Marianela Nunez
Encyclopedia
Marianela Núñez is an Argentine
dancer. She is a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, London
.
In September 1997 she joined the Graduate Course at The Royal Ballet School and at the end of the year danced the leading female role in Kenneth MacMillan’s Soirée Musicale at Dame Ninette de Valois’ 100th Birthday Gala as well as the title role in Raymonda Act III and the Third Shadow solo in La Bayadère at the School’s performances. She joined The Royal Ballet at the start of the 1998/99 Season, aged 16 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2001 and made a Principal in September 2002.
Since joining the Company she has danced roles in Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto, Romeo and Juliet, Mitzi Caspar and Princess Louise in Mayerling, Elite Syncopations, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Frederick Ashton
’s Cinderella, La Fille mal gardée
, Monotones I, Les Rendezvous
, Dante Sonata , La Valse, Ondine, Daphnis and Chloë and Isabel Fitton in Macmillan's Enigma Variations.
Other roles include the Pas de trois in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Raymonda
Act III, Nijinska’s Les Biches, a Nymph in Nijinsky
’s L’Aprés-Midi D’un Faune, Swanilda and Aurora in Ninette de Valois
’ production of Coppélia
, the Black Queen in Checkmate, Myrtha and Pas de six in Peter Wright’s Giselle
, the Pas de deux from Petipa
’s Diana and Acteon at the White Night Gala (July 2000), Odette/Odile in Anthony Dowell
’s production of Swan Lake
, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Sir Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker
, , Ashley Page’s This House Will Burn., the 1st Pas de trois in Balanchine’s Agon, Kitri in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote
, Olga in John Cranko’s Onegin, the lead couple with Inaki Urlezaga in Stephen Baynes’ Beyond Bach, Antony Tudor
’s The Leaves Are Fading, Nikiya and Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère
, the Fairy of Vitality, Lilac Fairy and Aurora in her production of The Sleeping Beauty, Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta, L’Hiver in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Polyhimnia in Balanchine’s Apollo, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux and Choleric in his The Four Temperaments, the Lilac Fairy and Aurora in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, the Queen of Fire in Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire variation in Homage to the Queen, the Solo Girl in Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood, Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, Johan Kobborg’s production of Napoli Divertissements and the female role in Diamonds as part of Balanchine’s Jewels.
She created roles in two works on the 1999 Dance Bites tour: William Tuckett’s Love’s Fool and Mark Baldwin’s Towards Poetry and she created a role in Matthew Hart’s Acheron’s Dream for the New Works in the Linbury Studio Theatre (2000), Javier De Frutos’ The Misty Frontier (2001). In 2003 she created the role of La Grêle in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV (Danse à grande vitesse) (2006) and the Stripper in Will Tuckett’s The Seven Deadly Sins (2007).
Television appearances include the BBC broadcast of Daphnis and Chloë and La Fille mal gardée on BBC2 in February 2005. She also made her debut dancing the Pas de deux from Le Corsaire for ‘A Curtain Call for Aid’ Asian Tsunami benefit performance, broadcast in December 2006.
She has been credited with a refined sense of style, and of displaying a unique understanding of the choreographer Frederick Ashton's style. Marianela Núñez won the prestigious Richard Sherrington Award
for Best Female Dancer 2005. In 2006 Núñez performed several times in the latest Royal Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty, both as the Lilac Fairy and as Aurora. Critics were impressed by the warmth of her Lilac Fairy. Her Aurora was said to be among the Royal Ballet's finest since 1946 with "the phrasing of an angel" In July 2006 at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in "Acosta and Friends", Núñez partnered Carlos Acosta in the demanding Diana and Acteon pas de deux. This, for many, was the highlight of the show. In January 2007 Núñez was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for her performances in The Royal Ballet’s Chroma and The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House and in Carlos Acosta’s programme at Sadler’s Wells. In early 2007 Núñez once again took the lead in Swan Lake
, of her performance one leading critic commented “every gesture sings, every step is luminous with emotion. The result is sublime“.
In July 2007 Núñez performed The Dying Swan
at The Grand Opera House, York. She had been especially selected for this difficult piece by Marguerite Porter
because of the simplicity and purity of her style.
She made her London debut as Juliet in MacMillan
's Romeo and Juliet in May 2008.
The Royal Ballet opened the 2008/2009 season on Saturday October 4 with Núñez cast as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Due to the injury of other principals, Núñez also danced Odette /Odile at the next two performances, Monday and Tuesday, October 6 and 7, to high acclaim.
Giannandrea Poesio writes on her Swan Lake : "Her approach to one of the most difficult parts of the 19th-century repertoire is simply exemplary, and I have no doubt that her incandescent and technically flawless interpretation is destined to be long remembered in history, along with those of other unique artists."
In December 2008, she performed as Gamzatti in La Bayadère
alongside Roberto Bolle
as Solor and Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya at La Scala
, Milan
.
In January 2010 following her performances as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty
for the Royal Ballet, the highly respected veteran critic Clement Crisp, among other accolades, described Núñez as " vastly intelligent as a performer ".
Diana and Actaeon pas de deux, Le Corsaire pas de deux, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Winter Dreams pas de deux
Roles in Monotones I, Agon, Les Rendezvous, La Valse, Diamonds, Tzigane and works by Balanchine, Forsythe, Tetley, Page, Tudor, Kylián, Wheeldon and Tuckett.
She created roles in DGV (danse à grande vitesse) and The Seven Deadly Sins.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
dancer. She is a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, London
Royal Ballet, London
The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet...
.
Biography
Núñez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She started dance lessons at the age of three, and at eight was admitted to the Instituto Superior de Arte of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she studied until she was invited to join the corps de ballet of the Company at the age of 14. She was selected to take part in a tour of Argentina as a Soloist with the Ballet Clasico de la Habama, Cuba. In 1997 Maximiliano Guerra chose her as his partner to dance with him in Uruguay, Spain, Italy and at the World Ballet Festival of Japan. She was then invited to tour with the ballet company of Teatro Colón in Europe and the US as a guest ballerina.In September 1997 she joined the Graduate Course at The Royal Ballet School and at the end of the year danced the leading female role in Kenneth MacMillan’s Soirée Musicale at Dame Ninette de Valois’ 100th Birthday Gala as well as the title role in Raymonda Act III and the Third Shadow solo in La Bayadère at the School’s performances. She joined The Royal Ballet at the start of the 1998/99 Season, aged 16 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2001 and made a Principal in September 2002.
Since joining the Company she has danced roles in Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto, Romeo and Juliet, Mitzi Caspar and Princess Louise in Mayerling, Elite Syncopations, Lescaut’s Mistress in Manon, Frederick Ashton
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
’s Cinderella, La Fille mal gardée
La Fille Mal Gardée
La Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
, Monotones I, Les Rendezvous
Les Rendezvous
Les Rendezvous is an abstract ballet created in 1933 with choreography by Frederick Ashton, to the music of Daniel François Esprit Auber arranged by Constant Lambert and with designs by William Chappell...
, Dante Sonata , La Valse, Ondine, Daphnis and Chloë and Isabel Fitton in Macmillan's Enigma Variations.
Other roles include the Pas de trois in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Raymonda
Raymonda
Raymonda is a ballet in three acts, four scenes with an apotheosis, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with music by Alexander Glazunov, his opus 57. First presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on in St. Petersburg, Russia...
Act III, Nijinska’s Les Biches, a Nymph in Nijinsky
Nijinsky
Nijinsky can refer to:*Vaslav Nijinsky , ballet dancer and choreographer*Bronislava Nijinska , dancer, choreographer and teacher*Nijinksy , starring Alan Bates Harry Saltzman as Vaslav Nijinsky*Nijinsky II, race horse...
’s L’Aprés-Midi D’un Faune, Swanilda and Aurora in Ninette de Valois
Ninette de Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
’ production of Coppélia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, the Black Queen in Checkmate, Myrtha and Pas de six in Peter Wright’s Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
, the Pas de deux from Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
’s Diana and Acteon at the White Night Gala (July 2000), Odette/Odile in Anthony Dowell
Anthony Dowell
Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE is a retired English ballet dancer and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet Schools, before joining the Royal Ballet in 1961...
’s production of Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Sir Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, , Ashley Page’s This House Will Burn., the 1st Pas de trois in Balanchine’s Agon, Kitri in Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
, Olga in John Cranko’s Onegin, the lead couple with Inaki Urlezaga in Stephen Baynes’ Beyond Bach, Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor
Antony Tudor was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.-Biography:Tudor, born William Cook, discovered dance accidentally. He began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her Ballet Club the next year...
’s The Leaves Are Fading, Nikiya and Gamzatti in Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
, the Fairy of Vitality, Lilac Fairy and Aurora in her production of The Sleeping Beauty, Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated, Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta, L’Hiver in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Polyhimnia in Balanchine’s Apollo, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux and Choleric in his The Four Temperaments, the Lilac Fairy and Aurora in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, the Queen of Fire in Christopher Wheeldon’s Fire variation in Homage to the Queen, the Solo Girl in Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood, Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, Johan Kobborg’s production of Napoli Divertissements and the female role in Diamonds as part of Balanchine’s Jewels.
She created roles in two works on the 1999 Dance Bites tour: William Tuckett’s Love’s Fool and Mark Baldwin’s Towards Poetry and she created a role in Matthew Hart’s Acheron’s Dream for the New Works in the Linbury Studio Theatre (2000), Javier De Frutos’ The Misty Frontier (2001). In 2003 she created the role of La Grêle in David Bintley’s Les Saisons, Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV (Danse à grande vitesse) (2006) and the Stripper in Will Tuckett’s The Seven Deadly Sins (2007).
Television appearances include the BBC broadcast of Daphnis and Chloë and La Fille mal gardée on BBC2 in February 2005. She also made her debut dancing the Pas de deux from Le Corsaire for ‘A Curtain Call for Aid’ Asian Tsunami benefit performance, broadcast in December 2006.
She has been credited with a refined sense of style, and of displaying a unique understanding of the choreographer Frederick Ashton's style. Marianela Núñez won the prestigious Richard Sherrington Award
Critics' Circle National Dance Awards
The National Dance Awards are presented annually in the United Kingdom by The Critics' Circle, and are awarded to recognise excellence in professional dance...
for Best Female Dancer 2005. In 2006 Núñez performed several times in the latest Royal Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty, both as the Lilac Fairy and as Aurora. Critics were impressed by the warmth of her Lilac Fairy. Her Aurora was said to be among the Royal Ballet's finest since 1946 with "the phrasing of an angel" In July 2006 at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in "Acosta and Friends", Núñez partnered Carlos Acosta in the demanding Diana and Acteon pas de deux. This, for many, was the highlight of the show. In January 2007 Núñez was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for her performances in The Royal Ballet’s Chroma and The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House and in Carlos Acosta’s programme at Sadler’s Wells. In early 2007 Núñez once again took the lead in Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, of her performance one leading critic commented “every gesture sings, every step is luminous with emotion. The result is sublime“.
In July 2007 Núñez performed The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan is a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905 to Camille Saint-Saëns's cello solo Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des Animaux as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St....
at The Grand Opera House, York. She had been especially selected for this difficult piece by Marguerite Porter
Marguerite Porter
Marguerite Porter is an English former principal ballet dancer, turned actress and choreographer.Born in Doncaster, Porter trained in Yorkshire and at the Royal Ballet School in London, where she was taught by Dame Ninette De Valois.After two years training she joined The Royal Ballet, where she...
because of the simplicity and purity of her style.
She made her London debut as Juliet in MacMillan
Kenneth MacMillan
Sir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
's Romeo and Juliet in May 2008.
The Royal Ballet opened the 2008/2009 season on Saturday October 4 with Núñez cast as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. Due to the injury of other principals, Núñez also danced Odette /Odile at the next two performances, Monday and Tuesday, October 6 and 7, to high acclaim.
Giannandrea Poesio writes on her Swan Lake : "Her approach to one of the most difficult parts of the 19th-century repertoire is simply exemplary, and I have no doubt that her incandescent and technically flawless interpretation is destined to be long remembered in history, along with those of other unique artists."
In December 2008, she performed as Gamzatti in La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
alongside Roberto Bolle
Roberto Bolle
Roberto Bolle is an Italian ballet dancer. He is currently a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre and also holds guest artist status with The Royal Ballet and La Scala Theatre Ballet, making regular appearances with both companies.- Overview :...
as Solor and Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
In January 2010 following her performances as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
for the Royal Ballet, the highly respected veteran critic Clement Crisp, among other accolades, described Núñez as " vastly intelligent as a performer ".
Personal life
Núñez fell in love with fellow dancer and frequent partner Thiago Soares after he joined the company in 2002. After four years together, the couple became engaged in December 2006 after he proposed to her on stage after the curtain call of a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in front of the whole company. They married in Buenos Aires in July 2011.Repertoire
- Kitri - Don Quixote
- Swanilda - CoppeliaCoppéliaCoppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
- Princess Aurora and the Lilac Fairy - The Sleeping Beauty
- Sugar Plum Fairy - The NutcrackerThe NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
- Gamzatti and Nikiya - La BayadereLa BayadèreLa Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
- Olga - Onegin
- Sylvia - SylviaSylviaSylvia may refer to:* A feminine given name of Latin origin, also spelled Silvia. The French form is Sylvie.* Sylvia, Kansas, a town in Kansas-Persons:*Saint Silvia*Queen Silvia of Sweden*Sylvia , American country singer born Sylvia Jane Kirby...
- Lise - La Fille Mal GardeeLa Fille Mal GardéeLa Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
- Odette/Odile - Swan LakeSwan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
- Juliet - Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
- Giselle and Myrtha - GiselleGiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
Diana and Actaeon pas de deux, Le Corsaire pas de deux, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Winter Dreams pas de deux
Roles in Monotones I, Agon, Les Rendezvous, La Valse, Diamonds, Tzigane and works by Balanchine, Forsythe, Tetley, Page, Tudor, Kylián, Wheeldon and Tuckett.
She created roles in DGV (danse à grande vitesse) and The Seven Deadly Sins.