Mashinka

I was referring not to the The Hostess and the girl/boy in blue but to the two girls in grey who bouree on with their arms around each other’s shoulders and keep checking during their dancing that they are not being observed. Intriguingly I remember reading that this section has occasionally been cut due to reasons of prudery. Could it be that you saw a censored version? For the record I first saw this danced by the RB around 1965 and remember it being danced by Merle Park and Maryon Lane. Does anyone else remember those performances?

I imagine the earliest same-sex pas de deux (semi romantic) would be the two girls in Nijinska's Les Biches which dates from the 1920's. There is nothing ambiguous about their relationship.

Holst's Planets was used by David Bintley for the Royal Ballet about 10 or 12 years ago. It was an utter turkey! I went to the first night and the curtain was delayed for nearly an hour because of problems with the elaborate set. It was one of the hottest nights of the year, the audience grew restless and the management made the magnanimous gesture of a free drink at the bar - unusual in itself at Covent Garden. It really was terrible. I don't remember it too well but seem to recall the dancers skipping around a giant apple at one point. Only the dancing of the lovely Bryony Brind in one of the sections, proved a redeeming feature.

No, Lady M was neither a dancer nor a choreographer. According to Kenneth MacMillan's biographer she was a waitress at the time of their marriage. The set changes that she authorized for the last scene of Romeo and Juliet are a disaster and her taste has been questioned on other occasions too. Most worrying however was her threat to the RB to withhold access to the MacMillan ballets unless Ross Stretton resigned. On Tuesday night she saw fit to take a curtain call at the revival of Mayerling.

How about reviving the Fridays Child pas de deux from Jazz Calendar which Ashton created for Nureyev and Antoinette Sibley?

As an Irish national I find Ed Waffles remark offensive. [ February 20, 2002: Message edited by: Mashinka ]

As a Londoner I found the results of this survey rather surprising. Yes, the average ROH audience does appear to include all age groups, but the regular ballet going audience is another matter. I personally know of only three ardent ballet fans under the age of thirty and although I am not acquainted with the entire ballet going fraternity at Covent Garden, I still maintain that the average age of the regulars must be pretty high. The income figures published are misleading too as £30,000 per year is very high, far higher than the average wage and the £15,000 per year figure probably refers exclusively to students and pensioners. I know of one lady in the latter category who performs heroic acts of self-denial in order to afford her ballet. London now ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world and the ROH seat prices are indicative of that. The prices in Paris for example are far lower both for ballet and the more expensive opera. Finally I have to admit I did not fill in one of these questionnaires as I find questions concerning age and income impertinent - but perhaps that reflects the attitude of my particular age group.

The hyper-extensions that are such an unwelcome addition to present day ballet technique bother me as much as they do Ms Kanter, but I would like to point out that male dancers also perform them. The first male dancer I saw with an unusually high extension was Wayne Eagling of the Royal Ballet. As an exceptionally flexible dancer, pointing his toe at the ceiling, didn't appear to afford him any effort. Unfortunately when some of his colleagues sought to emulate him, the end result didn't look quite as good. The male dancer with the highest extension today is without doubt Nikolai Tsiskaridze of the Bolshoi. In fact at least one UK critic has pointed out that his are more impressive than Guillem's! A high extension is simply a part of the male dancer's acrobatic arsenal. But best not displayed in any of the classics in my opinion.

Jeannie, Two close friends of mine are going to the Maryinsky Ballet Festival on 9th March and are having problems finding suitable accommodation. Is it possible for you to let me know the details of the B&B close to the theatre that you recommended in your earlier post, i.e. name, address tel/fax no's, email address etc. to pass on to them? Many thanks - MB

Perhaps some of you will have read that Princess Margaret, the Queen's younger sister died on Saturday after suffering ill health for some years. She was the President of the Royal Ballet and at the evening performance at the Royal Opera House, Ross Stretton came on stage before curtain up to ask the audience to observe a minutes silence. Margaret was a great balletomane all her life and undertook a large number of fund raising engagements overseas on the company's behalf. She was a friend of both Fonteyn and Nureyev and was a very close friend of Frederick Ashton. Ashton even created a short ballet depicting the childhood of Margaret and her sister which was shown at a royal gala some years ago. I remember it well as it was a lovely piece with two student dancers made up to resemble the little princesses in the hairstyles and costumes of the 1930's. A news report stated that the Princess's last public appearance was in August for her mother's 101st birthday. This was incorrect as she attended the memorial service for Ninette de Valois a month later. She was a ballet fan till the end.

Hanlet wasn't written as a comedy. It is actually meant to be a depressing play.

Making comparisons between dancers is something that on the whole is best avoided, Nureyev and Baryshnikov were two very unique talents and the ten year age gap between them meant that their careers didn't completely overlap. Also Baryshnikov after his defection, danced almost exclusively in the US whereas Nureyev took his talent to every corner of the earth. To accuse him of doing so for the money is absurd and disrespectful to his memory. I believe he had a great compulsion to dance continuously that was the basis of his very complex personality. During his lifetime Nureyev divided both audience and critics: you either loved him or hated him and I write as one who loved him faults and all. Baryshnikov was a highly academic dancer and an accomplished technician but unlike Nureyev he won't be remembered as a ballet immortal. As to partnering skills, I believe Nureyev's reluctance to rehearse with many of his partners led to the lapses that have been well documented. Interestingly, Baryshnikov was also challenged in the partnering department as his lack of height meant that his list of suitable partners was more restricted than Nureyev's. Nureyev by the way, considered his colleague at the Kirov, Yuri Soloviev to be his better in terms of pure technique and his admiration of Bruhn is well known but Nureyev possessed an asset that the others didn’t – he had Fonteyn.

I found this very interesting and am very sorry I missed the interview (ironically I am on holiday in Australia). What Stretton has said seems promising. Personally I have been disgusted with so many RB fans criticizing him before he has had a chance to establish himself in London. Those same people couldn't wait for Dowell to leave and one wonders exactly what motivates this kind of criticism. We are fortunate in London to have casting months in advance but that is not the norm elsewhere and it is something that I'm sure Stretton will adapt to when he discovers more about RB customs. Lets wait until the end of the season before sitting in judgement on him.

I seem to remember a Russian version of Hamlet choreographed by Konstantine Sergeyev for either Panov or Baryshnikov some years ago, did that ever appear on film? I have never heard of Svetlana Voskresenskaya has anyone else?

Anna Pavlova's house in north London used to contain a small museum dedicated to her and although the house still exists, the museum part closed down some years ago. I seem to have a foggy recollection that something of this sort was on display there or perhaps it was a plaster cast of her foot. What happened to the collection after the closure I have no idea, but perhaps if anyone knows the current location of that collection it would solve the mystery.

Estelle, though I haven't seen this company, I feel it would certainly be worth going to see. Dancers such as Galina Samsova and Nina Semizorova (among others) began their careers with the Kiev Company and more recently Ivan Putrov and Alina Cojocaru of the Royal Ballet are from Kiev too. If they are examples of the standard in that company then they are well worth seeing. Don Q. isn't my favourite ballet either, but with the right cast and production, I must admit it can be great fun.

First of all I feel that the very word “ballerina” has been debased. It is now seems to apply to any female dancer that has ever donned a pair of point shoes whereas it should only be applied to those at the very pinnacle. A principal dancer is just that, a dancer capable of dancing principal roles in the repertory adequately. The ballerina is the one whose dancing is inspired. It isn't just Tobi Tobias who lacks a worldwide perspective on the current status of the ballerina; in many ways I think we all do. Here in London, the only foreign company we see on a regular basis is the Kirov, so that the days are long gone when I would be prepared to give an educated opinion on companies such as NYCB, ABT or the Royal Danish. This has a lot to do with spiralling touring costs but also the diminished status of the ballet in recent years. A ballerina needs to develop an international reputation to avoid becoming a "ballerina" only in the parochial sense. Tobias mentions Nina Ananiashvili, a ballerina who has danced just about everywhere in the world in front of highly appreciative audiences. She is as familiar to those of us in London as to those in Moscow, Paris, New York or Tokyo. That is what I mean by an international reputation. Here in the UK parochialism is taking dangerous hold, especially in the world of opera. Lesley Garrett a diva? Ask them what they think of that in Milan! And as for Russell Watson, well, words fail me. Is this the future of ballet too? Over hyped, under talented stars created by a media department? I shudder at the thought. If you get famous enough in Britain you eventually get your picture in Hello magazine alongside the soap actresses and wives of soccer players. Many of us feel a little uneasy when we see dancers there. Michael1 is quite right to blame changing cultural values for ballets decline. Dancers too are the product of their age and it is becoming depressingly apparent that few leading dancers understand the roles they dance, certainly here in the UK that is the case. Another factor is the alarming taste for tall, often skeletal dancers. I have a video of a televised Kirov performance of Raymonda made in the early 1980's. The interval talk is given by Ninette de Valois who makes the comment that some of the variations looked wrong because the dancers dancing them were too tall for the steps. A valid point. All the famous classical roles were originally danced by small compact women. Check out the photos of the time. In the 20th century Margot Fonteyn was widely regarded as having the perfect proportions for ballet but today few ballet masters would give her lovely body a second glance. With male dancers the weight/physique question is rarely an issue, though the men will soon have to be a minimum of six foot five to effectively partner all those big girls. It is becoming common knowledge that in certain European Co's certain male dancers are resolutely refusing to dance with certain female dancers for fear of injury. Remember that a ballet audience is made up of more than simply balletomanes and for them the physical appearance of the female dancer is a major factor in their enjoyment of the performance. Am I the only one to have overheard comments about “scrawn”? Popular culture has condemned us all to living in a world of artistic mediocrity with charlatans parading as artists. Up to now ballet has kept its integrity fairly intact with the ballerina being a rare species but not an endangered one. I just pray I don’t hear the Swan Song in my lifetime.

Vagansmom, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments regarding Valery Panov's book To Dance. It was co-written by an author named George Feifer who is most famous for his novel "the Girl from Petrovka". Some years earlier he wrote a book of impressions of famous contemporary Russians, one of whom was Plisetskaya. I must have read the book getting on for 30 years ago now and can no longer remember the actual title. However he wrote quite vividly about Plisetskaya and she came across as a very steely personality indeed. Plisetskaya's autobiography can actually be divided into two halves, the first half is Plisetskaya v Soviet officialdom, and the second half concerns her experiences in the west where she writes at length about Petit and Bejart. The personalities with whom she worked in her earlier years in Russia are completely ignored. Both Panov and Plisetskaya paint a very gloomy picture of life in Soviet Russia, but to discover the other side of that picture try reading "Behind the Bolshoi Curtain" by the late Richard Collins, an English dance student and eventual corps member of the Bolshoi. Collins had a riotous time in Russia and writes a very truthful account of his life there full of warmth and humour. The Russians he met seem much the same as those I have met - full of kindness and generosity. It is a book that leaves you with a very warm feeling.

Hi Anoushka, I went to see Misty Frontier on Friday night and I enjoyed it too. What a surprise to see de Frutos choreography featuring fouettes! Tennessee Williams's most famous works are probably "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". He specialised in depicting intense, difficult relationships and perhaps you could see something of that in the pas de deux for the second couple in Misty Frontier. I also admired the back lighting, it gives a beautiful effect, but always reminds me of Harold Lander's "Etudes".

I'm so envious! I had heard about the tribute performances for Lavrovsky and Ananiashvili, but there is also a third coming up around this time A Tribute to Maris Liepa, organized by his son Andris, but I don't know if is being held at the Bolshoi or another theatre. Could be at the Operetta Theatre around the corner. Several Bolshoi principals are appearing. I have the Galatea video - it’s a gem. A danced version of My Fair Lady with Maximova as Eliza Doolittle and Liepa as Henry Higgins. It lifts my spirits every time I watch it. The Stanislavsky Ballet dances in London next month so I am crossing my fingers that Chernobrovkina will appear, one critic has already called her the best dancer in Russia. I was delighted to hear that Lavrovsky still performs, I doubt he looks as good as I remember him from the 70's now, but he's not reached HIS seventies yet, 59 or 60 by my reckoning I think. Thanks for that Jeannie, I wish I was there

Alexandra, I also heard the rumour that Fonteyn wore some sort of doctored shoes to give her extra support but like you I haven't spotted any evidence from photos. I certainly don't remember her clattering around the stage with the noisy blocks of dancers today.

Thanks for the information Jean-Luc, as a great admirer of the pure style of the POB, I don't doubt that Mukhamedov was less than ideal. Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who will be dancing with the company in December, is a far more elegant dancer and will I am sure, blend well with the company. La Bayadere is his best role and he is certain to impress. I am very envious. I wish he was guesting in London!

Yes, the book does contain photographs, some very good ones too. Interestingly, although Plisetskaya doesn't bring her story up to date she does include a recent picture of herself receiving an award from Putin. The stories of the KGB guards following the dancers are all too true I'm afraid. I still vividly remember a horrible incident when the Bolshoi was in London in 1974. One of the leading male dancers was signing autographs for a group of children outside the theatre when one of two rough looking men called out to him. The dancer ignored him. The man called his name again, more urgently. The dancer still ignored him. The two men then grabbed an arm each and frog marched the dancer down the street. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I suppose it was the height of the cold war and of course the year Baryshnikov defected, but to me that didn't excuse such rough treatment of an artist. Thank God all that is in the past.

Leigh, if its vulgar you like, just wait till you see Anastasia Volochkova, she takes vulgarity to heights you never knew existed !!!!!!!!!

Leigh, if its vulgar you like, just wait till you see Anastasia Volochkova, she takes vulgarity to heights you never knew existed !!!!!!!!!