Jaimie and Miyako

[Charming_Lise]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but we have received some sad news about the RB in the last few days.

Miyako Yoshida is leaving RB to join K Ballet in Japan and will guest with the Royal Ballet.

Press Release from K Ballet site

Babelfish translation:

In the future being the royal ballet, it dances as a guest, but the center of activity to the last is the K ballet company.

Jaimie Tapper is retiring from RB to be able to spend more time with her family.

Here is the press release about Jaimie:

Principal Dancer Jaimie Tapper Retires

Principal Dancer Jaimie Tapper has retired from The Royal Ballet in order to spend more time with her young family. Updating of her scheduled casting will be announced shortly.

Born in British Columbia and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Jaimie Tapper began her training at the Edmonton School of Ballet then moved to the National Ballet School in Toronto. In 1994 she joined The National Ballet of Canada as a member of the corps de ballet and became a First Soloist in 1999.

During her career with the National Ballet of Canada she had three roles created on her, in James Kudelka’s The Nutcracker, The Four Seasons and John Alleyne’s Septet. She danced a range of prominent roles including the title role in Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, The Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Swanilda in Coppélia, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, the Summer Fairy in Cinderella, the Parlour Maid in Glen Tetley’s La Ronde and the principal role in Paquita.

She joined The Royal Ballet as a Soloist in September 1999 and in November 2002 she was promoted to Principal. Since joining the Company she has danced Aurora and Swanilda in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia, the Grey Girl in Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches, the first Solo Girl in George Balanchine’s Serenade, Terpsichore in Apolloand Sanguinic in his The Four Temperaments, the woman in Ashley Page’s Sleeping with Audrey, Odette/Odile in Anthony Dowell’s production of Swan Lake, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker andboth Myrtha and the title role in his production of Giselle,, the Street Dancer and the Dryad Queen in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote, Tatiana in John Cranko’s Onegin, Stephen Baynes’s Beyond Bach, Gamzatti and Nikiya in Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère and Princess Aurora in her production of

The Sleeping Beauty, William Forsythe’sIn the middle, somewhat elevated, Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero and Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia. Her Kenneth MacMillan repertory includes the title role in Manon, Countess Marie Larisch in Mayerling, pas de deux Girl in Gloria, Requiem and Triad. Her Frederick Ashton roles include the Centre Neopolitan Couple in Ondine, Chloë in

Daphnis and Chloë, the title role in Cinderella, Birthday Offering, Symphonic Variations, the pas de trois in Les Rendezvous, Scénes de ballet and Awakening pas de deux and most recentlyQueen of The Earth in David Bintley’s Earth variation in Homage to the Queen.

She has created roles in William Tuckett’s The Crucible (Abigail) and Christopher Wheeldon’s There Where She Loves for the New Works season in the Linbury Studio in Summer 2000, Tryst in May 2002, L’Hiver in David Bintley’s Les Saisons and Wayne McGregor’s Qualia

She is married to ex-Royal Ballet dancer now photographer Johan Persson and they have a son, Lukas.

Monica Mason says,

“I am very sad to be losing Jaimie as a Principal dancer but I completely understand her desire to concentrate on her family life. She is a very specially gifted artist and having returned to dance in particularly good form last Season after the birth of her first child, she retires in the knowledge that she is at the peak of her career. We will miss her very much.”

Jaimie Tapper says,

“I would like to thank Anthony Dowell and Monica Mason for inviting me to join The Royal Ballet and giving me the opportunity to dance such wonderful roles. I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends for welcoming me into this great Company seven years ago and making my time here so enjoyable. Although I’ll be sad not to be working closely with them all in the future, I’m really looking forward to concentrating on raising my young son and working towards the next stage of my professional life.”

First Artist Emily Low has left The Royal Ballet to study a four year stage management course in New York. She wasborn in Aberystwyth and trained at the Central School of Ballet with Nancy Kilgour and Carole Gable. On tour with Ballet Central, she danced the Act II pas de deux from Raymonda and the first fairy variation from The Sleeping Beauty. A finalist in the 1994 Adeline Genée Awards, she joined

The Royal Ballet the same year.

Artist Kristen McNally is on leave from The Royal Ballet until the end of October 2006. She is joining the Cathy Marston Project for its first UK Tour which begins on 7 September in Truro, Cornwall.