Jam Dancer Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 (edited) The Royal Ballet has announced that Zenaida Yanowsky will retire from the company after 12 years. http://www.roh.org.uk/news/zenaida-yanowsky-to-retire-from-the-royal-ballet Edited December 23, 2016 by Janet McNulty edited to correct link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 22 years I believe with the Royal Ballet. A wonderful dancer with a great sense of humour - truly Queen of Hearts! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Oh woe. I will miss her so much. She really is unique and the most tremendous talent. I hope she will remain involved with the company. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Sorry to hear this but not altogether surprised. At least there are some more chances to see this wonderful and unique dancer, will make the most of them. Very best wishes to Zenaida for 2017 and whatever she may do next. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 I will miss this supremely elegant dancer greatly. She has been wonderful in many things: The Winter's Tale though comes to mind most recently, where she absolutely shone. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 (edited) I am so glad that her farewell performance at the ROH will be in Marguerite and Armand. [Having now read the Press Release, edited to change 'I hope' to 'I am glad' !!!!] Edited December 23, 2016 by capybara 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 And the press release: December 2016 Press Release ZENAIDA YANOWSKY TO RETIRE AS PRINCIPAL DANCER WITH THE ROYAL BALLET After 22 years with The Royal Ballet Zenaida Yanowsky has made the decision to step down as a Principal dancer with the Company in July 2017 at the end of the current Season. Her last performance will be in Australia in July performing Paulina in The Winter’s Tale at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre as part of The Royal Ballet’s summer visit to Brisbane. Zenaida’s final performance at the Royal Opera House will be in Marguerite and Armand in June. Zenaida joined The Royal Ballet in 1994 and was promoted to Principal in 2001. She has performed leading roles in the classical and contemporary repertory including Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Frederick Ashton’s A Month in the Country, Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Mayerling, George Balanchine’s Agon and Apollo and Jerome Robbins’s In the Night. Christopher Wheeldon created The Queen of Hearts on Zenaida for his ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as Paulina in The Winter’s Tale. Zenaida has worked with a wealth of leading contemporary choreographers in new creations and existing works including Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett, Mark Baldwin, Kim Brandstrup, Christopher Bruce, Siobhan Davies, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Flemming Flindt, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Cathy Marston, Ashley Page, Alexei Ratmansky, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp and Will Tuckett. She has also received a 2016 Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Female Performance in Elizabeth by Will Tuckett. Later this Season Liam Scarlett will be creating the central role on her for his new ballet. Zenaida Yanowsky was born in Lyon in 1974 and raised in Spain. She comes from a family of dancers and trained with her parents, Anatol Yanowsky and Carmen Robles, at their dance school, Centro Choreographers, in Gran Canaria. After winning a silver medal at Varna in 1991 she joined Paris Opera Ballet. Further awards include gold medals at the 1993 European Young Dancers Competition and the 1994 Jackson International Ballet Competition. Yanowsky has danced in a number of short dance films including Duet and The Sandman for Channel 4, the BBC’s Riot at the Rite, Leda and the Swan choreographed by Kim Brandstrup for Deloitte Ignite 2014, and a short film directed by Will Tuckett for the Matisse Cut-Outs exhibition at Tate Modern. Director Kevin O’Hare comments, ‘Zenaida has been an incredible member of The Royal Ballet for over 20 years and has illuminated the Royal Opera House stage in numerous performances with her extraordinary artistry and vivid dramatic skills. I have greatly admired her across the amazing range of roles in the repertory she has performed with the Company, and I hope we will have the opportunity in the future to collaborate on new projects in the next stage of her career. On behalf of all of us at the Company, I extend grateful thanks to Zenaida for her wonderful contribution to the artistic life of The Royal Ballet’. Ends 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 I hope that her farewell performance at the ROH will be in Marguerite and Armand. Looks like you have got your wish Capybara. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdove Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 An exceptional talent who will be greatly missed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Sorry, but not surprised, to read this. She will indeed be missed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! :-( 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanartus Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 Will def buy DVD of her in Elizabeth tomorrow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 A great pity. She was peerless in Winter's Tale and also as the Empress in Mayerling. Am going to book for all three Watson performances and she is in this casting so will see her then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 There is a sense of inevitability about this news - indeed, was there not a 'scare' about her going a year or so back? I have found her to be the most compelling dance actress I've seen, a story-teller as much through her face and eyes as through her steps. As I sit here I think of her as I first saw her, the resigned bride in Les Noces and, at the other extreme, the manic Red Queen she created for Wheeldon's Alice, with the commanding, yet gentle, Paulina of Winter's Tale at some point in between. A class act, one who will be sorely missed. 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted December 24, 2016 Share Posted December 24, 2016 So sad Zen is retiring. Absolutely loved her in Month in the Country that's my favourite of her roles. Just fabulous. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamk Posted December 24, 2016 Share Posted December 24, 2016 ???? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted December 24, 2016 Share Posted December 24, 2016 Will def buy DVD of her in Elizabeth tomorrow.... You won't be disappointed, it's brill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrhblack Posted December 24, 2016 Share Posted December 24, 2016 Possibly not a surprise but still very sad and she will be missed. One thinks of her so much as a dancer of gravitas with a remarkable long limbed elegant beauty and yet I'll never forget her as Manon, whether the first time around with Kenneth Greve or the last one with Roberto Bolle, a role in which she was completely uninhibited and astonishingly communicative. The memory of her tender partnership with Reece Clarke in After the Rain will long linger too. I'll certainly try to catch her remaining performances. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted December 24, 2016 Share Posted December 24, 2016 A very beautiful, elegant dancer. I wish her much happiness in the next stage of her life. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamesrhblack Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 I am sure that her last Marguerite will, quite rightly, be with Bonelli but imagine if it were to be with Clarke. Their partnership in After the Rain was something very special and the May / September (or even February / September) element would surely be heartbreakingly appropriate in Ashton's conception of Marguerite & Armand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyn Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 sigh. this is the moment i've been dreading.. but thankfully saving up for!! Shall be heading to the ROH a hell of a lot this season.. and then never again Can't wait for her premiere in a scarlett piece!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyn Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 (edited) Edited: oops answered my own question! sorry! Edited December 28, 2016 by lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 She's going to leave quite a gap in the company - I hope she continues to work with them in some capacity but I vaguely remember an interview where she said that as well as wanting to stay involved to an extent, she also wanted to do something completely different. Let's hope she manages to do both. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Melody: Much as I would also like to see her remain involved in some way with the RB - she could be (is) a character dancer sans pareil - the tone of the Company's press release seems all too final. But let's see ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 This will be a big loss to the RB and to all of us who adore her dancing. She is one of the great dance actresses of the last 20 years, and could do it all. I also hope that she will at least be around to coach if she doesn't continue as a character dancer. Thank you Zen for all the wonderful performances you have given us, and very best of luck for your future endeavours. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 She is one of the great dance actresses of the last 20 years, and could do it all. And sadly, didn't seem to get enough chances to show that she could. Very sorry I won't get another chance to see her. She was one of the finest dance actresses I have seen. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Melody: Much as I would also like to see her remain involved in some way with the RB - she could be (is) a character dancer sans pareil - the tone of the Company's press release seems all too final. But let's see ...... I remember reading an interview where she said she'd found it boring to play Carabosse (or at least, if not boring, then not very interesting) - given that, I sort of can't see her sticking around to play various Queen Mothers in Petipa ballets, although she'd do a brilliant job of it. Hopefully she won't just disappear, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Newcombe Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Let's not forget that she has two small children. Probably an important time for them schoolwise. I wish her all the very best. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted December 30, 2016 Share Posted December 30, 2016 (edited) The Royal Ballet calendar for 2017 is rather good in my opinion. There are some really nice photos and a lovely one for November of Zenaida dancing In The Night. I am so glad I actually saw her in this role. She was a wonderful Raymonda as well. Edited December 30, 2016 by Jacqueline 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 Over the past year or so it has been noticeable that the Times' picture editor likes to fill odd spaces in the News pages with a ballet or dance related photo - and why not, when these can be so appealing to the eye? So this morning we find one of Zen as a radiant Marguerite, linked to a caption noting that she will 'step down' next July. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I'm glad you spotted that, Ian: the paper had just "blown open" to that page on one of the copies I saw in the supermarket this morning 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 I'm uncertain when this detail appeared on the ROH website - and my apologies if it's old news - but I see that Zenaida's final London performance will be on Wednesday 7 June, with Roberto Bolle, in (as announced) Marguerite and Armand. And the performances that night are to be filmed! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 It's the cinema relay on 7th June which is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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