ROYAL BALLET PROMOTIONS 2021

[Jane S]

It's amusing to remember that the RB promotion which aroused the most controversy, by far, on this site and its predecessor was Edward Watson's. And look at him now!

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, TSR101 said:

 

Polunin was 20, Cojocaru was 20, Nunez was 20 (or there about) - all are undoubted stars. Polunin has gone off the rails a bit yes. Cojocaru was frankly underused in the RB recognised as one of the best dancers yet not a single full length creation by the RB on her. Nunez thankfully is still glorious at the RB (although no full length creation either I don't think). Who are the precocious talents coming through? May Magri is 26/27 and has yet to conquer the major roles. Hayward is probably the closest recent promotion and hopefully she will keep on developing. 

 

I'm not sure it really matters if a talent is 'precocious' (though of course that's very exciting on the very rare occasions when it appears). A talent that develops steadily - including after promotion to principal - can ultimately be just as thrilling.

[Shade]

Superstars by their very nature are few and far between. Regardless, productions must be staffed and actually I think the RB has more strength in depth now than for many years. 

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, TSR101 said:

 

Polunin was 20, Cojocaru was 20, Nunez was 20 (or there about) - all are undoubted stars. Polunin has gone off the rails a bit yes. Cojocaru was frankly underused in the RB recognised as one of the best dancers yet not a single full length creation by the RB on her. Nunez thankfully is still glorious at the RB (although no full length creation either I don't think). Who are the precocious talents coming through? May Magri is 26/27 and has yet to conquer the major roles. Hayward is probably the closest recent promotion and hopefully she will keep on developing. 

 

I thought the (relatively) later promotion of dancers to Principal recently was due to a higher standard all round, so working through the ranks was taking longer, rather than due to a lack of talent. Also dancers seem, on average, to be having longer careers (better fitness, female dancers more likely to keep daincing after having babies, etc.) so younger dancers have to wait for vacancies.

 

1 hour ago, Ingrid said:

I also hope that with the promotion Magri can now lobby for roles that I know from interviews that she wishes to be given the chance to perform. 

 

I don't know which roles she's said she would like to perform but I can think of a couple that I wish I could lobby for her to be cast in!

[LinMM]

I think casting could be a bit more adventurous sometimes.

I’d love to see Hay as the lead in Swan Lake or even a shot at Albrecht in Giselle.  I was secretly hoping Corrales might be cast as Apollo...not typical maybe ...but then neither was Nureyev and he was fab in the role. 

[Ianlond]

Congratulations to all of them!

I don’t personally ‘get’ Mayara Magri as yet (lovely dancer though she is!). 

I do hope that James Hay is given Romeo at some point, even though he seems destined never to be a principal. 

[Ingrid]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I don't know which roles she's said she would like to perform but I can think of a couple that I wish I could lobby for her to be cast in!

She has spoken about specific roles a lot on her interviews in portuguese especially recent ones. I do wish I could translate them but the dancersdiary interview is a good alternative for people that wants to hear more about her story.

[alison]

1 hour ago, Jane S said:

It's amusing to remember that the RB promotion which aroused the most controversy, by far, on this site and its predecessor was Edward Watson's. And look at him now!

 

Ah yes.  I still have part of that thread on a floppy diskette somewhere, I think ...  But since Watson was promoted in 2005 it would definitely have been on ballet.co.uk, not this forum!

[alison]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

I’d love to see Hay as the lead in Swan Lake or even a shot at Albrecht in Giselle. 

 

I'd rather expected the latter to happen after the two shortest Giselles in the company both lost their scheduled partner.  It didn't

[Sim]

52 minutes ago, Ingrid said:

She has spoken about specific roles a lot on her interviews in portuguese especially recent ones. I do wish I could translate them but the dancersdiary interview is a good alternative for people that wants to hear more about her story.

This is a fascinating interview (in English) with Mayara by To The Pointe magazine.  
 

https://tothepointemagazine.wixsite.com/tothepointemagazine/single-post/2019/10/28/tothepointe-meets-mayara-magri

[Raven]

5 hours ago, TSR101 said:

Whilst RoH has covered this with solid recruitment (for example Muntagirov and Ospiova), much of the internal promotions have been solid rather than spectacular. Few people are rushing to grab tickets to see them perform the principal roles and whilst I have enjoyed O'Sullivan - little sets Magri apart from many of the other First Soloists in my opinion as a Member of CG and a paying spectator, regardless of what internally RoH think.
 

While of course other people and I have their own favourites, I do think that there must be something that make these dancers spectacular in their own way

[DD Driver]

8 hours ago, TSR101 said:

I appreciate people will have their personal favourites but ROH have struggled to find and develop the hugely talented young principals who burst on to the scene at a young age and gain principal status and then what might awfully be considered 'superstar' status. There hasn't really been a Nunez, Cojocaru or Polunin for some time. I don't see where it is coming from in the future either. 
 

 

It does seem to me that there is a determined effort to slow down the progression of younger dancers.  Some will say the stars are just not there.  I am not so sure. Surely they have to get stage time in order to develop and build an audience?

 

Xander Parish talks of years as a 'spear holder in the back row' before he made his move to The Mariinsky.   Harrison Lee, for example, is a talented young artist but I have not seen any mention of him for years. He won the Junior Grand Prix Award at YAGP in 2014 and Gold at the Prix de Lausanne 2015 before going to RBS.

[ToThePointe]

I agree that we haven't seen a 'star' for sometime, but that's what makes stars so special. They should be once in a generation. I think it will be a long time until we see a Johan/Alina partnership, or the stage presence of someone like Polunin.

 

That's not to say unbelievable talent doesn't exist at The Royal Ballet - I think as a whole they are in the best shape they've been in for years and a lot of that has to do with the ranking system. It's rare now for dancers to be made Principals at 20, instead they seem to rise up through the ranks which I would argue has given them time to nurture their talent and gain more experience. 

 

I am over the moon for all those who received promotions this year. In particular, I'm very happy about Leticia Dias, who I think has all the makings of being a great MacMillan dancer one day...

[ToThePointe]

10 hours ago, Sim said:

This is a fascinating interview (in English) with Mayara by To The Pointe magazine.  
 

https://tothepointemagazine.wixsite.com/tothepointemagazine/single-post/2019/10/28/tothepointe-meets-mayara-magri

 

When I spoke with Mayara she told me how much she wanted to dance Juliet - a role that I look forward to seeing her perform one day...

[alison]

6 hours ago, DD Driver said:

 

It does seem to me that there is a determined effort to slow down the progression of younger dancers. 

 

 

If that ever was the case (and yes, there has been talk of "spearholding" for years before now), I wouldn't say it is in the Royal Ballet now under O'Hare.  Cases which come to mind include Anna Rose O'Sullivan being cast as Amour in Don Quixote very early on, Francesca Hayward getting cast as Princess Stephanie in Mayerling pretty early on, and so on.  Yet I don't imagine that all the training in the world can replace the acquisition of stagecraft obtained by actually being on stage, in whatever role.

[Dawnstar]

Something I found myself musing on: is there going to be a shortage of female First Soloists next season? In the 2019/20 season there were 9 and all of them were performing regularly, apart from Tierney Heap who was coming back from injury. At the start of next season there will only be 7 and, I gather from Instagram, 2 will be on/coming back from maternity leave leaving only 5 active (assuming none are injured then). I wonder if the newly-promoted Principals will therefore still need to be dancing some of the roles they danced as First Soloists or whether there will be more opportunities for lower-level dancers to do the roles? Not that there will be that many Soloists avaiable to step up either as, with the voluntary redundancies last season, it looks like they're down to only 4 female Soloists.

[LACAD]

18 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Something I found myself musing on: is there going to be a shortage of female First Soloists next season? In the 2019/20 season there were 9 and all of them were performing regularly, apart from Tierney Heap who was coming back from injury. At the start of next season there will only be 7 and, I gather from Instagram, 2 will be on/coming back from maternity leave leaving only 5 active (assuming none are injured then). I wonder if the newly-promoted Principals will therefore still need to be dancing some of the roles they danced as First Soloists or whether there will be more opportunities for lower-level dancers to do the roles? Not that there will be that many Soloists avaiable to step up either as, with the voluntary redundancies last season, it looks like they're down to only 4 female Soloists.

The lack of women at the soloist ranks could mean serious opportunities for those at artist and first artist hopefully!

 

I’ve heard that in some companies newly promoted principals still perform a few of the typical “first soloist” roles for their first principal season. Perhaps to help with the sudden feeling of added pressure that many principals face after promotion. 

[Rob S]

I’m sure people like Ashley Dean will step up to do Soloist roles

[Sim]

2 hours ago, Rob S said:

I’m sure people like Ashley Dean will step up to do Soloist roles

I sure hope so!

[LinMM]

Yes she has caught my eye a few times back in the good old days of 2019.

 

 

 

 

[zxDaveM]

6 hours ago, Rob S said:

I’m sure people like Ashley Dean will step up to do Soloist roles

 

after last night's mixed bill, I have no doubt of that whatsoever! 🙂

 

As an aside, had Fumi Kaneko NOT been promoted in this latest batch, I may have had to have stormed the battlements, so to speak. Either that, or written a sharply toned missive....

[Rob S]

55 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

 

As an aside, had Fumi Kaneko NOT been promoted in this latest batch, I may have had to have stormed the battlements, so to speak. Either that, or written a sharply toned missive....

 

You're lucky she was, the lifts to the battlements are out of action due to maintenance work at the moment.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Rob S

[FionaM]

For accuracy ... Marianela Nunez was indeed 20 when promoted to principal, both Sergei Polunin and Alina Cojocaru were 19. 
 

Other young age promotions are: 

Darcey Bussell - 20

Johan Kobborg - principal at Royal Danish at 22

Vadim Muntagirov - principal at ENB at 21

Cesar Corrales himself - Principal at ENB at age 21

Sylvie Guillem - etoile at 19

 

These kind of talents are very rare indeed.

 

 

[FionaM]

I was hoping for promotion for David Donnelly ... his Lensky in Onegin shortly before the pandemic was out of this world. 
 

In Stuttgart and the Bolshoi this role would be performed by a principal or first soloist only 😱 

[Scheherezade]

Goodness, I think I presumed that David Donnelly was already a first soloist - or a soloist at any rate. It was quite a surprise to find that he is only a first artist.

[Raven]

4 hours ago, FionaE said:

For accuracy ... Marianela Nunez was indeed 20 when promoted to principal, both Sergei Polunin and Alina Cojocaru were 19. 
 

Other young age promotions are: 

Darcey Bussell - 20

Johan Kobborg - principal at Royal Danish at 22

Vadim Muntagirov - principal at ENB at 21

Cesar Corrales himself - Principal at ENB at age 21

Sylvie Guillem - etoile at 19

 

These kind of talents are very rare indeed.

 

 

Wait is that accurate tho? Because judging from when Polunin was born (1989 according to wikipedia) he would be 20 or 21 in 2010 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Raven

[FionaM]

4 hours ago, Raven said:

Wait is that accurate tho? Because judging from when Polunin was born (1989 according to wikipedia) he would be 20 or 21 in 2010 

Oh yes I’d forgotten there are inconsistencies on ROH website, and even in this letter announcing Sergei Polunin’s promotion ahead of the Cuban tour.  I have not had an answer to my queries about it ( no website resources at ROH during pandemic). 
 

In June 2009 he would have been 19, as his birthday is 20 November 1989.  
 

screenshot from Dancer movie:

 

[FionaM]

7 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

Goodness, I think I presumed that David Donnelly was already a first soloist - or a soloist at any rate. It was quite a surprise to find that he is only a first artist.

quite!

[Raven]

1 hour ago, FionaE said:

Oh yes I’d forgotten there are inconsistencies on ROH website, and even in this letter announcing Sergei Polunin’s promotion ahead of the Cuban tour.  I have not had an answer to my queries about it ( no website resources at ROH during pandemic). 
 

In June 2009 he would have been 19, as his birthday is 20 November 1989.  
 

screenshot from Dancer movie:

 

I've just found that the promotion announcement from ROH's facebook was in June 2010

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Raven

[capybara]

7 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

Goodness, I think I presumed that David Donnelly was already a first soloist - or a soloist at any rate. It was quite a surprise to find that he is only a first artist.

.......and, along with Teo Dubreuil and Leo Dixon, making a real impact in Golden Hour this week.

[Sharon]

 I think Romany Pajdak was also someone who without a doubt deserved to be promoted to 1st Soloist. Whenever she is on stage she always draws your attention with her beautiful dancing. Her promotion to soloist was LONG overdue but when it happened I  thought finally she is being rewarded for her artistry and the incredible work she has done over the year's. 

I just don't get the MGH promotion???

But we all have our favourites....

[DanJL]

I've only seen Meaghan Grace Hinkis dance in a few things, but she was really wonderful in Onegin and I enjoyed watching her the other times too. So I for one am very happy that she has been rewarded with a promotion! As I am for the other dancers of course 🙂

[Dawnstar]

11 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

Goodness, I think I presumed that David Donnelly was already a first soloist - or a soloist at any rate. It was quite a surprise to find that he is only a first artist.

 

There seem to be certain dancers, including Donnelly, who seem to get cast "above their rank" in some works. I'd also have put Gina Storm-Jensen & Joseph Sissens in this category, until their promotions now. Conversely, some higher ranked dancers seem to do fewer featured roles. I feel as though I've barely seen a couple of Soloists in my 18 months of pre-covid RB watching, though I realise injuries may have a bearing on this too.