company & school old news
Company changes for the 2010/11 season
The Royal Ballet
Promotions:
to Principal Dancer - Sergei Polunin
to First Soloist - Johannes Stepanek
to Soloist - Melissa Hamilton
to First Artist - Claire Calvert, Akane Takada, Fernando Montaño, Erico Montes
Joiners:
Nehemiah Kish as Principal (from Royal Danish Ballet)
Itziar Mendizabal as First Soloist (from Leipzig Ballet)
Yasmine Naghdi as Artist (from Royal Ballet School, joined April 2010)
Sander Blommaert as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
James Butcher as Artist (from Royal Ballet School)
Valentino Zucchetti as Artist (from Norwegian Ballet)
Camille Bracher as Artist (from Johannesburg, South Africa)
Beatriz Stix-Brunell as Artist (from School of American Ballet)
Leavers:
Miyako Yoshida, Ivan Putrov, Viacheslav Samodurov, Yohei Sasaki, Gemma Sykes, Cindy Jourdain, Ernst Meisner, Richard Ramsey, Xander Parish
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Promotions:
Momoko Hirata - from Soloist to First Soloist
Steven Monteith - from First Artist to Soloist
Mathias Dingman - from Artist to First Artist
Joiners:
Ian Mackay rejoined in March as Principal Dancer from the Corella Ballet, Spain
William Bracewell and Machi Moritaka as Artists (from RBS)
Lewis Turner as Artist (from Elmhurst School for Dance). Lewis was awarded a Prix de Lausanne scholarship in January 2010 and has chosen to take up his year-long apprenticeship prize with BRB.
Leavers:
James Grundy, Christopher Larsen, Kosuke Yamamoto
Royal Ballet School graduate contracts 2010
The Royal Ballet Sander Blommaert, James Butcher, Yasmine Nagdhi
Birmingham Royal Ballet William Bracewell, Machi Moritaka
English National Ballet Barry Drummond, Angela Wood
Northern Ballet Theatre Matthew Broadbent
Scottish Ballet Nicole Cato, Imogen Chapman
Wayne McGregor Random Dance Louis McMiller
Boston Ballet Duncan Lyle
Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux Ashley Whittle
Cape Town City Ballet Jon Savage
Dresden Ballet Colombe Hays, Mari Kawanishi
Estonian Ballet Hannah Carter
Karlsruhe State Theatre of Baden Harriet Mills
Royal New Zealand Ballet Paul Russell
Stuttgart Ballet Nicholas Jones
Vienna State Opera Ballet Ashley Taylor
Zurich Ballet Dario Elia, Philip Helme
Ballet Association Awards 2010
At the Royal Ballet School Graduation Ceremony, after July's school performance in the Royal Opera House, Chairman David Bain presented the Ballet Association’s Annual Awards to this year’s recipients, Claudia Dean and Lachlan Monaghan. Both from Australia, they enter their graduate year this autumn. Claudia was particularly prominent in the School’s Matinée dancing in Fractals and the lead in the third movement of Concerto. Our awards of £500 each are made to overseas students to help with their studies. We hope to invite both to meet members at a meeting later in the year.
Director Gailene Stock wrote offering "sincere thanks to all at the Ballet Association for the ongoing support of the training of our young dancers." Speaking of this year’s recipients, she wrote: "As well as being talented, they are both delightful young people and will be most appreciative of the support these prizes so generously provide."
Claudia Dean and Lachlan Monaghan with David Bain at the awards presentation
Ballet Association Awards 2009
The Ballet Association Award was instituted in 2008.
The criteria for awards were set by the Royal Ballet School teaching staff and are:
- Royal Ballet School students from overseas in the first or second years of the Upper School
- who are outstanding dancers
- who would value additional funds as they are excluded from UK government sources
The value of the awards is £500 each and they were presented in July by Ballet Association Vice Chairman Sylvia Tyler to Imogen Chapman (on the left in the photo) and Angela Wood. Both students are 17 and enter their graduate year this autumn. Imogen is from Australia and Angela from Colorado. Imogen recently toured with Carlos Acosta and both will be travelling to Toronto with the School in November to participate in the 50th Anniversary celebrations for Canada’s National Ballet School.
Imogen Chapman and Angela Wood with Sylvia Tyler at the awards presentation
Photo ©Ashley Taylor
Company changes for the 2009/10 season
The Royal Ballet
Promotions:
to Principal Dancer – Steven McRae
to First Soloist – Helen Crawford, Hikaru Kobayashi, Sergei Polunin
to Soloist – Kristen McNally
to First Artist – Leanne Cope, Olivia Cowley, Melissa Hamilton, Nathalie Harrison
First Artist Sian Murphy is appointed Assistant Ballet Mistress
New joiners:
Ruth Bailey, Leticia Stock, Tristan Dyer, Benjamin Ella as Artists (from RBS)
Hayley Forskitt (Norwegian National Ballet) and Jacqueline Clark (Ballet Ireland) also join
as Artists
Akane Takada is appointed Artist from Prix de Lausanne Apprentice
Rina Nemoto joins as Prix de Lausanne Dancer
Leavers:
Alexandra Ansanelli, Isabel McMeekan, Vanessa Palmer, Henry St Clair
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Promotions:
to Principal Dancer – Jamie Bond, Natasha Oughtred, Gaylene Cummerfield, Carol-Anne Millar
to First Soloist – Joseph Caley, Alex Campbell
to First Artist – Céline Gittens, Tom Rogers
Principal Dancer Dominic Antonucci is appointed Ballet Master
New joiners:
Jade Heusen and Benjamin Soerel as Artists
Company promotions for the 2008/09 season
The Royal Ballet
To Principal Dancer: Lauren Cuthbertson, Rupert Pennefather
To First Soloist: Yuhui Choe, Stephen McRae
To Soloist: Helen Crawford, Laura McCulloch, Ryoichi Hirano, Paul Kay, Sergei Polunin, Eric Underwood
To First Artist: Elizabeth Harrod, Romany Pajdak, Pietro Mello-Pitman, Liam Scarlett
New joiners: James Hay, Dawid Trzensimiech as Artists; Akane Takada as Prix de Lausanne Apprentice
Birmingham Royal Ballet
To First Soloist: Jamie Bond, Natasha Oughtred, Jenna Roberts, Lei Zhao
To Soloist: Momoko Hirata
To First Artist: Aaron Robison
New joiners: César Morales as Principal Dancer; Dusty Button, Delia Matthews, Nicki Moffat,
Yijing Zhang, Laura Davenport as Artists
Royal Ballet School graduate contracts 2009
The Royal Ballet Ruth Bailey, Leticia Stock, Tristan Dyer, Benjamin Ella
Birmingham Royal Ballet Benjamin Soerel
English National Ballet Nicola Henshall, Shiori Kase, Vadim Muntagirov (First Artist)
Northern Ballet Theatre Jeremy Curnier
Dutch National Ballet Charlotte Barber-O'Donnell
Stuttgart Ballet Elisa Badenes
Munich Ballet Freya Thomas
Royal Danish Ballet Oda Groener
Royal Swedish Ballet Daniel Norgren-Jensen
Estonian Ballet Jonathan Hanks, William Moore
Norwegian National Ballet Lucas Lima
Hungarian Ballet Lili Felmery
Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux Giada Rossi, Bethany West
Corella Ballet, Spain Giacomo Vitelli, Mattia Vitelli, Sergi Terns Goma
South African Ballet Theatre Alex Arshamian
Ballet Tucson, Arizona Natalie Blosser
National Ballet of Canada Giorgio Galli
Singapore Dance Theatre Ichigo Oguro
The Australian Ballet Jessica Wood
Ballet Association Awards 2008
Presented by David Bain, the value of the awards was £500 each.
The 2008 winners were Tristan Dyer from Australia and Shiori Kase from Japan. Shiori was aged 16. She studied at the Hirose Kato Ballet Studio in Japan before joining the Royal Ballet School. Tristan is two years older. He has UK, US and Australian nationality. Before coming to the Royal Ballet School he studied at Newport Academy of Ballet (US), the National Ballet School of Canada and the Australian Ballet School.
Tristan Dyer and Shiori Kase with David Bain at the awards presentation