Ballerinas and the Mariinsky

[Leigh Witchel]

I've noticed in recent discussion that there are dancers at the Mariinsky given major ballerina roles very young.

It makes me curious, what is the culture of promotion there? Can they push so young because they've seen the dancers since they were children? Are there dancers that everyone has marked as potential principals from early in their school days - and if so, are there others they have marked as useful for the corps?

Anyone care to enlighten us as to how the school feeds into the company?

[Natalia]

I'll let posters who've actually spent time learning or teaching in the Vaganova Acad answer in full. I can offer that in the 10+ years that I've been following the Kirov & the Vaganova closely, I've definitely seen the selection of one or two dancers for 'fast tracking' (or 'fast testing') during their first year out of the company. I saw it first with Volochkova in 93...then Vishnyova in 95 (who actually danced Kitri in 94, while still in the school)...and so on. You see it this season with Julia Bolshakova &, to a less degree, Olga Yesina, the two 'stars' of their class this year. Alina Somova, star of the class of '03, got to dance several star roles during the 03/04 season (now we see her about to highlight the Kenn Cen's Gala!).

This is just my observation BUT I could see a definitely 'prodding' influence among teachers, e.g., all of the 'stars' of Inna Zubkovskaya's classes in the mid- to late-90s got starring-role chances during their first year in the company. [i'll never forget Tatyana Serova's 'big chance' as Gamzatti...scared to death...but she did OK, despite falling on her poh-poh fron a grand jete during the entree of the G-P Classique in Act II..she was a Zubkovskaya star-pupil.] I'm sure that the stars of all the Dudinskaya classes got special consideration. I don't know the inner working of the Vaganova Acad to quantify this, though. I just see trends!

[vrsfanatic]

Natalia, your observations are the same as mine and I was on the "inside" from 1993-1995. There are more dancers within the male ranks who were being groomed, so to speak, who have not had their stars developed in the West, however the females of those years are all still shining, if they stayed with the Kirov. It is interesting however to see that the class of 2000, although filled with glorious dancers, has not taken the helm as I expected. Perhaps since there were only 5 years between the graduating class of 1995 and 2000, there may not be enough room at the top.

[Alexandra]

I had always read (mostly in books or articles about Nureyev) that there was a definite tracking system, that they identified potential stars early and treated them as such. I don't know what the inner workings are at all, but for a big institutional repertory company, it would seem that they'd have to plan. If one of your mainstays, say, is "Don Q," and you don't see a Kitri or a Basil, you'd have to try to develop or import one, I would think. (Although one of the points made in the Nureyev material is that there had been no one to do Chabukiani's roles, as much a matter of temperament as technique, and several ballets that had been out of repertory for some years were revived when Nureyev was old enough to dance them.)

[Thalictum]

But it is simply not true that there was no one to dance the "Nureyev" roles before Nureyev appeared and subsequent to Chabukiani's retirement, since Boris Bregvadze, for one, was famous for his Basilio, Solor, and Frandoso in "Laurencia."

[Alexandra]

Thalictum, what I posted is in several books and articles written in the '70s and '80s. I'm sure you've read the same material. One example that I remember was "Laurencia." One specific example is that Dudinskaya chose Nureyev for a partner even though he was much younger so that she could dance Laurencia again.

But sorry. I didn't post that to start an argument or to deflect the discussion, but to give an example of how people who were conversant with the company at the time wrote about how dancers were groomed, as part of asking a general question of how any company with a repertory needs to train dancers and plan that repertory.

[Thalictum]

I didn't mean to make more of it than it warranted; I'm just struck often by the amount of mis/dis information some highly charged superstar "camps" like Nureyev's are willing to put out there.

[Natalia]

I didn't mean to make more of it than it warranted; I'm just struck often by the amount of mis/dis information some highly charged superstar "camps" like Nureyev's are willing to put out there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's not purposeful disinformation, thal; rather, that's what they know. Very few people in the West were ever aware that Bregvadze...or Askold Makarov...or Nikolai Zubkovsky...or Dolgushin...or countless others ever existed. Not to take anything away, whatsoever, from the fabulous Nureyev!