Bluebird

I thought it might be useful to have lists of the names of the prizewinners of the YBDY. I've only managed to go back to 2005. Apologies for the mix of formats - the result of a lot of cutting and pasting. 2005 1st Prize Ruth Bailey 2nd Prize James Barton 3rd Prize Claire Calvert Sibley-Dowell Award for a promising student with potential James Hay Commendations for - Oliver Till and Jade Clayton 2006 1st Prize James Hay 2nd Prize Delia Mathews 3rd Prize Andrew Peasgood Commendations Bethany Kingsley-Garner and Katy Harvey Sibley-Dowell award for a promising dancer Yvette Knight. 2007 1st Prize.Sergei Polunin 2nd Prize Delia Matthews 3rd Prize Nancy Osbaldeston. Commendations went to Nicola Henshall(17) and William Bracewell(15), and the SIbley/Dowell prize for promising student with potential, to Freya Thomas(16) 2008 1st Prize William Bracewell 2nd Prize Tristan Dyer 3rd Prize Laurretta Summerscales Commendations: Jonathan Hanks and Brandon Lawrence Sibley Dowell award for promising student: Sean Bates 2009 Winner: Yasmine Naghdi 2nd Prize: Sean Bates 3rd Prize: Dominic Whitbrook Sibley/Dowell award for a promising student with potential: Brandon Lawrence Commendations: Barry Drummond and Evie Ball 2010 First Prize: Francesca Hayward Second Prize: Anna-Rose O'Sullivan Third Prize: Bruno Micchiardi Sibley Dowell award for promising student: Dominic Whitbrook Commendations: Sean Bates and Roseanna Leney 2011 1st Prize: Anna Rose O’Sullivan (16) 2nd Prize: Teo Dubreuil (17) 3rd Prize: Matthew Ball (17) Sibley Dowell Award for a promising student with potential: Reece Clarke (15) Commendations: Tierney Heap (17) and Greig Matthew (17) 2012 1st Prize: Reece Clarke 2nd Prize: Barnaby Rook Bishop 3rd Prize: James Stephens Sibley Dowell Award for a promising student with potential: Suzan Opperman Commendations: Georgio Garrett and Alexander Bird 2013 1st prize Chisato Katsura 2nd prize Isabelle Brouwers 3rd prize Jerome Barnes Special acknowledgement from the jury: Scott Mackenzie Commendations: Joseph Sissons and William Beagley Sibley Dowell Award for a promising student with potential: Barnaby Rook Bishop

Yes, I wouldn't have noticed it yesterday evening if it hadn't been at the top of 'recent topics'. Might it be possible for one of the administrators to move it into another forum?

The Mail was paraphrasing the interview that that Aileen referred to. That interview had appeared in the Independent on Friday. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/leaving-the-barre-ballet-in-crisisover-lack-of-women-says-carlos-acosta-8720968.html The original interview provides a much longer and more nuanced quote from the RBS spokeswoman. Edited to add that I was extremely surprised that an official spokesperson of the School would make public comments of this kind. I initially thought that the comments might have been taken out of context but, unless they have been inaccurately reported, this doesn't seem to be the case.

There are clips on You Tube of Xander's Golden Slave with the Mariinsky (with Sophia Gumerova). They were posted in March of this year but the date of the performance is not given. I seem to remember that we're not supposed to post You Tube links but the clips can be found by searching for ballet2013's uploads.

According to Volcanohunter on Balletalert, it has been announced that Nina Kaptsova will not be coming to London with the company. He says that the casting for Aurora has therefore been changed. These are the dates affected, with the new Aurora in capitals 5th August: OBRAZTSOVA & Artem Ovcharenko Yekaterina Shipulina 7th August KRYSANOVA & Dmitry Gudanov Yekaterina Shipulina 8th August ALEXANDROVA & Semyon Chudin Olga Smirnova In addition, Anastasia Stashkevich will replace Kaptsova in Emeralds on 13th August The modified casting is on the Bolshoi website (in Russian) but Google Translate makes it more or less understandable. Here's the link: http://www.bolshoi.ru/about/press/articles/2013/2633/

I'd been considering booking for this performance and, when I tried to book online, it appeared that only the stalls were being sold. No other option was provided. At this time, (a few days before the performance), the stalls were virtually sold out so they maybe opened the dress circle at the last minute?

She has danced Clara in Wayne Eagling's Nutcracker (two seasons running). She has also danced the lead role in Rhapsody in Blue - maybe not a full length but a taxing role, nonetheless.

Ksenia has actually danced three principal roles since she joined the company. Aurora and the Firebird are quite recent but she has also danced Giselle (in 2010). If I remember correctly, she also danced the girl in Le Spectre de la Rose (during her first season with ENB in 2008/9). I was astonished when I saw that she had fallen behind colleagues who have not danced so many prominent roles. While I am absolutely delighted with Shiori Kase's well deserved promotion to soloist, I feel strongly that Ksenia has earned the right to be at a similar level. Edited to correct punctuation.

Yes. Zdenek Konvalina.

Surely one of the reasons the sales for the Stanislavsky were so poor is that the tickets were on sale for less than two months. I've just checked and they went on sale around May 18, a little over 7 weeks before the opening night. Most productions from visiting companies are put on sale many months in advance.

There's a little information on Dansomanie, the French website. The men's Gold medal was won by a Japanese dancer, Yoshiaki Nakano. The women's silver and bronze medals were won by Chinese dancers but these dancers are not named in the thread.

Yesterday's advertised casts were, indeed, switched round. The evening performance was danced by Dmitry Sobolevsky and Natalia Somova. There was no announcement and I could find no indication, anywhere in the theatre, that the cast was other than advertised. I found the performance delightful and liked it more than either of the previous two. I had enjoyed Sergei's performance the previous evening but found that the Sobolevsky/Somova partnership worked far better than Sergei's partnership with Kristina Shapran.

This afternoon, Franz and Swanilda were not danced by the dancers named on the posters (Sobolevsky and Somova) . If it hadn't been for a friend who'd checked the photos in her programme, I would never have known that the cast scheduled to dance this evening (Velichko and Mikirticheva),had actually danced this afternoon.

I could see the whole of the orchestra pit apart from the extreme left. A friend could see the whole of it apart from the extreme right. Neither of us could see any instrument being played so I can only assume it was a recording (or could it have being played off stage?).

Maybe you meant to say that they'd never dance two Swan Lakes in one day on two consecutive days? They often do two in a day at the ROH (i.e. a Saturday matinée + an evening performance)

Just noticed this on the BRB website. http://www.brb.org.uk/promotions-2013.html Momoko Hirata, Tyrone Singleton promoted to Principal Yijing Zhang promoted to First Artist Congratulations to them all!

Don't know if it's OK to provide a link to another ballet site. Please remove if it's against policy. Casting announced here: http://balletnews.co.uk/casting-is-announced-for-les-saisons-russes-du-xx1e-siecle-at-the-coliseum-july-16-20/

Thanks Spannerandpony. I've copied and pasted the information from the ROH website: "The Royal Ballet has announced details of promotions, joiners and leavers for the 2013/14 Season. Belfast-born Melissa Hamilton has been promoted to First Soloist following a Season of strong performances, most recently in Raven Girl and Mayerling. Listen to an ROH Insights interview with Melissa. Olivia Cowley, Elizabeth Harrod and Fumi Kaneko have been made Soloists, while Hayley Forskitt, Francesca Hayward and Tristan Dyer have been promoted to First Artists. Natalia Osipova will join the Company as a Principal from the Mikhailovsky Ballet. Natalia made her Royal Ballet Debut in Swan Lake last Season, partnered by Carlos Acosta. Annette Buvoli and David Donnelly will join as Artists from The Royal Ballet School, with Masaya Yamamoto joining the Company as a Prix de Lausanne dancer. Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Luca Acri and Marcelino Sambé joined as Artists during the 2012/2013 Season." Edited to add my congratulations to all those promoted and to those joining the company.

You might be able to find them, on Ebay,(in their previous incarnation as London Festival Ballet) in Makarova's Swan Lake. This was filmed in the early seventies with Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss. It's currently available from market traders on amazon.com but I believe the DVD they're selling is region 1 only so you'd need a multi region player on your desert island! Edited to add that I believe this is the recording that features a very young Leanne Benjamin in the Ashton pas de quatre

Aileen did say 'few' ballerinas and specified 'in the last few years'. I was also present at Laurretta's debut and was really impressed with the confident and assured manner of her dancing. The friend I was with remarked that nobody would have known it was the first time she'd danced the role in public. Congratulations to her.

Steven McRae, Romany Pajdak and also Erico Montes actually graduated from the RBS to the Royal Ballet in 2004. In 2005 the RBS Graduates who joined the company were Xander Parish and Liam Scarlett. Demelza Parish, Gemma Pitchley-Gale and Sabina Westcombe joined the company from the Second Year of the RBS - i.e. they did not do the Graduate Year. Out of interest, I just had a go at finding the relevant threads from ballet.co.uk. Here they are: http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/2373.html (2004 joiners, promotions..etc) http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/2849.html (2005 joiners, promotions..etc) edit: sorry, Jane, we were posting at the same time.

Thank you both, a frog and John. It's good that we now know what all the students in the picture are doing. Interesting, also, that around a third of them have already become principal dancers. A pretty good result for the RBS.

Mystery solved. I've worked out that the photo must have been taken in 2002/2003 when the 2005 Graduates were in the First Year and were wearing its pale blue uniform and the 2004 female Graduates were in the darker blue of the Second Year. My monitor does not seem able to show much difference between the pale and darker blue. I don't quite know why I've spent so much time on a trivial matter in which only a handful of people will be interested!

Apologies. I should have checked that my information was up-to-date. I have just corrected the original post. Thank you! I believe the rest of the post is up-to-date but would be grateful for information on any other errors or omissions. .

Interestingly these seem to be students from two separate graduating years. A number of them graduated in 2004 and others in 2005. However they all seem to be wearing the uniform of the Second Year of the RBS. Maybe somebody who knows more than I do could explain? Janet has already mentioned that Joe Caley (2005) is with BRB. Three of the 2004 Graduates are, of course, currently with the Royal Ballet, Steven McRae, Lizzie Harrod and Romany Pajdak. One of the 2005 Graduates is a Principal at Stuttgart Ballet (Alexander Jones) and another is a Principal at Zürich Ballet (William Moore). Shevelle Dynott and James Forbat (2005) are both with ENB. Xander Parish (2005) is with the Mariinsky. Thomas Forster and Cory Stearns are with ABT. Laurence Rigg is with Béjart Ballet, Lausanne. The two I’m not certain about are Nutnaree Pipithsuksant and Josephine Pra. Immediately after her graduation in 2004 Nutnaree joined San Francisco Ballet as a soloist. She is no longer on their roster and I have been unable to find out where she has gone. Josephine Pra was last with Ballet Biarritz but left in 2011. Maybe somebody has further information on these two? Edited to say that, on a closer look, Steven and Cory are wearing the dark Graduate Year uniform. The rest do, however, all seem to be wearing the Second Year uniform. Edited also to correct the information on William Moore (thanks to Naomi for the correct information).