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Press Release: Northern Ballet announces promotions and joiners for 2016/17 season


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 Northern Ballet announces promotions and joiners for 2016/17 season 

 

Northern Ballet will welcome ten new dancers for the 2016/17 season and has also announced promotions for existing members of the Company.

 

Joining the corps de ballet are: Naomi Bottomer (English National Ballet); Sarah Chun (Kansas City Ballet); Abigail Cockrell (Romanian National Opera); Jonathan Hanks (Estonian National Ballet); Minju Kang (Bundesjugendballett); Jesse Milligan (Cape Town City Ballet); Liam Morris (Romanian National Opera); former Academy of Northern Ballet Centre for Advanced Training student Dale Rhodes (Hamburg Ballet); and Lorenzo Trossello (The Royal Ballet School). Darragh Hourrides joins as an Apprentice from the Academy of Northern Ballet’s Professional Graduate Programme.

 

In addition, a number of Northern Ballet’s existing company dancers have been promoted: Antoinette Brooks-Daw and Giuliano Contadini to Leading Soloists; Jeremy CurnierRachael Gillespie and Joseph Taylor to Soloists; Ayami MiyataKevin Poeung and Abigail Prudames to Junior Soloists; Sean BatesMlindi Kulashe and Matthew Toplissto Coryphée; and former Apprentice Harriet Marden is promoted to the corps.

 

After saying goodbye to Isaac Lee-Baker and Sebastian Loe earlier in the year, the following dancers are also moving on: Jessica MorganAlice BaystonKaylee MarkoArchie SullivanDiogo BarbosaParis FitzpatrickGenevieve Heron and Grace Robinson. Northern Ballet has also recently announced that Premier Dancers Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley will take a leave of absence from the Company though will return as Resident Guest Artists for the autumn season to perform with Northern Ballet in Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet.

 

Northern Ballet’s autumn season will commence with Wuthering Heights at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 6 – 10 September 2016  before national tours of Romeo and Juliet and Beauty & the Beast.

 

 

-ENDS-

 

Notes to Editors

For more details of Northern Ballet's tour, on sale dates and booking information, please visit northernballet.com/whatson.

 

Voted Best Company at the Taglioni European Ballet Awards, winners of the 2016 South Bank Sky Arts Award for dance, and nominated for Outstanding Company at the 2015 National Dance Awards, Northern Ballet is one of the UK’s five large ballet companies. Based in Leeds it performs throughout the UK as well as overseas. Northern Ballet’s productions mix classical dance and theatre, embracing popular culture and taking inspiration from literature, opera, or giving a unique interpretation of popular classical ballets.

 

Northern Ballet is the busiest touring ballet company in the UK and is typically on the road for around 32 weeks of the year. The Company of 45 dancers tours a combination of full-length new work and established repertoire to cities throughout the UK. Northern Ballet also tours widely with its specially created ballets for children, all of which have beenadapted for TV by CBeebies, and also performs mixed programmes showcasing the versatility of its dancers.

 

Northern Ballet – Company List 2016/17

 

Resident Guest Artists

Tobias Batley

Martha Leebolt

 

Premier Dancers

Pippa Moore

Javier Torres

 

Senior Artist

Hironao Takahashi

 

Leading Soloists

Hannah Bateman

Dreda Blow

Antoinette Brooks-Daw

Giuliano Contadini

Ashley Dixon

 

First Soloist

Lucia Solari

 

Soloists

Jeremy Curnier

Rachael Gillespie

Victoria Sibson

Joseph Taylor

 

Junior Soloists

Nicola Gervasi

Ayami Miyata

Kevin Poeung

Abigail Prudames

 

Coryphée

Sean Bates

Matthew Koon

Mlindi Kulashe

Matthew Topliss

 

Dancers

Miki Akuta

Naomi Bottomer

Sarah Chun

Isabelle Clough

Abigail Cockrell

Kiara Flavin

Luke Francis

Jenny Hackwell

Jonathan Hanks

Riku Ito

Minju Kang

Natalia Kerner

Dominique Larose

Harriet Marden

Gavin McCaig

Jesse Milligan

Liam Morris

Dale Rhodes

Mariana Rodrigues

Teresa Saavedra Bordes

Lorenzo Trossello

Filippo Di Vilio

Alexander Yap

 

Apprentice

Darragh Hourrides

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Always such a high turnover of dancers at this company; an average of 10 leavers / joiners every year seems very high for  a company of this size, with many of the leavers having only been there for one year.

 

And only 2 out of 10 joiners are from training, the others are coming from other ballet companies.

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I think that is a bit of a sweeping statement Tabitha.  Northern Ballet had been increasing in size for the last couple of years so more dancers had been taken on than left.  This is the first time in the last couple of years that there has been the same number leaving as joining.

 

If you look at the roster from coryphee above all the dancers have completed a minimum of 3 seasons so far and some many more.

 

I suppose it is the lot of apprentices that they may or may not get taken on at the end of their year and only one out of five apprentices was retained this year.  In other years most of the apprentices have been kept on.

 

Could you provide the annual statistics to prove that there is a turn over of around 10 dancers every year please?

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Yes it was a generalisation based on my impressions / recollections - I wasn't aware that all posts had to be 100% accurate and backed up by empirical evidence. I have had a quick look at the last 3 years and for comparison looked at Royal Ballet as well and proportionally the turnover is much higher:

 

Northern Ballet (around 40 dancers)

2016/17  10 joiners & 9 leavers

2015/16  10 joiners & 9 leavers

2014/15  12 joiners & 6 leavers

 

Royal Ballet (around 100 dancers)

2016/17  11 joiners & leavers tbc

2015/16  7 joiners & 7 leavers + 2 sabbaticals

2014/15  12 joiners & 6 leavers

 

(joiners include new apprentices taken on in year but do not include them again in the subsequent year if they are taken into the company as this would double count them)

Edited by tabitha
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Yes it was a generalisation based on my impressions / recollections - I wasn't aware that all posts had to be 100% accurate and backed up by empirical evidence. I have had a quick look at the last 3 years and for comparison looked at Royal Ballet as well and proportionally the turnover is much higher:

 

Northern Ballet (around 40 dancers)

2016/17  10 joiners & 9 leavers

2015/16  10 joiners & 9 leavers

2014/15  12 joiners & 6 leavers

 

Royal Ballet (around 100 dancers)

2016/17  11 joiners & leavers tbc

2015/16  7 joiners & 7 leavers + 2 sabbaticals

2014/15  12 joiners & 6 leavers

 

(joiners include new apprentices taken on in year but do not include them again in the subsequent year if they are taken into the company as this would double count them)

 

 

So that is 2 years where 9 people have left.  I can't remember exactly who left last year but this year it was mostly the apprentices.  As the Company has expanded by quite a few dancers I expect it is taking them a while to settle on dancers who fit the company style.  From my recollection last year and indeed this it is mostly dancers who have been with the Company no longer than a year or two.  And don't forget that we have had a couple of notable retirements with Kenneth Tindall and Darren Goldsmith going last year and Seb Loe this year.

 

I believe the previous year (2014/15) there were several long standing members of the Company who left but I distinctly remember one of them telling me that when you get to a certain age/maturity you have to decide if you want to carry on where you are, expand your experience or retire.  I think NB offers yearly contracts and dancers are certainly assessed every year.  Unless things have changed, I do not believe that is the case with the Royal Ballet.

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It is actually 10 leavers for this year (I missed one) and if you include Martha & Tobias, that makes 12.

It's not so much the actual number but it is a high proportion of the company - 25% turnover for the last couple of years, whatever the reason, is high by anyone's measure.

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There was a big turnover in dancers a couple of years after David Nixon joined the Company and so many of the more established members joined in 2003 and 2004.  Perhaps they are coming towards what they see as the end of their performing careers and want to retire (e.g. Kenneth Tindall, Sebastian Loe, Darren Goldsmith) or move on to try something different (e.g. Michele Paolacci, Lori Gilchrist, John Hull).

 

I cannot comment on why people have only done one or 2 years with the company.

 

In recent years we saw a large number of dancers leaving BRB at the same time, but again they were dancers who perhaps were looking for a different direction at that point in their career after quite a few years with one company or were retiring.

 

When David Nixon joined the Company in 2001 it had around 30 dancers.  It now has 45, a 50% increase - a high proportion by anyone's measure.

 

As we are having a similar discussion on the thread in Doing Dance, could I ask if you have a particular issue with Northern Ballet?

 

It is well known that I am a huge fan not only of this company but of BRB and I declare that as my interest.

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No particular issue with Northern. Two threads with related topics started around the same time so have commented on both.

The company has a high turnover rate compared to other UK companies that publish information and a lot of recently taken on dancers have left. It's an unusual situation which has been remarked upon. It is also related to the other thread in that there have been a low number of graduates taken on, again an unusual situation and sad for graduates trying to get their first position.

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I was referring to graduates in the general sense, not just the 12 graduates on the Northern Ballet graduate scheme. However, I assume you think that I am saying that all 12 Northern graduates should have been taken on, which is not what I am saying at all.

 

What I am saying is that it is disappointing that out of 10 joiners, only 2 are graduates (in the broadest sense). Whilst I understand that some experienced dancers may be needed, I think 2 is disappointingly low. It is also disappointing that out of 10 taken on last year, 6 have left after a year.

 

I also think that all companies have a duty to support graduates coming out of training by taking some of them into their companies and 'growing your own' rather than just taking formed dancers from another company which has done the hard work but that may be a topic for a different thread.

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