8 replies to this topic

[Marc Haegeman]

You can now vote for your favorite Bolshoi ballerina of today in the second poll on For Ballet Lovers Only. The address is well known:  B)  http://users.skynet.be/ballet-lovers/

Thank you in advance for participating!  

[Treefrog]

Hmmmm, tough choice.  I adored Maria Alexandrova when the Bolshoi toured here last year ... but I also fell in love with Nina Ananiashivili in ABT's Don Quixote.  Which brings me to a newbie question, of sorts: Why is Nina Ananiashvili a "Bolshoi ballerina" when she dances with ABT?

[Alexandra]

She's Bolshoi trained and still maintain ties with her company.  (She guests with other companies as well.)  And perhaps most importantly, she still dances like a Bolshoi ballerina, she dances in that company's style.

[Hans]

I chose Goriacheva

[Marc Haegeman]

Treefrog, Nina Ananiashvili has been a member of the Bolshoi Ballet since 1981. After attending the State Choreographic School of Tbilisi, she studied at the Moscow Choreographic School (the "Bolshoi School"). Her teachers include Bolshoi legends like Struchkova, Karelskaya, Semyonova etc. As Alexandra mentioned she has been guesting with various companies worldwide (among others London's Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, ABT, National Ballet of Finland, even the Kirov Ballet, etc.), but is still very much with her home company in Moscow, in style, in spirit, if not always by physical presence.
I think it's quite safe to say she is a Bolshoi ballerina, 'in spite' of all her guest appearances .

Thank you for those of you who already voted.

[Treefrog]

Thank you, Marc and Alexandra.  Since Ananiashvili did not dance with the Bolshoi last fall here in Chicago, but did dance the year before, I wondered if she had left the Bolshoi completely for ABT.  I get it now.

[jorgen]

I have heard Nina Ananiashvili will guest with the Royal Danish Ballet in Alexei Ratmansky's new Anna Karenina in April 2004. Much can happen until then, but it would be wonderful to see her in Copenhagen.

[Marc Haegeman]

We decided to close the poll because of the open dispute between one of the candidates, Anastasia Volochkova, and the Bolshoi Theatre management. This affair has been magnified in the media worldwide and we fear that this will influence the outcome of the poll, in any way. The results have been annulled. Apologies and many thanks   to those of you who participated. The poll will be organised again when things have settled down at the Bolshoi and a new poll will be up soon.

[Alexandra]

Probably a wise move.  Volochkova suddenly became the only Bolshoi dancer many people who might find your poll have ever heard of.

I hope when Hurricane Anastasia blows out to sea, you can start the poll again, Marc.  Let us know.