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And I'm wondering where Melissa Hamilton may fit into all this? If she is back in the company, I suppose it could be argued that having been an "acting" Principal at Dresden, she may also have a claim to be promoted?

 

I'm not saying I particularly agree with this scenario, but....

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This Season has been a tremendous success and ALL the dancers have contributed to it.

Mr O'Hare, since becoming the AD, has consistently built up the Company from the bottom upwards with a wealth of talent that has come out of The Royal Ballet School. The result is there for all to see: the Company has never looked better and unified in style, and it is a most exciting time for us - the audience - to see all those young and superbly talented dancers rapidly climbing the ranks. EVERY dancer does contribute to this success but... there are some who do stand out. I have never enjoyed a Season more than this one (I am not too sure about next Season, certainly not about the first half but we shall see...). 

It is very clear who are the dancers who consistently stood out and also improved throughout this Season: Matthew Ball, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Reece Clark, Marcelino Sambe, David Yudes, James Hay, young Sissons (recently impressed), Calvin Richardson, Isabella Gasparini, and last but certainly not least Yasmine Naghdi.

 

Based on all the roles danced this Season my (wish) list is:

 

to Principal: Yasmine Naghdi - the repertoire she has danced over the past seven Seasons is very wide and varied, she has danced to great acclaim full-length dramatic MacMillan roles such as Juliet, and The Invitation, she has performed in some of the finest Ashton ballets (Monotones and Symphonic Variations), has danced some of the greatest Classical roles such as Rose Fairy, Sugar Plum Fairy and Aurora, and in Anastasia as Mathilde Kschessinska, she was stunning in Balanchine's virtuoso role/Tarantella, besides dancing the principal role in Jewels/Emeralds, just to name a few. To me she has shown her versatility as a dramatic as well as classical dancer. Naghdi is one of the finest and purest Classical dancer amongst the current First Soloists and Soloists.

 

to First Soloist: Marcelino Sambe and Matthew Ball, both for obvious reasons (Ball greatly impressed showing his acting abilities as well as technical abilities), and Sambe is outstanding in his own way.

 

to Soloist: the gorgeous Reece Clark and wonderful Anna Rose O'Sullivan: both dancers impressed in a variety of roles this Season.

 

to First Artist: David Yudes, Calvin Richardson, maybe Joseph Sissons (still very young yet outstanding at this level), perhaps Gina Storm-Jensen (has potential and with a bit more time could grow into a more secure dancer).

 

Wishing them all the best on Tour in Australia, and afterwards a well deserved rest!

 

 

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37 minutes ago, Balletfanp said:

And I'm wondering where Melissa Hamilton may fit into all this? If she is back in the company, I suppose it could be argued that having been an "acting" Principal at Dresden, she may also have a claim to be promoted?

 

I'm not saying I particularly agree with this scenario, but....

As far as I know, in order for a dancer to be considered for promotion, they have to have danced a full Season with the company.

 

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I was advised the other day (by someone much more knowledgeable than myself) that dancers no longer get promoted to principal character artistes but stay at the same rank with the word 'character' appended.  This may have something to do with Equity rules, I suppose.

 

Linda

 

 

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7 hours ago, loveclassics said:

I was advised the other day (by someone much more knowledgeable than myself) that dancers no longer get promoted to principal character artistes but stay at the same rank with the word 'character' appended.  This may have something to do with Equity rules, I suppose.

Linda

 

I believe that this has been discussed on BCF before. In a public forum, shortly after he was appointed, Kevin O'Hare stated that he would not appoint dancers to the rank of Principal Character Artist. I got the impression from what he said that he did not want to create any "jobs for life" and the ranks of Soloist and First Soloist met the need to cover character roles perfectly adequately.

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29 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

I believe that this has been discussed on BCF before. In a public forum, shortly after he was appointed, Kevin O'Hare stated that he would not appoint dancers to the rank of Principal Character Artist. I got the impression from what he said that he did not want to create any "jobs for life" and the ranks of Soloist and First Soloist met the need to cover character roles perfectly adequately.

So a principal moving to character roles would have what position? 

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It sounds as though principals wouldn't move to character roles, but that the character roles would be performed by current company members as part of their regular repertoire as opposed to retired senior dancers doing those roles exclusively.

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I hope not.  Those character rôles are greatly enhanced, IMHO, by the performances of the long-serving retired dancers and could well turn into caricature in less experienced hands, when the likes of Thiago Soares and Bennet Gartside could, in the future, do them full justice. It will be interesting to see how the proposals to maintain Zenaida Yanowsky's involvement with the company works out in practice: in the past, the "Principal Character Artist" would have been a solution.

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2 hours ago, Grand Tier Left said:

I hope not.  Those character rôles are greatly enhanced, IMHO, by the performances of the long-serving retired dancers and could well turn into caricature in less experienced hands, when the likes of Thiago Soares and Bennet Gartside could, in the future, do them full justice. It will be interesting to see how the proposals to maintain Zenaida Yanowsky's involvement with the company works out in practice: in the past, the "Principal Character Artist" would have been a solution.

That's my feeling too. How is this handled in other companies?

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Danish character dancers are drawn from all ranks, but so much of the Bournonville rep requires acting skills that all are potential character artists.

 

I think it is only in Russia that dances are earmarked for such roles early on.

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49 minutes ago, JohnS said:

You're correct Legseleven.  10 June last year.

 

Last year was unusually early, though - IIRC, it was because of some clause in the contract with their tour venues in Japan which stated that certain roles will be taken by principals, and because of injuries elsewhere in the company, they needed their new principals to be officially named as such in time for the tour.

 

More typically, they make the announcement about the time they return from tour.

 

Edited following a trawl of the ROH website to add:

 

2012: 11th July

2013: 3rd July

2014: 3rd July

2015: 29th June

Edited by RuthE
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With such great anticipation amongst supporters, it must be a very tense time within the company itself.  I think that if I was in the company, particularly at a lower rank, I'd prefer to know that a promotion could come at any time - rather than raising my hopes, then hearing that I'd been overlooked and would have to wait a year to know if i was destined to rise through the ranks...

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1 hour ago, bridiem said:

I hope not too. No matter how skilled, a younger person can never have the weight some of these roles require.

 

I agree, but I imagine part of the jigsaw will continue to be for staff (like Christopher Saunders, Gary Avis and Philip Mosley) to double up as character artists. I note that Bennet Gartside is listed on the RB Staff page, so maybe there's a future for him too!

 

Perhaps some use will also be made of retired principals like Zenaida Yanowsky to fill the more demanding female character roles without having them on the payroll.

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I just thought... we never did get a Leavers announcement last year!  Just "Promotions and joiners" - and we all assumed maybe there was something not yet finalized regarding Leavers and a further press release would follow at some point.  But it didn't.

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2 hours ago, JohnS said:

You're correct Legseleven.  10 June last year.

 

The unusually early announcement last year was perhaps linked to the fact that Japanese promoters require the leading roles to be taken by Principals

 

This year, with the tour to Kazakhstan cancelled, there is more time before the first tranche of the Company leaves for Australia. And the fortnight between the end of the season and that departure is surely ideal for all the interviews to be completed.

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2 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I agree, but I imagine part of the jigsaw will continue to be for staff (like Christopher Saunders, Gary Avis and Philip Mosley) to double up as character artists. 

 

Apologies if slightly off-topic but I'm baffled by ROH logic with regard to use of the Character Artist title.

 

On the RB staff page http://www.roh.org.uk/about/the-royal-ballet/staff

Jonathan Howells and Philip Mosley are both listed as Character Artists (alongside their respective Royal Ballet staff roles), but they are not included in the list of artists on the RB Dancers' page.

 

On the staff page (link above) Christopher Saunders and Gary Avis are listed in the context of their respective Senior Ballet Master/Ballet Master roles, with no mention of their Principal Character Artist status (although obviously this is shown if you click on their individual biography pages). They are listed of course as Principal Character Artists on the RB Dancers' page. 

 

There clearly must be an inhouse reason for these listings, but they seem odd to me as an outsider! Maybe it's simply to do with internal budget arrangements determining who is listed where.

 

But it still seems odd to me that people who are officially listed as Character Artists do not appear on the Dancers' page, implying that they are not company members as artists despite still performing character roles (frequently so in the case of Jonathan Howells).

Edited by Josephine
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4 hours ago, Grand Tier Left said:

I hope not.  Those character rôles are greatly enhanced, IMHO, by the performances of the long-serving retired dancers and could well turn into caricature in less experienced hands, when the likes of Thiago Soares and Bennet Gartside could, in the future, do them full justice. It will be interesting to see how the proposals to maintain Zenaida Yanowsky's involvement with the company works out in practice: in the past, the "Principal Character Artist" would have been a solution.

 

I completely agree.  There was a very interesting interview with Elizabeth McGorian and Gary Avis speaking to Gerald Dowler in Dancing Times a couple of months back, which showed just how much work goes into playing character roles and the very great value of coaching in these roles by people like Dame Ninette de Valois.  Both dancers were saying that when you are cast in these roles as a younger dancer there is a temptation to see it as a backwards step but fortunately RB is (maybe we should say "was") one of the few companies to place so much value on Character Artists, which was why Avis returned to the company after his time at K Ballet.   The life experience and gravitas that more experienced (and retired) dancers bring to character roles is so incredibly important.   It's the difference between "pretending" to be a Queen, for example, and BEING a Queen through and through.  

 

I do hope Kevin O'Hare rethinks his decision and retains the role of Principal Character Artists so that we keep those exceptional actors in the company.  

 

Sorry, got off the topic of promotions there for a minute. 

 

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23 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

but being made a Principal is surely something special to be reserved for those with that little something extra.  [...] I like the way KOH has promoted talent and I would be loathe to see him promote people because it was their turn or just because they had a strong body of repeatedly excellent work.  

 

 

You'd think ;)

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22 hours ago, Nina G. said:

As far as I know, in order for a dancer to be considered for promotion, they have to have danced a full Season with the company.

 

 

Didn't Steven McRae get promoted after he'd been out through injury for a significant part of the season?  I remember being surprised at the time.

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11 hours ago, capybara said:

 

I believe that this has been discussed on BCF before. In a public forum, shortly after he was appointed, Kevin O'Hare stated that he would not appoint dancers to the rank of Principal Character Artist. I got the impression from what he said that he did not want to create any "jobs for life" and the ranks of Soloist and First Soloist met the need to cover character roles perfectly adequately.

 

But Character First Soloist sounds really weird :)

I don't believe any Principal has ever moved into character roles: I think it would have been regarded as a retrograde step.  Possibly things have changed, though.

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6 hours ago, MAB said:

Danish character dancers are drawn from all ranks, but so much of the Bournonville rep requires acting skills that all are potential character artists.

 

I think it is only in Russia that dances are earmarked for such roles early on.

 

I am curious about this.  Is there an element of choice in this?  Could a young dancer find themselves exclusively being cast in character roles against their will, as it were?  If I was a youngster in a major ballet company, I might be rather cross if I was permanently cast as, say, Bathilde in Giselle, rather than being given the chance to dance anything at all.  

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9 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

I am curious about this.  Is there an element of choice in this?  Could a young dancer find themselves exclusively being cast in character roles against their will, as it were?  If I was a youngster in a major ballet company, I might be rather cross if I was permanently cast as, say, Bathilde in Giselle, rather than being given the chance to dance anything at all.  

 

Kristen McNally and Christina Arestis (for example) were both quite young when they began taking character roles.

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Choice? As a dancer? Well.. no, not at all. You wait until the cast sheets come out and read what you will do, that's it. Any attitude less than productive and enthusiastic will mean removal from the role and a black mark that will mean an apology is needed if you would like a career at the company.

 

sergei polunin starts many of his views from this reality, but given ballet and the discipline is a major part of ballet life. 'Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to do and dance'

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It is possible that Kevin will defer making any appointments to the rank of principal dancer until well into next year. There are so many really talented dancers in the company that he may well want to avoid making mistakes about appointing new principal dancers as any appointment he makes will have the effect of blocking advancement to others who may prove to be even more worthy of that status in the near future Perhaps we shall have to wait until after the 2018 performances of Giselle and Swan Lake for the next principals to be named. 

 

The most obvious candidates for promotion to the rank of principal based on the quality of their work during the 2016-17 season are Naghdi and Hay both of whom have shown real artistry throughout the season and given exemplary performances in classical and classically based roles which have frequently outclassed those given by far more experienced dancers. I suspect that Hay will have to wait a little longer for promotion if only because there are already two shortish male principals.

 

As far as Hamilton is concerned I don't know whether she is eligible for promotion this year or not. While she has in past seasons  been outstanding in some parts of the repertory, she has also displayed serious technical shortcomings in the more exposed classical roles which she has danced such as the Queen of the Dryads where she ran out of steam and technique before she completed her variation and in the 2014 revival of Symphonic Variations where she was too slow and was clearly challenged by the choreographic text. As she has come so far in her career through her single minded determination to be a dancer I assume that her time at Dresden was part of a carefully considered plan on her part to develop and widen her experience and strengthen her technique. It will be interesting to see the effect that her time at Dresden has had on her abilities as a performer. I suspect that Kevin will  want some evidence that she has polished up her technical skills before she enters into his promotion calculations. On the face of it the 2017-18 season seems to play to her strengths in a way that the 2016-17 season did not. I think that she will need to show that she is clearly in command of the technical skills required to perform the classically based repertory at the highest level before Kevin considers her for further promotion. It is possible, of course, that because of the wealth of talent further down the ranks that, for Hamilton, as for Choe before her, the time for further promotion has already passed.

 

As far as other candidates for promotion are concerned I shall be really surprised if Ball, Clark, Sambe and Sissens don't each move up a rung. Sissens has been outstanding drawing the eye by the quality of his dancing in the corps throughout the season.His appearance in the Brian Shaw role in Symphonic Variations was a fitting  end to a successful season. Among the women I shall be surprised if Gasparini, Magri and O'Sullivan don't each go up a rung. Some of the other dancers who have been mentioned by others may have to wait another season for promotion. I think that Katsura is one of that number. She is an outstanding dancer with enormous potential but she seems to be taking time to adjust to being in the company. Her first soloist role was more tentative than I had expected. In her case perhaps another year in the relative obscurity of the corps will.give her the experience and confidence she needs.

 

The type of dancer which a company recruits and promotes reflects the type of ballets which are in its repertory. In an ideal world companies which stage the nineteenth century classics would feel the need to establish and maintain a company which includes the full range of dancer types which a choreographer like Petipa would have assumed would be present in the companies which staged his ballets. The reality is that most Western companies skimp on some of the specialist dancer types required in such works for reasons of economy.A company will generally have a sufficient number of dancers able to  perform the choreography for the corps and enough dancers sufficiently technically accomplished to perform the ballerina and danseur roles but they will probably not have demi-character  and specialist character dancers in sufficient numbers to produce the sort of theatrical effect which the choreographer intended. Indeed they may not have any specialist character dancers at all. 

 

At the time when he was staging his reconstructed Raymonda in Milan the late Sergei Vikharev drew an analogy between the types of dancers required to perform Petipa's late nineteenth century ballets as he intended them to be seen, and a cake made up of layers, each of which plays an essential part in the creation of the finished product, A company which dances nineteenth century and Diaghilev repertory needs the types of dancers for whom the roles in those ballets were created.if it is to provide the audience with the sort of theatrical experience which the ballets' creators intended. It can try to stage these works without demi-character and specialist character dancers but the result is a one dimensional, diminished account of the work lacking the flavour, colour, range,contrast and clear narrative framework which the choreographer intended it to have.. 

 

A company which performs abstract works throughout the year with Nutcracker at Christmas can probably get away with pressing a non specialist into playing Drosselmeyer but a company whose staple repertory is a mixture of the nineteenth classics and major twentieth century narrative works cannot hope to do so except in the short term. To extend Vikharev's analogy to perform the great nineteenth century ballets without specialist dancers of the type required at each level of the company's hierachy is a bit like using substitute ingredients in a recipe. You can only get away with a limited number of substitute ingredients before a dish ceases to be what the cook set out to make.  A company which performs a wide range of repertory from the nineteenth century and twentieth century narrative works may be able to get away with substituting dancers for character dancers in the roles which require them as long as the audience does not know what the real thing looks like. It's a bit like using vanilla essence in a recipe which calls for vanilla. The substitute ingredient provides an approximation of the flavour but it does not deliver the flavour which the creator of the recipe intended. Where a  choreographer creates a work which calls for character dancers who are expert at performing dramatic roles substituting young comparatively inexperienced dancers with limited acting skills does not deliver the same effect. Their performance will not deliver the the dramatic contrast between purely dance roles and character ones and it will not have the theatrical light and shade which the choreographer intended it to have.

 

 

Of course most western companies don't have significant groups of specialist character dancers. The Danes have been the only western company which has had them in any number as the Bournonville repertory requires them. The first act of Napoli is largely mime. As MAB has said the Danes have drawn their character dancers from the ranks of the older company members rather than selecting them at the outset of their career as happens in Russia.  I suppose the idea that character dancers are an unnecessary luxury makes sense in the context of a company which dances abstract works during the year and performs the Nutcracker at Christmas. That sort of company can get away with pressing the ballet master into service as Herr Drosselmeyer but a company which has a significant number narrative works requiring character dancers in its repertory can't hope to get away with such practices in the medium to long term or can it?. 

 

I read recently that the Danes had got rid of a number of their older experienced dancers which suggests that the director may have decided that as the company acquires a more modern repertory and dances less Bournonville than it once did   character dancers are an unnecessary luxury. I can see the attraction of this idea for artistic directors faced with calls for economy. Getting rid of the older dancers who perform character roles enables the company to employ more young dancers to perform the non narrative works which form the bulk of most companies' active repertory. Although it is the audience rather than management who can say whether the diminution of the theatrical effectiveness of performances of nineteenth and twentieth century narrative ballets is a price worth paying in order to employ more young dancers or to cut costs, the reality is that they are unlikely to say anything as they have nothing to compare it with.  .

 

 I know that there are those who regard the rules of emploi as an unnecessary fetter on artistic endeavour but a great deal of damage is done to the performance of a ballet and the reputation of its choreographer if roles are cast on the basis that anyone can do anything with roles subject to compromise casting or out and out miscasting. If a ballet fails to work as a piece of theatre the average audience member will not ascribe its failure to miscasting particularly if their favourite dancer is performing in a role which does not suit him or her. They will assume that casting has been undertaken with consummate care and not unreasonably they will believe that the failure lies with the choreographer and the ballet he has created,.

 

As far as the recruitment of dancers to the Royal Ballet is concerned I think that we ought to be far more concerned about the limited number of demi-character dancers who are recruited to the company and the small number of them who actually want to dance demi-character roles  than we currently need to be about character dancers. At the moment nearly every male dancer seems to have  ambitions to be a danseur and only Paul Kay seems to really appreciate the opportunities that the roles created on Harold Turner and Alexander Grant provide. At present I should have thought that it is the demi-character roles rather than the character ones that are most in danger at the Royal Ballet but that does not mean that all will remain well as far as the ranks of the character dancers are concerned. Somehow I get the feeling that Kevin's experience of working as a dancer in a company which was forced to engage in compromise casting because of its size has resulted in his having acquired a slightly hazy view of the type of dancers required in some ballets. The fact that most Western companies get by quite well without employing specialist character dancers must register strongly with directors desperate to keep costs down. I imagine that attending international meetings of artistic directors most of whom do not have specialist character dancers encourages the idea that they are an unnecessary expense and above all that character principal dancers are a costly indulgence...

 

 

Edited by FLOSS
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5 hours ago, alison said:

 

But Character First Soloist sounds really weird :)

I don't believe any Principal has ever moved into character roles: I think it would have been regarded as a retrograde step.  Possibly things have changed, though.

 

It does. On the other hand, in some companies it is an accepted practice that the former Principals become (Principal) Character Artists, with little or no dancing.

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37 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

It is possible that Kevin will defer making any appointments to the rank of principal dancer until well into next year. There are so many really talented dancers in the company that he may well want to avoid making mistakes about appointing new principal dancers as any appointment he makes will have the effect of blocking advancement to others who may prove to be even more worthy of that status in the near future Perhaps we shall have to wait until after the 2018 performances of Giselle and Swan Lake for the next principals to be named.

 

How much a given (young) dancer is worth may not be apparent to the public but is transparent to those who observe those dancers in class and during rehearsals, the rest is just hard work and gaining experience. This is by the way a rationale behind promoting early to the top: time is very precious in dancer's career, and those who are really special must be given a chance to develop early and have long careers. It goes without saying that a wise artistic director of good character will support and encourage any dancer in the company to strive for perfection and artistic development, and will recognize the results when they come.

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8 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

I completely agree.  There was a very interesting interview with Elizabeth McGorian and Gary Avis speaking to Gerald Dowler in Dancing Times a couple of months back, which showed just how much work goes into playing character roles and the very great value of coaching in these roles by people like Dame Ninette de Valois.  Both dancers were saying that when you are cast in these roles as a younger dancer there is a temptation to see it as a backwards step but fortunately RB is (maybe we should say "was") one of the few companies to place so much value on Character Artists, which was why Avis returned to the company after his time at K Ballet.   The life experience and gravitas that more experienced (and retired) dancers bring to character roles is so incredibly important.   It's the difference between "pretending" to be a Queen, for example, and BEING a Queen through and through.  

 

I do hope Kevin O'Hare rethinks his decision and retains the role of Principal Character Artists so that we keep those exceptional actors in the company.  

 

Sorry, got off the topic of promotions there for a minute. 

 

I so agree with you, Anna.

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4 hours ago, capybara said:

 

Kristen McNally and Christina Arestis (for example) were both quite young when they began taking character roles.

 

Yes, I think I remember seeing McNally's name as a "Skivvy" in Manon, back in the days when such roles were credited.  I remembered thinking that such dancers often ended up doing character roles.  And I think Olivia Cowley was cast early on as something which triggered a "potential character artist" in my mind at the time, and lo and behold, she's now doing things like Carabosse.

 

1 hour ago, FLOSS said:

 I know that there are those who regard the rules of emploi as an unnecessary fetter on artistic endeavour but a great deal of damage is done to the performance of a ballet and the reputation of its choreographer if roles are cast on the basis that anyone can do anything with roles subject to compromise casting or out and out miscasting. If a ballet fails to work as a piece of theatre the average audience member will not ascribe its failure to miscasting particularly if their favourite dancer is performing in a role which does not suit him or her. They will assume that casting has been undertaken with consummate care and not unreasonably they will believe that the failure lies with the choreographer and the ballet he has created,.

 

Hear, hear!

 

Quote

At the moment nearly every male dancer seems to have  ambitions to be a danseur and only Paul Kay seems to really appreciate the opportunities that the roles created on Harold Turner and Alexander Grant provide.

 

And where was he in The Dream this run?

 

On 12/06/2017 at 10:11, capybara said:

 

I hope that I am reading too much into the early casting for next season and I want to be proved wrong very much indeed. Yasmine is a big star in my eyes and she must surely be a Giselle next year whatever rank she holds.

 

In that case, I hope it's a very long run, because she'll have a lot of competition from existing principals.

 

On 12/06/2017 at 20:05, Nina G. said:

The result is there for all to see: the Company has never looked better and unified in style,

 

Ever?  Or just in your experience?

 

17 hours ago, capybara said:

 

I believe that this has been discussed on BCF before. In a public forum, shortly after he was appointed, Kevin O'Hare stated that he would not appoint dancers to the rank of Principal Character Artist. I got the impression from what he said that he did not want to create any "jobs for life" and the ranks of Soloist and First Soloist met the need to cover character roles perfectly adequately.

 

But then that begs the question: what happens as those dancers come to the end of their "dancing" professional lives?  Do you keep them on at (First) Soloist level regardless, while using them only for character roles?  Does that clog up the promotion prospects for "dancing" dancers?  Do you appoint them as Guest character artists so that you can just pay them as and when?  Several of the current crop already have other functions in the Company, of course: do you just call on them when needed (or potentially borrow Johannes Stepanek back from the Royal Opera, assuming he stays there, not that he's one of the dancers who's been most frequently used in character roles)?  Their stage experience and gravitas is vital: the last thing the Company needs is to get the sort of embarrassing situation seen with the Bolshoi a few years ago, when Giselle's mother was obviously barely any older than her.

 

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