Johan Kobborg has recently been appointed as director of the National Romanian Ballet, taking up his new post in February 2014. This announcement came after the first night of Kobborg’s production of La Sylphide for the company, which opened on 7 December, meaning Kobborg will be at the helm of the company, steering it in an exciting direction.
Both Kobborg and his fiancé Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru, who danced the first night La Sylphide with The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae, left The Royal Ballet as Principals this summer in order to pursue other artistic challenges: Cojucaru joined English National Ballet and has since danced Principal roles in Le Corsair and The Nutcracker.
Born and trained in Denmark, Kobborg joined The Royal Ballet in 1999, along with Cojucaru, where they danced throughout the classical, Ashton and MacMillan repertoire and in many new ballets. The dancers gave many memorable performances as members of The Royal Ballet, both at the Royal Opera House and around the world. Over the past ten years, their unique partnership has developed and the couple’s last UK performance as members of The Royal Ballet was in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling on 5 June. In July they danced on tour with the company in Tokyo.
Kobborg has praised the National Romanian Ballet company, saying on Twitter that “Romanian Ballet has more natural born Sylphs than any other company I ever worked with”; his directing of the company looks set to hold lots in store for the lucky dancers. In recent years, Cojocaru has staged galas to raise money for Romanian Hospices of Hope and she has also given the Romanian National Ballet 50% of its annual supply of pointe shoes.
In the past Kobborg has also worked around the world as a producer and choreographer, staging Bournonville’s La Sylphide and Napoli and creating his own ballets.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.