News from Germany, Austria, Switzerland

[Angela]

At Stuttgart Ballet, this will be the last season for principal dancers Maria Eichwald and Filip Barankiewicz, and also for soloist Oihane Herrero. Eichwald is currently studying at the Benesh Institute to become a choreologist, Barankiewicz wants to work as a balletmaster, both will continue to dance some more years as freelance soloists.

[toursenlair]

I will miss Filip.

[Naomi M]

I will miss Filip.

 

I will too. He was a very good Onegin and very popular in Japan. Think the London audience can see him in one of his signature roles, Petruccio in Taming of the Shrew as he is the best in this.

[toursenlair]

Heads up, Londoners. What Naomi says is true. If you can see Filip as Petruchio, get a ticket!

[Jan McNulty]

I hope he will be doing one of the 2 performances I am attending (I can't go on the Saturday evening as I am at ROH).  I saw him do an excerpt at a gala some years ago and have never forgotten him!

[toursenlair]

yes, and as I recall that gala performance was with next to no rehearsal as he had to dash over that very day from Dresden (where he had also performed in a gala) to replace someone who was injured.

[aileen]

Is casting for Stuttgart Ballet's London performances up yet?

[Jan McNulty]

I couldn't find anything on the (British version of) company website.

[alison]

At Stuttgart Ballet, this will be the last season for principal dancers Maria Eichwald and Filip Barankiewicz, and also for soloist Oihane Herrero.

 

Sorry to hear that: do they have a compulsory retirement age at Stuttgart too, by any chance?

[Angela]

No, it's a German thing: whoever has worked in a theatre for 15 years continually will have to be offered a permanent job until retirement. That's why most general directors at the big theatres throw out their opera/playhouse/ballet directors after 14, 15 years, because else they would have to keep them forever. The rule once was made by the German unions to protect chorus singers or actors from being fired (different rules apply for orchestras and the technical staff), but for dancers and ballet directors it is rather counterproductive because if you keep a dancer longer than 15 years you will have to find a job for him until he is 65. There are some ways to avoid the rule and keep dancers longer in one company, but it's difficult. On the other hand, Reid Anderson has so many great young dancers in his company that he wants to offer them more possibilities to dance, I suppose.

Maria Eichwald suffered from a serious injury some years ago, I think she wants to leave. And Filip Barankiewicz was given great opportunities when he was still very young, so I guess he can't complain if this happens to others now.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Angela

[aileen]

Gosh, that's a big commitment to keep a dancer on until s/he is 65! They can't all become coaches, repetiteurs, teachers at the associated school (if there is one). At POB I believe that once a dancer is taken on s/he has a guaranteed job until compulsory retirement at 42 when a pension becomes payable. That seems more sensible as, barring injuries, most dancers will be able to dance until their late thirties at least, even if if they are 'just' dancing character roles.

[toursenlair]

Indeed, since most dancers join a company straight from school at about age 18, it means they have to leave at age 33, when they still have a lot of good years in them.

[Angela]

The problems are well-known, believe me. Yet I don't know of any attempt to change this law which clearly favours artists in opera and playhouses and damages the very short career of dancers. Seems hard to fight against the unions.

[Naomi M]

For instance, Sue Jin Kang is awarded the title of Kammertänzerin, (chamber dancer) which enables her to work in a longer term than others at the company. (There's also the title of Kammersänger for opera singers)

 

I have a friend in the opera company and she said that as there were many cases that the renewal of contract was terminated at 13 or 14 years, the management were criticized for that and as a result the renewal termination began to happen earlier, such as 10 years. Not sure it is same with the ballet company but likely the same thing happening.

[alison]

No, it's a German thing: whoever has worked in a theatre for 15 years continually will have to be offered a permanent job until retirement.

 

Wow, isn't that a bit Russian?  What a strange idea - and how sad for the dancers to be forced to leave a company where they are established.  I suppose it might not be a bad thing for any dancer to move around a bit, but early 30s probably isn't the best time, I'd have thought.

[Angela]

German choreographer Tim Plegge, 36, will be the Artistic Director of the new "Hessisches Staatsballett" (Hessian State Ballet), a cooperation between the state theatres of Wiesbaden and Darmstadt (both near Frankfurt) from next season on. Plegge has created rather few works, most for Berlin State Ballet and one story ballet, „Momo“, for Birgit Keil’s company at Karlsruhe. He also worked as assistant to ballet choreographer Christian Spuck and modern choreographer Helena Waldmann. Until now, the ballet at Wiesbaden had 25 dancers, the company at Darmstadt 16.  

 

After Graham Watts, also a Munich newspaper rumoured about Igor Zelensky as possible successor to Ivan Liska at the head of Bavarian State Ballet. According to the article in the Münchner Merkur (not online, sorry), official sources say it’s too early to decide and they have lots of interesting candidates for the prestigious job, but Zelensky definitely seems to be one of them.

[Angela]

John Neumeier has renewed his contract as director of Hamburg Ballet today for another four years until 2019. He has directed the company since 1973.

[annamicro]

John Neumeier has renewed his contract as director of Hamburg Ballet today for another four years until 2019. He has directed the company since 1973.

 

Let's hope the next years will be full of creativity as most of the past. Of course I hope that this will involve not only the wonderful artists of the company, but also the sort of "resident guest" that is so happy to join them at any opportunity :-)

 

Returning to German protective laws, it's interesting to note that most of Hamburg pricipal dancers have been with the company for more than 18 years: is the law really different in the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg or it's just that they love their artists too much to let them free to go?

[Angela]

Anna: I have no idea. Maybe Neumeier managed to sign different contracts with them (as I said, there are some ways to avoid the 15 year law), maybe he will provide jobs for all of them when they stop dancing - Lloyd Riggins for example will be appointed assistant director to Neumeier in 2015, another news from the press conference at Hamburg yesterday. Riggins has long been talked about as Neumeier's "crown prince", the person designated to follow him as director of the company, should the politicians agree (not everybody at Hamburg thinks that the Neumeier empire should continue in eternity). Most of Neumeier's principals are around 40 years old, the younger ones like Edvin Revazov and Anna Laudere do not possess the same strong personality as the older stars like Riabko, Urban, Bubenicek, Azzoni, Bouchet.

[Angela]

After a loooong time of negotiations, Manuel Legris has agreed to renew his contract in Vienna, which would have ended in summer 2015. Legris will stay with Vienna State Ballet until August 2017. Opera/General Director Dominique Meyer and musical director Franz Welser-Möst had signed their new contracts in January 2012 already, for five (Meyer) and three (Welser-Möst) years.

Press Release in German

[annamicro]

Anna: I have no idea. Maybe Neumeier managed to sign different contracts with them (as I said, there are some ways to avoid the 15 year law), maybe he will provide jobs for all of them when they stop dancing - Lloyd Riggins for example will be appointed assistant director to Neumeier in 2015, another news from the press conference at Hamburg yesterday. Riggins has long been talked about as Neumeier's "crown prince", the person designated to follow him as director of the company, should the politicians agree (not everybody at Hamburg thinks that the Neumeier empire should continue in eternity). Most of Neumeier's principals are around 40 years old, the younger ones like Edvin Revazov and Anna Laudere do not possess the same strong personality as the older stars like Riabko, Urban, Bubenicek, Azzoni, Bouchet.

 

I heard about Lloyd Riggins and I think it's a great thing. Neumeier heritage has to be preserved: it's the trademark that makes Hamburg Ballet unique and different, even if probably after his retirement the repertory could and should be differentiated more than today.

I agree about younger principals (let's see what Revazov will do as Cojocaru's Romeo later in the week), without forgetting that the lovely Bouchet is just 33. I'd add to the "strong personality" also Polikarpova and I adore Leslie Heylmann personality.

[Angela]

You seem to know the company better than me, Anna: do you see any talents among the young dancers that might one day become such great actors as Riggins & Co.? I always wondered why Neumeier has such a lack of younger stars - Thiago Bordin by the way is also still around 30, I guess, and a great Neumeier dancer. But everyone else is almost 40. Sometimes you wonder about the future of the company...

[annamicro]

You seem to know the company better than me, Anna: you see any talents among the young dancers that might one day become such great actors as Riggins & Co.? I always wondered why Neumeier has such a lack of younger stars - Thiago Bordin by the way is also still around 30, I guess, and a great Neumeier dancer. But everyone else is almost 40. Sometimes you wonder about the future of the company...

Neumeir has a new excellent "principal" of 32. ;-)

Seriously, he is trying new dancers: in the past season and this one there are at least two Romeos (Trusch and Radtke) and a Juliet (Chinellato, not considering Cojocaru), but I've not seen them. I really like Tselikov presence but maybe not for "prince" roles. The past year the very young Italian Sasha Riva (the Balloon man) was given the role of the Poet in Kleine Meerjungfrau, another young Italian, Jacopo Bellussi was Paris. On the dark Italian side, the lovely Lucia Solari left because underused.

Aso Martinez is very young and had the role of Louis in Liliom created on him. But I don't know the company so well to give more names.

To say if they can become one day as great as the older ones is difficult, they are REALLY great: very few like them around the world.

[Jan McNulty]

Northern Ballet fans are currently enjoying the talents of the lovely Miss Solari.  Hamburg's loss, our gain!

[annamicro]

I know:-) She is very busy with her new company and also happy.

Have you seen her in relevant role (I know she was Titania)?

[Jan McNulty]

I'm hoping to next year Anna - hers was one of two casts I missed this time around.  I heard very enthusiastic reports from my friends who saw her as Hippolyta/Titania.

[Angela]

Polina Semionova, ex-principal of Berlin State Ballet, has accepted a position as honorary professor at the Berlin Ballet School; according to an article in a Berlin newspaper, she seems to squeeze in the lessons in her international schedule.

 

 

For those interested in German Ausdruckstanz: the ballet companies at Osnabrück and Bielefeld cooperated on a reconstruction of Mary Wigman's "Sacre" from 1957, which premiered on Nov 9th at Osnabrück and will also be staged for Bavarian State Ballet in June. Some photos via the link at the bottom of this page

[Angela]

Principal dancer Sue Jin Kang from Stuttgart Ballet has been appointed the new ballet director of the Korean National Ballet, starting in January 2014 with a three-year contract. The 46 year old ballerina will still dance some few performances at Stuttgart, her farewell performance is planned for 2016. Kang studied at Seoul and with Marika Besobrasova in Monte Carlo. After winning the  Prix de Lausanne in 1985, she came to Stuttgart in 1986 and was promotod to principal by Reid Anderson in 1997. She is famous for her dramatic portraits of the Cranko heroines and Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias.

[alison]

Sounds as though we were lucky to see her at Sadler's Wells last week, then.

[Angela]

Promotions at Hamburg Ballet: Alexandr Trusch was appointed to principal dancer, Aleix Martínez was appointed to soloist after Sunday’s premiere of John Neumeier’s complete "Christmas Oratorio" (he had choreographed three parts of it already, now he did the other three parts). Trusch is from Ukraine and has danced at Hamburg since 2007, Martínez is Spanish and at Hamburg since 2010.

Link in German

[Angela]

The German Dance Prize 2014 will be awarded to Bertram Müller, the director of Tanzhaus NRW at Düsseldorf, a location for modern dance. The "Dance Prize Future" goes to Demis Volpi, one of the two resident choreographers of Stuttgart Ballet. The prizes will be awarded in a gala at Aalto Theatre Essen on March 8th, 2014.

[Angela]

Polina Semionova’s brother Dmitry Semionov was hired as resident guest soloist by Dortmund Ballet. Semionov is a former principal of Malakhov’s Berlin State Ballet, where he quit after last season. He had started at the Mariinsky, then he danced with Dresden Semperoper Ballet, where he is still a resident guest now.

The German article about Semionov also states that Xin Peng Wang, the Chinese Director and Chief Choreographer of Dortmund Ballet, has fixed an agreement to interchange new choreographies with Benjamin Millepied’s Paris Opera Ballet. Dortmund Ballet is the only German company which has showed pieces by Millepied.

 

Vladimir Malakhov will dance the new solo "Icarus" by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in his gala programme "Malakhov & Friends", the premiere is on January 21th at Berlin.

 

At Stuttgart Ballet, demi-soloist Miriam Kacerova was promoted to soloist.  

[annamicro]

Alina Cojocaru is dancing Tatiana with Hamburg Ballet on the 7th and 8th of March, opposite Carsten Jung. Super Olga and Lenksky for this cast: Leslie Heylmann and Thiago Bordin.

 

The wonderful Silvia Azzoni-Sascha Riabko partnership is opening the run on the 2nd of March.