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Financial/political difficulties for William Forsythe’s company: some members of the city council of Dresden want to cancel the payments of the town to the Forsythe Company, which at the moment is subsidized by several different partners (the towns of Frankfurt and Dresden, the Länder of Hesse and Saxony). Their point is that the performances at the Festspielhaus Dresden-Hellerau, a theatre some 30 km out of Dresden, don’t reach the audience at Dresden - only 3000 people saw the 25 performances of the company last season.

 

The Forsythe Company was founded in 2003, when the town of Frankfurt decided to cut the budget for the Frankfurt Ballet, since then the company appears at Frankfurt and at Dresden. Forsythe’s style of choreography has changed since the 80s, his famous ballets of that era like „Artifact“ or „Impressing the Czar“ are now danced by companies like the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Zurich Ballet, Dresden Ballet or Bavarian State Ballet, not by his own, smaller company which works in a different, much more contemporary style.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am rather nervous about reporting back as I don't feel competent to really give an informed review, but I can only report my own reactions; in my opinion 'Onegin' this weekend in Stuttgart was excellent. I saw it on both Sat and Sunday evenings, and Alexander Jones' on Sat debut was very impressive. He was technically strong, and although he hasn't yet got the depth of character that older, more experienced Onegins have, he used his youth to great effect and his final pas de deux was very moving. His performance was very well received, and I'm sure he will grow into the role.

Evan McKie danced on Sunday, and it was wonderful, full of character and depth. Freideman Vogel's Lensky was very emotional ,and the chemistry between the two of them was palpable.

It was the end of the season, and the final performance was relayed on a big screen to people in the park - and there were hundreds there in spite of miserable weather. After the performance the dancers came out on the balcony of the opera house and it was moving to see the warmth of the reception given to them by the people outside. It's obviously a very important part of the life of the town.

I also went to the ballet school performance in the morning and that was very impressive indeed, with such a depth of talent - and again, I was taken by the warmth of the reaction to the young dancers as this performance was also relayed to people outside.

I hope that this gives a flavour of the atmosphere!

 

Edited to improve clarity!

Edited by J_New
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Thank you for that, Jacky: it's good to hear about Alexander's progress - he was someone I was keeping a close eye on when he was at the RBS - and Evan McKie got very good reviews when he had to save the day at the Paris Opera Ballet last year. It's interesting that you should mention the live-screen broadcast: I was sitting in Trafalgar Square this evening and suddenly had a flashback to a few years back when I got talking to a guy who was over from Stuttgart researching how the RB did their relays because they were going to try doing them in Stuttgart as well!

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I think that Alexander was amazingly composed as apparently he did not have a lot of time to prepare the role, which must be a hard one for a young dancer.

 

And with regard to the live-screen broadcast, they have obviously got it off to a fine art now - the park setting opposite the theatre is beautiful, and there are drinks stands and plenty of porta-loos provided. They give out free cast lists and sell programmes outside, too.

It was a very happy evening, even though it rained.

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Hi J_New, I think it was a brillant debut in the most difficult role of the Cranko repertory – I admired how calm he was, never over the top, never too evil, rather distant than haughty. Fine partnering, great turns, intelligent and believable acting. And he looks good in black ;)

 

Stuttgart Ballet has a pic of the location in the park on their Facebook page (13. Juli)

http://www.facebook.com/stuttgartballet?v=wall

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Hi Angela - I agree - his partnering was solid, he was very calm and confident and he didn't put a foot wrong! And he definitely looks good in black ...... !!

 

Great picture of the park, too! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did .....

 

Jacky

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Great to read about these performances and Alexander J is clearly having fun as he went straight off to join the Roberto Bolle and friends tour which has just sold out Arena di Verona and the Baths of Caracalla - Mr. B can be followed on Twitter

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  • 4 weeks later...

Promotions and new dancers at Berlin State Ballet:

Dinu Tamazlacaru was promoted to Principal and Gevorg Asoyan was promoted to Demi-Soloist.

New to the corps de ballet: Lisa Breuker, Cécile Kaltenbach, Ilenia Montagnoli, Patricia Zhou, Carlo Di Lanno, Maxime Quiroga, Tommaso Renda and Michael Wagley. New apprentices: Jordan Mullin and Alice Williamson.

 

Press release in German and pictures here

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Egon Madsen, a former principal with Stuttgart Ballet, turns 70 today. The Danish dancer was one of John Cranko’s "Initials R.M.B.E", with Marcia Haydée, Birgit Keil and the late Richard Cragun. He was loved for his funny roles, the Joker in "Jeu de cartes", Gremio in "Taming of the Shrew" or Mercutio in Cranko’s "Romeo", dying with a smile on his face. But Madsen also created important roles in ballets of today's world-wide repertory: he was the first Lensky in Cranko’s "Onegin", the first Messenger of Death in MacMillan’s "Song of the Earth", the first Albrecht in Peter Wright's staging of "Giselle" and the first Armand in Neumeier’s "Lady of the Camellias". He also danced the young man next to Margot Fonteyn’s diva in Cranko’s "Poème de l’extase".

 

After he finished his (first) dancing career in 1981, Madsen was ballet director at Frankfurt, Stockholm and Florence, not very successful at all three places. He returned to Stuttgart as ballet master and assistant director to Marcia Haydée. When Jiří Kylián was seeking a new member for his NDT III, Madsen started to dance again after 17 years, now doing dance theatre with Meryl Tankard, Mats Ek or Robert Wilson. He also directed the famous company of senior dancers for seven years, until it was abandoned for financial reasons in 2006. And even that was not the end of his dancing career: the former Stuttgart Ballet soloist Eric Gauthier, who had danced a lot of Madsen’s roles in the repertory, hired him as coach and dancer for his new, small, Stuttgart-based company Gauthier Dance. In 2007, Stuttgart choreographer Christian Spuck created the funny and very touching piece "Don Q." for Madsen and Gauthier, a kind of Cervantes meets "Waiting for Godot", where Madsen is a sad old man opposite to Eric Gauthier, half his age, who tries to consolate him with jokes or by playing his Dulcinea. In 2011, Madsen was awarded the German Dance Prize.

 

With 70 years, he is still dancing; his last appearance was in "Cantata" at Stuttgart Theaterhaus, where Mauro Bigonzetti created a role especially for him. His birthday will be celebrated in a gala on September 28th by all three companies in which he danced: Stuttgart Ballet, NDT III (reunited for one night only) and Gauthier Dance. The first biography about him was published recently, in German language only.

 

Here’s a picture gallery with some photos from his career.

Edited by Angela
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Hello,

 

this is my first post. I´ve been reading around this forum for some time and it has become the first website I look at whenever I switch on my computer, so I finally decided to become a member.

Some words about me: I´m a musicology student from Germany (so English is not my first language and I apologize for any mistakes I might make) and noticed this forum after a visit to London (to see some ballet, of course!). I know a German forum which is part of tanznetz.de and was looking for English language websites about ballet. So now I have found and love the balletcoforum and also the dancetabs website, because of the international scope and the many kind and knowledgeable people contributing here!

My ballet-going experiences are comparatively limited as of now: I have only seen performances in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig and Dresden) and London.

Recently I discovered the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is a medium-sized company of about 50 dancers, directed since 2009 by the Swiss choreographer Martin Schläpfer and performing in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. They dance mostly neoclassical/20th and 21rst century ballets by choreographers such as van Manen, Balanchine and Mr Schläpfer himself. Last season they also danced in a new production of Castor et Pollux, a French baroque opera by Rameau that has extensive ballet scenes.

This year is going to be very interesting I think, because they are going to do ballets such as The Leaves are Fading, Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (coached by Lynn Seymour) and Concerto Barocco (coached by Patricia Neary, who also rehearsed Agon and Serenade with them), also Afternoon of a Faun by Jerome Robbins. So I´m excited to see more performances of the Ballett am Rhein; their calendar is here, in case anyone is planning to travel to the Rhine region:

http://www.rheinoper...E/events/ballet

 

Goodbye for now

Katharina

Edited by Katharina
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English is not my first language and I apologize for any mistakes I might make....

 

Katerina, your English is better than mine! But I have an excuse - I’m an American!

 

I have ... seen performances in ... Dresden....

 

Is the Semperoper as beautiful as people say? In September, I’m traveling to Dresden to see La Bayadère.

 

Ím a musicology student from Germany....

 

In the 80s (I feel old) I lived in Giessen (oh, sorry, Gießen). Sadly, I forgot most of the German I knew except for “noch ein bier, bitte.”

 

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Sounds like the average US soldier, from my experience in Germany!

 

Willkommen, Katharina. Your English is far better than my German, I must say. We'd love to hear from you about any ballet you've seen, in Germany or elsewhere, for that matter. (Or anything else!)

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Thank you for the kind words!

 

Is the Semperoper as beautiful as people say? In September, I’m traveling to Dresden to see La Bayadère.

 

 

Yes, the Semperoper is really very beautiful. It was originally built around 1840 by Gottfried Semper and since then has been restored twice (after a fire c.1870 and after 1945). The theatre is part of a whole baroque ensemble and people in Dresden are understandably proud of it (it is like their Crown Jewels).

The Semperoper Ballett is a classical company performing the 19th century repertory, also Balanchine, Forsythe, Neumeier, Kylian etc. Their director is Aaron S. Watkin from Canada, who was a dancer with ENB, Dutch National Ballet and Forsythe´s Frankfurt Ballett.

Here are some pictures of the Semperoper from Wikipedia Commons:

 

 

220px-Semperoper_dresden.jpg320px-Semperoper_bi_night.jpg?uselang=de

 

 

160px-Semperoper_Interior_-_2%2C_Dresden.jpg?uselang=de160px-Semperoper_Interior_-_3_Dresden.jpg?uselang=de

Edited by Katharina
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The annual critics survey at German dance magazine "tanz" (former "ballet-tanz"), in which 36 German and international critics had been asked to offer their choice, has prompted the following results:

Best female dancers are Alina Cojocaru for John Neumeier’s "Liliom" and Anne-Teresa de Keersmaeker for different pieces

Best male dancers are Hamburg Ballet’s Carsten Jung, also for "Liliom", and Martin Hansen for "Baader" by German choreographer Christoph Winkler

Choreographer of the year is Boris Charmatz for "enfant"

Best new piece is "Can We Talk About This" by DV8 Physical Theatre

 

www.tanz-zeitschrift.de

www.kultiversum.de

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I did not see the performances at Berlin and Vienna, Janet, but from the reviews I understand that the texts remained in English, but with German surtitles. Many people here understand English - at least in the multilingual modern dance scene...

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Cannot sleep so here goes

 

Noticed the name Patricia Zhou in Angela's post 76 and thought aaah I just read that name somewhere else - it was on Joseph Phillps website www.josephphillips.org - they danced in a gala in Michigan a couple of Saturdays ago called Stars of the Russian Ballet - can anyone tell us more about them and the gala - maybe one of our American friends could start a thread like this one which is so handy for keeping tabs on dance in central Europe

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Bavarian State Ballet has announced the following guests for the "Bayadère" performances in autumn:

 

21. and 22. September: Vadim Muntagirov as Solor, with Ekaterina Petina as Nikiya

 

28. September and 4. October: Yun Wang (winner of the Helsinki International Ballet Competition 2012) as Nikiya, with Lukas Slavicky as Solor

 

5. and 13. October: Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya, with Marlon Dino as Solor

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News from Stuttgart Ballet: The company dedicates the whole season to Richard Cragun, a digital book of condolence can be found on their website.

 

Principal dancer Friedemann Vogel received the "Positano Premia la Danza – Leonide Massine" as best international dancer on Saturday in Positano, Italy. The other awards went to Ulyana Lopatkina (best international dancer), Rihoko Sato (Japan) and Julien Favreau (Bejart Ballet Lausanne) as best contemporary dancers, Yolanda Correa (Norwegian National Ballet) and Sergio Bernal (Spanish National Ballet) as best emerging international dancers, Alessio Rezza (Teatro dell'Opera di Roma) as best emerging Italian dancer. Alicia Alonso was honoured with a lifetime award. Members of the jury were Alfio Agostini (ballet2000), Leonetta Bentivoglio (La Repubblica), Valeria Crippa (Corriere della Sera), Clement Crisp (Financial Times), Anna Kisselgoff (New York Times), Jean-Pierre Pastori (La Tribune de Genève), Roger Salas (El Pais) and René Sirvin (Le Figaro).

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Marco Goecke, Stuttgart’s remaining Resident Choreographer after Christian Spuck has left for Zurich, will also become Associate Choreographer with NDT from 2013/2014 on. His contract with Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam has therefore terminated, he was their House Choreographer since 2005, his successor there will be Taiwanese choreographer Fang-Yu Shen.

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Prominent guests at Berlin State Ballet: Svetlana Zakharova will dance Nikiya on 1. November with Dmitry Semionov (Polina’s brother), and Odette/Odile in February 2013 with Mikhail Kaniskin.

Ekaterina Krysanova will dance in Malakhov's "La Péri" on Nov. 17 and 25, her partner is Dinu Tamazlacaru.

Diana Vishneva will be guesting as Brunhilde in April 2013 in Maurice Béjart's "Ring around the ring", dates: 14. and 19. April

(link in German only).

 

At Stuttgart, Elisa Badenes will dance the premier of the Don Q. revival in September (opening of the season) with Daniel Camargo, great chance for these young dancers.

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^^ Oh how very very annoying I had a ticket for 5th Nov which up until now was when Svetlana Zakharova was originally dancing now she's changed the dates to those I wanted originally but my flight is booked now. Bother!! Nevermind the silver lining is I get to see Mikhail Kaniskin twice in both Onegin and La Bayadere so I can live with that :)

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New Director of Dance at Bern Theatre and successor to Cathy Marston from 2013/14 on will be Estefania Miranda from Chile. The choreographer and dancer has been working with the new Bern Intendant Stephan Märki before, he brings her along from Weimar Theatre, where she directed a small dance festival. She will keep at least half of the dancers, as is reported in a Bern newspaper, and wants to do more contemporary work.

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