99 replies to this topic

[toasteroven]

carbro, on Aug 7 2008, 01:23 AM, said:

WARNING:  I tried to open the website of Ms. Kozlova's school, http://vkdcny.com , and it caused two of my browsers to malfunction.  Thunderbird closed twice and AOL froze twice.

If others have had better luck opening the website, please let us know.

The actual address is http://www.vkdcny.com. I don't know if the omission of www makes any difference? I just saw that you didn't have the www, maybe that has something to do with it. I took note of the address in the address bar when I went a second time since I saw your post about the freezing.

[carbro]

Thanks, toasteroven, but the "www."  didn't fix it for me.    Even with Internet Explorer.  It just took a few seconds longer to close IE.  

Welcome to Ballet Talk.

[Helene]

I'm able to reach the site using toasteroven's link.

Ms. Kozlova is quite glam.

[toasteroven]

carbro, on Aug 7 2008, 07:16 PM, said:

Thanks, toasteroven, but the "www."  didn't fix it for me.    Even with Internet Explorer.  It just took a few seconds longer to close IE.  

Welcome to Ballet Talk.

Thank you, glad to be here! I saw that Helene got to the website and said that Mme Kozlova is "quite glam." That's true! Very nice pic/headshot of her on the home page and she looked pretty chic in the Awards page picture also. She was always a very beautiful and striking lady, whenever I saw her dancing in past years. A lot of presence and charisma.

[drb]

Many more photos are being added to the official photo site:
http://sportnitanci..../index-757.html
Included are American dancers (with number of photos posted so far in parens):
Erica Wong (19)
Tarasina Masi (25)
Douglas Home (12)
Shea Johnson (52)
Brooklyn Mack (23)
Rebecca King (15)
I would not be surprised to find more to come.

Special Distinction and trophy winner Whitney Jensen appears in 43 photos (so far) from Esmeralda, with partner Albert Davydov, here:
http://sportnitanci....nails-1924.html

[Balletlover9900]

Is it me or do Whitney Jensen's legs and feet never seem to straighten? That's a special distinction winner?? wow

[carbro]

If you check out Whitney's YouTube clips (there are three), you may realize how much a good photograph depends on the photographer's timing.  I think this photographer needs to sharpen his, at least for ballet.

[Balletlover9900]

I don't know in my opinion if you can only look ok in about 1 out of 43 photos, then there is something wrong....you can even see it in the videos

[drb]

YAGP has given an official winners list for Varna 2008, including the "non-medal" prizes:
http://www.yagp.org/eng/news.asp
From this it seems that the photos-list of Americans above is complete.
Am I right in assuming that  "promising" Alexandra Mukhamedov is daughter of THE Mukhamedov?
Also "HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CLASSICAL WORK" for Ms. Jensen.

[Memo]

drb, on Aug 9 2008, 12:44 AM, said:

Am I right in assuming that  "promising" Alexandra Mukhamedov is daughter of THE Mukhamedov?

Yes

[drb]

FINALLY!  An American newspaper becomes aware of Whitney Jensen's Varna achievement.  Her home state newspaper offers a feature on the dancer (they make the "Grand Prix" error for the "Special Distinction" award, we've been through all that earlier on this thread, but at least they knew!):
http://www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_10284858

Quote

Now living in New York City by herself - chaperoned by her sister and brother-in-law who live just five minutes away - Whitney plans to finish her last year at Kozlova's Dance Conservatory of New York and then possibly move to Budapest, where she has been offered a first soloist position with the Hungarian National Ballet.

ABT, should we blame the negligence of the NY Times for your missing this one???

[drb]

An article* in today's Deseret News offers more information on Junior Special Distinction winner Whitney Jensen.  While lumping the terms Special Distinction and Grand Prix (as seen earlier in this thread, both applied in 2006 to Ivan Vasliev, but just the former to Ms. Jensen), the article does give information on the rarity of the Special Distinction award:

Quote

The Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria has only given out four Special Distinction Grand Prix awards in its 44-year history.
Those winners are Vladimir Vasiliev, Rolondo Sarabia, Ivan Vasilev and Whitney Jensen.
Out of all those, Jensen is the only female and the only dancer from the United States to be awarded that honor, which was presented to her last month.

For the competition she was prepared by her teacher Valentina Koslova:

Quote

"I danced variations from 'Diane and Acteon,' 'Harlequinade,' 'Le Corsaire' and the 'Black Swan,"' Jensen said. "I also danced two contemporary works by Igal Perry and Chantelle Collier, which my sister Bryn helped me restage."
Jensen's goal was to complete the first round and get into the second, she said.
"I really had no expectations, though," she said. "But after the second round things happened so fast. My heart was beating so fast, and when they called my name, I was so overwhelmed and shocked. I couldn't believe that I got it."

She has entered and won prizes in a number of competitions:

Quote

"I began moving towards ballet because I developed a goal to do ballet competitions," Jensen said during an interview at the Deseret News. "I wanted to compete and live in Europe."
A few years ago, Jensen performed as Clara in the "Christmas Spectacular" at the Radio City Music Hall. While in New York, she and her mother searched for a ballet school.
They found Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory in New York, run by Kozlova, a former Bolshoi Ballet principal dancer.
"We looked at all the big schools and weren't impressed," Lausanne Jensen said. "But when we met Valentina, I knew she was the one for Whitney."

There is a nice four photo set of the dancer included in the article.

* http://deseretnews.c...0256501,00.html

[bingham]

Too bad we won't be able to see her dance in NYC.

[Helene]

I found it interesting that according to the article, "her mother, Lausanne, directed Dance Corp Esprit. Her two sisters, Sarah Jayne Jensen and Bryn Dowling, are Broadway veterans."  That plus Jensen's goal of dancing in Europe makes a lot of sense of Lausanne Jensen's comment, "We looked at all the big schools and weren't impressed...But when we met Valentina, I knew she was the one for Whitney".  

I would think that a family that has its own tradition of other types of dance, and a child with a goal to join a European company, would be particularly open to finding a teacher with European/Russian training outside the US company "feeder" schools, someone who would be a mentor to their daughter.  It looks like this strategy worked!

Very smart of Hungarian National Ballet to make an offer which has not yet been accepted, according to the official news we've seen so far.  Other European companies could try to steal Budapest's thunder.

[YID]

drb, on Aug 8 2008, 05:27 PM, said:

Special Distinction and trophy winner Whitney Jensen appears in 43 photos (so far) from Esmeralda, with partner Albert Davydov, here:
http://sportnitanci....nails-1924.html

sorry for being off topic a bit - Albert Davydov dances with NJ Ballet, and the NJ ballet-mistress, Luba Gulyaeva assisted Valentina Kozlova in "molding" Whitney.
To some other poster - i did hear "not-possitive" remarks of Whitney's legs, but her artistry and properly picked choreography managed to "mask/ make-up" for it (and don't start the list of Dancers with "imperfect" legs who have the DIVA/STAR lapel on their sholder ;_))