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Lovebird

Senior Member
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  • Connection to/interest in ballet** (Please describe. Examples: fan, teacher, dancer, writer, avid balletgoer)
    researcher, writer, fan
  • City**
    NYC
  • State (US only)**, Country (Outside US only)**
    NY

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  1. Hello everyone. I'm a grad student/ researcher/ writer and have recently written a blogpost for the Morgan Museum and Library on my summer fellowship in which I helped Dr. McClellan, the exhibition curator, with research for the upcoming summer 2024 exhibition on the ballets Russes. Below is the link to the blogpost as well as the notice for the exhibition, I hope you all enjoy it and will visit the exhibition this summer! The exhibition focuses on the creative process behind choreographic creation at the Ballets Russes, with a particular focus on the contributions of Ida Rubinstein and the choreography of Bronislava Nijinska. Blogpost: https://www.themorgan.org/blog/adventures-choreographic-notation-and-tale-two-ballet-rebels-or-nijinskynijinska Exhibition description: https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/ballets-russes
  2. In my opinion, Pereira has suffered from being in the same category, or employ as the Russians call it, as some amazing, really first class talent: Peck, Fairchild and above all Bouder. For quite a bit NYCB has had a stronger "small girl" contingent, much stronger at times then the taller girls.
  3. Not to be off yopic, but it is perfectly acceptable and respectful to call the female corps de ballet ladies, I don't think I have ever heard that calling a woman a lady if offensive, rather it is probably the only word to use if you want to be respectful. I find girls very offensive, it is a way of dumbing down these very hard workers and it does not give them the respect they deserve.
  4. He died tragically at a young age from leukimia. I remember speaking with Eva Evdokimova( also, recently passed away, so sad, she was a great and wonderful person) and she had happy memories of dancing a pas de deux with him, I think Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, she said he was a great partner and a very nice person as well, I believe he did some charity work toward the end of his life.
  5. Michael Somes was a great partner, especially in the fifties when he danced with Fonteyn. Jonathan Cope, Anthony Dowell were good partners too, they really interacted with their partners.
  6. White Nights sounds like a beautiful novel, thank you for suggesting it and I will certainly read it, Dostoyevsky makes memorable characters. I wonder if the title refers to that period of time in St Petersburg when the sun shines all night and day, something to do with its far north location? It must be a magical time. Miami boy, like you my love of Russian literature extends to other areas, especially Russian opera I noticed that you are from Cuba, I am from Spain, sometimes I feel that Russian and Hispanic sensibilities are very close to each other. I have read Mayakovsky, one poem in the original Russian. I like the strange way he uses words, I especially like the image of A Cloud in Trousers.
  7. This summer I re read Turgenev's A Month in the Country, a book that deserves re reading for its beautiful, fluid prose and nostalgic atmosphere. Turgenev to me is a unique writer, different from all other Russian writers. Has anyone read a work by Chekhov with the curious title of Unfinished Piece for a Piano Player? It is my next reading list book, and I would like thoughts about it. Miamiboy, it is nice to hear of a fellow Russian literarure fan, sometimes I feel that in the U.S, save for Crime and Punishment, Russian literature is a bit undiscovered, there are so many great works.
  8. I did not know there was an opera based on The House of the Dead, thanks for telling me Of the many opera adaptations, the one I like the most is Prokofiev's War and Peace. Resurrection is an excellent story for an opera, with an excellent female character. Also Chekhov's story Lady with a Dog is a wonderful story for an opera, concise plot, lots of opportunities for the two principal characters. Lady with the Dog is one of my favorite works of Chekhov, his prose in this story is lyrical, gently humorous and melancholy. Anna Sten gave two of her best film performances in literary adaptations, The Brothers Karamazov and We Live Again, based on Resurrection. She was wonderful in both, I recomend We Live Again for her portrayal of Katiusha.
  9. In addition Glinka's romance, Ya Zdes Inezilya, is based on a Pushkin poem. Does anyone know if Tsar Saltan is even performed still, or Kai and Gerda? I have recently finished Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead. In many of his novels Dostoyevsky exhibits a deep understanding, and more importantly an acceptance and sympathy, for distressed human beings. For this aspect of Dostoyevsky I recomend Netochka Nezhvanova, or Nameless Nobody in English ,about an orphan and her failed musician father.
  10. A lot of Pushkin's work has been made into opera, Mazeppa is based on Pushkin's Poltava as well as Onegin and Queen of Spades. An author that I love but that is not very well known outside of Russia is Nikolai Leskov. I love his short stories which are mostly comedies, similar to the picaresque stories of Spain, unfortunately there, I think , only one translation available? I have read about five of his stories in the original Russian, I think it is difficult to translate because a lot of the humour would lose its meaning when translated. Lady Macbeth of the Mstsensk District, famous Shostakovich opera, is based on his tragic play. Of Gogol I would recomend Dead Souls and of course The Overcoat. Also, A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov I would say if you have not read definately try to. It's character is, I believe, the first anti- hero, modern man in Russian literature. Personally I feel this novel influenced many of the Russian realist writers. A novel that has a special place in my heart is Tolstoy's Resurrection. I have re-read many times and each time I find something else that really speaks to me. The female character, Katiusha is my favourite female character in Russian literature, with respects to Anna Karenina.
  11. I am a great admirer of Russian literature. Perhaps it's because my favorite fairtales as a child were from a Georgian storybook. Anyway, I was wondering, what , in your opinion, are the most important works, or most influential, or that you simply like a lot, in Russian literature.
  12. Farukh Ruzimatov and Diana Vishneva, both Kirov Ballet, were a couple and also danced together. Their performances together were great
  13. Why is Alina Somova so hated? She is not such a bad ballerina, and anyway she is still quite young. Give her a chance and she could become a better ballerina .
  14. Thank you Dale. She lives in New York, could you recommend any teachers or schools?
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