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agostini nacho

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INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH EDITION
www.ballet2000.com
9
n° 246
Royal Ballet’s
choreographers
10
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Kevin Ng
Jean-Pierre Pastori
Olga Rozanova
Emmanuèle Rüegger
Roger Salas
Sonia Schoonejans
René Sirvin
Isis Wirth
la revue internationale de la danse
édition France
la rivista internazionale della danza
edizione Italia
the international dance magazine
English edition
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(ph. J. Persson)
Editorial advisor
Editorial assistant
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Traductions/Traduzioni/Translations
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n. 246
avril-mai / aprile-maggio / April-May 2014
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4
19
Calendar
News
30
Cover : The Royal Ballet:
Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne
McGregor, Liam Scarlett
38
On Stage :
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris
Akram Khan Company
Aakash Odedra
Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux
Ballet de Lorraine
CCN de Nantes, Claude Brumachon
Natalia Staats Teatr, Moscow
Shanghai Ballet
Ballett des Saarländischen
Staatstheater
Sasha Waltz and Guests
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris: “Miss Julie”
Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux:“Pneuma”
48
BalletTube: Les morts du
cygne
49
Multimedia : TV, Web, Dvd,
Cinema...
52
On TV
54
Photo Gallery
3
Ulyana Lopatkina:
“La Mort du cygne”
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Berlin
Komische Oper
19. V: The Open Square – c. I.
Galili – Staatsballett Berlin
21, 24, 26, 30. VI: Don Juan –
c. G. Madia – Staatsballett Berlin
AUSTRIA
Wien
Staatsoper
27. V, 6, 12. VI: Le Souffle de
l’esprit – c. O. Bubenicek; Vaslaw
– c. J. Neumeier; Allegro Brillante – c. George Balanchine;
Vier letzte Lieder – c. R. van
Dantzig – Wiener Staatsballett
Volksoper
18, 24, 31. V: Carmina Burana
– c. V. Orlic; Nachmittag eines
Fauns – c. A. Lukacs; Boléro –
c. B. Nebyla – Wiener
Staatsballett
26. V: Ein Reigen – c. A. Page
– Wiener Staatsballett
Dresden
Semperoper
18. V: Artifact Suite; Fünf Duos;
Slingerland Pas de Deux;
Enemy in the Figure – c. W.
Forsythe – Ballett Dresden
25, 31. V: Le Lac des cygnes –
c. M. Petipa, L. Ivanov (S. Watkin)
– Ballett Dresden
28, 30. VI: Verklungene Feste
– c. A. Ratmansky; Josephs
Legende – c. S. Celis – Ballett
Dresden
Hellerau – Europäisches
Zentrum der Künste
5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13. VI:
Angoloscuro – c. W. Forsythe
– The Forsythe Company
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague
State Opera
29, 31. V, 21. VI: Le Belle au
bois dormant – c. M. Petipa, J.
Torres – Prague National Theatre
Ballet
5, 13. VI: Don Quichotte – c. M.
Petipa, A. Gorsky – Prague
National Theatre Ballet
28, 29. VI: Romeo and Juliet –
c. P. Zuska – Prague National
Theatre Ballet
National Theatre
17. V: Sorcerer’s Apprentice;
Krabat – c. J. Kodet – Prague
2, 3. VI: Solo for Three – c. P.
Zuska – Prague National
Theatre Ballet
7, 10. VI: Le Lac des cygnes –
c. M. Petipa, L. Ivanov – Prague
Duisburg
Theater der Stadt
28. VI: Ein deutsches Requiem
– c. M. Schläpfer – Ballett der
Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Nina Poláková, Roman Lazik – Wiener Staatsballett: “Ein Reigen”,
c. Ashley Page (ph. B. Pálffy)
24. V, 15. VI: Goldilocks – c. J.
Kodet – Prague National
Theatre Ballet
18, 25. VI: Czech Ballet
Symphony II – c. Jirí Kylián –
Prague National Theatre Ballet
Estate Theatre
DANEMARK
Michal Stipa – Prague National Theatre Ballet: “Solo for Three”,
c. Petr Zuska (ph. D. Zehetner)
Copenhagen
Operaen Takkelloftet
10, 12, 13, 14, 15. V: Twelfth
Night – c. N. Hübbe – Royal
Danish Ballet
DEUTSCHLAND
Berlin
Schiller Theater
29. V, 13. VI: Caravaggio – c.
M. Bigonzetti – Staatsballett
Berlin
14. VI: Tchaikovsky – c. B.
Eifman – Staatsballett Berlin
Deutsche Oper
24. V, 5, 9. VI: Romeo und Juliet
– c. J. Cranko – Staatsballett
4
Düsseldorf
Opernhaus
24, 29. V, 1, 7, 9, 15, 19. VI:
Deep Field – c. A. Hölszky, M.
Schläpfer – Ballett der
Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Hamburg
Staatsoper
16. V: Renku – c. Y. Oishi, O.
Dann – Hamburg Ballet
18. V: Die Kameliendame – c.
J. Neumeier – Hamburg Ballet
20, 23, 27. V: The Little Mermaid
– c. J. Neumeier – Hamburg
Ballet
8, 12, 14. VI: Shakespeare
Dances – c. J. Neumeier –
Hamburg Ballet
29. VI: Tatiana – c. J. Neumeier
– Hamburg Ballet
Leipzig
Oper
17, 24, 30. V, 1, 13, 15. VI: Deca
Dance – c. O. Naharin –
Leipziger Ballett
9, 22. VI: Mozart Requiem – c.
M. Schröder – Leipziger Ballett
München
Nationaltheater
22, 23, 24, 25. V, 5. VI: GoldbergVariations – c. J. Robbins; Gods
and Dogs – c. J. Kylián –
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Bayerisches Staatsballett
30. V, 8, 21, 22. VI: Shéhérazade
– c. M. Fokine; Les Biches – c.
B. Nijinska; L’Après-midi d’un
Faune – c. V. Nijinsky –
Bayeriches Staatsballett
4, 5, 6, 27, 28, 29. VI: Das
Triadische Ballett – c. G. Bohner,
O. Schlemmer – Bayeriches
Staatsballett
17, 18, 19. VI: Le Sacre du
printemps – c. M. Wigman; The
Girl and the Knife Thrower – c.
S. Sandroni – Bayerisches
Staatsballett
Stuttgart
Opernhaus
25, 29, 31. V, 2, 3. VI: creation
– c. E. Clug; creation – c. D.
Volpi; Le Chant du compagnon
errant – c. M. Béjart – Stuttgart
Ballet
7, 8. VI: Tokyo Ballet: The Kabuki
– c. M. Béjart
12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 26, 27. VI:
Romeo und Juliet – c. J. Cranko
– Stuttgart Ballet
4, 8. V, 19, 22, 25, 29. VI: Orphée
et Eurydice – c. C. Spuck –
Stuttgart Ballet
Schauspielhaus
23, 27. V, 20. VI: A. Memory –
c. K. Kozielska; World Raush –
c. L. Stiens; Miniatures – c. D.
Lee – Stuttgart Ballet
ESPAÑA
Cádiz
Teatro Falla
7. VI: Compañía Nacional de
Danza: Sleepless – c. J. Kylián;
In the Middle, Somewhat
Jason Reilly, Evan Mckie – Stuttgart Ballet: “Le Chant du compagnon errant”, c. Maurice Béjart
(ph. U. Beuttenmüller)
Elevated – c. W. Forsythe; Minus
16 – c. O. Naharin
Madrid
Teatro Real
24, 26, 27, 29, 30. V, 1. VI:
Compañía Nacional de Danza: Allegro brillante – c. G.
Balanchine; Delibes suite – c.
J. Martínez; In the Middle,
Somewhat Elevated – c. W.
Forsythe; Casi casa – c. M. Ek
Valencia
Teatro Principal
11, 12. IV: Compañía Nacional
de Danza: Nippon-Koku – c. M.
Morau
– c. T. Fabre; Three Preludes –
c. B. Stevenson; Les Bourgeois
– c. B. Van Cauwenbergh;
Raymonda (Grand Pas) – c. M.
Petipa
Zaragoza
Teatro Principal
13-15. VI: Compañía Nacional
de Danza: Allegro Brillante –
c. G. Balanchine; Delibes Suite
– c. J. Martínez; Holberg Suite
FINLAND
Helsinki
Opera
23. V: “Kenneth Greve and
Friends”
FRANCE
Aix-en-Provence
Le Pavillon Noir
3. VI: Maman Sani Moussa:
Troubles
13. VI: Souleymane Ladji Koné:
Lego de l’Ego
Aubervilliers
Théâtre de la Commune
(Rencontres Chorégraphiques)
Lucía Lacarra, Marlon Dino
– Bayerisches Staatsballett:
“Shéhérazade”,
c. M. Fokine (ph. W. Hösl)
5
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13. VI: Cie O/Maroc: HA! – c. B.
Ouizguen
17, 18. VI: Cie Maguy Marin:
Singspiegel
17, 18. VI: François Chaignaud:
Dumy Moyi
Lyon
Maison de la Danse
21, 22, 23, 24, 25. V: Les Ballets
de Monte-Carlo: Le Lac – c. J.C. Maillot
4, 5, 6. VI: Cie Ariadone: Chez
Ikkyû – c. C. IKeda
12, 13. VI: Jeune Ballet du
CNSMD de Lyon
Royal Danish Ballet: “Twelfth Night”, c. Nikolaj Hübbe (P. M. Abrahamsen)
2-4. VI: Cie Daniel Linehan: The
Karaoke Dialogues
24, 25. V: Kat Válastur: Oh!
Deep Sea
Bagnolet
Le Colombier (Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
26-28. V: Kinkaleri: Fake For
Gun No You; Francesca
Foscarini/Yasmeen Godder: Gut
Gift
Lille
Festival Latitudes Contemporaines
Opéra
11, 12. VI: L’Association Fragile: D’Après une histoire vraie
– c. C. Rizzo
Maison Folie de Wazemmes
10. VI: Kate McIntosh: All Ears
Seh Yun Kim, Toby William Mallit – Compañía Nacional de Danza:
“Three Preludes”, c. Ben Stevenson (ph. J. Vallinas)
Blanc-Mesnil
Le Forum (Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
22, 23. V: Le Veronal/Lali
Ayguadé: Portland; Mélanie
Perrier: Nos charmes n’auront
pas suffi
22, 23. V: Myriam Gourfink:
Souterrain
Marseille
Festival de Marseille
Esplanade du Théâtre JolietteMinoterie
23, 24. VI: Cie Éric Languet:
Attention fragile
Théâtre Joliette-Minoterie
23, 24. VI: Cie Robin Orlyn: In
a World Full of Butterflies...
Ballet National de Marseille
30. VI, 1. VII: Les Ballets C de
la B: Badke
KLAP
25. VI: Formation Coline /
Colectivo Caretel: Teahupoo/
Cuatro Puntos – c. E. Gat
Le Silo
19, 20. VI: Vertigo Dance
Company: création – c. N.
Wertheim
26, 27. VI: Co. Karas: Mirror and
Music – c. S. Teshigawara
Montreuil
Nouveau Théâtre (Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
10, 11, 13, 14. VI: Kubilai Khan
Investigations: Your Ghost Is
Not Enough
10, 11. VI: Niv Sheinfeld/Oren
Laor: Two Room Apartment
13, 14. VI: Lisbeth Gruwez: Ah/
ah; Martin Schick/Damir
Todorovic: Holiday on stage; Ula
Sickle: Kinshasa Electric
La Parole Errante (Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
17, 18. V: Kim Bo-ra: A Long
Talk to Oneself; Katalin Patkaï:
Jeudi; An Kaler: Contingencies
Bordeaux
Opéra National de Bordeaux
24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30. VI: Don
Quichotte – c. M. Petipa, C. Jude
– Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux
Créteil
Maison des Arts
13-17. V: Cie José Montalvo:
Don Quichotte du Trokadéro
22, 24. V: Aakash Odedra:
Rising
13, 14. VI: Cie Yuval Pick
Montpellier
MontpellierDanse
Théâtre La Vignette
23, 24. VI: Sharon Eyal, Gai
Behar: House
27, 28. VI: Matthieu
Hocquemiller: (nou)
Studio Bagouet/Agora
23-25. VI: Hooman Sharifi: Every
Épinay-sur-Seine
Maison du Théâtre de la
Danse
(Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
6
7
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order eventually...
28-30. VI: Cie Nacera Belaza:
Les Oiseaux
Opéra Berlioz
27, 28. VI: Eastman: Genesis
– c. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
1, 2. VII: Wayne McGregor/
Random Dance: Atomos
Théâtre de l’Agora
22-26. VI: Ballet Preljocaj: Empty
Moves (Part I, II, III) – c. A. Preljocaj
30. VI, 1, 2. VII: Cie Salia Sanou:
Clameur des arènes
Cour de l’Agora
26-28. VI: Emanuel Gat Dance:
Plage Romantique
Mulhouse
La Filature
26, 27, 28. V: Genesis –
Jeunes chorégraphes
Nancy
Opéra de Nancy
22,-24. VI: Rose Variation;
Objets retrouvés – c. M. Monnier
– Ballet de Lorraine
Paris
Opéra Garnier
3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16,
17, 19, 20, 21. V: Orphée et
Eurydice – c. P. Bausch – Ballet
de l’Opéra de Paris
19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29. VI, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 7. VII: Psyché – c. A.
Ratmansky; Le Palais de cristal
– c. G. Balanchine – Ballet de
l’Opéra de Paris
Opéra Bastille
10, 14, 15, 18, 21, 25, 26, 28,
29, 31. V., 3, 4, 6, 8. VI: Le Palais
de cristal – c. G. Balanchine;
Daphnis et Chloé – c. B.
Millepied – Ballet de l’Opéra
de Paris
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
28, 29, 30. VI: Studio3 Cia de
Dança: Paixao e Furia: le mythe
Callas
Théâtre de la Ville
14, 15. VI: Danse Élargie 3ème
Édition
21. VI-5. VII: Cie Tanztheater
Wuppertal: Palermo Palermo
– c. P. Bausch
Théâtre de la Ville – Les
Abbesses
10-14. VI: Cie Paulo Ribeiro:
Jim
Théâtre Chaillot (Salle Jean
Vilar)
13-16. V: Cie Karas: Dah-DahSho-Dha-Dha – c. S.
Teshigawara
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29,
30. V: Cie José Montalvo: Don
Festival de Marseille: Les Ballets C. de la B.: “Badke” (ph. D. Willem)
Reims
Grand Théâtre de Reims
24, 25, 26. V: Ballet Biarritz:
Cendrillon – c. T. Malandain
Quichotte du Trocadéro
5-13. VI: Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo: Lac – c. J.-C. Maillot
19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27.
VI: Nederlands Dans Theater
I: Mémoires d’oubliettes – c.
J. Kylián; Solo Echo – c. C. Pite;
Shoot of the Moon – c. S. León,
P. Lightfoot
Théâtre Chaillot (Grand Foyer)
21-23. V: Kaori Ito: Asobi
Théâtre Chaillot (Salle Maurice
Béjart)
13-17. V: Edmond Russo et
Shlomi Tuizer: Embrace
23-30. V: Dominique Dupuy:
Acte sans paroles 1
Pantin – Studios du Centre
National de la Danse
14-16. V: Cie L’Octogonale:
Impar – c. J. Brabant
21-23. V: Cie Yann Lheureux:
Flat/grand délit
21-23. V: Cie La Feuille
d’Automne: Cendrillon – c. P.
La Feuille
4-6. VI: Clément Dazin: Bruit
de couloir
4-6. VI: Cie deFracto: Flaque
14-15. VI: Les Ballets de MonteCarlo: Daphnis et Chloé – c.
J.-C. Maillot
Saint-Denis
La Chaufferie (Rencontres
Chorégraphiques)
24. V: Simone Aughterlony: After
Life
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-enYvelines
20, 21. V: Sankai Juku:
Umusuna – c. U. Amagatsu
31. V: Cie Molecule: Collusions
– c. S. Ground
14. VI: “Danser son Sacre”
Strasbourg
Pôle Sud (Festival Nouvelles)
15, 16. V: Cie François Verret:
Atlas
20. V: Cie Thomas Lebrun:
Trois décennies d’amour cerné;
Marco Berrettini: Ifeel2
22. V: I’m Company Ivana Müller:
Positions; Nicole Seiler: Un acte
sérieux
23, 24. V: Olga Mesa: Travaux
Publics
23. V: Emmanuel Leggermont:
Vorspiel – Opus 1 et 2
27. V: Radhouane El Mebbeb,
Matias Pilat & Alexandre
Fournier: Nos limites; Edmond
Russo, Shlomi Tuizer: Embrace
Perpignan
Théâtre de la’Archipel
29. VI: Compañía Nacional de
Danza: Nippon-Koku – c. M.
Morau/La Veronal
8
28. V: Cie Laurent Chétouane:
Sacré Sacre du printemps
Salle Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
12, 14, 18. VI: Genesis –
Jeunes chorégraphes
Toulouse
Halle aux Grains
18-22. VI: Ballet du Capitole:
Valser – c. M. Oliveiro
Uzès
Uzès Danse
Jardin de l’Évêché
13. VI: Fabrice Ramalingom:
Postural: études
14. VI: PI:ES: Mauvais Genre –
c. A. Buffard
15. VI: María Muñoz: Bach
16. VI: Gaëtan Bulourde: Spoiled
Spring
17. VI: Clément Layes:
Dreamed apparatus
18. VI: Fabrice Ramalingom:
D’un goût exquis
18. VI: Matthieu Hocuimiller: Post
Disaster Dance
Salle de l’ancien Évêché
14. VI: Diederik Peeters: Red
Herring
15. VI: Arnaud Saury: Mémoires
du Grand Nord
16. VI: Mathilde Gautry: Je coryais
17. VI: Danya Hammoud: Mes
mains sont plus âgées...
18. VI: Anne Lopez:
Mademoiselle Lopez
Cour de l’Évêché
9
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14. VI: Maguelone Vidal, Fabrice
Ramalingon: Le Coeur du son
18. VI: Emmanuel Eggermont:
Vorspiel
Versailles
Château de Versailles
1 8 , 1 9 . V I: B é j a r t B a l l e t
Lausanne: Sept Danses
grecques; Bhakti III; Boléro –
c. M. Béjart
GREAT BRITAIN
Birmingham
Hippodrome
4-7. VI: Dante Sonata; Façade;
Les Rendez-vous – c. F. Ashton
– Birmingham Royal Ballet
11-15. VI: La Fille mal gardée
– c. F. Ashton – Birmingham
Royal Ballet
Edinburgh
Festival Theatre
21-24. V: Scottish Ballet: Romeo
and Juliet – c. K. Pastor
London
Royal Opera House
14, 17, 21, 23, 24, 26. V: Serenade – c. G. Balanchine; Sweet
Violets – c. L. Scarlett; DGV,
Danse à grande vitesse – c. C.
Wheeldon – The Royal Ballet
31. V, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13. VI: The
Dream – c. A. Marriott; creation
– c. L. Scarlett; The Concert –
c. J. Robbins – The Royal Ballet
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
Théâtre de la Ville: Tanztheater Wuppertal: “Palermo Palermo”, c. Pina Bausch (ph. J. Viehoff)
14-17. V: Scottish Ballet: Romeo
and Juliet –c. K. Pastor
20-24. V: Rambert Dance:
Rooster – c. C. Bruce; Four
Elements – c. L. Childs;
Sounddance – c. M.
Cunningham; Dutiful Ducks –
c. R. Alston
27-29. V: Cie Rosas: Vox
temporum – c. A.-T. De
Keersmaeker
3, 4. VI: Grupo de Rua: Crackz
– c. B. Beltraõ
5, 7. VI: Russell Maliphant
Company: Still Current – c. R.
Maliphant
13, 14. VI: Cie Käfig: Boxe Boxe
– c. M. Merzouki
17, 18. VI: Dada Masilo: Swan
Lake
20, 21. VI: Fabulous Dance
Theatre: Rian – c. M. KeeganDolan
23, 24. VI: Eastman/Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui: 4D
ITALIA
Bergamo
Teatro Sociale (Festival Danza
Estate)
15. V: Koreokroj_Balletto di
Zagabria: My Name si Nobody
– c. M. Volpini
18. V: lucylab.evoluzioni: Due
tipe
27. V: ARB Dance
Company, Zerogrammi:
Precariato – c. S. Mazzotta,
E. Sciannamea
5. VI: Zappalà Danza: Istrument
1_scoprire l’invisibile – c. R.
Zappalà
11. VI: Ziya Azazi: Dervish
18. VI: Sanpapié: Due+Due=5
26. VI: Compagnia Simona
Bucci: Enter Lady Macbeth
3.
VII:
INC
InNprogressCollective: Oceania – c. A. Varjavandi
Sophie Martin, Erik Cavallari – Scottish Ballet: “Romeo and Juliet”,
c. Krzysztof Pastor (ph. A. Ross)
Gardone Riviera
10
Vittoriale
21, 22. VI: Martha Graham
Dance Company: The Rite of
Spring; Diversion of Angels;
Errand – c. M. Graham; Depak
Ine – c. N. Duato
Firenze
Teatro della Pergola
20. VI: MaggioDanza: Carmen
– c. D. Bombana
Opera di Firenze
28. VI: City Contemporary Dance
Company: As If To Nothing –
c. S. Jijia
Genova
Teatro Carlo Felice
23. V: Ballet Preljocaj: Blanche
Neige – c. A. Preljocaj
Legnago
Teatro Salieri
29.
V:
Aterballetto:
Workwithinwork – c. W. Forsythe;
Absolutely Free – c. M. Bigonzetti
Milano
Teatro alla Scala
28, 29, 30. V, 1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 17,
18. VI: Le Jeune Homme et la
Mort; Pink Floyd Ballet – c. R.
Petit – Balletto del Teatro alla
Scala
Teatro Strehler
5-8. VI: Aterballetto: WAM; Cantata – c. M. Bigonzetti
12-15. VI: Aterballetto: Rain Dogs
– c. J. Inger; Vertigo – c. M.
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Bigonzetti; Don Q – c. E.
Scigliano
23-29. VI: MilanoFlamenco
Festival
Modena
Teatro Comunale Luciano
Pavarotti
17. V: Ballett Mainz: Cenerentola – c. P. Touzeau
22. V: Donlon Dance Company:
Amore in Bianco e Nero – c. M.
Dolon
Napoli
Teatro di San Carlo
18, 19, 22, 24, 25. VI: Requiem
– c. B. Eifman – Balletto del
Teatro San Carlo di Napoli
Museo Nazionale Ferroviario (Napoli Teatro Festival)
6, 7. VI: Vertigo Dance Company:
Reshimo – c. N. Wertheim
8, 9. VI: Vertigo Dance Company:
Mana – c. N. Wertheim
11. VI: National Ballet of Kosovo:
NID Platform-New Italian Dance Platform: Co. Virgilio Sieni: “Esercizi di primavera” (ph. A. Anceschi)
Shéhérazade – c. A. Panzavolta
13, 14. VI: Emio Greco/PC: Addio alla fine – c. E. Greco
Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève: “Glory”, c. Andonis Foniadakis
(ph. G. Batardon)
Padova
Teatro Verdi (Prospettiva Teatro Danza)
18. V: Cie Käfig: Yo gee ti – c.
M. Merzouki
Parma
Teatro del Parco Ducale
17. V: Balletto di Maribor: Giselle
– c. J. Coralli, J. Perrot, M. Petipa
21, 22. V: Compania Junior
Balletto di Toscana: Giselle –
c. E. Scigliano
24, 25. V: Aterballetto: Certe Notti
– c. M. Bigonzetti
Pisa
Teatro di Pisa
22. V: Aterballetto: Don Q. – Don
Quixote de la Mancha – c. E.
Scigliano; Rain Dogs – c. J. Inger;
Tempesta – c. C. Rizzo
Teatro Verdi di Pisa
22-25. V: NID Platform-New
Italian Dance Platform
Ravenna
Teatro Alighieri
9, 10. VI: Alessandra Ferri,
Herman Cornejo: Chéri – c. M.
Clarke
Teatro Rasi
10. VI: Valeria Magli: Pupilla
12. VI. Compagnia Abbondanza-Bertoni: Terramara
12
Palazzo Mauro de André
5. VI: Svetlana Zakharova and
Friends
21. VI: Ballet du Grand Théâtre
de Genève: Lux – c. K. Ossola;
Glory – c. A. Foniadakis
27. VI: Compagnie Olivier
Dubois: Souls
Roma
Teatro dell’Opera
23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.
V, 1. VI: La Belle au bois
dormant – c. M. Petipa (P.
Chalmer) – Balletto dell’Opera di Roma
Terme di Caracalla
27, 28. VI: Tokyo Ballet: Sept
Danses grecques; Don Giovanni; Le Sacre du printemps – c.
M. Béjart
Villa Adriana
23. VI: Bruno Beltraõ: H3
25. VI: Martha Graham Dance
Company: Rite of Spring;
Diversion of Angels; Errand –
c. M. Graham; Depak Ine – c.
N. Duato
Torino
Limone Fonderie Teatrali –
Moncalieri (Interplay)
26. V: Itamar Serussi: Mono;
Ludvig Daae
27. V: Giorgia Nardin: Dolly;
Manfredi Perego: Grafiche del
silenzio; Co. MK: Robinson –
c. M. Di Stefano
29. V: Teilo Troncy: Je ne suis
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Verona
Teatro Filarmonico
15-18. V: Le Lac des cygnes –
c. R. Zanella – Balletto dell’Arena di Verona
Teatro Ristori
29, 30. V: Wiener Staatsballett:
Allegro Brillante – c. G.
Balanchine; Other Dances – c.
J. Robbins; Black Cake (duo)
– c. H. van Manen; Le Lac des
cygnes (Pas de cinq) – c. R.
Nureyev
Vicenza
Teatro Comunale di Vicenza
13. V: Grupo Corpo: Imã; Triz
– c. R. Pederneiras
23, 24. V: Ballet du Grand Théâtre
de Genève: Songe d’une nuit
d’été – c. M. Kelemenis
NEDERLAND
Larissa Lezhnina, Casey Herd – Het Nationale Ballet: “Trois Gnossiennes”, c. Hans van Manen
(ph. A. Sterling)
pas permanent; Daniele
Albanese/Co. Stalk; Jasper van
Luijk: Quite Discontinous
30. V: Sarah Bronsard: Ce qui
émerge après; Jo Fung:
Dialogue; Andrea Gallo Rosso: I Meet You...
31. V: Cristina Rizzo: La Sagra
della primavera, paura e delirio a Las Vegas; Giulio D’Anna: OOOOOOO
Teatro Astra (Interplay)
21. V: Cie Roy Assaf: The Hill;
Cie Sharon Fridman: Caída libre
Venezia
Ca’ Giustinian (Sala delle
Colonne)
19, 20, 25, 26, 27. VI: Cristina
Rizzo: Bolero
21, 22. VI: Jonathan Burrows:
The Madonna Project
21. VI: Cie Karas: Eyes Off – c.
S. Teshigawara
22, 25, 26, 27, 28. VI: Luisa
Cortesi: L’appuntamento
24. VI: Marina Giovannini:
Meditation on Beauty
27, 28. VI: MK/Margherita
Morgantin: 190CM CA
Conservatorio B. Marcello
19, 20, 21, 22. VI: Jérôme Bel:
Mondo Novo
26, 27, 28, 29. VI: Alessandro
Sciarroni: You Don’t Know
How Lucky You Are
Campo Pisani
19, 20, 21. VI: Anton Lachky:
À demain
26, 27, 28, 29. VI: David
Zambrano: Passing –
Through
Palazzo Grassi
19, 22. VI: Jonathan Burrows:
Body not Fit for Purprose;
Jérôme Bel: senza titolo
25, 27, 28, 29. VI: Keiin
Yoshimura: Wa No Kokoro:
Yashima
26, 27, 28, 29. VI: Laurent
Chétouane: Perspective(s)/
Solo avec R.
Teatro Malibran
19. VI: Cie Karas: Lines – c.
S. Teshigawara
Campo San Maurizio
20, 21. VI: Michele di Stefano/MK: Sahara para todos
26, 27, 28, 29. VI: Iris Erez:
Public Intimancy
Campo Novo
20, 22. VI: Cristina Rizzo:
Bolero Variazioni
21. VI: Luisa Cortesi: L’appuntamento
Teatro alle Tese
20. VI: Adriana Borriello: Tacita Muta
20, 21. VI: Cie Enzo Cosimi:
Sopra di me il diluvio
21. VI: Helen Cerina: Post
Grammatica
21. VI: Laurent Chétouane:
Sacré Sacre du Printemps
24. VI: Co. Virgilio Sieni: La
stanza del Fauno
24, 25. VI: Roy Assaf: Six
Years Later
24. VI: Raffaella Giordano,
Maria Muñoz: L’Incontro
25. VI: Simona Bertozzi/Nexus:
Guardare ad altezza d’Erba
25. VI: Radhouane El Meddeb,
Matias Pilet, Alexandre
Fournier: Nos Limites
26. VI: Stian Danielssen: Let’s
Play
26. VI: Jan Martens: Sweay
Baby Sweat
28. VI: Co. Virgilio Sieni: Indigene
28. VI: Dewey Dell: Marzo
28. VI: Damaged Good: Hunter
– c. M. Stuart
Teatro Piccolo Arsenale
20. VI: Co. Steve Paxton: Bound
27. VI: Association Fragile:
D’après une histoire vraie –
c. C. Rizzo
14
Amsterdam
Het Muziektheater
14, 16, 19, 20. V: Paquita (Grand
Pas) – c. M. Petipa; Tchaikovsky
Pas de Deux – c. G. Balanchine;
Trois Gnossiennes; Without
Words – c. H. Van Manen; Duet
– c. C. Wheeldon
7, 8, 9. VI: Nederlands Dans
Theater I: “Programme Kronos
Quartet”
18, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 29. VI:
The Tempest – c. K. Pastor –
Het Nationale Ballet
Staadsschouwburg
21, 23, 24, 30, 31. V: The Dream
– c. F. Ashton; Paquita (Grand
Pas) – c. M. Petipa – Het
Nationale Ballet
Den Haag
Lucent Danstheater
4, 5. VI: Shutters Shut – c. P.
Lightfoot, S. León; Cacti – c. A.
Ekman; Gods and Dogs – c. J.
Kylián; Sara – c. S. Eyal –
Nederlands Dans Theater
NORWEGIA
Oslo
Opera
2, 3, 10, 11, 13, 15, 20, 24. V:
Swan Lake – c. A Ekman –
Norwegian National Ballet
28, 31. V, 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11,
15, 17, 18, 19, 21. VI: Le Lac
des cygnes – c. M. Petipa, L.
Ivanov, K. Seergeyev (A.-M.
Holmes) – Norwegian National
Ballet
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K. Pastor
– Polish
National
Anna
Tsygankova,
Matthew
Golding –2 7 , 2 8 , 2 9 . V: G i s e l l e –
Ballet “Variations for Two Couples”,C o m p a n h i a N a c i o n a l d e
Het Nationale Ballet:
c. Hans van Manen (ph. M. Haegeman)Bailado
POLAND
Warsaw
Teatr Wielki
29, 30, 31. V, 1, 6, 7, 8. VI: Don
Quichotte – c. M. Petipa, A. Gorsky
(A. Fadeyechev) – Polish
National Ballet
14, 15, 28. VI: Returning Waves
– c. E. Wesolowsky; Adagio &
Scherzo; Moving Rooms – c.
PORTUGAL
RUSSIA
Lisboa
Teatro Camões
17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25. V: O lago
dos cisnes – c. F. Duarte –
Companhia Nacional de
Bailado
St. Petersburg
Mariinsky Teatr
16, 18. V: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream – c. G. Balanchine –
Mariinsky Ballet
17. V: Ballet Gala in
honour of Ninel
Kurgapkina
19. V: Romeo and
Juliet – c. L.
Lavrovsky
–
Mariinsky Ballet
21. V: La Bayadère
– c. M. Petipa (V.
Tchabukiani) –
Mariinsky Ballet
22. V, 13, 14, 16. VI:
The Fountain of
Bakhchisarai – c. R.
Zakharov
–
Mariinsky Ballet
24. V: Le Lac des
cygnes – c. M.
Petipa, L. Ivanov (K.
Sergeyev)
–
Mariinsky Ballet
1, 2, 7. VI: Giselle –
c. J. Coralli, J. Perrot,
M.
Petipa
–
Mariinsky Ballet
15. VI Jewels – c.
G. Balanchine –
Mariinsky Ballet
21, 22. VI: Carmen
– c. A. Alonso; Le
Jeune Homme et la
Mort – c. R. Petit –
Marrinsky Ballet
Mariinsky Theatr
II
3, 6, 8. VI: Le
Corsaire – c. M.
Petipa, P. Gusev –
Mariinsky Ballet
Mikhailovsky
Theatr
20. V: Without
Words; Duende;
Svetlana
Zakharova, Edvin
Revazov – Bolshoi
Ballet: “La Dame
aux camélias”,
c. John Neumeier
(ph. M. Logvinov)
16
White Darkness – c. N. Duato
– Mikhailovsky Ballet
22, 23, 24. V: Casse-Noisette
– N. Boyarchikov – Mikhailovsky
Ballet
28, 29. V: Multeplicidad,
Formas de silencio y vacío –
c. N. Duato – Mikhailovsky Ballet
31. V: Cipollino – c. G. Mayorov
– Mikhailovsky Ballet
3, 5, 6. VI: Le Corsaire – c. M.
Petipa, P. Gusev – Mikahilovsky
Ballet
11, 12. VI: Le Lac des cygnes
– c. M. Petipa, L. Ivanov (A.
Gorsky, A. Messerer) –
Mikhailovsky Ballet
14, 15. VI: Giselle – c. J. Coralli, J. Perrot, M. Petipa –
Mikhailovsky Ballet
24-27. VI: La Bella au bois
dormant – c. N. Duato –
Mikhailovsky Ballet
Moscow
Bolshoi Teatr (old stage)
14, 15, 17. V: Marco Spada – c.
P. Lacotte – Bolshoi Ballet
27, 28. V: Benois de la Danse
29, 30, 31. V, 1. VI: Onegin – c.
J. Cranko – Bolshoi Ballet
1, 6, 7, 8. VI: Le Corsaire – c. M.
Petipa – Bolshoi Ballet
11, 12, 13, 15. VI: La Dame aux
camélias – c. J. Neumeier –
Bolshoi Ballet
17, 18. VI: The Royal Ballet:
Rhapsody – c. F. Ashton;
Tetractys – c. W. McGregor; DGV
Danse à grande vitesse – c. C.
Wheeldon
20, 21, 22. VI: The Royal Ballet:
Manon – c. K. MacMillan
SUISSE
Lausanne
Théâtre Beaulieu
21-25. V: Fais ce que tu veux
de ces ailes – c. J. Arozarena;
Kyôdai – c. G. Roman; Histoire
d’Eux – c. T. Fabre; Sept Danses
grecques – c. M. Béjart – Béjart
Ballet Lausanne
Salle Metropole
3. VI: Cie Octavio de la Roza:
Boléro; Instants volés – c. O.
De la Roza
Zürich
Opernhaus
22. V, 9, 13, 15, 20, 26, 29. VI:
Ballett Zürich: créations – c.
W. McGregor, M. Goecke, C.
Spuck
26-31. V: Junge Choreografen
17
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French music at the Opéra
In May (with performances running till June)
the Paris Opéra Ballet is offering a programme
dedicated to French music in the context of
which the company will be premièring its second creation this season (following last October’s Darkness is Hiding Black Horses by
Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara).
Set to Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé score
and with scenery by painter Daniel Buren,
the new creation is by Benjamin Millepied
(who is to be the company’s new director as
from October) and will therefore bring together the Opéra’s ballet troupe, orchestra
and choir. The programme will be opened by
a revival of Le Palais de crystal which George
Balanchine created for the Parisian troupe in
1947 using Georges Bizet’s Symphony in C
(which is in fact the title the ballet goes by in
New York and elsewhere). For the occasion,
Balanchine’s ballet will be re-costumed by
couturier Christian Lacroix. The subsequent
programme, between June and July, consists
in two revivals: Dances at a Gathering by
Jerome Robbins and Psyché, a work created
at the Opéra in 2011 by Alexei Ratmansky to
19th-century French composer César
Franck’s Symphonic Poem for Orchestra and
Chorus. In the meantime, the 2014-15 season, the final one put together by Brigitte
Lefèvre, who is leaving the company’s helm
this summer, has been announced: along with
numerous revivals (which we shall be discussing further on), there are going to be two new
creations – one by John Neumeier to Gustav
Mahler’s The Song of the Earth, and another
by Pierre Rigal (a choice that might leave one
somewhat perplexed as Rigal is more of a
circus/hip hop performer than a choreographer per se).
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris: “Daphnis et Chloé”, c. Benjamin Millepied (ph. A. Poupeney)
Preljocaj creates
After his exotic (and erotic) 2013 creation Les
Nuits (“The Nights”) next June Angelin
Preljocaj is presenting a new work for his company, the Aix-en-Provence-based Ballet
Preljocaj, to be premièred in the context of the
Montpellier Danse festival (France). The work
constitutes the third part of Empty Moves
which, to date, comprises two works to the
soundtrack of Empty Words, the controversial
show that John Cage presented in Milan (at
the Teatro Lirico) in 1977: on the recording
used by the choreographer we hear Cage himself producing a succession of syllables, phonemes etc., as well as the public’s indignant
reaction to these nonsensical sounds. Preljocaj’s
intention is to apply the “empty words” principle to movement.
MontpellierDanse
Albisson étoile
The 34th edition of the prestigious French contemporary dance festival MontpellierDanse is
taking place from 22 June to 9 July and features
17 different shows with a total of 53 performances. Apart from Angelin Preljocaj’s creation
(see above), mark your calendars for Genesis
by Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui who is steeped in the post-modern
themes of linguistic/cultural fusion and who,
after working with Shaolin monks, is now once
again drawing his inspiration from Chinese aesthetics. Dancer/choreographer Yabin Wang, who
is very well-known in Asia, also appears in this
work for 7 dancers. Other performances to watch
out for include Wayne McGregor’s latest creation Atomos for his Random Dance group and a
new solo by bailaor Israel Galván who will be
dancing in the immense Cour de l’Agora in total
silence – as Vicente Escudero, the first bailaor
to conceive of “avant garde flamenco”, had done
in the 1930s. Emanuel Gat, Nacera Belaza, Jan
Fabre, Boris Charmatz and Alonzo King are
amongst the other top names expected at
MontpellierDanse.
As announced in the previous issue of BALLET2000, Amandine
Albisson was appointed étoile at
the Paris Opéra last March following a performance of John
Cranko’s Onegin in which she
was dancing the role of Tatyana.
The 24-year-old dancer had already made an impression in the
course of the season as Aurora in
The Sleeping Beauty (Nureyev
version). Promoted première
danseuse at the beginning of the
year, Albisson trained at the Paris
Opéra Ballet School.
Amandine Albisson –
Ballet de l’Opéra de
Paris: “La Belle au bois
dormant” (ph. S. Mathé)
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Mathilde Monnier, dancers and
repertoire
The Ballet de Lorraine of Nancy (France), directed by Petter Jacobsson, is dedicating the
month of May to Mathilde Monnier (55 ans).
A leading light of French contemporary dance,
Monnier came to the fore in the mid 1980s in
the context of so-called “nouvelle danse” and,
after being at the helm of the Centre
Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, last
December she was appointed director of the
Centre National de la Danse de Pantin (Paris).
The Nancy Opera House will be reviving her
Rose – variation, a work from 2001 made up
of a series of solos that explore individual personality within a group and in which the choreographer “asks herself what it is that defines
a corps de ballet”. Objets re-trouvés, a work
that springs from the repertoire of the Ballet
de Lorraine and its influence on each of the
company’s dancers, completes the programme.
Ballet Preljocaj: “Empty Moves”, c. Angelin Preljocaj (ph. J-C. Carbonne)
De la Roza’s Boléro
Les étoiles de Legris
This summer, Maurice Béjart’s last hallmark
dancer Octavio de la Roza (Octavio Stanley)
is presenting a new programme with the
small company he has set up in Lausanne
(Switzerland). It will be performed here in
June, in the Avignon Festival Off (France)
in July, as well as in other cities. With audacity, Octavio De la Roza has appropriated himself of Ravel’s Boléro (after having
danced famous Béjart’s choreography so
many times worldwide) and turned it into a
sort of combat between two gladiators, with
the public invited to climb on stage and join
in. A trio, with the choreography (also by
De la Roza) interacting with musicians
onstage, completes the evening.
The second edition of the Gala des Étoiles,
presented by Franceconcert and under the artistic direction of Manuel Legris, toured France
and Belgium during the month of March, making numerous stops. The cast on the playbill
changed in each town as did the programme
offered. Dancers from the Paris Opéra were
joined by colleauges from other major international troupes such as the Vienna Opera Ballet
(of which Legris is the director), The Royal
Ballet of London, The Dutch National Ballet,
the Hamburg Ballet, and the ballet companies
of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow and the
Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg. The gala
met with special acclaim when it performed in
the large hall of the Acropolis in Nice.
Octavio de la Roza, Camilla Colella, Alexander Teutscher in rehearsal
Genesis: young choreography
Ivan Cavallari, the Italian choreographer currently at the helm of the Ballet du Rhin
(France), is allowing his dancers to express
their choreographic aspirations thanks to a
two-part project entitled “Genesis” which will
not only present the finished works by these
young choreographers, but also the works-inthe-making. In May spectators will be able to
sit in on the works-in-the-making in Mulhouse
(“Genesis studio”) and to see the final products in June in Strasbourg.
Extended dance
In collaboration with the Musée de la Danse,
on 14 and 15 June the “Danse Élargie” (Extended Dance) competition, now into its 3rd
edition, is being held at the Théâtre de la Ville
de Paris. In the space of a week-end, artists of
every stripe, as well as common people of any
age, will be able to present their shows, with
no set rules other than a maximum duration of
10 minutes and a mininum of 3 performers
apiece.
NDT in Paris
Nederlands Dans Theater is expected at the
Théâtre de Chaillot, Paris in June. The programme will open with the Dutch troupe’s
former director/choreographer/guru Jirí
Kylián’s Mémoire d’oubliettes (“Forgotten
Memories”, 2009), in which the Czech choreographer – at least officially – takes his leave
of choreographic creation. Kylián’s work will
be followed by the dreamlike atmosphere of
Shoot the Moon, created by the company’s
present director, English choreographer Paul
Lightfoot who has been working in partnership with his Spanish colleague Sol León at
the NDT for the past twenty years: the two
continue (albeit in their own fashion) to keep
20
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the “style of the house” alive. Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, who has been quite
popular in recent years, is also expected at the
Théâtre de Chaillot.
Rencontres Chorégraphiques
The International Choreography Festival
(Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales)
is taking place until mid-June in six towns of
the Seine-Saint-Denis department in France
(north of Paris). It is a travelling festival, but
steadfast in its commitment in support of
emerging or acknowledged choreographic talent. 26 companies and artists are expected,
including Spanish company La Veronal,
Myriam Gourfink, Yasmeen Godder and Daniel Linehan.
10 years of Les Étés de la
Danse
To celebrate its 10th birthday, this year Les
Étés de la Danse is once again inviting San
Francisco Ballet, the troupe that had been
hosted when the Parisian festival (that usually
invites one sole major international company)
first opened in 2005. San Francisco Ballet will
give 18 performances at the Théâtre du
Châtelet, with a different programme – or diversely-combined mixed bill – every night. On
offer are ballets by George Balanchine (The
Four Temperaments, Agon, etc.) and Jerome
Robbins (In the Night, Glass Pieces etc.), as
well as by Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov
(respectively the troupe’s director and resident choreographer), Hans van Manen,
Christopher Wheeldon and Edwaard Liang, not
forgetting the latest creations by Alexei
Ratmansky and young Liam Scarlett (making
his Paris début).
Étés de la Danse: Lorena Feijóo, Tiit Helimets – San Francisco Ballet: “Allegro Brillante”,
c. George Balanchine (ph. E. Tomasson)
Young and contemporary
“Latitudes”
Latitudes Contemporaines returns to Lille and
Greater Lille (France) from 4 to 20 June. This
contemporary dance festival, which pays par-
Julien Favreau, Elisabet Ros – Béjart Ballet Lausanne: “Histoire d’eux”, c. Tony Fabre
(ph. F. Levieux)
ticular attention to multidisciplinary and performance art, always features works by emerging artists and the youngest generations, as
well as by established choreographers. On the
playbill this year are Latifa Laâbissi, François
Chaignaud, Maguy Marin, Sylvain Prunenec
and Christian Rizzo.
Tony Fabre’s posthumous
creation
French dancer/choreographer Tony Fabre who
died suddenly a few months ago aged 46 was
actually working on a creation for the Béjart Ballet Lausanne; the troupe premièred it posthumously in the Swiss city last February. The work
was Fabre’s third creation for BBL: entitled
Histoire d’eux (“Their Story”), it is based on the
Dido and Aeneas story and uses music by the
author of the Dido and Aeneas opera, Henry
Purcell. The company will be reprising the work
in May (also in Lausanne) in the context of a
mixed bill comprising two creations: the first, by
BBL director Gil Roman, is inspired by Japanese literature; the second is by the BBL’s Cuban
ballet master and assistant director, Julio
Arozarena. There is also to be a revival of a muchloved Béjart ballet from 1983, Les 7 Danses
grecques (“Seven Greek Dances”), which was
last performed ten years ago. The aforesaid work
will be toured in the summer.
21
Marriott follows Wheeldon
Prix Benois at the Bolshoi
After Christopher Wheeldon’s creation, The
Winter’s Tale (stay tuned for BALLET2000’s
review), The Royal Ballet of London is presenting a mixed bill in May made up of Serenade (1934) by George Balanchine, Liam
Scarlett’s Victorian “play in dance” Sweet Violets about Jack the Ripper and Christopher
Wheeldon’s DGV, Danse à grande vitesse, a
work created for the company in 2006 to the
music that Michael Nymann composed to commemorate the inauguration of the TGV highspeed train line in France. This mixed bill will
be followed by another featuring the last creation of the season by Alastair Marriott, a Royal
Ballet character dancer who, in his alternate
capacity as choreographer, has already created
a number of ballets for the troupe. The mixed
bill will also include The Dream (1964) (a short
ballet by Frederick Ashton, based on William
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
and The Concert (1956) by Jerome Robbins, a
comic spoof on the reactions of a motley and
unruly audience at a piano concert.
The next edition of the Prix Benois de la Danse
will be held, as always, at the Bolshoi Theatre in
Moscow from 27 to 28 May, with a prize-giving
ceremony and a gala performance. The Prix
Benois, now into its 22nd edition, was named for
the first Ballets Russes scenographer, Alexandre
Benois, and founded by Yuri Grigorovich who
continues to be its artistic director, with Nina
Kudriavtseva-Loory as its general director. There
are prizes for various categories of artists (dancers, choreographers, composers and costume/set
designers) who have distinguished themselves in
dance and ballet productions in the course of the
previous year. This year’s awardees have not
yet been announced as we go to print. Candidates include choreographer Alexei Ratmansky,
ballerina Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet and dancer Herman Cornejo of American Ballet Theatre.
Petit programme at La Scala
After the final performances of Swan Lake (the
usual Rudolf Nureyev version) at the beginning
A Petersburg summer
in London
The Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg is returning
to The Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden (London) this
summer between July and August
with somewhat eclectic programmes, numerous performances
and various casts. Amongst the
most interesting offerings are the
celebrated Leonid Lavrovsky version of Romeo and Juliet and
Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella
(Diana Vishneva is to dance the
title role in both ballets) and Swan
Lake (with Ulyana Lopatkina).
There will also be a George
Balanchine double bill (Apollo and
A Midsummer’s Night Dream), as
well as a mixed bill consisting of
The Firebird by Michel Fokine,
Marguerite and Armand by
Frederick Ashton and Concerto
DSCH by Ratmansky. The following dancers are also expected:
Ekaterina Kondaurova, Alina
Somova, Viktoria Tereshkina,
Daniil Korsuntsev, Vladimir
Shklyarov and one of the company’s promising young dancers,
Yulia Stepanova.
of May, from May to June the Ballet Company of La Scala, Milan will be offering a Roland
Petit double bill. The programme consists of
two extremely diverse works, both of which,
however, reflect the spirit of the time in which
they were created: Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
(“The Young Man and Death”, an existentialist
work from 1946 based on an idea by poet Jean
Cocteau) and Pink Floyd Ballet (created in the
1970s, to music by the famous rock band). It is
interesting to note that two deeply dissimilar
male stars will be alternating as the Young Man:
Roberto Bolle and Russian Ivan Vasiliev. The
Petit evening is the last ballet offering before
the summer break. The season resumes in September with Don Quixote (Nureyev version)
starring various guests (Natalia Osipova with
Ivan Vasiliev or, in subsequent casts, with Leonid
Sarafanov or Denis Matvienko).
Spoleto without Ferri
The programme of the Festival dei Due Mondi/
Festival of the Two Worlds, Spoleto (Italy)
being held from 27 June to 13 July has been
announced. Alessandra Ferri, the festival’s
dance consultant for the past few
years, has now left her post following disagreements with the director. Nevertheless, as has been
the case of late, the dance programme continues to be markedly
“American” and this year includes
the troupe that doyen of American (and world) choreography
Paul Taylor founded 60 years ago,
calling at Spoleto on its international anniversary tour, as well as
San Francisco Ballet in works by
Frederick Ashton, Hans van
Manen, Alexei Ratmansky and
their director Helgi Tomasson.
Venice Biennale:
dancing and painting
The “Dance Biennale” or, to be
quite precise, the Venice Biennale
9th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, is being held
from 19 to 29 June and directed,
for the first time, by Italian choreographer Virgilio Sieni. The programme lists 42 different works,
28 of which are creations. Sieni
himself is presenting his initial
“Notes” on The Gospel according to Saint Matthew which will
actually debut later in July, after
the festival: 24 scenes presented
in instalments over several evenings, requiring 180-200 performers. One of the festival’s most intriguing projects is entitled “Aura”:
Saburo Teshigawara, Laurent
Chétouane (who is French but
based in Germany), Jonathan Bur-
Alessandra Ferri, Herman
Cornejo: “Chéri”,
c. Martha Clarke
(ph. J. Marcus)
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Ballet Theatre. The ballet, with choreography
by Martha Clark, is based on the homonymous novel by Colette (Anna Kisselgoff reviewed Chéri’s New York debut in issue No.
244 of BALLET2000). Other dance companies expected in Ravenna include the Ballet du
Grand Théâtre de Genève and, notably, the
Trisha Brown Dance Company on its “farewell tour”, American choreographer Trisha
Brown (78) having decided to hand over the
artistic direction of the troupe to her collaborators.
Hübbe’s twelfth night
To mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s
birth, also Nikolaj Hübbe, director of The
Royal Danish Ballet, is presenting his own
creation based on one of the great playwright’s
works: Twelfth Night, to be premièred in May,
with the younger dancers of the Copenhagenbased troupe.
Madìa’s Don Juan
Sylvie Guillem, Russell Maliphant: “Push” (ph. J. Persson)
The Queen pays a visit
A photograph on this page portrays Queen
Sofia of Spain during her recent visit to
the Compañía Nacional de Danza (CND)
and Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) which
are based in the same building in Madrid.
After being directed for thirty years by
Nacho Duato (who had, de facto, turned
it into a ‘signature company’) the CND
is now being led by José Carlos Martínez;
Martínez’s direction has once again raised
the dilemma of which kind of repertoire
befits Spain’s one and only national ballet company (considering that ‘ballet’ as
such is not part of the Spanish tradition).
The Ballet Nacional de España, currently
directed by Antonio Najarro, is instead the
national company of classical Spanish
dancing, including the “escuela bolera” (i.e.
Spanish 19th century ballet) and other national dances such as, of course, the “baile
flamenco”.
rows with Matteo Fargion, Jérôme Bel and
Michele Di Stefano will be creating 5 works
inspired by the paintings of great
artists of the past that
can be seen in Venice.
For
his
solo,
Teshigawara, for example,
draws his inspiration from a
fresco by Giorgione known as
The Nude. The festival is divided
into various sections in which
(apart from the names mentioned
above) we also come across others such as Meg Stuart,
Radhouane El-Meddeb, Christian
Rizzo, Steve Paxton (who is to receive
the Golden Lion award), Roy Assaf etc. Other
new works will be presented in the context
of workshops for your dancers.
Ravenna Festival
The Ravenna Festival (Italy) kicks off at the
end of May, with Svetlana Zakharova inaugurating the dance section at the beginning
of June in a gala performance alongside
other Russian dancers. Another ballet
diva, Alessandra Ferri who has left
her post as artistic consultant
of the Festival dei Due
Mondi, Spoleto, will
star in Chéri with
Herman Cornejo
of American
After The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Italian choreographer Giorgio Madìa is once again creating for the Berlin Staatsballett (the company
of the Berlin Opera, still under the leadership
– with just a few more months to go – of
Vladimir
Malakhov). This time
Madìa is tack-
ling the Don
Juan legend, also
drawing his inspiration from JeanG e o r g e s
Noverre’s ballet
(1761) to music
by Gluck, though
he will be building
up the original score
with music by other
composers who were
contemporaries of Gluck.
The new ballet is to be
premièred at the Komische
Oper, Berlin in June.
The great lakes
Today the Mats Ek and Matthew Bourne versions of Swan
Lake, which used to be considered
revolutionary, iconoclastic or at the
Laura Halzack, Robert
Kleinendorst –
Paul Taylor Dance Company
(ph. T. Caravaglia)
23
Kings of sex appeal
Zakharova of the camellias
The “Kings of the Dance” gala produced by Armenian Sergei Danilian was up and
running again, this time at the London Coliseum. The “Kings” in question, if we are to
go by the show’s title, were Roberto Bolle, Marcelo Gomes, Denis Matvienko, Leonid
Sarafanov and Ivan Vasiliev. The programme was made up of several pieces: works by
Nacho Duato, Patrick De Bana, Marco Goecke, Marcelo Gomes himself (the “finale”,
to piano music composed and played by Canadian dancer Guillaume Côté) and, above
all, Roland Petit – from Le Jeune Homme et la Mort (“The Young Man and Death”,
with Bolle and Vasiliev alternating in the title role), to the famous
male duo from Proust, ou les
intermittences du coeur. The predominant opinion of the English
critics who reviewed the show in
the press was that the dancers’ sex
appeal, often with muscles on full
display, compensated for the poor
taste and quality of the choreography (albeit with some exceptions). In the photo we see the
Kings of the Dance group after the
show, with producer Sergei Danilian
and fashion designer Valentino.
Danilian has a new project in the
pipeline: Solo for Two, a show
with Natalia Osipova and Ivan
Vasiliev, to debut in July and August in California and Russia, respectively.
One of John Neumeier’s best-known and most
popular ballets, The Lady of the Camellias,
entered the Bolshoi Theatre’s repertoire last
March with Svetlana Zakharova debuting in
the role that had been created by Marcia
Haydée in 1978. She was partnered by guest
dancer Edvin Revazov, a principal of the Hamburg Ballet. In other casts the title role was
danced by Evgenia Obraztsova and the company’s rising star, the young Olga Smirnova,
both of whom are Petersburg-trained. The ballet is to be reprised at the Bolshoi next June.
very least “different”, have now become remake classics, numerous other choreographers
having produced their own re-creations of this
repertoire ballet by revisiting the story in the
most unlikely keys. Lately, the most attention-grabbing Swan Lakes have included Dada
Masilo’s African version and Fredrik
Rydman’s Swan Lake reloaded (to be reviewed
in the next issue of BALLET2000). Another
unusual Lake is being created for the Norwegian National Ballet by Alexander Ekman, the
Swedish resident choreographer of the
Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague. The
ballet is debuting at the Oslo Opera House in
April and May and will feature a “real lake”
(so the press release tells us, whatever that
may mean), with water splashing around
onstage. This production is to be followed, in
May and June, by the traditional Konstantin
Sergheyev version of Swan Lake, after Marius
Petipa and Lev Ivanov (i.e. the KirovMariinsky version), restaged by Anna-Marie
Holmes.
commissioned the score from Strauss for a
ballet by Michel Fokine and which was
premièred by the Ballets Russes in 1914.
Other choreographers who have created their
own Josephslegende ballets include John
Neumeier who created a first version in 1977
and a second one quite recently. The
Semperoper however is presenting a
Josephslegende by Belgian choreographer
Stijn Celis.
Gaîté newyorkaise
American Ballet Theatre’s usual “Spring Season” at the Metropolitan Opera House, New
York is being held in May and June and will
give audiences a chance to see some of the
great repertoire classics with various casts
showcasing the cosmopolitan troupe’s numerous principals. On offer are: Don Quixote, La
Bayadère (Natalia Makarova version), Swan
Lake (company director Kevin McKenzie’s
version), Giselle and Coppélia. The choreography of Coppélia, attributed to Nicholas
Sergeyev (régisseur of the Russian Imperial
Theatres until the Revolution, who re-created
the Marius Petipa version in the West) was
much later restaged for ABT by dancer Frederic
Franklin. The programme also includes Manon
by Kenneth MacMillan and Cinderella by
Frederick Ashton, as well as a couple of mixed
bills in which we note a revival of Gaîté
parisienne by Léonide Massine, a ballet inspired by Jacques Offenbach’s La Vie
parisienne and created for the Ballets Russes
de Monte-Carlo in 1938, which entered ABT’s
repertoire in 1970. The season wraps up with
a double bill in honour of William Shakespeare
Norwegian National Ballet: “Swan Lake”, c. Alexander Ekman (ph. E. Berg)
A homage to Richard Strauss
In June the Semperoper in Dresden (one of
Germany’s main opera houses) will be offering a mixed bill of ballets to music by
Richard Strauss. Audiences can look forward
to Alexei Ratmansky’s choreography (world
première) to Richard Strauss’ Verklungene
Feste (Divertimento, Op. 86) billed to open
this Ballet Evening. The other ballet is The
Legend of Joseph: Diaghilev had originally
24
25
by indie-pop singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.
A series of performances of Jewels and A Midsummer’s Night Dream, both by Balanchine,
conclude the Season.
Not only Martha Graham
The Martha Graham Dance Company presented its New York season at City Center last
March. The great novelties of the season were,
as had been pre-announced, two creations by,
respectively, Spaniard Nacho Duato and Greek
Andonis Foniadakis (previewed as a work in
progress last October) – the company having
decided to open up to other choreographers and
new creations, though naturally continuing to
preserve and perform the works of the grand
dame of modern dance after whom it is named.
Among the Martha Graham works offered were
a shorter (one-act) version of Clytemnestra, The
Rite of Spring (as reconstructed last year) and
the now 70-year-old Appalachian Spring.
Shakespeare in Havana
Martha Graham Dance Company: “Depak Ine”, c. Nacho Duato (ph. Costas)
on the 450th anniversary of the great playwright’s birth and made up of The Dream, the
old Ashton ballet based on A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, and the recent Alexei
Ratmansky ballet based on The Tempest.
It has been announced that the next International Ballet Festival of Havana (Cuba) will be
held from 28 October to 7 November. One of
the big events on the international ballet calendar, the festival is over half a century old and
inextricably linked to Alicia Alonso, who is its
artistic director and life and soul. This year’s
Xiomara Reyes, Herman Cornejo – American Ballet Theatre: “Coppélia”, (ph. M. Sohl)
Choreographers of yesterday
and today at NYCB
New York City Ballet’s “Spring Season” opens
in late April with two programmes made up of
works by 10 contemporary choreographers:
Mauro Bigonzetti, William Forsythe, Peter
Martins (company director), Benjamin
Millepied, Justin Peck (NYCB’s young choreographer), Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky,
Liam Scarlett, Richard Tanner and Christopher
Wheeldon. Not forgetting, clearly, the repertoire
of the troupe’s two seminal choreographers –
founder George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins
– each of whom gets a special programme. Interestingly, the Balanchine ballets include revivals of works rarely (or never) danced outside
New York, such as Le Tombeau de couperin,
Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze or
Raymonda Variations, one of the three
Balanchine ballets that use Alexander Glazunov’s
music for the last grand ballet by Petipa (in
this case, a series of extracts from the first act).
Apart from constituting the dedicated “All
Balanchine” and “All Robbins” programmes,
works by NYCB’s two giants also feature in
mixed bills, one of which also comprises a creation by Justin Peck set to a commissioned score
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Stanislavsky, Moscow’s ‘other’
Ballet
Ballet lovers consider Moscow a treasure trove
on account of the presence of the Bolshoi
Theatre and its ultra-famous troupe. But they
will marvel, as did I who had not seen the
Ballet of the Stanislavsky and NemirovichDanchenko Moscow Music Theatre for some
time, in observing the quality and activity
of this company which, though considered
“secondary” by the Muscovites, would be
envied by many an European theatre. The
excellently-revamped theatre welcomes a real
and enthusiastic public for frequent dance/
theatre/music performances and has its own
ballet company, with its own first-rate school.
The performance I saw was a revival of Pierre
Lacotte’s La Sylphide which has met with
puzzling success all over the world (in Russia the ballet was also restaged at the
Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg); I say
puzzling because we are talking here about
an invented choreography while there is an
extant Sylphide by August Bournonville,
marvellous and authentic and kept alive by
the Danish School. The Lacotte version,
however, does have the merit of constituting
Erika Mikirticheva – Stanivslavsky Ballet: “La Sylphide”, c. Pierre Lacotte
an extensive testing ground for a classical
(ph. O. Chernous)
company who are called upon to tackle its
interminable series of variations, pas de deux,
ensembles etc. ... On the evening I attended the two protagonists were simply superlative vis-à-vis technique, elegance, musicality and even
sense of style (which is rare in Russia outside the classic repertoire per se); their names are, alas, unknown in Europe: Erika Mikirticheva
and Semyon Velichko. As I have mentioned, it is evident that the company, under the present leadership of Igor Zelensky (a former
principal of the Kirov-Mariinsky and, subsequently, of New York City Ballet), has a top-notch school and a superb female ensemble which
clearly shone in the “white act”.
Alfio Agostini
edition will be dedicated to William Shakespeare
on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of his
birth. Consequently, many works – both those
presented by the host company, the Ballet
Nacional de Cuba (also directed by Alonso) or
by the numerous guesting dancers and troupes
– will be based on Shakespeare’s plays. However, although Shakespeare is the festival’s main
theme, there will be much else on offer, notably
those great ‘classics’ for which the Cuban Ballet is rightly known all over the world.
school in Zaragoza (where her daughter Lola de
Ávila carries on her work today): Víctor Ullate,
Carmen Roche, Ana Laguna, Nazaret Panadero,
María De Àvila (ph. C. Moncin)
Farewll María de Ávila, teacher
of teachers
The key figure in Spanish classical dance during
the last hundred years, María de Ávila who
taught several generations of dancers and teachers, passed away last February at 93 years of
age. After studying classical ballet and “escuela
bolera” (Spanish 19th-century classical ballet),
she became prima ballerina at the Grand Teatro
del Liceu in Barcelona. However she left her
dancing career to devote herself to her calling
which was to give her a place in the history of
Spanish performing arts: teaching. The early
generations of Spanish dancers, many of whom
went on to international renown, studied at her
27
María Jesús Guerrero, followed by a second
brilliant generation with Trinidad Sevillano,
Antonio Castilla and Arantxa Argüelles, all the
way down to Gonzalo García, today a principal at New York City Ballet. On her own, and
with tenacious determination, this teacher
moulded extraordinary dancers and one cannot
but wonder what her method consisted in. In
1982 María de Ávila founded the Ballet Clásico
de Zaragoza (which later closed down), and, in
1989, the Joven Ballet María de Ávila, a private
enterprise that allowed a whole new generation
of Spanish dancers to emerge. Earlier, from 1983
to 1986, she had been the director of Spanish
state-subsidized companies Ballet Nacional de
España (succeeding Antonio Ruiz Soler) and
Ballet Nacional Clásico (succeeding her own
pupil Ullate), that merged into one large troupe.
The two main branches of Spanish artistic dance
enjoyed the most fertile moments in their history under de Ávila. However, following fierce
opposition by a group of unionised dancers,
María de Ávila gave up and returned to Zaragoza
to continue her teaching mission. She was known
worldwide as one of the great ballet teachers of
the old European school that blends together
the methods of the traditional Italian, French
and Russian schools. Today there are thriving
generations of her “grandchildren”, that is to
say dancers who were trained by her two pupils Ullate and Roche, whose trademark continues to be a classic purity and a brilliance
that explodes into virtuosity.
Roger Salas
The Arabesque Competition in
Perm: Petersburg influences
Perm (in central Russia) has gone down in
ballet history for being Serge de Diaghilev’s
birthplace but, especially, because it was to
Perm that the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad (now
the Mariinsky of St Petersburg) relocated during World War II. Celebrities such as Galina
Ulanova, Natalia Dudinskaya and Konstantin
Sergeyev had a defining influence on the Perm
Ballet School, founded in 1941, and on its company (based at the Opera House named after
Tchaikovsky). And it seems that this ‘legacy’
has been preserved intact over the decades –
at least judging by the numerous young Permtrained dancers who took part in the city’s
prestigious ballet competition. Entitled “Arabesque”, this contest was founded in 1988 and
is held every other year in the elegant 19thErnest Latypov: “Le Talisman”
(ph. A. Zavjyalov)
Vladimir Vasiliev during the prize-giving ceremony at the Opera House, Perm
(ph. A. Zavjyalov)
century Opera House; its artistic director is
the great Vladimir Vasiliev and in 2012 it was
named for Ekaterina Maximova who also enthusiastically directed it for many years.
Inna Bilash (23 anni), Polina Buldakova (22,
a delight of classical purity) and Nikita
Chetverikov (22) are the names of the young
dancers from the Perm Ballet who stepped
onto the winners’ podium, together with other
dancers from Russia, Brazil, Japan and the
USA. The competition gives out a number of
money prizes. For over two weeks (under
Vasiliev’s chairmanship) a jury of dance artists (including Nina Ananiashvili and Nikolai
Boyarchikov), alongside a jury of critics, preselected numerous dancers in repertory variations and pas de deux and contemporary dance
pieces, with a small choreography competition too. The final gala performance showcased
the winners and confirmed the high level of
this competition, especially its classical section. Aside from the above awardees, the following also deserve a mention: Brazilian
Amanda Gomes (18) who has amazing stage
maturity, Ernest Latypov (22) who is in the
corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre and
is the embodiment of Petersburg elegance, and
Dmitry Prusakov (24) who bedazzled everyone with his virtuoso technique.
But the heartiest applause went to “Vladimir
Victorovich” (the patronymic by which
Vasiliev is deferently called), who was given
an ovation each time he entered the theatre.
Cristiano Merlo
Polina Buldakova, Oleg Kulikov: “Paquita” (ph. A. Zavjyalov)
28
29
EN COUVERTURE
The Royal Ballet Triumvirate
Chistopher Wheeldon (41), Wayne McGregor (44) and Liam Scarlett (28) are the
three “Resident Choreographers” at Covent Garden, London nominally constituting
the cutting-edge “triumvirate” of British ballet today. But these three artists are
highly diverse. Here are their respective portraits which, together with photos of
their interpreters, give us a full picture of The Royal Ballet (as always in more or less
splendid isolation from the rest of Europe) and its new dance
Christopher Wheeldon: the midAtlantic choreography
When Kevin O’Hare was announced as the next
Director of The Royal Ballet, he was not the only
person to be presented to the press: in addition to
Wayne McGregor, who kept his position as Resident Choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon was made
Artistic Associate. Wheeldon (now 41), in sharp
contrast to McGregor, is a choreographer from within
the Royal Ballet family, having trained at The Royal
Ballet School (he was a contemporary of Darcey
Bussell) and joined the company in 1991 on graduation. He was a fine dancer, winning the Gold Medal
at the Prix de Lausanne that year, but the indication
of where his future would lie came in that winning
performance where he performed a solo of his own
creation.
The making of Wheeldon came with his decision
after two years in London to accept a contract with
New York City Ballet and his move to the USA.
From his experiences there comes his particularly
‘mid-Atlantic’ choreographic style, a genuine fusion
of English lyricism and American attack. After five
years as a NYCB dancer, rising to soloist level, he
chose to focus on creating dance and became the company’s first Resident Choreographer, making a series of works which forged his reputation. His 2002
Polyphonia marked a high-point in his ‘American’
period, a highly intelligent and musical work to a
‘difficult’ score by György Ligeti, clearly influenced
by his NYCB experience and fellow dancers, but distinctively his own.
2002 also marked his return to The Royal Ballet
to create Tryst, a source of great excitement to the
UK dance world, desperate for the company again
to have a resident choreographer of note. Wheeldon,
however, was intent on forging an international reputation, rather than tying himself down to one company, developing a close relationship with San Francisco Ballet, for which he has produced several works,
working with the Bolshoi Ballet in 2007, a process
filmed for the Emmy award-winning documentary
Strictly Bolshoi. In the same year, he founded the
Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, intended as a
transatlantic ensemble, but which he left in 2010.
Wheeldon continues to make abstract ballets (arguably his strong point) but has been increasingly
drawn to full-length works, firstly attempting productions of both Swan Lake (Pennsylvania Ballet)
and The Sleeping Beauty (Royal Danish Ballet) with
30
Christopher
Wheeldon
in rehearsal
for “The
Winter’s
Tale”
Marianela Núñez,
Nehemiah Kish – The Royal
Ballet: “Aeternum”,
c. Christopher Wheeldon
(ph. J. Persson/ROH)
31
The
Royal
Ballet:
“Tetractys
- The Art
of
Fugue”,
c. Wayne
McGregor
(ph. J.
Persson)
movement.
Wheeldon’s dance style is in great contrast to
Wayne McGregor’s – it is essentially lyrical and,
at its best, possesses a real rhythmic pulse. He is
fond of complicated lifts and sometimes puzzling
hand and arms semaphore, and is able to deploy
large numbers of dancers on stage with clarity and
confidence. His high-profile career thus far meant
that before O’Hare’s appointment, he was spoken
of as a potential director of The Royal Ballet.
Gerald Dowler
mixed success (owing, in part, to an over-complication of the narrative), and then creating his own
ballets. This is logical progression for someone who
clearly enjoys elaborate stage design (DGV – danse
à grande vitesse and Electric Counterpoint for The
Royal Ballet are both design-heavy) and led to the
2011 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Royal
Ballet’s first full-length commission in two decades)
which was felt by many to present an extraordinary visual spectacle, but rather less dance than
could be wished for. His most recent work, The
Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet, goes a long way
to resolving many of these problems, possessing a
clear narrative and plenty of varied and intelligent
McGregor, the post-contemporary
choreographer
Wayne McGregor became The Royal Ballet’s
Resident Choreographer in 2006, the first contemporary dance choreographer to hold such a position.
This choreographer whose name is well-known
worldwide, was not classically-trained. Wayne
McGregor studied at Bretton Hall (West Yorkshire),
a college specialising in music and visual and performing arts and then at the José Limón School in
New York. Nevertheless McGregor who, with his
Random Dance company (founded in 1992) has been
a leader in contemporary choreography, has demonstrated his brilliant ability to capitalise on the
formal and aesthetic command of movement that
classical dancers can offer him. But even more importantly, McGregor is capable, when he conceives
his works for them, of going beyond the limitations
of the types of movement and choreographic combinations inherent in classical ballet and of introducing other forms that derive from ways of thinking
and using the dancer’s body onstage.
Does McGregory belong to the post-classic category where we bunch together the companions and
disciples of kingpin William Forsythe? Not exactly
and even though the tendency to label all artistic
currents as a “post-this” or a “post-that” in order
to classify them has become almost embarrassing,
we can hazard, especially on the basis of his work
with The Royal Ballet, a definition of McGregor
as a “post-contemporary choreographer”. Light-
Wayne
McGregor
(ph. L.
Nylind)
32
Edward Watson, Alina
Cojocaru – The Royal Ballet:
“Chroma”,
c. Wayne McGregor
(ph. J. Persson)
33
James Hay,
Leanne
Cope, Steven
McRae,
Brian
Maloney –
The Royal
Ballet:
“Hansel and
Gretel”,
c. Liam
Scarlett (ph.
D. Morgan)
Liam
Scarlett
(ph. D.
Azoulay)
years away from the mushrooming “non dance”
which rarely produces original and clever works,
McGregor never fails to use choreography as a specific artistic means and end, though he is ever-interested in multidisciplinary collaborations that result in a cross-over of dance, film, music, visual
art, technology and science. From his point of view
this is simply – without the adverb being belittling
– a question of being in sync with the times where
all that is human is contextual in real time.
His creations for The Royal Ballet include
Symbiont(s) (2001), Qualia (2003), Engram (2005),
Chroma (2006) – available on DVD together with
Infra (2008) and Limen (2009) – Nimbus (2007),
Live Fire Exercise (2011), Ambar (2012), Machina
(part of Metamorphosis: Titian 2012) and Carbon
Life (2012).
Excerpts from Entity, Dyad 1909, Qualia, Limen
are included in two documentaries by Catherine
Maximoff, available on DVD: Going Somewhere and
A Moment in Time. More recently he created Raven
Girl (2013), which draws its inspiration from a
short story by writer Audrey Niffeneger to music
by Gabriel Yared, and his latest work, Tetractys The Art of Fugue, to music by Bach with visuals
by Californian artist Tauba Auerbach who is noted
as a deconstructionist of space. A working
video of this work, available at
www.roh.org.uk, is
helpful for
understanding the workings of this choreographer’s
mind, and his highly personal way of overcoming
the contradictions between classical and contemporary. This is testified by the fact that a ballerina like Natalia Osipova, now a principal with The
Royal Ballet, is entirely comfortable “wearing”
McGregor’s lines: his extended arms and legs that
then fold-in unusually, or his distorted off-axis balances.
Thanks to his ever-mutant talent, McGregor directed and choreographed Dido and Aeneas and Acis
and Galatea (2009) – both on DVD – for The Royal
Ballet and The Royal Opera. His Dido and Aeneas
by Purcell, a highly refined production with singers, dancers and digital images, was successfuly
premièred at La Scala, Milan in 2006 before being
performed in Great Britain. Moreover, McGregor
has created (among others) for the Paris Opéra, San
Francisco Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, New York City
Ballet, Australian Ballet, English National Ballet,
Nederlands Dans Theater and other troupes. His
works also feature in the repertoires of other companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet of Moscow (for
whom he will be creating shortly), the Mariinsky
Ballet of St Petersburg, The Royal Danish Ballet,
Boston Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. He is definitely
going to be on the scene for a long while.
Liam Scarlett, the young one
The British ballet world continues to search
desperately for the next choreographic giant
to succeed Frederick Ashton and Kenneth
MacMillan, so the continuing excitement surrounding Liam Scarlett (now 27 years old)
is telling. Scarlett is an ‘insider’, a product of The Royal Ballet School which he
left to join The Royal Ballet in 2005 (he
stopped dancing in 2012). His interest in
and talent for choreography were already
apparent at school, and his work had
already come to wider attention before
he graduated.
He is fully steeped in the English
tradition and his choreography shows
a true affinity with narrative and an
34
Johan Kobborg, Steven McRae
– The Royal Ballet: “
Sweet Violets”, c. Liam Scarlett
(ph. B. Cooper/RHO)
35
choreographer and to work on his own movement
style. He came to prominence with his first main
stage work Asphodel Meadows in 2011, which
showed uncommon confidence in his use of the space
and a large cast of twenty dancers. This led to a
second commission in 2012, Sweet Violets, focussing
on the painter Walter Sickert and the story of Jack
the Ripper. Visually arresting, it suffered from a
confused narrative which detracted from the dancing, clearly influenced by MacMillan, of often explosive force. It returns to performance this season with revisions which might allow its strengths
to become more apparent.
As with all choreographers of
note today, he has gained experience outside his home company;
Asphodel Meadows secured him
a commission from Edward
Villella for Miami City Ballet
(Viscera in 2012), which was followed by another, Euphotic
(2013). He is now firmly established at an international level: he
created the subtle Acheron for
NYCB in early 2014, will follow
up his Firebird for Norwegian Ballet with a new work next season,
and has commissions from American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco,
as well as from The Royal Ballet
which will in November 2014 premiere his W. H. Auden inspired
The Age of Anxiety set to Leonard
Bernstein’s Symphony No 2.
In 2012, after years of functioning without a ‘house’ choreographer, The Royal Ballet already
possessed two (McGregor and
Wheeldon), so it seemed, worryingly, that there would be little
space for Scarlett, and there was
talk of his departure. In an astute
move, the company appointed him
as its first ever Artist in Residence
(which in essence makes him the
‘junior’ in the triumvirate). Certainly, when McGregor’s star will
wane, Scarlett should be considered for the top job – at the age
of 27, he has time to wait.
Gerald Dowler
easy, free-flowing movement style. What is prized
almost above everything is his natural and sophisticated musicality which lends meaning and ‘rightness’ to much of his work. He has been astute in
his choice of commissions, and has often worked
on a small scale, using the Linbury Theatre, The
Royal Opera House’s studio space, often with just
a few dancers. He enjoys a good relationship with
Ballet Black, a small-scale company using non-white
classical dancers, and BalletBoyz, William Tuckett
and Michael Nunn’s ensemble using young male
dancers. These have allowed him to mature as a
Sarah
Lamb,
Johannes
Stepanek –
The Royal
Ballet:
“Asphodel
Meadows”,
c. Liam
Scarlett (ph.
Johan
Persson/
ROH)
36
37
critics • comptes-rendus • critics EN SCÈNE ! critics • comptes-rendus • critics
Alessio
Carbone,
Aurélie
Dupont,
Michaël
Denard –
Ballet de
l’Opéra de
Paris: “Miss
Julie”,
c. Birgit
Cullberg
(ph. A.
Deniau)
When Agnès de Mille created Fall River Legend
she had already made a number of ballets, including
Rodeo (the work which flung open the gates of Broadway for her where she made a name thanks to her
wonderful dances in Oklahoma). As from 1948, she
alternated musicals and ballets (mostly created, as
was the case with Fall River Legend, for American
Ballet Theatre).
Based on the real-life story of a girl called Lizzie
Borden who had been accused of murdering her father and stepmother, de Mille explores the psychology of a girl that can only escape oppression through
violence. The intensity reached by the murderer and
the tightly-knit action centred around four characters – the Accused, her fiancé and the two victims
– immediately create a dramatic mood.
On opening night at the Opéra recently-appointed
étoile Alice Renavand interpreted the murderess with
great determination, reading the character as a sort
of little stubborn bull who collides with obstacles
without knowing how to dominate them. Dancing
beside her was Vincent Chaillet, perfect as the Pastor, in love with the Accused but incapable of understanding her, while Stéphanie Romberg was excellent as the odious Stepmother: both characters
make the girl’s solitude all the more momentous.
During those same years, Birgit Cullberg (already
leading a company), took her cue from August
Strindberg’s play Miss Julie and portrayed on stage
the contradictions and malaise of a girl whose stern
Paris Opéra Ballet
De Mille and Cullberg, two
psychological choreographers
at the Opéra
Fall River Legend – chor. Agnès de Mille, mus.
Morton Gould; Miss Julie – chor. Birgit Cullberg,
mus. Ture Ragstrom
Paris, Palais Garnier
Fall River Legend and Miss Julie, the two ballets
offered together in a recent programme by the Paris
Opéra Ballet, have more than one thing in common.
Apart from their creation dates (the former in 1948,
the latter in 1950), they were both made by two
women from the same generation, respectively Agnès
de Mille and Birgit Cullberg, both aware of the problems relating to their sex. De Mille was active in
the USA, then a country in search of identity; Cullberg
in Sweden, where Expressionism was beginning to
take root: both considered their art a medium for
expressing their take on the world, using both the
language of ballet and of what used to be the modern style of the time – that of Martha Graham’s
modern dance in America (de Mille) or of Kurt Jooss’
German Tanztheater (Cullberg).
38
No Russo-Parisians here, but a cast of multiethnic
dancers to interpret the enigmatic figures that have
sprouted from Khan’s fantasy (he seems almost to
have been in mediumistic contact with the ancestral
memories that might have inspired Stravinsky’s own
masterpiece ). The figures are: a priest in a black
cassock who, as if possessed, yells biblical fragments
from the story of Abraham ready to sacrifice his son
Isaac; a clergyman of some oriental denomination
(perhaps Slavic) wearing a skullcap; an older woman
covered in white powder, one breast exposed and
wearing a crinoline petticoat, a fawn with long, sharp
horns and, lastly, a ‘Chosen Girl’. All of them are
at the centre of a ritual of which we know neither
the reasons nor the religion it springs from, though
we perceive its eternal force.
Breaking away from his habitual style, Akram
Khan astonishes us by the staging of a primordial
spirituality, violent and gentle at the same time, danced
by his little group amidst smoke and incense. It may
not be one of his major works, but it is a brave one,
fearlessly unconventional vis-à-vis that “monument”
to modernity that was, and is, The Rite of Spring.
education inhibits her sexuality. The same subject
was masterfully treated ten years later by Elia Kazan
in his film Splendor in the Grass.
Cullberg’s Miss Julie, like de Mille’s work, is a
highly-structured ballet in which the drama unfolds
in a few clearly-defined scenes, a crescendo that
quickly reaches its fatal climax. Miss Julie was superbly interpreted by Aurélie Dupont who conveyed
Julie’s haughtiness, followed by a sense of moral
decadence after she has seduced her father’s valet;
Nicolas Le Riche was perfect as Jean, portraying him
with highly effective brutality, vanity and arrogance.
As for Alessio Carbone, even though he was only
dancing the role of Julie’s rejected fiancé, he shone
as always.
Sonia Schoonejans
Akram Khan Company
A Rite without The Rite
iTMOi – chor. Akram Khan, mus. Nitin Sawhney,
Jocelyn Pook, Ben Frost
Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica
Ballett des Saarländischen
Staatstheater
Anyone who was expecting Anglo-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan to use Igor Stravinsky’s Rite
of Spring music will recognise about 30 seconds of
it and then find themselves listening to new and loud
compositions by three musicians called upon to penetrate “in the mind of Igor” (which is what the acronym of the title stands for). The three are AngloIndian Nitin Sawhney, who is a long-standing
‘accomplice’ of Khan, Jocelyn Pook, who has collaborated with DV8 and with Anglo-Indian choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, and Australian (but Iceland-based) composer of post-classic electronic music
Ben Frost, who has collaborated in the past both
with Khan and Wayne McGregor. A sort of artistic
family get-together for this production which was
created last year for the centennial of Vaslav
Nijinsky’s original work for Diaghilev’s Ballets
Russes.
Anastasia is brought back to
life
Anastasia – chor. Kenneth MacMillan, mus. Bohuslav
Martinu; Shadows – chor. Marguerite Donlon, mus.
Claas Willeke, Sam Auinger
Saarbrücken (Germany), Saarländisches Staatstheater
After twelve years as director, Irish choreographer
Marguerite Donlon (48) has now left Saarbrücken’s
Ballett des Saarländischen Staatstheater, in Germany;
the company is set to go through significant changes
under its new director, Belgian choreographer Stijn
Celis (50), but for her last programme Donlon scheduled a revival of the original one-act version of
Akram
Khan
Company:
“iTMOi”
(ph. J. L.
Fernandez)
39
Laura Halm
– Ballett de
Saarbrücken:
“Anastasia”,
c. Kenneth
MacMillan
(ph. B. Stöß)
Russia crowd the stage and her mind until she finally emerges convinced that she is Anastasia, the
surviving youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, famously atop her hospital bed which begins to circle
the stage in a final striking image.
The company is unused to the movement style
and worked hard, with considerable success, to deliver the many demands this work places on them.
Meticulously rehearsed, sets and costumes faithfully
recreated (from Bob Crowley’s 1996 production),
with a superb performance of Bohuslav Martinu’s
jagged Sixth Symphony by the State Orchestra,
Anastasia was a most welcome addition to the company repertoire – whether it will be revived under
the new regime will have to be seen.
Marguerite Donlon placed her own Shadows alongside Anastasia in what made for an intriguing juxtaposition; both works depict the quest for identity,
the latter tracing Anderson’s journey from attempted
suicide to self-belief while the former depicts three
artistic suicides – playwright Sarah Kane, musician
Kurt Cobain and writer Virginia Woolf.
It is at its strongest at the beginning when the three
protagonists in white engage in mesmerising looselimbed movements and at its end when they are joined
by black-clad doppelgängers who partner them and
Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia (subsequently it was
also beefed up into a three-act ballet, Editor’s note).
One could easily assume that MacMillan’s ballets are well-known the world over, and it is true
that dozens of companies now perform works by
him; however, a closer look at the schedules reveals
that it is the box-office gold of Romeo and Juliet
and Manon which dominates, sure-fire hits, guaranteed to fill theatres night after night. There is far
more to MacMillan than these two full-length ballets, but with even London’s Royal Ballet unwilling to explore the full range of his work, any performance of lesser-known pieces is to be greeted with
enthusiasm.
Created in Berlin in 1967 as a vehicle for the great
dance-actress Lynn Seymour, Anastasia very much
deserves revival. The title role is still an enormous
challenge to any dancer and Laura Halm is to be
congratulated on visibly growing into the part as the
ballet progressed in a performance of mounting intensity. MacMillan’s concept remains of tremendous
power, a fractured narrative of the real, the remembered and the imagined as Anna Anderson tries to
order the chaos of her thoughts while confined in
hospital after a suicide attempt. The Imperial family, Rasputin, the revolution and her escape from
40
who ultimately remain in a shower of red petals as
the three artists ascend to enter perspex boxes, their
fame preserved forever. Alas, the intensity of both their
movement and the imagery used is diluted by the central section featuring fourteen ‘shadows’ who indulge
in a great deal of rushing about the stage to little effect.
Gerald Dowler
Bordeaux Opera Ballet
A touch of Carlson
Pneuma – chor. Carolyn Carlson, mus. Gavin Bryars,
Philip Jeck
Bordeaux (France), Opéra
71-year-old Carolyn Carlson, is never short of images and is definitely a collector of dreams. In fact
Pneuma – her latest work, created for the Bordeaux
Opera Ballet – spellbinds us not so much on account
of the repetition of its gestures, as of its dreamlike images, deeply beautiful as only Carlson, worthy heiress to American stage director Bob Wilson, can visualise.
Using philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s essay L’Air
et les songes (“Air and Dreams”) as her starting point,
Carlson created Pneuma (which means “Breath” in Greek)
with the collaboration of Gavin Bryars whose speciallycommissioned music leaves the magic of dance free to
express itself. Carlson taps in greedily to a vast repertory of everyday gestures which she then stylises in
her highly unique fashion, starting with her very special tall and willowy physique. Movements are like
gusts of wind, with a breeze blowing everywhere on
stage, over the scenery’s fields of wheat and grassy
meadows and up the dancers’ whirling costumes and
through their long hair. A group of girls are whirling
like Dervishes and their long loose hair seem to be
sweeping space, while a winged figure – could it be an
angel? – crosses the stage slowly in the background.
Rémi Nicolas’ light designs, as sophisticated as in a
show by Wilson, sculpt a quasi-unreal space in which
the dancers, who seems to be deriving real enjoyment
from this, move like unearthly creatures.
Carolyn Carlson has created here a work full of light
and serene strength which reminds one of the wonderful Signes which she made in collaboration with painter
Olivier Debré for the Paris Opéra Ballet.
Sonia Schoonejans
Aakash Odedra
Three aces for Odedra
Rising: Cut – chor. Russell Maliphant, mus. Andy
Cowton; Constellation – chor. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui,
mus. Olga Wojciechowska; In the Shadow of a Man –
chor. Akram Khan, mus. Jocelyn Pook
Turin (Italy), Teatro Astra
We saw a performance by a first-rate soloist, AngloIndian Aakash Odedra. Together with a work by himself, Nritta, in the classic Kathak dance style, Odedra
also performed three pieces created for him by three
well-known choreographers, a band of artists in sync
with each other: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Anglo-Bangladeshi Akram Khan (who, it will be remembered, was
actually Cherkaoui’s partner in Zero Degrees) and Britain’s top-notch Russell Maliphant, who is on the cusp
between contemporary dance and oriental martial arts
and is a favourite with the BalletBoyz and Sylvie
Guillem.
Odedra is an amazing dancer, wispy as a reed, incredibly fast in his Kathak (Indian traditional dance
Aakash
Odedra nel
suo recital
“Rising”
(ph. C.
Nash)
41
Ballet de
l’Opéra de
Bordeaux:
“Pneuma”,
c. Carolyn
Carlson
(ph. S.
Colomyes)
Ballet de
Lorraine:
“Relâche”,
c. Peter
Jacobsson
after Jean
Börlin
(ph. L.
Philippe)
mus. David Tudor; Relâche – chor. Peter Jacobsson,
after Jean Borlin, conception Francis Picabia, mus.
Erik Satie, film René Clair
Nancy (France), Opéra National de Lorraine
Last March the Ballet de Lorraine directed by
Peter Jacobsson presented a triptych.
It included 27-year-old Noé Soulier’s creation
Corps de ballet with which the young choreographer declares his intent to “deviate the legacy of
the classical vocabulary from its original purpose”.
This explanation of his work is printed on the programme, leaving one perplexed. What exactly does
he mean by “original purpose” vis-à-vis a vocabulary and technique that have never stopped developing, over the centuries and across the continents,
from court dancing to Balanchine’s “abstract” ballet, via the Romantic and academic ballet, before
being subject to deconstruction, in particular by
William Forsythe?
Thus, though he is undoubtedly acquainted with
the ballet classics (albeit it with a few lacunae),
Soulier’s attempt at a “deviation” operation comes
somewhat late on in the day and, in comparison to
Forsythe’s brio or Jérôme Bel’s wit, Corps de ballet
remains primly scholastic. But even young Soulier
will eventually grow up, so we hope for his own
sake.
Sounddance, the second work on the programme
and now taken into the French troupe’s repertory,
was created by Merce Cunningham in 1975 when
he returned to New York after spending about six
weeks with the Paris Opéra dancers to create Un
Jour ou deux (“A Day or Two”). Probably glad to
get back to his company and working environment,
Cunningham created a vibrant and ecstatic piece,
clothed in curtained drop pendent of gold velvet –
designed by Mark Lancaster – which envelops and
swallows up the dancers, playing a major role in
the choreography.
The Ballet de Lorraine dancers attack the work
with vigour but are unable to hide the technical difficulties of the choreography which we were unaware of when it was used to be interpreted by their
colleagues of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Les Ballets
Suédois:
“Relâche”,
c. Jean Börlin,
1924
style) rotations; his barefoot stamping provides such
virtuosic percussions that it gives strength to the thesis that flamenco may have some Indian roots.
Cut is inspired by the abrupt cuts of movement in
Kathak dancing which are reflected principally in the
light cuts (designs by Michael Hulls, Maliphant’s usual
collaborator) and in the astounding agility with which
Odedra’s limbs move, highlighted by cones and strips
of white light in darkness.
In the Shadow of a Man by Khan explores the movements of those animals that inspire the rhythms and
forms of Indian folk dancing, as if Man were the residual phantom of this deep and natural quality of movement. Circular movements prevail at all levels, be it
the body or the stage’s glowing highlights.
Constellation by Cherkaoui is dotted by undulating
lamps as if this white-clad dance existed in a gravitational magnetic field caused by the planets. Time is
suspended, stellar, full of spirituality. The same spirituality that permeates this entire performance by
Odedra who has been very fittingly described as “rising star of British South Asian dance”.
Ballet de Lorraine
Relâche Returns
Corps de ballet – chor. Noé Soulier, mus. arr. Jacques
Gandard; Sounddance – chor. Merce Cunningham,
42
43
Daria
Liakisheva,
Oleg Fomin
– Natalia
Stats Teatr:
“Le Coq
d’or”,
c. Gali
Abaidulov
(ph. E.
Lapina)
And at last we come to Relâche, the work’s first
restaging since it was premièred by the Ballets Suédois
in 1924. This iconic ballet was conceived by two
notorious pranksters, Francis Picabia and Erik Satie
and based on an idea by Blaise Cendrars. Picabia described it thus: “Relâche is life, life as I like it…
movement without a goal, neither forward nor backward, neither to the left nor to the right”. It consists in a sequence of unrelated “events”, similar to
the what the Futurists were turning out in the same
years: there is no leitmotif, no beginning and no end,
a bit like Satie’s music (hence we are better able to
understand the connection between Satie and John
Cage).
But aside from the absence of logic what makes
Relâche an avant-garde work is the fact that sandwiched within it is a film intermezzo, Entr’acte, that
launched the then young director René Clair.
(Diaghilev rehashed this idea four years later with
Ode, a ballet by George Balanchine.) Some images
from the film also serve as a prologue to Relâche:
we see Picabia and Satie on the rooftops of Paris,
looking down at the public beside a cannon which
fires...marking the beginning of the show.
The curtain rises on a backdrop covered in hundreds of luminous metal rings, like headlights of a
car. Then come a few scenes in which there is very
little dancing, but it doesn’t matter because Dadaist
Picabia’s self-humour is at its best here. Hats off
to Peter Jacobsson for his masterly “reconstruction”.
Sonia Schoonejans
Natalia Stats Theatre
The Cockerel sings and
dances
Le Coq d’or – chor. Gali Abaidulov, mus. Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov
Moscow, Natalia Sats Theatre
Andris Liepa has made it his mission to bring the
glories of the Diaghilev era to the stage once more
by means of his Les Saisons Russes du XXIe Siècle,
a mission, if truth be told, that has seen its ups and
its downs with decent revivals alongside somewhat
dubious ‘re-imaginings’.
Le Coq d’or, his latest project can, however, be
greeted as a real success. For it, Liepa has teamed up
with the forces of the Natalia Sats theatre in Moscow (a wholly admirable organisation bringing opera
and ballet to young people) to revive Diaghilev’s concept of an opera-ballet. In fact, Le Coq d’or was not
new when the impresario presented it to the Paris
audience of 1914: with a plot based on a novella by
Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov had
composed it in 1908 as a biting satire of the ineptitude of the Russian Tsar and his generals in the illfated Russo-Japanese war of 1905, but the censor had
forbidden its performance. The satirical element had
faded by the time of Diaghilev’s later re-imagining and
the work was presented as an exotic comic tale with
44
Centre
Chorégraphique
de Nantes:
“D’Indicibles
Violences”,
c. Claude
Brumachon
(ph. L.
Philippe)
choreography by Michel Fokine. In fact the operaballet concept was never revived and later versions
saw Fokine reworking it into a shorter ballet without the presence of either opera singers or chorus.
Recently, Alexei Ratmansky has created his own
highly satisfactory version for the Royal Danish Ballet, again without voices, so Liepa really has done
something of interest in resurrecting a work known
generally only from the history books. Not only of
interest, but of genuine theatrical worth. Natalia
Goncharova’s extraordinary set and costume designs
are faithfully recreated in all their glorious naïf garishness and Rimsky Korsakov’s plush sonorities are
expertly played by the house orchestra. Crucially,
the singers are vocally superb and act enthusiastically on their side platforms, fully engaged with the
narrative.
Very little of Fokine’s movement survives (from
film of a later version), so Liepa has wisely turned
to new choreography from Gali Abaidulov, who has
created something of an ‘homage’ to the early master, borrowing steps and groupings from Fokine
works with which we are familiar. It is not, however, pastiche, and is well-judged for Pushkin’s comic
picture-book tale, focussing mainly on pantomime
gestures. The major change has been to make the
eponymous cockerel a man’s part, which makes perfect sense given the presence of the indefatigable soloist Pavel Okunev who leaps and bounds with boundless energy. There are no outside soloists in this
venture, so there is a distinct sense of ‘company’
among the dancers, who perform the work with genuine commitment and make the very best case for this
strange yet beguiling hybrid piece.
Gerald Dowler
in heat starts all over again. Scenes from the changing room of some college, or Turkish bath, or sports
pitch, seen from the wings, an angle usually hidden
to the spectator’s eye.
It takes great physical and emotional stamina to
dance all this without the slightest trace of vulgarity or morbidity. Accolades to the dancers who form
a whole as they give expression to this “unspeakable violence” though, equally, they each have a personal way of expressing their physicality and character nuances. Benjamin Lamarche, the company’s
co-director since 1992, dances incisively in their
midst, leading them onwards in a collective and contagious action.
Centre Chorégraphique National de
Nantes
Brumachon’s primordial
dance
D’Indicibles Violences – chor. Claude Brumachon,
mus. Christophe Zurfluh
Turin-Collegno (Italy), Lavanderia a Vapore
Shanghai Ballet
D’Indicibles Violences (“Unspeakable Violence”),
presented in 2013, is Claude Brumachon’s latest creation. The French choreographer, who is 55, is the
director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de
Nantes.
Eight men in vests and boxer shorts perform showing us a powerful and irrepressible masculinity, oozing with testosterone. This is the unspeakable violence of the title, a primordial, pre-conscious violence,
danced to a soundtrack with a pulsating, obsessive
beat. But why is it unspeakable? Because it is the
crude, animal-like violence with which nature has
endowed human beings but that culture attempts to
curb. Here Brumachon takes us back to a pre-cultural, pre-intellectual state where the desire of power
and the power of desire prevail, the drive of virile
pride, amidst eruptions and interruptions, in group
or solo dances.
This first chapter of a triptych intentionally entitled Trilogie de chair (“Trilogy of the Flesh”), this
one-hour show is not for schoolgirls: pursuit, attraction, repulsion, abuse, and then the cycle of bodies
Bertrand d’At chinois
The White Haired Girl– chor. Rongrong Hu, Aidi
Fu, Daihui Cheng, Yangyang Lin, mus. Jinxuan Yan,
Benhong Chen, Hongxiang Zhang; A Sign of Love –
chor. Bertrand d’At, mus. various
Paris, Palais des Sports
The last time the Shanghai Ballet had been in Paris
was 28 years ago; on this occasion it showed off the
variety of its repertoire and the eclecticism of its dancers
in two different programmes, classical epic ballet The
White Haired Girl and French choreographer Bertrand
d’At’s A Sign of Love, a work that blends jazz, musical theatre and classic pas de deux.
The joint effort of four choreographers, The White
Haired Girl was created at the time of the Cultural
Revolution led by Mao Tse Tung (1964) and is one
of the company’s iconic ballets.
It is based on a famous Chinese story, revamped
to exalt the new values of the people: its princesses
45
Shanghai
Ballet:
“A Sign
of Love”,
c. Bertrand
d’At (ph.
L. Chen)
and supernatural creatures are substituted with evil
rich landowners and downtrodden peasants who are
eventually saved by the young revolutionaries of the
People’s Army. Folk dancing and classical ballet
come together to celebrate the bravery and determination of the Mao generation. Together with The Red
Detachment of Women, The White Haired Girl is one
of the classics of Revolutionary Chinas’s ballet.
A Sign of Love was created for the Shanghai Ballet in 2006 by Bertrand d’At (former director of the
Ballet du Rhin), with scenery and costumes designed
by Jérôme Kaplan. It is the same theme as that treated
by director Wong Kar-wai in his film In the Mood
for Love (2000): a sweeping but hopeless passion
between two lovers whose consciences will not allow them to live out their love.
Set in the 1930s, the meetings between the two
protagonists, Mrs Wang and Mr Li, during parties
or at night clubs, give d’At a chance to choreograph
some music-hall numbers worthy of the Broadway
stage. It’s fun to see the Shanghai Ballet dancers –
all trained in Soviet-style classical technique, Chinese ballet dating back to the Treaty of Friendship
and Alliance – throw themselves happily into jazz
dancing and Charleston (laced with virtuosism as acrobatics continue to be part and parcel of the training of a Chinese dancer). Some of the poetic moments between the timid lovers contrast with the
teeming atmosphere of the gay and carefree city on
the eve of the Sino-Japanese War. The ballet ends
with the blasts of the first bombings that are going
to separate Mrs Wang and Mr Li.
Over and beyond their aesthetic value, it is interesting to note that the two ballets both portray the
occupation of China by Japan, at precisely a time
when the relationship between the two countries is
undergoing fresh tensions.
Sonia Schoonejans
of colour – from blue to purple – are sophisticated
in the purity of their linear form; the light designs
are equally pure and the dialogue with the music is
based precisely on this consonance of distilled sentiments that offer logical and intellectual emotions
to the spectator, exception made for a few moments
that suggest a narrative thread.
In a piece like Open Spaces for 12 String Instruments the audience is surrounded by sound, the musicians being positioned around them. Titus Engel
conducts his orchestra with arms that do not in the
least clash with the choreography. The dancers on
stage trace scales of movement by decomposing and
recomposing the group in ways that immediately remind us of photographs of innovative Russian and
German works from the 1920s and 30s. Without conceding anything that might provide light-hearted entertainment (except a jocular moment in which the
dancers make off with the music stands, obliging the
musicians to follow them closely in order to continue playing), the evening proceeds with impeccable rigour, including a vigorous improvisation by percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky.
Métamorphoses is the re-elaboration of one of those
Dialogues between dance and architecture to which
Waltz has been devoting herself for some years; it
was created in 2009 for the launching of the Neues
Museum in Berlin designed by David Chipperfield.
The work features a female duet (to Hautfelder by
Ruth Wiesenfeld) and septet (to percussion music
by Xenakis, Rebonds Part B, with the dancers in
long black dresses) and a battle between a couple
(to String Quartet No. 2 by Georg Friedrich Haas);
these are followed by a mixed quintet for dancers
with highly diverse physiques, the girls being so
strong that they are able to lift their partners (to
String Quartet No. 1 by Ligeti) and, lastly, Aurora
for 12 Strings (Xenakis) which Sasha Waltz renders
as a male/female duo for Oriental dancers whose style
ranges magnificently from lyricism to martial arts.
High professional quality; we appreciate the uncompromising “theatrical concept” of this entirely
modern (in a historical sense) choreographer who has
a natural relationship with that equally modern music which the public often finds hard to fathom.
Sasha Waltz and Guests
Dance duets with music
Métamorphoses – chor. Sasha Waltz, mus. Ruth
Wiesenfeld, Iannis Xenakis, Goerg Friedrich Haas,
György Ligeti
Ferrara (Italy), Teatro Comunale
The Sasha Waltz’s company from Berlin and the
most illustrious Mahler Chamber Orchestra (founded
by Claudio Abbado) presented a first-class programme.
The playbill announced six miniatures for 16 dancers
and 15 musicians making a clear connection between
excerpts of “cultured” music and of “cultured” dance.
If someone still believed in the definition of Sasha
Waltz as “the new Pina Bausch”, Métamorphoses is
the living proof of the unsuitability of such a banal
definition based on the fact that both Bausch and Waltz
trained in Germany and then in the USA where both
joined inspirational contemporary groups (which were
instrumental for their subsequent careers).
Instead Waltz undoubtedly and unmistakably descends from the modern Central-European school of
modern dance, not only because she was a pupil of
Mary Wigman, but also on account of the austere,
geometric, architectural quality of her style which
is expressive in itself and per se.
The costumes, black and white with a few dabs
46
Sasha Waltz
and Guests:
“Metamorphoses”,
c. Sasha Waltz
(ph. S.
Bolesch)
47
B a l l e t Tu b e
Maya Plissetskaya:
“La Mort du cygne”,
c. Michel Fokine
The immortal dying
swan
On Youtube we can travel through a hundred years of history of Michel Fokine’s
The Dying Swan: from the interpretation
of Anna Pavlova, who created the role in
the early 20th century, to those of various
contemporary dancers, not forgetting famous ballerinas of the past such as Tamara
Toumanova, Galina Ulanova, Alla
Osipenko, Yvette Chauviré, Natalia
Makarova, Ghislaine Thesmar, Eva
Evdokimova, Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia
Bessmertnova (who we see rehearsing with
the great Marina Semionova)… The videos show the range of variations with which
the ballerina can play when it comes to
phrasing, to the passage from imitation of
the swan to a suggested transfiguration of
it, or from poetic hues to dramatic tints.
The key is in these subtle nuances which
make The Dying Swan a solo for great interpreters only.
As we cannot discuss all the interpretations, I have limited myself to selecting a
few ballerinas to show how the rendering
of this “impressionist choreographic sketch”
has changed in the course of over a century.
Clearly, period films must be viewed with
a different eye from those with which we
watch contemporary interpretations. At
first, a fragment from Anna Pavlova’s 1907
performance might leave us somewhat perplexed. But, in order to get an idea of the
exceptionality of this ballet, let us try to
imagine how innovative the port de bras,
‘freed up’ from the classic style, must have
seemed in the Russian Imperial Theatres
and how unusual Pavlova’s willowy physique and slender ankles (compared to those
of the stout techniciennes of the late 19th
century) must have seemed to the public
of the day. Fokine had found in Pavlova’s
graceful figure the ideal interpreter to render
the lyricism of the ephemeral.
Galina Ulanova, in a film from 1956,
might make us smile on account of her expressive emphasis, the mannerisms of her
port de bras (with a lot of fluttering of the
hands), her excessive energy in the faster
passages: but her dancing was in keeping
with the tastes of that period. To judge it
according to today’s aesthetics would prevent us from understanding Ulanova’s great
interpretative art.
On YouTube there is such a variety of
videos from different periods of Maya
Plisetskaya in The Dying Swan that it constitutes a subchapter in its own right, showing us the gamut of her interpretations over
several decades. The most spectacular – and
I use this adjective purposely – video is
from 1979: Plisetskaya (who was 54 at the
time) dances her solo but the only way to
quell the ovation (after an interminable series of curtain calls) is to grant an encore.
And we notice subtle nuances between the
first and second performances (not to mention two different variations of the finale).
But Plisetskaya’s undulating port de bras
remains identical and unsurpassed, this bal-
48
lerina’s hallmark, as it were.
There are also numerous present-day ballerinas on YouTube, though none offer a
more deeply moving aesthetic experience
(at least this is my opinion) than the majestic and hypnotic swan of Ulyana
Lopatkina. Those that might otherwise be
considered overly long arms are perfect for
the purpose of sketching the port de bras,
whether fluid or truncated. But hers is never
the slavish imitation of a swan’s wings, nor
a theatrical and conventional rendering of
its agony. With Lopatkina, everything is
internalised, transfigured into pure poetry.
With that touch of mystic vagueness that
is typical of this ballerina.
YouTube surfers will allow themselves
some levity with the feather-shedding swan
of the Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo
(the American company of men in drag).
This ‘take’ on The Dying Swan is part
parody, part tribute and underlines, more
effectively than any analysis of the choreography could do, the affectations which
the ballerina is at risk of falling into.
Cristiano Merlo
Ulyana Lopatkina: “La Mort du cygne”,
c. Michel Fokine (ph. N. Razina)
MultiMÉDIA
Cinema
“Marco Spada” on the big
screen
The Royal Ballet of London’s cinema season
ends on 28 April with Christopher
Wheeldon’s creation The Winter’s Tale based
on the William Shakespeare play. In the meantime there has been a live broadcast from
Covent Garden, to over one thousand cinemas in 30 different countries all over the
world, of the company’s lavish Sleeping
Beauty in which the original Marius Petipa’s
choreography has been further built up over
the last sixty years by the likes of Frederick
Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher
Wheeldon who have re-choreographed more
or less major sequences of the ballet.
The Royal Ballet’s American dancer Sarah
Lamb danced Aurora, with sparkling technique and a fresh and sunny stage personality. She managed to get through the ballet’s
numerous challenges almost unscathed: the
entrée, the Rose Adage and ensuing variation
and coda, the spindle scene, the marvellous
grand pas d’action of the Vision tableau (the
variation is by Ashton) and, last but not least,
the finale’s sumptuous pas de deux. But she
is not The Ballerina (with a capital “B”) that
the role requires and while she is perfectly
at ease with the joyful liveliness of the first
act, she is less so with the lyricism of the
second and the grandeur of the third. Her
prince was a convincing Steven McRae. It’s
a shame that Laura McCulloch’s Lilac Fairy
is so unphotogenic on camera.
The Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow’s ballet
season broadcast live to cinemas by Pathé
Live ended last March with a spectacular performance of Marco Spada by Pierre Lacotte
which was hugely and deservingly acclaimed.
BALLET2000 reviewed the ballet when it
debuted at the Bolshoi a few months ago.
The plush scenery and costumes and the
jam-packed ensembles are blown up by the
very accurate and clever video direction, with
a profusion of dancing gliding across the
screen before our eyes, laced with imaginative and highly intricate sequences (though
some were perhaps a trifle too scholastic)
that suggested (not always, but quite often)
the French 19th-century style, particularly
in the petit allegro enchaînements. David
Hallberg bedazzled as bandit Marco Spada,
a role that Rudolf Nureyev used to dance,
and also revealed unexpected acting skills.
Dancing beside him were two Petersburg
gems of the Muscovite troupe: as the bandit’s daughter Angela, Evgenia Obraztsova,
whom Lacotte rightly sees as a sort of reincarnation of a certain kind of Romantic ballerina (vis-à-vis aesthetic qualities, a sweet
artistic temperament plus a natural predisposition for mime); as the Marchesa, Olga
Evgenia Obraztsova, Semyon Chudin – Bolshoi Ballet: “Marco Spada”, c. Pierre Lacotte
(ph. Marc Haegeman at Bolshoi Theatre)
Smirnova (her port de bras is the most exquisite I have ever seen) whose reputation
at the Bolshoi (where she already has a host
of fans) is on the rise. Dancing with them
were Semyon Chudin, Igor Tsvirko,
Vyacheslav Lopatin, Anastasia Stashkevich
(splendid in the Bride Variation); the troupe,
bemused and amusing, were in great shape
and offered the finest of performances.
Mark your calendars for an evening at the
cinema live from the Paris Opéra on 3 June:
Daphnis et Chloé, the Benjamin Millepied
creation, and Le Palais de cristal (Symphony
in C) by George Balanchine. For further details: www.vivalopera.fr.
Cristiano Merlo
Web
Period videos online. Fine videos from
the “Legacy Series” can be purchased from
http://icaclassics.com/dance. The iconic recordings include Les Sylphides with Svetlana
Beriosova, Violetta Elvin, Alicia Markova and
John Field and Giselle with Nadia Nerina and
Nikolai Fadeyechev. Moreover, the rarer The
49
Lady and the Fool and Pineapple Poll by John
Cranko, plus “compilations”, one of which
features the pas de deux from the second act
of Giselle starring Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf
Nureyev, filmed in the BBC studios in 1962.
Also available on DVD is Treasures of Russian Ballet which comprises the first act of
The Stone Flower with Yuri Soloviev, Alla
Sizova, Alla Osipenko and the Kirov Ballet
of Leningrad, filmed at The Royal Opera
House in 1960, as well as the pas de deux
from the second act of Swan Lake starring
Galina Ulanova and Nikolai Fadeyechev. Also
on offer is La Fille mal gardée by Frederick
Ashton with Nadia Nerina, David Blair and
Stanley Holden (as the Widow Simone) from
1962 and Choreography by Bournonville,
comprising La Sylphide with Lucette Aldous
and Flemming Flindt and the pas de deux from
The Flower Festival at Genzano with Merle
Park and Rudolf Nureyev. Under the “ballet” heading at www.britishpathe.com, one
can find other period films available on DVD,
such as Spartacus with Vladimir Vasiliev, Le
Spectre de la rose with Maris Liepa and
Natalia Bessmertnova, as well as many other
curiosities.
A new fragrance by Repetto. Discover
the first perfume by Repetto at
www.repetto.com: simply called Repetto,
it is a delicate pink colour, just like the
pointe shoes that are the symbol of the firm
founded by Roland Petit’s mother. The fragrance’s spokesperson is Dorothée Gilbert
of the Paris Opéra and it is described thus
(in somewhat unusual English!): “It is a
timeless bottle in movement, as an arabesque a night of ballet. The subtly tinted
glass bottle bears an identical ribbon that
is used on the famous Carlotta ballerina (i.e.
the iconic Repetto pointe shoes). The satin
ribbon branded with the little charm wraps
delicately like a ballet shoe around the ankle. A play of curves, volumes and unbridled forms gives the glass a unique suppleness.” What is the ideal bouquet of
fragrances for a ballerina or a ballet fan?
“A satin rose that the trail twirls to wrap
you like an infinite satin ribbon. A graceful and carnal fragrance.” All we have to
do now is try it!
E.G.V.
DVD
Bourne Beauty: highly
cinematographic
Sleeping Beauty – chor. Matthew Bourne,
mus. Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky – New
Adventures – Deutsche Grammophon
Anyone who
didn’t get a chance
to see Matthew
Bourne’s “gothic
romance” version
of The Sleeping
Beauty can now enjoy it on DVD.
Bourne (who is the
author of remakes
such as a Nutcracker set in an
orphanage or an allmale Swan Lake)
has a cinematographic fantasy that is worthy of the finest films of the silent screen
(recent black-and-white silent movies such
as French 2011 film The Artist, set in Hollywood during its transition to the ‘talkies’,
or Spanish 2012 Blancanieves, about a female toreador, could be defined as equivalents in spirit to this balletic re-visitation).
And Bourne’s work also comes across perfectly on small monitors, computers and
players of all kinds.
We admire the attention to detail, the silent acting, costume designs (superb, as is
the scenery, by Lez Brotherston), settings
and style. This Sleeping Beauty is cultivated
and has wide appeal at the same time; the
video preserves the timbre of the traditional
fairytale, is cleverly directed by Ross
MacGibbon, while Brett Morris conducts
Tchaikovsky’s score; everybody likes it,
both those who are acquainted with the
classical versions and those who are led to
them after seeing this humorous “reworking”. It is all the more engaging to those
who are able to pick up the references to
the silverscreen, from Scary Movie and The
Crow to Twilight and Eyes Wide Shut, not
to mention TV series like Downton Abbey
set in the Edwardian/post-Edwardian era.
But there are also clear references to literature (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), with allusions to forbidden love as treated in ballet (Giselle, Romeo and Juliet).
In the DVD’s documentary extra, Bourne
tells us about the intentions and making of
his ballet and where he found his inspiration; he allows us to sit in on some rehearsals and to listen to comments by his collaborators and interpreters, as well as by
critics. All of which confirms that this choreographer/director puts an author’s touch
into his every creation – those successful,
brilliant and accurately-documented narrative
ballets, that do not forfeit entertainment
but, rather, try to ennoble it (as is the case
with his Tchaikovsky trilogy).
This is a high-quality film, available both
on DVD and Blu Ray, thus allowing one
to watch the ballet at home at its best. Indeed, it is almost more pleasing to be able
to see it with close-ups. There is no doubt
that this elegant production, like one of
those typical British period costume productions, is highly commercial, though not
in the negative sense of the word.
The devotion of BBL
Le Béjart Ballet Lausanne en tournée en
Chine – a film by Arantxa Aguirre – BBL
Le Béjart Ballet Lausanne au Palais Garnier
– a film by Arantxa Aguirre – BBL
Fans of Maurice Béjart can buy two recent documentaries on the company by
Arantxa Aguirre from the Béjart Ballet
Lausanne’s website (www.bejart.ch, click
“shop” on the menu). A China tour and
the programme presented at the Paris Opéra
are the respective excuses for the two
DVDs to take a look at the everyday life
of this young small, yet cosmopolitan,
“community”, under the leadership of their
present “guru” Gil Roman, yet always devoted to their “Grand Master”. We watch
rehearsals and follow the dancers on tour,
behind the wings, onstage and in their dressing-rooms. We find ourselves tête-à-tête,
or almost, with Elisabet Ros,
Kateryna Shalkina, Julien
Favreau, Óscar Chacón and their
lesser-known colleagues.
The documentary that records
their performance at the Palais
Elisabet Ros, Julien
Favreau, Gil
Roman – Béjart
Ballet Lausanne
50
Garnier in Paris is the more interesting of
the two. Not only on account of the programme itself, which gathers together a
number of sophisticated ballets by Béjart
(Sonate à trois, Webern Opus V, Dialogue
de l’ombre double, Le Marteau sans maître),
but above all because the leitmotif is an essential theme: the preservation of Béjart’s
oeuvre as it is handed down from one generation to the next. It is not just a question of ensuring a “quality label”, but of
perpetuating that extra something related
to the spirit of the “label”. Judging from
what we see and hear on this DVD, that
spirit is being cultivated with loving – indeed touching – devotion.
C.M.
Book
Danse/Cinéma – by various authors – Capricci/Centre National de la Danse
This collection of essays does not focus on video dance nor on screen musicals
featuring dancing but, rather, on the body
in movement as reflected in films and cinematographic language which carefully takes
into account human movement and gestures
during the shooting and editing stages.
There is an interview with Philippe
Decouflé whose shows are deeply influenced by video clips and who, in turn, has
made some delightful video dance works.
Apart from that, though, the various essays in this book analyse the films of
Coppola, Chaplin, Tarkovsky, Godard,
Resnais and Rivette from the point of view
of “dance”, taken in a broad sense. But of
course there is also an essay on films about
ballet, from The Red Shoes to Black Swan.
How should dance be filmed? Charles Picq
writes about his vast experience at la
Maison de la Danse in Lyon. Many specialists comment on the general theme of
this book: choreographers, performers, historians, cinema critics, music experts, writers, philosophers, visual artists, film and
documentary directors, programme makers
and script writers. Dance critics do not get
the lion’s share here.
This is a book to keep on one’s bookshelf, for we live in times where image is
the moving (if we do not wish to say actual “dancing”) world in which we are constantly living.
E.G.V.
51
programmes • programmi • calendar • programmes TV programmi • calendar • programmes • programmi
ARTE
www.arte.tv
8. VI: Deborah Colker, une chorégraphe
carioca (docum.)
Classica
www.mondoclassica.it
1. VI: Excelsior – c. Ugo Dall’Ara – Balletto
del Teatro alla Scala, int. Isabel Seabra,
Roberto Bolle, Marta Romagna
4, 13, 15. VI: La Chauve-Souris – c. Roland
Petit – Balletto del Teatro alla Scala, int.
Alessandra Ferri, Massimo Murru, Luigi
Bonino
6, 8, 19. VI: Casse-Noisette – c. Aaron S.
Watkin – Ballett Dresden, int. Anna Merkulova,
Istvan Simon
11, 20, 22. VI: “Lang Lang Dance Project”
18, 27, 29. VI: Intimate Letters; American
Quartet; Der Tod und das Mädchen – c.
Heinz Spoerli – Zurich Ballet
25. VI: Wuthering Heights – c. Kader Belarbi
– Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, int. Nicolas
Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Eleonora
Abbagnato
Ivan Vassiliev – Mikhailovsky Ballet:
“Flammes de Paris”, c. Vassili Vainonen,
Mikhail Messerer (ph. J. Devant)
Vahe Martirosyan, Nora Dürig – Zurich Ballet: “Der Tod und das Mädchen”,
c. Heinz Spoerli (ph. P. Schnetz)
Mezzo
www.mezzo.tv
31. VI: Casse-Noisette – c. Vassili
Vainonen – Mariinsky Ballet, int. Alina
Somova, Vladimir Shklyarov, Grigory
Popov; L’Oiseau de feu – c. Michel
Fokine – Mariinsky Ballet, int.
Ekaterina Kondaurova
2, 11. VI: Soirée XII Dance Open,
Saint-Pétersbourg: “Les Meilleurs
Pas de deux”
4. VI: Le Ballet Mikhaïlovsky, entre
tradition et ouverture (docum.)
6, 9, 14. VI: Dancing is Living. Portrait
de Benjamin Millepied (docum.)
7. VI: Les Flammes de Paris – c.
Vassili Vainonen, Mikhail Messerer
– Mikhailovsky Ballet, int. Oksana
Bondareva, Ivan Vassiliev
9, 18, 21. VI: Sarabande; This Part
in Darkness – c. Benjamin Millepied
– Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon
9. VI: Meyer; Writing Ground – c.
Alonzo King – Alonzo King Lines
Ballet
27. VI: Dances at a Gathering – c.
Jerome Robbins; Psyché – c. Alexei
Ratmansky – Ballet de l’Opéra de
Paris; Caligula – c. Nicolas Le Riche
– Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, int.
Sthéphane Bullion, Clairemarie
Osta
18. VI: For M.G. The Movie – c. Trisha
Brown – Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon
11, 16, 25. VI: Amoveo; Le Spectre
52
de la Rose; Les Sylphides – c. Benjamin
Millepied – Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
20, 23. VI: Pneuma – c. Carolyn Carlson –
Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux; Karma one,
an essay on Carolyn Carlson (docum.)
Mezzo live HD
www.mezzo.tv
31. V, 3. 5, 6, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20. VI: Le Songe
d’une nuit d’été – c. Michel Kelemenis;
Mémoire de l’ombre double – c. Ken Ossola
– Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève
1, 3, 4, 13, 15. VI: Cie María Pagés: Utopia
7, 10, 12, 21, 24. VI: Giselle – The Royal
Ballet, int. Alina Cojocaru, Johann Kobborg
7, 10, 12, 20, 21, 24, 27. VI: La Belle au bois
dormant – The Royal Ballet, int. Alina Cojocaru,
Federico Bonelli
27. VI: Dances at a Gathering – c. Jerome
Robbins; Psyché – c. Alexei Ratmansky –
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris
Sky
www.skyprogrammeinformation.co.uk
31. V, 1. VI: BalletBoyz: A Chance to Dance
1. VI: Carmen – c. Roland Petit – Ballet de
l’Opéra de Paris, int. Nicolas Le Riche,
Clairemarie Osta; Giselle – The Royal Ballet,
int. Natalia Osipova, Carlos Acosta
3. VI: Cinderella – c. Christopher Wheeldon
– Het Nationale Ballet, int. Anna Tsygankova
4. VI: Symphony in D; Bella Figura– c. Jirí
Kylián – Nederlands Dans Theater
53
Marianela Núñez, Ryoichi Hirano
– The Royal Ballet: “Viscera”,
c. Liam Scarlett (ph. A. Uspensky)
PHOTO GALLERY
Rupert Pennefather, Beatriz Stix-Brunell – The Royal Ballet: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, c. Christopher Wheeldon
(ph. D. Morgan)
54
Federico Bonelli – The Royal
Ballet: “Live Fire Exercise”,
c. Wayne McGregor
(ph. Bill Cooper/ROH)
55
Steven McRae – The Royal Ballet: “The Winter’s Tale”, c. Christopher Wheeldon (ph. J. Persson)
Yoel Carreño – Norwegian National Ballet: “The Firebird”, c. Liam Scarlett (ph. E. Berg)
56
57
Ricardo Cervera – The Royal Ballet: “Electric Counterpoint”, c. Christopher Wheeldon (ph. J. Persson/ROH)
Melissa Hamilton – The Royal Ballet: “Trespass”, c. Christopher Wheeldon, Alistair Marriott (ph. J. Persson/ROH)
58
Svetlana Zakharova, David Hallberg
– Balletto del Teatro alla Scala:
“Le Lac des cygnes”
(ph. Brescia-Amisano)
59
Diana Vishneva – Mariinsky Ballet:
“Romeo and Juliet”, c. Leonid
Lavrovsky (ph. N. Razina)
60
Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux:
“Pneuma”, c. Carolyn
Carlson (ph. S. Colomyes)
Estonian National Ballet, Tallinn:
“Medea”, c. Gianluca Schiavoni
(ph. J. Devant)
61
Alice Renavand, Vincent Chaillet –
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris:
“Fall River Legend”, c. Agnès De Mille
(ph. A. Deniau)
62
Ashley Bouder, Tyler Angle – New York City Ballet: “The Four Temperaments”, c. George Balanchine (ph. P. Kolnik)
Nederlands Dans Theater: “Mémoires d’Oubliettes”, c. Jirí Kylián (J. J. Bos)
63
Marie-Agnès Gillot, Karl Paquette – Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris: “Le Palais de cristal”, c. George Balanchine (ph. A. Poupeney)
MontpellierDanse: Alonzo Kings Lines Ballet: “Writing Ground”, c. Alonzo King (ph. M. Moritz)
64
65
66
11
12

agostini nacho

Transcription

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