naomikage

Love this funny video by François Alu.

Obituary on Step's website. https://www.stepsnyc.com/faculty/bio/Wilhelm-Burmann/

Yes you are right. It is especially a difficult time for artists in Japan especially ballet dancers. The only two companies that pay dancers regular salary is National Ballet of Japan and K-Ballet Company, and even the dancers from the 2 companies have low pay if they are not participating in performances. There are many ballet companies that are private and some don't receive public funding at all so they have to pay huge cancellation fee for the venues they have rented, they staff they employed and so on. So I am afraid some companies might have to disband. The government are NOT going to offer any help for art sectors affected by the coronavirus situation, or the people who work there, many are freelance artists/staff.

A touching tribute from Alexandre Hammoudi

Official announcement on Dresden Semperoper Ballet.

Confirmed on Legris's Instagram. https://www.lastampa.it/spettacoli/palcoscenico/2020/02/18/news/manuel-legris-e-il-nuovo-direttore-del-corpo-di-ballo-della-scala-1.38484973

I can't believe they are inviting Guillaume Cote of National Ballet of Canada to Swan Lake, he is such a sloppy and overrated dancer...

And Northern Ballet will be bringing "Geisha" by Kenneth Tindall soon in March as a world premiere. It seems a Japanese dancer is featured in the title role but I am afraid this doesn't seem to reflect the actual Geisha culture in Japan. https://northernballet.com/geisha

Japan's K-Ballet Company premiered their Madama Butterfly last fall. There were mixed reactions to this piece but they tried to eliminate the awkwardness that many Japanese audience might feel, such as the westernized fantasies of the Japanese Geisha. https://youtu.be/ZqL6morcC_c

In this listing, Shapran's name is still listed, and she is scheduled to dance in Legend of Love on May 20th. https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/troupe

But the London audience wants to see Svetlana Lunkina. I agree Vanstone / Frola will be very good but other than them (and of course Dronina is fabulous, but not sure she will recover by then) how uninspiring and the audience would be very disappointed.

Star Dancers Ballet of Japan has staged The Green Table last year which was so successful that they are going to perform it again this February. They also did a whole evening dedicated to Tudor, including The Leaves are Fading, Lilac Garden, Romeo and Juliet pas de deux and Pillar of Fire.

It is true that there is not so much "ballet" in this documentary but the small La Bayadere rehearsal scene with Makarova and Nunez is valuable and also the modern part and Osipova's many confessions are very interesting. Especially how she rehearses Arther Pita's work The Mother and also Cherkaoui's Medusa are thrilling and knowing how her passion comes through (how she was not happy at the Bolshoi) are quite eye-opening.

I agree with you Christian. Bayadere is everything. I remember seeing the Nureyev version at Paris Opera Ballet a few years ago, in the Millepied era, he insisted of avoiding the blackface of the children at the Bronze Idol sequence so all the children were without tanning makeup. it did not look strange at all.

I agree Viktor Lebedev is a beautiful, fabulous and elegant dancer, and although Mikhailovsky Ballet is a good company I do miss him at Mariinsky, he should have been glorious there with more international exposure. I don't think he is not on the shorter side (of course not as tall as Yermakov), he has long, lean lines and suited for many roles. I saw him in La Fille mal Gardee in St Petersburg a couple of years ago which was a warm, lovely performance and look forward seeing him in Duato's Sleeping Beauty during their Japan tour later this month.