Wales Millennium Centre will be hosting the only UK performances of Norwegian National Ballet’s new production of the iconic classical ballet The Sleeping Beauty in June. Based in Oslo and directed by Espen Giljane, Norwegian National Ballet will be the third ballet company to perform at WMC since it opened in November 2004 following successful performances by the Kirov Ballet and The Australian Ballet in 2005. This production, supported by the Norwegian Government to develop cultural ties between Oslo and Cardiff, is staged by the Company’s ballet master Janek Schergen. The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet held in great affection by Schergen who has distilled in this Norwegian Beauty all he considers best in the seven previous productions he has staged around the world. Wales Millennium Centre’s Marketing and Programming Director, Fiona Allan, explains, “This tour has been made possible by the support of the Norwegian Government, as a demonstration of their commitment to building cultural ties between Norway and Wales. In 2008 the Norwegian National Ballet will move into a new home - an architecturally distinctive opera and dance house being built on the waterfront in Oslo, also to be the home of the Norwegian Opera. This tour paves the way for further cultural exchange between the WMC and the new Oslo centre, the two newest arts centres in European capital cities. “This is a traditional fairy-tale production of a well known classic, one which I’m sure will be loved by audiences all over the UK. To hold a UK exclusive season of the Norwegian National Ballet, one of the most exciting ballet companies in Europe, reinforces WMC’s commitment to bringing Welsh and UK audiences the very best new productions from around the world. “Our stage, one of the biggest in the UK, is well equipped to deal with the grand scale of this production and it will be our pleasure to host the Norwegian National Ballet for the first time. The London Gala Orchestra, conducted by Terje Boye Hansen, will also play live at all performances.” The designs and costumes have been inspired by the late 19th century storybook volumes of Edmund Dulac, a celebrated illustrator and contemporary of Petipa who created the original Sleeping Beauty on which Schergen’s ballet is based. Sandra Woodall, the San Francisco-based designer, has meticulously researched the Dulac illustrations and reproduced them in a huge range of gowns and tutus created with lavish silks from China, specially commissioned embroidery from India and sparkling appliqué from Africa. This is the largest production the company has staged in its 61 year history and is in stark contrast to the darkly provocative Sleeping Beauty choreographed by Mats Ek that is also in its repertoire (NNB premiere in 2001). At the pinnacle of the classical ballet heritage, The Sleeping Beauty has been a major source of inspiration and a career cornerstone for many of the world’s most famous dancers and choreographers: for Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev it was the first ballet they ever saw; it was Tchaikovsky’s first successful ballet score; Nureyev made his western debut in The Sleeping Beauty; Balanchine’s first ever stage appearance was as a cupid in The Sleeping Beauty at the Maryinsky Theatre; and the Sadler’s Wells Ballet danced a legendary production of The Sleeping Beauty as the Royal Ballet for the first time in a performance to mark the re-opening of the Royal Opera House after the second world war. The Norwegian National Ballet is Norway’s first and only classical ballet company and has been directed by former New York City Ballet dancer Espen Giljane since 2002. It has many British roots, having been jointly founded by British dancer Louise Brown and directed at various times by Joan Harris and Brenda Last. Currently the company has 10 British dancers in its ranks and several more who trained at the Royal Ballet. The Norwegian National Ballet is presented in the UK by Wales Millennium Centre with tour management by Askonas Holt Ltd. The company last performed in the UK at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 1999. Tickets for this show range from £5-£34 and to book your tickets, contact the WMC ticket and information office on 08700 40 2000 or visit: www.wmc.org.uk Performance Information: Ticket prices £5-£34 Wales Millennium Centre box office tel: 08700 40 2000 Web-site: www.wmc.org.uk Performances at 7.30pm on Wed 21, Thur 22, Fri 23, Sat 24 June Performances at 1.30pm on Thur 22 & Sat 24 June Performance at 3pm on Sunday 25 June NORWEGIAN NATIONAL BALLET Critical acclaim for the world premiere of NNB’s Sleeping Beauty, 17 March 2006, Oslo: “From a visual point of view the presentation is magnificent. Sandra Woodall has created a unique adventure world you will never forget. The dancers do a fabulous job in this charming fairy tale performance.” (Dagsvisen) “It is a real delight to see the National Ballet…Maiko Nishino gets better and better, her pas de deux with the prince himself, Richard Suttie, becomes ecstatic. Nishino's pure and sensitive lines suit the role perfectly and it is impressive that she manages to dance such a difficult role practically faultlessly.” (Kulturspeilet) “Here is an ensemble in great form, with strong, elegant dancers, precision in the demanding tableaux and many fine individual performances. And all the fantastic costumes and scenography are a vision. Sleeping Beauty - Princess Aurora - is played with delightful radiance and full control over the many demanding movements by Maiko Nishino and Prince Florimund also gives a tremendous interpretation of his role.” (Vårt Land) “Sleeping Beauty de luxe ...performance of Sleeping Beauty which really takes off, visually, in dance technique and in choreography…Technically Maiko Nishino masters the inhuman demands of balance needed for the principal role of Princess Aurora. For all that, it seems as if she has even more to give” (Aftenposten) Janek Schergen (producer, The Sleeping Beauty) Janek Schergen was born in Göteborg, Sweden. He was a trained by Benjamin Harkarvy, Richard Ellis and Christine DuBoulay. In 1971 he joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and after a year went on to become a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet. In 1978, while maintaining his career as a principal dancer with the Company, he began teaching for the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet under the direction of Lupe Serrano. He joined the Washington Ballet as ballet master in 1981, touring internationally with the company for several years. From 1988 to 1991 he was the ballet master of the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm. In 1991 he completed his studies in Benesh Notation in London and received his credentials as a choreologist. Upon returning to America he joined the artistic staff of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where he rehearsed a wide range of works including Balanchine, MacMillan, Cranko and full length classical ballets. Since 2002 he has been ballet master for the Norwegian National Ballet rehearsing both classical and contemporary repertory as well as teaching company class. As the Artistic Director of the Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation, Mr Schergen stages the works of Choo-San Goh and is the Chairman of the annual Choo-San Goh Choreographic Awards. In 1997, at the request of Singapore Dance Theatre, he was the author of a monograph on Choo San Goh which was published the same year. Sandra Woodall (designer, The Sleeping Beauty) An award-winning costume designer, Sandra Woodall works in many genres including ballet, modern dance, performance art and theatre. Born and raised in California and a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Woodall was taught to sew at an early age by her grandmother. Upon graduation, she became a design assistant at the San Francisco Opera House. Since 1970, Woodall has had a studio in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA district, where for 18 years she employed up to 35 seamstresses to produce and build costumes for designers from all over the world. Woodall now uses the space exclusively for design. With more than 200 productions to her credit, Woodall often works on designs for multiple projects at any given time. Companies for whom she has designed include San Francisco Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Stuttgart Ballet and Washington Ballet and she created the sets and costumes for Norwegian National Ballet’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan 1999-2000, during which time she taught at the National Institute of Arts in Taipei, designed costumes for Shangri-La for the Performance Workshop, and worked as a visual collaborator on the 8-hour original production Dream Like a Dream written and directed by Stan Lai. She is also well known for her art work, which has also been shown in numerous gallery exhibitions in the US and Taiwan. Espen Giljane (artistic director, Norwegian National Ballet) Born in Norway, Giljane went to New York at the age of 16 to study with The School of American Ballet. He was one of the last students to be personally chosen by George Balanchine to join the legendary New York City Ballet, a company he has been associated with ever since - first as a dancer, then as guest teacher. He returned to Norway in 2002 to take up artistic directorship of Norwegian National Ballet, succeeding Dinna Bjørn. The Norwegian National Ballet - Company Background The Norwegian National Ballet's forerunner, The New Norwegian Ballet, was founded 1945 by the British dancer Louise Brown and her Norwegian colleague Gerd Kjølaas, and comprised dancers from both the classical and free dance traditions. In 1953 the name of the Company was changed to The Norwegian Ballet, under the leadership of Kjølaas and Rita Tori. In 1954 the ballet company amalgamated with the Norwegian Opera Company and, in 1958, by a resolution in the Norwegian Parliament, The Norwegian Opera was established as a publicly financed enterprise. The ballet company became The Opera Ballet and consisted of 10 dancers. Its mission was to perform extensively in all the regions of Norway. During the first seasons, the Opera Ballet experienced frequent change in leadership, with stability finally arriving in 1961 in the form of the British director Joan Harris, who introduced choreographers including Antony Tudor and Brian MacDonald to Norway. Subsequent artistic directors included Sonia Arova (1966-1971), Anne Borg (1971-1977), Brenda Last (1977-1980), Jens Graff (1980-1983), Anne Borg (1983-1988), Viveka Ljung (1988-90) and Dinna Bjørn (1990-2002), under whose directorship the company became the Norwegian National Ballet in 1993. Choreographers who have created works specially for the company include Glen Tetley, Paul Lightfoot & Sol León, Michael Corder, Robert Sund, Kim Brandstrup, and Jean Grand-Maitre. The company’s repertoire has also included works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Mats Ek, Flemming Flindt, William Forsyth, Lar Lubovitch, Hans van Manen, Nacho Duato, Rudolf Nureyev and Valery Panov and, quite significantly, Jiri Kylián for whom NNB has been the first company other than his own (NDT) to premiere several of his works. |
| Wales Millennium Centre web site: www.wmc.org.uk |
| Esther Eckley e-mail: esther.eckley@wmc.org.uk |
Thursday, April 6, 2006 |
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