Mashinka

Another vote for Thibault here and how about a promotion for Osmolkina as well. More than happy about Ould-Braham though, thoroughly deserved.

I wish him the very best of luck. The Royal Ballet has a difficult history with this ballet and although I won't use the word jinxed, it is fair to say that RB and Don Q. don't exactly make a happy marriage. Casting will prove a problem I'm afraid but perhaps Acosta may be able to prevail upon Tamara Rojo to allow his nephew Yonah some leave from ENB to guest (as first cast please, Mr Acosta) as after seeing him dance those Don Q. solos that won him the title of ENB Emerging Dancer I'm positively aching to see him in the complete ballet.

They put the children in to give them valuable early stage experience.

Peter Schaufuss was pretty unique and when he joined ENB he had a very impressive CV behind him and a long term commitment to the company. Perhaps it would be appropriate to actually show just what the job description for ENB was: Interesting isn't it? One of the major arts jobs in the UK advertised in no more than a couple of paragraphs and note that past experience of actually running a company doesn't appear to be a requirement, though of course that figures when the successful but under-qualified candidate had long since been chosen. I have been given the names of three of the people who unsuccessfully applied for the job; all three had experience as choreographers and two had successfully run companies in the past. Had I been on the selection committee my decision would have been swayed by evidence of proven ability.

The Royal Ballet dancer rumoured to have been chosen by John Talbot the Chairman of the ENB board last December and therefore before he actually got around to sacking former director Wayne Eagling has now been named in a press release, although embargoed until tomorrow her name has already appeared on line. (Perhaps one of the moderators would be kind enough to let me know if I can name her here). She has no experience of running a ballet company at all though according to the press release she is aligned to the ineffectual Arts Council England, so I guess they nodded through her appointment. So to summarize English National Ballet has cast aside highly respected artistic director and talented chorographer Wayne Eagling in favour of an untried wannabe. I fear this with have disastrous repercussions on company morale.

Yes, it is a great shame that there are restrictions on who can sign the petition, particularly as Wayne Eagling is better known as a choreographer outside of the UK. There is great consternation over this business in the upper echelons of the international ballet community and it is a pity that the many people that have worked with him over the years are unable to get behind him by being able to sign. I do hope that those British or UK based ballet fans that regularly contribute to this board will be signing.

MacMillan's House of Birds featured an evil Bird Woman who turned men into birds. I haven't seen that one for years, does anyone else remember it?

According to Jeffrey Taylor, one of the UK critics, Wayne Eagling did not resign but was sacked. This has caused a storm of protest amongst London ballet goers as the company is at present in better shape than it has been for years. No one knows for certain why Eagling is going though many speculate that a documentary film about the company showed him in an unflattering light. For some time now ENB has been more interesting than the big rivals at Covent Garden with a steadily growing fan base and no one wants to see Eagling go. The Board of directors by the way; is made up of complete amateurs and rather unusually no one with a dance background has a place on the board. The magazine Dance Europe has addressed part of this in a present editorial. Last week a government petition was launched to get Wayne Eagling reinstated. Please sign if you have any interest whatsoever in the future of British Ballet. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/32127

With English National Ballet about to implode there is a very real chance that Muntagirov will leave, particularly if the new AD proves to be the person whose name has been mentioned on the internet. Sadly London's loss will be America's gain.

The Guardian has done Jones proud with pictures and clips of his career. Here are some of him including a stint in 'Ben Casey'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/29/davy-jones-monkee-life-in-clips The pictures are here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2012/mar/01/davy-jones-life-pictures#/?picture=386717556&index=13 If you scroll down to the comments at the end it's nice to note the usually cynical Guardian readers have nothing but kind things to say about Davy Jones.

Kerry, as long as there are Scots drawing breath Robert Burns' memory will never fade.

My views on Annabella stem not from the short lived marriage to Lord B. but rather her behaviour towards her daughter, niece and sister in law. She sought to control poor Ada all through her brief life, positively gloating over Ada's horrific terminal illness. After Ada's marriage she turned her attention to the vulnerable Medora, Byron's niece (possibly daughter) whilst running a hate campaign against that girl's inadequate mother, Augusta. I've read a number of books about Byron and his family and frankly the woman emerges as a monster and even in the book that is most sympathetic to Lady B. (The kindness of Sisters: Annabella Milbanke and the Destruction of the Byrons by David Crane) you finish up loathing her. She milked her five minutes of fame through marrying Byron for all it was worth and the price he paid posthumously for her viciousness was for her to wreak havoc on the female members of his family. Today you can take out court orders to keep that type of woman away from you but the women of Byron’s family had no protection against her malice at all. Ada is generally regarded as the world's first computer programmer and in her day was almost the only person to totally comprehend the work of Charles Babbage and his 'Analytical Engine' certainly her collaboration with him earns her a place in computer history. There is an excellent biography of Ada called The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason and Byron's daughter by Benjamin Woolley which goes into great depth about her work with Babbage. And Annabella is the villain of that book too.

If Alizade is dancing I'll be buying this.

I hope it’s okay to revive this thread, but I found a huge double page article on Lord Byron in today’s Independent written to coincide with a revival of Howard Brenton’s play ‘Bloody Poetry’: http://www.independe...ar-6945638.html Actually I think the article is all over the place but a reminder that Byron was once the champion of the poor is timely in present circumstances. The summing up of his life is in my opinion incomplete without mention of his remarkable daughter Ada Lovelace, the early pioneer of computers, no mention either that Byron married her mother for money, though he and his family paid dearly for that action as Annabella Milbanke was as vile a woman as ever drew breath. In general I’m not a fan of Howard Brenton’s work, but I’ll try to get along to ‘Bloody Poetry’ this time around.

A great pity there is no film record of Fonteyn as Raymonda, no dancer I've ever seen has got within spitting distance of her in the role. Serene and regal, her radiant presence lit up the stage and yes, she did perform the dramatic handclap. The role was gifted to her late in her career and its therefore all the more remarkable that she became the definitive interpreter.

A quick question: I've heard that the box office hours in Paris have been shortened so how does that change any of the information given on this thread? I'm particularly interested as regards to the Opera Bastille. Thanks.

Two long a list in my case, beginning with Markova there a a lot I have vivid memories of. However too many of those dancing today have no chance of their performances holding up over time.

At heart I'm a pacifist but I nevertheless feel any county has the right to defend itself when attacked. When the Argentineans invaded the Falklands they were seeking to subjugate British citizens and the government of the time had a moral obligation to protect those citizens. If Argentina should mount a second invasion attempt (which is looking increasingly likely) I would hope the UK would again seek to rescue the Falklanders. By the way, although London based I'm not of British descent and therefore fairly neutral in my views.

People? Or do you mean penguins? When the Falkland islands where settled by the British (Scottish highlanders in the main) the previous French settlers had already departed as the harsh conditions had defeated them but the tough Highlanders made a go of the place though and their descendants, (10th generation now I believe) still live there today. Prior to the French interest the islands were uninhabited so nobody colonized anyone and at the time the state of Argentina did not exist. It is actually the Argentineans that are seeking to colonize the Falklands as they are a foreign power wishing to subjugate what has become an indigenous population. David Cameron is actually perfectly correct in this instance. The recent scenes from Argentina, attacking the UK embassy and burning British flags would indicate to me that things may kick off again very soon. I personally detested Margaret Thatcher and everything she stood for but in defending the Falkland Islanders she was perfectly right and had the support of all the UK political parties. Don't forget the Argentineans started the conflict and it looks like they are initiating a second act of aggression right now.

A huge coincidence that this year marks thirty years since the Falklands conflict and that the present Agentinian president seems hell bent on on a repeat invasion sometime soon: all very depressing. No one knows for sure what Haig and Thatcher said but it was generally assumed that the then US government supported Argentina in a show of Pan-American solidarity. US public opinion however was rather different I seem to remember.

Nice to see Natalia and Cygnet on top form but joking aside it's hard not to see Gospodin Schettino Fateyev steering the Costa Mariinkordia onto the rocks. I'm in two minds regarding Obraztsova, on the one hand applauding her newly found independence, but on the other hand truly sad that such a pure exponent of the old Kirov style finds it necessary to leave. She has the example of such beautiful classicists as Osmolkina and Zhelonkina to ponder over, two dancers not that much older that have been pushed to the sidelines whilst nonentities took stage centre. Had she stayed I think that would have been Obraztsova's fate too.

I'm rather hoping the gap in the RB ranks will be filled by the excellent Brian Maloney, he is certainly good enough.

Seems a little expensive considering the small size.

You know Cyril Beaumont wrote wonderfully accurate descriptions of the action in the Diaghilev ballets, check out his book Michel Fokine and his Ballets. There is usually a copy to be picked up on ebay.

To the best of my knowledge the closest version of the original is danced by the Monte Carlo company, English National Ballet had something similar but after seeing the last revival a year or two ago it appears some interpolations have crept in. Gediminas Taranda's company have a version which is surprisingly well danced with Taranda himself occasionally appearing in the role of the Shah. Last year Andris Liepa brought the Kremlin Ballet to London for a season of diaghilev's works with Tsiskaridze as the Golden Slave, but apart from From the Monte Carlo Co. they all seem to suffer from the lethal hand of Isobel Fokine.