Cuban prima ballerina Viengsay Valdés and US star Brooklyn Mack will dance the principal roles in two performances of Joburg Ballet’s Swan Lake this weekend.

As the prima ballerina of the National Ballet of Cuba, Viengsay Valdés is widely acclaimed as one of the leading ballerinas of our time. Watch her and US ballet star, Brooklyn Mack from the Washington Ballet, in this mini-documentary video clip as they perform and talk about their inspirations and challenges, particularly with Swan Lake.

For more behind-the-scenes footage, see the other mini-documentary episodes here.

Two performances only for the dynamic duo

As visiting guests, Viengsay Valdés and Brooklyn Mack will be performing together in the leading roles in Joburg Ballet’s new production of Swan Lake for two performances – on Friday evening, 24 April 2015, and Sunday afternoon, 26 April 2015.

You’ll also have one more opportunity to watch Brooklyn Mack when he dances opposite South Africa’s own prima ballerina Burnise Silvius, with their single performance together scheduled to close the Swan Lake season on Sunday, 3 May 2015 at 3pm.

Booking details:

Dates: Friday 17 April – Sunday 3 May 2015.
Venue: Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Tickets: from R100 to R400 via JoburgTheatre.com or 0861 670 670

South African prima ballerina, Burnise Silvius, with Jonathan Rodrigues and dancers from Joburg Ballet in front of the company’s grand new sets designed by Andrew Botha. Photo by Lauge Sorensen

With an impressively large cast of over 80 dancers hailing from Cuba, China, Brazil, the United States and South Africa, Joburg Ballet is readying itself for what it claims is the “largest and grandest” production of Swan Lake South Africa has yet seen, taking place at Joburg Theatre from 17 April to 3 May 2015.

It’s a big claim that’s bound to raise the eyebrows of the competition (St Petersburg Ballet Theatre are performing Swan Lake in Johannesburg and Cape Town in May). But with Joburg Ballet’s knack for always finding innovative ways to surprise and delight, we’re rather keen to see what they’ve got hidden in those wings.

For a start, the ballet company has announced a very peculiar, but creatively enticing decision regarding their casting for the opening night. Each act will see a different leading couple perform the roles of Odette/Odile and the Prince, giving the audience an absolutely unique opportunity to enjoy the performances of the international guests as well as Joburg Ballet’s own principal dancers in sequence in one night.

While this might mess with classical purists’ sense of calm and continuity, the exposure to more dancers with their individual interpretations and style is bound to be an interesting take on a Swan Lake opening night.

Commenting on this decision, Joburg Ballet CEO Dirk Badenhorst said, “We decided to make the opening night of Swan Lake a gala event, partly to celebrate having all of our friends from around the world here dancing with us and partly to showcase everything this collaborative run will offer to the high profile audience – which includes government ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries from South Africa, China, Cuba and the US – on the first night.”

Cuban prima ballerina Viengsay Valdes with partner José Losada performing a black swan variation at the International Ballet Gala in Johannesburg 2013. Photo by Sarah Weyman

Dancing stars from across the globe

So who are these leading dancers sharing the stage?

From Cuba, you’ll see prima ballerina Viengsay Valdés from the National Ballet of Cuba partnering with US ballet star Brooklyn Mack from The Washington Ballet, who is always a popular crowd-raising guest on the South African stage.

Miss Valdés is also a returning visitor to South Africa and gave an electric performance of the black swan during the International Ballet Gala of 2013. She’s known for her remarkable sense of balance and performed six pirouette turns leading into fouettes! See for yourself in the video below.

From China, the Liaoning Ballet’s prima ballerina, Yu Chuanya, will perform with her partner Ma Ming. And South Africa’s own prima ballerina, Joburg Ballet’s beautiful Burnise Silvius dances with the dapper Brazilian Jonathan Rodrigues. It’s the United Nations on one stage in one night.

Missed opening night? Here’s the casting for the rest of the production for you to take your pick (casting subject to change).

Casting for Joburg Ballet’s Swan Lake 2015

April 2015:

• Friday 17, 19:30: Gala Performance with Joburg Ballet stars and visiting guest stars
• Saturday 18, 15:00: Burnise Silvius (Odette-Odile), Jonathan Rodrigues (Prince)
• Saturday 18, 19:30: Nicole Ferreira-Dill (Odette), Claudia Monja (Odile), Juan Carlos Osma (Prince)
• Sunday 19, 15:00: Dancers from the Liaoning Ballet of China
• Tuesday 21, 11:00: Claudia Monja (Odette-Odile), Juan Carlos Osma (Prince) – Edutainment Performance
• Friday 24, 19:30: Viengsay Valdés (Odette-Odile), Brooklyn Mack (Prince)
• Saturday 25, 15:00: Burnise Silvius (Odette-Odile), Jonathan Rodrigues (Prince)
• Saturday 25, 19:30: Dancers from the Liaoning Ballet of China
• Sunday 26, 11:00: Kirstel Jensen (Odette-Odile), Michael Revie (Prince) – Edutainment Performance
• Sunday 26, 15:00: Viengsay Valdés (Odette-Odile), Brooklyn Mack (Prince)
• Tuesday 28, 11:00: Nicole Ferreira-Dill (Odette-Odile), Juan Carlos Osma (Prince) – Edutainment Performance

May 2015:

• Friday 1, 19:30: Burnise Silvius (Odette-Odile), Jonathan Rodrigues (Prince)
• Saturday 2, 15:00: Kirstel Jensen (Odette-Odile), Michael Revie (Prince)
• Saturday 2, 19:30: Shannon Glover (Odette-Odile), Ramiro Samón (Prince)
• Sunday 3, 15:00: Burnise Silvius (Odette-Odile), Brooklyn Mack (Prince)

Now brace yourself for this, partly because of the poor video quality, but don’t worry, the other ‘partly’ has to do with such astounding dancing that you can easily forgive the amateur footage…

Booking details:

Dates: Friday 17 April – Sunday 3 May 2015.
Venue: Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Tickets: from R100 to R400 via JoburgTheatre.com or 0861 670 670

As the name suggests, the school is affiliated to Joburg Ballet and yes, they teach the Cuban method of ballet, which is the same method that taught Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta to dance like this… Yoh!

The Joburg Ballet Cuban School is developing into a centre of excellence for aspiring dancers. The ballet company’s professional dancers and teachers work with the pupils, teaching valuable skills and knowledge in classical ballet as well as offering them exposure to other careers in the performing arts such as lighting design, arts management and costume design.

Allowing access to the same type of training that Cubans receive in Havana, the Joburg Ballet Cuban School works to secure a continuing path of improvement as Cuban teachers (and dancers) visit and share their knowledge here in South Africa. This all with the aim that maybe one day these young Joburg kids can do insanely impressive pirouettes like Viengsay Valdés seen in this Black Swan video clip.

Audition details:

• Boys aged from 6 years to 10 years and girls aged from 6 years to 9 years are invited to audition for a place in this prestigious school.
• Please note that space is limited.
• No previous ballet training or experience is required.
• There is no charge for the audition.

Joburg Ballet Cuban School pupils pose after a lesson with Dr Ramona de Saa and Elena Cangas from Havana.

Audition date: 28 January 2014 at 4pm.

Venue: Joburg Ballet studios, Hoofd Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Application enquiries: Contact Fiona Brown on 011 877 6910 or fiona@joburgballet.com for application forms and further information.

Closing date for applications: 27 January 2014

Did you know?

The ballet world owes a debt of gratitude to Mr Fidel Castro for encouraging ballet legend Madame Alicia Alonso to form the National Ballet School of Cuba, which developed the unique ballet training method now known as the ‘Cuban Method’.

The same method that brought us fouettes like these (yes, we just can’t help ourselves, here’s the National Ballet of Cuba’s Viengsay Valdés again, this time in Diana and Actaeon)…

If you missed it, read the full story here: Highlights from the International Ballet Gala Part 1, and what they didn’t tell you about Alicia Alonso.

With an impressive combination of international and local ballet talent, the ballet gala had three programmes across their five performances, giving audiences an enticing look into ballet repertoire not often seen in South Africa, such as Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and Agrippina Vaganova’s Diana and Actaeon.

Gala photo gallery

Whether you saw one programme, all three, or none, here’s a frame by frame recap of some of the memorable moments.

Click on a photo to open the gallery…

Viengsay Valdés and José Losada performing Don Quixote at the International Ballet Gala. Photo by Sarah Weyman

And while the pursuit of perfection can naturally not exist without imperfection, we’ll ignore the few stumbles and fumbles for now and rather highlight those dancers – as seen this past weekend at the International Ballet Gala in honour of Alicia Alonso – who are challenging, if not already breaking those ‘records’, just as the inspired Madame Alonso did repeatedly across her unusually long career. (I’ll come back to her remarkable tale later.)

Those who were in the Johannesburg audience will know what I mean when I mention Viengsay Valdés, the primera bailarina of Madame Alonso’s National Ballet of Cuba.

Valdés scares me. Or at least, her bewitching black swan does. She performed her role so convincingly that the stage and backdrop melted away, while the audience was inexorably drawn and captured by the black swan sorceress she had become. She’s the type of mesmerising artist that makes you believe again in spells and magic.

Talking of magic…

Being a superb actress is, however, not the first thing audiences will remember about Valdés, and remember her they will. The buzz in the ballet classes this week will most certainly be about her Superwoman ability to balance and balance and balaaaaaance. Whether in arabesque or retiré, or effortlessly moving between the two, she can balance on pointe for what seems to mere mortals as an impossible eternity.

Wen Ting Guan and Aaron Smyth in Grand Pas Classique pas de deux. Photo by Sarah Weyman.

And with perfect balance, naturally comes astonishing pirouettes. While most dancers spring-start their fouettés with a single turn, Valdés started the famous black swan fouettés with FIVE turns. I must admit, I was so busy re-locating my jaw that I completely lost count of the rest of her multiple revolutions.

With a chorus of gasps from the audience, she was quite literally breath-taking, which is an interesting reversal of roles for someone who as a youngster was told by teachers and doctors not to pursue professional ballet due to her asthmatic breathing difficulties.

Talking about breath-taking…

Another excited post-gala point of discussion was Aaron Smyth’s opening night pirouettes. This dancer from the English National Ballet seemed to turn as if he were a skater on ice, tightening inwards to reach blurring levels before slowing to a perfectly controlled finish.

Talking of perfect control…

Giselle is a ballet known for slow and steady adage variations, and Sadaise Arencibia will henceforth be known to South Africans as the Cuban queen of control. With never a moment of wavering, this ballerina from the National Ballet of Cuba seemed to send down roots through the stage floor and her rock-solid strength combined with her haunting emotional portrayal caused an explosion of applause.

Tamako Miyazaki and Brooklyn Mack in Diana and Actaeon. Photo by Sarah Weyman.

And talking of applause…

While Aaron Smyth has charm and precision, Brooklyn Mack from The Washington Ballet has cheek and power. An audible “geez!” echoed through the audience on one of his grand entrances, thanks to his athletic, trampoline-high jumps. And as if his enormous elevation wasn’t enough to rouse the crowds, his macho technique, (not to mention his near-naked muscled body in Diana and Actaeon), along with his cheeky grin in Stars and Stripes certainly made him an audience favourite.

As for the other favourites and memorable moments, take a look at part 2 with a full photo gallery here.

Back to Alicia Alonso and her unusual story…

The lovely Madame Alonso with the dancers of the International Ballet Gala at their final performance. Photo courtesy of SAMB

In her own dance career, she was one of those remarkable ‘record breakers’ (if you’ll excuse the shallow analogy), not just in technical ability – with critics claiming she had ability beyond her time – but also with longevity. She danced her final performance at the age of 75.

But what makes this all the more remarkable is that she danced partially blind, having been diagnosed with a detached retina at the age of 19. See the full story of how she learnt Giselle with her eyes closed and more here: Lessons from a ballerina legend.

It is her passion for the pursuit of perfection and her intense performance artistry, despite disability, that makes her story that much more inspiring.

As Madame Alonso graciously accepted her applause this weekend, some audience members might only have seen a frail 91-year old lady. But those who know her story see a very different dynamic, tireless woman, whose life work has influenced and added immeasurably to ballet around the world, creating a legacy of future generations of inspired dancers.

Click through to see part 2 with the photo gallery here.

Sadaise Arencibia and Arian Molina in a scene from Swan Lake. Photo courtesy of The National Ballet of Cuba

Covering east, west, north and south, the International Ballet Gala taking place in Johannesburg from 28 to 30 June brings us ballet stars from around the globe, including gold medallists and acclaimed dancers from far-flung regions such as Russia, South Korea, the USA and of course Cuba.

Alicia Alonso in 1955.

I say “of course” because this ballet production is Dirk Badenhorst’s way of saluting Madame Alicia Alonso, considered to be Cuba’s prima ballerina assoluta – an honorary title rather than an active rank considering that she is now in her nineties. Madame Alonso still directs the National Ballet of Cuba that she founded in 1948 and found an admirer in South African ballet entrepreneur Dirk Badenhorst ever since he began his close association with Cuban ballet in 2008.

Take a peek at who’s coming:

Dancers appearing in the galas are:

• Mariinsky Ballet, St Petersburg: Kimin Kim
• National Ballet of Cuba: Anette Delgado, Dani Hernández, Sadaise Arencibia, Arián Molina, Viengsay Valdes, José Losada
• Dutch National Ballet: Wen Ting Guan
• Dresden Ballet & Hungarian National Ballet: István Simon
• Columbia Classical Ballet, USA: Tamako Miyazaki
• The Washington Ballet: Maki Inuki, Brooklyn Mack
• English National Ballet: Aaron Smyth
• South African Mzansi Ballet: Burnise Silvius, Michael Revie, Shannon Glover, Jonathan Rodrigues, Luis de Castro, Randol Figueredo, Javier Monier, Ramiro Samón
• South Korea: Ga Yeon Jung

Brooklyn Mack from The Washington Ballet danced as Basilio in SA Mzansi Ballet’s 2013 production of Don Quixote.
Photo courtesy of South African Mzansi Ballet

What to expect:

The two gala programmes in the 5-performance only season include showpieces from Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, La Bayadére, Le Corsaire, Giselle, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet and more.

Of special interest to South African audiences will be the first ever performances in this country of the Balcony Pas de Deux from John Cranko’s version of Romeo and Juliet.  One of the great choreographers of the 20th century, SA-born John Cranko led the Stuttgart Ballet to international fame before his tragically early death at the age of 46 in 1973.

Get your tickets:

Dates: Friday 28 June at 8pm
Saturday 29 June at 3pm and 8pm
Sunday 30 June at 2pm and 6pm
Venue: The Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg
Tickets: From R90 to R400 from Computicket