Rachel Hickey and Her Company

The Stage of the Czech National Theatre. Prague

Author Jorge Royan Licence CC BY-SA 3.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

I am delighted to announce that Rachel Hickey of the Czech National Ballet has agreed to give Powerhouse Ballet a masterclass from 14:00 to 16:00 on Sunday, 20 July 2025, at KNT Danceworks.  Many thanks to Emily Joy Smith for introducing us to Rachel and to Karen Lester Sant for hosting us at KNT.  I shall post the registration card on the Powerhouse Ballet website shortly. Tickets will be allocated strictly first come first served.

Readers can see from Rachel's web page on the National Ballet's website that she was born in Manchester, trained at Elmhurst, and danced first for the Olomouc Ballet before joining the Czech National Ballet in 2022.  In Olomouc, she danced Myrthe in Giselle and Gamzatti in La Bayadère.  She has greatly extended her repertoire with the National Ballet.

Rachel's company was founded in 1883, nearly 50 years before the Vic-Wells Ballet, which later became the Royal Ballet.  According to Wikipedia, the National Ballet was the first company to perform Swan Lake outside Russia, and Tchaikovsky attended the first night (per Pask, Edward H. (1982). Ballet in Australia: the second act, 1940-1980. Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978019554293). The "About" page states that the company consists of 75 dancers from 19 countries.  Its current artistic director is Filip Barankiewicz.

The National Ballet shares the National Theatre in Prague with the Czech National Opera and the Czech National Theatre Company.   It promises a very diverse and interesting new season with a programme that includes works by Van Manen and MacMillan.  I am not sure whether they have any plans to visit the United Kingdom in the near future but there are plenty of budget airlines that fly to Prague.

The Junior Company One Year On

Michaela DePrince  "A Million Kisses to my Skin"

Photographer  Angela Sterling

Copyright 2015 Dutch National Ballet

All rights resered

Reproduced with kind permission of
Richard Heiderman, press manager of the company

The idea of recruiting 12 of the world's best young dancers, training them for stardom in a special Junior Company within the Dutch National Ballet and giving them stage experience in venues throughout the Netherlands is an exciting one. It has already injected exceptional talent into the Dutch National Ballet such as Michaela DePrince, who entered the Junior Company 2 years ago and leapt from élève (equivalent to apprentice in a British company) to coryphée in a single year. 

The Artistic Coordinator of the Junior Company is Ernst Meisner and I featured him and the Company in Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014. In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014 Ernst explained how the Junior Company came to be formed. In The Junior Company 3 Dec 2014 he said a little bit more about the Company and his work with the dancers.

Tomorrow, Monday the 20 July 2015, Ernst will be the guest of the London Ballet Circle. He will speak to the Circle at the Civil Service Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HJ at 19:30. The meeting is open to the public. Members of the Circle are admitted for £5. Everybody else will pay £8. The Club is located almost next door to the Nigerian high commission which is at the corner of Great Scotland Yard and Northumberland Avenue. The nearest underground stations are Charing Cross (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and Embankment (District and Circle).

Martin ten Kortenaar who joined the Junior Company only last year has entered the corps de ballet. So, too, has Nancy Burer who danced the Balinese role so beautifully in Cinderella last week (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015. Nathan Brhane,  Wentao Li, Daniel Montero and Sho Yamada, who joined the Junior company in 2013 are now élèves. So, too, are Riho Sakamoto and
Yuanyuan Zhang who entered the company last year. Thomas van Damme, Lisanne Kottenhagen, Antonio Martinez, Cristiano Principato and Emiie Tassinari remain with the Junior Company.

According to their Facebook pages, Bart Engelen whose struggle with the pillow to the tune of the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet in Siderova's Full Moon was unforgettable (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015) has joined the Norwegian National Ballet and Veronika Verterich the mighty Stuttgart Ballet. A mention on Ernst's Faceook page suggests that Ryosuke Morimoto has gone to Hungary, presumably the Hungarian National Ballet.

I should like to congratulate all those dancers on their promotions, appointments and contract renewals and wish them all the best for the future,

London Ballet Circle's Guests

Ernst Meisner

Photo Robin DePuy

(c) Dutch National Ballet 2014

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dutch 

National Ballet

One event that I am not going to miss come hell or high water or even a brief to the Court of Justice of the European Union is the visit by Ernst Meisner of the Dutch National Ballet to the London Ballet Circle at The Dining Room, 1st Floor, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Great Scotland Yard, SW1 on 20 July 2015 at 19:30.

I have written a lot about Ernst and earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting him in Amsterdam; but here is some more information about him, some of which I didn't know:

"After winning the Eurovision competition (no, not the song contest!) Ernst gained a place at The Royal Ballet Upper School then joined the company in 2000. After 10 happy years with The Royal Ballet dancing soloist roles Ernst put together a gala show for Kent County Council in Dartford, an experience he much enjoyed. He later got the chance to participate in the Rural Retreat for future leaders and got the opportunity to shadow Ted Brandsen, artistic director of Dutch National Ballet. Ernst left Covent Garden in 2010 and danced several seasons with Dutch National Ballet and when the company decided, two years ago, to set up a Junior Company, Ernst was appointed its Artistic Co-ordinator. He now choreographs works not just for the Junior Company but also for the main company.

Ernst, who also teaches at the Amsterdam International Summer School, has been inspired by LBC's work with student dancers and has very generously given us a two week scholarship to the Amsterdam International Summer School to award to a talented young dancer. We record our gratitude to Ernst and his colleagues for their kindness and greatly look forward to our evening with him and to hearing more about his work and life in dance."

I admire Ernst Meisner most for his choreography. Embers which was danced by Thomas van Damme and Nancy Burer on 6 Feb 2015 is a real gem (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 6 Feb 2015). There is a video of the pas de deux in Amsterdam Central Station which is beautiful until someone announces a train departure over the tannoy or perhaps a late departure of an incoming service, leaves on the line, the wrong sort of snow or even a cow on the line in the closing seconds of the ballet just as they would at Waterloo. Ernst's Junior Company are dancing at the Linbury in June. Don't miss them!

Another must see event will be the talk by David Bintley, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, who comes from Huddersfield.  I'm coming all the way from Huddersfield to see Mr Bintley too.  It was after all his company's Miracle in the Gorbals which was my favourite ballet in 2014 (see My Personal Ballet Highlights of 2014 28 Dec 2014) and it has some of my favourite dancers. He is speaking at the same venue on 11 May 2015 at 19:30.

There are also talks by Li-Cunxin on 2 Aug 2015 and Sir Peter Wright on 13 April 2015 at the same time and in the same place.

Two trips I would love to make if I lived in London are to Chelmsford Ballet's rehearsal of Pineapple Poll and Carnival of the Animals at CYGAMS HQ Recreation Ground, Meteor Way, Chelmsford CM1 2RL on 8 March 2015 between 10:15 and 12:30 and to Central School of Ballet at 10 Herbal Hill, Clerkenwell Road, EC1 on 19 May 2015, 13.45 for 14:00. Central is where Kenneth Tindall and Chris Marney trained as well as Paul Chantry and Sarah Kundi so it is very special for me.

But the best reason for supporting London Ballet Circle is the help that it gives young dancers and I can do no better than quote the treasurer:

"The Circle has made four visits to various ballet schools for both rehearsals and performances, and also the annual visit to the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, a visit to the ROH workshop at Purfleet and one to Ballet Rambert. It has made donations to the schools for general purposes and has also provided scholarships for two students to attend The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School and one to attend the Ballet Cymru Summer School. The Circle also continues to award the De Valois and Broderick Prizes to students of The Royal Ballet School. This year was the first year the Sir Peter Wright Prize was awarded to a student at Elmhurst School.

The total of all the above mentioned was £6155.00, scholarships amounting to £2930.00 and donations, following members’ visits, to £3225.00 (English National Ballet School, Rambert, Central School of Ballet, Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, Ballet Cymru, Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund following the visit to the ROH workshop at Purfleet)."

The Circle's beneficiaries have included Xander Parish and his sister Demelza, two of Yorkshire's finest, so it is not just a London institution.