Mashinka

I'm not a big fan of Bonelli's, nice partner, good looking etc. but no excitement. I think there is a degree of complacency within the RB, because with Carlos Acosta heading the male contingent, they think they have it made, but they won't keep charismatic Carlos forever as he is off doing things of his own more and more. Much as I love the dancing of Edward Watson I have to concede that although he is a superb dance actor and fabulous in the modern rep. he is not a true classical dancer. Kobborg is still worth watching though showing his age a bit and MacRae has come on so much this past year that I think he could get into the super star league if his luck holds. Sergei Polunin has just been made a principal and I think his showy technique will win him fans. Ivan Putrov was underused at the RB, which considering the sheer quality of his work was rather strange even when taking into account the serious injury he suffered a few years back. Some dancers are clearly more favoured than others it seems but the favouritism doesn't seem to reflect the quality of the dancers' work. With Putrov gone, my trips to the ballet at Covent Garden will now be even fewer than before.

As Ivan Putrov was dropped from his roles in Cinderella and Symphony in C and appears to be leaving without any kind of official farewell, I suggest that this press release isn't worth the paper it's written on. If for whatever reason Putrov has been edged out he is in good company as a few years back the RB decided it could do without the services of Sylvie Guillem too, something her legion of London fans still find hard to forgive. But Putrov was not a starry addition from overseas like Guillem, he is a dancer who has dedicated his entire career to the Royal Ballet and has always been one of its finest adornments. I have a real problem with the RB as over the years the standard of male dancing has been on an ever downward trajectory and that applies to the top ranks as well as the lower. The company currently charges just shy of £100 for the best seats and has the gall to cast male dancers of negligible technical ability in leading roles. I fear the national ballet company is just like the England football team: over hyped and under-achieving.

The conflict with Argentina wasn't the most controversial moment of MT's career by any means. It followed an invasion of British territory, islands peopled entirely by British nationals, even the far left opposition of the time led by Michael Foot supported retaliation against the aggressors. Few if any opposed this; the actual nadir of her career was the Poll Tax riots and led to her eventual overthrow. As has been pointed out in the comments attached to that link, Thatcher was and is loathed by millions of UK citizens who saw their livelihoods destroyed by Thatcher's destruction of British industry, moving the country from manufacturing output to service industries. Miners, steel workers, ship builders, saw their traditional jobs disappear forever leaving whole swathes of the country mired in long-term unemployment and hopelessness, with the only opportunities on offer stacking supermarket shelves at the minimum wage. Thatcher also brought in banking deregulation which led to the current UK financial crisis with Britain now in hock to China. Put simply she was brilliant at foreign policy but useless at home affairs. If this film goes ahead it will be appalling timing as Argentina has started kicking off about the Falklands yet again, but I really can’t see why anyone would want to make such a film in her lifetime. Wait till she’s no longer with us and then dish up the truth.

Interesting thread: for the record though the UK is as dumbed down as it is possible to get. Mainland Europe's cultural attitudes have never really made it across the Channel.

No, he isn't an etoile, though he has progressed to the official rank of premiere danseur; many lesser talents have been promoted ahead of him. M. Thibault is something of an enigma in the world of ballet with a massive following throughout Europe but little recognition by the management of his own company. He occasionally gets a leading role and I've gone over to Paris to see him dance in Don Q. and Ashton's Fille, nowadays he guests abroad a lot and recently performed Colas with the Bolshoi in Moscow. It isn't just audiences that are in awe of Thibault: dancers are too, and Nikolai Tsiskaridze once described him to me as "a genius", a description with which I totally concur. Emmanuel Thibault's career has been blighted by the short-sightedness of the Parisian management that has conspired to rob international audiences of one of the finest dancers France has ever produced. The first full length role he got to dance was Don Q. and both fans and critics from all over Europe converged on Paris for the event (Clement Crisp and John Percival were sitting together in the front row) I came away hoping that I had witnessed a turning point in his career and that the big roles would all follow in quick succession - but it wasn't to be. I suppose there is still a chance that at this late stage in his career he may still be made etoile as some sort of consolation prize, but I won't be holding my breath.

Natalia could be right in her theory as there is a huge amount of venom directed at Osipova on some of the Russian websites (You tube too). Not beyond the bounds of possibility she was targeted on purpose. By the way this made the free London newspaper Metro today, but the picture claiming to be Osipova wasn't actually of her. Typical sloppy journalism.

I'm planning to see this as it was filmed in Marrakech where I holidayed in January, only SATC had better weather than me so I'd like to see the place in the sunshine. I read that the film is set in Abu Dhabi though, so don't get the logic of filming it in Morocco instead. Interested to see if their experiences there match up to mine in that crazy place.

I seem to be making a habit of posting articles from UK hacks about how dreadful opera is, but here is another written by a bloke with the highly appropriate name of Thicknesse; clearly thick by name and thick by nature. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/2...t-of-love-opera This is a long and ambling piece with his thoughts on the art peppered with factural inacuracies such as- People fall asleep at the opera (and the ballet) occasionally, but the idea that the place is packed with snoring bored patrons is a myth. In London I suspect that if the odd person dozes off it is most likely down to the Brits being Europe's workhorses with all those long hours at work being to blame and half the population being in a state of utter exhaustion. I once fell asleep at the ballet I freely admit, but it was more down to sampling a few too many at the cocktail bar down the road rather than boredom. And here comes the obligatory dig at Glyndebourne: Now I love Glyndebourne and am seeing Billy Budd there in a week or so - can't wait. I love the drive down into the country past the llamas, the camel and the flocks of sheep and the dress code doesn't bother me at all. I've seen some stupendous performances there including two that for some reason really got up Thicknesse's nose. Well William Christie (aka 'God' in the Mashinka household), was the conductor and did not wear a bunny suit the night I went though a large number of the cast did in an hilarious danced number by eminent choreographer no less. It was so funny I laughed until I felt pain, what is wrong with an audience enjoying itself? Guilio Cesare wasn't Bollywood at all just an imaginative production again highly enjoyable. Both are on DVD should anyone want to check these productions out. But hang on this guy even knocks the very down market Holland Park event where you freeze in the open. Seems it isn't just the Brits at the opera he despises: Same people eh? What percentage of the Paris audience is made up of non French patrons? Got to be high as I have found myself sitting next to Brits, Americans, Australians and Danes at the Garnier as often as French, interesting the 'Paris Boss' doesn't have a name. The worst part of this attack is that this opera-phobe actually earns money as an opera critic. It's all enough to make me weep.

For me the most ill-used props are those pesky golden apples in Firebird, never ceases to amaze me how few dancers can actually catch the wretched things. Heads in bags are no longer unique to Edward II though, at the end of Flames of Paris Jerome is handed the head of his guillotined love in a bag at the very end: a very grisly finale.

What about Juliet's mother? Though she gets a bit more distraught over losing her nephew than her daughter.

Absolutely! And say what you like about Osipova – she can certainly move.

My favourite Flanders & Swann number was probably 'Transport of Delight', a kind of hymn of praise to London buses. http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/hat_trans.html How we used to laugh at the very idea that a bus ticket could ever cost a pound! Seems as if economic prediction may have been a latent talent of this pair, an inheritable talent too as Flanders's daughter Stephanie is a top economist at the BBC. I've always loved clever lyrics and for that reason I'm a big fan of Cole Porter and Noel Coward too. It may well have been a more carefree era when those songs were written but in many ways it was a more sophisticated one as well.

Simon, I think it might be more politically correct to refer to an infertile dimensionality.

When I read tosh like that I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

When Alvarez sang in the new production of Aida at ROH, London opera fans were a little disconcerted to hear a different (easier) ending to Celeste Aida with the top b flat missing, and many were further disconcerted that the London critics either failed to notice or considered it not worth mentioning. Along comes the critic of the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/arts/05i...Aida&st=cse He noticed and commented. Wonder if Mr Loomis has ever considered a transfer to London?

That final sentence hints at prejudice towards Russians in general, could that prejudice be colouring the entire review?

I remember this actor from his Rawhide days, but I suppose he has moved on to the status of 'national treasure' now. Good piece on the whole. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/26...astwood-profile

Largely agree, except about Jedward (who were anyway Louis Walsh's protégés), but fell in love with the dancing dog on Saturday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk4UjFxZ2Eo I feel the accomplishments of the dog bring the discussion somewhat back on topic.

People are always telling me how wonderful he is, but I don't see it either. Amazing how far some dancers get on looks these days.

At a ballet performance in Oxford I was in the sitting in the stalls and became aware of a woman in the front row who kept beating her fists on the floor and emitting stifled cries. Another time at Sadlers Wells someone kept up a high pitched screech throughout the evening. I know it’s not politically correct to say this, but I feel people with such advanced conditions should be discouraged from attending public performances.

I’m prone to sneezing in the theatre, probably because the places aren't dusted/vacuumed properly. I always take an anti-histamine tablet before going out. When I buy CD’s I always avoid ‘live’ performances. I know the purists say that studio recordings are ‘dead’, but it’s preferable to listening to an added ‘coughing chorus’.

Yes, they dance La Fille Mal Gardee: it was first staged in June 2007 and was revived last summer. I've seen three different casts in the leading roles now, including Froustey, Heymann and Thibault, all quite wonderful and they have found a vintage Alain in Simon Valastro but none of the Widow Simones have quite got the clog dance. On average though, I would stick my neck out and say that the ballet is danced rather better in Paris than in London now. I would love to see POB dance Two Pigeons and Sylvia would also suit them I think. The Kirov tried to acquire Month in the Country a few years back, but it seems Dowell isn't keen for the ballet to travel.

I totally agree but it used to in the past, certainly in the UK you could find critical essays putting dance works into an artistic/social/historical context but that was many decades ago. For example I was going through some old magazines just recently and came across a marvellous piece by Beaumont on the provenance of 19th century paintings of the Taglioni family, who bothers with subjects like that today? On the minus side I was reminded just why I am so contemptuous of Alistair Macauley when I read a review he wrote about the Kirov describing a now eminent figure in Russian ballet as merely 'a pretty boy'. Tear into a dancer’s technical abilities by all means - that is what criticism is supposed to be about, cheap insults are beyond the pale though.

I sincerely hope that Viacheslav Samodurov's links to the Royal Ballet are not going to be completely severed as he has the potential to become an outstanding choreographer, something the RB is in sore need of. He has been plagued by injuries since he joined the RB though which is a great shame as he used to be a notable virtuoso at the Kirov. Edward Watson is a very remarkable dancer but my great admiration for him doesn't extend to his forays into the classical rep. Monica Mason has been responsible for some very curious choices regarding the importing of male dancers, although I've never seen Mr Kish in a major role myself, I am led to believe he didn't exactly set the stage alight in Copenhagen.

I have seen Krysanova in a leading role as Cinderella and there is no doubt she can carry an entire ballet effortlessly: she has a huge talent in a tiny frame. Although I'll agree that Zakharova has improved at the Bolshoi, her basic style of dancing still lacks the beauty and technical finish of her Moscow colleagues but it is her lack of dramatic involvement that worries me most with every role she dances almost identical in interpretation. I shall have to see her in London as I have booked for Tsiskaridze and she dances with him in Giselle (btw, where is Svetlana Lunkina his usual partner in the role?) but I wish he were dancing with someone/anyone else.