About me

Sorry, this is under construction…I know I know I’m lazy, but I’ll promise I’ll write something interesting here soon ;). Until then…see you soon here again

Just a clip…

The title says it all…

Greetings from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Videos

Schedule

Resume

Daniil Simkin was born 1987 in Russia to a ballet family. The family left Russia for the west in 1990 and after several international engagements settled in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Daniil first stepped on the stage. From the time on when he was 6 he had several experiences of being onstage and often danced along side his father, Dmitrij Simkin. Daniil began his training under the direction of his mother, Olga ALEKSANDROVA, in 1997. At the age of 12, he began participating in ballet competitions and famous ballet galas around the world and in the same time he was able to finish his regular education in high school. He joined the ballet company of the Vienna State Opera in 2006 as a demi-soloist and since then has danced many roles and parts of the classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoire of the company. In 2007 he danced his first principal, classical role with the Lithuanian National Opera as a guest namely Basilio in Don Quixotte.

His awards :

Ballet Competitions

• 2006: Senior GOLD Medal USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson
• 2005: GRAND PRIX International Ballet Competition Helsinki
• 2004: 1st Prize and GOLD Medal 21st International Ballet Competition VARNA
• 2004: 8th Int. Ballet Competition “Arabesque” Perm, Russia:
1st Prize senior,
Prize “Mikhail Baryshnikov” for best male dancer
• 2004: GRAND PRIX 5th Int. Ballet Comp. Vienna
• 2003: 7 th International Ballet Competition Luxembourg :
1 st Prize Junior,
Encouragement Prize,
Prix Grande-Duchesse Maria Teresa
• 2002: 1 st Prize Nyon Ballet Comp. Nyon , Switzerland
• 2001: 1 st Prize 4 th Int. Ballet Comp. Vienna
• 2000: 1 st Prize Int. Ballet Comp. St. Pölten , Austria

Photos

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Queen - Vienna*

Hommage to the rock band “Queen”.

Volksoper in Vienna
I may not participate in all the shows, since the cast will change from time to time.

Gala - Les étoiles du 21e siècle

Théâtre de Champs-Élysées - Paris
Repertoire:

- Le Corsaire Pas De Deux with Venus Villa
- Les Bourgeois

Gala - Vilnius, Lithuania

Repertoire:

- Don Quixote Pas De Deux (1st time)
- Les Bourgeois

cold cold Vilnius

First post, insomnia and such things

Dearest readers, this is my first post ever on this blog. I really want this blog to work for me, that means that I will keep posting…but you never know whow life goes on so please don’t be offended or sad if I sometime will just stop writing. It may happen because I am bored from my blog, too busy or whatever reason there may be, just be understanding

Anyway, this was my first and hopefully last Disclaimer, so let’s go to the interesting stuff.

Well so I’m in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania writing this on my laptop actually out of boredom and insomnia, because, as some of my friends would know I often have problems with the sleep. After a performance it is actually impossible to sleep, even if you’re physically and mentally exhausted, it just doesn’t work. Even if you’re lieing in the bed with the lights turned off, it doesn’t work.
Not that I had a performance today.

I am currently preparing my first full-lenght principal classical role of Basil or Basilio as some may call him in the Performance Don Quixotte. Here in Vilnius the production is set by Vladimir Vassiliev, which means pretty “russian”. I already did some work for preparing it in the summer coming here to Vilnius and then my partner, Miki Hamanaka, came to Vienna to help me a bit. So basically the performance is more or less ready from the technical aspect,now I have to come together with the other people and get the ‘grip’ of the performance.

Well beside this I just arrived here from Cannes where I paticipated in The Ballet2000/BallettoOggi Award gala, where I danced Les Bourgeois and the Don Quixotte pas de deux with Venus Villa. After I have my premiere of Don Quixotte in Vilnius I’ll be (hopefully) in Turino for one day to dance there in a gala again the same program as in Cannes, so a lot to do.

After all that I’ll be preparing the Prince in our Nutcracker in Vienna for my premiere on January 9th 2008, so I got pretty much enough of work for the near future;).

Anyway I’ll try to keep you posted on my progress, plans and such in the future on his blog.

The videos on this site may not work properly. You can enjoy the same videos on my Youtube account!

So, I hope to hear from you my dear readers and wishing you the best from he cold cold and rainy/snowy Vilnius,

-Daniil

Updates & the day before the day

Well here in Vilnius it’s 00.45, so basically the day of the performance, but in Austria it’s still 23.45, the day before the performance so actually I don’t know how to call this post, but WHATEVER…

I did some updates to the site, updated my (google)calendar, which now can be visited via the menu up there. The blog schedule I will update in the next days. Worked out the image posting and such. More updated will hopefully follow in the next days.

The main rehearsal today, a runthrough in the studio, went pretty well even though I was kinda confused in the beginning. I always was rehearsing with my partner only and therefore was puzzled to play and dance the performance with people around Anyway wish me luck for tomorrow, my first classical principal role ever

I’m alive and living my life…

Hey there. Well after that 10 exciting days abroad with 2 gala performances and one whole pricipal performance I spend last week again in Vienna rehearsing and working as usual.

I got Saturday and Sunday more or less free so I finally had time to relax (beside working out in the gym and feeding my addiction to insomnia haha…

The performance of DonQ (that’s how ballet people call Don Quixotte shortly went actually really well. I will upload a video to YouTube and this site here in the next days (or maybe even today…we’ll see).

 Sorry guys I’m writing so shortly, but I’m sitting in the Opera between rehearsals and I gotta go already, so I’ll try to write soon and post the video. See ya…

Don Quixote - Video

I just quickly stop by to post the video.
Just push play! Enjoy

Merry Christmas and something different…

Dear readers, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas!!!

I hope all of you will have a delightful and happy holiday!

As a christmas present I will reveal my paintings I recently made. It’s something different you get to know about me…have fun.
The first two paintings are huge, the 3rd one is smaller.

1st

My first painting

2nd

My second painting

3rd

My 3rd painting, a smaller one, 80cm*80cm

Nutcracker and life doesn’t get boring…

Hey. Well Nutcracker went really well and I’m pretty satisfied with it. No big issues or mistakes. Of course not perfect, but it’s good I know what I have to work on now…
Here’s a picture from the performance together with my partner Maria Kicevska (© Wiener Staatsoper GmbH/Axel Zeininger)

I will write very soon again to get back to the questions you asked me…See ya

Ask me a question #1 and insomnia again…

Dear readers, hereby I start my “Ask me a question” column ;). Just so you know it’s almost 2 am again and I have to get up in 6 hours so well… like always I’m feeding my insomnia

What do you enjoy doing when you have free time, and do you have enough time to meet your family ?
- Well what I like is eating, sleeping, recovering, complicated and sophisticated books, simple movies, everything high-fi, technical and mechanical, computers and design, hanging out and meeting friends, going out and having some time out, but only when I can afford it myself with my body and state of mind. Beside this I enjoy writing blog entries trying to put myself in a good light for everybody reading them, haha.
Furtunately I see my parents pretty often since they are not only my parents, but also work as my coaches, artistic advisors and psychotherapists. Therefore they try to come to me as often as possible to support me.

What is your favourite dance piece ?
- Albrecht in Giselle, which I’ll be hopefully doing next year.

Professional dancers do not seem to become nervous. Do you get nervous when you dance onstage?
- From my own experience a certain degree of nervousness has to be there to have a good performance. Nervousness heightens the awareness and sharpens the senses. It gives me more control and a complete fixation on the things I am doing. Through experience and repeating a dancer finds a good level of nervousness he needs. One needs more, one needs less, but in general a certain degree has to be there. If I am not nervous, because I am too familiar with the surroundings or the piece I am perfroming, I might get sloppy, that’s why I then artificially start myself to get nervous through routines I discovered work for me best. But by now I start to bore everyone with that, so I stop here

How/what do you feel when you are dancing ?
- Billy Elliot says: “Don’t know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going… then I like, forget everything. And… sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I’ve got this fire in my body. I’m just there. Flyin’ ike a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity.”
Uhm…I know for everyone it’s different, but to me this quote sounds kinda kitschy and funny (sorry if I insulted somebody with that).
I don’t feel any elictricity. Nor Fire. Sorry if this sounds now very unspectacular, but I just try to completely focus on giving a good performance. I try to remember the mistakes I made before and to do the corrections I heard from my teachers. The only thing I ‘get’ from time to time is that I feel the audience. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like the audience becomes one ‘thing’, a creature which follows me and which I can control. I don’t see it, nor can I touch it. It’s one abstract whole, surveiling me.

——————-

Ok actually it’s really time I’m getting some sleep. I’m leaving for London to rehearse with my partner Roberta Marquez tomorrow, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London, for our gala performance in New York in February. I ‘ll be staying only two days, so there is not much time.

Anyway good night to everybody and hope to hear from you.

PS: Thanks to Mi-Gyeong Song for the questions. If you out there have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask them.

Ask me a question and what I am currently up to…

Hey there. Well first of all, Happy New Year 2008 to all of you even though I am one week late. I wish everyone who reads this first of all health and then… everything else! I often catch myself worrying about stupid things and then I have to remind myself that my number 1 priority is staying healthy. So stay healthy, all of you!

Well I had a nice New Year’s eve and am currently working on my second principal performance of the prince in our Nutcracker here in Vienna. I will have the premiere very, very soon on January 9th. Wish me luck ! Unfortunately there will be no video this time since they are very strict here with performances being recorded.

Beside this I know that this blog is being read by a lot of people from the United States. Just to let you know and remind you, I will be dancing in New York on February 11th in the Lincoln Center on the gala “Stars of the 21st Century”! Get a ticket if you want to see me perform live ;).

Hmmm, some friends told me that I have a social network account on Orkut, which I do not! One more time: I have no Orkut account! Anybody seeing an Orkut account, that is not me, but a person pretending to be me ;). One more time in portugese for my brazilian friends (I apologize in advance for the google translation): Não tenho conta do Orkut! Or in spanish: No tengo cuenta de Orkut!

Well something more…you know, I am kinda busy these days and therefore am unable to answer mails, comments and such from people who admire me or like my work and would like to know me better. Therefore I was looking to a way in which I could answer some questions which would interest not only one person, but a group in the same time. So I thought of that: write me one or a couple of interesting questions, send them to me, no matter which way. It may be through a direct comment to this post, and email or myspace message or whatever. Out of these question I will try to pick the most interesting ones and answer them in a post here on my blog (hopefully there will be more than one and I will have the possibility to make a series out of it ), so my answer will not only go to this particular person, but you as a reader will get to know me better!

Take care!

London, Opernball and Preparation for NYC…

Wrote that really some time ago. Sorry to post it only now
—————–

Hi again.
I’m sorry I did not get back to blog some days (actually more than 2 weeks :-/ ). I had a busy time back there.
Well I’m sitting right now in the plane to Amsterdam (the connection flight to New York) and write this thingy here to later post it on my blog.

London
Well I was in London for two days to rehearse and unsurprisingly it rained like always. Whenever I am there it somehow happens to rain, no matter what time of the year or how long I stay. It just rains buckets. The rehearsals with my partner Roberta Marquez from the Royal Ballet went well and I had a nice time over there walking around in Covent Garden and meet some old friends. I was there already before. What comes to my mind now is a clip I found back last year in YouTube. It’s funny actually. Please watch that clip here and focus on Second 00:36…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsGHSg81wbk (unfortunately the embedding is disabled)

Furthermore here are some pictures I made with my phone (I apologize for the quality).

Covent Garden:

View from the Royal Ballet area:

(By now I was interrupted by the stop in Amsterdam. Now I am writing from the flight to New York.)

Vienna Opernball
Well immediately after that took place Vienna’s Opernball. I actually don’t know how popular this is apart from the German speaking countries, but here it is definitely a big thing. (Really excessively) dressed up people come together and celebrate, dance and have fun. Even the theatre itself gets dressed up for the occasion. The tickets have a hefty price tag, but luckily I got to go for free since I was dancing a small variation choreographed by Giorgio Madia. All in all it was a nice and special experience, which I will not forget.

New York Preparations
Well, my program in New York is not an easy one. I am going to dance Les Bourgeois, Moorhuhn and the Don Quixotte Pas De Deux with Roberta. First of all the worst thing is that DonQ (that is the acronym for Don Quixotte) will be in the very end and it is definitely the piece which I need the most energy for. It always has been and will be, so I just have to deal with it, I guess. The problem is the constant warming-up-dance-getting-cold cycle, which really drains on your powers, especially when you are dancing three times. In this case the normal routines you are used to do not apply fully and you really have to plan things and your energy out in between the performances and in the breaks. I will try my best as always but unfortunately you never know with what surprise life comes up for you. I like things to be pinpoint precise and planned out in advance, but you never know If you have watched, please know I tried to do my best

Well. They are giving out ice-cream inflight now (even though unfortunately it is no Ben Jerry’s or Häagen Dazs, but now any icecream will do it actually ^_^) and the flight is about to land soon, so I’ll finish that here and post it later in my hotel.

Changes and Schedule…

I just returned from my last performance in the Vienna State Opera.

I am sorry again that I was gone from blogging for some time. Last weeks have been nice. I was working on La Spectre with my mother and sorting out a lot in my life besides ballet. One thing is sure now. I am leaving Vienna as my residence and the ballet company as of May.
…
Here is a list of my performances in the months of May and June:

• May 04th - Stars of the 21st Century in Toronto, Canada
• May 14th - Hommage a Rudolf Nureyev Gala in Malaga, Spain
• May 20th - Full Don Quixote in Kasan, Russia
• May 23rd & 24th - Gala in honor of Rudolf Nureyev in Kasan, Russia
• June 1st - Full Don Quixote in St. Peterburg, Russia at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (Maly Opera)
• June 4th & 5th - World Ballet Stars in Seoul, Korea
• June 20th & 21st - World Ballet Star Gala in Taipei, Taiwan (premiere of ‘La Spectre de la Rose’)

I am preparing another post about ‘La Spectre de la Rose’ in the moment. Stay tuned!

American Ballet Theatre

Dear readers, followers and friends. It is now finally official. As of fall 2008 I am joining American Ballet Theatre as a soloist.

Beside this I am currently in Toronto for the Gala Stars of the 21st Century.
Everything is fine and I will get back to my blog when I have some more time

Canada

On the road…

Dear readers and followers. I am on the road. After being to Toronto (it went ok), Malaga (good experience with my new partner Maria Kochetkova), I am sitting in the plane from Kazan, Russia back to Frankfurt.

Kazan was a great experience for me (except the horrible hotel with no broadband Internet connection…wahhh!) . First of all I danced the second full Don Quixote performance of my life there. It went great and I am happy for this. Furthermore I was able to dance two more galas there dancing Les Bourgeois and Don Quixote PDD. I am normally a person becoming better and better if I dance in the same conditions, so I especially liked the feeling of familiarity after the first performance. Furthermore I was able to watch some performances in the Nureyev Festival (which gave me a lot), like Gracheva - Uvarov in La Bayadere and Osipova - Merkuriev in Giselle. I met so many old friends… .

Anyway now I am staying for 3 days in Frankfurt to regenerate my body & mind. After this I am off for one day and a show of Les Bourgeois in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 31 and from there I am flying with a stop in Frankfurt (to eat my mothers‘ pelmeni one more time) to Seoul, Korea. I am kinda worried about Korea… I am definately coming, but I am not sure with who I will be dancing with…anyway it is not your problem.

That should be enough for now. I am sorry for not keeping you updated so often, but I’ll try to do it more often than I did in the last days…

By the way. I am working on a new design for my blog. It will take some time…

New York and such things…

One month it is gone since I was in New York and only now I kinda feel like writing something about it. This tells you a lot of things happened to me since then which I am not yet willing to share, but definately will, when the times comes right.

New York

(All of the following pictures are from the courtesy of Mr. Gene Schiavone)

To sum it up, everything went pretty well and accordingly to the critics pretty successful.

“Even in distinguished company, certain artists seem to rise to the surface. This time it was Vienna Opera Ballet’s Daniil Simkin, a compact dancer of amazing agility and range. In his first solo, Moorhuhn, to messed-about Mussorgsky – parts of Pictures at an Exhibition mixed with sounds of clucking chickens, tweeting birds, etc – Simkin gave quirky choreography an impish twist and acrobatic prowess. His comedic versatility looked even better in Les Bourgeois to Jacques Brel in a solo epitomising a cheeky garçon at large in Paris.

It was not until Simkin partnered the Royal Ballet’s Roberta Marquez in the obligatory gala pas de deux from Don Quixote that his classical line, soaring elevation and attentive partnering came through. He was nicely matched with Marquez, a piquant whiz of a technician, and they gave this occasion an appropriately high-spirited finale.”

- Financial Times

“…We saw 13 dancers in 13 pieces plus a stage-crossing finale. The occasion’s discovery was Daniil Simkin, a 20 year old currently in the Ballet of the Vienna Staatsoper and Vienna Volksoper but the product of Soviet training via his parents, Dmitrij Simkin and Olga Aleksandrova.
Looking boyish still, Simkin’s bravura stems from an airy technique and a light-boned, smooth-muscled physique. With Puckish charm he carried off two overly cute solos, his father’s “Moore Hen” which calls for him to lay an egg (supposedly to Mussorgsky music) and Ben Van Cauwenbergh’s “Les Bourgeois” in which he swaggers and smokes accompanied by a Jacques Brel song. What really put Simkin over was the “Don Quixote” pas de deux with Roberta Marquez. He had the clean classical elegance and full range of standard steps for this “Petipa” showpiece plus the ample strength to add extra turns on the ground and twists in the air. Simkin lifted Marquez high and partnered her attentively…”

“…Next year, let’s have several new talents like Simkin this year! ”

- DanceViewTimes

“And a “Don Quixote” pas de deux, danced by Roberta Marquez of the British Royal Ballet and Daniil Simkin of the Vienna Opera Ballet. But Mr. Simkin was oddly subdued. Only in the finale did he and Mr. Matvienko tear up the night in feats of fast, stage-crossing, bravura dancing. ”
(You cannot please all, or can you ;)?)

- NY Times

“Newcomer Daniil Simkin of the Vienna Opera Ballet also made three appearances Monday night. Mr. Simkin exemplifies the current vogue for very young dancers who look even younger. To some extent it’s a perennial vogue, and ballet perpetually capitalizes on the thrills of the prodigy. According to the program, Mr. Simkin was born in 1987, but he’s very childlike: small, slight, and cute in an urchin-like fashion. He performed a solo in each half of the program. One was created by his father, Dmitrij Simkin, and one was by Ben Van Cauwenbergh. Both blended acrobatic ballet stunts with actual acrobatics, and left no doubt about his hypertechnical and hyper-flexible capacities. He closed the program by partnering the Royal Ballet’s Roberta Marquez in the “Don Quixote” pas de deux, which had been the final number on last year’s program as well.”

- NY Sun

” The irrepressible Daniil Simkin (above), who performed two humorous solos in addition to closing the evening in the Don Quixote pas de deux, was a favorite of the audience, which liked the quirky solos and applauded his high leaps and multiple turns in the pas de deux.”

- Dance Magazine

“…and one of the evening’s favorites Daniil Simkin, Vienna Opera Ballet.

A winner of the several ballet competitions including Varna in 2004, D. Simkin won the audience over as much with his personality as with his craft. In the twitch and tangy “Moorhuhn” by Dmitrij Simkin, D. Simkin moved with the fluency of Tharp dancer—boneless and razor sharp and once again in “Les Bourgeois” by Ben Van Cauwenbergh, Simkin proved a beguiling guide through the music of Jacques Brel…”

- Eye on Dance and Arts

” Stealing the show, undoubtedly, was Daniil Simkin, a dancer with the Vienna Opera Ballet. Daniil took the stage three times last night–twice in solos and once in a Don Quixote Pas de Deux with Roberta Marquez of the Royal Ballet. Daniil’s charismatic stage presence almost overshadowed his bounding leaps and perfectly solid turns. You never worried that Daniil might miss a beat or lose his spot. He was flawless the entire evening and each time he took the stage he was welcomed with resounding yells of “bravo!” from the audience.”

- Dance Spirit

Well what else can I say…not much for the moment actually. There is a gala coming up in St. Petersburg, Russia. Actually it’s my first gala in Russia and it was funny to obtain a russian visa at the embassy (since I am a German citizen).

As you saw I added a facebook button at my networks. You can add me if you want.

In the next days and weeks I am going to try to set up the calendar/schedule on the right side of this page so you can see my following performances. and maybe recode some of my videos. Beside this I’ll have a photoshoot soon and it may be you will see some photos of that soon on this site…a lot to do.

But as I said I have some news concerning my future, but in the moment I am unable to make them official. Please be patient and understandable.

My Japan performances this summer!

Hello there again. Just a quick information about my two performances this summer in Japan (since so many asked)

I will perform on the

• 9^th of August 2008 at the Sunport Theater Takamatsu
  and on
• 12^th of August 2008 at the Youport Theater Tokyo

My performance will consist of my two contemporary numbers “Les Bourgeois” and “Moorhuhn”

Get yourself some tickets

Happy Easter and and something else…

Happy Easter to everyone (even though I am one day late to be precise).

Anyway I was reading an article some days ago I found on the another dancers’ blog, TheWinger.com . It’s a great blog from contributors around the globe.

David Hallberg, Principal with ABT (who I’ve met recently in NY for the first time at the gala) mentioned and presented this article in Newsweek , which was written by his collegue Sascha Radetsky. I would like to share it especially with my male readers:

© Nathan Perkel for Newsweek

My business attire is a pair of tights. All right, there it is. I wear makeup onstage, and some of my colleagues are gay. Can we move on now? Can we leave behind the tired male-ballet-dancer stigma—that ballet is not a masculine pursuit—in order to move toward an appreciation of the athleticism and artistry involved in this line of work?

On an average day at the job, I handle lithe, lovely women, engage in duels and delight in the experience of an exotic locale. I move like a gymnast or martial artist and embody the vilest of pimps or the most chivalrous and passionate of lovers. I constantly expand the borders of my physical capabilities, and I hone my mind to a quick-learning, focused edge. Come 8 p.m., I’ll fuse dynamic movement and storytelling with the grandeur of a full live orchestra.

Yes, I’m proud of my profession. Yet I find myself slightly guarded when I tell people what I do. Like some sort of incurable blight, the male-dancer stereotype has taken root and metastasized in our cultural consciousness. Pioneers like Baryshnikov or Nureyev might have opened some minds, but their days have long passed, and despite the noble efforts of a handful of current ballet leaders to expose fresh audiences to our art form, a whole new generation looks at male dancing with skewed vision. Some of my peers are foreigners; in many other countries male dancers are held in higher esteem. I studied in Russia for a year and always marveled at the way Russians celebrated their artists, whether their medium was dance, music or the written word. But I’m American, and I want to live in my own country, as a dancer, with some respect.

The most irritating aspect of the male-dancer stereotype is the underlying insinuation that we in some way lack strength of character or a courageous spirit. Male and female, all dancers undergo strenuous training from a very young age, and constantly wrestle with injuries and fatigue. But male dancers must possess a special type of will and fortitude if they are to become professionals, for, like fish swimming upstream, we have to fight through the current of thinly veiled contempt that much of society harbors for our chosen path. In our culture, girls are encouraged to take ballet; boys receive no such endorsement, except of course from ballet teachers or exceptionally supportive parents. The boy who perseveres in dance must have a genuine hunger for it, must be uniquely motivated and dedicated, and must develop a truly thick skin.

I started taking ballet when I was 5. My open-minded parents thought it was a good way to channel my rambunctious behavior. A few years later I was hooked. I loved the physicality and, of course, the girls, but I also learned that not everyone recognized the value of dance the way I did. I don’t remember the first fight I got into for being a kid who took ballet, but I remember fighting a lot before I realized that maybe I should keep my extracurricular activities to myself. But ballet was rewarding enough to be worth a fat lip or a black eye, and I emerged from my years of dance training more focused than ever. My background is not unusual among my American colleagues—they share similar stories of discouragement, harassment and even violence. But these experiences served to harden resolve and develop courage, and I know I can always count on several of my dancer buddies for steadfast support—they got my back! Ironically, the stereotype of the sissy male dancer has given rise to a male dancer who is anything but.

It’s frustrating that I feel obliged to extol the virtues and describe the rigors of my profession. I’d just like to make it known that the path of the male dancer isn’t necessarily easy—as with any truly worthwhile endeavor—but the rewards can be limitless. I feel lucky to have discovered a vocation that has allowed me to glimpse the great depth of human potential, both physical and mental, and has given me the opportunity to bring joy to so many people in so many places. I feel there is honor in the arts, in the world of dance, in the realm of male ballet dancing.

Exposure to ballet is all that is needed to open minds, for the combination of athletic movement, ardent drama and beautiful music can instill a profound appreciation in an audience. But for you out there who still feel compelled to malign male dancers with half-truths and petty stereotypes, well, maybe we need to step outside. I’ll leave my tights on.

Radetsky lives in New York City.

© 2008

I find the article both interesting to read and enlightening about the situation of a (young) male dancer in our society.
Luckily I was not in such a demanding situation. I had the luck of being trained and supported fully by my parents and surroundings. I never got into a fight in school with someone because I do ballet. Maybe it was because almost no one in my academic school (untill the very end) knew I did ballet. I rather kept quiet about my other activities out of school. In the very end it was just too obvious since I missed weeks being on ballet competitions, so slowly most of my friends knew about that. By this time most of the people around me were pretty much grown up and open minded, so there were practically no conflicts.
In my childhood I somehow didn’t mind not speaking or mentioning ballet to other people. Why should I bother them, making problems, letting them have prejudices? As Sascha has put it, ‘Yes, I’m proud of my profession.’ That’s pretty much it. It gives me so much personally, that I don’t have the urge to force it to people. If you like it, great! If you don’t, I really don’t mind, since people and therefore tastes are different.
In the end you cannot and will not be able to please all.

At the Vienna Airport on my way to Russia…

Just a quick entry this time.
Right now I am sitting in the Vienna Airport waiting for my flight to Munich and then I am flying further to St. Petersburg, Russia. Actually it is going to be the first time I am dancing there, so if you want to see it like this, it is a debut. There I am dancing tomorrow in the ‘October’ Hall. The repertoire includes ‘Les Bourgeois’ and ‘Moorhuhn’. No Pas De Deux this time. It’s a pity :-/.
Well that is pretty much it.
I still cannot make any statement about my news I want to bring to you. The only thing is that it will probably be great news to the biggest group of people visiting this website (according to my site’s statistics ;-))
Well I probably will not be able to be Twittering (the status updates on the right side of my blog) in the next days, so please excuse me and understand that (unless I have a steady Internet connection there in the hotel). Bye!

La Spectre de la Rose

Before I start, I have to set something clear, preferably from the mouth of the master himself:

From Wikipedia:

“Le Spectre de la Rose is a ballet of the Ballets Russes based on a choreographic poem by Théophile Gautier. The music, by Carl Maria von Weber, was taken from his short piece Invitation to the Dance. Choreography was by Michel Fokine and set and costume design by Léon Bakst. It premiered on April 19, 1911 by the Ballets Russes in the Théâtre de Monte Carlo.

The story is about a debutante who falls asleep after her first ball. She dreams that she is dancing with the rose that she had been holding in her hand. Her dream ends when the rose escapes through the window. The dancers at the original performance were Vaslav Nijinsky as the Rose and Tamara Karsavina as the Girl. …”

Youtube was a great help. I was able to watch so many great dancers performing that piece. I could see, compare and decide what I like and what I don’t like in every performance. You get a couple of clips right beside here, so you can get an idea about the piece:

Manuel Legris:

Baryshnikov:

Nureyev:

Ruzimatov:

These are just a few and there are even more on Youtube to watch.

This piece of dance is pretty delicate to dance since it’s pretty different from what I’ve done. It’s far more important how you move and involve your arms and hands.
What is really dangerous is that all the big names of ballet history (starting with Nijinsky) danced that piece already and as an audience it is really tempting to just be lazy and start comparing. Who is jumping higher, who is doing which version etc…, but in the end please keep in mind there is no perfection possible in any art form and therefore comparison is useless.
I don’t know how about you, but for me it’s important if a performance/photo/painting/show, plainly said any art piece, gives something or not. This giving may be private or public, strong or weak, delicate or bold, but if you’re satisfied with this ‘present’ please be satisfied. There is no need for comparison.

Oups, I got kinda drawn away from my main subject, but whatever…just my two cents ;-).

If everything goes right I will be able to perform it the first time in Taipei on June 20th and 21st.

Gala Stars of the 21st Century

There’s something in the air…me, lol!

I wrote that one  post on a flight, most of which is mindless mumbling…anyway someone might like to  still read it…:

Another flight. A lot of time to spend as useful as possible.
Well, I am in the plane from Franfurt to Korea and actually I kinda get really used to fly these days lol. Some twenty hours ago I was in St. Petersburg Russia dancing Les Bourgeois in an Openair gala performance. Performance went fine, but for the first time I experienced what the people call the white nights in Russia.

White Nights

First what comes to my mind is of course the infamous hollywood-cold war-anti-soviet-kitchy-love story-movie ‚White Nights‘ with our beloved Mikhail Baryshnikov, which probably saw a lot of people not because of the wonderful story, but because of the actors playing in it.
Anyway here is the probably most famous excerpt of the movie:

When it’s bright in the night the night(-life) itself feels different, more alive (I know this sounds weird). But anyway I think I just got a small ‚touch‘ what the White nights are about.
Anyway of course this night I didn’t sleep due to the fact that I was picked up at 3:30 in the morning which was 1:30am in Frankfurt (where I travelled from the day before.) I flied back to Frankfurt, where I slept and repacked my things. And now I am back in the plane flying to Seoul where I will be performing in two Galas and staying almost for a week.

Somehow flying becomes for me to be something special, something more and more useful. I can feel how I can use my time every time better and better with things I still have to do or want to do. I learn how to keep my efficiency up on a high level and it feels good therefore.
This is one thing I admire flying for and what brings me to talk about dance.
The same thing happens with my dancing. Every time I perform a step, every time I execute an exercise, or I perform a variation or an excerpt, it leads my body to heighten its efficiency. Well of course not every time. I was a little exaggerating. There are days the body cannot improve anything, some days it just has to keep the current status of shape, of control, of efficiency. I don’t think any dancers likes these days, since these days are unproductive.

Anyway I’m gone to watch another episode of House M.D. … anyway I’ll write again soon!

In between…

…shows on different countries I am stopping by at my parents place in Frankfurt, Germany, as I currently am. Since my last post one month ago I’ve been around quite a lot. I’ve been to Seoul in Korea, Taipei in Taiwan and to Astana in Kazakhstan. Tomorrow I’m leaving for 4 performances in Italy: Roma, Florence, Treviso and Acqui.

After all that I will relax and enjoy myself in Varna, Bulgaria for two weeks watching the competition and swimming in the black sea. I repeat, I will not dance in Varna, not in the competition, nor in the gala.

PS: Photo was taken by the New York based dance photographer Eduardo Patino

Back in shape…

Well again I’m sitting at an airport noticing that my last post has been more than a month ago. Hmmm. My plane from Tokyo to Frankfurt is late for three hours, what can I do ;).
Anyway yesterday I had my show in Tokyo which went really well. After my vacation period in Varna (what? I am on vacation…impossible! hahaha) I got back in shape and went for a week to Japan to perform first in Takamtsu and then in Tokyo and now I’m heading back home.
4 days in Frankfurt to recover from the Jet-lag and get back in shape for class.
(As you might or might not know there are different kinds of ‘being in shape’. To be in shape for rehearsing is different than to be performing. Then again for every performance and for even every Pas de deux you need different shapes, as different muscle groups are needed to perform. Actually it’s logical. Different kinds of jumps, different muscles, different shape.)
Well after that i am going for a week to Vilnius, Lithuania to prepare the role of Solor, which I’ll be doing there in December for the first time. My partner will be again Miki Hamanaka as Nikiya and Natalia Ledovskaya as Gamzatti.
After that I will be in Vienna for a week to visit friends and do some trainings there.
And I guess then I’ll be writing again to update you ;-).

By the way I have good news for my Mexican followers and friends. As it is planned I will be very probably performing in Guadalajara on September 26. Stay tuned for updates and news concerning that show.

Anyway I’ll write again, I just don’t know when

Bye and wish me a good flight!

New DonQ and performance schedule…

Hey there,

got a new video (technically it’s 2) up on Youtube:

Well, I’ve been pretty busy the last days preparing everything for my travelling and especially for New York Just so you have it, here is my schedule for the next weeks before joining American Ballet Theatre’s rehearsal period on September 29:
September 12-14: Athens, 3 shows at the MEGARO MOUSIKIS stage
September 15-18: London, rehearsals
September 19-22: Paris, Théatre des Champs-Elysées, 4 galas
September 26: Guadalajara, Mexico, Auditorio Telmex, gala

Anyway, I have to leave now for rehearsals. Just so you know, there will be some more videos up on Youtube soon ;).
Hope all is well with all of you!

Hello friends. I know it has been a while since my last post. The only thing I can assure you is that I have been very productive since the last time I wrote.

Before and during my stay in NYC

As previously mentioned I had a marathon of shows before finally arriving in NY. They all went well, though by the end I was exhausted and happy that I was in NYC. Athens, Paris and Guadalajara were all a great experience on their own.

NYC was a bit of a hassle, especially in the beginning. I had a sublet, two suitcases (for one and a half months), a lot of ballet stuff with me and basically chronically no time to do whatsoever. Work was nice, I got used to the working habits of ABT and got to know a lot of new people with no bad experiences at all. Concerning the repertoire I was rehearsing and performing the ‘Tico Tico’ solo in Paul Taylor’s ‘Company B’ and beside this the ‘Flames of Paris’ Pas de Deux with Sarah Lane.
A Social Security Number, a lot of Starbucks Coffee Cups and millions of Subway rides later I finally found an apartement and finished my first season at the New York City Center.

Coming back to the kitschy and tacky clichés about New York, consider them true. Wether it be ‘The city gives you so much energy’ or ‘the city is so alive’ or basically anything which starts with ‘the city is…’, actually most of it is true. It really is a unique experience and definitely a privilege to be there.

(Why I write there is because I currently am writing this post while being on a train ride for a day-trip to Munich)

La Bayadère

After NY I did a full DonQ in Vilnius and afterwards prepared for around 9 days the role of Solor in ‘La Bayadère’. It was actually enough time since most of the work I did in the summer preparing the role in Vilnius with my parents. It was abig step forward for me and everything went well.

INTENSIO, Twitter and a new website

Hi everyone.

I know I’ve been absent more than a year. A lot of changes, a lot of things happening, a lot of work. I am sorry the only possibility I had was to keep you up-to-date over my Twitter account.

But just two things. I my INTENSIO project happening on December 11, 12 and 13 in the Pallace Theatre in Athens. Join me if you want/have the possibility!

The list of appearing dancers include:

• Daniil SIMKIN – American Ballet Theatre
• Alina COJOCARU - The Royal Ballet
• Lucia LACARRA – Bayerisches Staatsballett (Munich)
• Cyril PIERRE – Bayerisches Staatsballett (Munich)
• Daria KLIMENTOVÁ – English National Ballet
• David MAKHATELI – The Royal Ballet
• Irina KOLESNIKOVA – St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre
• Semyon CHUDIN – Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre
• Marie LINDQVIST – The Royal Swedish Ballet
• Dragos MIHALCEA – The Royal Swedish Ballet
• Aurelie DUPONT –Paris Opera Ballet
  
• Jiri Bubenicek –Dresden Semper Oper
  

Furthermore, a new website is in the making by GNV& Partners. It will feature a re-do of my current wordpress theme, but the general concept of Blog/website will stay the same. Stay tuned.

Last but not least, you can become a ‘fan’ or better said a friend now on my Facebook Page. I have reached 5000 friends on my actual profile and therefore have to relocate my friends to my page. If you are not one yet, please join!