I must be forgiven for reminding you that "Gala" has been translated in an Italian dictionary as "a frill or tucker". So I report that Sunday night's gala at the Coliseum, in memory of the fine Bolshoi dancer Maris Liepa and in aid of the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation, which funds research into childhood cancer, offered plenty of frills and, such being the nature of the beast, a few tuckers.

Basic, bare staging. English National Ballet's orchestra under Alexander Polyanichko and some taped items. Dancers from Moscow, St Petersburg, Paris, London. The usual gala suspects, of course, for such evenings are unthinkable without the frills of the Don Quixote pas de deux, bright under the charm of Natalya Osipova and the soaring elegance of Leonid Sarafanov; a Dying Swan , whose demise I did not regret, from Svetlana Zakharova; a duet from Le Corsaire , given with bewitching grace by Marianela Nuñez in the arms of Thiago Soares; a fragment from The Pharoah's Daughter with Maria Alexandrova enchanting, and Sergei Filin beating and turning like teacher's pet and with a gaiety of spirit that was irresistible.