Category: dance

“After what the [Royal] Opera House called ‘artistically differing approaches to the project’ between the director Stefan Herheim and choreographer Johan Kobborg, Mr Kobborg has left the production [of Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes], along with 32 dancers from the Royal Ballet, the Royal Ballet School and the Royal Danish Ballet.”

“Guillem has arrived in Florence to prepare for William Forsythe’s Steptext. However with the uncertainty of the future of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and with the almost certain elimination of its dance company, MaggioDanza, the 10 June performance [was] cancelled ‘to allow the theatre workers to participate in a demonstration’.”

A Bolshoi spokesperson confirms that the principal dancer and Russian media celebrity – who has spent at least the last two years loudly criticizing the Bolshoi’s management, artistic product and renovation, and has repeatedly demanded that he himself be appointed the theater’s director – will not have his contract renewed when it expires at the end of this month.

“The hiring of a permanent artistic director [is] ‘the first step back toward stability, and a great step. Getting ourselves on concrete ground again and moving forward, I think everyone’s breathing a big sigh of relief.'”

“Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who has been told he must leave at the end of the month, had been at odds with Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov even before the January 17 attack that stunned Russians with its brutality and left Sergei Filin with severe burns to his face and eyes.”

“The work, which was to be directed by Romeo Castellucci and conducted by Perm Opera artistic director Teodor Currentzis, will not go ahead because the production is ‘not yet possible in the format that the artist has envisioned’, according to an MIF spokeswoman.”

“Until the formation of the Auckland-based The New Zealand Dance Company two years ago, there was only one national dance company – the Royal New Zealand Ballet. The last time we had two was Limbs Dance Company, which disbanded in 1989.” Now the New Zealand Dance Company is ready for its first performances in Wellington next week.

“An organisation that films new dance pieces so they can be downloaded from the internet and watched on mobile phones is launching this summer. Crystal Ballet, which has for its inaugural recording commissioned new works by choreographers Kim Brandstrup and Ernst Meisner, releases its first film on iTunes on July 1.”

“English National Ballet’s chief executive, Karen Napier, has quit her job after three months in the position. She began in February of this year and resigned last month because it was ‘not the right role for her’, according to a spokeswoman at ENB.”

“The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg is to broadcast the world’s first live 3D ballet on June 6. The performance of Swan Lake, starring Yekaterina Kondaurova and Timur Askerov in the lead roles, will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, and streamed to over 1200 cinemas in 50 countries around the globe. There will also be parallel broadcasts in 2D.”