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Johan Kobborg no longer with ONB Romania


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With Johan approval, here his post:

As comments are coming in from tonight's performance I feel even more so I have to write this. I apologize!! Had I not lived and worked in Romania I would never have done this online, I think, but here seems only way to get a message across. As a final comment to this situation before I resign from whatever silly position I ever had for this company, I stress I only post this for the dancers and Team to know my/why/this decision. Let me explain in a different language. A few minutes into my first meeting with Mr Vlad Conta (Alina was also present) he asked Alina to lie regarding the reason for her not performing in Manon, and by that to blame her dance partner. Alina naturally refused, but Mr Conta said he would still just say that, as it would sound better for the institution. Later ONB posted a press release blaming her dance partner, due to fact he was not available.

Mr Conta then goes on to saying I should make performance collaborations with Mr Tiberious Soare, the very man who days ago removed my name as Artistic Director, and placed it under Corps de ballet dancer, as he wanted to be correct. He did however not seem to bother to to be correct and remove (and still hasn't been) the ranks of Principal dancers, first Corp de ballet etc which I guess would equally also be incorrect titles in his/their thinking.

Mr Conta by this wanted me to collaborate with a man whom days beforehand had threatened my dancers that he would fire them, a man who to the company openly refused to speak in any other language than Romanian when talking to them. I ask you, in what language are we supposed to collaborate?.

I am from the EU and tend to not accept intimidation of that kind.

The ONB ballet department I have build in the last two plus years for sure won't, not as long as I am there.

Sometimes while listening you learn about people, and within a few minutes of a first meeting I had learned that Mr Conta wants people like me and Alina to lie, and collaborate with people with morals and beliefs such as Mr Soare. Well Mr Conta I guess you thought I was here for personal gain, and would play games and along, but you were wrong.

Never ever needed this contract, and would never collaborate with minds such as yours nor Mr Soares.

I do fear for Romania even more than the ONB, but do wish you all the best of luck.

 

I would agree to try this ONB Ballet Directing position again anytime, but only with somebody open to our projects, as I can't do anything with people who in two days managed to jeopardize everything built in two/three years.

Until then I suggest as it is in fashion, that you build a wall and make ONB great again. My life is better without corrupt people, and luckily have never allowed anyone like that to enter it.

I have Only love towards what we did since 2013 together, and with whom we did it with. May strength be with you all. XJK

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What a heart felt communication makes me want to cry. Thanks for posting this AM

 

And what a really sorry state of affairs.

 

Best of everything for the future to him and Alina.

 

 

Just right now in this world it's so reassuring to see people like Kobburg and Cojocaru behaving with some moral depth.

Edited by LinMM
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Good heavens it is all such a mess. Under the circumstances I think Johan is doing the right thing. His position is clearly untenable. What a very sad loss for ONB, who were thriving and happy.

 

This is another example of what happens when you put people in charge of an arts organisation who care nothing for the art or the artists, nor have any understanding of, or sensitivities to, those artists. Shame on them.

 

I wish Johan and Alina well in the future.

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I find it quite amazing, that Messrs Soare and Conta would expect Johan and Alina to agree to blame the cancellation of  Manon on her dance partner. What sort of a world do these morons live in. Very sorry for Alina, we can see how hard she has worked for her charity in Romania raising money so what a kick in the teeth for her. These are government officials so what message does that send. Johan, go somewhere where your work is valued and Alina, come and dance at the RB, we love you.

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This is awful for the dancers of the company but Johan Kobborg really didn't have any other viable option. When you get these politically connected people with no thought beyond their own advancement, ready to smash everything in sight in order to rebuild in their own image, that's not an environment any sane person would want anything to do with if they had other choices. I wonder what'll happen to the company in the future, especially the non-Romanian dancers. Some of them must really be seeing the writing on the wall.

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It's heartbreaking for Johan and Alina plus it makes me fear for the other non Romanian dancers at ONB. Johan and Alina can hold their heads high for they have shown integrity over this whole sorry shambles.

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well, the director's job has now become an utterly poisoned chalice and I cannot see anyone equal to Kobborg's standing or ability being willing to take it.

 

Presumably some nonentity will be appointed with a brief to steady the ship and do as he or she is told from above.  All those production jewels removed from the company.  It really is pretty heartbreaking but I am sure that Kobborg will be snapped up by a more sympathetic company which will recognise his undoubted gifts and given him the support he needs to create something very special elsewhere.

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Truth is the whole situation was treated with lack of diplomacy and respect by ONB officials. In the same time, JK managed to manipulate the press and everyone else. I also find disrespectful for the audience to cease rehearsals just because your fiancee is no longer the Artistic Director.

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I was initially sympathetic to JK, his cause and felt that he had something to be aggrieved about from his initial posts about being sacked by proxy (removed from the website and placed as an artist).

 

Upon reflection, and as this situation has developed I have increasingly started to feel that this shambles has been exacerbated by every step being played out in the media, and only from one side - JK's.

 

I am not sure how many people regularly checked the website about management positions, and would imagine such things could have been quietly discussed and agreed behind closed doors, and the outcome being reported to the benefit of all parties. As is usually the case, and be honest, anyone close to ballet has heard many stories about the mad, and crazy world of ballet directors, dancers, and politicians. which are never really brought to light.

 

The fact that JK in his final post has said things that would get this post removed from this forum (calling someone/people corrupt on a public forum ) is really the worst thing I have heard in this whole debacle.

 

I honestly feel that JK has poisoned his own amazing work at ONB having the culture minister intervening to give him a job, only to start a power struggle with the interim general manager who he obviously wants removed before he would returned. Or to 'build a wall', which I don't think politically or in any situation ever made things better.

 

The political powers are always involved in someway in ballet, if not senior intendants. Who of these internationally would risk taking on JK even given his amazing talent and the remarkable work he has done for ONB, if they thought their name would be on some public forum if their was a professional disagreement?  

 

Amazing work JK, really inspirational, at ONB, but I really think airing your dirty laundry in public, especially when he seemingly only would return if the general manager was removed (or behind a wall) it would be best just to walk. I really respect JK, Alina etc, but think he has damaged himself by muddying the waters here.

 

Look at the treatment of Filin at the Bolshoi, I am sure he has a million woes and stories to tell...but they all stay respectfully behind closed doors.

Edited by SwissBalletFan
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I have been only too aware that we are basically only seeing one side of the story, and have tried to refrain from judging the situation based on that fact.

 

Truth is the whole situation was treated with lack of diplomacy and respect by ONB officials. In the same time, JK managed to manipulate the press and everyone else. I also find disrespectful for the audience to cease rehearsals just because your fiancee is no longer the Artistic Director.

However, I doubt that Cojocaru's decision would have been significantly affected by her personal relationship with JK.

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I have been only too aware that we are basically only seeing one side of the story, and have tried to refrain from judging the situation based on that fact.

 

 

 

I have also refrained from judging this situation and until now, even commenting on it. As the saying goes - there are two sides to every story - and this is one clearly in need of some balance in my opinion.  It reminds me a little, of the uproar that ensued when JK and AC left the ROH in what as far as I know, were circumstances never fully explained, but nevertheless, discussed at enormous length on social media. 

Perhaps we will never know what went on then or now, nor do we need to know. People may have been aggrieved, offended, let down, whatever.  They are adults and should be able to sort out such matters, however difficult, without plastering it all over social media. There is, again in my opinion, a place for and great dignity in silence sometimes. I don't think Dame Monica Mason ever uttered so much as a word on the subject in public and I respected her for that.

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When dirty linen is never aired - there is little or no chance that it or other dirty linen in other situations, will ever get cleaned up. 

 

The way Artistic Directors are treated when they stand for quality, and this disturbs the status quo, is a very sad fact of life in many ballet companies' history.  

And it assists the 'classical ballet is dead' brigade - to be proved right.  Because classical ballet performances without quality has indeed got no life.....

 

Perhaps only transparency of the kind JK is showing on FB will make a difference.  Artistic Directors must be allowed to make the decisions they need to make to provide the best for their audiences, and not be handcuffed to hierarchy and 'the way we've always done it'.

 

The minister of culture also has a Facebook page, so it might be helpful if he added the facts and his point of view in relation to the events of the last week.

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Everything is quite clear now and this is how the situation has developed:

- JK was never given an AD contract. The position has never been approved, so he was responsible to bring new breath into ONB under the ballet department manager

- the ballet department manager was put off, so JK took over entirely

- the General Manager (who offered the job) got investigated for fraude

- an interim GM was appointed who realised JK was posted on ONB official site as AD - a position non-existent in ONB. At this point, things got wrong. Instead of discussing and finding a solution (or not) he decided to correct the information on the site so JK became just a corps de ballet on the site

- JK started posting on his wall that he was resigning and got messages of sympathy from all over the world

- Alina posted on twitter she wouldn',t dance unless JK gets his job back

- the Minister changed the interim GM and offered JK the AD position  - without a proper exam and the necessary qualifications

- JK was unhappy with the new GM and ceased negotiations

 

These are facts..

Edited by mola
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You may indeed. I am in the audience, but thanks to facebook and tweeter, this case has become public. Including all the details which were meant to be unseen by the public eyes.I am not in favour of any of the 2 parts, just want you to know the facts.

I actually bought tickets to Manon to see AC dancing and got offended that she decided to quit rehearsals until JK gets his job back. I got the money back - but I realize she will never dance again at ONB, as she only did it for JK not for the audience!

I admire both as professionals , but I am afraid they both lost my respect for the way they acted.

Edited by mola
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In my opinion, the problem continues to remain the way the general menager acted:

if for him this public adjustment was so important, why he couldn't simply release a brief statement where he explained the situation? It's possible that his first thought was to change the website instead of sitting at a table with all the parties involved (JK but also the corps de ballet, for example) and have them properly informed? I find absurd that so often the artists have so little relevance in theaters decisions, considering that without them the theaters would be only very big and luxurious conference rooms!

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Everything is quite clear now and this is how the situation has developed:

- JK was never given an AD contract. The position has never been approved, so he was responsible to bring new breath into ONB under the ballet department manager

- the ballet department manager was put off, so JK took over entirely

- the General Manager (who offered the job) got investigated for fraude

- an interim GM was appointed who realised JK was posted on ONB official site as AD - a position non-existent in ONB. At this point, things got wrong. Instead of discussing and finding a solution (or not) he decided to correct the information on the site so JK became just a corps de ballet on the site

- JK started posting on his wall that he was resigning and got messages of sympathy from all over the world

- Alina posted on twitter she wouldn',t dance unless JK gets his job back

- the Minister changed the interim GM and offered JK the AD position  - without a proper exam and the necessary qualifications

- JK was unhappy with the new GM and ceased negotiations

 

These are facts..

 

Sorry Mola, but your statements are frankly rubbish. For more than two years Johan was allowed to hire dancers, invite guests, decide on the programme, arrange designers and all the other things that are required to put a performance on the stage. If that is not being the Artistic Director then what is. So the previous General Manager was investigated for fraud, I think we call that corruption. Johan was allowed to hire dancers from all over the world, I don't believe they were required to prove they could speak Romanian before they were hired so its a bit late to expect that after hiring them. So on the official web site, which I am sure is Government controlled he was listed as AD, I don't think Johan physically did that but it would have been done by a clerk somewhere with the full knowledge of the minister/manager. This, for me, is when the trouble started because he became bigger than the managers/ministers so he had to be taught a lesson. Hence the hiring of an Interim Director who made all the changes that have resulted in Johan no longer being their. I do not blame him for one minute.

 

As for your comments regarding Alina. Take a moment to think of all she has done for the children's home where they were very pleased for her to be giving her time and money to almost build the thing, I have attended gala's here in the UK raising money for it, and you speak of her as she is being mercenary in her supporting her fiance.

 

I am sorry, Mola, but I do think you are completely wrong headed about this. You bought a ticket and you have got your money back, no loss to you.

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As for your comments regarding Alina. Take a moment to think of all she has done for the children's home where they were very pleased for her to be giving her time and money to almost build the thing, I have attended gala's here in the UK raising money for it, and you speak of her as she is being mercenary in her supporting her fiance.

 

Cojocaru activity for the Hospice of hope speaks of her love for her Country, but I dont think is really relevant here. :-)

I think what is on Gaynor Myndens website could be (as a start)

 

"Alina Cojocaru, international ballet star and Principal Dancer at England’s Royal Ballet* personifies the generous spirit of ballet. When asked by Gaynor Minden to endorse our pointe shoes she agreed on one condition: instead of accepting a fee, she asked that we supply pointe shoes to the dancers of the Opera Nationala din Bucuresti, the national ballet company in her native Romania.

In making her request, Cojocaru explained that she had just returned from Bucarest where life for the dancers, she said “is very hard.” Severe political and economic problems make buying pointe shoes and other necessities extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. The plight of her friends and colleagues moved Cojocaru to offer what would have been her entire compensation so that the Romanian dancers could get the shoes they needed."

 

https://dancer.com/gm-artists/artists/alina-cojocaru/

 

I would also ask to Mola if he/she has any idea about how a company that cannot afford shoes (I was talking with a dancer on Sunday about something else private and not relavant here and diring the conversation he said "we are given very few shoes, so I'm saving the good ones for the shows"), can afford the list of works of this year program. I asked Kobborg some time ago and I had the answer I had already given to myself: so which is your answer, Mola?

Just to make it clear, a FACT, that you love so much, is that a friend of mine in 2005 (I still have his budget, sent to me for double check) paid an Ashton pdd for a single show 250 pounds. 250 pounds for just a pdd 11 years ago, to make it simple in Romanian terms: 250 pounds are 1400 lei (1 thousand 4 hundreds). And the Royal Ballet was charging 150 pounds ( 840 lei) for each costume. ONB is dancing Ashton the Dream with Royal Ballet costumes (not the wigs, ok) and sets.

Have you any idea not of the aritistic value, but of the bare real market cost of the works (all masterpieces) that Kobborg managed to offer to Romanian audience and that now will be probably retired by the rights owner (Yuri Possokhov has already announced he is retiring the right to perform Classical Symphony)?

But maybe you agree with those who want to see Kobborg leaving because it has to be protected the "renomate choreographic Romanian tradition" and that's the point where the discussion ends.

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A sidelight - but still in association with ONB:  Just wondered if anyone noticed that Dawid Trzensimiech, formerly with RB and of late/currently with ONB, is guesting opposite Cojocaru in ENB's SL in Barcelona in September. 

 

again? He guested in September 2015

 

Robert Enache, Romanian Principal dancer of ONB, is just back in Bucharest after having guested in Tulsa Ballet Classical Symphony (both in Oklahoma and during the Italian tour): clearly an international repertoire offered to a Romanian talented guy the opportunity to step in in the middle of the US for a injured colleague and enjoy a new artistic experience.

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Romanian laughs about this (mainly n English):

 

https://despreopera.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/e-mails/

 

I love the James Bond one, and also the comment of the reader at the end

"poate scoti si niste telegrame intre JK si JK cum il invita directorul baletului JK pe coregraful JK sa puna in scena balete la ONB …din bani publici …"

 

google translate

 

"can be removed and some telegrams between JK & JK as ballet director invites JK JK choreographer to stage ballets ONB ... public money ..."

 

FACTS so loved in Romania are showed above with the name of the choreographers in this year program, and about money, oh Dear, I wish Italy had 1/10 of the public money that Romanian government is investing in ballet, at least in some poeple head and dreams... :D

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I have been only too aware that we are basically only seeing one side of the story, and have tried to refrain from judging the situation based on that fact.

 

Alison, I don't think only one side of the story is visible: the Minister and the various Interim Directors spoke to the media and their version is much more public than Kobborg one. Maybe you mean that he writes in English and the other speak in newspapers in Romanian, but the assumption that the other side of the story is not available it's not true,

 

For example the incident about the request to speak only Romanian has been largely discussed: Soare admits it happened but claims that he was not the one who made it and that he tried to calm down the other person. Unfortunately I doesn't remember the name of that person.

I think it could be vaguely accepted that he says "I don't want that name in the news paper", but the sentence "I don't remember" speaks loud (at least to me, leaving in a country where "I don't remember" means a lot) of the level of the person.

The point is that the incident happened in presence of many people and all of them remember the name (I didn't asked and don't know this name) and agree that it was not Soare to ask to speak Romanian, the only difference is that they say he didn't try to stop the other at all (this at least in public, in private only the two, and maybe God if invited,know).

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No, annamicro, I do realise that other things have been made public, but I meant "we" on this forum who for the most part probably don't read Romanian and are hampered in our understanding of one side's remarks by some highly dodgy Google "Translations".  And I take your point about faulty memories, too, which I think I interpreted correctly - history can leave its mark for a very long time :(

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