As the 2024-2025 season kicks off, some moves of male top class dancers caught my attention -- all somehow connected to Tamara Rojo.
San Francisco Ballet-related
Isaac Hernández, whose move to the American Ballet Theatre from the San Francisco Ballet was announced in July, will be casted for the role of Solor in the Kingdom of the Shades of La Bayader on 26th and 27th October at the David Koch Theater as a part of the Signature Works programme. Hernández has joined the ABT as a guest artist and will become a full time Principal Dancer in January 2025. (Update: he will be casted for Etude for earlier dates.)
Hernández joined the San Francisco Ballet (SFB) in 2022 from the English National Ballet (ENB) with his wife Tamara Rojo when became SFB's Artistic Director. Hernández's contract with the SFB expired on 1 July 2024 and he did not renew it while Rojo remains with the job. Prior to 2022, she had been ENB's artistic director since 2012, spending the first few years double-tasking as a principal dancer.
Hernández and his brother Esteban are also active in organising their gala project, Despertares, in Mexico. It marked the tenth anniversary earlier this summer. Esteban is Principal of SFB since 2019.
Angelo Greco also left SFB in July and has since joined the Houston Ballet.
Harrison James, who has been Principal of the National Ballet of Canada since 2016, will double-role with SFB as Principal starting in the 2024-2025 season.
Back to corps de ballet
Shale Wagman, previously First Soloist of Bayerisches Staatsballett (the Bavarian State Ballet) in Germany has joined the Paris Opera Ballet as Quadrille, or a member of Corps de Ballet. Wagman briefly danced as a corps de ballet of ENB in 2019 -- under the direction of Rojo -- before leaving the company to guest dancing at the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia. He came back from injuring and joined the Bavarian State Ballet in 2021.