12 replies to this topic

[coda]

To celebrate Nikolai Tsiskaridze’s 30th birthday, which is today, the ‘bolshoi.net’ is displaying 30 photographs featuring him performing various roles and rehearsing with Ulanova, Vassilyev, Grigorovich and Roland Petit on:
http://www.bolshoi.n...kar-30/page.htm
His own website is: www.tsiskaridze.ru
Alas, it is in Russian only. However, if you click on "Nikolai Tsiskaridze" in English letters and then go to the word "Фотогалерея" (Photo gallery) on the top line right, you will be able to see hundreds of photographs of him performing with his many partners at the Bolshoi.

[Alexandra]

Thank you for posting that, coda -- what a sweet idea: 30 photos for a 30th bitthday! (And very nice photos, too.)

[Lukayev]

Tsiskaridze, to me, is like a Georgian, elongated, exaggerated, exoticized version of Vladimir Malakhov.

Just my 0.02 USD. By the way, Coda, thank you for the link - they're really lovely pictures. :-)

[akimova]

The photographs are really superb, I just saw them after coming back from my holidays.

It is the Russian Orthodox Christmas today. Happy Christmas to Nikolai and all his colleagues at the Bolshoi!

[Marianna]

Tsiskaridze, to me, is like a Georgian, elongated, exaggerated, exoticized version of Vladimir Malakhov.

... was just wondering reading Lukayev's little posting (this pondering just begged to be let out ) - if for some Georgians then Russian dancer Malakhov would be like a Russian, compressed, petite, plain version of "their" Tsiskaridze (if the comparisons have to be made this way)?

That said i would like to add that neither of those two superb dancers are versions of anybody else - they are absolutely unique, each in his own way, and in my humble opinion to call anyone any kind of version of somebody else would not be flattering to either party, IMHO. :shrug:

[Lovebird]

But Malakhov is not Russian either, he is Ukrainian.

[Lukayev]

Well, sorry if my word choice isn't as eloquent as I'd like - of course neither dancer is a "version" of another, they just sort of strike me as sharing some unusual, sinuous characteristics.

And of course, I've never seen either dance live so my opinion is probably worthless, and definitely uneducated ... but I'm still entitled to it.

[Marianna]

But Malakhov is not Russian either, he is Ukrainian.

You GOT me Lovebird - BRAVA!

The point was not about who was Russian, Georgian or Ukranian, actually.

But Lukaev took my point correctly - it was more about "who's version of whom".

Lukayev, I promise i didn't mean to make your opinion to seem "worthless" or "uneducated", please forgive me i did. ARE WE FRIENDS NOW?

I am not very much educated about ballet myself, in comparison, for instance, to moderators and/or many other people who post on this board; which is fine - i am always happy to learn from someone - i just learn whenever i can, and try to find as much information as possible. Learning is a life-long processes, and that is a great fact of life!!

Please keep sharing your opinions with us, Lukayev, your opinion is just as important and worthy as of anybody else's who is posting on this wonderful board - even if those divine Tsiskaridze or Malakhov themselves were posting here, YOUR opinion would still sound equally important

[akimova]

The "Triumph" awards ceremony took place in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow on 26 of January. There was only one dancer among the winners of that prize - Nikolai Tsiskaridze.

A famous Russian actress Alla Demidova who presented this award to Nikolai said about him:

"He combined a huge talent for dancing with the gifts of a dramatic actor, a delicate spirituality with remarkable artistry and musical sense."

[coda]

About an hour ago I watched the satellite "News" from Moscow with a brief report on the Benois de la danse gala concert. It showed Nikolai Tsiskaridze performing on stage for the first time since his unfortunate injury in Palais Garnier last October. In an interview he said: "I am not allowed yet to do any jumping or spinning or running. I am learning to walk".
His 'walk' in this gala concert was Adagio from "Raymonda" with Elisabeth Platel.

[Mashinka]

I'm sure I speak for a large number of ballet fans when I say that Tsiskaridze's injury was a great source of sorrow to us. It is wonderful to hear that he is back on stage again......and with the divine Platel! Good news also that his close ties with the Paris Opera Ballet continue.

[coda]

An extract from the “Newstime” newspaper, 17.06.04
"Last Sunday Nikolai Tsiskaridze awakened the Sleeping Beauty"

Not as Prince Desire though. For his return after an injury the dancer chose the role of Carabosse…
This role in ballet as other comic roles of old women has long since been played by men. However, Tsiskaridze’s Carabosse was not a comic old woman at all.
She possessed natural imperiousness – her finger pointed at the place where the man she addressed should be, and the man followed there although he had a foreboding that nothing good for him will come out of it (this happened to Catalabutte whose head of hair – a wig, of course, - was dramatically torn out by Carabosse). Carabosse kept stooping and leaning on her crutch but at the moments of wrath and triumph she would draw herself up and Tsiskaridze’s bearing, his long rapacious back would be revealed. Carabosse appeared to be akin to the Evil Genius in “Swan Lake”; it was becoming clear that her infirmity, designated old age and shaky hands are no more than an act of the great witch who has no equal in this porcelain toy-kingdom. In fact, it wasn’t the story of Princess Aurora (danced by the Bolshoi’s tidy ingenue Nina Kaptsova) which dominated the performance but the story of Carabosse, the story of her first and last defeat.
The first defeat was when the death predicted by her was replaced by a prolonged sleep. The damnation scene was a master’s work: at the christening party Tsiskaridze’s hands “pronounced” everything: the way Aurora will grow up, the kind of a beauty she will become and the way she will die…
At Aurora’s coming of age ball, Carabosse appeared in black, almost monastic clothes and handed the fatal
spindle to the girl… After the girl fell asleep Carabosse made her round of the Princess’ broken-hearted relatives peering at their faces with an eager, impetuous and gloomy stare. She jumped down the stairs skipping several steps; she was rejoicing as she would have never allowed herself before. This mounting indecent gaiety was acted by Tsiskaridze very precisely; there was no joy in it whatsoever; there was no real triumph but something petty that devours the greatness in human beings.
In Act 2, when a hundred years later Prince Desire was heading towards Aurora’s castle, Carabosse was dozing while keeping her watch by the enchanted kingdom’s gates. She was looking at the mirror and then raised a hand to her forehead in a senile gesture as if protecting herself from that mirror (all other Carabosses of the Bolshoi just sleep and have no mirrors). She was caressing the hair of her little monstrous servants (they never saw that sort of kindness before). Her life which she herself tied up for a century to this kingdom was ebbing; the last strength was just enough to rush towards Desire and to try to stop him – but her last defeat was predetermined, he was to kiss the girl anyway. And Carabosse collapsed into the arms of her little monsters.
The house erupted with applause… The story of jealousy, defeat and departure was acted by the dancer who discovered during this season that there is nobody whom he could be jealous of in the theatre. Who has not been defeated in any role in his entire life: his triumphs stretched from the Cherry Prince in the children’s ballet “Cipollina” to Solor in “La Bayadere” which he claimed as his own. And who, before his departure from the classical repertoire, will leap and jump – touch wood! - for years to come .
By Anna Gordeeva in Moscow

[akimova]

There is information in the Russian newspaper "Kommersant" of 16.06.04 that Marina Semyonova received the President's Prize. The ballet critic T.Kuznetsova reports:

"The President's Prize has been rewarded to Marina Semyonova. This lady who is originally from Leningrad and was Agrippina Vaganova's first and best pupil has served at the Bolshoi for 73 years: for the first 22 years as a prima ballerina and for the rest 50 years as a coach and repetiteur. Last year this People's Artist of the USSR and a Hero of Socialist Labour considered that at 95 it was too difficult to teach a daily class and on her own accord she entrusted it to her favourite pupil Nikolai Tsiskaridze although continued checking his work from time to time. It was Mr. Tsiskaridze who received the Prize on behalf of Mme Semyonova.