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Auditions for the new Ballet de Espana


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Auditions for the Ballet de España are being carried out. They finished at the Teatro Real, in Madrid, and are going to take place in Barcelona's Opera House "Gran Teatre del Liceu" during this week.

More than 700 dancers from all over the world attended the first 3 day auditions made by a jury composed by relevant people of the international dance world such as Cynthia Harvey or Vladimir Vasiliev.

According to what Corella reported to Europa Press Televisión nearly all members have already been selected but the final decision will be made when Barcelona's auditions have finished. He was very surprised because of the high level of the attendants who came from all over the world, London, Japan, Australia...

The Company will premiere at the Teatro Real, in Madrid, in September 2008 and after a performance in Barcelona it will make an international tour including Washington and Japan.

AN "HISTORICAL" EVENT

Mrs. Cynthia Harvey commented that creating such a company was an absolute need for Spain to give to the people of this country the possibility to enjoy classical dance, "why are there so many good Spanish dancers in London when they should be dancing here?" she asked.

Comments from the other jury personality Mr. Vladimir Vasiliev were on the same way "It is rather strange that being dance such a very important issue for the people of this country, Spain doesn't have a Classical ballet Company" he said. To him, the creation of the Angel Corella's Classical Ballet Company is an "historical event not only for Spain but for all Europe".

Summary of the article Published in Terra Actualidad - Europa Press

If you follow this link you will find a picture of Ángel Corella with the members of the jury and the ballet teacher Mr. Eldar Aliev (at about the end of the post) shot by Jesús Vallinas during Madrid auditions.

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CarolinaM - thanks for the report! What a huge turnout - with Barcelona yet to go! I'm glad we made the decision to send DD & her D friend over to audition in Madrid, rather than wait to see if the auditions came to the US - it's been a wonderful experience for them. Now, to await the outcome... :blink:

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Cynthia Harvey commented that creating such a company was an absolute need for Spain to give to the people of this country the possibility to enjoy classical dance, "why are there so many good Spanish dancers in London when they should be dancing here?" she asked.
I guess that was the key question behind the formation of this new company. In a few years, I hope, Spanish ballet dancers will dance in other countries because they want to, not because the have to. :blink: Thanks, CarolinaM, for this news.

Plans for a tour (in 2008?) to the US and Japan sound particularly exciting -- and ambitious.

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If you want to see some pictures of the auditions you can go to the bottom of this topic here There is also written information but I’m afraid it is only in Spanish. I’m not sure if an article about it all will follow in both Spanish and English.

In any case I translate what Jesús Vallinas, photograph and manager of fotoescena, said concerning the auditions after his attendance as dance photograph at the Teatro Real in Madrid:

The first shot of the topic shows Cynthia Harvey, Vladimir Vassiliev, Eldar Aliev (dance teacher of the Boston Ballet) and Ángel Corella, together with Mª Begoña Acuña representing the Foundation.

More than 700 dancers from 10 different nationalities attended the auditions, a lot of them traveling thousands of Km. to be there. Dozens of soloists and first dancers from all over the world are interested in the project…

……

……

--------------------------------------------------------

Second and third shots: Eldar Aliev’s class is fast and demanding, dancers capacities are put to test. It is designed to see the response, according to the classic discipline, of all kind of dancers. As I could notice the level of a corps de ballet as well as the one of a soloist is easily revealed.

All attendants do the complete class and only at the end, a reduced group is selected to follow with more exercises. According to the organization, once the auditions have finished, the final selection will be announced to the participants by 15 days.

Vladimir Vassiliev replayed to one question from the media with his usual -direct and honest- character and with a deep knowledge of the subject:

"It is a shame that Spain does not have a Classical Company"

That is what he said….. and he left with no more comments.

The rest of the topic is about Jesús requesting to cultural politics and organizations to ponder about Mr. Vassiliev words.

The last shot shows Cynthia Harvey and Vladimir Vassiliev over a letter I sent to the Catalan media asking them to cover the event as the Spanish newspapers did no mention at all about it.

In Cataluña the two most important newspapers have published my letter and are covering the auditions.

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Really nice photos! I love the photo of Vasiliev holding Cynthia Harvey in an affectionate version of what is called a "strangle hold" in American wrestling. :clapping::flowers:

It is impressive that over 700 dances auditioned, but sad that only 80 can be chosen.

I have a question about the title of the company. There are references in these press releases to "Compania de Ballet Classico Angel Corella" and even "Compania Inernacional de Ballet Classico en Espana." Has an official company name been chosen yet?

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Hi Bart,

Daunting as those statistics are, they are still better than those at the most of the US company auditions where over 100 dancers may be applying for 1 or 2 positions.

This is an ambitious undertaking and I certainly wish them well.

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Really nice photos! I love the photo of Vasiliev holding Cynthia Harvey in an affectionate version of what is called a "strangle hold" in American wrestling. :):blink:

It is impressive that over 700 dances auditioned, but sad that only 80 can be chosen.

I have a question about the title of the company. There are references in these press releases to "Compania de Ballet Classico Angel Corella" and even "Compania Inernacional de Ballet Classico en Espana." Has an official company name been chosen yet?

I don’t know bart. I was pretty sure that the name will be “Ballet de España” but now I read about "Compañía de Ballet Ángel Corella” and I’m a bit confussed too.

I’ll try to find it out.

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>It is impressive that over 700 dancers auditioned, but sad that only

>80 can be chosen.

I've auditioned for B'way shows here in NYC where over 2,000 showed up at an audition (all Equity, union) -- all auditioning for the same single, female-soloist-dancer part. (I even got (won!) one of those auditions!!!....brag, brag.)

It's a lucky, very lucky break to be chosen out of 700 or 2,000. It's all in the eye of the beholder/auditioner(s).

Can't wait to hear who the chosen dancers will be for Corella's company!

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I was invited to see the last audition at the Liceu last Saturday in BCN.

The level of the attendants was very high and it seems that it has been the same all the days long.

They followed a class given by Mr. ELDAR ALIEV Ballet Master of Boston Ballet, and former principal dancer at the Bolshoi.

This was the first audition I saw in my life and I was very surprised because even if one could very early clearly notice a big difference of level between the attendants, all succeeded with a great respect to everybody, leaving all the people finish their one hour class. After this hour some of them were asked to do alone more exercises, and this is that people who are in the list of candidates.

I think that the final list of dancers for the “Ballet the España” (they confirmed me the name) will be announced by 15 days.

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It is not unusual in the USA to attend an audition of 150-200 dancers for (maybe) one corps opening. Also, these auditions are often held in more than one location, further increasing the odds. The ratio seems quite generous in favor of the auditioning hopefuls for this new company. This is a wonderful beginning for Spain, and it's young dancers.

It appears as though a NYC audition will not be held, as was reported earlier.

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CarolinaM, do you know who finally won the posts? Has the list been published?

The press note has been published in Angel web site

As for the names it seems that some dancers haven't told their current companies that they will be leaving so the organization can not issue any list of names.

Hoping we will know soon, maybe after summer.

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They told that the company would have between 70 and 80 dancers as follows: 10 Principals, 10 Soloists, 40/50 corps de ballet and 10 apprentices.

As not all Principals and Soloists attended that auditions maybe the results do not show the total number of the future dancers.

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Leonid has just posted a link to a February Daily Telegraph article on Rojo (by Ismene Brown) in which she mentions that she still plans on returning to Spain to start a ballet company.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...5/btswan115.xml

In "three, four or five years", she will go back to her land and establish a Royal Ballet of Spain, much on Royal Ballet lines. She is not troubled that her compatriot, Angel Corella from American Ballet Theatre, is ahead of her in setting up a Spanish company. "I don't want my company to be the first one; I want it to be the right one," she says, and it is impossible to doubt that it will be.

Interesting! The quote is over 3 months old -- But what do you all think?

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Leonid has just posted a link to a February Daily Telegraph article on Rojo (by Ismene Brown) in which she mentions that she still plans on returning to Spain to start a ballet company.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...5/btswan115.xml

In "three, four or five years", she will go back to her land and establish a Royal Ballet of Spain, much on Royal Ballet lines. She is not troubled that her compatriot, Angel Corella from American Ballet Theatre, is ahead of her in setting up a Spanish company. "I don't want my company to be the first one; I want it to be the right one," she says, and it is impossible to doubt that it will be.

Interesting! The quote is over 3 months old -- But what do you all think?

Well I knew about, I posted this in fotoescena.

I do not like at all Tamara's attitude. She can of course think that Angel's Company will not be the "right" one but to say this when he is fighting for it and need all support is not very fair from her, I think :mad:

I have never read anything from Angel's side against Tamara.

In any case I do not see any movement from nor the government neither the Royal House supporting any of the projects.

It's really a pity as a project of this kind needs full suport from the institutions, even if Angel's will be private the possible donors will trust more in the project seeing a support of this kind.

A pity what happens in Spain :(

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I do not like at all Tamara's attitude. She can of course think that Angel's Company will not be the "right" one but to say this when he is fighting for it and need all support is not very fair from her, I think :mad:

It's really a pity as a project of this kind needs full suport from the institutions, even if Angel's will be private the possible donors will trust more in the project seeing a support of this kind.

A pity what happens in Spain :(

Maybe it's the translation into English, but Rojo's comments seem a bit insensitive and also a bit impractical to me.

It takes a lot of resources, as you note, and one wonders how enthusiastic potential supporters will be for an effeort that will

begin in 3 years, 4 years, 5 years or whenever. And if she isn't ready to move now, her comments undermine Corella's

efforts.

Oh well, in an ideal world Spain will have two great ballet companies; let's hope so!

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I copy below what I posted last May 16 on the other thread on Compañía de Ballet de España:

"When we started this thread we discussed about two new projects: Corella's, now a reality, and Tamara Rojo's. The future of the latter is uncertain. In an interview last week Tamara said that she does not know anything about the proposal, that all the good words she got at the first moment have become silence...

It will be a good thing to have two professional ballet companies to compete in Spain. Please, politicians, wake up!"

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In "three, four or five years", she will go back to her land and establish a Royal Ballet of Spain, much on Royal Ballet lines. She is not troubled that her compatriot, Angel Corella from American Ballet Theatre, is ahead of her in setting up a Spanish company. "I don't want my company to be the first one; I want it to be the right one," she says, and it is impossible to doubt that it will be.

I don't think (or at least I hope) that Rojo's comments were putting Corella down as such, though they certainly are unfortunately worded. She's just saying that she wants this company for the right reasons and it just happens that Corella was that bit faster. I don't think that 'the right one' necessarily means that Corella's is 'the wrong one' in Rojo's view.

I might have missed this, but what sort of repertoire will be performed by the Ballet de Espana? Perhaps Rojo wishes to focus on different areas.

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They haven't say a word about that but I assume that it will be classical repertoire, as that is precisely what Spain lacks. For 2008-2009 Teatro Real's season 'La Bayadère' is scheduled. It will be the first time, that I recall, this ballet is going to be performed in Madrid in thirty years.

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I wonder if Carolina M might have some more news on the Corella company. I believe that dancers names should be coming out soon. I don't know how the dance year runs in Europe, etc. but I believe that US dancers who are not returning to their companies have probably given notice by this date.

When are the first performances? I read about the tour in '08, but I would imagine that the company would need to assemble soon to start bonding and working together.

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About repertoire all I know is what we wrote in our article in fotoescena

The repertoire will include a wide range of classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballets. There will be regular season performances each year in the most important theaters in Spain. The company will also be touring abroad. Performances will also be held at the summer dance festival called “Noches de Ballet en La Granja” which will take place in the gardens of Santa Cecilia Palace.

The ballet programming has already been set for the next 4 years, starting in 2008 with one classical production, “La Bayadère”, and two repertoire productions (Balanchine, Christopher Wheldon, Twyla Tharp, Stanon Welch, etc.). By 2011 the plans are to do three classical dance productions and four of repertoire.

As far as dancers are concerned, some names of principals and corps are already known and all contracts have been sent but they can not publish the complete list yet. They foresee to do so by the last quarter of this year and the company will start working in January 2008 to be ready for the Bayadere premiere on September 8th at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

I'm anxious to know more as well :)

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About repertoire all I know is what we wrote in our article in fotoescena

As far as dancers are concerned, some names of principals and corps are already known and all contracts have been sent but they can not publish the complete list yet. They foresee to do so by the last quarter of this year and the company will start working in January 2008 to be ready for the Bayadere premiere on September 8th at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

I'm anxious to know more as well :)

The Royal Ballet School has announced where this year's graduates have found contracts. The following are noted as Ballet de Espana, Madrid

Daisy Brodkis

Tracy Jones

Misa Kim

Russell Ducker

Toby Malitt

More are joining this company than any other (four each went to the Royal and BRB)

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Thank you very much Lynette H :)

In the Spanish press it has been announced that Ángel and a troupe of dancers are going to train in a special room conditioned to rehearsal in a "Parador" the highly appreciated loations all over the Spain (old buildings that the government takes care of because of their art or cultural value and converts into quite luxury hotels).

It seems that they are going to tour in Spain up to January when the whole Company will start working, probably in the same place while works in Santa Cecilia Place are underway.

For those reading Spanish you can find more info here

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