Aaron S. Watkin New AD of English National Ballet

[capybara]

36 minutes ago, Sim said:

My daughter said that immediately she heard the news!!  Watkin’s rep certainly sounds very much like Melissa’s ‘thing’…

 

I happened to bump into Melissa when she returned to the RB and said how pleased I was that she was back. Her reply was, "Well, the Royal is my home!".

Time will tell, of course. I, too, thought everyone knew that she went to Dresden to have the opportunities for classical leads which were not coming her way in London.

 

Mounting at least one classical ballet a year does not mean a NEW one and, as others have said, one seems too few and could end up being only the The Nutcracker.

 

But, as Sim says, we must all wait and see and wait to pass judgement.

 

17 minutes ago, Robin Smith said:

Do we know who else was in the running for the position (and who might pop up elsewhere now) ?

 

The time for speculation is over, I think!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by capybara

[Angela]

50 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Watkin managed to stage Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Giselle in 2 consecutive seasons, so that sounds pretty good from the classics point of view. And this is a small company more like the scale of Scottish Ballet or Northern Ballet rather than ENB or RB.

 

As for the productions of Semperoper’s classics being modern and simple, that’s down to one thing- finances. The versions they have are much more inexpensive for a modest company like Semperoper to stage, and there’s also no point blowing your budget on one lavish production of the traditional version of a classic, and leaving no money for other new productions, when your audience could easily travel to see the same traditional ones in Stuttgart, Munich and Berlin, and a good number do.

 

Semperoper Ballet has 65 dancers, that's not a modest company. The Semperoper is a huge opera house with many seats. The ballet company's problem is that they have rather few performances during the season, because at the Semperoper, the opera and the orchestra are much more important than the ballet, their chief conductor is the famous Christian Thielemann. On the other hand, the orchestra sounds gorgeous in every ballet production... 

 

It's not that easy to travel from Dresden to Stuttgart or Munich, it's five hours by train and more by car. Dresden has no special ballet audience that travels like the Stuttgart or Munich audiences, it's more an opera town and the audience consists of many tourists, who, like f.e. in Vienna, want to visit the famous opera house. So Mr. Watkin is supposed to make a programme that ranges from the classics to modern pieces, which he did (like almost all company directors we know nowadays). Instead of inviting people to stage the classics or buying well-known stagings by Makarova, Patrice Bart or Wheeldon (for example), he chose to do them himself, but they are full-blown classical productions. For my taste they are too short, to careless with the music and not very inspired, but it's not like they were born out of necessity.

Watkin staged Forsythe's full-evening-work "Impressing the Czar", which was simply great and which is a huge production with many dancers. I would not worry about the classics being part of ENB's schedule in the future, just about whom he invites to do them.  By the way, Watkin invited Alexei Ratmansky already in 2014 for a new creation.

 

 

[ChrisG]

I remember being impressed by Semperoper Ballet's Forsythe programme at Sadler's Wells four years ago, and though one shouldn't base one's opinion on just one performance seen, I'm quietly encouraged by this appointment. If it means that at least one British company has links with the current European classical and neo-classical tradition then I for one would be happy.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Robin Smith said:

Do we know who else was in the running for the position (and who might pop up elsewhere now) ?

 

Well I didn't get the job!

[Jan McNulty]

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

 

For all the talk of ditching the classics, Acosta has programmed Don Quixote, Coppelia and Nutcracker in July to December, so 3 different classics in 6 months doesn’t sound like moving away from the classics. 

 

 

During the lockdown I attended 2 zoom talks by Acosta and in both he implied we would not see ANY of the current rep for 5 years.

 

It should be remembered that Don Q was his own production and was an obvious ballet for him to produce given his Cuban training and that he had already done a production for RB.  (Alonso's Don Q is still my favourite production BTW).

 

I suspect that he has had his reins drawn in a bit and been told post-pandemic to programme bums-on-seaters.

 

It will be interesting to see how he moves the company forward but I'm not hugely optimistic.

[HorstVollmer]

This is just to add a (limited) Berlin view to Angela's perfect summary of the Dresden company and its situation:

 

Very good company, certainly on the list of all here having more than a local interest in ballet - but far too small a number of performances per production and very limited options to build up and maintain a repertoire with signature qualities.

 

The few performances I've seen over Mr. Watkin's years with the company, among them MacMillan's Manon and Balanchine's Jewels, were just brillant. I haven't seen the company's various Forsythe and Dawson nor Mr. Watkins' productions of the classics, but remember a flawless Four Temperaments and a marvellous staging of Graham's Errand into the Maze they did in recent years, alongside works by Justin Peck, Kylian, Shechter, Naharin... Not a bad prospect for ENB, I'd say, should Mr. Watkins aim to continue with what he stands for in Dresden.

 

In early June 2022, at a small conference in Dresden on the subject of story ballets and their relevance (or non relevance) today, preceding the first night of Johan Inger's Peer Gynt, Mr. Watkins made a clear statement in favour of story ballets (which, in the context of the wider German dance scene, is a rather courageous statement). Regarding the classics, he critized any cancel culture and even asked NOT to "modernize" traditional details of classics which are seen critically today but to respect them as the heritage they represent and rather explain them and put them into context for today's audiences.

 

To cut the story short: If I were a regular visitor to ENB's performances - I'd look forward to the things to come.

 

PS 1: Even from Berlin, travelling (by train) to and from Dresden is not the easiest thing to do. But the city and its cultural life is worth any effort to get there.

 

PS 2: As this is my first posting here after many years of following the discussions as a reader only: Thank you! to those who make this forum possible. I'd be glad if we had anything coming close to it in Germany.

[Sim]

Thank you and danke schoen, Horst....and wilkkommen to the forum!

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, HorstVollmer said:

This is just to add a (limited) Berlin view to Angela's perfect summary of the Dresden company and its situation:

 

Very good company, certainly on the list of all here having more than a local interest in ballet - but far too small a number of performances per production and very limited options to build up and maintain a repertoire with signature qualities.

 

The few performances I've seen over Mr. Watkin's years with the company, among them MacMillan's Manon and Balanchine's Jewels, were just brillant. I haven't seen the company's various Forsythe and Dawson nor Mr. Watkins' productions of the classics, but remember a flawless Four Temperaments and a marvellous staging of Graham's Errand into the Maze they did in recent years, alongside works by Justin Peck, Kylian, Shechter, Naharin... Not a bad prospect for ENB, I'd say, should Mr. Watkins aim to continue with what he stands for in Dresden.

 

In early June 2022, at a small conference in Dresden on the subject of story ballets and their relevance (or non relevance) today, preceding the first night of Johan Inger's Peer Gynt, Mr. Watkins made a clear statement in favour of story ballets (which, in the context of the wider German dance scene, is a rather courageous statement). Regarding the classics, he critized any cancel culture and even asked NOT to "modernize" traditional details of classics which are seen critically today but to respect them as the heritage they represent and rather explain them and put them into context for today's audiences.

 

To cut the story short: If I were a regular visitor to ENB's performances - I'd look forward to the things to come.

 

PS 1: Even from Berlin, travelling (by train) to and from Dresden is not the easiest thing to do. But the city and its cultural life is worth any effort to get there.

 

PS 2: As this is my first posting here after many years of following the discussions as a reader only: Thank you! to those who make this forum possible. I'd be glad if we had anything coming close to it in Germany.

Welcome to the forum, Horst! Thank you for all the information and details, and sharing your feedback about the company performances that you’ve seen and the conference attended.

[Emeralds]

6 hours ago, Angela said:

Semperoper Ballet has 65 dancers, that's not a modest company. The Semperoper is a huge opera house with many seats. The ballet company's problem is that they have rather few performances during the season, because at the Semperoper, the opera and the orchestra are much more important than the ballet, their chief conductor is the famous Christian Thielemann. On the other hand, the orchestra sounds gorgeous in every ballet production... 

 

It's not that easy to travel from Dresden to Stuttgart or Munich, it's five hours by train and more by car. Dresden has no special ballet audience that travels like the Stuttgart or Munich audiences, it's more an opera town and the audience consists of many tourists, who, like f.e. in Vienna, want to visit the famous opera house. So Mr. Watkin is supposed to make a programme that ranges from the classics to modern pieces, which he did (like almost all company directors we know nowadays). Instead of inviting people to stage the classics or buying well-known stagings by Makarova, Patrice Bart or Wheeldon (for example), he chose to do them himself, but they are full-blown classical productions. For my taste they are too short, to careless with the music and not very inspired, but it's not like they were born out of necessity.

Watkin staged Forsythe's full-evening-work "Impressing the Czar", which was simply great and which is a huge production with many dancers. I would not worry about the classics being part of ENB's schedule in the future, just about whom he invites to do them.  By the way, Watkin invited Alexei Ratmansky already in 2014 for a new creation.

 

 

You can’t simply compare in terms of numbers, Angela. Eg Wayne McGregor’s company Studio Wayne McGregor  is tinier than many third tier companies in Russia. But there’s no doubt that Khan’s troupe is one of the best in the world, head and shoulders over many competitors double or triple its size. And likewise companies like Northern Ballet, Sarasota Ballet and Akram Khan Company don’t have many dancers on their full time payroll but the quality of the work they produce is outstanding.

 

The most high profile company currently in the Semperoper organisation is their orchestra- the Dresden Staatskapelle, with the opera company having an impressive history before WW2 (Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Arabella, Tannhäuser, The Flying Dutchman all premiered there) but not quite regained its pre war reputation yet. A brave person to take on the ballet company! 

 

We don’t have such a set up in Britain where opera, ballet and orchestra are three arts organisations under one management. Even having an opera company and a ballet company in Britain under one management exists for only one organisation- the Royal Ballet (under the Royal Opera House). Every other company is an independent organisation, with the artistic freedom but financial insecurity that comes with that.

 

The ROH Orchestra is not an independent touring orchestra with its own regular concert schedule like DS. It exists purely to play for the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet, even if once every few years, they might be allowed to play one concert on the stage by themselves (even that is rare). And their musicians are allowed to join other ensembles or work freelance though not all do.

 

We don’t have any experience here of what it’s like for a ballet company to have the relative security (ie not likely to be closed or declare bankruptcy) but always second fiddle or even third fiddle, lower in priority to an opera company or orchestra, like Semperoper Ballett and many German dance companies do.

 

By the way, ENB is not managed with or by ENO despite the similar names, and also had no financial security although the reputation and sponsors it has built up ensures it has enough funds to pay for high quality productions and some of the best dancers for some time. Even so, it was only due to more sponsorship being obtained during Tamara Rojo’s last few years that they managed to offer Jeffrey Cirio, Francesco Gabriele Frola and Jurgita Dronina positions in ENB -and though Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez joined them before this additional funding was obtained, the new funds from Aud Jensen did help. There’s also a big pay difference between principals and other dancers.

 

The English model or British model is generally for a talented and inspired individual, often a choreographer, to set up an independent company, gain an impressive reputation and attract bookings and great dancers, but financially be in a precarious state with no theatre or local government to guarantee its survival.....until some local government council does.

 

But most don’t. I attended the last ever performance of London Contemporary Dance Theatre when I was very young- at that time, they were one of the best dance companies in the world. I didn’t actually like contemporary dance at the time but went, and they impressed me so much that I went to other contemporary performances afterwards because of them. The show was powerful and incredible- and sold out. The next day the company was closed - due to lack of finances and its directors pushed to “refocus” priorities.  There are many excellent companies that have disappeared like this:  London City Ballet (which had Mariinsky Ballet principals wanting to guest with them), Richard Alston Dance Company, etc.

 

BRB & RB were set up by one person, de Valois, who worked tirelessly to ensure both companies had financial security (BRB has had different names and homes throughout its life-before being offered a home in Birmingham by the city council). Her productions of the classics were also inexpensive and modest at the beginning- nothing like today’s. (I didn’t say they’re bad, but they look simple compared to today’s productions.) Likewise, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet were set up years ago by individuals- NB by Laverne Meyer (also a Canadian like Watkin!) in Manchester, and SB by Peter Darrell and Elizabeth West in Bristol (very far away from Scotland!) as Western Theatre Ballet, before they moved to Leeds and Glasgow respectively.

 

Watkin’s strength and successes at Semperoper was clearly presenting the modern classics like Jewels, Impressing the Czar (the full length In the Middle Somewhat Elevated), Manon, other works by Kylián, Forsythe, Balanchine, etc and  new works by Dawson, Eyal, Duato, Inger etc. He’s built up a good company from scratch- that itself is pretty impressive.

 

If one could turn the clock back I’d be curious to have seen what decisions he would have made if he was given the funding and support to get any production of the classics he wished, whether it was Balanchine for Nutcracker, MacMillan for Romeo and Juliet, Makarova for La Bayadere, Peter Wright or Ashton for Swan Lake, etc etc. as well as their designs, and hiring extra repetiteurs to coach the dancers versus using his own productions or co-productions. It’s undoubtedly cheaper for management if the artistic director mounts his own productions rather than paying legends like  Makarova or Wright, or the trustees of Ashton or MacMillan to come to do it. It’s no point getting the most plush sets and costumes (I’ve seen this in some companies outside Britain); if the dancers don’t get the best coaching to hone their performances, the performances will not be very good, and good coaches cost money too! They could have gotten extra funds from sponsorship but it all depends on how the companies work and whether he’s allowed to. 

 

Anyway, this is all in the past and guesswork. In the here and now, Aaron has at his disposal from mid 2023 the rights, sets, costumes and scores of some excellent productions of Giselle (Skeaping), La Sylphide, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet (two), Le Corsaire, Coppelia. Let’s hope they get used! 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Emeralds

[JNC]

As others have said I will reserve judgement until we get a year of his full programming. 
 

I would be in favour of ENB continuing to being Forsythe’s works to the U.K., and also the potential for them to perhaps do Balanchine is very exciting! 
 

I do hope there is a sustained commitment and love for classical ballet. One production a year doesn’t sound like enough (usually there is a minimum of two, the Nutcracker is almost a guarantee now plus one other). 
 

Classical ballet is not only important to sustain as an art form but also for its technique and training, but also let’s be realistic it’s usually these shows that bums on seats and turn a profit to cover more experimental work (either less well known classical pieces, neoclassical revivals or completely new works). 
 

It therefore doesn’t seem like a good proposition on a variety of fronts (money, ensuring building a loyal audience and love for ballet, plus ensuring dancers have good technique and classical training and can develop this on stage) to limit classical works. 

[Lizbie1]

Top of my wishlist isn't a new production, but the Skeaping Giselle. That would get me on side!

[Jan McNulty]

36 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

 

 

But most don’t. I attended the last ever performance of London Contemporary Dance Theatre when I was very young- at that time, they were one of the best dance companies in the world. I didn’t actually like contemporary dance at the time but went, and they impressed me so much that I went to other contemporary performances afterwards because of them. The show was as powerful and incredible- and sold out. The next day the company was closed - due to lack of finances and its directors pushed to “refocus” priorities.  There are many excellent companies that have disappeared like this:  London City Ballet (which had Mariinsky Ballet principals wanting to guest with them), Richard Alston Dance Company, etc.

 

 

 

That's not quite accurate re LCDT - the Arts Council decided that only one major contemporary company was required in England and withdrew LCDT's funding, making the company financially unviable.  ACE saved Rambert instead.

 

London City Ballet/City Ballet of London was never an ACE NPO and folded due to lack of sponsors.

 

Richard Alston's company folded because ACE withdrew their funding.

 

I was under the impression that Dresden was a very well regarded company.

[Guest]

And, perhaps Angela or Horst know more, but I don't think it's fair to say that he built up the Semperoper Ballet from scratch. He took it over from Vladimir Derevianko, I think. 

[Angela]

1 hour ago, Jan McNulty said:

I was under the impression that Dresden was a very well regarded company.

 

In Germany, it belongs to the six big ballet companies - Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf (Ballet on the Rhine), Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart all have enough dancers to do the classics with a normal, not reduced corps de ballet.

 

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

We don’t have any experience here of what it’s like for a ballet company to have the relative security (ie not likely to be closed or declare bankruptcy) but always second fiddle or even third fiddle, lower in priority to an opera company or orchestra, like Semperoper Ballett and many German dance companies do.

 

Actually, Berlin State Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet are independent from the Opera companies - they share the same theatre, the orchestra, the workshops and partially the same management, but their directors have independent positions, equal to the opera or playhouse directors. Which is also the case for some modern companies like Bausch/Wuppertal or Sasha Waltz/Berlin.

[Angela]

7 minutes ago, Darlex said:

And, perhaps Angela or Horst know more, but I don't think it's fair to say that he built up the Semperoper Ballet from scratch. He took it over from Vladimir Derevianko, I think. 

 

Derevianko had a very good company, they had some Neumeier works, a full-length by Uwe Scholz, DQ and other classics. And fine dancers, more Russians than now, if I remember correctly. Already before Derevianko, the Semperoper Company was one of the big companies in Eastern Germany. It IS a huge and beautiful opera house, of course they knew how to fill it.

[Sabine0308]

On 24/08/2022 at 22:56, Angela said:

 

Actually, Berlin State Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet are independent from the Opera companies - they share the same theatre, the orchestra, the workshops and partially the same management, but their directors have independent positions, equal to the opera or playhouse directors. Which is also the case for some modern companies like Bausch/Wuppertal or Sasha Waltz/Berlin.

I can only speak for Berlin, but this sounds better than it actually is. Ballet comes always after the Opera productions, SBB belongs to the Opernstiftung, and only when the opera productions are set, THEN the venues for the ballet performances will be planned. Which means working in 3 different opera houses: Deutsche Oper-home of the company, Staatsoper and Komische Oper. And fight for money. They are not THAT independent. A few examples: the PCR tests for the company during the worst pandemic times were solely paid by the "ballet friends circle". To enable them to work in small groups. And while I love to support the dancers, I was pretty annoyed about this. It's actually the responsibility of the employer to take care of the dancers health, imo. Also, the health department is financed completely by the friends/sponsors/patrons,  and even the flowers for premieres. So money is an issue, even for well-financed Staatsballett Berlin. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Sabine0308

[capybara]

2 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

Also, the health department is financed completely by the friends/sponsors/patrons,  and even the flowers for premieres. So money is an issue, even for well-financed Staatsballett Berlin. 

 
I’ve seen flowers come on after ENB first nights which look suspiciously ‘company purchased’ but, in recent times at the RB, I can only recall the bouquets for both leading men and women at the ‘special Swan Lake’ bbeing a ‘bulk order’.

Most UK companies rely on fans, don’t they?

[Emeralds]

On 24/08/2022 at 21:49, Darlex said:

And, perhaps Angela or Horst know more, but I don't think it's fair to say that he built up the Semperoper Ballet from scratch. He took it over from Vladimir Derevianko, I think. 

Derevianko renamed it Ballett Dresden. To be fair, its old name was pretty long (5 words, and if you add “of the” that’s seven words- quite a millstone for a ballet company), so I can see why. But it makes it very difficult to let people know who you are and establish a reputation, especially if it was previously part of East Germany and couldn’t travel back and forth easily. I don’t doubt that Derevianko did a good job of building up its repertoire though- adding works by Forsythe, Tetley, Kylian, Neumeier, Bigonzetti, Ek, Scholz, Thoss (though no doubt forum members may disagree on whether all these additions are valuable ones). 

 

When it underwent yet another name change to Semperoper Ballett, Aaron Watkin had to build up a reputation for the company from “who are you? You used to be Dresden Ballet? Never heard of them” to a company that attracted good principals wanting to join and invitations from Sadler’s Wells and other prestigious venues around the world. A handful of dance writers or dance regulars might know about the company under its old name, but it’s another thing convincing a foreign impresario to hire you, sponsors to underwrite the tour, and patrons who are not dance readers or dance journalists to pay their hard earned money and take valuable time to attend. So in that sense, he’s built up a reputation for the company under its new identity from scratch. It basically went from being covered only in dance periodicals as part of a bigger article about other companies to getting full reviews in international broadsheet newspapers, photos and all, in its own right rather than shared with other companies, with the company name in the title. That’s a pretty big deal for the company, even if local dancegoers or periodical readers don’t feel it is to them.

On 24/08/2022 at 21:56, Angela said:

 

Actually, Berlin State Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet are independent from the Opera companies - they share the same theatre, the orchestra, the workshops and partially the same management, but their directors have independent positions, equal to the opera or playhouse directors. Which is also the case for some modern companies like Bausch/Wuppertal or Sasha Waltz/Berlin.

By independent (with reference to dance companies) I mean these companies literally do everything themselves. They have no “same theatre”. They tour so no theatre belongs to them. ENB now has a home base of studios, offices, and a mini auditorium used for dress rehearsals and filming after a lot of hard work building up its exposure and attracting sponsorship, but no theatre. None of the theatres they dance at belong to them nor “own” them. ENB has to find funding to pay for its orchestra themselves, which is currently probably the most consistent and best orchestra for dance in London. (I wish ENB would stage Apollo, Petrushka, Firebird and Rite of Spring again - ENB Philharmonic’s performances of Stravinsky ballets  are as good as LSO or any of the best symphony orchestras at the moment.)  

 

Aside from RB and Royal Opera,  no dance companies “share orchestra” - for many even having a chamber orchestra is an unimaginable luxury. Many directors have to calculate whether they can even afford one or two musicians. Nobody likes using recorded music instead of live performance and it annoys musician unions. But often they simply don’t have the money to pay musicians as well as rent the theatre or pay for costumes and lighting.  Same workshops ? Share management? Only a tiny number of companies have workshops, eg RB. The others have to pay freelance costumers and carpenters (for props), use practice clothes, or make their own props. Often their “management” is one or two administrators on shoestring salaries who do everything from checking that motel rooms have been booked for touring, the drivers taking the  costumes and props will not forget to turn up, that the heating in the studio works, and whose “office” is often just a chair in the corner of the practice studio.  U.K. vs Germany- you don’t know how lucky you are in Germany!  (I think that’s why Stuttgart has tempted away a number of Royal Ballet School graduates who go on to become their principals).

 

No doubt some fans in Germany may feel that with the star power nowadays of Semionova, Salenko, Vogel, and rising stars that continue to rise up the ranks of Stuttgart, Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg, or established stars wanting to join those companies, that Watkins’ achievements might be very small potatoes in comparison.

 

But I think a director who appreciates the classical beauty of Jewels as well as the fast forward style of Forsythe, isn’t going to go to ENB and start throwing out the gems (pun not intended) of the repertoire (and company warehouse). I expect he will marvel at how lucky the company and audiences are to have incredible productions like Nureyev’s R&J, Skeaping’s Giselle, Hynd’s Coppelia, MacMillan’s Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide from a Royal Danish Ballet alumnus, Holmes’s Corsaire, MacMillan’s Manon, etc in the repertoire of ENB (they would cost a fortune for other companies  to acquire them- and many still would and do) and would be keen to stage them as well as produce new works.

 

In a sense what he has or hasn’t done in Dresden is now immaterial (as of 2023) as ENB is a totally different company and even with recent success in securing sponsorship for a new home, new studios and principal positions, it still remains a company that cannot sit back and rest on its laurels, and needs to do well at the box office and artistically at every venue it performs at to be able to thrive, whether that be successful Akram (Giselle) or Forsythe seasons or Le Corsaire- every department has punch above its weight as it always has had just to survive. (Watkin would know this having danced with ENB himself).

 

For myself, with regard to repertoire, I don’t actually mind what they dance as long as the quality is very good. We had Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Raymonda, a few Nutcrackers, in London this season.  I won’t miss not having them next season (but looks like there will be more Swan Lakes and Nutcrackers again). But for balance, artistic growth  and job satisfaction for the dancers, a few classics each season will be healthy and beneficial (for the box office as well as the above artistic reasons). 

 

Even big names in pop music and the Proms haven’t sold well this summer in Britain as inflation and fuel prices begin to bite, and many working professionals being too time starved (due to staff shortages) to attend performances rather than cash strapped. So marketing wise from now on, it is important for ENB and indeed all dance companies to reach out to every single human who possibly has the time, money and inclination to attend, rather than relying on its “core audience” or “usual marketing channels”, which for the foreseeable future won’t be enough.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Emeralds

[Angela]

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Derevianko renamed it Ballett Dresden. To be fair, its old name was pretty long

 

Emeralds, all German ballet companies had these long, long titels once: "Ballett der Württembergischen Staatstheater" (which became "Stuttgarter Ballett" - only later in Cranko's time, not when he started), "Ballett der Bayerischen Staatsoper", "Ballett der Hamburgischen Staatsoper", and so on. That was before German companies started to tour internationally, or before theatres had marketing people who started to think about brand names. They all changed them between the 1970s and the 1990s, companies in East Germany a little later. Of course Sol Hurok, the impresario who invited Stuttgart to New York in 1969, announced them as "The Stuttgart Ballet", I don't think Clive Barnes would have celebrated them as "The Ballett der Württembergischen Staatstheater miracle" in the New York Times 😁.

 

When I started to see companies in the East, Dresden was the second best, second biggest company there after the Ballett der Deutschen Staatsoper in East Berlin (which at that time had Steffi Scherzer and Oliver Matz, two top level principals of international quality). No, Dresden was not yet on the international plan, but on a national level, Germans did travel to see the company! Allow me to list the guests of the annual gala that Vladimir Derevianko held in 2003, I was there: Evelyn Hart and Rex Harrington, Gil Roman, Isabelle Ciaravola and José Martinez, Lucia Lacarra and Cyril Pierre, Bernice Coppieters and Chris Roelandt, Simone Noja and Giuseppe Picone, Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur, Anna Polikarpova and Lloyd Riggins, plus the Dresden company with principals like Katharina Markowskaja (later Bavarian State Ballet), Derevianko, Elena Gorbatsch and Ivan Korneev (whose son Nikita Korneev, alumnus of several German ballet academies, is now second soloist with the Mariinsky, by the way). So Derevianko had money and he had connections, his repertoire was on the same level as, let's say, Munich at that time.

 

Watkin was a former Forsythe dancer and was granted the rights to many Forsythe works, also the full-length works. They were the key for him to tour internationally, because few companies (often no other company than Dresden) did these ballets after Frankfurt Ballet closed down, and the former Forsythe Company, also located in Dresden, was never big enough to do them. Forsythe was Watkin's ticket to the world, not necessarily the classics.

 

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

By independent (with reference to dance companies) I mean these companies literally do everything themselves. They have no “same theatre”. They tour so no theatre belongs to them.

 

I'm sorry, the German theatre system works different. What you call independent, we call "Freie Szene", the off-scene - small companies with no house, no orchestra. But they are modern or contemporary companies, not ballet companies.

 

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

 (I think that’s why Stuttgart has tempted away a number of Royal Ballet School graduates who go on to become their principals).

 

They did not have to be tempted away - Monica Mason did not show any interest in them. As I heard, she did not get along with Gailene Stock at the time, so Douglas Lee, David Moore, Alexander Jones, William Moore and Elisa Badenes were hired at Stuttgart. "How could she fail to see Elisa!", I once heard Reid Anderson say...

 

[Jan McNulty]

5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

 

Aside from RB and Royal Opera,  no dance companies “share orchestra” - for many even having a chamber orchestra is an unimaginable luxury. Many directors have to calculate whether they can even afford one or two musicians. Nobody likes using recorded music instead of live performance and it annoys musician unions. But often they simply don’t have the money to pay musicians as well as rent the theatre or pay for costumes and lighting.  Same workshops ? Share management? Only a tiny number of companies have workshops, eg RB. The others have to pay freelance costumers and carpenters (for props), use practice clothes, or make their own props. Often their “management” is one or two administrators on shoestring salaries who do everything from checking that motel rooms have been booked for touring, the drivers taking the  costumes and props will not forget to turn up, that the heating in the studio works, and whose “office” is often just a chair in the corner of the practice studio.  U.K. vs Germany- you don’t know how lucky you are in Germany!  (I think that’s why Stuttgart has tempted away a number of Royal Ballet School graduates who go on to become their principals).

 

 

 

 

As part of the "Royal stable of companies" BRB, which does have its own rather fine orchestra, has full use of the RB workshops.

 

NB has its own workshops and costume makers as well as its own orchestra.  NB also has its own dedicated headquarters with fabulous facilities and a 200 seat theatre in Leeds.

 

Scottish Ballet has its own orchestra but I do not know about their workshop situation.

 

I think that is a bit more than one or two musicians...

 

I think if you check the websites of these companies they also have quite a number of admin staff as well as the artistic and technical staff.

 

Apart from RB, all the other companies tour within the UK.  I'm not sure if German companies tour but I do know that there are a lot of well-regarded companies in Germany.

 

Some years ago a friend and I went to Paris to see POB performing Neumier's Lady of the Camelias.  At the second performance we saw Jiri Bubenicek was an unannounced guest.  The following season he had moved from Hamburg to Dresden.  I have never forgotten his performance and, although he has now retired, it has been my dream to get to see Dresden Ballet.  I will get there one of these days and I am sure that I will find them wonderful.

[Angela]

1 hour ago, Jan McNulty said:

Apart from RB, all the other companies tour within the UK.  I'm not sure if German companies tour but I do know that there are a lot of well-regarded companies in Germany.

 

Nope, they don't. Not on a regular basis. There are many venus in Germany that serve as tour stations for ballet/opera/musicals/plays, but they are mainly town halls in smaller cities for small productions. Few of them are big enough to house big productions, that's where companies like Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, NDT or Aterballetto visit - and now and then a German company. Due to a history with many royal courts, many small states and many regents, who all wanted to have their own theatre, the German system provides theatres in many towns, most of them with constantly hired ensembles. I read somewhere that we have most opera houses in relation to the total population. And most of them have a ballet or dance company, too, some with only eight or ten dancers, but with full-year contracts. The financial security is of course a reason that many dancers come here, so the quality of the productions is way better than compared to the 1960s or 1970s. Germany was never a ballet country, we had a very poor ballet tradition until Cranko started at Stuttgart, which sooner or later affected other cities and the whole republic. End of history lesson 👩‍🏫

The Netherlands have a touring system which may be more similar to the UK.

 

[Guest]

20 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Derevianko renamed it Ballett Dresden. To be fair, its old name was pretty long (5 words, and if you add “of the” that’s seven words- quite a millstone for a ballet company), so I can see why. But it makes it very difficult to let people know who you are and establish a reputation, especially if it was previously part of East Germany and couldn’t travel back and forth easily. I don’t doubt that Derevianko did a good job of building up its repertoire though- adding works by Forsythe, Tetley, Kylian, Neumeier, Bigonzetti, Ek, Scholz, Thoss (though no doubt forum members may disagree on whether all these additions are valuable ones). 

 

When it underwent yet another name change to Semperoper Ballett, Aaron Watkin had to build up a reputation for the company from “who are you? You used to be Dresden Ballet? Never heard of them” to a company that attracted good principals wanting to join and invitations from Sadler’s Wells and other prestigious venues around the world. A handful of dance writers or dance regulars might know about the company under its old name, but it’s another thing convincing a foreign impresario to hire you, sponsors to underwrite the tour, and patrons who are not dance readers or dance journalists to pay their hard earned money and take valuable time to attend. So in that sense, he’s built up a reputation for the company under its new identity from scratch. It basically went from being covered only in dance periodicals as part of a bigger article about other companies to getting full reviews in international broadsheet newspapers, photos and all, in its own right rather than shared with other companies, with the company name in the title. That’s a pretty big deal for the company, even if local dancegoers or periodical readers don’t feel it is to them.

By independent (with reference to dance companies) I mean these companies literally do everything themselves. They have no “same theatre”. They tour so no theatre belongs to them. ENB now has a home base of studios, offices, and a mini auditorium used for dress rehearsals and filming after a lot of hard work building up its exposure and attracting sponsorship, but no theatre. None of the theatres they dance at belong to them nor “own” them. ENB has to find funding to pay for its orchestra themselves, which is currently probably the most consistent and best orchestra for dance in London. (I wish ENB would stage Apollo, Petrushka, Firebird and Rite of Spring again - ENB Philharmonic’s performances of Stravinsky ballets  are as good as LSO or any of the best symphony orchestras at the moment.)  

 

Aside from RB and Royal Opera,  no dance companies “share orchestra” - for many even having a chamber orchestra is an unimaginable luxury. Many directors have to calculate whether they can even afford one or two musicians. Nobody likes using recorded music instead of live performance and it annoys musician unions. But often they simply don’t have the money to pay musicians as well as rent the theatre or pay for costumes and lighting.  Same workshops ? Share management? Only a tiny number of companies have workshops, eg RB. The others have to pay freelance costumers and carpenters (for props), use practice clothes, or make their own props. Often their “management” is one or two administrators on shoestring salaries who do everything from checking that motel rooms have been booked for touring, the drivers taking the  costumes and props will not forget to turn up, that the heating in the studio works, and whose “office” is often just a chair in the corner of the practice studio.  U.K. vs Germany- you don’t know how lucky you are in Germany!  (I think that’s why Stuttgart has tempted away a number of Royal Ballet School graduates who go on to become their principals).

 

No doubt some fans in Germany may feel that with the star power nowadays of Semionova, Salenko, Vogel, and rising stars that continue to rise up the ranks of Stuttgart, Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg, or established stars wanting to join those companies, that Watkins’ achievements might be very small potatoes in comparison.

 

But I think a director who appreciates the classical beauty of Jewels as well as the fast forward style of Forsythe, isn’t going to go to ENB and start throwing out the gems (pun not intended) of the repertoire (and company warehouse). I expect he will marvel at how lucky the company and audiences are to have incredible productions like Nureyev’s R&J, Skeaping’s Giselle, Hynd’s Coppelia, MacMillan’s Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide from a Royal Danish Ballet alumnus, Holmes’s Corsaire, MacMillan’s Manon, etc in the repertoire of ENB (they would cost a fortune for other companies  to acquire them- and many still would and do) and would be keen to stage them as well as produce new works.

 

In a sense what he has or hasn’t done in Dresden is now immaterial (as of 2023) as ENB is a totally different company and even with recent success in securing sponsorship for a new home, new studios and principal positions, it still remains a company that cannot sit back and rest on its laurels, and needs to do well at the box office and artistically at every venue it performs at to be able to thrive, whether that be successful Akram (Giselle) or Forsythe seasons or Le Corsaire- every department has punch above its weight as it always has had just to survive. (Watkin would know this having danced with ENB himself).

 

For myself, with regard to repertoire, I don’t actually mind what they dance as long as the quality is very good. We had Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, Raymonda, a few Nutcrackers, in London this season.  I won’t miss not having them next season (but looks like there will be more Swan Lakes and Nutcrackers again). But for balance, artistic growth  and job satisfaction for the dancers, a few classics each season will be healthy and beneficial (for the box office as well as the above artistic reasons). 

 

Even big names in pop music and the Proms haven’t sold well this summer in Britain as inflation and fuel prices begin to bite, and many working professionals being too time starved (due to staff shortages) to attend performances rather than cash strapped. So marketing wise from now on, it is important for ENB and indeed all dance companies to reach out to every single human who possibly has the time, money and inclination to attend, rather than relying on its “core audience” or “usual marketing channels”, which for the foreseeable future won’t be enough.

Emeralds, I think my idea of building 'a good company from stratch,' would apply to what de Valois or Rambert achieved (and I would then add 'excellent'), but I agree with you that Watkin has significantly raised the profile of the Semperoper Ballet. 

 

But what I still don't understand is how would he stage one new classical ballet a year (if that's what his statement meant) without throwing out ENB's current marvellous productions that you've listed. Which full length classical ballets are left for ENB to stage? Bayadere (they have only done the Shades, best part) Don Q (not in their rep since the 70s)? And sadly,as we all well know, the less we'll known the title, the harder it is to sell. 

[LinMM]

The more I read it the more I think he meant he would stage one new classical ballet ( or revive an existing one in the past Rep)  a year …in addition to a Swan Lake Nutcracker or Raymonda etc. so at least TWO  big classics a year( as it has often been with ENB in recent years anyway) with some newer more modern works as well. 
Perhaps this is wishful thinking but I honestly don’t believe he could get away with only ONE classical work a year with such a big Company. 

[Jan McNulty]

On 24/08/2022 at 11:48, oncnp said:

From the Guardian if you want to read ahead of tomorrow's links

 

English National Ballet announces Aaron Watkin as new artistic director | English National Ballet | The Guardian

 

"Watkin believes strongly that classical ballet is still valid, and essential to the development of dancers, and intends to stage at least one big classical production per season

 

I think that if you read the quote Oncnp highlighted above that it is one classical production per season not per year.  That is approximately what BRB has been achieving for a good many years too.  

 

I will be more interested to see if the UK spring tour is reinstated.

[HorstVollmer]

On 01/09/2022 at 22:46, Jan McNulty said:

I'm not sure if German companies tour but I do know that there are a lot of well-regarded companies in Germany.

 

As Angela responded before: German companies hardly ever tour within Germany. Without having statistic evidence at hand, I'd actually say: The bigger the production, the smaller the chances that audiences in other cities in Germany will ever see the production guesting in their own theatre.

 

That is, of course, due to the technical and financial implications involved - but that's only a part of the explanation. The other, probably more relevant reason is identical with the biggest advantage ballet and dance companies in Gemany have. That advantage lies in Germany's theatre system where most ballet and dance companies are an integral part of a fully subsidised state or city theatre where opera productions and ballet productions share not only the same stage but also the same workshops and technical support teams. Those teams though are responsible for all productions in their theater - and sending them on tour with their ballet (or opera) company means they'd be not available to look after the performances taking place at their home theatre while one of the companies is travelling.

 

That's still not the full explanation why German companies hardly ever guest in other German cities - but it is a seemingly tiny reason that often is one of the decisive ones whey ballet companies here can only dream of guesting more often elsewhere in Germany.

 

The lobby organisation "Dachverband Tanz" has created programs aiming to improve the situation for ballet companies whishing to guest more often - but those programs still work best for companies of a smaller (or very small) size and not for "big" productions of big companies.

[FionaM]

Whilst watching the Prix de Lausanne, one of the presenters quoted Aaron Watkins who apparently has said that watching a petit allegro exercise tells him everything he needs to do know about the dancer.   
 

This bodes well for the types cast in the Neapolitan 😉

[San Perregrino]

Interesting insight of Aaron Watkins on ENB:

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvFgsN1JXZL/?igshid=Y2I2MzMwZWM3ZA==

[bridiem]

The problem with the 'all dance is beautiful' approach is that it denies the particular qualities of the various forms of dance and the specialised training, skill and experience needed to perform them as they should be performed. And, more specifically, it ignores the fact that he has been appointed director of English National BALLET. I see another name change looming... 

[annamk]

11 minutes ago, bridiem said:

The problem with the 'all dance is beautiful' approach is that it denies the particular qualities of the various forms of dance and the specialised training, skill and experience needed to perform them as they should be performed. And, more specifically, it ignores the fact that he has been appointed director of English National BALLET. I see another name change looming... 

 

Totally agree with you, the phrase a jack of all trades and master of none comes to mind.

 

I really had my eyes opened by Tiler Peck's Turn it Out; two dancers particularly caught my eye : Jillian Meyers and lex Ishimoto. They danced with an extraordinary fluidity that I have not seen here in classically trained dancers in contemporary work. I think the forum has discussed this in relation to Natalia Osipova's forays into contemporary work. 

[San Perregrino]

12 minutes ago, bridiem said:

The problem with the 'all dance is beautiful' approach is that it denies the particular qualities of the various forms of dance and the specialised training, skill and experience needed to perform them as they should be performed. And, more specifically, it ignores the fact that he has been appointed director of English National BALLET. I see another name change looming... 

Amazing how people can perceive something so differently. I heard this insight as a positive rather than a negative. The specialist training in each discipline currently practiced at the ENB to be continued under Watkins to deliver stronger synergised performances across all types of production. To enhance and bring out the best in ENBs dancers rather than dilute, dumb down or blunt the skills of this outstanding company. 

[Angela]

33 minutes ago, bridiem said:

The problem with the 'all dance is beautiful' approach is that it denies the particular qualities of the various forms of dance and the specialised training, skill and experience needed to perform them as they should be performed. And, more specifically, it ignores the fact that he has been appointed director of English National BALLET. I see another name change looming... 

 

I don't understand what's so different to Tamara Rojo's approach - she had Bausch and Khan and Forsythe and Ek pieces coming to ENB. Watkin said he will continue to do so, so where is the big change? Rojo already changed the face of the company. And where is the problem with modern BALLET for a company called English National BALLET? It's not contemporary dance, it's still ballet. Watkin had many full-length classics at Dresden, why should he get rid of them at ENB?

 

What you talk about here has happened at Zurich, where Cathy Marston, continueing former AD Christian Spuck's programming of the last two years, got rid of the classics like Giselle or Swan Lake. No more ballet in the traditional, classic or romantic style at Zurich, or in Switzerland as a whole: it's gone. Watkin's last classic at Dresden was La Bayadère just a few months ago.

[bridiem]

2 minutes ago, Angela said:

I don't understand what's so different to Tamara Rojo's approach - she had Bausch and Khan and Forsythe and Ek pieces coming to ENB. Watkin said he will continue to do so, so where is the big change? Rojo already changed the face of the company. And where is the problem with modern BALLET for a company called English National BALLET? It's not contemporary dance, it's still ballet. Watkin had many full-length classics at Dresden, why should he get rid of them at ENB?

 

I'm not saying it's a big change - it sounds as if it will be a continuation along the same road but with perhaps a more explicit 'philosophy' involved.

 

The dividing line between ballet and contemporary dance has been much discussed on this forum. All I would say is that specialised training for contemporary dance is very different from specialised training for classical ballet and it actually does a disservice to great dancers in both genres to pretend otherwise.

[Angela]

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

it sounds as if it will be a continuation along the same road

 

Then I guess you must turn to the people who hired Watkin.

 

ENB, as other ballet companies with a part-modern repertory, still hires ballet dancers with classical training. If you want pure Petipa or Bournonville dancers, you are right, and some Mariinsky dancers have tried out modern and went back to their pure style. Others did not - Vladimir Shklyarov as an example: after he danced some modern ballet works at Munich, his Lavrovsky Romeo changed considerably, more acting, more passion. I liked it very much, but the Russian audience was divided, I guess. Why did the Russian companies take in Neumeier, Cranko, Wheeldon, Clug, even very modern choreographers like Sharon Eyal, Ohad Naharin? Because they have dancers who want to try out different things. Don't you think you may have to leave it to the artists also? Many dancers want to dance modern ballet and work in both worlds, because they think like Watkin, that it makes them better artists. If ENB was a company with a pure, single-choreographer style, let's say Ashton, I would accept your points, but it has not been for years. The diversification of ballet styles started long ago, also with the Royal Ballet. And most audiences enjoy to see different styles, not only the classics. ENB won't become something like contemporary dance theatre in the Wuppertal style with Aaron Watkin, it will keep a mixed repertory.