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Angela

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  1. Angela
    The black hair is pure coincidence. Anderson may have strange reasons for casting Onegin sometimes, but there are enough fair-haired or brown-haired Onegins - Filip Barankiewicz, Evan McKie at Stuttgart, Jiri Jelinek at NBoC, Wieslaw Dudek, Mikhail Kaniskin and Dmitriy Semionov at Berlin State Ballet, Adam Cooper and Robert Tewsley in the very first run at the RB: none of them has black hair and all were approved by the Cranko boys.
  2. Angela
    Well normally the conductor sets the tempi together with the dancers, not only in the Swan Lake pdds but also in Onegin, so it's not his decision alone, I guess. I don't remember such extreme differences in Onegin like in, let's say, the DQ pdd or the Black Swan pdd.
  3. Angela
    Alison, I guess this depends on the male dancers and their lifting ability - maybe it looks "faster" if the difficult lifts go smoothly? I've seen Onegin in various companies with various casts and I don't remember extreme differences in speed - some couples like it a bit slower, some are more experienced and take it faster, normally those with the better partners. That's not very helpful, I fear.
  4. Angela
    That's how it is - I think the last audition they made was in 2009, when Badenes and two other dancers came to the company, but already in the years before there were no regular auditions. There is no ban, absolutely not, but the Stuttgart school, directed by Tadeusz Matacz, is really good and Anderson is proud of it. Daniel Camargo came from the Cranko school, Badenes's partner in DQ. And yes, Badenes is doing just fine - she did Odette/Odile, Kitri and Olga in Onegin, was in many new pieces and is adored by the audience. Great technique, a very easy way of dancing, a wonderful actress, she is just doing everything right and it's a joy to watch her!
  5. Angela
    I'm sorry!!!! Forgive me, Julie, I really should read the other posts first before bursting out with my exitement! But there's so much to discover down there, it'll still be a surprise journey. Didn't know Kylian made the same thing for Copenhagen too, interesting. *shame on me*
  6. Angela
    Best is that at the end of the trip through the bowels, you climb up the stairs and stand right in the middle of the stage of the huge theatre - great moment! Enjoy, Julie!
  7. Angela
    You should add that dancers in Germany get hired for the whole year, holidays and insurance included. Other companies like Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Ballet on the Rhine, even Hamburg still have auditions, and of course all the smaller companies, too. The salary in smaller theatres is smaller, of course
  8. Angela
    I predict that in less than one year they will want to have Malakhov back
  9. Angela
    Duato has landed in a shark tank, he realised during the press conference - article in Der Tagesspiegel
  10. Angela
    Duato will not leave St. Petersburg, says this Press Release from the Mikhailovsky: "In 2014 Nacho Duato will become the head of the Staatsballett Berlin. At the same time he’ll continue his work with the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company as Resident Choreographer. The famous Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato will be the director of the German ballet company: in August 2014, after Vladimir Malakhov’s contract expires, Duato will become Intendant of the Staatsballett Berlin. Nacho Duato will continue his work as Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet till 1 February 2014, afterwards he’ll continue his work with the Company as Resident Choreographer. The upcoming plans of the choreographer at the Mikhailovsky Theatre include the première of a one-act ballet set to Andrzej Panufnik’s musiс (the working title – Promenade). In May his famous Na Floresta, the ballet to music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, will also première at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. In December 2013 the choreographer will present to the public his version of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Duato’s “Russian period” is characterized by his attention to the titles of the classical ballet repertoire. In future Nacho Duato will continue producing new ballets for the Mikhailovsky Ballet and will personally ensure the quality of the performance of his ballets. “My “Russian period” is of great importance for me, my Russian experience is absolutely priceless. But nobody can sit on two chairs at once. When I got the offer from Berlin, I discussed it with Vladimir Kekhman very thoroughly. We reached mutual understanding, and I think, we found a solution, when my open-ended obligations towards the Mikhailovsky Theatre will be slightly different. I’m not going to part with Russia or with my dancers. My future work with Berlin, among other things, means co-production with the Mikhailovsky Theatre, ballet stars guest appearances, other forms of cooperation,” Nacho Duato says. “The new quality of the Mikhailovsky Ballet acquired due to its work with Nacho Duato is obvious to everybody. I’m grateful to the great master for everything that he’s done and will do for our theatre. At the beginning of our cooperation, when we were discussing his work with us, Nacho Duato outlined two stages of work with the company: at first, the dancers work only with him, then, when the company is ready, he’d pave the way for different styles and would invite other choreographers to the theatre. We can say, we have successfully completed the first stage. The name of the new Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, starting in 2014, will be announced till the end of the season,” Vladimir Kekhman comments."
  11. Angela
    Here's the first picture of Duato in Berlin, with mayor Klaus Wowereit - who, as the article in BZ says, asked the journalists to be less aggressive with the new AD; seems like many of their questions remained without an answer. Duato said that it's a dream to become director of such a famous company (well, what else would he say), that he will keep the classical repertory and hire young choreographers (no names yet - must have been one of the questions :-)). Duato himself has to make one new piece per year and he could imagine to hire Sasha Waltz who threatens to leave Berlin. He will keep Malakhov's co-director and dramaturg Christiane Theobald.
  12. Angela
    They have Cranko's Onegin and Romeo, no Neumeier currently, but something rather modern like Preljocaj's Snow White was also a huge success. They show Eifman's Tchaikovsky and Peer Gynt by Heinz Spoerli, modern full-evening ballets like Caravaggio by Bigonzetti or The Open Square by Itzik Galili. Some classics like Sleeping Beauty or Nutcracker in Malakhov's versions (not so great), La Peri, La Esmeralda, Swan Like of course. Very few double or triple bills. Here's their repertory for 2012/2013
  13. Angela
    Absolutely, Aileen. I don't see a successor, and certainly no obvious successor - in my opinion you don't throw out a ballet director without having a least an idea what should happen to your ballet company in the future, but it seems that's what they did. Malakhov made some unlucky decisions in the past about the story ballets he acquired, and the papers there don't like old-fashioned ballets like Ashton's Syvlvia or the Bolshoi version of Esmeralda, they want more new works. But when they show new works, the audience doesn't come, difficult situation. Malakhov has a great eye for ballerinas, he discovered Polina Semionova and made her principal dancer with 17 or 18 years (her departure last year was another stone on his grave), the company has fine female soloists. Of course the dancers are uncertain what will happen now, a normal thing when a new AD comes.
  14. Angela
    Another hostile remark about Duato from the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "For the Catalan, who is Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet at St. Petersburg at the moment, the Berlin appointment would be some kind of last exit: His current employer, the oligarch Kekhman, is broke, with the prosecutor on his tail – is there anything better that could happen to Duato than an offer from the Western comfort zone? We have reason to doubt if this is true for both sides."
  15. Angela
    German newspapers say he has arrived at the hospital at Aachen.
  16. Angela
    News from Berlin: several German news sources confirm Nacho Duato as the new AD of Berlin State Ballet, succeding Vladimir Malakhov in 2014. This is not official yet, a press conference will be held on Thursday. Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz on the other hand, who was suggested by one newspaper as a possible successor to Malakhov (which would have brought about a complete change of the State Ballet to a contemporary company) declared she wants to leave Berlin with her company because of severe money problems. The first comments on Duato are disastrous: "this would mean the arrival of a shallow, compliant modernism which surely would please the new, sleek money/consumption/investors spirit of this town" (Deutschlandfunk).
  17. Angela
    Ian, yes, she is ex-Stuttgart, but no ex-ballerina - she quit Stuttgart Ballett last year to become ballet director of the small company at Gelsenkirchen. She made a new Cinderella for them recently, and she still dances. Jiri Bubenicek is a former Neumeier principal who now dances at Dresden Semper Opera Ballet (his twin brother Otto is still with Neumeier). Bubenicek started choreographing some years ago.
  18. Angela
    For those who saw Colker's Tatyana it might be interesting that John Neumeier is working on a Onegin ballet too, music by Lera Auerbach. This was published by Auerbach's music editor Sikorski one year ago.
  19. Angela
    Sorry, Katherine, I know that and should have mentioned it - maybe Mr. Reilly didn't know it
  20. Angela
    Meunier, I don't think it was the greater largess to guest to made him stay at Stuttgart, because the dancers already have that, think of Friedemann Vogel who is dancing all over the world. As Reilly said 2009 in the German press, it was ultimately the repertory of Stuttgart Ballet that convinced him. He was guesting at NBoC in Sleeping Beauty, and he is not especially fond of the prince roles ("That's SO not me"), so he thought that might be his future in Canada... (By the way, he is a great Carabosse in Marcia Haydée's version of Sleeping Beauty, where Carabosse regularly wins more applaus than the prince). At Stuttgart they also do much more modern ballet, they normally have four or five new works per year, often more, so the dancers get many ballets tailormade to their abilities. And of course they have all those dramatic ballets, not only Cranko and Neumeier, but many other interesting roles. One of Reilly's next roles will be Béjart's Bolero. Here's a link to an Canadian article about his decision to stay in Germany.
  21. Angela
    Der Spiegel is still the most important weekly news magazine in Germany, with a long and glorious tradition in uncovering scandals in politics, economy or society. Wikipedia compares it to Time, Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly. However they are no experts in ballet, they rarely write about dance in their cultural pages, more about literature, art, theatre, classical music, often with fine interviews or portraits. The English article that Katherine found in the online edition seems to be the translation of an article in the German print version of this week, which already made me frown on Monday. Maybe investigative journalists should not believe everything they are beeing told, especially by people with their own interests in the unfolding of the story, maybe somebody was too eager to present scandalous facts without proof. Nevertheless, one bad article does not make Der Spiegel a bad magazine; as we have often discussed here, there are some people who write about ballet who do not have the slightest hint about it. Less though in England than in Germany, it seems
  22. Angela
    Here is the Press Release in German
  23. Angela
    Press Release from Berlin State Ballet (not online yet, sorry): Vladimir Malakhov will not renew his contract as director of the company after season 2013/14. He has directed the company, which reunited the three dance companies of the three Berlin opera houses, since 2004. A German article in Die Welt, which says at the end that one of the most likely candidates for the job is one „Nacho Duarto“ from Catalonia, „who directs the currently not very reliable Mikhailovsky Ballet" Ed. for typo
  24. Angela
    A Farewell to Konstanze Vernon on the website of the Bavarian State Ballet (in English)
  25. Angela
    I think that an Onegin DVD would sell much better than for example "Miniatures" by Jean-Christophe Maillot, Lar Lubovitch’s "Othello", "The Great Mass" by Scholz/Leipzig, "A Simple Man"/Gillian Lynne, "Hobson’s Choice" by Bintley, "Excelsior"/La Scala – all very interesting works, but not in the repertory of so many big companies as Onegin is now. With Onegin in London, Paris, New York, Toronto, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, in Moscow from June 2013, I think this could be a bestseller among ballet DVDs, even if it is not "my home company". I’m sure arte or another German TV station would love to co-produce the recording.
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