Angela

Konstanze Vernon, former Munich prima ballerina (1963-1980) and first director of the Bavarian State Ballet (1988 - 1998), died yesterday at a hospital in Munich after a short illness. She was 74 years old. She was also head of the Heinz Bosl Foundation, named after her famous partner Heinz Bosl who died very young. The foundation works closely with the Ballet Academy at Munich. Vernon founded the Bavarian State Ballet II, the first Junior Company in Germany.

Katherine, of course you're right, but as Onegin is now danced by so many companies worldwide, I don't think this would be a niche product. Look what they publish on DVD, unknown works by much smaller companies. Stuttgart has fine records of all the Cranko ballets (technically fine at least), as they do "Ballet in the Park", their public viewing, every year with many cameras in the house, so this would not be the problem.

There's also an old German TV recording from ca. 1970, starring Marcia Haydée, Heinz Clauss and Egon Madsen, which could be released on DVD, too. When a German TV channel tried to broadcast Cranko's "Romeo" recording from the same time, the Cranko estate stopped them. If anybody has the "Ballerina" TV series from BBC with Makarova from 1984, there you can find the mirror pdd and the last pdd with Makarova and Reid Anderson.

Some more Tatyanas at Stuttgart who have danced both roles: Annie Mayet, Marion Jäger, Sabrina Lenzi, Elena Tenchikova, Julia Krämer.

Stuttgart Ballet has only tall dancers nowadays, so I wouldn't know Yes, normally Onegin is cast with a tall dancer and strong partner, Lensky with a more lyrical dancer, maybe they come smaller?

Richard Cragun apparently did both roles, but I only remember him as Onegin (still my hero). Egon Madsen, the first Lensky, has danced Onegin only once, for his farewell performance at Stuttgart. Paul Chalmer, Wolfgang Stollwitzer, Ivan Cavallari, Tamas Detrich, Roland Vogel and Douglas Lee did both roles, but most of them quit dancing Lensky when they started dancing Onegin, if I remember right. Alas, Friedemann Vogel has not danced Onegin yet, just the mirror pdd for a gala in New York, but he is the most wonderful Lensky. Some Lenskys never get promoted, like Vladimir Malakhov. Alexander Jones on the other hand skipped the poet and started with Onegin. For the Tatyanas, I have to check...

I heard the RB called Stuttgart for help because they have no replacements, too many Onegins injured. There is no "correct" Onegin, as there is no "correct" Romeo - there have been many possible interpretations at Stuttgart over the years, from what you call bland (and I would call reserved or aloof in Reilly's case) to very nasty. The Stuttgart dancers are allowed to find their own interpretation, though there may be a tendency versus the nasty Onegin in recent years which I personally don't understand. Last time I saw Reilly, I liked him very much because he was rather reserved, not as openly nasty as Evan McKie, but reading your opinions here that may have changed for his London performance. It IS a difficult role, maybe the most difficult role in dramatic ballet, and there are so few who find their own, perfect portrait from beginning to end.

Wasn't it "Dances at a Gathering"? I guess it was Alexander Zaitsev in "Pierrot Lunaire".

Here's an email from London he wrote for Stuttgart Ballet's homepage, his CV and a photo gallery.

If you have a home company, you grow up with their style and you get an expert in their way of dancing, you know every detail - it takes time to learn about the qualities of other companies, to appreciate the difference. I grew up with Cranko and dramatic ballet, so it took me a while to appreciate the qualities of the Mariinsky Ballet ("they don't act!") or NYCB ("not in line!", and "they don't act!" ) . Now when I've seen the Mariinsky ballet, I miss their clear academic purity, the perfection of the corps de ballet when I see the next performance of Stuttgart Ballet. Although, and I say that without any chauvinism, the Stuttgart DQs were so much better than the DQ from Paris I saw on TV last week - my oh my, what happened to that famous company? Sorry, off topic.

Great topic! What I find particularly funny is the phenomenon of "our company is the best" without ever seeing other companies in comparison, as if it were a law of nature. I experienced that with the Hamburg audience (orthodox Neumeier devotees) and the Paris audience – no offense, just an observation. Of course you see your home company in much more performances and you can forgive a bad performance much easier (because you know they can do better) as when you watch a guest company just one or two times.

You don't read many newspapers, do you? Because in that one sentence you discount all those great, great dance writers of the past, from Denby to Croce, Percival, Barnes, Kisselgoff and whoever I keep forgetting in my only slightly amused anger - not to speak of all the opera, theatre, music critics who know so much about their subject and help to explain it every day to their readers.

Rumours keep getting louder and louder that Vladimir Malakhov's contract as director of Berlin State Ballet will not be renewed and that his successcor may be a Spanish choreographer working at St. Petersburg.

I think we all see the difference between "doltish" and "should have drowned at birth" - no question that a professional critic should never use words like these in a review. And as for the question if you can be rude about a critic: of course you can! (though maybe not here). If you can't take it then don't dish it out.

In Germany, you get the same wide range of different articles as I read them in the British or American links - from local papers (which also slowly disappear) with friendly, but mostly clueless articles about ballet to the big national papers with specialised dance critics, who sometimes can be very, very nasty - but mostly with choreographers, not with dancers. Since the 80s, many important German critics have been opposed to ballet and were campaigning for Tanztheater or contemporary dance, which has changed in the last ten years, heaven thanks. But if you ask me about the level of nastiness, I'd say there is no difference to reviews in English oder American papers: scathing criticism doesn't happen very often, but it is possible. I guess the French are not so blunt, anybody here from France?

“Although I cannot lay an egg, I am a very good judge of omelettes”. George Bernard Shaw First of all, a dance critic has to be a writer, not a dancer – his most valued quality is the writing, not having been a dancer once and maybe regretting that he’s not dancing any more, that other dancers were better than him etc. In my opinion, a boring review is almost as sad as a boring performance. I hate reviews that dither around and soften every straight judgement with a nice word. If Kish looked doltish to her, why not write doltish – this is not against the person Nehemiah Kish, but a judgement about the artist and what he showed on stage on that special night. I fear artists must be able to cope with reviews like that. Although I think that Clement Crisp has very strange ideas about modern ballet (and I‘m totally on Jiří Kylián’s side in his conflict with Crisp), I adore Crisp’s writing for he is often so direct and perfectly to the point, I admire him for his style.

Principal dancer Olga Esina has left Vienna State Ballet, apparently during the season.

Two ballet directors had their contracts renewed in the last days: At Ballett am Rhein, Swiss choreographer Martin Schläpfer will stay until 2019, thus disproving rumours in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he might leave for Berlin State Ballet, where Vladimir Malakhov’s time seems to be running out. The Ballet on the Rhine, dancing in the theatres at Düsseldorf and Duisburg, will get a new ballet centre at Düsseldorf to improve the training and rehearsal situation for the 48 dancers. Former Stuttgart principal dancer Birgit Keil will stay at Karlsruhe until 2016, her company is now called Karlsruhe State Ballet. Keil has directed the company with 30 dancers since 2003, she is also director of the Mannheim Dance Academy. Karlsruhe Ballet was the first German company to show Kenneth MacMillan’s „Romeo and Juliet“, they also have Christopher Wheeldon’s „Swan Lake“ and some classics by Peter Wright in their repertory.

Here's a short synopsis for Neumeier's version: http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/885-ZG9tPWRvbTEmaWQ9NTA0Jmw9ZW4mdGVybWluPQ-~spielplan~oper~veranstaltungen~inhalt.html

Dear Katherine, you're right, in Munich they dress up a little more than in Stuttgart or Hamburg, especially for premieres or galas, but on the other hand it's no problem to go in casual clothes. Nobody will make you feel uncomfortable (like they would f.e. at the Salzburg Festival). So if your 20 people like to dress up, the Terpsichore gala is a perfect occasion, but there's really no need, the audience in Munich is fine with almost everything. You'll see many Dirndls at a Munich premiere, not the usual Oktoberfest Dirndls, but the gala Dirndls. Please beware from Lederhosen for the men in your company!

The German Dance Price 2013, awarded by the Deutsche Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik (German professional association for dance education), will be given to Ulrich Roehm, who co-founded the association in 1975 and also the Dance Prize itself in 1983. The prize had won a prestigious reputation over the years, as former winners included Gret Palucca, Pina Bausch, Hans van Manen, Maurice Béjart, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, Hans-Werner Henze, Marcia Haydée, Konstanze Vernon, Birgit Keil or Heinz Spoerli. The decision this year frankly is a joke, as 79-year old Roehm was the central character at adjudging the prizes and now, finally having quit the direction of the association, in return gets the prize himself – for having awarded it since 30 years. The German Dance Prize “Future” for young dancers and choreographers will be awarded to the Bundesjugendballett (Federal Youth Ballet) at Hamburg, founded in 2011 by John Neumeier und funded not by the town of Hamburg but by the German state, which is very unusual in Germany where all culture is normally subsidised by the towns and the Länder like Bavaria, Saxonia etc. As successful and innovative this small company has been for the last year, one might also discuss this prize, as the Bundesjugendballett was not the first junior company in Germany, that was the BSB II, the Junior Company of the Bavarian State Ballet at Munich. Also the Bundesjugendballett was not the first company here to dance in retirement homes, hospitals or prisons, that was Gauthier Dance at Stuttgart. A "Recognition prize", awarded only since two years, will be given to Tobias Ehinger, company manager of Ballet Dortmund, led by Artistic Director Xin Peng Wang. This prize is definitely well-earned and richly deserved, for the Dortmund company has a very small budget, and Ehinger makes miracles with it. The award ceremony will take place on March 2, 2013 at Aalto Theatre, Essen. The main prize includes no money, the "Future" prize included 3000 Euro in the last years.

Former principal dancer Gigi Hyatt will succeed Marianne Kruuse at the head of the Hamburg Ballet School from next season on. The German-American ballerina danced with Neumeier’s company from 1982 to 1997 and created important roles for him. She then moved to Georgia Ballet, a small American company, where she was ballet master and also Artistic Director since 2004. Kruuse, also a former ballerina, had followed Neumeier from Stuttgart to Frankfurt and Hamburg, she has directed the Hamburg Ballet School since 1993 and will be retiring.

At Linz in Austria, German choreographer Jochen Ulrich has died yesterday on Nov 10th. He was born in 1944, after dancing at Cologne Opera (which then still had a ballet) he co-founded the Cologne Dance Forum in 1971 and directed it since 1979. He also established the "International Week of Modern Dance" at Cologne. In 2000, he became ballet director at Innsbruck, Austria, and from 2006 he directed the ballet company at Linz, where he was working on a new piece when he died after a serious illness. At Erfurt Theatre, the German "Faust" Prizes were awarded yesterday, something like the Olivier Awards or the French Molières, but founded only some years ago and not as traditionally established as these renowned theatre prizes (and not as highly regarded, not even remotely). In the dance categories, the prize for best choreography was given to Martin Schläpfer für "Ein Deutsches Requiem" with music by Johannes Brahms ("A German Requiem"), created in 2011 at Düsseldorf for the Ballet on the Rhine. The prize for best interpretation in dance was awarded to British dancer William Moore, ex-Stuttgart and now Zurich Ballet, for his portray of Olivier Brusson in Christian Spuck's "Das Fräulein von S." ("Mademoiselle de Scudéri", after E.T.A. Hoffmann's novella), created in 2011 at Stuttgart – surely the smallest role they could find, Moore was much better in his other roles like Armand in Neumeier's "Lady of the Camellias", Orlando in Marco Goecke's story ballet after Virginia Woolf or as Mercutio in Cranko's "Romeo".

Thanks, Sim!

"The Russian Season of John Neumeier": As part of the 3rd International Festival “Diaghilev P.S.”, taking place in St. Petersburg Nov 5th to Nov 9th in honour of John Neumeier, Hamburg Ballet was guesting with two performances at the Mikhailovsky Theatre: On November 6th and November 7th the company performed John Neumeier’s ballet “Lady of the Camellias”, casting: Diana Vishneva / Alexandre Riabko and Hélène Bouchet / Thiago Bordin. On Nov. 9th there will be a Gala “Neumeier Without Borders” in his honour of his 40th anniversary as ballet director and chief choreographer at Hamburg. Next to principals from Hamburg Ballet and Hamburg’s National Youth Ballet, several guests from other ballet companies will present excerpts from Neumeier’s most celebrated ballets. Guests include Alina Cojocaru, Roberto Bolle, Jurgita Dronina and Remi Wörtmeyer from Het National Ballet Amsterdam, Susanne Grinder and Ulrik Birkkjaer from the Royal Danish Ballet, Julie Kent from American Ballet Theatre, Anastasia Pershenkova and Georgi Smilevski from Stanislavsky Ballet Moskow, Isabelle Ciaravola and Mathieu Ganio from POB. Also in St. Petersburg during the Festival: the exhibition “Vaslav Nijinsky and John Neumeier” from Nov 5th to Dec12 at the State Museum of Theatre and Music, with more than a hundred pieces from Mr. Neumeiers private collection as well as from the Foundation John Neumeier. The exhibition shows works by Nijinsky’s contemporaries such as Jean Cocteau, Gustav Klimt, Amadeo Modigliani, portraying Nijinsky in a number of roles. A highlight will be Nijinsky’s own drawings, which belong to the early abstractionist movement and illuminate different aspects of Nijinsky’s art. Stuttgart Ballet is on a tour to Shanghai and Beijing, also showing Neumeier’s „The Lady of the Camellias“. As on previous tours, they have a tour diary with many pictures. Due to illness, German choreographer Marco Goecke has cancelled his new pieces for Ballett am Rhein at Düsseldorf (Nov 10th) and Stuttgart („Dancer in the Dark“ Nov 28th, co-production with the Stuttgart playhouse). The latter will be finished by Louis Stiens, a young German dancer and choreographer at Stuttgart Ballet.