Dance Matters: Comings & Goings

There is a spate of new artistic director appointments (all of them male—of course):
Devon Carney, former Cincinnati Ballet associate artistic director, is now running Kansas City Ballet…. Kevin Irving (previously A.D. of the Göteborg Ballet) has gone to Oregon Ballet Theatre….Former Ballet West principal Michael Bearden now leads Ballet Arkansas….Choreographer Edwaard Liang has taken up the reins at BalletMet Columbus….Former American Ballet Theatre star Jose Manuel Carreño will direct Ballet San Jose while continuing his involvement in the Sarasota-based Carreño Dance Festival….

Photo of Carreño teaching at the Carreño Dance Festival by Peter Richman, Courtesy Carreño Festival.

In other news: Former San Francisco Ballet principal Vito Mazzeo has joined Dutch National Ballet as a principal dancer….Natalia Osipova will join The Royal Ballet as a principal dancer while continuing to dance at ABT and guesting with the Mikhailovsky Ballet. (Let’s hope she can stay healthy enough to bring her dazzling talent to all three cities.)…Mathilde Froustey, a stunning sujet at the Paris Opéra Ballet, takes a one-year sabbatical to join San Francisco Ballet as a principal….

Photo of Osipova and Carlos Acosta in a Royal Ballet production of
Swan Lake by Dee Conway, Courtesy ROH.

Royal Ballet stars Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg have left that company….Valerie Robin, Mauro Villanueva, and Michael Smith have retired from the Joffrey Ballet….Greg Waletski has retired from Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis after 22 years….Penny Saunders and Pablo Piantino (Oct. 2011 cover couple and new parents) have left Hubbard Street Dance Chicago to resettle in Seattle….Benoit-Swan Pouffer, who recently choreographed the Broadway musical Soul Doctor, has resigned as A.D. of Cedar Lake, which he made into a wish-list troupe for many dancers….John Michael Schert has stepped down as a dancer and executive director of Trey McIntyre Project—which was partly masterminded by him.

Photo of Cojocaru and Kobborg in
Onegin by Alice Pennefather, Courtesy ROH.

See “Transitions” for retirement notices for
Irina Dvorovenko
,
Mara Galeazzi
, and
Leanne Benjamin
.