Irmgard

I checked on the blog section which gives previous cast lists. Online voting was via www.ballet.org.uk/emerging-vote but sadly, when I clicked on this, there was a notice to say online voting for the People's Choice Award is now closed. However, as all members below principal rank are eligible for this award each year (it is separate from the Emerging Dancer category but presented at the same time), hopefully you can vote for the lovely Breanna Foad next year. Voting will be open as soon as the season starts!

No offence taken re Lifar. Just pointing out his correct nationality.

Sadly another example of Russia's many attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art and artists over a prolonged period of time. (And I'm sure you are aware that Ukraine was never willingly a part of the Russian empire.)

Just a small correction. Lifar was Ukrainian, born in Kyiv where he trained in the ballet school attached to the opera house when Bronislava Nijinska was ballet mistress. The Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition has been held in Ukraine since 1994.

I cannot recommend this ballet highly enough! I saw it performed by the Estonian National Ballet in 2017 and was quite simply bowled over by it. Nancy Meckler did a fabulous job in creating a 'prequel' to where the play starts and Lopez Ochoa's inventive and engaging choreography not only narrates the story with clarity but allows the dancers to create characters of great emotional depth. I cannot wait to see it performed by Scottish Ballet at Sadler's Wells Theatre!

I regret to inform Balletcoforum members that Linda Gainsbury, who wrote here under the pseudonym of Capybara, died on 23 April 2024. Some of you may know she was diagnosed with terminal cancer a number of years ago and had been continually confounding the doctors by surviving far longer than they thought possible. She had such amazing willpower and, in the last few years when the medication appeared to have stopped working, she set goals for herself, always around ballet performances, to keep herself going. Her first goal was to make it to “Mayerling”, which she did, and then to the Skeaping “Giselle”, managing to get to four performances this January. In the last couple of years, I was very happy to act as her chauffeur for performances whenever I could as we always enjoyed each other’s company. I know that she intended to get to the matinée of “Swan Lake” on the 20th but I’m not sure that she made it, as she was admitted to a hospice on the 21st. However, she did make it to the Insight on “The Winter’s Tale” on 16 April. We were scheduled to attend the performance on 15 May together and I expect she had other things planned before then. Our last messaging was about the National Dance Awards nominations, about which she had her usual insightful comments to make, and I expect she would have had a lot to say about the announcement of the Royal Ballet’s 2024/25 season! Together with her husband Michael, who died of brain cancer during the Covid lockdown, she was a huge supporter of both English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet, and became a well-loved friend to many dancers while never exploiting these treasured friendships. One such dancer was Vadim Muntagirov (who gave me the sad news about Linda this morning), whom she helped with his autobiography although, as she said, every word and idea in it was his. As well as supporting ENB and the RB, Linda was also active for a number of years as a director of Morley College, and she and Michael sponsored the Emerging Artist award in the National Dance Awards, setting up the L&M Trust to do this. She also served on the committee of the London Ballet Circle for many years, and I am sure there are many other organisations who benefitted from her enthusiasm and knowledge. I first met Linda and Michael in 2009 when I was working with ENB on Mary Skeaping’s “Giselle” and they would attend rehearsals at Jay Mews. They then came to see some performances on tour, attending the pre-performance talks I gave, and so I got to know them as very dedicated followers of the ballet. We gradually became firm friends, and I will very much miss the lively and in-depth discussions I had with both of them about their favourite topic – the ballet. Although Linda was suffering a lot physically during the last months of her illness, mercifully she remained as sharp as ever mentally, with a fierce determination to live every day to the full. I know she will be sorely missed by many people in the ballet world and I would encourage those on here who knew her to share their memories of this very lovely lady.

Now that it has been officially announced by San Francisco Ballet, I can say how sad I am that English National Ballet is losing four very fine dancers but of course I wish them every success in San Francisco.

Yes, provided you are not expecting the traditional story. Rojo's storyline is very flawed but the piece is full of dancing, especially bravura dancing for the men, and there is just enough left of the choreography attributed to Petipa to keep the interest. Sets are nondescript but costumes are colourful, if not always helpful for the choreography in Act 3. Of course, the music is gorgeous!

Alessandra Ferri will be performing in the June performances at the Metropolitan Opera House. She told me about this back in November and she is listed on ABT's calendar of performances.

As tickets for this event in the Clore were at the bargain price of £10 and each performance lasted for under an hour, I decided to see the first two shows to fully appreciate these works, almost all of which were new to me. My opinion did not change from one show to the next but I was glad to have the opportunity to see if it did. I had enjoyed Rentaro Nakaaki’s “Cha Cha and Tiara” very much when he created it for English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Awards in 2022. As he explained, he was inspired by his parents, both of whom were professional ballroom dancers. The piece looked quite different in the hands of Miguel Angel Maidana and Julia Conway, who are very different stylistically from the original pairing of Eric Snyder and Chloe Keneally, but they captured the comedy which Nakaaki has achieved through the movement, no mean task for any choreographer! For the beginning of the piece, in silence, I thought Nakaaki perfectly captured the period after class or before rehearsals when dancers practice their virtuoso steps, sometimes in good-humoured competition with each other. When “La Cumparsita” started up, Maidana was able to give full rein to his exuberant personality and bravura dancing, with Conway also displaying a good sense of comic timing. Considering most of the other pieces had quite serious themes, it was refreshing to start the afternoon on such a joyful note. “Out of Breath”, by George Liang and danced by Alessandra Bramante and Joseph Taylor from Northern Ballet, came with a lot of baggage about the world being complicated and it being necessary to “remember to pause and take a breath” but was basically a well-crafted pas de deux, stylishly danced, although the soundtrack was too loud. I found “Other” by Jordan James Bridge to be a bit pretentious in its ambitions. Bridge told us that it was a six-minute excerpt from a longer piece. For me, at least three minutes of it was torture as the relentless soundscape pounded out mercilessly. By the second performance, the sound level had been reduced, but not enough. As such, I found it difficult to connect with the choreography, which was expressionless, although I suppose lack of expression may have been the point. “AEIOU”, the music for Breanna Foad’s piece entitled “Focus”, is not something I would like to listen to on a long-haul flight (which, she explained before the piece, she does) but Foad’s movement certainly captured the changing focus from one voice to another. Again, it was so lovely to see two dancers (ENB’s Ashley Coupal and Aitor Arrieta) enjoying themselves and enjoying dancing with each other. In her first piece of choreography, Foad has established a very interesting, individual style, and I hope she will continue to explore this. “Words to the Wind” by Denilson Almeida started from an interesting concept of fusing Brazilian rhythms with African religious influences but this was not reflected in the choreography which Almeida said was a conversation through dance. Unfortunately, I found it a rather dull conversation, although beautifully performed by the Royal Ballet’s Martin Diaz and Caspar Lench. I also found “AX.ONE” by Hannah Joseph to be on the dull side, mainly because it was expressionless. Danced by the choreographer and Elaini Koula Lalousis, it brought home to me how much I value facial expression in dance, especially when it is missing. All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I applaud the Royal Ballet for giving this platform to budding UK-based choreographers.

In previous years, Ballet Icons has been synonymous with star performances, but I felt the 2024 event was a little short on star quality, even though most of the performers were principal dancers with various companies. I felt this was especially evident in most of the classical pas de deux which should have been highlights of the evening. The programme was well balanced, in terms of juxtaposing classical and modern pieces, and the presence of the English National Ballet Philharmonic to accompany a lot of them was very welcome. The evening got off to a great start with “Grand Pas Classique” which did have the requisite star quality, being performed by Vadim Muntagirov and Fumi Kaneko. A pas de deux from “Like Water For Chocolate” received a sincere performance from Francesca Hayward and Herman Cornejo but it is difficult not to compare memories of the electrifying Cesar Corrales in this piece. Last year, it was a novelty to have the youthful António Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes close the gala, and he is no doubt a talent to watch, but I found that this year’s offering, the pas de deux from “La Esmeralda”, looked too much like a competition piece in their hands, particularly her tambourine solo which had little characterisation. I was reminded of a stunningly accomplished performance of the solo by English National Ballet’s Ivana Bueno, only a few years Fernandes’s senior, in the much more modest setting of Ballet Nights last November, in which she created a real character through the choreography, as well as being technically flawless. It was interesting to see “Two Pieces for HET” by Hans van Manen, performed by Riho Sakamoto and Constantine Allen, both personable, competent dancers but not ones I consider to have star quality. I thought “The Thinker”, performed and choreographed by Sergio Bernal, started off well and was his usual interesting mix of ballet and flamenco, but went on for far too long. Kudos to conductor Maria Seletskaja for synchronising the onstage guitarist, the orchestra and the drummer, a feat she accomplished in the only rehearsal they had together, which was twenty minutes that afternoon, which I also attended. I found “Renaissance” danced by Bleuenn Battistoni and Julian MacKay, and “Mercy Duet” by Travis Clausen-Knight and James Pett to be rather unmemorable, and the first half ended with a neat but not spectacular performance of the central pas de trois from “Le Corsaire” in its pas de deux form. danced by Evelina Godunova and Motomi Kiyota. In the second half, of the newer pieces, “Caravaggio” was by far the most interesting for me, set to a string quartet arrangement of the beautiful final duet from Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”, “Pur ti miro”. Choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti, it showed off Melissa Hamilton’s grace and beauty of movement to perfection as she was manipulated into beautiful shapes by Roberto Bolle. My least favourite was “Proximity or Closeness” by Ermanno Sbezzo, danced by Eleonora Abbagnato and Sergio Bernal which I became bored with quite quickly, so I turned my attention to the onstage piano quartet and the gorgeous Mahler music. Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” danced by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw, came off better in the more intimate setting of Ballet Nights last November than in the cavernous Coliseum. We were treated to the Diamonds section from Balanchine’s “Jewels” danced by Olga Smirnova and Vadim Muntagirov. Her technique is flawless, but I found her surprisingly unengaging, much as she was in “Swan Lake” during the Bolshoi’s last visit, almost unaware of Muntagirov, who partnered her to perfection. The Black Swan pas de deux from Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo was sadly not the standard I would expect from principal dancers and the evening ended with a messy performance of the pas de deux contained within the “Don Quixote” suite, which included variations for Evelina Godunova and Margarita Fernandes who looked more comfortable in these than in their previous solos. Sadly, Natalia Osipova was not on good form in her solo or in the coda and it was her partner, Giorgi Potskhishvili, although a little rough around the edges, who provided some much-needed fireworks to end the evening. Once again, my mind went back to last November’s Ballet Nights, which ended with a stylishly elegant and electrifying performance of this pas de deux from ENB’s Katja Khaniukova and Aitor Arrieta. Ballet Icons this year ended with organiser Olga Balakleets presenting her own awards (the Olgas?) for services to dance, which proved to be idiosyncratic to say the least: although it was lovely to see Aud Jebsen publicly recognised (but not giving any context to the award made the lady behind me conclude she must be an ex-dancer), to ignore probably the greatest classical male dancer of his generation was inexcusable. All in all, this was not a vintage year for Ballet Icons and I very much hope it will be back on track next year with its usual line-up of star performances.

I, for one, am very sorry to see him go as I was looking forward to him finally being able to dance Albrecht in Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" next season, but I am happy that he will be continuing his dance career, even if not with English National Ballet.

I returned on 4 April to see the last two casts, both making their debuts. On my third and fourth viewings, I found much to enjoy in the performances but I was, quite frankly, tired of the relentlessly percussive rendition of Bizet’s beautiful music by the evening and found nothing new or inspiring in the choreography. It also occurred to me that, by omitting any reference to the smuggling ring, so important in the novella and the opera, Carmen’s character is short-changed. Both Mérimée and Bizet make it clear that she is the driving force and brains behind the operation so that, although not always falling in love with them, as she does with Don José and the Torero (at least in the novella), she carefully chooses her prey to ensure the success of her schemes rather than flitting from one man to the next for casual sex, which is what Inger’s take on her seems to be. That said, the amazingly chameleon-like Erina Takahashi, who appears to be able to take on any role and any choreographic style with consummate ease, gave us a thoroughly independent Carmen who was not to be messed with, revelling in her power over men and flaunting her sexuality, but nevertheless showing her darker side in by far the most explosive reaction to Manuela’s taunts. And the defiance of her stance before Don Jose stabbed her said everything about her Carmen. Indeed, it was the moments of stillness between her and her Don Jose, Aitor Arrieta, which told the story most clearly. In amidst all the quirky movements of the central pas de deux, they suddenly stood still and faced each other. The way their bodies seemed to yearn towards each other, never taking their eyes off each other, spoke volumes about their desire/love for each other, which the steps did not. And it was Arrieta, slumped against a monolith after having stabbed Carmen, who was the only person to break my heart out of all the four performances I saw. He was truly a broken man. This performance also benefitted from the darkly dangerous Zuniga of Ken Saruhashi who sent shivers down my spine during his various confrontations (and the way Zuniga is manipulated by the other men after he has been stabbed is a real coup de théâtre in this production), and from Junor Souza as the Torero. His interpretation was very reminiscent of Mérimée and Bizet, being charming rather than arrogant, and more happy-go-lucky than the others, but with just enough ego to preen himself wherever there was a mirror. Fernanda Oliveira, in a role frankly unworthy of her formidable talents, brought a welcome dramatic depth to the Boy, particularly moving in her reaction to Don Jose’s murder of Zuniga. Takahashi, Arrieta and she also made the most sense of the pas de trois when Don Jose imagines life as a family, but I still find this an odd use of this beautiful piece of music. In the evening, Ivana Bueno made a stunningly assured debut as Carmen, completely in command of the choreography and of the stage. What I love about Bueno is the apparent inner calmness and strength she brings to whatever she does, allowing the audience to sit back and enjoy her beautifully clean technique and her joy in performing for us. Her Carmen benefitted from this in being the sunniest of the four but capable of darkness when required by the story. Her Don Jose was Francesco Gabriele Frola who was the darkest in temperament of the four casts, and the most sure of himself so that watching him descend into almost madness when Carmen rejected him was painful if not heartbreaking, and showed what a wonderful dramatic dancer he is, aside from his formidable technique. And, much as I feel the central pas de deux is not particularly interesting choreographically, Bueno and Frola definitely made it sizzle with their palpable chemistry! In all, I would certainly watch this production again if there were new casts to see, but I really feel that ENB needs a more challenging version to show off the high level of dramatic and technical skill within the company.

I have now seen two casts of ENB’s new production of “Carmen”, on Wednesday 27 March and Saturday 30 March (matinée). Although the dancers give powerful and committed performances, I have a few issues with the production itself. Firstly, knowing every note and word of Bizet’s opera makes listening to this version rather frustrating as it jumps about so much and I do not find it as rhythmical. Not having heard the Shchedrin arrangement for many years, I wonder if it is quite as disjointed as this one, with the added soundscapes breaking up the flow of the music even further. I particularly miss the wind sections, both brass and woodwind, which have been written out of this. However, the remaining members of the wonderful ENB Philharmonic attack the score with gusto, particularly the augmented percussion section. Secondly, my heart always sinks when choreographers of today resort to making the dancers run around the stage or roll around the floor for no apparent reason, as it makes me suspect they have run out of choreographic steam and are just keeping the dancers busy. This is certainly how I felt about sections of Johan Inger’s choreography which, on the whole, is no challenge for the ENB dancers who are so accomplished in any style of choreography. With Inger coming from a classical ballet background, I was disappointed that he did not give Carmen and Don José a more intimate pas de deux to the gorgeous melody of the aria “La fleur que tu m’avias jetée” in which José expresses his love for Carmen (Bizet was a master at portraying character through music). Instead they spent most of their time skirting around each other, barely touching. Likewise, the beautiful entr’acte (minus its lovely flute solo) which precedes Act 3 in the opera, representing their night of passion, and which was used for the iconic pas de deux by Roland Petit, here accompanies a rather naïf dance for Don José, Carmen and the Boy, supposedly Don José imagining married life with Carmen. Rentaro Nakaaki, whose formidable acting and dancing skills I have noticed in classical pieces, as well as in the title role of “Creature”, was an extremely young and innocent Don José, almost a victim, whose violence seemed almost accidental, especially the murder of Zuniga, one of his rivals for Carmen. As Fernando Carratalá Coloma played him in a similar way, I assume this is Inger’s take on this character, at odds with both the novella and the opera in which Don José is known to have a violent temper, having had to flee from Navarre to Seville after maiming or killing a man in an argument (and not over a woman). Inger seems more interested in Don José than in Carmen, making him much more prominent. The wonderfully dramatic music for the card aria in the opera in which Carmen accepts her fate that she will die at his hands is here appropriated for an angst-filled solo by Don José. Nakaaki’s dancing was particularly powerful and expressive in this, as it was throughout, and there was a palpable chemistry between him and his very sensuous Carmen, Minju Kang, who danced her unchallenging choreography with great style and a ballerina sheen. For sheer animal magnetism, Erik Woolhouse stole the show with his powerhouse Torero, dancing with a dynamism and preening arrogance which was electrifying. The Cigarreras were a delight whenever they appeared, sassy in their ra-ra skirts and adding some much needed colour to the rather dull set consisting of black monoliths which they had to manoeuvre throughout the ballet (another of my dislikes is dancers having to do the work of stagehands). It was a shame they had to morph into anonymous shadows in Act 2, dressed in black suits and masks, as did the gentlemen. I have yet to work out why the gentlemen are listed as Dogs, apart from one of them howling in pleasure in Act 1 as the Cigarreras flaunted their physical charms. Likewise, I have yet to work out the purpose of the Boy, winsomely and winningly performed by Francesca Velicu on opening night: is he perhaps Don José’s conscience (much like the character of Micaela, created by Bizet)? In the second performance I attended, as mentioned, Coloma took on the role of Don José, subjugating his naturally vibrant stage personality to fit this production but nevertheless dazzling with the fluidity of his dancing. His Carmen was the magnificent Emily Suzuki. Something I have always admired about Suzuki is her ability to completely inhabit any role she is given, along with an innate musicality so that every phrase of the music is perfectly expressed by her movement. And here was a Carmen who was most definitely a free spirit and not to be possessed, albeit a fatalist who accepted her death unflinchingly and with dignity. I only wish the choreography had matched her exceptional talents. I would also like to mention Breanna Foad as the Boy in this cast, who once again impressed me not only with the purity of her dancing but also her increasingly confident stage presence. I will be seeing the other two casts this coming Thursday and I look forward to experiencing what they bring to their roles. Although I have reservations about the piece itself, there is no doubting the very strong dramatic ability which exists at all levels of the company and which is being allowed to shine this season.

From the video, I spotted Erina Takahashi with Aitor Arrieta, Emily Suzuki with Fernando Carratala Coloma, Ivana Bueno with Francesco Gabriele Frola and Minju Kang with Rentaro Nakaaki. There is a couple rehearsing in the background who I assume were some of the dancers from Australian Ballet who have been rehearsing with the company.