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Alina Cojocaru to Join English National Ballet


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For Alina and any other potential star guest, I'm not sure how gruelling a tour would be, if they do one performance in the regions every other week at best, they can perfectly make it a day trip. It would certainly be less tiring than their current guesting engagements.

It also makes no sense for the company to have them along for the whole tour and pay for their expenses outside of the days they are performing.

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It is interesting that people have the impression that ENB is short of good men. There are, of course, three Lead Principals (Dima Gruzdyev, Zdenek Konvalina and Vadim Muntagirov) but, as importantly, even with Esteban Berlanga's unfortunate departure, there is a host of up and coming young men (including Ken Saruhashi, James Forbat, Yonah Acosta and Junor Souza). The latter group may not yet be ready to partner Alina but they are certainly among the 'ones to watch'.

Agreed - and don't forget Max Westwell. I had the pleasure of watching company class a while back, and he was so watchable - seemed to have an extra spark and energy. I'd like to hope he and James Forbat are on Tamara's radar along with Yonah.

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ENB's social media folk, no doubt with their Boss's approval, are doing nothing to damp down the publicity effect of Cojocaru's move, particularly vis-a-vis the RB.  In the last hour they have just tweeted "Tutu wars, the battle of the ballerinas hots up" - the title of a an op-ed piece in today's Evening Standard:

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/tutu-wars-londons-battle-of-the-ballerinas-hots-up-8713584.html

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Awful article, I can remember when the Standard used to have first rate arts coverage. 

 

It wasn't Rojo who was responsible for Muntagirov joining ENB - it was Wayne Eagling.

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I don't think that Alina is going to dance with anyone below principal level. Vadim is probably too tall for her anyway. I think that Tamara will bring someone in, possibly one of her regular partners at ABT (Herman Conejo?) or Hamburg. I doubt that Alina will go on all the tours. She'll probably dance a couple of dates in Milton Keynes and a couple of dates on one of the tours after Christmas. This will leave her plenty of time to guest elsewhere. Watch this space for some international guests!

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What would it cost to get someone like Polunin or Vasiliev for a couple of performances? £2,000? £5,000? More? Less? Rojo spoke recently about how ENB sometimes doesn't have the money to provide the necessary healthcare and treatment for its dancers, so maybe international guests aren't the way to go.

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What would it cost to get someone like Polunin or Vasiliev for a couple of performances? £2,000? £5,000? More? Less? Rojo spoke recently about how ENB sometimes doesn't have the money to provide the necessary healthcare and treatment for its dancers, so maybe international guests aren't the way to go.

 

ChrisChris, as head of a nationally registered arts charity myself of sixteen years good standing, I can tell you that it is much harder to get 'core' funding (where costs like specialised healthcare would be focused) than it is for the support of one-off or dedicated project funds.  In part this boils down to recognition through branding.  'Toilet rolls or guest artists?' one might hear funders mumble in question .... Certainly most know where they wish to take their pick ... Well, for the most part.  Those progressively ever fewer who can see beyond their own listing or a vested interest no matter how broad it may be are, of natural course, ever more keenly cherished.  They are today like gossamer ... They always were, of course, but now there is an ever burgeoning number chasing their flames .... and so many portfolios have diminished since 2008 through a wastage that used to (but no longer) be termed 'natural'.  Certainly it seems to be more knocking on the doors than there used to be.  Think of it as a kind of cultural food bank.  That's it.  You have to find ever more creative sources and restrict your remits.  Certainly there are a greater number today who are ever more desperate .... and I for one think you might very well be shocked at some of the names now inscribed upon that list.   That number I assure you will only grow.  We are only 15% of the way through the cuts now listed through the end of the 2018.  Today's report on the estimate for beyond suggested a further £19 billion more across the board.  We may well look back on today as being a situation of relative plenty ... much as we do when we look back at 2005 or 2006 now.  

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For Alina and any other potential star guest, I'm not sure how gruelling a tour would be, if they do one performance in the regions every other week at best, they can perfectly make it a day trip. It would certainly be less tiring than their current guesting engagements.

 

It also makes no sense for the company to have them along for the whole tour and pay for their expenses outside of the days they are performing.

I don't think it is a question of money but of practicalities.  Just because a company is on tour does not mean the rehearsals stop, either for the work currently being performed or for forthcoming works.  On a single performance day, rehearsals are held from the end of class, around noon until 6.30pm or whenever the Stage Manager needs the stage to be set for the evening performance.  On double show days, that precious time between class and the first show and then between shows is equally well used. Therefore, just because a Principal only does one show in the venue does not mean he/she is not needed for rehearsals. Dancers also like to continue having coaching on roles between their own performances.  I think most Principals would prefer to be on tour to take advantage of teachers (nobody likes doing class by themselves), coaches and pianists, rather than being left behind to save the company their touring expenses.  Another point is that, with a performing week sometimes having seven performances in five days, there will inevitably at some point be sickness and injuries and the Principal may be required to step in at short notice to do an unscheduled performance with a different partner - much better that they are already on site than have to travel from London.  Most ENB Principals remain with the company for each week of the tour and only if there are enough other dancers to cover injury/illness and they have no rehearsals scheduled do they ask permission to arrive late or leave early.  If Miss Cojocaru is joining as a Lead Principal and not Principal Guest Artist, I imagine she will be subject to the same terms.

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Thank you for the insight Irmgard.

 

I had no doubt that the days during the tour were busy, class was a given.

I just assumed that when touring, space for rehearsals was harder to come by, and I wasn't sure how that worked out.

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Interesting, and further to my post, 70, above: on Twitter within the past hour ENB's social media folk have used the headline of a blog-type article now carried by the Independent without quotation marks, thus appearing to jab another sharp stick into the RB.  The tweet runs:

 

That's a right royal mess the Royal Ballet has got itself into - and it then links to:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/thats-a-right-royal-mess-the-royal-ballet-has-got-itself-into-8726025.html

 

I wonder to what extent they operate independently of their Boss?  

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Interesting, and further to my post, 70, above: on Twitter within the past hour ENB's social media folk have used the headline of a blog-type article now carried by the Independent without quotation marks, thus appearing to jab another sharp stick into the RB.  The tweet runs:

 

That's a right royal mess the Royal Ballet has got itself into - and it then links to:

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/thats-a-right-royal-mess-the-royal-ballet-has-got-itself-into-8726025.html

 

I wonder to what extent they operate independently of their Boss?

 

I would be very surprised if they were allowed to tweet and Facebook without approval from above. Interesting times.....

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David Lister - Poor work. Must do better.

 

He seems to be seeing the situation from the point of view of an uniformed member of the public rather than a senior arts journalist. Does he really believe that Cojocaru left the Royal Ballet because she was dissatisfied that they don't dance in Bristol and Milton Keynes? I would guess that it was a polite rather than heartfelt comment on her part. 

 

It's wrong to regard BRB as the touring wing of the RB as they've been independent since 1997 but that's how it began and he seems to ignore that as he does the ROH Manchester project, though we've heard nothing of that for a while. And who knows what Kevin O'Hare might have up his sleeve?

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OK, so David Lister hasn't done the greatest job with his compendium of side swipes. But, come on ENB, although you may be feeling understandably bullish about recruiting Alina, you can surely afford to maintain a dignified silence.

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OK, so David Lister hasn't done the greatest job with his compendium of side swipes.

 

Not for the first time, either.  I remember several times when I've wanted to reply to some of his Comments and been unable to because of the Indie's blasted comments system.  And I'm afraid that things like these only remind me why I don't bother with the Indie any more: some of their arts and related journalism over the last few years has been on the distinctly trashy side.

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  • 1 month later...

Posted by annamicro on 15 July 2013 - 04:46 PM in Ballet / Dance news & information

 

Wulff, on 15 Jul 2013 - 3:26 PM, said:snapback.png

Alina's appearances with the RB have not been very frequent over the last couple of years, and that she has withdrawn from a number of her scheduled performances

 

It's such a pity she was not cast in some production (like Sleeping Beauty and Manon) for exclusive management decision, but this fact cannot be ascribed to the dancer.

Anyway, to not be just a slander, your statement has to be supported by numbers.

Given  that she broke her foot at the end of March/beginning of April this year and that Voices of Spring was cancelled because she and her partner had to rehearse the new Ratmansky, can you give us the number of shows Cojocaru cancelled in the "couple of years" preceeding her last Ratmansky? so from since February 2011?

I made my count, inluding guesting, I'd love to check it with yours.

---

 

I think that my question of the 15th of July to Wulff remained without answer. Anyway, after a conversation in Rome in August, I have the definitive one, from the direct source: I was wrong counting just one.

Cojocaru didn’t withdraw just from a Liliom to be danced with Hamburg Ballet just before Christmas 2011, but also from a Swan Lake to be danced in the same week in Athens with Kremlin Ballet. I remember well she was back from her injury to dance Nutcracker in London (I saw her on the 28th and 31st of that December).

So I was right thinking she didn’t withdraw from any Royal Ballet performance, and I’m quite sure that if London audience has not seen her when in full health as much as they wanted, the reason has to asked not to the dancer but to somebody else.

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