Junor Souza in Firebird. (danceeurope.net)
Here’s some pics of one of my favourite male dancers at the moment, ENB’s Junor Souza. I saw him dance the arabesque dance in the Nutcracker this Christmas, and I found his dancing very striking and sensual – and surprisingly sexy for this traditional family classic. Here’s his bio at ENB.
Junor Souza in Le Corsaire (danceeurope.net)
I’m just settling in at home after the ENB’s Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ll reflect more thoughtfully on the production later but I’d just like to say that Daria Klimentova is incredibly gracious to fans at the stage door, after dancing miles around that huge arena of a stage and obviously wanting to get home with her husband. She had her pointe shoes for a particular fan, and a smile and a good word for everyone. It was quite a heart-hammering moment for me to have her make eye contact with me and quite genuinely and interestedly listen whilst I thanked her for her performance and got her autograph. Her Juliet was complex, and moved me to tears.
I just love this!
One thing I was thinking though was bloody hell those ballerinas don’t earn in a year what those footballers earn in a week.
If I was in charge that’d change. But apart from that, enjoy this video! I love the way they look at the women so attentively.
I’m very excited to be able to take part in Dance is the Word 2014, a dance writing course run by the English National Ballet.
I got my confirmation through this morning, and the course starts on Saturday with writing workshops with some well known and respected dance writers, both print critics and bloggers. We’ll be attending and writing about the Emerging Dancer Awards, with opportunities to talk to the dancers themselves.
Hopefully I’ll be able to blog in a personal capacity about my experience and thrash out some writing questions with you lot! Keep your eyes on Twitter for updates and photos!
BUT.
They’re for Daria Klimentova’s LAST PERFORMANCE with the English National Ballet!
Are you swooning yet?
AND
oh yes
She’s dancing Juliet with Vadim Muntagirov as Romeo
At the Royal Albert Hall. In the round. Just casual, like.
Here comes the sad part…
It’s not til June!
I admire Daria so much. Have you seen the ENB three-part documentary? I found the first two on YouTube but the third part was so pixelly and rubbish I gave up. The first part followed the company as they rehearsed Swan Lake. Daria was only dancing Odette/Odile as a rehearsal stand-in before some flashy Russian was scheduled to fly in two seconds before the opening curtain or something and take over. She gets given so much outrageous crap by the director and just gets on with it, with grace and good humour. Of course we know now that she did open in that production of Swan Lake and her and Vadim’s performance sparked the renaissance of Daria’s career and drew comparisons with Fonteyn and Nureyev from the critics. HA!
Expect a lot of Daria love in the next few months.
Entrechat. 