PROMOTION PREDICTIONS 2024 (NOT ROYAL BALLET)

[Jan McNulty]

I would like to see Dominique Larose promoted to premier dancer at Northern Ballet.  She has proved over and over again that she is ready for that rank.

 

I would like to see Harris Beattie double promoted to leading soloist at Northern Ballet.

 

I would like to see George Liang double promoted to junior soloist at Northern Ballet.

 

 

I would like to see Riku Ito promoted to first soloist at BRB.

 

I would also like to see Haoliang Feng and Reina Fuchigami promoted to soloist at BRB.

 

I would also like to see Enrique Bejarano Vidal, Olivia Chang Clarke & Eric Pinto Cato promoted to first artist at BRB.

 

All the current BRB2 cohort look terrific so I would definitely like to see all of them moved up to the main company.

 

 

All the above dependent on funding and vacancies being available.

[LACAD]

I would love to see more men at the principal rank at ENB: Junor Souza, Ken Saruhashi, Lorenzo Trossello.

 

I also think Minju Kang and Ivana Bueno have proven their skills enough to jump up from their respective ranks. Breanna Foad too (though I still have to see her winning performance from Emerging Dancer, her contemporary leading roles have been excellent).

 

I’m also hoping for more leading classical roles for Emily Suzuki, who has an astounding level of magnetism in all she does.

[alison]

Darn, I was trying to avoid finding out that information until I watched the stream  

[LACAD]

2 minutes ago, alison said:

Darn, I was trying to avoid finding out that information until I watched the stream  

Apologies Alison! I saw the info released last week and presumed it was known. I should’ve been more aware of those avoiding spoilers!

[Blossom]

Francesca Velicu at ENB - absolutely gorgeous dancer who always stands out. She was fantastic at the last Ukraine gala and can really hold her own in big roles.

 

This is never going to happen- similar scenario to Melissa Hamilton being overlooked at RB, but Alison McWhinney should be principal. Her Myrtha was fantastic this year and was her first production back from mat leave. I won’t be going to see Giselle in Jan but I would prob change my mind if she is dancing Giselle.

 

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, LACAD said:

I would love to see more men at the principal rank at ENB: Junor Souza, Ken Saruhashi, Lorenzo Trossello.

 

I wonder if Gareth Haw might be the most likely to be the next Principal. I don't really know why he didn't join the company as Principal, like Sangeun Lee did, given he's immediately been cast in all the leading roles & it's not as if ENB has an abundance of male Principals at the moment.

 

56 minutes ago, Blossom said:

Francesca Velicu at ENB - absolutely gorgeous dancer who always stands out. She was fantastic at the last Ukraine gala and can really hold her own in big roles.

 

This is never going to happen- similar scenario to Melissa Hamilton being overlooked at RB, but Alison McWhinney should be principal. Her Myrtha was fantastic this year and was her first production back from mat leave. I won’t be going to see Giselle in Jan but I would prob change my mind if she is dancing Giselle.

 

I agree it would be nice to see Velicu get promoted.

 

Unfortunately there's absolutely no chance McWhinney will either get promoted or dance Giselle as it was announced recently that she's leaving ENB for Queensland Ballet. I'm even more pleased now that I saw her as Myrthe in this season's Giselle run as, unless she happens to be in the Swan Lake performance I'm hoping to see next month, I won't get to see her again.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, LACAD said:

I would love to see more men at the principal rank at ENB: Junor Souza, Ken Saruhashi, Lorenzo Trossello.

 

I also think Minju Kang and Ivana Bueno have proven their skills enough to jump up from their respective ranks. Breanna Foad too (though I still have to see her winning performance from Emerging Dancer, her contemporary leading roles have been excellent).

 

I’m also hoping for more leading classical roles for Emily Suzuki, who has an astounding level of magnetism in all she does.

 

I'm not that familiar with ENB any more but I was a big fan of both Lorenzo and Minju at NB and have seen them both with ENB so yes I think they both deserve promotion.

 

I've always loved Junor Souza so I hope he finally gets promoted.

[Blossom]

4 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

 

Unfortunately there's absolutely no chance McWhinney will either get promoted or dance Giselle as it was announced recently that she's leaving ENB for Queensland Ballet. I'm even more pleased now that I saw her as Myrthe in this season's Giselle run as, unless she happens to be in the Swan Lake performance I'm hoping to see next month, I won't get to see her again.

Nooooo! She's Australian though isn't she and  now has a family so prob a good move if she will be back home with family. Hopefully Leanne Benjamin will promote her quickly!

[Dawnstar]

6 minutes ago, Blossom said:

Nooooo! She's Australian though isn't she and  now has a family so prob a good move if she will be back home with family. Hopefully Leanne Benjamin will promote her quickly!

 

That's pretty much exactly how I reacted when I read the news on here. She was my first Manon, in January 2019, and I've been waiting ever since in the hope I'd get to see her do either Manon again or Juliet but that'll never happen now.

 

I don't see BRB often enough to have much knowledge of their ranks & possible promotions but is Yu Kurihara likely to get promoted to Principal? When I saw her as Aurora at the first night of BRB's recent visit to Sadler's Wells it felt a bit weird that a First Soloist was the one getting reviewed by the critics rather than any of the Principals (3 of whom were dancing Prologue fairies).

[CCL]

I’d love to see Katja Khaniukova from ENB be promoted to Principal level. 

[alison]

12 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I would like to see Dominique Larose promoted to premier dancer at Northern Ballet.  She has proved over and over again that she is ready for that rank.

 

Based on tonight's performance, I would certainly say so.

[Sim]

On 28/05/2024 at 20:36, Blossom said:

Nooooo! She's Australian though isn't she and  now has a family so prob a good move if she will be back home with family. Hopefully Leanne Benjamin will promote her quickly!

I started a thread on it at the time:

 

 

[LACAD]

On 28/05/2024 at 20:47, Dawnstar said:

 

That's pretty much exactly how I reacted when I read the news on here. She was my first Manon, in January 2019, and I've been waiting ever since in the hope I'd get to see her do either Manon again or Juliet but that'll never happen now.

 

I don't see BRB often enough to have much knowledge of their ranks & possible promotions but is Yu Kurihara likely to get promoted to Principal? When I saw her as Aurora at the first night of BRB's recent visit to Sadler's Wells it felt a bit weird that a First Soloist was the one getting reviewed by the critics rather than any of the Principals (3 of whom were dancing Prologue fairies).

I had to do a double-take. Yu Kurihara gave a principal level performance when I saw her at SW, surely she’ll be promoted soon (though there are a lot of principals at BRB right now).

[alison]

You'd think.  Parma's promotion at the end of the season was announced during the Sleeping Beauty run, but nothing for Kurihara as far as I know.

[Emeralds]

Now that Romeo and Juliet has finished, I can take part with a bit more data and evidence for my suggestions!

 

Mine are suggestions based on observations in live performances of what the dancers have achieved and shown they can do. I don’t do predictions unless I'm very sure they can and will come true, but if they happen, that's just a coincidence 😉.....so alphabetically....

 

1) BRB: 

-Olivia Chang Clarke, Enrique Bejarano Vidal, Amelia Thompson, Javier Rojas, Callum Findlay-White, Tori Forsyth-Hecken and Eilis Small to First Artist

-Haoliang Feng to Soloist

-Riku Ito to First Soloist 

(Based on Parma, Maslen and Monaghan all waiting at least 18 months after proving themselves, I'd suggest Kurihara to Principal next season). 

 

2) ENB: 

-Breanna Foad, Shunhei Fuchiyama, Chloe Keneally and Ashley Coupal to First Artist

-Minju Kang, Eric Snyder, Rhys Antoni Yeomans and Angela Wood to Junior Soloist 

-Ivana Bueno and Emily Suzuki to Soloist

-Francesca Velicu, Lorenzo Trossello and Erik Woolhouse to First Soloist (double promotion for Velicu)

-Gareth Haw and Katja Khaniukova to Principal 

 

3) Northern Ballet:

-Aaron Kok, Jun Ishii, George Liang to coryphee

(*although it would be thrilling if Liang could get a double promotion as per @Jan McNulty's recommendation!) 

-Harris Beattie double promoted to First Soloist 

(*just realised that promotion to Leading Soloist would be a triple promotion...wow, has anyone at NB ever had that? I would be fine with that; he's certainly dancing like one!) 

-Dominique Larose to Premier Dancer

 

Scottish Ballet- I'm afraid I have not been able to see the company live in person often enough recently to make any fair suggestions so would be interested to read what those who have watched SB regularly may suggest or predict.

 

At this point, might be a relevant moment to ask if anyone remembers when the top rank name at Northern Ballet was changed to Premier Dancer and knows the reason for it?...I think they used to be called Principal Dancers back in the 1990s and possibly early 2000s,  and I only noticed the change several years ago. 

Edited June 2 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

Just wanted to add that although I feel Junor Souza has been overlooked for promotion and more lead roles as far back as 8 years ago (despite showing his ability - he dances Ali on the company DVD of Le Corsaire!! That's the biggest test of virtuosity in any role) despite the number of lead roles he danced and created.

 

Recently (both before and after Watkin's arrival) he has had a few withdrawals from roles/performances and more casting in character roles - are there injuries playing up? Is it due to something else? As the pay for first soloist and principal character artist are similar, I wonder if he and Streeter (who has been equally versatile in dancing roles like In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Approximate Sonata, Albrecht in Akram Khan's Giselle, etc as well as character roles), were being planned for a career path to principal character artist. 

 

Alison McWhinney has left the company to return to Australia to dance. After Haw and Khaniukova, the next two to reach Principal rank should be Daniel McCormick and Ken Saruhashi. If 4 elevations to principal level are possible at the same time (never seen that done at ENB; only one or two at a time) then certainly they could all be promoted at the same time, but logic and evidence point to Haw and Khaniukova being promoted first, based on the quality of their performances in the 2023-24 season so far. 

Edited June 2 by Emeralds

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

As the pay for first soloist and principal character artist are similar, I wonder if he and Streeter (who has been equally versatile in dancing roles like In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Approximate Sonata, Albrecht in Akram Khan's Giselle, etc as well as character roles), were being planned for a career path to principal character artist.

 

I keep on thinking that Reimar & Streeter ought to be Character Artists & am vaguely baffled each time I remember that they're not. I also found it a bit disconcerting on the rare occasions I've seen either do dancing-in-the-ensemble roles rather than character roles. Souza I've not seen much of in either sort of role.

[alison]

I don't think ENB has a rank of character artist, does it? I know it didn't when Gary Avis was there, because I remember him complaining about it.

[Dawnstar]

According to ENB's website it does because Michael Coleman is listed as Character Artist. Though whether that's akin to RB/BRB Principal Character Artist or if it's more of a guest position, as Coleman only performs small character roles, is unclear.

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, alison said:

I don't think ENB has a rank of character artist, does it? I know it didn't when Gary Avis was there, because I remember him complaining about it.

Michael Coleman has that rank; he's the only one currently with the title although they sometimes have guest character artists like Laura Hussey. Gary Avis dancing with ENB is news to me, certainly as a full time member- was it as a guest?  I remember him being at RB for years- MacMillan picked him to create the small role of Andrey, the younger brother with the annoying wife, in Winter Dreams, way back in 1991. 

 

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I keep on thinking that Reimar & Streeter ought to be Character Artists & am vaguely baffled each time I remember that they're not. I also found it a bit disconcerting on the rare occasions I've seen either do dancing-in-the-ensemble roles rather than character roles. Souza I've not seen much of in either sort of role.

I think they keep both Streeter and Reimair as first soloists in case they want to call upon them to do a dancing role, eg the Forsythe and Khan roles Streeter has danced. I'm not sure when Reimair last did a role that was technically regarded as a dancing rather than character role though. I guess character artist might sound like the person can't do dancing roles any more. 

[bridiem]

17 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Gary Avis dancing with ENB is news to me, certainly as a full time member- was it as a guest?  I remember him being at RB for years- MacMillan picked him to create the small role of Andrey, the younger brother with the annoying wife, in Winter Dreams, way back in 1991. 

 

He joined ENB for a couple of years after leaving K-Ballet and before rejoining the RB.

[Emeralds]

1 minute ago, bridiem said:

 

He joined ENB for a couple of years after leaving K-Ballet and before rejoining the RB.

Ah, thanks for filling me in, @bridiem. I didn't go to many performances during those years because of work, and missed the comings and goings! 

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, alison said:

I don't think ENB has a rank of character artist, does it? I know it didn't when Gary Avis was there, because I remember him complaining about it.

 

42 minutes ago, bridiem said:

He joined ENB for a couple of years after leaving K-Ballet and before rejoining the RB.

 

Checking his RB website biography, it looks like he was a Soloist when he left the RB then was promoted to Principal Character Artist the year after he rejoined (presumably rejoining as Soloist). So was he also a Soloist when he was at ENB? And why did he mind that ENB didn't have a Character Artist rank when he wasn't a Character Artist at that point? Or was it that he wanted to move to being a Character Artist & couldn't do so at ENB so felt he had to leave & rejoin the RB to attain that rank?