As of 1 September 2017 the PBN's exclusive group of first soloists will expand to include our soloist Mai Kageyama. The Japanese dancer has been gracing our stage for three years now. She triumphed in the title role in The Taming of The Shrew and was also seen in Casanova in Warsaw as Mlle Casacci, The Nutcracker as Clara, A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Helena, Don Quixote as Kitri, and our new Swan Lake as Mathilde Kschessinska.
Joining the ranks of soloists are two accomplished artists of our stage: Yurika Kitano, who joined our company in 2011 and Kristóf Szabó, who graduted from the Warsaw Ballet School in 2013. Both have successfully performed in soloist roles as coryphées. Kitano was Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Amor in Don Quixote, and lately the expressive Jasmin in Darkness. Szabó was Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Espada in Don Quixote, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, soloist in Moving Rooms, and Hungarian Lieutenant in Swan Lake. What is more, four remarkable dancers of the company have been promoted to coryphées: Anna Czeszejko, Vadzim Kezik, Adam Myśliński, and Rinaldo Venuti.
As usual, the company sees some turnover of dancers. Over the last season, for different reasons, we bid farewell to Iwona Kurowska, Remy Lamping, Piotr Bednarczyk, Robin Kent, and lately Bartosz Anczykowski, Renato De Leon, Kenneth Dwigans, and Lynsey Sutherland. Soon we will also stay goodbye to Leonard Šimek, Michał Tużnik, and Jacek Tyski. The company will in turn welcome three graduates of Polish ballet schools: Paulina Bidzińska, Natalia Kamińska, and Adam Huczka, as well as Italy’s Gianni Melfi, who has worked with the PBN for a few months now, and artists selected in the process of international audition: Bianca Teixeira of Brasil (as coryphée), Sae Kwon of South Korea, as well as Michaela Zanzottera and Francesco Leone of Italy. (pch)
Pictured: Mai Kageyama (1), Yurika Kitano (2), and Kristóf Szabó (3) in John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew, photo by Ewa Krasucka
