Colorado Ballet 2021-2022 season

[California]

I'm pleasantly surprised to receive today an announcement of the Colorado Ballet's 2021-22 season. Nothing happens until the Denver Performing Arts Center okays it, as that's the location of the Opera House. The Buell Theater (also at DPAC) is planning My Fair Lady, to open August 11. https://www.denvercenter.org/tickets-events/my-fair-lady/

Colorado and especially Denver have done an excellent job with COVID, certainly compared to other states. I hope we can keep it up. 

https://www.coloradoballet.org/performances/season

• Opening with Giselle in October, as they had planned last year.
• The premiere of Great Gatsby is replaced with Derek Dean's gorgeous production of Romeo and Juliet.
• Wizard of Oz was a huge box-office success from a couple of years ago, so I'm glad to see it on the schedule again.
• Masterworks announces only Theme and Variations. Last year they had planned Petit Mort and In the Upper Room, so I'll hope they can work those out for 2022.

[YouOverThere]

The Colorado Ballet had a post on Facebook today that stated

Quote

'Today we honor two of our incredible Artists, Soloist Morgan Buchanan and Principal Francisco Estevez, who are moving on to the next chapters of their lives. The dedication, artistry and talent that they brought to the stage inspired us and brought great joy. We sincerely thank them for their time with Colorado Ballet. 

So it looks like the CB is losing 2 important members. They seem a little young for retirement, especially Ms. Buchanan, but I am past the age at which time starts accelerating (I can't believe that I've been exiled from Colorado for 8 years), so they may have been there longer than I perceive.

Edited April 21, 2021 by YouOverThere

[California]

28 minutes ago, YouOverThere said:

The Colorado Ballet had a post on Facebook today that stated

So it looks like the CB is losing 2 important members. They seem a little young for retirement, especially Ms. Buchanan, but I am past the age at which time starts accelerating (I can't believe that I've been exiled from Colorado for 8 years), so they may have been there longer than I perceive.

Both announcements came out of the blue and I'm devastated at the loss, especially Fran, who had been developing a great partnership with Asuka Sasuki. Saturday morning he posted on Instagram (publicly-below) that the matinee (which they streamed digitally) would be his last with the company.  I have no clue what either one is doing next, but he's a huge loss. 

That leaves Yosvani Ramos as their remaining male principal. He's 41 and recovering from another injury (which he is very public about on Instagram). But he and Dana Benton were terrific at the Sunday matinee in White Swan PdD and a PdD from Giselle. I won't comment beyond that. They haven't posted a dancer roster for the new season, but I'll be looking to see what other changes are in store. New hires? promotions? I have no idea.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNxd-YngLCS/

Edited April 21, 2021 by California

[YouOverThere]

On 4/21/2021 at 5:42 PM, YouOverThere said:

So it looks like the CB is losing 2 important members. They seem a little young for retirement, especially Ms. Buchanan, but I am past the age at which time starts accelerating (I can't believe that I've been exiled from Colorado for 8 years), so they may have been there longer than I perceive.

I was correct, at least about Ms. Buchanan. It's only been 12 years since she joined the CB studio company.

[California]

27 minutes ago, YouOverThere said:

I was correct, at least about Ms. Buchanan. It's only been 12 years since she joined the CB studio company.

Fran joined the company in 2013, after dancing with Corella's company in Spain (where he met his now-wife, Tracy Jones): https://coloradoballet.org/Francisco-Estevez

Still no information about where any of them are headed or the new company roster for 2021-22.

[YouOverThere]

On 4/23/2021 at 8:48 PM, California said:

Fran joined the company in 2013, after dancing with Corella's company in Spain (where he met his now-wife, Tracy Jones): https://coloradoballet.org/Francisco-Estevez

The important item is that he graduated from the SAB in 2008.

I can't help but wonder if these retirements are pandemic-inspired. I've been optimistic for a while that arts companies can run a normal schedule in the fall, but I'm growing increasing skeptical now due to the slowdown in the vaccination rate in the US and the low vaccination rate in other countries, and maybe they felt the same way.