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Royal Ballet promotions 2016


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http://www.roh.org.uk/news/promotions-and-joiners-at-the-royal-ballet-for-201617

 

"Promotions and joiners have been announced for the 2016/17 Season.

Director Kevin O’Hare has made the following promotions for the forthcoming Season:

 

Alexander CampbellFrancesca HaywardRyoichi Hirano and Akane Takada have been promoted to Principal, the Company’s highest rank.

 

Claire CalvertYasmine Naghdi and Beatriz Stix-Brunell are promoted to First Soloists.Matthew Ball and Mayara Magri are promoted to Soloists. Tierney Heap was promoted to First Artist mid-season and is also now promoted to Soloist.

 

Reece ClarkeDavid DonnellyBenjamin EllaIsabella GaspariniAnna Rose O’Sullivanand Demelza Parish are promoted to First Artist.

 

Joining the Company at the start of the Season will be Joseph Sissens from The Royal Ballet School. All the 2015/16 Aud Jebsen Young Dancers - Lukas Bjørneboe BrændsrødHarry ChurchesLeo DixonIsabel Lubach and Julia Roscoe - will join the Company from The Royal Ballet School on permanent contracts as Artists.

 

The Royal Ballet welcomes seven dancers to the Company for the 2016/17 Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme. The programme provides an opportunity for recently graduated dancers to receive a year’s contract to work alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet. In addition the dancers are offered mentoring and coaching and have the opportunity to perform with the Company. Next Season’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers are Joseph Aumeer, Estelle Bovay, Maria Luisa Castillo Yoshida, Arianna Maldini, Giacomo Rovero, Francisco Serrano and Charlotte Tonkinson, all from The Royal Ballet School.

 

Vincenzo Di Primo joins the Company as Prix de Lausanne dancer.

 

Charlotte Edmonds will continue with The Royal Ballet for the 2016/17 Season for a second year on The Royal Ballet Young Choreographer Programme mentored by Kevin O’Hare and Wayne McGregor. The Young Choreographer Programme is a position for an emerging choreographer to shadow Royal Ballet and visiting choreographers and utilize the Company resources to create work."

 

 

Very well deserved promotions. Congratulations to them all!

Edited by Bluebird
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Well, much of what I was hoping for!  Campbell to Principal, Naghdi and Stix-Brunell to First Soloists, Ball to Soloist....and promotions for others who were on my list.

 

I must say I am very surprised that Hayward has been promoted to Principal already, but they clearly think she is ready and can do it.  Am very pleased for Akane and her fans, but I seem to be one of the few who isn't.  She is a nice and very lyrical dancer, but she doesn't do anything for me emotionally.  And I am also a bit surprised at Hirano's promotion, but hey ho.  Poor Yuhui Choe is passed over again.  My preference would have been to promote her to Principal and Akane at a later stage.  But hey, what do I know.

 

Many congratulations to them all, and also to the whole company for a wonderful season (albeit with a few blips!).  :)

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I am so pleased for Frankie in particular and for all the dancers who have received promotions. I wonder if she new on Wednesday when I saw her in conversation, if she did then she really is a great actress as she never showed any signs of it.

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Congratulations to everyone who has been promoted. I am not sure that I am that surprised by Hayward's promotion she seems to communicate with the audience in a very special way.  I think that we can be pretty certain that she will be dancing Aurora after Christmas and I shall be very surprised if Stix-Brunell and Naghdi don't do so as well. Takada's promotion does not surprise me at all and neither does Campbell's nor Hirano's.  

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I have never been a fan of Akane Takada other than for her lightness and technical efficiency, and I stopped booking for her, but the things I've heard about her Young Girl (in Two Pigeons) and Giselle, neither of which I saw, suggest to me that she has matured considerably in her interpretations in the past year.  I suspect the company's decision in this case is quite astute and that I need to give her another chance.

 

I fear Hirano lacks star quality, but he is a terrific partner, and there are other longer-standing principals who don't have that edge of star quality either.

 

I have no idea why Yuhui Choe has remained so sidelined by the company.

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I am so pleased for Frankie in particular and for all the dancers who have received promotions. I wonder if she new on Wednesday when I saw her in conversation, if she did then she really is a great actress as she never showed any signs of it.

I was thinking just the same thing!

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Kind of sad to see, as Ruth pointed out, that Yuhui hasn't made it to Principal yet, especially when Alexander, who was her most frequent partner, I believe, has managed it. Still, overall I'm very pleased for everyone (especially Matthew Ball - he really deserved it!) and I can't wait to see them all in larger roles.

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Surprised about Hirano as he doesn't seem to have danced many principal roles and always seemed more of a reliable soloist (Ditto Calvert). It must make Choe's passing over for promotion even more of a bitter blow. I'm not surprised about Campbell and Takada. I thought that the latter was definitely being groomed for principal status. She's a strong classical dancer and perhaps she will blossom artistically now that she has reached the rank of principal. Hayward's promotion is more of a surprise but I think that it would have come in the next year or two anyway. She undoubtedly has star quality and has not put a foot wrong in anything of the big roles that she's been given. I've not seen Heap and Magri do much and so their promotions are a bit of surprise to me.

 

Anyway, congratulations to everyone and commiserations to those who have been disappointed this year.

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I heard a man behind me on Friday 3rd June saying with authority that Francesca Hayward would be a Principal, whoever he was he was right!

 

Fantastic news for Alexander Campbell especially, he so deserves it, congratulations too to the other new Principals!

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I can't help hoping that they got this announcement out rather earlier today than the website timestamp indicates: last thing on a Friday would really represent a missed opportunity for plugging the new principals in the Evening Standard ... It'll be old news by Monday - and the company will have finished their season :(

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Firstly, of course, one is pleased for all those who have been promoted.

 

Regarding 'criteria', it is interesting to note that  Akane Takda has danced the lead in all the 5 major classics in the RB's rep. (I include Don Q) plus some Ashton but has not yet been cast to head any of MacMillan's dramatic ballets. I'm with Sim in not being able at present to really 'feel' her. In contrast, I'm with Frankie (and Yasmine) every step of the way. Of course, Frankie has not yet danced the leading role in any of the classics - but is now cast for Nutcracker and will surely be a treasurable Aurora.

 

Among the other promotees, I am particularly thrilled for Naghdi, Stix-Brunell and Ball who must all, surely, be Principals in time.

 

I have to confess to feeling quite pleased with myself as my tips for promotion at all levels on the prediction thread have substantially come to pass. I did not, however, list Hirano (haven't seen him do much but he did dance Albrecht, The Creature, The Gypsy Boy, and Fate this season), Heap (on the basis that she had already been promoted in season) and Parish (even though I was aware that she was by far the longest serving Artist). I hedged my bets over Yuhui Choe but she has been lovely in so many things this year and must be feeling acutely disappointed.

 

Nothing is being said yet about leavers ! ! ! ? ? ?

Edited by capybara
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Nothing is being said yet about leavers ! ! ! ? ? ?

 

I can't help wondering whether that means they know somebody high-profile has decided to retire (or move on) quietly, but haven't publicly announced it yet.

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Is four promotions to principal level in a single year a record? The RB is actually short on female principals when one takes into account that Yanowsky dances a limited rep and Osipova has many other projects and guesting commitments (this is not a criticism).

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I consider myself quite new to ballet, but not THAT New - I've been attending the RB regularly since late 2011 - and the fact that this is the first time in the WHOLE time I've been attending the RB that there has been even *one* promotion to principal (rather than outside recruitment) is pretty shocking to me, considering the number who have left in the same space of time.

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I'm a bit (pleasantly) surprised about Campbell as I didn't think he'd done that many principal roles.

He well earned his stripes at BRB!

 

How about Basilio, Colas, Young Man in 2Ps, Mercutio, Nutcracker & Prince in Nutcracker ...

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I'm happy for all the dancers promoted this season!  Congratulations to everyone.  Delighted to have new principals and soloists  to watch. I tend to try to see everyone even though some move me more than others but sometimes it depends on the role and the piece. What is interesting though is to see the dancers grow into their ranks  and refine their interpretations...

 

As others have said, I'm disappointed for Yuhui but that doesn't mean I disagree with the decisions made... Not sure if this has anything to do with it but the last time I saw her in "Alice" I got a good hint of why she might not come across well in some roles. Her dancing is lovely but some of her interpretations of emotions are more Japanese than Western - I'm treading carefully here as I don't want to be jumped on as criticising anyone as this is just an observation - I should also add that  I've lived and worked in Japan and I studied Japanese seriously for a number of years. What leads me to say this is that there's the scene in the ballet where Alice is jumping to try to reach the handle of the door and when she can't she throws a bit of a prancing tantrum and storms forwards on her heels and then gets this look of determination in her eyes as if to say "I'm going to figure this out".  When Yuhui "did" this look of determination - she gave two short nods of head which startled me because I realised that Alice was showing resolved but it was so much in the way a Japanese person would show that "emotion".  It didn't read as well as when I saw Francesca do it, some days later... Once I noticed that particular occasion, other things started to jump out at me. Anyway this was just an aside... None of this makes me enjoy her dancing any less and I apologise if it's inappropriate to mention this here.

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Congratulations to all 16 dancers who have been promoted!

 

Delighted for Alexander Campbell who has been outstanding in every performance I have seen him dance.

Akane Takada's promotion I felt was in the pipeline so not really surprised there although I have my reservations about her (great technician yes but...). Surprised about the fast promotion for Francesca Hayward - not that she doesn't deserve it - but she hasn't yet danced any of the great classical tutu rules? I always thought that was a prerequisite to becoming a Principal. I guess she got promoted because of the MacMillan roles she danced so wonderfully.  Never guessed Hirano would become a Principal.

 

Absolutely thrilled for Yasmine Naghdi to First Soloist. Together with Beatriz Stix-Brunell, who is also lovely, they each in their own way have given the audience great performances this season and I feel they could be the next two new female Principals. 

 

Matthew Ball surely deserved it and I hope we will see him more often partnered with Yasmine Naghdi.  Delighted for Mayara Magri too, my eyes often get drawn to her whenever I see her on stage, and Tierney Heap.

 

The youngsters promoted to First Artist deserve it too.

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Well Joseph Sissens is no surprise pleased for him and look forward to seeing him next year. And both the girls mentioned above are lovely dancers. Any of last year's final year students were pretty good I think.

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Is four promotions to principal level in a single year a record?

I'd have thought so, since I've been going - I don't remember that many. I must admit, I was surprised to see so many - thinking as much from the financial point of view as anything.

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I'm positively shocked!! In a good way. So many promotions! I haven't seen much of Hirano, so I didn't realise he was quite so well regarded; I must rectify that. I also thought that it was too early for Hayward and Campbell, but I'm delighted that it's not considered to be so. (Though I do hope we continue to see Hayward especially in smaller/soloist roles - she's so young, and we're only just beginning to see her wonderful talents!). Congratulations to all these special dancers.

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