Which would you rather dance in: Milton Keynes or Moscow’s Bolshoi? It’s that age-old dilemma for a star ballerina like Alina Cojocaru, who last week decided not to fulfil a matinee performance with English National Ballet in Bucks in order to fly to Russia to save a Bolshoi show. It left fans fuming.
The Bolshoi are presently fielding La Dame aux camélias by the distinguished American choreographer John Neumeier, from which their ballerina Olga Smirnova had to withdraw because of injury. No other dancer, it is said, were available in Moscow to cover. The tiny, sweet-faced Cojocaru is one of Neumeier’s favourites. ENB’s star freed herself from her scheduled Swan Lake on Saturday 16 November in Milton Keynes and dashed off to Russia.
Now, a perfectly honourable substitution was made in Milton Keynes for the ENB performance, the rising junior Laurretta Summerscales, but the fact is that ENB has made a justifiably big media deal about hiring the illustrious Cojocaru from the Royal Ballet last year, and as she had not been seen in the regions with the Royal Ballet, this has caused great excitement.
Fans expressed their disappointment and anger on ENB’s
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