Ernst Meisner: my project in Dartford
London, June 4th 2005. From the 2nd to the 4th of August The Orchard Theatre in Dartford is going to offer a very new ballet show. The organiser of this show is the young First Artist of the Royal Ballet, and emerging choreographer as well, Ernst Meisner:
Is this your first experience as an organizer of ballet galas?
Yes, it is. It's my first time on doing that and it is the very first time for the theatre in Dartford to produce a show: previously they just bought pre-existenting shows. The Dartford Borough council is very keen on promoting culture, art and ballet: they are trying to invite companies to their theatre, they really want more culture and more performances. The leader of the council (a sort of major) gave me this opportunity: he is a great ballet fan and we met several times before. He supported me in the past when I created new choreographies, so it was normal for him to ask me to try to organise the show. I think that this is a an excellent opportunity for all of us: me and the Dartford Borough council.
I thought to do something not too related to the Royal ballet repertoire, but to put in the programme some new choreographies that normally we don't see at the Royal Opera House. There will be also something of mine: my last piece Scaramouche, a very funny and easy piece for 7 dancers, to music by Milhaud, with set designed by Karoline Weber. I'm also choreographing a new short ballet of 8 minutes for 3 dancers, Kenta Kura, Laura McCulloch and Anton Lukovkin; this ballet has an especially commissioned score by Paul Gladstone-Reid.
Are you planning a future as a choreographer and a producer?
I'm really enjoying producing this show. Of course it will not be about my choreography, even if I included some of them: the programme it is about 21st century classically based choreography.
Mara gave you any help in this project…
Yes, I heard that she has organised shows and that she is still working in some projects of these, so I asked her to support me with her experience. She is not jus a beautiful dancer, but also a very nice person to work with and she gave me a lot of advises and help!
How did you decide the cast and the programme?
The programme is really all my idea, I've been thinking at it for a long time and I've included pieces of international choreography: as I said they are exciting and new 21st century classically based choreographies. Then, I started thinking at dancers that could be good for those pieces and I started asking people if they were available and interested in dancing them. And I have to say that a lot of people was really enthusiastic about that. At the moment we have 18 dancers: this is more people than I originally was thinking to have…this is very nice, but it also make more difficult to organise all the things. We will also have musicians, since some of the pieces are going to be played live.
There are 12 dancers from the Royal ballet, including 5 principals: Mara, Leanne Benjamin, Alina Cojocaru, Zenaida Yanowsky…and the very new one: Edward Watson. Edward is from Dartford, so it will be absolutely great for him to perform in his home town soon after his promotion to principal dancer! We will also have Filip Barankiewicz, from Stuttgart ballet, a wonderful dancer!, who is dancing with Mara, and 4 dancers coming from Russia.
Have you encountered problems organising this show?
Oh, yes: there are always problems. Every day a new problem, also because there are so many people involved. But we are resolving all of them and it is fantastic to see how many people believe in this project and how they are enthusiastic of their job, doing this for pure passion. We have still a lot of little things to do, but we are ready to perform 3 great shows this summer in Dartford!
Anna
