<B>Stars feel the strain</B><BR>The Royal Ballet is suffering an injury crisis. Is it bad luck, asks Ismene Brown in The Daily Telgraph, or the result of excessive demands on a few dancers?<BR> <P>'DARCEY BUSSELL and Jonathan Cope were forced to pull out of the gala due to injury and their heavy schedule." "Due to injury, Johan Persson and Inaki Urlezaga will not be dancing their scheduled roles." "X, replacing Leanne Benjamin, who is injured." These announcement and footnotes in programmes are signs of a Royal Ballet at dangerous pressure.<P>Last night, for the opening of Giselle at the Royal Opera House, the unthinkable had been on the cards - "Replacing Alina Cojocaru, who is injured." Cojocaru, the 21-year-old Russian-trained Romanian whom the new director Ross Stretton has turned into the Royal Ballet's leading star, was torn between doctor's advice to rest and her burning desire to consume every performance she was offered. In the event, she cancelled no performances.<P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/03/22/btisme22.xml&sSheet=/arts/2002/03/22/ixartleft.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

"The ballet management is on a learning curve"? Eh? Stretton may be new to Covent Garden but it's not exactly his first job in ballet company management. Nor is he surrounded by first timers in management, either. I'm more pursuaded by Kobborg's comment than I am by the thesis of the article.