Ondine

Which is why I didn't link. Been there a while.

It's on Youtube. Search Matthew Ball & Mayara Magri - If I Loved You pas de deux

Susan Lucas trained with Gillian Dawson until she won the Cyril Beaumont Scholarship to the RBS. Gillian Dawson attended classes with Laura Wilson I recall. That's a pretty direct line to Cecchetti himself. Darcey Bussell was another Beaumont Scholarship winner. Darcey Bussell O.B.E. "The Cecchetti work has given me strength, discipline and co-ordination. It wasn't until I got into the Royal Ballet Company that I realized how lucky I was to have had that training." https://www.opusarte.com/details/OASP4102BD It's lovely work, a joy to learn at all levels, even if you can only dream of reaching Diploma level.

That makes me feel very ancient as I spent a week at a summer school with Susan Lucas there (I think she was the youngest participant) just before she went to the RBS! She was a lovely dancer then, Cecchetti trained and it's good she's carrying on the tradition in her teaching. https://classicalballetcoach.co.uk/?page_id=2375 https://classicalballetcoach.co.uk/?page_id=2607 I have no connection other than that, but anyone able to attend her Cecchetti classes I'd suggest will be enriched.

A tweet or an X, who knows? Whatever.

I've just looked at few (so I had some idea of what people were talking about, honest 😶) and yes some do appear a trifle... thrusting themselves on to the viewer. There's one vid of a certain RB star showing his barre work... and much else besides that I can't now unsee! Skin tone tights are becoming a thing for men too aren't they? (I'm not a prude, I went to art school a long time ago and yes we did many MANY hours of life drawing and bodies are bodies but some of this doesn't make you look at the six pack does it? Or maybe that's just me.)

I wish I did! Not that I'd be peeking of course... though I do like a nice arty photo... 😌

And very lovely and historically interesting they were too! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/444449056958631591/ I suppose dancers have to make the most of a short career, which could end at any time through injury, hence the self promotion. I know it was ever thus but in the past 'opening a studio' on retirement was what so many did. Nowadays that's not so simple.

Though those aren't really new, many many 'studio' posed shots in the past with stars of the company! Social media has brought a wider audience of course.

Protesting too much... 😉

Blimey. I had no idea. I tend not to look at Insta much. Maybe I should do a little delving for the purposes of research, you understand... 🫣

Yet Vadim Muntigirov's autobiography was well received. He's also a keen social media user I gather. I suppose it's not sharing as such that's the problem, it's what you share?

It's not defamation if it's true of course, and referenced by sources etc. But that's getting way off topic.

Sir Frederick Ashton's biography by Julie Kavanagh is 'warts and all'. Theatricals dahling, theatricals. Sir Robert (Bobby) Helpmann) and his 'flying ducks'?

Well that's from English Heritage, which gave the flat a blue plaque (there is another) and I don't think her 'affairs' are secret these days! Times change don't they? (Avert your eyes if you don't want to know more. This is the Telegraph, which may or may not be described as 'gutter press' depending on your point of view!) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10820362/Charles-Hughesdon-obituary.html A longer relationship evolved out of a lunch with Margot Fonteyn at Hughesdon’s house in Surrey during the early 1960s — at the end of the meal he followed his guest upstairs and kissed her. “She didn’t resist,” he recalled, “but neither did she exactly melt.” From this inauspicious start they engaged in an affair which continued sporadically for the next 10 years. “As time went on she came to depend on me in many ways,” claimed Hughesdon. “For sex, certainly, but also for companionship, advice, and strength.”

Indeed. These days I suspect Margot Fonteyn's 'affairs' would have been splashed all over the gutter press and I think that would certainly have altered her public image! Constant Lambert of course. And a blue plaque for what I will politely call her 'love nest' 🤨 In 1952 she gave up the flat to her brother’s ex-wife Idell, who lived there until the 1990s. In turn, Idell lent the flat to Fonteyn for her meetings with the aviator Charles Hughesdon, with whom she had an affair for at least ten years from about 1964. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/margot-fonteyn/

Due to popular demand it says. So you know what to do in future! Carry on demanding! Also, the £1 offer is still current.

I'll add this here.

I frequently come across items which interest / amuse / fascinate / inform / entertain which are connected to the world of ballet but which don't really warrant a thread in their own right. I thought I'd begin a thread which can be added to over time as I'm sure many others who read this forum find items which are worth sharing but again, not really worth a fresh thread Also, in those wee small hours when sleep eludes it could be better browsing this than sheep counting? So I'll begin with The Margo Hatto Photographic Collection, part of the Royal Opera House archive special collections. Sadly this one is not as yet online but no doubt it will be eventually. https://rohcollections.org.uk/collectionsspecial.aspx I wonder how many of us have sent and received her cards in the past? She sounds an amazingly entrepreneurial woman. https://rohcollections.org.uk/CollectionPhotHatto.aspx Of particular delight in that short bio is this about the trouser press! When conditions began to deteriorate in Germany, Margot (with the help of Arthur) obtained leave to bring her parents to Britain in early 1939. Margot started her first venture in the production of greeting cards to enable her to help look after her parents. Her first greeting card publications were prints of black and white photographs taken with her Leica camera. These were dried using her husband's trouser press. Her products were noticed by a retailer in the Strand, possibly named Wilson. Following his guidance in marketing, Margot began selling her greeting cards to well known high street chains under the trade name of Manor Cards. She progressed to producing cards and gift tags illustrated in colour with photographs taken by professional photographers. Ballet subjects were a particular favourite.

Oooh yes! https://danceeurope.net/

Lilian Baylis. Anton Dolin. Tamara Karsavina. Robert Helpman. Marie Rambert. Constant Lambert. Edouard Espinosa. Stanislas Idzikowsky. Cyril Beaumont. Many others! It's well worth a visit. It has a delightful churchyard where you can sit and also, many concerts (a cushion is recommended if it's a long one though). https://actorschurch.org/whatson/ Pictures of a number of the plaques via this link: And if you're feeling fit, how about trying this walk? A Diaghilev walking tour. http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/177065/v-and-a-diaghilev-walkingtour.pdf

A statement on the death of Johaar Mosaval from President Cyril Ramaphosa which mentions Gloriana. It's a fine tribute, detailing his many achievements. Nor does it gloss over the awfulness of apartheid, and the part Mosaval played in opposing it. https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/press-statements/president-mourns-passing-dance-pioneer-johaar-mosaval-0 While dancing in Michel Fokine’s Petruskha, Mosaval’s contract stated that he was not allowed to touch a white ballet dancer with his bare hands. By 1975, the theatre allowed all races onto its premises, but black people required a permit to enter. As a result, the boycott of the theatre lasted until the end of apartheid. Mr Mosaval opened his own ballet school in 1977 and was employed as the first black Inspector of Schools of Ballet under the then Administration of Coloured Affairs. He resigned from this position when he discovered that he could share his expertise only with a certain segment of the population. Subsequently, the apartheid regime closed his school because it was multiracial. Following the principles of his mentor, Dulcie Howes, Mosaval wanted to share his knowledge and love of ballet with students of all races, so he continued to find ways to dance and to teach... “His life story is one that fills us at one level with pride and inspiration but which also reopens for us the inhumanity and hurt that apartheid inflicted on individuals and entire sectors of our society, including our cultural life and the performing arts. “Under difficult conditions, Johaar Mosaval enjoyed and leveraged his life of celebrity to create a legacy of service to the people of Cape Town and our nation more broadly. May he rest in peace.”

Another who received his early training courtesy of Dulcie Howes.

“Well now you know, for me to be trained as a dancer, and to be trained professionally, was unheard of. I was Muslim and, in my era, many, many, many years ago, Muslims were not trained as dancers. Not only that, I was also a black boy from District Six,” he said. My teacher always told me that it would be very difficult for me to get a job, not because of my colour but because of my height. [Fortunately] she was wrong.” I think certain aspects of his life history were written by those a little hazy of the details, but there is no doubt Johaar Mosaval's is a remarkable story. More here. https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2019-09-25-sa-ballet-star-91-remembers-his-starring-role-at-queen-elizabeths-coronation/ Cape Town Museum, official link:

Adding this here, for information. Arnold Östman – especially famous as the distinguished artistic director of the Drottningholm Court Theatre ⁦ @DrottningholmTh ⁩ from 1980 to 1992 – has died at the age of 83.