Misplaced Pages

#868131

22-681: Belfast International Arts Festival , formerly known as Belfast Festival at Queen’s, claims to be the city’s longest running international arts event. Originally established in 1962, it was hosted by Queen’s University until 2015, after which a new independent organisation (a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity) was formed. The event covers theatre, dance, classical and roots music, visual, film and digital arts and literature accompanied by outreach and education events. It takes place every October in venues and locations across Belfast. Held annually, usually in October/November,

44-661: A dance school for a Moscow orphanage in 1773. In 1776, dancers from the school were employed by Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Urusov and English theatrical entrepreneur Michael Maddox to form part of their new theatre company. Originally performing in privately owned venues, they later acquired the Petrovsky Theatre, which, as a result of fires and erratic redevelopment, would later be rebuilt as today's Bolshoi Theatre. While some guest dancers come and go from other prestigious ballet companies, such as Mariinsky and American Ballet Theatre , most company dancers are graduates of

66-821: A fierce rivalry with the St. Petersburg Heritage Ballet Company, the Mariinsky . Both have developed very different performing styles: the Bolshoi has a more colourful and bold approach, whereas the Mariinsky is associated with more pure and refined classicism. Source: Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male The Bolshoi Ballet operates two troupes of corps de ballet, with approximately 169 dancers in total. In 2013, ballerina Anastasia Volochkova claimed that female dancers were forced to sleep with wealthy patrons, saying: "It mainly happened with

88-772: A series of directors, including Boris Akimov, Alexei Ratmansky , Yuri Burlaka and Sergei Filin , brought more modern dance performance ideas to the company. Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the world's foremost ballet companies, in addition to being one of the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. The word "bolshoi" means "big" or "grand" in Russian. The company operates on a hierarchical system, similar to those used by other leading European ballet companies, with senior dancers ranked as principals, and descending in order of importance through lead soloist, first soloist, soloist and finally, corps de ballet. Due to its size,

110-626: A student, Michael Emmerson, in 1962, and Barnes quickly became involved. When Emmerson started a Belfast branch of the National Film Theatre as the Queen's Film Theatre in 1968, Barnes was the chairman of the film sub-committee. In 1973, Barnes was a senior lecturer in modern history at Queen's, when the role of Director of the Queen's University Festival became vacant. The Festival was in financial and creative difficulties and its future

132-654: The Belfast Telegraph and celebrities including Patrick Kielty . On 16 February 2007 the Minister announced a £150,000 one-off payment to the Belfast Festival at Queen's, although the campaign to raise more funds continued throughout the year. The university subsequently announced that the 2007 festival would go ahead, albeit on a reduced scale, but that work is still required to secure its long-term future. > This funding came to an end in 2016 when

154-670: The Royal Shakespeare Company , the Moscow State Ballet , Yehudi Menuhin and local talents like Seamus Heaney and James Galway . Barnes also promoted newer artists like Nikolai Demidenko , Trestle Theatre , Philip Hammond , Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly . In the 1970s, Belfast's Grand Opera House was going to be sold and demolished. It was instead purchased by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland , who successfully applied to make it

176-596: The University of Edinburgh . Whilst in Edinburgh, he took part in shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe , but found that "learning huge dollops of script wasn’t all that appealing". In 1961, he became a lecturer in history at Queen's University Belfast , but continued to have an interest in the arts. The arts festival which would later become the Queen's University Festival was founded by

198-554: The Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies . In the early 20th century, it came to international prominence as Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia . The Bolshoi has been recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in the world. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Ballet Theater School in Joinville , Brazil. The earliest iteration of the Bolshoi Ballet can be found in the creation of

220-527: The Ulster Bank announced its withdrawal from the funding of the much-diminished festival. Michael Barnes (arts administrator) Born in Peckham , South London, he became interested in theatre while attending Alleyn's School on a scholarship. Having also received a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford , he took a first in history and, after graduating, became a lecturer in modern history at

242-555: The academy. In 1989, Michael Shannon was the first American ballet dancer to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and join the Bolshoi Ballet company. Despite staging many famous ballets, it struggled to compete with the reputation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, today's Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg . It was not until the appointment of Alexander Gorsky as Ballet Master in 1900 that

SECTION 10

#1732790771869

264-574: The building, which was situated adjacent to the Europa Hotel - the "most bombed hotel in Europe" - was damaged by explosions. After his retirement in 1994, his health began to suffer, and he lived in a nursing home in Belfast until his death in 2008. In 1981, Barnes had convinced Michael Palin to perform his first solo show at the Belfast Festival; he returned every other year after. Belfast

286-960: The city, including The MAC, Ulster Hall, the Naughton Gallery , the Queen's Film Theatre , the Brian Friel Theatre and the Whitla Hall at Queen's, as well as the Grand Opera House , the Waterfront Hall and An Chultúrlann arts centre. In January 2007, sufficient funding was not in place to ensure that the 2007 festival would go ahead, and the university launched a 'Save Belfast Festival' campaign, encouraging people to petition Maria Eagle MP, then minister responsible for cultural activities in Northern Ireland. The campaign received support from

308-567: The company began to develop its own unique identity, with acclaimed productions of new or restaged ballets including Don Quixote (1900), Coppélia (1901), Swan Lake (1901), La fille mal gardée (1903), Giselle (1911), Le Corsaire (1912) and La Bayadère (1917). The Soviet leadership's preference for uncomplicated moral themes in the arts was demonstrated in Yuri Grigorovich 's appointment as director in 1964 . Grigorovich held his position until 1995, at which point

330-426: The company in scandal. Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko was convicted of organizing the attack and was sentenced to six years in prison. Reasons for the attack include corruption within the company. In 2014, 25-year-old ballet dancer Olga Demina mysteriously went missing. In September 2020, Russian investigators announced that they believe Demina may have been killed in a blackmail plot by Malkhaz Dzhavoev, whom she

352-422: The company operates two troupes of corps de ballet. In 2000, the Bolshoi Ballet opened its first Ballet Academy outside Russia, in Joinville , Brazil. The performance style of the Bolshoi Ballet is typically identified as being colourful and bold, combining technique and athleticism with expressiveness and dramatic intensity. This style is commonly attributed to Alexander Gorsky . Historically there has been

374-421: The corps du [sic] ballet but also with the soloists. [...] I repeatedly received such propositions to share the beds of oligarchs ." American dancer Joy Womack echoed this concern when she left the company after being told that, to secure solo roles, she must either pay $ 10,000 or "start a relationship with a sponsor." In January 2013, a sulfuric acid attack on art director Sergei Filin once again steeped

396-404: The festival was founded by student Michael Emmerson in 1962. Emmerson was succeeded as Director by Michael Barnes . From small beginnings the festival grew through the 1960s and 1970s, expanding to a two-week-long event. Performers during this time included Jimi Hendrix , Richard Stilgoe , Laurence Olivier , Rowan Atkinson and Billy Connolly . The festival is held at several venues across

418-557: The first listed building in Northern Ireland. Barnes supervised an extensive renovation, and when the Opera House re-opened in 1980, he was the artistic director. He left his academic post in 1976, to concentrate full-time on his roles in the arts; his dual role helped the Opera House become a significant venue for the Festival. He continued in this position until 1994, and undertook two further refurbishments in 1991 and 1993, when

440-471: Was dating and was allegedly her "manager". In July 2017, the Bolshoi Theatre cancelled the premiere of a ballet about openly gay Soviet dancer Rudolf Nureyev . The Director General claimed that it was due to poor dancing quality; however, principal dancer Maria Alexandrova claimed it was the first sign of a 'new era' of censorship. It was the first time a show has been pulled in such a way since

462-554: Was the only place where Palin performed his one-man shows, saying that nowhere could be "better than the Belfast Festival". The two men became friends, and after Barnes' death, Palin set up a drama scholarship programme at Queen's University in his memory. Bolshoi Ballet The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow , Russia. Founded in 1776,

SECTION 20

#1732790771869

484-655: Was uncertain. Queen's agreed to allow him to work on the Festival while remaining in his academic post, and Barnes became the Director, a post he would hold until 1994. Under Barnes' leadership, the Festival became the second largest in the British Isles after the Edinburgh Festival, and was able to attract internationally known performers, even during The Troubles , when many artists and audiences were reluctant to visit Northern Ireland. Performers included

#868131