Mashinka

I can remember a private performance (dancers entertaining dancers) where a pair of dancers came on and gave an hilarious performance of a pas de deux from their company's rep with index fingers extended. One dancer was Chinese and the other was half Japanese. They were having a joke at a ballet convention. Had it been that offensive I imagine they would not have done it.

Thanks for jogging my memory, yes, it was Versailles, I couldn't watch more than a few minutes. A brilliant film could have been made about Louis, instead we got that rubbish. I'm not usually a fan of crime, but the Scandinavian productions have converted me.

Indeed, I think such ballets will eventually be dropped in western Europe. Many dancers in Russia come from the old republics where skin tone is noticeably darker and eyes are not Caucasian and they have been cast accordingly.

Seeing how fakir behaviour includes meditating in the open air in all weathers, a weather beaten look is appropriate in comparison with the other characters. Kind of permanent first degree burn. I once watched a performance of Swan Lake in Marbella, a lot of the dancers had clearly taken advantage of the sun. No uniformity that night. Some had a fabulous tan, some had turned red, while the ones that had eschewed the beach looked pasty by comparison.

If they're the ones I think they are, the scores made them unwatchable for me. The recent Henry VIII series was ridiculous, there was also a dreadful Louis XIV series. My favourite viewing right now is Scandinavian crime series, really gritty with superb acting, if you've not seen any I recommend them.

History tells us it was Mary who relied on a series of dissipated/inept men. The whole point of Elizabeth's spinster status was to make her own decisions and not be reliant on any man. She chose her male advisors and they were always the most astute.

Of these touring Russian companies St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is about the best. Kolesnikova is Vaganova trained and for many years she was coached by Alla Osipenko, her style is very much 'old Kirov' I find her soulful and beautiful, a few find her mannered. The production is very much based on the Mariinsky version, no nasty deviations from the basic plot, the sets and costumes are traditional. One's reaction to any dancer is subjective so I imagine it depends on how keen you are on Russian dancers as to whether she's worth a journey.

It is pretty easy to offend through ignorance actually. Not knowing about local customs/superstitions can easily cause upset/embarrassment/anger, even mispronouncing a foreign word can get you into trouble. Innocuous example: once gave a Russian friend twelve roses, was unaware even numbers of blooms in bouquets are unlucky, she was clearly upset. I'm reading this thread with incredulity, cannot believe anyone would defend the harassment of innocent young girls.

Surely intent has to be proved before the children in question can be accused of a racial insult? If they had no intention of offending their audience they have to be considered blameless. If the company was aware of such sensitivities and ignored them that is another matter.

As I happen to admire Osipova's modern work very much, I think this is well worth making a journey to see.

I've been reading this thread with great interest. Rulers in my view are few and far between. When I began my regular ballet going in the 1960's there could be no question of who ruled, it was Fonteyn and Nureyev, a kind of balletic William and Mary. Since then I would say only Sylvie Guillem created the nearest level of interest as those two, but many of us decried the influence she had on technique and blame her for the introduction of the vile six o'clock extension. I like and admire the majority of the names put forward here, but apart from one, I can't see a present or future ruler among those names. A couple I haven't actually seen in the flesh, the clip of the oft mentioned Ms Peck is indeed awesome. There are few French names and no Danes at all, possibly because they don't tour, Americans and Cubans are a rare treat in the UK these days. So who rules? At this moment only Natalia Osipova. She ticks the boxes of having both an international reputation and an extraordinary versatility, not many have both Giselle and Kitri as their most admired roles and Osipova is adventurous in her choices of repertoire. Too adventurous perhaps as her increasing forays into the modern style takes her away from what most would consider her best roles. She certainly has her detractors, the greats always do, but she has the compelling stage presence that marks her out as a star, above all a passion for dance that communicates itself to an audience and that is where so many others can be found wanting. The name of Elena Glurdjidze doesn't appear in the previous posts. I'm not surprised as she didn't have an international career and has stopped dancing now anyway, but please spare a moment to read what the critic Luke Jennings had to say about her. When she was dancing she may not have ruled the world but lovely, unsung Elena certainly ruled my heart and perhaps that is what matters most. "People ask me what has been the best thing that I’ve seen, and of course there is no “best”. But if you were to ask me which experience I’d most like to repeat, I think I know. It was a weekday matinee in 2007, and English National Ballet were dancing their traditional version of Giselle, with Elena Glurdjidze in the title role. Then 32, Glurdjidze had studied at the Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg, and had learned Giselle from her teacher, the great Lyubov Kunakova. Her performance reminded me of why I first fell in love with ballet. Nothing she did was technically extraordinary, nothing was showy, her legs hardly ever rose above the horizontal. But such was her transparency, so profound was her identification with the role, that you couldn’t really see the dancing. All was character, all was emotion, all was story. Glurdjidze stopped time, and that is what great dancing can do"

Fakirs exist in both the Hindu and Islamic religions, they are mendicant monks and in many cases dervishes. They are not necessarily lower caste, in fact in Islam there are no castes. All that unites them are vows of poverty,

There is no equivalent to the English letter H in the Russian language, the closest you get is X, roughly pronounced kh. H in Russian script is pronounced N, e.g. Nureyev in Russian script is written as Hypeeb. To give you an example, Hamlet (play and ballet) in Russia is known as Gamlet. In his 'Complete Book of Ballets' Beaumont refers to Gamsatti, the only difference I can find

I am so very sorry to hear this news about Steven Macrae, he has had a number of injury problems and this must be a dreadful blow to him despite his stoical reaction. In my view he is is unique and in many ways there is no one who can replace him, I accept the show must go on, but I may well finish up returning my tickets. However I would much prefer the elegant, ever classical Hirano to the lumbering Reece Clarke.

If they're just doing Carmen it's going to be a very short evening.

Really? I wouldn't describe former partners Carlos Acosta, Ivan Vasiliev or Sergei Polunin as unobtrusive. I've always admired Osipova best when she's been paired with dancers that match her emotional intensity on stage.

A bit off topic but a jolly good read about temple dancers in modern India. Note the reference to the high caste of the surviving dancer. Had Nikiya married Solor she may have been marrying beneath herself, though as a warrior Solor would have been the same caste as Gamzatti as the princes were traditionally from the warrior caste. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/profaned-dancing-returns-to-the-temple-1525034.html

I'm getting a flurry of emails from RB fans but speculation is just that, nobody has any inside information on this. I'm gutted that we're not getting the Ratmansky. Dances at a Gathering fell flat when it was revived a few years ago, I'd rather hoped they'd drop it. Looking on the bright side there are a number of young men who would look good in Prodigal Son. It would be a wonderful first leading role for mega talented Joseph Sissons.

That is quite extraordinary, there should be an explanation for such radical changes. Not happy about this at all, anyone know what's happening?

I agree, once he had been exposed, other women came forward with their complaints, up to and including rape. He was in line to be the next French president, that never happened, ironic that the two incumbents of the post since that incident have been useless, with the lowest approval rating in history. Macron currently has a mere twenty per cent last time I looked, though his mishandling of the yellow vest protesters may have driven him down further.

Good point. Strauss Kahn was finally caught out in the US despite a history of abusing women in France.

I asked an expert regarding the Italian fouettes. He says the DQ dances them in the choreography attributed to Petipa used by the Maryinsky however they weren't in the Bolshoi's traditional Gorsky version despite certain Dulcineas choosing to perform them, e,g, Maximova, N. Pavlova. So it seems who dances what is now a matter of choice at the Bolshoi, as last week's Don Q's proved.

Traditionally Dryad Queen does them.

That's pretty much what I expected, European attitudes do tend to be a lot different in these cases.

I was led to believe that originally the Bolshoi planned to bring Bayaderka, but switched to Don Q because the RB was dancing it this past season, only thing is, the RB was dancing Don Q. too, so I don't understand their reasoning. Comparisons are inevitable. Acosta's production isn't that much liked, despite the fact that it's the first at the RB to be successful. The Bolshoi's version isn't that great either, inferior in my opinion to what the Mariinsky has. However with the chance to see dancers new to me in the leading roles, I finished up seeing three of the four performances. Opening night with Shrainer and Tsvirko didn't quite deliver. He was good, a near perfect Basilio played with considerable humour, but something wasn't right between him and Shrainer in the lifts, something I also noticed when they were paired in Spartacus. She danced well enough but couldn't bring the role to life, a friend commented that she was midweek matinee material and on that showing I'm afraid I agree. Friday night was Ekaterina Krysanova and David Motta Soarez and this was a stellar performance. Soarez is a very young dancer but totally at ease on stage, if he had nerves, they didn't show. He dances well, room for improvement, yes, but impressive all the same. I should mention he's also good looking, Brazilian eye candy in fact, he went down very well indeed. As for Krysanova she sparkled from start to finish and even for this seen it all before fouette watcher, I have to say her speed was quite awesome and she remained virtually on the spot throughout. The chemistry with Soarez was quite vibrant and they looked an excellent match. One curious incident that I noticed was that she was absent in act two when her father comes looking for her, she is supposed to be sitting on her chair in the corner hiding her face with a fane while her girlfriends spread out their skirts to conceal her further. On this occasion Lorenzo shoves past the friends to find no one there and had to improvise some business with the chairs: very odd.. At the curtain calls Soarez knelt before Krysanova gazing up at her with a look of adoration and the large bloom from her bouquet she handed him, he brandished as a trophy between his teeth. Could it be the beginning of an exciting stage partnership? I very much hope so. I have very little to add to Madame P's critique of the Sevenard/Belyakov performance, it was a very accomplished Kitri from a dancer so young, but I do wish I could have seen her in a more purely classical role. Sevenard made her debut in London about three years ago dancing Fairy Doll with a group of Vaganova students and people who saw her then turned up to see how her career is progressing , I consider her more than just promising. I would have preferred to have seen Belyakov in something more classical too, he would make a fine Jean de Brienne for example, but he found a lot of comedy in Basilio and his technique is amazing. The Bolshoi used to have a better Don Q than this one, for me it's too frantic with all the background cloak waving and the irritating multiple castanets. The second act comes off worst with the interminable Spanish skirt waving and that absurd jig. The gypsy dances appeared curtailed, didn't there used to be a young man dancing a super fast number with a whip? There isn't now. Last time around the Dryad Queens were embarrassingly bad, they've improved, but not by that much and one left out the fiendish Italian fouettes altogether, perhaps like me she finds them vulgar. The fact is the RB can do a lot better, no one got within spitting distance of Fumi Kaneko in that role. They really should have stuck with La Bayadere.