Corella Ballet Castilla y León to perform in Los Angeles and in Santa Bárbara

Los Angeles: Ahmanson Theater

Santa Bárbara: The Granada Theater

And there also is an article by Debra Levine:

Ballet's Angel Corella Looks Ahead ... and Back

Hope somebody is going to attend and will let us know

In the Santa Barbara Independent, Elizabeth Schwyzer previews the November 8, 2010 program in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Independent

Chris Pasles reviews the Friday, November 5, 2010 performance in Los Angeles in the Los Angeles Times.

LA Times

For the second time in about a year I traveled four hours across the state of California to Santa Barbara to see a much discussed dance company. Last year it was the Suzanne Farrell Ballet that gave what I thought was an excellent performance !

This visit to see Angel Corella's new company almost had a sense of family. CarolinaM, for one, with her heartfelt support and enthusiasm, has kept us informed on the company since she first heard about it. Also I have to say that I have chatted with Angel a few times and he seems to be an extremely nice person. A reason for mentioning this is that I believe that it is really reflected in his artistry and his company.

I have somewhat the same feeling about Edward Villella's Miami City Ballet. Both seem like very friendly, family-like groups. MCB and Edward, who have been around much longer than Angel and his group, are exceptionally talented.

So to the company. For artists that have only been together for less than three years, I think that they are doing just fine. They are very professional. A very large number of dancers auditioned for places in the company. Professionalism is not in question. As Angel himself said in an audience discussion after the performance, the important thing now is to get everyone working together as well as possible. This seems to be coming along fine. One future element may be to develop some real 'stars' in addition to Angel and Herman Cornejo. In the meantime some very famous guest artists have and probably will be appearing. Also with time will come a certain spark that makes a company special. Miami City Ballet has it and I'm sure that Angel's similarly friendly and talented company can shine in the same manner.

I would like at another time to describe some of the artists and the works. For the moment I can name a couple. A dancer that I particularly like is Natalia Tapia (Principal) and a work that I particularly like is Christopher Wheeldon's "DGV:Danse A Grand Vitesse." There were also other very fine dancers and performances.

[spelling correction made]

Donna Perlmutter reviews the Friday, November 5, 2010 performance at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in blogdowntown.

blogdowntown

Thanks Buddy! you are completely right I'm enthusiastic and give as much support as I can to this troupe as I realize -it's easy to do but unfortunately not easy to assume by some dance sectors in Spain- how much courage and generosity it's behind Angel's decision to create the Corella Ballet.

We did not have a classical ballet company able to stage ballets such as The Bayadere or Swan Lake from about 20 years. Angel was (and still is) on the top of his career. What he is sacrificing is enormous. On the other hand a lot of CB dancers are also risking, because many of them had very good jobs in prestigious companies and they left to join the Spanish brand new troupe. So I'm with them and anything I could do, I'm ready for it.

So, I really appreciate you travelling to attend and I'm eager to read about your thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately I've not seen this program yet. I'll do next January in Barcelona. We are lucky enough that Angel Corella has a deep estimation for Catalunya, this special community -with its strong and different identity- in the Spanish country. They should have been here but they are in Castilla Leon, anyway Catalan people love them and they visit us very often and who knows maybe one day we will have the chance to host them here. But here, there, anywhere, I'm praying for them to be able to keep on going and growing and delighting us as they do.

You mention as "stars" Ángel and Herman. They truly are and I think that there are two or three more future (if not current) stars there, all men. Natalia, Carmen, Kazuko are great but after Almeida (to Boston) and Ellis (to Sarasota) leaving and no other female dancer joining they are lacking star ballerinas.

And of course I agree with you, Angel is not only an outstanding dancer but an extremely nice person.

We will learn this month who will the new director of our Compañía Nacional de Danza be. Some of the candidates who have presented their projects are José Carlos Martínez, danseur étoile at the París Opera Ballet, Ricardo Cué (Tamara Rojo's great friend who could be there for her to replace him as soon as she feels ready to take) and Hervé Palito (second at the CND's when Duato was in and who is now directing the company at interim) but he has already affirmed that he has no intention to turn the CND into classic so if the Government keeps on with this idea he has no chance to win. There are fourteen more candidates which I have no confirmation about who they are. Will see.....

I was only thinking that if more money is invested in that National Company, I hope that Corella Ballet will not see their subsidy decreased even more... There was no need to allow Nacho Duato leaving, they could have maintained our CND as it was and only give more support to Corella if they wanted to have a good Spanish Classical Company.

Thank you very much, Carolina, for your kind response and for more of the very interesting background information that you have offered us. Please continue to let us know what is happening with the company and I certainly join you in wishing the Corella Ballet Castilla y León a very bright and successful future.

Here's some more about what I saw.

Of course a highlight of the evening had to be the speed-of-light virtuosity of Angel Corella and Herman Cornejo. Both these phenomena of nature 'burnt-up-the-stage' about as well as I've ever seen them do with their spectacular spins and jumps.

Herman Cornejo, partnering Kazuko Omori in Stanton Welch's "Clear" was central to the success of this work, which included six other male dancers with fine dancing and expressive ability.


Angel performed Maria Pages' "Solea," a ballet piece with a flamenco theme. He did this with his statuesquely beautiful and elegantly dancing sister, Carmen Corella. Angel's powerful flamenco expression riveted the audience. As I have felt with other duet performances featuring male virtuosity, the quiet, beautiful essence of the female partner can have an equally strong effect. Angel seemed to gather energy and artistic meaning from her presence. When he finished completely wowing the audience, everyone in the theater spontaneously rose to their feet giving him a huge ovation.

The evening began with Clark Tippet's "Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1." It featured seven lead dancers a corps de ballet of 16. It is a "neo-classical" work that very well introduced the fine individual and group dancing ability of the company.


"DGV : Danse A Grand Vitesse"----Christopher Wheeldon

I've seen several complete works by Christopher Wheeldon and several excerpts. For me the element that takes his creations from the brilliant to the Sublime is his use of 'adagio' (slow, graceful, beautiful) duets. There is at least one in each work that I have seen.

What makes these duets work is a combination of absolutely beautiful choreography and spellbinding female positioning-dancing made possible by wonderful physical support by the male partner.

Natalia Tapia

She made only one appearance and that was in one of the four duets in Christopher Wheeldon's "DGV:Danse A Grand Vitesse." The essence of her dancing style and Christopher Wheeldon's general choreographic style have so much in common that her performing what was perhaps the key duet was a perfect choice.

Christopher Wheeldon creates brilliant dance architecture. What he adds to this that makes it so special is a poetic soul. Demanding and highly inventive dancing is given meaning with the interweaving of an almost transcendent reality. For me Wheeldon doesn't make powerfully individual statements like George Balanchine, but instead makes subtly beautiful, poetic flow from a foundation of remarkable inventiveness that he shares with George Balanchine.

Natalia Tapia seems to have the exact same essence. She is capable of brilliant and demanding dancing. In addition she has such a beautifully poetic presence.

"DGV : Danse A Grand Vitesse" opened with a group of dancers moving in a manner that suggested the machine parts of an engine. It is compellingly inventive choreography, which the Corella dancers grasped perfectly. From this beginning surge the dancing remained equally solid and well crafted. The standard had been set from the beginning moment and all that followed reinforced and echoed it. Four couples performed duets and the interweaving with a larger group of dancers moved along in a fascinating interaction of individual statements and flowing harmony. Twenty-six and one half minutes ended leaving me wishing to see much more.

Natalia Topia with the fine partnering of Toby Mallit, had performed a pivotally compelling duet that so well interpreted Christopher Wheeldon's transcendent creativity. For me, Natalia Topia will be remembered in the 'exhaulted' company of Wendy Whelan (New York City Ballet), Haiyan Wu (Miami City Ballet) and Maria Kochetkova (San Francisco Ballet) for their equally sublime interpretations of the work of Christopher Wheeldon.

Sitting next to me were a mother and her two daughters who were studying dance. The older daughter very kindly answered some of my questions about technique and difficulty. The younger daughter also answered my questions, while beaming with youthful enthusiasm for all that she was seeing. If any of the family reads this -- Hi and best wishes !

There indeed was so much to like about this fine company and its choice of dance material.

Thank you very much Buddy!!!!

I'm very glad to know that you liked the company and enjoyed the performance

Let me put a link to another review. It's by Steven Wodruff at the Ahmanson Theatre, November 5, 2010 for See Dance

Elizabeth Schwyzer reviews the Monday, November 8 perfrmance in Santa Barbara in the Santa Barbara Independent.

Santa Barbara Independent