Interview with Tamara Rojo

 ballet  No Responses »
May 212013
 

Bennet Gartside and Tamara Rojo in Liam Scarlett Asphodel Meadows 365x500 Interview with Tamara RojoTamara Rojo is at the Bolshoi Theatre in as one of the judges for this year’s Benois de la danse, the bal­let Oscars. Maria Side­l­nikova from Kom­mersant took the oppor­tun­ity to talk to her.

She asked Rojo why she’d left the .

I’ve reached a point in my career, when I think it is import­ant for me to express my own opin­ions. Of course, I respect the views of the man­age­ment, but when I’m out on stage, the audi­ence are judging me, not the people who sit in the office. The pos­sib­il­ity of self-expression, through your­self and oth­ers, is pos­sible as an artistic dir­ector. This pos­i­tion allows you to give artists the free­dom to exper­i­ment and show what they are cap­able of. 

… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Pavel Dmitrichenko’s lawyers to contest the forensic results of acid attack

 ballet  No Responses »
May 152013
 

85a0fe479a19 435x500 Pavel Dmitrichenkos lawyers to contest the forensic results of acid attack ’s law­yers will con­test the forensic res­ults that show that the acid attack on Bal­let chief caused griev­ous bod­ily harm. Dmitrichenko, who is in jail, is accused of instig­at­ing the assault on Filin in January.

Law­yer Viol­etta Volkova said that the ser­i­ous­ness of the effects of the attack would be an import­ant factor in sen­ten­cing if the court comes down against her cli­ent  There is a max­imum sen­tence of twelve years for griev­ous bod­ily harm, says Isvestia. How­ever, she is also attempt­ing to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Filin is still in Ger­many under­go­ing treat­ment to his eyes, and is said to be recov­er­ing his sight.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Culture crash: MaggioDanza ballet company axed in Florence

 ballet, music, opera  No Responses »
May 142013
 

Francesco Ventriglia 332x500 Culture crash: MaggioDanza ballet company axed in FlorenceAddio to Mag­gi­oDanza, the bal­let com­pany formed in 1967 under the aus­pices of the ’s Mag­gio Musicale Fiorentino.

A fin­an­cial crisis has res­ul­ted in the decision to axe the bal­let com­pany,  and cut the num­ber of tech­nical and admin­is­trat­ive staff, tak­ing the num­ber of wage pack­ets from 346 to 273. Chorus and orches­tra are saved how­ever, with the chorus los­ing two mem­bers who are retir­ing, and the orches­tra gain­ing three mem­bers tak­ing its num­ber to 96. The cre­at­ive work­shops will be closed and future pro­duc­tions will be made off site or hired in. The run­ning costs of 18 mil­lion euros each year to pay the staff can­not be sustained.

The bal­let com­pany had already been stream­lined to 16 ele­ments over the last few years, and after Vladi­mir Derevi­anko left the dir­ec­tion of the com­pany in 2010 it has been on shaky ground.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Carla Fracci, Luciana Savignano and Svetlana Zakharova go to the ball

 ballet  1 Response »
May 122013
 

Black White Ball Milan 8 700x200 Carla Fracci, Luciana Savignano and Svetlana Zakharova go to the ball

To cel­eb­rate 200th Anniversary of the form­a­tion of the Bal­let School at ’s , the Academy, which runs the school, threw a Black and White Ball with three excep­tional guests: dan­cers , Luciana Sav­ig­n­ano and Svet­lana Zakhar­ova.

The event was held in the ex-ice rink, the Palazzo del Ghi­ac­cio, a 1920s Liberty struc­ture. Almost 500 people (pay­ing €200 for their ticket) atten­ded the even­ing, which was to not only cel­eb­rate the anniversary, but to raise money for a new build­ing which will allow stu­dents who live far from Milan to stay in the city dur­ing the week.

The school’s bal­let stu­dents presen­ted extracts from Paquita and Béjart’s Gaîté par­is­i­enne, a 60-piece orches­tra mixed jazz stand­ards with bal­let scores, and fifty tables with names such a ‘Gis­elle’ (where Carla Fracci was seated, obvi­ously) and ‘Jeune Homme’, let all the guests eat and sip their spumante in com­fort.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Étoile Eleonora Abbagnato and footballer hubby Federico Balzaretti: It’s complicated!

 ballet  3 Responses »
May 092013
 

Eleonora Abbagnato and Federico Balzaretti 2 392x500 Étoile Eleonora Abbagnato and footballer hubby Federico Balzaretti: Its complicated!The new Paris Opera Bal­let étoile, , is back in Italy for the first of six epis­odes of a tele­vi­sion tal­ent show, Amici, where she will cap­tain a team of young sing­ers and dan­cers. She also graces the cover of this week’s Grazia, along­side her foot­baller hus­band Fed­erico Balzar­etti, the AS Roma defender.  Stefania Ros­sotti asked the pair some ques­tions. About Abbagnato’s recent ‘pro­mo­tion’ for example:

When I’m at home, I’m here with all my heart. To be named étoile gives me immense joy, though it’s also a respons­ib­il­ity. It crowns more than twenty years of hard work and solitude. Dance was all my life: at 11-years-old I left Sicily for Paris.

But now she has Julia, her 14-month-old daugh­ter, and so pri­or­it­ies have changed, though she has to attend class, rehears­als and give per­form­ances.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Roberto Bolle and Friends from ABT on tour in Italy

 ballet  No Responses »
May 072013
 

Teatro Antico Taormina 500x375 Roberto Bolle and Friends from ABT on tour in ItalyIn addi­tion to the & Friends dates in New York and Shang­hai, a new group of friends will join him for his Italian leg of the tour.

Roberto Bolle & Friends from the will be at the Politeama Ros­setti in Trieste on 19 July; at ’s Cara­calla Baths on 21–22 July; at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa on 24 July, and fin­ish­ing at Sicily’s glor­i­ous Teatro Antico in Taorm­ina on 26 July.

The pro­gramme will reflect ABT’s rep­er­toire and among oth­ers will fea­ture one of the company’s senior prin­cipal dan­cers Julie Kent, and , one its young­est, who was pro­moted to prin­cipal just last year.

Photo: Teatro Antico, Taorm­ina… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Claudio Coviello is promoted to primo ballerino at La Scala

 ballet  3 Responses »
May 052013
 

401531 329186797125924 562326088 n 328x500 Claudio Coviello is promoted to primo ballerino at La Scala21-year-old , who fam­ously stepped in at the last minute to replace Ivan Vasiliev, has been named primo ballerino (prin­cipal) after yesterday’s per­form­ance as Albrecht in Gis­elle.

Born in Potenza, Cov­i­ello received his bal­let train­ing at the school of the Opera Bal­let and was quickly snapped up by the com­pany at Milan’s in 2010.

He was awar­ded Danza & Danza’s Best New Artist in 2011, and pro­moted to soloist at La Scala just last year.

Two months ago, after hav­ing played Quasimodo in ’s  for the after­noon mat­inée, he found him­self onstage again a couple of hours later to sub­sti­tute Vasiliev who was injured half an hour before cur­tain up.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS
 Older Entries