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

Alina’s Gala | Alina Cojocaru’s signed pointe shoes auctioned for her charity, Hospices of Hope Only Alina Cojocaru could open her Gala with the Rose Adage from The Sleeping Beauty. The music alone sends shivers of fear into the most professional of professional ballet dancers : not Cojocaru. Her supreme technicality aided by wonderfully smooth partnering from [...]

English National Ballet’s Tamara Rojo profiled I recently announced that Tamara Rojo will be profiled on The South Bank Show. Over an hour, the documentary attempts to get under the skin of English National Ballet’s latest Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo, as she takes on the dual role of artistic head and principal dancer. The programme comprises [...]

The Royal Ballet Dances Frederick Ashton An upcoming mixed bill called The Royal Ballet Dances Frederick Ashton will feature five of his ballets : La Valse Méditation from Thaïs (performed by retiring Principal Leanne Benjamin) Voices of Spring Monotones l and ll Marguerite and Armand (Tamara Rojo’s last performance with the company and partnered by [...]

Breaking Ballet News Thursday 4 April 11:35 AM   “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Sergei Polunin will no longer be performing in Midnight Express at the London Coliseum April 9-14. Johan Christensen from the Peter Schaufuss Ballet, who was in rehearsals with Polunin, will dance the title role of Billy Hayes in his place. The real [...]

Peter Schaufuss’ Midnight Express rolls into the London Coliseum in one month In one months’ time, Peter Schaufuss’ Midnight Express will debut in the UK at the London Coliseum, with performances April 9-14. Based on the 1977 book and subsequent 1978 film by Billy Hayes, this reinterpretation of the critically acclaimed drama will star SERGEI [...]

The Royal Ballet | Tamara Rojo’s final curtain call Last night was Royal Ballet Principal dancer Tamara Rojo’s final curtain call at The Royal Opera House. Rojo danced Marguerite and Armand alongside Sergei Polunin. Tamara Rojo was a Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet for 12 years and left The Royal Ballet last year to become Artistic [...]

Cupcakes & Conversation with Sanmarie Kreuzhuber, Soloist, South African Mzansi Ballet What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning? It’s always a little hard to get going at the start of the working week! At South African Mzansi Ballet, we generally work a six day week and my day off is usually spent doing [...]

All Aboard! Peter Schaufuss’s Midnight Express Rolls into the London Coliseum 9th-14th April   Olivier and Evening Standard award winning dancer, director and choreographer Peter Schaufuss today announces the production’s UK debut.   The dance world’s most original choreographer partners with its most outspoken young star in an adaptation of Billy Hayes’s smash hit book.   Midnight [...]

THE ROYAL BALLET ANNOUNCES GUEST ARTISTS FOR 2012/13 SEASON Principal of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, Natalia Osipova, will make her Royal Ballet debut in Swan Lake later this year. She will join the Company for three performances on 10, 13 and 25 October, dancing alongside regular Royal Ballet Principal Guest Artist Carlos Acosta. Tamara Rojo and [...]

Promotions, joiners and leavers for The Royal Ballet’s 2011/12 season   The Royal Ballet’s Ryoichi Hirano and Alexander Campbell have been promoted to First Soloists in the recent Company promotions. Ryoichi, 28 from Japan, joined The Royal Ballet in 2002 and was promoted to Soloist in 2008.  Sydney-born Alexander, 25, joined the Company as a [...]

Ballet News Previews | The Southbank Show – The Male Dancer Billed as “an exploration of the role of the male dancer, developed within classical ballet over the last century,” the welcome return of The South Bank Show puts the spotlight on three of the best male dancers who have made the biggest impact on ballet – Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and [...]

The Olivier Awards with MasterCard on Sunday 15 April 2012 A star-studded night of awards and unique entertainment for all to enjoy ·      A spectacular show with unique musical performances plus special guest stars including Ronan Keating ·      Dame Monica Mason, outgoing Director of the Royal Ballet, is to join Sir Tim Rice as a [...]

Royal Ballet Live | Highlights Last Friday, March 23rd, The Royal Ballet launched a first for them – Royal Ballet Live; a live streaming day showing daily class, rehearsals, interviews and an Insight Evening, with their media partner The Guardian. The trailer for Royal Ballet Live asked the question, “have you ever wondered what it takes [...]

Sergei Polunin dances James Dean for Men in Motion With a headline screaming “Sergei Polunin: I’ll give up ballet by 26″ in The Guardian last Tuesday, Alex Needham wrote that, “Men in Motion includes the first dance he [Polunin] has ever choreographed, a piece about James Dean.” What happened was, Polunin commissioned his former colleague, Royal Ballet [...]

Russian Ballet Icons Gala London Coliseum Sunday 4th March 2012 What a night. The thing about this Gala series is that you don’t get standard gala fare – Don Quixote, Swan Lake etc,. Galas can present the kind of difficulties that you don’t find in the standard repertory and arise out of a lack of rehearsal [...]

IVAN PUTROV & SERGEI POLUNIN RETURN TO SADLER’S WELLS FOR MORE MEN IN MOTION   Two of the biggest stars of the dance world, former Royal Ballet Principal Ivan Putrov and dance sensation, Sergei Polunin will star in a new production of Men in Motion, highlighting the range and virtuosity of the male dancer, at [...]

Ballet Business | How to work with the media In an earlier feature, How to get into ballet, I outlined the early stages of a ballet career and some of the pitfalls you might need to watch out for & be prepared for. As part & parcel of your professional ballet career, in a visual art form, photographs of you could (and hopefully, will) end up in the [...]

The Royal Ballet casting period 3 The Royal Ballet casting for booking period 3 has some notable debuts and two new ballets, encompassing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a triple bill comprising : Polyphonia|New Scarlett|New McGregor and La fille mal gardee. The casting is as follows : Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 17|26 March, 13|16 April Cuthbertson, [...]

Royal Ballet cast changes The Royal Ballet casting amendments, following the resignation of Sergei Polunin, are as follows : Thursday 9th February THE DREAM                                                Alina Cojocaru, Marcelo Gomes* (guest from American Ballet Theatre)   Saturday 10th March – Evening ROMEO AND JULIET                                 Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico Bonelli Saturday 17th March ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND                                          Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico Bonelli Monday 19th March ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND                                          Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae* Thursday 22nd March ROMEO AND JULIET                                 Lauren Cuthbertson, Federico Bonelli Monday 26th March ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN [...]

Men in Motion Sadlers Wells, London The Royal Ballet’s ex-principal dancer Sergei Polunin (you might have heard – he quit last week) takes to the Sadlers Wells stage with Ivan Putrov, Igor Kolb, Elena Glurdjidze, Daniel Proietto and Aaron Sillus for the aptly titled Men in Motion - which closes tomorrow. Men in Motion explores the beauty [...]