... London Festival AFTER Nureyev's version of The Nutcracker, London Festival Ballet's appears quite traditional, though it is now in need of a firm guiding hand to give the production some consistency. Even the once neatly-designed costumes for the divertissements have in some instances been changed for some tasteless creations, the worst on account of overwhelming numbers be ing the ...

... Natalia Makarova NATALIA MAKAROVA's guest appearance with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden on December 19 included her debut here in a modern work, MacMillan's Concerto, in addition to the more familiar Don Quixote pas de deux. In this latter work she was part nered securely by a somewhat subdued David Wall, though his masculine sturdiness complemented her brasher style. She is ...

... Northern Dance PIERS BEAUMONT has dug out a treasure from nineteenth century ballet, Bournonville's charming Flower Festival at Genzano. Mr Beaumont has reproduced the Divertissement of this 115-year-old work, and designed colourful costumes for the eight members of the Northern Dance i neatre wno presented it for the first time in their New Year programme at the Royal Northern College of ...

... Genee award THE ANNUAL Award Performance for young dancers competing for the Adeline Genge Gold Medal was held this year at Sadler's Wells Theatre on the afternoon of January 4. This important award, instituted in 1930 by Dame Adeline, Founder-President of the Royal Academy of Dancing, was given a new approach last year so that potential talent can be sought at an earlier age. The npu; m lino ...

... Benefit A BENEFIT performance of The Rocky Horror Show will be given at 11.30 p.m. on January 23 at the King's Road Theatre in aid of Roy Truman. A board operator for the show, he was injured recently when a maroon blew up in his face, fusing him to lose an eye and impairing his hearing. Seats are priced from £2.50 downwards. ...

... SELDOM-SEEN OPERAS AT CAMDEN AS IN previous years, a feature of the Camden Festival 1974 will be productions of seldom- seen operas. On February 20 at the Collegiate, Opera da Camera will present the first perfor mance in this country of The Comedy of Errors by Stephen Storace, in an English transla tion by Arthur Jacobs with music edited by Richard Piatt. In the cast are Marie Hayward, ...

... 'Nutcracker' lack of style FURTHER VISITS to London Festival Ballet's production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Festival Hall prompt me to ask why this commercially successful presentation should at the same time be so unsatisfactory from an artistic point. In the main the dancers are hard-working and proficient, seemingly interested in their work in spite of two- and-a-half weeks of ...

... A living Giselle OF THE MAJOR classical ballets in the normal repertoire, 'Giselle makes the most demands on the interpretative skills of the leading dancer, requiring her to dance the first act in a manner suggesting shyness, trust, simple joy and finally mental oreaKaown, while the second act demands an other-worldliness, but showing the last vestige of human feeling before it is sapped ...

... Nureyev version THE ROYAL BALLET danced farewell to Christmas on January 21 with the last performance this season of .Nureyev's version of The Nutcracker, a particularly successful production that deserves further revival at the end of the year. Merle Park's childlike glee as Clara, her mechanical exacti tude as the puppet doll and sheer beauty of movement and grandeur as the dream ...

... 'Hasty Heart' revival THE SCOTS have a reputation for being dour and independent, but added to these, would it be possible to have a man who was also cold, rather insensitive to the feelings of others and very stubborn? This is the part that Richard Todd plays in The Hasty Heart by John Patrick, who wrote it in 1944. and the fact that Mr Patrick is a US citizen could have something to do ...

... SPECTRES OF MIDDLE-AGE IN 'CHEZ NOUS' by R.B. Marriott IN CHEZ NOUS, Peter Nichols' new play, at the Globe, Dick and Diana, on the strength of money brought in by Dick's best-selling book on child care and treatment, have bought an old house and its big bam in the Dordogne region of France. They are joined by old friends, Phil and Liz. All are in early middle-age, apparently happy and ...

... 'Rib' that irritates WHEN A NEW theatre company is founded with the avowed aim of staging the works of one particular dramatist, it is natural to expect great things of playwright, director and cast. Alas, the first presentation of the New Company at the Act Inn on February 5 Rib by Tim Rose Price amounts to an evening of im mense irritation. The irritation is largely because it all ...