Class at Conservatório Annarella. Photo courtesy of Annarella Sanchez Ballet Position visits Annarella Sanchez’s outstanding dance conservatoire and talks to the Cuban woman who has reinvigorated ballet in Portugal There’s a contagious buzz of excitement in the corridors and studios of Conservatório Annarella, or to give it its full title, Conservatório Internacional de Ballet e Dança Annarella Sanchez, sited in Leiria, a town north of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. Streams of smiley busy-busy children aged between six and 15 come in and out of studios, some clutching tutus, others lugging ki ..read more

Margarida Fernandes as Clementine and António Casalinho as Benjamin in Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella, Bayerisches Staatsballett. Photo: Serghei Gherciu The young Portuguese dance prodigies António Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes discuss their first year as demi-soloists with Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich António Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes are back in Leiria, the mid-sized town just north of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, where they were born and trained in ballet, after their first season as professional dancers with Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich. It’s more of a busman’s ..read more

Fumi Kaneko as Juliet in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet © ROH 2021. Photo: Bill Cooper Newly-minted Royal Ballet principal dancer Fumi Kaneko talks to Ballet Position in the aftermath of her stunning debut as Juliet Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet is a narrative masterpiece, distilling in its structure and choreography all the passion and ultimate tragedy of Shakespeare’s doomed young lovers. Add to that Prokofiev’s magnificent, eloquent score, and it’s easy to see why Romeo and Juliet is one of the best loved works in The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. Having seen it countless times, I didn’t ..read more

The Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer Valentino Zucchetti talks to Ballet Position about his present career and his future plans Valentino Zucchetti is well launched into his second career, even while his first is still in full bloom. At just 33-years-old, he’s reached the Royal Ballet’s second highest rank for dancers, First Soloist; and he is fast developing a reputation as a choreographer of note. Zucchetti’s latest work, Anemoi, opened The Royal Ballet’s final programme of the 2021 Spring season to general critical acclaim. Not even last minute changes imposed by COVID-19 strictures d ..read more

António Casalinho in Flames of Paris. Photo: Tomé Gonçalves Fresh from winning the Gold Medal at Prix de Lausanne 2021, the Portuguese dancer António Casalinho talks to Ballet Position There are times when superlatives fall short of the reality they’re trying to describe. That is certainly the case with the 17-year old Portuguese dancer António Casalinho, worthy winner of two awards at the 2021 edition of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne: Best Contemporary Interpretation and the Gold Medal, along with the coveted title of Laureate of the Prix de Lausanne. The dancer, choreographer and artistic ..read more

Matilde Rodrigues as Myrtha, Giselle Act II, Conservatório Internacional de Ballet e Dança Annarella Roura Sanchez Summer Gala, Leiria. Photo Tomé Gonçalves Just a few days before starting her first engagement as a professional dancer, 18-year-old Matilde Rodrigues speaks to Ballet Position  Portugal hasn’t much of a tradition in classical ballet.  It’s true that more and more Portuguese dancers are are good enough to join important foreign companies; but, like Royal Ballet Principal Marcelino Sambé and former Wayne McGregor company dancer Catarina Carvalho, to mention but two, all f ..read more

Ryoichi Hirano and Marianela Nuñez in rehearsal for Onegin, photo Gavin Smart Ryoichi Hirano talks to Ballet Position about his life as a Royal Ballet Principal and how he became ‘Heavenly Hirano’ Royal Ballet Principal Ryochi Hirano’s first year with the company was not exactly encouraging. He joined as an apprentice in 2002, fresh from winning the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne; but the transition from ballet school in his native Osaka, Japan, to London and the UK’s most prestigious ballet company, was far from smooth. “Mentally it was very difficult, because I didn’t have friends, I spo ..read more

Yasmine Naghdi, photo c/o The Royal Ballet Ballerina Yasmine Naghdi talks to Ballet Position about her life as a blossoming Principal Dancer with Britain’s premier ballet company Once upon a time there was a very busy little girl. So busy, in fact, they said she was hyperactive. She couldn’t sit still for a moment except… but let Yasmine Naghdi take up the story. It is, after all, her story. “The one thing my parents saw that I could sit still for was when they put a ballet on TV, and then I was absolutely fixated on the screen. All these creatures that were doing these amazing things, like gr ..read more

Joel Brown and Eve Mutso in 111, photo Susan Hay Dancers Eve Mutso and Joel Brown talk to Ballet Position about 111, a duet combining their diverse yet complementary abilities There are times when you come upon something that so subverts your preconceptions and expectations that you are left dazed and gasping for air. One such was, for me, 111 (One Hundred and Eleven), a dance duet that seamlessly blends the very diverse physicalities of Eve Mutso, formerly a Principal Dancer with Scottish Ballet, and Joel Brown, a member of the inclusive ensemble Candoco Dance Company. Set to a medley of mus ..read more

Ruth Brill in rehearsal, photo by Dasa Wharton Ballet Position meets Ruth Brill as she prepares to swap her pointe shoes for life as a full time choreographer Ruth Brill is a vibrant bundle of energy, which is just as well – when we met, she was simultaneously touring as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet, overseeing the company’s new production of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, which she choreographed, and regularly commuting to London to put the budding dancers of London Children’s Ballet through their paces in her new version of the much-loved classic Ballet Shoes. Ruth Brill rehearsing ..read more