Latest Posts

A Recap

“Malditos Benditos”
Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg
State Theater
Nuremberg, Germany
July 10, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © J.VallinasMalditos Benditos (“Damned Blessed Ones”) is Goyo Montero’s farewell piece to Nuremberg. After seventeen years as artistic director of the State Theater’s ballet company, the Spaniard will leave for the State Ballet Hanover this autumn to take up the reins Marco Goecke was forced to give up in 2023. Richard Siegal, director of the Cologne-based Ballet of Difference, will succeed Montero in Nuremberg and bring his dancers along. They will merge with their Nuremberg colleagues into the State Theater Nuremberg Ballet of Difference.
Malditos Benditos is the counterpart to Benditos Malditos, Montero’s first creation in Nuremberg in 2008. Many of the intervening twenty-five productions are reflected in Malditos Benditos. Applause blended into the medley of musical snippets and electronic noise as the black curtain rose. The black-suited dancers (costumes by Goyo Montero and Margaux Manns) bowed to the applause of an imaginary audience at the rear stage, framed by a bright red curtain.
3. G.Montero and E.Nunes, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © J.Vallinas 2. Ensemle, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © J.Vallinas The lines of Joaquín Sabina’s poem Benditos Malditos (set to music by Montero’s longstanding collaborator, Owen Belton) accompanied one dancer as he stepped away from the curtain call as if performing in rewind. The following sixteen scenes were related to previous works and, with two exceptions, had new choreographies and contexts. The main connections to Benditos Malditos were the poems of Sabina, a Spanish musician and composer, whom Montero likened to Spain’s Bob Dylan. Montero incorporated many of Sabina’s poems in 2008 and used the five remaining poems for Malditos Benditos which Belton set to music.
4. G.Montero and T.Montero, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada5. T.Montero and ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada The score moreover included other compositions by Belton and music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Miguel Poveda. Tenor Martin Platz, standing on a chair amidst the dancers in one scene, sang a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. (At the premiere and on some evenings, Montero’s son Theo sang the cantata opposite his father, who joined the dancers.) One highlight was the penultimate scene, It’s Alright, Ma, set to the eponymous song by Bob Dylan. Each of the company’s twenty-four dancers had solos in this song, and everyone went full throttle as if performing for the last time. A purple curtain provided a gala atmosphere, which some slapstick lightened.
7. G.Schillaci, C.Pearson, J.Hackett, M.Vieira, J.Ariës, and A.Uzunova; “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada6. A.Uzunova and E.Mannella, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.QuezadaOverall, though, the music created a sense of both serenity and melancholy. Only the scene, Steppenwolf (relating to Montero’s eponymous 2023 choreography), had an aggressive soundtrack. Its text (dealing with “savage deeds,” “hatred,” “decay,” and “death”) was recited by a monotonous computer voice and simultaneously seemed to hurtle toward the audience in huge white letters via a backdrop video. It overshadowed the group dance on the front stage.

8. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © J.Vallinas9. S.Tozzi and ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada Although I have seen some of Montero’s productions over the past years, I’m not familiar with his oeuvre and hardly recognize the elements he took from earlier works. But given how dense the sixty minutes of Malditos Benditos felt, the references seemed overabundant. For example, I don’t know to which piece the golden rescue blanket belongs, the creased surface upon which a woman in a golden-colored unitard rolled around with relish. Marzellina’s lines from Beethoven’s Fidelio, “Happy I shall be,” affirmed the ballerina’s pleasure. She was filmed by a cameraman on stage, and the video was projected onto the backdrop like in Hans van Manen’s Live. After the crumpled-up blanket had been discarded like trash, a wooden puppet (belonging to Montero’s 2011 Nutcracker) appeared. Some puppeteers made it dance with the ballerina, which reminded me of the puppets in the Stanislavsky Ballet’s new Petrushka.
11. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada 10. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © J.VallinasIn one scene, the air was tense after two men kissed; mysterious flashlights searched the foggy darkness of another scene. The orange-red window that subsequently opened on the backdrop might have led to hell. Dark colored chairs reappeared again and again. According to Montero, there were three hundred in total, representing the artists and ideas that appeared on Nuremberg’s stage during the past seventeen years. The dancers sat and stood on them, shoved them around, piled them into pyre-like heaps, and played a Trip to Jerusalem-like game. When they sat in a semicircle, their hands smacking their thighs, I couldn’t help but think of Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16.

Though the scenes sometimes felt like piecemeal, the quality of the dance was consistently high. The dancers’ stage presence was mesmerizing, their dynamic fabulous, and the intensity of their performance gripping. Nuremberg’s audience celebrated them with standing ovations.
12. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by G.Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © C.Quezada

Links: Website of the State Theater Nuremberg
Malditos Benditos” – Trailer
“Malditos Benditos” – All Ye Whom Love
Photos: 1. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Jesús Vallinas
2. Ensemle, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Jesús Vallinas
3. Goyo Montero and Edward Nunes, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Jesús Vallinas
4. Goyo Montero and Theo Montero, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
5. Theo Montero and ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
6. Alisa Uzunova and Elliana Mannella, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
7. Giuseppe Schillaci, Camryn Pearson, John Hackett, Mariana Vieira, Jay Ariës, and Alisa Uzunova; “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
8. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Jesús Vallinas
9. Stella Tozzi and ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
10. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Jesús Vallinas
11. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
12. Ensemble, “Malditos Benditos” by Goyo Montero, Ballet of the State Theater Nuremberg 2025 © Carlos Quezada
Editing: Kayla Kauffman

 

Too Bad

“Scheherazade”
Czech National Ballet
National Theatre
Prague, Czech Republic
June 21, 2025 (matinee)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. N.Nakagawa (Scheherazade), “Scheherazade” by M.Bigonzetti, Czech National Ballet 2025 © S.Gherciu To be upfront, Mauro Bigonzetti’s new Scheherazade for the Czech National Ballet is no asset to its repertory. Its choreography is meager and the plot thin; the characters lack depth, and the digital set design is unconvincing.
Bigonzetti takes up the narrative thread where Fokine’s 1910 Scheherazade for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes ends. Zobeida, the favorite but unfaithful wife of Shahryar, the king of Persia, had died. Enraged about womanhood in general, Shahryar took revenge by killing every woman he slept with the morning after their first night together. Scheherazade, the clever daughter of his vizier, put a stop to the slaughter. The tales she narrated to the king each night (collected in the Middle Eastern folk tale, One Thousand and One Nights) softened him.
Bigonzetti portrayed the women in line for Shahryar, among them Scheherazade (Nana Nakagawa), who was ready to sacrifice herself. (more…)

Eerie

“Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”
Laterna magika
The New Stage
Prague, Czech Republic
June 20, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Z.Piškula (Orlik) and P.Stach (Richard/Polecat), “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders,” Laterna magika 2025 © V.Brtnický The Czech avant-garde author Vítězlav Nezval’s gothic novel, Valery and Her Week of Wonders, written in 1935 and published in 1945, has experienced a revival at home. It was first adapted for the stage in 1967, and a new production was shown in Prague only forty years later in 2008. In 2023, two Czech companies simultaneously presented stage versions of Valeria and Her Week of Wonders; the West Bohemian Theatre in Cheb (located between Karlovy Vary and the Czech/German border) and Laterna magika in Prague. I saw Laterna magika’s production.

The wonders that Nezval’s teenage heroine, Valerie, experiences during the span of one week are far from wonderful and are rather a sexually laden horror trip that torpedoes her into womanhood. Events unfold with a dream Valerie has on the night of her first menstruation. Only late in the novel does this dream verge into the realm of reality, which it soon forsakes for a Garden of Eden-like happy ending. (more…)

Prix Benois Laureates 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 17, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Y.Grigorovich, Prix Benois Award Ceremony, Bolshoi Theatre 2025 © B.AnnadurdyevYesterday evening, the Prix Benois laureates were announced on the Bolshoi Theatre’s historic stage for the 33rd time.

Mthuthuzeli November won the prize for best choreography in absentia for Chapter Two, a creation for Cape Ballet Africa in South Africa. The Mariinsky Ballet’s Renata Shakirova won the best female dancer prize for her performance as Swanilda in Alexander Sergeev’s new Coppélia. Like last year, the prize for the best male dancer was awarded twice. Joshua Williams received the Prix Benois for his performance in November’s Chapter Two; Dmitry Smilevsky (Bolshoi Ballet) was awarded for his performances as Mercutio in Leonid Lavrovsky’s version of Romeo and Juliet and Prince Désiré in Yuri Grigorovich’s version of The Sleeping Beauty. (more…)

Dancer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Bolshoi Theatre © Bolshoi Theatre/D.Yusupov2. Statuette of the Prix Benois de la Danse, design by I.Ustinov © Benois Center As in 2024, the Prix Benois jury nominated thirteen dancers from eight companies for this season’s award. Of the six women and seven men, two dance in China, France, and South Africa; one dances in Kazakhstan; and six, Russia. Next Tuesday, the laureates will be announced at an award ceremony at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

Here’s a short overview of the nominees in alphabetical order by company name: (more…)

Choreographer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2025

Prix Benois de la Danse
Mukaram Avakhri, Wang Ge, Thomas Lebrun, Andrey Merkuriev, Mthuthuzeli November, Alexander Sergeev
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)

Moscow, Russia
June 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Bolshoi Theatre © Bolshoi Theatre/D.Yusupov2. Statuette of the Prix Benois de la Danse, design by I.Ustinov © Benois Center On June 17th, the Bolshoi Theatre’s Historic Stage will host the annual Prix Benois charity gala and awards ceremony. Traditionally, laureates of previous years have performed in a gala concert on the following evening. Prizes will be awarded for the best choreographer, female dancer, and male dancer. This year’s festival will pay tribute to Yuri Grigorovich, who passed away on May 19th. Grigorovich founded the Prix Benois competition in 1991 and served as chairman of the jury, artistic director, and president.
Below is an overview of the six nominated choreographers. A report of the dancer nominees will follow. (more…)

Quarrel in Hamburg

The Hamburg Ballet
Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg, Germany
June 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

D.Volpi and L.Haslach rehearsing “Demian” by D.Volpi, The Hamburg Ballet 2025 © K.WestAfter John Neumeier handed over the artistic reins of the Hamburg Ballet to Demis Volpi, a smooth transition process seemed underway. Volpi, whose career as a dancer and choreographer began in Stuttgart, was artistic director of the Ballett am Rhein when Neumeier’s successor came into question. A selection committee of eleven (including Ted Brandsen, Dutch National Ballet; Tamas Detrich, Stuttgart Ballet; Brigitte Lefèvre, Paris Opera Ballet; and Ashley Wheater, Joeffrey Ballet) recommended Volpi to the Hamburg State Opera board of directors. As it happens, he was Neumeier’s desired candidate. In 2022, the then thirty-seven-year-old Volpi was unanimously elected as Hamburg Ballet’s new artistic director as of August 2024. (more…)

Much Hot Air

“FireWorks”
Gauthier Dance
Theaterhaus Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany
April 30, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Hold me Now” by D.Dumais, Gauthier Dance 2025 © J.Bak Gauthier Dance’s latest program, FireWorks, is an homage to the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, its home since the company’s foundation in 2007. This year, the Theaterhaus celebrates its fortieth anniversary. In honor of the occasion, the company’s director, Eric Gauthier, selected forty short pieces of music performed at the Theaterhaus over the past decades and asked ten choreographers (among them long-term collaborators) to choose one for a new piece for FireWorks.
A born entertainer, Gauthier introduced the program on opening night, welcomed some choreographers, and, in doing so, put the audience in a celebratory mood.

The company’s sixteen dancers sat on chairs lined along the wings with a red carpet between them. As they acted like an onstage audience, a trumpet solo signaled something big to come. It belonged to Ciocârliǎ și suite by Fanfare Ciocǎrlia to which the troupe’s artist in residence, Barak Marshall, created The Gathering, an assembly of athletic and showy solos and partner dances during which the dancers roared and cheered each other. (more…)

Thunderous

Night on the Bald Mountain”
Igor Moiseyev Ballet

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
Moscow, Russia
April 23, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Night on the Bald Mountain”, Igor Moiseyev Ballet 2025 © Igor Moiseyev Ballet/ E.MasalkovThe stage shook under the stomping jumps of Roman Gavrilov as if to enforce his courtship with Kristina Kuznetsova in the Russian folk dance, Summer. The couple was the first to step onto the stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall where the Igor Moiseyev company presented its program, Night on the Bald Mountain, on two consecutive days. The twelve couples that framed Kuznetsova and Gavrilov in a V-shape wore vibrant traditional garments, a signature feature of their folk-dance repertory. Compared to the performance of Summer I saw two years ago at another Moscow venue, the dancers seemed even more snappy and vigorous. Each step was clean and decisive, and the pace was mind-boggling. The Hopak sequences went on as if the dancers’ legs were inexhaustible. Calling it a lightning opening would be an understatement. (more…)

Full of Spirits

“The Tempest”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
April 22, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. D.Savin (Prospero), “The Tempest” by V.Samodurov, Bolshoi Ballet 2025 © Bolshoi Theatre/E.Fetisova For his latest choreography for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2024—The Tempest (after Shakespeare’s play)—Vyacheslav Samodurov again teamed up with composer Yuri Krasavin. Both had already collaborated on the one-act ballet Dancemania in 2022. This time, their cooperation must have been tempestuous. “Vyacheslav Samodurov and I did not get along right away…I still see this play completely different,” Krasavin stated in an interview. While Krasavin believed that he accompanied rather than led the artistic process, for Samodurov, “Music comes always first and the composer is the boss in many ways.” But whoever was the boss, the score (played by the Bolshoi Orchestra under the baton of Pavel Klinichev) was mesmerizing. (more…)

New Takes

Stravinsky. Puppets. Dances”
Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Moscow, Russia

April 20, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. D.Dmitriev (Moor), E.Zhukov (Petrushka), and O.Kardash (Ballerina); “Petrushka” by K.Semenov, Stanislavsky Ballet 2025 © Stanislavsky Ballet/Y.Gubina The Stanislavsky Ballet’s new double bill, Stravinsky. Puppets. Dances, attracted large crowds, especially because they scheduled only five performances over three consecutive days. The two ballets, Petrushka and The Firebird, were originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1911 and 1910, respectively. Both are set to compositions by Igor Stravinsky. The Stanislavsky Theatre presented new interpretations by Kirill Radev (The Firebird)—a former choreographer of the Barcelona Ballet—and Konstantin Semenov (Petrushka)—a dancer-cum-choreographer from the company’s own ranks, whose one-act piece, Through the Looking-Glass I saw in 2023. Both teamed up with stage director Alexey Frandetti (a Tashkent native who later moved to Moscow) and set designer Viktor Nikonenko. The internationally awarded Nikonenko is a puppet maker at Moscow’s State Academic Central Puppet Theater S.V. Obraztsov, which cooperated with the Stanislavsky Theatre for the first time (an exhibition of puppets and photos from the S.V. Obraztsov museum was shown at the Stanislavsky as well). (more…)

A Farewell Triplet

“Pathétique” (“Divertimento No. 15”/“Summerspace”/“Pathétique”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
April 09, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Divertimento No. 15” by G.Balanchine © George Balanchine Trust, Vienna State Ballet 2025 © Vienna State Ballet/A.TaylorTriple bills have become a trademark of the Vienna State Ballet since Martin Schläpfer took over as artistic director in 2020. The latest, Pathétique, is titled after Schläpfer’s newest and last creation. As on previous occasions, the program’s safe and well-tested base was a Balanchine followed by Cunningham’s Summerspace. (more…)

Much story, little dance

“Édith Piaf – La vie en rose”
Finnish National Ballet
Opera House
Helsinki, Finland
March 15, 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

 1. T.Myllymäki (Édith Piaf), “Édith Piaf – La vie en rose” by R.Wäre, Finnish National Ballet 2025 © J.Lundqvist 2. T.Myllymäki, L.Haakana, H.J.Kang, and S.Kunnari (Édith Piaf); “Édith Piaf – La vie en rose” by R.Wäre, Finnish National Ballet 2025 © J.Lundqvist Two weeks after its world premiere, the Finnish National Ballet streamed its latest piece, Édith Piaf – La vie en rose, live on the online platform Stage 24. Sami Sykkö presented the live stream and conducted several interviews during the break. I was able to watch a recording a few days later.

Javier Torres, the company’s artistic director, assembled an entirely Finnish artistic team for Édith Piaf – La vie en rose. It is choreographer Reija Wäre’s (whose previous work stretches various genres, including opera and street dance, TV shows, and sports events) first full-length production. Composer Jukka Nykänen also has a reputation as a pianist. Jani Uljas designed the set; Erika Turunen, the costumes. (more…)

Family Feeling

“Dream Team” (“Jardi Tancat”/“The Blue Brides”/“Lickety-Split”/“High Moon”)
Gauthier Dance Juniors
Theaterhaus Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany
March 15, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

1. Ensemble, “Jardí Tancat” by N.Duato, Gauthier Dance Juniors 2025 © J.BakIs it the laid-back, feel-good attitude of Eric Gauthier, director and choreographer of Gauthier Dance, that makes his company’s performances feel like family gatherings? A sense of family also unites his junior company, which was founded in 2022 and comprises six dancers (three men and three women) from Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and Taiwan. Their latest mixed bill, Dream Team, premiered in January. It includes two podcasts that fill the breaks the performers take to change costumes. In them, Gauthier chats with his juniors and the choreographers. When talking about their group spirit, the young dancers call Gauthier their boss whereas Gauthier seems like a proud daddy.

The original title of the program (Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue—quoting a traditional English wedding rhyme that details what a bride should wear for good luck) referred to the selection of pieces. (more…)

Brimful

“Cipollino”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
March 08, 2025 (matinee and evening performance)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

 1. S.Maymula (Little Radish), I.Sorokin (Cipollino), A.Vinokur (Mother Radish), and E.Besedina (Mother Cipolla), “Cipollino” by G.Mayorov, Bolshoi Ballet 2025 © Bolshoi Theatre/E.FetisovaThe boy Cippolino (Little Onion), the hero of Gianni Rodari’s 1957 children’s book Adventures of Cipollino, enjoyed an international career. He was especially popular in eastern countries and a famous cartoon and film figure in the Soviet Union. A ballet adaption by Genrikh Mayorov (1936-2022) entered the Bolshoi Ballet’s repertory three years after its Kiev premiere. Cipollino was revived at the Bolshoi earlier this season and still attracts crowds. Though a children’s fairy tale, adults can appreciate the production, especially when danced at top quality. I saw a matinee attended primarily by children and their parents as well as a sold-out evening performance.

The young Cipollino and his family are members of jovial townsfolk who are anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables—Cobbler Grape, Professor Pear, Godfather Pumpkin, and the Radish family, whose daughter, Little Radish, becomes Cipollino’s best buddy. They’re ruled by the high-handed, eccentric Prince Lemon whose court includes an acerbic guard, ludicrous knights, and the two overexcited Countesses Cherry. (more…)