Northern Ballet promotions, leavers, and joiners 6/2023

[Guest oncnp]

It's that time of year when our season comes to an end and the dancers get their well-deserved summer break. What a fantastic few months, with sell-out shows of The Great Gatsby and Ugly Duckling, new work showcased in Sketches and the big announcement of Federico Bonelli's first full season.

We're pleased to announce the following promotions for our dancers: Joseph Taylor will be promoted to Premier Dancer, Jonathan Hanks, Saeka Shirai and Dominique Larose to Leading Soloist and Alessandra Bramante and Harris Beattie to Coryphée.

We're also excited to have Aaron Kok join the company as a Dancer, Mayuko Iwanaga and Yu Wakizuka joining as Apprentices and Itsuki Amemiya also as an Apprentice until December.

 

Of course, it is always sad to wave goodbye to some of our much-loved dancers who have moved onto new ventures. Mackenzie Jacob now dances for Scottish Ballet, Katharine Lee for San Francisco Ballet and Sean Bates for Zurich Ballet. Gavin McCaig has retired from performing and joins the Young Dancers Academy in London as Director of Business Operations, and Wesley Branch has also left the company.

 

The last few weeks have been spent learning new work from Benjamin Ella and Tiler Peck as well as David Nixon CBE's Beauty & the Beast. We've got a fantastic season waiting for you in the autumn, we hope you'll join us.

Edited June 23, 2023 by oncnp

[Jan McNulty]

Congratulations to all the promotees!

 

It is thrilling news that Joe Taylor has finally been promoted to the top rank.

[Emeralds]

I want to see that Triple Bill! I have signed up to get updates on the locations & dates that they’re performing it.....but keeping a wary eye on rail strike updates.

[Peanut68]

Any homegrown (not just trained here) talent joining? 

Edited June 25, 2023 by Peanut68
Typo

[Jan McNulty]

I think Aaron Kok is Australian and is joining NB from the Croatian Company.

 

I've no idea about the 3 people joining as apprentices.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

I want to see that Triple Bill! I have signed up to get updates on the locations & dates that they’re performing it.....but keeping a wary eye on rail strike updates.

 

The only dates scheduled are for Leeds (in the company's own theatre at Quarry Hill) and at The Linbury.  NB tends not to tour mixed programmes any further than that.

[Emeralds]

Thank you, @Jan McNulty! I made a note of those 2 venues from their website too,  but now have to wait and see if my schedule allows me to attend one of them. Both require the trains so prebooking Leeds is risky if there is a strike, but Linbury is just as vulnerable to strikes, although ROH helps in that I can  cancel and reuse the box office credit with only a £4 charge per ticket, but for Leeds I’ll have to be sure I can return to them again if industrial action forced me to cancel. It’s not that I don’t wish to see NB in Leeds but the time taken for travelling up and back down means I usually can’t see them at their base as I usually have to be back the same night. 

[Peanut68]

When I sadly had to recently cancel seeing Sketches at NB the box office at their theatre very kindly refunded ticket (I think in full) 

[Anna C]

17 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

Any homegrown (not just trained here) talent joining? 

Although Mayuko Iwanaga represented Japan at YAGP in Osaka, she has trained at ENBS.

[Peanut68]

I’m sure many of the overseas dancers have done much of their training in the top UK schools - that was kind of my point…. How many are UK born not just trained…. We all see how companies & schools alike seem to have a very high intake of overseas employees/students when UK dancers struggle to secure places/funding/jobs. And I know it is about suitability etc but in all honesty, I do think we should be championing our home dancers more than we do. And the visa situation that once a student here you can then work is not helpful to UK graduate dancers allowing overseas grads of UK programmes equal chance to get UK jobs…. Wonder if it’s reciprocated in their homelands for UK dancers? Probably not as the reason they conduct here is because they do not have the training or even professional dance companies…. Why not? If there are so many ambitious dancers then there must surely be a massive ‘gap in the cultural market’ . Couldn’t the hugely inflated fees they pay to train here & then things like the huge sums from overseas donors & overseas corporate sponsorship many schools & company’s receive be instead invested to create companyies & training of more in their own countries? I think of such things as the recently announced deal between RBS & a Japanese Corporation to assist the training of Japanese students at RBS - why??? Japan clearly has an appetite for ballet…. I’d surely congratulate the corporates & patrons who spent their money to create The Japanese Imperial Ballet Company - they have their own Royalty - why not set up their own Royal Company & School??? That would be a global win win! 

[Jan McNulty]

 

1 hour ago, Peanut68 said:

I’m sure many of the overseas dancers have done much of their training in the top UK schools - that was kind of my point…. How many are UK born not just trained…. We all see how companies & schools alike seem to have a very high intake of overseas employees/students when UK dancers struggle to secure places/funding/jobs. And I know it is about suitability etc but in all honesty, I do think we should be championing our home dancers more than we do. And the visa situation that once a student here you can then work is not helpful to UK graduate dancers allowing overseas grads of UK programmes equal chance to get UK jobs…. Wonder if it’s reciprocated in their homelands for UK dancers? Probably not as the reason they conduct here is because they do not have the training or even professional dance companies…. Why not? If there are so many ambitious dancers then there must surely be a massive ‘gap in the cultural market’ . Couldn’t the hugely inflated fees they pay to train here & then things like the huge sums from overseas donors & overseas corporate sponsorship many schools & company’s receive be instead invested to create companyies & training of more in their own countries? I think of such things as the recently announced deal between RBS & a Japanese Corporation to assist the training of Japanese students at RBS - why??? Japan clearly has an appetite for ballet…. I’d surely congratulate the corporates & patrons who spent their money to create The Japanese Imperial Ballet Company - they have their own Royalty - why not set up their own Royal Company & School??? That would be a global win win! 

 

The situation in Japan is quite interesting in that female dancers do not get paid.  It's no wonder that Japanese dancers are in companies all over the world.

 

This post is not hugely relevant to Northern Ballet and as you know the subject has been covered ad infinitum in Doing Dance.

[Peanut68]

True Jan.

It certainly feels like it is reflected in the dancer biogs in most UK dance companies 

[Jan McNulty]

Somewhat late in the day here is the official PR:

 

 

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	28 June 2023 For immediate release       Northern Ballet announces promotions, leavers and joiners for 2023/234 season

	Northern Ballet have announced six promotions within their Company of dancers as well as four new additions for their 2023/24 season.   Joseph Taylor will be promoted to Premier Dancer, Jonathan Hanks, Saeka Shirai and Dominique Larose to Leading Soloist and Alessandra Bramante and Harris Beattie to Coryphée.   Aaron Kok will join the Company as a Dancer, Mayuko Iwanaga and Yu Wakizuka as Apprentices and Itsuki Amemiya also as an Apprentice until December 2023.    This season the Company will say fond farewell to Mackenzie Jacob who joins Scottish Ballet, Katharine Lee who joins San Francisco Ballet, Sean Bates who joins Zurich Ballet and Wesley Branch. Gavin McCaig has retired from performing and joins the Young Dancers Academy in London as Director of Business Operations.    Northern Ballet’s autumn season will commence in September with Generations: Three Short Ballets in Leeds and London followed by a national tour of Beauty & the Beast and The Nutcracker in Leeds. For more information visit northernballet.com/whats-on       -ENDS-

	Notes to Editors    Northern Ballet   Northern Ballet is one of the UK’s leading and widest touring ballet companies. Bold and innovative in its approach, Northern Ballet is prolific at creating new full-length work with a unique blend of strong classical technique and impressive storytelling. Northern Ballet’s repertoire embraces popular culture and takes inspiration from literature, legend, opera and the classics, pushing the boundaries of what stories can be told through dance.         A champion for the cultural exports of the North, Leeds-based Northern Ballet is dedicated to bringing ballet to as many people and places as possible, under the leadership of Artistic Director Federico Bonelli. Northern Ballet’s Company of dancers performs a combination of its full-length ballets and specially created ballets for children at more than 30 venues annually.       Audiences can also enjoy Northern Ballet’s work on screen through their digital dance platform. Visit digitaldance.org to discover more.    Alessandra Bramante in rehearsals for Sketches. Photo Emily Nuttall.