MaddieRose

From what I know Zenaida Yanowsky coached Fumi Kaneko and Mayara Magri, and Darcey Bussell coached Anna-Rose O'Sullivan and is coaching Claire Calvert

The Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company is taking in 3 Ukrainian dancers, effective April 1st: Polina Loshchylina and Kate Myklukha (both from the National Opera of Ukraine), and Victoria Glazunova (from the Bolshoi).

I'm sure there was a Mayuko Maeda in the company years ago, if I remember correctly she's one of the dolls in the Benjamin/Acosta Coppelia. But that was filmed in the early 2000s, so I doubt it's the same dancer.

Per her IG Osipova has Covid, and says she'll miss the premiere on Thursday

Javier Torres has posted on IG with details of who's dancing what. It looks like those attending are sure to be in for a wonderful treat this evening.

After I saw Miki Mizutani's name down for the Ukraine gala I did wonder how long it would take for her to be promoted. I didn't have to wait long at all to find out. Very happy to wake up to this news!

Alina has posted a new poster with more information of dancers: Luca Acri, Aitor Arrieta, Rebecca Bassett-Graham, William Bracewell, Fernando Carratála Coloma, Reece Clarke, Mathias Dingman, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Mathieu Ganio, Emma Hawes, Fumi Kaneko, Katja Khaniukova, Mayara Magri, Alison McWhinney, Miki Mizutani, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova, Salvator de Simone, Junor Souza, Javier Torres and Marianna Tsembenhoi.

Reece Clarke and Marianela Nuñez are dancing the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux https://www.instagram.com/p/CbNUQCzonPa/

Graham Watts has said on Instagram that Olga Smirnova is joining the Dutch National Ballet. https://www.instagram.com/p/CbKr73UgzoN/

She's not in the above photo, she's sat at her seat. Here's another snapshot with her in.

For anyone on Instagram, Marcelino Sambe has posted the sweetest video to his stories of some of the principals at the door to Fumi Kaneko's dressing room congratulating her after the show. They told her how much they enjoyed her performance, and asked if they could hear them all applauding her. Here's a snapshot of the video for anyone who isn't on Instagram.

Conductor Valery Gergiev has been dismissed from his posts as Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival and Chief Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra due to not condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The Verbier Festival in Switzerland, of which he was Music Director, has asked for and accepted his resignation. BBC on Edinburgh Reuters on Munich Statement from the Verbier Festival

There's a tweet here that implies it won't go ahead (and a reply says it's been cancelled but they don't cite a source): In Russian I found an article (https://mvkursk.ru/culture/horeograf-ratmanskij-pokinul-rossiyu-iz-za-ukrainy-premera-v-bolshom-pod-voprosom.html). I'm not fluent in Russian but I think it's the exact same article as the article linked by Sabine above, just in Russian. All it says is that it can be expected that they'll announce the cancellation, and that May 14th was a possible premiere date. The few articles I could find in Russian all say the same, and none of them are an official source.

Per the Bolshoi Theatre's Instagram, the premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's The Art of Fugue has been postponed. It will be replaced with performances of Don Quixote.

He's also done Paris in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. I saw him in the role last October and he had such a brilliant stage presence. I'm glad he's doing so well in Don Quixote, and hopefully this leads to more opportunities for him.

Private accounts I think came about, at least in my social groups, from people having public main accounts and trying to be 'influencers'/get lots of followers. I know all the private accounts of my friends that I follow are for closer friends than a main account would have. I don't have one as my main account is set to private already. I joined social media at 12, 7 years ago, and I still keep it strictly to people I know. There's been a rise in bot accounts (on Instagram particularly) that try to convince you to buy bitcoin, or use sexual pictures of women to promote dodgy links (I haven't clicked on them so I don't know where they go but it can't be good). I'd say make sure to watch out for them, because these accounts can still send direct message requests even if they don't follow you. Recently on my private account I got 2, and deleted the message and blocked the accounts. Also if you have a private account people can still tag you in comments, so I keep winning iPhone 10s, apparently. For these accounts you can block them, and there's now an option to block any accounts they might create, so make sure to do that if you are tagged. I think a private account is much better. I don't find myself worrying about who people following me are, and what their intentions may be. I really don't recommend them for young children, they just breed envy of how much better than you people appear to be. Compared to my friends I'd say I'm quite grounded and mature on social media because I've always had private accounts. My Mum also taught me a lot about what was a scam, and people pretending to be who they weren't, and she made me pass a little informal test to make sure I could recognise these things before I opened an account. And I think that teaching and mentality of 'this is for friends and family only' has done me a lot of good.

RIP Mr Danton. Getting to hear him speak about his life and experiences in various different events over the years has been an honour, and I'm sure his students were blessed to have been taught by him.

I think I must've summoned it: https://www.brb.org.uk/post/announcing-our-2022-23-season

In an email about Swan Lake in Southampton there was this: We're looking forward to announcing full details of the rest of our 2022-23 performances in early February. That doesn't cover March onwards, but may account for Autumn. I'm not sure though.

Congratulations to Federico! 🎉

Does Young ROH booking start early? On my account it says booking opens on the 15th Feb, so I'm presuming that's for the Young ROH tickets.

I started dance lessons as a young kid, and my teacher used to show me ballet VHS tapes. I'm quite young, so the first one I remember seeing was the Acosta-Nuñez La fille mal gardée. But we watched older ones as well, I vividly remember a Bolshoi Don Quixote with Nadezha Pavlova, and some of those Best of the Kirov/Bolshoi tapes. Those have stuck with me over the years, even after I've stopped dancing. There were lots of books involved too. My Mum passed down some of Lorna Hill's ballet books to me, and I had Ballet Shoes as an audio tape to listen to when I went to sleep, alongside other Noel Streatfeild books. Similarly to you Dawnstar I was into musicals first. In 2014 my Great-Aunt (a long time patron of the Birmingham Hippodrome), found out I wanted to see a musical, and took me to see Wicked at the Hippodrome. It was only really in 2019 that I realised that I could just be out watching ballet, and that it wasn't something that was very expensive and only for rich people (that was why my dance teacher never took us to see anything). Then lockdown hit, and I couldn't go and see anything, but I found more up to date recordings. I also got interested in ballet history (I'm a history student), and started collecting theatre memorabilia and old dance books. When the time finally came for theatres to open up again last October, I went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Hippodrome, the place where I saw my first musical. Now I've booked for Northern Ballet's Casanova in March, and am hoping to book to see the Royal's Ashton Bill in April. I'll be going to Uni in a bigger city in September, so I'm hoping better train links can take me around the country to see lots more ballet.

My dream list (which is hopeless, but oh well): Balanchine's The Prodigal Son (Claire Calvert and Alex Campbell mentioned rehearsing this in their LBC talk, and I'm miffed COVID took it away from us). Symphony in C, Themes and Variations. My most unrealistic Balanchine is Vienna Waltzes, which I know will never happen. Robbins' The Concert would be nice. Tudor, maybe The Leaves are Fading? Gala Performance, which sounds fun too. Do the RB or BRB still have any of de Valois' work in their stageable repertoires? I'd love to see those, in an ideal world where companies remember and celebrate their founders. Birmingham did Ashton's Dante Sonata some time ago, so I'd like to see that as well. Les Sylphides. I know the RB have done The Firebird, Les Noces and The Rite of Spring, so those. Full lengths will be the money-makers, so I don't expect much to change in rotations there. As long everyone's not doing the same ballet at the same time I'll be happy. i'll take anything Ashton at this rate. Hopefully the Triple Bill in London does well, and that'll convince them there's an audience that is eager for Ashton out there. There is a huge and rich history of ballet works out there. New works are good, but at the rate companies seem to be moving forward there'll be nobody to coach the older works when someone finally remembers they exist. It's all well and good teaching dancers the steps, but they need to learn the roles too. It might be a shout into the void at this point, but maybe, just maybe, 2022 will be the year someone hears it. But probably not.

I was at today’s matinee for my first live ballet experience, and what a show it was. Momoko Hirata was practically flying across the stage- she looked weightless and so elegant. Her acting was sublime, and she truly made me believe she was Juliet. César Morales was also incredible, and you could see he put so much effort into every turn and every jump. Together the two of them were remarkable, and their chemistry and coordination is wonderful. I must praise Tzu-Chao Chou, who was a hilarious Mercutio and got the laughs he deserved, and then turned round and delivered some of the most compelling acting in his death scene. Rory Mackay was a menacing Tybalt who’s acting was also superb. In fact everyone’s acting was brilliant, and had me on the edge of my seat. The rest of the ensemble were all alive this afternoon. According to the lady sat next to us who’d attended multiple performances, this was the most vigorous sword fighting she’d seen in the run, and it was totally engrossing. The orchestra were spectacular- it felt so good to hear live music again. Special mention must be made for Charlotte the violinist and leader Robert Gibbs, who both had friends and family sat next to us in the stalls, and who we gave an extra cheer for. All in all it was an outstanding performance, and one I’m very glad to keep in my memory as my first live ballet.

My copy arrived this week as well, and having flicked through it it looks very interesting. I love the little 'bon mots' at the side of the page with the funniest remarks from his reviews in.