Mark Ronan's ballet blog

Agon, Sphinx, and Limen, Royal Ballet, 13^th November 2009. This was a second visit, my first being on opening night. The dancers were the same, partly because of injury, although Sphinx should have had an entirely new cast. But this time I was close to the stage in the Stalls Circle, so things looked different. I'll say nothing further about Agon, but make a few more notes about Sphinx and Limen.

In Egypt sphinxes represented power and vigilance, guarding temples. In Greece however there was but one mythological sphinx, represented with a female head and breasts, lion's body, eagle's wings and serpent-headed tail. In short a monster that was said to guard the city of Thebes, killing any traveller who could not solve the riddle it asked. In Cocteau's 1934 play La machine infernale the Sphinx challenges her own destiny. Weary of immortality she desires love and freedom, and takes the guise of a young woman. She falls in love with Oedipus and tells him the answer to the riddle, enabling him to continue to Thebes and follow his destiny. In the ballet, Anubis is the guardian of the Sphinx, warning her against falling for Oedipus, and the choreography by Glen Tetley is for these three. He saw Cocteau's play in New York in 1950, and that is what inspired him to create this ballet. Once again Edward Watson was immensely powerful as Anubis, and Marianela NuÒez was a superb Sphinx, but from close up Rupert Pennefather was disappointing. He seemed to be going through the correct motions, but the dance didn't come from within. In a part like this he needs a greater identification with the character, so he can own the role.

Limen is in two parts, and I liked the first half with the bright costume tops. These disappear in the second half where the lighting is low and the on-again off-again blue lights distract from the action. In the dim light some of the dancers are stationary with their backs to the audience, while one or two dance around them. The screen comes to the front with its lights mostly on, but there is no resolution, and I would have preferred one, particularly since this was the last work of the evening.

Cyrano, Birmingham Royal Ballet, at Sadler's Wells, November 2009. This is the second of two ballet programmes by the BRB at Sadler's Wells, the other one being a triple bill called Quantum Leaps.

Cyrano was originally created by David Bintley for the Royal Ballet in 1991, but this new version for the Birmingham Royal Ballet has a completely new score by Carl Davis. The music is atmospheric, well suiting Bintley's ballet, which is based on the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It's about a noble seventeenth century fellow named Cyrano with a horribly long nose, who is in love with his cousin Roxane. She in turn is interested in the callow young cadet Christian, and the plot is complicated by the fact that her guardian, the Comte de Guiche intends to marry her himself. Roxane asks Cyrano to deliver a love letter to Christian, and since the young fellow can't read or write he asks Cyrano to write to Roxane on his behalf. The scene is then set for Roxane to fall helplessly in love with the letter writer whom she believes to be Christian. De Guiche manipulates events so that Christian is killed in battle, and Roxane then enters a convent in despair. She sees her cousin, Cyrano regularly, not knowing he is seriously wounded, nor that he loves her and has written all those beautiful letters. When she finds out, it's too late and he dies in her arms.

Robert Parker was superb as Cyrano, with strong stage presence, precision in dancing, ability to express emotions, and playing well with the humorous parts. Elisha Willis was an utterly charming Roxane and her pas-de-deux with Cyrano in Act I was beautifully performed. This is a lovely piece of choreography, where she teasingly holds on to the letter she's written. The supporting dancers all did well, with Iain Mackay as Christian, Chi Cao as Cyrano's aide Le Bret, Christopher Larsen as Ragueneau the baker, Dominic Antonucci as the horrid De Guiche, and Marion Tait as the Duenna, who looks after Roxane. It's always a pleasure to see her on stage, with her fine musicality. This is a ballet with plenty of ensemble dance for the men, and they performed it extremely well.

The designs by Hayden Griffin are wonderful, and I loved Roxane's costumes. The fights, directed by Malcolm Ranson, were entertaining, but suffered from the usual weakness of people dropping dead without any apparent blow being struck. It was all very effectively lit by Mark Jonathan, and very well conducted by Wolfgang Heinz. Altogether this is a ballet to appeal to those who like a good story, and after a slow beginning it picked up later and the use of mime was very cleverly done. In fact it's rather remarkable to turn into dance a story about a man who is good with words, but I think Bintley has succeeded.

Quantum Leaps — Powder, E = mc², and The Centre and its Opposite, Birmingham Royal Ballet, November 2009. In this triple bill each work was a team effort, and the dancers performed superbly. The sequence of ballets was well-judged and made a great evening of dance.

The first item, Powder was a revival of a 1998 ballet by Stanton Welch, an Australian-born choreographer who is now artistic director of Houston Ballet. It's a sensuous use of dance to accompany Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, completed shortly before his death. The seven couples were led by Natasha Oughtred and Robert Parker. She was beautifully musical, vulnerable and sexy, well supported by her partner, and by Victoria Marr and Ambra Vallo as the other principal girls. The costumes by Kandis Cook — tight shorts for the men, and long chiffon skirts with various satin bodices for the women — were admirably sensual, and the subtle lighting by Mark Jonathan was very effective. The long sweeping motions in the choreography made this work the gentlest of the three and the right one to start with.

The second ballet, named after Einstein's equation E = mc², was the main focus of the evening for me. It's a new work by artistic director David Bintley, in four movements each with strongly rhythmic music specially commissioned from Australian composer Matthew Hindson. The first movement represents energy — the E in the equation — and was vibrantly physical. The energy represented here is the chaotic energy of the Big Bang, and I particularly liked the sextet of men, which showed immense power amid the rhythmic chaos. The second movement represents mass — the m in the equation — and is a complete contrast to the energy movement, reflecting the fact that we perceive mass and energy to be quite different, despite Einstein's equation showing they are manifestations of the same thing. The sudden transformation of mass to energy informed the third movement, representing the dropping of two atomic bombs in World War II. This was demonstrated by powerful sound effects and a single white-faced dancer, Samara Downs in a kimono and with a large fan. Then came the fourth movement with a square array of lights on a screen at the back of the stage gradually becoming visible. This was the c² of the equation — c being the speed of light. The choreography here was particularly inventive, extremely well performed, and fascinating to watch. There was no physical set, and changes of mood were signified by Peter Mumford's clever lighting, with sudden shafts of light streaking across stage. Costumes by Kate Ford were different for each part, and I particularly liked those for the second movement with their sombre colours and black shorts for the men. Altogether this four-part ballet was a feast of ideas, and I look forward to seeing it again.

The final item on the programme — The Centre and its Opposite — was a new work by Garry Stewart, artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre. It was extremely physical with unusual movements not normally seen from a ballet company, and was performed to electronic music by another Australian, Huey Benjamin. There were unusual rhythmic elements in the music, as befits a composer who has performed widely as a drummer. The set comprised vertical light strips round the edges and horizontal ones above, designed by Michael Mannion, and the tight grey costumes with black highlights were cleverly designed by Georg Meyer-Wiel. The audience reaction to this last item of the evening was strongly positive, though I found the new ballet by David Bintley to be the most interesting item in the programme.

Agon, Sphinx, and Limen, Royal Ballet, November 2009.

Agon is a Greek word meaning 'contest', and this 1957 Balanchine ballet is for twelve dancers who perform in twos, threes, etc. without any story. The music by Stravinsky is interestingly varied, some parts strongly represented by wind instruments, and others very quiet. The main pas-de-deux towards the end was brilliantly performed by Carlos Acosta and Melissa Hamilton, who continues to impress as a rising star in the company. In the two pas-de-trois we had Johan Kobborg with Yehui Choe and Hikaru Kobayashi, and Mara Galeazzi with Valeri Hristov and Brian Maloney. The dancers all performed beautifully, and Daniel Capps did an excellent job conducting the orchestra.

Sphinx is a ballet by Glen Tetley to music of Martinu, originally choreographed for American Ballet Theatre in 1977. It's based on Jean Cocteau's La machine infernale, a reworking of the Oedipus myth, exploring the conflict between free will and fate. There are three dancers, the Sphinx, Oedipus and Anubis, the jackal-headed god who shepherds the dead into the Egyptian underworld. The choreography for the two men is intensely physical and both Edward Watson as Anubis, and Rupert Pennefather as Oedipus, danced like gods, while Marianela NuÒez was an attractively seductive sphinx. This was the first performance of the work by the Royal Ballet, and it used the original designs by the late Rouben Ter-Arutunian, with costumes by Willa Kim and lighting by John B. Read. The costumes were very effective, making the men look as if they were dancing naked, but with painted bodies.

Limen is a new ballet by Wayne McGregor. The title refers to the threshold of some physiological or psychological response, and we were presented at the beginning with dancers behind a transparent bluish screen. On the screen were projected single digit numbers of various sizes — like those on an LED display — that moved and changed value. The costumes by Moritz Junge were colourful tops with shorts, well set off by Lucy Carter's lighting, which at one point showed thick bright coloured stripes from one side of the stage to the other. The choreography combined strong physicality alternating with moments of calm, but towards the end I found the production distracted me from watching the dancers. What happened was that a screen with a matrix of small blue lights at the back of the stage moved very slowly forward, and as it did so some lights went out, while others came on. I've seen mysterious on-off lighting on stage before, but the trouble is that I'm always trying to work out the pattern and this distracts me from the dancing or singing that is the main point of the work. Obviously the lights were meant to recall the screen at the start, because as they came closer I could see that each light was a small single digit number. Presumably one has now gone over the threshold to a new level of reality.

The choreography fitted very well with the lovely music by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, conducted by Barry Wordsworth, who was also the conductor of the previous ballet Sphinx. Since this ballet was brand new, it was danced by a very strong cast of fifteen, including Edward Watson, Steven McRae and Eric Underwood among the men, and Leanne Benjamin and Marianela NuÒez among the women. It works well, but Wayne McGregor seems to have too strong a predilection for screens that distract from his choreography.

Mayerling, Royal Ballet, October 2009. This was the October 29^th performance with Carlos Acosta as Crown Prince Rudolf. A brief discussion of the story appears in my review of an earlier performance with Johan Kobborg as Rudolf. Certainly Kobborg was very good, but Acosta was arguably better, portraying Rudolf's angst with emotional restraint and superb physicality. Tamara Rojo as his mistress Mary Vetsera was prettily seductive, and their pas-de-deux at the end of Act II had spontaneity and passion. Rudolf's wife was very well danced by Iohna Loots, and Countess Marie Larisch was well performed by Mara Galeazzi. Last time, Laura Morera took that role, but on this occasion she was Mitzi Caspar, the courtesan, and danced beautifully. This ballet has a large cast of soloists, and I won't list them all, but I did particularly like Ricardo Cervera as Bratfisch.

Liszt's music, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, came over very well under the baton of Martin Yates. The designs by Nicholas Georgiadis are still fresh and entirely in keeping with the story, and the whole cast worked well together in reviving this Kenneth MacMillan ballet. As the programme noted, it was on this same day 17 years ago that he died back stage at the Royal Opera House — his creative talent is sadly missed.

Sleeping Beauty, Royal Ballet, October 2009. This was the first night of the present run, and featured some excellent dancing, but the evening never really took off. That may partly have been the conducting of Valeriy Ovsyanikov, who manipulated the tempos to suit the dancers, but sometimes went too far in slowing the music down, particularly for one of Aurora's solos in Act III, which was completely spoiled. The cast was led by Ivan Putrov and Sarah Lamb as Florimund and Aurora, with Marianela NuÒez as the Lilac Fairy. NuÒez danced beautifully, Putrov was an elegant and worthy prince, but I was disappointed with Lamb, who didn't seem to own the role.

Carabosse was well portrayed by Genesia Rosato, who seemed to take a malicious delight in the role, and the fairy variations in the Prologue were very well performed by Yehui Choe, Hikaru Kobayashi, Helen Crawford, Iohna Loots and Laura Morera, in that order. I thought Hikaru Kobayashi was particularly good in the second variation representing Vitality — the original virtues of these five fairies are Purity, Vitality, Generosity, Eloquence and Passion. The Prologue was a great success, but I felt the performance tailed off a little afterwards, perhaps because of a lack of vitality, generosity, eloquence and passion on the part of Sarah Lamb. Purity she had, but it wasn't enough. In Act III, Laura Morera and Steven McRae were superb as Princess Florine and the Bluebird, his solo steps being beautifully executed. There is no gold variation in this production, but the silver, sapphire and diamond variations, for Florestan and his sisters, were danced by Sergei Polunin, Helen Crawford, and Samantha Raine, who was very good indeed. Polunin, I thought was brilliant, and his jetÈs were an exercise in perfection.

This lovely production by Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, using the old Oliver Messel designs with additions by Peter Farmer, is one of the company's gems, but although beautifully danced, this first evening lacked energy and spontaneity. Some ushers threw flowers from the Amphi and Balcony at the end, although they seemed to dump them down rather quickly, perhaps because the applause was on the weak side and there hadn't been a single cheer throughout the performance.

Mayerling, Royal Ballet, October 2009. This was the second night of the present run, with Johan Kobborg in the main role as the 30-year-old Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary. His death, with that of his mistress, the seventeen-year-old Mary Vetsera, in January 1889 inspired Kenneth MacMillan to create this ballet in 1978. The state authorities in 1889 attributed the two deaths to a suicide pact in which Rudolf killed her and then himself, but this was almost certainly a cover-up. When the Viennese Medical Institute examined Mary Vestera's remains in the 1990s they concluded she had suffered severe blows to the head and there was no bullet hole. Rudolf had been shot, but not by his own gun. Although I'm not a conspiracy theorist, the events at Rudolf's hunting lodge at Mayerling were certainly different from the official version, but there is no need to spoil a good story and MacMillan's ballet is a darkly dramatic piece.

Kobborg portrayed the prince with care and restraint, allowing the choreography to show his libertine and allegedly sinister side. With Leanne Benjamin as Mary Vetsera we had a superb pair of dancers, and their pas-de-deux at the end of Act II flowed with freedom and spontaneity. Rudolf's ex-mistress, Countess Larisch was beautifully danced by Laura Morera, showing great stage presence. Emma Maguire as Rudolf's wife Stephanie did a fine job, and Helen Crawford as Mitzi Caspar, a courtesan and regular mistress to Rudolf, danced with panache. These are just a few of the dancers in a huge cast that worked very well together.

The music is by Liszt, arranged by John Lanchbery, and was conducted here by Barry Wordsworth. The present run continues until November 10^th, and I shall report again after seeing Rupert Pennefather, who will be dancing Rudolf for the first time later this month.

Goldberg — The Brandstrup-Rojo project, Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio, September 2009. This was a new work by Danish choreographer Kim Brandstrup to Bach's Goldberg Variations, played on the piano by Philip Gammon, but with some parts pre-recorded by Henry Roche. There were seven dancers: Tamara Rojo, Steven McRae and Thomas Whitehead from the Royal Ballet, along with Clara Barbera, Laura Caldow, Tommy Franzen and Riccardo Meneghini. Things started slowly with Tamara Rojo in a black dress and pointe shoes, McRae sitting next to Philip Gammon on the piano, and then getting up to climb a very tall ladder. Gradually the dance warmed up, with a mixture of ballet and 'street dancing'. Among the four cast members not in the Royal Ballet, Tommy Franzen was brilliantly musical and wonderfully acrobatic, looking like a slightly undersized teenager in his baggy pants, but what a dancer! His occasional partnering of Rojo was very well done, and his musicality shone through, both in his solos and his dancing with the others. Clara Barbera was also excellent, part of the time on pointe and part in bare feet. McRae was musical as usual, and his solos were expertly danced. Rojo too inhabited the music brilliantly, her stage presence was excellent and she came over strongly as the star of the show. As the variations progressed, things seemed to drag a little and I waited for a climax that never came. The momentum slowed and everything wound down, but without seeming to go anywhere.

Costumes were black for Rojo, McRae and Whitehead, grey for the others, and the lighting by Paule Constable was subdued throughout. It showed occasional white lines against a dark background, giving a sense of geometric design, which was presumably the idea of designer Richard Hudson. The designs and lighting worked well, and Philip Gammon's piano performance was excellent. This is definitely worth a visit to see the eclectic style of choreography, and the dancing of Rojo, McRae and Franzen.

Sleeping Beauty, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009. What better way to end the Mariinsky Ballet's tour of London than with this lovely production by Konstantin Sergeyev, with its beautiful sets and costumes by Simon Virsaladze. The corps de ballet danced superbly, Igor Kolb made a very fine prince, and Maxim Zuzin danced delightfully as the bluebird. All might have been well if Pavel Bubelnikov could have done a better job conducting, but the orchestra sounded as if it wasn't really playing as a team, and each female solo was taken so slowly it became more a sequence of poses than a dance. I've never before heard some of Tchaikovsky's glorious score sound like this, and while the interval timings and the start-time were strictly adhered to, the performance overran by almost twenty minutes. Is no-one in charge of this production? I've heard conductors slow down female solos before, because they've been asked to by the dancer herself and have entirely overdone it and ruined her solo, but to ruin every female solo in the ballet is extraordinary. Because of this absurd conducting it's very difficult to judge the many performers, but certainly Evgenia Obraztsova made a poor Princess Aurora, except when partnered by Igor Kolb. In one solo in Act I she was so off the music that she finished it with two bars yet to go. It's difficult to judge the fairy variations in the Prologue when played at this pace, so I'll say nothing about the performers, but when Ekaterina Kondaurova follows them with the lilac fairy solo the music should lift our spirits. It did nothing of the sort because it sounded like sludge and you simply can't dance to that — nor could she. The entrance of Islom Baimuradov as Carabosse was not as strong as one might have hoped, and his stage presence seemed a bit weak, but this may be partly due to the production. Out of all the soloists, I thought the Diamond Fairy in Act III did very well — I believe it was Anastasia Petushkova, replacing Irina Golub — but the conducting was a travesty, and it is hardly surprising that the audience was so luke-warm.

As a conductor of both ballet and opera at the Mariinsky, Pavel Bubelnikov is working alongside the opera's artistic director, Valery Gergiev, whose performance of Sleeping Beauty at the Proms last year was sensational. Bubelnikov may say he's slowing it down for the dancers, but that won't wash because in some parts of the score, such as the journey to the enchanted forest, and much of the Rose adagio, there is essentially no dancing, yet they sounded very bland. There was also a production glitch in the journey to the sleeping forest when the barque carrying the prince and the lilac fairy bumped to a sudden halt, so the prince got out, the interior curtain closed and remained closed until the finale of the act. I know that production glitches happen from time to time, but the Mariinsky Ring had far too many of them, and one just has the impression that the stage hands haven't really got their act together. Pity.

Serenade, Rubies, and Symphony in C, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009. In this Homage to Balanchine programme the first item was Serenade, to Tchaikovky's Serenade in C major for strings. It was Balanchine's first composition in America, which he created at a series of evening classes in New York, and it starts with seventeen girls because that was the number that came to the first class. One girl arrived late, another fell over, and these incidents were incorporated in the ballet. The main couple, Viktoria Tereshkina and Evgeny Ivanchenko, were the principals in Swan Lake last Saturday evening, and here they danced well together, with excellent partnering from Ivanchenko. The other dancers also did a fine job, but while some ballets can be seen with pleasure innumerable times, this, for me, is not one of them, so let us move on to the next item.

Rubies is the second part of a full evening ballet called Jewels, and I'd prefer to see it in context. The music is a Capriccio for piano and orchestra by Stravinsky, and the ballet is a racy piece. The main couple was Irina Golub with Vladimir Shklyarov, who was a fine Romeo on the Mariinsky's opening night last week. The second woman was Ekaterina Kondaurova, and she and the lead couple take turns to dance with the ensemble. It all worked well enough, but I felt no buzz, and the audience was lukewarm. What really made the evening work, however, was the third item.

Symphony in C. This ballet in four movements is to Bizet's Symphony No. 1, and is a blaze of action, with colourful tutus for the soloists. It is designed to show off a classical ballet company, and its original title, when Balanchine created it in 1947 in Paris, was Palais de Cristal. In each of the four movements there is a principal couple, two male and two female soloists, and a corps de ballet. At the end all dancers appear in a final tableau. This evening the main couples were Viktoria Tereshkina with Denis Matvienko, Uliana Lopatkina with Daniil Korsuntsev, Elena Evseeva with Filipp Stepin, and Evgenia Obraztsova with Alexei Timofeyev. The soloists were not named. The whole thing went off to great effect, and I thought Uliana Lopatkina and Daniil Korsuntsev were outstanding. But to pick out one couple seems unfair when it was such a fine team of dancers, and more musical than anything I have seen so far.

The orchestra was very well conducted by Pavel Bubelnikov, and the piano solo in Rubies was played by Ludmila Sveshnikova. It is good to hear Stravinsky sound like Stravinsky, which has sadly not always been the case with one of the Royal Ballet conductors, and a particularly egregious example occurred in Apollo during a triple bill from March 2007.

Swan Lake, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009. This was a welcome relief from the Mariinsky's dreadful production of Romeo and Juliet, and the evening belonged to the corps de ballet, which danced magnificently in this 1950 version by Konstantin Sergeyev. Boris Gruzin conducted, giving the dancers the tempos they wanted even though in some cases they were on the slow side. The pas-de-trois in Act I was very well performed by Filipp Stepin, Yana Selina and Valeria Martinyuk, and I thought Stepin was the best male dancer of the evening, musical and with a commanding presence, far better than the prince. Yana Selina was also extremely good, and reappeared in the Neapolitan dance later. Ivan Sitnikov was a commanding presence as von Rothbart, and Viktoria Tereshkina was a fine Odette/Odile, but Evgeny Ivanchenko as her prince was a serious disappointment, insipid, unmusical, and lacking in emotional conviction. Considering this was the first night, it is rather extraordinary that they could not give us a stronger prince.

The costumes by Galina Solovyova are magnificent, and the designs by Igor Ivanov work well, except that from the amphitheatre the wheels of the mechanical swans were clearly visible and brightly lit. My only serious complaint about this production is the ubiquitous jester in the court scenes. He was danced by the ungainly Andrei Ivanov, whom I saw doing the same part in Chicago in autumn 2006. Once again he looked terribly pleased with himself, but why does the Mariinsky feel a need to include such a circus act — this is a ballet not a pantomime.

Romeo and Juliet, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera House, August 2009. If you love pantomime, you might like this, but to those of us brought up on Kenneth Macmillan's wonderfully natural interpretation, this old Soviet version lacks dramatic coherence. Acts I and II are a mess, and even in Act III two dancers came into Juliet's bedroom, after her apparent death, to do a pas-de-deux. Why? The final scene parts company with Shakespeare because Paris does not go to the tomb and get killed in a fight with Romeo, and the solitary nature of the Macmillan's ending is spoiled by the appearance of far too many people arriving on stage. And if we think of Shakespeare, where was the balcony scene? The love duet was just danced on a blank stage with no indication of how they got there. I suppose the Maryinsky is wedded to this old Kirov version, but if they can get rid of the Soviet name for their company — Kirov was a Bolshevik revolutionary — then maybe they can get rid of this ineffective staging. Rather than being a drama, it is more a masque for dancing, with lots of bright costumes.

As to the dancing, the two principals, Alina Somova as Juliet and Vladimir Shklyarov as Romeo gave wonderful interpretations. She was delightful as a playful young girl caught up in events beyond her control, and he was a serious young man, dancing with great agility and panache, albeit not always on the music. I thought Alexander Sergeyev did very well as Mercutio, but found Ilya Kuznetsov quite irritating with his permanent silly smile as Tybalt, adding to the pantomime aspect, but detracting from the drama.

The music was excellently conducted by Covent Garden's Boris Gruzin with the Maryinsky Theatre Orchestra, but that is not enough to compensate for staging that belongs in the dustbin of Soviet relics.

Jewels, Royal Ballet, June 2009. This 1967 Balanchine ballet is in three parts: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. Mr. B originally hoped that the jewellers Van Cleef and Arpels might bankroll the ballet, and although that never happened, they did sponsor this Royal Ballet production two years ago. The staging is simple yet effective and in each part the costumes, reflecting emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, are delightful.

Emeralds is to FaurÈ's incidental music for PellÈas et MÈlisande. In this strange tale by Maeterlinck, MÈlisande is found by a stream in a forest, like a naiad, and the green of emeralds recalls both the forest and the watery world from whence she comes. The leading couple were Tamara Rojo and Valerie Hristov, with Leanne Benjamin and Bennet Gartside as the second couple, and Deirdre Chapman, Laura Morera and Steven McRae in the pas-de-trois. They all danced extremely well, particularly Tamara Rojo, Leanne Benjamin and Steven McRae, as did the supporting artists, and this was a wonderful start to the evening.

Rubies is to Stravinsky's Capriccio for piano and orchestra. The racy choreography involves a pas-de-deux for a central couple, in this case Alexandra Ansanelli and Carlos Acosta, who were full of vivacity, looking as if they were really enjoying themselves. They are complemented by another woman, in this case Laura McCulloch, who plays a temptress role, and she and the lead couple take it in turns to accompany the supporting dancers. Again the ensemble work was excellent.

Diamonds is to music from Tchaikovsky's Symphony 3, which was his last composition before starting work on Swan Lake, and the ballerina is like a diamond in glacial splendour, a precursor to the cold beauty of Odette in Swan Lake. The principal couple, Alina Cojacura and Rupert Pennefather were brilliant. He danced like a god, with great precision and a lovely line, and she was simply delightful. They were attended by: Yehui Choe, Hikaru Kobayashi, Helen Crawford and Emma Maguire, as the four soloists, whose dancing was a delight to watch, as they inter-weaved with one another on stage. Again the ensemble work of the other dancers was superb, and this was altogether a terrific evening with a wonderful cast. Valeriy Ovsyanikov conducted with great brio and precision.

Tribute to Diaghilev, Royal Opera House, June 2009. This was a delightful mixture of divertissements, very ably conducted by Valery Ovsianikov with the orchestra of the English National Ballet. The most striking items were Igor Zelensky and Ulyana Lopatkina dancing a pas-de-deux from Scheherazade, Marianela NuÒez and Thiago Soares dancing the black swan pas-de-deux from Swan Lake, Zelensky as Apollo, and Ulyana Lopatkina as The Dying Swan. Here is the list of what was done — in my view they should have cut Daphnis and ChloÎ, and Tamar, both performed to recorded music and to choreography unconnected with Diaghilev.

Scheherazade by Igor Zelensky and Ulyana Lopatkina of the Kirov, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Leon Bakst. Simply superb.

Daphnis and ChloÎ by Natsha Oughtred and Federico Bonelli of the Royal Ballet, choreography by Ashton, dÈcor and costumes by John Craxton. Nicely done.

Petrushka by Dmitri Gruzdyev of the English National Ballet, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Alexandre Benois. Disappointing—unmusical and lacking pathos.

La Chatte by Alexandra Ansanelli of the Royal Ballet, choreography by Ashton in homage to Fanny Elssler, dÈcor and costumes by William Chappell. Very nicely done.

Giselle pas-de-deux from Act II by Mathilde Froustey and Mathias Heymann of the Paris Opera Ballet, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Benois. Well done.

Tamar by Irma Nioradze and Ilya Kuznetsov of the Kirov, choreography by Smoriginas, dÈcor and costumes by Bakst. They should either have done the original Fokine choreography or omitted this, particularly since it was to recorded music.

Le Spectre de la Rose by Yevgenia Obraztsova of the Kirov and Dmitri Gudanov of the Bolshoi, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Bakst. Beautifully performed.

Apollo by Maria Kowroski of the NYCity Ballet and Igor Zelensky of the Kirov, choreography by Balanchine, dÈcor and costumes by Andre Bauchant. Nicely done.

Les Sylphides by Tamara Rojo and David Makhateli, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Benois. Well performed.

Le Tricorne by Dmitri Gudanov of the Bolshoi, choreography by Massine, dÈcor and costumes by Picasso. Strongly performed.

The Firebird by Irma Nioradze and Ilya Kuznetsov of the Kirov, choreography by Fokine, dÈcor and costumes by Gontcharova. Well performed.

Les Biches by Mara Galeazzi and Bennet Gartside of the Royal Ballet, choreography by Nijinska. Well done.

Swan Lake pas-de-deux from Act III by Marianela NuÒez and Thiago Soares of the Royal Ballet, choreography by Petipa. A superb performance, particularly from NuÒez.

Le Carnaval by Yevgenia Obraztsova and Andrei Batalov of the Kirov, choreography by Fokine. Very nicely done.

The Dying Swan by Ulyana Lopatkina, choreography by Fokine. Beautifully performed.

Ondine, Royal Ballet, May 2009. This 1958 Ashton ballet is about a water nymph Ondine, and her love for a human named Palemon. Like Dvorak's opera Rusalka it is loosely based on Friedrich de la Motte FouquÈ's fairy tale Undine. The theme of a human being enchanted by the supernatural is a powerful one, and Palemon gives up Berta, whom he has been courting, and marries Ondine. They go on a journey by ship together, but Terrenio, the lord of the sea, has warned Ondine against this marriage, and he now creates a storm. The terrified sailors tip Ondine overboard, and Palemon returns home to marry Berta, believing Ondine is lost forever. When she returns, heartbroken at his unfaithfulness, she kisses him, and as Tirrenio has forewarned her, he dies.

It is Ashton's only ballet to a specially commissioned score, in this case by Hans Werner Henze. Ashton was working on the ballet with Lila de Nobili, who was doing the designs, which are wonderful, and Henze later joined in, fitting his music very ably to the strong theme of water in the ballet. It has never been a favourite with audiences, but the choreography, which many consider to be among Ashton's finest, brilliantly evokes water, the sea, and a ship at sea in Act II. He developed the role of Ondine for Margot Fonteyn, and one can see why it suited her so well. On the first night (27 May) of the current run we had Alexandra Ansanelli as Ondine, who did a superb job, recalling the dancing of Fonteyn, particularly in Act I. Valeri Hristov did well as Palemon, a role that requires support of the ballerina but little solo dancing, and Tirrenio was very well danced by Kenta Kura, with Laura Morera as a lovely Berta. The pas-de-six in Act III was delightfully performed by Mara Galeazzi and Ricardo Cervera, backed up by Hikaru Kobayashi, Samantha Raine, Brian Maloney and Thomas Whitehead.

This lovely ballet is certainly worth a visit, and the principal roles for the other two casts have Miyako Yoshida with Edward Watson, and Roberta Marquez with Federico Bonelli.

Triple Bill: Les Sylphides, Sensorium, The Firebird, Royal Ballet, May 2009. This was a lovely triple bill, with a new ballet by Alastair Marriott sandwiched between two well-known works by Mikhail Fokine. I saw it twice and will report on both casts.

The first item, Les Sylphides was very well danced, with Johan Kobborg and Yehui Choe doing an excellent job as the principal couple. They were backed up by Laura Morera in the waltz, Lauren Cuthbertson in the Mazurka, and Iohna Loots and Bethany Keating as leading sylphs, not all I'm afraid as musical as Yehui Choe. But with good technique it's difficult to go wrong with Fokine's glorious choreography and Chopin's wonderful music.

On a return visit to see the other cast perform, David Makhateli and Tamara Rojo were the principal couple, backed up by Yehui Choe in the waltz, Helen Crawford in the Mazurka, and the same leading sylphs as before. All were very good, as was the corps, but I thought Rojo and Choe were outstanding. The conducting by Barry Wordsworth was very slow at the beginning, though it picked up tempo later, but the trouble is that his work lacks incision and edge — it is just mellifluous and laboured, or in a single word, dull.

Sensorium, choreographed by Alastair Marriott to music of Debussy, was a sensuous and cleanly performed dance work that lasted almost half and hour, and didn't flag for a minute. The costumes were simple leotards for the girls and full length leotards for the two men, Thomas Whitehead who danced with Leanne Benjamin, and Rupert Pennefather who partnered Alexandra Ansanelli. All danced well, as did the ten girls who backed them up, and Pennefather in particular showed a lovely line, and very clean technique. One fault was that dancers moving across the front of the stage were in the dark, but otherwise the lighting, designed by John Read, gave just the right texture for this work.

In the other cast for Sensorium we had Mara Galeazzi with Bennet Gartside, and Melissa Hamilton with Gary Avis as the main couples. The lighting worked well this time, and the designs by Adam Wiltshire were excellent as before, with white leotards for the principal ladies and light peacock blue for the others. The cast seemed very much in tune with the ballet, and Melissa Hamilton was simply wonderful. It's astonishing that she's a mere 21 years old.

Finally The Firebird was a terrific show of colour, with Mara Galeazzi heavily made up for the part of this magical bird. Her dancing however seemed to lack fluidity, and Thiago Soares as the Tsarevich did not cut as strong a figure as he might. But Elizabeth McGorian was a lovely Tsarevna, and Gary Avis was simply superb as the immortal KostcheÔ. The supporting cast did a very fine job, and this might have been a successful Firebird were it not marred by Barry Wordsworth's sloppy conducting — the music is Stravinsky and should sound like it.

In the other cast, Leanne Benjamin was a very fine firebird, with Edward Watson as the Tsarevich, Genesia Rosato as the Tsarevna, and Christopher Saunders as the immortal KostcheÔ. All did well, and Saunders was very strong in this part, which seems to suit him better than some of the other roles I've seen him do.

Sylvia, Birmingham Royal Ballet, April 2009. This was David Bintley's version, where Orion, Diana, Sylvia and Amynta appear as roles played by a Count, his wife, the governess, and the valet. The latter two are falling for one another while the Count pursues the governess, and is caught doing so by his wife. This happens at a party, where they don costumes and we move into the classical drama. Amynta is struck blind by Diana after seeing her and her nymphs refreshing themselves, while Orion abducts Sylvia, but falls into a drunken stupor. Amynta then comes to rescue her, guided by Eros, but loses her again. In Act III pirates arrive bringing girls for sale, one of whom is Sylvia. The pirate chief — Eros in disguise — restores Amynta's sight, after which Amynta and Sylvia dance a glorious pas-de-deux. Orion then arrives to crush Amynta and take Sylvia, but is foiled by Diana, and everything reverts to the original party scene, with Count and Countess reconciling, and the valet engaging with the governess.

Dominic Antonucci and Carol-Anne Millar gave strong performances of Orion and Diana, and Jamie Bond and Elisha Willis worked well together as Amynta and Sylvia, doing a lovely pas-de-deux, but I found her slightly less musical on her own. Alexander Campbell had good stage presence as Eros and was a superb pirate chief, dancing brilliantly with his peg leg, and even doing pirouettes on it. The other delightful interlude, by Kit Holder and James Barton as Gog and Magog, was very well done.

Good designs by Sue Blane, lighting by Mark Jonathan, and conducting by Paul Murphy. Bintley's conception works well, and I find this Sylvia more fun than the Royal Ballet's version.

Triple Bill: Serenade, Enigma Variations, and Still Life at the Penguin CafÈ, by the Birmingham Royal Ballet, April 2009. What a lovely triple bill this was, brilliantly danced by the company, with the music beautifully played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under the baton of Philip Ellis, who showed great sympathy to both music and dancers.

Balanchine's Serenade was very well done, though the 'accidental' fall towards the end looked a bit too contrived, particularly since the girl loosened her hair so carefully first. But the presentation was clean and Tchaikovsky's music came over well.

Enigma Variations by Frederick Ashton was fun as usual, with Jonathan Payne and Victoria Marr as Elgar and his wife. The cast did an excellent job: Carol-Anne Millar was a fine Dorabella, with superb chainÈ turns at the end, James Grundy was very funny in his solo as WMB, and Matthew Lawrence and Natasha Oughtred were a lovely young couple as RPA and Ysobel, to say nothing of the other principals. Again the music was delightfully played under the baton of Philip Ellis.

Finally, Bintley's Still Life at the Penguin CafÈ was a rip roaring success. The music by Simon Jeffes is wonderful fun, and the dancing was terrific. Laura Purkiss as the Great Auk started the show with aplomb, and Angela Paul was a beautifully musical Ram, well partnered by Robert Parker, giving us a cabaret act not to be missed. Christopher Larsen was equally musical in his wonderful solo as the Texan Kangaroo Rat, and Carol-Anne Millar was a superb Flea. Chi Cao was the zebra, very well supported by his ladies, including Angela Paul who had changed costumes from being the ram, and changed back again for the finale.

Altogether this was a marvellous triple bill with a great many dancers doing a great many things. Congratulations to the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Giselle, Royal Ballet, April 2009. I attended two performances: the opening night of a new series on 6^th April, and a second one on 28^th April.

On 6^th April the cast was headed by Marianela NuÒez and Carlos Acosta as Giselle and Albrecht. Both were excellent, and her jumps in Act II were terrific. Their pas-de-deux work was beautifully controlled, if a little mechanical, and each one danced extremely well on their own. Gary Avis was a very fine Hilarion, utterly convincing, without over-acting in any way. As Queen of the Wilis we had Helen Crawford, dancing elegantly and commanding the stage in Act II, with her two attendants beautifully danced by Samantha Raine and Hikaru Kobayashi, the first with superb poise and control, and the second with extremely graceful arm movements. The pas de six in Act I was very well performed by Laura Morera, Ricardo Cervera, Samantha Raine, Kenta Kura, Hikaru Kobayashi and Brian Maloney, and this was an excellent cast, with Thomas Whiteside and Genesia Rosato doing a fine job as Albrecht's squire and Giselle's mother. My only complaint is that the corps de ballet lacked rigour, but this may come with later performances — when the wilis exit in fours after Hilarion's death, each four should be in a rhombus shape, which only one group out of six managed. But this was altogether a wonderful performance of Giselle, and Boris Gruzin conducted with vibrancy and sensitivity.

The second performance I saw, on 28^th April, had a cast headed by Tamara Rojo and Rupert Pennefather as Giselle and Albrecht, and they were brilliant, both in their pas-de-deux work and individually in Act II. Pennefather has a beautiful line that gives him authority on stage, and their musicality comes through very well when they dance together. They also acted their parts convincingly in Act I, as did Bennet Gartside who was an excellent Hilarion. The pas-de-six in Act I was led by Yuhui Choe and Yohei Sasaki, with Elizabeth Harrod, Fernando MontaÒo, Emma Maguire and Ernst Meisner. Choe and Sasaki were terrific, and she was also excellent in Act II as one of the two attendants for Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis. Myrtha herself was danced by Laura McCulloch, who did some fine jumps, but seemed slightly off the music. Her other attendant, apart from Yuhui Choe, was Sian Murphy.

The corps de ballet had a better shape in Act II than on the opening night, and my only complaint about this second act, and it's a small one, is that I thought it lacked the emotional energy of opening night. This of course is one of those things that depend so much on the night, and it's difficult to pin down the reason. The conductor was Boris Gruzin who also did the opening performance on 6^th April.

Swan Lake, American Ballet Theater at the London Coliseum, March 2009. There were lots of things to praise in this performance of Swan lake, but others to criticise. First the good things: Irina Dvorovenko was a lovely Odette-Odile, alternating well between a sublime white swan, and her seductive black counterpart in Act III. The corps de ballet were superb, particularly in the white acts, forming a very powerful presence at the end when they defeat von Rothbart. Indeed this performance warmed up as the evening progressed, and really took off with the black swan's first solo. Her partner, Maxim Beloserkovsky as Prince Siegfried, danced with technical mastery and good control, but little musicality, which made him far less interesting than her.

As to the rest of the cast, the pas-de-trois in Act I was very well danced by Sarah Lane, Isabella Boyston and Daniil Simkin, while von Rothbart was strongly portrayed at the party scene by Gennadi Saveliev, and by Isaac Stappas in the white acts. The dual portrayal of von Rothbart was an interesting aspect of this production, and in a prologue during the overture they both appeared, along with Siegfried and Odette-Odile, dimly lit behind a front-drop. The lighting design by Duane Schuler was very effective here, but in the white scenes the company didn't manage to install the lights correctly, for several swans, including one solo, were left in the dark. The sets and costumes by Zack Brown work extremely well, giving plenty of colour to Act III and plenty of space for dancing. I only object to the change of costume for Siegfried in Act III where he suddenly reappears in a black doublet, with the black swan, from off-stage. We have not seen her before, though she should be introduced by von Rothbart when he enters the party, rather than appearing as if she has known Siegfried all along and been having an illicit affair off-stage.

But the most disappointing thing about this production is Kevin McKenzie's choreography in Act I, which sometimes bears little relationship to the music. Insipid and unimaginative steps to quiet passages are simply continued without change as the music roars into top gear. The music itself was very well performed by the orchestra of the English National Opera under the baton of Charles Barker, who showed a fine sensitivity to the dancers.

Double Bill: Isadora, and Dances at a Gathering, Royal Ballet, March 2009.

Dances at a Gathering, to wonderful choreography by Jerome Robbins, was the main attraction of the evening for me, and Philip Gammon played Chopin's piano music delightfully. As in May 2008, this ballet was beautifully danced, and for this performance the girls were Yuhui Choe (Pink), Lauren Cuthbertson (Mauve), Laura Morera (Apricot), Leanne Benjamin (Green) and Samantha Raine (Blue), with the boys being Johan Kobborg (Brown), Bennett Gartside (Purple), Edward Watson (Green), Sergei Polunin (Brick) and Johannes Stepanek (Blue). This ballet is so good, it's surprising it was out of the company's repertoire for so long, but of course it does require superb dancing in order to look so effortlessly natural. Last year it was the first item on the programme, followed by Dream, but this year Dances ended the evening, and quite right too, since Isadora was the other item, and I found it disappointing.

Isadora was originally a full-length ballet created by Kenneth Macmillan in 1981, but it dropped out of the repertoire shortly afterwards. Here it has been reduced to one act of about an hour, but even in this form seemed too long. It combines film footage, sound effects, recorded commentary, and music by Richard Rodney Bennett, to tell the story of Isadora Duncan. Macmillan was attracted to stories of historical characters, but this is nowhere near as good as Anastasia or Mayerling. The music is good, and Tamara Rojo was brilliant in the main role, well supported by Edward Watson and others, but I found the whole thing dull. The overload of film, dance, sound effects and recording emphasised the narcissism, histrionics and political naivety of Isadora, but these are simply not interesting enough. We need to be shown why she was such an innovative force in dance. And in the end the staging does not show what caused her well-known death, except that it might have had something to do with an open top car she was in. I doubt this one act version will remain in the repertoire any more than the original.

Triple Bill: The Seven Deadly Sins, Carmen, DGV: Danse ‡ grande vitesse, Royal Ballet, January 2009.

Seven Deadly Sins: At its first performance in May 2007 I felt this ballet by Will Tuckett failed to delineate the seven sins from one another, and was a very cold experience. This time, while the first criticism remains valid, the company has come to grips with this interpretation of Weill's work, allowing it to breathe, and giving space to Tuckett's imaginative choreography. Once again Zenaida Yanowsky was the dancing Anna, with Martha Wainwright as the singing Anna. Weill created the original singing part for Lotte Lenya, and no one can match her, but Ms. Wainwright's voice was better amplified this time, and she could maintain a dark tone that fitted the part while her words were still audible. The rest of the cast was substantially the same, with Jose Martin as the hotel man, Laura Morera as the stripper, Thiago Soares as the strip club owner, and Gary Avis as the director. The conductor was Martin Yates.

Carmen: What is this nonsense? Mats Ek doesn't seem to believe in his own choreography, because the performers are called upon to supplement it by making nonsensical noises. The music from Bizet's opera was arranged by Rodion Shchedrin, but in an order that confuses those who know the original. When creating a ballet to Manon, Kenneth Macmillan used Massenet's music, brilliantly arranged and orchestrated by Leighton Lucas, but including none from Massenet's opera of the same name. That's the way to do it, but not this! Tamara Rojo danced Carmen, with Thomas Whitehead as the hapless Jose, and Bennett Gartside as the toreador, Escamillo. Lauren Cuthbertson portrayed a female spirit called M, perhaps intended to be a cross between Jose's mother and his fiancÈe Michaela, but looking as spooky as Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty. Samodurov was the officer, and Brian Maloney the gypsy. Pavel Sorokin conducted. If I ever see this again it will only be because it's in a triple bill containing much better work.

DGV: Dance ‡ grande vitesse: This Christopher Wheeldon work, to music by Michael Nyman, lived up to its title. In its fast action it evokes individualism against a symmetric background of four couples in grey leotards. The principal couples were Lauren Cuthbertson with Eric Underwood, Leanne Benjamin with Edward Watson, Nathalie Harrison with Gary Avis, and Mara Galeazzi with Sergei Polunin. Of these eight, four were replacements due to injury — why are there so many injuries these days? But all eight danced well, showing the current strength in depth of the Royal Ballet these days, and I thought Benjamin and Watson were particularly good together. This finale to the evening was well conducted by Daniel Capps, who then took a solo bow! How silly, and he looked as if he felt silly doing it. It's time the Royal Ballet stopped this folly — if the world's best conductors of opera don't do it, why does the ballet?

La Bayadere by the Royal Ballet, January 2009. This ballet, choreographed by Petipa to music by Minkus, was a great success at its first performance in 1877, and became a high point in the classical repertoire. The music shows character development more than Minkus's admittedly glorious melodies for his earlier ballet Don Q., but then Tchaikovsky came along, and the ballet world changed forever.

Bayadere lost its prominence and the music was not known in a complete version, at least in the West, so John Lanchbery completed some parts that were missing, and re-orchestrated much of the existing material. There have been other additions since the original, particularly a male solo for a bronze idol, choreographed by Kirov dancer Nikolai Zubkovsky to some other music by Minkus, and in this staging by Natalia Makarova, the bronze idol solo opens Act III, and was brilliantly danced by Jose Martin.

In the principal roles, Carlos Acosta was Solor the warrior, with Tamara Rojo as his lover the bayadere, or temple dancer, Nikiya. Their pas-de-deux work was excellent, and they had a fine supporting cast with Gary Avis as the Brahmin high priest showing an obsession with Nikiya, along with Alexandra Ansanelli as the princess Gamzatti, showing desperation to get Nikiya out of the way, and Christopher Saunders as her father, a darkly brooding Rajah who orders the killing of Nikiya at the end of Act I.

The kingdom of the shades scene in Act II — one of the high points of this ballet — was well executed, but Makarova's staging is disappointing compared to that of Rudolf Nureyev in 1963. It was this that the Royal Ballet performed for years as a single act, usually in a triple bill, and it used to bring the house down, but Makarova's version uses only 24 dancers, rather than the 32 in Petipa's original, and lacks the Èpaulement that helped create an ethereal quality in Nureyev's staging.

In the other acts, the set designs by Pier Luigi Samaritini, and costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, are a joy, and the clarity and precision of the dancing was helped by excellent conducting from Valeriy Ovsyanikov, who gave a sympathetic and well-nuanced reading of the score.

Sleeping Beauty by the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum, December 2008. Choreography was by Kenneth Macmillan after Petipa, but it was a disappointing evening with indifferent conducting by Gavin Sutherland. There was not the slightest comparison to Valery Gergiev's magnificent concert performance at the Proms in the summer. It may be hard to bring out the excitement of the Rose Adagio in Act I when the conductor has to slow the music to suit the action on stage, but this problem does not apply to the journey to the Sleeping Kingdom in Act II where there is no dancing at all. Here one of the high points of the music failed utterly, and the same was true for almost every part of Tchaikovsky's magnificent score — the waltz in Act I, for instance, was just lost in a morass of correct notes played with no incision or feeling.

Having panned the conducting, what about the dancing? By far the best part of the evening was Andre Portasio's superb performance of Carabosse — his stage presence was riveting and his arm movements well expressed his role as a witch exercising immense power. In the Prologue the fairy variations were well enough performed, and Adela Ramirez was particularly good in the final variation, but Jenna Lee was a very insipid lilac fairy. In Act I the Rose Adagio was disappointing, and the prince who partnered Agnes Oaks, as princess Aurora, did a poor job. He looked nervous, and her pirouettes were all off centre. In Act II the conducting and the lilac fairy formed a fatally weak combination, and although Thomas Edur looked good as the prince, he has almost nothing to do here. Finally Act III fell pretty flat. Edur and Oaks were very fine in their pas-de-deux work, but in his solos Edur disappointed by marking some of Mcamillan's steps, and it would be an understatement to say that the whole thing lacked fizz. The fairy variations were partly cut, Nicholas Reeves as the gold fairy lacked power, and is the Macmillan choreography really so weak here, or was it due to the cuts? The bluebird pas-de-deux was danced by Crystal Costa and Anton Lukovkin, and while he had some excellent jetÈs-en-tournant, his entrechat-six were not as well executed, and his upper body showed weakness. Carping aside, Andre Portasio stood out as a magnificent Carabosse, but even he couldn't overcome the plodding work of the conductor, and that is what killed this performance. The dancers tried their best, but there was no sustained applause, and it was a sadly dull evening.

Triple Bill: Voluntaries, The Lesson, and Infra by the Royal Ballet, November 2008.

The evening started with Glen Tetley's Voluntaries which he choreographed to Poulenc's organ concerto. It was originally made in 1973 for the Stuttgart Ballet as a memorial to their late director John Cranko, and was revived by the Royal Ballet two years ago. Here it was excellently performed, with Marianela NuÒez and Rupert Pennefather as the principal couple, and Mara Galeazzi, Sergei Polunin and Thiago Soares as the other three principals.

It was followed by Flemming Flindt's The Lesson, created in 1963 to music of Georges Delerue. This strange drama about a ballet master and pianist who abuse and kill their students is based on a play by Georges Ionescu. It was danced here by Johan Kobborg, Roberta Marquez and Laura Morera. When I last saw it, I do not recall the ballet master portrayed as quite so crazy at the start, but this is a feature of Kobborg's performances, namely that he comes over very strongly at the outset, where I would prefer he let himself warm up to the emotional high points. Roberta Marquez gave a lovely portrayal of the young dancer, and Laura Morera was remarkable as the crazily frustrated pianist.

The final ballet Infra by Wayne McGregor, to some strangely dull music by Max Richter, was having its world premiere. The designs by Julian Opie used animated people in black and white moving across a horizontal strip of the backdrop, which I found annoyingly intrusive, detracting attention from the choreography. There were twelve principals, six boys and six girls, and Eric Underwood particularly stood out. But overall I found this tedious, and the best item on the programme was the first one.

Manon at the Royal Ballet, October 2008. This three-act ballet by Kenneth Macmillan was first performed in 1974, and I remember seeing the original production that year; Act III included a scene between the gaoler and his mistress, but it made things too long and was later cut. The music is wonderfully orchestrated and arranged by Leighton Lucas, using various works of Massenet, but with nothing from his opera of the same name. I saw three performances this time, all conducted by Martin Yates.

In the first one, Laura Morera did a fine job of Manon, warming up to her part as the ballet progressed, but Federico Bonelli was very disappointing as Des Grieux, looking at first as if he was practicing in ballet class. His partnering was fine, but he never showed much emotion, even though this is a highly emotional role. Lescaut was well danced by Ricardo Cervera, and he kept the part under control in the drunk scene, where others sometimes go overboard. Monsieur G.M. was Christopher Saunders, who lacked the right stage presence, and the pas-de-trois between him, Lescaut and Manon looked particularly awkward. This pas-de-trois is a brilliant piece of Macmillan choreography and can be riveting if done well. Lauren Cuthbertson was disappointing as Lescaut's mistress, overdoing the drunk scene, but Gary Avis was very effective as the gaoler in Act III. Altogether this was a disappointing evening, but Laura Morera deserved her four bouquets of flowers.

In the second performance, Tamara Rojo was a fine Manon, excellently partnered by Carlos Acosta as Des Grieux. He had what Bonelli lacked: stage presence and acting ability that made him seem natural in the part. Lescaut was very well danced by Jose Martin, with Laura Morera giving a good performance as his mistress. Thomas Whitehead was a strong gaoler, but we had the mechanical Christopher Saunders as Monsieur G.M. again, completely unconvincing.

In the third performance, there were two changes from the intended cast so we had Bonelli and Cervera again (instead of Pennefather and McRae), but this time Bonelli was far better. He was comfortable in the part, and things went swimmingly. Moreover, Bennett Gartside was Monsieur G.M., and there was really no comparison to Christopher Saunders. Gartside was utterly convincing, and smoothly lecherous in the pas-de-trois. Helen Crawford was excellent as Lescaut's mistress, far better than Lauren Cuthbertson had been in the drunk scene. Eric Underwood was a very strong gaoler, with the terrific stage presence that is his hallmark, and the girl who played the fancy boy in the party scene was wonderful, but the cast list did not name her.

Sleeping Beauty in concert at the Proms, August 2008. This was an excellent orchestral performance conducted by Valery Gergiev with the London Symphony Orchestra. The music came over far better in this concert hall than it does from the orchestra pit in a theatre, and with fifty strings producing a glorious sound this was a thrilling performance. After the rose adagio in Act I there was immense spontaneous applause, and the adagio in Act II when the prince journeys to the sleeping palace was beautifully done. Watching Gergiev conduct with hand and finger movements I wondered how the orchestra could get a beat, and I'm told he is difficult to follow. How well it would work with a stage performance, I don't know, but Russian dancers tend not to bother too much about being precisely on the music.

Pulchinella at the Holland Park Opera, August 2008. This unusual Stravinsky work is based on music attributed to Pergolesi. It was followed by the opera Iolanta, and the audience, being mainly there for the second half, were rather unresponsive. There was no appreciation until the end, though some excellent moments for applause came and went during a lively performance. The choreography by Regina Wielingen was imaginative and the eight dancers (three boys, five girls) did an excellent job with it. Costumes were black leotards with loose leggings and white tops for the girls, and similar but with crimson tops for the boys. The dancers were: Lucy Anderson, Ami Azuma, Jodi Calpe Serrats, Alessandra Cito, Samuel Guy, Erin Harty, Maurizio Montis and Mikah Smillie. The singers were Carole Wilson, Aled Hall and Keel Watson, and the conductor was Stuart Stratford. Some critics thought it a waste of time, but I applaud the Holland Park Opera for putting it on, and hope they do a similar thing again to accompany a one-act opera. Congratulations to them.

Triple Bill: Le Halte de Cavalerie, Divertissements, and Paquita by the Mikhailovsky Ballet from St. Petersburg, July 2008. The programme notes say the first item may be previously unseen in Britain, and one quite sees why; a lot of nonsense between visiting soldiers and village girls, though Anastasya Lomachenkova and Anton Ploom did well as the lovers. The music by Ivan Armsheimer was fun, and though they claim Petipa as the choreographer, they must have drastically revised and severely weakened his work, because this choreography was remarkably unimaginative.

The Divertissements were a mixed bag. The Doll Fairy pas-de-trois, Dragonfly, Esmeralda pas-de-deux, Ocean and Pearls, Spring Waters and the Corsaire pas-de-deux. The Doll Fairy was originally created for the court ballet in Vienna in 1888 by ballet master Joseph Hasseiter and the composer Josef Bayer, but this pas-de-trois for two pierrots and the Fairy Doll herself — in which the pierrots quarrel in an effort to win the heart of the Fairy Doll — is based on music by Drigo. Dragonfly, a favourite of Pavlova, which she may have choreographed herself to a Viennese waltz by Fritz Kreisler, was danced by Anna Zhuravlyova. As to Esmeralda the original was created Jules Perrot to music by Cesari Pugni, for her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1844; but this may have been a later version with music by Drigo. Ocean and Pearls is to music by Pugni, with choreography by Alexander Gorsky, and is the only remaining piece of Arthur St-Leon's ballet 'The Little Humpbacked Horse'. All this was a bit dull, but things suddenly burst into life with the Spring Waters pas-de-deux choreographed by Asaf Messserer to music by Rachmaninov; this brief but exhilarating piece features bravura lifts and was brilliantly danced by Marat Shemiunov and Irina Perren. Then the Corsaire pas-de-deux to music by Drigo was a success, but we were not told who the dancers were.

The final part of the show, the Grand Pas Classique from Paquita with music by Minkus and choreography by Petipa, was beautifully done. The principal roles were danced by Ekaterina Borchenko and Marat Shemiunov, and the soloists for the four fairy variations all danced well, though we were not given their names. Stanislav Kochanovsky conducted the Mikhailovsky Orchestra, treating the dancers with excellent sensitivity.

Double Bill: Dances at a Gathering and The Dream by the Royal Ballet, 17^th May 2008, opening night. Dances has returned to the Royal Ballet after an absence of 30 years, and what a wonderful return it is. This marvellously inventive choreography by Jerome Robbins deserves superb dancers, and it had them here, with the girls being Alina Cojocaru (Pink), Tamara Rojo (Mauve), Laura Morera (Apricot), Lauren Cuthbertson (Green) and Sarah Lamb (Blue), and the boys being Johan Kobborg (Brown), Martin Harvey (Purple) Federico Bonelli (Green), Sergei Polunin (Brick) and Jose Martin (Blue). (Actually, Cojocaru shared her part with someone from the other cast, though the programme didn't announce who it was). Dances at a Gathering is a terrific ballet, and although we no longer have the cast of thirty years earlier with Nureyev in Brown, along with Anthony Dowell, David Wall, Antoinette Sibley, Lynn Seymour, and the rest, this was a cracking team, and one hour of dancing, with brilliant Chopin accompaniment on the piano by Philip Gammon, never flagged for a second. It went like a dream, and one could only wish for more.

In Ashton's The Dream we had Leanne Benjamin and Edward Watson as Titania and Oberon, with Michael Stojko as a brilliant Puck, and Jonathan Howells performing Bottom with fine effect. Paul Murphy conducted Mendelssohn's music, arranged by John Lanchbery, and did a fine job, though I think Benjamin and Watson lacked inspiration: she could have been a little sexier and more emotional, and he needed a stronger stage presence; when Oberon first appears at the back of the stage he needs a strong line to portray the magical power he represents.

Triple Bill: Serenade, Rushes, and Homage to the Queen by the Royal Ballet, May 2008. The corps de ballet did an excellent job in Serenade, as did the principals Marianela NuÒez, Federico Bonelli, Lauren Cuthbertson, Rupert Pennefather, and Mara Galeazzi, dancing this Balanchine ballet with great aplomb, though inspiration was lacking, particularly from Barry Wordsworth the conductor.

Rushes: fragments of a lost story is a new work by Danish choreographer Kim Brandstrup to music of Prokofiev, once part of an unfinished film score, but now arranged and elaborated by Michael Berkeley. Carlos Acosta was the principal man; in his simple clothes of blue trousers and tight beige top he is obsessed by Laura Morera who looks provocative in her red slip dress, but she only engages with him in a coldly distant way. Alina Cojocaru in her grey dress watches from the sidelines, and eventually Acosta notices her and finds love. The designs by Richard Hudson involve a curtain of beads that splits the stage in two parts, one at the front and one behind. It's a clever idea, and the bead curtain also gives the impression of a film screen on which occasional images are projected. The lighting by Jean Kalman worked well in this set-up, giving a darkness appropriate to this fragmentary story.

Homage to the Queen, to some rather dated and ponderously noisy music by Malcolm Arnold, is based on four parts: Earth, Water, Fire and Air, choreographed by four different people: David Bintley, Michael Corder, Christopher Wheeldon, and Frederick Ashton respectively. Lovely designs and costumes by Peter Farmer, and the dancing was very fine indeed. The corps was excellent, as were the principals: Leanne Benjamin and Federico Bonelli in Earth, Yuhui Choe and Johan Kobborg in Water, Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in Fire, with Kenta Kura doing fine solos as the Spirit of Fire, and Tamara Rojo and David Makhateli in Air. The music is the weakest part of this ballet, and indeed it was the weakest part of the evening with the cheesily somnolent conducting of Barry Wordsworth, though the programme promised a different conductor. And then at the end, while the principals took their curtain calls, the audacious Wordsworth took one too, looking just like a toy mannequin in his voluminous tail-suit. Will nothing check this third rate fellow's audacity?

Quadruple Bill: Electric Counterpoint, Afternoon of a Faun, Tzigane, and A Month in the Country by the Royal Ballet, 28 February 2008—opening night. Electric Counterpoint by Christopher Wheeldon was for four dancers, to music of Bach and Steve Reich, with designs by Jean-Marc Puissant and lighting by Natasha Chivers. It featured Edward Watson, Sarah Lamb, Zenaida Yanowsky and Eric Underwood, dancing as in a studio, with their movements being intermittently overlaid by their own recorded commentary. It worked after a fashion, but at 30 minutes dragged, particularly towards the end, and in comparison with the next two pieces, each of which lasts just over ten minutes, it's too long.

Afternoon of a Faun was to the Jerome Robbins choreography, which I adore, set in a ballet studio. This was the first version I ever saw, and when I came across the original, with woodland costumes in a forest, I wondered why anyone bothered. The Robbins choreography is so sensual it can hardly be bettered, and was beautifully performed here by Sarah Lamb and Carlos Acosta.

Tzigane is a short Balanchine work to music by Ravel; the costume designs with the brightly coloured skirts made of multiple hanging strings were by Holly Hynes, and staging was by Suzanne Farrell. The principals were Marianela NuÒez and Thiago Soares, and the solo violin was by Sergey Levitin. I'm afraid NuÒez lacks the sexiness for a gypsy dancer, but Soares did a fine job, though they were let down by Barry Wordsworth's conducting.

A Month in the Country was very well done. This Ashton ballet is based on Turgenev's play to music by Chopin, arranged by Lanchbery, and originally suggested by Michael Somes. Staging was by Anthony Dowell and Grant Coyle. Alexandra Ansanelli was dramatic as Natalia, with Jonathan Howells as her husband. Iohna Loots was excellent as Natalia's ward Vera, and Ivan Putrov did a wonderful job as Beliaev the tutor, who completely disturbs the equanimity of the household with his electrifying attraction to Natalia, Vera and the maid, Katia, danced by Victoria Hewitt. The male friend Rakitin was David Pickering, and Philip Gammon was brilliant on the solo piano. The evening was conducted by Barry Wordsworth, who did a poor job with the Debussy and the Ravel, and whose vanity got the better of him at the end when he took a solo bow in front of the curtain. How ridiculous!

Triple Bill: Chroma, Different Drummer, and Rite of Spring by the Royal Ballet, February 2008. Chroma by Wayne McGregor is to music of the rock group White Stripes, orchestrated by Joby Talbot. It was premiered in November 2006. The word 'chroma' is Greek for colour, but the costumes by Moritz Junge were pure white, with bright, clear lighting by Lucy Carter. The colour presumably comes in the choreography, with its leaps, twists and multiple partnering, executed with verve and precision by an incredibly strong cast of four women: Cuthbertson, Galeazzi, Lamb and Rojo; and six men: Bonelli, McRae, Ondiviela, Underwood, Watkins and Watson.

Different Drummer is a MacMillan ballet dealing with Georg Buechner's Woyzeck story, to music by Webern and Schoenberg. With the harshness of the music for Chroma out of the way, the Webern sounds almost classical, and the change to Verkl‰rte Nacht by Schoenberg makes Buechner's drama appear as a surrealist artwork. I found Edward Watson conveyed exactly the right sense of unworldlyness for Woyzeck, drawing us into his gradual breakdown, and Leanne Benjamin was excellent as his common law wife Marie, distantly sympathetic yet needy of love. Soares was very menacing as the Captain who mistreats Woyzeck, with Jonathan Howells as the unscrupulous doctor, and Samodurov as the Drum Major who has an affair with Marie. Costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend are perfect, and the principal coaching by Jonathan Cope produced a fine revival of this interesting piece.

Macmillan's Rite of Spring is perennially fresh as far as I'm concerned, and it was superbly danced with Tamara Rojo as the chosen maiden. She seemed uncaring of the strong applause at the end, but perhaps she was exhausted, having already danced in Chroma. One odd thing about John Read's lighting in this piece was that dancers who appear right at the front of the stage are in shadow. The same fault appeared the last time I saw it at the ROH, and I wish the company would fix this. Barry Wordsworth conducted.

Sylvia by the Royal Ballet, February 2008. Delibes' music for this ballet is weak, and even Ashton's choreography can't make it work, a fact he realised himself by cutting Act II. This act, lasting less than 20 minutes, shows Sylvia trapped in Orion's realm, and is the weakest part of the score, yet it was surrounded by 50 minutes of interval in this production! It would be better to combine Acts I and III into a one-act ballet, and do it as part of a double bill — certainly Ashton himself did a two-act and a one-act version. Silvia was Marianela NuÒez with David Makhateli as Aminta the shepherd who loves her, and Thiago Soares as Orion, who abducts her. Eros was Joshua Tuifua, whose stage presence was riveting, though his dancing, such as there is in this role, was a bit heavy. Isabel McMeekan appeared in Act III as a strong Diana, stopping Orion from breaking the lovers apart, killing him for desecrating her temple, and eventually uniting the couple after seeing a vision of her own early love for a shepherd. NuÒez as Silvia danced very well, but lacked sexiness — she is after all being pursued by a man and a god — and other roles suit her better. Designs by Robin and Christopher Ironside, revived by Peter Farmer, work well. Benjamin Pope conducted, but the evening never really took off and the applause was lukewarm.

Double Bill: Les Patineurs and Tales of Beatrix Potter by the Royal Ballet, December/January 2008. Ashton's choreography for both ballets is a delight, and I love the music for Beatrix Potter, composed by John Lanchbery, whom I remember conducting it with enormous gusto. The music for Patineurs is Meyerbeer, arranged by Constant Lambert. I saw two casts, the conductor on both occasions being Paul Murphy. In one cast for Patineurs the boy in blue was Jose Martin, partnered by Mara Galeazzi and Sarah Lamb; in the other it was Steven McRae, partnered by Samantha Raine and Laura Morera. Martin is a wonderful dancer with tremendous stage presence, so he's perfect for a part like this, but McRae gave the role a different feel, more boyish and less masculine; each one worked well for me.

In Beatrix Potter, both casts were largely the same: Zachary Faruque as Jeremy Fisher, Jonathan Howells as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Gemma Sykes and Gary Avis as Jemima Puddle-Duck and the Fox, Bennet Gartside and Laura Morera as Pigling Bland and Pig-Wig, Ricardo Cervera and Victoria Hewitt as Johnny Town-Mouse and Mrs. Tittlemouse, Giacomo Ciriaci and Iohna Loots as Two Bad Mice. The whole thing worked beautifully, and the Junior Associates were simply delightful as country mice. Squirrel Nutkin was Steven McRae in one cast and Michael Stojko in the other. McRae was the star of his cast — quite incredible. The sets, costumes and lighting were perfect: designs by William Chappell for Patineurs with lighting by John Read; designs by Christine Edzard and masks by Rostislav Doboujinsky for Beatrix Potter with lighting by Mark Jonathan.

Giselle by the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, October 2007. This was the first time the Joffrey have performed Giselle, and the premiere was danced by Victoria Jaiani and Temur Suluashvili as Giselle and Albrecht, with Brian McSween as a very robust Hilarion, and Valerie Robin as Myrtha, Queen of the Willis. In the other cast I saw Maia Wilkins and Willy Shives, with Patrick Simoniello as Hilarion and Valerie Robin again as Myrtha. I found the second cast better because Wilkins and Shives have the experience to give their roles more depth; Jaiani and Suluashvili are beautiful and talented but lacking in emotive power on stage. The designs and scenery by Peter Farmer were imported from Houston Ballet, and Frederic Franklin, a very chipper 93 year-old, originally from Liverpool, directed this production, along with his assistant, Christina Johnson Vojvodich. The lighting by Randall Chiarelli was disappointing; in Act II the spot reflected off the backdrop, and there was no change in illumination when the music signals the onset of dawn. As the power of the willis fades, there has to be an increase in light, if not a warming red glow. There was none of either, so as Giselle fades into a mere spirit, Albrecht is left lying the dark. Pity.

Don Quixote by the Bolshoi Ballet at the London Coliseum, 9 August 2007. This was a knock-out—a spectacular performance. The Bolshoi are back in form, thank goodness. Ivan Vasiliev, who danced Basil, partnered by Natalia Osipova as Kitri, is a phenomenon. And he is only 18. He did jetÈs that spun in the air; he did a corkscrew turn at 45 degrees and landed perfectly into a half-kneeling position. He danced absolutely on the music, unlike most of the company who begin and end at the right place with the music as background. This boy's musicality and technique are the stuff that dreams are made of. A star, a future superstar, yet on Monday he was merely one of three shepherds in Spartacus. Natalia Osipova was terrific too, a jewel in the crown of the Bolshoi, and her fouettÈs en tournant were superb, with repeated doubles, and did I see a triple? And she is only 21. The entire company did a superb job, with the orchestra under Pavel Sorokin playing as if their lives depended on it. The vibrant energy of the evening along with the peerless technique of all the soloists—and there are lots of them in Don Q—gave this performance a perfection it would be hard to repeat. The designs by Sergei Barkhin were effective and left plenty of room for dancing; the costumes, based on sketches from 1906 by Vasily Dyanchkov, realised by Tatiana Artamonova and Elena Merkurova were glorious, and the lighting by Mikhail Sokolov was brilliant.

Spartacus by the Bolshoi Ballet at the London Coliseum, 6 August 2007. I first saw this ballet in the early seventies and wonder whether Grigorovich had slightly changed the choreography, with less goose-stepping on the part of the Roman soldiers. In any event I enjoyed it more than I had earlier, and felt that it had aged well. Created in 1968, the year the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, it ironically evinced a Soviet attitude of solidarity with the oppressed, and disgust with imperialists. But this production has depth and human emotion, and the orchestra under Pavel Sorokin did a fine job with Khachaturian's rambunctious score, yielding art rather than bombast. The costume designs by Simon Virsaladze were wonderful. Whether he also did the lighting I don't know, but there was an interesting use of blue spotlights to occasionally portray solo prisoners such as Spartacus and his lover Phrygia. The Roman general, Crassus was danced by Alexander Volchkov, with Maria Allash as Aegina the courtesan. But for me the stars of the show were Carlos Acosta as Spartacus, and Anna Antonicheva as Phrygia. They were both excellent and Acosta gave a depth to the role that made it seem the part was created for him. His remorse at the death of the other gladiator, danced by Yuri Baranov, provided an inspiring moment to set him into rebellion. The story of Spartacus is based on real events. He lived about 120–70 BCE, and was at one time a Roman auxiliary soldier, later sold into slavery and made a gladiator. He helped lead a major revolt, which turned into the Third Servile War. Spartacus and his army won victories over the Roman forces, but were eventually defeated by Marcus Crassus, whose brutal leadership led him to decimate some of his own forces. In his victory over Spartacus, he captured 6,000 of his army of slaves and crucified them all on the Appian Way. No orders were given to take them down and they remained a stark reminder for years.

Ballet Boyz Gala at the Festival Hall, London, 14 July 2007. Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, both from the Royal Ballet, founded Ballet Boyz, now an associate company of Sadler's Wells. This production at the refurbished Festival Hall was a mixture of short pieces. It included four world premieres, all of which were interesting: Amox by Rafael Banachela to Ives's music The Unanswered Question, danced by Oxana Panchenko and Amy Hollingsworth, supporting one another while unable to answer one another's questions; Riapertura to music by Ezio Bosso, who was also one of the two musicians, danced by Christopher Wheeldon, Michael Nunn and Oxana Panchenko; On Before by William Tuckett, to John Adams' amusing piece Christian Zeal and Activity, danced by William Trevitt and Zenaida Yanowsky; and Yumba vs. Nonino by Craig Revel Horwood to music by two Italian composers, danced by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt. This was a male ballroom scene, complete with fisticuffs, and was not the right thing to end on, even if the company directors did dance it. A better finale would have been the ending to part I, which was the pas de deux from Diana and Acteon: music by Drigo, choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova, and brilliantly danced by Chi Cao from China as Acteon, and Nao Sakuma from Japan as Diana. There were five other pieces, including Ashton's Five Brahms Waltzes in the manner of Isadora Duncan beautifully danced by Belinda Hatley. Not everything was quite up to this level: the Black Swan pas de deux, choreographed by Derek Deane, looked very unmusical because the dancers were persistently off the beat, and in the Black Queen solo from Checkmate the conductor made Bliss's music sound like Kurt Weill—I don't know how. In any case I'm not in favour of pulling things like this out of their natural context. A classical pas de deux is a different matter because it's meant to be a show-piece, but dramatic excerpts from dramatic ballets suffer when left out to dry.

Romeo and Juliet by the Eifman Ballet, at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, June 2007. This production mixes the Prokofiev score, played by the orchestra, with some other pre-recorded music. The recorded music is for a character denoting 'Fate', which is not in the original, and this production is not Prokofiev, nor indeed Shakespeare. Substantial parts of the score are omitted and other parts are arranged in a different order from the original. There is no Friar Lawrence, no Montagu parents, no Paris, no letter from Juliet delivered by the nurse, no friends of Juliet at her bedside. Mercutio appears in drag and is wooed by Tybalt. Need I say more? Oh, and the choreography? The less said the better; in the pas de deux at the party, Romeo and Juliet literally rolled on the ground together.

Triple Bill: Checkmate, Symphonic Variations, and Song of the Earth, by the Royal Ballet, June 2007. These ballets were choreographed by previous artistic directors of the company, Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton, and Kenneth MacMillan, and all three were beautifully performed. In Checkmate the Black Queen was danced by Zenaida Yanowsky in one cast, and Marianela NuÒez in the other, both of them suitably fierce and seductive. The first red knight was Bennet Gartside in one cast, Johannes Stepanek in the other; Martin Harvey was the second red knight, and Ryoichi Hirano and Eric Underwood were the black knights in both casts. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion in the orchestra under Barry Wordsworth, particularly the first time around, and the music for the red knight's solo was too slow, adversely affecting his dance.

Symphonic Variations, to Faure's music, was glorious as usual, with Roberta Marquez and Federico Bonelli in one cast, and Sarah Lamb with Rupert Pennefather in the other. This ballet is very hard on the boys because of the low lifts where they carry the girls across stage, but it was beautifully performed, and Pennefather in particular, excellently partnered by Lamb, looked like a Greek god. The orchestral tempi were wobbly, but much better the second time around, so the dancers were able to do a better job, and Philip Gammon was wonderful on the piano.

Song of the Earth had Carlos Acosta, Gary Avis and Darcey Bussell in one cast, and Edward Watson, Valeri Hristov and Leanne Benjamin in the other. All were very good, as was the rest of the cast, but as The Messenger of Death I preferred Watson to Acosta, and I preferred Benjamin to Bussell. The singers, David Rendall and Catherine Wyn-Rogers were excellent, but Wyn-Rogers was replaced in the second performance by Jean Rigby, who was not as strong.

Triple Bill: The Seven Deadly Sins, Pierrot Lunaire, and La Fin du Jour, by the Royal Ballet, May 2007. Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill was newly choreographed by Will Tuckett, but his work failed to make it live, despite the dramatically sexy costumes and excellent gantry designs by Lez Brotherston. The cast featured Zenaida Yanowsky as the dancing Anna, with Martha Wainwright as the singing Anna. Marianela NuÒez was the stripper, Jose Martin the motel man, and the whole cast did a fine job. Unfortunately the choreography did not help to delineate the seven sins from one another, nor bring the characters to life. Altogether a very cold experience. Pierrot Lunaire was a delightful contrast, brilliantly danced by Ivan Putrov, with Deirdre Chapman as Columbine, and Carlos Acosta as the sadistically intriguing Brighella. Putrov did a wonderful job of portraying Pierrot's rite of passage, and Tetley's choreography is delightful. Rouben Ter-Artunian's scaffold set worked well, Schoenberg's score was well conducted by Richard Bernas, and the singer, Linda Hirst did a fine job. The final item, La Fin du Jour was choreographed by MacMillan in the late 1970s to Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. He had wanted to call it L'heure bleue, a far better title, but the Ravel estate objected to using the name of a perfume. The choreography evokes the early thirties, the same period as the music, showing the flippant side of high society. The colourful costume designs by Ian Spurling added to the sense of fashion run riot. Natasha Oughtred and Sarah Lamb were brilliantly effervescent as the girls, gliding effortlessly through the difficult lifts that the boys have to do, including being turned around in the air.

Onegin by the Royal Ballet, March 2007. This 1965 ballet by John Cranko is to music by Tchaikovsky arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. Johan Kobborg and Alina Cojocaru danced Onegin and Tatiana, and their pas-de-deux were flawlessly executed. But I thought Kobborg's tearing up of the letter showed spite, rather than the worldly hubris that befits his character. Onegin is supposed to be a cosmopolitan young man who rejects a provincial girl, and lives to bitterly regret it, and in this ballet I have seen it played very effectively with a haughty aloofness. The supporting cast of Ivan Putrov as Lensky, Caroline Duprot as Olga, and Bennet Gartside as Prince Gremin seemed unable to bring their characters to life in the face of Kobborg's aggressive portrayal of Onegin. Valeriy Ovsyanikov conducted.

Triple Bill: Apollo, Children of Adam (a new ballet by Alistair Marriott), and Theme and Variations, by the Royal Ballet, March 2007. Carlos Acosta danced Apollo, with Darcey Bussell, Mara Galeazzi, and Marianela NuÒez as Terpiscore, Calliope and Polyhymnia. The principals in Theme and Variations were Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo. These Balanchine works were well enough danced, but really spoiled by Barry Wordsworth's conducting. His Apollo was syrupy and entirely lacking in precision and definition—he made it sound more like the work of a third-rate film composer rather than Stravinsky. His Theme and Variations was very weak at the start, and how is Carlos Acosta supposed to show energy and precision when it is so lacking from the orchestra? As for the new ballet by Marriott, to music by Christopher Rouse, I found it somewhat unconvincing; the subject matter involves the rivalry of two brothers for a girl, and invites an inevitable and unfavourable comparison with Kenneth Macmillan's work.

Triple Bill called Destiny's Dances by the Joffrey in Chicago, February 2007. Les PrÈsages (Massine, to Tchaikovsky's 5^th symphony), Apollo (Balanchine, to Stravinsky's music), and The Green Table (Kurt Jooss, to music by Fritz Cohen). Les PrÈsages is about man's struggle with destiny. It had its premiere in 1933, and the Joffrey was the first American company to revive it, in 1992. The powerful role of fate in the fourth movement was danced by John Gluckman in one cast, and the talented but lazy Temur Suluashvili, who did a weak job in the other cast. Apollo was well done, with Calvin Kitten in one cast and Fabrice Calmels in the other. The Green Table, a dance macabre in eight scenes, was originally produced in 1932 in Paris by the Ballets Jooss, and the Joffrey was the first American company to stage it, in 1967. The opening and closing scenes show men in black conversing at a long green table, and then firing guns to declare war. A sense of the ballet is given by a list of the intermediate scenes: Farewells, Battle, Refugees, Partisan, Brothel, and Aftermath, in which Death moves to claim its victims in a robotic and deliberate way, a part played by Fabrice Calmels and Michael Levine in the two casts.

Sleeping Beauty by the Royal Ballet in December 2006, with Marianela NuÒez and Thiago Soares, both of whom were terrific. This is a new production with the old Oliver Messel designs, realized by Peter Farmer. Isabel McMeekan was the Lilac Fairy, and in this production the gold, silver, diamond and sapphire variations of Act III are replaced by 'Florestan and his sisters', danced by Bennet Gartside replacing Martin Harvey, with sisters Laura Morera and Hikaru Kobayashi, who was terrific. This was far better than the dress rehearsal that I saw in May, though in that performance Roberta Marquez was excellent as Princess Aurora.

Nutcracker by the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago in December 2006. I saw two performances, the first with Maia Wilkens as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Willy Shives as the Nutcracker Prince; the second was with Julianne Kepley and Michael Levine. Willy Shives was an excellent Drosselmeier in the second performance. This is a nice production, well danced, and their little gingerbread man in Mother Ginger was a riot — I loved it.

Swan Lake by the Kirov in Chicago, November 2006. There were five different swan queens and Prince Siegfrieds. I saw Diana Vishneva, who danced brilliantly, and Andrian Fadeev. The corps de ballet did a splendid job in the white acts, Ilya Kuznetsov as von Rothbart was outstanding, and the conductor, Pavel Bubelnikov did a fine job with the music. The jester, Andrei Ivanov, I couldn't stand; he looked perpetually pleased with himself, and lacked all subtlety.

Cinderella by the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, October 2006. This was the first production of Ashton's choreography by an American company, although the Royal Ballet have performed it in America, most recently in summer 2004. This production celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Joffrey, and it was the late Robert Joffrey's wish that his company would eventually mount Ashton's work. Wendy Ellis Somes, who owns the rights, arranged for the sets from Amsterdam, and taught and supervised all aspects of the production. She prepared four casts, and the whole thing was a brilliant success. There was fine dancing all round, and Julianne Kepley and Victoria Jaiani gave particularly sympathetic performances of the title role.

Don Quixote by the Bolshoi at the Royal Opera House, with Pavel Klinichev conducting. Last night of the Bolshoi's visit in August 2006. The music by Minkus was the best of its kind before Tchaikovsky came along, and Petipa's choreography is wonderful — he learned Spanish dancing from being in Spain as a young man. The whole company and the orchestra did a fine job. An exhilarating evening, with wonderful performances, particularly by Svetlana Zakharova as Kitri.

Triple Bill: Go for Broke; Pique Dame; and Symphony in C by the Bolshoi at the Royal Opera House in August 2006, conducted by Pavel Klinichev. Go for Broke, to Stravinsky's Jeu de Cartes, was choreographed by Ratmansky as an abstract piece, without the original libretto. Fine dancing, bright costumes, but unimaginative choreography, and nothing to do with a game of cards. Pique Dame was to movements 4 and 3 of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony, in that order. Waste of time. Dull choreography by Roland Petit, the card game was confusing, and the backdrop of a queen of spades playing card must have been at least half invisible to at least half of the audience. The orchestra played with an absurd emphasis on the brass. Symphony in C made the whole evening worthwhile. A brilliant performance of a Balanchine classic, with excellent corps work and beautiful dancing from the principals. I particularly liked Dmitri Gudanov in the first variation.

The Bright Stream by the Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House in August 2006, conducted by Pavel Sorokin. The score is by Shostakovich, and the ballet, about life on a Soviet collective farm, was recently re-choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky for the Bolshoi. Lovely performance by Anastasia Stashkevich as the schoolgirl. This is a Russian comedy, with amorous intrigues and mistaken identities, but give me La Fille mal GardÈe any day!