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Wow, Elisa's had a meteoric rise to principal. I believe that she only graduated from the RBS in 2009. I wonder whether she was offered a contract by the RB and what she would be doing now if she had gone there.

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Irish choreographer Marguerite Donlon, who recently made a piece for Ballet Rambert, will quit her job as ballet director at the Saarbrücken State Theatre at the end of this season. She had wanted more independence from the director of the opera house and was ready to launch a "European Dance Company Saar", but that did not work out with Dagmar Schlingmann, General Director of the theatre.

Donlon will make her two already planned pieces for next season at Saarbrücken as a guest choreographer now, one of them called "Shadow", a hommage to Lynn Seymour, which will premiere together with a revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s "Anastasia".

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According to Hamburg Ballet 2013-2014 brochure, Alina Cojocaru is guesting with the company to dance Liliom on 10, 11, 18 and 19 October 2013 and 3 July 2014 and Romeo and Juliet on 31 October, 3 and 5 November 2013 and 11 July 2014.

 

She is also joying the company tour to California in February 2014 to dance Liliom.

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French choreographer Maurice Béjart died in 2007, now he suddenly got a son. His longtime personal assistant Eiji Mihara, a Japanese actor, was recognized in June by the Swiss Federal Court as adopted son of Maurice Béjart, born Maurice Berger. It seems Béjart signed the adoption application on the day of his death. The rights to Béjart’s ballets are owned by two foundations he established in Geneva and Lausanne before his death, with Gil Roman (former star dancer and now director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne) as chairman and trustee of Béjart’s legacy. Mihara, who now owns a small theatre production company in England, might inherit some ballets; he said in Swiss newspapers that he wants the Béjart Ballet and Béjart’s Rudra School to continue.

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Dresden Ballet will get a world premiere by Alexei Ratmansky. The open slot in the last premiere of season 2013/14 is now filled with a new piece by Ratmansky on the Divertimento op. 86 by Richard Strauss, which also goes by the title of "Verklungene Feste" (it premiered in 1941 at Munich).

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A belated round-up after the summer holidays:

 

Hamburg Ballet has been awarded the "Premio Positano" in Italy as "Dance Company of the Year", Hamburg principal Silvia Azzoni was given the price as "Best Italian ballerina of the Year" - press release in German

 

The small ballet company at Mainz will get a new director in 2014/15: Honne Dohrmann, a journalist and net-worker who directed dance festivals and is now the director of the small company at Oldenburg in Northern Germany. At Mainz, he replaces Pascal Touzeau, former Forsythe dancer, after only five years. Mainz is the town where Martin Schläpfer was director for ten years and created his "ballet miracle" before moving on to the much larger company at Düsseldorf.

 

Martin Schläpfer, Swiss choreographer and ballet director of the Ballet on the Rhine at Düsseldorf/Duisburg, is the first recipient of the new Swiss Dance Award, worth 40.000 SFR.

 

The annual critics‘ survey of Germany’s most important dance magazine "tanz" (former "ballet-tanz") produced the following results from 38 German and international critics:

choreographer of the year: John Neumeier

company of the year: Ballet on the Rhine at Düsseldorf/Duisburg

female dancer of the year: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in her own pieces

male dancer of the year: the principals of Stuttgart Ballet (the names mentioned were Daniel Camargo, Evan McKie, Marijn Rademaker, Jason Reilly and Friedemann Vogel)

newcomer of the year: South-African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo

"dance thriller" of the year: the Bolshoi Ballet

 

At Berlin State Ballet, Polina Semionova’s brother and soloist Dmitry Semionov has left the company after last season. Austrian dancer Rainer Krenstetter was promoted to principal, but it seems that Nacho Duato will not keep him when he comes to Berlin next season, and that already some ten other Berlin dancers have received their dismissals. And finally, rumours in Vienna have it that Manuel Legris will not renew his contract.

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Principal dancer Shoko Nakamura will leave Berlin State Ballet for Tamas Solymosi’s Hungarian National Ballet in November (press release in German) – a very hasty departure which seems to be the beginning of Nacho Duato’s expected string of layoffs. According to HNBC's Facebook page, Solymosi’s contract at Budapest was renewed for another five years.

 

At Germany, the State Theatres of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden, both in the near proximity of Frankfurt, will unite their ballet companies and form a new „Hessian State Ballet“ of around 30 dancers, which apparently will have a mixed repertory of classical and modern works. A director and a resident choreographer should be announced in November. Both theatres have modern / contemporary companies at the moment, Wiesbaden with Stephan Thoss and Darmstadt with Mei Hong Ling.

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Oops, I did'nt know that - the theatre at Wiesbaden is called "Hessian State Theatre", that's why I translated it like that... As the ballet company does not even exist yet, they can still think about it before their first foreign tour ;)

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I suspect most English speakers don't know what hessian is any more, so they're unlikely to stumble. Now, if John Neumeier's company were  called the "Hamburger Ballet", now THAT might cause  a problem.  :rolleyes:

 

I think a lot of people will still know what hessian is.  I can't agree with the 'most'  Sorry!

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Well I hope the arrival of Duato will not completely send the Berlin Ballet's stars running for the hills.  I hope to goodness we will still be able to see Mikhail Kaniskin and Dinu Tamaslacaru.  Interesting to see what happens. 

As Vladimir Malakhov finishes this season I would recommend anyone to see one of his "Malakhov & Friends Galas" as they are always good and are often a great opportunity to see top dancers from around the world in one place.

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Two performances from Munich will be live-streamed on www.staatsoper.tv this season, check out all dates here (many operas)

March 15, 2014, 7.30 P.M. (CET) - La Bayadère (Marius Petipa / Patrice Bart), with Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino

June 21, 2014 7.30 P.M. (CET) Les Ballets Russes: Les Biches (Nijinska), L'Aprés-midi d'un faun (Nijinsky), Scheherazade (Fokine)

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Belgian choreographer Stijn Celis was appointed new ballet director at Saarbrücken Ballet yesterday. From next season on he'll succeed Irish director and choreographer Marguerite Donlon. Celis was Cathy Marston's predecessor at Bern Ballet and has made many pieces for various German companies, for example at Dresden Semperoper Ballet.

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Angela, I really like reading your updates from Germany.  Over the last couple of years it has made me aware of companies I have not heard of and would now like to see.  One day, perhaps I can do a grand tour of German companies and, if I am able to achieve this, it will mostly be down to you.

 

Thanks!

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As Mr. Kobborg tweeted yesterday, there are 61 professional, state-subsidized dance companies in Germany, so you might have to take some weeks off to do the grand tour... :)

This makes me very happy, Janet!! Thanks!

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Hamburg Ballet has just announced a sensational 23 performances with Alina Cojocaru for this season:

Liliom with Carsten Jung on Oct. 10, 11, 18 and 19

Romeo and Juliet with Edvin Revazov (her debut) on Oct 31 and Nov 3, 5

Marie in Neumeier’s Nutcracker (also her debut), dates for that and further roles tba

In the press release, she calls Hamburg Ballet "her second home". I wonder if she ever had 23 performances with the Royal Ballet? And why am I living at the wrong end of Germany... :angry:

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Hmm, that seems to be a lot of performances to be fitted in with her scheduled performances with ENB, who are of course employing her (presumably on a full Lead Principal's salary), and ABT. I expect that she will want to guest with other companies and dance in galas as well. Will she be able to fit it all in and stay healthy, I wonder.

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I am concerned both for Alina's well-being and for her expectant audiences here and abroad. She is cast for 8 Le Corsaires and 6 Nutcrackers for ENB up to the end of the Company's Christmas/New Year season at the Coli and she will surely be appearing in Le C in Manchester also, in the Lest We Forget quad bill in April, and in Coppelia in July. Moreover, she has already danced 2 R&Js in Tokyo and at a gala in Moscow, with another such gala to come. And that's not counting any assignments with ABT. I just hope that she remains healthy and free from injury.

 

Regarding contractual arrangements - isn't it the norm for dancers taking time out from their home company to dance elsewhere to have their salaries deducted in proportion to the number of days they are away?

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I wonder if she ever had 23 performances with the Royal Ballet?

 

Oh, I bet she did.  Ross Stretton seemed to be casting her in about every third performance during his year as AD.

 

And I'm told Hamburg is very nice for a break :)

 

It *is* a heavy workload: I hope her schedule doesn't compromise her obligations to ENB, whatever they may be contractually.

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Two news from Vienna: The Vienna State Opera offers a new live-streaming programme of six operas, one operetta and one ballet, Nureyev's Nutcracker on Dec 28th. Each opera or ballet costs 14 Euro to see.

Link: http://www.staatsoperlive.com/en/

 

Karl Musil, former principal dancer of the Vienna State Opera Ballet from 1965 to 1983, died on Monday. Press release in German

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