On Sunday 24th February the Coliseum is hosting a Gala performance with the title Flight, in memory of the great Bolshoi dancer Maris Liepa. Details here:

http://www.eno.org/whats-on/whats-on.ph ... orthcoming

A starry line up lists the following: Maria Alexandrova, Federico Bonelli, Johan Cobborg, Alina Cojocaru, Vladimir Derevianko, Sergei Filin, Ivan Kozlov, Sarah Lamb, Ilze Liepa, Agnes Letestu, Ulyana Lopatkina, David Makhateli, Jose Martinez, Natalia Osipova, Mark Peretokin, Sergiy Polunin, Tamara Rojo, Viktoria Tereshkina, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Ivan Vasiliev, Igor Zelensky

Looks unmissable to me.

Russian casting has as usual been more about optimism that fact and I now have it on good authority that Alexandrova, Filin and Tsiskaridze will not be dancing.

Cassandra, that is QUITE a lineup, even w/o those three dancers. You'll have to let us know who actually ends up on stage and how it goes!

Much to my delight, Alexandrova and Filin did turn up after all.

There were quite a few no shows apart from Tsiskaridze and most were from the Kirov: Lopatkina, Tereshkina, Kozlov and Zelensky. Ivan Vasiliev from the Bolshoi also failed to turn up, but Leonid Sarafanov who wasn't originally scheduled to appear, replaced Vasiliev as Osipova's partner.

A review from Clement Crisp in today's FT ia accompanied by a gorgeous picture of the incomparable Maria Alexandrova with partner Sergei Filin dancing an extract from Daughter of the Pharoah, which sadly isn't included on line.

At the end of his review he adds a couple of paragraphs about the death of Natalia Bessmertnova.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8856d10e-e4d8-11dc-a495-0000779fd2ac.html