William Bracewell and Vadim Muntagirov

[Bluebird]

8 minutes ago, Ondine said:

 

And Young British Dancer of the Year in 2007.

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

 

 

The article is inaccurate.  Polunin was Young British Dancer of the Year in 2007.  Will Bracewell won the YBDY in 2008.

[annamk]

What happened to YBDY ?

[Ondine]

Yes it's confusing as the ROH official bio says 2007!

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/people/william-bracewell

 

And here

https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2017/04/28/five-students-to-join-the-royal-ballet-aud-jebsen-young-dancers-programme-201718/

 

 

Also worth noting William Bracewell  was a soloist at BRB (took four years) and joined the RB as a soloist also.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ondine]

3 minutes ago, annamk said:

What happened to YBDY ?

 

 

Did it morph into BBC Young Dancer?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_British_Dancer_of_the_Year

[bridiem]

There are other very talented dancers who didn't join the RB on graduation from the RBS, for whatever reason/s, but did so subsequently. Darcey Bussell, obviously (as mentioned above); also Leanne Benjamin, Alexander Campbell and Miyako Yoshida spring to mind. I'm sure there are others. As has been said, all sorts of things come into play in determining who is or isn't offered a contract (and/or where a student chooses to go, when they have a choice). And yes, no doubt, sometimes there's regret later on (on one side or the other) about choices made or opportunities missed. Of course, that may also apply to dancers who do join the RB and then don't flourish as hoped/anticipated (or who leave prematurely). It's not an exact science. 

[OnePigeon]

Muntagirov definitely wasn’t asked to join the RB and I don’t actually know about whether Bracewell was asked (I would assume not), so stating the benefits of their being with other companies, although there were clearly many, isn’t answering the question of why they weren’t offered a place when they are clearly exceptional talents.  Unfortunately, as we aren’t privy to insider information or Mason’s mind, I’m afraid we can only speculate on the whys and wherefores and quite frankly, what’s the point in speculating as ultimately they are now exactly where they deserve to be - and aren’t we lucky to have them!

[Jan McNulty]

And, of course, people have left the RB and flourished elsewhere.

 

As previously mentioned Xander Parish but also Sergiu Pobereznic and Ravenna Tucker to name but 2.

[Tango Dancer]

1 hour ago, Sim said:

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.  

 

Yes, fit and preparedness is very important.  I'd say Vadim is probably a better dancer for having taken the job at ENB and dancing lead roles there because he matured into the dancer he's become.  Also it can be quite attractive the idea of being a lead dancer in a slightly smaller company rather than a more junior dancer in the biggest company.  Eighteen is very young to make career decisions so it's remarkable how maturely young dancers can think. 

 

Perhaps Monica Mason thought Vadim was a better fit at ENB in terms of where he was in his development.  While ADs can be selfish they can, like any of us, also think what would be better for the dancer in question and while I don't know Monica Mason personally, she strikes me as someone who cared about her people as individuals.  I've interviewed people for jobs in my field and thought sometimes that they wouldn't suit perfectly the job I had, but they may suit my colleague in a neighbouring team with a vacancy really well.  

 

 

[Bluebird]

54 minutes ago, annamk said:

What happened to YBDY ?

 

 I think the last competition was in 2014 (won by Erik Woolhouse of ENB)  The following was posted on the RBS website at the time.

 

"Young British Dancer of the Year celebrated its 15th anniversary this year and the event was dedicated to Gailene Stock, who founded the competition in 2000 with generous support and sponsorship from Ricki Gail Conway (who has continued to sponsor the competition). It was designed to celebrate the new millennium and since its inception it has encouraged and celebrated outstanding young British talent. It attracts dancers from across the country and is a fantastic opportunity to be seen by some of the most distinguished members of the dance community."

 

https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/03/10/young-british-dancer-year-2014/

 

I was told that the redevelopment of the Linbury was one of the reasons why the 15th competition was the last but I have no idea if this is accurate.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Bluebird

[Angela]

6 hours ago, MAX said:

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 !

 

She also missed out on Alexander Jones, later principal at Stuttgart and then at Zurich Ballet. And on Elisa Badenes, now a dearly beloved principal at Stuttgart. As Jones and Moore once insinuated, they only decided to accept contracts at Stuttgart as they were not offered contracts at the ROH, and Gailene Stock, director of the RBS at that time, recommended to leave London it the ROH was not interested in them. David Moore, same RBS year as Polunin, is still a principal at Stuttgart.  Mason may have had different opinions about all of them all or no free places in her company, I fully understand - but then don't complain that there are no British dancers, if you are not willing to nurture young talents. 

 

[Linnzi5]

12 hours ago, Sim said:

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.

 

 

@Sim What a lovely interview. Thank you for linking this  Though I have listened to other podcasts from Julia and Brandon, which are all excellent, informative and enjoyable, I had missed this one! Goodness knows how. I found this so interesting. I hope, despite Brandon's move, that these can continue. 

[FLOSS]

As I said earlier in this discussion an artistic director is the director of an entire ballet company not merely the director of its most talented members or the most recent recruits. He or she has to operate within budgetary constraints which may mean that once they have paid the salaries of existing members of the company they do not have sufficient funds to appoint a new recruit at a higher level than artist Remember the company is required to cover its costs and an overspend is more likely to result in a call for tighter budgetary control; a reduction in company size and an even more limited range of repertory than a helpful bale out from the government. A director may recognise the talent and the potential of a dancer but feel that the individual would not be a good fit for the company at that time. Kevin has spoken about seeing wonderful dancers but feeling that they were not right for the company presumably because of an unlikely fit with its core repertory which is more concerned with the creation of character; mood and expressiveness than the circus of bravura technical display. I think that it would, for example, be difficult for the company to accommodate a dancer like Ivan Vasiliev who is essentially a bravura technician.

 

In addition to the financial impact of appointing an inexperienced dancer at a more senior level than is usual there is also the impact on company morale of such an appointment. Appointing a young inexperienced dancer, however talented he or she might be, over the heads of more experienced dancers who have given loyal service without any apparent recognition.of their talents will almost certainly adversely affect company morale. Before anyone suggests that such dancers must obviously be lacking in talent and deserve their obscurity and lack of recognition  I would point out that a dancer can, in a company the size of the RB, be almost too useful at a relatively lowly level with the result that they are overlooked by management when it comes to promotion. This is what happened to Laura Morera who for years was seen as an exceptionally useful soloist and Ashton dancer . She was eventually promoted but was told that she would still be dancing the same repertory after promotion. She.reported that when she attended class the day after her promotion the company applauded her and many dancers told her that her promotion made them feel that all their hard work was worthwhile.

 

At the time that Muntagirov went to ENB and Bracewell joined BRB Polunin was not the only talented young dancer whose career was being watched over by the RB management. McRae was in the early stages of his career and there was a dancer called Zachary Faruque who made his debut as Solor a few days after Polunin did. Faruque left  the company and the world of dance soon afterwards almost certainly for cultural reasons. I seem to recall that he told a Ballet Association meeting that his father would have accepted him being a footballer but struggled with the idea that his son was a dancer.

 

The thing that most young dancers crave at the outset of their career is the opportunity to dance and some will choose that over joining a prestigious company. They are after all free agents and tend to take more control over their careers today than perhaps they did in the past.Seasons on tour with both BRB and ENB provide much better opportunities to learn repertory and then consolidate that experience than working in Bow Street at the lowest level in the company.. I am not sure how long either company's tours are these days but even as the most junior Albrecht on the rota a dancer might get at least ten performances of the role on tour which compares very favourably with the two on offer at Bow Street once  you are deemed ready for the role. BRB offered not only the opportunity to learn repertory but the opportunity to work with an established choreographer who regularly made new works  for his company.This at a time when the resident company was doing very little new work. In addition Bintley made his ballets using a classically based style which emphasised expressiveness rather than technical display. The opportunity to work in a creative company which held out the prospect of created roles must be an attractive prospect for any dancer. In his Ballet Association interview in 2022 Bracewell said that after winning the YAGP he had three job offers and chose BRB because of the opportunities it gave to learn repertory, its size and its reputed friendliness. It seems he felt that it was the company that would suit him best in the initial stages of his career. There is no danger in a company of the size of BRB of getting lost in the crowd,  overlooked or sidelined.If you show aptitude and application you will be given performance opportunities some scheduled some not You dance a role for the first time in one town and the next week you dance it somewhere else before a new audience who do not know or care  how badly or how well you danced it the week before. Each time you gain greater knowledge of the role and consolidate the experience and so on throughout the tour. Joining BRB in its current or earlier incarnations has always seemed like a smart  career move to me.

 

It is obvious that there are those who think that Mason made the wrong decisions when it came to recruiting dancers but that is to ignore the state of the company at the time she took over the running of the Royal Ballet.The company had been demoralised by Ross Strettin's short lived directorship during which he had chopped and changed casting at short notice; sidelined established dancers; given leading roles to dancers who were not yet ready for them; ignored the company's traditional  repertory and staged ballets which did not suit the company and hardly anyone wanted to see. The dancers looked miserable on stage and were threatening to strike largely because of Stretton's alleged misconduct. After his departure the company needed and was given an extended period of calm and a sense that there was order rather than turmoil at the top. All very dull no doubt but, at that time, absolutely essential for the well being of the company as a whole. The other thing Mason needed to do was to ensure a great deal of repertory that had been neglected over the years was restored to the stage. A director can only make decisions in the context of the time in which they are running a company. They know the constraints under which they are working. Constraints which may not be obvious to an outsider at the time let alone more than twenty years after the events in question. Unlike some continental countries an incoming artistic director is not at liberty to get rid of the existing company and hire a completely new group of dancers. Given the state of the company at the time Mason took over I don't think that she would have wanted to exercise that power if it had been available to her.

 

I have been attending company performances for many years. I remember the company during Ashton's directorship when it buzzed with creativity and talent and I experienced its slow decline under his successors. I can only say that whatever mistakes you may feel she made during her time in charge I think that Mason stopped the rot and handed over a very healthy company to her successor. The theatre is not a world in which one often finds consensus or support from other practitioners. I therefore find it interesting that Sir Peter Wright thinks so highly of her and her directorship. I believe he regards her as a great director. No director gets every call right. This is a fact that we have to accept. What matters is that they have a high batting average when it comes to major decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ondine]

36 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

Zachary Faruque

 

Also early in his career Bluebird, with Yuhui Choe, another of those who many wonder why she has not been made a principal.

 

https://balletassociation.co.uk/pages/reports-2007-zachary-faruque

 

And what is he doing now?

 

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/zachary-faruque-76b9

Edited November 6, 2023 by Ondine

[Sharon]

17 hours ago, Angela said:

 

She also missed out on Alexander Jones, later principal at Stuttgart and then at Zurich Ballet. And on Elisa Badenes, now a dearly beloved principal at Stuttgart. As Jones and Moore once insinuated, they only decided to accept contracts at Stuttgart as they were not offered contracts at the ROH, and Gailene Stock, director of the RBS at that time, recommended to leave London it the ROH was not interested in them. David Moore, same RBS year as Polunin, is still a principal at Stuttgart.  Mason may have had different opinions about all of them all or no free places in her company, I fully understand - but then don't complain that there are no British dancers, if you are not willing to nurture young talents. 

 

And Nikisha Fogo - principal at Vienna and now SFB....🤷🏾

[capybara]

Just a reminder that the dancers taken into the RB in 2009 were Benjamin Ella, Leticia Stock and Tristan Dyer.

 

2010?

[Josette]

8 hours ago, Sharon said:

And Nikisha Fogo - principal at Vienna and now SFB....🤷🏾

And those of us who support and attend performances of the San Francisco Ballet are thrilled that Nikisha Fogo decided to join SFB. Her Myrtha and Juliet last season were extraordinary. I’m looking forward to her Odette-Odile this coming spring.