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Just to note that Esteban Hernandez is a RBS grad and brother to Issac Hernandez of ENB fame and Madison Keesler was herself formerly with ENB. Look forward to seeing them at Sadler's Wells. Congratulations to all.

It looks as though the Company are preparing the release of information. I can see the headline on the website but no detail. I’m out with my dog so if anyone sees it before me, please feel free to post on this thread.

The Royal Ballet announces promotions for 2018/19 Season Matthew Ball is promoted to Principal dancer, the highest rank in the Company. BY MEL SPENCER (SENIOR EDITOR (SOCIAL MEDIA)) 13 JULY 2018 AT 7.30AM Matthew Ball as Albrecht in Giselle, The Royal Ballet © 2018 ROH. Photographed by Bill Cooper The Royal Ballet has announced promotions for the 2018/19 season. Matthew Ball been promoted to Principal dancer, the highest rank in the Company. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, comments: ‘I’m delighted that Matthew Ball will be a Principal dancer from the start of the 2018/19 Season. He has had a tremendous year with some very exciting debuts in both classical and contemporary ballets across the repertory as well as creating roles in the new works. It is wonderful that Matthew has achieved so much since he joined the company from the Royal Ballet School and I eagerly look forward to watching this next chapter of his career.’ Born in Liverpool, Matthew Ball joined the Company in 2013 after training at The Royal Ballet School. His repertory with the Company includes Albrecht (Giselle), The Prince (The Nutcracker), Prince Florimund (The Sleeping Beauty), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Armand (Marguerite and Armand), Lensky (Onegin) and Romeo (Romeo and Juliet). His contemporary work includes Obsidian Tear, Woolf Works and Yugen by Wayne McGregor, Corybantic Games by Christopher Wheeldon and Symphonic Dances by Liam Scarlett. Matthew’s first major role as a Principal will be in La Bayadère as Solor. He will feature in Alastair Marriott’s new work, The Unknown Soldier, which premieres on Tuesday 20 November and commemorates the centenary of the end of the First World War. In December, he will perform with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures at Sadler’s Wells, dancing the role of The Swan in Swan Lake. Kevin O’Hare has also made the following promotions within the Company: William Bracewell, Tierney Heap, Fumi Kaneko, and Mayara Magri are promoted to First Soloist. Calvin Richardson has been promoted to Soloist. Téo Dubreuil and Joseph Sissens are promoted to First Artist. Stanisław Węgrzyn, who was Prix de Lausanne dancer for the 2017/18 Season, becomes an Artist. Sae Maeda, Nadia Mullova-Barley, Joonhyuk Jun, Joshua Junker and Aiden O’Brienalso become Artists, after joining the Company at the start of the last Season as Aud Jebsen Young Dancers, a programme which provides recently graduated dancers a year’s contract to work and perform alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet whilst receiving mentoring and coaching. Details of leavers and joiners will be announced in due course.

This item was on BA: (Janet - did you get such a release? Grateful if you could confirm for us). According to an e-mail just sent out by English National Ballet, Jeffrey Cirio is joining as Lead Principal. No indication of whether he will continue an affiliation with ABT. "Joining the Company Following his recent guest performances with the Company in Song of the Earth, La Sylphide, and Akram Khan’s Giselle, Jeffrey Cirio, currently Principal at American Ballet Theater, joins English National Ballet as Lead Principal."

For immediate release 11 June 2018 Northern Ballet announces promotions and joiners for 2017/18 season Northern Ballet will welcome ten new dancers for the 2018/19 season and has also announced promotions for existing members of the Company. Joining the Corps de Ballet are: Ayça Anil (Central School of Ballet); Adam Ashcroft (Estonian National Ballet); Harris Beattie (Central School of Ballet); Helen Bogatch (Estonian National Ballet); Kyungka Kwak (Universal Ballet, Korea); George Liang (The National Ballet of Canada); and Nina Queiroz da Silva (Ballet Nacional Sodre, Uruguay). Matthew Morrell joins as an Apprentice from the Academy of Northern Ballet’s Professional Graduate Programme, alongsideformer Professional Graduate student Julie Nunès who joins from the corps de ballet at The Phantom of the Opera, Stockholm, and Oscar Ainscough from Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. In addition, a number of Northern Ballet’s existing company dancers have been promoted: Mlindi Kulashe, Ayami Miyata, Abigail Prudames and Joseph Taylor to First Soloists; Nicola Gervasi and Matthew Koon to Soloists; Sarah Chun, Riku Ito, Minju Kang and Dominique Larose to Junior Soloists; and Filippo Di Vilio to Coryphée. This year the Company will also be saying goodbye to the following dancers: Dreda Blow is returning to her native Canada to study physical theatre and pursue acting, teaching and creating her own work; whilst Giuliano Contadini and Victoria Sibson have retired from the stage; the three have collectively been performing with Northern Ballet for over 35 years. Mathilde Lambert leaves to join Columbia Classical Ballet, USA; Jesse Milligan has joined the West End cast of The King and I at the London Palladium; Liam Morris is joining Estonian National Ballet; Alexander Yap is joiningBirmingham Royal Ballet; Archie James leaves to study Sports and Injury Therapy; and Kiara Flavin, Thomas Holdsworth, Darragh Hourrides, Carlotta Pini and Ailen Ramos Betancourt are also moving on to new things. Northern Ballet’s new season will commence in September with a new Mixed Programme in Leeds and Doncaster followed by the return of David Nixon OBE’s The Three Musketeers and The Nutcracker which will both tour nationally.For details see northernballet.com/whatson -ENDS- Notes to Editors Northern Ballet – Company List 2018/19 Premier Dancers Pippa Moore Javier Torres Leading Soloists Hannah Bateman Antoinette Brooks-Daw Ashley Dixon First Soloists Mlindi Kulashe Ayami Miyata Abigail Prudames Joseph Taylor Soloists Nicola Gervasi Rachael Gillespie Matthew Koon Kevin Poeung Junior Soloists Sean Bates Sarah Chun Riku Ito Minju Kang Dominique Larose Matthew Topliss Coryphée Filippo Di Vilio Jonathan Hanks Dancers Miki Akuta Eneko Amorós Zaragoza Ayça Anil Adam Ashcroft Harris Beattie Helen Bogatch Abigail Cockrell Ommaira Kanga Perez Natalia Kerner Kyungka Kwak Heather Lehan George Liang Harriet Marden Gavin McCaig Nina Queiroz da Silva Dale Rhodes Mariana Rodrigues Teresa Saavedra Bordes Andrew Tomlinson Lorenzo Trossello Apprentices Oscar Ainscough Matthew Morrell Julie Nunès Northern Ballet Artistic Director – David Nixon OBE Northern Ballet is one of the UK’s leading ballet companies and the widest touring ballet company in the UK. Bold and innovative in its approach, Northern Ballet is prolific at creating new full-length work with a unique blend of strong classical technique and world-class storytelling. Northern Ballet’s repertoire embraces popular culture and takes inspiration from literature, legend, opera and the classics, pushing the boundaries of what stories can be told through dance. A champion for the cultural exports of the North, Leeds-based Northern Ballet is dedicated to bringing world-class story ballets to as many people and places as possible, under the leadership of Artistic Director David Nixon OBE. Northern Ballet’s Company of 44 dancers performs a combination of its full-length ballets and specially created ballets for children at almost 50 venues annually. For more details of Northern Ballet's tour, on sale dates and booking information, please visit northernballet.com/whatson National Tour Sponsor

An announcement has been published: Yasmine Nagdhi promoted to Principal dancer. The Royal Ballet announces Company promotions and joiners for the 2017/18 Season. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, announces that Yasmine Nagdhi has been promoted to Principal dancer, the highest rank in the Company. O’Hare comments, ‘I’m delighted to promote Yasmine Nagdhi to Principal. She has had an extraordinary year, making successful debuts in a number of classic and contemporary ballets, and I look forward to this new chapter of her career and the opportunities that await.’ Born in London, Yasmine Naghdi joined the Company in 2010 after training at The Royal Ballet School. Yasmine's extensive repertory includes Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Olga (Onegin) and the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker). Her contemporary work includes Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor, David Dawson’s The Human Seasons and Balanchine’s Tarantella’. Yasmine’s first performance as a Principal will be in The Royal Ballet’s special presentation ‘Opening the New’ in September as part of the Hull UK City of Culture celebrations. Yasmine will perform with Hull-born Xander Parish, First Soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet, alongside Principals and Soloists from The Royal Ballet. Kevin O’Hare has also made the following promotions within the Company: Christina Arestis, Bennet Gartside, Kristen McNally and Thomas Whitehead are promoted to Principal Character Artist. Matthew Ball and Marcelino Sambé are promoted to First Soloist. Reece Clarke, Benjamin Ella and Anna Rose O’ Sullivan are promoted to Soloist. As previously announced, William Bracewell joins the Company as a Soloist from Birmingham Royal Ballet. Hannah Grennell, Calvin Richardson, Gina Storm-Jensen, and David Yudes are promoted to First Artist. Giacomo Rovero, Francisco Serrano and Charlotte Tonkinson become Artists, after joining the Company at the start of the 2016/17 Season as Aud Jebsen Young Dancers. This programme provides recently graduated dancers a year’s contract to work and perform alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet. In the 2017/18 Season the Company welcomes six graduates from The Royal Ballet School who join as Aud Jebsen Young Dancers: Joonhyuk Jun, Joshua Junker, Sae Maeda, Nadia Mullova-Barley, Aiden O’Brien and Amelia Palmiero. Stanislaw Wegryzn joins the Company as Prix de Lausanne dancer for the 2017/18 Season. First Soloist Melissa Hamilton returns to the Company after a leave of absence performing with Semperoper Dresden. The following dancers leave the Company: Matthew Golding will leave The Royal Ballet after three years as Principal dancer. Golding joined The Royal Ballet in January 2014, having danced with the Company the previous Season as Guest Principal. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet comments ‘Matthew gave many fine performances during his time with The Royal Ballet and danced a number of leading roles from across our repertory in ballets including Manon, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Giselle, The Dream, Onegin and Romeo and Juliet. We wish him well for the next stage of his performing career.’ As previously announced, Principal dancer Zenaida Yanowsky leaves after 23 years with the Company. First Soloist Valeri Hristov joins the artistic teaching faculty at The Royal Ballet School after 15 years with the Company. First Soloist Johannes Stepanek retires after 17 years with The Royal Ballet to progress a new career within opera and dance. First Artist Hayley Forskitt retires from dance and Artist Solomon Golding leaves to join San Francisco Ballet. — ENDS —

Good to see the following promotions of Lantratov and Smirnova, which were announced today: "Vladislav Lantratov is promoted from the Leading Soloist to Premier, Olga Smirnova — from the First Soloist to the Leading Soloist, Denis Rodkin — from Soloist to the First Soloist. Anna Okunyova, Yanina Parienko, Artemy Belyakov & Anton Savichev became Soloists."

Emmanuel Thibault is retiring from the Paris Opera Ballet. I vividly remember watching Paquita at the Garnier, my companion was seeing Thibault dance for the first time, he was so excited at what he saw, he nearly went over the parapet. He is, unsurprisingly, a huge admirer of Lopatin too. Thibault had an army of admirers, his first leading role was in Don Q., conveniently a matinee, that had fans from across Europe congregating in Paris for the event, Clement Crisp and John Percival were sitting together in the front row of the stalls. The atmosphere was very special and the POB students chanted his name 'Manu!, Manu! at the curtain calls. I had hoped that reception would have made the POB management reconsider his position within the company but it wasn't to be. Apart from Don Q. his only other lead role was Colas in Ashton's Fille and unsurprisingly he was the best in the role I've ever seen. I sincerely hope he gets an opportunity to pass on his skills to the next generation.

Dancers joining the Bolshoi Ballet corps this season are: Alyona Kovaleva, Olga Ladina, Alyona Ledyakh, Anastasia Strakhova, Elizaveta Khokhlova, Ilya Vladimirov, Artem Kalistratov, Andreï Koshkin, Modeste Skorodumov, Jacapo Tissi (ex-La Scala) and Kamil Yangurazov (ex Mariinsky & Stanmus). The last is married to Yulia Stepanova who seems to be the only dancer promoted thus far. (Bolshoi often announces promotions in waves rather than all at once.) In case anyone hasn't heard, Stepanova was moved up from soloist, past first soloist and leading soloist, to principal dancer. Pretty much unheard of from what I can tell. Hopefully Vaziev is only waiting for an opportune moment to promote Anna Tikhomerova, Slava Lopatin and maybe even Igor Tvirsko, to mollify those who feel that Bolshoi style is at risk with the spectacular promotion of yet another Vaganova grad (Smirnova, Obraztsova and Zakharova being the other 3). I have my fingers crossed that nobody is considering the broken glass in the pointe shoes revenge strategy described by Mary Allash in Bolshoi Babylon -- there are bound to be a lot of dancers unhappy with Stepanova's elevation after only one year with the company. Yet, that is Vaziev's style (remember Alina Somova's meteoric rise under Vaziev's guidance at Mariinsky) so they probably should just get used to it. Speaking of revenge, no sign of Dmitrichenko yet. It's hard to tell which dancers have left. The website is in flux and sometimes the English and Russian content offers quite a bit. For example Merkuriev no longer appears on the company list in either language, but his Russian bio can be found and he is still listed in the Don Q cast. Hopefully this will be straightened out soon.

ABT PROMOTIONS ANNOUNCED Three ballerinas — Sarah Lane, Christine Shevchenko and Devon Teuscher — have been promoted to the rank of principal dancer at American Ballet Theater, the company announced on Friday (today) Calvin Royal III, a member of the corps de ballet who has been in the spotlight with solo roles, was promoted to soloist. (New York City Times)

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/promotions-and-joiners-at-the-royal-ballet-for-201617 "Promotions and joiners have been announced for the 2016/17 Season. Director Kevin O’Hare has made the following promotions for the forthcoming Season: Alexander Campbell, Francesca Hayward, Ryoichi Hirano and Akane Takada have been promoted to Principal, the Company’s highest rank. Claire Calvert, Yasmine Naghdi and Beatriz Stix-Brunell are promoted to First Soloists.Matthew Ball and Mayara Magri are promoted to Soloists. Tierney Heap was promoted to First Artist mid-season and is also now promoted to Soloist. Reece Clarke, David Donnelly, Benjamin Ella, Isabella Gasparini, Anna Rose O’Sullivanand Demelza Parish are promoted to First Artist. Joining the Company at the start of the Season will be Joseph Sissens from The Royal Ballet School. All the 2015/16 Aud Jebsen Young Dancers - Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød, Harry Churches, Leo Dixon, Isabel Lubach and Julia Roscoe - will join the Company from The Royal Ballet School on permanent contracts as Artists. The Royal Ballet welcomes seven dancers to the Company for the 2016/17 Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme. The programme provides an opportunity for recently graduated dancers to receive a year’s contract to work alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet. In addition the dancers are offered mentoring and coaching and have the opportunity to perform with the Company. Next Season’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers are Joseph Aumeer, Estelle Bovay, Maria Luisa Castillo Yoshida, Arianna Maldini, Giacomo Rovero, Francisco Serrano and Charlotte Tonkinson, all from The Royal Ballet School. Vincenzo Di Primo joins the Company as Prix de Lausanne dancer. Charlotte Edmonds will continue with The Royal Ballet for the 2016/17 Season for a second year on The Royal Ballet Young Choreographer Programme mentored by Kevin O’Hare and Wayne McGregor. The Young Choreographer Programme is a position for an emerging choreographer to shadow Royal Ballet and visiting choreographers and utilize the Company resources to create work." Very well deserved promotions. Congratulations to them all!

MEDIA RELEASE: Monday 4 July 2016 BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET ANNOUNCEMENTS 2016 At the end of the 2015/2016 season, Birmingham Royal Ballet is able to announce the following: Samara Downs is promoted from First Soloist to Principal. Céline Gittens is promoted from First Soloist to Principal. Delia Mathews is promoted from Soloist to First Soloist. Yijing Zhang is promoted from First Artist to Soloist. Feargus Campbell is promoted from First Artist to Soloist. Brandon Lawrence is promoted from First Artist to Soloist. Valentin Olovyannikov is promoted from First Artist to Soloist. Yaoqian Shang is promoted from Artist to Soloist. Reina Fuchigami is promoted from Artist to First Artist. Jade Heusen is promoted from Artist to First Artist. Max Maslen is promoted from Artist to First Artist. Lachlan Monaghan is promoted from Artist to First Artist. The following dancers will join the company: Gabriel Anderson, graduate of the Royal Ballet School, will join as an Artist. Tim Dutson, graduate of English National Ballet School, will join as an Artist. Aitor Galende, graduate of the Royal Ballet School, will join as an Artist. The following dancers leave the company: Elisha Willis leaves Birmingham Royal Ballet after thirteen years with the Company, twelve of those years as a Principal. Elisha is retiring from ballet and is going to pursue a career in costume making. Jonathan Caguioa leaves Birmingham Royal Ballet after fourteen years with the Company, four of those years as a Soloist. Jonathan is returning to London to undertake a Pilates teaching course. Steven Monteith left Birmingham Royal Ballet earlier this season after eighteen years with the Company, six of those years as a Soloist. Steven is currently studying for the Professional Dancers’ Teaching Diploma at the Royal Academy of Dance. Oliver Till leaves Birmingham Royal Ballet after nine years with the Company. Oliver was promoted to Soloist earlier this season. He is now moving to the United States to pursue different opportunities. Leticia Dias Domingues leaves Birmingham Royal Ballet after a year with the Company. Leticia is joining the Royal Ballet as an Artist. Luke Schaufuss leaves Birmingham Royal Ballet after three years with the Company. Luke is joining Scottish Ballet as a Soloist.

Just wondering what people's predictions for promotions at the Royal Ballet might be? Carlos Acosta is about to retire soon, which leaves a gap in the principal ranks and Deirdre Chapman also retired this season, leaving a gap in the first soloists too! I personally think Matthew Ball, Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambe will promoted up the ranks. Also Akane Takada, seems a firm favourite at the Royal Ballet after her debut in Swan Lake, so she might be promoted to Principal alongside Alexander Campbell maybe? What are people's thoughts?

BRB have announced their end-of-season promotions, leavers and joiners: http://brb.org.uk/Announcements-2014.html