Northern Ballet says Goodbye to Takahashi, Solari and Curnier

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I am very sorry to say goodbye to Jeremy Curnier and Lucia Solari who are on their way to Germany's northern ballet at Kiel which is a few miles from the Danish border. I wish them well in their new company. Kiel is a very pleasant little town about the size of Hull. I went there once after driving all the way from Copenhagen to Esbjerg and finding that my hotel restaurant (and all the other restaurants in Esbjerg) were closed at not much later than afternoon teatime. Even though it was an extra hour's drive to Kiel everything was open. There is a history of the ballet company on the Kiel Theatre's website which starts off with the words: "Tanz hat in Kiel lange Tradition" ("There is a long tradition of dance in Kiel") though "long" in this context seems to be over 25 years. They seem to do Swan Lake and The Nutcracker regularly as well as a sprinkling of new work and there is a season for new choreographers.

I am also sorry that I will no longer be able to see Hironao Takahashi though he at least is remaining in the company with a new job as "Assistant Rehearsal Director & Assistant Artistic Director of Short Ballets for Small People". Now he really does have a lange Tradition in dance. I wish him every success in his new role too.

Also leaving are Naomi Bottomer, Isabelle Clough, Jenny Hackwell and Luke Francis. They will be missed too. I can't tell you where they are going or what they are doing but I am sure all my readers will join me in wishing them well in whatever they do and wherever they go.

Happily, Northern Ballet is recruiting new dancers.   They include

• Ailen Ramos Betancourt who was a guest artist in Casanova and joins as a Soloist; 
• Eneko Amorós Zaragoza (Estonian National Ballet); Thomas Holdsworth (English National Ballet School); Ommaira Kanga Perez (Escuela de Ballet Carmina Ocaña y Pablo Savoye); Heather Lehan (Canada’s National Ballet School) will join the corps; and 
• Andrew Tomlinson, Archie James, Carlotta Pini and Mathilde Lambert (no relation) join as apprentices.

Welcome to each and every one of them.

Finally, I am delighted to see that Victoria Sibson is now a First Soloist, Mlindi Kulashe, Ayami Miyata, Kevin Poeung and Abigail Prudames are now Soloists, Sean Bates, Matthew Koon and Matthew Topliss Junior Soloists and Sarah Chun, Riku Ito and Jonathan Hanks are Coryphée.  Well done folks!

Congratulations Class of 2014!

It's that time of year again when keen and hungry young dancers graduate from their chosen conservatoires and vocational training schools! After 3 plus years of hard work and dedication, the graduation is not just a celebration of work achieved it is also a celebration of hope that these young artists and dancers will keep the flame of dance burning bright in the world! Terpsichore writers extend our warmest congratulations to the dancers who have graduated from their respective training courses this summer!!

Two of the UK's top ballet training schools - The Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School - have just released their lists of graduate destinations. I'm currently trying to source the same information from Northern School of Contemporary Dance, however from the newsfeeds of my friends who performed in and watched the BA Hons graduation performance in Leeds last night it's safe to assume that a very talented and artistic new generation of contemporary dancers have been developed.

Destination companies for some of the RBS graduates include Covent Garden HQ, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal Danish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and National Romanian Ballet. The list of ENB's graduate destinations is similarly diverse and includes Scottish Ballet, Ballet Bejart Lausanne and Mystic Ballet. 3 of ENB's grads will be joining our very own Northern Ballet: Gavin McCaig, Luke Francis and Isabelle Clough (who will be joining as a Company Apprentice). Needless to say both Jane and I will be keeping a very close eye on their progress and developments over the coming season!

And by the looks of McCaig's Dissertation choreography, we may even have a budding Kenneth Tindall on our hands