Attending My First Friends' Rehearsal

 

Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet (Rehearsal) Royal Ballet & Opera, 4 March 2025, 12:30

I have been a Friend of the Royal Ballet & Opera off and on for nearly 60 years, but I had never attended a Friends' rehearsal before 4 Mar 2025.  That is because I have spent most of my life outside London, and Friends' rehearsals tend to take place on weekdays during working hours.  

On 23 Feb 2025, I was invited to give a talk to the students at  King's College at 18:30 on 4 Mar 2025.  As this was an evening event, I felt justified in taking the afternoon off in lieu.  I checked the Friends' page of the Royal Ballet & Opera's website.  There seemed to be a few spare seats scattered about the auditorium, but the website would not let me book any of them.   I called the box office and was told that the rehearsal was sold out, but a few returns might come back on sale.  That proved to be the case and I secured the very last standing room only place at the very top of the auditorium.   

The view of the stage from that eyrie was surprisingly good. I have always enjoyed good eyesight, and I could recognize some of the more distinctive dancers and follow their movements, though obviously not their expressions. Had I been casting the show, I would have selected Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales for the title roles.  It was they whom we got. Of all the principals in the Royal Ballet, they are the ones who most closely look the part.   I remember Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in those roles when I first took an interest in ballet.  Though I have never seen a better Romeo than Gable or indeed a better Juliet than Seymour, several other dancers have come close.  Hayward and Corrales are among the closest.

The rest of the cast was also impressive.  Christopher Saunders was an imperious Lord Capulet full of gravitas and swagger.   Also full of swagger was  Benet Gartside as Tybalt.   Even though everyone in the audience knew the outcome, Tybalt's sword fights with Mercutio (Daichi Ikarashi) and Romeo were gripping.  Mercutio's death throes as he stumbled around the stage, mistaking his sword for a lute or mandolin, were poignant. The role of the nurse is often overlooked in many productions, but it is important.  It is she who shares Juliet's excitement at her first grown-up ball.  She delivers Juliet's note to Romeo and is mobbed by the Montagues for her pains.  She accompanies Juliet to Friar Lawrence.  She tries to defend Juliet from a bigamous marriage.   Kristen McNally discharged that role perfectly.

It had been some years since I had last seen the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, and one of the features that I remember from previous times was a gorgeous backcloth by Nicholas Georgiadis that reminded me of the work of Leon Bakst. I was looking out for that backcloth, but couldn't spot it.  That made me wonder whether Georgiadis had redesigned the set or whether I had imagined that backcloth. 

As always, the orchestra was magnificent.   The conductor on this occasion was Koen Kessels.  

I was unable to return to London to see a live performance of Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden, but I did see a recording of the live broadcast on 23 March 2025 at the Leeds Showcase.  That was another polished production with a different cast.  Fumi Kaneko was Juliet, Vadim Muntagirov was Romeo, Benet Gartside was Lord Capulet, Ryoichi Hirano was Tybalt, Francisco Serrano was Mercutio, Thomas Whitehead doubled as Friar Lawrence and Lord Montague and Olivia Cowley was the nurse.  Kessels also conducted the orchestra.

As I said in Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcase on 30 May 2024, a screening is not the same as a live performance (probably because there is no interaction between artists and audience) but there are compensations.  We could follow Juliet's emotions through the expressions on Kaneko's face.  It was clear from her interview that she understands Juliet very well.  It was also good to hear Lady MacMillan.  The Friends' rehearsal combined with the film was the next best thing to seeing the ballet live on stage. 

"Like Water for Chocolate" in the Cinema

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Royal Ballet Like Water for Chocolate Royal Opera House Recorded 9 June 2022, Screened 19 Jan 2023

If you have not already seen Like Water for Chocolate on stage or on screen I strongly advise you to watch the encore tomorrow.  I have done both.  Tomorrow I am going to the Leeds Showcase to watch it for a third time.  It is the best show that I saw last year.  Indeed, it is one of the best that I have seen in a lifetime of theatre-going.

I was in Covent Garden on 8 June 2022 which was the day before the show was recorded for Thursday's and tomorrow's screenings.  I reviewed it in Like Water for Chocolate on 23 July 2022.  The ballet prompted me to hire the film and buy the book which I could, quite literally, not put down until I had reached the very last page (see Further Reflections on "Like Water for Chocolate" 26 July 2022),  In those articles, I  enthused over Wheeldon's libretto and choreography, Talbot's score, Crowley's designs and Katz's lighting. If you want to learn about all that you will find them in those articles. 

Music and designs for the three-dimensional stage do not always transfer well to a two-dimensional screen. In this case, I think the change of medium worked well.  The biggest difference between the live performance and Thursday's screening was the cast.  

Tita was Francesca Hayward who interpreted the role quite differently from Yasmine Naghdi. I sensed the difference early in the ballet.  At her sister's wedding, the guests throw up. For Hayward that was a disaster. A final humiliation after a day of humiliation.  I really suffered with her. For Naghdi I felt: "serve them bloody right." Not quite revenge but certainly kama. 

Marcelino Sambe danced Pedro exactly as I had imagined him in the book,  Not all that bright and rather wet but somehow infuriatingly attractive.  Again, very different from Cesar Corrales's Pedro who became a very convincing Juan Alejandrez on screen.  

Laura Morera was a scary Elena in life and perhaps even more in death.  I softened to her the first time around as I recalled her suffering but my sympathy quickly evaporated as that outside body with its shock of straight orangey-brown hair tormented her daughter. Meaghan Grace Hinkis was Gertrudis, the sister to whom I warmed the most. Mayara Magri danced Rosaura, the one to whom I warmed the least. Matthew Ball danced the decent but injured Dr John.

One of the advantages of the recording was the focus on the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra. She had also been the musical consultant introducing composers, instruments and music from Mexico.  In an interview before the show, pride in her country and culture were brimming.  On the day I visited Covent Garden, she unfurled a Mexican tricolour at the reverence or curtain call. 

Of course, there would have been no ballet had there been no book. Those who have never read the book nor seen the film can track the story here.  There is a wonderful interview of Esquivel with Wheeldon on YouTube entitled Insights: Like Water For Chocolate — Beginnings and Origins.  I cannot recommend it too highly.

The Nutcracker #3 - The Royal Ballet Screening

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The Royal Ballet The Nutcracker 17 Dec 2019 19:39 Screened to cinemas worldwide

Yesterday I discussed the screening of the Bolshoi's version of The Nutcracker on 15 Dec 2019 in The Nutcracker #2 - The Bolshoi Screening.  Two days later the Bolshoi's screening, the Royal Opera House screened a recording of the Royal Ballet's version of The Nutcracker.  For the reasons that I explained yesterday the twp productions are very different.  The Bolshoi's records Marie's transition into womanhood while the Royal Ballet's is a fantasy with more than a little in common with Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Lookingglass.  

The Royal Ballet's production was created by Sir Peter Wright who took a bow at the end of the show.  The recording was made in 2016 which coincided with Sir Peter's 90th birthday.  In Sir Peter's version, the nutcracker is  Drosselmeyer's nephew who is imprisoned in wood.  He can come back to life only through the love of a young woman.  This is an adaptation of ETA Hoffmann's story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and it is a detail that most versions of the ballet overlook.  This makes Drosselmeyer a much less sinister and more likeable character than in the Bolshoi's or most other versions of the ballet.  Sir Peter's ballet opens in Drosselmeyer's workshop as he wraps up his present for Clara.  The workshop is also where the show ends as the nephew - restored to human form -  embraces his uncle.

Sir Peter's ballet requires two ballerinas, namely the young girl known as Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, and two premiers danseurs nobles, that is to say, the nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Fairy's prince or cavalier.  There are also meaty roles for the mouse king, Harlequin and Columbine in the first act and the soloists in each of the divertissements of the second.  The climax of the production is the pas de deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her beau.  Probably, the most famous dance of the whole ballet is the Sugar Plum Fairy's solo to the slightly otherworldly sounds of the celesta.

In the recording, Drosselmeyer was danced by the company's principal character artist, Gary Avis whom I once had the pleasure of meeting at the London Ballet Circle's 70th-anniversary celebrations.  I can report that he is as gracious in real life as he is graceful on stage.  Clara was danced by Francesca Hayward who was perfect in the role.  Her nutcracker was Alexander Campbell who, like Xander Parish, shares my passion for cricket as well as dance. The Sugar Plum Fairy was danced by Lauren Cuthbertson, my dancer of the year in 2016. and she was partnered by Federico Bonelli, another favourite.  With an orchestra was conducted by Maestro Gruzin it is hard to think of a  stronger cast by any company anywhere in the world.  The sets, costumes and technical effects match the choreography and dancing.  It is a sumptuous production.

On Sunday I shall see Sir Peter Wright's production for the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall.  That will be the last Nutcracker that I shall see this season and indeed the last ballet of this year.  The version that is staged at the Hippodrome is my favourite version of The Nutcracker. If the Hippodrome version can be scaled up for the Royal Albert's stage I suspect Birmingham Royal Ballet's will be my favourite Nutcracker for this year.

All Credit to the Royal Ballet's Dancers last night. If only the Presenters and Techies were as good.

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Royal Ballet Triple Bill: Concerto, Enigma Variations and Raymonda  streamed from the Royal Opera House to cinemas worldwide including Leeds-Bradford Odeon, 5 Nov 2019, 19:15

If the Royal Opera House had subcontracted the streaming of its live performances to Pathé Live or at least recruited Ekaterina Novikova, yesterday's screening of the Concerto, Enigma Variations and Act III of Raymonda would have been perfect.  The double act between Anita Rani and Darcey Bussell just did not work. Alexander Campbell and Kristen McNally who recently hosted World Ballet Day were so much better.

Also, I probably saw the screening at the wrong cinema.  I was at Leeds Bradford Odeon which has been promoted as a super luxury auditorium. Each seat has an airline-style tray enabling patrons to chomp away as you watch the feature.  Fine for Disney perhaps but not for ballet.  Also, the transmission started late.  No more than 5 minutes before the curtain was raised.  Nobody in the cinema had bothered to print the programmes even after I had given a member of their staff the URL from which they could be downloaded. The ladies' loos on the first floor were a disgrace because they could not be flushed properly.

Happily, my mood changed the moment Maestro Sorokin entered the orchestra pit. Soon I was enchanted by the music of Shostakovich and MacMillan's choreography.  Concerto is a very short piece but it must require considerable strength, stamina and concentration to do well.  The dancers were Anna Rose O'Sullivan, James Hay, Yasmine Naghdi Ryoichi Hirano and Mayara Magri.  The set was very simple.  Just a red disc like a setting sun for the second movement.  So, too, were Rose's costumes. They filled the stage and uplifted even the cinema audience.

In the interval, Rani and Bussell interviewed Wayne Sleep and Alfreda Thoroughgood.  They were the leading dancers of my youth and it was so good to see them again. They had, of course, aged but they were still beautiful.  I am not sure that I ever saw Thoroughgood in Enigma Variations but I certainly remember Sleep, Anthony Dowell and the wonderful Antoinette Sibley as Dorabella.  When one associates a role with a dancer it is always difficult to watch another artist a generation later fill her shoes but I was more than happy with Francesca Hayward in Sibley's role.  I was also delighted with Laura Morera as Lady Elgar and Christopher Saunders as Elgar.  I think is my favourite Ashton work. It is certainly my favourite of his short works.  I can't remember when I last saw it but it was good to see it again.

The last work was a treat with Natalia Osipova in the title role and Vadim Muntagirov as de Brienne. Having seen the Bolshoi's performance of Raymonda on 27 Oct 2019, I would dispute that it is a silly story or not much of a story as Bussell or someone else last night.  I think there is a love triangle between de Brienne, Raymonda and Abderakhman and anyone restaging the ballet might want to develop that.  Abderakhman/s treatment could be explained by Islamophobia or racism. To my mind, the last Act, which is one big divertissement, is the least interesting of the ballet.  But it provides plenty of scope for virtuosity,  Being Guy Fawkes day, Osipova and Muntagirov excited us as well as any pyrotechnics outside.

So my thoughts of the evening are as follows: All credit to the Royal Ballet's dancers and creatives last night, If only the presenters and techies were as good.

Royal Ballet's Rehearsals of Marguerite and Armand.and The Dream

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I skipped class on Wednesday night to watch the live streaming of rehearsals for two of the ballets in the Royal Ballet's Ashton triple bill of Marguerite and Armand. Symphonic Variations and The Dream at Covent Garden. The programme will only appear between the 2 and 10 June and all but two of the performances are already sold out. However, it will be streamed live to cinemas in the United Kingdom and elsewhere on 7 June thereby providing welcome relief from this already very depressing general election campaign.

Being very long in the tooth I know all three works very well and love them very much.

I shall always associate The Dream with Dame Antoinette Sibley who is my all time favourite ballerina by a country mile (see Sibley 17 Dec 2013) and her noble partner Sir Anthony Dowell  and visions of them in the reconciliation scene rush to mind causing me to forget whatever I am doing whenever I hear Mendelssohn's glorious score (see the RAD's tribute to Dame Antoinette on YouTube and if you have any heart I defy you to keep a dry eye). I remember hearing it in Leeds in the next rehearsal studio as our teacher patiently gave instructions for an enchainment which completely washed over me as I listened to the music.

Almost as dear to me is Marguerite and Armand in which I saw Nureyev dance with Fonteyn whom I also loved and admired (see Margot Fonteyn 18 May 2015). Fonteyn was also one of the original dancers in Symphonic Variations along with Moira Shearer, Pamela May, Michael Somes, Brian Shaw and Henry Danton. Although it was first staged even before my time Somes and Shaw were still dancing when I first took an interest in ballet. Danton was the only one I missed even though - ironically and praise is - he is still very much with us.

Those ballets are the very finest examples of Ashton's work which is discussed in a talk by Prof. Stephanie Jordan that you can hear in the above video. Also in the video is a Q & A by Kevin O'Hare, Lesley Collier, yet another all-time favourite ballerina and the gracious Zenaida Yanowsky. 43 minutes and 29 seconds into that session Yanowsky demonstrated the famous "Fred Step". The reason I know that timing so precisely is that I have been practising the Fred Step. There are two lovely rehearsals in the film. One by Yanowsky as Marguerite and Gary Avis as Armand's father in the scene where Armand's dad warns Marguerite to stay away from his boy. The other is Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé in the quarrel scene over the changeling boy and the reconciliation. They are nothing like Sibley and Dowell but I think they are just as beautiful in the way they interpret this work.  At the end of the Marguerite and Armand rehearsal, Avis said some lovely things about Yanowsky which made me admire both of them even more than I already did. The whole video is presented and moderated by Alexander Campbell who did a really first class job.

I have said enough, ladies and gentlemen.  I will leave you to watch this gorgeous video.

The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker in the Merrie City

Wakefield from Sandal Castle

Author Tim Green
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Source Wikipedia

The Royal Ballet, The Nutcracker, streamed to cinemas 8 Dec 2016

Immediately after watching the preview of Calyx and mingling with the artists and guests on 8 Dec 2016 I galloped down to Leeds central station, jeté on to a train to Wakefield Kirkgate where I had left my car the previous day for a dash down to London to give a talk on IP Planning for Brexit and chasséd  on over to Cineworld which was streaming the Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker live from Covent Garden. I arrived at the cinema at 17:29 and presented my driving licence as proof of my antiquity to claim an old age pensioner's concessionary ticket for the show.

"You're too late, love" said the man at the ice cream concession dourly. "Picture started about 'half an 'hour ago. You'll have to come back tomorrow."

Would you believe that Wakefield, originally called Waca's Field, was once known as the "Merrie City"? No neither would I. Never believe everything in Wikipedia. On the other hand, having observed the young folks of Wakefield on the Saturday night pub crawl that the proprietor of the Springfield Beauty Salon once told me was known locally as the "Westgate Run", I would not be at all surprised to learn that its name derives from "Whackers' Field."

"It's not on, tomorrow", I protested. "It's not a picture but a ballet screening. And the only thing that I am likely to have missed is Darcy Bussell's patter, twitter hashtags and trailers for forthcoming shows."

"Oh well suit tha'sane, love", said the jolly ice cream vendor as he took my money

I entered the auditorium just as the orchestra was striking up the first notes.

According to the trailer on the Royal Ballet's website,

"The Royal Ballet celebrates Peter Wright’s 90th birthday with his much-loved production of this beautiful classical ballet, danced to Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score."

Sir Peter Wright is amazing. I met him briefly at the cast party after the Hungarian Ballet had premiered his version of The Sleeping Beauty at Budapest Opera House (see My Trip to Hungary 21 April 2016). He moved about the stage like a 20-year old as the cast took curtain call after curtain call and then gave an excellent impromptu speech to the cast, guests and production crew. In our brief conversation, he asked me where I came from and what I did for a living. To my great surprise, he had remembered that information for he introduced me at our next meeting which was the London Ballet Circle's 70th-anniversary celebration to a lady whom I shan't identify with a son who is reading law in Manchester (see 70 Years of the London Ballet Circle 10 May 2016).

As I said in The Good Nutcracker Guide 31 Oct 2016 we are spoilt for choice for versions of The Nutcracker this year but my first choice is the Royal Ballet's. If you can't make it to Amsterdam to see Ted Brandsen's Coppelia then Sir Peter Wright's Nutcracker really is the next best thing. Having said that, Birmingham's is pretty good, Wayne Eagling's is not bad if you don't mind the transposition of the Stahlbaums to the banks of the Thames and the rodent king's reappearance in Act II (see Cracking 14 Dec 2013). As for the other Christmas shows, Christopher Hampson and Scottish Ballet can do no wrong in my book (see Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel 23 Dec 2013 and the last Act of Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast impressed me when I saw it in 2011 (see Jane Lambert Ballet and Intellectual Property - my Excuse for reviewing "Beauty and the Beast" 31 Dec 2011 IP Yorkshire).

There seem to have been a few changes to the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker since the last time I saw it.  There is a new Chinese dance in the divertissements in Act II and the sets and costumes seem a bit fresher. Francesca Hayward was a beautiful Clara. I like versions where Clara (or, if you prefer, Marie) has something to do but I never want her to morph into the Sugar Plum. It's quite a demanding role because (a bit like Juliet) she has to persuade her audience that she is still a young girl but the dancing requires the skills and expertise of a principal. She was partnered admirably by Alexander Campbell as the Nutcracker. Two of my all time favourite dancers, Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli dazzled us in the final pas de deux. I should mention in passing that there is a young man from Novara who reminds me very much of Bonelli with the Dutch National Ballet as well as a young woman from Bologna with more than a little of Ferri's flair. And my favourite of the show? Well, how could it be anyone other than Gary Avis as Drosselmeyer? He was also at the London Ballet Circle's 70th where I was able to tell him how much I had enjoyed his work when I shook his hand.

I have learned from experience that the best is the enemy of the good. Having seen Brandsen's Coppelia it is probably not a good idea for me to see any of the other Christmas shows just yet. In any case, the Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker was sold out weeks ago. But I will be well over that when Scottish Ballet bring Hansel and Gretel to Newcastle in February.

The Royal Ballet's Double Bill

The Royal Ballet, Rhapsody and The Two Pigeons, Royal Opera House, 16 Jan 2016


A trip to Covent Garden is always something of an occasion.

First, the tickets arrive in a smart folder sponsored by Rolex, the "Official Watch". They carry a hologram and are printed on expensive paper. They look more like the title to an investment rather than a voucher for a show.

The redevelopment of the Covent Garden piazza following the relocation of the fruit and veg market to Nine Elms has transformed the neighbourhood from a place of manual labour into a playground with expensive shops and restaurants where once there were lorries, warehouses and pubs with crazy opening hours. You have to resist the lures of luxury chocolates and cashmere cardigans to reach the revolving doors and pass an equally tempting shop of Royal Opera House merchandise to reach the box office.

That box office looks and feels like the counter of a private bank with its elegantly groomed and exquisitely mannered staff. The queue for the cloakroom is divided into aisles so you never have to wait more than a few minutes to deposit or retrieve your coat and hand luggage. Instead of formidable flights of stairs from Floral Street there are lifts and escalators to whisk you to whichever part of the auditorium you are seated.

The auditorium looks and feels as it has always done with its elegant curtains and royal monogram even though it will have been renovated and redecorated many times but the bars and restaurants along the way are opulent.

I miss the old House with its all pervading smell of over ripe fruit and vegetables and unofficial flower throws. At least the London ballet crowd remain.  The twos and threes of office workers straight from work in their buns and twin sets with earnest stares who never seem to age.

Also the same rituals.  The short clap when the maestro appears, the ripple when the ballerina and male principal first appear on stage and at revolution 27 of Legnani's 32 fouettés in Swan Lake and sustained applause with cheers at the very end. The bewigged flunkies in their red liveries have gone but the order of precedence in which flowers are presented seems to be very much as it has always been.

As my readers will have surmised from the lack of recent updates my day job has kept me very busy lately. I had spent more or less every spare moment since the Christmas holidays preparing for a hearing which left no time for watching ballet and hardly any for class. That hearing took place on Friday and lasted the whole day.  To restore my spirits I checked the Royal Opera House's website for tickets and found there were still some left for the Rhapsody, Two Pigeons double bill. One was in the middle of the amphitheatre stalls that 50 years experience of theatre going has taught me to be one of the best parts in the House.

The two ballets are by Sir Frederick Ashton but from different stages of his career.  He staged the Two Pigeons in 1961 with the late Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in the title roles and created Rhapsody in 1980 as a birthday gift for the Queen Mother. Somehow I had missed both of those works when they had previously been performed so this double bill was a double first for me.

The matinee started with Rhapsody to Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.  The lead dancers in the first performance were Mikhail Baryshnikow and Lesley Collier so you can imagine the weight of expectations on the shoulders of their young successors.  James Hay and Francesca Hayward were brilliant in those roles as were the other twelve dancers who supported them including several soloists. Rhapsody was one of Ashton's last ballets but it reminded me of many of his early works with his spectacular turns and jumps for the males and the dainty pointe work and delicate arm and hand movements. for the women. The costumes designed by William Chappell for a set created by Ashton himself were gorgeous.  The dancers, orchestra and pianist richly deserved their deafening and sustained applause.

The Two Pigeons as re-staged by Ashton to Messager's music is quite charming.  It was originally created by Louis Mérante for the ballet of the Paris Opera in 1886.  Ashton changed the story and Lanchbery adapted and arranged the score. Two of my all time favourite dancers, Lynn  Seymour and Christopher Gable, were in the original performance at Covent Garden on 14 Feb 1961 and it must have been wonderful.  The leads on Saturday were Alexander Campbell and Yuhui Choe. I will tell you how they got on below

There is lots of humour such as the echoing of the pigeon steps by the young girl, the dance competitions and even some slapstick such as the sudden removal of the artist's chair.  A particularly delightful touch are provided by the trained pigeons, Toad, Mole and Bianca who flew past on stage and sat on the artist's shoulder right on cue.  Ironically, the last show that I had seen from Covent Garden was Carlos Acosta's Carmen (see Au Revoir but not Adieu 18 Nov 2015). Comparisons are odious and there is no bigger fan of Acosta on this planet than me but if the Royal Ballet wants to dance gypsies Ashton shows the way to do it.

Shortly after the performance Campbell tweeted:

Worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon than performing Two Pigeons on the ROH stage! With thanks to @balletboy09 for getting me through 😊

— Alexander Campbell (@ACampbell_1) January 16, 2016

I replied

I was in the audience and enjoyed your performance very much. Congratulations to the cast of both ballets. https://t.co/Bm8Mz1n22K

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) January 16, 2016

Although I did not know it at the time the magnificent Janet McNulty also saw the show and she wrote:

Thanks @ACampbell_1 and Yuhui for your glorious utterly moving performance this afternoon. So glad I came again. #mustbuywaterproofmascara

— Janet McNulty (@JanMcN) January 16, 2016

Now I don't agree with Janet on everything. How can I? She's a Liverpudlian and I'm a Mancunian. She likes football and I cricket. She votes one way and I another. But in our appreciation of this performance we are as one.

It will be streamed to cinemas on the 26 Jan 2016. Now if you get a chance to see it you really must.

Eh up!

Yesterday I wrote about Wuthering Heights. On Saturday we heard how the first Yorkshire pudding was made (see Sapphire 15 March 2015), Continuing the Yorkshire theme the Royal Academy of Dance has just announced the judges for the finals of the Genée and two of the three have very strong connections with Yorkshire.

David Bintley was actually born in God's own county:

"Huddersfield is not as famous in the world of classical dance as St Petersburg, Paris or London, but it was the birthplace of David Bintley - one of the most consistent and significant forces in British ballet."

Mr Bintley will be pleased to know that ballet is taught well in his home town (see  Team Hud Adult Ballet Class 22 Jan 2014 and The Base Studios, Huddersfield 13 March 2013) and that the Choral continues to flourish there (The Choral 19 Dec 2013).

David Nixon OBE was born in Canada but he is Artistic Director of the Northern Ballet which is based in Leeds. Nothing shows his feel for this county better than Wuthering Heights. As I said yesterday in my review of that ballet:

"I have lived in the Pennines for 30 years among the royds, below enormous skies and know the sudden and sometimes dramatic changes of colour of heath and sky. Rarely have I seen such faithful re-creation of nature on the stage."

The Genée is to return to London between the 10 and 19 Sept 2015. The programme is set out in the RAD's website. Both the semi-finals, which take place at Stratford Circus Arts Centre between the 16 and 17, and the finals, which take place at Sadler's Wells on the 19, will be open to the public. Although those events take place in London there will be associated events in other parts of the UK (see Creative Spaces on the RAD website). Applications to take part in the event will be open from the 1 May 2015. The RAD offers financial support to candidates through its Darcey Bussell bursary scheme and other initiatives.

Many of the greats of British ballet have launched their careers at The Genée - Doreen Wells, David Drew, David Edwards and Leanne Benjamin to name just a few and more recently Céline Gittens, Xander Parish, Francesca Hayward, Sean Bates and Mlindi Kulashe. One school that has done well at The Genée over the years is Ballet West in Taynuilt (see Ballet West: - You Can't Argue With Success 2 Feb 2015).

The RAD appeals for funds to support the event and those who wish to do so can find out how on the Support The Genée page of the RAD's website.