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Pina Bausch Centre
Following a competition which attracted architects from around the world, the winning designs for the new Pina Bausch Centre go on show at the Schauspielhaus from 7 to 18 June. The new dance centre will incorporate the Wuppertal Schauspielhaus, a listed building originally designed by Prof. Gerhard Graubner, with a flexible and multi-use new building. The opening of the exhibition will be live streamed from 12 noon on 7 June.

Aaron S. Watkin 
Following 17 years as the director of Semperoper Ballett, Aaron S. Watkin's successful tenure was celebrated following the performance on 3 June. PHOTOS

La Bayadère
IN MUNICH

Bayerisches Staatsballett gave three performances of Patrice Bart's production of La Bayadère at the end of May. The performance on 29 May featured Osiel Gouneo, Madison Young and Maria Baranova as Solor, Nikiya and Gamzatti, with Margarita Grechanaia, Margarita Fernandes and Jeanette Kakareka as the three leading shades (pictured). Gallery and curtains calls from the performance  LINK

Brandon Lawrence

Born in Hull, Brandon Lawrence joined Birmingham Royal Ballet on graduation from the Royal Ballet School 11 years ago and moved swiftly up the ranks to become a principal in 2019. He reflects on his career to date and explains why he has decided to move to the Ballett Zurich next season. The interview is published in the June/July 2023 issue of Dance Europe. 

Songs of a Wayfarer

Songs of a Wayfayer / Le Chant du compagnon errant  is currently being performed by the Paris Opera as part of a Maurice Béjart programme at the Opera Bastille. This film features the company's newest étoiles, Guillaume Diop and Marc Moreau, in an early rehearsal for the ballet with guest répétiteur Maina Gielgud, who shares her personal memories of working with the legendary French choreographer.

Alice Renavand

Alice Renavand gave her farewell performance at the Paris Opera in Béjart's Boléro on 29 May to tremendous applause.

National Youth Dance Company

After performing Wayne McGregor's Novacene at Sadler's Wells on 3 June, the National Youth Dance Company will tour  to Jerwood DanceHouse, Ipswich 8 July; The House, Plymouth, 15 July; De Montfort University, Leicester 18 July; and New Stage, Newcastle 23 July. Photos from the general rehearsal. GALLERY

Ballet Gala in Seteais

This year’s International Ballet Gala in Seteais, near Sintra in Portugal, will take place on 1 & 2 July in the beautiful gardens of the Hotel-Palácio de Seteais. Video features excerpts from last year. More info in EVENTS

Three Artistic Directors

In the June/July issue, Dance Europe features Stanton Welch who is celebrating two decades as Houston Ballet's director; Aaron S. Watkin, who reflects on his years in Dresden as he prepares to take over English National Ballet in August; and David Hallberg, who talks about his new life off-stage at the helm of The Australian Ballet as he prepares his company for its London seasons at the Royal Opera House in August.

Grand Audition Budapest

A short film shot at the Grand Audition in Budapest featuring Sachiya Takata, Kirill Mobereo de la Sota, Diede Schuur, Otto Eltell and Gvendolin Nagy, who were among the dancers offered contracts. The event was held at the Hungarian Dance University and is introduced by artistic director David Makhateli.

Gvendolin Nagy

Following her participation in the Grand Audition in Budapest, Gvendolin Nagy, who studies at the  Hungarian Dance University, has been offered a contract with the National Moravian - Silesian Theatre in Ostrava.

Grand Audition Paris

The second Grand Audition this year was held in Paris on 25 & 26 March at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Read more... 

Requiem

This short documentary on Requiem, a new work by Dane Hurst, features dancers from the Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre and Jazzart Dance Theatre from South Africa. Set to the Mozart Requiem, the work will  be premiered at the Leeds Grand Theatre from 26 May - 4 June 2023.  Phoenix Dance Theatre's ‘Requiem’ is a collaboration with Opera North, Jazzart Dance Theatre & Cape Town Opera.

PHOTO GALLERIES

BRB2

BRB2 will give its final performances off its programme - Carlos Acosta's Classical Selection - at the Linbury, Royal Opera House, on 13 & 14 June, and at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on 4 June. Review coming in the June/July issue. Photo GALLERY

Paris Opera - Maurice Béjart

The Paris Opera presented a triple bill of ballets by Maurice Béjart at the Opera Bastille from 20 April until 28 May. PHOTO GALLERY

Victor Caixeta Promotion

Following his debut as Prince Siegfried, partnering Maia Makhateli in Swan Lake, Victor Caixeta was promoted to principal dancer by Dutch National Ballet director Ted Brandsen on 4 April. The announcement took place backstage at the National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam. PHOTO GALLERY

Tribute: Pierre Lacotte 1932 - 2023

Laura Morera

Born in Madrid, Laura Morera joined the Royal Ballet School aged 11 and duly graduated into The Royal Ballet in 1995. After 27 years in London, during which she has evolved into one of The Royal Ballet’s most versatile principal dancers, she is retiring from the stage at the end of the season to work as a répétiteur. Her final performance on the Royal Opera House stage will be on 17 June in Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia Act III. She will also perform on The Royal Ballet’s tour to Japan in Frederick Ashton’s A Month in the Country with final performances at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan on 25 June and at the City Cultural and Convention Centre in Himeji on 8 July.In this filmed interview she talks passionately about her extraordinary career and her aspirations for the future.

Ballet Central  TOUR 2023

Ballet Central's 2023 repertoire includes: two ballets by Frederick Ashton - Monotones I and The Two Pigeons - the latter was premiered back in 1961 with Christopher Gable, founder of Central School of Ballet, and Lynn Seymour in the titular roles. This short film shows Isabel McMeekan coaching three couples in the final pas de deux from The Two Pigeons. Tour DATES

Le Corsaire

Bayerisches Staatsballett first soloist António Casalinho and soloist Margarita Fernandes made their London debuts performing Le Corsaire at the Ballet Icons Gala @balleticonsgala  on 19 February 2023. This film captures the dancers in rehearsal at Pineapple Studios in the morning and excerpts from  their performance, which closed the gala, at the London Coliseum in the evening. Pianist - Jonathan Still With thanks to: Maina Gielgud and Olga Balakleets.

Le Corsaire

José Martinez first created his production of Le Corsaire for the Rome Opera Ballet in 2020, and the production was also staged in Ljubljana for the Slovenian National Ballet later that year. A new production of the ballet has now found its way to Tallinn, where it was premiered by the Estonian National Ballet in December. Martinez oversaw the staging, assisted by Agnès Letestu, just prior to taking up his new role as Director of Dance at the Paris Opera. This film shows clips from the production and four of the leading characters talk about their roles and what it was like to work with Martinez and Letestu.

José Martinez

This interview was filmed in Tallinn where José Martinez recently staged his production of Le Corsaire for the Estonian National Ballet. The former étoile returned to the Paris Opera as its new Director of Dance, succeeding Aurélie Dupont who stepped down in the summer, in December. 

PRINCE SIEGFRIED

Victor Caixeta

The Dutch National Ballet's Brazilian dancer takes a break during rehearsals for Prince Siegfried to talk about the role’s challenges. He made his debut at the National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam on 4 April. 

César Morales

Promoted to a principal after his inaugural Siegfried in Santiago at 18, and now a principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Chilean dancer talks about his affinity with Swan Lake. 

Francesco Gabriele Frola

English National Ballet principal Francesco Gabriele Frola in rehearsal for Prince Siegfried's Act I variation in Derek Deane'e production of Swan Lake.

Paul Marque

The Paris Opera étoile talks about his journey that began with jazz dance classes and the challenge of dancing the world's most famous ballet.

Lorenzo Trossello

English National Ballet's new junior soloist dancer made his debut with the company dancing Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. The Italian dancer talks about his journey from Crova to London in this film which also includes footage from a Swan Lake rehearsal with Trossello, Erina Takahashi and James Streeter.

António Casalinho - Prince Siegfried Act I variation

Filmed in 2021, when Casalinho was a student at the Conservatório Internacional de Ballet e Dança Annarella Sanchez. Two years on the Portuguese dancer is a first soloist with Bayerisches Staatsballett.

Xander Parish - Who is Siegfried?

Filmed three years ago, Xander Parish talks about his interpretation of the princely role in Swan Lake.

Three New Soloists at New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet has announced the promotion of three corps de Ballet dancers to soloists - KJ Takahashi Olivia MacKinnon and Alexa Maxwell. The promotions were made by NYCB Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan, fin advance of the company's Spring Season which runs from 18 April - 28 May at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. www.nycballet.com

Cinderella

The Royal Ballet premiered a new production for Frederick Ashton's Cinderella on 28 March with Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov in the leading roles. Originally created in 1948, the ballet has new sets and costumes by Tom Pye and Alexandra Byrne respectively, along with lighting by David Finn, video by Finn Ross and Illusions by Chris Fisher. The ballet has several casts and runs until 3 May. Photo GALLERY. Tickets and more info www.roh.org.uk

Swan Lake

Dutch National Ballet opens its run of Rudi an Dantzig's Swan Lake on 22 March with nine different casts: Olga Smirnova and Costa Allen; Maia Makhateli and Jakob Feyferlik; Anna Ol and Young Gyu Choi; Qian Liu and Semyon Velichko; Maia Makhateli and Victor Caixeta; Anna Tsygankova and Giorgi Potskhishvili; Riho Sakamoto and Martin ten Kortenaar; Salome Leverashvili and Tim van Poucke; Jessica Xuan and Jakob Feyferlik; and Yuanyuan Zhang and Davi Ramos. operaballet.nl

The Sleeping Beauty

LONDON The Royal Ballet opened its run of The Sleeping Beauty at the ROH on 16 January with sublime performances by Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov as Aurora as Prince Florimund. The February/March cover of Dance Europe features Fumi Kaneko and William Bracewell who will dance on 8 February and 4 March. Performances continue until 6 June. roh.org.uk PHOTOS

The Sleeping Beauty

AMSTERDAM The last photo gallery of the year is very evocative of 2022 in that the two leading dancers both chose to leave their very successful careers behind - Olga Smirnova resigned from the Bolshoi and Victor Caixeta from the Mariinsky - when Russia invaded Ukraine. Smirnova and Caixeta secured new contracts as principal dancers with the Dutch National Ballet. PHOTOS

PHOTO GALLERIES

The Royal Ballet
The Nutcracker

Estonian National Ballet
Le Corsaire

Paris Opera
Swan Lake

English National Ballet
The Nutcracker

Olga Smirnova
DANCE EUROPE DANCER OF THE YEAR 2022

We are very happy to announce that Olga Smirnova has been voted at the Dancer of the Year 2022 by the readers of Dance Europe following the initial nomination by Valentina Bonelli in the annual Critics' Choice. Currently a principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, Olga is pictured on the front cover in Grand Pas Classique, which she performed in the company's 60th anniversary gala. She is also featured and in a filmed interview, in which she talks frankly about leaving the Bolshoi and her new life in Amsterdam in the Dec/Jan issue of Dance Europe.

Xander's Story 
After 12 years of living and dancing in St Petersburg, Xander Parish left his career as principal dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet  due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He is now dancing with the Norwegian Ballet

Laurent Hilaire
After relinquishing his post at the Stanislavsky Theatre, the former Paris Opera étoile  talks about his new role as director of the Bayerisches Staatsballett

Ingrid Lorentzen
Norwegian National Ballet's artistic director contemplates a decade of achievements and challenges.