Altin Kaftira

Last updated

Altin Kaftira (born 1972 in Albania) is a former danseur with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He danced with the Ballet from 1995 on, and from 2000 to 2007 was the Ballet's principal dancer (working with choreographers such as Hans van Manen, Rudi van Dantzig, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Ted Brandsen), and has danced in almost a dozen George Balanchine ballets. In 2007, he left to pursue a career as a filmmaker. One of his first film assignments was the production and direction of the 75th anniversary gala for Hans van Manen.

Contents

In 2002 the then-president of Albania, Rexhep Meidani, awarded Kaftira with the title of Art's Ambassador of the Nation. In an interview with Kaftira just before his retirement, Dutch critic and writer Herman Stevens, in an article in the Dutch magazine HP/De Tijd , called him an audience favorite, a star possessing the most charisma of any dancer at the National Ballet. [1]

Kaftira as principal dancer, Dutch National Ballet

Related Research Articles

<i>Petrushka</i> (ballet)

Petrushka is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine and stage designs and costumes by Alexandre Benois, who assisted Stravinsky with the libretto. The ballet premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 13 June 1911 with Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka, Tamara Karsavina as the lead ballerina, Alexander Orlov as the Moor, and Enrico Cecchetti the charlatan.

Nederlands Dans Theater

Nederlands Dans Theater is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Lucent Danstheater in The Hague. In addition to the Lucent Danstheater, NDT performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg.

Teet Kask is an Estonian choreographer.

Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company based in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there.

Rudi van Dantzig Dutch dancer and choreographer

Rudi van Dantzig was a Dutch choreographer, company director, and writer. He was a pivotal figure in the rise to world renown of Dutch ballet in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Hans van Manen

Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer.

There is great variety in dance in the Netherlands. The traditional dance is the Dutch folk dance; however, this is hardly practiced anymore. Many Dutch practise ballroom dancing, but also tango has a large following.

Cape Town City Ballet

The Cape Town City Ballet Company, formerly known as the CAPAB Ballet Company, is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Dutch National Ballet is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands.

Benjamin Feliksdal Dutch ballet dancer

Benjamin Feliksdal is a Dutch ballet dancer. He has danced as soloist and principal dancer with Het Nederlandse Ballet 1960, Het Nationale Ballet 1961/1971, and with the Royal Ballet of Flanders 1972/1973.

David Dawson, is a British choreographer.

Sonia Gaskell

Sonia Gaskell was a Lithuanian-Dutch-Jewish dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, and dance director.

Alexandra Radius

Alexandra Mary Theodora (Lex) Radius is a retired Dutch ballerina.

Dinna Bjørn

Dinna Bjørn is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. She has specialized dancing and directing the ballets of August Bournonville. Bjørn has also created five Hans Christian Andersen ballets for the Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen's Tivoli.

Anna Tsygankova is a Russian ballet dancer. After terms with the Bolshoi and the Hungarian National Ballet, she joined the Dutch National Ballet in 2008 where she is a principal dancer.

Artem Yachmennikov

Artem Nikolayevich Yachmennikov is a ballet artist, soloist and premier at leading theaters, including the Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre.

Toer van Schayk Dutch artist

Toer van Schayk is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer, scenic and costume designer, painter, and sculptor. Along with Rudi van Dantzig and Hans van Manen, he is one of the creative triumvirate that brought the Dutch National Ballet to international prominence in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Krzysztof Pastor

Krzysztof Pastor is a Polish dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He was resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam from 2003 to 2017, director of the Polish National Ballet in Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw since 2009 and at the same time from 2011 until 2020 was the artistic director of the ballet of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius.

Nadia Yanowsky is a Spanish ballet dancer.

Jungle is a ballet composed by the Dutch composer Henk Badings in 1959. It was choreographed by Rudi van Dantzig for the Dutch National Ballet, with sets and costumes by Toer van Schayk, and premiered on 20 December 1961 in Amsterdam.

References

  1. ↑ Stevens, Herman (2006-09-01). "Altin Kaftira: Het laatste seizoen van een danser". HP/De Tijd . Retrieved 2009-02-17.[ dead link ]
  2. ↑ "Altin Alexandros Kaftira [is] a heroic and strong Apollo," Klooss, Helma (2000-06-01). "Stravinsky Festival in Holland". Dance Magazine . Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  3. ↑ Percival, John (2001-05-17). "Dutch National Ballet, Sadler's Wells, London: A trick of the light". The Independent . Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  4. ↑ Pegler, Emma (May 2001). "Dutch National Ballet: Hans van Manen's Adagio Hammerklavier,Three Pieces for HET, Twilight, Live, George Balanchine's The Four Temperaments and Krystof Pastor's Do not go gentle". Criticaldance.com. Archived from the original on 2008-11-22. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  5. ↑ Ottoni, Verinha (2001). "Dutch National Ballet - Hans van Manen" . Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  6. ↑ Haegeman, Marc (2004). "A Tribute to Diaghilev and a Music Hall Firebird". Danceviewtimes. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  7. ↑ Hiskemuller, Sander (2005-08-15). "Don Giovanni: Don Giovanni probeert in een nieuw ballet dansend de vrouwen om zijn vingers te winden". Trouw. Archived from the original on 2013-02-22. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  8. ↑ Philippa, Yvonne. "Don Giovanni als ballet van Krzysztof Pastor: De ultieme verleiding". Philippa.nl. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  9. ↑ Snedeker, Kate (2005-09-01). "Edinburgh International Festival 2005: Dutch National Ballet - 'La Valse', 'The Grey Area', 'The Concert'". Ballet-Dance Magazine. Archived from the original on 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  10. ↑ "The dancers strain at the leash like the stunning Larissa Lezhnina and Altin Kaftira, keeping us on the edge of our seats." Taylor, Jeffery (December 2006). "Dutch National Ballet, Momix - DNB: 'Vier Letzte Lieder', 'Suite For Two,' 'Frank Bridge Variations,' 'The Second Detail'; Momix: 'Lunar Sea'". Ballet.com Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-09-09. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  11. ↑ "The cast is uniformly good but Altin Kaftira stands out for his superb partnering of Larissa Lezhnina in the prominent third song." Percival, John (2006-11-13). "Dutch Delight: 'Vier letzte Lieder,' 'Frank Bridge Variations,' 'Suite for Two' and 'The Second Detail,' Dutch National Ballet". Danceviewtimes. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  12. ↑ Percival, John (2006-11-09). "Frank Bridge Variations, Vier letzte Lieder, Suite for Two, The Second Detail". The Stage. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  13. ↑ Mauro, Lucia (2006-10-01). "Chicago Choreographers Go Dutch". Pointe Magazine. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-16.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.