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Most fun: McRae and Cojocaru in Stars and Stripes. He is a young man with a good career ahead of him; he already has a strong technique and a real stage presence which will endear him to audiences. I would have liked to see Sarah Lamb dance this with him, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Alina danced it with her usual panache.

Best Contemporary Piece: Mara Galeazzi and Gary Avis in MacMillan's Concerto pdd. Mara excels in MacMillan and this was no different; a beautifully judged performance from her and Gary Avis.

Best Bravura Dancing: Tamara Rojo and Jose Martin in the Snow White pdd. I had never heard of this piece, nor of the choreographer, nor of the composer. To this evocative music, Rojo and Martin brought the house down with their various turns and spins....I have NEVER seen a dancer, anywhere, whip downstage like Rojo did last night. It looked like a film speeded up to impress, like they used to do in the old days for certain physical feats. Unbelievable.

Most Moving Dancing: Lopatkina and Kuznetsov in Death of the Rose. This was stunningly beautiful, and through the haunting slow movement of Mahler's 5th Symphony they sustained this languid choreography at the highest artistic level. I, and everyone around me, was stunned at the end of it. Glorious.

Most Improved Dancer: Ed Watson as Romeo in the Balcony pdd. From the outset he was very convincing as a young man in the first flush of young love, and his partnering and solos were so much more assured and confident than the first time round almost two years ago. I am really looking forward to seeing him with Lauren again after all this time.
 

Most Baffling Dancer: Irma Nioradze. She danced an exceptional Dying Swan...those arms were amazing. However, she seemed miscast in the Corsaire pdd, and when she was doing her fouettees her arms were doing the breast stroke. Nothing actually wrong with her performance, I just didn't like her style.

A few other comments: I wish Lopatkina had danced the White Swan pdd. We were supposed to get the Don Q pdd, but it never materialised...all of a sudden there were Sarah Lamb and Samodurov onstage doing the Tarantella! No mention of why. Looking around the audience in stalls and stalls circle, I'm sure most of them still thought they were watching Don Q anyway. Speaking of the audience, I could not believe the amount of people in the stalls who kept getting up to go to the bathroom (or perhaps to grab another free glass of champers) right in the middle of a piece, then, even worse, being allowed back in before a suitable break. Also, how they started leaving at the end while Maya was still onstage. It looked like most of them couldn't wait to get back to their champers and blinis. Such is the gala audience, I guess.

It was an amazing thing to see this 80 year-old legend on the stage. If someone told me she was 50 I'd believe them. I have NEVER seen an 80 year-old look like that. And to still be able to perform something on a stage without making herself look sad was a real feat, and enjoyable and seemingly effortless for her. What a woman, what a namesake!

Finally, to Ivan. Perhaps someone in the know could post up and let us know how he is. He and Roberta were in the middle of such a wonderful performance (my hubby had never seen her before and was bowled over by what he saw)when he came down hard. He was holding his knee in a lot of pain, and I can only hope that the injury will be of very short duration.

All in all, a very enjoyable night, and very interesting to see pieces which we don't usually have the opportunity of seeing.