‘So much more to explore’ … Marcelino Sambé in Flight Pattern by the Royal Ballet. With the majority of them British or UK-trained, it’s a giant leap from the grumblings of a decade ago about the lack of local dancers making it to the top. Men at the Barre: Inside the Royal Ballet, is on BBC Four at 9pm on Wednesday 27 May. “Nureyev was on another planet!” he says. The Royal Ballet is one of the great ballet companies of the world. 1. He is the second black male dancer to be a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London. From jet-lagged performances and physically draining rehearsals to the cut-throat auditions and injuries, this career is as difficult as it is rewarding. The Royal Ballet has just announced that English National Ballet Lead Principal, Vadim Muntagirov, will be joining the company as a Principal, in February. The dancers’ Instagram accounts reveal superhuman tricks and off-stage candour (Sambé has an account dedicated to his beautiful backstage shots of colleagues). When you see him move it’s like a fish to water, it just makes sense.” Sambé’s joy as he springs and bounds has made him an outright audience favourite, although he admits his beaming smile was originally a mechanism for coping with nerves. He was the Royal Ballet's leading male dancer from 1951 to 1968. Cesar Corrales in Mayerling at the Royal Opera House, London. Industry Transformation Lead Tracr. The Australian Ballet is one of the world’s premier ballet companies and has delivered extraordinary performances for over 50 years. After graduating from the Royal Ballet Upper School, Naghdi joined the company in 2010 and was promoted to its highest rank, principal dancer, aged just 24. I recognize that not everyone may agree with my rankings, but they're my opinions. “I believe the art form is still in its infancy,” he says, “and there’s so much more to explore. Principal Dancer. My daughter is quite thrilled at the prospect of becoming a ballerina. For 28-year-old Royal Ballet principal dancer Yasmine Naghdi, life so far has been all about following a strict routine. Aran Bell . Sambé joined The Royal Ballet in 2012, a year ahead of his scheduled graduation. Marcelino Sambé is a Portuguese ballet dancer. I was actually quite supported, which some people might be surprised by, especially in Liverpool which is such a football city.”, Unlike Ball and Corrales, Sambé doesn’t come from a dancing background. Traditionally, gender-specific titles are used for ballet dancers. Sambé attended African dance classes at a local community centre despite being the only boy in the troupe. He says that if Nureyev was around now, he wouldn’t be such a big star: “There are now better dancers.” Corrales takes issue with that. It was with this company that he first danced … Issued Jan … “There’s always something so intense going on; he’s bubbling, bubbling, bubbling.”. “Marcelino is so full of energy and vivacity and life,” says Ball. Beauty, strength and bags of energy: BBC Four’s Men at the Barre documentary gets up close and personal with the Royal Ballet dancers on the rise, Last modified on Wed 1 Jul 2020 17.43 BST. The young men rising up at the Royal Ballet are some of the most exciting in dance right now: principals Matthew Ball and Marcelino Sambé, first soloists Cesar Corrales and William Bracewell, and first artist Joseph Sissens all feature in Men at the Barre. He ended up improvising an African dance routine for the panel, and was accepted to the Conservatory. That year, his debut as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. He certainly does not … He took leave from the Royal Ballet to make a dazzlingly seductive turn in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and his interests lie in character and storytelling. A former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing three girls between the ages of nine and 13. Corrales, at 23, is the virtuoso prodigy. In 2019, he was promoted to Principal Dancer, making him the second black male dancer, after Carlos Acosta, to reach this rank in the company. BA Environmental Management. O’Hare comments: 'Following his extraordinary career as a Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet – one of the finest male dancers of recent times – Jonathan has made a vital contribution to the recent successes of the Company, helping to nurture the artistry of a new generation of dancers. Our ballet critic, Graham Watts, considers the move and its repercussions. It’s not just hyperbole. Vadim Muntagirov is a Russian ballet dancer. Principal Dancer. The founders of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet were Lilian Baylis and Ninette de Valois.De Valois established a ballet school in London in 1926, the same year that Baylis, the director of the Old Vic Theatre, engaged her to stage incidental dances for operas and plays. “The one thing that made me feel comfortable was a big smile, to connect with the audience,” he says. “There has been a surge in this younger generation,” says Ball. “You need to have that skill of contributing, bringing ideas to the table.”, With two ballet dancers for parents, Corrales had the genes and the set-up for a smooth career path. His promotion came after his debuts as Basilio in Don Quixote, for which he was coached by Acosta, and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. On Friday Polunin is due to dance in Men in Motion, a programme at Sadler's Wells focusing on male dancers. He says that if … He was made First Artist in 2014, Soloist in 2015 and First Soloist in 2017. I feel there’s a misconception that we all just go on stage and look pretty, but no, there’s so much more.”. Watch morning class with The Royal Ballet in London, focussing on the centre. He trained at The Royal Ballet Upper School and in 2015 graduated into The Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme, going on to join the Company as an Artist in 2016, promoted to First Artist in 2019. The son of Cuban ballet dancers, raised in Canada, he joined English National Ballet aged 17, was a principal at 20 and moved to the Royal two years ago. [1], "Marcelino Sambé: The Royal Ballet's Princely Powerhouse", "Marcelino Sambé: 'Ballet should not be just for elite kids, "Marcelino Sambé interview: the Royal Ballet star on training in lockdown, overcoming hardship and helping kids to dance", "Marcelino Sambé interview: 'I've got a life outside ballet — you can't be a fully rounded artist if you are halfway living, "In Conversation: Royal Ballet first soloist Marcelino Sambé chats with Gerard Davis", "The Royal Ballet's Marcelino Sambé promoted to Principal dancer", "The week in dance: The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering; Message in a Bottle – review", "Royal Ballet – Bernstein Centenary: Yugen, The Age of Anxiety, Corybantic Games – London", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marcelino_Sambé&oldid=1000504445, People educated at the Royal Ballet School, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 2008: Moscow International Ballet Competition - silver prize, 2011: Ursula Morton Choreographic Awards - second prize, 2012: Youth Dance England - UK’s emerging choreographers, 2019: Outstanding Male Classical Performance - Best Male Dancer, This page was last edited on 15 January 2021, at 10:35. He and his partner live in North London. [5][6], In 2019, he was promoted to Principal Dancer, making him the second black male dancer, after Carlos Acosta, to reach this rank in the company. One company I know has their lead female principal dancer at a height of 184 cm! They don’t just follow directions, either, but help develop movement with choreographers. Principals: ... Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company … Principal Dancer ... Ballet Theatre Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. “There are so many layers to being an artist this way. Issued Jan 1994 Expires Jul 2017. When we speak, Ball has just taken delivery of a shoulder rig for his camera, using the time off to explore his other creative interests – he thinks there’s a lot of potential to better capture dance on film. Upon graduation he joined the Classical Ballet Company, where he spent three years touring around the world. Marianela Nuñez dances the Rose Adage in The Royal Ballet's production of Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty. Everything is bigger, faster, higher; training draws on hi-tech sports science, and they must master not only the exactitudes of classical technique, but be versatile enough to perform the most contortive contemporary moves. After winning a scholarship at the Prix de Lausanne, he moved The Royal Ballet School in London at age 16. “It’s very different to other generations,” says Corrales. Tax-Exempt ID #13-1882106. mocking comments made by US television presenter Lara Spencer, Men at the Barre: Inside the Royal Ballet. “All those negative comments, the bullying in school from a young age, gave me that power and explosiveness to become who I am today.”, The teasing Corrales experienced probably chimes with most people’s expectations about the lingering stigma attached to boys who do ballet – mocking comments made by US television presenter Lara Spencer about Prince George doing ballet feature in Men at the Barre. Feb 2019 – Present 1 year 9 months. He was made First Artist in 2014, Soloist in 2015 and First Soloist in 2017. “I see so much beauty and so much strength and power in that company,” says Sambé. Principal Dancer ... Calvin Royal III. [3][8] His frequent partners on stage include Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi and Anna Rose O'Sullivan. Sambé's father died shortly afterwards, as Sambé's mother could not take care of both Sambé and his sister, so he was fostered by a family whose daughter was also training at the Conservatory, and later became a dancer at the National Ballet of Portugal. Matthew Ball (The Conductor), Marcelino Sambé (The Instrument) and Lauren Cuthbertson (The Cellist) in The Cellist by Cathy Marston at the Royal Opera House. In 2020, he was featured in the BBC documentary, Men at the Barre. [2], Sambé took up photography when he was recovering from an injury, and has an Instagram account dedicated to his photographs of other Royal Ballet dancers. Norwegian dancer Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. When he was 8, the community centre's psychologist encouraged Sambé to audition for National Conservatory of Lisbon to train ballet, even though he did not know what ballet is. Classical Ballet Dancer Royal Academy of Dance. My son is enjoying himself also, but we do not know the proper term to use when referrring to male ballet dancers. “He’s a real firecracker,” says Ball. Royal Ballet, English ballet company and school. “He certainly pushes us to achieve one more centimetre higher or an extra turn. Irek Mukhamedov OBE, is a Soviet-born ballet dancer of Tatar origin who has danced with the Bolshoi Ballet & the Royal Ballet He trained at the Moscow Choreographic Institute under the guidance of Alexander Prokofiev between 1970 and 1978. Liverpool-born Ball, 26, who trained at the Royal Ballet School from the age of 11, is the tall athlete-poet with a flair for drama. Junor Souza is one of only two black dancers (out of 64) at English National Ballet, both of them male. People often talk about British dancers being controlled or mannered and that’s something I personally don’t want to buy into.”, A notable line in Men at the Barre comes from ballet master Christopher Carr, who was a dancer in the Royal Ballet in the era of Rudolf Nureyev. He wouldn’t have found his calling without it, he says, especially seeing black dancers such as Carlos Acosta. Dancers. In Cuba dancers are revered, with footballer-like status, but growing up in Canada he experienced bullying, “especially since I was the smallest in the class,” he says. Why this wealth of talent has arrived right now isn’t easy to pinpoint, but they definitely spur each other on. The Ballerino. He could laugh, because “they just had no clue” about dance, but at the same time he thinks that spurred him on to literally jump higher. Carlos Yunior Acosta Quesada CBE (born 2 June 1973) is a Cuban ballet dancer, and the director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.He has danced with many companies including the English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.He was a permanent member of The Royal Ballet from 1998 to 2015. He was due to take the lead in The Dream at the Royal Ballet … Sambé was born in an African immigrant community at the outskirt of Lisbon. Principal Dancer. His earliest dance experience was in African dance and he first saw ballet on YouTube. Environmental Science University of South Africa. Here is my list of my top fifteen favorite male ballet dancers! ‘It’s a golden era of male ballet dancers.” So says Emma Cahusac, the commissioning editor behind a new documentary, Men at the Barre, part of BBC Four’s dance season. “To be able to explore incredible ballet dancers’ bodies doing this kind of movement I think will be really cool.”, Ballet can be so much more than its traditional image, insists Sambé, but it means this generation breaking out of the ballet bubble. But it’s not everyone’s experience. The youngest male dancer ever to be made a principal with the Royal Ballet, abruptly quit the company. Sambé's repertoire with The Royal Ballet includes:[6], Sambé is openly gay. Ukrainian Sergei Polunin, still only 21, rose rapidly through ranks within two years of joining the Royal Ballet from the Royal Ballet School and was promoted to top rank in 2010 aged only 19. Ball, whose mother is a dance teacher, remembers “leaving school halfway through the day to go and audition in London and all the lads giving me high fives and wishing me good luck. He is currently a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London and previously a lead principal dancer at the English National Ballet. The Royal Ballet has produced some of the world’s most revered dancers, from Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev to Carlos Acosta and Darcey Bussell. Isabella Boylston . I have recently enrolled my 3 year old fraternal twins in beginning ballet. When I was 15, I met a dancer from Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet.The company had come to Los Angeles to dance in the Olympic Arts Festival, and my … "Most of the time ballet dancers are white," he says. In reality, the life of a dancer is only a fraction as glamorous as the movies show. The Australian Ballet exists to inspire, delight and challenge audiences through the power of its performances. It’s a hint of what’s to come, the choreography connecting to Sambé’s first experience in African dance, a meshing of dance identities he wants to pursue. Sambé has been painting and gardening, he tells me, and working on his own choreography, some of which can be seen in a film made (pre-lockdown) with Cloakroom magazine, all undulating muscles and sharp turns. The pair later went to Paris to study with the great dancers of the Old Imperial Russian Ballet. A notable line in Men at the Barre comes from ballet master Christopher Carr, who was a dancer in the Royal Ballet in the era of Rudolf Nureyev. He joined The Royal Ballet as a Soloist in 2011, promoted to First Soloist in 2012 and Principal in 2016. Gendered titles. “He’s almost dancing with his brain,” says Sambé. Men at the Barre – Inside the Royal Ballet BBC Four 27 May 2020 www.roh.org.uk www.bbc.co.uk Available on BBC iPlayer Part of the Dance on BBC Four series. “An incredible moment, thinking, yeah, of course you can do this.”. You can check out how they’ve all been spending lockdown: Corrales and principal dancer girlfriend Francesca Hayward giddily laughing their way through multiple pirouettes; Ball and his partner, fellow dancer Mayara Magri, filming their plyometric fitness routine in the park. From a poor family in Lisbon, his construction-worker father died when he was eight and he was fostered by another family with a daughter at the Lisbon Conservatory, where Sambé studied. Douglas joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1948, leaving in 1950 to join Ballet Theater, where he became a principal dancer in 1953 and, eventually, its lead male dancer. A re we still laughing at male ballet dancers, 20 years after Billy Elliot and more than half a century after Rudolf Nureyev became a star? Under the leadership of Director Kevin O’Hare, grand balletic tradition and an illustrious heritage are united with innovation, daring and exceptional standards of artistry, creativity and stagecraft to produce supreme theatre. [2][7] Sambé's had also originated roles, in works by choreographers such as Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter and Cathy Marston. The expectations on young dancers now are much greater than their predecessors. (From left) Marcelino Sambé, Francesca Hayward, Cesar Corrales, Mayara Magri and Matthew Ball at the Royal Opera House in January. There’s healthy competition – ballet boys can’t resist a pirouette-off; Corrales’ record is “at least 15” – but they all talk about how secure they feel because each dancer is very different. The top ballet dancers can pull in an upwards of $190,000 a year at the highest-paying ballet companies. French dancer Sylvie Guillem was, at one point, the highest-paid female ballet performer in the world. 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