Currently we’re in LA performing Alexei Ratmansky’s ‘The Bright Stream’ at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I am performing this Saturday evening and then the following show on Sunday afternoon. After that we fly to Japan for a marathon of shows. My show of Basilio in Don Quixote on July 23rd will be recorded and then broadcasted on July 30th on national TV Channel NHK, so in case you’re in Japan at that time, tune in.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures! Cheers.

Oh and PS. I was filming an abbreviated version of ‘Les Bourgeois’ for the TV Show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ yesterday. It was a prerecording and the airing should take place either tonight or at some point in the near future. I’ll keep you up-to-date on my Twitter.

MET_2011_3

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Anyway. Today we’re starting our third week of ‘the MET’ and so far it treated me quite nicely, to say the least. I did 9 shows in the first two weeks, including Basil in DonQ, which was intense, satifying but as always not perfect and two shows of Tudor’s Shadowplay. Let me elaborate on this one.
I’ll let Anthony Tudor and Anthony Dowell speak first. There is a wonderful clip on Youtube, (I suspect) a BBC documentary having been translated to German. You can barely make out what both of them are saying in English, but I’ll do a rough translation for you paraphrasing what is said in German:

January 1967, a new ballet. Shadowplay, music by Koechlin, choreography Anthony Tudor…(now the hero, a quest for Nirvana, the boy with the matted hair…)
A. Dowell: When you start very young, you’re very flexible and think you can do anything. Suddenly after a couple of years comes a challenge (or a step) which you cannot master. You are absolutely stuck and are unable to do it. With that experience Shadowplay was a tremendous help for me since instead of concentrating on mastering the sequence of steps I could focus on the plot and what I was trying to project.
A. Tudor: I said where do you think we should start? Would you prefer too enter from stage left or stage right? He said he didn’t care. I continued to ask him mentioning that he probably had some idea, but he didn’t care. I wanted to know if he wanted to to start downstage or upstage and he said he again didn’t care. Well I said, maybe you want to start in center or on the side…By that moment he thought I was a nut and became nervous…
A Dowell: Then he said look up the tree, what kind of tree is it? I was literally shocked since I have never, in my imagination, visualized a tree, I just looked up…
A Tudor: I said: ‘Tell me by your body! I want to know, if it is a little tree or a big tree or a [] shaped tree’ and we decided to continue the next day.  On the next day on my way to work, at Earl Court, I saw a wondeerful mango tree in a showcase, the first I have ever seen in London. I bought it and brought it with me to the studio, but hid the tree. I encouraged Anthony to start with the tree right away that day. He told me there is none. At that moment I got out the mango tree and told him that the tree is here. He said: ‘What is it’? He most likely never saw a mango in his life before. His eyes opened with wonderment, he looked up the tree and it was perfect.
A Dowell: Shadwoplay was the most important ballet for me and my development.

These are strong words coming from the creators of the piece and I can definitely relate to the fact that it is an experience and an experience which brought me further, not knowing where exactly further. After performing it for two times I was as much emotionally exhausted as I was enriched by the experience.
By the way, here is the mango tree Mr. Tudor was talking about:

Oh, and here are some pictures from my mid-show tweets and other behind-the-scene footage As always enjoy and cheers!

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MET_2011_1

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Besides, tomorrow I’ll be ‘teching’ and on Wednesday at 2pm performing Basilio in Don Quixote with ABT for the first time. Here’s a sketch from the Designer (Santo) for the new costume for it …

Concerning the casting I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter, but once again, just in case:
First three weeks of casting for the MET: May 16: Gala, Bright Stream [finale]; May 18 2pm: Don Quixote, Basilio [NY debut]; May 19: Don Quixote, Lead Gypsy; May 21 8pm: Don Quixote, Lead Gypsy; May 24: Troika; May 25@2pm: Shadowplay [debut]; May 25@7.30pm: Troika; May 26: Shadowplay; May 28: Giselle, Peasant Pdd; June 1@2pm: Giselle, Peasant Pdd;

So, cheers as always and see you soon.

ps. another MET tradition. The irrestistible MET-chocolate-chip cookies from the MET cafeteria…

So, well, we had a rehearsal period before Moscow, then the tour and then a week off, in which I managed to take a much needed metaphorical breath before we plunged into the current rehearsal period, which lasts for 5 weeks and then adjuncts to our MET season. After the MET season we’ll go straight to Los Angeles to perform for a week at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and then for two weeks to Japan.
Exciting new debut and roles this season include Basilio in Don Quixote (first time with ABT), Franz in Coppelia, ‘The Boy with the matted hair’ in Tudor’s Shadowplay, ‘the classical ballet dancer’ in Ratmasky’s Bright Stream and the aforementioned Troika from Millepied. Our opening night at the Metropolitan Opera takes place on May 16th and we perform through July 9th. Check out ABT’s Calendar in case you will be or planning to be in the city during that time.

Speaking of Shadowplay, I’ll be dancing in Mr. Baryshnikov’s costume.
If you missed my twitter posts check these pics out:

Besides all of that I am seriously considering going back to (academic) school and starting the LEAP program to, at some point, achieve a Bachelor’s degree for Performing Arts…oh well, we’ll see.

…And as promised, here are is the Moscow album. Click on the small picture below to go to the page with the pictures. I updated the gallery function of the website, which changed the way the galleries display.

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And as always cheers.

Not only are we rehearsing Nutcracker though. At the same time as we are trying to redefine the traditional (or non-traditional) boundaries of this old-world (or new-world) classic we’re rehearsing Mr. Ratmasky’s ‘The Bright Stream’. A comical ballet touching the subject of the life at the Kolhozy in rural Soviet russia (wikipedia article on Kolhoz for whoever who has no idea what that means). Anyway, in that production I’m learning the ‘Accordionist’ and the ‘Ballet Dancer’ (for insiders: literally ouch concerning the latter one.)

So in two weeks we start performing Nutcracker. Then in two weeks of rehearsals follow, then we perform the Bright Stream at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC.
After DC we have one week of rehearsals and then go to London for a week of performing repertory works, where I’ll be debuting in the Lover in Antony Tudor’s ‘Jardin aux Lilas’ (or simply Lilac Garden) and…drum roll… the lead in Balanchine’s Theme & Variations.

So as you see there is a lot of work and rehearsals ahead of me. Nevertheless I’m excited and eager to get and keep going .

Oh and by the way I updated all of the aforementioned performances in my schedule, so feel to take a look!

Here are some (this time IMO rather uninspiring photographs) from my performance in Indianapolis this September. Enjoy.

• Duration: approx. 3 months or exactly 94 days
• Flight schedule in with airport code:
  JFK-LAX
  LAX-PEK-HND
  HND-PEK-FRA
  FRA-BOD
  BOD-MAD-JFK
  LGA-DEN-EGE
  EGE-DEN-SFO-NRT
  NRT-TPE
  TPE-NRT-SFO-LAX-JFK
  JFK-FRA
  FRA-JFK
  LGA-IND
  IND-LGA
  JFK-FRA-TXL
  TXL-CDG
  CDG-WAW-SVO
  SVO-WAW-EWR
  EWR-NRT-SIN
  SIN-NRT-EWR
  LGA-YYZ
  YYZ-LGA
• 21 flights, 14 connecting flights= 35 flights in total
• entered & exited 56 airports
• traveled 81935 miles or 131861.600 km
• one time around the world being 24860.2 miles means 3.29 times around the world
• 17 shows ,12 cities and 7 countries

I updated my schedule

Oh and here are the long overdue pictures from Vail, Colorado.

All is well. After a lot of traveling I’m about at half of my ‘summer break’ from ABT. My shows in Vail, Tokyo and Taipei went very well and 10 out of about 21 flights are done. Currently I’m with my family in Germany to rest and recharge before I’m off to a brief visit back to New York and then Indianapolis, Berlin, Paris and Moscow.

Anyway here is an interview brought to you by Dance Pulp. I kinda sound a bit too egocentric by using I and I and I and I way too much. Besides that I repeat myself about 4 times saying the same thing in the end of the interview, but oh well… enjoy anyway…

I’ll be back with photos from my travels very soon. Stay tuned. Oh… and cheers!

I know I’m super late with these photos, but better late than never, right? They were taken on our LA tour with ABT, where we performed Sleeping Beauty.
After that I’ve been to Tokyo, Frankfurt, Royan, New York, Vail, and am now back in Tokyo. So as you might guess there are quite a substantial number of pictures to come, so please stay tuned

I’m doing well actually, rehearsing currently the full-length DonQ with Tokyo ballet which I’ll be performing on August 20th and 22nd in the Youport hall! After that I continue in Taipei…but one set of pictures at a time

Hope all is well with everyone! Cheers!

The season at the Metropolitan Opera, which always lasts 2 months in the year in the summer here in the currently hot and humid New York, is on the one side my favorite time of the year… on the other side I feel like all of us dancers at ABT definitely grow a couple of extra gray hairs in the process.

I feel extremely privileged to perform on such a special stage in front of up to 4000 viewers each night. Every week we perform different ballets, which means we rehearse one ballet and perform another one (or even various roles) in the evening (which differs from the usual European system…) To a certain degree there are times when everyone is on edge, physically and of course mentally. To put it in concrete terms, I performed in 11 different things in the course of this season. In the middle of it I suffered a minor ankle injury (from which I am still slightly recovering). I cried… I laughed… and I felt every and anything in between.

Nevertheless it is a special kind of sensation (and I’m trying now not  to be too clichée ) to be finished with the season. When it begins it seems it’s never-ending. When it ends, it seems like the time flew by like nothing.

To be honest I feel I cannot express myself in words well enough. I’m not a words person. I appreciate the written word, but am incapable of creating something worth of what I am trying to say.  I better stop and go to sleep. Enjoy the pictures. They hopefully capture a teeny-tiny-little bit of my life.
No more, no less.

Nevertheless here is the sum-up of the Chicago tour. First the couple of reviews we received with ABT and then my photos. The photos are not what you might expect, just so you know
Anyway here you go.

“In three breathtaking solo turns, Daniil Simkin (a dancer whose compact frame and airtight style are reminiscent of Baryshnikov’s) [...] made every gesture count and every moment pop in this quintessentially American street scene of a ballet. Glorious. “

- Hedy Weiss for the Chicago Sun-Times ,April 16, 2010

“Sparkly Daniil Simkin, a rising ABT spitfire, was electric as the first
sailor, flawless in the double spins and glissando-like split that
Robbins assigned the character.”

- Sid Smith for the Chicago Tribune ,April 16, 2010

“ABT is coming to town! In addition to a seven-performance run of Swan Lake (yes!), the New York-based troupe will present a one-night-only showcase of American choreographers. The All-American Celebration featuring works by Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp, is also the Chicago debut for 22-year-old soloist Daniil Simkin. This Russian-born wunderkind has exquisite technique, an inextinguishable creative curiosity and oodles of charm. Think of him as a mini Misha.”

- Vicki Crain for the Ruminations by a Rogue Ballerina Blog ,April 10, 2010

“[...]Now 22, Simkin makes his debut as one of three sailors in Robbins’ “Fancy Free” on Wednesday. “It’s iconic, and very American,” he says of the part…[...]“

- Sid Smith for the Chicago Tribune ,April 11, 2010

And here are the photos: