Alymer

This is only a guess, but could the picture have been taken in Helsinki?

From the 2nd edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet: "Cancan (also Can-Can or Chahut) Orignally a decent and measured social dance invented by Monsieur Masarie in 1830 as a varient of the quadrille, it appeared after 1844 in the French music halls, developing there an increasingly uninhibited emphasis on the throwing up of the legs of the danseuses and the display of their underwear so that it was soon forbidden by the authorities. It is an immensely electrifying and lively dance in 2/4 time, considered by some to be a successor of the fandango."

I seem to remember reading years ago that a scene with Pamela Brown as Hoffman's muse was actually filmed, but discarded at the editing stage. "Wrapped in gold leaf" was the description, if I remember correctly. I thought she was wonderful - one of the best things in the film, though I also loved Ashton as Kleinzak - a very Fred piece of self-casting! I loved the film and negotiated an advance on my pocket money to see it a second time.

John Neumier also choreographed Ibsen's Peer Gynt to a specially written score by Alfred Schnittke, and there have been other versions by, I think, Orlikovsky and Ben Stevenson.

That's interesting because I had always assumed that it was loosely based on Madame Cottin's novel Elizabeth or The Exiles of Siberia, with the heroine's name changed to the more Russian-sounding Natalia. Elizabeth travels from Tobolsk to Moscow to petition the Tsar on behalf of her unjustly exiled father. I have an edition printed in 1817, bound together with Paul and Virginia, which I believe also provided a libretto for Bournonville. Elizabeth is full wonderful spellings, such as Cremelines for Kremlin, as well as much lofty sentiment, but perhaps Alexandra can throw more light on the matter.

I believe that Inglesby had an operation on her foot at some point and this might have prevented her from holding the unsupported balances in the Rose Adagio.

Shearer had stopped dancing by then. From 1954 to 1957 she worked fairly intensively as a stage actress - including a spell at the Bristol Old Vic. I would guess that once her husband decided to stand for parliament she concentrated his career and on her family - they had four children.

I don't find it impossible to believe. There is a story that she and the dancer and teacher Errol Addison went into the Nag's Head (a pub in Floral Street, just across from the then stage door of the opera house). Madam started to take out her purse and Addison stopped her saying "When I take a girl out I pay for the drinks".

Leonid wrote I think you may be disappointed as I suspect that myth-making is what it is all about, hence the seminar at Imperial and all the other hoopla!.

Just by the way; in the course of a conversation some thirty years ago I was surprised to learn that Cunningham and Fonteyn were firm friends. The surprise was not that they liked and admired each other but that they had a plan to work together. Cunningham was to make a work for Fonteyn - solo, duet, group dance, I don't know what - which would be performed for an invited audience at Jasper Johns' studio. It was Fonteyn who told me and I later checked with Merce who verified that they did have this project. Clearly it never happened, but it's fascinating to think what kind of dance he might have made on that very classical body. Obviously he did work with ballet companies; I remember seeing one of the early performances of Un Jour ou Deux in an almost empty Palais Garnier, but it's an indication that Fonteyn was not as conservative as she is often said to have been. (I'll skip over Lucifer, as I suspect she did that purely to please Nureyev.)

It is indeed very sad, but I believe he was in a great deal of pain. He was a beautiful dancer and a nice person.

Well, only a couple of days before he had been partnering Leanne Benjamin in the pas de deux from Fokine's Firebird as part of Hamburg's Nijinsky Gala, so I suppose he'd been taking class in preparation for that.

I think I saw all Kirkland's performances with the Royal Ballet and can only add to the view that she was amazing; outclassing all the home-grown principals of the time by some way. Incidentally, I don't think she ever danced The Dream, simply the final pas de deux from the ballet, partnered by Dowell, for some kind of gala. The excitement in the house for her two Auroras was palpable - something that hadn't been experienced for years and was fully deserved. The great pity is she never got to dance Ondine which she wanted to do. I think she would have been terrific.

Except when he partners so atrociously that he manages to ruin his ballerina's performance. Agree entirely. I would only add that there's more to most of those roles than simply jumping about and looking cheerful - not that it seems to matter at Covent Garden nowadays. McRae is also quite small and although he looks brilliant at times, I wouldn't say it's a 'complete' technique

Yes Leonid, I remember those performances by the Paris Opera Ballet too. Wonderful dancing and thoroughly inventive choreography. But to take up Kahoyo's point, I think the barrel organ music used for the scenes with the rustics was recorded - but presumably it had to be as you can hardly tour one of those huge barrel organs. I don't think either Ashton or MacMillan used recordings - but then they didin't have to as they worked largely within an opera house with a resident orchestra. During the war the then Sadler's Wells ballet danced to two pianos. However, I have on occasion been at performances of Romeo and Juliet by smaller companies where the Mandolin Dance was recorded and always assumed that this was because there were no experienced mandolin players available. Kahoyo, with regard to your final point about the dancers appearing to applaud themselves; I think you may find that the dancers were applauding the audience and that this is traditional in Denmark and some other countries. My memory is hazey and I'm sure someone on this board will correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect it was a politesse on their part. And I do remember often seeing showers of confetti at the end of Napoli, so this too is a tradition.

I'm not a great fan of Neumier's Sylvia and I haven't seen his Romeo, though I have enjoyed many of his other ballets. But I'm intrigued by Kahoyo's comment, quoted above, as it's always seemed to me that Ashton and MacMillan have a very different musicality. I would never have put them together so perhaps Kahoyo can explain further.

I know of several people who sit out performances of MacMillan's The Judas Tree because they find the subject matter (gang rape among other things) to be really offensive. And I've done so myself for the same reason.

I can offer some clues. Mary Skeaping staged Swan Lake for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1953 and from what I read it followed pretty closely the version staged by Nicholas Sergeyev for the then Sadler's Wells (now Royal) Ballet. So it seems likely that this is the production she staged in Cuba, although the Sergeyev version has no happy ending. She was later appointed director of the Royal Swedish Ballet and her production of Swan Lake formed part of the company's repertory until Brian MacDonald was appointed ballet director in 1964 when he brought in a "Russian" production by Natalie Conus which was still being danced in 1998 according to my source. (Cristian, Leonid must have been posting at the same time as I did and his reply is much fuller so I hope some of your questions have been answered)

Well that's an interesting question. She's cancelled her scheduled performances with the Royal Ballet in Les Sylphides but is still down to dance in some galas in Hong Kong later this month. But I'm curious to know how her interpretation of Giselle will fit with Barbieri's production. She (Barbieri) was a hot-blooded Romantic era Giselle, (very different to Cojocaru), and I wonder if her production of the ballet will reflect that.

I have just heard from a friend in Moscow that the death of Ekaterina Maximova has been reported. She was not known to be ill but died during the night.

You are correct rg in assuming that Nureyev's original intention was to restore the final act, and just a day or so after the premiere he actually said how much he regretted being unable to complete the ballet. And yes, because of his illness Kugapkina did much of the staging. Nureyev's production of Kingdom of the Shades was already part of the POB repertoire, but I seem to recall that the version in the full-length staging is far more like the standard Soviet staging - though I can't be sure as it is some years since I've seen the POB production. So presumably music for the last act is somewhere in the Paris Opera archive. As an aside, Nureyev had wanted to stage the full-length Bayadere for years, even suggesting to de Valois that he could put it on for the Royal Ballet School graduation performance with dancers from the company in the principal roles. .

The Bolshoi is fortunate in having on its roster a number of lovely ballerinas of whom Osipova is one - and certainly she is remarkably talented, though still very young and still developing, as are many of the others. But with regard to Esmeralda, it's interesting to remember Kschessinska's own recollections of the time when she asked for the role. This incident took place when her relationship with the Tsarevitch was well established and before his engagement, so she was certainly not without influence but nonetheless accepted the decision. "I was very keen to dance the ballet Esmeralda in which Virginia Zucchi had surpassed herself, so I went and asked this favour of Marius Petipa, the famous and all-powerful maitre-de-ballet. .................. I told him that I should like to dance Esmeralda. He listened carefully and asked me point-blank in his jargon, "You love?" Confused I answered that I was indeed in love, that I did love. Whereupon he continued, "You suffer?" I thought it a strange question and immediately replied, "Certainly not!" He then explained to me - a fact that I was to remember later - that only artists who had known the sufferings of love could understand and interpret the role of Esmeralda."

In the original production Alicia Markova is described as wearing an auburn wig. Given that it's a black and white photograph might that be the answer?

Simon I've spent most of working life in publishing, I've written for national newspapers and my experience has always been that if you keep to your word count you are unlikely to be cut. And if you feel there is a danger of being cut, then you make sure your most "passionate" comments are near the top. Incidentally, are you aware that Mary Clarke has retired.

Just for information (and probably saying what most readers of this board already know); newspaper critics are given a specific word length to write to prior to starting a review. Professionalism requires that you state your opinion clearly within that space. If you over-write, you'll be cut.