Ballet Icons Gala March 2024

[Missfrankiecat]

I would whole-heartedly recommend seeing Osipova while you still can.  I do not hold myself out as any expert and she has never been my first pick to see in most classical roles (Nunez) but she is an extraordinary dancer, of rare acting ability and immense power and, sometimes, inventiveness.  If you look back, her technique has always been criticised by some/many - I feel tentative in commenting, but I find it hard to believe she would have risen as high as she did in the Bolshoi if she were so lacking in technical ability.  She does not fit the currently popular physique of a great ballerina, much less the type prized in Russian companies - she has wide feet with little arch, a short neck and a compact body.  She lacks the disproportionately long limbs that are favoured and there is no sign of the hyper mobility in her limbs most ballerinas have.  As far as I can judge she has never had the exaggerated turnout nor hyper extensions some now regard as de rigeur.  Neither bother me.  If I had a criticism it would be I have often thought the energy of her dancing - she is still a ferocious jumper and turner - is sometimes at the expense of musicality.  Even in some earlier roles at her peak in Russia, she seems to me to be prone to being slightly ahead of the music.  But she is 100% worth watching.

[lady emily]

16 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I'm not hellbent on seeing exactly 32 fouettes (I can never manage to count them anyway) but I would want to see a good substitute for them if they're not done correctly rather than the dancer visibly struggling & giving up early.

 

 

Although unorthodoxly done I don't think Osipova is infamous for not finishing her fouettes or looking like she's struggling. 

 

I would book it. As Campbell's recent retirement shows you never know when a dancer will be done and I it sounds like you wouldn't want to regret it!

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

The only problem with that is I don't always enjoy her acting! It depends on the role.

 

I'm not hellbent on seeing exactly 32 fouettes (I can never manage to count them anyway) but I would want to see a good substitute for them if they're not done correctly rather than the dancer visibly struggling & giving up early.

 

 

I wouldn't say I really want to see her, it's more a case of using this run to try to catch up on dancers who I haven't seen do the role in full live & who I know I'm running out of time to see, which is Nunez, Lamb & Osipova. In the last run I ended up seeing a lot of debutants, and in 2020 I didn't see any performances as those I had booked never happened, & I don't really want to be saying in the future that I only saw such-and-such dancer in a quarter of Swan Lake!

I must admit I didn't gel with her version of Juliet - though she has said she loves dancing Juliet. I felt her rendition was more like Nureyev's Juliet than MacMillan's. Still, I enjoyed it enough as a whole. I do like her Manon and Anastasia (didn't see her as Mary Vetsera), Natalia Petrovna and Lise.

[Geoff]

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

didn't see her as Mary Vetsera

She was great. One of the Osipova Vetseras was as powerful a performance as I have seen on stage in over 60 years of going to the ROH. 

[Dawnstar]

Whereas I'm afraid I'm not very keen on her as Mary Vetsera, having seen her twice in the role. I thought her performances were very good, I just didn't like her characterisation that much, meaning I didn't much like the character & so wasn't very moved by the end. But then my favourite Mary Vetsera is Lamb, who I guess is about as opposite to Osipova as you can get.

[capybara]

Wasn’t one of the reasons Osipova left the Bolshoi that she wasn’t given the opportunity there to essay the biggest classics?

Maybe an early comment was thus being made about her technique?

 

(But I have insufficient knowledge to judge; all I have is my less than positive response to her Gala Don Quixote PDD and my more general appreciation of her uniqueness for better or for worse.)

[Emeralds]

Osipova's first Swan Lake (with Acosta), Nutcracker (with Bonelli) and Sleeping Beauty (with Hirano) at RB were actually beautifully classical- I think she really did try to learn the company style and gain from the experience. She did dance Aurora with Mikhailovsky Ballet (rather unconventional  production by contemporary  dance choreographer Nacho Duato) before joining the Royal Ballet and I understand she had one fairly low key (for her!) Odette/Odile debut at the Bolshoi before she left (although seasoned Bolshoi watchers may be better able to confirm that). I think over time her injuries and her desire to be creative may have made her interpretations less conventional although I still find them enjoyable if not exactly a textbook version of what one expects from the classics. 

[art_enthusiast]

On 27/03/2024 at 17:41, Missfrankiecat said:

she is an extraordinary dancer, of rare acting ability and immense power and, sometimes, inventiveness.  If you look back, her technique has always been criticised by some/many - I feel tentative in commenting, but I find it hard to believe she would have risen as high as she did in the Bolshoi if she were so lacking in technical ability. 

Yep, totally. I’m of the same opinion. I have booked for Natalia’s Titania (as well as Lauren Cuthbertson’s) and her Odette/Odile. Everything crossed she will be able to do her Swan Lakes. (I have also booked for Akane Takada who I am also really hoping to see).

[Missfrankiecat]

2 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Yep, totally. I’m of the same opinion. I have booked for Natalia’s Titania (as well as Lauren Cuthbertson’s) and her Odette/Odile. Everything crossed she will be able to do her Swan Lakes. (I have also booked for Akane Takada who I am also really hoping to see).

Great minds think alike ... I too am hoping Takada is back to dance with Sissens when I have booked (also Osipova).  Takada is such a soulful dancer, I am really interested to see her SL.

[Irmgard]

In previous years, Ballet Icons has been synonymous with star performances, but I felt the 2024 event was a little short on star quality, even though most of the performers were principal dancers with various companies.  I felt this was especially evident in most of the classical pas de deux which should have been highlights of the evening.

 

The programme was well balanced, in terms of juxtaposing classical and modern pieces, and the presence of the English National Ballet Philharmonic to accompany a lot of them was very welcome.

 

The evening got off to a great start with “Grand Pas Classique” which did have the requisite star quality, being performed by Vadim Muntagirov and Fumi Kaneko. A pas de deux from “Like Water For Chocolate” received a sincere performance from Francesca Hayward and Herman Cornejo but it is difficult not to compare memories of the electrifying Cesar Corrales in this piece. 

 

Last year, it was a novelty to have the youthful António Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes close the gala, and he is no doubt a talent to watch, but I found that this year’s offering, the pas de deux from “La Esmeralda”, looked too much like a competition piece in their hands, particularly her tambourine solo which had little characterisation.  I was reminded of a stunningly accomplished performance of the solo by English National Ballet’s Ivana Bueno, only a few years Fernandes’s senior, in the much more modest setting of Ballet Nights last November, in which she created a real character through the choreography, as well as being technically flawless.

 

It was interesting to see “Two Pieces for HET” by Hans van Manen, performed by Riho Sakamoto and Constantine Allen, both personable, competent dancers but not ones I consider to have star quality. 

 

I thought “The Thinker”, performed and choreographed by Sergio Bernal, started off well and was his usual interesting mix of ballet and flamenco, but went on for far too long.  Kudos to conductor Maria Seletskaja for synchronising the onstage guitarist, the orchestra and the drummer, a feat she accomplished in the only rehearsal they had together, which was twenty minutes that afternoon, which I also attended.   

 

I found “Renaissance” danced by Bleuenn Battistoni and Julian MacKay, and “Mercy Duet” by Travis Clausen-Knight and James Pett to be rather unmemorable, and the first half ended with a neat but not spectacular performance of the central pas de trois from “Le Corsaire” in its pas de deux form. danced by Evelina Godunova and Motomi Kiyota.

 

In the second half, of the newer pieces, “Caravaggio” was by far the most interesting for me, set to a string quartet arrangement of the beautiful final duet from Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”, “Pur ti miro”. Choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti, it showed off Melissa Hamilton’s grace and beauty of movement to perfection as she was manipulated into beautiful shapes by Roberto Bolle.  My least favourite was “Proximity or Closeness” by Ermanno Sbezzo, danced by Eleonora Abbagnato and Sergio Bernal which I became bored with quite quickly, so I turned my attention to the onstage piano quartet and the gorgeous Mahler music.  Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” danced by Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw, came off better in the more intimate setting of Ballet Nights last November than in the cavernous Coliseum.

 

We were treated to the Diamonds section from Balanchine’s “Jewels” danced by Olga Smirnova and Vadim Muntagirov.  Her technique is flawless, but I found her surprisingly unengaging, much as she was in “Swan Lake” during the Bolshoi’s last visit, almost unaware of Muntagirov, who partnered her to perfection.  The Black Swan pas de deux from Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo was sadly not the standard I would expect from principal dancers and the evening ended with a messy performance of the pas de deux contained within the “Don Quixote” suite, which included variations for Evelina Godunova and Margarita Fernandes who looked more comfortable in these than in their previous solos.  Sadly, Natalia Osipova was not on good form in her solo or in the coda and it was her partner, Giorgi Potskhishvili, although a little rough around the edges, who provided some much-needed fireworks to end the evening.  Once again, my mind went back to last November’s Ballet Nights, which ended with a stylishly elegant and electrifying performance of this pas de deux from ENB’s Katja Khaniukova and Aitor Arrieta.

 

Ballet Icons this year ended with organiser Olga Balakleets presenting her own awards (the Olgas?) for services to dance, which proved to be idiosyncratic to say the least: although it was lovely to see Aud Jebsen publicly recognised (but not giving any context to the award made the lady behind me conclude she must be an ex-dancer), to ignore probably the greatest classical male dancer of his generation was inexcusable.

 

All in all, this was not a vintage year for Ballet Icons and I very much hope it will be back on track next year with its usual line-up of star performances.

 

[FionaM]

@Irmgard I agree with a lot of your observations and impressions, especially that Ivana Bueno has star quality. 
 

I have no doubt that Riho Sakamoto also has star quality. I’ve seen her Raymonda (technique and style to emulate Olesya Novikova) and an impressively assured portrayal in her debut as Odette/Odile.  Perhaps if she’d performed DQ or one of the other virtuoso classical pdd then the London audience would have seen what she can really do. In my opinion she’d have outperformed all others in the show that night, and in a classically pure way too!
 

She also has strong dramatic abilities, recently being one of only three cast as Frida in the full length version in Amsterdam.  The other two were the much more experienced and senior principals Maia Makhateli and Anna Tsygankova. 

 

I highly recommend going to Amsterdam to see her.  
 

I'm less familiar with Constantine Allen (he’s not been in the casts that I’ve seen in Amsterdam) however I note he is guesting with Hong Kong Ballet in their new version of Swan Lake by Yuri Possokhov.  Matthew Ball is the only other guest.  
 

When it comes to the DQ/Corsaire pdd, the best female performances for me at recent Icons gala have been Marianela Nunez, Iana Salenko, Maia Makhateli and Nicoletta Manni.  All classically pure (maybe even flawless) with characterful portrayal.  Undoubted ‘etoiles’ of world ballet.  
 

Sadly none of these were available this year.  
 

I was personally interested to see different names at the Icons this year and Herman Cornejo was not a let down for me.  It was good to see him in two contrasting pieces and I thought he was a good fit with Francesca Hayward (Cesar didn’t perform this role.)

[capybara]

2 minutes ago, FionaM said:

 I was personally interested to see different names at the Icons this year and Herman Cornejo was not a let down for me.  It was good to see him in two contrasting pieces and I thought he was a good fit with Francesca Hayward (Cesar didn’t perform this role.)

Cesar led the second cast of LWFC alongside Yasmine Naghdi and, together, they blew me away, transforming the ballet into something very special.

[LinMM]

Although I don’t always book to see her first agree with Marianela Nunez being one of a world stars group!! 
 

There’s a studio video post of her dancing in Grand Pas Classique and it’s just a perfect rendition and master class in what musicality is in dancing! Wonderful. 

[FionaM]

3 hours ago, capybara said:

Cesar led the second cast of LWFC alongside Yasmine Naghdi and, together, they blew me away, transforming the ballet into something very special.

thank you for the correction.  

I only remembered the Juan Fernandez role and his ROH bio (which I checked) didn’t mention the title role 🙈

[capybara]

37 minutes ago, FionaM said:

thank you for the correction.  

I only remembered the Juan Fernandez role and his ROH bio (which I checked) didn’t mention the title role 🙈

That’s not surprising. Cesar’s dancing as Juan Fernandez was something of a scene-stealer (to put it mildly)!

[FionaM]

6 minutes ago, capybara said:

That’s not surprising. Cesar’s dancing as Juan Fernandez was something of a scene-stealer (to put it mildly)!

haha yes it was! 

[betterankles]

On 21/03/2024 at 14:27, Roberta said:

 

Susan Hampshire comes from a 'ballet background'. The school her dancer mother started also gave Anthony Dowell the beginnings of his career.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1214159/Susan-Hampshire-remembers-school-mum-started-slow.html

 

 

Mine too   

Anthony Dowell partnered me age 10, I was 8

[Dara]

On 23/03/2024 at 00:44, Melz said:

Yeah he looks about 165-170 cm tall maybe, in addition to having narrow shoulders, which is quite small for a male ballet dancer, even for the average modern jumper/turner. Luckily his partner is even shorter, she looks about 155-158 cm tall. But even so it’s pretty impressive that he can partner her so well considering he doesn‘t have the optimal build for partnering. 

Casalinho has a truly extraordinary stage presence, combined with immaculate technique and an elegance that makes him a joy to watch.  He lights up the stage, he is always true to the character, it is never about him. 

I have spoken to him a few times at the stage door in Munich and he is about 172/3cm. I am 165cm and he is taller than me in my heels. Which makes him taller than Baryshnikov and about Nureyev’s height. He has a photo on his instagram page with Baryshnikov. 
Aside from Fernandes, I have seen him partner Bianca Teixeira and Carolina Bastos in Munich. He is an excellent partner. From his Instagram posts, he has performed in numerous Bolle galas with various partners- the ones I remember are Inês Macintosh (Paris Opera) and Madoka Sugai (Hamburg). I would love to go to Munich more often but the cast lists only go up a few weeks before the performances making it difficult for people who have to travel. I do wish they would adopt the same system as the ROH which gives me ample time to purchase tickets and plan a trip to London. 

[Roberta]

From Feb 2022, interesting read.

 

 

SHALE WAGMAN & ANTÓNIO CASALINHO "IN CONVERSATION"

An interview with Shale Wagman and António Casalinho who are soloists at Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich and recent Prix de Lausanne winners.

 

https://www.tlbc.org.uk/resources/in-conversation-with-shale-wagman-antonio-casalinho

 

[Geoff Whitman]

On 10/04/2024 at 17:14, Irmgard said:

I was reminded of a stunningly accomplished performance of the solo by English National Ballet’s Ivana Bueno, only a few years Fernandes’s senior, in the much more modest setting of Ballet Nights last November, in which she created a real character through the choreography, as well as being technically flawless.

 

I managed to see this performance at Ballet Nights as well. It was a real treat getting to see her interpretation of the work. I believe being in such an intimate theatre setting helped with this also.

[Jamiel Devernay-Laurence]

Thank you for your Kind Words!!

For those not yet on our mailing list, we just dropped our next event - Ballet Nights New Voices at the Ministry of Sound -> Next week we present the national dance critics circle award nominees Pett|Clausen-Knight as a full evening SPOTLIGHT , and then we will be dropping our big cast announcement for Ballet Nights 005 first at Fridays Show Live!

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Jamiel