Estreiiita

I haven't unfortunately been to the Gala, but I was at both Birmingham Royal Ballet "Black Sabbath" performance in Hamburg (a splendid one! And a touching moment at the very end when fellow dancer embraced Tyrone Singleton (I imagine it was him) and presented him a bottle of wine) and 3 last Neimeier ballets, out of which I liked especially "The Streetcar named Desire". As Bruce has already mentioned, Anna Laudere was great as Blanche, but I also liked Charlotte Larzelere as Stella and Mathias Oberlin as Stanley Kowalski. Actually, everyone danced and acted fabulously. Of course, Alina Cojocaru is in her own league, not only dancing and acting but living on the stage. "Dona Nobis Pacem" is a fantastic performance, where both music, singing and dancing unite in an almost divine combination. The absolute hero of the evening was Aleix Martinez, being "He". Closer to the end of the performance, in the piece about the birth of Jesus (?) he appeared completely naked and danced like this for several minutes. I don't remember it was like this on the DVD. I heard that in German theatres there is a tradition to do something funny /naughty at the very last performance of the season, so maybe it was an example of this? Anyway, his dancing and acting was impeccable!

Here's the programme of Verdensballetten's 2024 concerts: 1) The Nutcracker : Grand pdd and adagio, chor. Marius Petipa - Astrid Elbo (RDB) and Lukas Brændsrød (RB). 2) "Caro nome", Gilda's aria fra "Rigoletto" Verdi - soprano Lina Johnson, piano - Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 3) Ballet 102, chor. Eric Gauthier (2016) - Iana Salenko (Staatsballet Berlin) and Marian Walter. 4) Prelude and Allegro, music Fritz Kreisler (1910), violin Charlie Siem, piano Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 5) Somewhere over the rainbow, chor. Arlene Philips (2024), music Harold Arlen (1939) - Anna Rose O'Sullivan (RB) and Xander Parish (Norwegian ballet). 6) "Sempre Libera", Violetta's aria from "La Traviata" - soprano Lina Johnson, piano - Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 7) Fortitudine, chor. Steven McRae, music "The drummers" , John Mason - Steven McRae (RB). 😎 Libertango, chor. Steven McRae, music Astor Piazzolla (1974) - Xander Parish and Lukas Brændsrød. 😎 9) Sonata nr.2, opus 13, Edward Grieg (1867) - violin Charlie Siem, piano Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 10) Summer, opus 33, nr.2, Edward Grieg - soprano Lina Johnson, piano Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 11) Resonance, chor. Joshua Junker, music Steve Reich - Astrid Elbo, Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Lukas Brændsrød. 12) Hallelujah, music Leonard Cohen, chor. Marian Walter and Steven McRae - Marian Walter. 13) From the operette " The land of smiles", Franz Lehar (1929), "Were hat die liebe uns ins herz gesenkt" - soprano Lina Johnson, piano Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. 14) Bolero, music Maurice Ravel, chor. Iana Salenko and Steven McRae - Iana Salenko and Steven McRae. 15) The final - Radetzky March - all participants.

Yesterday I was lucky to watch again the open air concert given by the dancers of the Royal Danish ballet. Lucky not only because it's a possibility to see the best artists dancing together but also because the weather permitted them to do that (it's always a matter of luck and unfortunately last week brought a lot of rain but yesterday the weather was fine). The main purpose of these concerts is to make ballet more popular all around Denmark and sometimes the performances take place in the most remote corners of the country, but yesterday it was Vejle, a picturesque town at the shore of Vejle Fjord. I managed to film the performance, so here's what we saw (I just want to remind that often it's a light version of the ballet pieces as it's difficult to perform in "field" conditions. 1) The Sleeping beauty, Rose Adagio (prima ballerina Emma Riis-Kofoed, premier Ryan Tomash, soloist Sebastian Pico Haynes, soloist Guilherme de Menezes, Mathieu Rouaux: 2) Bluebird pdd from "The Sleeping beauty" (soloist Tara Schaufuss and Meirambek Nazargozhayev): 3) White Cat and Puss-in-Boots (probably soloist Camilla Ruelykke Holst and Vitor de Menezes - can't be quite sure as they wore the masks and in the programme there was indicated another artist but she was absent): 4) Etudes - pdd (prima ballerina Holly Sørger and Philip Duclos): 5) Summer Dance - new creation of Nikolaj Hubbe to Sergej Prokofjev's music (two prima ballerinas : Astrid Elbo (in red) and Stephanie Chen Gundorph (in black)): 6) Carnival in Venice, pdd (prima ballerina Holly Sørger and premier Jonathan Chmelensky: 7) Excerpts from the new ballet of the coming season, "Blood wedding", choreographed by the talented soloist Eukene Saques, based on the poems and music of Federico Garcia Lorca and Manuel de Falla (Guilherme de Menezes, then Tara Schaufuss and Vitor de Menezes and after that Emma Riis-Kofoed and Sebastian Pico Haynes): 😎 😎 Raymonda, pas de dix (Lania Atkins, Astrid Elbo, Stephanie Chen Gundorph, Eukene Saques, Camilla Ruelykke Holst (?), Jonathan Chmelensky, Philip Duclos Meirambek Nazargozhayev, Mathieu Rouaux and Ryan Tomash):

I saw Myriam Ould-Braham just once, in "Paquita", when Paris Opera ballet came to Copenhagen, and she conquered me from the start. A beautiful star indeed! I hope she'll find other position to employ her talents or probably discover some new.

It was exactly my thoughts also while watching this pdd; this Gala is Neumeier's triumph anyway; the public welcomed him with a lot of applauses both during and after the performance and the royal guards brought him a big basket with flowers.

Thanks to Angela I found the cast information on Hamburg ballet site. So now I'd like to add a few words about some dancers whose art had impressed me a bit more. Christopher Evans was brilliant during the whole evening taking part in several pieces. "Bernstein dances" isn't my favourite work of John Neumeier as I believe, there are too many dancers on the scene sometimes and it's a bit difficult to follow all of them, but I was impressed that Giorgio Armani provided the costumes. "Shall we dance?" - Ida Praetorius danced here with Alexandr Trusch, and they had perfect chemistry and were excellent together. "The Nutcracker" - I like a lot Olivia Betteridge and she was very good here together with Alessandro Frola. Xue Lin and Matias Oberlin were also great. I liked a lot Azul Ardizzone as Juliet and Louis Musin was perfect Romeo. And of course Anna Laudere and Jason Reilly - I was surprised to see that he had a lot of tattoos. Actually, he was almost naked in this pdd full with emotions. They were excellent, there were a lot of slow movements but they accomplished all of them precisely. "Nijinsky" - all were great but I liked especially Ida Stempelmann as Bronislava Nijinska. "Anna Karenina" - here both Anna Laudere and Jacopo Bellussi were wonderful. Emilie Mazon also was good Kitty. Karen Azatyan only appeared for a couple of moments, but just his appearance as Mujik made quite an ominous impression.

I'm now on the way back from the first performance of the Gala "The World of John Neumeier" in Copenhagen. It was held in Tivoli concert hall and the huge theater was almost full with spectators (the former queen of Denmark Margrethe the 2nd and her sister princess Benedicte amongst them). Gala was performed to the live music provided by Tivoli Copenhagen Phil and consisted of two parts. John Neumeier had greeted the public and was on the scene quite a lot during the whole evening as before each number he held a short speech explaining the importance of one or other piece in his life. Christopher Evans was his "alter ego" on the scene, following the dancers and sometimes taking part in their performance. He started with his childhood in America where he first saw dance in movie theatres - and we could see the number from Bernstein Dances and then the piece from "Shall we dance? " to the music of Gershwin, beautifully performed by Ida Praetorius and Jacopo Belussi (though I'm not sure about him as there was no role list). After that John Neumeier mentioned his first encounter with the classical ballet - and we saw the excerpt from "The Nutcracker", including Cecchetti and Pavlova duo, followed by "The death in Venice" where the main character is also a choreographer. Then he remembered the Covid times when he created a ballet "Ghost light" and we could see the piece from this ballet. John Neumeier also said that he was always interested in human feelings and especially in the way Shakespeare depicted them, so he brought us two duos - from "Romeo and Juliet" and "Othello", and here I only could admire the complicated lifts and beautiful movements. One couple was very young, the other was mature, but all danced impeccably. In the end of the first part we saw the joyful piece from "Christmas Oratorio" with the outstanding performance of Madoka Sugai. The second part started with the piece from "Nijinsky" - John Neumeier is very much fond of him. Then came "The Lady of the camelias" - again with Ida Praetorius and Jacopo Bellussi. After that Neumeier mentioned the importance of his friends for him, one of them had been Maurice Bejart - and we saw an "Opus 100 - for Maurice", first performed at 70-years celebration gala for Maurice Bejart in Lausanne in 1996. Then came the turn of russian literature that also made a strong impression at John Neumeier - and the piece from "Anna Karenina" followed. In the end we saw the excerpt from "Beethoven Project II" and a beautiful piece "Angel" from "Mahler's 3d Symphony" and here I'm sure we saw Alina Cojocaru and it was great. Everybody on the scene danced with a great pleasure, it was easy to see that John Neumeier is very much loved by his colleagues. It was a delightful evening and though I won't be able to see the Nijinsky Gala in Hamburg this year, I'm very glad I could be at this very special performance tonight.

The ballet season for RDB will be over in June ("Raymonda" being the last performance), but some dancers will go on summer tour around Denmark from the 7th to 20th of June (free concerts in different locations, approximately of 1 hour duration, cancelled in case of bad weather). Then there'll be an opportunity to see Verdensballetten from the 10th to 14th of July and 2nd to 6th of August, also in different places around Denmark (they dance or at least imitate dancing as good as they can even under the rain, I myself witnessed it last year). The Bellevue theater in the suburb of Copenhagen will have Summer ballet programme (https://www.bellevueteatret.dk/forestillinger/sommerballet ) from 9th to 13th of August with participation of Alban Lendorf and solo dancers from RDB and also New York City Ballet will give several performances in Tivoli concert hall in Copenhagen from 14th to 18th of August (https://www.tivoli.dk/en/kultur-og-program/teater/2024/new-york-city-ballet-2024) .

So sad news about the lovely person! I liked her nickname and her posts, she'll be greatly missed!

I also was one of the lucky ones to witness the sublime and sincere dancing of Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov Saturday evening. It was perfect and I can practically add nothing to those who expressed their admiration and gratitude for the great evening during the past two days, maybe just add that everybody on the stage danced and acted beautifully. And of course I was lucky to escape the transport problems during the weekend as it for a long time resembles the russian roulette especially for those who come to see the performances from far away.

Thank you for the lovely photos, Rob S! I also was at the performance tonight and liked it enormously. Lauren Cuthbertson was divine and Cesar Corrales very impressive in his jealousy. I liked Melissa Hamilton as well, especially her duo with Cesar in the 3d act (that is, Paulina's and Leontes' duo). Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambe were very good and I also liked Marco Masciari and Meaghan Grace Hinkis.

I read that it was Nicolaj's decision and if so, I'glad both for him and the audience. In my opinion the next ballet director could be Ulrik Birkkjær (former principal of RDB and San Francisco ballet and now one of the directors of the entreprise "Copenhagen dances" which brought to us the stars from Paris Opera, San Francisco ballet, Pina Bausch company and others. Or maybe Sebastian Klobborg, who creates quite an interesting choreography and is a partner of Maria Kochetkova and has a history of having ballet directors in the family. But I won't say "no" to Kenneth Greve or other current ballet directors from other companies.

I'm sorry the link I provided before, didn't work. So for half an hour ago the new season for RDB was revealed! For me the coming season looks much better than this one. The information can be found on the website of the RDB, but I can say that we'll see 3 works of Balanchine in one set (Serenade, Symphony in C and 4 Temperaments) , "Folk tale" of Bournonville, "Blood wedding" (full time ballet by Eukene Saques, our solist), "Sleeping beauty", "The Nutcracker", "Don Quixote", "The Great Gatsby"(choreography of Arthur Pita!), Ballet de Luxe - excerpts from Bournonville's and Petipa's ballets ) and some children performances.

Yesterday I saw "Don Quichotte" performed by Opera national de Paris in Opera Bastille. It was the first time I saw this ballet in Rudolf Nureev's choreography and I liked it a lot. Hannah O'Neill danced Kitri. I like this ballerina since I saw her in "Le rouge au le noir" and I hoped for a brilliant performance on her part. However she was good but not at the level I expected. Basilio was danced by Germain Louvet, and his performance was not impeccable either; I'd say it was somewhat uneven, some parts were very good but there were some small faults especially in duos/lifts. Both Kitri's friends, Nais Duboscq and Bianca Scudamore were very good as well as Street dancer (Celia Drouy) and Espada (Arthus Raveau). The young gypsy (Daniel Stokes), two female gypsies (Katherine Higgins and Seohoo Yun) and the whole gypsy group along with the King and the Queen of gypsies danced very well in the 2nd act. The dream of Don Quichotte was danced brilliantly with the help of the corps de ballet, the Queen of the Dryads (Camille Bon), Cupidon(Aubane Philbert) and Dulcinee (Hannah O'Neill). To my mind, the 3d act was the best, everything went well and the performance ended with a lot of applauses.

For 10 days ago, on the 20th of March I attended the programme "Giant steps" at the Royal theater in Copenhagen. It consisted of Balanchine's "Serenade" , "4th Symphony of Sibelius" by Jorma Elo and Harald Lander's "Etudes". "Serenade" was danced beautifully (Stacy Caddell was the instructor), the main parts were performed by the principal dancers Stephanie Chen Gundorf, Wilma Giglio, Gregory Dean and the soloists Tara Schaufuss and Sebastian Pico Haynes, but some members of the corps de ballet , especially Isabella Walsh, Isabella Carroll, Katherine Stevens and Lania Atkins also were quite noticeable along with the soloists Mayo Arii and Eukene Saques. "4th symphony of Sibelius" was created by Jorma Elo especially for RDB and took premiere on the 2nd of March this year. This short ballet tells the story of 7 brothers that after their parents' death go to the woods to look for the fortune (it's actually based on the novel "Seven brothers" of the finnish writer Aleksis Kivi (1870). There are 11 dancers in this ballet, 10 men and a woman (danced by Wilma Giglio). 10 men dancers represent 7 brothers and also a group that creates a background (authorities, aggressors and an outside danger). Elo divides the ballet in 4 parts: the first one is somewhat mystical and sad, telling about the 7 brothers who just lost their parents. The second one shows the charm of the youth, first discovery of the opposite sex, first parties, first contradictions with the usual norms. In the 3d part there comes love in the form of a woman, probably a potential patner, but also the problems with the law and authorities take place. At last, in the 4th part everything seems to fall into place, most of the brothers find the person to marry with and in the book everything ends well, but Jorma Elo, using Sibelius' music that is very introvert and at the same time almost explosive, makes us think about the way we live - when the majority of us choose a very predictable life, get married when reaching a certain age, get children, become grandparents, pensionists, but the question is, do we live the life we want or do we live the life chosen for us by society? In this ballet there are some interesting duos and ensemble dances, performed by the principal Jonathan Chmelensky, soloists Tobias Praetorius, Guilherme de Menezes, Liam Redhead and the members of the corps de ballet. Most of all I liked "Etudes", where Emma Riis-Kofoed danced ballerina and Jon Axel Fransson and Alban Lendorf were her partners. Alban Lendorf especially was brilliant in his dancing and very attentive to the female partner. It was a very good performance. By the way, for those fond of classical ballet and John Neumeier's creations it'll be possible to watch "Raymonda" of RDB and "Neumeier's Gala" at Tivoli concert hall in Copenhagen during the same weekend in the middle of May.