Michael Fichtenbaum, the artistic director of the Europaballett, has been planning to found a Choreographic Forum for quite some time. Now he has decided to entrust Anastasia Irmiyaeva with the management of the new Choreographic Forum. A forum in which the dancers are given backstage and background knowledge, different styles of choreography and their developments as well as a complex insight into the world of dance.
The development process of an artist is constant and enormously important for his or her career. The Choreographic Forum has set itself the goal of accompanying and supporting this process.
Three workshops with different choreographers are planned for the dancers of the Europaballett and graduates of the academy classes. The first workshop is the David Dawson Workshop from 27 to 30 October 2021.
British choreographer David Dawson is one of the leading dance practitioners in classical ballet today. With his choreographic style of aesthetics and the spatial line feature, he transforms classical ballet in a completely new way. His signature works have been praised by critics and audiences worldwide. The workshop was directed by his long-time assistant Rebecca Gladstone.
In addition to the students, the young female ballet students will also benefit from this forum. They are taught ballet by Anastasia Irmiyaeva. Anastasia Irmiyaeva studied at the largest state university in Moscow and can draw on a broad education in the subjects of classical and modern ballet. In ballet studies, the origins of ballet and its history are discussed, but contemporary choreographers are also covered.
In February 2022, the series will continue with Alexander Mogilev, the director of the Eto Dance Company from Moscow. Alexander Mogilev is characterised by his methodology, which aims to ensure that each dancer finds their own movements with which they can identify.
Reiner Feistel, winner of the Saxon Dance Award, will lead a workshop in April 2022. He is also no stranger to the people of St. Pölten. Most recently, he staged "The Little Prince" at the Theater des Balletts in 2019.
David Dawson was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse Award for Choreography and nominated for the UK Critics' Circle National Dance Award for The Grey Area. He created Reverence for the Mariinsky Ballet, for which he was awarded Russia's highest theatre prize for visual art, the Golden Mask Award, as well as being the first British choreographer to create a ballet for this legendary company. He received the Choo San Goh Award for The Gentle Chapters and was nominated for the Golden Swan Award. For his reinterpretation of Faun(e), which he created for English National Ballet, Dawson was nominated for the UK Critics' Circle National Dance Award and the Prix Benois de la Danse Choreography Award.
Rebecca Gladstone from Australia was Dawsen's assistant for a long time. and also at the Vienna State Opera from 2003 to 2006.
She was born in Sydney and received her initial dance training at the Kim Walton School of Dance and the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy. She continued her studies at the English National Ballet School and after graduation moved to the Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she was promoted to soloist. An engagement at the Vienna State Opera followed in 2003, and in 2006 she became part of the Semperoper Ballett under Ballet Director Aaron S. Watkin. During her dance career, Rebecca Gladstone has performed in numerous roles and worked with many renowned choreographers, including Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Marguerite Donlon, Johan Inger and David Dawson. From 2010 to 2016 she was ballet master at the Semperoper and has since returned regularly as rehearsal director and choreographic assistant. As ballet master, Rebecca Gladstone has made guest appearances at the Finnish National Ballet, the ballet of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and the Frankfurt Dance Company, among others.
Reiner Feistel studied at the University of Applied Sciences for Dance in Leipzig. After graduating, he was engaged at the Dresden State Opera and danced numerous leading and supporting roles as a soloist at the Semperoper from 1984. In 1996 he also made his debut as a choreographer at the Semperoper. In 1997 he was appointed ballet director at the Landesbühnen Sachsen and created ballet evenings for the company every season as well as choreographies for the Dresden Zwinger. Feistel's artistic work for Radebeul was honoured in 2008 with the Art Prize of the Great District City of Radebeul. In 2013/2014 he joined the Chemnitz Ballet as chief choreographer and artistic director and has staged productions including "Sleeping Beauty - A Dream Dance", "Giselle", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Eugene Onegin", "The Snow Queen" and the world premieres of "King Arthur", "Mozart Letters" and the first part of the ballet evening "Faces of the Big City", which was awarded the Saxon Dance Prize 2017.
Reiner Feistel has been the director of the Tanztheater at the Ulm Theatre since 2018.
Alexander Mogilev was a student at the St. Pölten Ballet Conservatory from 2010 to 2011. He then followed the call of his homeland and won the show "Dance" on Moscow Central Television and "Soul of Dance" in the category "Star of Contermporary Dance" as a dancer and choreographer. He was also a ballet director in some of Russia's major companies.
