It was announced this morning that Kizzy Howard and Christina Michanek have been promoted to soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet.

Kizzy Howard is English - she had her early training with Leo Kersley and then the Central School of Ballet, and danced with the Royal Swedish Ballet for 3 years before joining the RDB in 2003. She's been getting some big roles recently - Queen of the Dryads, Myrtha, and the Princess in Kenneth Greve's Nutcracker. There are some pictures of her in the last of those in David Amzallag's blog.

Christina Michanek (formerly Olsen) is Danish and entirely trained at the RDB school. She's already danced the title role in La Sylphide and next week she dances the lead on the first night of Tim Rushton's new Cinderella. Amzallag's pages have some nice photos of Hubbe rehearsing her in La Sylphide.

These are the first promotions of Nikolaj Hubbe's tenure. The RDB is a 3-tier company and with these two additions there are still only 7 female soloists (5 Danish, 2 English).

Many thanks for the news and the background, Jane!

Wonderful photos, especially of Michanek working with Hubbe. Thanks, Jane, for the Link.

Any thoughts from our Royal Danish followers, concerning these promotions?

There's a long series of pictures of Christina Michanek in one of the Danish papers today - it was her big night last night, the premiere of Cinderella (Askepot) in which she created the title role. First reports speak highly of her, less enthusiastically of the ballet as a whole.