Viviana Durante is not including the Royal Ballet in her plans for the future. <P>Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<P>This is really heart-breaking, apart from 'Manon' and the Macmillan rep., she has shown in 'Synphonic Variations' and 'Ondine' that she is perhaps the best interpreter of the Ashton rep that the company has. I guess there have been too many fights and the clincher seemsto have been the fact that they would not let her dance in 'Marguerite and Armand'. <P> <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000148269364269&rtmo=kLxb17Jp&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/3/30/btisme30.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000148269364269&rtmo=kLxb17Jp& atmo=99999999<BR>&pg=/et/00/3/30/btisme30.html</A> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited 03-30-2000).]

Hot on the heels of the news about Durante, the ether over England has been hot this weekend with e-mails about Tamara Rojo. This article in The Times, which also has a fairish picture of Rojo, seems to confirm the rumours that she is moving from ENB to the RB, although there has not been an official press release as far as I know. <P>She is a stunning dancer, combining technique, fluency and dramatic ability and as for her looks......It seems to me that this leaves ENB with merely a few excellent Principals, such as the divine Daria Klimentova, and highly dependent on Guest Artists. If ENB were to lose another key dancer now, although I am not aware of any such rumours, it would leave them in a difficult situation. Luckily for the Company, Rojo will not be moving until the start of the 2000-01 RB season, so Deane has some time to look around for another dancer. However, those of Rojo's ability and charisma are few and far between. <P>Derek Deane has done well financially for the Company and in creating new audiences with his mega-stagings of the classics and 30 odd performances of 'The Nutcracker' each year. However, the dancers crave greater variety and the strain seeems to be telling. Rojo was stunning in MacMillan's 'The Rite of Spring' and also, I'm told, in Tetley's 'Sphinx', but these seem to have given her a taste for more modern work, rather than satisfying her aspirations. It will be wonderful for all of us to see her in the MacMillan rep.<P>One question not fully resolved is whether she will be joining as a Principal, which is implied in this article and is what I would expect or as a First Soloist, which has been rumoured.<P> <A HREF="http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/04/03/timartdan02001.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/04/03/timartdan02001.html</A> <P><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited 04-03-2000).]