Who are ye ? and Where d'ya come from ? ( the backgrounds and training for principal dancers )

[Nicola H]

the the RBS  international  auditions thread,  which  became a bit of a train wreck and yes  mea culpa in contributing to it becoming a train wreck 

@taxi4ballet asked a  question ... 

"How many of the current Principals and Soloists in British companies were vocationally trained solely in the UK from the age of 11? "

i quickly looked at the Northern Ballet  site  and  posted the follwing 

 

Northern  - and bearing in Mind that  David Nixon isn't  British by Birth and  has no skin the UK vocational schools game ...  

Premier Dancers 

Pippa Moore -   Hammond and the RBS

Javier Torres  -  trained in Cuba 

so  1 - 1 

Leading and First Soloists 

Hannah Bateman   -  didn't go to a vocational lower School , Upper School -Central 
Anoinette Brooks -Daw   -  RBS  Lower and Upper schools 
Ashley Dixon  -  lower school not stated  Upper School Central  
Mlindi Kulashe -  Lower school in S Africa,  Upper School at least partly  ENBS 
Ayami Miyata -  lower School in Japan, Upper School Académie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace (Monaco)
Abigail Prudames - RBS  Lower, Elmhurst Upper 

4 -2 

I make that   5 -3   to the British  schools and note  that  of those 8  only  1  trained entirely outside Europe ...   - Javier T  ,  both Mlindi and Ayami  had  European upper School  time  (Ayami's biog suggests here entire upper school time was  in Monaco) 
 

If anyone  else  feels like  doing a similar  analysis of  other Big 5 companies,  and other significant Uk companies ( e.g. New adventures,  Ballet Cymru, Ballet Black  etc etc ) that would be  appreciated ... 

 

 

@bangorballetboy also  posted a  quick answer with regard to the Royal Ballet 

 

"6 of the RB's current principals: Ball, Cuthbertson, Hayward, Morera, Naghdi and Watson."

 

[Jan McNulty]

Birmingham Royal Ballet:

 

Principals:

 

Yasuo Atsuji - Japan & RBS (presumably all or part of US)

Tzu-Chao Chou - Australian Ballet School

Mathias Dingman - Kirov Academy of Ballet (Washington DC)

Samara Downs - 2 British Schools and RBS

Celine Gittens - Goh Ballet Academy, Canada

Momoko Hirata - Japan & RBS

Delia Matthews - New Zealand & RBS

Cesar Morales - Chile & Houston, USA

Tyrone Singleton - RBS & Tring

 

[Anna C]

Royal Ballet Principals (Nationality, training)

 

Matthew Ball:  UK, RBS

Federico Bonelli:  Italy, Turin Dance Academy

Alexander Campbell:  Australia, Sydney, RBS

Lauren Cuthbertson:  UK, RBS Lower and Upper schools

Francesca Hayward:  " " "

Ryoichi Hirano:  Japan, Setsuko Hirano Ballet School

Nehemiah Kish:  USA, Canadian National Ballet School

Sarah Lamb:  USA, Boston Ballet School

Steven Mcrae:  Australia, Hilary Kaplan then PdL scholarship to RBS (1 year)

Laura Morera:  Spain, RBS Lower and Upper Schools

Vadim Muntagirov:  Russia, trained in Russia then RBS Upper school

Yasmine Naghdi:  UK, RBS Lower and Upper schools

Marianela Nuñez:  Argentina, Buenos Aires, dancer with Teatro Colon from 14, one year at RBS Upper School

Natalia Osipova:  Russia, Moscow

Thiago Soares:  Brazilian, Rio de Janeiro

Akane Takada:  Japan, Tokyo, Bolshoi Academy, PdL scholarship to RBS (1 year)

Edward Watson:  UK, RBS.

 

[taxi4ballet]

This is all very interesting. The reason I asked, is that there has been much discussion elsewhere on the forum in recent days regarding the Royal Ballet and the Ashton style of dancing. It was suggested that perhaps there has been a change in training, and that current dancers are not capable of performing Ashton works in the way they were intended. I know nothing of the subject, but the fact that the majority of the dancers were not exposed to the 'house style' early enough could go some way to explaining why some people think that there has been a decline.

 

[Jan McNulty]

That's an interesting point Taxi.  Whilst I think it is useful to begin training in a particular style at an early age I don't think it is essential.

 

I am thinking of 2 British principals currently dancing with the Royal Danish Ballet - Kizzy Matiakis (who is an alumnus of Central) and Gregory Dean (alumnus of Tring).  Gregory Dean, especially, has danced major roles in the Bournonville rep, I believe to great acclaim.  He certainly looked wonderful when I saw him in London with the small group of RDB dancers who graced the stage of the Peacock a couple of years ago.

 

I personally think it is down to the ballet staff of the company to ensure that the dancers are capable of performing the ballets to the expected standard.

 

There's quite a discussion on style on this thread and this one in the Performances forum.

 

I don't think there's any easy answer to this question for any company anywhere in the world! 

[Nicola H]

8 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

That's an interesting point Taxi.  Whilst I think it is useful to begin training in a particular style at an early age I don't think it is essential.

 

David Kierce is fond of saying to  people you have to be able to adapt ...  and then  using  rips into some oddity of  one of the companies  he danced with  -  A  notable such rant was about Joffrey and  'floppy'  'other' arms ...      to  meet what the AD  and /or choreography  demands 

[Mummy twinkle toes]

On 22/07/2018 at 13:35, Jan McNulty said:

That's an interesting point Taxi.  Whilst I think it is useful to begin training in a particular style at an early age I don't think it is essential.

 

I am thinking of 2 British principals currently dancing with the Royal Danish Ballet - Kizzy Matiakis (who is an alumnus of Central) and Gregory Dean (alumnus of Tring).  Gregory Dean, especially, has danced major roles in the Bournonville rep, I believe to great acclaim.  He certainly looked wonderful when I saw him in London with the small group of RDB dancers who graced the stage of the Peacock a couple of years ago.

 

I personally think it is down to the ballet staff of the company to ensure that the dancers are capable of performing the ballets to the expected standard.

 

There's quite a discussion on style on this thread and this one in the Performances forum.

 

I don't think there's any easy answer to this question for any company anywhere in the world! 

Kizzy was trained by Leo Kersley from a young age. He had been directly trained by Enrico Cecchetti. 

[taxi4ballet]

14 minutes ago, Mummy twinkle toes said:

Kizzy was trained by Leo Kersley from a young age. He had been directly trained by Enrico Cecchetti. 

I remember Leo Kersley well - he was my ballet teacher too 

[Mummy twinkle toes]

Yes, he was great. I had Michael Branwell too. I also remember Kizzy as a child and she was fabulous. Small world.

[2dancersmum]

Ballet Cymru - currently have 11 dancers. 6 trained in the UK (upper schools at least as lower school not always listed), 5 trained elsewhere although 1 of the 5 did Northern ballets graduate programme. We know several other former dancers of the company that were also UK trained.