Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, who has admitted organising the attack on director Sergei Filin in January, has said that one of his principal motives was that his partner Anzhelina Vorontsova was being passed over for the top roles. According to an inside source at the Bolshoi, we’ve heard that Vorontsova had been romantically involved with Felin in the past.

However, Dmitrichenko insists that he didn’t know anything about the involvement of acid:

When I heard what happened to Sergei, I was just in shock. I could not believe that the man who proposed beating him up went ahead and did this thing with acid.

The alleged accomplice Yury Zarutsky denies this,

He’s making me into a scapegoat.

Moscow police have said that they believe Dmitrichenko paid 50,000 roubles ($1,600) to the accomplices.

Photo: Pavel Dmitrichenko in court in Moscow yesterday… [continue reading]

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Roberto Bolle & Friends will travel to China for the first time after the summer. On 27 and 28 September an international collection of dancers will present classical and modern dance pieces in Shanghai’s Cultural Square. Bolle said that he also wants Chinese dancers to take part.

I’ll also be the artistic director of the gala and invite the dancers personally, and show everyone the diverse aspects of dance,

he said, adding,

I think Chinese artists and dancers are very good now. I like the city and its energy. Shanghai is becoming more and more important in the world. It’s like the biggest centre in the world, and I think it will become even more bigger in a cultural way. So I think it’s important for me to come here and to present myself and my work.

Italian Consul General Vincenzo De Luca said,

Of course, Shanghai is becoming more and more an international capital of culture and lifestyle. There’s an increasing exchange between Italy and China. So that’s why we are trying to promote more and more events here in Shanghai.

In fact, the Italian Pavilion from the 2010 World Expo has been turned into an exhibition centre. It reopened to the public in May 2012 with displays including Italian jewellery, design, and sports cars.

Photo by Lucy Keat­ing (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wiki­me­dia Commons… [continue reading]

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Bolshoi ballet director Sergei Filin tells The New Yorker in detail about those first awful minutes after sulphuric acid was thrown into his face by the no identified attacker:

In those first seconds, all I could think was, How can I relieve the pain? The burning was so awful. I tried to move. I fell face first into the snow. I started grabbing handfuls of snow and rubbing it into my face and eyes. I felt some small relief from the snow. I thought of how to get home. I was pretty close to my door. There’s an electronic code and a metal door, but I couldn’t punch in the numbers of the code. I couldn’t see them. When I understood that I couldn’t get into the building, I started shouting, ‘Help! Help! I need help!’ But no one was around. I tried to make my way to another entrance, in the hope that someone would see me and help me. But that was not such a good idea, because I was falling down and getting up and bumping into cars and into walls and falling down because I couldn’t see any steps. There was so much snow. Snow was coming down. I kept rubbing it into my face.

… [continue reading]

The post Bolshoi’s Sergei Filin: Maybe I will be kissed awake, like in The Sleeping Beauty, by Nikolai Tsiskaridze appeared first on gramilano.

Q&A

When did you start dan­cing?
I started dancing very young, around 4, at the dance studio in Magnanville, France.

Why did you start dan­cing?
I used to wait for my sister while she was taking ballet classes. The teacher and owner of the school (Murielle Maurin) saw me, she pulled me into the class, and said, “We never had a boy, so you will be the first one!”

Which dan­cer inspired you most as a child?
I never was really inspired by ballet dancers but by performers such as Michael Jackson and Gene Kelly, but I appreciated dancers such as former Paris Opera Principal Patrick Dupont and international ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Which dan­cer do you most admire?
Marcelo Gomes. We were both at the Paris Opera School; he always worked really hard and he climbed with ease the steep hierarchy of American Ballet Theater. He is today a dancer to watch.

What’s your favour­ite role?
I do not have a favorite one; I believe every single piece I danced was an amazing experience, though some are very famous such as Apollo, Othello, Sea Shadow, The Dream… Each piece needed a particular approach, very different and unique.

What role have you never played but would like to?… [continue reading]

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Svetlana Zakharova talked to Russia’s Izvestia yesterday about her latest projects, including bringing Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand to the Bolshoi.

She danced the role for the first time last season at Milan’s La Scala with Roberto Bolle; this time round her Armand will be Sergei Polunin who scored a huge personal success with the role with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden last month when he partnered Tamara Rojo in her farewell performances.

Marguerite was created for Margot Fonteyn when she was 44-years-old as a Fonteyn-Nureyev vehicle, and it was deemed untouchable until the 35-year-old Sylvie Guillem famously took on the role in 2000. Zakharova got to wear Cecil Beaton’s frocks at 33.  Marguerites are getting younger, and indeed for Dumas’ story there is no reason why not, but these roles are obviously intended for a mature artist, maybe one who is looking to the future when 32 fouettées are no longer feasible. Another ‘mature’ ballet is John Cranko’s Onegin, though Marcia Haydée was only 28 when she created the role. Zakharova will perform this ballet for the first time at the Bolshoi in July. Bolshoi Ballet chief Sergei Filin negotiated to secure the performance rights from the Cranko Foundation. Pavel Dmitrichenko, who has confessed to instigating the acid attack on Filin, has received support with a letter from more than 300 company members to the Bolshoi management which stated,

For those who know Pavel Dmitrichenko, even the thought that he could have been the instigator and organiser of this crime, committed in such a brutal way, is absurd,” the letter said.

… [continue reading]

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After undergoing several operations on both eyes, Boshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin yesterday faced a press conference in Germany where he is receiving specialised treatment.

I have plenty of strength and I have the confidence and desire to get back what was wrongly taken from me. I will do everything, and the doctors who work with me, they will do everything possible too, so I think together we will get great results. When I can see everything again, I will have no fear and I would like to work again just as I did before. Without fear, without anxiety.

Reuters reported him as saying.

Dr Martin Hermel, head doctor at Aachen University’s eye clinic where Filin is receiving treatment, said that Filin will have to face “complex and long-term treatment”.

Hermel said that while there has been improvement in his left eye, the right remains severely damaged,

We cannot at this point make a statement about the prognosis for vision in this eye.

… [continue reading]

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The Royal Opera House in London has announced the appointment of Alex Beard as its new Chief Executive. After having lost Tony Hall to the BBC there has been a long and thorough search for a worthy replacement.

Beard said,

I’m absolutely delighted to have been appointed Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House. To have the opportunity to build on Tony Hall’s achievements and strengthen the Royal Opera House’s reputation as one of the world’s leading artistic and creative forces is hugely exciting.

Alex Beard is currently Deputy Director at the Tate, but he will assume his duties at the ROH in time for the 2013/14 Season.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Simon Robey, commented,

Alex Beard has a passion for the work we do at the Royal Opera House. He also brings a wealth of managerial experience from his very successful partnership with Nick Serota at Tate, as well as the insights and perspectives that this role has given him.  I am confident he will forge excellent partnerships with our artistic leadership and our executive team, and that they will, together, lead the Opera House to still greater heights.

Beard is 49 and has been at Tate since 1994, and its Deputy Director since 2002.… [continue reading]

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Boston Ballet has announced its 50th anniversary season, which will start with their tour to London in July at the London Coliseum. Programming for 2013/2014 includes La Bayadère and Cinderella, two cutting-edge repertory programmes with American and world premières  and Balanchine’s masterpiece, Jewels. The season will close with a tour to Washington’s Kennedy Center, and end with performances at the Koch Theater in New York City’s Lincoln Center.

Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen said,

We have exhilarating momentum going into our 50th year. The 2013–2014 season is a pivotal celebration of the Company’s distinguished past, extraordinary present, and exciting future. This milestone year is an opportunity to celebrate today’s Boston Ballet and give thanks to all the people who have helped us get here.

London has had to wait 30 years for a return visit by the company. The ballets it has chosen to present reflect a century of ground-breaking choreography, from Vaslav Nijinsky to George Balanchine, and also by Boston Ballet Resident Choreographer, Jorma Elo. For six performances from 3 July 2013, Boston Ballet will present two programmes. The first programme highlights the company’s diverse range and command of Balanchine choreography. Featuring Vaslav Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun, George Balanchine’s Serenade and Symphony in Three Movements, and resident choreographer Jorma Elo’s Plan to B.… [continue reading]

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Ex–Bolshoi dancer Anastasia Volochkova and current Bolshoi star and stirrer Nikolai Tsiskaridze have been on Russian television to add even more mud to an already murky pond.

The Bolshoi’s general manager, Anatoly Iksanov, has said that Volochkova’s claims that the company pimped out its ballerinas to rich patrons was “nonsense and dirt”.

According to Bloomberg, Volochkova, who was fired in 2003 for being overweight, said:

Girls are invited each in turn by the administrator, who explains that they are going to a party, with dinner and a follow-up, in bed and going all the way.

And who attends these parties?

Certain oligarchs, some of them are members of the board of trustees (of the Bolshoi) or just the person organizing the party.

Tsiskaridze, on the same programme, added that he was ready to take on the top job at the Bolshoi, to which Iksanov responded:

It’s up to him to think that he’s capable of taking charge of the Bolshoi; I don’t think so, because beyond fame and scandalousness other qualities are needed.

With Ballet Director Sergei Filin laying in a German hospital bed as doctors try to save his eyesight after the acid attack instigated by Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, it is easy to see Tsiskaridze as the bad boy.… [continue reading]

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Sergei Polunin, who famously defected from the Royal Ballet just over a year ago, has found a home at the Stanislavsky theatre, and fame through winning a television dance competition. Settling down after his semi-breakdown, he is demonstrating the value of the Royal Ballet School and Company by returning to partner Tamara Rojo in her farewell performances at Covent Garden, and by bringing a Royal Ballet creation to Russia. Yesterday saw the première of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling in Moscow, with Polunin as tortured Crown Prince Rudolf. The ballet was created for the Royal Ballet in 1978.

Although he will dance only one performance, sharing the role with Georgi Smilevski and the company director Igor Zelensky, it is proof that his London years are important to him, and he’s not going to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Izvestia asked him about the work.

In Russia MacMillan is rarely danced, although the audiences love historical melodrama. You seem to have a lot of experience of performing his ballets.

Since I was 17 I was busy in the corps de ballet for Manon and Mayerling. It is a good basic acting training to go through. In MacMillan ballets you don’t just act it but live it, and there’s a lot of improvisation: if someone isn’t where they usually are you work around it; it depends on your mood, on how you are feeling.

… [continue reading]

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In three weeks’ time the National Ballet of Canada will arrive at London’s Sadler’s Wells. After a 26 years away from the capital The Times asked director Karen Kain why:

Until this season we hadn’t been anywhere. Basically we didn’t have the repertoire that was allowing us to get the invitations. I knew that part of what I needed to do to get the company seen again, or even heard of again, was develop the kind of repertoire that people wanted to see.

So what do people want to see? One of the hottest choreographers on the planet to be sure, so it will perform Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet which he created for the company in 2011 to mark its 60th anniversary.

It took me three or four years to get Alexei but the wait was worth it; his production is really beautiful and touching, and the thing I love about him is that he still works in the classical idiom without trying to shred it, deconstruct it or throw it away. He puts classical steps together in a way you have never seen before. He’s trying to make it more interesting, relevant and human. So it’s ballet but it’s more real.

… [continue reading]

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While it’s great to see 87-year-old working choreographer Gillian Lynne get a special award, there is Marianela Núñez in the running for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, a nomination richly deserved by the Royal Ballet’s most radiant and thrilling ballerina. Another welcome name for dance is designer Lez Brotherston who has collaborated with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures from the beginning, and has constantly astonished audiences with his sets and costumes.

Though the Royal Ballet and the English National Opera have done well, the Royal Opera has left a black hole in the nomination lists for its new productions; oh dear. Applause, however, for Edward Gardner’s conducting and Bryan Hymel’s singing, both at the Royal Opera, so the musical side of things seems to be secure.

Best New Dance Production
Aeternum by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon
Cacti by Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 at Sadler’s Wells, choreographed by Alexander Ekman
A Streetcar Named Desire by Scottish Ballet at Sadler’s Wells

Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Lez Brotherston for the set and costumes for Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, New Adventures at Sadler’s Wells
ILL-Abilities company in Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells
Marianela Nunez for Aeternum, Diana & Actaeon and Viscera, The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House

Best Theatre Choreographer
Scott Ambler – Chariots Of Fire
Bill Deamer – Top Hat
Scott Graham & Steven Hoggett – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Stephen Mear – Kiss Me, Kate

Best New Opera Production
Billy Budd, English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Caligula, English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Einstein On The Beach at the Barbican theatre
La Traviata, English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Outstanding Achievement in Opera
Edward Gardner for his conducting of The Flying Dutchman and Billy Budd at the English National Opera, London Coliseum
Bryan Hymel for his performances in Les Troyens, Robert Le Diable and Rusalka at the Royal Opera House
Music Theatre Wales for In the Locked Room/Ghost Patrol at the Linbury Theatre, the Royal Opera House
The Stage Management teams at English National Opera, London Coliseum and the Royal Opera House

Special Award
Gillian Lynne… [continue reading]

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Eleonora Abbagnato has been named “étoile” of the Paris Opera Ballet. Finally, one might add, and indeed the former director of the dance school of the Paris Opera, Claude Bessy, said just that. She was in the theatre with Abbagnato’s husband, footballer Federico Balzaretti, fullback at AS Roma, and many other members of the dancer’s family, except her one-year-old daughter.

The 34-year-old ballerina, was promoted to the top rank after a performance of Roland Petit’s Carmen by the director of the Opera Ballet,  Brigitte Lefèvre, and Nicolas Joel, director of the Opéra National de Paris. Abbagnato joined the corps de ballet at the Paris Opera in 1996, and became prima ballerina in 2001, and although she has consistently danced leading roles with the company, the final promotion has been a long time coming.

It was Petit who first spotted Abbagnato’s talent when she was just eleven, and Bessy convinced her to leave Italy for the Paris school when she was 12.

[Bessy] saw me as her double. We clashed, we yelled at each other constantly, but she taught me everything and she was always there to watch my performances.

Abbagnato recounted to Figaro;

Since I was 19, I have danced with the greatest ballet dancers: Manuel Legris , Laurent Hilaire and all the biggest stars — it was a great opportunity.

… [continue reading]

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This week, Eleonora Abbagnato became the first Italian étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet for generations. The only other was Carlotta Zambelli who became one of the company’s stars at the end of the 19th century. Quite an achievement for the 34-year-old dancer from Palermo. Valeria Crippa of the Corriere della Sera spoke to her.

When I first heard that I was being promoted I almost fainted and collapsed against my partner Nicholas Le Riche. There was an air of anticipation backstage from the beginning of the ballet, and then my colleague Benjamin Pech confirmed the rumours. Brigitte Lefèvre came onstage after the performance for the announcement, and when the audience rose to its feet to applaud I felt as though I’d died and was being reborn. It was like a party, with all my close friends around me, Pech and Hervé Moreau, and my parents had flown in from Palermo to see me dancing Carmen. I dedicate this promotion to them — they have always supported me — and my husband Federico Balzaretti, and our daughter Julia. I though of her during the first variation of Carmen — motherhood has made me stronger. Unfortunately Federico had to remain in Rome for training, but he wrote in an sms: “I’m proud of you.”

Abbagnato has been waiting more than a decade for this final promotion.… [continue reading]

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Just over a month ago the Royal Ballet announced that principal dancer Mara Galeazzi will be leaving the company:

Mara Galeazzi will retire from The Royal Ballet in July 2013, at the end of the current season. Mara, who had her first child last April, will move to Oman to be with her husband. She will focus on new projects, teaching dance and her work for her charity foundation Dancing for The Children which raises funds for sick children in Africa.

said the press release.

Her last performance with the Royal Ballet will be on 13 June in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling with her pals from the 2009 DVD: Edward Watson as Crown Prince Rudolf and Sarah Lamb as Countess Larisch.

But the tears won’t finish that evening, for on 23 July in the evocative setting of Verona’s  Teatro Romano, Galeazzi will say her last arrivederci to the ballet stage after a star gala with Royal Ballet colleagues. Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez, Gary Avis, Steven McRae, Thiago Soares and Edward Watson, along with Mara Galeazzi herself, will dance selections from the classical and contemporary repertoire that makes the Royal Ballet one of the powerhouse companies in the dance world.… [continue reading]

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Faster than it takes to escape from a Turkish prison, ballet’s bad boy Sergei Polunin has disappeared from Peter Schaufuss’ production of Midnight Express. The show is due to open on Tuesday in London but according the the London Evening Standard he has not shown up for rehearsals, is not answering his phone, and is not in his hotel. The official statement simply says he has withdrawn due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

His last disappearing act — from the Royal Ballet in January of 2012 — astonished the ballet world, but it was thought that becoming part of the Stanislavsky company under the watchful eye of his mentor Igor Zelensky had given him the stability and freedom he was searching for. A disappointed Schaufuss said,

I really hope that it’s not a repeat of last year when he walked out. He seemed to have matured a lot and become more confident. Until now, we had no reason to believe otherwise.

Zelensky is also in the cast, and the role, based on Billy Hayes’s autobiographical story of a young man jailed in Turkey for drug-smuggling, seems tailor made for Polunin, all of which makes his withdrawal even more surprising.

Just a month ago in an interview with The Times, Polunin stated,

I did try cocaine, but it was more of an experiment than an addiction.

… [continue reading]

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Denis Matvienko has been ‘fired’ as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet, but it was a position that apparently he had never officially held. From November 2011 he has been fulfilling the role, but has found that the contract had never been signed, according to Korrespondent.net.

Yesterday, at a press conference, Matvienko said,

At the beginning of February, I found out that I am not the artistic director of the ballet company of the Kiev Opera and never have been.

It was just before the première of La Bayadère, and I did not say anything immediately to not cause a stir. The Director of the Kiev Opera confirmed this fact. It turns out that my contract, submitted in November, is not signed. During this time I was leading the company, giving statements on tour, while not knowing that I didn’t hold the role. This is a flagrant violation, cheating me and my artists.

Matvienko’s name has been moved on the company’s site from the role of Artistic Director to join the names of the other dancers of the company.… [continue reading]

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Bolshoi soloist Paul Dmitrichenko in court today announced his intention to seek justice; he is accused of causing grievous bodily harm, instigating the acid attack on the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director Sergei Filin.

ITAR-TASS reported from court that Dmitrichenko will stay in custody at least until 18 June, even though a petition signed by 155 Bolshoi staff was presented testifying to his good character. The judge however ruled that he presented a flight risk.

The beginning of the trial has not been set, but investigators said that the case would be complete within 2 months.

Dmitrichenko said,

I do not agree with the wording of the charges, and I intend to prove my case in court.… [continue reading]

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The National Ballet of Canada will perform Alexei Ratmansky’s new production of Romeo and Juliet from tonight, 17 April, until 21 April at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

The ballet has obviously been an audience favourite ever since it came to the National Ballet in 1964, but the company’s new version, by Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, which premiered in 2011 to ecstatic acclaim, only enhances its position in the repertoire. Ratmansky’s work is known for its mastery of the classical vocabulary, yet he is equally adept at employing that vocabulary for fresh, modern effects.

The Globe and Mail said,

In terms of choreography, Ratmansky’s greatness lies in his ability to mirror music in dance. There is absolutely no mime. The emotional arc of the characters is cunningly shown in movement.… [continue reading]

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Q&A

When did you start dancing?
At 4 years old.

Why did you start dancing?
As a child, I was always dancing around the house so it made sense.

What’s your favourite role?
Giselle.

What role have you never played but would like to?
I would love to dance the role of Baroness Mary Vetsera in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling

Who is your favourite choreographer?
I could never pick a favourite!

Who is your favourite director?
I love Scorsese films.

Which is your favourite city?
The one where I live, Toronto.

What do you like most about yourself?
Loyalty.

When and where were you happiest?
Right now.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My family.

What is your greatest fear?… [continue reading]

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