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Vaganova

Prix de Lausanne candidates 2019 announced

31 October 2018 by gramilano Leave a Comment

Shale WAGMAN 407 PDL2018 photo gregory batardon 50A3945

The members of the video selections jury panel for the Prix de Lausanne 2019 have chosen 71 dancers to participate. Along with the nine pre-selected candidates, a total of 80 dancers will take part in the 47th edition of the international competition from 3-10 February 2019. The video selections concluded last weekend by the panel of nine jury members who looked at 363 … [Read more...] about Prix de Lausanne candidates 2019 announced

Review: Three casts for La Bayadère with the Bolshoi at La Scala

20 September 2018 by gramilano 2 Comments

Shadows In La Bayadére, Photo By Damir Yusupov, 2008

How secretly gratifying it is when wine experts trip up, rating High Street plonk higher than the Premier cru. Ballet music could benefit from unlabelled listening. Minkus is routinely pooh-poohed, yet how many superb, theatrical moments he creates for La Bayadère — sublime, exhilarating, haunting, joyous. If interval chatter isn’t focussed on complaining about the music, it’s … [Read more...] about Review: Three casts for La Bayadère with the Bolshoi at La Scala

Pia Russo and the art of teaching ballet

9 August 2018 by gramilano Leave a Comment

Pia Russo with Tulsa students, 2015

Pia Russo is a highly respected Italian ballet teacher, currently working at the Ballet School of Teatro San Carlo in Naples, one of the world’s oldest ballet schools, founded in 1812 by Salvatore Taglioni, uncle of the celebrated Maria. She is known for her passion, dedication and meticulous preparation. After her dancing career ended, she studied ballet pedagogy for two … [Read more...] about Pia Russo and the art of teaching ballet

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

12 July 2017 by gramilano 1 Comment

Jacopo Tissi in Le spectre de la rose, photo by Alexander Yakovlev

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 … [Read more...] about Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and dancing Diamonds at the Lincoln Center

Ballet dancer Sergei Vikharev died in his dentist’s chair

8 June 2017 by gramilano 2 Comments

Sergei Vikharev

Sergei Vikharev, the former Russian dancer renowned for his reconstruction of ballets and who died last Friday at 55, will be celebrated in the foyer of the Mariinsky Theatre today, before being buried in St Petersburg’s Serafimovskoe Cemetery, which is also the resting place of many other Mariinsky dancers including Yuri Soloviev, Feya Balabina and Alla … [Read more...] about Ballet dancer Sergei Vikharev died in his dentist’s chair

Vaganova Prix 2016… UPDATE

6 September 2016 by gramilano 1 Comment

In July, Gramilano reported on the upcoming Vaganova Prix in St Petersburg. In view of the numerous requests from Russian and foreign ballet schools the age of the participants of the competition has been extended to include 19-year-olds and the new deadline for accepting applications has also been extended, now giving hopeful participants until 19 September to submit their … [Read more...] about Vaganova Prix 2016… UPDATE

Nikolay Tsiskaridze on the Vaganova Academy and Russian Ballet

19 July 2015 by gramilano Leave a Comment

In a recent interview with Our Russia's Olga Malik, Nikolay Tsiskaridze spoke once more about the Russian ballet and the Vaganova Academy's relationship to dance in the rest of the world. I believe that the Russian ballet school is one of the few (if not the only) school that keeps the traditions of the classical ballet art. It is the authentic source of all the ballet schools … [Read more...] about Nikolay Tsiskaridze on the Vaganova Academy and Russian Ballet

How to stage a ballet… Maina Gielgud explains

17 May 2015 by gramilano 4 Comments

The indefatigable Maina Gielgud is a freelance stager, guest teacher and coach. In 1983, two years after leaving her successful and varied career as a dancer, she became Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet, where she stayed for a remarkable fourteen years. It was the beginning of a long second career in company administration and teaching. She later became Artistic … [Read more...] about How to stage a ballet… Maina Gielgud explains

Russian Ministry says Vaganova letter against Tsiskaridze is forged

12 December 2013 by gramilano 1 Comment

The Russian Ministry of Culture has said that the letter sent to Vladimir Putin by the staff of the Vaganova Academy, asking for the removal of Nikolai Tsiskaridze as its director, is a forgery. The letter said that the announced removal of the director Vera Dorofeyeva, and the artistic director, Altynai Asylmuratova, would cause "irreparable damage" to the institution but … [Read more...] about Russian Ministry says Vaganova letter against Tsiskaridze is forged

The year ballet wept… jealousy & rivalry at the Bolshoi

3 December 2013 by gramilano Leave a Comment

So 29-year-old Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko will go to prison for six years, and his career obviously ends here. His biography has been taken down from the company's website and soon his picture will disappear from the 'leading soloists' page. What a lot of damage he's caused: to himself, the international reputation of the Bolshoi company and Russian ballet in general, … [Read more...] about The year ballet wept… jealousy & rivalry at the Bolshoi

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Gramilano newsletter 2019

Referred-to-by

Graham Spicer

Writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like.

I was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. My scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times. I write the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or follow my Facebook page.

News

  • Colleagues support Vittorio Grigolo as he replies to being fired by the Royal Opera House and the Met
  • La Scala stages an evening of ballet to raise funds to aid the flooded Teatro Fenice in Venice
  • Karen Kain to Retire as Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada
  • Dancing Times, November 2019 edition – with Gramilano’s Danza in Italia column including Sleeping Beauty at La Scala and Pink Floyd in Verona
  • Rome Opera Ballet names its main dance studio after the late Elisabetta Terabust
  • Alberto Testa – Italian dancer, choreographer, teacher and writer – has died at 96
  • Tenor Marcello Giordani has died at 56
  • David Hallberg becomes Principal Guest Artist of The Royal Ballet in the 2019/2020 Season
  • Vittorio Grigolo comments on recent accusations after a triumphant performance at La Scala
  • La Scala remembers Jessye Norman in words and pictures

Popular Posts

  • La Scala Recital and Concert Season 2016-2017 – full dates and interpreters
  • The Royal Ballet’s new star-crossed lovers: Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball
  • Interview with Anna Netrebko on her son, his autism and his abandonment by his father Erwin Schrott
  • Teenage Italian ballet dancer viciously attacked while celebrating first month in a professional company
  • THE ROYAL BALLET SEASON 2016 - 2017: theatre and cinema
  • David Howard, much loved ballet teacher 'to the stars', dies at 76
  • Makhar Vaziev leaves La Scala to head the Bolshoi Ballet Company
  • More dancers decide to leave Italy... most never come back
  • Vampires are taking over the opera house
  • Cecilia Bartoli: "Contemporary composers can't write for opera singers like me"



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