Denis Matvienko is ‘fired’ as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet

 ballet  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

Denis Matvienko 400x500 Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev BalletDenis Matvi­enko has been ‘fired’ as artistic dir­ector of the Kiev Bal­let, but it was a pos­i­tion that appar­ently he had never offi­cially held. From Novem­ber 2011 he has been ful­filling the role, but has found that the con­tract had never been signed, accord­ing to Korrespondent.net.

Yes­ter­day, at a press con­fer­ence, Matvi­enko said,

At the begin­ning of Feb­ru­ary, I found out that I am not the artistic dir­ector of the bal­let com­pany of the Kiev Opera and never have been.

It was just before the première of , and I did not say any­thing imme­di­ately to not cause a stir. The Dir­ector of the Kiev Opera con­firmed this fact. It turns out that my con­tract, sub­mit­ted in Novem­ber, is not signed. Dur­ing this time I was lead­ing the com­pany, giv­ing state­ments on tour, while not know­ing that I didn’t hold the role. This is a flag­rant viol­a­tion, cheat­ing me and my artists.

Matvienko’s name has been moved on the company’s site from the role of Artistic Dir­ector to join the names of the other dan­cers of the company.

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Denis Matvienko is fired as artistic director of the Kiev Ballet

Boston Ballet’s 50th Anniversary season kicks off in London

 ballet  No Responses »
Mar 192013
 

Polyphonia by Gene Schiavone 3 700x363 1 Boston Ballets 50th Anniversary season kicks off in London

Boston Bal­let has announced its 50th anniversary sea­son, which will start with their tour to Lon­don in July at the Lon­don Coli­seum. Pro­gram­ming for 2013/2014 includes La Bay­adère and Cinder­ella, two cutting-edge rep­er­tory pro­grammes with Amer­ican and world premières  and Balanchine’s mas­ter­piece, Jew­els. The sea­son will close with a tour to Washington’s Kennedy Cen­ter, and end with per­form­ances at the Koch Theater in New York City’s Lin­coln Center.

Artistic Dir­ector Mikko Nissinen said,

We have exhil­ar­at­ing momentum going into our 50th year. The 2013–2014 sea­son is a pivotal cel­eb­ra­tion of the Company’s dis­tin­guished past, extraordin­ary present, and excit­ing future. This mile­stone year is an oppor­tun­ity to cel­eb­rate today’s and give thanks to all the people who have helped us get here.… [con­tinue reading]

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New YouTube videos: a starry Bayadère with Zakharova, Allash, Tsiskaridze, Ivata, Krysanova, Osipova and Nikulina from 2008

 ballet, recordings  9 Responses »
Oct 122012
 

This was an inspired per­form­ance of Nikiya from . There are many videos of her in what is argu­ably her best role, but this is cer­tainly one her finest per­form­ances. A magical even­ing in Feb­ru­ary of 2008.

With her are Maria Allash as Gamz­atti and Nikolai Tsis­karidze as Solor, both in splen­did form. The Bronze Idol is danced by Morikhiro Ivata, and it would be hard to bet­ter the three “Shad­ows”: Eka­ter­ina Krysan­ova, and Anna Nikulina.

Nikiya’s Death — Svet­lana Zakharova:

Shadow Vari­ation — Nat­alia Osipova:

Final Pas de deux & Vari­ations — Svet­lana Zakhar­ova & Nikolai Tsis­karidze:
… [con­tinue reading]

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Carla Fracci, Riccardo Muti, and the destruction of ballet in Italy

 ballet, Italy  10 Responses »
Feb 092012
 

For almost two years — that is, since the depar­ture of Carla Fracci as a dir­ector - the Bal­let of the Rome Opera seems to have fallen prey to evil spir­its, or at least incom­pet­ent ones, who have drastic­ally reduced the quant­ity and qual­ity of per­form­ances. All under the orders of the fam­ous con­ductor, notori­ously des­potic and a known enemy of dance. The new dir­ector of the bal­let com­pany, Micha van Hoecke, has no spe­cific respons­ib­il­it­ies for now. But the future is worrying.

BallettoOggi Carla Fracci Carla Fracci, Riccardo Muti, and the destruction of ballet in ItalySo opens an art­icle in Ballet2000 (known in Italy as Bal­letto Oggi) about the down­hill slide of the Rome com­pany. Dance journ­al­ist Dona­tella Ber­tozzi, holds no punches. She continues,

Over the last eight­een months the magical world of bal­let has changed at the Rome Opera into a world of night­mares: three evil fair­ies - Super­fi­ci­al­ity, Incom­pet­ence and Ignor­ance - in cahoots with Cara­bosse, are opposed to For­tune and the Future of (dance, of course) and are mount­ing a siege on Rome’s Opera House, plot­ting to decree (finally!) the ruin of the bal­let com­pany. … [con­tinue reading]

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Giuseppe Picone answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition

 ballet, questionnaire, questionnaire - dancers' edition  1 Response »
Feb 082012
 

Giuseppe Picone Giuseppe Picone answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition

Q&A

When did you start dan­cing?
I star­ted when I was 10 years old at the Teatro San Carlo bal­let school in Naples.

Why did you start dan­cing?
My elder brother Raf­faele took me to the audi­tion and I fell in love with bal­let imme­di­ately. Till then I had no idea of what bal­let was.

Which dan­cer inspired you most as a child?
Abso­lutely: Rudolf Nureyev.

Which dan­cer do you most admire?
I admire and respect Julio Bocca.

What’s your favour­ite role?
Albrecht in Gis­elle.

What role have you never played but would like to?
Scheherazade is an amaz­ing ballet!

What’s your favour­ite bal­let to watch?
When you like bal­let you like to watch all of them.

Who is your favour­ite cho­reo­grapher?… [con­tinue reading]

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Kondaurova, Ermakov and the Mariinsky girls triumph in La Bayadère in Turin

 ballet  1 Response »
Oct 272011
 

The are enter­ing their last week of a three-week run at Turin’s Teatro Regio, after a week of their Fokine pro­gramme, a week of Bay­adères, and now they start on their twelve Swan Lakes.

The Regio’s mod­ern theatre was designed for opera and leaves the dan­cer, espe­cially the male bal­let dan­cer, short­changed. Andrej Ermakov’s huge leaps brought him dan­ger­ously near the orches­tra pit on sev­eral occa­sions, but he eas­ily dom­in­ated the stage with his bravura atti­tude and good ol’ Rus­sian chutzpah when his phys­ical prowess had to be tamed for the Turin stage.

Ana­stas­ija Koleg­ova was an assured, and extraordin­ar­ily pretty, Gamz­atti. As she approaches 30 she still has the face of a teen­ager. Strangely her turns with  Ermakov seemed awk­ward, yet by her­self she sailed through the tech­nical dif­fi­culties with ease.… [con­tinue reading]

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Diana Vishneva talks about dancing and the Mariinsky on the eve of the company’s London season

 ballet  1 Response »
Jul 252011
 

Diana Vishneva Nikiya ABT 480x600 Diana Vishneva talks about dancing and the Mariinsky on the eve of the companys London seasonThe Mari­in­sky are the , and one of the jew­els in their crown, , is with them. ’ Debra Craine says admiringly:

Acclaimed in Ber­lin, adored in New York (where she dances with ), admired in Japan, and now about to return to Lon­don with her home com­pany, the Mari­in­sky, she is quite simply a phe­nomenon. See­ing her a dec­ade ago I described Vish­neva as vir­tu­osic and ver­sat­ile, brave and beau­ti­ful, game for any­thing and gen­er­ous to her audi­ence. Today, all that is true and more.

As the Kirov the com­pany came to Lon­don in 1961. Now, 50 years later, the atmo­sphere is very dif­fer­ent from the 1960s cloak and dag­ger polit­ical cli­mate.… [con­tinue reading]

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