News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland

[capybara]

2 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

I read somewhere that Margarita Fernandez is Annarella Sanchez' daughter, is that true? So they are both coming from this school?

 

Margarita thanks her mother Annarella on Instagram today, but that might be a turn of phrase.

She will be only 16 when she starts in Munich.

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by capybara

[Sabine0308]

6 hours ago, capybara said:

 

Margarita thanks her mother Annarella on Instagram today, but that might be a turn of phrase.

She will be only 16 when she starts in Munich.

 

 

 

Oywey. Antonio is a great talent, I'm not so convinced by what I saw of her...I wish her all the best.

[Angela]

Jacopo Godani, Director and Chief Choreographer of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, will leave the company in 2023. He was the successor to William Forsythe, who founded The Forsythe Company in 2005 and retired from his position as director in 2014. Since 2015, the company is named Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, with homes at Bockenheimer Depot at Frankfurt and Festspielhaus Hellerau at Dresden.

[Sophie_B]

On 13/07/2021 at 22:24, capybara said:

 

Margarita thanks her mother Annarella on Instagram today, but that might be a turn of phrase.

She will be only 16 when she starts in Munich.

 

 

 

I also read in an interview that Margarita is Annarella's daughter. It's surprising to see both of them being hired at this level (especially her, so young!) but I look forward to seeing what happens with their careers.

[capybara]

2 hours ago, Sophie_B said:

I also read in an interview that Margarita is Annarella's daughter. It's surprising to see both of them being hired at this level (especially her, so young!) but I look forward to seeing what happens with their careers.

Yes her mother (Annarella) has been thanking everyone for helping her daughter on social media.

[Sabine0308]

Promotions and new dancers at Staatsballett Berlin announced (seen on instagram):

Demi-Soloists:

Alexandre Cagnat, Yuria Isaka, Alexander Bird, Alizee Sicre

Corps:

-Timothy Dutson (coming from Birmingham Royal Ballet)

Returned after a  1 year break:

-Wei Wang

 

Also interesting: principal dancer Iana Salenko announced on instagram that she is expecting her third child

 

[Angela]

Chloe Lopes Gomes, the dancer who had accused Berlin State Ballet of racism, who had won her lawsuit against the company, received a compensation payment and had her contract extended for another year: she is leaving on her own decision now. She will dance for Ballet du Rhin at Strasbourg.

 

 

 

[Sabine0308]

On 18/08/2021 at 10:20, Angela said:

Chloe Lopes Gomes, the dancer who had accused Berlin State Ballet of racism, who had won her lawsuit against the company, received a compensation payment and had her contract extended for another year: she is leaving on her own decision now. She will dance for Ballet du Rhin at Strasbourg.

 

 

 

Yeah I noticed that her name is missing on the company list. 

[Angela]

At Hamburg Ballet, Hélène Bouchet has announced that she will retire from the stage at the end of this year. Her farewell performance will be in one of the “Christmas Oratorios” in December. She came to Hamburg in 1998 and was promoted to principal in 2005. Bouchet will return to her hometown Cannes, either to open a ballet school or to design fashion for children.

 

A new principal ballerina will come from the Royal Danish Ballet: Ida Praetorius moves to Hamburg in January 2022. She has worked in Denmark with Neumeier in the past.

[Angela]

Germany’s dance magazine „tanz“ has published the winners of this year’s critics survey:

 

best production: “Ghost Light” by John Neumeier and “The Barre Project II” by William Forsythe (both were also streamed)

best choreographer: Marco Goecke with “The Lover” after Marguerite Duras at Hannover Ballet and “Do You Love Gershwin?” for Gauthier Dance, Stuttgart

best company: NDT, also because they offered the best streams during the pandemic

best dancer: Tiler Peck, New York City Ballet

[alison]

10 hours ago, Angela said:

A new principal ballerina will come from the Royal Danish Ballet: Ida Praetorius moves to Hamburg in January 2022.

 

Wow, that's a bit of a surprise.

[Angela]

Dortmund Ballet announces the first gala of the season on Sept. 18 and 19, with Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball from the RB (a non specified Grand pas de deux and a pdd from “Infra”), Elena Vostrotina and Alexander Jones from Ballet Zurich with a pas de deux from the Ratmansky Swan Lake and a “Nocturne” by Chopin, Anna Tsygankova and Constantine Allen from Het dancing “Delibes Suite“ by José Carlos Martinez and a duet from Christopher Wheeldon, Friedemann Vogel and Elisa Badenes from Stuttgart Ballet with “Nachtmerrie” by Marco Goecke.

 

https://www.theaterdo.de/produktionen/detail/internationale-ballettgala-xxxiii

 

 

[Jane S]

On 02/09/2021 at 13:47, Angela said:

 

 

A new principal ballerina will come from the Royal Danish Ballet: Ida Praetorius moves to Hamburg in January 2022. She has worked in Denmark with Neumeier in the past.

 

Word from Denmark is that she's just doing a year in Hamburg. Neumeier has always liked her and cast her in his ballets so maybe she's just going for his last year.

 

(And of course Copenhagen and Hamburg are only about as far apart as London and Leeds so she's not going to be losing touch!)

[Angela]

16 hours ago, Jane S said:

for his last year.

 

Is it his last year? How do you know, Jane? 😳

[Aruna S]

1 hour ago, Angela said:

 

Is it his last year? How do you know, Jane? 😳

 

I was wondering that too!

[Jane S]

It was a passing comment in an article I read yesterday, and has since been removed. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Jane S

[Angela]

Some more company news from Bavarian State Ballet: Soloist Séverine Ferrolier and Principal Dancer Javier Amo will end their careers and work as ballet masters from this season on.

Philip Hedges from Switzerland joins the corps de ballet, he was dancing at the Mikhailovsky and the Estonian Ballet at Tallinn before.

[Christine]

On 03/09/2021 at 14:16, Angela said:

Dortmund Ballet announces the first gala of the season on Sept. 18 and 19, with Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball from the RB (a non specified Grand pas de deux and a pdd from “Infra”), Elena Vostrotina and Alexander Jones from Ballet Zurich with a pas de deux from the Ratmansky Swan Lake and a “Nocturne” by Chopin, Anna Tsygankova and Constantine Allen from Het dancing “Delibes Suite“ by José Carlos Martinez and a duet from Christopher Wheeldon, Friedemann Vogel and Elisa Badenes from Stuttgart Ballet with “Nachtmerrie” by Marco Goecke.

 

https://www.theaterdo.de/produktionen/detail/internationale-ballettgala-xxxiii

 

 

Bought my ticket yesterday and I am very greatful for this glimpse into the program which, by the way, I coudn't find anywhere. But I really wanted to see Nachtmerrie with Friedemann & Elisa and am very happt that I will get a chance to finally see Mayara Magri live - I really love her charisma. Also very happy with the other contributors on this list!!!

[Angela]

Berlin State Ballet announces the return of Polina Semionova after one year off. She will be dancing in "Voices", a creation by David Dawson to Max Richter's music piece with the same name. Her part is called "Mercy", her partner is Alejandro Virelles. "Voices" is part of a double bill with the solo "Citizen Nowhere" by Dawson, danced by Olaf Kollmannsperger.

 

 

 

 

[FionaM]

On 15/09/2021 at 15:22, Angela said:

Berlin State Ballet announces the return of Polina Semionova after one year off.

Did she have another baby?  I seem to remember seeing something about this.
 

Glad to see her back whatever the reason.   

[Geoff]

9 hours ago, FionaE said:

Did she have another baby?  I seem to remember seeing something about this.
 

Glad to see her back whatever the reason.   

 

Her Instagram feed suggests that in the spring she had a baby girl called Vera.

[Angela]

John Neumeier will establish a new dance festival at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden from next year on. His company has been visiting the spa town in the Black Forest since 1998 every autumn, most of the years with two pieces and a Lecture demonstration by Neumeier himself. He also made some DVD recordings of his pieces at the Festspielhaus. This year already, Neumeier brings not only his company with "Death in Venice" and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", but also his Bundesjugendballett (the Junior Company) and a performance of his Hamburg School at different venues like the Burda Museum or the smaller town theatre. This year's special guests are Alessandra Ferri und Carsten Jung, ex-principal dancer at Hamburg, with Maurice Béjarts "L’Heure exquise".

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FionaM]

Photos of Shale Wagman and Antonio Casalinho in rehearsal of male quartet of ‘Jewels’ in Munich.  
 

Pictures #7 & 8 here

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUki0tzoLlR/?utm_medium=copy_link

[Angela]

 

For the first full-length ballet with full corps de ballet since the lockdown, Stuttgart Ballet offers many debuts in Onegin:

 

28.10. Anna Osadcenko - David Moore*, Veronika Verterich* - Martí Fernández Paixà, Roman Novitzky

4.11. Miriam Kacerova – Roman Novitzky**, Mackenzie Brown* – Henrik Erikson*, Clemens Fröhlich

5.11. Rocío Alemán* – Martí Fernández Paixà*, Fernanda Lopes* – Gabriel Figueredo*, Fabio Adorisio*

14.11. (evening) Agnes Su* – Jason Reilly, Fernanda Lopes – Matteo Miccini*, Matteo Crockard-Villa

Cast: Tatyana - Onegin, Olga - Lensky, Gremin

* debut in role

** Stuttgart debut in role

 

During the lockdown, Jürgen Rose has worked on the sets and the lightning of the production.

The cast for the premiere is Elisa Badenes and Friedemann Vogel as Tatyana and Onegin, Jessica Fyfe and Adhonay Soares as Olga and Lensky, Jason Reilly as Germin.

 

https://www.stuttgart-ballet.de/schedule/calendar/

[Sabine0308]

Last Saturday, Shale Wagman debuted alongside Carollina Bastos and Bianca Teixeira in the Emeralds Pas de Trois (JEWELS).  He posted some beautiful pictures on his instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CU2rG2LsbVB/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Again he was cast pretty much "last minute", 3 days before the performance. The announcement of the cast is really an issue in Munich and makes travel plans difficult. Even for Germans.😐

Edited October 11, 2021 by Sabine0308

[Angela]

French dance theatre choreographer Boris Charmatz will be the next director of Wuppertal Tanztheater. He will follow Bettina Wagner-Bergelt from next season on.

[Angela]

from the Daily Links Forum:

"Blog Post - I took on Germany’s State Ballet for discrimination…:  Chloe Lopes Gomes, Oprah Daily"

 

Chloe Lopes Gomes, former ballerina at Berlin and now at Ballet du Rhin, is quoted in the Daily Links with a new interview today. I really have sympathy for her coming forward, but she keeps repeating the same factual errors again and again to make her accusations more scandalous.

 

She was NOT the company’s first-ever Black dancer or PoC. Gregor Glocke has been dancing with Berlin State Ballet since 2017, Olympia Alfa N’Gobi had been hired by Director Nacho Duato in 2017, but has left the company to go back to Russia.

 

Berlin State Ballet is NOT "Germany's State Ballet" - it is one of several State Ballets in Germany. It is not the national ballet company, Germany does not have a national ballet company. "State Ballet" means it is the ballet company of the State of Berlin, as there is a Bavarian State Ballett (Staatsballett) at Munich, a Hessian State Ballet at Wiesbaden, a State Ballet at Hannover or one at Karlsruhe.  Hamburg Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, SemperoperBallet Dresden or Ballet on the Rhine are also part of a State Theatre, they just chose not to call themselves State Ballet. Many of them, if not all of them, have and had Black dancers or People of Colour in their rosters. Stuttgart had the first black Romeo with Christopher Boatwright somewhere in the 1970s - on a tour to the US they were kindly asked to replace his white Juliet so that there would not be a black and white couple dancing together. Marcia Haydée, the director, refused. 

 

[Sabine0308]

On 01/11/2021 at 10:52, Angela said:

from the Daily Links Forum:

"Blog Post - I took on Germany’s State Ballet for discrimination…:  Chloe Lopes Gomes, Oprah Daily"

 

Chloe Lopes Gomes, former ballerina at Berlin and now at Ballet du Rhin, is quoted in the Daily Links with a new interview today. I really have sympathy for her coming forward, but she keeps repeating the same factual errors again and again to make her accusations more scandalous....

I recently read an article in the newspaper " Berliner Zeitung"  about the ballet master (Barbara Schroeder)who was accused of bullying/discriminating Ms. Gomez. She finally told her view of the story, after being quite for too long, imo. Although she cannot be fired, she got 3 calls to order (hope that is the correct phrase in English) from her employer Staatsballett Berlin. She was fighting against this in a kind of internal court (I "love" German, someone find a translation for (Bühnenschiedsgericht please 🙄) and now all these calls to order/written warnings will be deleted soon. She said that Ms. Gomez complained about too many corrections in rehearsals, about not providing her with proper makeup or hair styling. Making corrections is a ballet masters' job. If a dancer cannot handle it, especially a corps member, then they are in trouble in every company. I also don't think that Staatsballett Berlin cannot provide proper makeup for the artists, or hair styling. Deutsche Oper Berlin is heavily funded and provides this stuff and service for their artists from allover the world, including PoC. The staff of Deutsche Oper  contradicted these accusations already. 

I will try to follow Ms. Gomez' further career, wish her all the best. A last remark: she was among 11 dancers who lost their contract with SBB for season 21/22. Not the only one.

[Jeannette]

Thanks Sabine0308. It's always good to hear both sides of a story.

 

I believe that Bühnenschiedsgericht is a  "Court of Arbitration for Theatre".

 

"Calls to Order" seem to be what we (in US) term "reprimands" or "written warnings".

[Sabine0308]

18 hours ago, Jeannette said:

Thanks Sabine0308. It's always good to hear both sides of a story.

 

I believe that Bühnenschiedsgericht is a  "Court of Arbitration for Theatre".

 

"Calls to Order" seem to be what we (in US) term "reprimands" or "written warnings".

Thank you @Jeannette, for the translation.

[Sabine0308]

Oh no please no. Not again. From Bayerische Staatsoper website today: Upcoming Opera performances have been cancelled due to an "uncertain corona situation" with the Opera staff. Ballet company is not involved (yet🤷‍♀️). I appreciate their caution but my first thought was 'oh please not again, and the Cinderella premiere is coming!🤦‍♀️'

 

More here:

https://www.staatsoper.de/en/appointment-information?fbclid=IwAR1PQdDSmSuYp32YtiEXkCfcF7n19fnr0VvhmLe_cGy2iVEDP2hawGNbvFg

Edited November 8, 2021 by Sabine0308

[LinMM]

I was just ruminating tonight on another thread what had happened to Giulia Frosi who graduated from RBS  in 2016 I think. She danced the most beautiful flowing pas de deux with Lukas BB ( now in the Company) when they graduated which moved me to tears and showed her comic side in that strange piece they did that year which was highly entertaining Jiri Kylian’s Sechs Tanze 

So a promising all rounder. 

Anyway after graduating she went to Dresden and tonight I just found out that she has joined Stuttgart ballet for the 2021-22 season. 
I see in an above post that there are many new recent debuts in Onegin there this Autumn and don’t think it will be long before Giulia will be debuting in something!! 

[Angela]

She was in a Bigonzetti piece with eight dancers in the playhouse recently, but I did not see that cast. I'm sure she will have a solo in one of the upcoming Sleeping Beauty performances, but the competition is tough at the moment - Mackenzie Brown, Prix de Lausanne winner from 2019, is up and coming, a brillant talent, and Diana Ionescu will be back from her injury soon, there are also so many new talents from the John Cranko School. But if Giulia Frosi wants to dance Kylián and modern ballet, Stuttgart is the place to be. I guess they also have the biggest Italian dancers community north of the Alps 🙂