Sarah Wildor left Royal Ballet.<BR>An official press release announced her decision to left the Royal Ballet, Is it due to the fact she is not very well cast next season contrary at the precedent. Could you explain to me. If somebody of yours can make also a cumment for the french topic in Danser en Français. thanks so lot .<P><BR><a href="http://www.royalopera.org/News/Index.cfm?ccs=158&cs=273"target="_blank"<B>Le communiqué officiel du Royal Ballet</B></a>

This is a great shame. True the casting list for the season is odd. However, press release does say that Sarah seeks new challenges!<p>[This message has been edited by Emma Pegler (edited September 26, 2001).]

I really hope Sarah is going to find the new challenges she is seeking. Considering the odd casting that has been announced so far this season I am not really surprised about her decision to leave. Being cast for only 6 performances (4 Sugar Plum Fairies, 2 Giselles) in as many months while other Principals seem to be cast in everything left ,right and center clearly indicated that she was about to be pushed aside.<BR>Did Ross Stretton not say in an interview that he wished to preserve the RB heritage repertory? And now suddenly there seems to be no room anymore in the RB for a very musical and expressive dance-actress who is simply wonderful in Ashton and MacMillan works?<BR>In retrospect I cannot help but wonder if Dowell had a hunch that this might happen.<BR>I remember remarking to a friend that I was very surprised that Sarah had been given most <BR>of the Bussell maternity leave cover performances earlier this year and then also got to cover for Guillem when she had to pull out of her scheduled performances due to injury.<BR>I am very sorry to see her go and I am worried about some other dancers who are also not necessarily the most brilliant technicians who now might not have a real future in the RB either.

Do you think that Sylvie Guillem will left Royal ballet too ? When you see she is cast only in Marguerite and Armand, and have no hope if I fine understand to be cast in Oneguine. I know she makes tour in Japan. But I don't understant why she doesn't dance Don Quixote and Nikya. I<P>t's the same thing for Zenaida Yanowsky who seems to no be cast at all. What is the reason, is she too tall ? I hope it don't arrive to her what arrive to Legrée in POB, she was nominated just before Nureyev arrival and Nureyev didn't love her at all and don't cast her. She never left POB but she was an artist and it was a pity to never see her dance.<P><BR>I have the feeling that Ross Stretton want to make of Royal Ballet a troup like the other including the same repertory with Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, Forsythe.<P>I never saw Sarah Wildor and can say if she is nice or not but I saw that english balletomanes loves her and she was too many cast before. Do you think that RB goes to a crisis and dancers departure more and more often ?<BR><p>[This message has been edited by Cathy (edited September 26, 2001).]

I hear ( but It could be only a rumor from my "secret agents" at the ROH ) that Sarah Wildor & Leanne Benjamin were not very happy when Alina Cojocaru was promoted Principal Dancer last season and in fact (maybe just a rumor... ) they where taking the micky out of her whilst waiting in the wings to go on stage during a performance !!!

Interview in The Times<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><BR>Sarah Wildor has quit her position at the Royal Ballet. Did she jump or was she pushed <BR> <BR>When Sarah Wildor, one of the most luminous of the Royal Ballet’s principal dancers, announced her resignation on Monday, the surprise and shock was quickly followed by wild speculation. But the rumours dashing around are, she insists, just that. “I’ve got to accept it,” she admits. “Because I’ve refused to say anything, they’ve just started to make it up.” <BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,62-2001334415,00.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE... </B> </A>

A view from Australia on the Wildor resignation and other RB matters:<P><B>Royal feathers ruffled as Stretton settles in</B> <BR>By Valerie Lawson in The Sydney Morning Herald<P><BR>As autumn blows in to Covent Garden, the Australian newcomer, Ross Stretton, is undergoing the first rite of passage for a new artistic director: attack by the ballet fans and muted warnings by dance writers, such as Allen Robertson in The Times. Their message to the first non-Briton to direct the Royal Ballet is this: "Remember our heritage!"<P>About three weeks ago, with Stretton newly installed and the summer break over for the dancers, the dancer Sarah Wildor suddenly announced her resignation from the Royal Ballet. Promoted to principal two years ago by Stretton's predecessor, Sir Anthony Dowell, Wildor, 29, was considered a direct artistic descendant of such English ballerinas as Antoinette Sibley. Like her, Wildor excelled in the English heritage ballets of Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan.<P><A HREF="http://www.smh.com.au/news/0110/03/entertainment/entertain14.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<B>Trouble brewing as technique takes centre-stage</B><BR>Ismene Brown in The Daily Telegraph fears that the departure of star ballerina Sarah Wildor from the Royal Ballet bodes ill. <BR> <BR> <BR>SARAH WILDOR, the most dramatic, touching, musically sensitive and comically gifted ballerina produced by the Royal Ballet for decades, is leaving the company. Although the British public sees the 29-year-old blonde as a star, the Royal Ballet's new director, Ross Stretton from Australia, does not.<P>Dark omens are being read in this parting. The death of the "English" ballet bloodline appears imminent, and to many concerned watchers the triumph of foreign all-comers and guest stars in the new regime may end the last vestiges of individuality that the Royal Ballet had as a company.<P>Well, I'm not sure I see it quite like that, though I do confess to anxiety. <P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=005760794236107&rtmo=pUU4eMle&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/10/6/btib06.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>Stuart adds: Later Ismene Brown mentions Gailene Stock's endeavours to enhance technique at the Royal Ballet School. In a recent Dance Europe survey Emma Manning gave as Best News of the year, 'Gailene Stock's raising of standards at the Royal Ballet School.'

I agree with Ismene Brown's sentiments that techncial and physical perfection enthrall for the uninitiated but the initiated looks for the underlying meaning. The ballerinas from yesteryear could not reach the heights of physical wizadry that contemporary ballerinas generally can. Yet that does not detract from the artistry of what they were doing and we can, I hope, still tell the difference between technical perfection and the dramatic performance that sticks in the mind forever. Being able to dance, truly dance is a gift from the gods. I mean, being able to imbue movement with a beauty of musicality that mesmerises needs technique but it is about the top layer. Technique does not produce musicality.<P>The older flamenco dancer whose figure is lost, can tell the young impetuous creature with masses of energy, that conveying sexiness, mystery and drama, is all about what you leave out - the beat that you miss for effect and the pauses.<P>Oh and by the way, not all the guest artists believe they are triumphing. Rather, it seems to be that a number of dancers with whom Stretton has had a working relationship in the past are perceived to be comfortable because they are a known quantity.