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 »  Home  »  Music  »  Jelko Yuresha Croatian ballet prodigy at the Royal Ballet in London since 1962
 »  Home  »  Culture And Arts  »  Jelko Yuresha Croatian ballet prodigy at the Royal Ballet in London since 1962
Jelko Yuresha Croatian ballet prodigy at the Royal Ballet in London since 1962
By Nenad N. Bach and Darko Žubrinić | Published  02/16/2018 | Music , Culture And Arts | Unrated
Beth Storey Taylor: ... Jelko Juresha. Philosopher, teacher, messanger, and ghost, he is in our time, yet not of our time


Belinda Wright-Yuresha and Jelko Yuresha (Željko Jureša, Zagreb) in the early 1960s



Jelko Yuresha

Jelko Yuresha studied ballet under Ana Roje, Nadine Nicolaeva Legat, Kathleen Crofton, Tamara Karsavina and worked with choreograhphers Leonid Massine, Vladimir Bourmeister, Frederick Ashton, Serge Lifar, Bronislava Nijinska. He appeared with Margot Fonteyn in the BBC-TV production of "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), was The Principal Dancer of The English National Ballet (previously London Festival Ballet) and danced Principal roles with British Royal Ballet. He and acclaimed British ballerina Belinda Wright established partnership as "Ambassadors of Dance", performing around the world.

Yuresha inherited sole rights to Sir Anton Dolin's ballets: Giselle, Pas de Quatre and Variations of Four which he staged for major companies in New York, Milan, Rome, Beijing and London. He choreographed, staged and designed a number of productions, most notably Giselle for the National Ballet of China with Belinda Wright. Television documentaries were made about his life in both Panama and Switzerland.

Yuresha has lectured at Hunter College (CUNY) and haw written for London's Evening Standard, Dancing Times, Ballet Today and Dance Chronicle. Yuresha is established internationally in the ballet world and is often called upon for his invaluable help in coaching. He frequently acts as a judge for international ballet competitions. He is presently staging his own version of "La Peri" as a co-production for the Ballet Nacional de Panama and Academy Steps. He has also served as a coach and advisory judge for Valentina Kozlova's 2013 International Ballet Competition's inaugural presentation in New York. He has been a regular member of the VKIBC Jury since 2014.

Source Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition




From the title page of the monograph
Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi,
(in English and Croatian), 330 pp, Zagreb 2011, ISBN 978-953-56634-0-9


Jelko Yuresha

Jelko Yuresha (born 9 May 1937) is a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He and his wife, ballerina Belinda Wright, toured internationally as "Ambassadors of Dance" for the United Kingdom from 1966-1977. In 1959 he partnered with Wright for the first time at a Royal Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Jelko Yuresha was born Željko Jureša in Zagreb, Croatia. His stepfather, Andrija, was a shoemaker and his mother, Slavica, a seamstress. During World War II his family was forced to live in underground bunkers because of the occupation by the German army. Between 1944-1945 Zagreb suffered constant bombing by the Allies and his family survived barely at subsistence level. Despite these hardships Yuresha began performing with the children's theatre of Zagreb’s Artistic School at age six. He studied dance under choreographer Mile Jovanović in Zagreb. On his eighth birthday in 1945, the American army liberated his hometown.

He studied dance under Mile Jovanović in Zagreb and soon after was accepted by the International Ballet School in Kaštel Kambelovac near Split at the end of 1952 where he came under the tutelage of Ana Roje, the Prima Ballerina of the Croatian ballet. Yuresha advanced rapidly through the corps de ballet to soloist with prominent roles.

In 1958 at age 20, Jelko Yuresha emigrated to England, later gaining United Kingdom citizenship. He studied in Kent at Legat School of Ballet, today part of the St. Bede's School Trust. Yuresha was a student of Russian prima ballerina Nadine Nicolaeva-Legat.

Yuresha made his professional debut as a first guest artist with the newly formed Irish Theatre Ballet in Dublin. At the 1959 Hastings Musical Festival held in the White Rock Theatre, Hastings, England, he performed his own choreography in a pas de deux. He was awarded first prize at the festival.

He joined London Festival Ballet (today English National Ballet) in 1959. On 23 June 1959, Yuresha partnered with Belinda Wright at a Royal Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Manchester. He danced in the BBC Eurovision production of Sleeping Beauty with the legendary prima ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn starring in the title role on 20 December 1959.

Yuresha joined the Royal Ballet in 1962, the same month as another Eastern European emigre, Rudolph Nureyev, joined the company. Wright followed Yuresha to the Royal Ballet, and the pair continued their dance partnership in dozens of performances. Yuresha danced with the Royal Ballet until 1965. He worked with some of the top choreographers and directors of the era, including Sir Frederick Ashton, Vladimir Bourmeister, Serge Lifar, Leonid Massine, and Bronislava Nijinska.

Massine chose Yuresha for the lead role in Le Bal des Voleurs (Thieves' Carnival) at Covent Garden in 1963, where he partnered with Carla Fracci. Other important roles included Signor Midas in John Cranko's The Lady and the Fool, Albrecht in Giselle, and the prince in Sleeping Beauty, which he danced with Belinda Wright. In 1971 he worked with Nijinska in her production of Les Noces (The Wedding) the final time the remarkable ballet was personally directed by her.

Jelko Yuresha and Belinda Wright married on 4 November 1961, in the Town Hall, Chelsea, Kings Road. A grand reception followed at the Savoy Hotel. Born in Southport, England, Wright (1929-2007) trained in Paris with Olga Preobrajenska and in London with Kathleen Crofton. After World War II, she became a soloist and principal dancer at a number of prominent international ballet companies, including Ballet Rambert, Roland Petites Les Ballets de Paris, London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, Companie de Golovine, London Dance Theatre, and the Royal Ballet.

The couple's daughter, Annabel Lisa, was born in 1962, in London. After a short maternity leave, Wright returned to the stage. On leaving the Royal Ballet, Yuresha and Wright toured England, Scotland, and Ireland as guest stars with the Harlequin Ballet 1965-1966.

In 1967 Yuresha and Wright were invited to represent England as "Ambassadors of Dance" of the British government. For ten years they traveled the world under the auspices of the British Council, performing in grand theaters of cosmopolitan cities and humble venues in developing nations. They introduced audiences large and small to the art of ballet. Their tours took them to Cuba, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Mozambique, New Zealand, Venezuela, and many other cities. They toured across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Central America. In Barbados they danced in a school hall. In the high altitudes of Bogota and Mexico City they had to use oxygen masks in rehearsals and off stage. Yuresha and Wright presented dances from Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Don Quixote. Dancing pas de deux and other forms of dance, the partners were often the first ballet dancers the audiences had ever seen in a live performance.

Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelko_Yuresha



Belinda Wright-Yuresha and Jelko Juresha in 1960s
Jelko and Belinda Yuresha with their daughter Annabel Lisa.
Source Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi,
(in English and Croatian), Zagreb 2011

A part of the donation by Jelko Yuresha to the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb.
Costume designer Norman McDowell, 1960.


Belinda Wright & Jelko Yuresha 'Giselle' 1967 National Ballet of Cuba




Jelko Yuresha (Željko Jureša) and Ljerka Njerš (distinguished Croatian sculptress and painter)
in Zagreb 2017

Jelko Yuresha and Vjera Reiser (Croatian painter) in Zagreb in 2017

Jelko Yuresha (Željko Jureša) in his native city of Zagreb.
Many thanks to Mrs. Ljiljana Ivšić, Germany, for having sent me the preceding
3 photos, taken in the automn 2017.

Jelko Yuresha at the exhibition of his donations to the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. Photo by V. Benović.

Jelko Yuresha with a part of his valuables donated to the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. Photo by V. Benović.



Belinda Wright and Jelko Yuresha
The Ambassadors of British Ballet


Their tours included

Greece, Israel, Malta, Turkey, Cyprus, India, Sri Lanka, Malaya, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, San Slavador, Jamaica and Cuba.
Leaving London behind, life became an endless nomadic experience, changing cities, hotels and theatres almost every day. Each venue created new situations: stages of different sizes, different technical equipment, and stage-hands to be instructed on the order of the evening, setting up the scenery, sighting, costumes, music, packing. Every spare moment was filled with press interviews, embassy receptions and visits to local dance in ballet. When staying at British Embassy residences they were looked after by well-trained professionals showing why the British Emprie and Commonwealth lasted so long.

Belinda Wright and Jelko Juresha were superb. The pair glided through what must to them be a familiar routine, yet left the audience with the impression it had seen great stars dancing a part for the first time.

The Daily Telegraph, New Zealand

Source:
Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi, (in English and Croatian), Zagreb 2011, p. 132.



She is all dance, with complete technical knowledge which has become second nature fused with her fragile and light personality. He is lightness and strength, two thing rare in a male dancer; he is a partner of whom every ballerina dreams, with his ability to lift his partner with ease, with no demonstration, not to the lightest sign of effort, and to dance harmniously together with her, with no means of support. The two dancers proved the extent to which they complement each other and how much they perfect each other. Belinda Wright is a light and easy dancer, like transparent porcelain, but in all the make-up of her style there is more then excellent technique, there is spirit. The same is true of Jelko. He is strong, but does not stress nor demonstrate his strength; instead, he turns it to a beauty of the rhythm of movement, to a lightness of a fluttering in the air. Technique here is not just physical ability, but an expression of personality and of original style. As the styles described by Hyppolite Taine: "The style is the man". We spent an evening of complete aesthetic enjoyment.

Haim Gamzu, Tel Aviv, Israel

Source:
Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi, (in English and Croatian), Zagreb 2011, p. 133.







Željko Jureša
born in 1937 in the city of Zagreb

Beth Storey Taylor: ... Jelko Juresha. Philosopher, teacher, messanger, and ghost, he is in our time, yet not of our time ...

Belinda Yuresha Wright (1929-2007)

In the catalogoue
Balet i strast / Donacija Jelka Yureshe (Ballet and Passion / The Jelko Yuresha Donation), Muzej za umjetnost i obrt (Museum for Arts and Crafts), Zagreb 2018.
there is a very interesting biographic article

Davor Schopfand Mladen Mordej Vučković: Život za umjetnost i ljepotu / Life for Art and Beauty


Belinda and Jelko in Europe

  • Europe: Monaco, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genova, Firenza, Catania, Torino, Lausanne, Geneva
  • South America: Buenos Aires, Bogota, Caracas, Lima, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ciduad de Mexico


Jelko Yuresha during the first communion in Zagreb in 1940s.

The Royal Ballet

Covent Garden,

Ambassadors of Dance of the British government
Ballet Evening with Belinda Wright and Jelko Yuresha
at the Cuban National Ballet in Havana

Dancing in Tokyo in 1977 (where Belinda Wright had her last public appearance). Jelko Yuresha had his last performance in Venice in 1982, at the Malibran Theatre.


Željko Jureša in Zagreb in 1940s

Croatian State Theatre in Zagreb, 1943, "In the World of Dwarfs"

The name of Željko Jureša (then at the age of 6) can be seen among the dwarfs, at the end of line 5 from below.

Jelko Yuresha was teaching as a professor of the University of Panama, and served as the director of the University Ballet Theatre in Panama, as well as an Advisor of the Ministry of culture of Panama.

He taught dance at the Hunter College of the New York University.
As coreographers and teachers, Belinda Wirght and Jelko Yuresha collaborated with

  • The Australlian Ballet
  • Teatro alla Scala in Mila
  • Rome Opera Ballet
  • English National Ballet
  • American National Theatre - ABT
  • Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris
  • Tetsuya Kumakawa Theatre in Japan
  • National Ballet of China in Beijing.

They also danced in

  • Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey,
  • India, Ceylon, Malay, Singapore,
  • Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malaysia,
  • New Zealand, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Coasta Rica, Guatemala, San Slavador, Jamaica, Cuba.













Anjelko Yuresha as a ballet teacher in PANAMA




Jelko Yuresha speaking from 5:02 till the end












Belinda and Jelko Yuresha i Beijing, China
Source Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi,
(in English and Croatian), Zagreb 2011

Jelko Yuresha in Tokyo, Japan: Swan Lake by Tchaikowsky

Source Davor Schopf and Mladen Mordej Vučković: Yuresha - Visions and Dreams / Jureša - Vizije i snovi,
(in English and Croatian), Zagreb 2011




Jelko Yuresha donation to the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, 2018

Jelko Yuresha: Art is and will remain the only measure of our civilization

Many thanks to Mrs. Ljiljana Fabricius-Ivšić for her kind information about Željko Jureša.

Formated for CROWN by Darko Žubrinić
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