Casting Announced for Project Polunin's SATORI

Joining Polunin in Goleizovsky’s Scriabiniana will beNatalia Osipova, Valentino Zucchetti & Akane Takada from The Royal Ballet, Yaoqian Shang from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Laurretta Summerscales & Yonah Acosta from Bayerisches Staatsballett, Alexey Lyubimov from The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, Evgenia Savarskaya from Bolshoi Ballet, Jason Reilly & Elisa Badenes from Stuttgart Ballet and Alexandre Riabko & Silvia Azzoni from Hamburg Ballet.

The cast for Satori includes Sergei Polunin, Natalia Osipova, Jason Reilly, Alexey Lyubimov and The Royal Ballet School Junior Associate Thomas Waddington.

As previously announced, Polunin will star in First Solo.

Scriabiniana and Satori will be accompanied by the Orchestra of English National Opera, conducted by Gavin Sutherland.

First Solo

Choreographer: Andrey Kaydanovskiy

Cast: Sergei Polunin

Music: Tèw Semagn Hagèré by Alèmu Aga (Kronos Explorer Series, 2009) & Se Me Hizo Facil, by Agustín Lara, (Kronos Quartet, 2002), with poetry by Alexander Galich

First Solo is a new 7-minute ballet created by Andrey Kaydanovskiy which will star Polunin. Kaydanovskiy is currently a demi soloist at the Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper, where he has also worked as a choreographer, creating for the company drei undebekannte (2009) and Love Song (2013). In 2016, he created Tea or Coffee for the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, and received the prestigious German Dance Prize (Deutscher Tanzpreis) as a choreographer that same year.

Scriabiniana

Choreographer: Kasyan Goleizovsky

Composer: Alexander Scriabin

Choreography Restoration: Ksenia Oyvental

Director: Roman Mikhejenkov

Costume Designer: Sofia Filatova

Casting: Valentino Zucchetti 

Cast: Sergei Polunin & Natalia Osipova, Valentino Zucchetti & Akane Takada/Yaoqian Shang (Friday and Sat matinee only), Laurretta Summerscales & Yonah Acosta, Alexey Lyubimov & Evgenia Savarskaya, Jason Reilly & Elisa Badenes, Alexandre Riabko & Silvia Azzoni.

The London premiere of the most complete version of Kasyan Goleizovsky’s ballet suite, Scriabiniana, with music by Alexander Scriabin, will be backed by a full orchestra and marks Goleizovsky's 125th birthday anniversary. Renowned innovator and choreographer, Goleizovsky (1892-1970) was a pupil of Fokine and Gorsky and was hailed as Balanchine’s main inspiration. He danced at the Bolshoi Theatre before founding his own company, Moscow Chamber Ballet (1916), where he created many innovative choreographic works. He also created a number of ballets for the Bolshoi Theatre, the most significant of which was Joseph the Beautiful (1925). Goleizovsky was then forced to leave the Bolshoi Theatre and worked in various theatres throughout the USSR, whilst, in Moscow and Leningrad, he focused his attention on concert programmes and music halls. Goleizovksy didn’t return to the Bolshoi Theatre until the 1960s, where he created two ballets – Scriabiniana (1962) and Leili and Mejnun (1964).

Satori

Choreographer: Sergei Polunin

Composer: Lorenz Dangel

Director: Gabriel Marcel del Vecchio

Set Design: David LaChapelle

Costume Design: Angelina Atlagic

Lighting Design: Christian Kass

Casting: Valentino Zucchetti

Cast: Sergei Polunin, Natalia Osipova, Jason Reilly, Alexey Lyubimov and Thomas Waddington.

The world premiere of Satori is choreographed by Sergei Polunin, with direction by Gabriel Marcel del Vecchio and an original score by German-born Lorenz Dangel, who has won multiple awards for his film scores. At 19, Polunin was the youngest ever dancer to become a Principal with The Royal Ballet. After four years in the company, he went on to perform in Russia with the Stanislavsky Theatre and Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. Earlier this year, Sergei's story was made the subject of documentary feature film Dancerproduced by Gabrielle Tana. The documentary is book-ended with Sergei's Take Me To Church video, directed by David LaChapelle, which has now amassed over 21 million views. Later this year, Sergei will be seen in the new Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, due for release in November.

Project Polunin aims to convey the joy of dance through theatre, live broadcast, film, social media platforms and virtual reality, and, by collaborating with dancers, filmmakers, musicians, writers and artists, to create new works that will reflect our times as well as preserving and celebrating the history of classical dance. Project Polunin will strive to demonstrate the unifying power of dance.

Gabriel Marcel del Vecchio is director of SATORI. Gabe is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, alumnus of Second City, NAACP award nominee and Master Clown with the prestigious Cirque du Soleil, where he recently re-conceptualised Zarkana with Daniel Passer, John Gilkey and Francois Gerard. He has just launched a worldwide university tour of Elisa Noemi’s Good Enof and is currently developing an immersive virtual reality production with Bianca Sapetto (Cirque du Soleil), Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails), choreographer Jade Hale-Christofi, mythologist Gahl Sasson and top JPL computer scientists. Most recently Gabe had the privilege of working with his friend and mentor Martin Landau on a future production of Othello.

SATORI is produced by David Banks, Gabrielle Tana and Sergei Polunin in collaboration with Daniel Hodgdon.

Project Polunin