Their productions are a ballet based on Spanish folklore. The performances are a bold symbiosis of flamenco traditions with the most avant-garde dance trends. And how can it be otherwise, if the founder of the collective is Antonio Najarro?
Najarro is not afraid to experiment, he mixes different styles, trends, cultures, giving life to a completely new choreography. His achievements have been repeatedly awarded with various prestigious awards. In particular, he became the best choreographer at the International Competition of Spanish Dance and Flamenco in Seville (2008), received the APDE Award (2012), awarded by the Association of Teachers of Spanish Classical Dance and Flamenco Dance for his contribution to the development of art.
Having created his own company in 2002, Najarro got the opportunity to implement the most daring and unexpected projects. The repertoire of his troupe includes bright productions, for each of which an original choreographic alloy has been created. For example, in the Flamencoriental performance, Najarro combined flamenco with the dance language of various eastern cultures: Egyptian, Arabic, Indian and Turkish. And in Jazzing flamenco, two "fiery" genres are intertwined: Latin American choreography with Spanish dance.
Today it is a respected ballet company that actively tours around the world, presenting bright and unexpected dance shows to the public, which is known and talked about far beyond the borders of Spain.
Безумные, неудержимые, стремительные — они доказывают, что могут быть совершенно разными.
Dance Open 2019: «Masters», хореография: Нильс Кристе, Ханс ван Манен, Каэтано Сото
English National Ballet
One of the five largest ballet companies in the UK, the English National Ballet has existed for more than 70 years. Since its foundation, the team's mission has been to introduce classical ballet to the general public.
The history of the company goes back to the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. It was there that its future founders, the dance couple Alice Marks and Patrick Healy-Kay, began their career. Like all like all Europeans in the team Diaghilev's students were "christened" with stage Russian names, turning into Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, and grew into stars of the ballet scene. After the death of the brilliant entrepreneur, his team collapsed, but several new appeared, one of which was the Markova and Dolina troupe, titled London Festival Ballet.
In the very first years, they gained a reputation as indefatigable enthusiasts, for the first time introducing residents of the most remote corners of their native country to such masterpieces as Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and others. Over time, the classical repertoire of the company began to be replenished with names that were rare even for the London public, such as Etudes by Harald Lander or Sylphide by August Bournonville.
In the 1970s, under the directorship of Dame Beryl Grey, the company struck a partnership with Rudolf Nureyev, who created his version of Romeo & Juliet for them in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. They toured extensively with him around the world.
The bright phase of the creative path of the team continued in 1984, when Peter Schaufuss took over the post of director. Thanks to him, the company got its current name-the English National Ballet, and found its own school. Schaufuss managed to convince Princess Diana to act as a patroness. Thanks to this, the most outstanding choreographers of the world began to partner with the troupe, including Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth Macmillan, Christopher Bruce, Michael Clarke, John Neumeier, George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Roland Petit, Maurice Bejart and John Cranko.
The contemporary repertoire strategy of the English National Ballet was articulated in 2012, when the company was headed by ex-prima Tamara Rojo. Taking a course on modern dance, she persuaded William Forsythe to create an original production, changed the classic Giselle to a radical version of Akram Khan — and turned the English National Ballet into one of the most dynamic and unpredictable companies in the world. They can still be watched in the British province, but it is still much easier to catch them on the stages of the Paris Opéra or the Moscow Bolshoi.
Dance Open 2020: «SLEEPING BEAUTY», choreography: Jeroen Verbruggen
Leipziger Ballett
One of the most exciting international dance companies in Germany. 40 creative and expressive dancers from more than 20 nations know how to thrill with their virtuosity in choreographic works ranging from neoclassical ballet to contemporary dance. Between tradition and progress, ballet director and chief choreographer Mario Schröder, together with his company, is a bridge-builder between art and society, thus developing a charisma that radiates well beyond the borders of Leipzig.
Important names of 20th century dance history, like Mary Wigman or Uwe Scholz, are linked to this long- established ensemble. From 1991, the latter left his mark on the company like no one else before him and created his key works in Leipzig. Until the present day the legacy of Uwe Scholz is alive in the Leipziger Ballett’s repertoire.
Mario Schröder, ballet director and chief choreographer since the 2010/11 season, has taken the company to the 21st century. In his language of dance, the excellence and precision of Neoclassicism is united with the individuality and expressive power of contemporary dance. With immense creative power he has created countless new choreographies that could not be more different: Time and again Schröder has investigated icons of film, music and pop culture, thus producing full-evening dance events like Chaplin, Morrison or Murder Ballads. Over the last years, the Leipzig head choreographer has turned to the musical grandmasters from Classicism to Modernity. He is particularly fascinated by the power of the collective, the choir. His Mozart Requiem or Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, which Schröder combined with Poulenc’s Figure humaine, released torrents of enthusiasm with both critics and the audience. Schröder’s choreographic dialogue with his late mentor Uwe Scholz, who passed away in 2004, has never ceased. Not only do his works remain on the programme, but they are also questioned, commented and complemented with Schröder’s own choreographies (Pax 2013, Rachmaninov).
One of the biggest assets of the Leipzig Company lies in its stylistic diversity. The dancers perfectly know how to switch between different styles.
This is not least owing to the fact that right from the beginning of the Schröder era, numerous choreographers of international renown have constantly extended the dancers’ language of movement, e. g. Meryl Tankard (Cinderella), Ohad Naharin (Decadance), Ivan Perez (Flesh) or Thierry Malandain (Mozart à Deux / Don Juan).
With their exceptionally diverse repertoire, the Leipziger Ballett is one of the most sought-after tour companies. Guest performances have sold out theatres and rapt audiences in Columbia, Brazil, Taiwan, the Czech Republic and Spain.
The company impressively shows that they can present a sophisticated and even artistically challenging ballet in perfection.
Ballett Dortmund is on top. The company of Xin Peng Wang admires the audience with every performance. The company is great in contemporary pieces as well as in classic and neoclassic ballets.
Dance Open 2020: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, choreography by Alexander Ekman
Dance Open 2019: Alice, choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti
Tobias Ehinger and Xin Peng Wang about ballet Alice (2019)
Ballett Dortmund
The unique mixture of classics and modernism, acrobatic technique and virtuoso dances breaking the laws of physics and gravitation… In the recent decades a small modest company without extreme funding or legendary chronicles is developing so quickly that it’s used to be called a «Dortmund miracle».
This miracle is an unquestionable merit of the Chinese choreographer Xin Peng Wang, Dortmund’s ballet director since 2003. He studied choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy and modern dance at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (a cradle of contemporary German choreography). The huge and varied experience was acquired by him during his projects as a freelance choreographer worldwide: at the Hong Kong Ballet, National Ballet of China, Contemporary Dance Festival in New York, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Flanders Ballet, Ballett Dortmund as well as at many others.
Xin Peng Wang may be considered a genuine wizard. Otherwise, many of surprising miracles would never have happen with his company. In example, Mauro Bigonzetti’s Alice which obtained a remarkable success both in Dortmund and in St. Petersburg in frames of the XVIII season of Dance Open festival. The extraordinary Italian choreographer preaches that the human body is a source of infinite opportunities, expecting the same from the dancers he works with. One should be a bit crazy and very passionate in order to perform his choreographies insightfully and brilliantly as the Dortmund Ballet does.
Walking down the line of exploration of the other sides of mentality and the principles of irrational worlds, the company ventured an outstanding collaboration with Alexander Ekman. He, who is used to break new ground in each of his pieces, as alternative and offbeat as almost no one else, requires the dancers to respond him totally. The result of this cooperation — The Midsummer Night's Dream — it to be judged at the XIX Dance Open in Petersburg and to prove once again that Dortmund Ballet copes with any task with both virtuosity and charm.
Over the past few years, Dortmund Ballet has also worked with such choreographers as William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Douglas Lee, Christian Spuck, Edwaard Liang, Benjamin Millepied, Demis Volpi, Jiří Bubeníček. Even the short list of such names demonstrates the range of audacity and talent of the company.
They don't do ballet. They don't just do flamenco. But they did prise Spanish dance … and develop it into a riot of different styles.
The delights are more to be found in the moments when the stage is flooded with BNE’s drilled dancers, the women flirtatiously wielding bata de cola and fan, the men restlessly thundering out flamenco’s furious footwork. But there’s rather a lot in need of pruning around these pleasures.
The sharp, sleek unison phrases and passionate masculine energy of the dancers have entranced viewers around the world as much as it wowed the fashion influencers in the live audience.
Dance Open 2020: «INVOCACIÓN», choreography: Rubén Olmo, Antonio Najarro
Ballet Nacional de España
Founded in 1978, the company focuses on the preservation, development and promotion of Spanish dance traditions in all their variety, including classical, stylized and folk dance, as well as the traditions of bolero and flamenco.
The company, led since 2019 by Rubén Olmo, is active on the international stage and consistently works to attract new audiences. The “canon” of Spanish dance makes up a significant part of their repertoire, but the company also simultaneously develops new directions, open to avant garde influences and movements. In this regard and with no fear of experimenting, the company has invited the world’s leading choreographers, as well as young directors, to collaborate. Tours are also an important part of the company’s work, and Ballet Nacional de España performs regularly throughout Spain and abroad, alternating between large-scale productions and shorter pieces that give an overview of the very different aspects of Spanish dance traditions and their modern developments.
Occupying the vanguard of Spanish dance, the Ballet Nacional de España pays a lot of attention to its educational duties. The schools and universities of Spain benefit from a wide range of educational projects, while the company also organizes studios, concerts, and lectures for children. In 2016, the ballet’s first book, a history of flamenco, was published and the company also launched the children’s quest game Bailando un Tesoro—“Dance for Treasure”. Numerous seminars and masterclasses for dance professionals allow the school’s adherents to maintain the highest technical levels, attract new followers all over the world, exchange ideas, and seek out new interpretations.
The company has won numerous national and international awards, including the New York Metropolitan Critics' Prize for the Best Foreign Show in 1988, the Japanese Critics' Prize in 1991, the Critics’ Prize for Best Show at the Bellas Artes Theater in Mexico City in 1994, the Spanish newspaper El Pais (Tentaciones) Prize for the show Poeta in 1999, the Critics’ Prize and Audience Prize at the Festival de Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera in 2002 for the choreography of Fuenteovejuna by Antonio Gades, the Audience Prize at the Festival de Jerez in 2018, the audience-voted Awards Teatro de Rojas in Toledo in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014) and an Extraordinary Prize “For Contribution to the Preservation and Promotion of the Best Traditions of Flamenco at the Cante de las Minas International Festival in 2010.
