Respectable
“Ballet Matinee”
John Cranko School
Stuttgart State Opera
Stuttgart, Germany
July 23, 2023
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf
Stuttgart’s John Cranko School presented its work to the public in two matinees this July, both hosted by the Stuttgart State Opera. I chose to see the second one, which – as part of the annual Ballet in the Park program – was also streamed live to an outdoor audience in the Schlossgarten Park right in front of the opera house. Only upon arrival I learned that nearly half of the program was identical to what the school had presented in nearby Ludwigsburg this March.
As in Ludwigsburg, the students first showed an excerpt of the second act of “The Nutcracker” (Petipa, Ivanov, and Vainonen’s choreography). This time Alice McArthur danced the Sugar Plum Fairy, and in the role of her cavalier was again Joshua Nunamaker. Both are among this year’s graduates and exemplify what I observed throughout the matinee: Cranko School students deliver precise positions, clean lines, strong jumps, clear accentuation, solid balances, and – above all – they are fearless. Not a single student failed to rise to the occasion (I admired, above all, Keisuke Miyazaki in his “Swan Lake” variation and Alexei Orohovsky in a variation from “Paquita”). (more…)