Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Birmingham Royal Ballet have announced the principal casting for the Spring Tour of Aladdin: http://www.brb.org.u...eason&urn=24024 Birmingham Hippodrome - 15 - 23 February 2013 Casting given below is for principal roles; if casting changes are necessary, they will be reflected in the final castsheet which can be downloaded by clicking here. 15 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 16 February 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 16 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Chi Cao Princess Badr al-Badur: Natasha Oughtred 17 February 2013 1:00 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 19 February 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 19 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 20 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Chi Cao Princess Badr al-Badur: Natasha Oughtred 21 February 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts 21 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Yudai Fukuoka Princess Badr al-Badur: Ayako Ono 22 February 2013 6:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 23 February 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts 23 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Yudai Fukuoka Princess Badr al-Badur: Ayako Ono The Lowry - 27 February - 2 March 2013 27 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Chi Cao Princess Badr al-Badur: Natasha Oughtred 28 February 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Momoko Hirata 28 February 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts 1 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 2 March 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: Mathias Dingman Princess Badr al-Badur: Maureya Lebowitz 2 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma Theatre Royal Plymouth - 6 - 9 March 2013 6 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 7 March 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: Mathias Dingman Princess Badr al-Badur: Maureya Lebowitz 7 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 8 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Chi Cao Princess Badr al-Badur: Natasha Oughtred 9 March 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Momoko Hirata 9 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts Sunderland Empire Theatre - 14 - 16 March 2013 14 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 15 March 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts 15 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Mathias Dingman Princess Badr al-Badur: Maureya Lebowitz 16 March 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Momoko Hirata London Coliseum - 20 - 24 March 2013 20 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma 21 March 2013 2:00 pm Aladdin: Mathias Dingman Princess Badr al-Badur: Maureya Lebowitz 21 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Jamie Bond Princess Badr al-Badur: Jenna Roberts 22 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Momoko Hirata 23 March 2013 2:30 pm Aladdin: Joseph Caley Princess Badr al-Badur: Elisha Willis 23 March 2013 7:30 pm Aladdin: Chi Cao Princess Badr al-Badur: Natasha Oughtred 24 March 2013 1:00 pm Aladdin: César Morales Princess Badr al-Badur: Nao Sakuma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Thanks for this, Janet. Cesar Morales is going to be very busy, partnering both Nao and Momoko. There are a couple of names which I don't recognise. I assume that they have recently joined the company as there are no biographies on the website yet. Do you have any information about these dancers, Janet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Newcombe Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 They are the dancers who created the roles in Japan and will be here as Guest Artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 I'm wondering if, given the names, they're guesting from whichever ballet company (Tokyo?) he originally made the ballet for. (Oops, Tony's post hadn't materialised when I hit "Send") Interesting to see that Sakuma and Cao aren't dancing together in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 I have booked to see this on Sat 23rd February and feel very disappointed that I will be seeing guest artists from the National Ballet of Japan rather than members of BRB who I know and love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 I have booked to see this on Sat 23rd February and feel very disappointed that I will be seeing guest artists from the National Ballet of Japan rather than members of BRB who I know and love. Well, Ribbons, I saw the video of the Tokyo performance and they were both very good. I'm sure you'll have more than enough opportunities to see BRB dancers in the roles, as they're not likely to retire the production! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Here's a link to the Aladdin mini-site that announces the guests: http://www.creatingaladdin.com/2013/01/the-principal-couple/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 also this may come as a surprise to everyone, but from the point of view of Toronto ticket buyers, where our best seats cost about three times what BRB's do, BRB tickets are so inexpensive that I'd be going to see every cast! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 And Birmingham is the most expensive venue (unless you subscribe)! On a trip to wonderful Sunderland, I can have a top price ticket and great guest house for the same price as a top price ticket in Birmingham. Sunderland is a terrific place to visit too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 It's a shame that these guests are not coming to London. I would have liked to see them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Janet, is it very difficult to get to Sunderland from Liverpool? Do you drive or do you go by train? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 I've always driven. There's a really nice route if I've got time (M6, turn right at Carlisle onto A69, turn right at Newcastle onto A1 - mandatory stop at Tebay Services near Penrith for treats from the farm shop). Otherwise, as I now stay by Mowbray Park, M62, A1M, A19. The first time I drove to Sunderland I nearly crashed when I saw the Angel of the North. Since then, as people who follow me on Twitter know all too well, I have become obsessed with Antony Gormley's Another Place installation, which is on the beach very close to me. For the train it would be Liverpool to Newcastle, maybe with a change and then Metro to Sunderland. There aren't any cheap train fares on this line so the fuel is more economic for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Janet, I love The Angel of the North. We always look out for it when we are driving to Northumberland for holidays. I know of the figures on Crosby beach (very arresting). Are they the "Another Place" installation to which you refer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 They certainly are! It just fascinates me the way the installation is different every day because of the sea and the sky and the ever-changing sand. I'm very excited, too, to be seeing Sutra at the Lowry in May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Well, Ribbons, I saw the video of the Tokyo performance and they were both very good. I'm sure you'll have more than enough opportunities to see BRB dancers in the roles, as they're not likely to retire the production! Well thank you for trying to make me feel better - I do appreciate it. I'm sure they are very good but I can rarely afford to go to the ballet and I have a very long history of never being lucky enough to see the principals that I favour most and I really have no interest in seeing a couple of complete unknowns from a japanese ballet company that I know nothing about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Janet, you're very lucky to live so near to Crosby beach. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Ribbons, I'm so sorry you are disappointed. I think the main thing to hang onto is that they are the dances who created the roles in the company on which the production was originally mounted. Do you think you could switch your tickets to another performance? I've had to do that once or twice and, on the whole, have found the Hippodrome staff to be very helpful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Aileen, my Mum and I say that every day when we take Princess Chunkydog to see the Iron Men. The only downside is that the closest venue for BRB is The Lowry and NB Manchester! I do sometimes have a quiet giggle when tourists arrive to see the Iron Men not realising that you can't see them at high tide! BTW, my twitter tag is @JanMcN and I also follow @ironmencrosby. Loads of people tweet pictures of them that @ironmencrosby retweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naomi M Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Ayako Ono who guests in Aladdin at BRB is a wonderful dancer, IMO she is the best ballerina in Japan. She is quite small but has stellar technique, beautiful lines, musicality and sweetness, moreover acting qualities. She is young, I think about 25 but she has danced almost all classical roles such as O/O Nikiya Sugarplum plus MacMillan's Manon, Juliette and Bintley's Sylvia, Prince of the Pagodas, Cinderella. I think she will be the next Miyako Yoshida, and we Japanese audience are afraid that if she guests in BRB, she might not return to Japan because she is Bintley's favorite and they would like to keep her. Here's her profile. (in Japanese though) http://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/ballet/dancer/onoayako.html And here's her partner Yudai Fukuoka. He was a former soloist at Zurich Ballet. A very noble and versatile dancer. http://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/ballet/dancer/fukuokayudai.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Thanks Naomi, I have no doubt that they are both wonderful dancers, otherwise David Bintley, for whom I have the greatest admiration, wouldn't have cast them. I'm just disappointed that I don't get to see the current BRB dancers in the roles and I wish this information had been available before I booked my tickets. I can only go on the Saturday evening, so in all honesty, would not have booked tickets at all this time round. I also feel disappointed that with so many wonderful dancers in BRB that anyone would feel the need to bring dancers from elsewhere. If they were massive stars who would pull in the crowds, I could just about understand it, but even then, I'm not keen on the whole 'guest dancer' thing - I think it's terribly unfair on the company-employed dancers who work day in and day out for the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naomi M Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 For your information, there is a clip of Bintley's Aladdin. Ayako Ono as the Princess and Akitmisu Yahata as Aladdin at the National Ballet of Japan. http://www.atre.jp/11aladdin/movie/index.html This is a fun piece with lots of divertissments so I think you will enjoy even without the leading roles, lots of juicy solos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Thanks for the link Naomi. I believe the sets have had to be modified, BTW, because the British stages are much smaller than those in Japan. Ribbons, I appreciate your point about wanting to see BRB dancers and not guests. I have very similar feelings but I just remember a dancer telling me once that it is an opportunity for both the home and guest dancers to learn from each other. Looking at the trailer, I now wish that I was seeing them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 . I can only go on the Saturday evening, so in all honesty, would not have booked tickets at all this time round. . . Really, Ribbons, that would have been a terrible shame. We all have our favourite dancers but at one time THEY were new to you too. The fact that you have never heard of a dancer or even of their company doesn't mean anything. They could be fabulous dancers. The companies and dancers that get the publicity do so because they are in major media centres like London and New York and Paris, and then those dancers get invited to galas as guests, and have DVDs made featuring them, and it snowballs. The best Manons I've ever seen were Alessandra Ferri (whom I'm sure you've heard of) and.... Martine Lamy from the National Ballet of Canada, whom I'm sure you've never heard of. But if Martine had turned up to guest in England and you had not bought a ticket because you had never heard of her and the National Ballet of Canada isn't very famous, you would have missed out on something extraordinary. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 also there are some quite fabulous divertissements in the Aladdin's Cave section of the ballet , so you will almost certainly see your fave BRB soloists in those. The ballet isn't all about the two leading dancers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 not to belabour the point, but maybe this example will make it clearer, Ribbons. Say the National Ballet of Canada had invited Robert Parker to guest here in Toronto (if only...). I assure you, sad but true, that the Toronto audience would have said "Robert Parker? Never heard of him! Birmingham Royal Ballet? Never heard of them. They have a ballet company in Birmingham??" (I told you it was sad...). How awful would it have been for all those people to miss the opportunity to see Robert Parker? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Yes I see what you mean, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to see Robert Parker out of the context of BRB. I think that ballet dancers are more than just individual dancers that can be picked up and placed anywhere like chess pieces; their performances owe much to the support of their company dancers and the overall context and style of the company and this takes time. It's interesting to read the reviews of Tamara Rojo in her recent Aurora role at ENB - my take on them is that she just didn't quite gel with style of the rest of the company and the dancers just weren't used to dancing with her so mixed reviews ensued, despite the fact that she has been a superb principal with RB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Interesting point, but I would be happy to see Robert Parker dance ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, with ANYONE!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Yes I see what you mean, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to see Robert Parker out of the context of BRB. I think that ballet dancers are more than just individual dancers that can be picked up and placed anywhere like chess pieces; their performances owe much to the support of their company dancers and the overall context and style of the company and this takes time. It's interesting to read the reviews of Tamara Rojo in her recent Aurora role at ENB - my take on them is that she just didn't quite gel with style of the rest of the company and the dancers just weren't used to dancing with her so mixed reviews ensued, despite the fact that she has been a superb principal with RB. I read it that perhaps she just couldn't "act young". For Aurora you need a wonderful technician who can act young and not everyone can. I agree with Katherine re Robert Parker and there are a couple of other dancers I would add to that list! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 OK well I am grateful for all the efforts to make me see the positives of the situation and it really has helped so I will go to the performance with an open mind and positive attitude. Thank you for your taking the trouble to respond to my disappointment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 I KNOW you won't regret it! You'll have a fabulous time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 OK well I am grateful for all the efforts to make me see the positives of the situation and it really has helped so I will go to the performance with an open mind and positive attitude. Thank you for your taking the trouble to respond to my disappointment. Ribbons, if you haven't already seen it, you may be interested on what Maureya Leibowitz has to say on BRB's /?Creating Aladdin website: "‘For Aladdin the rehearsal process is very different as we are all developing our characters for the first time. But excitingly enough the original cast of Aladdin and Princess Badr Al-Badur will be here guesting from Japan. Watching their interpretation of the roles David created on them will be a special and memorable part of Aladdin’s premiere season here in the UK.’" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 BRB have added a few more characters into the casting for Birmingham: http://brb.org.uk/masque/index.htm?act=WhatsOn&urn=23831&tsk=fullcast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) OK well I am grateful for all the efforts to make me see the positives of the situation and it really has helped so I will go to the performance with an open mind and positive attitude. Thank you for your taking the trouble to respond to my disappointment. Hi Ribbons, this was tweeted earlier today: " Kristen J McGarrity @kbird_x @BRB rehearsal...our guest artists from Japan are not only great technicians, they're energetic, dynamic, musical and REAL!!! LOVED it x " and this: " Steven Monteith @stevenmonteith Spellbound watching beautiful Ayako Ono and charismatic Yudai Fukuoka in #Aladdin rehearsal today!!I urge you all to get your tickets now!! " I may have to try and get to an extra performance! Edited February 9, 2013 by Janet McNulty Edited to add second tweet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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