Cape Town City Ballet’s artistic executive to teach master classes in Prague
Keith MacKintosh teaching Mariette Opperman and Claire Spector at Cape Town City Ballet’s dance studio.
Joining international ballet stars such as Darcey Bussell, the artistic executive of Cape Town City Ballet, Keith MacKintosh, has been invited to participate in the prestigious International Ballet Masterclasses in Prague, where he will conduct a daily 90 minute ballet class from 22 to 27 July 2013.
MacKintosh was invited by prima ballerina Daria Klimentova, who is the founder and director of the Prague master class series.
Klimentova is particularly well-known to British audiences, having danced at Scottish Ballet and then, since 1996, as a principal and senior principal at English National Ballet.
Cape Town audiences however, will remember Klimentova from her time spent at CAPAB in the early 90’s, and of course as a guest performer in Cape Town City Ballet’s most recent production of The Nutcracker in December 2012.
Have a look at Daria Klimentova’s brand new book available on Amazon: Daria Klimentova: Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance
Apparently it was during this visit, while working with MacKintosh, that she was so impressed by his daily classes that the invitation to teach at her high profile summer school came shortly afterwards.
International master classes attract top ballet stars
This year’s Prague teaching faculty includes Darcey Bussell, former prima ballerina of The Royal Ballet and one of the most filmed and documented ballet stars of our time; Vadim Muntagirov from the English National Ballet; Jan-Erik Wikstrom from the Royal Swedish Ballet; and several other principal dancers and ballet masters including Daria Klimentova.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have been invited and look forward to being part of such a prestigious faculty,” said Keith MacKintosh.
“Most of the faculty members are currently star dancers at major ballet companies in Europe. So it’s quite an honour as I am a retired dancer as such!”
The Prague International Masterclass sessions are now in their 11th year, held at the studios of Prague’s National Theatre Ballet Company from 22 July to 3 August 2013. You can find out more about these ballet master classes and the masters that teach them here.
Bringing more ballet talent to South Africa
Keith MacKintosh has often been invited as a guest teacher with dance companies in Europe, which is useful considering his other role and responsibility for engaging international guest dancers for Cape Town City Ballet productions.
In what was described as a major scoop, he recently contracted two leading principal dancers from The Royal Ballet. Roberta Marquez and Nehemiah Kish will perform at select performances in the company’s upcoming production of The Sleeping Beauty at Artscape from 10 to 18 August 2013. See the full details and casting here.
We wonder what other big ballet names we’ll be seeing in Cape Town following this teaching/ scouting trip in Europe?
On Twitter? Follow the dancers and contacts here: Daria Klimentova, Vadim Muntagirov, Darcey Bussell, Nehemiah Kish, Cape Town City Ballet, and BodyMindBallet.
Category: Dance News
