CarolinaM

Yes, it is surprising that Freixenet had used dancers so many times in their Christmas ads (I also remember Nacho Duato years ago partered by Andie McDowell) in a country that has such a disdain for classical dance. Codorniu, the other main catalan cava producer, and Freixenet rival, has also a slight view on classical ballet in its this year ad. I'm sure Angel Corella enjoyed making the ad with Gwyneth but no idea if he is going to get more founds because of the ad, I guess no And yes it was a coincidence because as far as I know Freixenet had already in mind to have Angel as its this year's star. In any case next week will be a great dance week in Barcelona with Tamara Rojo dancing in a theater and Angel in another one and I wont miss any of them !!!!

His real name is "José Carlos Martínez" in Spain we always have known him like this. Maybe he has preferred to shorten it in France... Thanks for the other site about reviews and I also like him very much as a dancer!

Thanks a lot to both of you for your answers. Yes, maybe José Carlos Martínez aim is to bring the name a bit "Spanished" with this last sylabe and I also know about a former ballet of him about La Favorita it could be that this one is a version. Estelle you too have made me nostalgic but about the two times I went to Lyon and enjoyed the superb "Maison de la danse" and your great Ballet of the Opera that I also saw this summer in BCN with a Forsythe repertoire. I went with Jesús Vallinas (the first time I met him and also the first time I had the opportunity to interview dancers, to be in the rehearsal and to issue a report for fotoescena. It has been the begining of a very exicitng and interesting activity of mine :huepfen024: Well I wish José Carlos good luck with his new work these days!!

I was wondering if somebody here was going to see and of course if she/he could tell us about I've heard that he is a very good choreographer and I hope to be able to watch one of his ballets soon. I post the info on his new ballet (in French): ................................................................................ ........... FAVORITITA Chorégraphie de José Martinez d'après José Martinez pour le Junior Ballet du CNSMDP Musique de Gaetano Donizetti extraits du divertissement de l'Acte II de "La Favorite" (1840) Lumières Emmanuelle Stauble Costumes d'Agnès Letestu, Réalisation Catherine Garnier Création Décembre 2006, Conservatoire de Paris Durée 16mn Représentations Dates et horaires : mercredi 6 décembre 2006 à 15h00 jeudi 7 décembre 2006 à 19h00 vendredi 8 décembre 2006 à 19h00 samedi 9 décembre 2006 à 15h00 INTERPRETES : Junior Ballet Classique : Virginie Coussière, Elisa Fossatti, Cécile Kaltenbach, Laëtitia Ménage, Mathias Deneux, Guillaume Ferran, , Kévin Pouzou " Les musiques guillerettes ou pimpantes des ballets insérés dans les opéras du XIX siècle donnent irrésistiblement l'envie de danser. Celles du divertissement de La Favorite de Donizetti -particulièrement dynamiques (vives, lyriques ou fleuries),- m'ont incité à régler des pas et à jouer avec la virtuosité. " José Martínez ................................................................................ ...... This info has been taken from Jose Carlos Martínezweb page.

Franz!! je, je what a surprise!!! I'm glad to see you here too, this is a great forum, isn't it? and thank you very much carbro, bart and Giannina for your warm welcome. Franz will be happy to read this as he is for sure the person who fights more in Spain to see this come true.

I'm not sure if the Freixenet cava (Catalan champagne) spot is seen in the USA or in other EU countries out of Spain. This year it is with Angel Corella and Gwyneth Paltrow: Freixenet 2006 Hope you enjoy

Exactly!!! If we are lucky and the 3 companies that have possibilities to see light are created I'm pretty sure there are a lot of places where they would be more than welcomed in Spain. Only in Gerona (Catalonia) there are 3 very good summer festivals: Peralada, Cap Roig and Porta Ferrada (Sant Feliu de Guixols were Angel Corella was due to set his project) with a very good ballet performances all along the summer as there also are in Tarragona, Valencia, Galicia, Granada, Pais Vasco, Extremadura..... And what about these so nice theaters they are constructing everywhere but that no one has a Ballet Company associated in it? Rosa Cullel, the Director of the Liceu said recently, when a lot of people complained about the "fugue" of Corella, that while her hearth said yes, her head said no, that it was not possible for the Liceu to afford the cost of a Ballet Company and of course this is ridiculous, one can not understand how a rich country as ours with big and very costly theaters that are empty is not able to have a Ballet Company and in addition of that as it is a country able to "produce" these incredible amount of so great dancers. Some people thinks that if Corella had not been born in Madrid his Company would already be stablished in Catalonia and maybe, unfortunately, this is true... our current Catalan government is "catalanist" and even if Corell'as family are living in Barcelona maybe this is not enough for them. But in general about Catalan behavior, even if it is true that some catalans have a fierce opposition to talk in Spanish to other people coming from the rest of Sapin, they are very few. Most of us have no problem at all, on the contrary, we are more than happy to turn to any language in the aim to communicate. And I have to say that I always have been very happy in Madrid. Unfortunately this "rivality" is created and maintained mainly by football fans and some politicians About Ullate I think that he is mainly supported by the Madrid comunity and there are no plans to offer him the possibility to manage one of this possible future Companies. Last news about Ullate's Company in this thread.

Coppélia was premiered in Santander at the end of October and will be shown in the teatro Albéniz of Madrid from Nov. 30 to December 10. I'm not sure yet if I will be able to travel to Madrid again (I was there last week to see the last work of Nacho Duato and a new piece of Wim Vandekeybus especially created for the Compañía Nacional de Danza which I love) but I would like to see this Coppelia soon very much. If you like to see some photos about the making of, please visit: Eduardo Lao's Coppelia and a report will be issued soon. Coppelia is Eri Nakamura the best ballerina in Ullate´s company at this moment, lovely, very good in technique and with a promising future. She was at the Vail Festival in summer this year. Ullate's last work was SAMSARA, that will be performed in Barcelona next February and I will not miss it, for those interested in Ullate's works, there is a report about this piece in a former edition of fotoescena

Yes it's not a good location it's far away from Madrid in a very cold place with snow in winter and not well comunicated with the capital, but this place was a cultural and leisure space for the royalty in the past and they want to keep with this status so the palace has been put to the disposal of Angel foundation with a lot of benefits for him to run his project there. Fuenlabrada is more practically located and has the university and a theater. The Gulbenkian foundation decided last year to continue with the orchestra but didn't support the ballet any more

Thanks so much Bart! I'm happy you liked it I think that next week a report about Tamara in Giselle performing wiht the English National Ballet and with José Manuel Carreño as her partenair will be published. The performance was made last September in Barcelona. Don't miss it, Tamara was an incredible Giselle and for sure that Vallina's report will be as mervellous as she deserves it.

First of all let me tell you that I'm very surprised, and happy to see that so many people is interested in what's going on in Spain. For us these are so good news that at last we can get not one but two or maybe three big repertoire companies that we still can not believe it. As far as Tamara's is concerned I think that Bart is right, she asked permission to the Royal family to put the word "Royal" to the company. Princess Letizia likes ballet and her sister is an art lover and she made the decors of the Blancanieves ballet Tamara premiered last year in Spain, so she has direct line with the Royal family but this doesn't represent in any case that money will come from the Monarchy. I think she also presented the project to the government and Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero approved it. Tamara critizised in an interview that dance in Spain is too much depending on estatal subsidies. She said that artists have to have a social reponsibilty regarding what they do with the money they get and that comes from all the Spanish people. She doesn't want that all the money of her future company comes from subsidies from the state. She thinks about a company as the Royal Ballet but smaller with a similar finantiation to the one of the British Company where 1/3 of the money comes from private donors, 1/3 comes from the government and 1/3 it is you who has to get it with your company. She foresees that as soon as the Executive gives approval it will last 1 year approx. to carry it on. Corella would have all the money he needed from Catalan "mecenas" and it seems that he already had enough, but he needed an approval of the government (with no single Euro coming from them) and the compromise of the Barcelona's Opera House "Gran Teatre del Liceu" that he will have time during the season to present his ballets but, even if it can seem so stupid to you, and of course it is and I'm not able to understand this, he did not get a positive answer from any of them and the catalan "mecenas" people with a lot of money and power didn't want to compromise themselves with that. Incredible but true. I don't know if you are aware about the situation of Cataluña vs Spain but it is a rather special relationship. Well I hope that La Granja de San Ildefonso is more cultural sensibilized and will fully support Angel's project. And... there are rumours about a third possibility, this one created by the Culture Ministery of Zapatero's government, another national company, in addition to the Compañía Nacional de Danza and the Compañía Nacional of Spanish Dance. Let's cross our fingers so that at least one of them comes true soon.

The best dance photographer in Spain is Jesús Vallinas, he became a dancer when he already was in Fine Arts and keept the 2 professions, dance and photography. And when he stopped his career as dancer he concentrated in photography. You can visit his online magazine fotoescena taking your time to see all the issues, ten by now. You can find great photos of all the best dancers from Spain and abroad. He also has his own web site Jesús Vallinas Hope you like

I'm sorry I had already posted here but now I realized that my post fits more in "my Fvourite Photographs", so I'm going to move it here.

Does anyone have seen any of his works? After being a great dancer in the Rambert he started as choreographer there with great success, then he accepted to choreography Kylie Minogue’s tours and he has been able to run his own Company: the BDC that was presented in Barcelona in October this year. He has fantastic dancers and a strong vocabulary, he is a great artist with a promising future and in addition he is a charming person. We made a report about the performance and a long interview with him in fotoescena Bonachela & Voices

I adore Petit’s muse Lucia Lacarra, I saw her performing with Victor Ullate and later on with the Ballet of Marseille and San Francisco Ballet. I remember her in some Petit’s works such us Coppélia and in Pink Floyd Ballet that has been performed twice in Barcelona by the Tokyo Asami Ballet. This work is a kind of musical that I liked very much, although some find it boring I found it very nice to see and with Lucia on stage I think it gains a lot. Another Petit’s creation I like is “Le Jeune Homme et la Mort” the first time I saw it was in the opening of the Mikhail Baryshnikov film “White Nights”, brilliant! And then in the Mezzo French TV channel that we have the chance to see in Spain, performed by Nicholas Le Riche et Marie-Agnes Gillot, lovely too!

I saw Corella and his troupe in Sant Feliu de Guixols this summer just when it was announced that his ballet school and company was not going to be established there, with a lot of complaints from the catalan ballet lovers. A lot of us write letters in newspapers and sent complaints to the government and the Opera House but I'm affraid we will not success It isn't completely decided yet but I'm pretty sure that they will go to La Granja de San Ildefonso. Ángel opened with G. Balanchine's Who Cares? together with Xiomara Reyes, María Riccetto and Ana Liceica. Amaduo, music by Mozart with coreography by Margarita Fernández danced by Carmen Corella & Herman Cornejo followed and to finish the first part we saw After the Rain, Arvo Part music and coreography of Christopher Wheeldon with Wendy Whelan & Sebastien Marcovici. The second part was the Corsario suite with all the dancers and the young ballerinas of the Jove Ballet de Catalunya. As you say here a great opportunity was given by Ángel as we have very good teachers who are able to create great dancers who have then no possibility to show their art in Spanish companies. I'm going to see him again in Terrassa, a town near Barcelona with a good dance season from a lot of years ago, next Sunday December 17 and on Friday December 15 Tamara Rojo in Barcelona with Iñaki Urlezaga and his Ballet Concierto. A great week of ballet with the two great Spanish dancers that seem to be able to run a Classical dance company. I'm only a ballet fan but I collaborate sometimes with a great dance photographer in his dance magazine online fotoescena I hope it is allowed to link it here, if not please excuse-me and delete these links. All is in Spanish but just to see these so great photos about Angel's tour in Spain: Angel performing in Spain Hope you enjoy it, the pictures were made during Angel performance in his native town Colmenar Viejo, last year. A report about Tamara in Giselle with José Manuel Carreño and the ENB company who were in Barcelona in September this year is due for the next issue.

Hello! I've just discovered this site and I'm glad to read here Probably I will not post so much as you know Spain has not many dance companies although we have great dancers. But I'm sure I wil visit very often. Kind regards form Barcelona to everybody

Hi! I'm new in this forum and as Spanish and ballet lover I can tell you the fresher news about what is on with Corella's and Rojo's projects. Corella planned to set his school and dance company in Sant Feliu de Guixols, 50 km. north from Barcelona but he didn't get the support neither from the catalan government nor from the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona's Opera House. Corella has a house in this town and loves Barcelona very much, his family moved there from Madrid but unfortunately as I said he didn't have the necessary support to be able to run there his project. Then a small town near Madrid but with a deep cultural background, La Granja de San Idelfonso, offered him very good conditions and the Teatro Real of Madrid mangement commited themselves to allow the ballet company to present his programme there, so even if the contract hasn't been signed yet it seems that it will in the near future. Rojo's project was presented to the Royal Family of Spain who gave permission to put the "Real" word in the new ballet that was going to be created in collaboration with the dance department (Instituto Superior de Danza Alicia Alonso) of the Juan Carlos I University, it would be a professional Classical Ballet Company not depending only on subsidies. The name of the company would be 'Real Ballet de España' and would be established in Fuenlabrada a city near Madrid. Mr. Manuel Robles, the major of Fuenlabrada, where there already are two theaters said that they will fully support this project. I really hope these projects see light soon :rolleyes: I will try to get you posted on any new about this About the former ballet company we had and that was managed by Plisetskaya it is now the Compañía Nacional de Danza that is directed by Nacho Duato who took it from Mrs. Plisetskaya 17 years ago and changed from classical to neoclassical, a great company with great dancers but with a unique style.