Naomi M

It will be a gala (2 performances) but no details announced at this point. It will be held at the New National Theatre Opera House and supposed to have international guests. I will inform when it will be announced. There is a lovely message on her Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/miyakoballet/ Last summer I saw her in Raymonda 3rd act and she was still in perfect shape, she still dances the classics at the age of 53 and I heard she takes daily classes at the National Ballet of Japan every day. it is so lovely to hear all the fond memories of Miyako back in her SWB days from the balletco’ers!

I agree with that, Janet, it is a shame. However, BRB seems to have a special place in her heart. After leaving RB, Yoshida has guested in BRB's Japan tour (Peter Wright's Coppelia) and also have danced with many BRB dancers in performances in Japan, such as Robert Parker, Iain MacKay, Cesar Morales and last year, Mathias Dingman (dancing David Bintley's Flowers of the Forest, and was broadcasted here) Her farewell performance will be hosted by the public broadcaster NHK so it is likely that it would be broadcasted here. More details to come.

Former Royal Ballet Principal Miyako Yoshida will retire this August. After leaving Royal Ballet, Yoshida has been performing as a freelance ballerina and she performed last weekend in a gala performance, dancing Esmeralda, still with polished technique and musicality. Last summer it was announced that she will take over the role of artistic director of National Ballet of Japan in September 2020. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190130_27/

I watched The White Crow at the Tokyo International Film Festival, with a Q&A session with Ralph Fiennes. It was a stunning film, going back and forth through 3 tenses, Nureyev's childhood, when he was a student at Vaganova, and the fateful Paris tour, with the look of the cinematography different. Oleg Ivenko was very good in acting, he displayed the mood of Nureyev very well and his inner turmoils and his ambitions, his high cheekbones resembled Nureyev . Especially the defection scene was very well directed, very tense and dramatic. (Pierre Lacotte contributed very much for the realization of this scene) The locations were in the Vaganova academy and Garnier, Mariinsky Theatre. It was great that the dialogue was done with the original languages, (mainly Russian and French) and Fiennes as Pushkin spoke very good Russian. (he said in the Q&A that he had to be in the movie to gain funding for this film) It was also great that the roles were played with actual dancers, the beautiful Anna Polikarpova (former principal of Hamburg Ballet and before that a Mariinsky Dancer) played the role of Natalia Dudinskaya with the glamor of a movie star. Sergei Polunin appears as Yuri Soloviev and actually shows his technique in some of the dance sequences but not a big role. Ivenko has the mood of a Soviet dancer and his dancing is also fabulous. (He competed in the program Big Ballet representing Kazan Opera) I think this was a very well made movie and will recommend to ballet fans.

Celine Gittens is currently in Australia

Or the Luchino Visconti film "Ludwig". I also watched it in Munich with Lucia Lacarra as Princess Natalia, what a stunning production and there is a fabulous DVD by the Hamburg Ballet.

Now his Instagram account is hacked and has nothing left inside. https://www.instagram.com/sergeipolunin/

I think the best report on this visit is the Twitter feed of Kensington Palace, where there are several tweets with lovely photos at the ROH, the costumes and the dancers. https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1085523830372818945

Sorry I could not provide information as i had been very busy- There is a more detailed page in Japanese where they show the headshots of the dancers expected. https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2019/royalballet/cast.html Now it says that Federico Bonelli and Nehemiah Kish will be on tour. And there is a "Package ticket" that is, a set of all 8 performances in Tokyo for 200,000 yen with an autographed brochure of all the principals and a photo session on stage on your own with the dancers, invitation to the dress rehearsal and 8 drink tickets, tour T shirt. https://www.nbs.or.jp/stages/2019/royalballet/index.html

Cats full casting according to IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5697572/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast Former NYCB Robbie Fairchild's role Munkustrap is an important one, the storyteller.

It says from the link of the article so Lizbie is correct. Victoria is the white cat.

As far as I know I don't think so. Don Quixote is popular here but RB fans here were waiting for a RB specific repertoire such as MacMillan or Ashton (because we have a lot of opportunities seeing Don Q, Mariinsky is bringing DQ here this month and also a lot of domestic companies do this). Or the new Swan Lake should have been great. Or something like Scarlett or McGregor.

Personally I wished there was another repertoire in their tour. But yes anyway there are 2 gala nights supposed so I hope there would be some great pieces in it. ( and I wish I can edit my post to correct Yasmine's spelling!)

Thank you, apologies, I am not an English native and the information is only provided in Japanese.

Royal Ballet Japan tour June 2019 has been announced on the Japanese impresario's site. But only the dates and dancers expected to participate. https://www.nbs.or.jp/publish/news/2018/11/2019-2.html Don Quixote (Acosta) June 21-26 2019 Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Gala June 29,30 Kanagawa Kenmin Hall (Yokohama) Ticket booking starts in January. Dancers expected to participate (principals) Matthew Ball, Alexander Campbell, Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward, Akane Takada, Ryoichi Hirano, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, Laura Morera, Vadim Muntagirov, Yasmin Nagdi Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova, Thiago Soares, Edward Watson Details TBA

La Bayadere will be screened in Japan from January 18th. (Mayerling from December 7th, currently I am working on the subtitles for the intermission talk) http://tohotowa.co.jp/roh/

American Ballet Theatre's Spring season has been announced and Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre (created for Northern Ballet) enters their repertoire. This seems wonderful. https://www.abt.org/abt-2019-spring-season-announced/

There were many comments on the FB feed saying that the streaming was frozen at the National Ballet of Japan section (included in the Australian Ballet part). I was watching on my home computer, not wi-fi. But the Bolshoi section had no issues, and most of the RB streaming was okay (except for of course the BRB part with no sound)

I was also watching from Japan, and during the stream of Australian Ballet, in our own National Ballet of Japan section, the streaming was frozen for quite a while and when it was back the section was finished. (well the Australian Ballet part full video is already on YouTube) It seems it was not only me but the majority who were watching. Also sometimes the quality of the streaming was not good during the Unknown Soldier segment.

I did see Melissa Hamilton dance with Roberto Bolle in the R&J balcony scene at the World Ballet Festival, but unfortunately she failed to impress me. She did have beautiful lines making lovely shapes and her technique was good but there was simply no passion or emotions felt in her performance. At another program at WBF, Sarah Lamb danced with Marcelo Gomes in the same pas de deux, and I was amazed what difference Lamb could make, so delicate, touching, sheer joy, although it might have been her first Juliet with Gomes. I also saw Hamilton as Mary Vetsera in Mayerling a few years ago (with Pennefather) and then I was not moved by her, I thought her interpretation rather dull. (as I was overwhelmed by Galeazzi in the same role the day before) On another program at the WBF, Hamilton danced a duet from Bigonzetti's Caravaggio (with Bolle again) and she was brilliant, gorgeous with that, so I guess her strength lies in contemporary works.

It is announced that Paris Opera Ballet will tour to Japan Feb-March 2020 and they will bring Nureyev's Raymonda, which has not been revived for 10 years. https://www.nbs.or.jp/saiten/ (in Japanese, also announcements of the RB Japan tour July 2019)

I am not really sure whether it is Kobborg's version or Bournonville. The ling above mentions Bournonville but the program says the Royal Ballet premiere of the version by Kobborg, though among the photos of the choreographers there is not a pic of Kobborg but there is one of Bournonville. Sissens needs a little refinement of his solo (a little rough) but he did have good leaps and battements, nice feet. I think the repertoire of this gala was enchanting, most of the pieces are rarely seen here. Royal Ballet's Japan tour next summer is expected to be Don Quixote and a gala, so we are looking forward what pieces they will bring to the gala, hopefully those very RB repertoire.

I went to the 1st performance and it certainly showed the wonderful talent of the RB dancers. One pleasant surprise was the presence of two young brilliant dancers Joseph Sissens and Calvin Richardson. Especially enjoyed two unique pieces choreographed by Richardson, Dying Swan which was danced by himself and Credo (a world premiere) danced by Sissens and young dancers chosen by audition. They are so talented and have unique quality, I am looking forward how they will mature in the coming years. All the dancers were fabulous, and it was lovely to see Ricardo Cervera back on stage still dancing brilliantly. Laura Morera danced 5 pieces, showing her strength, expressiveness and versatility, and the tango from Facade was playful and enjoyable. Naghdi/Campbell in the Two Pigeons pdd was of course heartwarming and beautiful. Cuthbertson and Muntagirov were shimmering and glowing in Diamonds and Sylvia, pure beauty and musicality. Also loved the light, airy Sylphide danced by Takada. Also it was nice to see Mcgregor's Raven girl with Takada and Hirano as we in Japan have almost no opportunity to see McGregor, and especially Takada's strength and expression was memorable long with her gothic character. Another rare treat was Dangerous Liaisons choreographed by Adam Cooper and danced by Morera and Ball. Ball's dangerous appeal was so enchanting and he would indeed make a perfect The Stranger in Bourne's Swan Lake. It was such a lovely, intimate evening and the only downside was that there were some empty seats due to lack of publicity as the promoters seemed not used to marketing in the Japanese market. But there are still two more performances, and what a fabulous treat it was.

I agree all the performances you mentioned were superb and I enjoyed them. And I have to agree that some of the performances were less than great, having too much artistic directors and not active dancers included. I think this gala would be more enjoyable if the program was one hour shorter, especially given the severe heat this summer. Today was the final gala and Olesya Novikova in Swan Lake was such a stunner with beautiful lyrical lines. It is a pity she is not coming to the Mariinsky Ballet Japan tour this November-December. Other highlights were Lamb and Gomes in Romeo and Juliet Balcony, Eichwald and Bolle in Petit's Thais, Gilbert and Heymann in Grand Pas Clasique and Ganio and Bolle in Proust, Alexandrova and Lantratov in Laurencia, Ferri and Bonelli in Woolf Works. Legends Ananiashivili and Lopatkina were in the audience. And of course the Funny gala was hilarious and worth the price of the ticket. (you can see glimpses of that in the instagrams of the participating dancers)

It was broadcasted in Japan in 2012. But it might be very difficult to broadcast a gala to the international market because of copyright issues. This time there were many Balanchine and Cranko works which are difficult to broadcast (the 2012 broadcast omitted all works by those two choreographers as well as Ratmansky) There are official curtain call videos here on the channel of NBS. https://www.youtube.com/user/2009NBS such as