Ballet Festival Week in Munich March 26 - April 3rd 2022

[Sabine0308]

I'm back from Munich and was lucky to see both Triple Bill performances which opened the Ballet Festival Week. Here are some impressions:
The 3 pieces complimented each other. Dawson's "Affairs of the heart" is an essence of " l'art pour l'art" for me. "Pictures at an exhibition" by A. Ratmansky showed a colorful interpretation of life, with a strong political reference to the war in Ukraine, and Marco Goecke's "Sweet bones melody" had a more subtle, very touching message about the need for peace.

Affairs of the heart" by David Dawson (world premiere on Saturday)
The beautiful and haunting music by Marjan Mozetich (violin concert, same title as choreo) served the breathtaking beauty of the choreography in perfection, and vice versa. Stage setting was just a wall with geometric forms and changing colors from yellow, pink, blue to grey. All dancers were dressed in lightblue/grey leotards (with long legs for the men).
4 couples, three female and 2 male soloists presented this new creation. The program book contains insightful interviews with Dawson and dancers Shale Wagman, Carollina Bastos and Emilio Pavan about the process of creating this piece, that is a wonderful addition to the performance.
I felt indeed the heart all dancers put into this piece. They danced it with so much, grace, elegance and dedication (abandon ? I struggle with translation here ), it really made me forget the outside world. Soloist Shale Wagman was a kind of a virtuous and elegant cupido, inspiring and spreading love across the stage and between the couples. He had 2 solos alone onstage as well. His fluidity in dancing and excellent classical technique, e.g. long manege jumps, illuminated the stage, and I am very grateful to David Dawson that he saw and "used" Shale's artistry to the maximum.
On the Staatsballett website is also a 7 minutes video with interviews and dance clips about this production.

"Pictures at an exhibition" by A. Ratmansky (created in 2014 for NYC ballet).
Music: M. Mussorgski, piano: D. Mayboroda
Stage setting was also just a wall with video projections of partial Kandinsky paintings. The costumes complimented these projections, for the ladies with featherlight transparent dresses with color patterns, their male partners in sleeveless shirts and long pants w matching color patterns. It was pretty colorful onstage, lol. A highlight was seeing Amar Ramasar, former dancer with NYC ballet. He was only meant to coach in this production but ended up onstage as replacement for Osiel Gouneo who was ill. Prisca Zeisel, principal dancer, danced the solo parts but was obviously already injured (although I noticed it only at curtain call). For the second night, Rebecca Horn from Wiener Staatsballett jumped in for her, which was another blessing to see her very strong, mischevious solo.
I should know the paintings/musical parts Amar and Rebecca interpreted but I'm so tired...sorry. I also noticed some choreographic nods to Ballet Russes.
My favorite part was the PDD danced by Jinhao Zhang and Kristina Lind (who jumped in for Madison Young, she is injured). Very tender, light and lyrical.
In the very end, the Ukrainian flag was projected on stage wall, as final picture. It was a strong signal, and raised of course lots of applause. For curtain call, Ratmansky held the Ukrainian flag above his head, again and again and again. I know that Munich is partner city for Kijev, but I had a hard time accepting that he used this evening as a political statement in such an overwhelming manner. It caused a lot of applause just for this statement and distracted from the piece and the dancers, imo.  But well. On second night, the applause was dedicated to the dancers.

 

"Sweet bones' melody" by Marco Goecke (world premiere on Saturday)
Sorry I cannot describe what pulls me into Marco Goecke's pieces.  It's certainly an "either you love it, or you hate it" stuff he creates. Here, we had a dark foggy stage, dark confetti (like ashes) falling from the "sky", costumes dark long wide trousers and dark top with glitter. I wonder why none of the dancers stumbled because the trousers were far too long.
Top solo by Jonah Cook and ehm...yes Shale Wagman😀. I literally searched for the ice skates he must have had on his feet (not, of course). The many many whirlwind turns across the stage were executed with SUCH a speed and precision, it was unbelievable. My neighbors in row gasped. And then he stopped dead where/when he had to and moved on with his solo...boah.
Altogether, I applause all dancers who trip, run, bend, cramp etc in the usual speedy, hasty Goecke moves. It's a marathon from A to Z, but I hear the dancers love his pieces. Well me too but I can sit.
The magic moment was when all dancers were on stage, standing heads down immobilized, and from the off, Florian Sollfrank's voice whispered a poem by Else Lasker-Schueler, "Weltenende". OMG that was so moving. Could have been the end of the piece, but it wasn't.
The piece went on then a bit more, and in the end, a single dancer emerged from the dark back with a white dove in his hands. For premiere night, the bird even flapped the wings a bit but was attached to the dancers hand by a string, so it could not escape. It was the final scene, a far more subtle but very moving and powerful longing for peace and hint what has been lost in so many parts of the world.


A very very wonderful new triple bill for Bayerisches Staatsballett, if you can, go see it. Check out the videos on their website, and or instagram/Facebook.  The company is in top form (minus the poor injured) and have a great week ahead. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Sabine0308

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks for your report Sabine.  It sounds wonderful!

[Sim]

16 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Thanks for your report Sabine.  It sounds wonderful!

Absolutely!  Thanks Sabine. 

[FionaM]

The dancer at the end with the dove attached was António Casalinho. 

[LinMM]

Is this a regular Festival in Munich Sabine ( eg: yearly?) 

I would love to go to Munich again but need at least five to six months warning of events there because I seem to need that long to plan any trip abroad these days! 
The problem is the time when I’m usually most free is when Companies are touring abroad themselves or on summer vacation!! 
Anyway thanks for your informative reports on this ….. I will get down that way again before long hopefully before Shale decides to move on too!! 
 

[Sabine0308]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Is this a regular Festival in Munich Sabine ( eg: yearly?)
 

Yes it is. In previous years, it also had an international gala and guest company performing, but Zelensky transformed it into a week for the Staatsballett only. I so heard this from  Ballet friends member on Saturday. It's probably a marathon.🙄

[Sabine0308]

2 hours ago, FionaE said:

The dancer at the end with the dove attached was António Casalinho. 

Yes but it could have been anyone so I didn't point that out. 

[FionaM]

I see due to injury and maybe also Covid that principal Ksenia Ryzhkova is performing on 3 consecutive nights … Diamonds, Swan Lake and The Blizzard.  And Diamonds was her return to the stage after maternity leave of not quite 3 months (baby #2 was born in early January).  Amazing effort. 

[alison]

Ouch.  I thought I'd understood that most ballerinas didn't even re-start pointe work until 3 months after the birth.  Perhaps things have changed?

[Sabine0308]

7 hours ago, FionaE said:

I see due to injury and maybe also Covid that principal Ksenia Ryzhkova is performing on 3 consecutive nights … Diamonds, Swan Lake and The Blizzard.  And Diamonds was her return to the stage after maternity leave of not quite 3 months (baby #2 was born in early January).  Amazing effort. 

....yes, and she did Diamonds after 1 rehearsal only💪💖

[MaddieRose]

Paradigma has replaced The Blizzard on the 31st March because of injuries and illness in the company. 

[Sabine0308]

I feel a bit sorry for the company. There's lots of new casting in the last minute (or morning). Due to Corona and sudden injuries. I know they are determined and enjoy every minute onstage, hopefully without too much energy loss for upcoming weeks.

[capybara]

2 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

I feel a bit sorry for the company. There's lots of new casting in the last minute (or morning). Due to Corona and sudden injuries. I know they are determined and enjoy every minute onstage, hopefully without too much energy loss for upcoming weeks.

 

 Yes - Shale Wagman seems to be posting on Instagram every day that he and/or another dancer has 'jumped in' as a replacement at the last minute.

[Sabine0308]

I went back to Munich last weekend to see "Giselle" and "Cinderella". Jeanette Kakareka debuted alongside her fiancee Jinhao Zhang as Giselle. In act 1, she seemed to be very focused on technique, I missed the happy young girl that Giselle is in the beginning. Her mad scene was great though, very convincing. In act 2 I totally dived into the beautiful, haunting stage setting, a blue-greenish foggy stage and the long white tutus with green ornaments were just so beautiful. I loved every minute in this act. Both Giselle and Albrecht were very tight and loving and caring. Myrthe was danced by Sofia Skoblikova (I think a debut as well) She is not very tall (I had Elisa Cabrillo from Berlin Staatsballett in mind) but she was also very good, demanding and merciless. 

Unfortunately, a debut I was waiting  for -Shale Wagman in Peasant solo Pas de Six- did not happen. After jumping in for others several times, he got really sick with high fever and the flu, so he could not perform. 

That was of course also the case for his "Benjamin" and Summer Solo for Saturday and Sunday in Cinderella. I had been looking forward to it, rehearsal clips showed such a witty Ben...well, it wasn't meant to be. I did see the performance though. Jonah Cook replaced Shale as Summer solo, and Antonio Casalinho was again Ben. Maria Baranova debuted the day before as Cinderella and reprised the role on Sunday again. She was wonderful...I just LOVE the "Russian arms". Her Prince was Dimitri Vyskubenko. He was a good partner, but it looked like "work" and his constantly same facial expression was a bit boring. 

The cast list in the foyer had a long list of cast changes for this last show of ballet week. Maybe it's just too much to demand from a company, to dance 9 days in a row many productions. Especially in a pandemic situation.

 

Wheeldon's Cinderella was a beautiful show though, most of you know it so I don't need to go into details. The audience was excited and we had many little Cinderellas in the audience (show began 6pm). I loved the staging and costumes and music and choreo very very much. Will definitely return to Munich next season to see it again.

 

I wish all the sick/injured dancers a speedy recovery.

Rehearsals for "Coppelia" and "Midsummernight's Dream" are coming up.

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Sabine0308