Category: Dance

Paul Merson is the fourth celebrity to depart the dancefloor in Strictly Come Dancing 2024 

Paul Merson and Karen Hauer have left Strictly Come Dancing following a dance off against JB Gill and Amy Dowden MBE during the fourth results show of the series. 

Both couples performed their routines again; Paul and his partner Karen performed their Samba to Car Wash by Rose Royce. Then, JB and his partner Amy performed their Jive to Hey Ya! by Outkast.  

After both couples had danced for a second time, the judges delivered their verdicts: 

·       Craig Revel Horwood chose to save JB and Amy.  

·       Motsi Mabuse chose to save JB and Amy.  

·       Anton Du Beke chose to save JB and Amy.   

With three votes in favour of JB and Amy, they won the majority vote meaning that Paul and Karen would be leaving the competition. Head Judge Shirley Ballas also agreed and said she would have decided to save JB and Amy. 

When asked by Tess about their time on the show, Paul said: “It’s been really good. For anybody I talk to, I would say you’ve got to go on this show. It’s amazing – everybody. There’s a Tottenham fan over there called Lincoln and even he’s nice! It’s been amazing, honestly, amazing. I loved every minute of it, I’ve had a great teacher.  

“She’s been amazing, absolutely amazing and I couldn’t wish for a better coach. I’ve loved every minute of it. I can dance now –  I’ve won because I can dance, I couldn’t dance before and I can half dance now. It’s a bonus, absolute bonus.” 

Karen said: “Absolutely, you’ve been a joy. I’ve never giggled this much. My abs are really tight now. I am so proud of you. Every week you have showed up, you have improved. You’re what Strictly is about and I want to thank you for bringing such joy and just showing everyone that it is possible with a little bit of work and lots of giggles.” 

Sunday’s results show also features a routine from our fabulous professional dancers, as Nancy Xu and Dianne Buswell take centre stage in a passionate Paso Doble. Choreographed by Oti Mabuse, the number is set at a cantina in the heat of an arid highway somewhere in the Southern states to Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Santa Esmeralda. Plus a show stopping musical performance from Sophie Ellis-Bextor singing her new single Freedom Of The Night. 

The remaining 11 couples will take to the dancefloor next week in a spook-tacular Halloween Special when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 26^th October at 18:25 with the results show on Sunday 27^th October at 19:20 on BBC One and iPlayer. Both of this weekend’s episodes are available to watch now via BBC iPlayer. 

Paul and Karen will be joining Fleur East for their first exclusive televised interview live on Strictly: It Takes Two on Monday 21^st October at 18:30 on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. 

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Some of the largest financial awards a dance artist can win are the ones you can’t even apply for. You’re simply told one day that you’ve won, say, up to $550,000, in the case of the Doris Duke Artist Award, or $800,000, in the case of the MacArthur “genius grant.” And those two grants are almost entirely unrestricted, meaning that after paying taxes on the money, artists can do whatever they want with it, personal or artistic—buy a house, fund a new piece, pay off debts, grow their company.

The artists who win them are essentially well-deserved lottery winners. But are those windfalls as life-changing as they seem to be?

Not all grants are six figures, or come with no strings attached. But even a smaller award can feel like a jackpot considering the financial challenges that often come with being a dancer or choreographer. Five artists who’ve received major grants spoke about the opportunities those awards allowed them, and how they changed—or didn’t change—their life, work, and art.

Donald Byrd

2011: United States Artists Fellowship, $50,000
2016: James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, $50,000
2019: Doris Duke Artist Award, $275,000

Byrd had received large grants before, which he had used to fund travel to broaden his aesthetic sensibilities and make work in other countries. But though much of the Duke award went toward fulfilling his delinquent tax responsibilities, the grant also came with a financial planner, and shifted his entire worldview. “I come from a generation of artists who expected to go to our graves poor, if we’re lucky, but probably poverty-stricken,” he says. “I used to have a lot of fear around money, and my emotions determined what I did in regards to money. I discovered that that does not necessarily have to be the case.”

Getting rid of his tax debt also allowed Byrd to free himself of what he calls the “Damocles’ sword” hanging over his head. “I felt liberated. I didn’t realize how much I was carrying around all those years with that,” he says. “I went through a phase where I was afraid to look at my mailbox. I was haunted by it. So dealing with that allowed me to be inside the world of the imagination more completely.”

Michelle Dorrance

2013: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, $25,000 unrestricted
2014: Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, $75,000
2015: MacArthur Fellowship, $625,000 over five years, unrestricted
2016: United States Artists Fellowship, $50,000
2017: Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, $50,000
2018: Doris Duke Artist Award, $275,000

Before she received the MacArthur “genius grant” in 2015, tap dance choreographer Michelle Dorrance thought she was going to have to take a forced break from her company, Dorrance Dance. She was about to go bankrupt and had run out of credit cards to max out to fund the troupe.

That $625,000 award changed everything: Not only was Dorrance able to pay off her debts and invest in the infrastructure that would support her company for years to come, but she was given a new sense of purpose—and obligation. “Receiving that grant, it’s almost like I could never say no again for the rest of my life” she says. “I’ve been given this incredible thing, so how dare I not do ‘blank’?”

It wasn’t until her Doris Duke Artist Award in 2018 that Dorrance used any of her grant money to invest in her personal future. “It was the first grant I received where they make you responsible for setting up savings for yourself—it’s a requirement,” she says. “That was a turning point for me. It’s the only reason why I have any retirement savings.”

Dorrance also has some of her MacArthur funds still stashed away, but for a very specific purpose. “I put the last third of it in an investment account, in order to support a space that the tap community, and the larger percussive-dance community in New York City, can own,” she says. “I believe in the community ownership of it.”

Miguel Gutierrez

2010: United States Artists Fellowship, $50,000
2010: Guggenheim Fellowship, $40,000
2010: Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, $25,000
2016: Doris Duke Artist Award, $275,000

In 2010, Miguel Gutierrez won three separate grants in a single year, totaling $115,000. He used the Guggenheim Fellowship towards the research and development of a new work, and the other two, the United States Artists Fellowship and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, to pay off his credit card and tax debt. By 2011, “I was back to having to do what I always do,” he says, “which is apply for things and see what I can put together.”

When he found out he’d won the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2016, the first word that came to mind was “future.” He put the money toward the purchase of his New York City apartment.

“That award made me think more intelligently about how to set myself up for success for the next chunk of my life,” he says. “That has led to other decisions that I’ve made about going back to school, and about getting a job.” (Gutierrez is now a tenured faculty member at UCLA.)

Gutierrez acknowledges that what he calls the “Santa Claus” system of artist grants isn’t perfect. “The lucky few get picked, and the unlucky many are wondering if their day will ever come,” he says. “It maintains a sense of inequity. There is still an essential issue here, which is the precarity of the field. So it’s a double-edged sword. But it’s a pretty nice sword.

Rosie Herrera

2016: United States Artists Fellowship, $50,000
2024: Knight Choreography Prize, $30,000 unrestricted, $20,000 in programmatic support
2024: Guggenheim Fellowship, $60,000

When Rosie Herrera was awarded the United States Artists Fellowship in 2016, many people told her to use the $50,000 to buy a house. But she didn’t. “That money went into making work, into paying dancers and collaborators, into rehearsal space,” she says. “I used it slowly over time in the most economical way possible. I really stretched that money.” She promised herself that the next time she won a big award, she’d spend it on herself.

Eight years later, Herrera won both the inaugural Knight Choreography Prize, from NCCAkron, and the Guggenheim Fellowship. But figuring out what, exactly, investing in herself looks like has been complicated. “I thought it would be so simple, but it’s turned out to be a provocation for me to think about my life,” she says. The fact that governor Ron DeSantis recently cut all state funding for the arts in Florida has further tested the Miami-based choreographer’s promise to herself. Though Herrera’s company doesn’t receive much funding from the state, “the creative partners we have producing and presenting work are really threatened,” she says. “It’s becoming increasingly precarious to make plans for the future.”

Still, Herrera appreciates the opportunity to make her artistic life more sustainable. “And, hopefully,” she says, “I can use that as a catalyst for more sustainable working models for my community that is really suffering right now.”

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

2019: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, $25,000 unrestricted

Ballet choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa admits that the $25,000 she was awarded in 2019 as part of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award was too small to be life-changing. But it did give her some freedom.

When creating a short work for The Washington Ballet, for example, one scenic element she wanted was beyond the company’s budget. So Ochoa decided to purchase the scenery herself, using part of her award money. Similarly, while working on a ballet about Coco Chanel for the Hong Kong Ballet, Ochoa used award funds for a research trip to Paris. The remaining money became a sort of safety net, allowing her to take low-paying but close-to-her-heart gigs in Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

Ochoa is the rare ballet choreographer to have received a substantial monetary award. This seems partially related to the fact that most ballet choreographers make work within the structures of large, relatively well-funded ballet companies, unlike artists in other genres who often make work for their own small companies, and who may prioritize paying their dancers over paying themselves.

But Ochoa says this grant changed her perspective on money, even when she’s working with those larger ballet companies. “It taught me how much a set costs, and everything you need to think about—it has to arrive here, it has to be stored there, you need a tech person to move it,” she says. When an artist does have a little financial wiggle room, she says, “it creates air in your imagination.”

Marmalade sandwich, anyone? Paddington, Birds of a Feather, Kangaroos & The Penguin. It’s week four on Strictly Come Dancing. Marmalade, optional.

Montell & Johannes Viennese Waltz to Nobody Gets Me by SZA
✨ Punam & Gorka Jive to 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) by Lizzo
✨ Sam & Nikita Samba to Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira
✨ Sarah & Vito Foxtrot to Birds Of A Feather by Billie Eilish
✨ Tasha & Aljaz Charleston to Unhealthy by Anne-Marie, Shania Twain
✨ Chris & Dianne Salsa to Down Under by Men At Work
✨ Jamie & Michelle Salsa to Danza Kuduro by Don Omar, Lucenzo
✨ JB & Amy Rumba to You Might Need Somebody by Kara Marni
✨ Paul & Karen Quickstep to I Won’t Dance by Fred Astaire
✨ Pete & Jowita Quickstep to Town Called Malice by The Jam
✨ Shayne & Nancy Cha Cha to Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) by Sub Sub feat. Melanie Williams
✨ Wynne & Katya Tango to Money, Money, Money by ABBA

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Nick Knowles is the third celebrity to depart the dancefloor in Strictly Come Dancing 2024

Nick and Luba have left the Strictly Come Dancing competition following a dance off against Shayne and Nancy during the third Results Show of the series.

Both couples performed their routines again; Shayne and Nancy performed their Cha Cha to Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) by Sub Sub feat. Melanie Williams. Then, Nick and Luba performed their Charleston to Rain on the Roof from the film Paddington 2.

After both couples had danced for a second time, the judges delivered their verdicts:

• Craig Revel Horwood chose to save Shayne and Nancy.
• Motsi Mabuse chose to save Shayne and Nancy.
• Anton Du Beke chose to save Shayne and Nancy.

With three votes in favour of Shayne and Nancy, they won the majority vote meaning that Nick and Luba would be leaving the competition. Head Judge Shirley Ballas also agreed and said she would have decided to save Shayne and Nancy.

When asked by Tess about their time on the show, Nick said: “I’ve really, really been surprised by how much I’ve loved doing it and by two things that happen. One is how much you care each week, and the other is how much you don’t want to let down your partner. The only reason I could do this is simply because of Luba’s changes, she’s been amazing.”

Luba said: “I’ve never met someone as determined as you, and I remember you saying that if you do your best, you’ll be very happy. I think you did more than your best. Thank you.”

When asked by Tess about his partner Luba, Nick said: “Luba’s been amazing and just been so fabulous every day. And I should say thank you also to all the background staff, the physios, all the people that have actually got me through this week, and to all of my fellow competitors who have been absolutely astounding, beautiful people. There are some amazing dancers up there, and I will love watching the rest of the series.”

Sunday’s Results Show also featured a special routine from our fabulous professional dancers to Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams, choreographed by Mandy Moore and starring Nikita Kuzmin and Karen Hauer as the leads. Plus a show stopping musical performance of Everything’s Here and Nothing’s Lost from Snow Patrol.

The remaining 12 couples will take to the dancefloor next week when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 19 October at 1825 with the results show on Sunday 20 October at 1920 on BBC One. Both of this weekend’s episodes are available to watch now via BBC iPlayer.

Nick and Luba will be joining Fleur East and Janette Manrara for their first exclusive televised interview live on Strictly: It Takes Two on Monday 14 October at 1830 on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

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In my latest novel, The Colony Club, I begin with one character, Daisy Harriman, in 1968, just her and a young reporter as she looks back over her life. She’s old, subdued but proud of her achievements. It’s an intimate scene, only two people in the spotlight.

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That scene cuts to a much more dynamic Daisy, a young woman, perturbed by being refused a room at the Waldorf unless her husband accompanies her. She enters her drawing room in a whirlwind of consternation, even her skirts are agitated, choreographed to enhance her entrance.

She confronts two seated, complacent men who are sympathetic but more interested in the evening newspaper. She moves against their static complacency, her chagrin changing to anticipation of a new plan in word, movement, and expression. She finishes center stage in an exuberant solo/recitative.

When I retired from dancing professionally and stumbled into a career as a writer, I soon began to make connections between these two worlds—one athletic with literal applause at the end of the night, and the other sedentary, solitary, and mostly lacking in standing ovations.

Dancers and writers understand communication, revel in the creative process, and although the external application of our creativity may be very different, beneath the surface they share much in common. For me, writing has become a perfect extension of a career that has moved from ephemeral performance to lasting portrayal.

Community/ Corps de Ballet

One of the first times I became aware that my background in dance influenced my writing was in the choreography of groups of people in a scene. My background taught me that a community (corps de ballet) can enhance, not clutter, the story or the development of the main characters.

Dancers and writers understand communication, revel in the creative process, and although the external application of our creativity may be very different, beneath the surface they share much in common.

In fiction this is community, what is sometimes called the ordinary world, where characters are interacting in relative harmony. It “sets the stage” for what is to come.

On stage it’s very important for every “body” to be in the right space, in order not to bump in to each other or cause bottle necks or pile ups when dancers are on the move. There’s even a rule when lines are crossing each other, that the people on stage right always cross in front (downstage) of the people on stage left.

This avoids that back and forth skitter, often seen in Romcom “meet-cute” when the protagonists are trying to get through the door at the same time, which may be fine in literature, but can cause a nasty accident and injurious domino effects in a charging corps de ballet.

There are times when dancers are placed in sightlines forming a symmetric or pleasing experience. Other times when they are used to create movement, or emotion; used in large groups to express strength, menace, or jubilation; broken up to represent chaos; or held in stasis to provide a neutral backdrop for the primary and secondary characters to perform before.

Protagonists and Principals

Like many dancers, I’m a visual learner. We watch, we imitate, we make it our own. We are sometimes the protagonist (principal), sometimes the secondary characters (soloists), or in the corps or chorus.

The principals, soloists, and chorus don’t all try to dance in the same space, at the same time, with the same amount of energy; neither should characters. Each deserve a place and a space, but they should exist where they can be most effective. They can be introduced in different orders, in different groups, but their roles need to be made clear. It takes more than a red tutu for the principal to command the stage.

Propelling a plot or interpreting a musical theme benefit from the same elements of construction. We introduce the characters/movements to the stage. Who are they?

Sometimes the dance/fictional characters portray life characters; sometimes they portray ideas and modes in the abstract. Generally the protagonist/soloist are introduced in a way so that we know the story/dance is about them. They’re highlighted; the writer lets the readier spend time with them so that we recognize them as central to the event.

In writing the protagonists interacts with secondary characters, (friends, enemies, people she works with). In dance the principal is backed by soloists, sometimes interacting with them. Like secondary characters, they have a place in the story/dance.

Neither usurps the place of the protagonist/principal. Sometimes they interact; sometimes they serve as backup. They even have their own moments to develop while the protagonist is off stage.

Rhythm

Like the swells of music or the climaxes of a musical theme, stories rise and fall as they move closer to a satisfying end. In the same way dancers dance “with” the music, or sometimes in counterpoint, characters in a novel rise and fall with the rhythm as the story unfolds. They are often introduced living in harmony with their community.

But continuous harmony does not make a choreographed story, or a written one. Characters will argue, love, stand up against their fellow characters, forge ahead, sometimes rejoining, sometimes rejecting them.

In a similar way, dancers use smooth movements or staccato disjointed actions to display different emotions, or in response to the music, building power when joining with supporting characters; other times singular and isolated, rebelling against the community. Whether in ensemble or solo, they are all the while moving toward a dynamic finish.

Emotion

On stage, emotion is immediate, physically interpretive. Arms outstretched can be joyful, beseeching. A curved torse can be sad, afraid, pained, secretive. Sometimes the movement is large, overdone, sometimes subtle, according to what is needed.

It’s the same in writing: page space, intensity of language, finding just the right amount of verbal expression to depict the scene with just the right amount of attention or communication. Getting to the gist of the scene without going too far and killing it.

When a scene isn’t quite right, when the balance seems off, or the focus doesn’t focus, I call on the skills I learned as dancer and choreographer.

When a scene isn’t quite right, when the balance seems off, or the focus doesn’t focus, I call on the skills I learned as dancer and choreographer. Whether it be a single character, huddled in the rain, or a mob of angry protesters outside a proposed women’s club, that training guides me to a different perspective, one which very often is the key that makes the combination of words, story and movement fall seamlessly into place.

______________________________

The Colony Club by Shelley Noble is available via William Morrow.

A flying judge above the dance floor, octopus (octopi ??) on the dance floor, owls, horses, a lion, a hoover named Shirley & a dash of chocolate; it can only be Movie Week on Strictly Come Dancing !

Strictly Movies Week Song and Dance list!

• Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe – Tango to One Night Only from Dreamgirls
• Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez – Couples Choice to bole Chudiyan from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
• Sam Quek MBE and Nikita Kuzmin – Paso Doble to Elevation – Tomb Raider Mix from Tomb Raider
• Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola – Viennese Waltz to Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter
• Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec – Rumba to What Was I Made For from Barbie
• Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones – Samba to Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid
• Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell – Jive to Wayne’s World Theme/Bohemian Rhapsody from Wayne’s World
• Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas – Quickstep to I’m Still Standing from Rocketman
• JB Gill and Amy Dowden – American Smooth to Pure Imagination from Wonka
• Nick Knowles and Luba Mushtuk – Charleston to Rain on the Roof from Paddington 2*
• Paul Merson and Karen Hauer – Cha Cha to The Magnificent Seven from The Magnificent Seven
• Pete Wicks and Jowitza Przystal – Samba to George of The Jungle from George of The Jungle
• Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu – Viennese Waltz to If I Can Dream from Elvis
• Wynne Evans and Katya Jones – Cha Cha to Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag from Mrs Doubtfire

* A Strictly Come Dancing spokesperson says: “Unfortunately, Nick Knowles sustained an injury during rehearsals and as a result, will not dance this weekend. As per the rules of the competition, Nick and Luba will receive a bye through to next week when he is hopefully able to dance again. Everyone at Strictly Come Dancing wishes Nick a speedy recovery.”

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25xkr1Xcg6s[/embed]

Don’t forget – if you want to, you can get live signing for the first time, available on BBC iPlayer and red button.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuIW_NSQha8[/embed]

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Icons Week will be shimmying onto screens on Saturday 2 November

As exclusively revealed on Strictly It Takes Two this evening on BBC Two and iPlayer, to celebrate twenty iconic years of Strictly Come Dancing, a new special week has been announced: Icons Week will be shimmying onto screens on Saturday 2 November.

In this brand-new special week, which will be part of this series and beyond, the remaining couples will take to the Ballroom floor to honour music icons. Our Strictly Come Dancing stars will pay tribute to some of the most recognisable and influential people in the music industry. This new week will be dedicated to music legends from across the decades.

The couples will dance to songs from their favourite music heroes and audiences might even catch some contestants emulating an icon! The icons, dances and songs will all be revealed in due course.

Marking the debut of Icons Week during the Results Show on Sunday November on BBC One and iPlayer, our Professional Dancers will perform a dazzling Beyoncé medley, with Johannes Radebe channelling his inner Sasha Fierce as the protagonist in the routine. Expect bejewelled cowboy hats, power ballad moves and sparkling sass.

on 19 November, we present the award-winning ballet The Winter’s Tale by Christoper Wheeldon, the first season premiere of the Vienna State Ballet at the Vienna State Opera.

The kings of Sicilia and Bohemia, Leontes and Polixenes, have been friends since childhood. But one day, Leontes is overcome by a feeling of jealousy and accuses his friend of having an affair with his pregnant wife Hermione. A suspicion turns into false accusations with existential consequences. Polixenes is forced to flee, Hermione goes to prison, where she gives birth to a daughter. Leontes refuses to recognize her as his child and abandons her on a foreign shore during a stormy night. Mamillius, the older brother of the girl who is later given the name Perdita by a shepherd, dies of grief. Hermione collapses over her son’s body and is pronounced dead …

With The Winter’s Tale, based on William Shakespeare’sromance of the same name, British star choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has created a modern narrative ballet that – set between the dark atmosphere of the royal court of Sicilia and a pastoral idyll in the spring-like hilly landscape of a fictional Bohemia – deals with fundamental human emotions: “A story of forgiveness and transformation, ultimately proving what we are all capable of: cruelty and compassion, shades of light and shades of darkness”, so Wheeldon. At the end of the gripping drama, the royal couple Leontes and Hermione are reunited and their daughter Perdita, who was thought lost, is returned to her parents, but blind jealousy, madness, death and disappointment have left their mark.

With its world premiere 2014 at the Royal Ballet in London and winning the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2015 for numerous categories including “best classical choreography”, Wheeldon gifted the dance world with another “future classic” following his 2011 hit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – and it now takes its place in the repertoire of the Vienna State Ballet. The Briton, whose roles include Artist Associate at the Royal Ballet, is one of the leading choreographers of his generation and has been hailed as “the magician who has dressed the story ballet in contemporary clothing”.

Wheeldon’s choreography approaches Shakespeare’s tragic storyline, which is also repeatedly imbued with a fairytale-like lightness, with dramaturgical intelligence and a rich visual world, which is congenially supported by Bob Crowley’s impressive set and costume design, the projections by video artist Daniel Brodie and the breathtaking silk effects by Basil Twist. Wheeldon places his movement language at the service of a multi-layered drawing of the characters: sometimes taking up the expressiveness of Modern Dance, sometimes poetically gentle, but also full of virtuosity, further developing the vocabulary of classical ballet. The colourful dances of the shepherds in the second act are in the tradition of the White Acts of romantic ballet, which are committed to pure dance.

On the musical side, the work – following Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Like Water for Chocolate – is characterised by another collaboration between Wheeldon and Joby Talbot. With this commissioned work, the English composer has once again been able to give important impulses to composing for dance. Talbot skilfully fuses classical and world music, shows himself to be a brilliant painter with the colours of the orchestra, a precise draughtsman of characters and atmospheres through his work with leitmotifs and a clever dramaturge in terms of creating musical spaces for everything that distinguishes a ballet, from solos, pas de deux and ensemble scenes to gripping depictions of nature. A particular highlight is the spring festival in the second act, in which a band on stage plays melodies reminiscent of folk music for dancing. Talbot chose instruments from all over the world for this, such as the Indian bamboo flute bansuri or African and South American drums: “I wanted to use folk instruments but didn’t want the music to sound like it was from a specific place in the real world. Shakespeare’s Bohemia is an idyllic, Arcadian paradise, not a real country, and I was keen to try to create the illusion that we are getting a tiny glimpse of the rich musical culture of this imaginary realm.”

Ballet director Martin Schläpfer has scored another coup with the Austrian premiere of The Winter’s Tale in a co-production with the American Ballet Theatre, to whom the set and costume designs made in Vienna will be transferred next season for premieres on the American West Coast and at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Following the first Viennese production of John Neumeier’s The Lady of the Camellias last season, The Winter’s Tale is another recent masterpiece of story ballet to join the repertoire of the Vienna State Ballet. “Wheeldon is a charismatic artist and great choreographer who creates not only for ballet companies but also for Broadway. His work has a fascinating lightness, yet his characters have a great and touching depth”, says Martin Schläpfer about his colleague. “At the moment, there are few people choreographing story ballets at this level and the production is also right up to date in terms of its very complex and elaborate stage design. The plot after Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is based on material that has not been told hundred s of times on the dance stage, but contains wonderful roles that require great experience in performance. I think that we currently have the artists in the Vienna State Ballet’s ensemble who can fulfil this, but who I would also like to see anew with such a work.”

Vienna State Ballet
THE WINTER’S TALE
Venue Vienna State Opera
Premiere 19 November 2024, 7 pm
Further dates 21, 23, 26, 29 November, 1, 6, 17, 20 December 2024
Work introduction ½ hour before the start of each performance in the Gustav Mahler-Saal

Music Joby Talbot
Choreography Christopher Wheeldon
Scenario Christopher Wheeldon & Joby Talbot
Musical Direction Christoph Koncz / Johannes Witt (23 Nov & 6 Dec)
Stage & Costume Design Bob Crowley
Lighting Natasha Katz
Projection Design Daniel Brodie
Silk Effects Design Basil Twist
Staging Jason Fowler, Gregory Mislin, Jillian Vanstone, Edward Watson

Vienna State Ballet
Students of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera

Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera
Stage orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

The cast of dancers will be announced at a later date. You will find them soon → HERE.

The Winter’s Tale is a co-production of the Vienna State Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre New York

Extras for the premiere

TANZPODIUM: NEUE MUSIK FÜR DEN TANZ

To mark the premiere of The Winter’s Tale, ballet director Martin Schläpfer, composer Joby Talbot, dramaturge Anne do Paço and other guests will discuss the topic of new music for dance in the first dance panel of the 2024/25 season. The discussion will be held in German and English.

Venue Vienna State Opera, Gustav Mahler-Saal
Date 10 November 2024, 3 pm
Further information can be found → HERE.

INTRODUCTORY MATINEE

The introductory matinees on Sunday mornings before a premiere at the Vienna State Opera have been a regular feature of the programme of the Vienna State Ballet since Martin Schläpfer took over as director. They offer a variety of insights into the process of creating a ballet and working with the dancers.
The matinee The Winter’s Tale opens up an interesting field of questions for the production team: How does a contemporary choreographer approach the narrative ballet form? How can a Shakespeare drama be adapted for the dance stage? How does Christopher Wheeldon create the characters in his ballet? How should we imagine the collaboration between choreographer and composer? Rehearsal excerpts with dancers from the Vienna State Ballet will deepen the insights. The event will be held in German and English.

Venue Vienna State Opera
Date 17 November 2024, 11 am
Further information can be found → HERE.

DANCE MOVIES: CENTER STAGE
Nicholas Hytner / US 2000 / 115 min / OV with subtitles

It was the dance film of the 2000s and still has cult status among ballet fans and dancers today. Centre Stage tells the story of ballet students in New York who all have the same dream and different problems. American ballet stars such as Julie Kent, Sascha Radetsky and Ethan Stiefel play leading roles in the film, as do the passionate and bravura choreographies – one of which was created by Christopher Wheeldon.

Venue Filmcasino (Margaretenstr. 78)
Date 24 November 2024, 1 pm
followed by a discussion with members of the Vienna State Ballet
Further information can be found → HIER.

This is Dance Data Project^®’s first report examining the endowments and building book values of dance companies in the U.S. This report fills a crucial gap in available research on endowments within the dance community, providing valuable insights into the financial foundations of ballet companies.

The Largest Ballet & Classically Based Companies Leadership Report 202...

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