O actual director do Ballet Real de Inglaterra, Kevin O’Hare, fez anunciar no final de Junho – como em qualquer companhia minimamente profissional e de gabarito – as promoções, o recrutamento de novos bailarinos e as saídas de outros.
Assim sendo foi revelado que o nosso compatriota Marcelino Sambé acabou de ser promovido a solista, categoria que muito enobrece o seu trabalho e estatuto dentro da conhecida companhia.
Sabe-se que no final deste ano virá a Lisboa dançar o papel principal masculino de “A Bela Adormecida”, a convite da Companhia Nacional de Bailado.
Para esta companhia virá, em Setembro, Maria Barroso, que na última temporada estagiou no Royal ao abrigo do Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme.
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, has made the following promotions for the forthcoming Season:
Francesca Hayward and James Hay have been promoted to First Soloists.
Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Luca Acri, Nicol Edmonds, and Marcelino Sambé are promoted to Soloists. Camille Bracher, Mayara Magri, Leticia Stock, Matthew Ball, Sander Blommaert, Tomas Mock and Donald Thom are promoted to First Artists.
Joining the Company at the start of the Season will be Chisato Katsura from The Royal Ballet School. Grace Blundell (formerly at The Royal Ballet School) and Ashley Scott(who formerly attended The English National Ballet School), both part of the 2014/15 Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme, join the Company alongside 2015 Prix de Lausannedancer David Yudes. All join as Artists.
The Royal Ballet welcomes five dancers to the Company for the 2015/16 Season as part of the Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme. The programme provides an opportunity for recently graduated dancers to receive a year’s contract to work alongside the corps de ballet of The Royal Ballet. In addition the dancers are offered mentoring and coaching and have the opportunity to perform with the Company. Next Season’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers are Isabel Lubach, Julia Roscoe, Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød, Harry Churches and Leo Dixon, all from The Royal Ballet School. Julian MacKay joins the Company as Prix de Lausanne Dancer for the 2015/16 Season.
All remaining Aud Jebsen Young Dancers from the 2014/15 Season have been offered contracts as follows: Maria Barroso joins the National Ballet of Portugal, Grace Horlerjoins Scottish Ballet and Ashleigh McKimmie joins the Estonian National Ballet.
Charlotte Edmonds will join The Royal Ballet for the 2015/16 Season as the first choreographer to participate in the new Royal Ballet Young Choreographer Programme mentored by Kevin O’Hare and Wayne McGregor. The Young Choreographer Programme is a 12-month position for an emerging choreographer to shadow Royal Ballet and visiting choreographers and utilize the Company resources to create work. Eighteen-year-old Edmonds choreographed the short film The Indifferent Beak for The Royal Ballet as part of Deloitte Ignite 2014 and is currently studying for a BA at theRambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She trained at The Royal Ballet School and was a finalist in the Ninette de Valois Junior Choreographic competition for three consecutive years. She also won the Kenneth MacMillan Senior Choreographic Competition in 2011 and 2012.
First Soloist Deirdre Chapman retired from the Company mid-Season, with her final performance in Kim Brandstrup’s Ceremony of Innocence in November 2014. First Artists Pietra Mello-Pittman and Ludovic Ondiviela also left the Company mid-season.
First Artists Jacqueline Clark, Elsa Godard, Michael Stojko and Andrej Uspenski leave the Company at the end of this Season. For the 2015/16 Season Andrej Uspenski will be engaged as a photographer for The Royal Ballet and other departments across the Royal Opera House.
First Soloist Melissa Hamilton will take a sabbatical for the 2015/16 Season to spend the year as a principal dancer with the Semperoper Ballett in Dresden.
First Artist Leanne Cope continues her sabbatical for the 2015/16 Season playing Lise Dassin in the Tony Award-winning An American in Paris, directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet.