Tour

Marinel Ştefănescu - Interview, 2000

Marinel Ştefănescu graduated from the Choreographic School in Bucharest. He is awarded the 1st prize at the International Contest in Varna and the Special prize of the International Contest in Moscow. He becomes first dancer of the Opera House in Bucharest, being invited

Daphnis And Chloe

The new season of the National Opera opened this autumn with a ballet made up of four choreographic pieces united under the title of the most elaborate one, Daphnis and Chloe, a production staged by Gelu Barbu, a Romanian choreographer from the Diaspora. Gelu Barbu belongs

Gelu Barbu At 45 Years From The Debut

The ballet dancer who made his debut on the stage of the Kirov Theatre in Sankt Petersburg, prime ballet dancer at the Opera in Bucharest, then, after 1961, prime ballet dancer at the Norwegian Royal Opera in Oslo, decorated by King Olaf with the Constitution medal, first

Irinel Liciu - A Great Sensitivity And Its Fragility

I was touched and amazed to discover this skinny little girl, thin and long legged, who was doing her exercises in the ballet room with the concentration of a mature artist. The way she led her body had lost any trace of effort and it was describing meanings known only to

Gabriel Popescu

A superstar of Romanian ballet in its golden era, when the light coming from the East would fashion great interpreters, Gabriel Popescu began the study of dance with the maestra Floria Capsali. He was hired by the Bucharest Opera in 1948, when he was 16, and in 1949 he was

Boris Kneazev

I owe much of my setting up as an artist to Boris Kneazev as well. There’s another aspect to consider. One can work enormously in ballet and never get proper parts. Or, there’s even a more dramatic situation, when one gets these parts and realizes that one doesn’t

Anton Romanowsky

Romanowsky was active in our country after the First World War, with several interruptions. These interruptions were caused by a series of frictions with some of the managers at the Romanian Opera House. Then, between the two world wars, the social context (the economical

From Marriage In the Carpathians To Romeo and Juliet

1921. End of the year. The Romanian State Opera House was established in Bucharest. 1938. The month of August. The young institution was holding, through its representatives, master Floria Capsali to its bosom, who was employed on that occasion to nurture the destiny of

Mundane And Aesthetic

choreologist  Bodily motion, coupled with human voice, both cardinal attributes complementing the complex entity that is a human being, with its entire array of phenomena. Gullet and gate may betray certain clues leading us to the character or temperament of an individual.

Editor's Note

The origins of dance are prehistoric, but rhythm, mimetism, balance, harmony, grace have gradually turned into a genuine art, perhaps the most liberating. The art of dance requires countless qualities: talent, musicality and musical culture, good physical shape and endurance,

An Innocent Abroad

When Mark Twain published the elaborate account of his Old World tour, The Innocents Abroad, America was still young, as a nation, and not yet proud of its culture. To avoid any tasteless outcry of admiration, driven by the contact with the vestiges of lost civilizations

Romanian Profile

*excerpts THE SOPHISTICATED PEASANTS The Romanians are a social phenomenon. As a nation among nations, they are westerners evolved in the East. They are Latins surrounded by Slavs. They are Romans two thousand years away from Rome. They are contemporaries re-produced on