15 replies to this topic

[Estelle]

Here are the season schedules for some European companies.

Berlin- Staatsoper Unter den Linden:

http://www.staatsope...balletind02.htm

-a new version of "La Bayadere" by Vladimir Malakhov after Petipa
-a triple bill with Nacho Duato's "Without words", George Balanchine's "Ballet Imperial" and a work by Christian Spuck
-"Giselle", "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker" staged by Patrice Bart after Petipa
-"The Sleeping Beauty" by Rudolf Nureyev after Petipa
-a ballet by Uwe Scholz
-a mixed bill with George Balanchine's "Serenade", Vaslav Nijinsky's "Afternoon of a faun", and Angelin Preljocaj's "Rite of Spring"

For the Hamburg Ballet:
http://www.hamburgba....de/e/index.htm

-by John Neumeier: "24 preludes", "As you like it", "Saint Matthew Passion", "The seagull",
"Winterreise", "Peer Gynt", "Nijinsky", "Messiah",
"The lady of the camellia", "Illusions- like Swan Lake", "The Nutcracker", "Giselle"
-"La Bayadere" (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)

For the Deutsche Oper Ballet in Berlin:

http://www.deutsche-...rep_ballett.htm

-"The Sleeping Beauty" and "Romeo and Juliet" by Youri Vamos
-"Goldberg Variations" and "A midsummer night's dream" by Heinz Spoerli
-"Stravinsky- Rachmaninov" by Uwe Scholz
-"The Wall" by Mario Schröder

[Estelle]

For the Finnish National Ballet:

http://www.operafin....anti/index.html

-"Cinderella" (Ben Stevenson)
-"La Bayadère" (Natalia Makarova)
Only the works until December 2002 are listed.

For the Swedish Royal Ballet:

http://www.operan.se/

Unfortunately, I don't speak Swedish...

But it seems to include "Giselle" staged by Natalia Makarova, a reconstruction of Gardel's "La Dansomanie" by Ivo Cramer and Mary Skeaping, "The sleeping beauty" staged by Beryl Grey, "Swan Lake" staged by Peter Wright and Galina Samsova, a mixed bill "The Swedish Fifties" (Birgit Cullberg, Ivo Cramer, Birgit Akesson), another mixed bill "Blanbaletter" (?) and another one "Unreal estate" (Preljocaj, Vainonen, Ashton's "Scenes de ballet", Szyber and Reich)

For the Norwegian National Ballet:

http://www.operaen.n...index_flash.htm

-"Dracula" (Christopher Gable and Michael Pink)
-a triple bill with "Serenade" (Balanchine), "Four Last Lieder" (Rudi Van Dantzig), "The rite of spring" (Glen Tetley)
-"The Nutcracker" (Dina Bjorn)
-"The Sleeping beauty" (Mats Ek)
-a triple bill with "Fearful Symmetries" (Martins), "Por Vos Muero" (Duato) and a new work by Ingun Bjornsgaard
-"Cinderella" (Stevenson)

Well, it seems that the Norwegian Ballet is becoming another National Ballet of Anywhere...

For the Dutch National Ballet:

http://www.het-natio...nu_uk/menu.htm#

-"New Amsterdam" (world premieres by Ted Brandsen and David Dawson, and "Ruins of time" by Wayne Eagling)
-"Romeo and Juliet" (Rudi Van Dantzig)
-"The Nutcracker" (Wayne Eagling and Toer Van Schayk)
-a triple bill with Van Manen's "Five Tangos", and world premieres by Krzysztof Pastor and Ted Brandsen
-"New York Masters": "The concert" (Jerome Robbins, Dutch premiere), "Acts of light" (Martha Graham), "Serenade" (George Balanchine)
-"Kurt Weill" by K. Pastor

[Leigh Witchel]

[Whoops! I didn't realize I was posting at the same time as Estelle! My apologies. . .My Swedish is non-existent as well, but if you click on Aktuellt or go to the bottom of the pop-up page, there is a link to the coming repertory in English.]

Estelle, thank you for doing this!

The season for the Opera in Stockholm is up at http://www.operan.se

It's an interesting repertory, they don't seem to be doing what other companies are doing, and they have one program specifically devoted to choreographer from the 1950s, including works by Cunningham, Cullberg and Ivo Cramer.

Please, everyone contribute to coming seasons around the world! We want to know!

[Estelle]

Yes, I edited my message and we posted at the same time!

Pamela, what do you think of the next season of the Swedish Ballet? It seems a bit more traditional that what they had been doing in the recent seasons (one or two seasons ago they had come to Paris with a program of modern works only).

It would be interested to list the works danced by choreographer, for example a lot of works by Neumeier will be danced in various countries...

[Estelle]

For the Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse:

http://www.theatre-d...ire/accueil.htm

-"The Nutcracker" (Michel Rahn after Petipa)
-"The Sleeping Beauty" (Michel Rahn and Nanette Glushak after Petipa)
-"A midsummer night's dream" (Jean-Christophe Blavier)
-a mixed bill by Bruno Jacquin (new work) and Uwe Scholz ("Beethoven Symphony n.7")

It's the first season since Glushak's arrival without any Balanchine...

The Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève seems to have a page there:

http://www.geneveopera.ch/

but for me it doesn't work...

For the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux:

http://www.opera-bor...x.com/index.asp

-"American evening": "Aureole" and "The Rite of Spring" (Paul Taylor), "The Moor's Pavane" (Jose Limon), "The Four Temperaments" (George Balanchine)

(Hum, the opportunities to see those works in France are so scarce that in my opinion it's worth a trip to Bordeaux!)

-"The sleeping beauty" (Charles Jude after Petipa)
-a Bartok program ("The Castle of Bluebeard" and "The wooden prince") with choreographies by Jude
-a week of homage to Nureyev, with two programs including works which had been created for him
-"Le Ballet, Picasso...": Massine's "Parade"
and "Le Tricorne", Lifar's "Icare" and Balanchine's "The Prodigal son"
(That program will tour to Paris in June 2003).

Plus five guest companies, including the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

The Ballet du Rhin in Strasbourg and Mulhouse:

http://www.opera-nat...dexfrancais.htm

-"The prince of the pagodas" (Bertrand d'At)
-a mixed bill including "Agon" (Balanchine), "The vile parody of address" (Forsythe), and "Grosse Fuge" (van Manen) or "Pandora" (Gallota)
-a double bill including "Woyzeck-Fragmente" (Davide Bombana) and "The Green Table" (Kurt Jooss; great to see that it's back in their repertory!)
-another mixed bill to be announced

[Terry]

Since we are talking about the repertoires for the Scandenavian companies, I'd like to ask if anyone can tell us about the classical levels of these companies. I know that they don't often tour the West, so I really don't have any clue about these companies, although I would be thrilled to see them. Which one has the longer history? The Royal Swedish Ballet? Are there major differences in the technical abilities between Norwegian National Ballet and the Finnish National Ballet for example? Which companies are geared towards more contemporary works? How are their principal dancers? I'm throwing all these questions, but anything is welcome! Thank you in advance!

[Renee Renouf]

I noticed Schroeder's name as creating a new ballet for one of the Berlin companies. It makes me wish we had the opportunity to see more German
choreographers. I was introduced to Mario by Dietmar Seyffert, who hired him for the Leipzig
Grand Opera Ballet, after Schroeder's graduation from the Paluccaschule in Dresden. Schroeder was still with Leipzig when Uwe Scholz brought an ensemble to the 1995 United We Dance Festival which San Francisco Ballet hosted in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the United Nations charter.

Dietmar Seyffert mentioned at the 1996 cultural Olympics in Atlanta that Mario Schroeder has been
one of his choreography students at the Hohlschule
Ernst Busch in Berlin. Dietmar gathered the fingers of one hand together and blew a kiss over Schroeder's choreography.
Schroeder subsequently has headed the ballet ensemble of one of the smaller Opera houses in Germany, name not remembered.

I might also add that Dietmar Seyffert observed that virtually all the significant choreographers in former East Germany,including Tom Schilling, Seyffert, Enno Morkwort,and Schroeder, had gone through the Paluccaschule. Apparently Gert Palucca was a singularly inspiring teacher for nascent choreographers.

[Renee Renouf]

At the Jackson Competition there was mention by
Anne Marie Holmes that she would be mounting a new production of "Raymonda" for the Finnish National Ballet, and later would accomplish the same task with Boston Ballet. This is a natural tie in for the new Artistic Director of Boston is the Finnish born Mikko Nissenen.

[Alexandra]

Interesting about Holmes -- thanks, Renee. The Finnish Ballet used to be very "Russian" and moved more to contemporary ballet/dance in the past decade. Maybe this is going back to THEIR roots

Terry, I'm sorry -- I missed your question when you posted it. I don't know much about the Scandinavian companies except the RDB (and I've posted enough of my opinions on that company's history and what's happened to it!). But from the little I do know, the Swedish Ballet has a continuous performance history nearly as old as the Danish. Bournonville's father danced for them in the late 18th century! It has had several very distinguished directors -- including Anthony Tudor and Erik Bruhn -- but seems to change its stripes with each new director and hasn't developed a continuity of repertory. They've had a huge turnover of directors, too, in the last 20 years or so. No one seems to stay for more than one term, and several didn't make it through one term. In the last three years the company had a very modern dance tilt -- and I think that was a part of its personality for much of the 20th century. I am told that there are at least two resident balletmasters who are excellent stagers. I saw the Swedish Ballet when they were on tour here a few years ago and was struck by how different they looked from the Danes. The bodies, especially of the women, were rather stolid; the Danes select for speed and line.

The Norwegian Ballet is quite young -- 25, 30 years? -- and small, compared to the others. I've only seen them perform once, in Copenhagen, several years ago and I'd call it a small, regional European company.

Renee, I'm not familiar with Schroeder -- nor, save for Uwe Scholz, any of the choreographers you mentioned. Are they ballet choreographers, or modern dance? Scholz is one of the very few contemporary Europeans who works in classical ballet now. The few of his ballets I've seen I didn't find very inspired, but I haven't seen enough too judge.

Estelle, another thank you -- I'd missed several posts. It's nice to have them all in one place.

[Renee Renouf]

Alexandra:
I can well understand your not knowing about the German choreographers I mentioned. THe Paluccaschule has been outshone by the Jooss establishment in Essen and by Wigman's later students. Gert Palucca was one of the early ones.
I am certain there was "modern" training in that
Dresden school, but Dietmar Seyffert went into the
Staatsoper upon graduation, and he hired Mario Schroeder into a company which did the classics as well as Seyffert's own modern works.
Tom Schilling was, for a number of years, the artistic director of the ballet company at the Komische Oper. He also choreographed an extremely interesting pas de deux called "Match" which I saw at a Jackson International Ballet Competition. It had been a choreographic prize winner at another Eastern European competition.
Dietmar Seyffert has created several Competition prize-winning pas de deux - the most recent, I think, is Back Home - at the 1994 Jackson Competition and also at Varna - but also Love Song and The Lady and Her Fool.
Most of this information I have garnered from conversations with Dietmar Seyffert and the one visit which Enno Morkwort made to San Francisco.
But, just as Kurt Joss had an expressive company which enjoyed a classical foundation, so also I think the Paluccaschule and these dancers turned choreographers are thoroughly imbued with the ideal of the dramatic and expressive capacities of
dance with a classical foundation.
Enno Morkwort, a classmate of Seyffert, is now the
artistic director of the Paluccaschule. He previously was in charge of the bureau which channeled dancers' dossiers to various opera houses in Germany, and before Uwe Scholz directed
the Leipzig ballet ensemble after Dietmar Seyffert
started his choreographic course in Berlin.
I did see Mario Schroeder in rehearsal in Leipzig and then in San Francisco and felt there was nothing lacking classically, if not presented in a
classical ballet.

[vrsfanatic]

Did Dietmar Seyferrt study at GITIS back in the 1960's? Is his son Greggor Seyferrt who has just mentioned on this website as the new director of, if I am not mistaken, the ballet school in Berlin? I do not recall it's name.

[Michael]

Thank you Estelle. The sum total of this is a Bill of Health for Classical Ballet. There is such a range of good material. And those doing the stagings are interesting -- I would love to see what Patrtice Bart, Charles Jude and Vladimir Malakhov, among others will do with this material, particulary the Nureyev. Interesting that Nureyev, as choreographer and stager, is receiving as much production as Balanchine. And that Makarova's stagings are also prominent. And I would also like to see what the Swedes make of their Bridget Cullberg repertory.

When you look at it, there is much more Nureyev, Makarova, Malakhov, Jude, Balanchine, "After Petipa" in general, on these bills than there is Crankotrash and Forsythe. And that, among the Americans, Paul Taylor is brought over.

[Renee Renouf]

Dietmar Seyffert studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Institute under Pytor Gyusev, and not at GITIS, to the best of my knowledge. This was before his assuming his post as artistic director of the Ballet at the Grand Opera House at Leipzig.

Yes, Gregor Seyffert is Dietmar's son and he has been recently named as artistic director of the Ballet Academy in Berlin, his alma mater. As you may also know he won the Prix d'Or at Lausanne in 1986 and most recently, in 1999 (?) was named Dancer Laureat, either by Berlin or the German Government. He is a remarkable artist, and one of his comments which I read was that he was not interested in a peripatetic starring role career,
to which his record attests, which has been confined mostly to Europe and largely to Germany.

I hope now, in the fullness of his artistic maturity, that he might edit that practice a bit so that the U.S. can see just what an artist he is. He has danced in the U.S., I think, just four times. The most recent was the 1996 Olympics when he represented Germany; in 1994 as a supporting partner at the Jackson Competition; in 1993 at the World Dance Congress in San Francisco; and some time earlier when he studied with Mikhail Baryshnikov during the latter's artistic directorship of American Ballet Theatre.

[vrsfanatic]

Thank you very much for your clarification of both Dietmar and Gregor Seyferrt. Being a non-German speaking person, at the time I met them, neither spoke English so their backgrounds were not very clear to me. It was however obvious that they were highly professional people. If I may also add that Gregor Seyferrt also studied at ABT with the late Jurgen Schneider, ballet master and Company teacher for 18 years. It is interesting to hear of his studies with Mr. Baryshnikov. I did have the pleasure of seeing Gregor study at ABT with Mr.Schneider some time between 1989 and 1991, I believe, as well as see a compiled video of his performances. He truly is an artist of merit. His father, Dietmar, is also quite an interesting choreographer.

Again, thank you for the information.

[Terry]

Alexandra, thank you for the detailed information!

Here are some more links to 2002-2003 season information:

*Vienna State Opera Ballet:
Includes The Nutcracker (Renato Zanella), Swan Lake (Rudolf Nureyev), Giselle (Elena Tschernichova), Nureyev Gala, Romeo and Juliet (John Cranko),
Spartacus (Renato Zanella), Mixed Repertory Evening (Serenade/Empty Places/A Pas de Deux/Theme and Variations), and more. For more information: http://www.wiener-st...at/ballett.html (German only)

*Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf):
Includes The Nutcracker (Youri Vàmos), Swan Lake (Youri Vàmos), West Side Story (new production by Youri Vàmos), Romeo and Juliet (Youri Vàmos), Carmina Burana (Youri Vàmos), a new production by Uwe Scholz, and more.
http://www.deutsche-oper-am-rhein.de/

*Ballet Company of the National Theater of Prague:
Raymonda (Yuri Grigorovich), The Taming of the Shrew (John Cranko), The Nutcracker (Yuri Grigorovich), Americana II (works by Balanchine, Tetley, Ailey), Les Enfants et les Sortileges/Sinfonietta (Jiri Kylian), Romeo and Juliet (Libor Vaculík), The Sleeping Beauty (Vlastimil Jílek and Vlastimil Harapes), and more. Info can be found on:
http://www.nationalt...heatre/english/

*La Scala Ballet
The Sleeping Beauty (Nureyev), Nureyev Gala, A Midnight Summer's Dream (John Neumeier), etc. Link is: http://www.milanopera.org