Years of ballet training — and performing — have given Wang Tzer-shing (王澤馨) apparently unflappable poise, something she has basically been surviving on while trying to organize the Eighth International Ballet Star Gala program.
Recruiting dancers for the two shows — Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the National Theater in Taipei — were a headache from the beginning because April is a busy time for the world’s top ballet companies and finding principals or soloists who could get permission from their troupes to make a short trip to Taiwan was difficult. It also meant the dancers would be arriving just a day before the first show, limiting time for rehearsals and tech run-throughs. However, this weekend is all the National Theater was able to offer her.
HICCUPS
Photo courtesy of Art Wave Inc
Wang’s job became even more nerve-wracking at the beginning of this month because she lost four dancers to injuries — not to themselves, but to others in their companies that forced them to stay home to perform: Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae from the Royal Ballet and San Francisco Ballet principals Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan all had to bow out. This required a lot of back and forth between Wang and possible replacements and between the dancers and their company directors.
However, the four replacements she came up with pack quite a lot of star power: American Ballet Theater (ABT) principal Xiomara Reyes, who appeared in the 2011 gala and then with the company in Taipei the following year; New York City Ballet principals Ashley Bouder, who was here in 2009, and Gonzalo Garcia; and Ulrik Birkkjaer, a 30-year-old principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and Los Angeles Ballet, the last two newcomers to Taipei.
Birkkjaer was so determined to come that he will spend just one night in Taipei. He is dancing in a performance of Swan Lake in Copenhagen tonight, gets on an airplane tomorrow morning, arrives in Taipei early on Saturday and then has to leave on Sunday night after the matinee.
“All he is going to see of Taipei is the airport, the theater and his hotel room,” Wang said in an interview on Monday night.
Reyes’ appearance is extra special because she is retiring from ABT next month at the age of 42 — stepping down while still at the height of her powers, judging by the ecstatic reviews for her performances in Agnes de Mille’s classic Rodeo last month at the Kennedy Center.
Just when Wang thought she had everything sorted out, with the replacements confirmed and the program rearranged, she received a telephone call on Sunday morning from Svetlana Lunkina of the National Ballet of Canada to say that her partner, Evan McKie, was injured and would not be able to come. McKie then called to apologize; he had hurt his back.
More calls and texting ensued. Lunkina still wanted to come, but she and McKie were scheduled to dance a pas de deux from Giselle and Mask Duet, a new piece specially choreographed for the Taipei shows by British choreographer Douglas Lee. Lunkina could still do the Giselle excerpt, but needed a new partner, and she offered to perform Mikhail Fokine’s classic solo, The Dying Swan as her second piece.
Wang suggested Mariinsky Theater principal Igor Kolb as a partner — he’s a veteran of three galas who was already on this year’s program to do two solos — and Lunkina agreed. Wang then contacted Kolb, who said “sure” to partnering Lunkina, but still wanted to do both solos.
Another hiccup was that Paris Opera Ballet principal Dorothee Gilbert was already set to perform The Dying Swan, so Wang had to get in touch with her to see if she was willing to do something else. Gilbert was amenable and Wang finally had a full program, but she had to revise the rundown to ensure there was adequate time for rest and change costumes for each performer.
“I am very honored and grateful that all the dancers are willing to come at such a busy time. I got so much support from the dancers, everyone is trying to help, everyone is saying ‘It’s okay, it will all work out,’” Wang said.
Among the familiar faces this weekend will be ABT’s Daniil Simkin, who will be making his fifth appearance in Taipei; the Boston Ballet’s Misa Kuranaga, who wowed audiences last year with her quickness and crisp footwork as replacement for Ana Sophia Scheller; Iana Salenko from the Staatsballett Berlin, who dance in the 2007 and 2010 galas; and Raphael Coumes-Marquet from the Semperoper Dresden Ballet, who appeared in 2009 and 2011.
Aside from Gilbert, Garcia and Birkkjaer, the other newcomer is Jan Casier, from the Dresden troupe.
STELLAR PROGRAM
The program looks terrific. Reyes and Garcia will dance the balcony pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillian’s Romeo and Juliet and George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Lunkina and Kolb are doing the Giselle snippet; Kuranaga and Simkin will dance the White Swan Pas de Deux from Swan Lake and the wedding pas de deux from Don Quixote and Simkin will also partner Salenko in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s La Pluie; while Bouder and Birkkjaer will dance Flower Festival in Genzano.
As for the solos, Gilbert will perform the Act 2 party variation from MacMillian’s Manon and an excerpt from Renato Zanella’s Alles Walzer, Salenko will dance If... by Arshak Ghalumyan, Kolb will dance a solo by Mariinsky choreographer Dmitry Pimonov, and Lunkina is doing The Dying Swan.
Saturday night will be the world premiere of Czech dancer/choreographer Jiri Bubenicek’s Proven Lands, danced by his Semperoper Dresden Ballet colleagues Coumes-Marquet and Casier to music from the soundtrack of the movie Whiplash, remixed by Bubenicek’s twin Otto, a principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballett.
Coumes-Marquet and Casier will also perform British choreographer David Dawson’s Faun (e), a “new reading” of Vaslav Nijinski’s 1912 solo L’Apres-midi d’un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun), created for the English National Ballet’s Ballet Russes anniversary celebrations in 2009 and set to Claude Debussy’s composition of the same name.
In an interesting juxtaposition, Kolb will perform Pimonov’s take on Afternoon of a Faun.
Wang said she is looking forward to seeing the two Fauns, but most of all on Monday night she was just looking forward to everyone arriving safely.
“I go to sleep with my phone next to me. Every time I wake up, I grab my phone to check Facebook, Line and e-mails to see if there are any changes. I’m so nervous,” she said.
She laughed and said some of the stress is the result of enthusiastic audiences.
“Every year people say: ‘This year’s show was the best,’ so I feel even more pressure when working on the next show,” she said. “I don’t want to ruin my reputation.”
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