New chapter in our ongoing series of Ballet History articles, Linda looks at what the Bolshoi is made of:

Bolshoi means big, an adjective that perfectly describes this ballet company. As the recent London season proves, they are bold, stylish and know how to put on a show.  They are also resilient, having lived through revolutions, lack of appropriate investment, defection of dancers to finally meet a blossoming period of renovation. The Bolshoi remains one of the world’s most famous ballet companies – according to the Guardian’s Sanjoy Roy even Lady Gaga is a fan – and their current repertory showcases a mix of heritage works and contemporary pieces by the world’s best choreographers.

The Theatre

At the end of the 18th century there was an increase in theatrical events over Russia which led Prince Peter Urusov, aristocrat, imperial officer and arts patron, to push for the construction of a theatre in Petrovka Street, Moscow to house operas, ballets and plays. For this project he had the support of ex-acrobat and English entrepreneur Michael Maddox.

In 1825 – after a fire tore down its premises – this theatre gave room to the Petrovsky Theatre. Designed by architects Ossip Bovet and Andrei Mikhailov (who also built the nearby Maly Theatre) the new theatre became the exclusive home of opera and ballet, with an in house dance company of around 50 dancers. Opera houses at that time were called “Grand Theatres” or “Bolshoi” (literally “big”) so the Petrovsky Theatre became known as “the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow”.

The theatre’s inaugural performance was the ballet Cendrillon with music by Fernando Sor. At that time most ballet productions were choreographed by locals such as Adam Glushkovsky, yet ballets from the French and Italian masters slowly started to make their way into the repertory. The company grew in size and towards 1840 it had 150 dancers trained in the French style associated with Jules Perrot‘s ballets. The opera company also flourished, staging the first productions of operas by Glinka and Tchaikovsky.

The Bolshoi burned down again in 1853. Theatre fires were very common because of the gas lamps used to light the stage and it took 3 years for the building to resurface with new designs by Alberto Cavos, grandfather of Alexandre Benois.

Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. Photo: Andrew F. Griffith ©

To preserve its structure, modernise facilities and restore acoustics which had been modified during the Soviet regime, the  Bolshoi Theatre entered a renovation phase in 2004, with government funding. The main stage is currently closed and is expected to reopen October 2013. In the meantime, the Bolshoi performs nearby in a provisional stage referred to as “The New Theatre”.

The Ballet Company

In 1900 Alexander Gorsky, Petipa’s former assistant, was appointed manager and subsequently Premier Ballet master at the Bolshoi Theatre. The company started to develop its identity during this pre-Soviet period; pieces like Don Quixote (1900), Saint-León’s Coppélia (1901), Swan Lake (1901), La Fille Mal Gardée (1903),  Giselle (1911), Le Corsaire (1912) and La Bayadère (1917) were revised and staged. During his tenure Gorsky also brought in such choreographers as Rostislav Zakharov (The Fountain of Bakhchisarai) and Leonid Lavrovsky to assist in creating popular new works.

Maria Alexandrova as Kitri and Yuri Klevtsov as Basilio. Photo: Damir Yusupov / Bolshoi Theatre ©

The Bolshoi Ballet: Evolution

1917 - Moscow becomes the capital of the Soviet Union. Politicians get involved in discussions around ballet repertory, favoring works strongly connected to the people via revolutionary themes and characters (ex: The Red Poppy, 1927).

1924-1937 – Gorsky and his successor Vasily Tikhomirov reorganise and continue to develop the company. The Bolshoi uses its share of public funding to nurture new talent: dancers from within the school and from the Kirov, choreographers (Zakharov, Fyodor Lopukhov, Leonid Lavrovsky) and composers (Shostakovich, Khachaturian).  Heritage pieces like The Bolt (1931), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1934) and The Bright Stream (1935) are created.

Scene from Act II of The Bright Stream. Photo: Damir Yusupov / Bolshoi Theatre ©

1941 – During the Nazi invasion the company is evacuated to Kuibyshev by the Volga river. It remains there until 1943.

1942- Leonid Lavrovsky is appointed chief choreographer. He is given the task of modernising the company in the post-war. The ballet Gayane is premiered.

1945- Premiere of Cinderella, a new ballet from Prokofiev, who had been responsible for Romeo and Juliet‘s successful score, choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov.

1946 – Lavrovsky becomes Artist Director.

1953 – The Bolshoi visits the West post Stalin’s death. The international tours are a worldwide success. Ballerinas such as Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya become known by their virtuosity and dramatic intensity during the 1957 and 1958 tours to London and New York.

1964 – 1995 Lavrovsky is succeeded by Yuri Grigorovich. His long tenure is associated with grand productions, ie. Spartacus (1967), The Stoneflower (1957) and The Legend of Love (1961). A new generation of starry dancers flourishes, including  Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maximova, Natalia Bessmertnova and Maris Liepa.

1995 - 2004 Grigorovitch retires. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union the company faces financial woes and many new Artistic Directors appear in quick succession: Vladimir Vasiliev (1995 – 1998), Alexei Fadeyechev (1998-2000) and Boris Akimov.

The Bolshoi Ballet: Today

During the early nineties the Bolshoi had lost its predominance. The Mariinsky, by comparison, had started to broaden its repertory with a selection of contemporary and neoclassical works. The company would be revived under Alexei Ratmansky. Appointed as AD in 2004, Ratmansky’s achievements include:

• Reviving Bolshoi cornerstones The Golden Age, Le Corsaire, The Flames of Paris.

• Re-choreographing lost Shostakovich ballets The Bolt and The Bright Stream.

• Acquiring contemporary works for the company (Balanchine, Twyla Tharp) and commissioning new ballets from choreographers like Christopher Wheeldon.
  
  
• Fast-tracking young talent (ex: Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev).

In 2008 Ratmansky left to devote himself to choreography although he remains associated with the Bolshoi as a guest choreographer. Current AD  Yuri Burlaka is a former dancer and répétiteur who specialises in old ballet classics. During his tenure he has been involved in reconstructing Le Corsaire together with Ratmansky (2007) and restoring the Paquita Grand Pas (2008) and Esmeralda (2009).

Natalia Osipova as Esmeralda and Denis Medvedev as Pierre Gringoire. Photo: Damir Yusupov / Bolshoi Theatre ©

The Style

The Bolshoi has an historical rivalry with St. Petersburg heritage ballet company, the Mariinsky. Both have  developed very different performing styles: the Bolshoi has a more colourful and bold approach, whereas the Mariinsky is associated with pure and refined classicism.

The Bolshoi style is also characterised by its power. It combines phenomenal technique and athleticism, expressiveness and dramatic intensity. These attributes go all the way back to Gorsky who considered acting to be as important as  dancing, with Grigorovich’s melodramatic ballets (Spartacus, Ivan The Terrible, The Golden Age) bringing out poise and flamboyance.

Compare and contrast the styles : Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote, which was created for the Bolshoi in 1829, is a company trademark. Compare this clip of the Bolshoi’s approach to the ballet with this one by the Mariinsky.

Ivan Vasiliev as Spartacus. Photo: Yelena Fetisova / Bolshoi Theatre ©

The company has an associated ballet academy (the Moscow Choreographic Institute) whose syllabus has been tailored to fit the Bolshoi style. Students spend 8 years in the academy which feeds directly into the company. Dancers who graduate and join the company are individually coached by retired Bolshoi dancers, ensuring the continuity and strength of the style while remaining adaptable to modern repertory.

Videos

Legends

• Yekaterina Geltzer and Vasily Tikhomirov in a fragment of “Russia: The Missing Years – History of the Bolshoi”  [link]
• Galina Ulanova and Mikhail Gabovich dance the bedroom pas de deux from Lavrovsky’s Romeo & Juliet [link]
• Maya Plisetskaya as Kitri in Don Quixote Act I [link]
• Marina Semyonova and Yuri Kondratov in Act II Pas de Deux of Swan Lake [link]
• Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maximova (Phrygia) and Māris Liepa (Crassus) in Grigorovich’s Spartacus [link]
• Natalia Bessmertnova dances Giselle‘s Act I variation [link]
• Ludmila Semenyaka and Irek Mukhamedov (Jean de Brienne) in Raymonda [link]

Natalia Osipova and Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet in Giselle. Photograph by Elliott Franks ©

The Current Generation

• Maria Alexandrova dances Gamzatti’s variation from La Bayadére [link]
• Svetlana Zakharova dances Odile’s variation from Swan Lake [link]
• Svetlana Lunkina and Nikolai Tsiskaridze in Act I of Giselle [link]
• Natalia Osipova dances Kitri’s Act I variation [link]
• Ivan Vasiliev and Nina Kaptsova (Phrygia) in Spartacus [link]
• Yekaterina Shipulina dances the Queen of the Dryads variation from Don Quixote [link]
• Yekaterina Krysanova, Natalia Osipova and Anna Nikulina as the three main shades in La Bayadère [link]
• Svetlana Zakharova, Yekaterina Krysanova and Bolshoi artists in Jardin Animé from Le Corsaire [link]

Natalia Osipova as La Sylphide. Photo: Yelena Fetisova / Bolshoi Theatre ©

Sources and Further Information

1. Bolshoi History by Clement Crisp. Bolshoi Programme Notes, July 2010
2. Wikipedia Entry for The Bolshoi Theatre [link]
3. Answers.com entry for The Bolshoi Ballet [link]
4. Bolshoi Ballet: Power and Poise, Judith Mackrell. The Guardian, July 2010 [link]
5. The Bolshoi Ballet: A Step-by-step Guide to Dance, Sanjoy Roy. The Guardian, July 2010. [link]
6. Alexei Ratmansky Q&A, Graham Watts. London Dance, July 2007. [link]
7. Interview with Natalia Osipova, Ian Palmer. Ballet.co Magazine, June 2007 [link]
8. The Bolshoi in Paris: An Interview with Alexei Ratmansky, Patricia Boccadoro. CultureKiosque, February 2004 [link]
9. Interview with Maria Alexandrova, Marc Haegeman. Dance International Summer 2003. For Ballet Lovers Only [link]

Linda’s recent visit to The Tokyo Ballet left us very curious to find out more about touring ballet companies and the specific challenges they face. Touring companies have to adapt to change constantly. The whole troupe is involved, starting with the technical staff – who need to design tour-friendly productions and adjust them to suit different venues – to dancers who must be prepared to cover a broad range of roles and, for most of the year, say goodbye to the comfort of their homes and main theatre (though some companies don’t even have the benefit of a base camp).

Trading the comfort of home to conquer different audiences and experience true adventures on the road sounds fun, but it also means a ballet company must be ready to often deal with unexpected situations and manage logistics. In this feature touring veterans Birmingham Royal Ballet, one of the world’s leading ballet companies, share their perspectives on what it’s like to be always on the road:

First Soloist Andrea Tredinnick is interviewed during a tour to Norfolk. Photo: Tom Stevens / BRB ©

What are the advantages of touring?

David Bintley, Artistic Director: To us, touring is vitally important. There isn’t such a large audience in any one area that we could perform 26 weeks of the year in one place. Looking back to when I was a dancer it was great, I liked touring, although I’ve been doing this for thirty-four years, so some elements of touring are not much fun anymore! But when you’re a young dancer especially, it’s great not to be stuck in the same theatre. It’s great to play different audiences, and to get different responses, to see how things go in one theatre and how they are received in another theatre.

Who travels with the dancers to support them?

Paul Grist (Company Manager) during BRB's 2009 China Tour. Photo: BRB ©

Paul Grist, Company Manager: Marion Tait, Ballet Mistress, and our three Ballet Masters: Michael O’Hare, Wolfgang Stollwitzer and Dominic Antonucci, are out on tour with us all the time; teaching class, taking rehearsals, watching performances and maintaining artistic standards – as well as dancing character roles in a considerable amount of the repertoire. AD David Bintley will usually visit each touring venue for the stage rehearsal and first performance of each programme, staying for all or part of the week depending on his other commitments and the repertoire. Also Denis Bonner, our repetiteur who stages most of David’s and Peter [Wright]’s repertoire, will usually visit each touring venue for the stage rehearsal and first couple of performances. 

In addition to the artistic staff, there is always one Physiotherapist and one Massage Therapist from our Jerwood Centre on tour each week to provide support with injury treatment and prevention.

I manage all of the dancers administratively and am in day-to-day charge of things on tour. I’m there to support the dancers with any other needs they may have whilst we’re away, from where they can see a local doctor or dentist, to finding a restaurant that’s open after the show, finding accommodation, picking up groceries for people who are sick/injured, help with taxi numbers, organising temporary gym memberships and – on two occasions since I joined the Company – driving an injured dancer back to Birmingham at the end of a touring week!

What are the biggest changes to routine?

Paul Grist: I guess the biggest routine change for the dancers on tour is due to the fact that they’re away from home; most people tend to book self-catering apartments so that they can still cook after the show as in some cities it can be very hard to find restaurants that are open that late. Warm-up routines may also change as there is less space available – in Birmingham the dancers can use empty studios to warm-up during the day or go to the Jerwood Centre to work out. On tour they have to go down to local gyms/sports centres to work out and most warming-up consists of stretching in the corridors. The corridors in Sunderland are particularly wide and are usually full of dancers warming up.

While on tour the dancers leave behind the excellent facilities at Birmingham's Jerwood Centre. Photo: Roy Smiljanic / BRB ©

Where do rehearsals take place?

Paul Grist: The touring schedule is carefully devised to take account of the availability of rehearsal space (or more usually, the lack of availability of rehearsal space!) in each venue. 

Our biggest challenge for rehearsal space on tour is class and the first choice is always for this to happen on stage but even that can sometimes be unsuitable. For example, during the recent Sleeping Beauty tour when the size of the production meant that the Company was augmented with a considerable number of students, there wasn’t really space in the smaller venues to do a full class on stage. This meant often doing two shorter classes or even, in Sunderland, two extended barres each day.

The Company taking class on stage in Norfolk, VA. Photo: Tom Stevens / BRB ©

Paul Grist: At Sadler’s Wells [London] we always have two studios (one for rehearsals and one for costume storage, as the dressing rooms are so small); at the London Coliseum we always use the Royal Opera House studios nearby; in Salford there are a couple of studios around the building that we can use if they are available but if they’re booked, the scenery dock is so large that we can lay a spare floor and do an extended barre in there. Actors rehearsals are even more fun and they usually end up taking place in large dressing rooms, foyer areas or even front of the house bars.

What’s the hardest aspect of touring?

Momoko Hirata. Photo: Andrew Ross/BRB ©

Momoko Hirata, Soloist: Some people don’t really like going on tour because we have to leave behind the gym and all the facilities we have at home, and the exercise regime is very different. But as long as there’s a physiotherapist on tour with us, I’m okay. International trips are harder because it’s really difficult to pass the time, especially on a long flight. I hate having to sit still! It takes a long time for my body to get used to time differences too, and I suffer from jet lag and stiffness a great deal, so I try to get as much sleep and rest as possible and make sure I’m wearing my flight socks.

Apart from that I miss cooking when I’m away, I must say. You always have to eat well and I miss that. I cook Japanese, Italian, Thai …and steak! But we always have a good time on tour, we’re able to spend lots of time together, which is fun.

What factors affect where Birmingham Royal Ballet performs?

Jacqueline Mistry, Contracts Director: The size of theatre is one of the biggest factors for us. For large-scale national and international tours the limiting factor is usually stage size. For our split tours to mid-scale venues, it’s stage size and an orchestra pit. Most of our productions need a fly tower, though we have adapted and coped without, especially on the split tours.  A steep rake is not good for us, but again we’ve coped. We’re pretty adaptable, but can’t perform in theatres “in the round”!





Which preparations have to be made before touring?

Paul Grace, Technical Director: The whole Company is involved – we’re a touring Company by nature so everybody who works on our home shows also works on the shows when they hit the road. It’s a huge and hugely complex operation. It’s like lots of little cogs making up a huge engine – one stops and the whole engine stops. We stage anything up to 20 different shows a year. As well as our four seasons in Birmingham which often kick off UK tours, we then have the overseas tours and the smaller split tours.

Christopher Barron (Chief Executive), Peter Teigen (Lighting Designer) and Johnny Westall-Eyre (Head of Lighting) at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, China. Photo: Simon Harper / BRB ©

In addition to performing, does Birmingham Royal Ballet carry out any additional activities on the road?

Pearl Chesterman, Director for Learning: The Department for Learning delivers workshops in schools and community settings around many of the Company’s major touring venues and occasionally in smaller venues. These workshops aim to give the participants an insight into the ballets that the company is performing.

Are there any places that you particularly like to visit?

Pearl Chesterman: Recently the Learning team have delivered workshops in China and America to support the Company’s international tours, and dates like these are always exciting. Or anywhere near the sea… we are rather landlocked here in Birmingham!

How far in advance are tours planned?

David Bintley, Artistic Director: It tends to be around two or three years. Everything we do is with touring in mind, because we tour everything we dance except for The Nutcracker. The domestic touring pattern doesn’t change that much. You get one-off venues that come in, like Cardiff or Edinburgh, because we only get biannual funding to visit those places. The size of those theatres might affect what goes into your repertoire, but basically everything that we dance in the autumn, spring and summer goes on the road somewhere.

 Sadler’s Wells and the Coliseum are obviously both in London, but they require different reps that we have to plan for. Sadler’s Wells Theatre is a more contemporary, triple bill-oriented theatre, whereas the Coliseum is a more “walk up the centre of town and see the big works” sort of place. So factors like these contribute to what we do for two of the three tours. But I wouldn’t say that anywhere is more important than anywhere else.

The Birmingham Royal Ballet in Sir Peter Wright's The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Bill Cooper / BRB ©

How does touring impact on production design?

David Bintley: Whenever we do a full-length ballet now we always establish right at the start how we’ll get it into our smaller theatres. So within reason, our new production of Cinderella has been designed with touring in mind. We will probably remake a few elements so we have a big version of the production for the bigger theatres and a slightly smaller version for the slightly smaller theatres. That’s not to say we’ll have an entirely different set, we won’t. In most cases we’ll decide to drop a cloth, drop a bar, have half as many stairs, and so on. So it isn’t a question of us just blindly making a production then later thinking ‘how on earth are we going to get this into Sunderland?’. We don’t do that, we do it alongside the design process and build things in such a way that we can recreate them even when we go into smaller venues.

What piece of advice would you give to dancers who tour?

Céline Gittens, First Artist: The most important thing, especially for dancers is to keep hydrated, because you just get so drained from traveling. For the recent trip to Virginia, we were onto a coach at 7am, then a plane, then another coach. So try and get in some rest and get lots of water! We do class six days a week, so having a day when we can’t really move about at all is really difficult. You sometimes find people in the aisle doing stretches – I’m not used to sitting down in a closed position for too long!

Céline Gittens being fitted for Romeo & Juliet by BRB's Head of Wardrobe Lili Sobieralska Photo: Rob Lindsay / BRB ©

Can you share with us some nightmare experiences?

David Bintley: You have nightmare experiences on the road all the time. Doing The Two Pigeons when a theatre’s hot water goes is no fun – you come off stage head to toe in whatever the pigeon has decided to drop on you and you’ve no way to wash it off – horrible!

 We haven’t done one for years, but you could write a book on “tent seasons”. This was back when we were based in Sadler’s Wells. Beginning in the late 1970s, for about 15 years I would have said, we performed regularly in a huge tent. It belonged to Fossets, the old circus. The circus had finished but they still had this old big top, so they decided to put a stage in it. It was fantastic, but it was like camping. I remember the orchestra sitting in two inches of water with plastic bags around their feet!

Robert Parker and Nao Sakuma in Ashton's The Two Pigeons. Photo: Bill Cooper / BRB ©

David Bintley: I remember high winds in Plymouth when they had to get all the wagons literally in a circle around the tent to try and make this wind break so the tent wouldn’t fall down. They cancelled the show in the end because it was too dangerous and we all went and played “Pitch and Putt” in the park next door… too windy to dance but not too windy for pitch and putt! We turned up one year and all the floors in the portacabins had been changed to ply, and it was like a trampoline. And they’d got these trestle tables, and the mirrors I think had all been taken out of old wardrobes – all different shapes and quite ornate. They were just propped up against the wall with a couple of nails in the floor at the bottom to stop them sliding down. Which was fine until of course we all walked in and the floor bounced up and down. All these mirrors were skipping over the nails and falling down and smashing on the floor!

First Soloist Jenna Roberts in her dressing room. Photo: Roy Smiljanic / BRB ©

Follow Birmingham Royal Ballet on the road:

• @BRB on Twitter
• Birmingham Royal Ballet page on Facebook
• Keep up with their Video Diaries via the official Website & Vimeo
• Subscribe to BRB’s excellent touring blog

All images posted with Birmingham Royal Ballet’s kind permission. With many thanks to Rob Lindsay & to the staff at Birmingham Royal Ballet.

]]> http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/08/02/brb-touring-company/feed/ 1 http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/06/24/best-of-you-part-deux/ http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/06/24/best-of-you-part-deux/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:08:43 +0000 Emilia http://www.theballetbag.com/?p=3925

In addition to boosting their presence on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, leading ballet companies have also taken to blogging regularly. Company blogs have radically changed the face of communication within the arts sector. Before them organisations were more dependent on regular media/art pages to pick up on their stories but now they publish their own content, sharing news and features directly with audiences and developing their own “internet voices”.

Hoping to recruit new ballet goers and engage the public, official company blogs focus on what happens behind ballet curtains. Some also leverage off their insider knowledge to give readers real and timely “scoops”. In this way they can make up for lack of impartiality (they are after all representing a company, so don’t expect critical reviews there) and even compete with conventional, more established arts and dance publications.

In this post which follows our recent list of 5 very cool blogs you should read we pick some of our favorite ballet company blogs. We like them for their high editorial quality and original content:

Behind Ballet – The official blog of Australian Ballet

From “ask Colin” (advice to aspiring dancers) to “Legends of ballet”, from ballet crossed over with fashion to mini features, this blog has a fantastic editorial team and regular features including interviews and competitions. Their high-end concept and structure are an example to online dance publications.

We like: Flashback, a Legendary Pair

In an article tracing the history of international ballet dancers visiting Australia, published in The Age in 1964, Geoffrey Hutton described Nureyev and Fonteyn as: “… probably the most highly priced dancers in the world; Fonteyn the pride of the British ballet who has queened it for a generation; Nureyev the sensational young male dancer from the Leningrad Kirov who has brought a new sense of excitement into the Western ballet.”

Open Studio 455 – The official blog of San Francisco Ballet

In a similar way to Behind Ballet, Open Studio 455 provides regular features ranging from interviews to news and reports on community projects. They have an impressive roster of guest writers: principal dancers, members of the staff, directors. Their “picture of the week” series showcases the excellent work of resident photographer Erik Tomasson.

We like: I Did It! Davit Karapetyan proposes to his partner Vanessa Zahorian onstage

At the end of our Romeo & Juliet performance Saturday night, Vanessa and I stood on stage for our bows. The ushers brought her flowers and handed me a microphone; Vanessa looked at me in shock! Luckily, everything was planned very well. Right before the bows, I had gone out for water and someone handed me the ring, which I placed in my poison case. The ushers brought Vanessa flowers and handed me a microphone; she looked perplexed!

Birmingham Royal Ballet – Touring Blog

BRB are a touring company so the blog’s main focus is to show us what happens on the road: plenty of funny or “real world” anecdotes from every angle: dancers, technical crew, creative team. They also have great spotlight features to highlight their season repertoire and superb videos documenting rehearsals and the process of creating new work.

We like: Dusty Button Interview

Q: Is there any one item in your bag that you can’t tour without?

A: Oh, my iPod! Yes! I don’t think I could live without my iPod, even more so than my cell phone. I just love music. When you wake up and you have a great song on and are strutting down the street in the morning it’s amazing, it can make or break your day! Sometimes I take my speakers for when we’re back at our digs between shows, or a lot of the time you can just run it through the TV speakers. I’m the flat DJ for sure!

Miami City Ballet Blog

This blog reminds us of The Winger in places. It has a fresh and vibrant voice, with plenty of guest posts where dancers participate, writing and posting pictures in a “dear diary” format. They also have features on teachers and the transition from school into professional dancing; great for aspiring ballet dancers. Lots of interesting videos too.

We like: Our First Ladies

The May issue of W Magazine includes a photo spread by famed fashion photographer Bruce Weber called “First Ladies,” which features Miami City Ballet dancers and School students!  This “portfolio of inspirational women” includes a breathtaking shot of Jeanette and Patricia Delgado in flowing dresses by Valentino and Burberry, along with photos of fashion icon Iris Apfel, Haitian human-rights leader Marleine Bastien, among others.

The Tokyo Ballet

Yes the Tokyo Ballet’s blog is in Japanese but you can always follow what’s happening via google translate. Or you can focus instead on their excellent images. With great use of photography to show what happens in between performances, this blog reminds us of how ballet is first and foremost a visual art.

We like: Second Week of Rehearsals (Soloist Yuko Tanaka reports on rehearsals ahead of their European tour).

For many people here it will be the first time to go overseas. Although there is plenty of anxiety, I am really looking forward to this experience… Given the 11-hour long rehearsals, the girls decided to lower the tension by wearing pink practice clothes. Pink done, here we come!

Also worth adding to your RSS readers

• Footnotes: The official blog of Boston Ballet
• J Pointe: The official blog of Joffrey Ballet
  
• City Brights: SF Ballet master Ricardo Bustamante’s blog
  

The Tokyo Ballet is one of the largest troupes in Ballet-loving Japan. The company is renowned for its association with Béjart; 18 of his ballets – including original pieces – are currently in repertory. They also boast impressive guests; Sylvie Guillem and Manuel Legris are regulars and, earlier this year, Polina Semionova and Marcelo Gomes  – a match made in ballet heaven – appeared in their production of Ashton’s Sylvia.

During our stay in Japan we were invited to attend rehearsals for some of the Béjart works scheduled to be performed in The Tokyo Ballet’s upcoming European tour. In this feature we give you a bit of the company’s background and share some of the fab images taken by our collaborator Susanne Reffert, whose own blog Chipango captures life in Japan through the eyes of a Westerner. We hope it provides a nice calling card for those not yet familiar with the company.

Background

The Tokyo Ballet emerged in the early 60s as a company for graduates of the Tokyo Ballet Gakko, one of the city’s first classical ballet schools.  In 1964 it was taken over by opera impresario Tadatsugu Sasaki who worked to raise the company’s profile. Believing that Japanese dancers could achieve high standards if they focused on ensemble work, he invested in the company, widening its repertory. The company thrived under Sasaki and was soon invited to tour abroad, visiting Moscow, St. Petersburg (Leningrad at the time) and Kazan in 1966 (as “The Tchaikovsky Memorial Ballet”) and undertaking its first European tour in 1970, now as The Tokyo Ballet.

Growing clamour for governmental support of the arts led to the establishment of Japan’s Performing Arts Foundation (NBS) in 1981. With Sasaki as its Executive Director the company sought to promote and facilitate international exchange in performing arts. This not only paved the way for major international ballet troupes to appear in Tokyo, but for The Tokyo Ballet to attract major choreographers; John Neumeier, Jiří Kylián and Maurice Béjart all created works for the company, the latter having bequeathed performing rights to many of his works.

Mika Yoshioka and Artists of The Tokyo Ballet in Béjart's The Kabuki. Photo: Kiyonori Hasegawa / The Tokyo Ballet ©

The Tokyo Ballet Today

• The company has 86 dancers

• It performs regularly in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan theatre

• In 2007 it received the 6th Asahi Performing Arts Prize for artistic achievements

• Every other year the company tours Europe; occasionally North and South America

• It has completed 23 tours and over 680 performances in some of the world’s most iconic theatres: La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Colón, Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre and the Paris Opera

• It has a wide-ranging repertory including original works by Neumeier (Seven Haiku of the Moon; Seasons – The Colours of Time) and Kylián (Perfect Conception).

• In 2010 the company premiered John Cranko’s Onegin and Sir Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia

The Tokyo Ballet rehearses Maurice Béjart

Tadatsugu Sasaki developed a close friendship with French choreographer Maurice Béjart who felt “very much at home in Japan”. Through this connection The Tokyo Ballet formed an important association with Béjart whose work was often inspired by Eastern themes. The choreographer first collaborated with the company in 1982 when Bolero was staged. This led to three original ballets being created for them: The Kabuki (1986), M – based on the biography of novelist Mishima Yukio – (1993) and Bugaku (1989).

I caught up with The Tokyo Ballet on the run-up to its 24th European tour; a showcase of Béjart big ensemble pieces The Kabuki, Don Giovanni and Le Sacre du Printemps. The first rehearsal I saw was for Don Giovanni (or The Don Giovanni Variations). Béjart loved Mozart’s operas, so he created this short ballet where a group of women try to impress and lure an imaginary playboy with their charm and grace.

The piece is set it to Chopin’s Variations on Don Giovanni. Under the watchful eye of ballet mistress Hiroko Tomoda,  Junko Takamura, whose warm smile and quick feet perfectly sum up the role of “the girl with a book”, practices with her colleagues.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Don Giovanni. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

The ballet starts with the women waiting in a rehearsal studio. They suddenly hear a voice and respond with movement. Don Giovanni is split between mime scenes (where the girls act coquettish and flirty) and classical petit allegro sequences.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Don Giovanni. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

There are also plenty of solo roles. The powerful jump of Aya Takagi and Chika Saeki’s beautiful upper body (as well as her sparkly hairband) caught my eye more than once.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Don Giovanni. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Béjart’s ballets tend to focus on male dancers,  so an all-female piece like Don Giovanni was a new direction for him. At times in the ballet we see 26 ballerinas move in unison; then they smoothly transition into smaller groups.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet in Béjart's Don Giovanni. Photo: Kiyonori Hasegawa / The Tokyo Ballet ©

Next it was time for the boys to join the girls for Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), Béjart’s first big success. This session was led by Artistic Director Munetaka Iida, a very energetic ballet master.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Rite was commissioned by Maurice Huisman, then director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. It premiered in 1959 to general acclaim.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Even in rehearsal, with no costumes or setting, the ballet retains its power. One could feel an overall sense of occasion and commitment from the dancers.

Mika Yoshioka and artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Béjart’s intention was to present a hymn to the union between “man and woman” at its most fundamental level, with a large corps de ballet also taking part in this savage ritual.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

The main roles were taken by principal Mika Yoshioka, a dancer who has a clear sense of drama, and soloist Naoyoshi Nagase

Mika Yoshioka and artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Béjart’s work is highly theatrical. He gave importance to content over movement and drew frequently from biographical, social and cultural subjects, rejecting “fairy tale” themes and often including an erotic vein.

Mika Yoshioka and artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

I got the feeling that the dancers very much enjoy performing in these ballets and that they have an understanding of what Béjart wanted to transmit. A spectacular, kinetic piece like Rite requires their total commitment as they are on stage at all times.

Mika Yoshioka and artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet rehearsing Béjart's Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Susanne Reffert / The Ballet Bag ©

The rights to perform Rite were suspended in 1990. But three years later Béjart allowed The Tokyo Ballet to revive the work for its 30th anniversary; also giving the company exclusive performance rights.

Artists of The Tokyo Ballet in Béjart's Le Sacre du Printemps. Photo: Kiyonori Hasegawa / The Tokyo Ballet ©

More rehearsal images and candid shots available from The Tokyo Ballet’s official blog. All images here either courtesy of  The Tokyo Ballet/NBS or posted with their kind permission. With many thanks to NBS Press officer Maiko Uchida for the tour and for making it all happen.

Sources and Further Information

1. Maurice Béjart Obituary by Ruth Leon, Bloomberg. Nov, 2007. [link]
2. Maurice Béjart entry in GLBTQ Encyclopedia by John McFarland. [link]
3. Maurice Béjart Obituary, NYT. Nov 2007. [link]
4. Nuits de Fourvière, Info site. The Tokyo Ballet dances Béjart.[link]
5. Programme Notes for Don Giovanni, The Kabuki and Le Sacre du Printemps, The Tokyo Ballet, 2010.
6. The Tokyo Ballet. Lausanne city portal. [link]

Where to see The Tokyo Ballet performing Béjart

During their 2010 tour of Europe:

• Turkey: Don Giovanni / Dances Grecques / Sacre du Printemps (Aspendos 17 June; Istanbul 19 June)

• Germany: Images of Asia by Béjart: Bugaku / The Kabuki Suite (Hamburg State Opera June 22, 23) The Kabuki (Deutsche Oper Berlin. July 6, 7)

• Italy: Danses Grecques / Don Giovanni / Sacre du Printemps (Napoli June 26, 27;  Cremona, Festival di Mezza  July 4; Racconigi, July 17, 18)  Don Giovanni / Bugaku / Danses Grecques (Civitanova, July 1); Gala Evening for 700th Performance Abroad feat. The Kabuki (Milan, Teatro Alla Scala July 11); Don Giovanni / Bugaku / Bolero (Como, Festival Como Città della Musica July 13).

• France: Bolero / Danses Grecques / Don Giovanni  (Lyon, July 15)

Further details from the local promoter’s websites or by searching Tokyo Ballet on Bachtrack.

Tradition and heritage are strong words but they fit The Royal Danish Ballet like a glove. They are one of the oldest classical dance troupes in Europe and direct descendants of the Bournonville lineage. With a repertoire that also includes the most prominent choreographers of the 20th century, the Danes have much to be proud of with their home Company.

The Theatre

Combining opera, drama and ballet, The Royal Danish Theatre has long been considered the cultural heart of Copenhagen. Danish theatrical tradition can be traced back to the 18th century and Ludvig Holberg’s comedy series in the Commediehuus (Comedy House) in Lille Grønnegade. Inspired by its success a group of 12 actors, including 1 female and 2 male dancers decided to form a company in 1748. Initially funded by the monarchy, one century later (around 1849) its control passed on to the State.

The Theatre has always stood at Kongens Nytorv but it was shaped by several renovations throughout the years. The original smaller theatre gave room to a new one designed by Danish architect Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup in 1874. This building, together with an adjacent section added in 1931, is now known as Gamle Scene (Old Stage) and houses Ballet including studios, administration offices and workshops. Opera and Theatre now occupy special purpose-built premises, respectively, the New Copenhagen Opera House and the New Royal Danish Playhouse but the 3 art forms are still connected by the same governing body, The Royal Danish Theatre.

The Royal Danish Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) - The Old Stage. Photo: The Ballet Bag ©

The Company

Dance already existed in Copenhagen before The Royal Danish Theatre was inaugurated but this paved the way for the development of a national dance company. Initially the theatre relied mostly on ballet guest artists from Germany, Italy and France. The creation of The Royal Danish Ballet School in 1771 and the arrival in 1775 of Italian ballet master Vincenzo Galeotti attracted local dancers and a national identity began to flourish. Besides creating over 50 ballets for The Royal Danish Ballet (including the only surviving piece and oldest ballet in the world  The Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master from 1786), Galeotti introduced the Ballet d’Action in which pantomime was used to advance the plot.

The Bournonville Years

The most famous figure in the history of Danish ballet is August Bournonville, the French ballet master who gave the company its characteristic style and raised its profile. Bournonville created about 50 ballets plus divertissements in operas and plays, working with a variety of themes and genres and developing the use of complex mime. La Sylphide (1836), Napoli (1842) and A Folk Tale (1854) are some of his masterpieces.

Thomas Lund and Gitte Lindstrøm in Bournonville's Abdallah. Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne / RDB ©

During his tenure as ballet master, Bournonville supervised the development of generations of dancers, raising their technique standards. Giving male dancers important roles he created a tradition for high standards of male dancing in The Royal Danish Ballet and some of them became historical dance figures.

Bournonville’s successor Hans Beck carried on with that tradition and repertoire. From 1894 until 1915 he programmed revivals of Bournonville ballets which remained popular with the audiences. He also developed the “Bournonville School”, a training programme focused on the preservation of the style which was used by the school until the 30s.

For more on Bournonville and his style read our Dear Mr. Fantasy article [link]

Artists of The Royal Danish Ballet in Bournonville's Napoli. Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne / RDB ©

The Royal Danish Ballet: Evolution

1909 – Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes great dance revolution steamrolls through Europe. They abstain from visiting Copenhagen so the Danish scene remains largely unaffected by the movement.

1925 – Michael Fokine is invited by The Royal Danish Theatre to stage some of his works (Petroushka, Chopiniana – Les Sylphides and selections of Prince Igor) which are well received by the audience.

1930 – Balanchine stages his new piece Apollon Musagète for the company, but the work falls under heavy criticism for being no more than “pure gymnastics”.

1932 – Appointment of Harald Lander as Artistic Director (AD) and beginning of a new era of modernisation, with a view of increasing technical standards. Introduction of Russian Style technique (Vaganova) and new repertoire to challenge the dancers.

1940 – A programme to preserve the Bournonville tradition is implemented, with at least one revival of his productions per year.

1948 – Premiere of Études, the most famous piece by Harold Lander. This iconic ballet is famous for its technical demands; only troupes with the highest standards are capable of dancing it.

Fernando Mora, Gudrun Bojesen, Kenneth Greve and Artists of The Royal Danish Ballet in Lander's Études. Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne / RDB ©

1951 - Renowned ballet teacher Vera Volkova arrives and serves as principal teacher for more than 24 years.  She develops future international stars Erik Bruhn, Peter Schaufuss and Peter Martins.

Niels Bjørn Larsen is appointed as AD. RDB adopts a Summer Festival and tours the UK and the US where dancers are praised for their technical and dramatic abilities. Danish male dancers are “discovered” internationally.

1955 – 1961 - Ballets by Ashton (Romeo and Juliet, 1955), Balanchine (Apollo, 1957), Cullberg (Moon Reindeer, 1957 and Miss Julie, 1958), Petit (Carmen, 1960 and Cyrano, 1961) and Robbins are added to the repertoire.

1966 – Flemming Flindt is appointed AD. He implements a plan to modernise ballet as an art form, to make it appeal to new audiences.

1971 – Flindt’s polemic piece The Triumph of Death is premiered. It features a nude scene and music by Danish rock band Savage Rose.

1968 – 1978 – Modern dance is incorporated to the RDB repertoire, including works by Paul Taylor (Aureole, 1968), José Limón and Glen Tetley, among others.

1974 – First staging of Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet and the beginning of a long collaboration with this American choreographer.

Susanne Grinder and Kristoffer Sakurai in Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet. Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne / RDB ©

1978 – Henning Kronstam is appointed AD. Together with Kirsten Ralov (associate AD) they look back at reviving Bournonville tradition.

1979 – The First Bournoville Festival is organised to commemorate the centenary of his death. Within one week the company dances all Bournonville ballets in the repertoire, raising awareness to their tradition.

1985 - 1992 – Frank Andersen is appointed AD. Under his tenure John Cranko‘s Onegin is staged for the company and the second Bournonville Festival, celebrating the 150 year anniversary of Napoli, takes place.

1994 – 2002 A constant change of Artistic Directors causes turmoil. They include Peter Schaufuss (1994-1995), Johnny Eliasen (1995-1997), Maina Gielgud (1997-1999) and Aage Thordal-Christensen (1999-2002) before Frank Andersen finally starts a second term as AD.

2003 - Kenneth MacMillan‘s Manon is staged in Copenhagen.

2008 – Former Principal dancer Nikolaj Hübbe is appointed AD.

Artists of The Royal Danish Ballet in Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements. Photo: Kyle Froman /RDB ©

The Royal Danish Ballet: Today

Despite the high turnover of ADs in the 90s, the last two decades have seen a continuous flow of new works with a strong narrative component. Broadening the repertoire has allowed dancers to further develop their trademark storytelling and characterisation skills. Brandstrup, Cranko, MacMillan, Neumeier, Ratmansky and Rushton have contributed important full-length works. New productions of Bournonville’s Napoli and A Folk Tale (due to premiere next season) seek to preserve the company’s heritage while making these ballets fresh and relevant to modern audiences.  The company looks reinvigorated under new AD Nikolaj Hübbe.

For a glimpse at the Company and its modern headquarters see our recent photolog [link]

Marie-Pierre Greve, Mogens Boesen in Neumeier's The Little Mermaid. Photo: Henrik Steenberg / RDB ©

The School

The Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School has trained most of RDB’s dancers since the 1770s. Its headquarters are at the Kongens Nytorv theatre, with two provincial departments at Odense and Holstebro. The school integrates both academics and ballet for 6-16 year-olds. It was founded by French dancer Pierre Laurent and reorganized under Bournonville in 1847. It is now funded by the State.

During Harald Lander’s tenure a new training system was implemented and the Bournonville “schooling” was restructured to become a complement to the syllabus. Vera Volkova arrived in the 50s and was credited with improving the technical standards of the school.

Students of The Royal Danish Ballet School. Photo: RDB ©

Out of 250 girls and boys who apply to the Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School every spring, less than 70 are admitted. A further 4-week intensive program sees a dozen accepted as full time students. There are close to 70 students between the ages of 6-17, divided into 7 levels in mixed classes.

The students are often called upon to perform in the company’s ballets. A fourth of them end up as apprentices with the company. They will still go to school but now their classes are taken with the company and they take part in rehearsals, etc. Apprenticeships last two years, with an examination at the end of each year. Only successful apprentices are hired as corps de ballet dancers.

Must-See Danish Ballets

• Bournonville: La Sylphide, Napoli, The Kermesse in Bruges, Le Conservatoire (Konservatoriet), A Folk Tale  &  The Flower Festival in Genzano.
• Cullberg’s Miss Julie
• Lander’s Études
• Flindt’s The Lesson
• Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid
• Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina

Marie-Pierre Greve and Mads Blangstrup in Ratmansky's Anna Karenina. Photo: Henrik Stenberg / RDB ©

Big Danish Ballet Stars

Danseurs: Ib Andersen, Peter Martins, Lloyd Riggins, Børge Ralov, Erik Bruhn, Henning Kronstam, Peter Schaufuss, Nikolaj Hübbe, Thomas Lund, Johan Kobborg.

Ballerinas: Lucile Grahn, Adeline Genée,Margot Lander, Else Højgaard, Sorella Englund, Silja Schandorff

Thomas Lund in Bournonville's Napoli. Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne / RDB ©

Videos

• Études with Gitte Lindstrøm and Kenneth Greve [part1, part2, part3].
• Flindt’s The Lesson with Gudrun Bojesen and Johan Kobborg [link]
• Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina with Mads Blangstrup and Gitte Lindstrøm [link]
• Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet highlights [link]
• Mads Blangstrup and Femke Slot in a rehearsal for Neumeier’s Romeo and Juliet [link]
• La Sylphide with Thomas Lund and Gudrun Bojesen [link]
• Flower Festival of Genzano with Gudrun Bojesen and Mads Blangstrup [link]
• Kermesse in Bruges with Yao Wei and Dawid Kupinski  [link]
• Lis Jeppesen in a Napoli Solo [link]
• Pas de six from Napoli‘s Act III with Cecilie Lassen, Susanne Grinder, Amy Watson, Femke Slot, Nicolai Hansen and Kristoffer Sakurai [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. The Royal Danish Ballet by Aline Storm. Edited by Sofie Rask Andersen and Aline Storm. Published by The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen 2005. ISBN 87-989870-7-0
2. Royal Danish Ballet Wikipedia entry [link]
3. The Royal Danish Ballet Website. History. Last Updated April 2009. [link]
4. The Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School by Kate Snedeker. Ballet-dance Magazine at CriticalDance.com, May 2004. [link]

We are back from Copenhagen with a suitcase full of ballet goodies. We went there especially to catch The Royal Danish Ballet’s Bournonville & Balanchine Programme which had  gorgeous La Sylphide paired with glorious Symphony in C. During our stay we were granted access to The Royal Danish Ballet’s headquarters. Needless to say we were ecstatic and had to keep pinching ourselves, not least when we briefly shook hands with their charming Artistic Director Nikolaj Hübbe.

We visited their costume and hat making departments as well as the administration, chatted to some of the leading dancers, saw photographer Paul Wesolek‘s beautiful installation La Sylphide Still Life and even had a sneak peek at rehearsals for John Neumeier’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream (which premieres on February 26). In this special photolog we document our fab tour:

This is the August Bournonville passage. The entrance to RDB’s headquarters is at the far end of the street, after the arch.

This is the inside of the building which has been completely refurbished and fitted with the latest technology (we were very impressed with the computerised daily schedules for the dancers).

Here the fitness centre

The dancers’ relaxation area (with Bag Lady E. and the RDB’s Ballet PR manager on the background)

Literally in tutu heaven at the Costume Department

Costumes for Peter Martins’ production of Swan Lake

A detail of Odile’s tutu designed by Danish artist Per Kirkeby

Costumes for Bournonville’s A Folk Tale. Bag Lady E. has a thing for embroidery so she wanted to spend hours admiring the detail in this one.

More costumes. These are ready to go for the evening’s performance of La Sylphide

A wide shot of the Costume Department, which employs a staff of 12

These headpieces for A Midsummer’s Night Dream took 2 weeks to make 

Applying beads to a tiara

Boxes and more boxes of treasures. Bag Lady L. wanted to open them all! This is where they keep all the beads

Materials are also classified by production. We love the box for Swan Lake

The Royal Danish Ballet in rehearsal for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. We wish we could have stayed a bit longer to see this production too

Here Principal dancer Gudrun Bojesen rehearses with members of the company. There are 90 dancers in total. The ballet season runs August to May, so dancers are fully booked for most of the year. The daily schedule has them at the theatre every day but Sunday.

The legendary Royal Danish Theatre from the outside (and yes, it was snowing).

The lovely Christina Michanek (a prima in the making) on the poster for our programme

Inside the theatre, amazing chandeliers and a view of the Orchestra pit from the upper circle

Details from outer and inner ceilings, with Apollo’s muses sending good vibes from the heavens

Peek-a-Boo!

The Bag Ladies (L & E) ready for an evening of balletic fun

With many thanks to Ballet PR Manager Signe Skovgaard for the tour and for making it all happen.

Further Information:

The Royal Danish Ballet Official Website

RDB on Facebook

RDB on Twitter

Our Danish Ballet Special Edition continues over the coming days with interviews and plenty more features, so stay tuned!

The Morphoses London Season opens tonight at Sadler’s Wells with a programme dedicated to 100 years of Ballets Russes, an appropriate choice for a company structured in the same way and whose mission to “broaden the scope of classical ballet through the creation of innovative productions and collaboration with the seminal artists of its time” ties in with the feats of Diaghilev‘s own legendary troupe.

Three years and many accolades on, Christopher Wheeldon‘s company continues to match some of ballet’s brightest stars to new work by the best choreographers and designers around.  By nurturing these quasi pro bono collaborations, Morphoses projects the image of a fresh and accessible company whose main objectives are to target the 25-34  year old public not familiar with ballet and to challenge some of the preconceptions associated with the art form.

As part of Wheeldon’s target demographic, we think the existence of a company like Morphoses sends a very positive message, a promise for the future of ballet.  Its mission strongly resonates with us as we also believe ballet can and should be made accessible to younger generations while staying true to its traditions, with no dumbing down of the art form. We only wish their seasons were longer (only 4 days in London) and that we could see more of Wheeldon’s work this side of the Atlantic.

Morphoses in a Nutshell

Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company was founded in 2007 by Christopher Wheeldon, previously NYCB’s resident choreographer, together with Lourdes Lopez, ex-NYCB Principal and Former Executive Director of The George Balanchine Foundation. The troupe attracts dancers from major companies in the world who appear at reduced fees. The repertory is a mix of modern classics and new pieces created by Wheeldon or by guest choreographers, in collaboration with innovative designers and composers, very much in the spirit of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

Originally Morphoses would function as a pickup company, hiring dancers on a season basis until Wheeldon had secured enough financial backup (around US$5 million) to have dancers on a fixed payroll, but the credit crunch  has forced the company to carry on with a small administrative staff of three and to remain at its donated Manhattan base for the present. Dancers continue to be recruited on a season-by-season basis while Wheeldon has kept working as a choreographer outside Morphoses, which allows him not only to continue staging big budget works for the major ballet companies, but also to bring in extra funds for his own Morphoses projects. His long term plan is to  be able to support a permanent troupe of 12 dancers alongside the regular guests.

Morphoses’s inaugural performance took place at the 2007 Vail International Dance Festival. After a heavy media build-up, this first appearance received mixed reviews from the American press. Some critics thought the ballets in the programmes looked too similar, with too many abstract ballets (including pieces by Forsythe and Edwaard Liang) and prominently featuring too many pas de deux, but they generally praised Wheeldon for elevating the artistry in his dancers (NYCB‘s Wendy Whelan, often regarded as Wheeldon’s muse, was nominated for an Olivier Award) and for creating a rapport with the audience by coming onstage to introduce each piece with insightful commentary.

That same year Morphoses became a Guest Resident Company at New York City Center and at London’s Sadler’s Wells. Wheeldon was appointed as Associated Artist for Sadler’s Wells and the London season won a South Bank Show Award. Since then, Morphoses has also appeared at the Sydney Festival.

The Many Faces of Morphoses

Guest Dancers

Tyler Angle, Alexandra Ansanelli, Leanne Benjamin, Hélène Bouchet, Ashley Bouder, Darcey Bussell, Batkhurel Bold, Thiago Bordin, Alina Cojocaru, Jonathan Cope, Ángel Corella, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Jason Fowler, Gonzalo García, Marcelo Gomes, Craig Hall, Drew Jacoby, Johan Kobborg, Nehemiah Kish, Carla Körbes, Maria Kowroski, Edwaard Liang, Tiler Peck, Rubinald Pronk, Teresa Reichlen, Danielle Rowe, Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Michael Nunn, William Trevitt, Edward Watson, Miranda Weese, Wendy Whelan

Collaborators

Composers James MacMillan, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich and Bright Sheng; Artists/Set Designers James Buckhouse and Jean-Marc Puissant, Adrianne Lobel; Designers Francisco Costa, Narciso Rodriguez, Isabel & Ruben Toledo; Director Nicholas Hytner

Repertory

The inaugural programme presented in 2007 featured two new Wheeldon pieces – “Fool’s Paradise” and “Prokofiev Pas de Deux” – alongside his exisiting works “Mesmerics”, “After the Rain” and “Morphoses”. It also included William Forsythe’s “Slingerland”, Michael Clark’s “Satie Stud”, Liv Lorent’s “Propeller”, and Edwaard Liang’s “Vicissitude”.

The following year brought a mix of premieres led by Wheeldon’s “Commedia” (to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite), Lightfoot León’s “Shutters Shut” (at City Center) and Emily Molnar’s “Six Fold Illuminate” presented together with classic works by Sir Frederick Ashton – The Dream Pas de Deux (in Vail) and Monotones II – Robbins’s “Other Dances” and Wheeldon pieces “Polyphonia” and Fool’s Paradise”.

This year Morphoses brings a host of new works to both its transatlantic headquarters. It also continues to collaborate with influential fashion designers Francisco Costa (Creative Director of Calvin Klein), Isabel and Ruben Toledo. Commemorating the Ballets Russes’ centenary, the first programme will  include Wheeldon’s “Commedia”, Ratmansky’s “Boléro” (to the eponymous Ravel piece) and a new work by Tim Harbour.  Two days later, a second programme brings “Softly as I Leave You”, originally choreographed by Paul Lightfoot and Sol León (resident choreographers of Nederlands Dans Theatre) for dancers Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk, in addition to old and new Wheeldon: “Continuum” and  “Rhapsody Fantaisie”  (a world premiere set to Rachmaninoff’s suites for two pianos).

Extracts of Reviews and Selected Praise:

One of the wonderful things about Mr. Wheeldon’s work is that there are new discoveries to be made each time you watch it. Roslyn Sulcas at the NYTimes [link]

Morphoses does have a provisional air. For the moment it remains an assembly of dancers, albeit extraordinary ones, from other troupes, and Mr. Wheeldon hasn’t yet had the opportunity to develop a group of performers to his own ends. But he is a choreographer with an instinctive grasp of dancers and their abilities…To see major ballerinas like Ms. Benjamin and Wendy Whelan on the same program is reason enough to watch Morphoses. Roslyn Sulcas at the NYTimes [link]

Trained on Balanchine, most New York ballet critics absorb meaning and sense syntactically, because with Balanchine it’s the action between the notes–the syncopated rhythms–that shape the steps and their portent. With Wheeldon, the ballet’s color and emotion may be rooted in the score, but the organizing principle is visual. Apollinaire Scherr at Foot in Mouth / ArtsJournal [link]

Wheeldon has set his standards about as high as a new company could aim for. We can really look forward to what follows. Judith Mackrell at The Guardian [link]

It is an absolute pleasure to watch this group of top-rate dancers running through their paces in this way. With ages from the teens to the over-forties, in all shapes and heights, they are so full of personality and presence that they make this a most uplifting evening. Sarah Crompton at The Telegraph [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company Website [link]
2. The Newcomer by Joan Acocella. The New Yorker [link]
3. Metamorphoses by Astrida Woods. Dance Magazine, October 2008.
4. Ballet without Borders by Peter Aspden. Financial Times, September 2008. [link]
5. The dancers are Young, Beautiful, Sexy and Smart by Valerie Lawson. The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2008. [link]
6. How to watch a Wheeldon ballet by Apollinaire Scherr. Foot in Mouth at ArtsJournal, October 2008. [link]
7. Risky Business by Gia Kourlas. Time Out New York, October 2007 [link]

As the season kicks off  Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB), one of the UK’s top three ballet companies, celebrates its 20th anniversary as a Birmingham resident. Over the years it has evolved from being the Royal Ballet‘s “touring arm” into shaping its own style: a mix of core repertoire alongside new original full-length narrative ballets, showing a degree of experimentation and risk taking uncommon to big ballet companies. Here we look at the past and present of this unique company:

History

As the name indicates, the Birmingham Royal Ballet is historically linked to the Royal Ballet. They both originated in 1926 when Ninette de Valois founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, her first step towards creating a ballet company with a supporting school. Through Lilian Baylis and her theatres, The Sadler’s Wells and the Old Vic, de Valois found a way to give her company a base and by 1931 she had established the Vic-Wells Ballet and Vic-Wells Ballet School at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

In 1939 both company and school lost the “Vic” tags to better align with their base at Sadler’s Wells, but the subsequent destruction of Sadler’s Theatre during the war dislodged the company and forced it to become a touring troupe known as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. The end of the war saw the company’s return to the refurbished theatre until its split into two in 1946: the main company and school moving to a new home at the Royal Opera House (eventually becoming the Royal Ballet) and a smaller sister company – the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet -  created to handle touring performances under the supervision of artistic director John Field.

This sister company would later become the Birmingham Royal Ballet but at this point it continued to change and accrue different names. From 1955 to 1977, having left its base at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre to perform in theatres all around the country, it was known as the Royal Ballet Touring Company. A Royal Charter had been granted to recognize the company’s independence and status but it still functioned as a touring “branch” of the Royal Ballet. By 1970 the company had effectively regained its base at Sadler’s Wells so in 1977, with the arrival of Sir Peter Wright as artistic director, it was renamed Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet.

The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet finally became the Birmingham Royal Ballet when it relocated to Birmingham in 1990, following an invitation by the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre and the Birmingham City Council. Peter Wright continued as their Artistic Director until 1995. He was succeeded by choreographer David Bintley, who put his focus into creating an independent company which could be dissociated from the Royal Ballet and in 1997 the BRB finally became independent from the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet. Despite this separation, the company still shares a common repertoire with the latter and many of its dancers have emerged from the Royal Ballet School, although the BRB now has its own associated dance academy in the Elmhurst School of Dance.

In addition to performing at home, the BRB regularly visits some of the most important stages around the UK such as the London Coliseum, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Symphony Hall, The Lowry, etc. It also continues to increase its international presence after successful tours around the US, Hong Kong and South Africa.

Style and Repertoire

Given their shared origins the BRB style has common elements with the Royal Ballet’s: in their repertoire, with plenty of narrative ballets, and in dancers who are able to emphasize drama and theatricality when performing those. AD David Bintley has furthered the company’s range by continuously creating or commissioning new pieces, with particular focus on the difficult genre of narrative ballet. He has created ten full-length story based ballets (with half of them having been created for BRB and most of them still in repertoire), of which the most successful have captivated audiences and continue to attract  new ones. In contrast, the Royal Ballet’s investment in full-length original commissions has been slimmer, the last one having been Twyla Tharp‘s 1995 A Worldly Wise and the next one, Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice in Wonderland, currently announced and planned for the 2011 season.

In an ever more globalized ballet world, BRB seems to be  creating its own history, developing its own character. It has shown to be a daring company which is capable of attracting regular audiences with original works. Instead of bringing predictable classics (e.g. Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, etc.) on  tours around the country, they aim to keep a balance with many works by the great 20th century choreographers, such as Ashton, Balanchine, Cranko, de Valois, MacMillan, Robbins and Tudor. With such a pick’n'mix, it is no wonder  their fanbase keeps growing.

The Dancers

Many well known Royal Ballet names began their careers with the BRB: from Nadia Nerina and Lynn Seymour to Darcey Bussell, Miyako Yoshida and Leanne Benjamin.

Through its association with the Elmhulst School of Dance, BRB aims to develop its own talent to feed into the company’s ranks, but plenty of dancers come from other vocational schools such as the Royal Ballet School or internationally, as is the case with Principal dancers Nao Sakuma (Japan), Chi Cao (China), Elisha Willis (Australia), César Morales (Chile) and Ambra Vallo (Italy). Given its continuous flux of new ballets, the company attracts many dancers interested in having roles created on them.

Videos

Birmingham Royal Ballet has a solid online presence, with plenty of feature and reheasal videos on their website. Here are links to some examples:

• David Bintley’s Beauty and the Beast with Nao Sakuma as Belle [link]
• Robert Parker and Elisha Willis in David Bintley’s Cyrano [link]
• Ashton’s The Two Pigeons Rehearsal with Nao Sakuma and Robert Parker [link]
• Nao Sakuma rehearses Bintley’s Sylvia [link]
• Alexander Campbell and Natasha Oughtred rehearse the Nutcracker pas de deux [link]
• Natasha Oughtred and Joseph Caley rehearse Ashton’s The Dream, under the careful eye of former Royal Ballet Stars,  Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. Wikipedia Entry for Birmingham Royal Ballet [link]
2. Step-by-step guide to dance: Birmingham Royal Ballet. By Sanjoy Roy, The Guardian, April 2009 [link]
3. David Bintley and the BRB: A Tradition of Niceness by Patricia Boccadoro. Culturekiosque, April 2000 [link]
4. Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Website [link]
5. Elmhurst and Birmingham Royal Ballet [link]

As the Mariinsky comes to the rescue of ballet-starved Londoners this week, we kick-off our series of features about ballet companies around the world, outlining their history, traditions and differences. Most readers will immediately associate the name Mariinsky to one of the premier ballet companies in the world but equally important are its links to the theatre, the city and the era where it originated, the regal and distinctive tsarist St. Petersburg.

The Theatre

Russia’s first theatrical events took place following a decree in 1742 by Tsarina Elizabeth, a patron of the arts who loved Italian opera and theatre. Initially, performances in St. Petersburg were given in the wooden stage of the Karl Knipper Theatre and in the Hermitage Theatre (for the aristocrats), but in 1783,  a bigger and better theatre, Antonio Rinaldi‘s Imperial Bolshoi (big) Kamenny (stone) Theatre, purpose built for the emerging ballet (see “The Ballet Company” below) and opera companies opened its doors with Il Mondo de la Luna, an opera by Paisiello.

The Bolshoi Kamenny theatre was renovated in 1836 by Alberto Cavos, who also conceived a neo-Byzantine building in Theatre Square (1849) first occupied by an Equestrian circus and later by Opera stagings. This other theatre burnt down in 1859 and re-opened one year later as the Mariinsky, a full-fledged opera house with more than 1500 seats and the biggest stage in the world, named after  its royal patroness Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Ballet productions alternated between the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi Kammeny (where La Bayadère and The Pharaoh’s Daughter premiered)  until 1886 when the Mariinsky underwent new works, finally acquiring its trademark blue façade and becoming the permanent home for both the opera and ballet companies.

The re-inauguration festivities were dedicated to Tsar Alexander II, and included the premiere of the first all-Mariinsky ballet, Marius Petipa‘s Les Pilules Magiques. In the years that followed, many other masterpieces would originate here: from the Petipa canon (The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, The Nutcracker in 1892, Raymonda in 1898 and Swan Lake in 1895), to a number of classic works by Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky.

During the Soviet years, the Mariinsky Theatre changed its name to Kirov Theatre, to honor General Sergei Kirov, the well-known early communist leader and Lenningrad’s party chief, but the theatre went back to its former Imperial name in 1992.

You can take a virtual tour around the theatre here (Quicktime required).

The Ballet Company

The ballet company timeline goes back to 1738, before the Bolshoi Kammeny and the Mariinsky theatres existed. It was the year Tsarina Anna Ioannovna inaugurated  the Choreographic School of St. Petersburg, training dancers at the Winter Palace to form the first Russian ballet company. These dancers, initially children of the Palace’s servants, were the first generation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, the school which eventually became the Imperial Ballet School, and later the Vaganova Academy. The school and the company attracted some of the most influential teachers (Franz Hilverding, Gasparo Angiolini, Giovanni Canziani, Charles Didelot) and famous stars from abroad ( Pierina Legnani – whiz ballerina who first performed 32 fouettées, Carlotta Brianza – the original princess Aurora – and Enrico Cecchetti), performing between 1783-1885 in the Bolshoi Kammeny and from 1860 onwards in the Mariinsky Theatre.

During the 1830′s Maria Taglioni performed with the company and impressed audiences with her virtuosity and artistry, her presence having left a profound impact. Later in 1859, Arthur Saint-Leon was hired as the Imperial Ballet’s maître de ballet. Saint-Leon created various pieces, of which unfortunately only Coppélia and Pas de Six (reconstructed for the Paris Opera Ballet) remain more or less complete, and inscribed the first ballet notation method, documenting the movements of the upper body. He was succeeded by the legendary Marius Petipa who created more than 60 ballets and introduced novel academic views.

The Soviet Era

At the time of the Russian revolution, under the modernist/neoclassical influence of Fokine (resident choreographer since 1910), the Mariinsky repertoire had evolved beyond the 19th century Petipa classics. Many of its stars joined Sergei Diaghilev in his European tours, collaborating with new influential artists and musicians. The 1917 revolution not only stalled this burst of creativity (Fokine and Diaghilev having left for the West), it also brought difficult times for the company, perceived by the government as unwanted symbols of the tsarist regime and depleted of many dancers (who had emigrated).

Thanks to Anatoly Lunacharsky, then minister of culture, the 1920′s saw a gradual acceptance of ballet as an art for the people. Ballet school and company, now re-established as the Leningrad State Choreographic School and the Soviet Ballet respectively, were to observe the principle that dance was a collective expression of the spirit and new ballets based on Russian literature or the struggles of the working class were created. At that time, former dancer turned teacher Agrippina Vaganova “fought tooth and nail” to preserve Marius Petipa’s and the Imperial Ballet’s legacy. During her directorship Vaganova managed to preserve some of the traditions inherited from the former Imperial Ballet while also developing new ideas into a new form of training, the renamed “Vaganova method”, which now has become synonym with the style of the Company.

The Soviet Ballet became the Kirov Ballet in 1934. During the Soviet years, many notable dancers emerged, including Lydia Lopokova, Galina Ulanova, Ninel Kurgapkina, Yuri Soloviev, Galina Mezentseva, Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was also during this time that Petipa’s choreographic texts were replaced with Konstantin Sergeyev‘s new versions: classics such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Le Corsaire underwent cuts, such as those made to mime passages, and in the case of Swan Lake (1950), a happy ending was adopted.

During the 70′s, with defections aplenty (Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov) and the Company’s morale at a low, director Oleg Vinogradov (1977) sought to retain and appease his crop of dancers by expanding the repertoire. Bournonville‘s La Sylphide and Napoli were brought in and staged by Elsa Marianne von Rosen, founder of the Scandinavian Ballet. Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit were invited to create new works. The Tudor Foundation allowed Lilac Garden and Leaves Are Fading to be performed, while Jerome Robbins staged In the Night. The current repertoire also includes ballets by George Balanchine (given his direct links to the Mariinsky), Kenneth MacMillan and William Forsythe and the debated yet acclaimed Sergei Vikharev reconstructions of Petipa’s original masterpieces which now coexist with Sergeyev’s Soviet versions.

The Style

The Mariinsky dancers have always distinguished themselves in their beautiful port de bras and upper body épaulement, both features of the Vaganova training method. The overall feel is of aristocratic elegance (think Petipa’s princesses), with fluid arms and expression (even if acting is not the main priority),  perfect coordination between head, shoulders, neck and torso. Attention to the smallest detail such as positions of the fingers in the hands – that meticulous – give us a sense of movement with musicality. The corps are always praised by their unity and purity of style. Their principal dancers prioritize lyricism and nobility over bravura, qualities that set the Mariinsky apart from its peers.

Their work day

Under the supervision of newly appointed artistic director Yuri Fateyev, dancers are given three-day schedules listing their activities. They attend class first thing in the morning. There are four classes, two for men and two for women with teachers switching between both. Members of the corps de ballet attend a specific class whilst soloists can attend either and then it’s rehearsals for the rest of the day. The Mariinsky continuously rehearses all the ballets in their repertoire, since the company usually stages two performances of one production in a row and then switch onto another ballet. There may be five different ballets staged in a week, sometimes with half of the company at home and the other half performing on tour (thanks to their roster of over 200 dancers). Corps members often carry on rehearsing until the last minute and end their day around 10 pm (as they appear in all ballets),  while for the soloists it’s a mixture between rehearsal-only and performance-only days.

Videos

Legends

• Galina Ulanova in the Waltz from Les Sylphides (Chopiniana) [link]
• Irina Kolpakova performs Aurora’s variation from The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Alla Sizova performs Medora’s variation from Le Corsaire [link]
• Yuri Soloviev in an amazing solo from Le Corsaire [link]

The current generation

• Ulyana Lopatkina and Igor Zelensky in Swan Lake [link]
• Yevgenia Obraztsova and Vladimir Shklyarov in Leonid Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet [link]
• Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeyev in The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Diana Vishneva and Igor Kolb in Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon [link]
• Viktoria Tereshkina and Leonid Sarafanov in The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Maria Alexandrova (as Bolshoi guest) and Ulyana Lopatkina in La Bayadère [link]
• Olesya Novikova, Ekaterina Kondaurova and Anton Korsakov in Giselle [link]
• Mariinsky Stars dancing Symphony in C [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. Mariinsky Theatre Main Webpage [link]
2. Step-by-step guide to dance: Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet by Sanjoy Roy. The Guardian, September 2008 [link].
3. Mariinsky Theatre Wikipedia Entry [link]
4. Mariinsky/Kirov Ballet Wikipedia Entry [link]
5. Superstars of Dance: The Mariinsky Ballet by Zoe Anderson. The Independent, August 2009 [link]
6. The Mariinsky Theatre by Nick del Vecchio at Living at the Opera [link]
7. Interview with Ekaterina Osmolkina by Margaret Willis. Dancing Times Magazine, August 2009.
8. Kennedy Center information about the Mariinsky Ballet. [link]
9. Light Steps from Leningrad by Martha Duffy. Time Magazine, May 1982. [link]