Press Release
Irek Mukhamedov joins the Schaufuss Ballet’s
Award Winning Tchaikovsky Trilogy at the London Coliseum
23 -28 July 2012
Olivier Award-winning choreographer, Peter Schaufuss, presents his powerful, innovative interpretation of three of Tchaikovsky’s immortal ballets – Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker and for this season, the prolific Tartar, Irek Mukhamedov, once entitled “best dancer in the world”, will be performing alongside the sensational 22-year-old Danish superstar, Alan Lendorf.
With two such top line talents sharing a stage, Schaufuss’s version of the Tchaikovsky classics will be a spectacular feat.
Former Bolshoi and Royal Ballet superstar, Mukhamedov, whose electrifying repertoire has long captivated London audiences under MacMillan’s tutelage, will return once more since his riveting final appearance in Mayerling, in 2004.
Irek, who was decorated with the Order of the British Empire in 2000 says, “London is the place that has had the most profound effect on my life and I am delighted to perform again, in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee & Olympics.”
He will be playing the roles of Rothbart in Swan Lake, the Queen’s husband and Aurora’s and Carabosses’s father in Sleeping Beauty, Clara’s Father and Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier in The Nutcracker, in all performances of all three ballets.
Royal Danish Ballet Principal, Lendorf, who made his UK debut as ‘an elegant, fleet footed Mercutio’ (The Independent) and was hailed a ‘superb actor and gyroscopic turner’ (The Daily Telegraph), in Schaufuss’s staging of Romeo & Juliet last summer, dances the lead in every performance of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty during the week long run.
Schaufuss himself, an international dance legend and erstwhile artistic director of the English National Ballet, Berlin Opera & Royal Danish Ballet, having danced each of Tchaikovsky’s great works, here brings together three of his best loved, not only to showcase the great composer’s musical genius, but also to illustrate his psychological development from a young man in Swan Lake, to an adolescent in Sleeping Beauty, to the mature adult in The Nutcracker.
He likens the Trilogy to “a nightmare, a sensual awakening and a happy dream” wherein the underlying theme is the human journey from pain and cruelty to joyful redemption.
This internationally acclaimed and award winning dance epic will also be performed together on one day in a rare theatrical event on Saturday July 28.
Listings information
Theatre: London Coliseum 07990 771790
Dates: 23- 28 July 2012
Swan Lake: Mon and Wed at 7.30pm, Sat at 1pm
Sleeping Beauty: Tue and Thu at 7.30pm, Sat at 4.30pm
The Nutcracker: Wed at 3pm Fri at 7.30pm and Sat at 8pm
Website: www.eno.org
Phone number: 0871 911 0200
Tickets: Tickets from £15 – £55
VIP £85 and £75 Premium packages available please call and ask for more details
Charity Gala Performance (with special guest) in aid of The Dancer for Cancer Trust: 25 July 2012
The Dancer for Cancer Trust
The aim of the Trust is to help professional dancers who either face a potential cancer diagnosis or who are living with the malignancy in one or other of its manifest forms by providing the necessary financial assistance to accelerate their treatment and to help with their care.
Very interesting – bringing Irek back to London is hardly going to hurt this run’s prospects at the Box Office.