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n° 285 • the international DANCE magazine

Back on Stage !
ENGLISH
edition
10
Editor-in-chief The international Dance Magazine
Alfio Agostini ENGLISH Edition
Contributors/writers
Erik Aschengreen
Leonetta Bentivoglio
Donatella Bertozzi
Valeria Crippa
Clement Crisp
Gerald Dowler
Delphine Goater
Marinella Guatterini
Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino
Marc Haegeman
Anna Kisselgoff
Kevin Ng
Jean Pierre Pastori
Martine Planells
Olga Rozanova
Roger Salas on the cover:
Sonia Schoonejans Marcelino Sambé
René Sirvin – The Royal Ballet – in
Lilo Weber “La Fille mal gardee”,
c. Frederick Ashton
English Editor (ph. T. Kenton)
Simonetta Allder
Translations, Desk contributions
Simonetta Allder
Delphine Goater
4 News – from the Dance World
Cristiano Merlo
Editorial services, design, web 20 On the cover :
Luca Ruzza Back on stage...Audience at home!
Paris Opéra
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n° 285 - XII.2020 / I.2021
30 Focus on choreographers
Pontus Lidberg

32 On stage, critics:
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e-mail: info@ballet2000.com 47 Multimédia : TV, Web, Dvd, Cinéma... The Royal Swedish Ballet: “Raymonda”

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Pulcinella by Picasso
In their Suite italienne (named for the suite Igor
Stravinsky drew from the score he had written for
Léonide Massine’s Pulcinella for the Ballets
Russes),Geneva-based Italian dancers and
choreographers Sasha Riva and Simone Repele
have created their own special Pulcinella (the
Neapolitan Commedia dell’arte stock character
known in English as “Punchinello”) to mark the
centenary of Massine’s above-mentioned ballet.
The production, presented by Daniele Cipriani
Entertainment and commissioned by the Pergolesi
Spontini Foundation in Jesi (Italy), debuted in
October at Jesi and then transferred to the Teatro
Verdi in Sassari. Anna Biagiotti’s costume recreated
the original costume designed by Pablo Picasso.
Dance and environmental
awareness
Choreographers and company directors seem to
be among the first artists to become aware of the
environmental impact of their performances.
Before the pandemic some companies, such as
French choreographer Jerôme Bel’s group, had
already decided not to take planes when touring
places that are not too far, preferring to travel
around Europe by train and arranging to go from
one city to another without making too many
single return trips. In addition, in staging his works
outside Europe, the choreographer preferred to
direct rehearsals by videoconference. This is what
he did recently, in November, for the show he was
commissioned to stage in Shanghai, China. Twenty
Chinese dancers were recruited on site to perform
the revival of two of his works and the creation of
a new one entitled Xiao Ke.
Toulouse Lautrec waits until 2021
The creation of Toulouse-Lautrec by Kader
Belarbi, director of the Ballet du Capitole de
Toulouse (France), which was due to make its
debut between May and June, has been postponed
yet again. The first postponement had not allowed
Ballet du Capitole rehearsing “Toulouse-Lautrec”, c. Kader Belarbi (ph. D. Herrero)
the company to even rehearse the new ballet,
which depicts the life of the painter Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec who had a soft spot for dancers.
But the rescheduled November dates also had to
be cancelled, which has meant a further
postponement (this time until next season) of
what was to be the Toulouse company’s 2020
highlight.
Balletto di Roma’s novelty
According to the model already pioneeringly
developed in France by Jerôme Bel, also in Italy
rehearsals for Première, the new work created for
the Balletto di Roma by Andrea Costanzo Mar-
tini, have been taking place in entirely “distanced”
mode from day one. The company has been work-
4
Riva&Repele danzarte:
“Suite Italienne”,
c. Simone Repele, Sasha Riva
(ph. P. Laudicina )
ing since September – that is, since
it was possible, at least for the
dancers, to resume rehearsals in the
flesh – experimenting with a work-
ing model that could make up for
the impossibility of bringing the
choreographer, who lives in a coun-
try with restrictive measures (Mar-
tini has long been resident in Tel
Aviv), over to Rome. The debut of
Première – initially scheduled for
mid-December at the Teatro
Quirino, Rome – respected both
the schedule and the restrictions
that had in the meantime been im-
posed: it was staged as planned,
but viewable only via streaming.
New director in
Naples: Clotilde Vayer
A changeover at the helm of the
ballet company of the Teatro San Carlo Thea-
tre in Naples has taken place. After five years
at the company’s reins, Giuseppe Picone will
step down on 31 March 2021 “by mutual agree-
Clotilde Vayer, here with Léonore Baulac
(ph. I. Aubert)
ment” with the theatre’s Intendant. The new
Intendant, Stéphane Lissner, former Intendant
of the Paris Opéra, has appointed Clotilde
Vayer, who is French and also comes from the
Opéra (where she was étoile and, afterwards,
maître de ballet under the direction of Benjamin
Millepied and, later, of Aurélie Dupond) as the
company’s new artistic director. “I am grateful
to our amazing Teatro San Carlo which has given
me so much, first as a student at the ballet school,
then as a guest étoile and, later on, as a choreog-
rapher and a director,” said Picone. Three more
creations by Picone were/are scheduled at the
Teatro San Carlo for the 2020/2021 season: a
revival of his versions of The Nutcracker
(scheduled for the end of the year, but then
cancelled), Cinderella (between February and
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March) and Boléro (end of July 2021) as part

of a programme to be completed by a creation
from Mauro Bigonzetti starring Svetlana
Zakharova.

Frankfurt, Jacopo Godani creates

for next year
Scheduled for November in Dresden and for
December in Frankfurt, Hollow Bones is a new
work by Jacopo Godani for the Dresden Frank-
furt Dance Company which he directs. Affected
by the adoption of strict social distancing also in
the studios in Germany, Godani, who found it
hard to tolerate distancing for rehearsals of the
repertoire, ended up adopting flexible composition
modules for his new work, ones that could be
adapted to the regulations. On stage, dancers and
a cellist interact to pieces from Johann Sebastian
Bach’s Six Cello Suites and compositions by the
48Nord band. The “hollow bones” of the title
refer to the characteristic lightness, ideal for flight,
of the skeletal apparatus of birds. Zeitgeist Tanz
is the title of the evening, which combines this
work by Godani with a new work by the German David L. Thiel – Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company: rehearsing “Hollow Bones”
choreographer Marco Goecke, Good Old Moone, (ph. DeDa Productions)
and with Quintet (1993), a classic from William
Forsythe’s repertory. The new show, however,
has had to be postponed until the end of 2021.
EDITORIAL Alfio Agostini

Democracy interrupted: to be Life begins again at 40

resumed in February
“La democrazia del corpo” (The Democracy
of the Body) Festival organised in Florence by
Virgilio Sieni’s national centre for dance produc-
tion – which had been scheduled from 17 October
to 13 December – will instead kick off in
February with new offerings and the reschedul-
ing (wherever possible) in the second part of the
festival of the shows that got cancelled. A new
work by Roberto Zappalà, Come le ali (seconda
meditazione su Caino) (“Like Wings (“A Second
Meditation on Cain”) is one of the new offerings
while Giuseppe Comuniello, Claudia Castellucci
and the Opus Ballet Company are among the
rescheduled shows.
A public-less Romeo and Juliet in
Palermo
The Fondazione Teatro Massimo, Palermo
(Italy) went ahead, at least partially, with its
planned activities even after the new closure of
Italian theatres: five concerts took place regu-
larly albeit without an audience, and were
streamed free of charge on the theatre’s Web TV.
One appointment was dedicated to ballet: Romeo
and Juliet by Davide Bombana, the current
director of Palermo ballet company. During the
summer season the Teatro Massimo had already
commissioned from Bombana a new work, Ripar-
Tänze, that took on board the distancing im-
posed by the government as part of its anti-
pandemic measures; it was premiered on 2 Au-
gust at the Teatro di Verdura and can still be
viewed on the theatre’s website.
If one were allowed to make a flippant remark on a serious subject, one could say that
Covid loves dance and ballet. In fact it has been lenient with them. As far as we know, no
dancer around the world has died of it (if they had this would have been common knowl-
edge by now).
Dance and ballet haven’t however been saved from the measures implemented to counter
the virus (rightly or not, efficaciously or not, coherently or not, as the case may be – it’s
not our business to discuss them here); on the contrary, said measures have lashed out
vehemently against the performing arts and especially – on account of its physical nature
which involves body contact – against dance, forcing theatres, companies and schools to
close down. This has been the situation since last March to date, albeit with various inter-
ludes and many frantic or wishful attempts to perform, at least via streaming, previously-
planned shows (or to continue classes via distance teaching/learning).
Inevitably, this has also affected BALLET2000. Readers are always await publication ea-
gerly but the paralysis and uncertainty for schools and theatres has temporarily discour-
aged announcements, notices and even advertising.
Consequently, after issue No. 284 last March (and last summer’s special issue, published
digitally only), the magazine suspended publication pending a return to “normal life”.
With all the openings-up and new lockdowns it’s still hard to tell when and how a full
general recovery will take place. But BALLET2000 isn’t giving in and indeed starts up
again with this issue No. 285 which couldn’t fail to mark its 40th anniversary, the first
issue of the magazine having appeared in December 1980 under the title BALLETTOOGGI,
which went on to become BALLET2000 ten years later when the magazine became “three-
fold”, thanks to its international editions.
Forty years that don’t call for any special celebrations (nor would this moment in time allow
it). It’s not for me to say what this magazine has represented for the Italian, French and Euro-
pean dance world; the generations of artists and spectators who have grown up with BAL-
LET2000 as a source of information and a tool for reflection, building up their knowledge of the
choreographic world with no geographical or mental boundaries, know the answer.
The next issue, No. 286, will be published in mid-February 2021, following the bi-monthly
rhythm (6 issues per year plus special issues).
As from this issue our readers will no doubt notice a few changes: a few new columns though,
on the other hand, the absence of our usual Calendar listing of performances in Europe which
has frankly been made impossible by the uncertainty of programming. But many forthcom-
ing creations and programmes are announced on the News pages and in various articles.

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A touring Coppélia
In the news section of the
previous issue of this
magazine we wrote about the
various shows commemorating
the 150th anniversary of the
birth of Coppélia at the Paris
Opera in 1870. And there are
new additions.
The Austrian capital’s second
company, the Vienna
Volksoper Ballet, has
scheduled a revival of Pierre
Lacotte’s Coppélia between
December 2020 and January
2021, with guest soloists and
principal dancers from the
Vienna State Opera, i.e. the
same Vienna production for
which Lacotte himself, in
restaging his choreography
there, designed sets and
costumes inspired by the
19th-century originals.
Meanwhile, travelling further
eastwards, to the geographical
edge of Europe in Novosibirsk Maria Yakovleva – Wiener Staatsballett: “Coppélia”, c. Pierre Lacotte (ph. A. Taylor)
(Russia), in the new year the
ballet company of the Siberian
city’s Opera House is presenting a new Coppélia re-choreographed by Mikhail Messerer and mainly inspired by Aleksander Gorsky’s
“Russian version”. Messerer had already successfully staged the ballet at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg in 2018, with sets
and costumes by the famous painter Viacheslav Okunen who also contributed to the videos and plot changes.
As for the Royal Ballet in London, it has produced a video demonstrating the distinct style of the Ninette de Valois version of Coppélia
performed by Brazilian dancer Mayara Magri and the brilliant young Cuban César Corrales. The video was broadcast live and first
recorded in November 2019. Leanne Benjamin, who was in her time a highly regarded Swanilda (a Royal Ballet DVD is available),
coaches the couple in their roles.
Roger Salas

Boléro forever for Luciana
Savignano
The Italian ballerina Luciana Savignano, in
her day one of Maurice Béjart’s favourites and
the unforgettable interpreter of his very popu-
lar Boléro, has lent her exotic profile to a new
choreographic version of that famous score
by choreographer Milena Zullo, in
collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and
composer Enrico Gabrielli. The full-evening
creation consisted in double bill Bolero/
Prigionia di un amore. The show promoted
by Centro Padova Danza directed by Gabriella
Furlan Malvezzi, successfully debuted in au-
tumn 2019 at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari (Sar-
dinia, Italy) and was briefly toured in Sardinia
in March this year. Scheduled also at the Teatro
Franco Parenti in Milan and at the Teatro
Nuovo in Turin (appointments that have been
postponed for the time being), it is expected
in April 2021 at the Teatro Santa Chiara in
Trento (Italy) at the invitation of its new ar-
tistic director Renato Zanella.

Dreaming in Padua
The “Lasciateci sognare” (Let us dream) festi-
val, organised in and around Padua (Italy) by
the Associazione La Sfera Danza directed by
Gabriella Furlan Malvezzi was abruptly in-
terrupted on 25 October by the Italian gov-
ernment’s cabinet order that decreed the clo-
sure of theatres – but didn’t cancel its pro-
gramme and, in agreement with the theatres
involved, proposed hosting in December at

Luciana Savignano :
“Bolero - Prigionia di un amore”,
c.Milena Zullo (ph. M. Sguotti)

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least some of the groups that were supposed
to take part in the original programme: namely,
Movimento Danza from Naples directed by
Gabriella Stazio, the dancers of “The Bridge-
Pigato Contemporary” directed by Stefania
Pigato, Davide Valrosso, Jessica D’Angelo,
Coralie Meinguet. The performances will be
streamed live. The festival was inaugurated on
3 October with the National Prize for Dance
“La Sfera d’Oro” that goes to outstanding
Italian dancers in Italy and around the world
(see the winners on the page dedicated to the
Prize in this issue). This year’s Lifetime
Achievement Prize was awarded to 80-year-
old Amedeo Amodio; in his honour, Anbeta
Toromani and Alessandro Macario danced a
pas de deux from his Carmen created in 1995
for Aterballetto.
New Intendant at the Paris
Opéra
46-year-old German Alexander Neef, former
Intendant of the Canadian Opera Company in
Toronto, took office in September as the new
Intendant of the Paris Opéra which is
experiencing one of the blackest years in its
history, after strikes of unprecedented length
that began at the end of 2019, followed by
months of lockdown led the great theatre to
virtually cancel its entire current season. The
theatre is burdened with a deficit of 40 million
Euros and has had no revenues for many
months; Neef will have to put the institution
back on its feet. Before leaving for the Teatro
San Carlo in Naples, the new Intendant’s
predecessor Stéphane Lissner had announced
the closure of the modern Opéra Bastille and a
limited use of only the Opéra Garnier until
December 2020 due to stage renovation work.
Some dancers of the ballet company, directed
by Aurélie Dupont, haven’t had a chance to go
on stage for almost a year.
Ballet Biarritz on stage and in
creation
The company directed by French
choreographer Thierry Manadain has
continued to work and create, to the best of its
abilities under the circumstances, in the re-
hearsal studios from August; the plan was to
go on stage (in Biarritz, Cannes and Versailles)
towards the end of the year, and in January, in
Malandain’s Pastorale and Marie-Antoinette.
In the meantime, the choreographer is also cre-
ating a new work entitled Sinfonia (to Luciano
Berio’s 1969 Symphony for Eight Voices and
Instruments), scheduled for April 2021 at the
San Sebastián Festival in Spain and afterwards
in Biarritz and on tour. Choreographer Martin
Harriague, who is associated with the com-
pany, has taken advantage of the lockdown
months to carry out choreographic research
with the company’s dancers, with a view to
creating a new Sacre du printemps (“Rite of
Spring”) next season.
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McGregor and the new
Antigones
His recent appointment as director of the
dance section of the Venice Biennale as from
next year (see the other “box” on these pages)
testifies to the fact that 50-year-old Wayne
McGregor is in his heyday.
It is true that his profile as a creator has
changed compared to the times when some
British critics considered it unthinkable that
he should share the title of “Resident
Choreographer” of The Royal Ballet of
London with Christopher Wheeldon, a
position that the British identify with iconic
names such as Frederick Ashton and Kenneth
MacMillan. McGregor’s appointment in
2006 at Covent Garden aroused much
perplexity. Some remarked that, as a dancer,
he had not even been trained in ballet. The
themes of neuroscience and his other sources
of inspiration were too cerebral for the English
ballet tradition which has instead always had
a penchant for the narrative genre and story
ballets. But since then, though maintaining a
jagged, highly kinetic style of movement that
tends to ‘deconstruct’ forms, in working with
Royal Ballet dancers McGregor’s hallmark
has however mellowed and harmonised with
artists trained in classical ballet. Since then
the choreographer has created for major ballet companies, from the Bolshoi in Moscow to
the Paris Opéra, from the Stuttgart Ballet to New York City Ballet. While he hangs on to a
well-defined style of his own, one which – we might say – distinguishes him from other
choreographers of note on today’s international scene, McGregor nevertheless seems to have
integrated well into the system and to be indulging the requests that stream in from the top
ballet companies. In short, it would seem that theatres, audiences and critics no longer see
him as an “outsider” – a characteristic that was a fundamental ingredient in the recipe for his
success, but also provided his early critics with fodder for their criticism.
And it is indeed from a mythical symbol of rebellion against the established order that McGregor
draws inspiration for the creation From Antigone commissioned by Het Nationale Ballet (the
Dutch National Ballet) in Amsterdam. In Sophocles’ tragedies the story of Antigone, born of
the incestuous relationship between Oedipus and Jocasta, is linked to the better-known story
of Oedipus; and McGregor’s work will be performed after Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex
which will open the evening. The specially-commissioned score is by 36-year-old Canadian
composer and conductor, Sami Moussa. The chorus of women plays an important part, echoing
the figure of Antigone and
identifying with her: hence the title
of the work From Antigone, i.e.
‘that which springs from
Antigone’... ‘a new generation of
Antigones’. The present day
therefore kicks in, reshaping a myth
that has fascinated over the
centuries (suffice it to think of the
French playwright Jean Anouilh).
From Antigone will premiere in
Amsterdam next March.
C.M.
above and left, promotional
pictures of “Oedipus Rex” and
“From Antigone” by Wayne
McGregor (ph. B. Hess)
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Michal Krcmar, Lucas Jerkander –

Finnish National Ballet: “Jekyll & Hyde”,
c. Val Caniparoli (ph. J. Mustonen)

already in the German troupe’s repertoire: Bro-

ken Fall (2003), which explores the relationship
between tension and falling. Since Igor Zelensky
has been director of the company, relations with
Russian ballet have intensified in Bavaria, not
only in terms of repertoire and productions but
above all on account of the many Russian dancers
of note who shine in the performances. Thus,
the company of the Mariinsky of St Petersburg
is slated to perform Le Corsaire during the next
Ballettfestwoche (the week-long ballet festival
held in April).

Cherkaoui and the ancestors

Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui, now artistic director of Ballet
Flanders, has created for them a new version of
In Memoriam which he created for the Ballets
in the Wynwood Arts District (a well-known de Monte-Carlo in 2004, with spectacular
Cosmopolitan Finns neighbourhood in Miami which is something of costumes designed by Hedi Slimani who was
After closing down its season in early Novem- an open-air museum). then creative director of Dior Homme. The music
ber with Jekyll & Hyde by American choreogra- of In Memoriam is by Corsican polyphony
pher Val Caniparoli, the Finnish National Bal- group A Filetta, who have been working for 40
let in Helsinki has announced a new version of Bavarian Passages years on the ancient traditions of male singing in
Swan Lake for next February. The choreogra- Passagen (“Passages”) is the Munich-based Corsica, combined with compositions by Woojae
phy is by Australian David McAllister, outgo- Bavarian State Ballet’s new programme, Park, a specialist in Korean traditions. Cherkaoui
ing director of the Australian Ballet in Melbourne planned for the end of 2020/ beginning of 2021. himself explains that he has reflected on our
where he has been for almost twenty years. The The first piece on the programme is a creation ancestors’ influence on us, their descendants,
new Swan Lake is being advertised as a produc- by Philippe Kratz, who has made a name for crossing the apparent border between yesteryear
tion that is in keeping with tradition – adapted, himself as a choreographer with a number of and the present. Imbued with multiple
though, for Finnish audiences. The most eagerly works for the Italian Aterballetto company; it is choreographic influences, from classical dance
awaited programme, however, will be in April set to hip hop music and focuses on the theme of to a variety of contemporary styles, In
with a cosmopolitan triptych consisting in works man projecting himself into the future. The Memoriam looks affectionately at those who
by Anglo-Bangladeshi choreographer Akham evening will be completed by the revival of a were part of our lives and who continue to be
Khan, Chinese choreographer of note Fei Bo, successful piece by Russell Maliphant which is present in our thoughts and actions...
and – last but not least –
Justin Peck, New York City
Ballet’s resident choreogra-
pher and one of the most
prominent young authors on
the international scene today.
In Helsinki the 32-year-old
American choreographer will
be reviving Heatscape, set to
Bohuslav Martinu’s Piano
Concerto No. 1. The work
was created for the Miami
City Ballet in 2015 and has
already been performed in
Europe, namely at the
Semperoper in Dresden (Ger-
many), against a backdrop
that reproduces the murals

Maria Khoreva –
Mariinsky Ballet:
“Le Corsaire”, c. Marius
Petipa (ph. N. Razina)

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Bolshoi: Vasiliev on stage Lyon Opera Ballet:

The Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theatre a new identity?
in Moscow has been relatively less affected by Director of the Lyon Opera Ballet since
the anti-pandemic restrictions in recent months 1992, Yorgos Loukos was abruptly
than most major companies. Although the theatre terminated last February. At the same time,
was closed from March to September, the dancers the Intendant of the Lyon theatre Serge
practically never stopped working; since early Dorny also moved on in September 2020
October, with the reopening of the theatre, ballet (without a successor having been yet
performances have also returned to the stage appointed), leaving behind a ballet
according to the established schedule (albeit with company in a state of total uncertainty.
the audience reduced to 50% owing to the usual Vladimir Vasiliev at Bolshoi Theatre,
Moscow Choreographers such as Maguy Marin
distancing). Of note were two highly significant have decided to withdraw their works and
evenings, one on 20 November in memory of others are hesitant about continuing their
Maya Plisetskaya (who died in 2015, and would have been 95 years old that day), and the collaboration with the company.
other, a few days later, to celebrate Vladimir Vasiliev’s 80th birthday (which had actually been To have placed someone like Julie Guibert
on 18 April, but the celebration had been postponed due to the theatre’s closure) – in other at the helm of one of France’s leading
words, tributes to two dancers who are Bolshoi legends. Vasiliev presented his choreography on dance companies seems an improvised
Mozart’s Requiem at the Bolshoi, though performed by the Kazan Opera Ballet Company. Mean- choice. Guibert used to dance with the
while, choreographer Christian Spuck was working at the Bolshoi, having been entrusted with a full- Lyon troupe (and others) but has no
evening creation entitled Orlando, to music by Antonín Dvorák and Max Richter, which is to debut experience of how a company works – nor
in March 2021. has she to date presented any creative
Vladimir Vasiliev in his “And the Eternal Light will shine” (ph. E. Islamov) projects of her own. A choice that is all
the more baffling considering that for years
the Ballet de Lyon has had two maîtres
de ballet who have brought the ensemble
to levels of excellence, namely Jocelyne
Mocogni and Pierre Advokatoff. While
Yorgos Loukos was in charge of choosing
the choreographers, works and performers,
these two former company soloists
prepared the dancers with rigour and
expertise.
While waiting to take on a new identity,
the Lyon Opera Ballet has announced that
for a few months it will be performing an
old Jirí Kylián programme of great quality,
planned in Montpellier in December. Let’s
hope it won’t be the last.
Sonia Schoonejans

Julie Guibert (ph. S. Waroude)

have generally been well-received by both

Giselle, news and truth
The Kor’sia company, founded and directed
in Spain by three Italians – dancers/choreogra-
phers Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa (the
former trained at the Accademia Nazionale di
Danza in Rome, the latter at the Ballet School
of La Scala in Milan) and dancer/dance scholar
Giuseppe Dagostino – has produced its own
version of Giselle in a contemporary dance
style and spirit; the creation is scheduled to
debut in Madrid in December at Los Teatros
del Canal. Giselle will be the fifteenth work
by Kor’sia, after creations or reworking ex-
periments such as Jeux and L’après-midi d’un
faune (Debussy), Pagliacci (for the Opéra du
Rhin - France), Siciliana (for the Teatro
Massimo, Palermo, Italy) and others which
public and critics. 12 dancers will be on stage
in this new Giselle, whose theme touches on
current issues such as gender identity and “ac-
cepting news reports of facts as truth”. The
sets bear the prestigious signature of Belgian
artist Amber Vandenhoeck. Agnès López-Río,
a remarkable artist and former dancer with
Nacho Duato and Wayne McGregor, has also
collaborated.
and New York, Scholz was appointed direc-
Uwe Scholz, a classic in Leipzig tor, at a very young age, of the Ballet of the
German choreographer Uwe Scholz, who died Zurich Opera House. An introvert by nature,
prematurely in 2004, was the Leipzig Opera he immediately made a name for himself cre-
Ballet’s artistic director and his ballets, which ating ‘symphonic ballets’ to scores of great
the troupe takes pride in performing, remain a magnitude thanks to his innate musicality as a
keystone for them. After studying in Stuttgart choreographer. Scholz’s Zweite Symphonie, on

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Robert Schumann’s Second Symphony, will
The couple according to Ekman be revived in Leipzig next March. The ballet
Over recent years Scandinavian dance has will be performed as part of a mixed bill also
experienced a season of creative fervour and comprising works by Cayetano Soto and the
success, with the name of Alexander Ekman troupe’s current director, Mario Schröder. The
certainly taking a central place. 36 years old latter is also preparing a full-evening creation for
and Swedish, Ekman emerged as a choreographer the month of May with the collaboration of Harry
from that hotbed of creation in The Hague: Yeff who specialises in beatboxing which uses the
the Nederlands Dans Theater. And it is voice to reproduce percussion sounds. And, in-
precisely to these origins that Ekman has now deed, Yeff’s voice will be the music of the new
returned to create a new work for the Dutch choreographic work.
company’s junior group (NDT2).
Works such as Play or Cacti have shown the ENB 2020 Digital Season
comical and surreal vein of this choreographer
who knows how to combine different stage During the lockdown, English National Ballet an-
moods, moving seamlessly from an inclination nounced its digital season and the world premiere
towards the grotesque to lyrical and intense release of five original dance films by renowned
dancing, from playful and carefree atmospheres choreographers, danced by company principals
to existentialist reflection. His re-readings of and soloists. The season opened with Take Five
the classics, A Swan Lake with its expanses Blues by English National Ballet’s Associate Cho-
of water flooding the stage, and A Midsummer reographer Stina Quagebeur (filmmaker Shaun
Night’s Dream bulging with hay, confirmed James Grant). Russian choreographer Yuri
the fervour of his inventiveness and his skilful Possokhov (with filmmaker Thomas James) cre-
directing hand, also responding to the need Alexander Ekman (ph. A. Ray) ates in the second film, Senseless Kindness, a piece
theatres have to put on shows whose very for four dancers based on Vasily Grossman’s great
titles attract the public. novel Life and Fate. The work is set to
However, Ekman has returned to a small format for this creation in The Netherlands, one Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No1. Laid in Earth
that is suited to the theme he intends to address which is that of the relationship between a by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (filmmaker Thomas
couple. The video trailer, where we see the company in rehearsal, reveals how Mats Ek has James), set to Purcell’s famous aria from Dido
influenced the way he deals with the theme of two people living together, his amused taste and Aeneas with new electronic music by his
for silent movie mime and the acute gaze of the analyst who knows how to grasp the complex long-time collaborator Olga Wojciechowska.
way human beings relate with each other and their incongruities. It has been announced that In Echoes Russell Maliphant (filmmakers
Four relations, such is the title of this work, will either be performed on stage or streamed Michael Nunn & William Trevitt) creates ever-
(depending on how the health situation is evolving in The Netherlands) until December, together shifting choreography and uses light and video
with a work by Bulgarian choreographer Dimo Milev, and that it will be revived later on. art. The last and final offering, Jolly Folly by
Until January, in Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Ballet are dedicating an evening to Ekman Arielle Smith (filmmaker Amy Becker-
consisting of Cacti and Shift (which he created during the early months of the pandemic), in Burnett), is inspired by Hollywood silent
anticipation of their revival in March of Escapist (recently released on DVD – see review in movies of 1920s and 1930s and is described
this issue). From the end of March, the Dresden Semperoper Ballet will reprise another by ENB as “Dripping with charm and nostal-
Ekman hit, Cow, with its white cow suspended in mid-air. gia”, driven by the Klazz Brothers’ latin-in-
C.M. fused covers of Tchaikovsky, Strauss and
Mozart, and “guaranteed to leave viewers grin-
ning from ear to ear”.
The Royal Swedish Ballet: “Escapist”, c. Alexander Ekman (ph. N.E. Nylander)

From India with passion

20-year-old Kamal Singh, the son of an e-rick-
shaw driver in Delhi, has become the first Indian
student to be admitted to English National Ballet
School – and is already something of a celebrity
on social media and in the Indian and British press.
Kamal discovered and started studying ballet at
the rather advanced age of 17 (“I didn’t know
what ballet was before that”) after watching a
Bollywood musical starring Fernando Aguilera;
after following some online tutorials and audi-
tioning for the Argentine dancer, he was offered a
scholarship to Aguilera’s ballet school. Having been
selected for a one-year professional trainee pro-
gramme at the ENBS, a crowdfunding drive was
launched on social media to raise the necessary
fees for his tuition and board in London, his men-
tor Aguilera paying for his air tickets and famous
Bollywood actors also chipping in. Once his stint
at the school is over, Kamal will get a chance to
enter English National Ballet as a professional
dancer.

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Scottish Ballet’s Secret Theatre
Scottish Ballet has reacted to the health restric-
tions by considering the screen as its stage includ-
ing the world premiere of its first feature film, The
Secret Theatre, with performances from the full
Scottish Ballet Company. Starring characters from
the troupe’s most popular festive ballets, the
worlds of the Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum
Fairy will collide when the theatre bursts into life.
The online premiere is scheduled just before Christ-
mas. The plot is highly symbolic for these present
times: in a deserted city, a young boy stumbles
into a theatre. He wanders through the audito-
rium, where rows of velvet chairs, draping cur-
tains and chandeliers seem to lie in lonely wait for
audiences to return. The theatre may be empty,
but the show will go on... The spectacular, fea-
ture-length film, will be filled with acrobats, snow-
flakes, clowns, princes and – of course – balleri-
nas. The Secret Theatre features the choreogra-
phy of Scottish Ballet founder Peter Darrell and
Scottish Ballet: “The Secret Theatre”
CEO/Artistic Director Christopher Hampson, co-
directed for the screen by Jess & Morgs. Sets and
costumes have been designed by Lez Brotherston
(Associate Artist of Matthew Bourne’s company
New Adventures); music by Rimsky-Korsakov
and Tchaikovsky (recorded live by the Scottish
Ballet Orchestra) and Frank Moon.
Rambert draws from within
Rambert’s full company of dancers are currently
in the studio creating their first real-time, live-
stream performance with leading choreographer
and film-maker, Wim Vandekeybus. Vandekeybus
is a story-teller and in his work, Draw from Within,
aims to show how we are, all of us, fragile and
strong at the same time. Rambert’s website de-
scribes the work thus: “Threat is countered by
liberation, death by birth. Most of the time we
don’t think of the blood coursing through our veins.
We usually only become aware of our heart beat-
ing in our chest when we’re afraid, or something’s
wrong. Wim wants to dare us to look under the
skin and embrace these contraries.”
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John Neumeier in ghost light
Every year the Hamburg Ballet present at
least one creation by their director John
Neumeier, the 81-year-old American
choreographer who has led this German
company since 1973. A new chapter of his
extensive project on Ludwig van Beethoven
had been planned for December as part of
the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
A first part, Beethoven Projekt, was presented
in 2018: the work, to a string of musical
fragments from the Third Symphony (the so-
called “Eroica”) and the Eroica Variations for
piano, shows Beethoven himself at specific
moments in his life and transfigures such John Neumeier surrounded by some dancers
moments into emotional and aesthetic of the company (ph. K. West)
ambiences. The long-awaited second part, set
to the composer’s Ninth Symphony, was to
have been entitled Beethoven 9; however, the project – as conceived by Neumeier – would
not have been feasible under the current conditions, so the choreographer preferred to postpone
it and to create another work instead, which he entitled Beethoven Projekt II. For this creation,
Neumeier drew his main inspiration from the Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter the composer
wrote to his brothers. As for the music, Neumeier chose an excerpt from the oratorio Christus
am Ölberge (“Christ on the Mount of Olives”) and the Seventh Symphony. Beethoven Projekt
I and II are to be performed in Hamburg in the course of the season.
Indeed the current season opened this year with an unusual and unexpected creation by Neumeier
who found a new stimulus for his creativity in the imposed emergency restrictions. That
freedom is the principle of artistic creation is a romantic idea that has become commonplace
in modern art. But one could also submit, as Neumeier does here, that it is precisely in constraint
that art can find its fullest expression – suffice it to think of metrics in poetry, or pre-established
musical forms. Neumeier worked with all sixty of his dancers, but using them in small groups
of two to eight, respecting social distancing between them – no minor restraint when it comes
to choreographic inventiveness. These “chamber ballets” interspersed with each other in intimate
atmospheres have, however, given rise to a wide-sweeping creation that Neumeier has compared
to a traditional Japanese meal with its multiple tiny courses served in succession. The only
constant element is a small lamp onstage that emits a faint light (the title of the ballet is
Ghost Light, after the name of the equity light that signals to technicians that there is nobody
on stage), in the hope that the spotlights will soon come blaring on again.
C.M.
David Rodriguez, Matias Oberlin – Hamburg Ballet: “Ghost Light”, c. John Neumeier
(ph. K. West)
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The Corsair lands in Warsaw Change at the helm

Now an international repertory ballet classic, Le
Corsaire’s history is, all things considered, a fairly
recent one. The various versions now in circula-
tion are obviously inspired by the ballet which
has been handed down at the Mariinsky Theatre
in St Petersburg since the 19th century. It was
here that Marius Petipa revived this French bal-
let, first created at the Paris Opéra by Joseph
Mazilier, giving it a ballet à grand spectacle for-
mat; further sections (to music by various com-
posers) were added on in the course of the 20th
century. There is no doubt, however, that Le
Corsaire’s popularity outside Russia began at the
end of the 1990s with Anna-Marie Holmes’ suc-
cessful version for American Ballet Theatre (origi-
nally created for Boston Ballet and then revived
by other companies in Europe). The most recent
Corsaire is the version curated by Manuel Legris
for the Vienna State Ballet while he was director
there, and later also performed at La Scala in Mi-
lan. It has also kicked off the winter season of the
Polish National Ballet in Warsaw, directed by
Krzysztof Pastor and is to be reprised in the com-
ing months.
Yuka Ebihara, Vladimir Yaroshenko –
Polish National Ballet: “Le Corsaire”,
c. Manuel Legris
of the Venice Dance
Biennale
There has been an interesting
change of pace in Venice: at
the end of a slightly uneven
and controversial four-year
period led by Canadian
choreographer Marie
Chouinard, Wayne McGregor,
an English choreographer of
great temperament, strong
convictions and excellent
international standing, has been
appointed director of the
Biennale Danza. He too has
been entrusted with a four-year
Wayne McGregor in Venice term (2021-2024) as well as
with the management of the
“Biennale College”, the initiative that runs parallel to the festival’s programme (to be held every
other season starting as early as May 2021), the purpose of which is to offer young dancers
and choreographers opportunities for study and professional development at the highest levels.
McGregor, who recently turned 50, has already had a more than brilliant career (which this
magazine has been following closely from its early days) and has established a vast network of
international relations and collaborations in the fields of cinema, theatre, opera, television, architecture
and fashion. At a very young age, he founded his own company with a decidedly ‘extreme’ and
experimental style – the Random Dance Co, today called Company Wayne McGregor (which
has already guested in Venice). He has received commissions from the world’s major companies:
from La Scala in Milan to the Paris Opéra, from the Stuttgart Ballet to San Francisco Ballet and
Australian Ballet. He is one of the few choreographers today to have created for the two major
American companies, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. His works are in the
repertoires of the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St Petersburg. Since 2006 he has
been Resident Choreographer at the Royal Ballet in London and has created some fifteen works
for the troupe, including Woolf Works (dedicated to the literary work of Virginia Woolf) starring
Alessandra Ferri as the famous writer.
McGregor’s appointment came about in October and he was consequently able to follow
the 2020 edition of the festival which was staged before the second closure of theatres in
Italy. Afterwards he left for the island of Lamu, in Kenya to complete the writing of a
book dedicated to “physical intelligence” (his interest in studies on the mechanisms/functioning
of the brain is notorious); thus, the programmes of his four-year directorship still haven’t
been outlined. However, in a recent interview to The Guardian, McGregor has anticipated
that he wants to make the festival “less Eurocentric”, hinting at an interest in the choreographic
production of Africa and South America. McGregor, who also teaches choreography at
Trinity Laban in London and therefore has direct experience in guiding young professionals,
has further stated that he intends to devote special attention to the programmes of the
Venetian “College” and to offering interesting long residencies to young dancers in order to
give them concrete opportunities for development.
Donatella Bertozzi

Perm in competition but nevertheless continues to embody the typi-

Although the famous Arabesque competi-
tion in Perm (central Russia) is held every two
years in springtime, this latest edition took place
at the beginning of November. This competi-
tion for young dancers and choreographers is
dedicated to Ekaterina Maximova, the great Rus-
sian dancer who for years was president of its
jury. Today Maximova’s widower Vladimir
Vasiliev directs it, supported by two juries,
one made up of dance artists of note, the other
of critics and journalists. Thus the world of
Russian ballet has found itself yet again under
the aegis of Vasiliev who turned eighty last April
cal physique of the Soviet dancer during what
was a glorious era for ballet. Perm is not only
a city whose geographical position allows the
world of Russian and Asian ballet, and East
and West, to meet (albeit that participation was
a little less international this year); it is also a
city that holds an historical and prestigious sig-
nificance for ballet. Suffice it to remember that
it was here that the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad
(today Mariinsky of St Petersburg) took ref-
uge with its teachers during the Second World
War, thereby founding one of the most re-
nowned schools in Russia, one obviously based
on the Vaganova school.

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to the prescribed social distancing, The Royal

Nutcracker doesn’t surrender Ballet of London announced that a reworked,
Covid-safe version of The Nutcracker, featur-
ing a newly choreographed battle scene by
For the end of year holidays not all companies have been prepared to William Tuckett, would open in time to pro-
let the anti-pandemic measures deprive them of their must-have vide a festive treat for the whole family. How-
“Nutcrackers”. They include: ever shortly after opening, the breaking news
of the new London lockdown seems to leave
streaming as the only alternative to perform-
Tulsa Ballet: in search of the lost Nut- Covention Center’s brand new, large Audito- ances in front of an audience. Birmingham Royal
cracker. Tulsa Ballet is a lively and dynamic rium. Ballet, on the other hand, have announced with
American company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma Royal Nutcrackers. With a note that all great regret that they have had to cancel their
and directed by Italian Marcello Angelini. Royal Opera House performances and partici- production of The Nutcracker at the Royal
While, like almost everyone else, the company pating artists are subject to change due to Covid- Albert Hall, London.
has had to give up its Nutcracker Christmas 19 restrictions, and that seating will be according In these unprecedented times, the major US
companies have made different choices. New
York City Ballet closed its doors, even giv-

San Francisco Ballet: “The Nutcracker”,

c. Helgi Tomasson (ph. E. Tomasson)

Giulia Neri, William Beckham, Maine

Kawashima – Tulsa Ballet:
“The Lost Nutcracker” (ph.B. Kirby)

classic (it has a choreographic version by

Angelini in its repertoire), it did not have to
renounce going on stage. And it opted for a
witty alternative to evoke, joyously and po-
etically, Nutcracker’s forced disappearance: The
Lost Nutcraker, a triptych of novelties entrusted
to three different authors – Ma Cong, the com-
pany’s resident choreographer, Joshua Peugh,
artistic director of Dark Circle, and Italian cho-
reographer Luciano Cannito, who is already
well-known in Tulsa. A novelty within the
novelty is that Cannito was able to edit and
follow the rehearsals connecting remotely and
following the dancers’ rehearsals via compu-
ter and large screen. The Lost Nutcraker will
debut in December in the Cox Business

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ing up its traditional George Balanchine’s
Nutcracker which is both extremely popular
among New Yorkers and invaluable to the com-
pany’s finances. Its dancers have thus been re-
duced to doing a series of site-specific perform-
ances (for a perfume advertisement) in and
around Lincoln Center, to be viewed digitally.
American Ballet Theatre instead announced
Alexei Ratmansky’s Nutcracker, however not
in New York but in Costa Mesa, California (a
place that has become a sort of second home
for the company). Miami City Ballet, on the
other hand, taking advantage of its quasi Carib-
bean climate, has proposed an outdoor Nut-
cracker at Christmas time, bringing down dancing

The Royal Danish Ballet: “The Nutcracker”,

c. George Balanchine (ph. H. Stenberg)

snowflakes into the warm Florida winter.

On the other side of the country, in Cali-
fornia, San Francisco Ballet is offering its
public, or rather the general international pub-
lic, an all-digital 2021 season. It will be a true
“Digital Season”, with live performances (i.e.
not just recordings available online), includ-
ing three creations (by Cathy Marston, Danielle
Rowe and Myles Tatcher) conceived specifi-
cally for this new context. As when one at-
tends normal seasons, tickets for individual
performances, or a subscription for the whole
season, can be purchased (see sfballet.org).
And spectators can also choose Jewels and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Balanchine,
evenings featuring works by Yuri Possokhov
(the company’s resident choreographer),
Alexei Ratmansky, David Dawson, Mark
Morris, Romeo and Juliet (by the company’s
director Helgi Tomasson,), as well as the
usual house versions of Swan Lake and The
Nutcracker in a spectacular version by
Tomasson himself, already online as from the
end of the year.

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Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae – The Royal Ballet: “Nutcracker”, c. Peter Wright (ph. T. Kenton)

Goodbye, Jelko Juresha

Dancer and teacher Jelko Yuresha died last July at the age
of 83. Born in Zagreb, Croatia, where he trained and began
his career as a professional dancer, Juresha later also trained
in London and Paris with Russian teachers of the imperial
school. Between the 1950s and 1960s, he made his mark
on the ballet scene in England, first with London Festival
Ballet (now English National Ballet), and later with The
Royal Ballet of London. Juresha also danced with Le Grand
Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Léonide Massine chose him
for Le Bal des voleurs and he was Margot Fonteyn’s
partner on several occasions, also in the historic BBC
Eurovision production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1959 which
was quite an event at the time. His other partners included
Carla Fracci, Antoinette Sibley, Ghislaine Thesmar and Merle
Park, as well as, of course, his wife Belinda Wright. Juresha
later devoted himself to teaching and coaching, restaging
several ballets in theatres around the world, as well as to
painting; he was also an art collector.
...and Monet Belinda Wright and
Robier Jelko Yuresha in “Romeo
As we go to press, the Pôle National Supérieur de Danse de Cannes “Rosella and Juliet” in the ‘60s
Hightower” has announced the demise of Monet Robier, who taught at the
Cannes Centre for many years until 2015. The daughter of the great American
ballerina Rosella Hightower and of French painter Jean Robier, Monet
(Monique) studied ballet with her mother but soon turned to contemporary
styles. A dancer in several companies (including Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du
XXe Siècle) as well as a choreographer, later on she devoted herself to teaching
modern dance and training young choreographers.

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 ON THE COVER

Back on stage!
...audience at home
In the course of these months of crisis, restrictions and distancing, lockdowns and re-
openings, announcements and postponements, almost all companies have continued
to work – either on their repertoires or on creations – offering live or streamed
performances. On these pages we report on some of the top companies’ stage
comebacks between the first and second lockdowns. And much more news.

Paris at the proscenium
Quite a bit of creativity was needed when the renovation
works started at the Palais Garnier (the old Paris Opéra
theatre) and at Opéra Bastille (the new theatre), on top
of the new health emergency regulations, in practice
making the two big stages unusable. Considering how
difficult the moment in time was, the ballet company’s
director Aurélie Dupont chose to open the 2020/2021
season on the Opéra Garnier’s stage, adapting it as
necessary. Given the limited space and the fact that contact
between dancers had to be reduced to minimum, two
alternating programmes were proposed with a flurry of
solos and duets danced by company étoiles and premiers
danseurs; each piece was accompanied by live music.
Thus, the reopening show, Étoiles de Paris, was held
on 5 October, minus the usual défilé featuring the entire
company and school (a tradition introduced in his day by
Serge Lifar). The programme was made up of excerpts from
various works mostly taken from the troupe’s repertoire:
they ranged from Michel Fokine, Hans van Manen and
John Neumeier, to contemporary choreographers (Alastair
Marriott, his piece was a new repertoire entry), and also
included modern dance (Martha Graham).
The solo by English choreographer Alastair Marriott,
languidly danced by Matthieu Ganio, was entitled Clair
de lune and was a male version of The Dying Swan, though
set to music by Claude Debussy. The same programme
later featured the original Dying Swan, created over a
century ago by Michel Fokine for Anna Pavlova, to music
by Camille Saint-Saëns; it was danced by Sae Eun Park
who gave it a highly personal touch: her swan exudes an
unusual serenity in the face of death. By contrast, the
same dancer showed her temperament as a tragedienne
in Martha Graham’s famous Lamentation solo.
We admired Hugo Marchand’s exquisite technique in
an extract from Suite of Dances; he danced with a
breeziness that choreographer Jerome Robbins would

Amandine
Albisson,
Audric Bezard
– Paris Opera
Ballet:“Swan
Lake”, c.
Rudolf Nureyev
(ph. S. Loboff)

20

definitely have appreciated. The love pas de deux from
the second act of John Neumeier’s Dame aux camélias
(“The Lady of the Camellias”) also made an impact thanks
to the youthful vigour and ‘sprezzatura’ (or nonchalance)
of dancers Laura Hecquet and Mathieu Ganio.
The second show that kicked off the season was the
Rudolf Nureyev Gala, a tribute to the dancer who led
the Paris Opéra Ballet from 1983 until his death in 1989.
And, once again, étoiles and premiers danseurs were
featured in excerpts from ballets that were either created
or restaged by Nureyev. The first pas de deux, the Balcony
Scene from his Romeo and Juliet, danced by Myriam Ould
Braham and Germain Louvet, could have done with a
bit more excitement – at least Louvet tried – but his partner
was too concentrated on her sequence of steps, which
she executed somewhat mechanically, and seemed listless.
Instead, after a long absence following an injury,
Matthias Heymann danced the solo from Manfred with
brilliance and oomph.
We watched Louvet again in the Sleeping Beauty pas
de deux alongside Léonore Baulac; having tested positive
to the virus, Baulac had been compelled to isolate, but
for the occasion was once again able to dance Aurora.
But the most convincing couple on this second evening
were Valentine Colasante, with her perfect balances, and
the charismatic Francesco Mura: the two dance with speed
and precision which make them very suited for the Nureyev
Don Quixote.
On certain evenings some of the excerpts had to be cut
out of the programme as this or that dancer had tested positive
to the virus. The health regulations have however been very
strict: during lessons and rehearsals, the dancers were split
into six working ‘bubbles’ to reduce contacts to minimum.
On the whole, the dancers’ performances revealed above
all their keenness and pleasure at being on stage and in
front of an audience once again. In order to fully understand
their enthusiasm, one has to bear in mind that in-between
21
Nicoletta
Manni,
Timofej
Andrijashenko
– La Scala
Ballet:
“Carmen”,
c. Roland Petit
(ph. Brescia e
Amisano)
the strikes that paralysed the troupe for two months
(December 2019 – January 2020) and the beginning of
the total lockdown (March 2020), only the “Balanchine
Programme” was shown – and for a few performances
only – before the lights went out again.
When the new lockdown was announced and the Paris
Opéra’s two theatres closed down again, the show entitled
Chorégraphes contemporains, créer aujourd’hui
(“Contemporary Choreographers, Creating Today”),
which was supposed to open on 4 November, was
rescheduled in December. Nevertheless, rehearsals of the
forthcoming scheduled ballets are going ahead insofar as
this is the dancers’ daily routine and therefore permitted.
These also include rehearsals for La Bayadère which was
scheduled for the end of November. The company is
exploring ways of keeping the planned shows on course,
either by streaming them or postponing them.
Sonia Schoonejans
Teatro alla Scala, Milan
In the interlude between the opening-up (following the
first lockdown) and the closing-down for the second
lockdown, from September to October the ballet company
of La Scala Milan presented a “Gala of Stars” which finally
brought the company back on stage after a break that
had lasted many months.
Naturally the conditions under which the performances
were presented were, perforce, subject to the health
safety regulations which took priority over artistic
considerations: the orchestra was placed at the back of
the stage while the dancers performed at the proscenium,
on an extension of the stage built over the orchestra
pit, in front of spectators wearing masks in the stalls,
with socially-distanced ‘chessboard’ seating. Although
this might seem an ordinary review of a show during
 the Covid era, it precedes a short consideration on the
impression made on those of us who were present at
this event; it had been keenly and eagerly-awaited both
by the artists and the public who are used to experiencing
the magic of the theatre through the energy unleashed
during the physical sharing of a special event, to being
present, to seeing it live and applauding (or booing, as
the case may be). All these conditions have nowadays
suddenly become rare. Consequently, the premiere of what,
in normal times, would have been a glittering gala galvanised
by the presence of four international box-office champions
– the stars being Roberto Bolle and Alessandra Ferri,
Federico Bonelli and Svetlana Zakharova – turned out
to be an evening filled with same combination (which
now characterises all of our lives) of sadness and frus-
tration caused by the limitations.
That said, all and sundry did their best to do what
was required of them and the programme did have points
of interest and appeal, from popular favourites such as
The Dying Swan interpreted by Zakharova on top form
and the ‘flying kiss’ from Preljocaj’s Le Parc with Ferri
and Bonelli dizzyingly clasped together, to Béjart’s
Boléro, now confidently danced by Bolle on a red table
surrounded by a corolla of male dancers.
The troupe juggled in the space at its disposal in front
of the orchestra, amidst the virtuoso feats of the Holmes/
Petipa/Sergeyev Corsaire (the pas de trois from the second
act, danced by Martina Arduino, Marco Agostino and
Alessanrda Mattia Semperboni), the lyricism of the Nureyev Sleeping
Ferri , Beauty (the Prince’s solo from the second act danced
Federico by Claudio Coviello), the tribute to Zizi Jeanmaire with
Bonelli – Roland Petit’s Carmen danced by the ‘real-life’ couple
La Scala of the house, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, Marianela Núñez
Ballet: and Mauro Bigonzetti’s new pas de deux Do a Duet The Royal Ballet, London e Vadim
“Le Parc”, danced by a socially-distanced female duo, Antonella Muntagirov –
c. Angelin Albano and Maria Celeste Losa (not exactly thrilling). A pity that The Royal Ballet did not revive an old The Royal Ballet:
Preljocaj At any rate, the show must go on. Maybe. Who knows. ballet by its founder Ninette de Valois for its first “Don Quixote”,
(ph. Brescia In the meantime Giselle, which was scheduled for the performance on stage at Covent Garden since the c. Carlos Acosta
e Amisano) end of October, had to be cancelled. coronavirus lockdown in March shut the nation’s (ph. T. Kenton)
Valeria Crippa theatres. The Prospect Before Us (or Pity the Poor
Dancers) was a wartime comic ballet, premièred in 1940
as the threat of national catastrophe hung heavy over
the country. It was designed to lift the spirits of those
who saw it; it could not have been better named or indeed
more ripe for revival as now. Whereas in many countries,
every effort seems to have been made to reopen the
theatres and, in dance terms, get ballet companies back
on stage, Covent Garden has dragged its feet, firstly in
reimbursing ticket holders for the rest of the 2019/20
season but then in leading the way in getting 2020/21
on stage. However, finally, after nearly seven months
of locked doors and a dark auditorium, The Royal Ballet
took once again to its legendary stage.
Director Kevin O’Hare created a three hour programme
to get every one of his dancers (pregnancy and injury
apart) back on stage. Let it be said that his company
looked in fine form despite their enforced absence and
months of class in the living rooms and hallways of
their flats and houses across the capital and beyond.
Social distancing rules meant that the dancers were split
into performing ‘bubbles’ and when the company came
together at the end for a full performance of Kenneth
MacMillan’s zany Elite Syncopations, some danced apart
from the others.
As a gesture indicating the company’s determination
to survive, it could not be faulted; as a statement of
artistic intent by the management, it raised questions.
Why include sections from two of the worst ballets
created by the company in recent years: Hofesh Shechter’s
dark, dull and lazy Untouchable and Sidi Larbi

22
Cherkaoui’s laughable Medusa? A solo from the latter
did at least feature Natalia Osipova who made it almost
watchable, but should she be wasting her considerable
talents on such rubbish when the company has arguably
the finest repertoire from which to choose? At least
Wayne McGregor was represented not by one of his
chiropractor’s nightmare ballets, but a touching section
from Woolf Works which showcased the considerable
talents of Edward Watson in one of his last stage
appearances before joining the company staff. Marianela
Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov in the Don Quixote pas
de deux gave a Rolls Royce performance – smooth and
immaculate – but did not raise the temperature by one
degree; they and several other couples in duets from
the repertoire were characterised by a cool elegance but
also a lack of punch, studies in dancing but not living
performances.
There were exceptions: two Ashton works lit up the
stage. Laura Morera’s appearance as Titania in The Dream
was cause to celebrate – her dancing was a lesson in
musicality, detail and style – while Marcelino Sambé
and Anna Rose O’ Sullivan were the sunniest of lovers
in the Fanny Elssler pas de deux from La Fille mal gardée,
making light of the technical challenges and brimming
with character and life. A work new to Covent Garden
also hit the artistic spot: a sweeping duet from Kenneth
MacMillan’s choreography for the musical Carousel
which was his last creation before his death in 1992.
Performed with vibrant stage presence and no little
accomplishment, by the handsome couple of principal
Matthew Ball and promising First Soloist Mayara Magri.
Elite Syncopations is a company piece, a collective
letting-down of hair. It shocked the audiences and critics
back in 1974 who found their favourite swans and
cavaliers in party mode difficult to accept. But goodness
is it fun to watch! Today’s Royal Ballet dancers are
strong and accomplished but for Elite to work, it needs
characters above all, and that side of their artistry is
23
perhaps sometimes sacrificed in favour of the pursuit The Royal
of physical perfection. Nevertheless, O’Hare did Ballet: “Elite
assemble some of his most characterful dancers to bring Syncopations”,
off this ballet and to set the right playful tone. Yasmine c. Kenneth
Naghdi, who has confirmed the wisdom of her promotion MacMillan
to the rank of principal with performance after (ph. T.
performance of the highest artistry, led the company Kenton)
as a sassy, sexy, baton-twirling queen of the dance floor,
while James Hay, one of the company’s most elegant
and intelligent dancers combined technique and character
in the full tradition of the company. It is now time to
build upon this programme and to bring The Royal Ballet
back to its audience – that is what Ninette de Valois
would do.
Gerald Dowler
Rome Opera Ballet
Already, during rehearsals at the Rome Opera House
just a few days before the March lockdown, there were
signs of intense activity (similar to the hustle and bustle
that sometimes goes on behind the curtain before Le
Corsaire) and of a determination to carry on, come rain
or shine.
Such dogged stubbornness might have seemed hopeless
and futile given how grave the situation in Italy was at
the time. But as soon as things started improving, despite
the announcement that the summer season at the Baths
of Caracalla was being cancelled, many wondered if there
might be hope that things could kick off again in the
short term.
The answer came with the announcement of a new
‘safe’ summer season to be held in an extremely spacious
venue. It seemed to be an impossible challenge. After
their initial bewilderment during the first months of
lockdown, and despite being confined and in isolation
at home, the dancers had continued to work out.
 Finally, they were able to return to the stage –the
first dancers in Italy to do so. In the new venue set up
at the Circus Maximus, a stone’s throw from the theatre’s
large carpentry and scenography workshops, and before
an audience scattered over a vast, galactic space – single
seats, here and there placed in pairs – choreographer
Giuliano Peparini proposed his new creation, a subject
he had had on his mind for a long time, now adapted to
the new circumstances: Le quattro stagioni (“The Four
Seasons”).
The protagonists were four couples, each of which
representative of a different ‘season’ of love. The work
was set to a soundtrack curated by Peparini which ranged
from extracts from the homonymous cycle of Vivaldi
concerts and a Scarlatti sonata, to a selection of songs,
sandwiched between readings of poems by Alda Merini,
John Donne, Cesare Pavese, Vincenzo Cardarelli and
Jacques Prévert (Les feuilles mortes, in the famous sung
version by Yves Montand). The scenery was simple,
dominated by interesting and audacious lights and videos.
Anna Biagiotti designed the imaginative costumes.
What immediately struck one was the oddness of the
situation which applied to dancers and public, both
categories being constrained by the same stringent
regulations. Cautiously but deeply engaging, the evening
was a hit: artists and spectators found themselves
connected, truly sharing in the event despite the physical
distance separating everybody from everybody else.
In adapting his original idea of representing the different
phases of love, from the initial advances (spring), to
the bursting of passion (summer), to the cooling-down
(autumn), to the frostiness of feelings (winter), Peparini
followed a rather clear path and the four pairs of dancers
competed to express themselves at their best: Claudio
Cocino was exemplary in his mastery of the classical
technique and vocabulary, commanding alongside the
petite and elegant Rebecca Bianchi. The pair in red,
dominated by the extrovert and brilliant sensuality of
Marianna Suriano, well supported by Giacomo Castellana,
was superb.
Best of all – indeed a gem of a couple – were Susanna
Salvi and Michele Satriano: a close-knit duo of
consummate interpreters, technically firm and endowed
with exquisite expressiveness. Even the couple in grey
– constituted by two attuned dancers like Sara Loro
and Alessio Rezza – was able to bring human and
24
empathically comprehensible accents to the most ‘un- Rebecca
grateful’ of the seasons. Bianchi,
Peparini’s idiom, which ranges from classical to Claudio Cocino
‘modern’, in this case rose well to the challenge, keeping – Rome Opera
the dancers not only distanced, as required, but also Ballet:
having them don gloves and masks. Truly innovative “Le Quattro
ingenuity was missing: given the restrictions imposed Stagioni”,
by the circumstances, concentration focussed on dodging c. Giuliano
the obstacles, resulting in a feat that boosted the morale Peparini
of many, spectators and fans alike, and consolidating (ph. Y.
the cohesion between the ballet troupe and their director Kageyama)
Eleonora Abbagnato who had been the object of some
controversy before the summer.
Donatella Bertozzi
Compañía Nacional de Danza,
Madrid
The Spanish national dance company, which since
last year has had Joaquín de Luz as its new director, is
trying to recover from years of darkness and confusion
of artistic criteria. Although the anti-pandemic measures
have certainly not helped, in November the troupe did
manage to return to the stage live, at the Teatro Real in
Madrid, with a programme consisting of George
Balanchine’s Apollo (Stravinsky), Alexei Ratmansky’s
DSCH Concert (music by Dmitri Shostakovich) and White
Darkness by Nacho Duato, the Spanish choreographer
who used to be director of the CND.
The protagonist of Apollo was Italian dancer Alessandro
Riga who gave a correct and energetic interpretation of
the role, but whose musicality was sometimes out of
tune and who lacked the total command over space and
geometric precision that the role requires. In spite of
his harmonious physique, one senses a sort of shyness
in him which diminishes a little that majesty and supreme
control that we expect from Balanchine’s Apollo – and
one could expect that Riga, who was born in Crotone,
Italy (the ancient Kroton), might have preserved
something of the mythical city of Magna Graecia as
part of his an ancestral legacy... His three Muses (Ana
Calderón, Haruhi Otani and Giada Rossi) executed their
task with discipline, but without any stylistic splendour
worthy of notice. At the end of the short run of shows,
Apollo was danced by Gonzalo García (of New York
 City Ballet), a de-luxe guest of quality.
Ratmansky’s DSCH Concerto is a good ballet,
coherent, clear and with a certain theatrical clout. It is
Soviet in its roots, but it is from America (where he
has worked) that the Russian choreographer draws his
symphonic abstractionism, even though he undoubtedly
owes his “ethic of honesty in choreographic construction”
to his master in Moscow, Piotr Pestov. It is a successful
work, which for years has been in the repertoire of five
Compañía or six major companies around the world, from the
Nacional de Mariinsky Ballet to La Scala.
Danza: In Madrid, it was danced, among others, by Joaquín
“Concerto de Luz and Gonzalo García, the original interpreters of
DSCH” , the creation in New York in 2008.
c. Alexei The final piece, White Darkness by Nacho Duato,
Ratmansky visibly shows its age (it was created almost twenty years
(ph. A. ago) and remains a very obscure work in every sense;
Muriel) in fact, its lighting designer was merciless and allowed
25
little or nothing of what was going on on stage to be Alessandro
seen... Riga, Ana
At the beginning of December the CND presented Calderón,
its director Joaquín de Luz’s version of Giselle. It is Haruhi Otani,
one of the few classics this troupe has in its repertoire Giada Rossi
(and which include its previous director José Carlos – Compañía
Martínez’s Don Quixote and The Nutcracker). Nacional de
De Luz has set his ballet in the 19th century and Danza:
relocated the action to the wine region of Spain (Rioja “Apollon
and Soria), an iconic Spanish Romanticism setting, Musagète”,
immortalised by the poet Adolfo Bécquer who lived c. George
there. Additions have been integrated into various parts Balanchine
of Adolphe Adam’s original music from 1841, as in the (ph. A. Muriel)
so-called “Peasant Pas de deux” in the First Act.
Two guests dancers, Russian María Kochetkova
(currently principal of the Finnish National Ballet, after
being with ABT and San Francisco Ballet) and Spaniard
Gonzalo García, from New York, have been announced
in the leading roles. tiered seating. The public have been taking their seats Gabriel
It should be noted that this Giselle also commemorates there in compliance with the health regulations. This Arenas Ruiz –
the centenary of María de Ávila’s birth; she was Spain’s “Plan B” has allowed Gil Roman to present rehearsals Béjart Ballet
most important ballet teacher of the last century and and extracts from performances to schools and Lausanne:
for a long time was also director of what are now the universities. An educational initiative that seeks to “7 Danses
Compañía Nacional and the Ballet Nacional de España. compensate, at least partially, for the lockdown and grecques”, c.
Roger Salas isolation. Maurice Béjart
Another noteworthy initiative was a live streaming (ph. G.
for Japanese fans organised in mid-November. By Batardon)
Béjart Ballet Lausanne connecting to bejart.tv, Japanese audiences were able
to follow a revival of Tous les hommes presque toujours
Béjart Ballet Lausanne’s aura, which depends on the s’imaginent (music by John Zorn).
Maurice Béjart repertory rather than on Gil Roman’s As we go to print, the BBL remains confined to
creations, doesn’t exempt the troupe from the Lausanne for the winter. But some tours are looming
inconveniences that all other companies are facing too. on the horizon, starting with Tokyo at the end of April
Tours have been cancelled or, in the best of cases, 2021. Two months later, dancers from the BBL and Wiener
postponed to better days. Times are tough. At least, Tokyo Ballet will meet on the large skating rink in Staatsballett:
however, Gil Roman did manage to premiere in Lausanne Lausanne to revive the monumental Ninth Symphony by “Jewels”,
a show he conceived in close collaboration with Richard Béjart (...and Beethoven) which was supposed to be c. George
Dubugnon. performed last spring. Balanchine
Internationally renowned, Swiss composer Dubugnon Jean Pierre Pastori (ph. A. Taylor)
has worked with the most prestigious orchestras, from
the New York Philharmonic to the Gewandhaus of
Leipzig. But those capable of using up a lot can also
make do with little. For his first collaboration with
dance, Dubugnon chose to dust off the instrument of
his beginnings: the double bass. He plays it himself
live on stage in Basso Continuum, on a remote-
controlled platform that moves in relation to the dancers’
movements. The result is about forty minutes of
unusual and wild movements, skilfully combined and
magnificently interpreted by eight extremely energetic
dancers.
Gil Roman fully shows his taste for shadow and
mystery. A fascinating “work in black” that the
programme pairs up with the light of Béjart’s sublime
Danses grecques (music by Hadjidakis), a genuine
masterpiece.
Instead of allowing the progressive cancellation of
performances (including a tribute to Pierre Henry which
was supposed to take place in Lausanne in November)
to get them down, the BBL are making the most of
the new equipment in their large hall, which now has

26

Ballet Nice Méditerranée
One of the first important French companies to resume
its activity on stage was the Ballet Nice Méditerranée
(the name of the Nice Opera ballet company) directed
by Éric Vu An, one of the most famous French dancers
of his generation who since 2009 has been successfully
leading one of the few classically-based French companies.
After a few open-air performances in late summer, the
troupe returned in October to its beautiful theatre, built
in 1885 by architect François Aune (born in Nice when
it was still part of Italy, but later a pupil in France of
Gustave Eiffel and appreciated by Charles Garnier who
built the Paris Opéra).
The triptych of their rentrée opened with Cantate 51,
a piece by a young – and surprisingly academic – Béjart,
constructed with harmonious solemnity on Bach’s music.
27
Théodore Nelson danced the main role which was origi- Zaloa Fabbrini,
nally created in 1966 for Paolo Bortoluzzi. Julie Magnon,
Alba Cazorla and Alessio Passaquindici danced the Veronica
Belong duet by choreographer Norbert Vesak convincingly, Colombo,
and the whole company, led by Veronica Colombo and Théodore
Luis Valle, ended the evening in the brilliant Ballet de Nelson –
Faust (Gounod), with its deliberately sulphurous wafts, Ballet Nice
choreographed by Éric Vu An. Méditerranée:
As we go to print, the revival of Don Quixote in Vu “Cantata 51”,
An’s choreographic version scheduled at the end of the c. Maurice
year remains on the billboards. Béjart
A.A. (ph. E. Nobile)
Vienna Opera Ballet
After the inauguration of the 2020/2021 Season with
a repertoire ballet, Peter Pan, at the beginning of September
the troupe of the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Ballet)
was able to squeeze in two shows before the general
lockdown closed down all public venues in Austria.
In September and October we were therefore able to
admire alternating shows on the Volksoper stage: the
George Balanchine triptych Jewels (which was also already
in the repertoire) and a “Dutch programme”, Hollands
Meister. The latter was made up of the following three
works by three choreographers who have worked
principally in The Netherlands: Skew-Whiff by the Sol
León/Paul Lightfoot duo, lively, light, witty just like the
Rossini music to which it is set; Hans van Manen’s
Beethoven Adagio Hammerklavier whose stylistic pre-
cision makes one think of a Brancusi sculpture; and the
powerful Symphony of Psalms, with the spirituality of
Jirí Kylián’s choreography glorifying that of Stravinsky’s
music. With these three works by different choreogra-
phers, the company demonstrated both its versatility
and excellent level. Thus it really does seem that the
long tenure of Manuel Legris (newly-appointed at the
helm of La Scala’s ballet company, Milan) has been a
fruitful one.
 It follows that Martin Schläpfer, the new director of
the Vienna State Ballet at the Wiener Staatsoper, inher-
its a company capable of addressing very different styles
and artistic streams. At least that seems to be what
Schläpfer’s first season at the helm of the Viennese
company has aimed to emphasise.
At his press conference, the Swiss choreographer stated
that he wanted to cultivate the great tradition of classical
ballet while also giving space to contemporary creation.
Alongside ballets Coppélia and La Fille mal gardée in
January, followed by Giselle in March 2021, we find the
names of Paul Taylor, Mark Morris and Alexei
Ratmansky entering the company’s repertoire for the first
time. The season was to continue with Mahler, live, a
creation by Schläpfer, whose premiere was scheduled for
November; it has been postponed to December.
Shows cannot be performed in front of an audience,
however rehearsals and lessons are carrying on: daily work
isn’t prohibited.
Sonia Schoonejans
Stuttgart Ballet
One can say that the Stuttgart Ballet is the most
important company in Germany thanks to the prestige
it derives not so much from its history as from English
choreographer John Cranko and his creative work from
1961 until his premature death in 1973. Cranko’s works
are still the bedrock of the troupe’s choreographic
repertoire, enriched by a continuous flow of creations
by leading modern choreographers, some of whom
28
actually get ‘discovered’ right here in Stuttgart. The danc-
ers’ quality, multiple nationalities, dedication and sense
of pride in belonging to the company have become a
living legend of ballet of our time.
The anti-pandemic measures, which have perhaps been
milder in Germany than elsewhere, have nevertheless
not spared the Stuttgart company or its audience. Let’s
not dwell here on the list of shows – in the company’s
unfailingly crammed schedule – that have been cancelled
from last March to date, and let’s instead momentarily
take comfort by observing the lively resumption of stage
activities, in the period from mid-October into November,
with two series of “Mixed Repertory Evenings” entitled
Response I and Response II. These were made up of short
pieces for a few dancers, extracted from choreographies
by Fokine, John Cranko, Kenneth MacMillan, Hans Van
Manen or Marcia Haydée, but above all – and in keeping
with Stuttgart’s vocation for creation – by the following
new young authors: Louis Stiens, Alessandro Giaquinto,
Aurora de Mori, Roman Novitzky, Fabio Adorisio, Vittoria
Girelli, Agnes Su, Shaker Heller.
Taking into account a given degree of uncertainty,
several performances have been announced. A show
entitled “Angels and Demons” which will include Falling
Angels and Petite Mort by Jíri Kilián, Le Jeune homme
et la Mort by Roland Petit and Boléro by Maurice Béjart,
was scheduled to run until December 31. Then, start-
ing from mid-January, a resumption of the Response I
programme and then a revival of Kameliendame (“The
Lady of the Camellias”) by John Neumeier, who created
this highly successful ballet in Stuttgart in 1978.
A.A.
Matteo
Miccini –
Stuttgart
Ballet:
“Chrysalis”,
c. Vittoria
Girelli
29
Focus on choreographers
This new column will be focussing each time on a different a
choreographer of the present day, without any distinction of genre or
technique. We’ll be discussing one of their recent creations, their
careers, and get to know them better in a short exclusive interview. Let’s
begin with a 43-year-old Swedish dancemaker at the height of his
international activity
Texts and interview by Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino ing with strong emotions, and Labyrinth Within
(2010), created for himself and Wendy Whelan,
Choreographer and filmmaker Pontus Lidberg to the more recent Written on Water (2019) with
was born in Stockholm in 1977 of a psycholo- Aurélie Dupont and Alexander Jones, have re-
gist mother and a psychiatrist father who sup- ceived significant recognition.
ported his choice to dedicate himself to dance. In 2020, a year of loneliness for all artists,
Along with Johan Inger and Alexander Ekman Pontus Lidberg (who is also a designer), reacted
he is one of the strengths of Scandinavia’s “post- creatively with the elegant Drawing to a Close
Mats Ek” scene. which was commissioned for online viewing (see
His education was a solid one: he studied at guggenheim.org).
the Royal Danish Ballet School in Stockholm and The multifaceted Swedish choreographer is now
at the Paris Conservatoire of Music and Dance. one of the most sought-after authors whenever
Afterwards, he obtained a Master’s Degree in ballet, with its rich traditional vocabulary, needs
an open and contemporary
approach, and versatile danc-
Pontus Lidberg ers with multiple techniques
(ph. H. Stenberg) are in need of new stimuli and
repertoires.
The (artificial)
intelligence of the
Centaur
Centaur- chor. Pontus
Lidberg, audio e video Ryoji
Ikeda – Danish Dance Thea-
tre
Rovereto (Italy), Teatro
Zandonai (Festival Oriente
Occidente)
After Pontus Lidberg’s
creation Siren that was pre-
miered last year at the
Rovereto Festival, this year
Contemporary Performing Arts from the Uni- the Festival’s 40th edition opened with his new
versity of Gothenburg. work Centaur which is the second part of his
Lidberg has been director of the Danish Dance reflection on man and other creatures – this time
Theatre in Copenhagen since spring 2018. a non-natural choreographer, an AI (Artificial In-
He has created for the Paris Opéra (Les noces), telligence).
New York City Ballet (The Shimmering Asphalt), While Siren took a look at a liquid society,
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (Summer’s Winter the unconscious, the fluidity of gender, and the
Shadow), the Semperoper Ballett, Dresden (In fragility of emotions and experiences, with a fe-
Anderen Raum), The Martha Graham Dance male mermaid at the centre of a group of male
Company (Woodland), the Ballet du Grand dancers, Centaur has men and women, all of whom
Théâtre de Genève (a modern ‘immigrant’ ver- with strong personalities, interact with a digital
sion of Giselle), Balletboyz (Rabbit), the Beijing guide-voice that can be either male or female and
Dance Theatre (Luminous), Acosta Danza that directs their paths and trajectories on stage.
(Paysage, Soudain, la nuit), Morphose Wheeldon In bringing this fascinating idea to life, Lidberg
Company (Metamorphose one), and, naturally, collaborated with Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm
for The Royal Swedish Ballet too (a modern- for the AI installation, Tomonaga Tokuyama for
day Raymonda). In 2011 he also created a Faune visual programming, and the University of Den-
for his own group. mark for computer programming.
Lidberg’s films, from The Rain (2006), burst- Instructions with special algorithms on the back-
30
Pontus Lidberg
drop scroll down for each single performer indi-
cating where to move from, which point to go
to, and numbering the positions to reach. While
all this is going on, one reflects on the mathemati-
cal-spatial design that underlies the design of the
choreography.
The Artificial Intelligence (here called David)
has read ancient philosophy and the tragedy clas-
sics, knows about electronic surveillance, the po-
sition of the planets and the flight of birds; he
analyses the dancers’ personalities, processes
music, manages piles of data and calculates at great
speed. Calling the dancers by their names, David
imparts his commands to them via the collars
they are wearing.
In a sort of second part of Centaur the dance
takes on more body and colour; there are allu-
sions to ancient Greek mythology, where stat-
ues and painted vases feature Centaurs, creatures
that were half human and half horses, archers and
discus-throwers.
A naked man with his back to us stands onstage
for a long time; he is a silent and still presence in
contrast to all the falling, chasing, rolling and hug-
ging that characterise the group action.
The man is dressed, lifted, moved, laid down.
Once the blindfold that had been applied to diso-
rient him is removed, a particularly virtuoso per-
former in multicoloured dungarees is given a solo
of high interpretative quality.
A beautiful idea, beautiful dancing, a hybrid
between man and a machine of great conceptual
interest, in a difficult compositional balance be-
tween computers and bodies, in the process of
humanisation of the algorithm or perhaps of re-
sistance to dominant technology.
“I am moved by curiosity”
Pontus Lidberg is happy to discuss his artis-
tic experience which is broad and varied.
EGV – You have had a lot of experience in
different companies, what is your approach to
creation in continually different environments?

PL – I try to be a guide, not a boss, and to

bring out what the dancers have inside them. Each
time is different. Attention to the distinct needs of
each situation inspires me a lot. It is curiosity that
moves me. I try to understand the dynamics of
each group. I love challenges, I never take any-
thing for granted, from Paris to Cuba to Beijing.
I follow the thread of what interests me, so that I
can do what I want.

EGV – What does managing and directing your

own group, the Danish Dance Theatre, with on-
going commitment, entail?

PL – Company work takes up a lot of my en-

ergy, so much so that my group is taking a break
right now. For each project I try to identify the
right people who I feel close to me.

EGV – How did you adventure with dance,

or rather ballet, start?

PL – When I was four years old I saw a per-

formance by the Royal Swedish Ballet and told
my parents that I wanted to become a dancer;
later I was admitted to the school. I also studied
music. When it was time to choose, I preferred
to audition for dance, a more colourful and shared
world. But my love of music remained, I have
very personal ideas about it and am fussy in my
choices, drawing from a variety of genres.

EGV – Water is the protagonist of many of

your works, whether for the stage or the screen:
does it represent nature? Intimacy?
PL – Water is a rich source of creative mate-
rial associated with the subconscious and deep-
ness.
EGV – How did Centaur begin to take form?
PL – Last year I was in residency at the Center
for Ballet and Arts at New York University; I was
Danish Dance Theatre: ” Centaur”,
c. Pontus Lidberg (ph. P. M. Abrahamsen)
Nadja Sellrup, Vahe Martirosyan – The Royal Swedish Ballet, “Raymonda”,
c. Pontus Lidberg (ph. H. Nilsson)
carrying out research there to develop the project
I had in mind with my dramaturge Adrian Guo-
Silver. The central theme was the philosophical
question of what the human being is and is be-
coming. The dialogue between the men and myths
of ancient Greece is now that between our bod-
ies with their limits – biological, emotional, sen-
sitive – and the machine, given the power of ar-
tificial intelligence...
Has the thinking machine got feelings, con-
sciousness and desire, I asked myself. No, not
yet. But it can already manipulate and seduce
us by decoding our moods.
EGV – What thoughts underlie and are con-
tained in Centaur?
PL – We are already normally using remote
intelligent digital services, such as Siri or Alexa.
The AI in Centaur exists only as an algorithm in
a computer, as thought and speech which are pro-
jected, not as an actual body. Dance, on the other
hand, is an ‘embodied’, corporeal art form. Danc-
ers are human beings, i.e. animal and cultural
beings. The theme of human interaction with tech-
nology has now become even more relevant in
these times of physical distancing and loss of real
human contact.
EGV – Creation and repertoire are a dual work-
ing track: it’s an act of courage for a Swedish
choreographer to tackle Giselle without being
crushed by the shadow of Mats Ek’s brilliant
modern version of the ballet. How did you go
about this?
PL – Sure, Ek’s Giselle is intimidating, but I
wasn’t scared. The broken heart theme remains
untouchable. But my Giselle is a non-white im-
migrant. In any country aristocracy and peas-
ants find themselves in contrasting worlds. It’s a
universal thing. The ghosts are ghosts of memory.
For Albrecht, the forest of the second act repre-
sents the forest of his mind. My moving the plot
to the current scene (which, at the time of the bal-
let’s creation was 2012), has worked so well that
next December it is also going to be performed
by the Ballett Basel in Switzerland.
EGV – What motivated your innovative, al-
beit respectful, reworking of Raymonda for a com-
pany like The Royal Swedish Ballet?
PL – Glazunov’s libretto and music remain the
bedrock, but I created a ballet within the ballet”.
After Siren and Centaur, we await the sequel
to conclude Lidberg’s ambitious trilogy of cul-
tural exploration that crosses different times, cul-
tures, concepts and technologies.

31
• critics • critics • critics •
Batsheva Dance Company: “2019”, c. Ohad Naharin (ph. Ascaf)
Batsheva Dance Company
Naharin, crying out
against war
2019 – chor. Ohad Naharin, mus. Yarmi
Kadoshi, Neurosis, Hako Yamasaki, Moshe
Yakobson, Asadi, Fairuz, Ehud Manor/Nurit
Hirsh, Hanoch Levin/Maxim Waratt, mus.
Folk... arranged by Nadav Barnea
Tel Aviv, Suzanne Dellal Centre (a co-
production with Montpellier Danse)
There is as much nostalgia as anger and
sadness in the latest work by Israeli
choreographer Ohad Naharin, a name that
remains at the forefront of the world dance
scene today. The title (2019) refers to the year
in which this work, dedicated to the death of
his father a year earlier, was created. This is
also why it stirs up childhood memories of the
kibbutz where the family lived, and why the
music evokes the utopian atmosphere of Zionist
socialism.
In any case, far from expressing sentimentality
or resignation, the show never loses its
committed clarity or biting irony and combines
the hopes/contradictions of Naharin’s country
into the choice of music (Arabic rhythms and
ON STAGE ! • critics • critics
Israeli songs) and costumes (sophisticated high-
heeled shoes which now and then produce the
stamping thump of combat boots). The tone
of the scenography concept was immediately
set when, as soon as the audience were in their
places on stage, the curtain dividing the two
sides of the space fell to the floor suddenly
putting spectators face to face, separated only
by the long space where the actual show takes
place.
It begins with simple, almost animal-like joy;
the dancers, each entering alone from one side
or the other of the stage, march buoyantly
towards the others, full of cheer and, smiling
at the audience, finding their place in the
context of a happy diversity. But this light-
heartedness soon fades when their gestures
become more mechanical and aggressive and,
to the disturbing music of the Neurosis group,
give the impression that they are preparing
for a fight.
In the course of the work the dance asserts
itself as a vigorous, strong-willed affirmation
of life despite the threat of an ever-looming
war that hovers in the air filling everyone’s
spirit.
That’s what playwright Hanoch Levin says
in his words to the song “You, Me, And The
Next War” which accompanies one of the
solos, even though this is immediately
followed by a dance to a nursery song that
32
• critics •
all Israeli children know off by heart. But the
fight cannot be avoided and explodes in an
impressive sequence. And yet moments of
solidarity, indeed of complicity, aren’t lacking,
as in the simple march where the couples are
hand in hand or, later on, when the dancers
scatter among the audience and lie down to
rest close to the spectators.
This intimacy makes 2019 a work that “one
experiences and feels, rather than watches: all
together in the same place, just as we need
to learn to live together on the same land”.
As for the structure of 2019, as always one
is amazed by how Naharin manages to achieve
a balance between the freedom left to the
performers and the cohesion of the whole. The
18 dancers are almost continuously on stage,
and their highly impressive solos are often in
the context of group moments.
Created in the studio that the Batsheva
Company, directed by Ohad Naharin, occupies
at the Suzanne Dellal Dance Centre in Tel
Aviv, 2019 with its denunciation of the
permanent threat of war could make the same
impression on today’s public that Kurt Jooss’
Green Table made in his day.
It was supposed to be presented in
Montpellier and elsewhere last summer;
hopefully 2019 will be seen on the company’s
future/possible tours.
Sonia Schoonejans
 Ballet Preljocaj
Preljocaj’s swans
Le Lac des cygnes – chor. Angelin Preljocaj,
mus. Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky
Clermont-Ferrand (France), La Comédie de
Clermont-Ferrand
This new Swan Lake was created last Oc-
tober for Ballet Preljocaj at the new “La
Comédie” Theatre in Clermont-Ferrand,
France. The show had been scheduled for
December 2020/January 2021 at the Théâtre
de Chaillot, Paris but performances were can-
celled. In the coming months it is supposed
to return to Paris and be toured France and
abroad.
After making Romeo and Juliet in 1997
and Snow White in 2008, this creation marks
choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s grand
comeback to the story ballet, a genre that
always constitutes a big hit, each and every
time, for his Aix-en-Provence-based
company. Angelin Preljocaj’s Swan Lake is
also his first attempt at a contemporary re-
reading of a “corps de ballet” ballet, in this
case the late-Romantic era’s ‘ballet blanc’
par excellence. Using Tchaikovsky’s music,
the choreographer respects the plot and
structure of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s
ballet, alternating narrative acts with
introspective ones. He has, however, chosen
to move the action to an urban skyscraper
setting; the minimalist sets make use of video
projections and plunge us into a business
district where young bankers and flashy
entrepreneurial women make their living.
At times, Preljocaj purposely cites the
1980s and the golden boys as portrayed in
Hollywood movies, starting from Siegfried,
a young yuppie facilitated by his father who
becomes a multibillionaire, and Rothbart who
exploits the father’s ambitions and misleads
the son by substituting Odette with Odile
in the ball scene. Thus, as from act one, we
find all the elements of the libretto with
which we are acquainted and Preljocaj creates
a truly dark legend in this contemporary
version of his.
As is always the case, Angelin Preljocaj’s
choreography is finely wrought and shows
precision. He has created lovely duets for
Odette and Siegfried, even though on open-
ing night the two young dancers, Théa Martin
and Laurent Le Gall, did not yet show total
self-assurance. The corps de ballet really does
shine, both in the “black” act, especially the Above and below, Ballet Preljocaj:
ball scene with its divertissement, and in the “Le Lac des cygnes” –
white acts where, using the art of geometrics c. Angelin Preljocaj (ph. J. C. Carbonne)
in which he is well-versed as well as an ex-
tremely reduced number of dancers, the cho-
reographer manages to create the illusion of
a lake covered in swans. The mirror-like in some cases, are extremely imaginative.
structure of the original choreography has been Without giving up the stage clout for which
preserved, especially in the rows of swans, he is renowned, Preljocaj makes way for
while other new arrangements have turned magic, or rather for fairytale enchantment
out to be successful, such as when the swans as well as for a certain melancholy in his
form a sort of bouquet or move in twos fac- portrayal of Siegfried. Its intensity grows
ing one another. as the ballet progresses and climaxes in a
The pace of the ballet, which last two firework display of creativity, also thanks
hours without an interval or any boring mo- to the dancers (who took part in elaborat-
ments, strings mime or action scenes together ing elements of the choreography).
with highly choreographed moments which, Delphine Goater
33
 In the photos, Šuka Horn and Dimitris Papaioannou:“INK”, c. Dimitris Papaioannou (ph. Julian Mommert)
Dimitris Papaioannou
Water and Ink
Ink – chor. Dimitris Papaioannou, mus. Anto-
nio Vivaldi, Donald Novis, Isham Jones, Sofia
Vempo, Leo Rapitis
Turin (Italy), Festival Torino Danza, Teatro
Carignano
Reggio Emilia (Italy), Teatro Romolo Valli
To make one’s imagination a reality, to bring
one’s cultural world to life, to make a completed
work out of one’s tastes and eroticism is an art
that only a chosen few are able to master,
especially if it takes an aesthetically perfect form.
Also in Ink, his latest work, Dimitris
Papaioannou confirms the master skill with
which he creates a whole universe: his own.
Never, as in his case, is the definition of “auteur”
valid, with a hallmark brand that is invariably
recognisable from the very first image. Dressed
in black like those adult men who meet in the
squares of eastern Mediterranean or southern
countries, he himself, is the emcee of a duet,
created in just a month of rehearsals, with his
blond, candid, athletic, partner Šuka Horn. The Liquid Jets. The style comes with a guarantee
space is closed, black, delimited by high plastic of quality for an established audience of devo-
walls and bathed by a tireless sprinkler, resulting tee spectators.
in seductive backlighting effects and the sound Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino
of water that resembles music.
Then the music strikes up, a mix of opposites:
high/low, Greek/international, light/serious, old-
fashioned entertainment pop/sophisticated high-
brow scores (the sort of soundtrack Pina Bausch
would use in her miscellaneous Tanztheater
Stücke). An opalescent plastic sheet on the floor
slowly reveals the male prisoner under and in-
side it, a semi-wild creature, a faun looking for
freedom among sheafs of wheat, a savage, ani-
mal-like being who “wears” an octopus on his
genitals or holds a large round, transparent, up-
side down glass ampoule between his legs, as
in Jeronimus Bosch’s mysterious Garden of
Earthly Delights.
The Mediterranean man and the boy from the
North, a fish, a merman; the dominator and the
dominated, water and land with its ripe wheat.
Papaioannou exhibits his tableaux vivants with
confidence.In the dark place of the fantasies of
this choreographer or, rather, total artist (who
has also created the sets and costumes for Ink),
everything is plastically magnificent: bodies,
objects, the child’s doll resting on the genitals
of Dimitris-Lord of the Splashes and Transparent
34
35
 Compagnia La Mov
Spanish contemporary, a
new Swan Lake
Swan Lake – chor. Víctor Jiménez, mus. Pyotr
I. Tchaikovsky (and Jorge Sarnago)
Zaragoza (Spain), Teatro Principal
Víctor Jiménez, in his day a brilliant dancer
in Víctor Ullate’s company, Béjart Ballet
Lausanne and the Lyon Opera Ballet, has been
the director of the “La Mov” company in
Zaragoza for the last 12 years.
Recently, he created his own contemporary
choreographic version of Swan Lake using
Tchaikovsky’s original score interspersed
with original electronic pieces by composer
Jorge Sarnago. Jiménez has always loved the
“grand” titles, and has already experimented
with his versions of Nutcracker, Sleeping
Beauty, Cinderella and the dances of Verdi’s
opera Il Trovatore (set in the fortress-palace
of La Aljafería, Zaragoza’s main monument).
The Spanish choreographer has once again
invented his subject matter, moving away
from the traditional narrative thread of Swan
Lake in order to explore current themes: the
dualism of appearance and social responses
to diversity.
Like almost all companies during this period,
La Mov was subject to lockdowns, reduced sala-
ries and cuts in the number of dancers, as well
as to other shortages; however, together with
Compañía Nacional, it managed to be one of the
first two companies to return to live perform-
ances on stage.
Jiménez’s Swan Lake speaks of honesty,
of channelling collective and individual an-
Compañia La Mov: “Swan Lake”, c. Víctor Jiménez (ph. E. Fantova)
ger, of physical and moral nudity... with dis-
cipline suggested through the movement, dy-
namics, consistency of technique and style
of the dancers as a whole. The choreogra-
phy aims at being strong and concise, highly
defined in form, as well as in its intents.
It cannot be denied that in the course of
his fine career as a dancer, Jiménez has been
influenced by the major choreographers with
whom he worked, especially Béjart, Mats Ek,
Forsythe and Kylián; but he has nevertheless
developed his own compositional and gestural
style, one that demands of his dancers an
almost virtuoso dance combined with
contemporary expressiveness.
The sets, which can be described as
monumental, were conceived by Vanesa
Hernández.
The show is slated to be toured in Spain
and Europe in 2021.
Roger Salas
Compagnie Hervé Koubi
Barbarian nights ferent nationalities and religions. And they
weave their passion and skill into the warp
Les nuits barbares ou les premiers matins of Les nuits barbares ou les premiers mat-
du monde – chor. Hervé Koubi, mus. ins du monde (“The Barbarian Nights or the
traditional Maghreb, Wolfgang Amadeus First Dawns of the World”).
Mozart, Gabriel Fauré, Richard Wagner Choreographer-director Hervé Koubi, who
Borgia, Scolacium (Italy), Festival Armonie is of Algerian origin, has taken it upon him-
d’Arte; and on tour self to give theatrical form to what comes
off the street, to a spontaneity that, once
The 13 dancers of Hervé Koubi’s company stylized, becomes extremely powerful.
come from Cannes, in France (where the com- The choreography is multi-faceted, direct,
pany is based), as well as from Italy, devoid of any intellectualism, inspired by Sufi
Palestine, Bulgaria, Morocco, Algeria dances, hip hop, break dance, contemporary
and Israel – all of them men, all of them for- western dance, dances wearing ancestor
eign, yet all of them brothers, albeit of dif- masks, war and virility dances. It is charac-
36

Compagnie Hervé Koubi: “Les Nuits Barbares”, c. Hervé Koubi (ph. S. Meliti)
terised by incredible acrobatic spinning.
Koubi redesigns a heritage of different prac-
tices, virtuosity and rituals, and equips it
with blades, knives and glittering sticks, cloth-
ing it in long skirts, sequined masks, and egali-
tarian jeans under dark rotating skirts.
Overflowing with vital energy, shining with
vigour, possessed by a secret spirituality in
their virile fire, the dancers offer solidarity
and generosity. An independent and cohe-
sive company that enjoys international suc-
cess testifies that shared and festive danc-
ing overcomes all obstacles to understanding,
whilst ensuring authentic enjoyment, on stage
and in the audience.
Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino
Compagnia Enzo Cosimi
Tragedy according to
Enzo Cosimi
Coefore Rock ‘n’ Roll, chor., dir. scenery and
costumes Enzo Cosimi, live mus. Lady Maru
Rome, Teatro Vascello, Mattatoio – for
Romaeuropa
Inspired by the second tragedy in thd
Aeschylean trilogy (458 B.C.), the site-spe-
cific version, created for Rome’s former
slaughter house, of Enzo Cosimi’s Le Coefore
(“The Choephori – The Libation Bearers”)
was strategically staged in a wide and spa-
cious area which easily reminded one of a
never-ending corridor in a huge palace. The
spectators, immersed in gloomy darkness and
thrown into a cacophony of sounds and loud
cries, were able to experience, without me-
diation but through simple bodily reactions,
the story’s most ferocious and emotionally
powerful aspects: Orestes, son of
Agamemnon and belonging to the lineage of
the House of Atreus, is commanded by Apollo
to avenge the murder of his father by executing
his mother Clytemnestra and her lover
Aegisthus in front of his sister Electra and
the people,.
In the version performed in front of a live
audience, the spectators all had their faces
covered by masks and seemed to surround
the action like an extra, silent and astonished
chorus. The wrathful and powerful back-
Compagnia Enzo Cosimi: “Coefore Rock & Roll 1”, c. Enzo Cosimi (ph. P. Tauro)
37
ground music shook the air with waves of
thunderous sounds, in a steady rhythm,
which grabbed attention, concentrating it on
the protagonists: four characters, two male,
two female, who enact the murder and mat-
ricide, which is also evoked by cleverly in-
serting texts (edited by Maria Paola Zedda,
with extracts from Aeschylus, Sylvia Plath
and original elaborations).
Sets and costumes were created by Cosimi
himself and inspired by the work of pop artist
Mike Kelley; they succeed in shifting the
action to a time which appears very close
to our present with a collection of props,
in colours from a kaleidoscope or a strip car-
toon, which suggest signs of family intimacy:
stuffed animals hurled as if they were stones,
sumptuous regal capes or warrior tunics made
from blankets. And gloomy black robes for
the chorus of the seven Choephori girls led
by a wild guitarist (Lady Maru – composer
and performer of live music) who even by
herself brings to mind the incoercible impulse,
initially for revenge and, ultimately, for jus-
tice.
The version that was later streamed from
the Teatro Vascello was different, but equally
charged with tension: the cameras’ close range
shots seem to slow down the action, giving
a sharper quality to the performers: the vi-
brant and athletic Francesco Saverio Cavaliere
and Luca Della Corte, alternating in the vari-
ous male roles (Oreste, Pylades, Aegisthus),
and the dramatic and expressive Alice
Raffaelli (Clytemnestra) and Roberta Racis
(Electra). The choreography draws freely,
albeit with an internal and tight logic, from
elements of modern and post modern dance
and fragments of the classical idiom, includ-
ing the use of pointes.
Donatella Bertozzi
Spotlight on
There are few dancers at The Royal Ballet who provoke such
excitement as Marcelino Sambé. The 26-year-old Portuguese virtuoso
last year became a principal dancer, after Carlos Acosta, the
company’s second black man to occupy that rank.
Interviewed by Gerald Dowler
Born in an immigrant neighbourhood in
Lisbon, Sambé began in African dance before
studying ballet at the Lisbon Conservatoire and
then securing a scholarship to London’s Royal
Ballet School. He entered the company in 2012
and rose fast through the company’s ranks,
Marcelino Sambé rehearsing“The Royal Ballet Back on Stage” (ph. R. Hollings)
becoming a principal in 2019. He is a thrilling
technician who appears to enjoy the challenges
of the most demanding roles, making him an
accomplished Blue Bird and Blue Boy in
Ashton’s Les Patineurs. What marks him out
is an infectious stage personality, which makes
him a perfect fit for the demi-caractère roles which
lie at the heart of the company’s repertoire; he
made a sensational debut as Colas in La Fille
mal gardée. He is also beginning to explore a
deeper side to his artistry, bringing admirable
intensity to his lead role in Crystal Pite’s Flight
Pattern; it is much regretted that the pandemic
has delayed his much-anticipated debut in the
title role of Balanchine’s The Prodigal Son.
GD: Your path to ballet was unconventional…
MS: I grew up in an immigrant neighbourhood
with people from Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde,
so African rhythm and music was everywhere.
Marcelino Sambé
I found that dancing came easily to me – I am
naturally very flexible - and it satisfied my desire
to perform. A psychologist working with children
from the area suggested to me that I should
consider training properly and mentioned the
word ‘ballet’ - that was the first time I heard it.
I was quite wild as child and I already knew
that dance gave me a focus and made people
look at me differently. When I went into the
centre of Lisbon to audition and saw the city
and the school’s facilities, I was mesmerised.
GD: How much was ballet a challenge?
MS: One of my friends from my area was
already at the school and from the start he
started helping me. I always need someone to
look up to and to admire – I still do with my
colleagues and coaches. That way, it is never
a lonely fight to improve. I have always loved
the grind of the studio, the hours of hard work
every day and the sense of achievement when
you get there. It’s the best feeling, even better
than performance!
GD: Your personal life as a boy was hard;
your father died and you were fostered…
38
MS: School became my main focus and all
I wanted was to be there and work; I spent
the whole day there. School is all I remember
from that time. When the Barroso family
fostered me when I was 13, it all changed and
I quickly understood the value of a happy and
stable home life.
GD: When did you decide that ballet would
be your future?
MS: I was ten and it was at a competition a
couple of months after joining the School. It was
my first audience and I loved it. People also told
me that I had a great future, which was very
important. That’s when I knew.
GD: You left Lisbon at the age of sixteen…
MS: I was entering many competitions which
I saw as my reward for all the hard work in
the dance studio and the classroom. They gave
me a target to work for. It was very exciting to
go to Moscow, New York and China but my focus
was always the Prix de Lausanne which I saw
as the ultimate audition. When I competed in 2010,
I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect
that I didn’t enjoy it but I did receive a scholarship
to the Royal Ballet School.
GD: Did you want to come to London?
MS: Yes. I had visited on holiday and I saw
so much ethnic diversity on the streets, and even
a poster of Carlos Acosta outside Covent Garden
looking proud and handsome – I knew I wanted
to be there. I had thought about Russia but sensed
that I would not be happy, even if I was breaking
Marcelino Sambé: “The Human Seasons”,
c. David Dawson (ph. T. Kenton)
some barriers. I needed to be in a place where
I could see the whole of society on the stage –
when I was offered the scholarship, it was what
I had been working for, for so long.

GD: Is it important for you to be a role model?

MS: The older I get, the more I realise what

I can represent. I have never thought I couldn’t
do something because I am not white, but I know
now that is my personal view of the world, and
others may not have the same belief that they
can achieve their goals. Every time I appear
on stage, I have a responsibility not only to
myself but also to all those kids out there. But
in The Royal Ballet there are now many non-
white dancers, so we can all play our part
together – we don’t have to fight alone. I am
excited because I believe that in a few years
the whole question of race will have changed
radically.

GD: You have stated that you are gay –

presumably the same applies to sexuality…

MS: It does. I think about how artists have

had to filter themselves over the decades and
centuries in order to fit into a mould. When I
came to London aged 16, I did ask myself if my
sexuality would be a barrier; the more I struggled
with that worry, the more it held me back. When
something ‘clicks’ in your head and you can be
fully be yourself, that is when you as an artist
can flourish. It clicked for me and I realised that
many ballets were created by gay people –
composers, choreographers and dancers – but
that had nothing to do with the works. I wondered
if people would accept me as the ‘romantic lead’
but I do really love my ballerinas and we are
all actors anyway!

GD: You are seen as a virtuoso but how do

you see yourself as a dancer?

MS: Although I happily accept the label of

‘virtuoso’ dancer, I know I have so much more
to show and explore. I still have a big task ahead
of me to change any pre-conceived people might
have. That is exactly what excites me about my
career. But I am not in a hurry – I know it will
take time.

GD: What have been your major moments?

MS: The biggest was when Crystal Pite chose

me for Flight Pattern which needed deep emotion
and drama; also, Romeo was the most
comfortable role in terms of character. The
biggest pull to be at The Royal Ballet is the
traditions of the repertoire and to get a key role
right like Colas, in La Fille mal gardée, is the
ultimate satisfaction.

GD: Is there a dream role for the future?

MS: Apart from the amazing existing

repertoire I would love someone to create an
Othello for me; it is a thrilling psychological Marcelino Sambé – The Royal Ballet:
story and he looks like me! “Tarantella”, c. George Balanchine
† (ph. B. Cooper)

39
Steps in history
Think of a twentieth-century dance company dedicated to the new and
the experimental, think of an impresario who employed avant-garde
composers and painters and who chose his male lover to choreograph
new ballets. You might well be thinking of Serge Diaghilev and his
Ballet Russes but one hundred years ago another rival enterprise was
born in Paris: Rolf de Maré’s Ballets Suédois.
By Gerald Dowler
Born in Stockholm in 1888 to a rich noble
family, Rolf de Maré was drawn to artistic and
homosexual circles and, through his close
friendship with the painter Nils Dardel, was
introduced into their heady company. In 1918
he met Jean Börlin, a Swedish-born dancer who
had moved to the capital in 1905 and had fallen
in love with the movement theories and style
of the Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine,
then working in Scandinavia. In many ways
Börlin was to De Maré what Nijinsky was to
Diaghilev – a lover and an inspiration. The war
having ended, both men made for Paris, the
centre of European cultural life and, inspired
by the example of Diaghilev and his company,
began to formulate plans to start a rival
ensemble.
Rolf de Maré had one immediate
advantage over Serge Diaghilev:
he was rich and
wanted the
Les Ballets Suédois
best. On 25th October 1920 Les Ballets Suédois
gave its first performance at the Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées, the venue which had hosted
Nijinsky’s scandalous Le Sacre du Printemps
in 1913. The dancers of the Paris-based
company were in the majority Swedish and led
by Börlin himself, installed by de Maré as its
premier danseur and choreographer. It would
be easy to assume that the whole enterprise
as simply a vanity project but the Ballets
Suédois proved to be something far weightier
than that. Although Börlin was in no way a
great dancer, he was a powerful performer and
bold experimenter and also something of an
artistic ‘sponge’, soaking up the influences of
his travels – to Spain and Africa – and the avant-
garde artistic whirl of the French capital. His
creations were sometimes closely inspired by
the Ballets Russes: the company’s first
performance included his own interpretation
of Debussy’s Jeux (initially choreographed by
Nijinsky in 1913) and Iberia, a Spanish-themed
work which echoed Massine’s recently
created Le Tricorne. But
Börlin also had ideas of his
own, so that first programme
also included the Swedish-
inspired Nuit de Saint-Jean.
40
Rolf de Maré and Jean Börlin in the ‘20s
The second programme, two weeks later,
comprised the first ever Expressionist ballet
Maison de Fous (“The Madhouse”) and Le
Tombeau de Couperin, choreographed and
designed in late 18th-century style.
Throughout the five years of the company’s
existence, Börlin turned again and again to
folklore and the movements and aesthetics
of non-European cultures; L’Homme et son
désir was set in a tropical rainforest while
one of the most important works, La Création
du Monde, premièred in 1923 to a
commissioned score by Darius Milhaud and
with designs by Ferdnand Léger, was a fusion
of African creation myths and American jazz.
The Ballets Suédois employed a dizzying
range of artists, writers and musicians for its
subsequent programmes and seasons, from
the poets Paul Claudel and Jean
Cocteau to the composers
known as ‘Les Six’, five of whom
(Auric, Milhaud, Poulenc,
Tailleferre and Honegger)
collaborated on the score for the
1921 farcical ballet Les Mariés
de la Tour Eiffel. In addition,
Ravel, Satie and Cole Porter all
worked with the company. Léger
was by no means the only artist
of renown to create sets and
costumes for the Ballets Suédois
– in addition to La Création du
Monde, he also designed Skating
photo insert: Jean Börlin
and Edith von Bonsdorff in
“Relâche”, 1925
(ph. ProLitteris)
left: Les Ballet Suédois in
“Relâche” (Archive of the
Stockholm Dance Museum)
41
Rink in 1922 while Pierre Bonnard worked
on Jeux and Giorgio de Chirico on the 1924
La Jarre (“The Jar”).
The company’s aesthetic was resolutely
modern and often drawn to surreal narrative
and chaotic stage pictures. Skating Rink
featured monumental Cubist designs and
portrayed the skaters as grotesque figures
while Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel was
conceived by Cocteau as a comment on
bourgeois banality and showed a wedding
party sitting on a terrace of the Eiffel Tower
on Bastille Day. A photographer tries to
take pictures to preserve the happy event,
but out of his camera emerge an ostrich, a
bathing beauty, and a lion while gramophones
comment ironically on the action from the
sides of the stage. Relâche (“Cancelled”) in
December 1924 was the Ballets Suédois’ last
work and indicated perhaps where Börlin
and the company were going artistically. It
was inspired by the Dada movement and
was perhaps the first ever multi-media dance
performance. It scandalised the press with
its lack of dancing, the presence of a fireman
and nine men in their underwear, a design
by Francis Picabia featuring rows of
headlamps which brightened and dimmed and
a musical score by Satie which included the
sound of motor cars. In the middle of the
performance Entr’acte, a film by René Clair
was shown, which showed Clair and Marcel
Duchamp playing chess and Börlin’s own
mock funeral which included a run-away
hearse.
The company was successful: in the five
years of its existence it gave twenty-four
new works, in twelve countries; Skating Rink
alone saw over fifty performances in four
years in Paris, on tour in Europe and in the
United States. However, Börlin was
increasingly unwell: exhausted, putting on
weight and partial to both drugs and alcohol,
he was no longer the driving creative force
he had been in 1920. Additionally, De Maré,
who had pumped a fortune into the “Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel” (1921), by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin
enterprise, was losing money and had lost

his appetite for running a company. After
the 720th performance by the company on
17th March 1925, he informed the dancers
that he was closing down the Ballets
Suédois.
No work from the company’s repertoire
survives. There have been reconstructions
– Skating Rink and Relâche in recent years
– but when Les Ballets Suédois closed, the
dancers’ memories of the ballets went with
it and its founder De Maré made no attempt
to preserve them. It never possessed star
performers like Diaghilev’s company and its
choreography was essentially the work of
one man who did not rank among the best.
It was, however, an extraordinary creative
Front cover of 1923 Ballets
Suédois program designed
by Fernand Léger
experiment which drew in great artists from
many fields. Börlin died in 1930 and in the
following year De Maré founded Les
Archives Internationales de la Danse in Paris
in his memory, the world’s first museum
and research institute for dance. Ultimately,
he took his substantial archives to Stockholm
where in 1953 they formed the basis of the
city’s now world-famous Dance Museum.
He died in Barcelona in 1964.
An artistic shooting star, Les Ballets
Suédois has left little to no permanent trace,
but it stands as representative of a time in
dance which saw the art form opening itself
up to experiment and innovation. The Ballets
Russes is considered rightly as responsible
for setting the tone for classical dance in
Europe and the West for the duration of the
twentieth century, however Les Ballets
Suédois must in part be acknowledged for
its contribution.
†

42
43
 (“Harlequinade”). Thanks to these shows she
began to make her breakthrough on the Parisian
ballet scene.
After the Liberation she left the Opéra along
with several other colleagues to throw herself into
something new, and into the unknown. It was
then that I myself was able to bring together a
whole host of young talents who had grown up
during the war years, and organise my “Dance
Fridays” at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre. Zizi and
Jean Babilée were my strengths. For the premiere
of the season, in December 1944, Zizi danced
the grand adagio from Sleeping Beauty partnered
by Roland Petit; she was charming in her pink
tutu, with her curls (plentiful at the time) adorned
with flowers. I remember that it was very cold,
“Hollywood Paradise”, because the theatre wasn’t yet heated; she was
Roland Petit, 1984 trembling and Serge Lido, who was lurking in the
(ph. F. Levieux) wings with his camera, almost had to push her
onto the stage.
The famous “Ballets des Champs-Elysées” were
born in October 1945 following that memorable
Adieu, Zizi season. Roland Petit was their exclusive
choreographer, surrounded by a whole young
generation of dancers. Nevertheless, Jeanmaire
Following the long interruption in its publication, BALLET2000 is a latecomer preferred to follow her maître Serge Lifar to Monte
in expressing its sadness at the passing of an artist who has often featured Carlo where he was forming a new company after
in this magazine, Zizi Jeanmaire, who died on 17 July (2020) at Tolochenaz his forced departure from the Opéra for political
reasons. Partnered by Vladimir Skouratoff, for
in Switzerland, near Lausanne, where she had been living quietly for years. the first time Zizi had an important role created
She was 96 years old. for her: Aubade, to music by Poulenc, in which
In her day she was one of the most famous ballerinas in the world – and Lifar imagined her as an operetta Diana, pitiless
not only to audiences of ballet and artistic dance, but indeed to a much, and seductive. But the company was soon
much broader public. Jeanmaire began her career as a classical dancer at dissolved, and Lifar returned to the Paris Opéra.
After a year with Colonel de Basil’s Ballets
the Paris Opéra and then walked various other paths in life: she was the Russes, where Boris Kniaseff had taken her, in
“supreme” muse and interpreter of her choreographer husband Roland Petit 1948 she joined Roland Petit’s new company,
who impressed her unique image on the worlds of musical revues, films and “Ballets de Paris”. And then came the big turning
TV, thus making her THE iconic French woman in the collective imagination. point in her career: she cut her hair and became
the Zizi we have known ever since: the place
Our most longstanding readers will remember the “Mes Rencontres” (My
was London, the year was 1949, the ballet was
Meetings) series. They were written by Irène Lidova who was a ballet critic Carmen. The whole world was conquered by her.
of historical importance, as well as mover and shaker who, among other She went to New York and Hollywood, and
things, “launched” Zizi Jeanmaire and Roland Petit in the immediate post- became Roland Petit’s muse and, later, his wife.
war period. In October 1996 Lidova dedicated one of her “Rencontres” In the 1950s, during a temporary “crisis” with
her choreographer, she used to call on me more
on BALLET2000 to Zizi Jeanmaire.
often than usual: she felt lost and undecided about
We are reprinting the entire article here along with, as was usual Lidova’s her future, but still always in love with ballet:
column, a photo by Serge Lido. “One day I’ll dance Giselle”, she said to me. But
A.A. shortly afterwards, there she was as the star of
music hall at the Casino de Paris where she danced
I first met Zizi (who at the time was still called up to the main roles, but she also knew that long and sang the famous Mon truc en plume created
by her real name, Renée) at the Paris Opéra during years of waiting lay ahead for her ... for her by Petit.
the war. She was part of a “clique” of young With special permission from the theatre’s And yet she never failed to do her daily
ballet hopefuls, under the leadership of Serge Lifar. management, her school pal Roland Petit had the exercises at the barre, and even today her
They were all under twenty and belonged to the idea of putting on some dance shows for two legendary legs and radiant smile seduce the
anonymous “quadrilles” echelon of the corps de with the young Janine Charrat. So public.
ballet. Lifar tried to promote them but kept being Zizi decided to follow suit: together Irène Lidova
hindered by the ruthless hierarchy that reigned with a brilliant young dancer, Roger
at the Opéra in those days. So his protégés, such Fenonjois, and with the help of her BALLET2000 n° 103,
as Renée Jeanmaire, Colette Marchand or Roland teachers Kniaseff and Volinine, she October1996
Petit, were just not getting noticed by the public; presented a number of dance recitals,
and yet their names had begun buzzing around accompanied by an orchestra, first Opposite: Zizi Jeanmaire and
among dance specialists, maybe because someone at the Salle Pleyel and later, in 1944, Roland Petit in “Carmen”,
had seen them taking class with the great Russian at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées. 1949 (photo by Serge Lido,
masters who were teaching in Paris at the time. The repertoire was suited to her archives A. Agostini).
I used to see Zizi Jeanmaire at Boris Kniaseff’s joyous, bubbly and zesty Left: Irène Lidova portrait
school or at Alexandre Volinine’s (he had been personality: the Blue Bird pas de photo which appeared for
Anna Pavlova’s partner). At the Opéra, Zizi was deux, excerpts from Coppélia and, many years on Ballet2000 on
fretting with impatience because she felt she was especially, Arlequinade her page“Mes Rencontres”

44
45
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46
 MultiMEDIA

DVD

Wheeldon, Cherkaoui and Pite at

The Royal Ballet
Within the Golden Hour – chor. Christopher
Wheeldon, mus. Ezio Bosso and Antonio
Vivaldi; Medusa – chor. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui,
mus. Henry Purcell and electronic; Flight
Pattern – chor. Crystal Pite, mus. Henrik
Górecki – The Royal Ballet – DVD Opus Arte

This Royal Ballet of

London triptych
features a programme of
strong contrasts. It is
now available on DVD
as a home video after
having made the usual
journey from the Covent
Garden stage to the big
screen as a live recording
meant for international
cinemas (with the
intervals as usual
unfortunately full of
naive – to say the least – social media messages
such as “this is the most beautiful ballet I have
ever seen”. Loads of them.)
Reviewing the three works collected on this
DVD, expertly directed by Ross MacGibbon,
gives one the opportunity to reflect on the
profile of the largest British company directed
by Kevin O’Hare who has chosen here three
very different choreographers for equally
different purposes.
A “neo-balletic” work featuring aspects of
postmodern minimalism, Within the Golden
Hour by Christopher Wheeldon, to music by
Ezio Bosso and Antonio Vivaldi, is lightly
coated in a Gustav Klimt-like gilding. It’s a
gentle work, interwoven with pure dance that
alternates duets, ensembles, groups of four and
three couples, male and female moments, cross-
references, variants between several rows that
flow horizontally, and with adagios and allegros Sarah Lamb, Alexander Campbell – The Royal Ballet: “Within the Golden Hour”,
in the classic, elegant and pleasing soundtrack. c. Christopher Wheeldon (ph. T. Kenton)
A piece that shows the company to advantage.
Medusa by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, to excerpts
from Henry Purcell interspersed with electronic seduced by Poseidon (Ryoichi Hirano, a statu- refugees, deportees, oppressed in their bluish over-
pieces, was instead built around the qualities esque and sacral figure, a strong and noble ele- coats, nameless, devoid of identity, carriers of
of Natalia Osipova for whom Cherkaoui ment of this tale). Transformed by the betrayed universal pain. A challenging theme that could
conceived an interpretative role asking her to Goddess into the hideous creature who literally have been risky if she hadn’t conceived of and
move her torso and arms in a way that was petrifies those men who dare look on her with realised it in the form of a wide, wavy, group
unusual for her, as expressive counterthrusts to her terrifying headdress of black, menacing choreography, regulating perfectly the way it
the celebrated virtuosities of her powerful legs. serpents, Medusa spares only Perseus (Matthew comes apart and recomposes again. It’s a moving
Her companions, in long, shiny, metallic coloured Ball). Beautiful lights and a beautiful, temple-like block from which two “people” eventually break
dresses, always move on pointe like ballerinas; set. And that’s about it. away: a grieving mother, Kristen McNally, and
their twirling arms draw the usual intricate, In Flight Pattern to Gorecki’s music, Crystal a desperate man, a magnificent Marcelino Sambé
ornamental swirls that distinguish the style of Pite has created with one of those great, in a single vigorous solo where he shines thanks
this Flemish-Moroccan choreographer who wonderful, “testudo” (the Roman warfare ‘tortoise to his personality and technique; with controlled
‘reconciles’ the cultures of yesterday and today. formation’ – Editor’s note) choreographies, a incisiveness he shows the world his plight, while
Warriors in tulle combat suits are destined mechanism which she knows and handles skilfully, the lights, subdued, show plastic respect for his
to be the male targets of the revenge of Athena’s well-served by the cohesion of The Royal Ballet’s pains.
priestess Medusa (Olivia Cowley) who has been 36 dancers who embody a community of migrants, Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino

47

A still from DVD “La classe d’Alexandre
Kalioujny”
Alexandre Kalioujny’s class – given by
‘étoile’ dancers Elisabeth Platel and Charles Jude
–BelAir Classiques DVD 2020
On this DVD dedicated to maître Alexandre
Kalioujny and his ballet teaching method, former
Paris Opéra étoile Charles Jude, who used to
be a pupil of his, says: “When I talk about
him I call him Sacha, but at the time I only
called him maître.”
And that is exactly what he was. But what
kind of a teacher was Alexandre Kalioujny? What
kind of a ballet master was he, seeing that today
Elisabeth Platel, director of the Ballet School of
the Paris Opéra, and Charles Jude teach his
exercises to the school’s 17 first division students?
In one of the studios in Nanterre (the Parisian
suburb where the school is located) the class
naturally begins with pliés. Three pupils, two
boys and a girl, watch and listen to Charles Jude
who demonstrates the exercise and explains what
it’s for. While the pupils perform
the teacher’s voiceover insists: “In
this exercise, it’s important that the
knees be in a vertical axis with the
toes, and that the en-dehors be
perfect.” During all 12 exercises at
the barre, Platel and Jude take it in
turns to teach the same principles.
This is followed by the 23
exercises au milieu, in the centre,
from fondus to balancing.
It was at the Nice Conservatoire
that Charles Jude, at the age of 16,
attended Kalioujny’s classes before
encountering him again in Paris.
Platel’s meeting with Kalioujny, on
the other hand, took place at the
Opéra in two stages. After an initial
sampling of his class for étoiles, she
gave it up as it was “too difficult”.
However she did go back several
years later, when Nureyev became
director of the ballet company in
1983 and staged his Raymonda.
Kalioujny and Nureyev got on well
together, not only because they were
both Russian, but also because the
former’s classes trained the dancers
for the latter’s choreographies.
Charles Jude acknowledges
himself as Kalioujny’s “artistic son”. And
Platel recorded his classes in two
notebooks. Nureyev wanted to write a
book about his method, and now Jude
and Platel have made this film.
In the interviews found in the “bonus
content” of the DVD (90 minutes of film
and 77 of bonus content), the pupils of
the Opéra School recognise that the
repetitions of steps, moving body weight,
balancing, the clever combinations at the
end of the exercises, have shaken up their
habits a little. And Jude himself recalls
that “Kalioujny’s teaching was hard, I
used to leave his classes exhausted .”
This reserved man, who paid compliments
sparingly and never demonstrated his steps because
he had a hip problem, was born in Prague in 1923.
The son of Russian émigrés, he trained in Paris
with the great ballerina and teacher Olga
Préobrajenska. A dancer with the Ballet de Monte-
Carlo directed by Serge Lifar (1946), he went on
to become an étoile at the Paris Opéra the following
year; he was fascinated by the jump that seems
to float in the air. During conversations with Noëlla
Pontois, Attilio Labis, Gil Isoart, we discover the
many different sides of ‘Sacha’: athletics champion,
chess player, musician and seducer. Too bad,
however, that none of the photos show that he
was also a handsome man. Nevertheless, respect
and admiration are mandatory for this great maître
de ballet.
Martine Planells
Alexandre Kalioujny
in a photo
from the ‘50s
48
Web
Netflix, the platform that took online en-
tertainment streaming up a notch,
terminating the sovereignty of the “old”
television networks, has a clear and visible
cultural line. It buys series and
documentaries from all over the world,
employing an army of translators; it
privileges progressive content, giving space
to minorities; it also produces films now
present in the most prestigious festivals
alongside those of the traditional movie
companies that supply cinemas, now
undermined by ‘on demand’ offerings for
home screens.
Bearing in mind the above, the Move
series, produced by Netflix, focuses on
unusual dance celebrities, such as Black
Americans Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, Ohad
Naharin from Israel, Israel Galván from the
land of the gitanos, the feisty Kimiko
Versatile from male chauvinist Jamaica, and
Akram Khan who returns to Bangladesh to
stage dances for the centenary ceremony
in tribute to the founding father of his
ancestral country.
The interviewed parents are proud of the
paths their children have chosen and
underline how they started from the margins
and sweated their way to centrestage, how
their success was unexpected yet well-
deserved and just.
None of them are mainstream dancers or
divos but, rather, dancer/choreographers
who move on specific ground: from social
redemption for non-whites born into
separated families in disadvantaged
neighbourhoods and saved by dance, to
rebels like flamenco ‘bailaor’ Israel Galván
who moves away from the future chosen
for him by his parents and experiments
instead with his own free style, to Khan’s
Anglo-Bangladeshi fusion, to Ohad
Naharin’s “Gaga” conceived in Israel. Small
danced segments alternate with short
comments from the protagonists and their
families. A simple format, comprehensible
to all, that underlines the exceptionality of
these dancers who have managed to reach
the top through their dedication, courage,
and dogged hard work.
The model isn’t an American musical-
style happy ending but, rather, redemption
from the outer edges of the world. As per
an open-minded cultural line…
E.G.V.
TV and dance on the web
Never before as in these times of lockdown
– then of semi-freedom, and later still of a
cautious reopening of theatres – has it been
clear that that which is most dear to artists,
i.e. carrying on and keeping the audience
hooked, dovetails with what spectators expect
of these artists, i.e. psychological help to
manage such an unprecedented period at home.
During this time, living-room audiences found
on all kinds of screens what was being offered
online and on TV by providers, and what was
being posted by artists on various channels of
communication, with the possibility to comment
and interact.
There were a myriad offerings of remote dance
which took up every possible interstice of the
large online and television spaces, catering to
a potentially much wider audience than that Mariinsky Ballet: “Yaroslavna” (The Eclipse), c. Vladimir Varnava
of live shows. (ph. V. Baranovsky)
Viewers profitably spent part of their
‘suspended’ time watching artists in pre-virus
footage and self-produced social media videos. ones too, at times devoid of any particular in- €15 instead of the €30 that the cheapest ticket
Both on TV and on the internet it was very ventiveness or of adequate technical quality, would cost in the theatre). Given its success,
clear that the types of shows and audiences therefore tiring and off-putting. Bad they continued with Dare to Say, by
are as varied in the world of pixels as they are cinematography can only be forgiven on period Alexander Ekman and Dimo Milev for the
in real life. footage, not in this day and age. company’s junior group, NDT2. Also in The
During the lockdown it transpired that many Netherlands, Scapino Ballet offered Ed
theatres have high-quality recordings in their Wubbe’s The Great Bean, with its 1920s
A ticket to online dance vaudeville atmosphere.
archives which are perfect for TV (the
European culture channel ARTE-TV in France While it was impossible for both artists and The Royal Ballet of London is offering
and Germany, a real treasure trove, also in audiences to enjoy theatre life, many dance tickets for the streaming of Christopher
streaming; Rai 5, Rai Cultura and internet films offered for livened our screens. Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, to music
RaiPlay in Italy) and for catching up on works The new system, after the cautious by Ezio Bosso (see DVD review on these
that had perhaps been missed when they resumption of live performances, is to access pages), and also a series of all-time favourites,
debuted live and which aren’t available on DVD. online performances with e-tickets. Ballet Highlights.
TV and internet are however increasingly Did it work to offer Pina Bausch’s Sacre For $20 A New Stage, created by Tiler Peck
tightly linked, with internet at a slight advantage du Printemps, restaged in at the École des for Clistudios, sold tickets for the triptych
because it isn’t tied down to set times and can Sables in Africa by Germaine Acogny (with Petrushka (with Brooklyn Mack and Lil Buck)
be accessed freely according to one’s tastes, the title Dancing at Dusk), for rent at £5.50 /Syncopated Ladies: Amplified/Unusual Way.
especially when on demand. (or equivalent in other currencies) on the The Batsheva Dance Company have placed
Our thanks go, therefore, to the artists for Sadler’s Wells website? their stakes on Ohad Naharin’s Yag the movie,
having offered us some solace from the mono- Did Pina’s global appeal suffice to get available for 50 shekels, approximately £12.
theme that has plagued everyone for months. viewers to buy access? All for one and one for the money by
Provided, however, that these same worthy The Nederlands Dans Theater invited the choreographer Richard Siegal for the Schauspiel
artists don’t devote themselves to creations that public to watch Endlessly Free from home (at in Cologne goes beyond as it is interactive. Ac-
remind us of the virus.
At the same time, and leaving aside the self- Brooklyn Mack, Tiler Peck, Lil Buck: “Petrushka”
satisfaction that artists have never lacked (even
in live performances), smart phones have shown
their usefulness and clout, with every screen,
large or small, being a potential mirror for
dancers and choreographers.
After all, no artist, or group, or company,
can ever disconnect from mirrors and spectators
– they wouldn’t survive if they did.
Technology helps. But the risk of an overdose
is ever-lurking, of course. Especially if, to
document the discomfort of isolation, the
dancers thrust themselves against their walls
as a boring symbol of their horrible
imprisonment. We’ve seen a lot of this, too
much.
Spectators, even professional ones, saturated
their eyes, ears and attention with all the
offerings made available; excellent ones (from
the Mariinsky and Bolshoi), curious (Perm
Ballet’s Fadetta), kitsch (Vladimir Varnava’s
Yaroslavna from the Mariinsky), conventional

49
 Pina Bausch’s Sacre du Printemps, restaged in at the École des Sables in Africa by Germaine Acogny (with the title “Dancing at Dusk”)
tors from the Cologne theatre and dancers from
the Ballet of Difference company perform in
front of webcams and act, dance, discuss and
play online in real time and in a kind of virtual
space theatre, with the audience at a distance.
The big question at this point is: in the future,
when theatres reopen, what will people be
willing to pay for on demand films? A difficult,
controversial and perhaps disappointing test for
artists.
It seems plausible that once live performances
of their own productions are finished, footage
filmed in theatres might be attractive to those
who wouldn’t in any case have been able to
attend the theatre performances. A reasonable
cost would be encouraging. Theatres would thus
be using their own material to expand and retain
their audiences.
EGV
Content and trends
It remains to be said that there is
spontaneous content, institutional content,
highly professional content, but also content
that is more suited for the internet, or for
television, or for neither, especially those
experimentations and researches that only
make sense and can only be communicated
live, such as a lot of contemporary post-dance.
Especially participatory, “non-frontal” dance,
which is still impossible at the moment.
Classical ballet remains the great favourite for
capturing and building up the loyalty of an
audience of spectators who aren’t ‘in
attendance’.
In normal times no one hangs on to a screen
for long, especially if the dancing isn’t
spectacular enough. And it isn’t legitimate –
indeed, it would be arrogant – to demonise
the reluctant spectator, accusing him of moral
and intellectual laziness.
On the internet, proposals designed specifically
to cultivate audiences, both their own and any
new ones to be won over, work well.
E.G.V.
Film
Cuban dancer – documentary by Roberto
Salinas and Laura Domingo Agüero
Produzione Indyca with Rai Cinema and
other partners, 2020
In the story of Alexis, a born dancer who
can do nothing but dance, we find all of Cuba.
Studying at the school of the National Bal-
let is a reward, a blessing to be earned. Tal-
ent isn’t enough. Cultural workers are called
upon to give their all for their country and
for art. Their families are proud of them and
provide unconditional support. Cuba offers
a young dancer the most desirable profes-
sional prestige , but Alexis’ family was look-
ing to improve his living conditions and took
him away with them to Miami. His young
A still from
“Cuban dancer”
50
girlfriend couldn’t handle a distance love-story
with precarious and expensive internet con-
nections.
In Florida, which isn’t a “Cuba con diñero”
but an entirely different world, everything had
to start all over again.
The family made plenty of sacrifices, as did
Alexis, overcoming homesickness, loneliness,
tackling a new language, a new working style
and the modern USA, working hard to fit in,
throwing himself bravely onto the stage. A
new love helped. Slowly he began to feel at
home also away from Cuba.
The only thing missing from the film is the
smell of the streets of Havana, so different
from those of Miami, but it shows the whole
universe of Cubans, interior and exterior:
those who stay on the island and those who
leave; their feelings, their careers.
It’s a true story. The young dancer’s name
is Alexis Valdes and after a stint in Miami he
studied at the San Francisco Ballet School and
now belongs to the company.
Where there’s a will there’s a way and Alexis
does return to Cuba having overcome his
weaknesses and all the redtape. He meets up
with his relatives, friends, colleagues, his girl
who is now happy with someone else.
Life begins anew with each new day. And
Cubans remain forever in love with la Isla
Grande, which is but another face of America.
Laura Domingo Agüero is as cosmopolitan
as Alexis: she is the co-author of the
screenplay with director Roberto Salinas as
well as its choreographer; an artist of words,
images and dance, an empathetic, warm and
courageous storyteller, qualities that are the
quintessence of “Cubanía” which she carries
within her soul.
The documentary (97') will shortly be on
release in cinemas in several countries
Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino
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