Drawing: Laurretta Summerscales

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Laurretta Summerscales

Multi award-winning English National Ballet star Laurretta Summerscales began dancing at the age of two and fifteen years later joined the company, moving up the ranks to First Soloist in 2013. This year she was promoted to Principal. It was announced on stage after performing the role of Medora in LE CORSAIRE at the London Coliseum by the ENB’s Artistic Director and Prima Ballerina Tamara Rojo.

“Laurretta is such a special dancer, her classical technique, her musicality and her emotional theatrical instinct, makes her a stage animal! And I have no doubt that she will be a Principal dancer with an International reputation,” she said.

I left this sketch to Laurretta at the ENB’s home near the Royal Albert Hall and she kindly signed and returned to me.

Drawing: Christopher Wheeldon

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Christopher Wheeldon

Internationally renowned contemporary ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon joined the Royal Ballet as a seventeen year old in 1991 and in that same year won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. He then moved to the Big Apple to join the New York Ballet where he became a soloist in 1998. Three years later he became the Company’s residential choreographer.

He became the first Englishman to be invited to create a new work for the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet and earlier this year was honoured with an OBE by the Queen.

Currently the Royal Ballet’s Artistic Associate, Chris is a familiar face at Covent Garden, especially recently, with a mixed programme celebrating his career. The three works included AFTER THE RAIN, WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR and the World Premiere of STRAPLESS. Next week his three-act adaption of THE WINTER’S TALE, Shakespeare’s tale of love, loss and reconciliation begins a two month season.

I left this sketch at the ROH in February and it returned from New York a week later signed and dedicated.

Drawing: Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Alexandra and Herman

Italian Prima Donna Alessandra Ferri returned to the Royal Opera House in October this year at the age of 52. She was joined by Argentine and Principal of the American Ballet Theatre Herman Cornejo to perform acclaimed American choreographer Martha Clarke’s CHERI at the Linbury Studio.

Based on the novels of Colette it tells the tale of a doomed love affair between a woman and a man half her age. This is a sketch of them both in rehearsal which they both signed for me. Alessandra also signed another one, which I posted earlier. Dancers are such great drawing subjects!

Drawing: Carlos Acosta

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Carlos Acosta

Ballet superstar Carlos Acosta is considered to be the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation. Now, aged 42, he is winding down his virtuoso career and performing a series of farewell performances.

One such event was last week’s CARLOS ACOSTA: A CLASSICAL SELECTION at the London Coliseum. It’s a collection of his favourite pieces from his classical repertoire, accompanied by friends from the Royal Ballet, which he joined in 1998.

In his review for the Guardian, Luke Jennings wrote, “He came from Cuba, from a tough background. He was non-white.There was no haughty androgyny, no pseudo-aristocratic posturing. He just walked on stage, taking calm possession of the space, and you sank back in your seat, knowing that everything was going to be fine.”

Last month a retrospective book, ‘Carlos Acosta at the Royal Ballet’ of his 17 years as its Principal Guest Artist was released. An excellent subject to draw, I have rendered a few sketches of Carlos over the years, but never managed to get them signed. This one includes him holding the Olivier Award, which he won for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2007. I was lucky enough to meet him last Saturday as he was arriving at the Coliseum and he generously signed it for me. A treasured addition to my collection.

Drawing: Iana Salenko, Prima Ballerina

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Iana Salenko

I really enjoy drawing dancers.The lines become more energetic and it certainly gives the 4B pencil are good workout. Ballet adds grace to the rendering. My latest sketch is Ukrainian prima ballerina Iana Salenko, Principal with the Staatsballet Berlin and Guest Artist with the Royal Ballet since performing the role of Kitiri in Carlo Acosta’s Don Quixote in 2013. She returns to Covent Garden this month as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillian’s groundbreaking production of Romeo and Juliet. First staged at the Royal Opera House in 1965, it has been at the heart of Royal Ballet’s repertory ever since. On opening night fifty years ago, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn performed the title roles, receiving a rapturous reception with 43 curtain calls during 40 minutes of applause.

Iana will also join Principal Steven McRae this month in Tchaikovsky Pas de deus and The Nutcracker over the Christmas season. I was very pleased to receive my sketch, signed by Iana after I left it at the Opera House.

Drawing: Alessandra Ferri, Prima Ballerina Assoluta

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

alessandra ferri

Italian dancer Alessandra Ferri is a prima ballerina assoluta.To share my expanding knowledge on dance, that is a title awarded to the most notable female dancers. It is a rare honour, reserved only for the most exceptional artists of their generation. The ‘hauntingly beautiful’ Alessandra began her climb to the pinnacle of ballet when she joined The Royal Ballet at the age of 15. Four years later she became one of its youngest Principal dancers. A small staue of her as Juliet stands in the Royal ballet school in her honour. After a six-year sabbatical, she returned, at the age of 52, to her Covent Garden roots to perform a ‘mesmerising comeback’ in Wayne Mc Gregor’s Woolf Works. Only a handful of ballerinas have danced in their 50’s. The Royal Ballet said Alessandra is the oldest to take a leading role, “en pointe and of this physicality” since the legendary Margot Fonteyn, who danced until she was sixty. Early this month the double Olivier Award winner joined one of the stars of American ballet, Argentine Herman Cornego in Martha Clarke’s adaption of Colette’s obsessive love story Cheri in the Royal Opera’s Linbury Studio. The Observer’s dance critic Luke Jennings was full of admiration, concluding his review with ‘Cheri is about the cruelty of time; Ferri’s career tells another, happier story,”

This is one of two sketches I drew-the other was Alessandra and Herman rehearsing Cheri.They signed for me after the final performance.

Drawing: Irina Kolesnikova in Swan Lake

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

irina k swan lake

One of the world’s finest classical dancers performed the world’s favourite ballet this week at the London Coliseum. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre concluded it’s 2015 International touring programme of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova headlining the season as both the Swan Queen ‘Odete’ and the antagonist ‘Odile’ at the iconic venue. The production also included special guest artists from Russia’s legendary Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres and the English capitals own Royal Ballet. “It’s Kolensnikova that steals the show,” wrote Londonist’s Tiffany Pritchard, “…with her long, willowy arms, supple back arches and lithe yet perfectly controlled pirouettes on the white swan (Odette), followed in quick succession by the robust, high-spirited sequences of the black swan (Odile).” Originally the two roles were played by separate dancers, but it has become customary for prima ballerinas to perform both parts. The Telegraph’s Vanessa Keys said of Irina’s performance,”Her portrayal of the vulnerable swan queen Odette is almost unbearably vulnerable and her Odile is wickedly seductive.”

I’m a novice when it comes to watching and understanding ballet, but I love drawing dancers and their kinetic effect. This pose of Irina as Odette was striking in its simplicity. I just had to draw it…and naturally meet the dancing Swan Queen herself and have it signed. I waited with a handful of dance devotees at the stage door as a procession of performers flowed out, into the balmy evening air, signing programmes and partaking in convivial conversation. But no one with a ‘long neck and liquid doe-like eyes’ ( as one reviewer described her), resembling Uma Thurman-my reference for Irina-appeared. After an hour and a half, with the time of my last train home fast approaching a Russian gentleman, who was obviously connected to the production and chatting to the more devout of the devotees said, ‘I’ll go and get her.” And he did. I happened to be the first in line. She was very nice and said “Oh” when she saw the sketch and signed it. In the absence of any interpretation I took “Oh” as an expression of approval. Time well spent and I caught the last train.

Sketch: Sylvie Guillem

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sylvie Guillem

The Daily Telegraph called French ballet icon Sylvie Guillem “the most charismatic performer on earth”. She has been a star from the age of 19, from the moment Rudolf Nureyev plucked her from the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet and confided on her the title of étoile (that’s the leading ballet dancer in a company).

In 1988, after performing the title role in a production of Giselle staged by the Royal Ballet to celebrate Nureyev’s 50th birthday, she left Paris for London to become a freelance performer and one of the Royal Ballet’s greatest principal guest artists.

During that time, she was nicknamed ‘Mademoiselle Non’ because of her desire to work independently.

After an unparalleled career that has spanned almost 35 years of both dancing ballet and contemporary work, Sylvie presented her final dance programme in Life In Progress last week at Sadler’s Wells.

Due to extraordinary demand, additional UK dates have been added in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. “There are some moments that are so extraordinary they defy physical logic,” said The Guardian. She was awarded the Olivier Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her exceptional contribution to dance.

Sylvie kindly signed my sketch at Sadler’s Wells.

Sketch: Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Ballerina

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

American dancer Beatriz Stix-Brunell is a soloist at the Royal Ballet in London, but her high profile career path did not follow the predictable school-to-company route.

Beatriz grew up in New York city and began her training at the School of American Ballet. At 12 she auditioned for the Paris Opera Ballet School, being one of the “petits rats” for a year and ranked top of her class. After that she returned to New York and learnt privately with Fabrice Herrault.

British contemporary ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon put Beatrix on the professional map when she joined his company Morphoses when she was just 14. In 2010 he resigned and is now Artistic Associate at the Royal Ballet, where Beatrix joined as an Artist also in 2010. He premiered a full length ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2011 – the first at the Royal for over 20 years. Alice, the original protagonist in Lewis Carroll’s novel is a child, in the ballet, however, she is a teenager beginning her first romance.

She performed a principal role for the first time when she stepped in to play Alice, at the last minute after a principal was injured last season. She revived the role this season which complete a sell out run this month.

Beatriz signed this sketch of her as Alice at the Royal Opera House this week.

Sketch: Yuhui Choe, Ballerina

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Popular Japanese-born Korean dancer Yuhui Choe is a First Soloist at the Royal Ballet in London.

She studied at ballet school in Japan from age 5-14 then won a Prix de Lausanne Apprenticeship in Paris before joining the Company as an Artist in 2003. She was promoted to First Artist in 2006 and First Soloist in 2008 dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and created one of six female roles in Wayne McGregor’s INFA with music by Max Richter.

The Guardian chose Yuhui as a dancer on their “hotlist” of rising stars to watch in 2009, stating, “She radiates joy in the purest sense”.