the companies & schools
companies & schools news archive
Useful Links
The Royal Opera House (the main ROH website)
Royal Ballet company members
ROH what's on
RB schedules: 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14
Royal Opera House Collections (ROH archive & performance database)
ROH News, Facebook, Twitter
ROH videos on YouTube, photos on flickr, photos on Pinterest, photos on Instagram
ROH Student Standby tickets on Facebook
The Royal Ballet School, RBS News, RBS Facebook
Birmingham Royal Ballet
BRB company members
BRB what's on
BRB News, Facebook, Twitter, videos, and On Tour blog, photos on Pinterest,
BRB At Home website - news from the B5 HQ
BRB's Pointe Blank website of dance-related graphics and images
Rob Lindsay (BRB New Media Officer) on Twitter
Elmhurst School for Dance, Elmhurst News, Elmhurst on Twitter, Elmhurst on YouTube
Many video clips of Royal Ballet dancers from both companies can be found by searching on YouTube
Company changes for the 2012/2013 season
The Royal Ballet
Promotions:
Ryoichi Hirano & Alexander Campbell from Soloist to First Soloist
Claire Calvert, James Hay, Dawid Trzensimiech & Valentino Zucchetti from First Artist to Soloist
Beatriz Stix-Brunell from Artist to Soloist
Meaghan Grace-Hinkis, Fumi Kaneko & Yasmine Naghdi from Artist to First Artist
Joiners:
Tierney Heap, Mayara Magri & Donald Thom (all from RBS), Nicol Edmonds (from Finnish
National Ballet) as Artists
Leavers:
Principal Dancer Tamara Rojo to become Director of English National Ballet
Principal Dancers Sergei Polunin* & David Makhateli*
Ballet Mistress Ursula Hageli
First Soloist José Martin
First Artist Francesca Filpi*
Physiotherapist Daryl Martin*
Artists Celisa Diuana & Aaron Smyth
Prix de Lausanne dancer Patricia Zhou
*during the season
Details on the company website.
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Promotions:
Jenna Roberts, First Soloist to Principal
Angela Paul, Laetitia Lo Sardo, Tzu-Chao Chou & Mathias Dingman, Soloist to First Soloist
Arancha Baselga, Laura Purkiss, James Barton, Jonathan Caguioa & Tom Rogers,
First Artist to Soloist
Laura-Jane Gibson, Yvette Knight, Delia Mathews, Callie Roberts, William Bracewell & Oliver Till,
Artist to First Artist
Joiners:
Momoko Hirata returns as First Soloist after 18 months with Angel Corella’s company
Miki Mizutani (ENB School) as Artist
Alys Shee (from ABT II) as Artist
Laura Day*, Reina Fuchigami* & Lachlan Monaghan (all from RBS) as Artists
Anna Monleon* (from Elmhurst) as Artist
Ana Albutashvili (from the State Ballet of Georgia) as Artist
Leavers:
Gaylene Cummerfield, Principal Dancer, after a 15 year career with Australian Ballet and BRB,
Gaylene leaves to become a full-time mother
Robert Parker, Principal Dancer, after 18 years with the company to take up the role of
Artistic Director of Elmhurst School for Dance
Lei Zhao, Robert Gravenor, Aonghus Hoole and Max Westwell left during the season
*joined mid-season
Details on the company website.
Royal Ballet School graduate contracts 2012
Atlantic City Ballet Romain di Fazio
Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris Axel Alvarez
Ballet de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux Evangeline Ball, Takaaki Okajima
Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse Matthew Astley
Bavarian State Ballet 2 Marta Navarrete Villalba, Jonah Cook, Sebastian Goffin
Berlin Ballet 2 Jordan Mullin
Birmingham Royal Ballet Laura Day, Reina Fuchigami, Lachlan Monaghan
Dutch National Ballet Skyler Martin
English National Ballet Teo Dubreuil
Hong Kong Ballet Ellen Elphick, Solomon Golding
Karlsruhe State Theatre of Baden Louis-Joseph Bray
Lithuanian National Ballet Isaac Evans
National Ballet of Portugal Melissa Parsons
Northern Ballet Mariana Rodrigues, Sean Bates, Isaac Lee-Baker
Polish National Ballet Lynsey Sutherland, Kenneth Dwigans
The Royal Ballet Tierney Heap, Mayara Magri, Donald Thorn
Vienna State Opera Ballet Nina Tonoli, Tristan Ridel
Ballet Association Awards 2011
Royal Ballet School At this year’s Royal Ballet School graduation ceremony David Bain presented the Annual Ballet Association Awards to 1st Year Upper School students Marcelino Sambé from Portugal, Yaoqian Shang from China and 2nd Year Upper School student Nina Tonoli from Belgium.
Marcelino’s successes include junior division gold medals at the USA International Ballet Competition 2010 and at Youth America Grand Prix 2009. His entry for the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award received 2nd prize and was performed during the Linbury season, at which he also performed the pas de deux from Le Corsaire. Yaoqian also danced the Corsaire pas de deux on the opening and closing nights. She previously studied at the Beijing Dance Academy and was offered a place at The Royal Ballet School after being seen by the Director at the Youth America Grand Prix 2010. Nina performed in a number of ballets both in the Linbury Season and on the Main Stage. She enjoys choreographing and was featured in a short documentary for Belgian television alongside Sander Blommaert. This can be seen on YouTube.
Nina Tonoli and Marcelino Sambé with David Bain. Photo ©Brian Slater
Yaoquin Shang. Photo ©Brian Slater
Elmhurst School for Dance During the course of our annual visit to Birmingham Royal Ballet and Elmhurst School for Dance, David Bain presented the Ballet Association’s Annual Award to Nastazia Phillipou. From Cyprus, Nastazia is a first year sixth Elmhurst student. Our award will help towards the cost of her taking part in the Genée competition later this year in South Africa. Nastazia enchanted members, talking informally with them during lunch, after which we watched her in class taught by ex-BRB dancer James Grundy. We will watch Nastazia’s progress with great interest.
Nastazia Phillipou with (L to R) Ballet Teacher Gloria Grigolato, David Bain,
Assistant to
the Artistic Director Denise Whiteman
Flower Throws
Flower throws are an expression of affectionate honour for Principal Dancers on their retirement or sometimes their return from long recuperation from injury. With the permission of House management (and due warning to long-suffering stage management), money collected informally from ballet-goers, together with a donation from the Ballet Association, is used to buy flowers in bulk.
At the final curtain calls, flowers shower the dancer from the boxes adjacent to the stage, thrown by members of the Ballet Association, the House staff or other volunteers. As the cascade of flowers rains down, the audience applauds and often stands in ovation, creating a wonderful atmosphere and a touching and memorable scene.
Miyako Yoshida on a flower-strewn stage at the final curtain call of her last appearance at the
Royal Opera House in April 2010 after dancing Cinderella in Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet.
Photo ©Bill Cooper 2010
Memorial to the founders of the Royal Ballet in Westminster Abbey
On November 17, 2009 a service was held in Westminster Abbey to dedicate a memorial stone in Poets' Corner marking the contributions made by Dame Ninette de Valois, Founder Director, Sir Frederick Ashton, Founder Choreographer, Constant Lambert, Founder Music Director and Prima Ballerina Assoluta Dame Margot Fonteyn in establishing Britain's flagship national ballet company, along with its sister company Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School.
The memorial stone designed by Stephen Raw (more details and photos here) was unveiled by The Lady Sarah Chatto, Vice President of The Royal Ballet. The service was conducted by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster who gave the address and there were readings by Sir John Tooley, David Bintley and Dame Monica Mason.
Photo by Andrew Dunsmore ©The Dean & Chapter of Westminster
The service included solos from works by Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton: Satan’s Solo from de Valois’s Job danced by Steven McRae and simultaneously on a second stage by Robert Parker, followed by Natasha Oughtred and Romany Pajdak in the solo from Ashton’s The Wise Virgins. White Lodge pupils Charlotte Edmonds, Thomas Bedford, Magdalena Chan and Ashley Hardwick, performed a new piece choreographed by Liam Scarlett to Constant Lambert’s ‘Rondino’ from his Romeo and Juliet Tableau no. 1. The Choir of White Lodge performed two pieces and before and after the service the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Barry Wordsworth performed excerpts from works in the Royal Ballet's heritage repertory.
Natasha Oughtred and Romany Padjak
(in background) in the solo from The Wise Virgins.
Photo by Andrew Dunsmore ©The Dean & Chapter of Westminster
Personal Memories of the Royal Ballet
To celebrate the 75th anniversary in 2006 of the founding of what was to become the Royal Ballet, Ballet Association members contributed to a collection of memoirs and photographs.
Click for the text only version of the memoirs.
Click for the illustrated and fully formatted version (1.2Mb, requires Adobe Reader).
The photograph shows Dame Ninette de Valois with past and present members of the Company in 1996 at the celebration
of the 50th anniversary of the first
performance of The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Peter Howard.
