volcanohunter

Yes, and the Royal Ballet, despite its reputation for dramatic ballets, had undergone a fallow period in that regard. When Christopher Wheeldon staged Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 2011, it was noted that the RB hadn't produced a new full-length story ballet in 16 years, and in that case the female leads went to Lauren Cuthbertson and Zenaida Yanowsky. Perhaps if Cojocaru had remained with the Royal Ballet she may have danced in Wheeldon's new The Winter's Tale, but I guess we'll never know. On the other hand, Neumeier produces a new evening-length narrative ballet practically every season, and his works typically have a large number of leading roles. No doubt this goes a long way toward keeping his dancers happy and motivated, and presumably Cojocaru's own experiences of working with the Hamburg Ballet over the past couple of years convinced her that she wanted to be part of its creative atmosphere, even if she wished to keep London as her home base.

Cojocaru has been appearing as a guest with the Hamburg Ballet for a number of years, initially to dance parts like Marguerite in The Lady of the Camellias that were not in the Royal Ballet's repertoire. As naomikage noted, Neumeier made the part of Julie in Liliom for her, and at the time she expressed her sadness that no one had created a major ballet for her at the Royal. (But then Neumeier is one of the very few choreographers who mounts evening-length narrative ballets with regularity.) Most recently she danced in Hamburg as Neumeier's Juliet. Obviously, the English National Ballet gives her a sufficiently flexible schedule that allows her to be a pretty much permanent guest principal in Hamburg, not unlike the way that ABT has a number of principals who fly in for occasional performances, and Hamburg is much closer to London than New York is to Milan or St. Petersburg.

The Hamburg Ballet has posted casting for the San Francisco run of A Midsummer Night's Dream (and also for Liliom in Costa Mesa). Subject to change, of course. February 12, 2014 Hippolyta/Titania: Hélène Bouchet Theseus/Oberon: Thiago Bordin Helena: Silvia Azzoni Demetrius: Otto Bubeníček Hermia: Anna Laudere Lysander: Edvin Revazov Philostrat/Puck: Alexandr Trusch Bottom/Pyramus: Carsten Jung Flute/Thisbe: Konstantin Tselikov February 13, 2014 Hippolyta/Titania: Alina Cojocaru Theseus/Oberon: Alexandre Riabko Helena: Carolina Agüero Demetrius: Silvano Ballone Hermia: Florencia Chinellato Lysander: Alexandr Trusch Philostrat/Puck: Konstantin Tselikov Bottom/Pyramus: Dario Franconi Flute/Thisbe: Thomas Stuhrmann http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/gastspiel.htm

The Bolshoi first performed at the Royal Opera House in 1956 and therefore celebrated its 50th anniversary tour there in 2006. The tour of 2013 was "the 50th anniversary of its first visit to Covent Garden under the banner of Victor Hochhauser." While this may have been a major anniversary for the company's London impresario, it was actually the company's 57th London anniversary. http://www.roh.org.uk/about/bolshoi (Perhaps this shamelessly deceptive marketing on the part of the Hochhausers should qualify as one of the year's minor "worsts.")

Having Heymann make his role debut during a live cinema broadcast must be stressful to say the least. Good luck to them!

Today, Saturday, December 14, at 22:40 Paris time--or 4:40 p.m. ET-- France 3 will be showing a digest version of The Sleeping Beauty, with a run time of one hour and 15 minutes. The footage will be from the 'backup' performance filmed last Wednesday. I have no idea whether the broadcast will be geo-blocked, but at the moment I am able to watch France 3 online by clicking on "Regardez France 3 en direct." http://www.france3.fr/ http://www.france3.fr/emission/la-belle-au-bois-dormant/diffusion-du-14-12-2013-22h45

The Royal Ballet has posted PDF-format cast sheets in multiple languages, albeit very few of the characters' performers are identified. http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/the-nutcracker-2013 Some of the additional names I caught from the credits: Columbine: Elizabeth Harrod Harlequin: Fernando Montaño Vivandière: Akane Takada Soldier: Kenta Kura Spanish dance: Christina Arestis, Johannes Stepanek Arabian dance: Melissa Hamilton

Altynai Asylmuratova has gone to work at the Mikhailovsky, and now Zhanna Ayupova is leaving her teaching post at the Mikhailovsky to take over Asylmuratova's old job as the Vaganova Academy's artistic director. http://izvestia.ru/news/562374

Here are a few minutes of video footage. http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=638760#

In addition to Eleonora Abbagnato and Mathieu Ganio as Aurora and Désiré, the broadcast is scheduled to feature Myriam Ould-Braham and Mathias Heymann as Florine and the Bluebird, as well as premiers danseurs Valentine Colasante, Eve Grinsztajn, Stéphanie Romberg, Audric Bezard and Christophe Duquenne. If casting from opening night holds, that means Romberg will be Carabosse, Grinsztajn will be the sixth prologue fairy and Colasante and Bezard will perform in the Jewel pas de cinq. http://www.operadeparis.fr/blogopera/la-belle-au-bois-dormant-en-direct-au-cinema The ballet will be screened primarily in France, as well as in Germany and Italy, and a couple of theaters in Austria and Belgium. It will also be shown at seven cinemas in Quebec, but not until March 20 & 30. http://www.fraprod.fr/offre_cinema.php?id=91

Unfortunately, the music begins just as the voiceover identifies the choreographer. It sounds like Verkhovitsky, though no first name is given.

Former Bolshoi dancer Leonid Bolotin, father of current Bolshoi soloist Andrei Bolotin (one of the last of Pestov's pupils still dancing with the company), has died at age 75. Bolotin was born in Gorky (Nizhniy Novgorod) and studied at the Moscow Ballet School. From 1956 until 1978 he danced with the Bolshoi, after which he headed the company's video studio until 1997. From 2002 until the end of his life he worked in the theater's audio archive. http://www.bolshoi.ru/about/press/articles/2013/2776/ Andrei Bolotin has posted this video of his father dancing.

Peter Wright's Nutcracker will be broadcast live from the Royal Opera House to cinemas on Thursday, December 12. In Canada screenings will be time delayed until 7:30 p.m. local time, and there will be an additional screening on Sunday, December 22, at 12:55 p.m. In the United States the ballet will be shown on Tuesday, December 17, at 7:00 p.m. local time. Darcey Bussell will host the broadcast. As of today, the performance is to feature Laura Morera as the Sugarplum Fairy, Federico Bonelli as her Cavalier, Francesca Hayward as Clara, Alexander Campbell as the Nutcracker and Gary Avis as Drosselmeyer. The page linked below includes a search box for locating screenings. http://www.roh.org.uk/showings/the-nutcracker-2013 U.S.: http://www.fathomevents.com/event/the-nutcracker Canada: http://www.cineplex.com/Events/DanceSeries

The teacher in question is Vasily Vorokhobko, a repetiteur at the Bolshoi Ballet, and she began raising money for his cancer treatment in September, before any of the brouhaha surrounding her departure. https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/y353/vasily-steponovich-vorokhobko-cancer-drive?utm_source=giveforward&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=supporter_thank_gift&hid=2602341&cid=2294021

Congratulations to her. She will no doubt collect a good many frequent flyer points over the next two years.

Yes, some star dancers and ADs these days seem to have personal "foundations" on the side, and I'm not at all clear on how these are financed and what relationship they have with the theaters where they work. When Denis Matvienko was dismissed from his post at the National Ballet of Ukraine, the subject of the Denis Matvienko Foundation, whose executive director is his sister, came up, and there was speculation that the theater management was unhappy about its involvement in the production of ballets at the theater. It's all incredibly murky, but I'm guessing these foundations have very complex financial arrangements.

I think it's entirely possible to feel sympathy for Filin and also believe that Dmitrichenko was not responsible for what happened. Even most of Filin's staunchest supporters who came to refute Tsiskaridze's testimony reportedly had friendly interactions with Dmitrichenko in court. We can also consider the particular circumstances of the signatories named. Svetlana Lunkina is in exile in Canada. Ryzhkina and Antonicheva are older ballerinas who have largely been sidelined in the repertoire, so they may feel they have relatively little to lose, though Ryzhkina would have to consider her son, who dances in the corps de ballet. Nikulina and Volchkov enjoy the favor of Yuri Grigorovich, which is why she starred in the Bolshoi's last two cinema broadcasts, both Grigorovich ballets. After his Romeo, Volchkov was also supposed to appear on screen as Crassus, but he has not performed since injury forced him to withdraw from performances in London last summer, so casting had to be shuffled. He is the only male principal who dances in all of Grigorovich's ballets and productions. Beyond that, though, Nikulina has not been getting much love from the Bolshoi lately. For example, it has not cast her in Swan Lake for a year and a half, even though it's the ballet the Bolshoi performs more than any other, and she's been dancing the lead since she was 19. She was also not cast for the London tour, even though her name was included in general press releases right until the end. Andrienko and Rodkin were known to be supporters of Tsiskaridze. Rodkin was Tsiskaridze's pupil, and Andrienko spoke out against his dismissal even though Bolshoi dancers were under a press gag order at the time. I suspect most Bolshoi dancers are just trying to stay out of the crossfire and praying for the day when the turmoil will finally be over.

According to the article, her post--advisor to the artistic director--is being eliminated. It had not existed prior to Filin's directorship. This is a significant development because some dancers have been very critical of her. The piece includes a link to an interview in which Svetlana Lunkina had nothing good to say about her. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/36700-is-svetlana-lunkina-moving-to-toronto/?p=322491 In his testimony at the trial Nikolai Tsiskaridze was also very critical. http://izvestia.ru/news/561352#ixzz2mKPsJdOy Added: In her Izvestia interview Joy Womack said that Timergazina was the one responsible for looking after her paperwork, and even the Bolshoi acknowledges that wasn't done as well as it could have been.

Some 150 employees of the Bolshoi Theater, including about 40 dancers, have signed a letter in support of Dmitrichenko, believing that the prosecution has not proven its case against him and hoping for a fair verdict. Dancers who reportedly signed the letter include Svetlana Lunkina, Marianna Ryzhkina, Anna Antonicheva, Alexander Volchkov, Anna Nikulina, Elena Andrienko and Denis Rodkin. http://izvestia.ru/news/561678

In the mid-1990s the BBC produced an extremely interesting series on the Royal Opera House titled The House. While it was said to have improved the theater's box office receipts, the public airing of its backstage dirty laundry was widely considered to have been a PR disaster for the ROH. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/opera-house-documentary-lifts-lid-on-backstage-crisis-1526339.html

This is relevant to the theater as a whole. Vassily Sinaisky, music director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, has resigned, two weeks prior to the premiere of a new production of Don Carlo, which he was to conduct. As of tomorrow he will no longer be employed by the theater. The Bolshoi sent out an e-mail with the information minutes ago and has posted it on the Russian version of its news feed.

Today is the 100th birthday of Marc Platt, founding member of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and the original Dream Curly in Oklahoma!, who is probably best known for playing Daniel Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Marcel LePlat was born in Pasadena, CA, on December 2, 1913.

Izvestia has obtained a copy of Joy Womack's contract for September 2013-March 2014, signed by Vladimir Urin in October, and the attorneys who have looked at it said it afforded her very few rights. It's difficult for me to say anything about it; perhaps attorneys on the board would like to put the article through a translator and take a crack at it. But from what I understand she was a contract worker rather than an employee, and the agreement does identify her as a soloist. Basically, the theater was obliged to pay her for services rendered, but was not obliged to give her work. The contract stated that she would be paid 1,400 RUB ($42) per working day, but it did not specify how many working days she would get. The theater also reserved the right to use film of Womack's performances at the Bolshoi indefinitely and without compensation. The article notes that the agreement seems to have been sloppily prepared, with typing and grammatical mistakes. http://izvestia.ru/news/561561?fb_action_ids=178315495698643&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/29/bolshoi-ballet-dancer-acid-attack-trial-dmitrichenko-filin I suppose it's notable that the prosecution is asking for a nine-year sentence for Dmitrichenko, ten years for Zarutsky and six years for Lipatov. Prior to the trial they said repeatedly that they would be seeking the 12-year maximum.

A video stream of the Alonzo King Lines Ballet performing King's Meyer and Writing Ground is available on demand for the next six months. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Alonzo_King_presente_Meyer_et_Writing_Ground/ French-language program: http://www.maisondeladanse.com/sites/default/files/spectacle/programme/alonzo_king.pdf