William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov

[MAX]

William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov are certainly among The Royal Ballet's finest dancers. Both men were trained partly or entirely at The Royal Ballet School, but surprisingly did not join The Royal Ballet when they graduated. Was this a choice on Monica Mason's part ? If this is the case, given their exceptional talent, one might wonder about her selection....

[Jan McNulty]

I don't think it's appropriate to speculate on why dancers join particular companies unless they themselves have said something that is in the public domain.

[Linnzi5]

14 minutes ago, MAX said:

William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov are certainly among The Royal Ballet's finest dancers. Both men were trained partly or entirely at The Royal Ballet School, but surprisingly did not join The Royal Ballet when they graduated. Was this a choice on Monica Mason's part ? If this is the case, given their exceptional talent, one might wonder about her selection....

Interesting topic. I gather others, including critics, have wondered the same. I do wonder though, if being at other companies first was better for them as dancers? Certainly, it doesn't seem to have done either any harm and maybe benefitted them? So, if Monica Mason didn't choose them, maybe it did both a favour? Who knows. Certainly, William Bracewell talks of his time at BRB very fondly.  

Edited November 5, 2023 by Linnzi5

[Sophoife]

IIRC Muntagirov and Polunin were the same year? and Dame Monica offered a contract to Polunin. 

 

In Daria Klimentová's book, she says that Wayne Eagling offered Muntagirov a contract thus:

 

Discovering that his counterpart at The Royal Ballet was not taking Vadim, Wayne Eagling was in like a shot and offered him a great deal to join ENB. Knowing the company, and having come to know Vadim, I doubt if the attraction of this arrangement would have been so much about money because the main temptation would certainly have been the prospect of being offered the major classical roles to dance early in his career, which is every dancer’s dream. To whet his appetite even more, Wayne offered Vadim the chance to dance the role of Albrecht (the lead male role in Giselle) before Christmas in his very first season, which meant that within six months of leaving ballet school, he would be headlining in a major ballet in a major company. This was completely unheard of, but Wayne clearly had every confidence in the young Russian boy.

 

Quoted from chapter 10 of Daria Klimentová with Graham Watts: Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance published in 2013 by John Blake Publishing.

 

I was copying the quote when your comment appeared @Jan McNulty, so I'm going to say that in my reading that counts as public information 😉 and that if anyone would know, it would be Klimentová.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Sophoife
Added last paragraph

[MAX]

Thank you for this interesting quote Sophoife.

[Guest oncnp]

21 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

IIRC Muntagirov and Polunin were the same year? and Dame Monica offered a contract to Polunin. 

 

Polunin entered in year 3, I believe, so spent only 1 year at the RBS before joining the company. Muntagirov started in year 1 and did all 3 years. According to his book, he could have skipped year 2 but chose to do it to improve his English and stay with his year group. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by oncnp

[Bluebird]

1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

IIRC Muntagirov and Polunin were the same year? and Dame Monica offered a contract to Polunin. 

 

The information in the  Klimentová book is misleading.  Polunin graduated 2007. Muntagirov graduated 2009.

[Bluebird]

56 minutes ago, oncnp said:

Polunin entered in year 3, I believe, so spent only 1 year at the RBS before joining the company. Muntagirov started in year 1 and did all 3 years. According to his book, he could have skipped year 2 but chose to do it to improve his English and stay with his year group. 

 

I remember seeing Polunin in a class at the Upper School when he was in the First Year there.

 

Edited to add that I've just checked my old RBS programmes and Polunin is listed in Year 11 of White Lodge in the Summer of 2004.  He therefore spent at least a year at White Lodge and 3 years at the Upper School.  

Edited November 5, 2023 by Bluebird

[Suffolkgal]

I know Eagling spotted Muntagirov’s star quality immediately... I suppose there’s always a balance to be struck with adding to a company... heights, lack of height, strengths, whom else you have, what ballets need to be done, who needs to be partnered? I always remember in Lynn Seymour’s autobiography, devastated when assigned to the opera ballet, wondered if musical comedy beckoned, Madam told her anxious mother they wanted to strengthen her feet and legs. But this is an interesting topic ... I was a devoted follower of the company when Dowell was director and remember the outcomes for some of the male dancers then - or at least what they perceived. I don’t want to open that can of worms I just mention it because this is an art form, and a gathering of creative people. We all react in different ways... there are dancers mentioned on the forum, clearly loved and rightly so, that I would never choose to see. That’s just my preference it doesn’t mean they are not great ...

[Ondine]

It was rumoured (as mentioned in this old thread) Monica Mason didn't take Muntigirov into the company as she thought him too shy.

 

Darcey Bussell:

 

After Bussell graduated from White Lodge in 1987, she was taken into the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (later Birmingham Royal Ballet). A year later she was back at the Royal Ballet as a soloist, having been selected to create the role of Princess Rose in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s new version of The Prince of the Pagodas. She was promoted to principal dancer the day after its premiere in 1989, and in 1990 she was named Dance & Dancers magazine’s Dancer of the Year.

 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Darcey-Bussell

[capybara]

Vadim refers to his recruitment into ENB in his book: From Small Steps to Big Leaps as follows: " I have been asked, often, why I thought the RB didn't want me and all I can say is, "I don't really know". But I have always felt that the people around me at the time had my best interests in mind."

 

https://shop.roh.org.uk/products/vadim-muntagirov-from-small-steps-to-big-leaps-book

 

My personal take on the where both Bracewell and Muntagirov went initially is that they could be given more and earlier opportunities for leading roles in BRB and ENB respectively than would have been possible in the RB.

Anyway - aren't we lucky to have them both at the RB now?

 

Edited to add that Vadim himself also covers the detail of the offer from ENB in his autobiography but it doesn’t seem appropriate to quote from it at any length here.

 

The Year William graduated (2010), IIRC no dancers were taken into the RB. Others who were prominent students that year went to ENB (Angela Wood and Barry Drummond) or, initially, Scottish Ballet (Imogen Chapman).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by capybara
Additions

[FLOSS]

It is foolish to assume that the company can recruit every talented dancer who graduates from the RBS. The director may not have the vacancies to make this possible or may not be able to make the sort of offer that an ambitious young dancer finds attractive. You need to remember that a director has a duty to look after the careers of all the members of the company not just those of the most recent recruits however talented they may be. A director may be reluctant to disrupt his or her company by recruiting too many dancers who need to be fast tracked through the ranks. Polunin was the dancer whom the company were hothousing at the time of Muntagirov's graduation.

 

A dancer may have very good reasons for not joining a prestigious company at the beginning of his or her career. My understanding is that Wayne Eagling who was ENB's director at the time was able to recruit Muntagirov by offering him the role of Albrecht in his first season with the company as well as plenty of opportunities to dance. As far as Bracewell is concerned it is quite possible that Bintley was simply able to offer him more opportunities to dance and take on roles than would have been possible as a member of the resident company. BRB, formerly SWRB and before that RBTC was originally established as a training ground for talented dancers which would enable them to learn major roles and develop their technique and stage craft well away from the gaze of national critics. It was always able to offer more opportunities to young dancers in terms of performances and opportunities to learn roles and stage craft than would be available in Bow Street. Of course the second company long ago ceased simply to be a training ground for the talented to learn their craft but that has not stopped individual dancers from treating it as a stepping stone in their careers.

[Tango Dancer]

16 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

My personal take on the where both Bracewell and Muntagirov went initially is that they could be given more and earlier opportunities for leading roles in BRB and ENB respectively than would have been possible in the RB.

Anyway - aren't we lucky to have them both at the RB now?

 

 

 

 

I would agree.  I think they both benefited from taking more leading roles in other companies allowing them to grow and develop and brought what they learnt back to RB when they moved there.  Some times it's good to go away and progress and then bring the lessons back with you.  

[MAX]

Yes Floss but here we are not talking about talented dancers we are talking about exceptional dancers !

[Bluebird]

36 minutes ago, capybara said:

The Year William graduated (2010), IIRC no dancers were taken into the RB. Others who were prominent students that year went to ENB (Angela Wood and Barry Drummond) or, initially, Scottish Ballet (Imogen Chapman).

 

Yasmine Naghdi joined the Royal Ballet in 2010 although she was taken in well before the end of her final year at the RBS.  If I remember correctly, Sander Bloomaert was also taken in to the Company in 2010.

 

Edited to add that I just googled that year's intake and came up with the following (I'd forgotten that James Butcher also joined that year but I believe he left at the end of the 2010/11 season):

Joiners

• Nehemiah Kish as Principal (from Royal Danish Ballet)
• Itziar Mendizabal as First Soloist (from Leipzig Ballet)
• Yasmine Naghdi as Artist (from Royal Ballet School, joined April 2010)
• Sander Blommaert as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
• James Butcher as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
• Valentino Zucchetti as Artist (from Norwegian Ballet)
• Camille Bracher as Artist (from Johannesburg, South Africa)
• Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Artist (from School of American Ballet) 

https://balletassociation.co.uk/pages/royal-ballet-news-2010

Edited November 5, 2023 by Bluebird

[capybara]

Just now, Bluebird said:

 

Yasmine Naghdi joined the Royal Ballet in 2010 although she was taken in well before the end of her final year at the RBS.  If I remember correctly, Sander Bloomaert was also taken in to the Company in 2010,

Apologies. Yes, Yasmine joined around Easter 2010 having also ‘skipped’ the RBS second year. You are also correct about Sander @Bluebird

 

[Sophoife]

47 minutes ago, capybara said:

(2010)...Others who were prominent students that year went to...initially, Scottish Ballet (Imogen Chapman).

 

(I've removed the bits irrelevant to this comment)

 

Goodness, Imogen is older than I thought, then! 

 

One does wonder, though, in the cases of Bracewell and Muntagirov specifically, were they recruited to the RB or did they initiate the contacts that led to their contracts?

 

Of course a famous example of someone graduating from RBS, getting a contract at RB, and then going (successfully in his case) elsewhere is Xander Parish.

 

Another is Polunin, although he doesn't seem to have really settled anywhere since leaving the RB. And yes, thank you, I'm quite well aware of what he has been doing so please, nobody jump in with his CV since 2012.

[Sim]

27 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

Yasmine Naghdi joined the Royal Ballet in 2010 although she was taken in well before the end of her final year at the RBS.  If I remember correctly, Sander Bloomaert was also taken in to the Company in 2010.

 

Edited to add that I just googled that year's intake and came up with the following (I'd forgotten that James Butcher also joined that year but I believe he left at the end of the 2010/11 season):

Joiners

• Nehemiah Kish as Principal (from Royal Danish Ballet)
• Itziar Mendizabal as First Soloist (from Leipzig Ballet)
• Yasmine Naghdi as Artist (from Royal Ballet School, joined April 2010)
• Sander Blommaert as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
• James Butcher as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
• Valentino Zucchetti as Artist (from Norwegian Ballet)
• Camille Bracher as Artist (from Johannesburg, South Africa)
• Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Artist (from School of American Ballet) 

https://balletassociation.co.uk/pages/royal-ballet-news-2010

Wow....what a year!! 

[Guest oncnp]

12 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

 

One does wonder, though, in the cases of Bracewell and Muntagirov specifically, were they recruited to the RB or did they initiate the contacts that led to their contracts?

 

 

Kevin O'Hare said at the time (was at pains to say at the time, Feb 2014) and Muntagriov confirmed in his book that Muntagirov had to make the first inquiry because KOH did not "poach" dancer' from other companies.  But when he made his availability known, the entire thing was done in hours. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by oncnp

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, MAX said:

William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov are certainly among The Royal Ballet's finest dancers. Both men were trained partly or entirely at The Royal Ballet School, but surprisingly did not join The Royal Ballet when they graduated. Was this a choice on Monica Mason's part ? If this is the case, given their exceptional talent, one might wonder about her selection....

I think it's just fate, Max! Sometimes these things happen for a reason! If I was offered the lead role in Giselle with ENB and let's say I was offered a bigger salary at RB but only corps de ballet roles, Giselle and the other classical solo roles will win it for me! And what an incredible career Vadim Muntagirov has had at ENB and still has at RB! 

 

Likewise, William Bracewell has performed lots of brilliant roles at BRB which he might not have had the chance to dance at RB with different repertoire, numbers of performances, and numbers of principals and soloists. I think he's also had a brilliant career in both companies- as well as the lead in the Romeo and Juliet film by Balletboyz.

 

So, my answer is- not right or wrong, good or bad,, but the mysterious hand of fate/destiny! 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Emeralds

[capybara]

William Bracewell explained in an interview for The Ballet Association that around 2015/16, when he found himself repeating rep. at BRB, he approached Kevin O'Hare (KOH). The contact between them led eventually to William transferring to the RB.

 

https://balletassociation.co.uk/pages/reports-2018-william-bracewell

 

As @oncnp has said, in his book, Vadim goes into some detail about his resignation from ENB and his being signed by the RB (2014).

 

I remember an 'In Conversation' at The London Ballet Circle where KOH was asked whether he would like to have Vadim in the RB. His response was emphatically to the effect that he would not poach dancers and anyone who wanted to join the RB would need to make the first move.

 

 

[LinMM]

Dancers also develop and mature at different rates. 
I saw Muntagirov very early on at ENB…maybe even his very first performance and although he was very good ( looked incredibly young) he was not the outstanding dancer he is today. 

[Sim]

And here, for those who didn't listen to it, is the Open Barre podcast with Will Bracewell as the guest, talking about his time at BRB and the RB.  Lovely.

 

 

[MAX]

Thank you all for your answers.

 

My question was more the following :  how could have Monica Mason missed out on talent such as William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov ?  because even if they were not as good as they are now the potential was there. I have the same question for William Moore wonderful dancer who danced in Stuttgart and Zurich. Very mysterious to me !

 

And it's not because these dancers chose to go elsewhere, out of the RBS the main company is always the first choice I think !

[Sim]

2 minutes ago, MAX said:

Thank you all for your answers.

 

My question was more the following :  how could have Monica Mason missed out on talent such as William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov ?  because even if they were not as good as they are now the potential was there. I have the same question for William Moore wonderful dancer who danced in Stuttgart and Zurich. Very mysterious to me !

 

And it's not because these dancers chose to go elsewhere, out of the RBS the main company is always the first choice I think !

Max, as has been said above, some dancers prefer to be taken in to a company that can offer them leading roles much earlier than they would be given at the RB.  That gives them the relevant experience and confidence to join the RB if they want to (and not everyone wants to...many are very happy where they are).  As has also been pointed out above, there are many reasons for an AD to choose (or not) a dancer for the company.  If they don't choose a particularly talented dancer, there are many reasons, such as fit, preparedness, etc.  But there is no point in speculating on Monica Mason's reasoning as only she knows.  

[MAX]

I think you are wrong but you are the boss

[Sim]

1 minute ago, MAX said:

I think you are wrong but you are the boss

Wrong about what?  Are you just assuming that every single dancer who goes to the RBS wants to get into the RB?  I have spoken to many over the years whose first choice was elsewhere, in the UK and abroad.  

[Balletfanp]

It’s plain from reading Vadim’s book that he was already being seen as a special talent even whilst still at Perm. Although of course he has developed over the years, but even seeing early film of him dancing when he first joined ENB he was already dancing at a ridiculously high standard for one so young. Wayne Eagling obviously had enough confidence in his abilities to hire him and give him Principal roles from the start.

 

I don’t know too much about William’s early days, but I would imagine that his talent would also have been obvious to those trained to spot it, and it does make one wonder why neither were offered RB contracts at the time. But I agree with those saying that they probably went to the best places to develop their talent. Vadim learned so much at ENB, which meant that by the time he wanted to make his move, he could pretty much take his pick. How lucky that he chose to move to the RB when he could have evidently have gone almost anywhere.

[annamk]

8 minutes ago, Sim said:

Wrong about what?  Are you just assuming that every single dancer who goes to the RBS wants to get into the RB?  I have spoken to many over the years whose first choice was elsewhere, in the UK and abroad.  

 

Davi Ramos at Dutch National is another example. He joined the company in 2019 from the RBS and he has already danced Siegfried and Albrecht; there is absolutely no way he'd have danced those roles if he'd joined the RB. Plus Amsterdam seems like a nice place to live 😃

[Emeralds]

Just throwing this in here .... the successful documentary First Position was made about some young dance students entering the YAGP ballet competition in New York City in 2010 - some participants in the documentary who have danced here include Joan Sebastian Zamora (ENB), Michaela de Prince (guest artist, ENB), Miko Fogarty (BRB), Jeanette Kakareka (ENB). Aran Bell, who won in his division, is now a principal at ABT. The dancer who won the Grand Prix in the senior division (the top accolade) wasn't featured in the documentary. Who was it? William Bracewell. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Emeralds

[Ondine]

16 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Miko Fogarty (BRB)

 

Joined as an artist and then dropped out of ballet altogether.

[FionaM]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Dancers also develop and mature at different rates. 
I saw Muntagirov very early on at ENB…maybe even his very first performance and although he was very good ( looked incredibly young) he was not the outstanding dancer he is today. 

Muntagirov and Polunin are the same school year by age  (Sergei is 4/5 months older).  
 

Sergei graduated in 2007 having been accelerated to the upper school from White Lodge.  Muntagirov graduated in 2009 after completing the 3 year course. 
 

They were at very different stages of development physically as teenagers aged 15/16, as can be seen in their classical variations at the Prix de Lausanne 2006.  
 

Vadim explains in his book that Sergei was the only other Russian speaker in the competition (Vadim spoke no English) and how Sergei encouraged him whilst there to join the RB School.  In one of the PdL videos they can be seen together in the wings.  
 

https://youtu.be/A8qpeaiebfM?si=_gUBYcDT0wukUQaD

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by FionaM
Grammar

[Ondine]

32 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

won the Grand Prix in the senior division (the top accolade) wasn't featured in the documentary. Who was it? William Bracewell. 

 

And Young British Dancer of the Year in 2007.

 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/showbiz/william-bracewell-swansea-schoolboy-birmingham-2023016

 

Bracewell was initially trained at local school Pamela Miller Ballet School (Cecchetti) before the RBS at 11.

 

Some young people don't want to live in London and want to tour. Freedom must be very tempting, especially after White Lodge & Upper School!  There are some great companies abroad, centred in beautiful theatres and cities, with varied rep.

 

Some young people who have trained at the RBS want to return to be nearer to their country of origin and family.

 

So many things to consider at 18! 

 

Also of course, an AD has to consider if there is actually a vacancy and if there is finance to hire. No money no jobs.

 

The Aud Jebson scheme is relatively new really. (Not a guarantee that a year there means a company place either.) 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Ondine