The annual, starry, late summer gala organised by American Ballet Theatre’s Xiomara Reyes and Ballets du Monte Carlo’s Elías García for IBStage takes place at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. Over 100 young dancers from the various summer ballet programmes which begin in mid-August, join international ballet stars, including Myriam Ould-Braham and István Simon. I … [Read more...]
Martina Arduino and Marco Agostino make extraordinary role debuts in Don Quixote at La Scala
There was a buzz in the air at La Scala for the last in the short run of Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote. Martina Arduino was to dance Kitri for the first time. Since Alexei Ratmansky pulled her out of the corps to be his Odette/Odile when she was 19, (just a year after graduating from La Scala’s ballet school), she has made several remarkable role debuts, but none has seemed so … [Read more...]
Photo Album: Nureyev Gala at La Scala – Zakharova, Louvet, Nuñez, Muntagirov and Bolle (and Nureyev at La Scala facts and figures)
Last night a Gala to celebrate Rudolf Nureyev was had at La Scala. It is the 80th Anniversary of his birth and also 25 years after his death. The Gala was previewed by a benefit audience on Thursday, and opened Friday 25 May, with further performances on 26 and 29 May. La Scala's Étoiles Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle were joined by guests Marianela Nuñez, Germain Louvet, … [Read more...]
Dame Margot Fonteyn’s topsy-turvy day, with Rudolf Nureyev, Annette Page and Richard Attenborough
In 1963, journalist Barry Norman – later famous on television as a film critic – was writing on entertainment for The Daily Mail, and he shadowed Dame Margot Fonteyn for a day, the day she recorded the Gayane and Swan Lake pas de deux for Richard Attenborough's Gala Performance programme for the BBC. Here's the article transcribed from newspaper clippings: Dame … [Read more...]
Marianela Nuñez celebrates 20 years with The Royal Ballet
Incredibly, this February Marianela Nuñez celebrates 20 years of dancing with The Royal Ballet. She arrived in London from Argentina when she was 16, and studied for a year at The Royal Ballet School for one year before joining the Company in 1998. She was promoted to First Soloist in 2000, and became a Principal in 2002 when she was 20. In her anniversary year, she will … [Read more...]