Mashinka

For those of us that have seen Osipova’s Giselle, a miracle of a performance, seeing her in another ‘white’ ballet was a much anticipated pleasure; however I agree with annamk that she has yet to conquer the O/O role. All the ingredients are there, but the result wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped. I actually preferred her Odette to her rather brassy interpretation of Odile but she is performing the role three times in London and it is possible that she will settle into the RB’s frankly weird production. Coming back to her Odile I was very surprised that she substituted some very fast pirouettes for the fouetté sequence, only reverting to traditional fouettés half way through. In the third act her partner, Carlos Acosta, was on fire and gladdened the heart of us purists with his perfect doubles tours ending in perfect fifth positions – superb! He was a new partner for Osipova but their double work was impeccable and they seemed to have the beginnings of quite remarkable rapport. Osipova is greatly admired in London and her fans were out in force from the length and breadth of Europe, the evening had a buzz to it that you don’t get very often at Covent Garden.

This will be the latest of a series of historical recordings of British Ballet to be made available from the 1950's. I was under the impression that there were copyright restrictions preventing the treasure trove of films being from being transferred to home entertainment formats, but presumably these are out of copyright now. Can't wait to see what eventually emerges from the 1960's.

Many years ago I actually met Alexandra Danilova, the creator of the role of Terpsichore, and I remember her as being very small. Height should not be an issue in this work.

Christian, when I really care about something I rarely mince words and right now I'm pretty angry about how certain Kirov policies are leading to an artistic race to the bottom.

I've seen Skorik once as Dryad Queen in London and my reaction to her was blind fury that she was actually allowed on stage at all. I will take all measures possible to avoid her performances in future.

I've always considered Stupnikov to be a reporting critic rather than one prepared to dig beneath the surface, though to be fair that can be said of nearly all critics now, so if he is asking tough questions about repertoire choices then I imagine even the devoted public of St. Pete's are starting to spot the rot.

Just when I thought the Polunin affair was old news, his name cropped up on Channel 4 News last night. The main thrust of the story was about Kevin O'Hare becoming the new RB director, but it was clear from what Mr O'Hare had to say that he took the Polunin resignation very seriously and is determined to to offer a better standard of pastoral care to sometimes emotionally vulnerable young dancers in the future. The new director came across as very sincere in his concerns for the company members and I imagine the loss of Polunin must have had a devasting effect on the company's plans for the future. For all his faults, I am keen that a door is left open for him should he choose to return.

Ballerinas used to queue to dance with Nureyev and he wasn't exactly the soul of courtesy.

I would love to comment fully on this company that has always been a favourite visitor to London, but a busy schedule meant I was only able to get to one performance. I saw Programme C and confess that four works completely new to me is my idea of ballet heaven. The opening Beaux by Mark Morris had interesting choreography but strangely it didn’t seem to work with the dancers behind the music in places, I’d like to see it again though but perhaps with a different cast. The following piece, Classical Symphony, has to compete with my memories of what Lavrovsky did to the same music, but Possokhov has created a ballet of dazzling dexterity to the very familiar music and the mystery of why the Morris piece looked a little under-danced was to some extent solved as I imagine the company’s male virtuosos were held back for this demanding work. In places I found the choreography a bit frantic but some passages were quite breathtaking in their virtuosity and it was clear that despite the difficulty of the steps the dancers performed with astonishing ease. After the interval we got the one narrative work of the evening, Raku, again by Possokhov and the in-your-face drama of the piece had a massive effect on the audience. Time and again choreographers are attracted to Japanese themes with varying results but this was a very superior effort with a fabulous role for YuanYuan Tan and a score that put me in mind of Khatchaturian in places. Though I think the history of the events portrayed was probably not known to the audience. They saved the very best till last with a fabulous Wheeldon piece called Within the Golden Hour, a gorgeous ballet of stunning invention and beautifully danced by the company. The evening seemed to get better as it went along and the audience were clearly enjoying themselves throughout. SFB doesn’t visit London often enough, though the same can be said of the other US companies, but they always impress, that’s for sure. I think the comments comparing the RB with this company are probably down to the very random standards of performance now prevalent there. Too many performances are marred by indifferent attitudes from the dancers and it is rare to come away from an evening of the RB without comparing unfavourably to the reputation the company had in the past. Kevin O’Hare has a lot to do if the Royal Ballet is ever to be considered top flight again.

I've been watchiing the POB for forty years now and never in all that time have I seen a male dancer more deserving of the title of etoile than Emmanuel Thibault.

Saw Batalov dance in London a few weeks ago and he can still impress; heavy physique but still better proportioned than I. Vasiliev. What happens with his performances with Mikhailovsky? They are rumoured to come to London in March, does anyone know if he is likely to appear with them? Also what happens about Muntagirov? Will he continue to guest at ABT? Of course he is tall with a beautiful line but now his champion, Wayne Eagling, has been booted out of English National Ballet, there is a question mark over how likely he is to stay, particularly as he seems to have been filched from his regular partner Daria Klimentova to dance with his new boss Tamara Rojo. I suppose his future at ABT depends on whether or not the company operates a quota system where Russian male dancers are concerned, but I was very surprised by the negative comments about him here last season, does he dance less well with ABT or is he just unpopular there? Personally I am hoping that the Royal Ballet will snap him up as the male ranks are looking thin after the loss of Putrov and Polunin.

I totally agree, he is a dancer with very limited emploi.

Pavlenko fans will be interested to know that she is due to dance in Athens this Sunday. Bad boy Polunin also appears.

By rights shouldn't Osmolkina or Pavlenko be replacing Tereshkina? They both dance the role even if their performances in it have been limited.

Trailers for this film are currently dominating every TV ad-break here. It looks very pretty, if a little bizarre with everything set in a theatre, but I was struck by how young the cast looked, particularly Karenin. If I remember rightly didn't Anna marry a top civil servant in her late twenties for financial security? That would put her into her mid 30's when she started the affair and surely Vronsky was a man of a similar age, a rugged military man, not the cute blond toy-boy we see in this film. It's showing all over London right now, even at my local South London cinema, for a second I thought about seeing it last Friday, but as one of the other screens was showing Ted I chose to see that instead and didn't regret my choice.

Am I right in thinking it took the Canadians decades to pay for their games? The Olympics helped to bankrupt Greece. Eventually we will get to hear the true cost to London in real terms. Many Londoners, myself included, simply left the city to avoid the predicted crush, but it didn't happen as too many people were put off by the inflated prices being charged and shops, hotels etc found their takings actually went down in what is usually the height of the tourist season.

As a Londoner I am wondering if I will see any reduction in my Council Tax next year as we Londoners have been paying for the Olympics for the last seven years; however I won’t hold my breath. The Olympics have been used by the British government as nothing more than a propaganda tool to take the minds of the populace off the pressing issues of the day, the term ‘bread and circuses’ springs to mind here. The blanket reporting of the Olympics, especially on TV has meant the burying of bad news on both the home and international front. Reality did raise its head at the Paralympics though when the P.M. and the Chancellor together with Jeremy Hunt (until recently Minister of Culture) were vigorously booed. For many people, myself included, the stand-out moment of the entire games.

You omit to mention Kolb, tall and an excellent partner.

So is this thread about mis-management by Fateev or simply a plea for more performances by personal favourites? If the former there is an 'elephant in the room' situation at the Kirov - I know what it is and I'm damned sure some of the posters here do too, as long as the casting racket continues don't expect anything from the company other than a slow slide into mediocrity.

There was certainly a video in existance with Bylova, Taranda, Mukhamedov and (I think) Mikhailchenko. Has it not transferred to DVD?

That has more or less happened with certain dancers, for example Anton Lukovkin of ENB who has danced the leads in Giselle, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, Afternoon of a Faune. Spectre de la Rose etc. And then you have dancers that went to the Vaganova School but weren't deemed good enough for the company e.g. Elena Glurjidze and Irina Kolesnikova.

I'm not sure that everything is sweetness and light at the Bolshoi either, though audiences haven't spotted any rot ....yet. If Bolshoi casting is so good, why hasn't Chinara Alizade danced a leading role by now?

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that Sarafanov is married to Novikova.

Suite en Blanc was danced here in London to great acclaim a few months ago by ENB with the divine Glurjidze in the ballerina role and Yonah Acosta in the mazurka - really thrilling stuff, but I saw Lifar's Phaedre in Paris last autumn and apart from the dramatic opportunities for the ballerina it was pretty dire. Regarding the occupation, it was a grey area all round. I've read a biography of Colette by Judith Thurman and she writes at length on the subject, though sadly Lifar isn't mentioned, but Colette wrote an anti Semitic novel at the time whilst desperately trying to save her Jewish husband from the Nazis. He was in fact arrested and interned at one point with only Colette's personal pleas to the French wife of the German ambassador gaining his release. Jean Cocteau for example, attracted a large number of German admirers although the official Nazi line towards him was condemnation, as I said, a very grey area.

You have a way with words Tiara (lol) Andrei Merkuriev also defected to the Bolshoi and his career has really blossomed there. Fateev has neglected the wonderful Vassily Scherbakov just as Vaziev did, to me that's a criminal act.