Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules!

December 26, 2016, 8:15 am

≫ Next: Photo album: First look at the new Crystal Pite ballet for The Royal Ballet

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If you are a ballet lover, use Twitter and don’t yet follow the New York Times’s Alastair Macaulay, you really should. His timeline is a witty mix of ballet facts and observations, and world views and opinions.

He has probably seen more productions of The Nutcracker than any other living soul, so who better to provide the ‘rules’ for a traditional Nutcracker.

He kicks off with,

Basic rule for traditional “Nutcrackers”: A: Drosselmeyer should only be seen in Act I, Sugar Plum only Act II

which instantly puts a large number of Nutcracker productions into the non-traditional category.

Continue reading Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules! at gramilano.

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Photo album: First look at the new Crystal Pite ballet for The Royal Ballet

March 16, 2017, 3:00 pm

≫ Next: Sergei Polunin returns to dance with Natalia Osipova at The Royal Ballet

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The Royal Ballet celebrates the diversity and richness of contemporary ballet with a mixed programme that includes an established classic, a recent work and a world premiere: David Dawson’s first work for The Royal Ballet, an acclaimed ballet by Christopher Wheeldon and a new creation by Crystal Pite.

Canadian choreographer, Pite, is one of the most interesting and loved names in dance today; her many awards include an Olivier and a Critics’ Circle Award for Polaris at Sadler’s Wells.

Continue reading Photo album: First look at the new Crystal Pite ballet for The Royal Ballet at gramilano.

Sergei Polunin returns to dance with Natalia Osipova at The Royal Ballet

April 11, 2017, 7:55 am

≫ Next: Mayerling opens tonight at The Royal Ballet… here’s a sneak peek

≪ Previous: Photo album: First look at the new Crystal Pite ballet for The Royal Ballet

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Former Royal Ballet Principal Sergei Polunin will partner Natalia Osipova in June, when he returns to dance in Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand. Other casting sees another former Royal Ballet Principal, Alessandra Ferri, together with her fellow Italian Federico Bonelli, and the third Italian in the lineup is Roberto Bolle who will be partnering Zenaida Yanowsky. These performances will mark Yanowsky’s retirement as Principal at the Royal Opera House after a 23 year career with the Company.

Continue reading Sergei Polunin returns to dance with Natalia Osipova at The Royal Ballet at gramilano.

Mayerling opens tonight at The Royal Ballet… here’s a sneak peek

April 28, 2017, 8:05 am

≫ Next: Photos of the first night cast of The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty with Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov

≪ Previous: Sergei Polunin returns to dance with Natalia Osipova at The Royal Ballet

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There are casts, and casts… this is a cast! Opening a run of Mayerling performances this evening at The Royal Opera House sees Edward Watson in the role he’s come to dominate, Prince Rudolf; Mary Vetsera is played by Natalia Osipova, Countess Marie Larisch is Sarah Lamb, Empress Elisabeth is Zenaida Yanowsky, Princess Stephanie is danced by Francesca Hayward, Mitzi Caspar by Marianela Nuñez and Bratfisch is played by Alexander Campbell. An impressive line-up.

Continue reading Mayerling opens tonight at The Royal Ballet… here’s a sneak peek at gramilano.

Photos of the first night cast of The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty with Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov

December 20, 2016, 8:42 am

≫ Next: Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules!

≪ Previous: Mayerling opens tonight at The Royal Ballet… here’s a sneak peek

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The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet’s repertory. It was the ballet with which the Company reopened the Royal Opera House in 1946 after World War II, its first production at its new home in Covent Garden.

 

To celebrate its 70th anniversary with the Company, from tomorrow night, 21 December, until 14 March 2017, the ballet will be performed a remarkable 25 times. The first of many casts is headed by Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov.

Continue reading Photos of the first night cast of The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty with Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov at gramilano.

Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules!

December 26, 2016, 8:15 am

≫ Next: Photo album: Opening night at The Royal Ballet includes premiere of Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances

≪ Previous: Photos of the first night cast of The Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty with Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov

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If you are a ballet lover, use Twitter and don’t yet follow the New York Times’s Alastair Macaulay, you really should. His timeline is a witty mix of ballet facts and observations, and world views and opinions.

He has probably seen more productions of The Nutcracker than any other living soul, so who better to provide the ‘rules’ for a traditional Nutcracker.

He kicks off with,

Basic rule for traditional “Nutcrackers”: A: Drosselmeyer should only be seen in Act I, Sugar Plum only Act II

which instantly puts a large number of Nutcracker productions into the non-traditional category.

Continue reading Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules! at gramilano.

Photo album: Opening night at The Royal Ballet includes premiere of Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances

May 19, 2017, 3:01 am

≫ Next: Photo album of tonight’s Royal Ballet programme with Zenaida Yanowsky and Roberto Bolle as Marguerite and Armand

≪ Previous: Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules!

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The latest mixed-programme from The Royal Ballet was unveiled last night and will run until the end of this month. “Virtuoso dance from The Royal Ballet in a programme that includes Forsythe and Balanchine classics and Wheeldon’s 2016 narrative ballet” also saw the world premiere of Liam Scarlett’s new creation for the Company, Symphonic Dances.

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

William Forsythe’s ballet to the last movement of Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony is an exhilarating celebration of virtuoso dance.

Continue reading Photo album: Opening night at The Royal Ballet includes premiere of Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances at gramilano.

Photo album of tonight’s Royal Ballet programme with Zenaida Yanowsky and Roberto Bolle as Marguerite and Armand

June 2, 2017, 10:49 am

≫ Next: Zenaida Yanowsky’s final curtain call

≪ Previous: Photo album: Opening night at The Royal Ballet includes premiere of Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances

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In a few minutes, the curtain goes up at The Royal Opera house of a mixed programme of Frederick Ashton gems. It is a special evening because this will be the last role that Zenaida Yanowsky dances on the Covent Garden stage before she retires. She will be dancing with Roberto Bolle in Marguerite and Armand, and again June 7 for the live cinema relay. In yesterday’s Times, Yanowsky said of her co-star:

He is a superb and committed partner and dancer, who allows me to feel free in my dancing and explore the movement and the character.

Continue reading Photo album of tonight’s Royal Ballet programme with Zenaida Yanowsky and Roberto Bolle as Marguerite and Armand at gramilano.

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Zenaida Yanowsky’s final curtain call

June 8, 2017, 11:39 am

≫ Next: Royal Ballet ballerina stages starry gala in memory of her mother

≪ Previous: Photo album of tonight’s Royal Ballet programme with Zenaida Yanowsky and Roberto Bolle as Marguerite and Armand

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After 23 years with The Royal Ballet, last night Zenaida Yanowsky gave her final curtain call on the Covent Garden stage.

Her final performance at the Royal Opera House was in Marguerite and Armand where she danced alongside Roberto Bolle. Her last performance with the Company, however, 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.

Continue reading Zenaida Yanowsky’s final curtain call at gramilano.

Royal Ballet ballerina stages starry gala in memory of her mother

June 12, 2017, 12:58 pm

≫ Next: Interview with Steven McRae and Takafumi Adachi, creators of ‘Ballet Hero Fantasy’, now available in English

≪ Previous: Zenaida Yanowsky’s final curtain call

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Emma Maguire is a Soloist of The Royal Ballet. She lost her mother, Ann, a teacher, when she was stabbed to death in front of her class by a 15-year-old pupil at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Her murder, which shocked the entire UK, was in 2014.

Emma and her family have admirably turned this horrific happening into something positive by creating the Ann Maguire Arts Education Fund, in memory of her life, and her passion for helping children by providing bursaries and funding for the enhancement and personal development of young people under 18 years old.

Continue reading Royal Ballet ballerina stages starry gala in memory of her mother at gramilano.

Interview with Steven McRae and Takafumi Adachi, creators of ‘Ballet Hero Fantasy’, now available in English

June 19, 2017, 9:24 am

≫ Next: Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center

≪ Previous: Royal Ballet ballerina stages starry gala in memory of her mother

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While the phrase “Ballet Hero Fantasy featuring Steven McRae” may conjure up images of a red-haired Byronic smoulderer in tights, sweeping you off your feet, and down into a fish dive, as his lips brush sensuously against… ok, ok, enough. It’s not that type of fantasy. We’re talking manga. And no, grandad, that’s not a fruit; it’s a Japanese cartoon.

Gramilano reported on the Japanese version when it first appeared in 2013, the year after manga-artist Takafumi Adachi met Royal Ballet Principal Steven McRae.

Continue reading Interview with Steven McRae and Takafumi Adachi, creators of ‘Ballet Hero Fantasy’, now available in English at gramilano.

Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center

July 12, 2017, 8:50 am

≫ Next: Xander Parish becomes a Principal Dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet

≪ Previous: Interview with Steven McRae and Takafumi Adachi, creators of ‘Ballet Hero Fantasy’, now available in English

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Last August, young ballet dancer Jacopo Tissi, resigned from the La Scala Ballet to accept the offer a contract with the Bolshoi Company. As I wrote last September, it’s not something that happens every day. Like all Russian companies, the Bolshoi has few dancers from outside the ex-Soviet borders in its ranks.

However, Makhar Vaziev, the Company’s current director, who was previously at La Scala, had seen Tissi’s dancing and thought he’d make a fine addition to the Bolshoi.

Continue reading Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center at gramilano.

Xander Parish becomes a Principal Dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet

July 28, 2017, 12:20 am

≫ Next: Tamara Karsavina compares Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky

≪ Previous: Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center

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Last night, on the stage of The Royal Opera House which he left eight years ago, Xander Parish was promoted to Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre.

The Mariinsky are in London for a three week run of five different programmes until 12 August. Last night saw Parish as Siegfried in Swan Lake. The 31-year-old dancer from Hull joins Kimin Kim of South Korea as the company’s only Principal Dancers from outside the former Soviet Union.

Continue reading Xander Parish becomes a Principal Dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet at gramilano.

Tamara Karsavina compares Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky

August 1, 2017, 8:50 am

≫ Next: World Ballet Day 2017: 5 October Live with Australian, Bolshoi, Royal, Canadian and San Francisco Ballet Companies

≪ Previous: Xander Parish becomes a Principal Dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet

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Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 and later that same year he danced with Margot Fonteyn for the first time, and the following year he joined The Royal Ballet. In 1963, the BBC asked the great Tamara Karsavina to comment on the new Russian dancer and compare him with her Ballets Russes partner Vaslav Nijinsky.

Karsavina and Nijinsky had joined Diaghilev’s troupe for its first season in 1909, with Karsavina continuing the collaboration with Diaghilev well into the 1920s.

Continue reading Tamara Karsavina compares Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky at gramilano.

World Ballet Day 2017: 5 October Live with Australian, Bolshoi, Royal, Canadian and San Francisco Ballet Companies

August 8, 2017, 8:21 am

≫ Next: Dame Merle Park on a ballerina’s need for rest and energy: I have six spoonfuls of sugar in my tea

≪ Previous: Tamara Karsavina compares Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky

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Five of the world’s leading ballet companies will come together for World Ballet Day on Thursday 5 October to broadcast 20 hours of live, behind-the-scenes footage via Facebook Live, following a successful partnership with Facebook in 2016.

The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet will partner for the fourth year in a row to celebrate classical dance and provide viewers around the world with an exclusive look behind the scenes at what life is like at the world’s top ballet companies.

Continue reading World Ballet Day 2017: 5 October Live with Australian, Bolshoi, Royal, Canadian and San Francisco Ballet Companies at gramilano.

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Dame Merle Park on a ballerina’s need for rest and energy: I have six spoonfuls of sugar in my tea

August 16, 2017, 8:01 am

≫ Next: The world’s cheapest city (and most expensive) for a cultural break

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Back in the days when Merle Park was a CBE — she became Dame Merle in 1986 — she left this interview with a British women’s magazine. It makes interesting, and amusing, reading almost 40 years later.

Dame Merle Park will celebrate her 80th birthday on 8 October this year.

At times my energy has been at a very low ebb

I always have more energy in a hot climate than in a cool one, but that’s probably because I was born in Rhodesia.

Continue reading Dame Merle Park on a ballerina’s need for rest and energy: I have six spoonfuls of sugar in my tea at gramilano.

The world’s cheapest city (and most expensive) for a cultural break

August 24, 2017, 8:31 am

≫ Next: Yanowsky’s Back! Making a comeback faster than Frank Sinatra

≪ Previous: Dame Merle Park on a ballerina’s need for rest and energy: I have six spoonfuls of sugar in my tea

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Prague has come up trumps as the place where those planning a cultural city break can save money this autumn, according to the 2017 British Post Office Travel Money Cost of Culture Report.

The Czech capital emerges as cheapest in a survey of opera, dance, music concert, gallery and museum prices in 16 cultural cities, with runners-up Warsaw, Budapest and Moscow making it a clean sweep for Eastern Europe.

Research found that the cost of six world-class cultural highlights in Prague has fallen almost 26 per cent since last year to £93.58 – less than the cost of one ticket to see the English National Opera’s The Barber of Seville at the London Coliseum (£96.50) or The Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Royal Opera House (£119).

Continue reading The world’s cheapest city (and most expensive) for a cultural break at gramilano.

Yanowsky’s Back! Making a comeback faster than Frank Sinatra

September 21, 2017, 5:08 am

≫ Next: A female pas de deux from Royal Ballet dancers Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yasmine Naghdi

≪ Previous: The world’s cheapest city (and most expensive) for a cultural break

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Frank Sinatra famously retired in 1970 only to make a comeback three years later, after which he continued to sing into the ’90s.

Former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky is making a faster comeback than Ol’ Blue Eyes.

After 23 years with The Royal Ballet, Zenaida Yanowsky gave her final curtain call on the Covent Garden stage in June of this year. Her final performance at the Royal Opera House was in Marguerite and Armand with Roberto Bolle.

Continue reading Yanowsky’s Back! Making a comeback faster than Frank Sinatra at gramilano.

A female pas de deux from Royal Ballet dancers Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yasmine Naghdi

September 22, 2017, 5:53 am

≫ Next: Interview with Marianela Núñez: We live in a world where there’s no space left for magic

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It’s relatively rare to see a female pas de deux in classical dance. In 2015, for her farewell tour, Sylvie Guillem asked Russell Maliphant to create a such a duet as she’d never danced with a female partner, so he created Here & After, which she danced all over the world with La Scala soloist Emanuela Montanari.

Now, The Royal Ballet’s Principal Character Artist Kristen McNally has created on First Soloist Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Principal Yasmine Naghdi, Duet, in a film created by Andrew Margetson.

Continue reading A female pas de deux from Royal Ballet dancers Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yasmine Naghdi at gramilano.

Interview with Marianela Núñez: We live in a world where there’s no space left for magic

September 23, 2017, 8:23 am

≫ Next: Interview with choreographer Robert Binet on his Dreamers project for the Canadian and Royal ballet companies

≪ Previous: A female pas de deux from Royal Ballet dancers Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yasmine Naghdi

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I have three older brothers. When I came along mum she wanted that I did feminine things: there was too much football in the house. I was always dressed in pink and, and then when I was three, she took me to a dancing school. It was though a lightbulb came on in my head. It’s difficult to explain. There’s a book called The Soul’s Code, and according to James Hillman every one of us is born with a calling, a vacation, a destiny.

Continue reading Interview with Marianela Núñez: We live in a world where there’s no space left for magic at gramilano.