A glaring error and an unwarrented slur in two paragraphs.

Mark Monahan of the Daily Telgraph is under the impression that he saw Russian dancing giraffes at Covent Garden this summer



Well, first of all the Bolshoi Ballet was appearing at the Coliseum and not Covent Garden this year. Secondly, why giraffes? None of the Bolshoi's female dancers appearing in La Bayadere were excessively tall anyway so his insult was particularly inappropriate.

I can't help thinking this is just another example of a rather unsavoury chauvinism that exists within a certain coterie of UK critics. With the Royal Ballet struggling to some sort of recovery under matron Mason, Mr Monahan and his ilk see fit to belittle other companies in the hope of making their favourite troupe appear better than it is "Hey we still can't produce an international home-grown star, but at least we don't have dancing giraffes".

Yeah, right.

The full review can be viewed here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... let108.xml

I'd kinda like to see a dancing giraffe, actually.

Well, actually, Jeff, you have seen a dancing giraffe -- "dancinggiraffe" is part of my email address.

(Personally, I don't consider being likened to a giraffe insulting...)

However could I have forgotten that?



It's a compliment to the giraffe.

I could agree with Djb that being likened to a giraffe is not insulting. It is a magnificent creature, elegant, dignified and graceful. Unfortunately, the Telegraph critic DID intend to insult by pointing only to its height and, probably, disproportionate composition. The way that phrase is made can be described only as rude.
Something makes me wonder if this critic writes about what he really has seen or he just uses the brochure and hearsay for his review?
Well spotted, Cassandra, that, firstly, Monahan thinks that the Bolshoi performed at Covent Garden.
Secondly, had he been there he could see that all Bolshoi principal ballerinas have beautiful physique.
And, thirdly, he should know that the Royal Ballet had and still have such tall ballerinas that male partners for them have to be imported from overseas. One such ballerina left the company at the end of the last season, another one will be dancing La Bayadere next week. And nothing is wrong with that as long as they are good professional dancers. And they both are.
I know that dancers respect their good professional colleagues regardless of their height. Could the Telegraph critic learn good manners from them please?