Q&A When did you start dancing? In the womb. Why did you start dancing? I will probably never know the answer to that. I just know why I keep doing it. Which dancer inspired you most as a child? Rudolph, Pina, Kazuo Ohno, Gregory Hines, Erik Bruhn , Karen Kain, Evelyn Hart, Robert Tewsley, Lynn Seymour, Roberto Bolle, Shirley Maclaine, Ulyana Lopatkina, Margot … [Read more...]
Igor Yebra answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Dancers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start dancing? When I was 13 years old. Why did you start dancing? Because I liked it and in my house it was something normal to see ballet; although first I wanted to be a football or basketball player! Which dancer inspired you most as a child? Fred Astaire, Antonio Gades and Vladimir Vasiliev. Which dancer do you most admire? Fred … [Read more...]
The Mikhailovsky Theatre opens its new season tonight with Semionova and Gomes in Giselle
Tonight the Mikhailovsky Theatre opens its 2012-2013 season with Polina Semionova dancing the eponymous heroine in Giselle. Semionova left to join the Berlin Staatsoper immediately after graduating from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Coincidentally, earlier this week Daniel Barenboim, the Music Director of the Berlin Staatsoper, gave a press conference at the Mikhailovsky where … [Read more...]
So does Ute Lemper approve of Angela Merkel? Nein!
Ute Lemper is touring Europe with her cabaret programme which includes material by that most political of theatre writers, Bertolt Brecht. Lemper herself has always been outspoken about her views, upsetting much of the German establishment along the way. The mix of her native German tongue, with almost perfect English and French, might have made her the European par … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]