Naomi M

Zurich Ballet's Winterreise by Christian Spuck is available till May 14th. https://www.opernhaus.ch/digital/corona-spielplan/die-winterreise/

Here is a short interview with Johan Kobborg speaking about this Cinderella production. (Later half is Akane Takada and Nao Nokubo the two Cinderellas but they speak in Japanese)

I saw the premiere. The performance was sold out quite quickly (50% seating restrictions applied but it seemed more than 50% The production was very unique that the story was very different from the usual Cinderella story. Here Cinderella is a girl who loves to dance. whose stepmother is a ballet pianist and runs a small ballet school, where also the stepsisters are practicing, Cinderella is forced to assist her stepmother's piano and not really allowed to join class, until a kind and generous ballet teacher allows her to join. Once she joins the class her talent and passion is apparent, but she is forced to tidy up the class alone. A fairy godmother who looks very much like the teacher appears, and invites her to a journey. The characters on the ballet class's wall posters appears live, that is Odette from Swan Lake, Titania from Midsummer Night's Dream and the heroine from The Red Shoes. They encourage her to go on this trip. She is given a chance to dance the ballerina role with a talented dancer. Eventually Cinderella's talent is recognized and her dreams seems to come real, she is the Prima Ballerina and dances in a dazzling performance. But the clock strikes 12 o' clock and the magic melts away, she has to go back to reality. But was that a dream? She makes a choice. So the prince only acts as the ballerina's partner and it is Cinderella's love of dance and making choices is the theme here. The production was beautiful, the first class sequence reminded me of Fleming Flynt's The Lesson in a way, with some dark humor. The ballet scene in the second act was indeed dazzling, beautiful corps de ballet formations. The three ballet characters were led by strong soloists and corps de ballet was excellent. Moreover, Akane Takada was stunningly beautiful. She showed her talent as an actress playing the bullied poor girl in the beginning but has a strong passion to become a dancer, her love of dance appears in her very strong technique and delicate, sensitive approach. Especially at the ballet performance scene, her solos were breathtaking. Ths and costumes were beautiful. (NBA Ballet Company set up a crowdfunding campaign for the costumes, they are a private company and had financial difficulties because like other companies they had their performances cancelled, and having a new ballet with reduced seating capacities mean they won't get any profit) Surprisingly, this was Akane Takada's first ever leading role in a full length piece in Japan and we could feel her bliss, being on stage after a long period of not being able to perform. As it was an entirely new work maybe some tweaking is needed but nevertheless it was a beautiful, very modern themed successful production and I wish this will be performed over and over.

Not about Alina, but a Japanese TV news program broadcasted a story on the baby boom at Royal Ballet. https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/140675 you can see the actual news video here on Tara Brigitte Bhavnani's Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CK6BSA_gqng/

Polish National Ballet will stream Part 3 of their gala performance on February 6th 19:00 (Europe time) https://teatrwielki.pl/en/repertoire/calendar/2020-2021/polish-national-ballet-new-years-gala-part-3/ It will be available for 14 days, and the previously streamed Part 1 and 2 will also return for 11 days on February 7th.

Ballet West is streaming Kurt Joss’s masterpiece The Green Table.

Paris Opera Ballet's Gala is already available for streaming. https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/videos/gala-ouverture Ballet Defile Choreography: Albert Aveline, Serge Lifar Music: Hector Berlioz Grand pas Classique Choreography: Victor Gsovsky Music: Daniel-François E. Auber Costumes: created by CHANEL In the night Choreography: Jerome Robbins Music: Frédéric Chopin Costumes: Anthony Dowell The vertiginous thrill of exactitude Choreography: William Forsythe Music: Franz Schubert Costumes: Stephen Galloway Distributions Grand pas Classique Valentine Colasante, Etoile Dancer Hugo Marchand, Etoile Dancer In the night 1st pas de deux: Ludmila Pagliero, Dancer Etoile Mathieu Ganio, Dancer Etoile 2nd pas de deux: Léonore Baulac, Dancer Etoile Germain Louvet, Dancer Etoile 3rd pas de deux: Alice Renavand, Dancer Etoile Stéphane Bullion, Dancer Etoile The vertiginous thrill of exactitude Amandine Albisson, Etoile Dancer Ludmila Pagliero, Etoile Dancer Paul Marque, Etoile Dancer Hannah O'Neill, Pablo Legasa

Here, the platform where they also showed their La Bayadere. https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/videos/gala-d-ouverture you have to register but it is available overseas and it is free this time thanks to the sponsors Chanel and Rolex.

Paris Opera Ballet will be streaming their opening gala performance for free via their platform on January 30th. it seems the performance will be carried out on 27th without an audience and recorded so it could be viewed. The program looks like this, and possibly Etudes will also be streamed. https://www.operadeparis.fr/saison-20-21/ballet/gala#distribution

Still Life at the Penguin Cafe is from 7:00am in UK so maybe a little more practical time?

National Ballet of Japan's "New Year Ballet" will be available to watch online live on January 11th. (it was cancelled due to a staff diagnosed with COVID-19 but none of the dancers tested positive) The performance will be held without audience and be streamed on Jan. 11 at 14:00 JST (UTC +9) for FREE but it will not be archived. Time difference is 9 hours so perhaps difficult for UK residents to watch but a rare opportunity to catch Bintley's Still Life at Penguin Cafe. it will be streamed on their Facebook page and YouTube Channel. https://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/english/news/ballet/new-year-ballet-2021-livestream.html Part I 14:00 - 14:40 "Paquita" Music by: Léon MINKUS Choreography by: Marius PETIPA Intermission 25 mins. Part II 15:05 - 15:35 "Contact" Music by: Ólafur ARNALDS Choreography by: KINOSHITA Yoshito "Soirée de Ballet" Music by: Alexandr GLAZUNOV Choreography by: FUKAGAWA Hideo "Campanella" Intermission 25 mins. Music by: Franz LISZT "La Campanella" Choreography: KAIKAWA Tetsuo Part III 16:00 - 16:45 "'Still Life' at the Penguin Café" Music by: Simon JEFFES Choreography by: David BINTLEY Set and Costume Designer: Hayden GRIFFIN Lighting Designer: John B. READ The YouTube streaming URL is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le6wfqnogBs

Yes it was originally intended to have Francesca Hayward as Cinderella, but as it is now impossible to have guests from overseas other than Japanese citizens they have invited Akane Takada instead. Kobborg has already entered Japan just in time and currently is in quarantine. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJsp5x9AerZ/ (Kobborg's Instagram) They have funded some of the fees for this world premiere by crowd funding. NBA Ballet is also inviting Ryoichi Hirano and Sarah Lamb for their Dracula (Michael Pink production) this summer. It was supposed to be performed last August but it was postponed.

Second Part of the Polish National Ballet's New Year Gala. Dawid Trzensimiech is dancing Sleeping Beauty with former Bolshoi Ballet Chinara Alizade,

Pietra Mello Pittman (former Royal Ballet) has awarded MBE (Co-founder, Sisters Grimm.) For services to International Trade and to the Creative Industry. Also on her Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CJdwuabA8du/

Polish National Ballet is streaming their New Year gala.(today Part 1, tomorrow Part 2) Former Royal Ballet soloist Dawid Trzensimiech is appearing in two works.

Mikhailovsky Ballet will be streaming Duato's Nutcracker on New Year's Eve. https://mikhailovsky.ru/en/press/news/the_nutcracker_in_your_house/

Norwegian Opera and Ballet's Nutcracker is available here. https://tv.nrk.no/serie/noetteknekkeren/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller

Kiev Ballet (National Ballet of Ukraine) Nutcracker is online in full. A new recording filmed this November. Clara Yulia Moskalenko Prince Stanislav Olshanskyi

National Ballet of Japan will be live-streaming their Nutcracker and the Mouse King. (Wayne Eagling but not the same one as of ENB and Dutch National Ballet) on December 20th 18;00 Japan time and also that will be available on demand in January. https://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/english/news/ballet/ballet-the-nutcracker-stream-2020.html Live broadcast will be available in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States of America (3,400JPY) and on demand details will be announced later but is supposed to be available worldwide at a cheaper price. Trailer

Yes! (for the leading roles)

Paris Opera Ballet will be streaming La Bayadere on December 13th 14:30 Paris time on their new platform. It will cost 11.90 euros. https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/products/la-bayadere ACTE I : Dorothée Gilbert, Germain Louvet, Léonore Baulac ACTE II : Amandine Albisson, Hugo Marchand, Valentine Colasante ACTE III : Ludmila Pagliero, Mathias Heymann Trailer. https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/packages/la-bayadere/videos/trailer-bayadere It will be available for 7 days. There are some more contents in their catalogue that could be viewed. https://chezsoi.operadeparis.fr/browse

I am not sure if this will be geo-blocked or not but Vienna State Ballet's Mahler program (Van Manen, Schläpfer) will be streamed by Arte on December 4th 20:30 Europe time. https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/099992-000-A/mahler-live-de-hans-van-manen-et-martin-schlaepfer/

Japan’s Ballet Chambre Ouest’s Coppelia full performance is available free. Mariko Sasaki of Royal Ballet comes from this company.

Chloé Lopes Gomes Speaks Out About Racial Harassment at Staatsballett Berlin https://www.pointemagazine.com/chloe-lopes-gomes-ballet-2649095670.html Chloe Lopes Gomes, a black corps de ballet dancer at Staatsballett Berlin was harassed by the ballet mistress and she did not get her contract renewed.

It does in Japan. But it was not a full one, condensed into about 50 minutes. Anyway a delightful performance with their famous bear.