RB 2013 Promotion

[lifeisnotballet]

With all due respect to Yuhui -- and she has been so wonderful this season in Gamzatti and Alice -- I unfortunately do feel that Jamesrhblack is right in that it's not so much Yuhui's lack of whatever quality that is required to be a principal that is the problem, but that Fumi and Akane proved to be equally strong classically and perhaps potentially better in terms of their physical proportion(s) as principal material. Politically speaking, an English company is also (ideally) not going to want to have 3 Japanese/East Asian principal female dancers, that would probably be seen as too many, unless they were Cojocaru or Guillem level, so they're probably going to pick one or two out of the three or four of them. I am sure the RB would be happy to promote all of them eventually had they been all British, and this can be said of dancers of other nationalities too of course. If Kevin O'Hare really wanted the best of the best Japanese dancers, he should have searched further into the market and could have invited AYAKO ONO, now principal with the New National Theatre, whom I saw guest with BRB in Aladdin this past February. I do hate to compare dancers in this way, but if you're choosing from a certain ethnic pool, then you might as well choose the most special one both physically and artistically, as this is THE RB (this is my opinion!). Just being a critical observer.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbXLaukk2FE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TzDMT0w44

Edited June 15, 2013 by lifeisnotballet

[Marieve]

Politically speaking, an English company is also (ideally) not going to want to have 3 Japanese/East Asian principal female dancers, that would probably be seen as too many

Really? Why would it be too many? Are you implying that the RB should not have more than one non white female principal?

 

Until a year ago they had five Spanish/Latin American principal ballerinas. That obviously wasn't considered to be a problem so why would it be undesirable to have as many as three Asian ballerinas??

[Marieve]

If Kevin O'Hare really wanted the best of the best Japanese dancers, he should have searched further into the market and could have invited AYAKO ONO, now principal with the New National Theatre, whom I saw guest with BRB in Aladdin this past February. I do hate to compare dancers in this way, but if you're choosing from a certain ethnic pool, then you might as well choose the most special one both physically and artistically, as this is THE RB (this is my opinion!).

Also, you seem to be implying that there's some kind of tokenism going on with regards to Japanese dancers - that there's only room for so many and that they should be compared against each other rather than against other dancers in general. Who is to say that Kevin O'Hare would want a Japanese dancer rather than just a world class dancer?? Who is to say that he's "choosing from a certain ethnic pool" when hiring or promoting dancers?

 

Perhaps you are right, and the people who are in charge of ballet companies do see race as an important factor when they're deciding who to promote. I wouldn't know. I find it a depressing thought though.

[aileen]

Is it not the case that if a person is going to make it to principal s/he will be promoted to that rank within a few short years of joining the RB, regardless of how many principal roles s/he has danced? Happily for us the audience, the RB has many very good dancers all through the ranks, but there is only room for a few of them to be promoted at each level. The situation is much worse over at ENB where I don't think that there have been any promotions for at least a couple of years now with the exception of Vadim. There are certainly some artists who deserve to have been promoted already, but there have been very few departures which would make room for promotions and, in addition to Vadim, three principals have been added to the roster.

[Bluebird]

The situation is much worse over at ENB where I don't think that there have been any promotions for at least a couple of years now with the exception of Vadim. There are certainly some artists who deserve to have been promoted already, but there have been very few departures which would make room for promotions and, in addition to Vadim, three principals have been added to the roster.

 

Yes, promotion is most certainly overdue for a number of ENB Artists. I sincerely hope it won't be long before some sort of recognition comes to those Artists who have been dancing, not only soloist, but also principal roles during this and previous seasons.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2013 by Bluebird

[Pas de Quatre]

As an extension of the idea of waiting for promotion, often the best companies are hard to get into, not just because of the high standard, but because if nobody leaves there are no vacancies!

[LinMM]

I don't want to get into a discussion about who is the best "Japonese " dancer etc but would like to thank you for the clips lifeisnotdance as Ayako Ono looks to be a lovely dancer.......and haven't yet seen Aladdin either so must go. Did you say she is no longer with BRB company.....I have never heard of The New National Theatre.....where are they based? Is this back in Japan?

 

I don't have much knowledge of the acting skills of any of the other 4 mentioned unfortunately which could well play a part in the promotion stakes. We don't see them in rehearsals etc when strengths and weaknesses may come out but they all seem promising young dancers. Anyway I'm sure the RBC management are not going to take any notice of the opinions of people on this forum about who they want to promote to Principal level! So exchanging who your personal preferences are......as long as you are not making destructive comments about any particular dancer seems harmless enough to me.

[Naomi M]

Apart from the discussion, as a ballet fan in Japan, Ayako Ono is certainly the best ballerina here. 26 years old, versatile, wonderful musicality and crisp technique, petite but good proportioned, trained in RAD style and good actress. She was marvelous in MacMillan works such as Juliet and Manon as well as in Balanchine and classics such as Odette/Odile.

 

New National Theatre is also known as National Ballet of Japan, directed by David Bintley. Ayako was guesting in BRB for Aladdin which she originated the role in its premiere.  As Bintley will leave the company next year, we Japanese are fearing that he might take her with him. 

[LinMM]

Thanks for that Naomi M!

I understand how you would feel to lose her but hope she comes to UK!! I would like to see her dance!!

Perhaps as in the Greek Myth like Persephone, she can do six months in UK and six months in Japan!!

 

It's lovely to have someone from so far away posting on the Forum. Have you seen The Royal Ballet perform?

[Don Q Fan]

You'd promote Campbell and Hirano to principal?

Not necessarily - I said promotions across the ranks. 

[Shmendrick]

Is it not the case that if a person is going to make it to principal s/he will be promoted to that rank within a few short years of joining the RB, regardless of how many principal roles s/he has danced?

Not necessarily, Mara Galeazzi, Laura Morera and Edward Watson were all in the company for 10 years or more before they became principals and Rupert Pennefather was in for 9 years before his promotion. Those who've quickly climbed the ranks appear to be those who've done principal roles in other places such as Alina Cojocaru and Leanne Benjamin.

[Jamesrhblack]

As, of course, was Deborah Bull, one of the dancers I have most admired over the years. However, in common with Galeazzi, Morera and Wason, she wasn't regarded as a core classicist, and although I thought she was a wonderful Odette/Odile and I wish I'd seen her Aurora, I can't really envisage her as, for example, Giselle, Juliet or Manon. She'd have been a great Larisch though (seeing Mayerling three times this season has reinforced what a great role it is and why MacMillan wrote it for a major star ballerina, Merle Park).

[Shmendrick]

Very true, none of those three have danced Swan Lake/Sleeping Beauty and I think only Watson has done Giselle, although I have sincere hopes for Morera to get some big roles this season. She's had good reviews for Manon and Larisch so perhaps she'll get a chance at Juliet now there's a gap with Cojocaru's departure.

[alison]

Is it not the case that if a person is going to make it to principal s/he will be promoted to that rank within a few short years of joining the RB, regardless of how many principal roles s/he has danced?

 

Definitely not.  For the nearly 25 years I've been going there, everyone who's been promoted to principal in that time has had to have several principal-level roles (and arguably danced to the standard you'd expect from a principal) at least under their belts, regardless of whether they are in one-act or full-length ballets. I can think of virtually no exceptions to that "rule", and if one case was an exception, I think the timing of the promotion was ... diplomatic, shall we say.  How soon they get those roles can depend, for example, on injury record, physical development in the case of the boys, whether the artistic director likes you, all sorts of things.  I've said it before, but I think that at least the first year the RB were "in the wilderness" during the closure of the ROH a number of careers were probably held back, because the company was having to serve up so many "2 principals and a corps de ballet"-type ballets that there wouldn't have been the amount of smaller roles that younger dancers could take on as a first step up the ladder as there would have been if the company had been performing the usual mix of full-length and shorter ballets.

 

Not necessarily - I said promotions across the ranks. 

 

Yes, but my point was that since Campbell and Hirano are already First Soloists, the only way they could be promoted would be to Principal.

 

Those who've quickly climbed the ranks appear to be those who've done principal roles in other places such as Alina Cojocaru and Leanne Benjamin.

 

... Tamara Rojo, Marianela Nunez (I *think* she was doing principal roles before she joined the RBS?), ...

 

Very true, none of those three have danced Swan Lake/Sleeping Beauty and I think only Watson has done Giselle,

 

(Well, Albrecht, of course ), but no, Galeazzi has danced Giselle too.

[Shmendrick]

 ... Tamara Rojo, Marianela Nunez (I *think* she was doing principal roles before she joined the RBS?), ...

Tamara Rojo joined at principal level rather than being promoted after joining. Marianela Nunez's bio on her website definitely suggests she was doing some fairly major roles, doesn't say what they were but she appears to have danced quite a lot so that wouldn't surprise me.

 

I wasn't entirely certain but I couldn't remember coming across a reference to her dancing Giselle, I would've liked to have seen that.

[alison]

Well, Tamara was originally to be taken on as a First Soloist, but then someone else left and she was bumped up to Principal right away.  Not sure whether that was before she'd technically joined (i.e. when she replaced Bussell in Giselle) or afterwards, though.

[Shmendrick]

Oh right, I assume before because the RB yearbook says she joined as a principal in 2000 and for Roberta Marquez it says joined and promoted to principal in 200 so I assume it would something similar for Tamara.

[aileen]

Wasn't Darcey promoted after her first principal role (in PoP) and Alina after only SV and Giselle at the RB? What had Polunin danced before he became a principal at 19? I think that James' point about "core classicists" is right. Those who are thought capable of putting in a top notch performance of the leading roles in Swan Lake, Beauty, Giselle, and R&J and Manon in the MacMillan rep, will be promoted faster than those suitability for such roles is less certain. I feel that Deborah Bull was regarded much as Laura Morera is today. I've read the guide to ballet which she co-wrote with Luke Jennings and heard her speak. She was generally cast in the wicked woman roles and was usually only called upon to dance the big classical roles when someone else was unavailable. How many of the principals today have danced all the big roles across the classical, Ashton and MacMillan rep?

[Naomi M]

Thanks for that Naomi M!

I understand how you would feel to lose her but hope she comes to UK!! I would like to see her dance!!

Perhaps as in the Greek Myth like Persephone, she can do six months in UK and six months in Japan!!

 

It's lovely to have someone from so far away posting on the Forum. Have you seen The Royal Ballet perform?

 

Very happy to know that UK ballet fans have interest in Ayako, yes she is so lovely and it would be nice if she could split her time between UK and Japan, as there are not enough performances at the National Ballet here. 

 

Yes, actually I came to London this April-May to see Mayerling and La Bayadere in Covent Garden and enjoyed them a lot. And much looking forward to see the Royal Ballet on their tour next month  

[Bruce Wall]

I really think that Kevin O'Hare should be applauded for giving so many different people opportunities in terms of casting at so many different levels in comparison with, say, his immediate predecessor - without necessarily changing rank.  This gives so many different people a chance to prove their worth; a chance to 'earn' as much as to 'learn'.  One of the things I think has been most especially welcomed is the beginning of the dancer exchange with ABT and the continued co-production schedule with the National Ballet of Canada, two established classical sources - one institutionally older; one just a little younger than the Royal Ballet as an organism in and of itself.  I realise that the dancer exchange has started at the young principal level (S. MacRae for C. Stearns).  I, myself, would love to see that continued with dancers at different rankings and established with other companies with a core classical background (a la the RB) e.g., the Paris Opera Ballet, say, or the Mariinsky.  This would not only allow dancers to show their skills in adapting to world stages (so important for ANY significant POTENTIAL etoile on a world stage today) but also crucially give informed practical insight from shared views between key world ballet company directors, especially those of major classical companies who share similar plights.  Let's face it, the reality of being at the top has to lead to significant moments of keen isolation - no matter where the individuals themselves may physically reside.  (On a similar note, I, for one, would love to see segments of the Ashton Festival that Iain Webb is mounting for Sarasota Ballet (and has been preparing for years) in London at, say,Sadler's Wells.  I feel this could but enhance and inform by example and encouragement - rather than rob from any potential audience such as has oft been suggested historically.   It is most refreshing to see that the fact that NYCB has so much Balanchine (as it should) performed annually does not stop ABT, SFB and other major international ballet companies showing (as they have in the past) their own turn at these major works in NYC.  Everyone is richer on these occasions I feel. 

Edited June 16, 2013 by Meunier

[Jamesrhblack]

I've just watched a clip of Takada in La Sylphide on You Tube. Was curious as injury had taken her out a lot and I'd not seen her (didn't go to Raven Girl). Absolutely exquisite, with a wind blown,borne on the music, delicacy reminiscent, to my eyes anyway, of Alina. Fumi Kaneko's intensity impressed me very much in 24 Preludes and there's a lovely ROH video of her rehearsing Nutcracker, partnered by Kish, under the watchful eyes of Lesley Collier and Jonathan Cope. I have no wish to enter into the mini debate above on Japanese dancers or, pace a veiled criticism above, to denigrate other dancers. However, re-watching these two remarkable young ladies clarifies why Kaneko is suddenly getting a lot of chances and also why Takada was being offered them. If she's fit, I think Takada is a likely replacement to dance with MacRae as Kitri (his physique obviously conditions with whom he can be paired) and, just possibly, depending on preparation time (I don't know if she's learned iit in the past and accelerated 'forcing' is my hunch re the I juries that took her out of Beauty and Swan Lake) as Juliet too. Splendid as Morera is (and she was an extremely detailed and affecting Larisch most recently) I think the time for Juliet has gone and I don't see her being cast in Beauty or Swan Lake now as management will be looking to the long term future of the company with debuts in those roles. Of course, having danced Kitri years ago under Stretton when she was just starting, she might get lucky re Don Q. However, remember Marquez was booed when replacing Cojocaru - unfairly, of course. My opinion, and it is just that, is that management will wish to give an audience deprived of a much loved favourite something fresh and special to soften the blow. This is not, be assured, intended as a denigration of Laura Morera. I think it's important if we enter into these speculations, and perhaps an earlier poster is correct and we should really desist and just patiently restrain ourselves, that we try to maintain as objective and realistic a stance as possible - that, I am sure, is what management tries to do.i recall Cervera saying he'd asked to do only one role, Oberon, and had been refused. If i am correc this was around the time Polunin left. Whilst many on the forums would have been delighted to see him, management decided against this and brought in a guest. That's possibly not the best example and time logistics may also have informed the decision. However, I hope it will explain what I am trying to convey regarding my thoughts on realistic management decisions.

[Shmendrick]

I haven't really seen Takada dance so I'll have to find that clip you mentioned. I watched the rehearsal with with Kaneko and Kish and she actually reminded me of Miyako Yoshida, they have a similar quality to their movement. I think you're right re Morera unfortunately. That's a shame about Cervera because I remember some grumbling in other places about them bringing Gomes in. I wish the RB would hurry up and update the casting.

[aileen]

As with many things in life, timing is so important in getting roles and promotions. I think that, generally, there is a time for a dancer to get a chance at a particular role and when that time is past there won't be another opportunity. I also feel that, although it's not as overt as at companies such as the Bolshoi or the Mariinsky, the RB does categorise dancers (which it can do as a large company) which means that dancers are not considered for certain roles unless other dancers are unavailable.

[LinMM]

Naomi M

Yes I forgot the Royal Ballet on tour to Japan!! You can keep us updated with any performances you see. Who knows there may be some such stunning performances from the younger dancers that they'll earn their promotion over there!!

[alison]

Wasn't Darcey promoted after her first principal role (in PoP) and Alina after only SV and Giselle at the RB?

 

No, she was a late replacement Juliet for Leanne Benjamin as well, a month or two beforehand - with Kobborg (had we only known what was to come at that stage ...).  Darcey had also danced the Lilac Fairy at least by then (first role I ever saw her in), and I think that was frequently cast from among principals at that stage.  I don't know what else she'd danced (and what she'd done at SWRB), because it was only my 2nd or 3rd trip to the ROH at the time.

[Jan McNulty]

I think she only did one or, at most, 2 years at BRB and didn't do anything of note.

[Jane S]

I think she danced Myrta with SWRB and had done Gamzatti with the RB before Pagodas.

[capybara]

I wouldn't say that at all. Of the current First Soloists Yuhui had the most prominent roles this season, including the leads in Alice and Requiem. The casting as Stephanie and Gamzatti "against type" can be seen as an opportunity to develop her dramatic skills.

 I hope that it's OK to post this but....

 

A questioner at Kevin O'Hare's session at the London Ballet Circle last night said how much she had enjoyed Yuhui's performances this year and hoped she would have more such opportunities. In response, Kevin was complimentary to Yuhui and said that that would certainly continue. Good news!

[loveclassics]

No, she was a late replacement Juliet for Leanne Benjamin as well, a month or two beforehand - with Kobborg (had we only known what was to come at that stage ...).  Darcey had also danced the Lilac Fairy at least by then (first role I ever saw her in), and I think that was frequently cast from among principals at that stage.  I don't know what else she'd danced (and what she'd done at SWRB), because it was only my 2nd or 3rd trip to the ROH at the time.

Alison, am I misreading this?  I can't believe Darcey was ever in R&J with Kobborg? 

[alison]

Yes.  Alina, not Darcey.

[Fonty]

Interesting thread.

 

I have always been puzzled by the lack work given to Morera.  She was wonderful in Manon, when she was given the opportunity.  I am a little out of touch, having been out of the country, but I don't think she has been given very many performances in that role, even after she had rave reviews. 

 

If she isn't seen by the company as being suitable for Swan Lake or Giselle,  she should have been given her share of the lead roles in all the MacMillan ballets.  Maybe I am biased, but I would have thought her a much more suitable choice for those than some of the other Principals who have been cast in those.  

Edited June 23, 2013 by Fonteyn22

[hfbrew]

Interesting thread.

 

I have always been puzzled by the lack work given to Morera.  She was wonderful in Manon, when she was given the opportunity.  I am a little out of touch, having been out of the country, but I don't think she has been given very many performances in that role, even after she had rave reviews. 

 

If she isn't seen by the company as being suitable for Swan Lake or Giselle,  she should have been given her share of the lead roles in all the MacMillan ballets.  Maybe I am biased, but I would have thought her a much more suitable choice for those than some of the other Principals who have been cast in those.  

I quite agree, Morera was superb as Manon. I too think she is woefully underused. I'd love to see her do much, much more, particularly dramatic roles.

[aileen]

It's been interesting to read interviews with Mathilde Froustey who is leaving the corps at POB to join SFB as a principal for the 2013/2014 season (it's not clear to me whether she has a permanent contract or whether she is spending a sabbatical year with SFB) and Simone Messmer, a soloist at ABT, who is also joining SFB but as a soloist hoping for the chance to dance larger and leading roles. I would be grateful if someone could post a link to Ms Messmer's lengthy interview with Gia Kourlas in Time Out America (I found it via Balletbag's Twitter account) as it is very illuminating about the frustrations of casting decisions, the pigeon-holing of dancers and ABT's policy of bringing in many guest dancers. One point which she made had particular resonance for me in the context of this thread, namely she felt that when she joined ABT at 17 a decision was made as to what type of dancer she was and, notwithstanding any development in her dancing since then, that view of her had not changed and would not change whatever she did and, as a result, she would never be given the opportunity to dance Giselle, O/O etc.