Mashinka

Does "non-Caucasian" mean just black or does it include Asian and Oriental dancers? Ballet has taken off big time in Japan and is now booming in China with the result that these dancers are represented in just about every company you care to name. I'm not certain that "grinding poverty" exists in the UK, poverty exists almost everywhere though and if you're poor than you've no chance in classsical ballet as classes cost money and few working class dancers make it anywhere regardless of their colour. The exception was the old Soviet Union, but that no longer exists and it will be interesting to see how the demise of the old system will impact upon future generations of dancers. I've first hand experience of attitudes towards black dancers as I worked as an assistant/administrator to the black dancer William Louther for a number of years: he found working in Europe was more congenial than in the US as he'd experienced serious racism when dancing with a white partner in the southern states. One of the dancers in his company, James Lammy, who now works in Austria, told me of his disappointment at not being accepted as a classical dancer, but I've a feeling that things have moved on today and that there is more acceptance of non-white dancers. I once raised a question with an RB teacher at one of those Q & A sessions arranged by one of the ballet clubs, about the scarcity of black dancers in the company. He didn't like the question at all and looked plainly embarrassed to be asked. Audience reaction was somewhat different as all had something to say on the subject and that totally white, middle-aged, middle class audience made it perfectly clear that they had no objections to non-whites in their favourite art form at all. I have to say that opera is generally accepted as being just as elitist as ballet, but black singers, from Jessye Norman down, don't seem to face these barriers.

Its Isadora Duncan choreographed by Maurice Bejart and performed with a group of children. From my standing place in the stalls circle I could only catch the Schumann music not much of the actual film, but it was a magical piece performed all over Europe (though not the UK), that perhaps brought out a tender side of Plisetskaya that was contrary to her usual roles. I got the impression that Nioradze was trying to copy the style of Plisetskaya's Dying Swan rather than dancing in her usual style, as she doesn't usually perform this with the exaggerated arm movements. Perhaps it didn't work for you simply because it was an impersonation? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Betty Boop, the Don Quixote pas de deux is recognizable by its pseudo-Spanish posings. The costumes are usually variations on red and black for both dancers and there are a lot of fouettes.

Fonteyn, Nureyev and Martha Graham.

As a neutral Irishwoman, I would like to point out that where ‘intellectual property’ is concerned, America is a far better repository than Russia. The Russian attitude to ownership is rarely generous: Remember those works of art hidden for decades in the cellars of the Hermitage and the shock of discovering the existence of paintings that had previously just had art book illustrations captioned “destroyed in the second world war”? When not actually being hidden, artistic assets can be used for virtual extortion as a British concert pianist I know of discovered when requesting piano scores in Russian ownership. The straightforward and reasonable fees that had he had paid in the Soviet era have suddenly spiralled to exorbitant sums and this fine interpreter of the Russian piano repertoire has been forced to abandon future recording and performance plans as a consequence. As the curators at Havard seem to have allowed access without excessive demands for cash, this archive is arguably in the best place.

To give Rupert Pennefather an award as 'outstanding classical dancer' is to me as inexplicable as the Royal Ballet's decision to give him leading roles, particularly as one of the other nominees was the highly talented and greatly admired Sarah Lamb. The Royal Ballet does have a young outstanding male dancer at present though and his name is Stephen McRae. Lamb of course is American and McRae is Australian, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Pennefather's award has a lot to do with the fact that he is a British dancer in a company where dancers from the UK are becoming a rarity.

I found Karl Paquette looked startling like Andris Liepa, who used to dance the role in Moscow. Perhaps Grigorvitch had this in mind when he cast him. When this ballet was performed at the Bastille I saw both casts, and believe me Paquette was far superior to the dancer in the alternate cast. He may not look the part, but he could at least manage the demanding choreography and brought a degree of emotion to the role.

There is also a faily large chunk from Prokofiev's strange opera "The Fiery Angel" in there too.

- Yulia Makhalina Occasionally dances, but strictly at home - Zhanna Ayupova Spent last year on maternity leave - Tatiana Amosova Still dancing - Irina Zhelonkina (what a beauty!) Have heard she is also on maternity leave, but can't confirm this. - Veronika Ivanova Can't offer any information about this dancer.

Plisetskaya in La Fille Mal Gardee Anthony Dowell as Spartacus Kenneth Grieve as Petrushka

Le Beau Danube?

Parisian celebration of Bournonville's bicentenary: To mark Auguste Bournonville's bicentenary, the City of Paris is hosting an all-day event on Monday 5th December at the Conservatoire National de Région (CNR), in collaboration with the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM). A six-man team from Denmark, including the Royal Danish Ballet's Artistic Director as well as the head of the Royal Danish Ballet's School, will give a conference and master classes for teacher in the Paris-area in the morning, and joint classes to CNSM and CNR pupils in the afternoon. Royal Danish Ballet principals Diana Cuni and Thomas Lund will perform the "Flower Festival" pas de deux. All these events are open to the general public and are completely free of charge. On Tuesday 6th December, the director of the Conservatoire of the 7th Arrondissement of Paris will inaugurate a dance studio in Bournonville’s name, and later, Danish officials will unveil a plaque in the 1st arrondissement at the hotel where Bournonville resided in 1838. In the afternoon, a pedagogical event will take place at the Opera School.

Regal and elegant sums her dancing up perfectly; but what a great pity it is that as a teacher she appears unable to pass on any of her gifts to her pupils. Her star student looks more like a contortionist than a dancer to me.

Bejart's "Mother Teresa" must be included here. The scene where the dancers stood at the front of the stage and poured water over themselves was memorable for all the wrong reasons and the audible obscenity uttered at the end by one of the UK's most dignified critics on opening night said it all really.

Almost certainly that would have been Olga Pavlova.

Maria Alexandrova in Firebird, Raymonda, Scheherazade and Etudes. (would love to see this dancer paired with Carlos Acosta in something) Caroline Cavallo and Thomas Lund in The Dream Yuliana Lopatkina and Igor Kolb in A Month in the Country Laetitia Pujol in La Fille Mal Gardee and The Two Pigeons Emmanuel Thibault as the blue boy in Les Patineurs, In just about anything by Bournonville and with Pujol in Ashton's Rhapsody. Not sure if she will return to the stage, but would love to see Nina Ananiashvili dance Ashton's Chloe and Scenes de Ballet.

Silvy, I very much doubt that Yuri Vetrov ever danced Bluebird, did you mean Alexander Vetrov who I believe is his younger cousin?

I believe the recording was actually made at the performance on 5th November as I noticed five cameras set up in the auditorium and a sound recordist was prowling around in the orchestra pit. Certainly the cast given exactly matches the cast I saw. Everyone is in for a treat as it was an absolutely cracking performance. Not sure that I agree with that assessment of the etoiles, I always think of Pujol and Legris as exceptionally warm dancers. In recent years the quality of the corps has been uneven, but they were on top form in Jewels.

Zakharova as Carmen!? Is someone having a joke? Surely the obvious candidate for the role should be Maria Alexandrova.

It's difficult to make a choice between the Bolshoi's Ludmila Semenyaka and the Kirov's Tatiana Terekhova, both outstanding artists in my view, but if I could only have one video I think I would choose the Bolshoi one because it includes a fantastic cameo role from Gediminas Taranda as the gypsy boy. Regading Mlada, there are two versions of that available too, both with Nina Ananiashvili, one is a Russian recording and the other a western version, the latter being technically superior to the Russian one. Although there are different dancers in the supporting roles, the dancing is of a high standard on both videos. The only real difference is with the soprano in in the leading role of villainess Voislava. A rather dumpy looking girl with a lovely voice sings on the Russian version whereas the western version features a better looking soprano with a less attractive voice.

I have just discovered that Kolesnikova has been nominated for best female dancer award by this year's Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards here in the UK.

Still with us: Jenny Walton Judy Cameron In the past: Alexander Ukladnikov Baron Not a strictly a ballet photographer, but has produced beautiful pictures of dancers: Lord Snowden

This company tours the UK regularly and are due to start another tour here next month. Their production of Swan Lake is both conventional and attractive. The dancers are of a high standard with many being Vaganova graduates and a number of the younger dancers coming from the Nureyev School in Ufa. Kolesnikova makes a very good Odette/Odile, in fact I would rate her more highly than many of the dancers that have danced the role with Kirov lately.

One of the advantages of working for an Economics think-tank is that there are always back copies of The Economist lying around. Thanks Bart, for alerting me to this article, but I would have appreciated it more if the author had put his/her name to it.

????? Your professionalism does you credit Natalia, faced with the prospect of watching Somova as Aurora, I'd be more

One of the things that have always intrigued me about certain Russian dancers is why do so many of them, particularly the males, turn to the left? Left turners are generally a rarity in the west and are usually dancers that are left-handed anyway, e.g. Anthony Dowell. In Russia there are too many left turners for them to all be south paws and under Soviet rule children perceived to be left-handed were made to use their right hands anyway. In general I prefer a right turner, as there seems to me something more symmetrical about turning right. Does anyone have any insight into this practice?