Angela

Casting News from Munich: On Dec 29. Jakob Feyferlik will have his debut as Prince in Wheeldon’s Cinderella with Madison Young. Jonah Acosta will dance Benjamin for the first time. The casts for Cranko’s Onegin, which will come back on January 12, are, as Tatyana and Onegin: Laurretta Summerscales and Osiel Gouneo , Jinhao Zhang and Maria Baranova, Jakob Feyferlik and Madison Young.

ACWorkroom had an ad on Twitter for the production with the text "This heart-warming, life-affirming ballet featuring a hugely talented cast including @DancingAlina, is guaranteed to put a smile on your face". I really see the necessity to advertise, but why make a family-friendly ballet out of a melodrama? Now I'm not sure if they really watched the movie... What's life-affirming about a woman being treated like a dog, about a circus clown being beaten to death by a rival? Gelsomina dies all alone in the end, what could be more tragic? Hm. s://x.com/ACWorkroom/status/1734913559421690010?s=20

For Cranko lovers: the choreographer's last work "Spuren" ("Traces"), which he made in April 1973 shortly before his suden death, will come back to the stage. It was partly reconstructed for the 50th anniversary gala for Cranko in July 2023, but only for one performance. Now Tamas Detrich said at a discussion about the work that it will return - possibly next season, he did not say that. Technically it was not Cranko's last work, there was another new creation in the same triple bill called "Green", which came after "Spuren" on the premiere evening. But well, it seems such an important ballet with it's policital/historical background. It was dedicated to Valery Panov at the time, a Kirov dancer who wanted to leave the Soviet Union.

Dresden Semperoper Ballett will stream a performance of “A Swan Lake” by Johan Inger on Dec 17th, 19.00 CET via Arte Concert. But as I can’t find the English page for the stream, I’m not so sure if it will work everywhere – I guess Spuck’s “Bovary” did, so let’s hope this new Swan Lake will too, the premiere is one week before the stream. Available as VOD for three months afterwards via Arte Concert https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/116718-000-A/peter-tschaikowsky-schwanensee/ https://www.semperoper.de/en/whats-on/schedule/stid/swan-lake/62280.html

Look out for Alice McArthur, she is the next Elisa Badenes and I am so angry that Tamas Detrich did not offer her a full contract at Stuttgart, but only an apprenticeship. 👹 She won the Genee Award some years ago. Wonderful port de bras.

Rémy Fichet will direct the ballet company at Leipzig from 2024/25 Rémy Fichet is the designated new Director of the Leipzig Ballet and will take over its artistic direction at Oper Leipzig from the 2024/25 season. In succession to the previous Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer Mario Schröder, Rémy Fichet will continue the tradition of the Leipzig Ballet as established by Uwe Scholz. For the upcoming seasons, collaborations with innovative choreographers from the international dance scene are being planned. Tobias Wolff, Director of Oper Leipzig: "We are deliberately making the change to a curatorial-artistic direction at the Leipzig Ballet, and I am truly grateful that our preferred candidate Rémy Fichet has chosen our institution. I look forward to new creative formats and choreographies with the company." Rémy Fichet, born in Amiens (France), completed his dance training at the Paris Opera Ballet School. After two years as a dancer at the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, he joined Leipzig Ballet in 2000, performing in the ensemble until 2008, most recently as a soloist. Following his career as a dancer, he remained loyal to Leipzig Ballet. As scheduler and project coordinator, and since 2012 as Artistic Production Manager, Fichet provided the structural framework for the successful work of the Leipzig Ballet, with additional qualifications from two years of part-time management studies and a Master of Arts degree, which he completed with distinction at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden in 2023. Fichet established first-time specialised dance medicine services for the ballet ensemble at Oper Leipzig and values long-term, individually tailored support for the dancers and the next generation of choreographic creatives.

I don't know if this was mentioned here before: This piece will be streamed on Jan 7th for 24 hours as VOD https://www.staatsoper.de/en/tv

That music is the beginning of the mirror pas de deux from Onegin - I just can't unsee Cranko...

Nikita Korneev was born in Russia, he came to Germany as a young child. Both his parents were dancers, his father Ivan Korneev was a principal with Dresden Semper Oper and later at Aalto Ballet Essen. As a young boy, he trained at his parents' school in the South of Germany, later he went to Stuttgart where he graduated in 2016. Stuttgart Ballet did not take him in, there were too many good boys and too few places, and Korneev may not be the versatile type who can also do modern ballet. But he was offered a place at Bavarian State Ballet. In the meantime, he asked if he could train with the Mariinsky at their annual visit to Baden-Baden Festspielhaus at Christmas. Yuri Fateev asked him to join the Mariinsky immediately, and Korneev did. As he was given Siegfried and many more principal roles very soon, his technique seems to be adequate for the Mariinsky 🙂 May I add that also Daniel Camargo, now principal at ABT, graduated from the Cranko School.

She also missed out on Alexander Jones, later principal at Stuttgart and then at Zurich Ballet. And on Elisa Badenes, now a dearly beloved principal at Stuttgart. As Jones and Moore once insinuated, they only decided to accept contracts at Stuttgart as they were not offered contracts at the ROH, and Gailene Stock, director of the RBS at that time, recommended to leave London it the ROH was not interested in them. David Moore, same RBS year as Polunin, is still a principal at Stuttgart. Mason may have had different opinions about all of them all or no free places in her company, I fully understand - but then don't complain that there are no British dancers, if you are not willing to nurture young talents.

Her bio says "she was named a “Choreographer of the Year” by German Tanz magazine", not "choreographer of the year". It is a critics' survey, so she got nominated by one out of ca. 30 critics. Boris Charmatz, now director of Wuppertal Tanztheater, got the most votes in 2012 and won the title "choreographer of the year". Horecna has a kind of NDT style, influenced by Kylián, most articles about her work say. But to be honest, she has not worked so much here in Germany, I would not say she is famous.

Casting for "Le Parc" at Munich: Madison Young and Julian MacKay Laurretta Summerscales and Jakob Feyferlik Maria Baranova and Jinhao Zhang The premiere is on 25. November, of course Laurent Hilaire is coaching the dancers himself, after all he created the male role for Angelin Preljocaj at Paris in 1994.

Raimondo Rebeck was appointend the next ballet director at Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe today, starting with season 2024/25. He follows Bridget Breiner who leaves for Ballet on the Rhine, replacing Demis Volpi there, who leaves for Hamburg Ballet. Rebeck was a principal dancer at the Berlin State Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he then continued as ballet master, choreographer, teacher, coach and director of the NRW Junior Ballet at Dortmund. His deputy director will be Kristína Paulin, born in Bratislava and for many years a member of Hamburg Ballet. She is now a choreographer and will also be the new choreographer in residence at Karlsruhe.

Vanartus, it's the German theatre system. Most opera houses, where also the dance companies normally are located, get subsidies from their town AND from their land, for Cologne that would be the town of Cologne and the Land Northrhine-Westphalia. But not all, the smaller ones are financed by their town only or mostly. We have so many theatres in Germany, because in the old days, each king, duke or count had his own court theatre, they later developed into town theatres or (the big ones) into state theatres, were rebuilt or renovated. Now no town wants to give up its theatre, it's a part of the town culture. In the range of 100 km around the Ballet on the Rhine at Düsseldorf you'll find six or seven smaller dance companies, even a bigger company at Dortmund, where they just staged a new Swan Lake with Iana Salenko and Dinu Tamazlacaru as guests. You have official, subsidised dance companies between ca. 10 and 30 dancers in Dortmund (ballet), Gelsenkirchen (modern ballet), Essen (ballet), Wuppertal (dance theatre), Cologne (whatever), Krefeld (modern ballet) and Osnabrück (modern ballet), and I'm almost sure I forgot one. Hagen, Münster, two more. So the Land Northrine-Westphalia could say: Okay, we'll drop some smaller companies and give the money to the Ballet on the Rhine, but then all other towns would protest or overtake the subsidies for their theatre alone. And "theatre" means opera, playhouse, dance, the famous "Dreispartenhaus" in Germany. It may seem odd if you know the British system, but on the other hand, we have lots of theatres, lots of performances, even if they are on a smaller scale - and lots of jobs for dancers.

https://www.zhdk.ch/en/news/jason-beechey-appointed-head-of-dance-at-zhdk-6899

News from the Palucca School / Dresden and the Tanzakademie / Zürich: Prof. Jason Beechey, Rector of Germany’s only independent university of dance, will change to the Zurich University of the Arts in summer 2024. As of 1 August 2024, he will assume the newly created position of “Head Dance” at the university in Zurich. Dresden, 25th October 2023. A native Canadian, Jason Beechey has been Rector of the internationally renowned Palucca University of Dance Dresden since 2006. The University will celebrate its centenary in 2025. Beechey is a professional dance teacher with 30 years of teaching experience. His vision of a progressive and future-oriented dance education has characterized the Palucca University of Dance Dresden over a period of almost two decades. With a focus on each individual and the idea of breaking through the traditional barriers that have existed between classical ballet, modern/contemporary dance and improvisation, Beechey developed a common and comprehensive approach to dance. This has led to, among others, a complete revision of the curriculum and a new orientation of the study programmes as well as the establishment of a permanent Health Team at the University. Furthermore, Beechey established a world-wide network for dance with renowned partner institutions. He has initiated numerous international exchange programmes as well as the Apprentice Programme with the Semperoper Ballett and other theatres throughout Germany. The Zurich University of the Arts, with roughly 2000 students, is one of the largest art universities in Europe. The institution is currently the only establishment for professional training in classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance in Switzerland. As of next year and continuing to the end of 2026, the Department of Dance will undergo a restructuring. Jason Beechey will take on this task as “Head of Dance” seeing in it a new challenge: “For me, this is an extremely inspiring and exciting opportunity to create a completely new era of dance both at Zurich University of the Arts and in Switzerland” says Prof. Beechey. “It has been an unbelievably inspiring 18 years of learning, growing, and building up a team and a network which has vested Palucca University of Dance Dresden with a strong international presence and a clear profile. It has become a beacon of the progressive dance education of our time. I am very grateful to every single person that I have met, who I have worked with and from whom I have had the privilege of learning. It has been rewarding to have been able to experience so many wonderful moments together. I would like to celebrate all that we have achieved together and I am very much looking forward to the continuation of a close relationship with Palucca University of Dance Dresden in my new role as Head of Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts. As a global dance community, we shall work together in order to ensure that dance education can be relevant, inspiring, inclusive, safe, and exciting, also for the coming generations.“ - Jason Beechey, 25 October 2023 https://palucca.eu/en/current-events/news/press-releases

Due to the situation in Israel, the Batsheva Company had to cancel its tour through Germany and Austria in November.

😉

They just tried do to so with Martin Schläpfer. It did not work for Vienna.

There will be a new ballet/dance company at Cologne, which, although it is the fourth most-populous city in Germany and home to the German Dance Archive, has a sad history of dance companies. Once Todd Bolender was ballet director there, but somewhere in the 1970s, the ballet turned into the first contemporary dance company of a German opera house, then it was kicked out into the off-scene in 1995, the dance section was closed and the Tanzforum Köln died some years later. The dance section at the opera reopened for a few years from 2005 till 2009 for Amanda Miller's company "pretty ugly", then there were plans for a dance collaboration with near-by Bonn, then there was the Ballet of Difference with Richard Siegal, which was kicked out last year. Now they reopen their renovated opera house and start another attempt at dance. Apply here: http://buehnen.koeln/open-call "Cologne, once renowned as a city of dance with numerous national and international successes, plans to establish dance, alongside opera and drama, as an independent artistic division at Bühnen Köln from the 2024/25 season on. For this purpose, Stadt Köln is advertising the position of a directorship in a transparent competition process, combined with a call for submission of a meaningful concept for the artistic and organizational profile of the new dance division yet to be founded. The aim of the call is to permanently establish Cologne as a creative hub for dance with international appeal."

Well, we all know that Mackenzie Brown has a fine technique; she won the Prix de Lausanne and the Erik Bruhn Prize. I adored her in the modern roles, in William Forsythe’s “Blake Works” or in Marco Goecke’s “Nachtmerrie”, she has an incredible sense of rhythm and is just a brilliant mover. Her phrasing is beautiful and she has a carefully formulated personal style. In story ballets, she has done Olga in Onegin and Bianca in Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew, also Aurora – all fine, but for my (very spoiled) taste a subtle shade too nice, too nondescript. But here she turned out to be a dramatic ballerina of thrilling intensity, I honestly could already imagine a wonderful Tatiana. I have rarely seen the blossoming of Juliet's personality so clear: how the playful girl all too suddenly becomes a young woman, how the initially wonderful feeling of love frightens her a little, develops into a deep emotion, and ultimately, after the wedding, turns out almost frightening. Brown is a tall dancer, but she could throw herself into the part without any fear because her Romeo is such an effortless partner: Martí Fernández Paixà replaced Brown's former, currently injured partners Gabriel Figueredo and Henrik Erikson, and there was an instant, almost uncanny chemistry between them. Paixà looks like a film star from a Latin movie, but he is a Romeo of the #MeToo age, never intrusive to the young woman, but tentative, very careful and adoring from the beginning, moved by this unknown feeling like she is. Both were even more impressive in the third act, when Romeo and Juliet wake up after the wedding. There was no sign of childish defiance or pouting in Juliet’s pleas to her parents, but real fear and an existential despair, also in the long mime scene in which she fights with her thoughts and Father Lorenzo's potion. For a debut, I found so many nuances, such an authentic interpretation quite incredible. Brown, who came to Stuttgart in 2020 and was promoted each season, was very moved at the first curtain, and also very moved by the promotion which ballet director Tamas Detrich announced on stage. She received the well-known Stuttgart ovations from the audience and also from the company. She is just 21 years old, what a career!

After her beautiful, truly remarkable debut performance as Juliet in John Cranko's Romeo, Mackenzie Brown was promoted to Principal Dancer at Stuttgart Ballet this evening.

John Neumeier has invited the Joffrey Ballet from Chicago for his next "The World of John Neumeier" festival at Baden-Baden Festspielhaus. They bring pieces by Nicolas Blanc, Cathy Marston and Liam Scarlett in September 2024 https://www.festspielhaus.de/en/events/joffrey-ballet-chicago/?date=2024-09-27-2000 The Festspielhaus published the dates for next season today, guest companies include Hamburg, Joffrey, Malandain from Biarritz, Compagnie Käfig and Sofia Nappi.

For those of you who can watch Arte Concert (I don't know if it's geoblocked): there will be a live stream of the premiere of "Bovary", it should be available for three months afterwards https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/117103-000-A/christian-spuck-bovary/ https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/news/detail/bovary-im-livestream.html