News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland

[Naomi M]

I have heard from many Japanese students studying at Zurich Tanzakademie (and their parents) about the harassment they received from the teachers there. Many of them unfortunately quit ballet for good because of the trauma. 

[alison]

The allegations are pretty horrific, if the first link is anything to go by, but then if there is a case to answer it needs to be sorted in court, not the media, surely?

[Sabine0308]

I really wonder why the hard training seems to be rarely an issue in competitive sports, Soccer etc. But for Ballet: the outcry. The hard work with sacrifices is the same. Anyway. I decided I'm not going to listen to the press.

[Jan McNulty]

9 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:

I really wonder why the hard training seems to be rarely an issue in competitive sports, Soccer etc. But for Ballet: the outcry. The hard work with sacrifices is the same. Anyway. I decided I'm not going to listen to the press.

 

 

There have been similar issues with soccer academies.

[Angela]

Olga Smirnova will be dancing at Hamburg in John Neumeier's "Dritte Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler", Hamburg Ballet just announced on Twitter

 

[sillysally]

22 hours ago, Angela said:

Ballet education is in grave danger in Switzerland right now - the Rudra Béjart School at Lausanne is closed for the same kind of accusations, and after the newspaper articles about the Zurich Tanzakademie, there were very quickly statements as to whether ballet was still needed at all - from people who have no idea about this art and have obviously never seen a piece, but are allowed to express themselves in major newspapers like "Die Zeit", where the first article about the accusations was printed. It's the same problem as in Berlin: very few of those who bring these accusations forward have an idea of how ballet training and ballet education really work - how hard it is for every student, how many of them won't succeed, but also how blessed and happy these are who dance on a stage. It is very difficult to bring nuanced explanations in a newspaper, when spectacular accusations and scandals are more likely to be featured in the headlines these days.

 

You are  very right about it being hard to get unbiased facts when press articles are released. Unfortunately in some situations journalistic intervention is required for establishments to come under review.

I wonder if the planned investigation will be independent ?  I wonder if any report will be publicly published?

 

 

 

[Angela]

1 hour ago, sillysally said:

I wonder if the planned investigation will be independent ?  I wonder if any report will be publicly published?

 

The rector of Zurich University of the Arts said in an interview that he was aware of two cases from six years ago and that measures like further training for the teachers, parent talks, talks with students, coaching by the Institute for Applied Psychology and a new nutrition and health concept were set up after that. It seems the other students now went straight to the newspaper (or were found by the newspaper), not to the complaints office at their university.

 

At the University of the Arts, to which the Tanzakademie belongs, an "administrative investigation" is underway, that is an internal investigation. I'm sure their report will be published. Rector Thomas D. Meyer also said in the interview: "Maybe there is a classical ballet 2.0 that works differently, with less standardized bodies". Overall, it sounds like they may evolve ballet education into dance education, for modern or contemporary dance. Which in his understanding would fit better with a modern university of the arts, I suppose. Ballet is just outdated, I suppose.

 

The link to the interview is here, but it's behind paywall

https://www.zeit.de/2022/24/tanzakademie-zuerich-missbrauch-direktor-stellungnahme

[DVDfan]

19 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

I really wonder why the hard training seems to be rarely an issue in competitive sports, Soccer etc. But for Ballet: the outcry. The hard work with sacrifices is the same. Anyway. I decided I'm not going to listen to the press.

 

Bullying that destroys the mental health of young people is the issue, not hard training in the sense of hard work suitable for the age group.

And it is an issue for sports too - look at the recent difficulties in gymnastics training.

Unfortunately, we seem to live in an age of high sensation, low fact journalism, so it is impossible to form judgements based on the newspaper reports. Personal experiences on the other hand, carry more weight:-

On 06/09/2022 at 08:55, Naomi M said:

I have heard from many Japanese students studying at Zurich Tanzakademie (and their parents) about the harassment they received from the teachers there. Many of them unfortunately quit ballet for good because of the trauma. 

 

[Angela]

If by "the recent difficulties in gymnastics training" you mean the sexual abuse scandal in the US Gymnastics: that's a different issue, there are no accusations of sexual abuse at Zurich. I'm far from saying mental abuse is anything better for the young people affected, but we should state the details.

[DVDfan]

I was aware that no one had suggested sexual abuse at Zurich, so I was not alluding to the sexual abuse scandal in US gymnastics but to the repeated weighing and body shaming which I understood had marred UK gymnastics training in the recent past. In other words, a similar type of problem.

 

It does not appear to me that ballet training is singled out for criticism whilst bad practice is tolerated in sport or in academic schools - in fact on the contrary, behaviour that would never be tolerated in other contexts have been excused in ballet for decades.

 

[Angela]

1 hour ago, DVDfan said:

It does not appear to me that ballet training is singled out for criticism whilst bad practice is tolerated in sport

 

Well then you are happy to live in a country where they can make a difference.

[Jan McNulty]

I think where we are losing focus here is that this is a forum about ballet and dance and that is what we primarily discuss.

 

However there have been news items and documentaries in the UK about bad teaching practises in the UK in the fields of both gymnastics and football academies.  

[HorstVollmer]

In the field of dance, Germany has quite an upleasant history of fundamental fightings between followers of modern OR classical dance and dance training. Those fights were still very present in the public discussion in the late seventies (when I started seeing dance) and later on. Over time, those public disputes calmed down, and in recent years I was under the impression that both, classical and modern dance traditions had come to a state of at least peaceful coexistence here – if not more: In the art itself but also in the field of dance education there was a growing understanding that both dance traditions were based on similar principles and values the art form as whole could benefit from. And I think it is fair to say, that today there is an audience for all sorts of dance here and that many dance enthusiasts here have developed a good sense for the quality and beauty and relevance of very different dance styles and genres.

That picture though looks completely different, when we’re looking at what is publicised about dance today in Germany and what the attidude is that informs how a signifcant part of the press here reports about dance. Quality dance journalism has never had a strong position in the field of newspapers here – but with the technical and financial challenges the news industry is facing in the context of the digital revolution, quality dance journalism here is simply in agony. I am afraid that this is the hidden truth between and behind the lines when we see the press here shouting „scandal“ about dance related issues often before facts have been investigated and proofed. Sex sells – but scandal sells just as good.

Even some of the few remaining dance journalists here who practice dance journalism as a profession are among those who do not hesitate to scandalize things based on very little if at all any evidence. Interstingly enough, that’s especially the case when classical dance or classical dance training is involved – which brings me back to the public fights of the past between followers of modern OR classical dance. Today, it’s hard to find a dance practioneer here fighting those fights of the past again, at least they wouldn’t do so publicly. But even some professional dance journalists do.

So, could it be that today, at least in Germany, the true fundamentalists who believe to know what is good or wrong in dance are working in the press? Not sure where this will take us to if it were so…

[Ian Macmillan]

On 06/09/2022 at 08:47, Angela said:

I don't know what Cathy Marston plans for Zurich ballet are when she takes over in 2023,

There's some indication in the Company's advert for Auditions posted today in Doing Dance:

 

https://www.opernhaus.ch/en/auditions/

 

It appears that Cathy's narrative work is to "anchor the repertoire," but with quite some emphasis on pointe work, and I note that the first requirement of candidates is that they have "a strong classical technique." 

 

 

  

[Angela]

At Stuttgart Ballet, soloist Angelina Zuccarini is leaving the company to go back with her husband to the US. Her farewell performance will be the Johan Inger evening on Monday, where she will dance in all three pieces.

Roman Novitzky, house choreographer and photographer from Slovakia, received a „Prize of the Ministry for the Culture of Slovak Rebublik for artistic mastery in the field of classical and modern dance and exceptional representation of Slovak ballet art at home and abroad”. Soloist Matteo Miccini was one of eleven dancers who received the Premio Positano Leonide Massine.

Principals Elisa Badenes und Martí Fernández Paixà were guesting with Teatro Colón in Bueno Aires als Tatyana and Onegin in August.

The company settled its legal dispute with music director Mikhail Agrest. AD Tamas Detrich will accept the decision of the stage arbitration board and keep the Russian conductor at Stuttgart Ballet.

 

Egon Madsen’s 80th birthday will be celebrated with a gala at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart on September 28th, with contributions by Gauthier Dance, Stuttgart Ballet, the John Cranko School and Gauthier Dance Juniors, with filmed impressions from his career and interviews with Tamas Detrich, Friedemann Vogel and Ivan Cavallari. Madsen, who not only created famous roles like Lensky in Cranko’s Onegin or Armand in Neumeier’s Lady of the Camelias, but was director and dancer of the famous NDT III company for older dancers, will dance himself in Hans van Manen’s “The Old Man and me” with Milena Twiehaus from Emanuel Gat Dance, and in “Cantata” by Mauro Bigonzetti.

[Angela]

At Hamburg Ballet, the guest performance by the Bolshoi Ballet in June was cancelled and will be replaced by two performances of John Neumeier’s “Nijinsky” on June 27th and 28th, with Olga Smirnova guesting in the role of Romola. John Neumeier: "In view of the ongoing political ice age with Russia, I have decided to cancel the guest performance of the Bolshoi Theater in Hamburg and to replace it with a milestone in my 50-year directorship: Nijinsky. For me, Olga Smirnova embodies the cosmopolitan soul of this traditional Russian house. I have therefore invited her to debut the ballet’s female lead, Romola Nijinska, in the two substitute performances with my company.”

As a result of a change in the repertoire of the Royal Danish Ballet, the Copenhagen company will present John Neumeier's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” instead of his “Othello” at the Ballet Week in June. Hamburg Ballet’s performance of “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, originally scheduled for June 29, will be replaced by a benefit gala in aid of the John Neumeier Foundation.

[Angela]

Nominations for the German FAUST prize for best dance production:

-Rafaële Giovanola for "Sphynx" at the Staatstheater Mainz

-Richard Siegal for "Ectopia" at the Tanztheater Wuppertal/Forum Leverkusen

-Stephanie Thiersch for "Archipel" with the Ensemble Garage e.V. & Mouvoir e.V.

Nominations for “best performer in dance":

-Beatrice Cordua, former Hamburg ballet soloist, in "A Divine Comedy" at the Ruhrtriennale

-Sahra Huby in "Über die Wut" with Anna Konjetzky & Co at the Munich Kammerspiele

-Miquel Martínez Pedro in "Baal" at the Ballett on the Rhine Düsseldorf Duisburg. Pedro, one of the youngest dancers of the Ballett on the Rhine, will dance the title role in “Krabat” in November. Volpi's adaptation of a well-known German youth book was extremely successful when he created it for Stuttgart Ballet in 2013.

The FAUST will be presented on November 26th at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. The award has been presented since 2006 by the German Theater Association in cooperation with the federal states, the cultural foundation of the states and the German Academy of Performing Arts.

[Angela]

News from Vienna - al live stream of the

World premiere »Sleeping Beauty«

 

On 24 October at 7.00 p.m. we present the world premiere of Martin Schläpfer’s ballet Sleeping Beauty at the Vienna State Opera. If you are unable to attend the performance in Vienna, we would like to draw your attention to the simultaneous livestream, available for 72 hours, which you can find free of charge at play.wiener-staatsoper.at. 

Cursed by Carabosse but protected by the Lilac Fairy, Aurora must sleep for a hundred years until the chosen Prince Désiré succeeds in entering her thorn-covered castle and kissing her awake. Sleeping Beauty is a story about the battle of light against dark, of time against evil, the intrusion of a world of fairies and other fairy-tale creatures into everyday life at a royal court – told in ever new variations for centuries before it was written down by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm and made fruitful for the dance stage by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky with what is perhaps his most splendid ballet score.

For the Vienna State Ballet, director Martin Schläpfer, nominated in the August 2022 tanz yearbook as »most interesting choreographer« of the year, has now developed his own version of the famous ballet classic. In Florian Etti’s imposing architecture and Catherine Voeffrays’s imaginative costumes, the choreography unfolds magnificent ballet scenes full of beauty and lightness in the festive acts, but also tells a story about unfulfilled desires, fears, loneliness – and love – in Aurora's relationships with her parents and the prince.

Martin Schläpfer was captivated by this opulent dance fairy tale when he was a student at the Royal Ballet School in London: »Sleeping Beauty was the classical ballet I saw most often in London: many times, with casts that included Jennifer Penney and David Wall, Lynn Seymour, Rudolf Nureyev and many others«, he recalls. »Later, when I was a dancer myself, the Blue Bird was one of my most beautiful and fascinating roles. The piece has never let go of me.« After staging his own version of Swan Lake with the Ballett am Rhein in 2018, it is logical for Martin Schläpfer to devote his third season in Vienna to Sleeping Beauty. »What fascinates me about Sleeping Beauty is the way the material, the music and its reception all interact together: on the one hand, Tchaikovsky’s score and of course the fairy tale as it is written in the books of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, but on the other hand also what is often etched into the minds of the audience as as-it-were the ›original ballet‹. I want to try to find a path between these two that doesn’t break with everything that is there but is something other than just another version ›after Marius Petipa‹.«

In the numerous solo roles, some of which are greatly enhanced in Martin Schläpfer’s conception, such as Queen and King, and enriched by new characters such as a mysterious forest woman and a faun, but also in the large-scale ensemble scenes and virtuoso dances of the divertissements, the Vienna State Ballet – just recently named »highlight of the season« by tanz magazine – shows all its facets: with its technical brilliance as well as with its strong personalities and their intense role creations.

Patrick Lange returns to the podium of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra – after his celebrated Vienna State Ballet debut last year with the premiere Im siebten Himmel, his second collaboration with Martin Schläpfer and his company. 

Sleeping Beauty
Ballet in a prologue & three acts
from 8 years

Music Sleeping Beauty op. 66 by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky as well as Anahit. Lyrical poem on the name of Venus by Giacinto Scelsi
Choreography Martin Schläpfer
Musical direction Patrick Lange
Stage Florian Etti
Costumes Catherine Voeffray
Lighting Thomas Diek
Dramaturgy Anne do Paço

The King Masayu Kimoto / Eno Peci
The Queen Olga Esina / Ketevan Papava
Princess Aurora Hyo-Jung Kang / Elena Bottaro
Prince Désiré Marcos Menha / Brendan Saye
Catalabutte Jackson Carroll / François-Eloi Lavignac
The Lilac Fairy Liudmila Konovalova / Ioanna Avraam
Carabosse Claudine Schoch / Gala Jovanovic
The Blue Bird Davide Dato / Alexey Popov
Princess Florine Aleksandra Liashenko / Kiyoka Hashimoto
Forest woman Yuko Kato
Faun Daniel Vizcayo
as well as further soloists and the ensemble of the Vienna State Ballet
Students of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera
Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

You can find detailed information HERE.
Martin Schläpfer on Sleeping Beauty
Biographies of our dancers can be found HERE.

Premiere 24 October 2022, 7.00 p.m., Vienna State Opera
as well as in the live stream at play.wiener-staatsoper.at
Further performances 26 October, 1, 4, 7, 12, 20 November, 21, 23, 27, 29 December 2022
Introduction 30 minutes before the performances in the Gustav Mahler Hall.
Duration approx. 3 hours, 2 intermissions

Introductory matinee 16 October, 11.00 a.m., Vienna State Opera House

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks for keeping us up to date on news from Germany Angela.  It is really much appreciated.

 

Thanks to to Sabine and our other European members.

[Angela]

Vienna has a new Principal Dancer:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjBMJtSowcW/

 

[Geoff]

On 27/09/2022 at 20:45, Angela said:

Vienna has a new Principal Dancer:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjBMJtSowcW/

 

And I‘m lucky enough to be in Vienna watching her in Onegin tonight.

[Sabine0308]

Livestream for Cinderella with Bayerisches Staatsballett is now scheduled for Sunday November 13, 2022. At 4 pm o'clock 🤪🙈 (quote from their website). As VOD available from November 19. 

 

https://www.staatsoper.de/tv/

Edited October 6, 2022 by Sabine0308

[HorstVollmer]

Having recovered from Long Covid, Marian Walter has returned to the stage with Staatsballett Berlin dancing the title role in Cranko's Onegin on 5 October. He gave a very strong and moving performance partnering his wife Iana Salenko as Tatjana. www.staatsballett-berlin.de

[Sabine0308]

Have you been there, Horst? I was and yes, I was very moved.

[Bruce Wall]

4 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

Livestream for Cinderella with Bayerisches Staatsballett is now scheduled for Sunday November 13, 2022. At 4 pm o'clock 🤪🙈 (quote from their website). As VOD available from November 19. 

 

https://www.staatsoper.de/tv/

 

Thanks so for this, Sabine.  Lovely to see that ENB's Gavin Sutherland will be conducting the production that day.  

[Sabine0308]

7 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

Thanks so for this, Sabine.  Lovely to see that ENB's Gavin Sutherland will be conducting the production that day.  

I might be wrong but I think he is always conducting Cinderella in Munich. For October/November in any case. I know the dancers love him.❤️

[Jan McNulty]

17 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:

I might be wrong but I think he is always conducting Cinderella in Munich. For October/November in any case. I know the dancers love him.❤️

So do the audience!

[Sabine0308]

Cinderella Livestream Main Cast (as posted today):

Cinderella	Madison Young
Prinz Guillaume	Julian MacKay
Stiefmutter Hortensia	Maria Chiara Bono
Stiefschwester Edwina	Elvina Ibraimova
Stiefschwester Clementine	Bianca Teixeira
Benjamin	Shale Wagman
Cinderellas Vater	Javier Amo
Cinderellas Mutter	Rhiannon Fairless
König Albert	Krzysztof Zawadzki
Königin Charlotte	Séverine Ferrolier

Edited October 7, 2022 by Sabine0308

[HorstVollmer]

21 hours ago, Sabine0308 said:

Have you been there, Horst? I was and yes, I was very moved.

 

Indeed I was, Sabine. And loved the moment during the final applause when the audiecend seemed to do an "extra" to express appreciation for Marian Walter's return - and the happiness (and relief, maybe) I think one could see on Walter's and Salenko's faces. - Tonight, 7 October: Berlin State Ballet's 100th performance of its "Onegin" production. We might be there "together" again? I'm especially curious to finally see Alexandre Cagnat's Lenski.

[FionaM]

59 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:

Cinderella Livestream Main Cast (as posted today):

Cinderella	Madison Young
Prinz Guillaume	Julian MacKay
Stiefmutter Hortensia	Maria Chiara Bono
Stiefschwester Edwina	Elvina Ibraimova
Stiefschwester Clementine	Bianca Teixeira
Benjamin	Shale Wagman
Cinderellas Vater	Javier Amo
Cinderellas Mutter	Rhiannon Fairless
König Albert	Krzysztof Zawadzki
Königin Charlotte	Séverine Ferrolier

I read this is Julian MacKay’s debut with Munich.   I guess his international following will watch this free livestream.  

[Sabine0308]

9 hours ago, HorstVollmer said:

 

Indeed I was, Sabine. And loved the moment during the final applause when the audiecend seemed to do an "extra" to express appreciation for Marian Walter's return - and the happiness (and relief, maybe) I think one could see on Walter's and Salenko's faces. - Tonight, 7 October: Berlin State Ballet's 100th performance of its "Onegin" production. We might be there "together" again? I'm especially curious to finally see Alexandre Cagnat's Lenski.

As much as I would love to see all casts, it's just too expensive, I prefer good seats so it's a bit costy. Especially with my travelling to Munich often 😉.

[Tybalt]

On 07/10/2022 at 13:05, FionaE said:

I read this is Julian MacKay’s debut with Munich.   I guess his international following will watch this free livestream.  

No,Julian MacKay´s debut is 11th November 2022. Today I bought Ticket. 🙂

[alison]

Thank you for the information, Tybalt, and welcome to the forum.