Ballet of a different order with Black Swan which I saw last night. I thought it was great entertainment, nicely tense and spooky, fast moving with an undercurrent of incipient violence throughout. And how did they do that wonderful sprouting of feathers as Natalie Portman spun around in the role of the black swan? Movie magic.

The Telegraph's review reflects my reaction exactly - "...delirious hokum, high-class trash...".

I paid particular attention to the heroine's bum throughout. Not dirty old man, peeping tom style but in an effort to substantiate a claim I heard on the radio (Woman's Hour I think) when an expert averred that although Natalie Portman's dancing was very convincing you could tell she was not really a dancer because she did not have a ballerina's bum.

I have seen quite a bit of ballet over the years but if pressed to identify a common characteristic of ballerinas I would have suggested that, unlike say opera singers, they tend to be skinny and small busted. It seems however that the defining characteristic is a muscular bottom; buttocks do not remain soft and cuddly under the rigorous regime of the dance class. Closer inspection than that possible from the back row of the cinema would be needed to verify the claim but I'm glad I tried.