Christopher Saunders

Christopher Saunders

Historia

Christopher Saunders is a British dancer. He trained at The Royal Ballet School. He entered the The Royal Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to Soloist in 1991 and to Principal Character Artist in 1997. He appointed Ballet Master in 2001 and Rehearsal Director in 2017.

Perfil

Christopher Saunders

Películas

The Nutcracker
Herr Drosselmeyer
Clara is given an enchanted Nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve. As midnight strikes, she creeps downstairs to find a magical adventure awaiting her and her Nutcracker. The magician Drosselmeyer transforms the drawing room into a battle between mice and toy soldiers. During the battle, Clara saves the Nutcracker’s life – so breaking a magical spell that turned him from a boy to a toy – and the Mouse King is defeated. In celebration, Drosselmeyer sweeps Clara and the Nutcracker off to the Kingdom of Sweets, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and take part in a wonderful display of dances. The next morning, Clara’s adventures seem to have been more than just a dream.
The Royal Ballet: Mayerling
EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH
Inspired by dark and gripping real life events, this Royal Ballet classic depicts the sexual and morbid obsessions of Crown Prince Rudolf leading to the murder-suicide scandal with his mistress Mary Vetsera. The oppressive glamour of the Austro-Hungarian court in the 1880s sets the scene for a suspenseful drama of psychological and political intrigue as Rudolf fixates on his mortality. Kenneth MacMillan's 1978 ballet remains a masterpiece of storytelling and this revival marks 30 years since the choreographer’s death. Expect to see the Company at its dramatic finestacross potent ensemble scenes and some of the most daring and emotionally demanding pas de deux in the ballet repertory.
La Bella Durmiente - Royal Opera House 2019/20 (Ballet en directo en cines)
King
Viaja con el Royal Ballet a un mundo encantado de princesas y hadas madrinas en la histórica producción de Marius Petipa con música de Tchaikovski. Esta producción de la Bella Durmiente lleva deleitando al público de Covent Garden desde 1946. Un clásico del ballet ruso que coronó al Royal Ballet en su nueva sede, tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, como gran compañía a nivel mundial. Sesenta años después, en 2006, se ha rescatado la puesta en escena original, volviendo a los magníficos diseños de Oliver Messel y a los deslumbrantes trajes. La gran partitura de Pyotr Il’Yich Tchaikovski y la coreografía original de Marius Petipa combinan a la perfección con las variaciones creadas para The Royal Ballet por Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell y Christopher Wheeldon. Un ballet que hechiza a todo aquel que lo ve.
Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III (Royal Ballet)
Stage Director
CONCERTO ENIGMA variaciones raymonda
Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III (Royal Ballet)
Edward Elgar
CONCERTO ENIGMA variaciones raymonda
The Royal Ballet: Within the Golden Hour / Medusa / Flight Pattern
Stage Director
EN DIRECTO EN CINES DE ESPAÑA Y ANDORRA EL JUEVES 16 DE MAYO DE 201 9, 20:15H. DOS OBRAS RECIENTES Y UN ESTRENO MUNDIAL MUESTRAN EL ROSTRO CONTEMPORÁNEO DE THE ROYAL BALLET. El rostro contemporáneo de The Royal Ballet se revela en obras firmadas por tres de los más destacados coreógrafos actuales. Within the Golden Hour, de Christopher Wheeldon, se basa en siete parejas que se separan y entremezclan, con música de Vivaldi y Bosso, y se encuentra iluminado por ricos colores sugeridos por el anochecer. Flight Pattern, de Crystal Pite, que se repone por primera vez, utiliza una gran danza de conjunto y se vale de la familiar música de Górecki tomada de su Sinfonía de las Canciones Quejumbrosas para realizar una intensa y apasionada reflexión sobre la migración. Entre una y otra, una nueva obra de Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, creada para The Royal Ballet, en su estreno mundial.
Don Quixote (Royal Opera House)
Don Quixote
Don Quixote and his servant Sancho Panza set out to have a chivalrous adventure. They meet Kitri and Basilio, a young couple who cannot marry because Kitri's father is determined to marry her off to the wealthy Gamache. Don Quixote decides to intervene. It was on stage 15 February—4 April 2019 as part of the Winter 2018/19 season.
The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet)
Dr Stahlbaum
Clara is given an enchanted Nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve. As midnight strikes, she creeps downstairs to find a magical adventure awaiting her and her Nutcracker. Recorded on stage 3 December 2018—15 January 2019 as part of the Autumn 2018/19 season.
Manon (The Royal Ballet)
Stage Director
Manon’s brother Lescaut is offering her to the highest bidder when she meets Des Grieux and falls in love. They elope to Paris, but when Monsieur G.M. offers Manon a life of luxury as his mistress she can’t resist.
Anastasia
Tsar Nicholas II
Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova dances the title role in Kenneth MacMillan’s haunting ballet, to atmospheric music by Tchaikovsky and Martinů. Anastasia tells the story of Anna Anderson who, following the Russian Revolution and the murder of the royal family, claimed she was the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia. Many believed her to be an imposter; others hoped she was Anastasia, a remnant of a lost world. A powerful, psychological challenge for the lead dancer, Anastasia explores one of the great historical mysteries of the 20th century, only recently solved, and the distorting mirror of memory, time and place.
The ROH Live: The Dream / Symphonic Variations / Marguerite and Armand
Armand's Father
The Dream: Frederick Ashton’s delightful interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a classic of The Royal Ballet’s repertory. Symphonic Variations: Ashton was inspired to create a ballet on the four seasons – but as he began to choreograph he refined and purified until the ballet shook off its original meaning, emerging as an abstract celebration of movement and physicality. Marguerite and Armand: Marguerite, a Parisian courtesan, lies on her deathbed. She recalls her tragic love affair with Armand in a series of feverish flashbacks.
The Sleeping Beauty
King Florestan XXIV
The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet’s repertory. It was the ballet with which the Company reopened the Royal Opera House in 1946 after World War II, its first production at its new home in Covent Garden. Margot Fonteyn danced the role of the beautiful Princess Aurora in the first performance, with Robert Helpmann as Prince Florimund. Sixty years later, in 2006, the original 1946 staging was revived by then Director of The Royal Ballet Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, returning Oliver Messel’s wonderful designs and glittering costumes to the stage.
The Nutcracker
Dr Stahlbaum
The young Clara creeps downstairs on Christmas Eve to play with her favourite present – a Nutcracker. But the mysterious magician Drosselmeyer is waiting to sweep her off on a magical adventure. After defeating the Mouse King, the Nutcracker and Clara travel through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy treats them to a wonderful display of dances. Back home, Clara thinks she must have been dreaming – but doesn’t she recognize Drosselmeyer’s nephew?
La Fille Mal Gardée (The Royal Ballet)
Thomas
Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is one of the choreographer's most joyous and colourful creations. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the ballet is set on a farm and tells a story of love between Lise, the daughter of Widow Simone, and Colas, a young farmer. It contains some of Ashton's most stunning choreography, most strikingly in the series of energetic pas de deux that express the youthful passion of the young lovers, performed here by Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae. The ballet is laced with exuberant good humour, and elements of national folk dance, from dancing chickens and a maypole dance to a Lancashire clog dance for Widow Simone, performed by Philip Mosley.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Stage Director
At a garden party on a sunny afternoon, Alice is surprised to see her parents’ friend Lewis Carroll transform into a white rabbit. When she follows him down a rabbit hole events become curiouser and curiouser.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Father / The King of Hearts
At a garden party on a sunny afternoon, Alice is surprised to see her parents’ friend Lewis Carroll transform into a white rabbit. When she follows him down a rabbit hole events become curiouser and curiouser.
Don Quixote (The Royal Ballet)
Don Quixote
Carlos Acosta's first venture directing one of ballet's 19th century classics was eagerly anticipated, as was his own starring role in the production (as Basilio), opposite the Argentinian Royal Ballet principal Marianella Nuñez (Kitri). Still built on Petipa's original choreography, Acosta's clear dramatic structure and vivid stage action gave the ‘boy gets girl despite her father’ story a more convincing air than usual, with Don Quixote's parallel obsession with Dulcinea-Kitri coherently woven into the plot.
Giselle
The Duke
The peasant girl Giselle discovers the true identity of her lover Albrecht – and that he is promised to another. This is one of The Royal Ballet’s most loved and admired productions, faithful to the spirit of the 1841 original yet always fresh at each revival. This performance features former Bolshoi star and now Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova in a breath-taking interpretation of the title role.
Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet)
Lord Capulet
Given its premiere by The Royal Ballet in 1965 with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing the title roles, Kenneth MacMillan's first full-evening ballet has become a signature work for the Company, enjoying great popularity around the world. From the outset, the production teems with life and colour as the townspeople, market traders and servants of the rival Montagues and Capulets go about their daily business in vibrant crowd scenes. But Romeo and Juliet take centre stage for those great pas de deux: the meeting in the ballroom, the balcony scene, the morning after the wedding and the final devastating tomb scene. Although The Royal Ballet has performed Romeo and Juliet over 400 times, each performance and pairing is subtly different and Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli are utterly captivating in the title roles.
Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet)
Stage Director
Given its premiere by The Royal Ballet in 1965 with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing the title roles, Kenneth MacMillan's first full-evening ballet has become a signature work for the Company, enjoying great popularity around the world. From the outset, the production teems with life and colour as the townspeople, market traders and servants of the rival Montagues and Capulets go about their daily business in vibrant crowd scenes. But Romeo and Juliet take centre stage for those great pas de deux: the meeting in the ballroom, the balcony scene, the morning after the wedding and the final devastating tomb scene. Although The Royal Ballet has performed Romeo and Juliet over 400 times, each performance and pairing is subtly different and Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli are utterly captivating in the title roles.
Las Aventuras de Alicia en el País de las Maravillas (Royal Ballet en la Royal Opera House)
Father / King of Hearts
Un ballet de larga duración creado por el coreógrafo Christopher Wheeldon para el Royal Ballet en la Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. El ballet está basado en la famosa historia de Lewis Carroll sobre Alicia, una chica ordinaria que una tarde de verano cae por la madriguera de un conejo y se encuentra en una aventura extraordinaria. La música es de Joby Talbot, con diseños del internacionalmente aclamado Bob Crowley. Alice es bailada por Lauren Cuthbertson del Royal Ballet, y el actor Simon Russell-Beale hace el cameo de la duquesa.
La Bayadère
Rajah
Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet set in legendary India is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Natalia Makarova’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritini and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya. Live performance recorded in 2009.
Swan Lake
An Evil Spirit, later Von Rothbart
Yolanda Sonnabend's Faberge'-inspired designs evoke a world of Imperial Russia in Anthony Dowell's acclaimed production for The Royal Ballet of 'Swan Lake', one of the world's best-loved ballets. Marianela Nunez as Odette/Odile and Thiago Soares as Prince Siegfried bring new vitality to a compelling story of tragic romance. Valeriy Ovsyanikov conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Tchaikovsky's glorious romantic score.
La bella durmiente
King Florestan XXIV
La gloriosa reinterpretación del Ballet Real de su obra distintiva, en directo desde el Teatro Real de Ópera. La mejor música de Tchaikovsky y la impresionante coreografía de Marius Petipa funcionaron en perfecta armonía, haciendo que "La bella durmiente" fuese un éxito inmediato cuando se estrenó en San Petersburgo allá por 1890. Desde entonces, se ha convertido en uno de los ballets más famosos de todo el repertorio clásico. Peter Farmer reinventa los llamativos decorados de Oliver Messel y hay coreografía adicional de Anthony Dowell, Christopher Wheeldon y Frederick Ashton.
Coppélia (The Royal Ballet)
The Duke
Coppélia, a mechanical doll made by the toy-maker Dr. Coppelius, is so life-like that some believe she is his daughter. The mistake leads to intrigue and jealousy in love. Directed by Ross MacGibbon, with Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta.