Post card from SIMON HOY
Simon Hoy has been busy since leaving his post as artistic director and resident choreographer of Melbourne Ballet Company.
2018 is proving to be a very interesting and inspiring year in which I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with many inspiring artists from several countries around the world.
Throughout February and March I was based in Italy - working with dancers on a creative development grant for a new piece to premiere [there] later in the year. Later in March I was invited to guest teach for ballet icon Carla Fracci in Sicily – whose workshops presently draw hundreds of students from across Europe, and as a result of which I have been invited to produce a work for them later in the year.
Most recently I was in the Philippines to create a new major work for Ballet Manila - based on Orpheus and Eurydice, to be premiered and toured next year. The company is led by Artistic Director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, and is currently home to over 40 international dancers from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ballet Manila will also be presenting a duet I created for American dancers Joseph Phillips and Katherine Barkman, titled The Distance Between, for the company’s Australian tour in 2019. It was a great pleasure also to work with Lisa, Joseph, Katherine, Denise Parungao (Principal Artist - Ballet Phillipines) together with the fabulous dancers of Ballet Manila.
Joseph Phillips holds more gold medals than any other American male dancer: he has worked with Ballet San Francisco, Ballet Miami, the American Ballet Theatre, and as a Principal Artist in the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. Joseph is currently a guest Principal Artist at Ballet Manila.
Katherine Barkman is an American dancer currently a guest Principal Dancer in Ballet Manila. In 2014 she was awarded the Gold Medal (Women’s Senior Classical Division) at the Youth American Grand Prix in Philadelphia. Katherine has appeared as a Principal Dancer in international festivals, galas, and full-length productions in Latvia, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, the USA and Russia.
This weekend I shall return to Melbourne to create a new piece titled La porta dell’ inconscio for Chilean dancer Sebastian Vinet. Sebastian is an acclaimed artist who is presently a member of Ballet de Santiago. He has also worked with the Houston Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet, and in 2009 was an award winner at the Prix de Lausanne.
This new work will feature as part of the Forte dance program and will premiere in Melbourne on May 25 - followed by performances at the Cube Theatre is Wodonga. Forte is a much anticipated program - Guest Principal Artist of the Royal Ballet Mara Galeazzi is returning to Australia as co-director and star of the new program Forte with her creative partner Tim Podesta. Mara was last seen in Australia as a guest artist in Wayne McGregor’s Tree of Codes and also alternating the lead role with Alessandra Ferri in the Royal Ballet’s Woolf Works for their Brisbane tour. This program will also feature dancers from Company Wayne Mcgregor and the Royal Ballet and will also include Kristy Lee Denovan, formerly from the Australia Ballet and Melbourne Ballet Company: I have developed many works with Kristy over several years and I am very pleased that she [is] will be part of this program.
Next month I will attend the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. In addition I have been asked to choreograph two duets for this competition. As the third-oldest international ballet competition in the world, the USA IBC notably attracts top dancers, dance industry professionals and audiences from around the globe.
In July this year I shall be travelling to Lisbon to work with Quorum Ballet. This company, led by Artistic Director Daniel Cardoso, is recognized as a leading Portuguese dance company. The company’s repertoire includes works by Cardoso, and also collaborates with a number of distinguished guest choreographers, including Itzik Galili, Donald Byrd, Thaddeus Davis, Jonathan Hollander, Iolanda Rodrigues, Gonçalo Lobato, Pedro Dias, António Cabrita, Freddie Moore, Barbara Griggi among others.
Quorum Ballet also tours extensively internationally: including Denmark, the USA (New York), Poland, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Macau, China, Spain, Serbia, Ecuador, Holland, Cyprus, Algeria, Romania, Finland and Thailand. I would very much like to see Quorum Ballet tour to Australia in the future!
SIMON HOY - May 2018