Royal Ballet Promotions, New Joiners and Leavers, Summer 2024

[Emeralds]

28 minutes ago, LinMM said:

 

Did Mukhamedev ever dance Apollo with the Royal in the end? 

He did for one season, as second cast. with Viviana Durante as Terpsichore, Jonathan Cope and Darcey Bussell were first cast. I thought Irel did OK but I think I can see why. 

[Jan McNulty]

In respect of Balanchine the Trust trusted Desmond Kelly enough for BRB to choose their own casts for works they had performed before.

[Sharon]

On 28/06/2024 at 20:19, FionaM said:

Cesar’s movement doesn’t suit contemporary pieces IMO.  He was stiff in both McGregor and Pite.  

He was fantastic in Giselle!

[Sharon]

24 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

In respect of Balanchine the Trust trusted Desmond Kelly enough for BRB to choose their own casts for works they had performed before.

And I have a gorgeous signed photo from Desmond Kelly as Apollo....😍

[alison]

40 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

He did for one season, as second cast. with Viviana Durante as Terpsichore, Jonathan Cope and Darcey Bussell were first cast. I thought Irel did OK but I think I can see why. 

 

That season was prior to the one where he was rejected, I think?  I had the impression the Trust had taken exception to his physique at the time.

[Jane S]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Well good for Dowell. 
If he thought Mukhamedev was good enough to dance Apollo that should have stood ….so taking a stance by pulling the ballet altogether was a refusal to be dictated to about who can dance a role!! 
How can some representative of the Balanchine trust know the dancers better than Dowell at the time. 
 

 

 

 Zoe Anderson's 'RB at 25' book has it like this:

 

"Apollo had to be cancelled after a disagreement with the Balanchine Trust. Having negotiated casting with the Trust, the RB then switched dancers without consultation. The Trust, already doubtful, was also unhappy with the state of the revival, and wwithdrew the RB's licence to perform Apollo."

[Emeralds]

44 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

He did for one season, as second cast. with Viviana Durante as Terpsichore, Jonathan Cope and Darcey Bussell were first cast. I thought Irel did OK but I think I can see why. 

Sorry, Irek [Mukhamedov] not Irel! 

[Anna C]

20 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I think for gala type programmes they often have their own costumes.

They do.  A couple of years ago, Yasmine Naghdi posted on Instagram that Mayara Magri had lent her a beautiful tutu for a gala.  

 

3 hours ago, LinMM said:

Yes as hinted in above post!! 
But I don’t think an agreement should go as far as them being able to veto individual dancers. Some trust has to be given to the AD ( and teaching/ coaching teams in a  Company) 

If they don’t trust any Company then fair enough but once having given the rights to perform a Ballet unless a top class Company should suddenly go down the drain then the AD’s should decide who dances in my view anyway! 

I’m sure that in the past, Reid Anderson has had control of casting Onegin when RB have danced it.  Whether that will still be the case for next year, I don’t know.  Maybe Kevin O’Hare will be allowed to be in charge of casting.

[LinMM]

Although apparently Balanchine himself didn’t have a preferred body type for Apollo. He didn’t mind taller or shorter dancers taking the role. 
He is supposed to have liked a dancer to have some divine spark/fire as ideal for the role! 
My two favourite Apollos are Nureyev and Acosta …though obviously haven’t seen all dancers in the role! 

Im sorry this has gone a bit off thread so better get back to promotions etc!
 

Edited Monday at 15:04 by LinMM

[LinMM]

Jane S …thanks for your post that seems to put a rather different light on it if they were unhappy about other things too. 

[Bluebird]

On 28/06/2024 at 18:27, Sim said:

No surprises there for me…except that Julia Roscoe was not promoted to Soloist. That I fail to understand.  

 

I'm in complete agreement. While I congratulate all those who have been promoted and agree that their promotions  are very much deserved,  I have to say that I fail to see any logic in the failure to promote Julia Roscoe.  She has had great success in important roles such as Myrthe and the Lilac Fairy.  What more does she need to do to gain promotion? 

[Sim]

The moderators have hidden a couple of posts and others relating to them whilst the original posts are under discussion.  

[Tony Newcombe]

8 hours ago, LinMM said:

Well good for Dowell. 
If he thought Mukhamedev was good enough to dance Apollo that should have stood ….so taking a stance by pulling the ballet altogether was a refusal to be dictated to about who can dance a role!! 
How can some representative of the Balanchine trust know the dancers better than Dowell at the time. 
 

Did Mukhamedev ever dance Apollo with the Royal in the end? 

Yes in 1993 with Durante, Valtat and Hatley 

[FionaM]

On 01/07/2024 at 14:41, Sharon said:

He was fantastic in Giselle!

I thought he lost his way with his portrayal of Albrecht and was a poor partner, dumping poor Akane onto her pointe in Act 2.  Room for improvement there too.  This should not be a showy virtuoso role.  He has the possibility to be VERY good 👍 

[LinMM]

And I didn’t think he was!! 

I remember his performance as being appropriately subdued and very artistic in fact! 

Wasn’t his Giselle performance just before he was injured again? 
I guess you’re just being quite colloquial with language as otherwise I’m sure Dancers don’t “dump” other dancers and risk injuring them! 
Akane herself was also not on her best form back then ( either was just recovering from or nursing an injury at the time) When a lift goes wrong or is badly executed it’s not the male dancers at fault every single time.

Though female dancers risk far more in any lifts so hopefully ample rehearsal time is given to perfect them  especially when partners are new to each other either generally or in particular roles. 
 

[Sharon]

2 hours ago, FionaM said:

I thought he lost his way with his portrayal of Albrecht and was a poor partner, dumping poor Akane onto her pointe in Act 2.  Room for improvement there too.  This should not be a showy virtuoso role.  He has the possibility to be VERY good 👍 

Sorry Fiona I was speaking about Akram Khan's Giselle  - in response to you saying Corrales wasn't suited to contemporary works.

[Jan McNulty]

12 minutes ago, Sharon said:

Sorry Fiona I was speaking about Akram Khan's Giselle  - in response to you saying Corrales wasn't suited to contemporary works.

 

I agree - he was sensational in Akram Khan's Giselle.  

[FionaM]

59 minutes ago, Sharon said:

Sorry Fiona I was speaking about Akram Khan's Giselle  - in response to you saying Corrales wasn't suited to contemporary works.

oh yes … he was fabulous as Hilarion in that version.  

[Emeralds]

The role of Hilarion in Akram Khan's Giselle was created on Cesar Corrales and Khan has actually stated that the character  Hilarion was his starting point for creating the ballet, and despite lots of excellent portrayals by other dancers, Corrales remains my favourite Hilarion in this production.

 

I keep hoping that one day he will be invited to guest with ENB and reprise this role, and will be granted permission to dance with ENB as a guest, but I don’t know if that will be impossible!

 

I'm also sorry that I missed out seeing Cesar dance Albrecht at ENB (due to clashing commitments) in Mary Skeaping's production of Giselle with guest ballerina Elisa Badenes as Giselle before he left the company. Wonder if any members saw them as well as Cesar's performance with Akane Takada in the RB Giselle and if so, how did both performances compare? 

[Emeralds]

On 01/07/2024 at 12:11, LinMM said:

 

If they don’t trust any Company then fair enough but once having given the rights to perform a Ballet unless a top class Company should suddenly go down the drain then the AD’s should decide who dances in my view anyway! 

LinMM, I just realised that your query hasn't been answered. I think with these Trusts/Foundations/guardians for choreographers like Balanchine, Ashton, MacMillan, Cranko, Robbins etc, the rights to perform a ballet are only given for that one season and not forever. It started many decades ago with a number of senior dancers and coaches noting how some companies or individuals would claim to be dancing a Petipa or Balanchine work or excerpt but what actually resulted on stage was a  travesty of the real thing.

 

None of us would want to see that happen to works like The Dream, A Month in the Country or Manon, so the laws, Trusts and the rights exist to protect the ballets. I think it's fair enough that an expert in the choreographer's  repertoire makes the decisions. At the end of the day, they want the ballet to look good and the dancers to look good dancing the ballets. Even the rights holders who are heirs of the original dancer or choreographer who might not be professional dancers or repetiteurs themselves will work with and consult with experienced stagers and repetiteurs- it's not on a whim. I noticed that even companies that have staged a choreographer's ballet a lot will still get the approved stager to come for rehearsals and oversee the staging (unless a staff member in the company happens to be one of the approved stagers). 

 

If we feel an RB AD should be able to override the Cranko or Balanchine repetiteur (who may often be someone who created the lead role or one of the key roles in that ballet and worked closely with the choreographer) then other ADs would also have the right to override the decisions of Deborah MacMillan or an Ashton stager like Lesley Collier or Anthony Dowell....perhaps to the extent of inserting 32 fouettes into Rhapsody or slowing down all the solos in The Dream to a crawl! I don't think we want that!

 

I  think casting decisions will always not be 100% satisfactory to everyone, whether dancers or fans (or both), whether that's for Swan Lake, Onegin or Apollo. Eg. I read that Cesar Morales has always been keen to dance Onegin and Shiori Kase to dance Manon, but up till now it hasn't happened for them - to the extent that I too wished it could happen for both of them! (Not sure if Morales is still dancing while directing the ballet company in Santiago.)

 

On the plus side, Irek Mukhamedov did dance Apollo once and he had so many other brilliant roles (like Winter Dreams) after that, so I don't think he's lost any sleep over a second run of the ballet. And to create the role of Diego Rivera in Broken Wings and dance in Dante Project after retirement- not many principal dancers ever get that. 

Edited Wednesday at 20:43 by Emeralds

[LinMM]

Thanks Emeralds for your post above. 
 
I think as long as it’s a Co operative and open procedure between Trust representatives and Company AD’s it’s probably okay. 
My concern was not so much about the general overseeing of a particular ballet by these Trusts but the veto-ing of certain dancers. So it doesn’t just become a matter of personal likes and dislikes. 

[Jan McNulty]

8 hours ago, LinMM said:

My concern was not so much about the general overseeing of a particular ballet by these Trusts but the veto-ing of certain dancers. So it doesn’t just become a matter of personal likes and dislikes. 

 

 It is more than just general overseeing or what is the point of the Trust being involved at all?

 

 

 

[LinMM]

Okay so what do they do exactly? 
In addition to what Emeralds has said above that is? 

Edited yesterday at 08:03 by LinMM

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

Okay so what do they do exactly? 
In addition to what Emeralds has said above that is? 

 

Quality control (which probably includes having a say if they think a dancer is unsuitable for a role)?

[LinMM]

Thankyou Jan. 

I suppose the role of Trusts gets more difficult the longer after the choreographers death it is. 
People can mis remember what was actually said in terms of dancer suitability. Body type has already been mentioned but Balanchine ( up to a point) was not overly concerned by this.
Passing on correct choreography and staging is one thing but it’s more difficult to assess who should dance a role. 
Imagine for example if all the current RB principals were wanting to dance Apollo…. who would likely be excluded from the role by the Trust ….apart from on grounds of seniority? 

Edited yesterday at 09:46 by LinMM

[FionaM]

@LinMM as Alexander Campbell reported to the London Ballet Circle it’s more a case of the number of dancers ahead of you (and the number of performances they are allocated).  

 

So it’s not that a dancer might be actively excluded, it’s more that the first choices fill the slots available. 

[alison]

On 03/07/2024 at 21:36, Emeralds said:

None of us would want to see that happen to works like The Dream, A Month in the Country or Manon,

 

Some of us, unfortunately, have  

[AnticaFiamma]

On 03/07/2024 at 13:35, Emeralds said:

The role of Hilarion in Akram Khan's Giselle was created on Cesar Corrales and Khan has actually stated that the character  Hilarion was his starting point for creating the ballet, and despite lots of excellent portrayals by other dancers, Corrales remains my favourite Hilarion in this production.

 

I keep hoping that one day he will be invited to guest with ENB and reprise this role, and will be granted permission to dance with ENB as a guest, but I don’t know if that will be impossible!

 

I'm also sorry that I missed out seeing Cesar dance Albrecht at ENB (due to clashing commitments) in Mary Skeaping's production of Giselle with guest ballerina Elisa Badenes as Giselle before he left the company. Wonder if any members saw them as well as Cesar's performance with Akane Takada in the RB Giselle and if so, how did both performances compare? 

The very first time I saw Mary Skeaping's Giselle was with Corrales and Badenes. I think he was barely 21 and had just been promoted to soloist. Irek Mukhamedov coached him. I remember really enjoying his performance, but what I remember very clearly is that when naughty Corrales started doing the entrechat the old lady sitting next to me gasped and said indignantly "oh he can't do that". 

 

I remember a few people here complained about his partnering during his first performance of Giselle with Takada; I caught the second one and I enjoyed it enormously. He was a very aristocratic Albrecht and had amazing chemistry with Takada. No bad lifts or poor partnering at that performance.

[LinMM]

Thankyou AnticaFiamma as that is my recollection as well. Perhaps I was at the same performance as you!! 
Such a shame both these dancers have had extended injuries in recent years. 

[Emeralds]

9 minutes ago, AnticaFiamma said:

The very first time I saw Mary Skeaping's Giselle was with Corrales and Badenes. I think he was barely 21 and had just been promoted to soloist. Irek Mukhamedov coached him. I remember really enjoying his performance, but what I remember very clearly is that when naughty Corrales started doing the entrechat the old lady sitting next to me gasped and said indignantly "oh he can't do that". 

 

I remember a few people here complained about his partnering during his first performance of Giselle with Takada; I caught the second one and I enjoyed it enormously. He was a very aristocratic Albrecht and had amazing chemistry with Takada. No bad lifts or poor partnering at that performance.

Thank you @AnticaFiamma!