Mashinka

I find it disturbing if dancers are reduced to their looks, to most it is actual dancing that matters and being 'gorgeous' is of a lot less consequence. Last year saw I four Bolshoi Corsaires in London , the Medoras were Alexandrova, Nikulina, Stepanova and Krysanova. The only one with issues was Stepanova and the best was without doubt Krysanova. I don't see how any other dancer could even be considered for the broadcast - she's that far out in front. Like the previous poster I'm not wild about Stepanova either and her fan following baffles me.

Bare midriffs in ballet are a personal hate of mine and most dancers tend to look as you describe Kondaurova. She has never struck me as emaciated when she wears a tutu though. I always cringe when I see the scene where Nikiya dances with the gift basket, the prominent ribs, I agree, aren't a good look.

Ballet is dance though and although Bejart gave prominence to the males the females in the company were all strong personalities in their own right.

I believe it was Bernard Haitink's decision to put everything in without cuts, a video once existed so I'm surprised it hasn't been re-issued, by the way NVC Arts have re-issued some ROH operas on DVD, I recently bought a 1985 Andrea Chenier with Tomowa-Sintow, perhaps you should approach them. Have you seen ENB's Corsaire? It is actually very good and staged by the Holmes's. It features an Ali and a DVD is available of it with Cojocaru and Muntagirov as Medora and Conrad, Junor Souza as Ali and Yonah Acosta as Birbanto.

Bejart once said the opposite I believe, that dance was man. Jorge Donn dancing his Bolero in the midst of a corps de ballet of men remains one of the most sexually charged things I've ever seen.

Her debut? How can it be a debut when she danced it in London last year? Are you saying it was her debut in Moscow? If so I'm disgusted that the Bolshoi used London as a try-out, the company gave us a number of sub standard performances last year including Smirnova's below par Kitri on opening night, but Stapanova's dreary mistake ridden Medora was the absolute nadir. Krysanova didn't put a foot wrong in Corsaire and to my astonishment she is actually winning over those hard core RB fans with their sniffy attitudes to Russian dancers. She also, along with Alexandrova and their partners, recently participated in a project here to present ballet to underprivileged kids. She was on top form and deserves all the cinema exposure she can get.

Indeed, I went to Cardiff last weekend to see Welsh National Opera in Khovanschina an opera with a similar problem to Prince Igor, namely the composer dying before the work was complete. Those two operas were worked on at various times by Rimsky Korsakov, his pupil Stravinsky and Glazounov amongst others. One of my companions in Cardiff was a Russian who has worked on a production of Igor and he tells me there is a trend there to cut those passages that are clearly by another hand. I too was disappointed with Prince Igor when I saw it in Moscow some years ago and was surprised it was truncated compared to the only other production I'd seen at Covent Garden, though to be honest it was the magnificent cast led by Leiferkus, Tomowa Sintow and Burchuladze that I missed the most. Regarding Corsaire, I think the Bolshoi production is the finest of all though previously I had enjoyed their Sergeyev version which was dissimilar to the Kirov's but did keep the character called Ali.

Here is an interesting Prince Igor from Bulgaria with Gediminas Taranda's Imperial Russian Ballet. Most of the girls will be Russian though some of the company is Kazakhstani and Moldovan. As the date is 2015 I think the leading male dancers are Nariman Bekzhanov and Denis Simon, not sure about the leading girls as my aging laptop wouldn't let me watch full screen. There is a much older version of them on DVD with Taranda himself dancing but unfortunately can't find it on line.

Agree about the Massimo Morricone/Christopher Gable production that Northern Ballet dances, I haven't seen it for some time now but remember it as being true to the spirit of Shakespeare. There is a simplicity about the Ashton version, straightforward story telling. I always felt it inspired Cranko whose own version is very much the template for MacMillan's. I won't mention plagiarism though Cranko himself certainly alluded to it.

MacMillan had his own personal take on the ballet, particularly the character of Juliet and his R&J isn't strictly Shakespeare's as in my view he has coarsened the story, not least with the superfluous 'harlots'. What is lost is the poetry and the Lavrovsky version has that in abundance. I've seen so many versions of the ballet now that I've lost count, but every production I've seen has had something to admire, even if fleetingly, and I've sometimes imagined a ballet comprising the best bits of all of them. I think Nureyev's version comes closest to the actual text of the play, but for dramatic purposes it is important to know what to cut and I'm not sure a simple sentence should be reproduced as part of a scene (e.g. death figure appearing to have sexual congress with Juliet). We all have favourites and I have got more from Vladimir Vasiliev's version than any other, though it breaks my heart that Ashton's R&J isn't performed by the Royal Ballet, or indeed by ENB that dropped it for Nureyev's. The version I regret never having seen is the Tudor, the photos I've seen are so beautiful. Telling what is possibly the world's best known love story through dance brings out the best in many ballerinas and will continue to do so for a very long time.

Off topic, but the "completely non-existence dance talent" of Serge Diaghilev didn't stop him from being the greatest AD in ballet's history.

That is sadly par for the course with a number of companies, English National Ballet springs immediately to mind, even though it isn't on a level with the Bolshoi. It will be interesting to see what effect these changes will have on company morale. Of those currently listed as female principals, only one, Krysanova, would I be prepared to see in everything and a second, Obraztsova, I would see in most things, though a couple of ladies further down the rankings interest me greatly too. I would be devastated if the unique Bolshoi style were lost or even diluted and it's looking as if there may be a danger of that.

I was lucky enough to have seen Lyubov Kunakova dance on a number of occasions, indeed she appeared in a mime role with the Mariinsky in Anna Karenina in London last month. Apart from a rock solid technique she had great charm and a genuine warmth that radiated beyond the footlights, Stepanova has none of those attributes and I'm at a total loss to understand her appeal

It was an evening given by a ballet school with Russian connections at the London Palladium. Chudin and Krysanova both performed contemporary solos, Alexandrova and Lantratov danced Raymonda pas de deux and variations and bits of Carmen Suite, Krysanova and Chudin ended the evening with Don Q pdd.

Alexandrova danced in London on Monday together with Lantratov, Krysanova and Chudin also appeared. It would be nice if she can arrange guest appearances to make up for her home company's neglect.

The trailer for the film certainly wouldn't tempt me into a cinema, is anyone saying it has artistic merit? MK isn't a bad subject for a bio-pic. particularly as she went from riches to rags, though other grande horizontales of the period were more interesting. As royal paramours go she was historically pretty low rent compared with the likes of say Diane de Poitiers or Piers Gaveston and even Lola Montez was given a title. Plenty of references to her in ballet history books and she could certainly dance, but she comes across as a negative character, though I admired her stoicism in adversity. I take it MacMillan's Anastasia hasn't been danced in Russia? After all those years of repressive censorship under the communists, seems the new Russians are no better, worse perhaps when the mob takes over.

I doubt very much that the RB would be interested, far too many home grown talents at present.

In Ashton's day dancers only brought their feet up in the ear in class, never on stage and it was the case in Russia too. The hyper extension has only come into being in the past twenty years or so, it is ugly in the extreme and has no place in classical ballet. I am not of the opinion that modern technique is as wonderful as its supporters would have us believe. As recently as the 1980's Asaf Messerer stated in an interview that 'small steps' (as it was translated, I imagine he meant petite batterie) were being lost and indeed that is the case with only the Danes and to some extent the French being able to impress in fast beaten sequences, Ashton is much admired in Russia and The Mariiinsky has taken Sylvia into the repertoire and La Fille Mal Gardee at the Bolshoi and Mikhailovsky, indeed Osipova refers to the challenges of Sylvia in the above interview. The RB no longer dances Ashton as well as in the past possibly because the ballets of Kenneth MacMillan have been allowed to take centre stage and because damage has been done in revivals, e.g. Cinderella. As a whole Ashton worked with some of the very best and when he began his choreographic career he had Diaghilev dancers to work with such as Markova and Karsavina and I've never heard them described as having 'limited potential'.

Having started ballet going when Fonteyn and Nureyev danced with the RB, I believe it is essential for a company to have a star dancer, whether home grown or imported. The brutal fact is that the RB has a dwindling, aging, regular audience and the very presence of a 'name' is more likely to pull in newcomers. Some big names fit in better than others however but Osipova's versatility means she is as much at home in the works of McGregor (fast becoming the company's staple fare) as she is in the traditional repertoire. Were Ms Osipova to leave, my visits to the RB would certainly reduce.. Regarding Salenko, although not a big name. she is an excellent dancer and the favoured partner of Steven McRae. Earlier this year I saw her dance a wonderful SB and together with McRae the best performance of Diamonds I've seen from the RB in years. However the hard core of RB fans has always been resistant to 'outsiders' and will grumble incessantly reminding me of that saying about empty vessels making the most noise.

I agree with pretty much all of that, MacMillan was hugely prolific with an impressive back catalogue, but were all his ballets filmed/notated? Apart from the works Ashton Fan lists, I'd very much like to see a full length Images of Love, the innovative work he created inspired by quotations from Shakespeare. The pas de trois was revived a few years ago in a tribute to Nureyev programme and was admired by those seeing it for the first time. House of Birds (1955) was a kind of modern dark fairy tale, that got regular revivals up until his departure to Berlin, another worth reviving although it was written off as a flop at the time because of putting dancers in costumes that made them disappear into the scenery, was his 6.6.78 which should in my opinion be reassessed. Gloriana Dances, danced so memorably by Lynn Seymour and Wayne Eagling shouldn't disappear into oblivion either. Although I never saw it, older ballet goers still enthuse about his version of Agon. The music from La Fin de Jour was played at Macmillan's remembrance service in Westminster Abbey, both the RB and BRB revivals were failures of what was once one of his greatest works, the steps were reproduced without any consciousness of what was behind them, I'm afraid this ballet has died with him. ENB dancing Song of the Earth surprised me as they performed Rite of Spring with new sets and costumes extraordinarily well under Wayne Eagling's directorship and I would have thought it would be a cert for revival as Rite will sell to music lovers as well as ballet goers. Although I can see Corrales as Messenger of Death, it might not prove that easy to cast and putting it on a double bill with La Sylphide strikes most people as bizarre. All in all I feel that this anniversary year is a missed opportunity.

Requiem was last seen a few years ago in an outstanding cast led by Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta, both dancers have now retired however. I wonder if they will revive it in Stuttgart? I totally agree with Ashton Fan's comments regarding Judas Tree, it is an awful thing and if it has any admirers I've yet to meet them, the only redeeming feature was Leanne Benjamin's portrayal of the Madonna/whore figure. To have it in two programmes is indefensible, including it in one is bad enough and I guarantee the RB regulars will be sitting it out in the bar rather than watch what is in reality a blot on MacMillan's memory that should be binned. For me it is an outrage that so many of KM's ballet's appear to be irretrievably lost whereas his turkeys get regular revivals, many are wondering if this has something to do with Lady MacMillan's pervasive influence, but it does nothing to enhance her husband's reputation.

Maybe they don't, but they certainly do at Glyndebourne. Apart from the restaurants, you can take picnics out onto the lawn, bringing your own tables and chairs and you can choose a spot next to the gardens, the lake, or sit by the ha-ha with the sheep on the other side. Although the stage is big enough they don't stage ballets I'm afraid. Triple bill Les Sylphides Scene de Ballet (Ashton) Raymonda Act III (Nureyev RB version)

I second that!

The Royal ballet has a significant number of dancers that are both non UK and non EU, I think it simply follows a pattern, after all even Russian companies are now employing non nationals.

There is of course a third possible ending, more rarely seen. with Siegfried drowning in the lake leaving Odette in Rothbart's power for eternity, or perhaps until a prince capable of discerning black from white comes along.