutely terrific in Somethin' Stupid in Nine Sinatra Songs alongside James Barton. Not only is she a lovely dancer but she brought a lot of characterisation to the role. She and James came over as being, perhaps, youngsters at a college prom both naive but with Celine having to take the lead. More recently she was very sensual in the Arabian Dance in Sir Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker. Celine is definitely one we like to watch!

Well said SanderO; I have always thought that only the appropriate talent should apply when casting roles but in the past I have heard audience members commenting on the fact that Juliet was being danced by a Japanese dancer (for example). The irony being that Northern Ballet Theatre's most celebrated Juliet is the recently retired Chiaki Nagao, who became synonymous in the role.

How about Sir Frederick Ashton's "The Dream", which is very funny and absolutely sublime. His Two Pigeons is also sublime and so happy that my friends and I all end up weeping buckets by the end. An acquaintance asked us why we were crying at a happy ballet and the answer was of course because it's so happy! I also agree with suggestions earlier in the thread of Coppelia and Taming of the Shrew. More recent productions that I have found to be fun are David Nixon's witty interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream - there are lots of real laugh out loud moments with the star-crossed lovers. His Three Musketeers is great, swash buckling fun and there are lots of cheery moments in his Gershwin Ballet "I got rhythm". David Bintley's Hobson's Choice is a comic masterpiece and his more recent Cyrano is bittersweet with laugh out load moments and great tragedy (at least 3 man-sized boxes of tissues are required!).

I saw the final performance of La Fille Mal Gardee in July, with Mathias Heymann as Colas - he was terrific. I gather he was also the only Colas in the run who did the bum-lift in Act 2 (the fields). On the basis of that one performance, I was bery taken with him and think he is definitely one to watch out for.

My friends and I were very disappointed with this film when we saw it at the cinema when it first came out. We thought it was derivative and most of the actors used the "acting by numbers" method, with Meryl Streep blowing them all off the screen even while acting in her sleep! The pre-release trailers showed all the best bits and if we had realised that, we would not have had to sit through the whole thing!

The first Swan Lake I saw was Peter Darrell's production for Scottish Ballet where Act 2 was Seigfried's drug induced dream. I really didn't like it (I probably saw it in 1985 or 1986) and it nearly put me off!! My next Swan Lake was Natalia Makarova's production for London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet). The opening night in Bradford was magical - Trinidad Sevillano and Patrick Armand were breath-taking together. This production used Sir Frederick Ashton's Pas de Quatre and Neapolitan (never bettered) and some of his Act 4. Makarova called him on stage for the curtain calls and the audience erupted. Since then I saw Raisa Struchova's production for ENB, which I hated (especially the happy ending) and Derek Deane's conventional production for them. Galina Samsova did a delightful, traditional production for Scottish Ballet. The set and costumes were by Jasper Conran and were stunning. My recollection is that it got mixed reviews because some reviewers felt that Scottish Ballet did not have enough dancers to mount a traditional Swan Lake. When I first started following Northern Ballet Theatre they introduced a traditional production of Swan Lake by Andre Prokovsky. When Christopher Gable took over he commissioned a new production by an American choreographer (Denis Wayne?) that had all new choreography, including a roller-skating tutor for Seigfried. This was amended drastically over several seasons and became unmissable. This, for the reviewers, was the other side of the coin to Scottish Ballet's in that it used the Tchaikowsky score, the name and the story but not the conventional choreography - and how absolutely dare they!!!!! Damned if you do and damned if you don't! Since then David Nixon has produced another new production for NBT, set on the East Coast of America in the 1920s, with an interesting love triangle and his own choreography. I love it and hope they bring it back soon! I also very much enjoyed Australian Dance Theatre's take on Swan Lake - Birdbrain - when I saw it last year (if I wrote this tomorrow it would be two years ago!). Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake makes perfect sense to me, using male swans - although beautiful, swans are such powerful birds that they have always struck me as being masculine. Although I am no expert, I think it is actually very conventionally structured. I've seen some terrific performances of this over the years by Adam Cooper, Will Kemp and, especially, Simon Cooper. For me, other casts have struggled to achieve their magic. My favourite, conventional Swan Lake has got to be Sir Peter Wright's for Birmingham Royal Ballet. He has a real genius for mounting the big classics and this is no exception. It is handsomely dressed in black and silver and I have been fortunate to see some fabulous performances over the years. One that sticks in my mind is from three or four years ago with Ambra Vallo and Sergiu Pobereznic. They are both mature artists (Pobereznic has since retired) and their stage-craft was really telling. It was another unforgettable afternoon in Birmingham. The Dutch National Ballet, inter alia, also had/have this production and there is a recorded version of them doing it. BRB are touring this production extensively in the Spring of 2008 and I'm really looking forward to it.

London Festival Ballet - 26th May 1984 @ London Coliseum - Onegin - Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun I only liked contemporary dance before that performance. I didn't realise whom I had seen until some years later when I looked the programme out.

"Still Life" was more recently performed by David Bintley's own Birmingham Royal Ballet and how I wish that could have been recorded and released as a DVD. I especially remember Joseph Cipolla, Chi Cao and Asier Uriagereka as very fine Zebras and Toby Norman-Wright as the Brazilian Nut Monkey. Come to think of it - I wish we could have it back in the rep!

I love Lee Childs' books. He is British but now living in America. He writes about Jack Reacher, who was from an army family and in the military police. Being from an army family he had travelled the world and never really knew his country so is drifting around America and finding himself embroiled in situations. Although they are violent and may be classed as pulp fiction, I find them so well written that I cannot easily pick up another book when I have finished one of his. What do American posters think of them? I also enjoy conspiracy theory novels and recently have enjoyed books by Sam Bourne and Paul Sussman. I am currently reading and enjoying The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber (about a lost Shakespeare play/manuscript). I've not read the Harry Potter books (but I enjoyed the films) but I would love to know what is the difference between the British and American editions, apart from the spelling.

Did anyone see the Channel 4 (UK) documentary by the Balley Boyz about Christopher Wheeldon's creation for the Bolshoi earlier this year. It was shown on Christmas Day here. Nicolai Tsiskaridze featured in the documentary. He had been chosen for the lead but dropped out due to "a fever". Several times he mentioned the solo "Narcissus", which I saw him perform in Harrogate(!) some years ago. I know clever editing can give a programme a slant but he did come across as being ideal for the role!

When I first went in a seat below the amphi theatre at Covent Garden, I was advised not to wear trousers by a friend. A couple of years later, I travelled from Liverpool for a matinee in February when the weather conditions were appalling. I wore warm comfortable clothes to cope with the weather and was "tutted at" when I walked through the old stalls bar! More recently, people seem much more relaxed there about dress and you see everything from formal evening attire to smart-casual to jeans-casual. For most other theatres these days, I wear (usually) black trousers and a black top. I experimented last weekend and wore a crinkly, stripey blouse, which gained compliments! If I saw a man in a polo neck sweater (turtle neck), I would assume he was from the North American continent. Not so with women because they seem to be back in fashion this winter!

PS - BRB's Spring season opens towards the end of February with Sir Peter Wright's production of Swan Lake - very traditional and very beautiful. The Spring mixed programme is an all David Bintley jazz programme consisting of Shakespeare Suite (Duke Ellington), Take Five (Brubeck) and Orpheus Suite (Colin Towns). I'm not a jazz fan but all three of these ballets are stunning. I think Colin Towns Masque Orchestra will be playing, and judging by last time around, they will be sensational. Robert Parker, who retired recently, was the original lead in all three works so the new casting will be interesting. On the male side, as well as Chi Cao's classical virtuosity and Iain Mackay's vitality there are some super young dancers coming through - Alexander Campbell, Tyrone Singleton and Joseph Caley. It promises to be a very exciting season. The Company is again splitting in two in late Spring for their now annual NE and SW tours. The NE programme consists of Concerto Barocco, Twilight (Van Manen) and Take Five. The SW tour consists of Dante Sonata, Small Worlds (Kit Holder) and Elite Syncopations. There is a Stravinsky programme and Giselle in the Summer and Beauty and the Beast (David Bintley) has already been announced for Cardiff and Plymouth in the Autumn.

Leigh - it was indeed performed at the Hippodrome. BRB have not really toured this production - it was Sir Peter Wright's "gift" to the City of Birmingham. They performed it at the Lowry over Christmas 2000 and at the Lyceum in London a couple of years before that. It is absolutely my favourite production. I do not think the version that the RB do, also by Sir Peter Wright is a patch on this. This year, David Nixon has created a new version for Northern Ballet Theatre, which is also a delight. He has set the ballet in Regency England and has designed the most ravishing costumes for the production. David has produced a very traditional version with Drosselmeyer as a benevolent and well-travelled Uncle. Clara has an older sister with a boyfriend who transform into SPF and her Prince, linking the two acts together. The tree does not visibly grow in this production, it has already grown when the scene opens at midnight. This is my only minor gripe. I remember with great fondness two previous English National (London Festival) Ballet - one by Ronald Hynd and one by Peter Schauffuss which I still think had the best snow flakes.

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET – NUTCRACKER – DECEMBER 2007 Sir Peter Wright created BRB’s current production of the Nutcracker in 1990 and I have seen it every year since. Every year I think I am suffering from Nutcracker fatigue and every year it has come up as fresh as a daisy and enthralled me anew. Sir Peter has tried to resolve the story so that there is a coherent link between acts 1 and 2 and, in my opinion, has succeeded. The party in act 1 is at the family home of a former ballerina, her husband and two children. Clara is their teenage ballet student daughter and Fritz their slightly younger son. The guests all bring their children. The scene opens with the final preparations for the party and, as the candles on the tree are about to be lit, everyone is spellbound and steps back except for Clara who starts moving towards the tree, thus setting the scene for the later happenings. Drosselmeyer is a magician who has been hired to entertain the party. Using the retired ballerina device gives more dancing opportunity for this party than in many Nutcrackers I have seen and there are dances for the adult guests, the teenagers and the children. Some cadets are at the party to dance with the teenage girls and there is a lovely ensemble for them all. The setting is opulent and Christmassy in red and green. There are some magic tricks to entertain the children and, even though I worked out long ago how they were done they still enthral me. Clara is presented with a ballet-dancer doll by her grand-parents and Fritz with a set of toy soldiers. Clara is, of course, presented with the Nutcracker doll by Drosselmeyer. After the party, Clara comes downstairs to retrieve the Nutcracker doll and is attacked by rats and some of the doll characters presented by Drosselmeyer to the party. Drosselmeyer takes control and the transformation scene happens. This must be the best transformation scene ever as the tree grows and grows and eventually only the lowest of the branches are visible. The rats come through the fireplace and the soldiers march out of the box under the Christmas tree. You can hear audible gasps of excitement from the audience as the fire glows and the last of the transformation is in place…. There then follows a frenetic battle scene in which Clara saves the Nutcracker Doll/Prince from certain death. He is lying motionless on the floor as the rats escape and as she is crying at the stage he comes to life as the Prince. There follows a most beautiful duet for them. It is so beautiful that you really do not notice that the scene has transformed again into a snow scene that heralds the arrival of the snow flakes. At the start of act 2, Clara arrives in a magical kingdom on the back of a flying swan (again gasps of amazement from the audience) and is greeted by Drosselmeyer, dancers from exotic lands and the Nutcracker Prince. There is a recap of the battle with King Rat being vanquished a thrown into a cage before being taken off by the soldiers. Then the fun starts with the diverts from various countries. Clara is involved in some of the dances. After the waltz of the flowers, Drosselmeyer asks her if she wants to be the ballet-dancer doll and within a flurry of dancers she is transformed into the Sugar Plum fairy. She and the Nutcracker Prince then dance the grand pas. At the end, when all the dancers are involved in the finale she transforms back to Clara and falls asleep in the Prince’s arms. He places her by the tree and she wakes up in her own home. Over the last two weekends, I saw four casts over five performances. Carol-Anne Millar was Clara in four of the performances. She has lots of attack on stage and a wonderful bouncy leap and a very natural acting style and can only be described as fabulous in all the performances I saw. Lei Zhao was the other Clara I saw – she has a much softer style of dancing and was delightful as both Clara and (in other performances) the Rose Fairy. I also saw Lei as a delectable Sugar Plum in one performance with Dominic Antonucci as her Prince. New transferee from the Royal, Natasha Oughtred was a delicate and lovely Sugar Plum with the elegant and supportive Jamie Bond as her Prince. On Friday evening, Alexander Campbell made his debut as the Prince with Momoko Hirata as his Sugar Plum. It was a really exciting evening and I’ve got to admit to having a silly grin plastered over my face for most of it! He danced with real attack and pazazz and looked as though he was really having a ball. Momoko Hirata is such a tiny little dancer but she fills the stage with grandeur and eloquence. This was a very memorable performance. I was privileged to see Nao Sakuma and Chi Cao give two performances. Nao has a wonderful technique and a lovely warm stage presence. Chi is a virtuoso classical dancer who is always a joy to watch. His solos were spectacular and his partnering secure and sensitive. It is no wonder that recent reviews (of Paquita in the autumn mixed programme) have described him as having “enough Russian soul to launch the Potemkin” (Jeffrey Taylor/Sunday Express) and as having “the best technique of any man in British or American ballet today, and stylish with it too” (John Perceval/Danceview Times). He also has a warm and natural acting style. This must be the best Nutcracker around and with great performances too!

Over the last weekend I saw BRB doing Galina Samsova's production of Paquita in Birmingham. Since then the male variation as performed by Chi Cao has become a firm favourite. He has a razor-sharp classical technique and performed 8 double tours in alternating directions at the three performances I saw him do. The audience could not help but gasp in amazement at the ease with which he performed these turns.

Having had second thoughts from my previous nomination, I'd like to add Peter Schauffuss' "Diana the Princess, A Celebration" - not that it could really be called a ballet (it defies description!) and Massimo Morricone's Jeckyll and Hyde.

I haven't seen Satisfaction. I did see Schauffuss Elvis thing, "The King", at Sadler's Wells in 2000 and I thought that was absolutely rivetting. That was described as a dansical too (the first time I had seen that word). Unfortunately his "Diana the Princess, A celebration" was truly dire and I am afraid my bad memories of that have meant that I'm not making the trek to London for Satisfaction.

The duet for Titania and Oberon in Sir Frederick Ashton's The Dream is my favourite. Another close runner is the grand pas from Act 3 of Sleeping Beauty OK - Top 5: The Dream Act 3 grand pas from Sleeping Beauty Tchaikovsky pdd Don Quixote pdd (because it is so kitsch) Two Pigeons (final duet) - absolutely heartbreaking I appreciate that my first and last choices are not conventionally structured pdd but they do it for me!

From my ballet-watching experience, the major classics (Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia and some productions of Giselle) seem to have included breaks for the dancers to take a bow. Many more contemporary works do not. When the late Christopher Gable was artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre, who specialise in narrative ballets, we were not encouraged to applaud during the performance because it could break the flow and mood of the story line. We could, of course, show our appreciation at the end. It is very hard for me now to applaud mid-performance because I just got used to not applauding. I would agree with him that it can interrupt the mood. Last time BRB performed Giselle, Chi Cao was performing such a wonderful set of entrechats in act 2 as he was dancing towards his death that many in the audience started spontaneously applauding. As I had the tears streaming down my cheeks at the time, I could not understand how other people were not so wrapped up in the story as I was and, to an extent, it did ruin the mood for me. When I commented on this on another website, I discovered from the responses that I was very much in a minority in my opinion. At one matinee performance of David Bintley's Galantries in Birmingham some years ago, everyone (including myself) started rapturous applause at the end of the pas de trois and it did ruin the flow. I noticed at the evening performance the orchestra did not even have a nano-second pause between the sections so there was no hint of an opportunity to applaud. When I have seen Kenneth McMillan's Requiem performed there has usually been a note in the programme asking the audience not to applaud till the end.

In total, I see about 100 performances a year (and would do more if I could). I follow BRB and NBT. BRB do season tickets for their Birmingham seasons and I usually have 2 season tickets. I also book extras and go to see the company on tour to, for example, Sunderland. Because their tour dates are further away for me, I try and go for the whole week of performances. I try and get to all the NBT venues in Yorkshire. As they only tend to present one work during a week, I usually just do weekends for them. Casting is not usually announced too far in advance for both companies, so when I see the casting I might be trying to get extra tickets urgently. For example I had two tickets booked in Birmingham for Sleeping Beauty last year but ended up booking another 3 to see alternative casts. Apart from the cost of dashing up and down the country, the main reason I cannot see even more performances is because I just don't have that amount of leave to take off work! The other issue is clashes of performances. Fore example, I would love to see Carlos Acosta at the Wells in October but I'm already booked for the whole week for NBT in Bradford. Apart from the two companies I actively follow, I also go to many other dance performances at the Lowry in Salford and I occasionally go to London. I do like to see visiting companies when I can. I would guess that the two companies I follow make up 70% of the performances I see. While it is always a thrill to see my favourite dancers, I really enjoy seeing other casts too. Perhaps if I could only see a few performances I would seek out my favourite dancers but at the moment I don't have to make that choice.

Balanchine's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which I had the misfortune to sit through twice at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of years ago. I nearly fell asleep!

Last summer in Paris we saw a standing ovation at the Garnier after a performance of Lady of the Camelias (Agnes Le Testu and Jiri Bubenicek). The ovation went on well after the house lights went up and was really something. Mind you, we had just seen the most unforgettable performance - I had cried most of the way through the final half hour, all the way through the curtain calls and all the way back to the hotel! I have since heard that it is very unusual to see a standing ovation in Paris at the Garnier. With the two companies I follow we usually stand when someone is retiring - eg when Jeremy Kerridge retired from NBT after 21 years and more recently when Robert Parker retired from BRB. I've also stood for exceptional performances, usually though when I know other people are going to or have already done so. What I've often found in the UK outside London is that audiences are frequently more enthusiastic than the capital crowd, but we have less opportunity to see dance so perhaps that is why.

I have recently had the privilege of seeing 2 performances of National Ballet of Cuba's Giselle. We saw Anette Delgado in both performances (with Joel Carreno) and she was terrific. Alicia Alonso came on for the (non) curtain calls at both performances and brought down the glass roof. This very traditional Giselle is a testament to her amazing commitment and dedication to dance. The whole company looked wonderful and Anette Delgado was everything you could ask for in a Giselle - very strong in both technique and acting, but looking very fragile at the same time. The corps were just awesome. Alicia Alonso was obviously an amazing dancer but when you think of the dancers who have come through her company and are adored world-wide for their technique and style you begin to realise her genius.

"The Dream" is one of my favourite Ashton ballets, full of lyricism and very funny (especially when the lovers are played straight - the comedy is in the choreography). The duet for Oberon and Titania is one of the most sublime pieces of choreography ever made! It shows that you can make choreography look spectacular and beautiful without the enormous lifts and giant leaps that some choreographers favour. Sir Frederick Ashton was one of those choreographers who can move your soul from A-Z but you don't really know how or why. I don't know anyone who doesn't cry at the end of "The Two Pigeons". The duet for the girl and her lover is a masterpiece - you really don't realise anything is happening until you suddenly find that you can no longer hear the music because everyone around you is sobbing - and this is the happy bit!! The first time I saw Enigma Variations it was not at all what I expected and I did not realise what all the fuss is about. I've considered this over the years and have decided that it is so wonderful and profoundly moving precisely because nothing happens! Sir Frederick Ashton also made some wonderful abstract ballets - my two favourites are Symphonic Variations and Scenes de Ballet. It always strikes me that Scenes is a tribute to Sleeping Beauty, but that is only my impression. I hope you enjoy your DVD of The Dream!