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Nadezhda Pavlova


dinamo

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I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to the career of Nadezhda Pavlova. I know about the Moscow International Competition from 1973, but know little about what happened to her afterwards. I know she studied at Perm and went into the Bolshoi, and that she married Gordeev, but know very little else. I've seen clips of her on YouTube, and she seems to have those hyper extensions that people love now, but hers seem to be much more under control and not used all the time simply because she can like currently. Did she stay married to Gordeev? Is she still involved in ballet? What was her career like?

Thank You in advance for any answers.

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Nadezhda Pavlova was coaching La Sylphide in yesterday's Bolshoi segment. She is one of my favorite dancers EVER! Her Kitri, and so many other parts she danced were ( and now on youtube) glorious. I'm so glad she is coaching.

I still can't watch the SFB segment because of the announcer. But I will not let Fox tv keep me away:

I still go to the Koch (alas).

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I have what was apparently her only DVD (at least, released in the West): her 1978 Don Quixote with Gordeev at the Bolshoi. It's still available and I would recommend it highly. It also includes some 1964 bonus scenes with Plisetskaya.

http://www.amazon.com/Bolshoi-Ballet-Quixote-Nadezhda-Pavolva/dp/B000O78KX8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412367718&sr=8-2&keywords=nadezhda+pavlova

A funny memory about her: When I heard a news flash in 1979 that a Bolshoi dancer had just defected in New York, my first thought was that I hoped it was her. I hadn't seen her, of course, but had read that she was the great new sensation. It turned out to be Godunov, of course.

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Pavlova returned to the Bolshoi as a coach at the end of 2013. She was the one who prepared Anna Tikhomirova for her debut as Kitri.

Earlier Tikhomirova had been working with Nadezhda Gracheva, and the Bolshoi web site suggests that she still does; it's not the norm, but some Bolshoi soloists work with two coaches. Pavlova also works with Yulia Grebenshchikova, and no doubt there are others.

Apparently she and Gordeyev divorced in the mid-1980s.

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I have what was apparently her only DVD (at least, released in the West): her 1978 Don Quixote with Gordeev at the Bolshoi. It's still available and I would recommend it highly....

A funny memory about her: When I heard a news flash in 1979 that a Bolshoi dancer had just defected in New York, my first thought was that I hoped it was her. I hadn't seen her, of course, but had read that she was the great new sensation. It turned out to be Godunov, of course.

Oh yes...that makes perfect sense to me. I remember an atmosphere in which people were positively rooting for Gordeyev and Pavlova to defect and security around the company was very tight. Someone else once told me that when the Kozlovs defected later during the same tour and it was reported some places that a "couple" had defected, that she had been assuming/hoping the "couple" was Gordeyev and Pavlova.

(I am sure many ballet fans remember the crazy atmosphere immediately after Godunov's defection, his wife held at airport etc. I'm less sure that all fans--well, speaking for myself here--always took the full measure of the costs of defection, but that was a bit of an eye opener.)

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If you have access to the archives of The New Yorker magazine you should look up an admiring review of Pavlova by Arlene Croce in the July 16, 1973 issue. Croce also compares Gordeyev favorably to Godunov. In a later article that I can't find right now, Croce while visiting the Bolshoi hears a coach bemoaning Pavlova's unwillingness to rehearse or take class.

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If you have access to the archives of The New Yorker magazine you should look up an admiring review of Pavlova by Arlene Croce in the July 16, 1973 issue. Croce also compares Gordeyev favorably to Godunov. In a later article that I can't find right now, Croce while visiting the Bolshoi hears a coach bemoaning Pavlova's unwillingness to rehearse or take class.

This is reprinted in a couple of Croce anthologies.

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Croce while visiting the Bolshoi hears a coach bemoaning Pavlova's unwillingness to rehearse or take class.

She's on the flip side of that equation now. I hope her pupils don't cause her that sort of grief.

I didn't mean to leave the impression that Pavlova was deliberately giving anybody grief. I've found the piece I was referencing in the March 27, 1995 issue, when Pavlova was 38. Croce describes asking Bolshoi officials for permission to watch Pavlova rehearse, which they gave unwillingly. Croce writes that she wanted to ask Pavlova to dance for her: "Pavlova was sitting on a bench....staring in mute despair at the floor...'Would Nadezhda Vasilievna...' I began, but slowly, helplessly, Pavlova shook her head." The official described this as "naughty" behavior, but it's obvious that in fact Pavlova was experiencing difficulties and depression as her dancing career came to a close. Very sad. It's great to hear that she's coaching and I'm looking forward to seeing her on the Bolshoi video.

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