Ballet News | Straight from the stage – bringing you ballet insights

Natalia Osipova joins The Royal Ballet next season Natalia Osipova joins The Royal Ballet in the 2013/14 Season. Her first performances will be as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo & Juliet with Carlos Acosta. This follows a guest slot during the run of Swan Lake, also with Acosta. Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O’Hare said “I’m delighted [...]

Breaking Ballet News Royal Ballet Principal Alina Cojocaru in An Evening in aid of Hospices of Hope (the Bucharest Hospice Appeal) Date 6.30 pm Sunday May 12th 2013 Venue Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, London , EC1R 4TN Further details to follow. Subscribe to Ballet News via the link on the homepage so that you don’t miss out.

English National Ballet announces Tamara Rojo as its new Artistic Director This morning the news has been officially released that Royal Ballet Principal dancer Tamara Rojo has been appointed Artistic Director of English National Ballet. Is this the worst-kept secret in ballet ? In part, yes; due to an inadvertently premature tweet from a broadcaster that was picked [...]

Royal Ballet News | Sergei Polunin resigns A statement from The Royal Ballet Dame Monica Mason announced this afternoon that Principal Sergei Polunin has resigned from The Royal Ballet with immediate effect. Born in the Ukraine, Sergei joined The Royal Ballet in 2007 from The Royal Ballet School. He rose rapidly through the ranks and [...]

Ballet San Jose | A ballet company losing it’s direction Dennis Nahat Photograph : John Gerbetz Ballet San Jose (BSJ), a well-respected non-profit charity and the second largest ballet company in California, performs three or more repertory programmes per season (October-May) as well as Artistic Director Dennis Nahat’s The Nutcracker which has a run of only ten [...]

DENIS MATVIENKO AND VADIM MUNTAGIROV TO APPEAR AS GUEST ARTISTS WITH AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE FOR 2012 Denis Matvienko, a principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet, and Vadim Muntagirov, a principal dancer with English National Ballet, will debut as guest artists in upcoming performances with American Ballet Theatre. The announcement was made today by Artistic Director [...]

Ballet Gala – Ashanti Development The programme for Sunday’s Ballet Gala in aid of Ashanti Developoment is : Welcome by William Carslake Carnaval de Venise Pas de deux – Venus Villa & Fernando Montano                                 Still Moving Pas de Deux by Simon Rice – Hubert Essakow & Paul Liburd             Violin & Piano – Saint-Saens Havanaise                                                                      Frozen  Vanessa [...]

Birmingham Royal Ballet announces new Soloist – Max Westwell In addition to Birmingham Royal Ballet’s leavers, joiners and promotions announced at the end of the summer season, Birmingham Royal Ballet is pleased to announce that Max Westwell is joining the Company as Soloist. Max joins Birmingham Royal Ballet direct from English National Ballet. His roles [...]

Ivan Vasiliev to dance with English National Ballet in Roland Petit’s Jeune Homme et la Mort Bolshoi ballet supremo Ivan Vasiliev will dance with English National Ballet First Artist Jia Zhang in Jeune Homme et la Mort on Friday 22 July as his personal tribute to Roland Petit. Following Roland Petit’s death on 9 July, [...]

CHASE FINLAY AND ANTHONY HUXLEY PROMOTED TO SOLOIST AT NEW YORK CITY BALLET New York City Ballet announced today that Chase Finlay and Anthony Huxley have been promoted to Soloist.  Peter Martins, NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief, made the promotions at the end of the Company’s annual summer residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center [...]

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET ANNOUNCEMENTS JULY 2011 At the end of the 2010/2011 Season, Birmingham Royal Ballet announces the following: Marion Tait is appointed Assistant Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.  Following a celebrated and award-winning career as Principal dancer with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, Tait became the company’s Ballet Mistress in 1995. [...]

French ballet choreographer Roland Petit dies at 87 Pushing ballet boundaries French choreographer and dancer Roland Petit, who created over 100 ballets during his career,has died in Geneva at the age of 87. The dance company he helped to set up in 1945, Les Ballets des Champs-Elysees, is said to have been responsible for choreography that pushed [...]

National Ballet of Canada | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Breaks Box Office Record June 28, 2011… The National Ballet of Canada today announced that Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the highest grossing main season production in the company’s history. A total of 27,180 people attended 13 performances for an overall capacity of 98% [...]

Romeo & Juliet At the London Coliseum, July 11th  to 17th  for 9 performances only FULL CAST CONFIRMED FOR ROMEO AND JULIET   FIRST MAJOR REVIVAL OF THE ASHTON – PROKOVIEV MASTERPIECE FOR 25 YEARS When the curtain rises on fair Verona at the London Coliseum next month, a rare treat is in store for [...]

Yesterday in central London a lunch was held in honour of English National Ballet’s Senior Principal dancer Daria Klimentová, who was presented with the Critic’s Circle Patron Award 2010 by Dame Beryl Grey. The Patron’s Award is given to an individual or organization that has significantly furthered the cause of dance in the UK. The [...]

St Prex Classics, August 16-28, 2011 St Prex, May 17th, 2011 – The St Prex Classics is serving up an additional treat, Aurélie Dupont, star dancer or etoile of the Paris Opera, who will further enrich a programme that was already going to be particularly succulent this year. She will join Philippe Jaroussky, Nigel Kennedy, [...]

The Russian Ballet Icons Gala 2011 will bring together a dazzling cast of dancers and leading figures from the world of ballet. Arts promoters Ensemble Productions are proud to present this unique evening – believed to be the only centenary celebration of Galina’s life and the work taking place outside Russia of this scale – [...]

  Amber Scott, Andrew Killian and Leanne Stojmenov. Photography James Braund Andrew Killian, Amber Scott and Leanne Stojmenov step up Ballet hat-trick as three dancers promoted to principal artist at The Australian Ballet   Audiences at the opening night of British Liaisons in Sydney experienced a triple treat tonight. It was revealed that a trio [...]

Following on from last night’s news about the new Royal Ballet season, I can now expand on the casting for the beginning of the season. Great to see Akane Takada tackling Aurora with Steven McRae in October – that’s one to book !  The Rojo/Acosta partnership is completely absent from Manon casting. Melissa Hamilton gets [...]

BirminghamRoyal Ballet’S INTERNATIONAL Tour to Japan IN MAY 2011                Fundraising performance on 17 May in Tokyo for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief   The company will perform Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty and Frederick Ashton’s Daphnis and Chloë and The Dream         At certain performances Miyako Yoshida will guest in The Dream [...]