Ballet star Marcelo Gomes: It’s a challenge getting four leading men to dance together
Star dancer Marcelo Gomes says he is thrilled to get the chance to perform his own work in London — but choreographing four principal men is proving a challenge.
Gomes, 35, is the latest addition to a Coliseum gala in July which will also feature the Royal Ballet’s Natalia Osipova and Edward Watson, as well as Ivan Vasiliev.
The Brazilian will present the UK premiere of Tristesse, which he created and first performed in St Petersburg in December.
Gomes said Tristesse was about “four friends who get together for a reunion after many years of not seeing each other and come to find that they have grown apart”.
Friedemann Vogel and Denis Matvienko, who joined its premiere, will perform again in London at the gala, with Joaquín De Luz taking Herman Cornejo’s role.
“They’re at the peak of their career but at the same time they’re not afraid to come into a project like this,” said Gomes. He admitted that working with dancers each accustomed to being the star male meant making adjustments.
“We have to let our guard down and listen to each other,” he said.
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Gomes will also star this summer in a revival of Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man, loosely based on Bizet’s opera Carmen, because he so enjoyed working with Bourne’s New Adventures company on Swan Lake.
The Car Man, July 14 to August 9, Sadler’s Wells. sadlerswells.com
The Ardani 25 Dance Gala, July 17 and 18, Coliseum. eno.org
