FionaM

I see I’ll be spending a lot on Fumi Kaneko in this coming year … outstanding in Don Q, Swan Lake, Winters Tale, Dante and no doubt Manon too. I hope Lauren Cuthbertson will be back for Winter’s Tale. But who will play Leontes asides from Ryo Hirano. I may be wrong … is he the only dancer not retired to have performed it? William Bracewell? Vadim? Matthew Ball? Calvin? Steven McRae? I can’t wait to hear!

I tend to sit higher up in the stalls around the arena … as the first row is at the same level … which is very close to the dancers if the choreography is using the whole stage near you. At ENB Swan Lake I found the swans near me were interrupting my view. Though it was quite an experience to be almost within touching distance!

Alina is likely to perform the lead role created for her in The Glass Menagerie in Hamburg in all their upcoming performances this season. 30 May, 1 & 2 June, 1 July

and Akane Takada and Alex Campbell were fabulous in LWFC too. I hope we get to see the ballet again soon.

Re narrative, not at all. See my comment re Balanchine (his fully non-narrative ballets like .. Serenade, Jewels) and Forsythe being similar and therefore both are classical ballet, or neo-classical if you prefer.

Categories are problematic when the ‘ballet’ companies have such varied choreo in their repertoire. Those that are ‘en pointe’ like Forsythe and LWFC clearly can’t be performed by non-ballet companies. I would put LWFC in same ‘narrative ballet’ category as a Mayerling, Manon, R&J and so yes it is ‘classical ballet’ to me. Forsythe is similar to Balanchine. So if the latter is classical ballet (non-narrative) then so is Forsythe. However … including Light of Passage in ‘classical choreo’ category makes this whole show laughable.

Separately is Tamara Rojo planning a return to the stage in Marguerite & Armand? She is older than Fonteyn was when it was created. So perhaps not.

From their website (no info on why) https://www.sfballet.org/discover/press-center/press-releases/release/danielle-st-germain-steps-down-as-executive-director-of-san-francisco-ballet/

Is it possible to access a full list of what is available on the streaming service? I am not a subscriber and so I can only see a few ‘highlights’ on the home page. That’s not enough to entice me to subscribe. hopeless marketing (plus ca change) 🙄🙄🙄

My list wasn’t meant to be all inclusive! Just indicative …

nHmm it says sold out for online. How?

Is Irek playing Virgil? Or should his name be in the coaching credits?

I had a look for young principal dancers who chose to leave for other companies, after promotion and still at a young age. Here is a selection … Ferri - moved at age 21 from RB to ABT Polunin - 22 from RB to STANMUS and NOVAT Nureyev - 23 defected to West Guillem - 24 from Paris to RB, and importantly, freelance Zakharova - 24 from Mariinsky to Bolshoi Vadim Muntagirov (principal at 21) - 23/24 from ENB to RB Isaac Hernandez (principal at 22/23) - 25 from DutchNB to ENB Julian MacKay (principal at 22) - 25 from San Francisco to Munich Natalia Osipova (principal at 24) - 25 left Bolshoi for ABT/Mikhailovsky Kumakawa - 25/26 from RB to set-up own company in Japan taking 5 male dancers with him Baryshnikov - 26 defected to West Makarova - 29 defected to West Matthew Golding (principal at 25) - 29 left DNB for RB

And the young tall dancer with dark hair partnering Anna Tsygankova is playing the title role. He is Giorgi Potskhishvili

I am surprised to see The Dante Project being syndicated more widely so soon.

There is video on Johan’s website and his Vimeo channel

And in Wheeldon choreography !!! most recently as Mama Elena in Like Water for Chocolate

Caught an encore of the cinema relay of Cinderella on Monday afternoon. I decided to ignore all the faults I’d pointed out way back in this thread and just enjoy the dancers and the music: - gasped when Lukas BB lifted Gary Avis on his shoulder - loved the production visuals … which are better viewed from straight on. - the overture lights didn’t shine into the cameras, proving it’s a problem for the seats on the horseshoe sides (at least on the filming night). - enjoyed Luca’s humour as the smaller of the two step-sisters - Marianela and Vadim were sparkly and danced beautifully, as did Fairy Godmother and the luxurious casting of the season fairies. - I still don’t like Spring’s variation. Nor the garish ‘highlighter pen’ colours and shapes of the seasons’ costumes. - the ballroom scene is still too cluttered with set and dancers and extras, although there are only 6 pairs of dancing ballroom guests 🤷🏼‍♀️ Heard from presenters Treloc and Darcey that this was Ashton’s first full-length ballet. Which explains a lot.

I’m glad someone mentioned Polina Semionova … principal in Berlin straight out of school, and then also Olesya Novikova …promoted at age 37/38 and LONG overdue in the eyes of many. I’d also like to mention Fumi Kaneko whose own promotion was delayed due to the pandemic and also her long injury time-outs. Many promotions, and debuts globally, will have been delayed by the pandemic.

A few corrections about Sergei Polunin ... Firstly he was 19 on promotion date 10 June 2009 ahead of the RB tour in Cuba. His 20th birthday was 20 November 2009. This is according to the letter he received at the time from RB management which appears in the documentary film ‘Dancer’. (Wikipedia is wrong about the date. They’ve only recently corrected the fact that he won the Prix de Lausanne in 2006.) Secondly, he left RB because of the restrictions of management about other projects he wanted to do, and, about foreseeing that his future in RB would be repetitive of the roles he’d already performed in the 4-5 years there. I’m guessing that he would have preferred to not dance some of these roles but couldn’t see a way to refuse. It’s the media that termed it a meltdown with no factual basis. In a recent interview (in Russia) he said that the RB gave him a pay rise in order for him NOT to hire an agent. On reflection, if they had allowed him an agent, that person might have managed him better and he might not have left. (On the other hand he might be unmanageable by anyone.) Don’t ask me to find this quote … he gets interviewed so often it’s impossible to keep track of what he said where, and, I’m not an archivist. Plus all the interviews now are obviously in Russian. The way he left the RB in 2012 without a firm contract at ABT (they were promising him all sorts), or anywhere else, was a sign of naivety, in my opinion. However, as we all know now, he then performed many lead roles over the next 7 years in classical ballets at STANMUS company in Moscow and at NOVAT in Novosibirsk, Siberia, and guesting elsewhere including at Bolshoi, Mariinsky, La Scala, Munich and others. He had performed nearly 50 Giselles (his favourite role) by age 26/27. Most principals won’t get to perform half as many in a full 20 year career. In response to the ‘meltdown about pressure’ argument … I think it’s clear that he wanted to have control of his career, in the same way that ‘Mademoiselle Non’ did. So, he now has that … with the even GREATER pressure of being director, choreographer, lead dancer AND producer of his own shows, requiring him to generate sufficient revenue to support a management team, finance future projects, as well as supporting his extended family of 4 generations. ————————————————————————- BUT back to the point of this thread which was to congratulate Dmitry Smilevski and Elizaveta Kokoreva on their promotions to principal at such a young age. I believe neither have danced in the corps de ballet … they have only performed soloist roles from the start of their professional careers. As with any principal anywhere .. the real work and responsibility starts now.

@Estreiiita thank you for mentioning Conor Walmsley. I meant to. He was statuesque and authoritative as Von Rothbart. Clearly beautiful training and used his musicality and both costumes very effectively. Quite a different interpretation to Giorgi P who was more menacing. I thought Conor might be overshadowed by Giorgi’s Siegfried but he was not and that in itself says a lot. I’d like to see Conor in the Siegfried role.

yes! I thought he was totally brilliant on 29/3. Hilarious without being overdone. I was giggling for his entire appearance.

Just returned from a fantastic week in Amsterdam seeing three casts performing Dutch National Ballet’s Swan Lake. PRODUCTION The production is overly long 3.5 hours (including 2 intervals). I wonder if the choreographer Rudi van Dantzig used every piece Tchaikovsky wrote. Hmm. I love most ballet, so was happy to sit through the whole thing every time and of course Act 4 is the most emotional dancing and music, so not to be missed by leaving early! The storyline is thin … there is no transformation of Odette from a maiden to a swan in this version, and I missed the prince’s promise to be faithful to Odette 2 out of the 3 times 🙄. And there is no appearance of Odette at the ball to make him realise he’s been bewitched. There is also a different version of the ending to the RB/ENB/BRB endings. (How many can there be with only 3 main protagonists!) CAST - (Odette/Odile, Siegfried, Von Rothbart) 10 April: Riho Sakamoto 🇯🇵 (debut), Martin ten Kortenaar 🇨🇦, Dingkai Bai 🇨🇳 12 April: Salome Leverashvili 🇬🇪 (debut), Timothy van Poucke 🇳🇱 (debut), Giorgi Potskhishvili 🇬🇪 15 April: Anna Tsygankova 🇷🇺, Giorgi Potskhishvili 🇬🇪, Conor Walmsley 🇬🇧 All the debuts were super … Salome is exquisite and petite with a calm demeanour, Timothy has fine virtuoso technique and they had a lovely partnership. Riho’s performance was the most impressive … the surety of her quite wonderful control of her technique and the richness of her interpretation. Remarkable for a first outing. She deserves a partner who can match her. (I see why Roberto Bolle has included her in his shows … he picks the best dancers.) My main reason for travelling was to see Anna’s swan, which had been recommended to me. She is 43 now and was partnered by the young firecracker Giorgi who is 20 or more years younger than her. He has enormous height in his jumps and really quiet landings with strong upper body for difficult lifts, plus a dynamic presence. He showed subtlety as Siegfried in contrast to his menacing and stage dominating Von Rothbart. Anna and Giorgi’s chemistry together on stage was something else, in all the acts. In Act 2 for instance, … the sensuous way that he stroked her arms/wings, the way she brushed his face with hers, the closeness of their positions … they were making love in front of us. Fully impassioned. And so it continued. It’ll take me a while to come down from this high.

Whoops .. her shows are 20th and 23rd

Alina will perform the dual role of Hippolyta/Titania in John Neumeier’s full length version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM with Hamburg Ballet … on 20 and 24 April 2023. Both shows are sold out. Alina features in these roles in this trailer from the 2019/2020 season partnered (then and now) by Christopher Evans as Theseus/Oberon.