SwissBalletFan Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 I recently read this on Dance Europes Facebook page Bayerisches Staatsballett has announced that 27 dancers are leaving the company at the end of the season. These include principal dancers and soloists Daria Sukhorukova, Ekaterina Petina, Lukas Slavický, Cyril Pierre, Zuzana Zahradníková, Catherine Markowskaja, Léonard Engel, Stephanie Hancox, Ilia Sarkisov, Maxim Chashchegorov, Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino. From the demi-solo and corps de ballet Magdalena Lonska, Joana de Andrade, Martina Balabanova, Donna Mae Burrows, Lisa Gareis, Nagisa Hatano, Julia Reid, Alisa Scetinina, Maud Hélèn Treille, Ilenia Vinci and Marcella Zambon and Vittorio Alberton, Zoltan Mano Beke, Luca Giaccio, Ilya Shcherbakov, Olzhas Tarlanov and Shawn Throop are leaving the company. As previously announced, artistic director Ivan Liška is stepping down after 18 years and will be succeeded by Igor Zelensky. 27 dancers leaving seems quite radical. Does anybody know if the new AD's vision differs greatly from Liska - or are the exiting dancers seeking new/different challenges - or retiring ? From all of the above answers...IZ is notoriously seen as a very difficult (challenging if you are in his good books) person to work for, so I can imagine some also chose to leave. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Thank you all for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Gosh...it will be interesting to see what happens next season! Maybe he will get Polunin to guest... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletsoccermom Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Daniel Carmago (principal dancer at Stuttgart Ballet) just had his last performance with the company. He is joining Dutch National Ballet as a principal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Stuttgart Ballet’s next season brings a new "Kafka" full-length ballet by resident choreographer Marco Goecke and one-act creations by Katarzyna Kozielska and Louis Stiens, both dancers with the company. Béjarts "Bolero" will return with the company premiere of Cherkaoui’s "Faun" and Goecke’s "Spectre de la Rose", an evening in the playhouse will combine Edward Clug’s "Ssss…" with the company premiere of "Falling Angels" by Jiri Kylián and the new Stiens ballet. The other resident choreographer Demis Volpi will stage Benjamin Britten’s „Death in Venice“ as a cooperation by the Stuttgart Opera and Ballet. The repertoire: Cranko’s Romeo, Cranko’s Taming, DQ by Maximilano Guerra, the immensely successful „Krabat“ by Volpi and a playhouse evening from this season with Kozielska, Hans van Manen and Glen Tetley. Sue Jin Kang will end her career after 30 years with the company, her last performance is an Onegin in July. Daniel Camargo has already left for Het Nationale. Two new corps de ballet dancers come from Zurich, two from Munich (Alisa Scetinina and Flemming Puthenpurayil, he was with the Junior Company there). Most new dancers come from the John Cranko School, one from Canada's National Ballet School. Yseult Lendvai, former principal dancer at the beginning of Reid Anderson's directorship, joins as ballet mistress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Angela, is there any reason that so many male principals have left Stuttgart? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino will guest with Dortmund Ballet, where AD Xin Peng Wang will create parts in his new "Faust" ballet for them. It seems they will also join Russell Maliphant's tour company with certain pieces, and they will work in Spain with Victor Ullate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Angela, is there any reason that so many male principals have left Stuttgart? Erm - Sue Jin Kang is 48 years old, and the other principal is Daniel Camargo, who wants do to more classical roles. Any more? If you're talking about the former leavers - Evan McKie had private reasons and/or wanted to return to Canada, William Moore and Alexander Jones seem to be fascinated by Christian Spuck's choreographic style (or, in Jones's case, by the prospect to create Ratmansky's Swan Lake), Marijn Rademaker wanted to return to his home country, the Netherlands. Amazing that Reid Andersons keeps finding new talents all the time, isn't it.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 Thanks for this information, Angela. I wondered whether Lacarra and Dino might do something with Russell Maliphant. Does Stuttgart not dance the big classics much eg Swan Lake, Giselle (although they obviously dance Don Q)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 Yes of course they do - but obviously Camargo wants more, Bayadère f.e. What a pity, he is such a great, great, great Cranko dancer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 "Flemming Puthenpurayil" Now, that's an interesting name. I doubt there'll be more than one of those in the world 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 He's Austrian - who would have expected that? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissBalletFan Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 It seems the main sponsor of Munich Ballet is not very happy at the developments of Igor Zelensky and the amount of Russian ballets and artists he is bringing, and therefore has removed financial support of the company. https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/bayerisches-staatballett-verliert-private-hauptsponsorin100.html 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 It seems the main sponsor of Munich Ballet is not very happy at the developments of Igor Zelensky and the amount of Russian ballets and artists he is bringing, and therefore has removed financial support of the company. https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/bayerisches-staatballett-verliert-private-hauptsponsorin100.html Gosh - that could be disastrous for the company. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Even at Russian Icons I always sense Mr Z is a law unto himself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Reading the article, it seems that Ms Lejeune is angry about repeatedly being unable to meet him and the criticism that, when she finally was able to meet him, he has provided about the number of dancers and the number of performances ("Als das Treffen dann zustande kam, habe Zelensky sich negativ über das Bayerische Staatsballett geäußert, die Anzahl der Tänzer und Vorstellungen kritisiert"). A similar article in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/nationaltheater-bayerisches-staatsballett-verliert-grosssponsorin-1.3021945 also refers to criticism that Zelensky provided at an annual press conference by the Bavarian State Opera (the paragraph that starts with "Als es doch ..."). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 It seems that Zelensky-bashing has become a fashion recently at Munich. That is his own fault for the most part because he refuses to talk to the press, or, as it seems, to anybody. But there are other, various reasons - some newspapers favoured the other contender Richard Siegal and are afraid that the mixed repertory with Pina Bausch and many works from German dance history will disappear under Zelensky. The fans regret that so many dancers will have to leave, though, let's face it, some of them would have left anyhow. Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino have caused quite a stir with their public announcement to quit, and we still don't know one name of the dancers that will be on stage from September. Until recently I thought: well, when they see Shklyarov and all the - hopefully - great dancers Zelensky brings to Munich, they will forget very soon about the turmoil, but this is turning into a real bad start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissBalletFan Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Denis Vieira has announced he will be leaving Ballett Zurich and going Staatsballet Berlin next year. He was solo with Group at Zurich, and imagine he could be a soloist in Berlin after his accomplished performances as Albrecht, Siegfried, and Romeo at Ballet Zurich. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissBalletFan Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I have just read that Elena Vostrotina will be leaving Dresden Semperoper this season. I wonder why this is and where she is going? She is a fabulous dancer...is it a consequence of Melissa Hamilton joining permanently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 If you download the Semper Magazin Nr. 6 of this season, there's an interview with her, but no details why she leaves or what she will be doing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 21, 2016 Author Share Posted June 21, 2016 A short clip on Bavarian TV about the last Swan Lake (Neumeier version) with Lacarra/Dino at Munich - should be online for one week, I hope it's available in other countries too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 A short clip on Bavarian TV about the last Swan Lake (Neumeier version) with Lacarra/Dino at Munich - should be online for one week, I hope it's available in other countries too. Thanks so for this, Angela. I was trying to pull through to find the clip but seemed to have missed it. Could you let us know approximately where it falls in the programme's time line? Much thanks. (Oh, there was no problem watching it from my desk in London. Again, bless you.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Thanks Angela. It's right at the start Bruce - don't fast forward at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 At Munich, Mr. Zelensky has finally talked to the press – that is to say to the dpa, the German Press Agency, not to a single paper. In the interview he said that the names of the 28 new dancers will be published at the end of August. He wants to “double the success of the company”, he wants to keep the balance of classical and modern ballets, he wants to bring “the best of the best” dancers to Munich and reach the same level as the Munich Opera, which he calls “one of the best opera houses in Europe”. He also calls Munich “this little town” (compared to mega-cities like New York, Paris or London, but the proud Bavarians will not like that). And he asks for a “good school” at Munich, because it’s so hard to find suitable dancers: “That’s why it is so important to establish a good school and to ensure that the director after me will have an easier task than me. (…) I’m not saying that the Academy at Munich is bad – not at all. But with a bigger school it will be much more likely to find enough talent.” Well… to be honest, it does sound a bit condescending – about his predecessor, about the city, about what he is given to work with (“we have to stick to the given structure with two premieres per season”). And basically he thrashes the quality of the Munich Ballet Academy at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Which, we all know that, has not the level of Neumeier’s Hamburg School or the John Cranko School, but I wouldn’t call it a diplomatic master stroke, this interview. Clear words, but of course people will judge him by the way he lives up to them. It's obvious he had not much knowledge about the ballet at Munich when he took the job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 At Munich, Mr. Zelensky has finally talked to the press – that is to say to the dpa, the German Press Agency, not to a single paper. In the interview he said that the names of the 28 new dancers will be published at the end of August. He wants to “double the success of the company”, he wants to keep the balance of classical and modern ballets, he wants to bring “the best of the best” dancers to Munich and reach the same level as the Munich Opera, which he calls “one of the best opera houses in Europe”. He also calls Munich “this little town” (compared to mega-cities like New York, Paris or London, but the proud Bavarians will not like that). And he asks for a “good school” at Munich, because it’s so hard to find suitable dancers: “That’s why it is so important to establish a good school and to ensure that the director after me will have an easier task than me. (…) I’m not saying that the Academy at Munich is bad – not at all. But with a bigger school it will be much more likely to find enough talent.” Well… to be honest, it does sound a bit condescending – about his predecessor, about the city, about what he is given to work with (“we have to stick to the given structure with two premieres per season”). And basically he thrashes the quality of the Munich Ballet Academy at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Which, we all know that, has not the level of Neumeier’s Hamburg School or the John Cranko School, but I wouldn’t call it a diplomatic master stroke, this interview. Clear words, but of course people will judge him by the way he lives up to them. It's obvious he had not much knowledge about the ballet at Munich when he took the job. I can't help thinking that this reminds me a little of Benjamin Millepied's comments about POB towards the end of last year. How has the interview been taken in Munich/ by the media? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 Oh, it's still fresh, just a few hours old - I'll report when I find something tomorrow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamicro Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 It's obvious he had not much knowledge about the ballet at Munich when he took the job. Probably it's a habit: he was not having much knowledge of Schaufuss Midnight Express too when he threw himself and Polunin into it, just to leave the boy alone in the mud when they both found out they were not keen at all to dance it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletsoccermom Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Angela, if given the choice to dance with Stuttgart Ballet or Munich, which would you choose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 Stuttgart, no question - Reid Anderson is great with young dancers, he can really build a career for a talented dancer and he has done it many times. Though both companies have a classical background with modern pieces and they both show all three Cranko story ballets and some Neumeier ballets, the repertory is a bit different: Much more Petipa in Munich (I'm talking about Liska's company), more modern story ballets and ca. twice as much new creations at Stuttgart. More performances at Stuttgart. By the way: it's their very last performance today at Munich, their great interpretation of Pina Bausch's "Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen". Ivan Liska says Good-bye here - in German only. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helis Posted June 30, 2016 Share Posted June 30, 2016 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/news/kultur/tanz-neuer-ballett-direktor-zelensky-es-muss-vorwaerts-gehen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-160629-99-495184 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted June 30, 2016 Share Posted June 30, 2016 (edited) http://www.sueddeutsche.de/news/kultur/tanz-neuer-ballett-direktor-zelensky-es-muss-vorwaerts-gehen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-160629-99-495184 This is the same interview to which Angela posted a link a few posts up. I find it entertaining however that this version refers to the ballet company as a "Sänger-Ensemble" (singers company)! Edited June 30, 2016 by toursenlair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 30, 2016 Share Posted June 30, 2016 Hello Helis and welcome to the Forum. Thanks for the link, sadly I don't speak any German but I will run it through Google translate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Posted June 30, 2016 Author Share Posted June 30, 2016 Here's a nice little twitter chit-chat between two sarcastic German critics and the poor press office of the Staatsballett, trying to limit the damage. It ends with one critic's advice to buy a lot of glue to mend the broken china, a German proverb for leaving blood on the carpet. Maybe Zelensky should cut one dancer's position and hire a spin doctor. Don't get me wrong, I always adored him as a dancer and I still long to see him dance Onegin one day - but this is getting worse with every week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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