naomikage

Naomikage, is it possible for someone to post a report of this event? It would be interesting to see how NNTB perceives the reception they got in DC. In my opinion the tour was a big artistic success, and I personally hope they come back real soon! Mike, I am not sure I can attend that meeting yet but some friends of mine who went to Washington to see NNTB will attend that and I can collect reports from them. They were very happy that the Washington audience seemed to like the performance. Hiromi Terashima and her twin sister Mayumi has a website and alithough it is all in Japanese you can see wonderful pictures of the backstage of their tour. http://www.t-twins.net/tour/index.html

This information by Naoko S was very interesting..I did not resarch enough for those facts. And if you take a look at the website you can see there is quite a few corporate sponsors. It lacks the weathly patrons that spend a huge amount of funds to private, self funded companies like ABT, but it is a national institute and there was not so much culture in Japan of funding to art so much, especially wealthy individuals don' t do such. Anther problem is the hostility from other ballet institutions such as NBS. One reason for this is that the Opera House capacity of NNB is small, only 1,814 seats is very small. NNT's Opera and Ballet performances sells very well. and popular opera productions such as Lady of the Camelias and Carmen, Aida sells out on the day the box office opens. And the same thing happens with Ballet performances with Svetlana Zakharova. But the capacity of the hall is small means less profit. Many different organaizations such as NBS would like to use this Hall because is is the only hall in Tokyo designed for opera but because of the capacity and the expensive fee to borrow it no one will lend the opera house for an foreign opera house tour, it is impossible to make profits. So the Opera House remains empty for many days. The impresario Mr Sasaki from NBS keeps criticizing NNTB in the NBS newsletter because of the fact that the Opera house was made too small, which was a result of ignoring Mr.Sasaki's opinion to the new national opera house. Also another thing criticised is that too many NNTB dancers are from Asami Maki Ballet and Tachibana Ballet School. This is a very difficult issue, and many young dancers have joined NNTB in those 10 years have no connections to Asami Maki Ballet, so situations have changed, although there were two Asami Maki Ballet dancers who are not members of NNTB joined the Washington performance because of lack of male dancers due to injury.

I am only a ballet goer and I only studied ballet as an adult student so I do not have enough knowledge about ballet education, but where I study ballet is affliated to a certain professional ballet company (none of the ones mentioned) and I feel the Japanese society places so much hierarchical strain and mannerism between the teachers and the students that the sutudent don't have enough choice than to enter competitions or go abroad. One bright news is the NNBT ballet institute, a institute for 17~21year olds and educates ballet for 2 years, most of the students enter NNTB (graduates are dancers such as Ayako Ona, Miwa Motojima and Akimitsu Yahata) had only auditioned once in two years, has started to audition every year and I have that feeling that it will be transformed into the first acutual national ballet school. Ballet schools in Japan are not like the Vaganova or POB school or Royal Ballet School, although many good teachers are there. One of the most famous ballet schools is Tachibana Ballet School, affliated with Asami Maki Ballet and many amous dancers, even Yoko Morishita was educated there. But the students only go to the school after they go to their regular elementary or high schools in the afternoon.

As for New National Theatre Ballet, female corps dancers have to be at least 163cm, and soloists 160cm. Male corps 170cm and soloists 167cm to be auditioned. This is quite high, and is the reason why NNTB female corps look to have beautiful proportion. Ayako Ono is a petite dancer and that is one reason she joined NNTB as a soloist. As in other countries, female dancers are getting taller, but tall men are rare.

CeC、 Tetsuya Kumakawa　is a celebrity in Japan and he and Miyako Yoshida are the few ballet dancers who appear frequently on television. Moreover, a major broadcast station TBS is the sponsor of K-Ballet so he even appeared on a cooking program last Saturday. Rasta Thomas once appeared as a guest to fill in his role at Don Quixote last summer, but no other guests appeared as a substitute and Kenta Shimizu, a new talented principal from Miami City Ballet is filling the roles. I am not sure about the tickets sales but K-Ballet's tickets are fairly expensive for a Japanese troupe, about 160 dollars. Yuko Arai, the prima ballerina has a very strong technique, she was in the Tokyo Ballet. About his ballet school. I heard that some students applied for the Prix de Lausanne but no one made it to the semi-finals. As there is actually no ballet school in Japan that has such formal education as the ones in Europe, and for instance Akane Takata, a winner at Prix de Lausanne this year studies in Russia, the Moscow Academy. But Kumakawa is struggling to make a good school, and because of him ballet has such high recognition in Japan. Anyway it is so happy to hear that people in US and Canada are intrested in Japanese ballet. It was a first visit for NNTB to perform abroads, and I hope that they will tour regulary in US, Canada etc. They even don't tour much in Japan. K-Ballet is a touring company and perhaps the most frequent performer in Japanese Ballet. As the NNTB shares the theatre with opera, there are only about 40 performances a year and that is too less. You can see the schedule in their website. http://www.nntt.jac.go.jp/english/season/ballet/index.html NNTB will have a event to report the Washington tour to Japanese fans in March. Natalia, Rasta Thomas appeared in the Diaghilev Program by NBA Ballet (the same company that had Yevgenia Obraztsova in Don Q recently. Yevgenia Obraztsova was so brilliant!) and danced Chopaniana and Le Spectre de la Rose. Also he appeared in a contemporary piece called Rhapsody in Blue choreographed by former Hamburg Ballet, now Alberta Ballet Yukichi Hattori and that was great too.

Good to hear that you enjoyed 'Orfeo ed Euridice' in Japan. So, the second question is quite difficult to answer. I think there are two major promotors in Japan. NBS lead by the impressario Tadatsugu Sasaki (his photo appears in some magazines and even Manuel Legris' wesite!). NBS promotes the World Ballet Festival a large gala held once in three years. Also, Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Staatsoper Berlin, Stuttgart Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Bejart Ballet Lausanne are some of the troups NBS promotes. And also the Tokyo Ballet. NBS also promotes Opera such as the Berlin, Vienna State and La Scala. Dancers such as Sylvie Guillem, Manuel Legris, Vladimir Malkhov only dances with NBS performances, and they have their Friend's gala about every 2 years where they are assured artistic freedom. They frequently guests with the Tokyo Ballet. Also young stars like Matieu Ganio and Polina Semionova guests here often. Japan Arts is another major promoter which promotes troups such as ABT, Bolshoi Ballet and Mariinsky Ballet. Artists from these troups such as Maria Alexandrova, Irina Dovorovenko, Andrei Uvarov and Sergei Filin appears in NBS galas too, so no exclusive deals seems to be there. NBS and New National Theatre Ballet Tokyo does not seem to have good relationships which is not a good thing. I don't know the reason why. NBS never used the New National Theatre althiough it is a good theater and stage. Svetlana Zakharova and Denis Matvienko guests regularly with NNTB but seldom appears in NBS galas. But Alina Cojocaru, Diana Vishneva appears in both troups. NNTB seems to be affliated with Asami Maki Ballet and Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre but I don't know if it is actually so or not. Also, some TV channels promotes ballet these days such as TBS for K-Ballet and Fuji Television for Alessandra Ferri's farewell gala. Many ballet goers don't like TV channels promoting ballet because the promotions are not targeted to ballet lovers and the proce of tickets rise extremely hign. Ballet tickets are vey expensive in Japan (except NNTB), Paris Opera Ballet's Le Parc costs more than 200 dollars. And Opera tickets are more expensive...up to 600 dollars which is crazy.

Natalia, I was much impressed by your report of the New National Theater Ballet in Washington. Many Japanese ballet-goers read your reports and talked about it. You seem to know a lot about this company! In my opinion, if I have to list a few Japanese troups, it will be New National Theater Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Asami Maki Ballet and K-Ballet. One of the reasons is the issue you have given as the third theme...in those troups the dancers are paid salaries. In many so-called "professional" ballet troups in Japan, dancers are not paid salaries and they have only wages per stage. They have to make a living with teaching ballet, guesting in ballet school performances and/or part-time jobs. Especially for female dancers, they are obliged to sell performance tickets to appear in them, and that is sometimes a huge amout. In that context, at least the troups listed above have none of this. So many dancers go to companies abroad to be actually professional and seek opportunities. Also the big problem is the lack of formal ballet education, and young dancers who want to be professional have to go to ballet schools abroad. Tokyo Ballet They are known for Maurice Bejart works and tours Europe every year. Also they have many good male dancers. Mizuka Ueno is an international star but this troup has a weak point in corps de ballet. Not beautifully proportioned. Many famous star dancers such as Manuel Legris, Vladimir Malakhov and Sylvie Guillem guests here. NBS runs this company so they have international connection. Matsuyama Ballet Yoko Morishita & T. Shimizu still dances but no other dancers seem to arise, and if Morishita retires I think this troup will be over. New National Theater Ballet As you have seen in Washington, the corps de ballet of this troup is amazingly beautiful, well trained and female dancers have beautiful proportions. The problem is that there are few soloists that can virtually dance the leading role. Hiromi Terashima, Hana Sakai, Maki Kawamura and Ryuji Yamamoto are the few leading dancers with that quality. Also the lack of male dancers is serious. They are eagar to make new produtions such as Aladdin by David Bintley, Orphee and Euridice by Dominic Walsh. And their repetoire is mainly classical but contains worls by Roland Petit, Nacho Duato. Svetlana Zahkarova and Denis Matvienko are regular guests. Asami Maki Ballet Actually this troup is run by Asami Maki's husband Kyozo Mitani. Many (better) dancers from here also dances in New National Theater Ballet, which is quite confusing. With the emergence of New National Theater Ballet, this troup seems to decline. K-Ballet Indeed they boast very high production standards in classcal repetoire, and Viviana Durante and Miyako Yoshida are guest principals. Anthony Dowell also guests. Tetsuya Kumakawa is extremely popular in Japan, but as he had an serious injury last summer and is still away from the stage, there is no next star and the tickets sales seem not so good, although there are some good dancers such as Kenta Shimizu, former principal of Miami City Ballet. Tetsuya Kumakawa is expected to return in March or April. NBA Ballet, Tokyo City Ballet, Star Dancers Ballet are some troups to mention, although they lack the quality of the above four. Star Dancers Ballet often performs contemporary stuff such as Forsythe and Tudor, but all the good dancers have gone in my opinion. One small but good company is the Noriko Kobayashi Ballet Theatre lead by New National Theater Ballet ballet mistress Noriko Kobayashi. They often perform British stuff such as MacMillan (The Invitation, Elite Syncopations, Concerto), Ninette de Valois (The Rake's Progress, Checkmate). Ayako Ono of New National Theater Ballet is from this company. Akiko Shimazoe is a very good dancer with high acting qualities. As for the second theme I will write later.

Paris Opera Ballet announces the cast only about 2 or 3 weeks prior to the performance. Usually, the cast is announced earlier in the French Forum Dansomanie The thread for Orphée et Eurydice is here with the pre-cast. http://www.forum-dansomanie.net/forum/view...df06803d10b0f5c The casting will appear here under the link "distribution" http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison-2007-200...ion.asp?IdS=374 (no information yet)

I saw the same performances as you.. Paquita 12/29 and 30 matinee and Nutcracker 29 soiree, and I got approximately the same impression as you. Matthias is a revelation and I think he will make an etoile in the not so distant future. Mentioning of cast of Fritz in Nutcracker, Gil Isoart was replaced by Axel Ibot, a young sujet. I think this is a last minute change as the casting list announced no changes. He is a flexible dancer with sweet character.

What I was mentioning is mainly about the corps choreography. I do not like the Sergeyev choreography especially act 4. I understand about the Nureyev Odette and Siegfried pas des duex diappointing in act 2, I agree about that. Athough I like the Rothbart part in Nureyev version because it adds darkness to the story. Anyway, Lopatkina's 2nd act Odette is just too beautiful to be true.

As I had seen both the Kirov Swan Lake with Lopatkina and POB Swan Lake with Letestu live stage in Tokyo last year, one thing I have felt with the corps is that POB corps have very, very noisy feet sound which was very very distracting. One reason is for the complicated choreography by Nureyev for the Swan corps but the sound of their feet was like a marching band. Kirov's corps were much quieter. And POB corps were not in harmony at all at that time. As a whole, I like the Nureyev's choreography and drama much better and I think the DVD featured performance is very good, but Kirov's corps and Lopatkina was far more better in live performance.

In fact there is a DVD available of Marcia Haydée entitled M. for Marcia and my friend purchased it. I have not seen it yet but it contains experts of „Swanlake” & „Onegin“ (John Cranko) as well as Lady of the Camelias by Neumeier and Bolero by Bejart and some others. But there is no Romeo and Juliet. http://www.moving-angel.com/main.html

Sorry for my misspelling Augustyn. I have not seen so much of his performances. And I agree that Sabina Allemann as Tatiana and Jeremy Ransom as Lensky was wonderful! Especially Ransom, his acting was great. I wish I cpild see the La Fille mal gardée telecast one day.

I don't have enough time to make a subtitle track, but I can tell you some memorable quotes made by Lopatkina and Vishneva in the Variations DVD.

Onegin was once released on VHS by National Ballet of Canada with Frank Augustin as Onegin. I have seen the copy of that and it was a very good performance. Augustin's acting was touching and his legs were beautiful. It is sad that it is no longer available...it should be on DVD. There is a link on Amazon but it says currently unavailable. http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovskys-Onegin-.../dp/B000YBKLE0/

You can buy those DVDs by amazon.co.jp. although the website is partly in Japanese. Vishneva http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language...anguage=en%5FJP Lopatkina http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language...anguage=en%5FJP Amazon.co.jp ships abroads although shipping rates are rather expensive. Although these DVDs have no english subtitles(subtitles are in Japanese and interviews are in Russian), they are wonderful footage. There is one scene that Lopatkina dances Paquita variations to the piano with only her arms, but I was stunned with the beauty of her movement, port de bras and musicality as though she is weaving music with her upper body. Also Vishneva's Aurora 1st act is so sweet and lively and musical, it was such a joy to watch.

chrisk217, I think it is the same version that you saw on TV5. The film was a little bit disappointing for me because in Japan it was promoted as Lopatkina and Vishneva, Zakharova was the center subject of the film (especially Lopatkina because Lopatkina is very very popular in Japan but Vishneva is less popular) but in fact Somova appears quite a lot and footage of Lopatkina quite few. Of cause I was very impressed with the delicate expressions and acting of Obraztsova, and the divine beauty of Lopatkina. The footage of Obraztsova was very, very impressive and touching although so short. Also it captures some of her daily life. So it is a very valuable film, anyway. As for the interviews, Vishneva was much impressive with the other DVD, Variation Lessons by Vishneva. She speaks so much about her art, what she thinks about when she dances each work such as Giselle, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Here is a link to the DVD official site (Japanese). http://cmecr.columbia.co.jp/shop/product/info.asp?gc=XI1374 Anyway, I envy the American audience can see such a wonderful cast in La Bayadere which I truely love. In Japan, Kirov comes every 3 years but every time it is Swan Lake and I am dying to see other work.

I think Japanese audience are very lucky because 2 other DVDs were recently released in Japan. I think these are exclusive for Japan, and they are Variation Lessons by Lopatkina/ Variations Lessons by Vishneva. I think this topic is suitable for the video forum, but in these DVDs, the two great ballerinas show and explain how they dance Nikiya, Paquita, Raymonda (Lopatikina), Giselle, Odette, Kitri, Aurora (Vishneva). Theie reheasals were shot for this DVD, with long interviews and also stage footage. Back to the topic. In Japan too, Somova is infamous for her lack of musicality and her rough devloppe, extention-focused dancing. There was a gala by Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers in August here and Somova danced Tchaikovsky Pas de Duex and Sleeping Beauty Act 2 and they were such a disaster. I had never seen such an awful Balanchine in my entire life. In another gala in August she danced Kitri with Sarafanov and her fouettes were so wierd. so wobbling and shakey. Somova had appeared as a guest in New National Theatre's Nutcracker in 2004 but at that point she was not so bad. Neither so in the previously mentioned Ballerina DVD. Maybe her coaches ruined her.

When these ladies were dancing, Oleg Vinogradov was the Artistic Director. When Makhar Vaziev assumed power, his agenda and tastes replaced the outgoing AD's agenda and tastes. This happens everywhere. Today, we see the results of this change in direction. The fact that someone like Somova could be accepted, and worse, promoted, reflects the leadership's agenda, tastes and values. Somova is being "touted" as the prototype of 'the new Russian ballerina' - someone who is 'advancing' ( ? ) and, pardon the pun, 'extending the classical canon' () . I am a member in Japan and recently an interesting documentary film was released in DVD and in theatres. It was filmed by a French director and entitled Ballerina. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898897/ It is a documentary about Kirov ballet and features two ballerinas; Evguenya Obraztsova and Alina Somova. Also it contains some footage and interviews of Lopatkina, Vishneva and Zakharova. But the main topic is the coming generation of new ballerinas in Kirov, represented by Somova (and Obraztsova). The film begins with the graduation performance of Waganova academy, and Somova performs Paquita. The artistic director Vaziev likes Somova a lot and she was invited to dance in the Kirov, with the director's wife to be her coach. Somova was said to be the new star of Kirov, She was the only newcomer to join the US tour, and at a very early stage she was dancing Odette/Odile. The film show some of the scenes that Somova being coached. At that time Somova was brunette. Asylmuratova and Manuel Legris from POB appears to comment about the Kirov way. Apart from the fact that Somova was featured the most in the film, this contains very good footage such as R&J and Legend of Love by Obraztsova, Sheherazade and Legend of Love, Jewels by Lopatkina and Manon rehearsal by Vishneva and Legris and Kolb. I think this DVD will be released worldwide to promote Somova as the new star.

The set tickets (Program A and B)tickets will be on sale from Saturday(tomorrow) at 10:00am Japan time. And seperate tickets will be on sale on April 28th. You can buy them at the website http://eplus.jp/eto/ but the page is all in Japanese, and you have to be a registered user. Another way is to call the promoter. The phone number is, 813-5500-8267 (Fuji Television) The premium order has already started, and the tickets are selling extremely well, although the tickets are very expensive. S:22,000yen　A:19,000yen　B:16,000yen　C:12,000yen　D:9,000yen　E:6,000yen

Wow! Japan is really doing it right! Thanks for the information, naomikage. I hope you will be able to attend, and, PLEASE, if you do , WRITE ABOUT IT ON BT!!! Some others are added. Jose Manuel Carreno, Paloma Herrera and Marcelo Gomes will also appear in this gala, along with Alexxander Riabko and Silvia Azzioni from Hamburg Ballet and Robert Tewsley. I have bought all three tickets!

Just for information. A farewell gala for Alessandra Ferri will be held on August 2nd,3rd and 6th in Tokyo. Ferri will be dancing the balcony scene from R&J with Roberto Bolle and extracts from Giselle act 2 and some more which is not annouced yet. http://www.ferri-bolle.jp/ (Japanese page) You can see some photos of Ferri in La Scala although the page is in Japanese. http://www.fujitv.co.jp/events/ferri-bolle/special.html

I have no information about the release of Mariinsky DVDs, however, Swan Lake by Lopatkina and Korsuntsev (that very one that is supposed to be releaed) was broadcasted in Japan last December. It was a wonderful performance. Sometimes the camera was too close and sometimes annoying, but Lopatkina was too beautiful to be true. I hope this performance will be released as a DVD, as it is such a great production.

The Marcia Haydee Lady of the Camelias DVD will be reissued in Germany (from Gramophone), and will be available in Japan in May as an imported disk (you can buy from HMV in Japan for about 30 dollars.