Angela

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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

Casting for the live stream of Alice from Munich: Madison Young as Alice, Jakob Feyferlik as Jack, Shale Wagman as White Rabbit, António Casalinho as Mad Hatter.

Thank you, Naomi. I just can't get over the fact that the Finnish name for Swan Lake is Joutsenlampi 🤣🤣🤣

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Cast for the world premiere of Christian Spuck's new ballet "Bovary" at Staatsballett Berlin on 20. October: Emma Bovary: Weronika Frodyma Charles Bovary: Alexei Orlenco Léon, Lover Alexandre Cagnat Rodolphe, Lover: David Soares https://www.staatsballett-berlin.de/spielplan/stueck-detail/stid/bovary/67.html#a_146

The cast for the free live stream of Christopher Wheeldon's Alice from Bavarian State Ballet/Munich: Madison Young as Alice, Jakob Feyferlik as Jack, Shale Wagman as White Rabbit, António Casalinho as Mad Hatter. all casts here: https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/alices-adventures-in-wonderland

Alina will dance Aurora in Neumeier's Sleeping Beauty with Hamburg Ballet at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden: Oct 6 and 8, both with Alexander Trusch

Wow. I know this should not shock me and she is free to choose whereever she wants to dance, but... wow.

I'm sure that would have happened if she was on the superstar level like, let's say Cojocaru, Osipova, Nunez, Semionova. She is not. Whenever I was in Munich, ballerinas like Madison Young, Maria Baranova or Lauretta Summerscales caught my eye, not so much Zeisel, to be honest. She acted against her contract, that is not a witch hunt. I'm sure there were offers from the company management to enable her to stay. I fear it will be hard for her to find a job that quickly, given how tall she is. Sabine, I'm sure we are all sorry for the Russian dancers, and I miss my annual Mariinsky visits at Baden-Baden soo much. Some of them cheer for the war, but most of them want to pursue their short dance careers as successful and happy as possible - of course they stay where they are, they all have parents or children, they have homes and an employment. I'm sure they miss the works by Balanchine, Neumeier, Cranko, Maillot, Clug, Spuck, Naharin, Eyal, whoever, because they will be stuck with the old classics in the next years, given the lack of variety in Russian choreographers. I talked to a European choreographer who wanted to withdraw the rights for his piece immediately and then realized that it wasn't possible. In the end he said: maybe it's a good thing that they can dance these works for another year or two. Russia had opened up since Glasnost, and very much the ballet world; look at someone like Ratmansky, who was a part of both worlds. Putin and his propaganda machine now consider every Western choreographer or dancer who still works in Russia as a supporter of the regime; check the Russian articles about the Prix Benois, for example. That's why so many Western dancers or a director like Laurent Hilaire left so quickly after the war started. It is very hard for artists to maneuver through this political situation, I can see that. We all thought the Cold War was over, and here we go again.

Fiona, it's a bit difficult to demand that hearsay should be removed when your next sentence begins with "I've since heard".

According to the press release, Prisca Zeisel has left the company, they did not throw her out. If they wanted to terminate her contract, they could have done it right after the Crimea galas, because she broke her contract. But there were was a dialogue and there were negotiations: "After several exchanges with the management of both the Bayerisches Staatsballett and the Bayerische Staatsoper, Prisca Zeisel asked for the termination of her contract at the beginning of the season. The management of the house has complied with this request." (link) There may have been conditions by the company, maybe she could have apologized and they would have accepted and let her dance Paquita, but she chose otherwise. The wording may have been chosen to protect Zeisel's reputation and help her find a new job.

I'm sure they rehearsed Paquita before the holidays in June or July, so it may well be she was cast in the role before the gala incident happened at the beginning of August. Maybe they gave her a chance to apologize and stay in the company?

And she may rethink the terms of her employment contract. All guest performances usually have to be approved by the company management, if in Berlin, Tokyo or elsewhere. Which is normally no problem, if it doesn't interfere with the Munich performances. It seems, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, that she did not even ask, but they found her name on the affiche for the gala. Then they told her not to go, but she went anyway. It's not like she didn't know what she was getting into.

Thank you, Alison. I forgot that about the Zeisel happenings at Munich.

There's an explanation now for her leaving on the website, with many pictures https://www.staatsoper.de/en/inhalte-staatsballett-home/translate-to-english-prisca-zeisel-verlaesst-das-bayerische-staatsballett

Christopher Wheeldon's Alice from Munich, free https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/alices-adventures-in-wonderland Livestream of the performance of 15.10.2023, 19.30h CET on STAATSOPER.TV Video-on-Demand for 24h on 28.10.2023, 10.00h CET on STAATSOPER.TV

According to a press release from Bavarian State Ballet, principal soloist Prisca Zeisel has left the company at her own request at the beginning of September. This was caused by a guest appearance at a ballet gala in Sevastopol at Crimea during the summer break. Bavarian State Ballet only found out about this planned guest engagement shortly before the start of the theater holidays. The theater management then informed Zeisel that the performance would take place without the consent of the Bavarian State Opera. Zeisel has decided to dance in Sevastopol anyway (the gala was with Sergei Polunin and former Munich principals Jonah Cook and Ksenia Ryshkova, who had left for the Stanislavsky Theatre in 2022). After several exchanges with the management of the Bavarian State Ballet and the Bavarian State Opera, Prisca Zeisel asked for her contract to be terminated at the start of the season. The management of the house complied with this. And another detail from an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung yesterday: Zeisel was supposed to dance the Paquita Grand Pas for the opening of the season, an evening called "Blickwechsel". Casting for Christopher Wheeldon’s "Alice" at Munich: Laurretta Summerscales and Madison Young as Alice, with Jakob Feyferlik, Jinhao Zhang and Julian MacKay as Jack. António Casalinho and Shale Wagman will dance the Mad Hatter, Wheeldon will come to Munich to work with the cast. There is a free live stream on Sunday, October 15th on 19.30 CET, Video-on-Demand for 24h on 28.10.2023 starting 10.00 a.m. CET. https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/alices-adventures-in-wonderland

Vienna State Ballet will stream Nureyev's DQ live on Saturday Sept 16th at 19.00 CET, the dancers are Liudmila Konovalova, Davide Dato, Ketevan Papava, Brendan Saye and Olga Esina. https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/season-tickets/detail/event/998405178-don-quixote/ The stream is free, you have to register here: https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/ Normally the streams stay online for 72 hours.

Richard Cragun was a wonderful Onegin, and one of the best American dancers ever. A virtuoso who did totally effortless triple tours en l'air, a great partner and the perfect fit for Haydée in height, strength and interpretation. His Onegin was not haughty or arrogant, more lost in thought and full of ennui. He was my definitive Onegin for many, many years, but on the other hand, Adam Cooper (whose jumps were mediocre and who was a bad partner for Rojo) brought a kind of repressed aggression to the role, something sinister and a psychological depth that was very new. There are moments I still remember from the few performances I saw back then in London. What a great, great actor! And ever since I learn more about this fascinating Pushkin (and Cranko) character with every new interpretation, mainly that there is not definitive interpretation - there are several ways to dance Onegin, and only few dancers like Cooper understand the character from the start, most of them need some performances or even some years. I adored Jiri Jelinek at Stuttgart, I still love Jason Reilly and Friedemann Vogel, Oliver Matz was great in Munich and much later Vladimir Shklyarov. I would have loved to see more Russian dancers in the role, Zelensky, Mukhamedov or Malakhov, they never did it. Among my big disappointments in the role, just because they were such famous names, I count Rex Harrington, Manuel Legris (who walked past Tatiana's window after he disappeared through the mirror, aaargh!) and, I know you will hate me, Johan Kobborg. Vladislav Lantratov broke the fourth wall and looked directly into the audience several times, that was strange. As for Tatianas, it's very hard to get somewhere near Haydée's interpretation. And still, there are so many honest and deeply emotional ballerinas who draw you into the performance every time you see the ballet. Cranko created two of the most challenging roles for dancers, I think.