bhammatt Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 In October my wife and I have an chance to attend a performance of Raymonda by the ballet company at the National Theater in Prague. I have been unable to find any information about the company on the web. Has anyone seen this company perform or know anything about their background? Link to comment
Estelle Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 That company danced in Paris in October 2001, I couldn't see it but here is a review of one of their performances: http://www.imagidanse.com/francais/presse/...-01/Kylian.html Unfortunately it's in French only, but perhaps babelfish can help... Among other things, the article says that the company was founded in 1883, that it has 65 dancers and that its director since 1990 (provided it hasn't changed since the article was written) is the former principal Vlastimil Harapes. And also here's an interview from V. Harapes (in English): http://www.culturekiosque.com/dance/inter/prague.html Also, from a Google search, it seems that their "Raymonda" was choreographed by Grigorovich, perhaps there are some people here who know that version? Link to comment
vila Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 There are a few rehearsal pictures on http://www.balet.cz/nd_praha.htm that were taken in 2001 before the première of Raymonda, (scroll down till the end, last three black and white pictures, they are hi-res if you click on them :sweating: ), otherwise the site of Narodni Divadlo, i.e. the National Theater http://www.narodni-divadlo.cz/B_Zaklad.aspx?jz=en has three photos of the production & the cast list, all in English. Unfortunately I am no longer very “au point” with the company, but I do recall as a child that Harapes- was a bit of a national hero/pride in Prague, receiving fair amounts of media coverage (between two programs on tractors and other agricultural/ industrial reports) so it was with great fondness that I saw them a couple of years ago in Paris. They are a came across as very committed and interesting troupe. A suivre...definetly. Most of the dancers used to come from the Prague Conservatory of dance or the theater’s ballet school. Lukas Slavicky, Barbara Kohoutkova (1996 NYICB gold medal) Ivan Liska (all @ the Munich Ballet) trained there and so did the Bubenicek twins http://www.bubenicek.net/ who now dance in Hamburg, Jirí Kylián... Link to comment
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