ENB PROMOTIONS, JOINERS AND LEAVERS

[Emeralds]

3 minutes ago, MAX said:

 

They maybe had to be hired at that rank to get a work permit in the UK ?

No, it’s not necessary -international  corps de ballet members are hired in all companies and can get visas. 

[Emeralds]

56 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Possibly but how many 8th year artists are there in the Company? 
And what would be the pay scale difference between an 8th year Artist and First Artist? 

It’s a crazy name as it suggests time spent working for the company and not something you can jump to with a promotion. It’s especially baffling when they promote someone who’s only been there for two years to “8th year”- where did the other 5 or 6 years ago?!   @oncnp kindly put up the pay scales before (I’m not dredging up the multipage document again!) and I think 8th is the highest pay level in the corps, and thereafter if promoted they must go up to First Artist. The distinction is unnecessary anyway, because first artists still dance in the corps de ballet, as do soloists. At RB, even first soloists still dance in the corps if they need more dancers-only principals don’t have to do corps duties. 

 

To me it sounds like a misnomer and a bit petty -why not just make the First Artist pay start at 8th year level and the next level of promotion junior soloist? Even the splitting of soloist into junior and plain soloist looks a bit petty. Companies used to only have three ranks: corps, soloist, principal. Then they added coryphee (which the Paris Opera were using) as a sort of recognition of corps members who stayed for years but couldn’t progress/ wasn’t given opportunities to get to soloist. Then they decided it should also show promise in young corps members.

 

I accept that the Paris Opera’s ranks are complicated because it's an old institution and they get state benefits and generous pensions-it’s like a part of their civil service. But ENB isn’t the civil service. Yet for centuries Royal Danish Ballet only had corps and solo dancer/danser! And they too had pensions and state benefits. (Solo dancer was equivalent to Principal.) Nikolaj Hubbe (I think it was he) changed  it to include principal and soloist now- I'm not sure if that’s because the solo dancers were being mistaken for soloists and not recognised as principals abroad or something. 

Edited June 28, 2023 by Emeralds

[Guest oncnp]

16 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

It’s a crazy name as it suggests time spent working for the company and not something you can jump to with a promotion. It’s especially baffling when they promote someone who’s only been there for two years to “8th year”- where did the other 5 or 6 years ago?!   @oncnp kindly put up the pay scales before

Now you mention it......2021 Annual Report (latest available)

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by oncnp

[Emeralds]

You’re very good to us, @oncnp. 😁 And you even removed the unnecessary pages!  👏👍

[Dawnstar]

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

@Dawnstar, you asked a good question....Sangeun Lee is 182cm (she stated this to two Korean publications) making her one of the tallest ballerinas in the world.

 

So that would make her about 5 foot 10 & presumably that's not en pointe so add another 4 inches at least when she's en pointe. That would make her taller when en pointe than any male dancer I can think of bar Reece Clarke. Presumably Gareth Haw must be well over 6 foot if he's able to partner her but what would happen if he's injured? How many of the current ENB reasonably senior men would be tall enough? It's difficult to judge heights at a distance on stage but there aren't many that I would guess are over 6 foot.

[Jan McNulty]

10 hours ago, LinMM said:

Possibly but how many 8th year artists are there in the Company? 
And what would be the pay scale difference between an 8th year Artist and First Artist? 

 

If you look at the IG post linked by BBB you will see that ASW announces that she is moving from 4th year artist to 8th year artist, so yes I assume it is a pay scale rise.  

[Sabine0308]

10 hours ago, oncnp said:

Now you mention it......2021 Annual Report (latest available)

 

 

 

It's totally confusing with the "year" rank. But yes, It's about money/pay scale. I had asked about this a former dancer with ENB some time ago.

[LinMM]

Those pay scales were very helpful …thanks oncnp! 
It’s still a bit weird though … I still think that if an artist has been in the Company a few years and deserves promoting for whatever reason just promote to First Artist! 

[FionaM]

16 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

There’s a clip of ASW’s promotions announcement to the company here.

Thank you for the link … interesting to watch this.  From what ASW says, he’s clearly been around a lot watching class, rehearsals and performances.   
 

And there seem to me to be more promotions compared to recent years.  I’m glad he’s negotiated the money to do all these, plus bring in new dancers at soloist and principal level. It’s a good sign.  

[FionaM]

It is concerning that there are no new hires from any school.  That seems odd for any company … perhaps there are plans for an ENB2 in future.  

[capybara]

The movement of ENB Artists up the pay scale is a long established practice whereby dancers not (yet) deemed ready for promotion can be rewarded financially. In Breanna Foad’s case, it is presumably related to her having taken the leading role in Mats Ek’s Rite.

I believe that the same kind of thing does happen in other companies but it is not set alongside promotions or made public.

 

It was Wayne Eagling who introduced the Junior Soloist rank. The pay is only marginally more than that of a First Artist but, over the years, a number of ENB dancers have vouchsafed that being named as a Soloist is the important factor for them.

 

Prior to Tamara Rojo’s arrival there were already two levels of Principal. She simply changed the nomenclature from Senior Principal to Lead Principal.

 

ASW has indeed been around quite a lot since his appointment was announced.

 

I agree with FionaE that it is unfortunate that no new hirings have been made from among graduating students. But the ‘loss’ of a number of younger/newer members  of the Company could be a sign of the need to tighten belts financially.

[LinMM]

I’ve just mentioned this Fiona on another thread as went to see the ENBS rehearsal for their show on Saturday/Sunday at the Peacock ..at the school. The talent is certainly there. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by LinMM

[Irmgard]

12 hours ago, Emeralds said:

That’s my concern....unlike the previous ENB departures to Berlin, apart from Sarah Kundi, there are no destinations for the 10 departing dancers and no indication that any of them will follow Rojo to her new company or indeed have jobs in other companies to go on to, unlike the four following Watkin to ENB. We know Amber Hunt has a shared photography business but we don’t know if she wanted or needed to continue dancing. 

 

 

From my conversations with her, Amber Hunt has completely retired from dancing to pursue her photography career.  

[Pas de Quatre]

14 hours ago, Emeralds said:

The height difference of a ballerina and her partner in the Tchaikovsky classics and ballets like Romeo and Juliet (most classical versions), Manon, Onegin, Ashton’s Cinderella, needs to be quite a lot, meaning the top of her head should be around his chin rather than his nose as in Wagman’s case. This is because the supported turns where their right hands are over her head (the best example is right at the end of the traditional White Swan pas de deux)  require enough room for her to hold his fingers comfortably. If she is already slightly taller than him on pointe, he’d have to tiptoe to do those supported turns, which is dangerous. You could cheat by changing the pirouettes to put his hands on her waist instead of overhead after she begins turning but that would mean tampering with the choreography.

Sorry Emeralds, I disagree.  Rudolph Nureyev was only 5' 8".  One of his first partners in the West was Svetlana Beriosova who was exactly the same height, so taller when on pointe.  They danced beautifully together and coped with the height issue.  However, it was felt he was a better match with Margot Fonteyn who was 5' 3", so would have been nearly as tall as him when on pointe. He went on to forge a great working partnership with Patricia Ruanne and she was Juliet to his Romeo in his version of the ballet for ENB.  I don't know her height, but would have put her as fairly tall, not tiny.  

 

Baryshnikov was an inch or two smaller, but partnered a variety of ballerinas.  My own feeling is that both of these famous male dancers had a strong muscular physique which is perhaps enabled them to be such good partners as well as having wonderful technique.  I have just been watching the trailer for the Australian's ballet's live stream, and noticed that in the couple who are dancing Diamonds (not named) she is taller than him on pointe.

 

The finger turn issue doesn't arise as both dancers have their arms raised above their heads and it is easy to adjust the curve at the elbow. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Pas de Quatre

[LinMM]

Yesterday I was at the ENBS rehearsal for their coming school show. 
We were lucky enough to be treated to Deborah Wingert rehearsing them in “Who Cares” by Balanchine. 
She must be about 5ft 10 in’s tall but was nevertheless picked by Balanchine when she was 16 to dance in the Company. 
Apparently she said he would pick any dancer who he just liked how they danced ….whatever their height …so not all Balanchine dancers were tall but 5ft 10 is tall for a female dancer ….if her dancing was anything like her teaching yesterday however she was obviously pretty amazing in her day!! 

[Bluebird]

1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said:

  I have just been watching the trailer for the Australian's ballet's live stream, and noticed that in the couple who are dancing Diamonds (not named) she is taller than him on pointe.

 

Assuming you were watching the trailer that came with the email publicising the live stream, the dancers in Diamonds are Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth.  According to the published casting, they're currently scheduled to be the lead dancers in Rubies rather than Diamonds so maybe the casting has changed since it was published.

[Pas de Quatre]

Thanks Bluebird. Yes it was the trailer in the email.

[Fonty]

19 hours ago, Emeralds said:

 

There is also the added caveat that as Lee is 182 cm tall, she can’t easily step in to replace an injured colleague, eg Kase, Oliveira or Takahashi, without their partner having to be replaced as well, which in a company like ENB is an important consideration, although of course it wasn’t her choice or decision to be born with genes that made her extremely tall. Lead Principals should be able to be flexible and be able to step in  (as Caley and  Frola did last season and Takahashi and Frola this January and June) when colleagues were ill or injured.

 

Goodness, is that right, she is nearly 6 foot tall.   Surely that is huge for a ballerina in a classical ballet company?  The tallest dancer I have seen was Yanowski, and she is 175cm (or 5' 8" ) and they had enough problems finding suitable partners for her.  Didn't they have to bring in a male guest dancer especially for Yanowski?  

[Scheherezade]

It is indeed very tall. 5’ 11.7” must surely cause partnering problems. It will be interesting to see how this works. 

[Sophoife]

At 182cm, Sangeun Lee is 5'11⅔"

 

At 5'10", Isobelle Dashwood of AusBallet is 177.8cm

 

23 hours ago, Bluebird said:

 

Assuming you were watching the trailer that came with the email publicising the live stream, the dancers in Diamonds are Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth.  According to the published casting, they're currently scheduled to be the lead dancers in Rubies rather than Diamonds so maybe the casting has changed since it was published.

 

23 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

Thanks Bluebird. Yes it was the trailer in the email.

 

The trailer in the email, I have been informed, is not specific to the livestream performance (yes, shocker, this from the company that published a DVD of the Graeme Murphy Swan Lake with Adam Bull and Amber Scott on the cover, but Robert Curran and Madeleine Eastoe actually dancing - "because Adam and Amber did the publicity photoshoot the year before" - I kid you not).

 

Ako Kondo and Brett Chynoweth are dancing the Diamonds principal couple, just not on the livestream as it stands at the moment.