Seventy-five years of the Royal Ballet? The title of Zoë Anderson’s new book brought me up short with the realisation that I had been watching the company for over half its existence. Let me confess: I am a besotted fan of the sort that Nick Hornby described so wittily in Fever Pitch. The Royal Ballet is my team, very much the way that Arsenal is Hornby’s team: I rejoice at its triumphs, I despair at its shortcomings, I am the repository of useless information about its comings and goings, I queue all night and resort to bad things in order to get tickets. It’s a one-sided love affair, and probably not the healthiest aspect of my life.

May 2006

A Riot in Two Parts

Dance to the Music of Time

Sick Notes

The Bear Who Made Beautiful Music

The Show Goes On

Listen Up

Dancing on Thin Ice

Ballet Good Show

Sex, Lies & Piano Recitals

Play It Again, Ma’am

Up in the Gods

The Aisle is Full of Noises

Relative Values

The Last of the Great Unromantics

Folk Hero

Close Up But Eerily Distant

The High Notes Of Love

Lady Of The Dance

Dancing Queen

Cold Comforts

The Pearl of Paris

Voice of Authority

Heavenly Movement

Rhine Maiden

‘ÉTONNE-MOI’

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