63 replies to this topic

[Natalia]

I realise that it's a different choreography but I still loved it, Mikhail! Call me a sucker for beautiful Bakst costumes.

[ngitanjali]

Natalia, on Feb 4 2008, 07:41 AM, said:

ngitanjali, on Feb 3 2008, 06:49 PM, said:

....as Somova and Osipova are the wunderkinds of their respective companies, and one has had a much different reception from us here than the other.  

ngitanjali

ngitanjali, you are so right about the different receptions from the west. But I would hardly call Somova a 'wunderkind' the likes of Osipova. Osipova is admired and cheered in her own city. Somova is admired and cheered by her coaches (and her one-person public-relations department on the internet).

Oh, I'm never going to say that Somova should even be compared to Osipova, I'm just saying that from what I've seen on youtube comments (OMG! Her Extensions are...like, so amazing!), the younger generations of dancers are looking up to her.  Plus, she is marketed as the "New Mariinsky".  

In my opinion:  I don't want new.  I want my "Old" (I cringe to say that), "traditional", "normal" Lopatkina.  

I finally saw Osipova's Act II of Giselle.  It wasn't Ferri or Makarova or Bessmertnova...but it was something else and that's a good thing

[Mashinka]

Quote

I realise that it's a different choreography but I still loved it, Mikhail! Call me a sucker for beautiful Bakst costumes.

Me too!  After seeing it in France last year I looked the ballet up in a book of Bakst designs and was really impressed by how faithfully the design team had recreated the costumes.  It went down very well in France and although rather over-long in structure (a little Scriabin goes a long way) some of the choreography was excellent and there was a beautiful act I pas de deux.

[Dale]

Looks like Ratmansky is coming over to NYCB to fill the vacant Choreographer in Residence position:

http://www.nytimes.c...amp;oref=slogin

[drb]

Dale, on Feb 5 2008, 09:04 AM, said:

Looks like Ratmansky is coming over to NYCB to fill the vacant Choreographer in Residence position:

http://www.nytimes.c...amp;oref=slogin

Today the Bolshoi Theater issued a statement regarding this news.
http://www.cultradio...d=162872&cid=44
Their press attache Yekaterina Novikova states:

Quote

It has been known for some time that Alexei Ratmansky is negotiating with NYCB.  He wishes to remain with BT [Bolshoi Theater] solely as a choreographer, with no administrative duties.  He is not leaving BT to become an administrator with any other theater.  He is simply an artist who wishes to be free.  He will remain as chief guest choreographer.
Alexei Ratmansky has made very great progress as AD of the BT.

The statement goes on to list his choregraphic successes, and takes note of his triumphs with the BT in Paris and London.  Then she discusses BT's future:

Quote

BT General Director Anatoly Iksanov will try to preserve continuity with tradition and with Alexei Ratmansky's innovations.  We are pleased that Alexei Ratmansky is with the BT team.  His contract should be completed later this year.  Ahead is his production, this summer, of Flames of Paris.

They plan to consider a wide range of candidates for his position.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

Dale, on Feb 5 2008, 09:04 AM, said:

Looks like Ratmansky is coming over to NYCB to fill the vacant Choreographer in Residence position:

http://www.nytimes.c...amp;oref=slogin

Whew!  Last week, I shoehorned in an extra program that I otherwise couldn't have cared less about just to see Russian Seasons one more time (my fifth since the premiere).  I mean, I love Russian Seasons, but I'm gonna need some fresh Ratmansky in the  rotation soon.  Middle Duet is fine, of course, but tearing open a season brochure to find just Middle Duet for the Ratmansky offering would be like finding just one sip of champagne left in the bottle.

[delibes]

On the Bolshoi ballet forum someone has drawn unfavourable parallels between the uncertainty and "intrigue" over Alexei Ratmansky's succession with the orderly succession at the Royal Danish Ballet from Frank Anderson to Nikoali Hübbe. If the Western model of timing had been adopted at the Bolshoi the decision about who takes over from Ratmansky would be yesterday's news by now, they say: however, Russians feel no obligation to do things the Western way, and by Russian standards there was still plenty of time to keep the intrigue going.

Apparently the TKuznetsova article that I translated about all the potential candidated has been given some post-publication editing. Mr Tsiskaridze is no longer described as motivated by aggressive self-promotion, but has become motivated by ambition for the Bolshoi company, which as the person who quoted the change noted, is quite another thing ;). A commentator has added that though she has noticed Miss Kuznetsova can at times make "subjective"  or "insulting' comments, she is not noted for talking nonsense or perverting facts.

Mr Tsiskaridze himself has given interviews denying that he is a directorship contender as he considers hmself still very much a dancer albeit doing more and more coaching. He wants people to remember him as the public has described him over the past 15 years, as one of the leading dancers on the planet. However he has already stopped doing certain classical roles and will stop dancing even contemporary work in 3 years. He "categorically  disagrees" with the idea that the last five years' BB success is down to Ratmansky.  He says that for all time, since 1956 when the BB first went abroad, the Bolshoi has been considered the world's greatest company. It has never had a failure or an empty hall. This success was due above all to the dancers and their coaches. It was completely independent of who the director was.

Maya Plisetskaya has announced her support for Ratmansky.She says that she has never known so strong a company of dancers in the BB as today. An "enormous quantity" of world-class ballerinas, and above all of rich repertoire. Ratmansky had introduced excellent contemporary repertoire to the Bolshoi stage. Others too had brought contemporary work in their time, but not always "healthy'  for the company.   She also commends the theatre's overall director Anatol Iksanov, for, finding ways to continue Ratamansky's choreography link with the BB. She herself thinks that the jobs of administration and staging ballets should be separated now.

Of parallel interest:  The artistic directorship of Moscow's Stanislasky Ballet is also vacant,  after completion of legal formalities following the mysterious death of Dmitry Bryantsev, the 20-years director.  At least 8 pretenders there, it is said.

[Mel Johnson]

I can't speak for anybody else, but the Ratmansky succession looks more like "business as usual" not only for a Russian company, but for many western ones, too.  Don't forget that a few years ago, the Danes were going through a chaotic time of finding a durable balletmaster.

[AmandaNYC]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but the NYTimes now reports that he won't be joining NYCB, as he's too busy right now. He's still scheduled, however, to make additional ballets for the company.

-amanda

[Marc Haegeman]

According to the latest news from the Bolshoi, Yuri Burlaka is going to succeed Alexei Ratmansky as artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, starting from January 1, 2009. Burlaka (39), a classmate of Ratmansky, is an expert in ballet reconstruction, he is now heading the Russian Ballet company in Moscow and was with Ratmansky the main force behind the revival of the Bolshoi's Corsaire last summer. At the Bolshoi he also took part in the 2004 workshops, reconstructing fragments from Reveil de Flore (Petipa) and The Little Humpbacked Horse (Gorsky).
Ratmansky will be chief guest choreographer and responsible for his own ballets in the Bolshoi rep, as well as for new works.
They also pulled Yuri Grigorovich back in as ballet master responsible for his own ballets at the Bolshoi, but also to decide about the casting of new soloists and touring. More details later.

Article in Izvestia, March 3.

[Natalia]

Marc Haegeman, on Mar 3 2008, 08:48 AM, said:

....Yuri Grigorovich back in as ballet master responsible for his own ballets at the Bolshoi, but also to decide about the casting of new soloists and touring. More details later.

Article in Izvestia, March 3.

Whoa! I'm not sure that everybody is going to be happy about that last little bit about casting & touring decisions.

[Marc Haegeman]

We shouldn't make too hasty conclusions here, Natalia, because it seems the position of Grigorovich within the new structure still needs to be cleared out.

[Natalia]

I am just reacting to what is in writing, not drawing conclusions. Read my words again, Marc.

[Ostrich]

I have been searching for more info on Burlaka. I find him mentioned in articles on the Bolshoi's Le Corsaire reconstruction, where he is described variously as being a ballet master, a notation specialist, Ratmansky's "assistant", a ballet historian, a specialist for classical choreography and a Petipa scholar. Probably all these descriptions apply to some degree, but I would appreciate some more concrete info (of which I have only what Marc said, about him being a classmate of Ratmansky and an expert in ballet reconstruction).
Has he danced himself? Where has he principally been working before he collaborated with Ratmansky? How much experience has he had in directing?

[Marc Haegeman]

The biography of Yuri Burlaka on the Bolshoi website

I'm reading your words again and I still don't know what you are trying to say, Natalia.