Angela

German ballet critic Horst Koegler has died tonight at a Stuttgart hospital. He was 85 years old. He was writing for his blog at www.tanznetz.de until his very last days.

the Zurich company is very considerably bigger than that in Bern and dances a repertoire to match, and I would not have thought of them as very similar in nature or approach at all.

Me neither, considering the fact that Spoerli made classical ballet until now at Zürich. However, the situation will change from next season on, when former Stuttgarter resident choreographer Christian Spuck will follow Spoerli - his style is modern ballet, not as classical as Spoerli. He will also show pieces by Stephan Thoss (German Ausdruckstanz) and Forsythe.

In Basel they have Richard Wherlock with his own works and ballets by Kylian, Preljocaj, Bigonzetti, Johan Inger - modern ballet in the continental style, if you could say so. So to differentiate from those two cities, you would either have to do pure classical ballet or switch to contemporary dance. I fear it's the contemporary that Märki prefers.

Also, his remarks about 'festivals' seem a little opaque, and make me wonder if the Bern dance audience should expect to see more work brought in from outside after 2013, with a parallel reduction in domestic output?

My fear too - "eine Anbindung an Tanzfestivals" means "an attachment to dance festivals". I'm pretty sure he has already the name of a choreographer or "Kurator" in mind, as they say now here for the people who direct festivals and invite companies. I don't think he wants to kill the ballet at Bern, but I'm sure he has a very different idea of dance, much more modern.

Before he came to Bern, Märki was Intendant of the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, where he had to close the dance company in 2000, directed then by Ismael Ivo, due to a huge financial crisis of the whole theatre. During Märki's tenure there, the Weimar theatre did not have a dance company, but now for his last season there will be a new, small dance festival in May, directed by a dancer of Ivo's former company.

Here's another article in the Swiss newspaper Der Bund, stating that the new Intendant Märki wishes "more courage" for the dance company at Bern, and that it should be different to what ballet and dance companies in Zürich and Basel have to offer. He wants to keep a company of 12 dancers at least.

maybe he is looking for new male top dancers...

*grrr* ... I hoped he was shopping for choreographers.

Do you mean that she is dancing them in Hamburg next season?

That's what the press release for next season said. In print, I can't find it online on the Hamburg website.

If you're thinking about visiting Hamburg, go and see her Lady of the Camellias - she is absolutely incredible in the role, the best dancer since Marcia Haydée.

Must be his German weekend, yesterday he was in a performance at Stuttgart.

Kevin O’Hare was seen at the premiere of a triple bill at Berlin State Ballet yesterday. I suppose he knows the pieces by Nacho Duato (Arcangelo) and William Forsythe (Herman Schmerman) already, both of them are some years old, so presumably he was there for the new ballet by Marco Goecke. Maybe you should prepare for looking at dancers‘ backs and fluttering, nervous hands at the Royal Ballet. I fear for Clement Crisp’s health.

Why, because Osipova cancelled?

Vasiliev was there, Osipova cancelled due to injury. I did not see it (nor the Goldberg Variations), but Vasiliev received friendly reviews saying that Prince Desire was maybe not the perfect role to show off his virtuoso qualities... He danced with Katherina Markowskaja, former Dresden dancer and now guest at Munich, where many ballerinas are injured, pregnant or off.

The ballet festival at Munich continued with Birmingham Royal Ballet, one more performance tonight with Checkmate, the Dave Brubeck piece and The Dream.

No new works for Berlin State Ballet in 2012/2013, Artistic Director Vladimir Malakhov declared that they want to save money for the next season, which will be the tenth birthday of this young company.

The premieres in 2012/2013 will be revivals of Maurice Béjart’s "Ring around the Ring", a four hour evening with music from Richard Wagner’s "Ring des Nibelungen", and a revival of Malakhov’s "La Bayadère".

According to German newspapers Polina Semionova will not dance with Berlin State Ballet next season, "maybe later", as Malakhov said. He is still angry with her because she declared her decision to leave his company by Facebook and not through official channels, also this seems to be a question of money. Semionova will dance some guest performances at Dresden Semperoper Ballet.

Longtime Berlin principal dancer Bettina Thiel finished her career. She has been with the Ballet of the State Opera Unter den Linden since 1991 and with its successor, the State Ballet, since 2004.

No new works for Hamburg Ballet either, which presents a „Jubilee season“ in 2012/2013, when John Neumeier will be director of the company for an unbelievable 40 years (since 1973).

The season will see five revivals: an evening called "Nijinsky Epilogue" with Neumeier’s version of "Le Pavillon d’Armide" from 2009 and his "Sacre" from 1972, then "Shakespeare Scenes" with key moments from Neumeier’s Shakespeare ballets, his "Romeo and Juliet" and his "Préludes CV". The revival of Cranko’s "Onegin", which has not been seen in Hamburg for a very long time, is announced as a premiere.

The Ballett-Tage in June will be three weeks long, presenting two guest companys: The Bavarian State Ballet and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, both being led by former Hamburg dancers Ivan Liška and Jean-Christophe Maillot.

A special evening called "Gala for Piano, Voice and Dance" will unite Neumeier’s "Vaslaw" (music by Bach), a new version of his "Rückert Lieder" (music by Mahler) and "Kinderszenen" (music by Schumann), with pianist Christoph Eschenbach and baritone Matthias Goerne at the Philharmonie in Essen in May and at Hamburg in June.

Principal guest Alina Cojocaru will dance "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", "Liliom" and "Lady of the Camellias", dates to be announced.

The Hamburg Ballet will tour to Brisbane with "Nijinsky" and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" in August/September 2012, to Baden-Baden with "Liliom" and "Illusions – Like Swan Lake" in October 2012, to St. Petersburg (Alexandrinsky Theater) with "Lady of the Camellias" in November 2012, and it will tour the US in February with "Nijinsky" (Chicago, San Francisco) and "The Little Mermaid" (Orange County).

The Season 2012/2013 at Vienna State Ballet offers three premieres:

„The Nutcracker“ by Nureyev on October 7 (the third different Nutcracker in ten years for Vienna, if I’m counting right)

„Dance Perspectives“ on February 20 with „A Million Kisses to my Skin“ by Dawid Dawson, „Eventide“ by Helen Pickett (former Forsythe dancer), „Windspiele“ by Patrick de Bana, „Vers un pay sage“ by Jean-Christophe Maillot

a Nureyev Gala on June 29

further in the repertory: MacMillan’s „Manon“, Cranko’s „Romeo and Juliet“, Lacotte’s „La Sylphide“, Nureyev’s „Don Quixote“

and the mixed bills:

„Balanchine / Neumeier / Robbins“ with „Stravinsky Violin Concerto“, „Theme and Variations, „Bach Suite III“ and „The Concert“

„Masterpieces of the 20th Century“ with „Suite en blanc“ by Lifar, „Before Nightfall“ by Nils Christe and „L’Arlesienne“ by Roland Petit

this was published in the press conference for the opera - a special press conference for the ballet season will be held on April 3.

After an article in the Berliner Zeitung declared the Berlin State Ballet „lying in ruins“, another one of the main Berlin newspapers, the Tagesspiegel, confronts director Vladimir Malakhov about being vain, just caring for his own career as a dancer and selecting pieces he wants to dance himself, about the many out-of-date story ballets that his company assembled in its repertory in the last years, about not finding enough modern choreographers.

According to the article, no dates are fixed yet for further performances of Polina Semionova after this season at Berlin State Ballet.

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden has announced the programme for the annual Mariinsky tour:

21.12.2012 Le Parc

22./23.12.2012 Swan Lake

25./26.12.(mat+ev) 2012 Nutcracker

27.12.2012 Gala

www.festspielhaus.de

Season 2012/13 at Dresden Semperoper Ballet (Director: Aaron Watkin)

http://www.semperoper.de/ballett/premieren/premieren-201213.html

27.10.2012 „Bella Figura“

Triple Bill with „Bella Figura“ by Jiří Kylián, „Minus 16“ by Ohad Naharin and a new creation by Helen Pickett, former Forsythe dancer at Frankfurt Ballet. She will use Hans Werner Henze’s ballet music „Das Vokaltuch der Kammersängerin Rosa Silber“ („The vocal cloth of chamber singer Rosa Silber“). Henze will be composer-in-residence of the next season at the Semper Opera

19.01.2013 Young Choreographers

Location: Volkswagen Glass Manufactory at Dresden

22.03.2013 „Romeo und Julia“ – New choreography by Stijn Celis

22.06.2013 Ballett Junge Szene

A story ballet for the young audience by Michael Tucker, American dancer at the Semperoper Ballet

10.07.2013 Ballet Gala

Polina's husband is a dancer in the corps de ballet of Berlin State Ballet. And if she wants to have a family, then the best thing would be to stay in the company, where she gets paid during her absence - as a freelance dancer she only gets paid for her performances. I think it's for money reasons - Malakhov gave her every opportunity for guesting, but that may not have been enough.

Well, he IS angry, I'm sure

Berlin State Ballet has confirmed that Polina Semionova is leaving the company after this season, though her contract had already been extended until summer 2013. No official information where she is going, and judging by the sound of the press release Vladimir Malakhov seems to be rather annoyed.

My mistake, Meunier - a typo, I'm very sorry!! Of course the website is right. But I also heard that Osipova is injured, that's why she cancelled her first Aurora at Munich some weeks ago - so who knows if they will be dancing at all.

Season 2012/2013 at Bavarian State Ballet

Bavarian State Ballet will present José Limón‘s „The Moor's Pavane“, together with Léonide Massine’s „Choreartium“ (never danced by a German ballet company before) in an evening called „Forever Young“.

Australian choreographer Terence Kohler, who was resident choreographer of the company for a short time, will present an evening called „Helden“ („Heroes“).

The Ballet Week in 2013 will bring another Terpsichore Gala and the Mikhailovsky Ballet with Nacho Duato’s „Sleeping Beauty“.

The double bill „Exits and Entrances“ in June then combines Merce Cunningham’s „Biped“ and a new creation by Richard Siegal, former Forsythe dancer.

Also in the repertory: Jiří Kylián‘s „Zugvögel“, Ashton‘s „La Fille mal gardée“, Neumeier‘s „Illusions – Like Swan Lake“ and his „Nutcracker“, „Steps & Times“ with Asthon/MacMillan, „Goldberg Variations“ by Jerome Robbins and Kylián’s „Gods and Dogs“.

online only in German version here

Russian Guests in Munich for the next performances:

Ekaterina Osmolkina from Mariinsky Ballet als Odette in Neumeier’s „Illusions – Like Swan Lake“ on March 10, 12 (the role of Odile is played by another ballerina in this version)

Oxana Skorik, also from the Mariinsky, in the same role on March 22

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in „Sleeping Beauty“ on April 4

Ekaterina Borchenko from Mikhailovsky Ballett as Aurora on April 12

Berlin State Ballet still does not confirm that Polina Semionova is leaving. Apparently there are negotiations about her contract there.

The season 2012/2013 at Zurich ballet, with new director Christian Spuck:

13.10.2012 "Romeo and Juliet" - choreography Christian Spuck, new creation

16.2.2013 „New Sleep“ by William Forsythe, New Piece by Edward Clug, „Sleight of Hand“ by Lightfoot/León.

27.4.2013 „Leonce and Lena“ by Christian Spuck (after Georg Büchner’s play), music by Johann Strauss, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Amilcare Ponchielli, Alfred Schnittke and Martin Donner - created 2008 for Aalto Ballet at Essen, Germany

Spuck will only keep Heinz Spoerli's Swan Lake for next season but promises to do some more Spoerli ballets in the future.

Whereas Spoerli has 42 dancers now, Spuck's company has only 35 names (maybe more to come) - most dancers will stay, but principals Vahe Martirosyan, Stanislav Jermakov and Aliya Tanykpayeva are leaving.

check out the whole Zurich season (opera and ballet) here:

http://www.opernhaus.ch/de/index.php?book=1

With opera director Alexander Pereira leaving for Salzburg Festival, the renowned Zurich Opera house will be directed by Andreas Homoki from 2012/2013, who until recently was at the Komische Oper Berlin, doing very, VERY modern opera productions. Zurich audiences are a little bit afraid what will happen...

Yes, William Moore and Alexander Jones, both graduated the same year als Xander Parish and Liam Scarlett from RBS, if I remember right. Great dancers - tall, good actors, musical, fine technique, handsome guys. I could never understand why Mrs. Mason did not do everything to get them into the Royal Ballet - good for Stuttgart

William Moore, one ot the best dancer-actors I've seen in a very long time, is leaving with Stuttgart resident choreographer Christian Spuck for Zurich Ballet at the end of the season, where Spuck will follow Heinz Spoerli as director. Big mistake for Moore, if you ask me, because he got every role he could wish for at Stuttgart, he was in most creationes by choreographers working there and hugely popular with the audience.

Also dancing at Stuttgart: Elisa Badenes from Spain, Prix de Lausanne and YAGP winner, who trained at the RBS and danced her first Odette/Odile in December - an incredible performance, better than all the senior ballerinas of the company. Calm and serene, not a little bit nervous, wonderful arms, and a very dangerous, sensual black swan. Like she was born to dance that role - I could not believe it, she was 19 years old!

Has this been posted yet? Vladimir Kekhman's fruit company files for bankruptcy:

http://www.internationalsupermarketnews.com/news/6249

He's the director of the Mikhailovsky theatre.

Oops, got it all wrong: no Bolero for the Mariinsky company - according to Gordeeva's article it's the Béjart company. Pity!!!! Imagine Ulyana on the red table...