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Melissa Hamilton
Melissa Hamilton (born 2 August 1989) is a Northern Irish ballet dancer and a First Soloist with the Royal Ballet, London. Early life Hamilton was born in Belfast and spent most of her childhood in Dromore, County Down. Her father is a builder and her mother is a pre-school teacher. Her sister is an architect and her brother is a primary school teacher. She started dancing at age four. She attended Dromore Primary School and Banbridge Academy, and left the latter after she finished her GCSEs. Until that point, the only training Hamilton had are once-a-week classes. At age 16, she was awarded a scholarship and entered Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, where she trained for two years. During her first year, she was told she would not be able to catch up. However, in her second year, she was taught by Masha Mukhamedov (wife of Irek Mukhamedov), who believed she could have a career in dance. When Mukhamedovs moved to Athens, Hamilton followed them to train privately with Masha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom and the second-largest in Ireland. It had a population of 345,418 . By the early 19th century, Belfast was a major port. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, briefly becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname "Linenopolis". By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland and Wolff shipyard, which built the , was the world's largest shipyard. Industrialisation, and the resulting inward migration, made Belfast one of Ireland's biggest cities. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, Belfast became the seat of government for Northern Ireland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manon (ballet)
''L'histoire de Manon'', generally referred to as ''Manon'', is a ballet choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan to music by Jules Massenet and based on the 1731 novel ''Manon Lescaut'' by Abbé Prévost. The ballet was first performed by The Royal Ballet in London in 1974 with Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell in the leading roles. It continues to be performed and recognised internationally. Background Kenneth MacMillan had been thinking about choreographing a ballet about the story of Manon Lescaut for some time. Three years into his artistic directorship of The Royal Ballet, he wanted to create a large-scale operatic ballet that would provide exciting roles both for the company's principal dancers and the ''corps de ballet''.Parry, p. 428 On the last night of the company's summer season in 1973, MacMillan left a copy of Prévost's novel in Antoinette Sibley's dressing room, with a note informing her that it would "come in handy for March 7, '74". As the copy of ''Manon Lescaut' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elite Syncopations (ballet)
''Elite Syncopations'' is a one-act ballet created in 1974 by Kenneth MacMillan for The Royal Ballet."Elite Syncopations" , Kenneth McMillan website, retrieved 22 March 2015 Background and productions The piece was premiered by on 7 October 1974 at the , Covent Garden, with costume designs by Ian Spurling, lighting designs by John B. Read and staging by Julie Lincoln. The ballet is for 12 dancers. It is described as having an up-beat, hip swinging aura of spontaneity, with 'easygoing rhy ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollo (ballet)
''Apollo'' (originally ''Apollon musagète'' and variously known as ''Apollo musagetes'', ''Apolo Musageta'', and ''Apollo, Leader of the Muses'') is a neoclassical ballet in two ''tableaux'' composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed in 1928 by twenty-four-year-old George Balanchine, with the composer contributing the libretto. The scenery and costumes were designed by André Bauchant, with new costumes by Coco Chanel in 1929. The scenery was executed by Alexander Shervashidze, with costumes under the direction of Mme. A. Youkine. The American patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge had commissioned the ballet in 1927 for a festival of contemporary music to be held the following year at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The story centres on Apollo, the Greek god of music, who is visited by three Muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. The ballet takes Classical antiquity a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Onegin (Cranko)
''Onegin'' is a ballet created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet, premiered on 13 April 1965 at Staatstheater Stuttgart. The ballet was based on Alexander Pushkin's 1825-1832 novel ''Eugene Onegin'', to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and arrangements by Kurt-Heinz Stolze. The ballet had since been in the repertoires of The Australian Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre and The Royal Ballet. Background and production Cranko first discovered Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel ''Eugene Onegin'' when he choreographed the dances for Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name in 1952. He first proposed a ballet based on Pushkin's story to the Royal Opera House board in the 1960s, but it was turned down, and he pursued the idea when he moved to Stuttgart. The Stuttgart Ballet premiered the work in 1965. The Royal Ballet did not present the work until 2001. The choreography for his ballet includes a wide range of styles, including folk, modern, ballroom and acrob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quixote (ballet)
''Don Quixote'' is a ballet in three acts, based on episodes taken from the famous novel ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'' by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and first presented by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet on . Petipa and Minkus revised the ballet into a more elaborate and expansive version in five acts and eleven scenes for the Mariinsky Ballet, first presented on at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St. Petersburg. All modern productions of the Petipa/Minkus ballet are derived from the version staged by Alexander Gorsky for the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1900, a production the ballet master staged for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg in 1902. History Earlier versions The two chapters of the novel that the ballet is mostly based on were first adapted for the ballet in 1740 by Franz Hilverding in Vienna, Austria. In 1768, Jean Georges Noverre mounted a new version of ''Don Quixote'' in Vienna to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. The complete ''Nutcracker'' has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of ''The Nutcracker''. The ballet's score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story. Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. History Origins The first issue, published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, was the world's first Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley. 19th century In 180 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romeo And Juliet (MacMillan)
Choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Royal Ballet production of Sergei Prokofiev's ''Romeo and Juliet'' premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 9 February 1965. Background Kenneth MacMillan had previously choreographed the balcony scene for Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable to dance in September 1964 for Canadian Television. This scene provided an essential part of the ballet's overall structure. Seymour stated that the balcony scene pas de deux only took three rehearsals to fully choreograph. This experience made him seem a good candidate to choreograph the entire ballet for Covent Garden, when the Soviet Union refused to allow Leonid Lavrovsky's classic production to tour to London. MacMillan prepared his version with the blessing of Frederick Ashton. MacMillan only had five months to choreograph the full ballet as The Royal Ballet hoped to perform Romeo and Juliet in its upcoming American tour. He, Seymour, and Gable planned the ballet around the characters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberto Bolle
Roberto Bolle (born March 26, 1975 in Casale Monferrato) is an Italian danseur. He is currently a ''principal dancer'' with the American Ballet Theatre and a principal dancer ''étoile'' at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly as a guest artist with the world’s leading companies, including The Royal Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet. Early life Bolle was born in Casale Monferrato and lived during his youth in Trino, in Piemonte, a small town near Vercelli. He began ballet studies at age seven at a local school and was accepted at the La Scala theatre ballet school in Milan at the age of twelve. In 1990, he was noted by Rudolf Nureyev, who chose him to play the role of Tadzio in the opera ''Morte a Venezia'', but the Theater forbade him to accept the offer because he was too young. Career In 1996, following an appearance in ''Romeo and Juliet'', twenty-year-old Bolle was promoted to principal dancer at La Scala. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swan Lake
''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular ballets of all time. The scenario, initially in two acts, was fashioned from Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger (Václav Reisinger). The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on 15 January 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)
''The Sleeping Beauty'' ( rus, Спящая красавица, Spyashchaya krasavitsa ) is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Opus 66). The score was completed in 1889, and is the second of his three ballets. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and is based on Charles Perrault's '' La Belle au bois dormant''. The choreographer of the original production was Marius Petipa. The premiere performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890. The work has become one of the classical repertoire's most famous ballets. History Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky on 25 May 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation on the subject of the story of ''Undine''. It was later decided that Charles Perrault's '' La Belle au bois dormant'' would be the story for which Tchaikovsky would co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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