BalletBoyz Gala

Posted on June 5, 2013

The BalletBoyz will celebrate the opening of the company’s new studio and home base in Kingston with a special gala performance. Held at the Rose Theatre, Kingston on June 22, the gala will include Royal Ballet stars Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares and the return to the stage of the original BalletBoyz, William Trevitt and Michael Nunn.

The gala will feature excerpts of works commissioned by the BalletBoyz in the company’s 12 years, from choreographers including Russell Maliphant, Christopher Wheeldon, Paul Roberts, Jarek Cemerek and Liam Scarlett. The BalletBoyz’ own all-male company, The Talent, will dance audience favourites. There will also be an onstage performance from singer-songwriter Keaton Henson, whose music was used in the 2012 piece Alpha. Nuñez and Soares will dance a duet from Wheeldon’s After the Rain.

Nunn and Trevitt will perform an excerpt from Maliphant’s Critical Mass, the first work they danced after the founding of the company, and the first time they have performed publicly for a number of years.

“We haven’t performed at the Rose Theatre before,” Nunn said, “and we’re very much looking forward to it. The Rose is an unusual venue with a great space, and we’re creating a show specifically for the theatre. It’s certainly going to be an evening to remember!” Tickets are available from www.rosetheatrekingston.org.

In August, the company will run a one-week BalletBoyz Boot Camp for boys and girls aged 13 to 17. There will also be two summer intensives, one in ballet and one in contemporary style, for professional and pre-professional dancers aged 18 and over. In September, the company will launch a series of daytime and evening dance classes, including pre-school movement, kids’ ballet and dance, adults’ ballet and yoga and Pilates. See www.balletboyz.com for more information.

Photograph courtesy of the BalletBoyz

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.