ENB Skeaping Giselle Coliseum Casting

[Bluebird]

Casting is now on the ENB website:

 

http://www.ballet.org.uk/whats-on/giselle/

[Bruce Wall]

Oh, my ... Just bought tickets to seven different performances ... Am particularly excited at the prospect of the Badenes/Corrales cast.  They are both powerhouses .. amongst a field of so many in this truly glorious production.  So pleased too to see Xander Parish have a London crack at Albrect.  (I do so hope the glorious Stina Quaegebeur gets a chance to dominate as a traditional Myrthe.  She so deserves it.)  Ms. Rojo - as ever - goes from strength to strength.  How lucky we are to be able to profit from her leadership.  

Edited November 1, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[Ian Macmillan]

So, is the talking point going to be Xander Parish's return to London as Guest Albrecht, and Michaela DePrince's London debut as Myrthe?  (Other Guest Artistes will also be available, it seems.)

[blackdove]

I'm more excited by Katja Khaniukova's debut as Giselle than anything else

[RuthE]

I was hoping Shiori Kase would get a shot at this, TBH...

[MAB]

I would have loved to have seen Crystal Costa in the role again, why the guests? 

[aileen]

I assume that Shiori Kase is injured as she is not featuring in Nutcracker either.

[capybara]

A 'ready reckoner' version:

 

(Casting is subject to change. Please see http://www.ballet.org.uk/ for up-to-date info)

Wednesday 11 January (Opening night)
Alina Cojocaru* and Isaac Hernández *

Thursday 12 January (mat)
Katja Khaniukova* and Yonah Acosta*

Thursday 12 January
Fernanda Oliveira and Alejandro Virelles*

Friday 13 January
Laurretta Summerscales* and Xander Parish* (with Michaela DePrince* as Myrtha)

Saturday 14 January (mat)
Begoña Cao and Constantine Allen*

Saturday 14 January
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha)

Sunday 15 January (mat)
Katja Khaniukova and Yonah Acosta

Tuesday 17 January
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha)

Wednesday 18 January
Elisa Badenes* and Cesar Corrales*

Thursday 19 January (mat)
Alison McWhinney* and Ken Saruhashi*

Thursday 19 January
Laurretta Summerscales and Xander Parish

Friday 20 January
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha)

Saturday 21 January (mat)
Fernanda Oliveira and Alejandro Virelles

Saturday 21 January
Begoña Cao and Constantine Allen

Sunday 22 January (mat)
Elisa Badenes and Cesar Corrales

*debut in role 

 

This looks like an expensive season.

[Anna C]

I'd have loved to have seen Alison McWhinney's Giselle but if I'm reading it correctly, she's only dancing a Thursday matinée.

[alison]

Oh my poor credit card (can we get a discount on bulk buys?) ... but a nice slightly-late birthday present for me.  So glad I kept this period more or less clear of engagements.

 

Not that I'm complaining about so many people getting a chance at the roles, but was it really necessary to have *quite* so many casts?  (Possibly thinking that spreading the net wider will pique people's interest more?)  Has Badenes joined the company when I wasn't looking, or is she just guesting?

 

But no Rojo - and no Takahashi

[Duck]

Has Badenes joined the company when I wasn't looking, or is she just guesting?

 

She is guesting http://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers/elisa-badenes/

[Blossom]

Lots to look forward to... Unfortunately think I can only get to 1 performance (despite working 5 mins away from the theatre) - hoping it won't completely sell out incase I can sneak in one of the Cesar Corrales performances... 

[Jan McNulty]

The official press release:

 

English National Ballet

Giselle the classic ballet by Mary Skeaping  
London Coliseum
Wednesday 11 - Sunday 22 January 2017
Performances at 7.30pm (mat at 2.30pm)
Tickets: £14 - £79
www.ballet.org.uk/giselle 

"All the power of the work comes through in this marvellous production. So too does the power of ballet itself." The Daily Telegraph

Following the world premiere of Akram Khan’s reinterpretation of Giselle in autumn 2016, Mary Skeaping’s classic production returns to English National Ballet’s repertoire, with performances at the London Coliseum from 11 - 22 January 2017.  

A haunting story of innocence and betrayal, and a timeless tale about the redemptive power of love, Mary Skeaping’s Giselle features some of ballet’s most dramatic scenes and otherworldly images. Adolphe Adam’s classic score is performed live by English National Ballet Philharmonic.

Continuing to bring the very best talent from across the world to British audiences, English National Ballet's performances of Giselle at the London Coliseum see Guest Artists Xander Parish, First Soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet, perform in the role of Albrecht, and Elisa Badenes and Constantine Allen, Principals with Stuttgart Ballet, perform in the role of Giselle and Albrecht. 

Giselle also sees Guest Artist Michaela DePrince, Grand Sujet with Dutch National Ballet, perform for the first time in the UK in the role of Myrtha on the 13, 14, 17, and 20 January 2017. 

Tamara Rojo CBE, Artistic Director of English National Ballet said: “It is a reflection of English National Ballet’s reputation that we are able to attract outstanding talent from around the world to perform with the company. I am thrilled that our audiences will have the opportunity to see these remarkable dancers in Mary Skeaping’s wonderful version of Giselle.” 

Further principal casting sees debuts from Lead Principal Alina Cojocaru, Principal Laurretta Summerscales, Soloist Alison McWhinney and Junior Soloist Katja Khaniukova in the role of Giselle. Debuting in the role of Albrecht is Lead Principal Isaac Hernández, Principals Yonah Acosta and Alejandro Virelles, First Soloist Cesar Corrales, and Junior Soloist Ken Saruhashi. 

Principal Casting 
(Casting is subject to change. Please see http://www.ballet.org.uk/ for up-to-date info) 

Giselle by Mary Skeaping (in the order of Giselle and Albrecht) 

Wednesday 11 January 
Alina Cojocaru* and Isaac Hernández *

Thursday 12 January (mat)
Katja Khaniukova* and Yonah Acosta*

Thursday 12 January 
Fernanda Oliveira and Alejandro Virelles*

Friday 13 January
Laurretta Summerscales* and Xander Parish* (with Michaela DePrince* as Myrtha)

Saturday 14 January (mat)
Begoña Cao and Constantine Allen*

Saturday 14 January 
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha) 

Sunday 15 January (mat)
Katja Khaniukova and Yonah Acosta

Tuesday 17 January
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha)

Wednesday 18 January
Elisa Badenes* and Cesar Corrales*

Thursday 19 January (mat)
Alison McWhinney* and Ken Saruhashi*

Thursday 19 January
Laurretta Summerscales and Xander Parish

Friday 20 January 
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández (with Michaela DePrince as Myrtha) 

Saturday 21 January (mat)
Fernanda Oliveira and Alejandro Virelles 

Saturday 21 January
Begoña Cao and Constantine Allen

Sunday 22 January (mat)
Elisa Badenes and Cesar Corrales 

*debut in role 


For further information about English National Ballet and to book tickets visit www.ballet.org.uk. Please note performance details are subject to change. 

Notes to Editors: 

Guest Artist Biographies 

Xander Parish
Xander was born in East Yorkshire, England, & at the age of eight began dancing locally in Kingston upon Hull at the Skelton Hooper School. In 1998 he joined the Royal Ballet School in London where he trained until summer 2005 when he joined The Royal Ballet Company's corps de ballet. In 2009, Xander was invited to join The Mariinsky Theatre by its ballet director Yuri Fateyev and moved to St. Petersburg to join the company in January 2010 as its only British dancer.
His repertoire includes: Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried), Giselle (Count Albrecht), The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Désiré), Romeo & Juliet (Romeo), The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Prince), Scheherazade (The Golden Slave), Chopiniana (The Poet), Ratmansky's Anna Karenina (Vronsky), Perljocaj's Le Parc, Ashton's Sylvia (Aminta) and Marguerite & Armand (Armand), Balanchine ballets including Apollo, Jewels (Emeralds & Diamonds), Serenade (Waltz, Elegy) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Demetrius), Hans Van Manen's Adagio Hammerklavier & Variations For Two Couples, Millepied's Without & La nuit s'achève and McGregor's Infra.
Xander was the recipient of the Taglioni Award in the category “Best Young Male Dancer” (Berlin, 2014), the recipient of the Léonide Massine Prize in the category “Emerging Talent on the International Scene" (Positano, Italy, 2014) and won the UK Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 'Outstanding Male Performance (Classical)' category for 'Apollo' 2014.
Xander is generously supported by The Mariinsky Theatre Trust UK.

Michaela DePrince
Michaela DePrince was born Mabinty Bangura on 6 January 1995 in Sierra Leone. She lost her parents when she was three, and was taken to an orphanage by her uncle. At the age of four, she and her best friend Mia were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince and taken to the US. Inspired by a magazine cover with a ballerina on it, DePrince trained as a ballet dancer. She was one of the stars in the 2011 American Documentary First Position (which won her a scholarship to the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet), and guest-performed on the television show Dancing with the Stars during singer Natasha Bedingfield’s live performance. After graduating, DePrince joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York as the youngest member of the company. In 2013 she joined the Dutch National Ballet and has been promoted to Grand Sujet for the coming season. Last December Michaela performed The Nutcracker, it was her premier in a principal role with the Dutch National Ballet. She recently featured in Beyonce’s recent visual album Lemonade.

Constantine Allen
Constantine was born in Indiana, USA and trained at Pacific Ballet Academy; Ballet Hawaii; Kirov Academy, Washington D.C; John Cranko Schule, Stuttgart. Currently a Principal dancer with Stuttgart Ballet, Constantine first performed with English National Ballet in 2016 when he made his debut as Prince Siegfried in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake in-the-round at the Royal Albert Hall. Constantine’s repertoire includes a variety of works by Balanchine; Béjart; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui; Cranko; Forsythe; Marcia Haydée; Kylián; van Manen; MacMillan; Neumeier; Petipa; Uwe Scholz; Glen Tetley amongst many others. He has participated in several competitions, Youth American Grand Prix, 2006 (3rd prize) and was awarded the Grand Prix in 2011 at the Tanzolymp, Berlin. Leading roles with Stuttgart include, Albrecht, Giselle; Prince Desirée in Marcia Haydée’s The Sleeping Beauty; title role in John Neumeier’s Othello; Lucentio, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo in Cranko’s Romeo & Juliet. Lead roles in works by Kenneth MacMillan include Song of the Earth and Requiem. He has also performed in Demis Volpi’s Krabat; Marco Goecke’s Lucid Dream; Jorma Elo’s Slice to Sharp, Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and William Forsythe’s The Second Detail 

Elisa Badenes
Elisa Badenes was born in Valencia, Spain. She attended the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Valencia. At the Prix de Lausanne in 2008 she won a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School from which she graduated one year later. In the 2009/10 season Elisa Badenes joined the Stuttgart Ballet as an apprentice, in 2010/11 she was taken into the Corps de ballet. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2013/14.
Her repertory includes a wide range of leading and solo roles including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (John Cranko), Giselle (Giselle after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Tatiana in Onegin and Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew (all John Cranko), Kitri in Don Quijote (Maximiliano Guerra after Petipa), Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (Marcia Haydée), Desdemona in Othello and Stella in A Streetcar named Desire (both by John Neumeier) and Effi in La Sylphide (Peter Schaufuss after August Bournonville). In addition, she has danced solo roles in ballets by Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Hans van Manen, Jiří Kylian, William Forsythe, Jorma Elo and Edward Clug. Choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Christian Spuck, Demis Volpi, Wayne McGregor and Mauro Bigonzetti have created roles for her. 
Elisa Badenes has received several honors and prizes including the Gold medal of the Youth American Grand Prix, the Audience Choice Award of the Erik Bruhn Competition in Toronto in 2011 and the German Dance Prize Future in 2015.

Listings Information 

English National Ballet 

Giselle
London Coliseum 
11 – 22 January 2017
Box Office: 020 7845 9300 or www.ballet.org.uk/giselle 
Tickets: £14 - £79 

Booking fees may apply.

[alison]

How *could* I have forgotten Xander?  Oops

[Coated]

I seem to have developed an accidental Cojocaru radar. Out of 4 random dates booked ages ago, I ended up with 3 Alina dates. There a worse things that can befall a person

 

Saaaadly I now had to get a couple of additional performances...it's going to a lovely, lovely January.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Coated

[zxDaveM]

I'd have loved to have seen Alison McWhinney's Giselle but if I'm reading it correctly, she's only dancing a Thursday matinée.

 

I'm taking the afternoon off to catch that show. A 'must see' for me  :-)

[Sim]

Some very interesting casting.  I only wish I could afford to go to more than two!  

[VickyPage]

Yikes, this is so brilliant I can't possibly stop myself. I hope none of my friends want Christmas presents this year!

[cavycapers]

Oh boy, I hit the jackpot, I had booked for 13th Jan, and now see I have Lauretta Summerscales, Xander Parish and Michaela DePrince, and whilst I feel guilty for being excited at the prospect of seeing so many of the guest artists, one has to applaud Tamara Rojo for presenting such exciting casting, so much so that I will be booking for two or three performances when i would normally only make it to one. After all, they need bums on seats. However, I am equally excited to see the young stars of the ENB, particularily Lauretta, and Cesar Corrales. How exciting. ENB are on fire.

[SPD444]

Got it right this time, hooray. Alina on the 11th. Where is Tamara?

[Sim]

I am seeing Alina on the 17th and Lauretta on the 19th.  And I already have tickets for the Wolf Works matinee 21st.  Gosh....what a week!  

[Beryl H]

Got it right this time, hooray. Alina on the 11th. Where is Tamara?

 

Me too, after not getting Alina on opening nights of SW Giselle and Coliseum Nutcracker, I have 11th January!

[penelopesimpson]

Alina on the 17th.  Hooray.  Thanks for this link

[Irmgard]

Erina Takahashi is on a leave of absence.  Sadly, Shiori Kase is injured.

Oh my poor credit card (can we get a discount on bulk buys?) ... but a nice slightly-late birthday present for me.  So glad I kept this period more or less clear of engagements.

 

Not that I'm complaining about so many people getting a chance at the roles, but was it really necessary to have *quite* so many casts?  (Possibly thinking that spreading the net wider will pique people's interest more?)  Has Badenes joined the company when I wasn't looking, or is she just guesting?

 

But no Rojo - and no Takahashi

[Irmgard]

I would have loved to have seen Crystal Costa in the role again, why the guests? 

I, too, am very sad that Crystal Costa has not been cast.  She was a natural in the role and gave some beautiful performances in 2009/2010.

[alison]

This was the production you were originally heavily involved with, isn't it, Irmgard?

[capybara]

I, too, am very sad that Crystal Costa has not been cast.  She was a natural in the role and gave some beautiful performances in 2009/2010.

 

........ for which she won the very first Emerging Dancer Audience Award.

[Irmgard]

This was the production you were originally heavily involved with, isn't it, Irmgard?

I wasn't originally involved in the Skeaping production as I was still a schoolgirl in 1971!  However, I was privileged to be Mary Skeaping's assistant from 1978 until her death in 1984.  Shortly before she died, I was honoured when she entrusted to me not only her extensive collection of dance research material but also the guardianship of her choreographic works, maintaining the copyright and artistic integrity on behalf of her heirs.  This was ratified after her death by the Executor of her Estate and I have been fulfilling this role ever since.  My involvement in ENB revivals was minimal while there were trusted colleagues to rehearse it who had worked with Mary although I was always invited to rehearsals and performances and my opinion sought.  I became more involved once Wayne Eagling became Artistic Director and was heavily involved in the 2009/2010 rehearsals as there was no-one on the rehearsal staff who had worked with Mary, apart from Maina Gielgud, and I must say everyone, Wayne in particular, was very welcoming and interested in my comments.  Of course, Dame Beryl Grey was also invited in to coach the dancers which was inspirational. So that is my involvement to date but I am happy to say that the Estonian National Ballet, directed by the wonderful Tomas Edur,  will be adding the production to its repertoire in April of next year and I will be very involved in the last two weeks of production.  I also hope to publish a booklet about Mary Skeaping and "Giselle" to coincide with this or earlier.  I initially wrote it as guide for the ENB dancers in 2009 but I feel it would be good to publish it as a tribute to Mary until I finally finish her biography!  In the meantime, if anyone on the forum has any questions about Mary or her productions, I would be happy to answer them either here or on a separate thread.

[LinMM]

That's so interesting Irmgard.

 

I'm going on the 17th Jan too though would like to have seen the Lauretta Summerscales debut....but have had an expensive year for one reason and another.

[Pas de Quatre]

That is very interesting Irmgard.  I saw the original production as I was a Vocational student just on my way to professional contract with Corps de Ballet in France.  It has always been one of my favourite productions as I feel it so beautifully captures the Romantic essence.  Look forward to your book.

[yumiko]

Begona's name has been taken from the casting.

[Geoff]

Begona's name has been taken from the casting.

Do you mean dropped / withdrawn or something else?

Edited December 23, 2016 by Geoff

[Anna C]

Begoña's name had disappeared from the cast page when I looked last week. I can only assume she is unable to dance at present. I hope she is ok.

 

Dd and I managed to get last minute-ish tickets for the matinée on Sun 15th. I've never seen Skeaping's Giselle so am very much looking forward to it.