77 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Rosa, on Mar 4 2009, 09:47 AM, said:

Oh! Just saw Don Quixote now has (for the moment) a Kitri: Viengsay Valdes (Ballet Nacional de Cuba)!
http://www.mariinsky...09/3/17/1_1900/

[chiapuris]

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 7 2009, 12:57 AM, said:

Rosa, on Mar 4 2009, 09:47 AM, said:

Oh! Just saw Don Quixote now has (for the moment) a Kitri: Viengsay Valdes (Ballet Nacional de Cuba)!
http://www.mariinsky...09/3/17/1_1900/

I am really excited about seeing her at the festival.
Have been watching YouTube clips of her in various ballets
and she seems to have it all.

I certainly look forward to her Kitri, and to anything else she
may dance at the Gala.

John

[cubanmiamiboy]

If anything, expect anti-gravity balances.  She stays, and stays...and then stays some more...and THEN she may do developpe to go in attitude devant, or from attitude derriere to something else, or standing in arabesque on pointe, and then starting doing a deep penchee...all while in balance...or something else .  Oh, I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff from Vi.

[Marc Haegeman]

Rosa, on Mar 4 2009, 10:45 PM, said:

Mikhail Lobukhin replaces Vladimir Shklyarov in the first cast of The Little Humpbacked Horse.

http://www.mariinsky...009/3/14/1_1800

Tough. There goes the fairytale book...  

[leonid]

Marc Haegeman, on Mar 7 2009, 04:03 AM, said:

Rosa, on Mar 4 2009, 10:45 PM, said:

Mikhail Lobukhin replaces Vladimir Shklyarov in the first cast of The Little Humpbacked Horse.

http://www.mariinsky...009/3/14/1_1800

Tough. There goes the fairytale book...  

And a return to serious discussion I hope.

[Natalia]

Marc Haegeman, on Mar 7 2009, 04:03 AM, said:

......

Tough. There goes the fairytale book...  

The fairy tale "went away"earlier, when the 2nd Tsar Maiden was announced. So this was the choreographer's choice, was it?

Working 'from a remote locale' until just before the Fest begins, so cannot post too much 'til the reviews start to come. Sorry for my seeming-absence.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Natalia, on Mar 7 2009, 04:15 AM, said:

Marc Haegeman, on Mar 7 2009, 04:03 AM, said:

......

Tough. There goes the fairytale book...  

The fairy tale "went away"earlier, when the 2nd Tsar Maiden was announced.

Oh, Somova, right...?  

[richard53dog]

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 7 2009, 04:23 AM, said:

If anything, expect anti-gravity balances.  She stays, and stays...and then stays some more...and THEN she may do developpe to go in attitude devant, or from attitude derriere to something else, or standing in arabesque on pointe, and then starting doing a deep penchee...all while in balance...or something else .  Oh, I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff from Vi.

Judging from youtube clips (so take it for what it's worth) , she seems like a very flashy dancer. She inserts balances seemingly anywhere she can get one anchored, even in something like Odette's Act 2 variation. This is too , too much for me. She seems willing to break the musical line anywhere to get a roar from the audience. Sorry, it seems pretty tasteless to me.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I've been watching her ever since she came out of ballet school, and you just voiced what the general consensus was in Havana back then.  I was telling another poster recently that even if she was all about pyrotechnics-(which she's at absolutely easy at)-she could never master the romantic ballets the way her rival and truly Prima back then, Lorna Feijoo, did.   But, on the other side...her Kitri is just a real pleasure to watch, and I haven't seen that many ballerinas approaching the role, technically and dramatically, a good as she does.

[Jane Simpson]

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 7 2009, 07:04 PM, said:

she could never master the romantic ballets

She danced Giselle in London 3 or 4 years ago and though I got very tired of her long, and inappropriate, balances in Act 1, there was absolutely no sign of them in Act 2 and she was really lovely!

[cubanmiamiboy]

...her Rose Adagio is surreal.  I remember from one time when she danced it, when she lowered her arm from the couronne position to her second suitor during the first set of balances, she suddenly declined and decided not to get his support , rasing it back up, just to calmly offered it back to the next suitor, so imagine...THAT unsupported balance lasted...well, WAY more than what Petipa intended I guess...

[Rosa]

International Stars Gala:

I. WHO CARES?
Igor Zelensky, Elena Lytkina, Natalia Yershova, Anna Zharova and artists of the Novosibirsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre

II. DIVERTISSEMENT
Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Viktoria Tereshkina, Yevgenia Obraztsova, Angel Corella, Marcelo Gomes, Vladimir Malakhov, Leonid Sarafanov, Ivan Kozlov, Mikhail Lobukhin

III. THEME AND VARIATIONS
Alina Somova, Vladimir Shklyarov and artists of the Mariinsky Ballet

http://www.mariinsky...09/3/22/1_1900/

[cubanmiamiboy]

Rosa, on Mar 7 2009, 04:28 PM, said:

III. THEME AND VARIATIONS
Alina Somova...(..)

[Cygnet]

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 8 2009, 01:42 AM, said:

Rosa, on Mar 7 2009, 04:28 PM, said:

III. THEME AND VARIATIONS
Alina Somova...(..)

Cubanmiamiboy, I see your "Theme & Variations" and raise you a "Giselle:" Date:  Saturday, March 28, 2009.  Time:  7:00 p.m., Location: The Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg.  The debutante:  A. Somova .

[cubanmiamiboy]

Cygnet, on Mar 9 2009, 01:55 PM, said:

cubanmiamiboy, on Mar 8 2009, 01:42 AM, said:

Rosa, on Mar 7 2009, 04:28 PM, said:

III. THEME AND VARIATIONS
Alina Somova...(..)

The debutante:  A. Somova .