May 31th , 2016
The last performance of Sleeping Beauty has just finished and we are already on the road again with our last tour of the season to Gothenburg, Sweden. We will present three performances of our unique production Stijn Celis’ »Romeo and Juliet« at the Gothenburg Opera House. The plane took off punctually at 14:15 h en route to Gothenburg via Frankfurt. Sunday, the technical crew arrived to prepare the set-up and lighting on stage. Here are some pictures of the stunning Göteborgsoperan on the harbour where we were welcomed with a beautiful sunset. Can you identify the two dancers on the poster in front of the opera?
June 1st, 2016
Today we had our first rehearsal day at the opera. After our breakfast we started with our daily class and a group rehearsal. Today at 6:15 pm we’ll have our first stage call and everything should be perfect.After our rehearsals we had time to explore Gothenburg. The sunny weather was perfect for a short city tour. Gothenburg is beautiful, the port and the architecture are impressive!Now we have to go, our warm-up starts in a few minute.
June 2nd, 2016
Today we will have the premiere von Stijn Celis‘ »Romeo and Juliet« at the GöteborgsOperan. We are so excited to perform that fantastic piece again and to see the reactions of the audience. As usual we began with our daily class followed from the general rehearsal from 11:30 am until 2 pm. Afterwards we had time to rest a little and to prepare ourselves for the big premiere! Around 6 pm we will have our make-up call before we can say: »Curtain up! ‘Romeo and Juliet’« Stay tuned for more reports and our impressions.
June 3rd, 2016
We’re overwhelmed! Standing ovations and never ending applause – the audience was really enthusiastic about our performance yesterday evening! Our premiere in Gothenburg was also something special for us but there are still two other performances we have to dance. That is why we had rehearsals again after the daily class this morning. In the afternoon, we had free time and everyone was using it. Some of the dancers went directly to the Liseberg Amusement Park where they were whirled through the air in the »AeroSpin«, in the »Mechanica« and in roller coasters. In the meantime everyone is back in the ballet studio to warm-up for the second performance today. It will be exciting because it’s the last performance of our principal Elena Vostrotina with our company.
June 4th, 2016
Wow! Also the second performance was a great success! The curtain has hardly fallen and the audience was already standing up, applauding loud for all dancers. But it was different to the evening before because tears came to the eyes of most of the dancers. Elena Vostrotina was on stage with us as a company member for the last time and we gave her an official farewell. Once more she was impressive in the role of Lady Capulet - the reason that made it more difficult to say goodbye.This morning we had again rehearsals because of the new cast for our last performance: Duosi Zhu as Julia and Jón Vallejo as Romeo. We’re crossing our fingers and wish a lot of fun on stage for the last performance in Gothenburg.
June 5th, 2016
It’s 7:30 am and the company is waiting in the hotel ready for the departure. Also the new cast filled the audience with enthusiasm yesterday evening. A touching moment was the next farewell we had to celebrate after the show: Laurent Guilbaud danced the role of Tybalt for the last time and once more there was no dry eye at the farewell. Afterwards most of the dancers went into the city to enjoy the last evening in this beautiful place. The tired faces of the dancers are giving us an idea about how short the last night was … But now it’s time to take the bus to the airport and to go back to Dresden. There are already waiting the next exciting challenges!