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Bolshoi sacks Tsiskaridze


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I think that they are fan girls who support him for his good looks and because he is a TV personality, not because they know anything about ballet. There's nothing like adding sexism to fuel the fire.

In the UK ballet fans are overwhelmingly female and I don't see how it is possible to assume they know nothing about ballet simply by looking at a photo.

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I think that they are fan girls who support him for his good looks and because he is a TV personality, not because they know anything about ballet. There's nothing like adding sexism to fuel the fire.

I don't think that's what Helene meant at all, just that he has a fan base that doesn't just include ballet fans, but people who like his looks and saw him on TV.

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I think that they are fan girls who support him for his good looks and because he is a TV personality, not because they know anything about ballet. There's nothing like adding sexism to fuel the fire.

In the UK ballet fans are overwhelmingly female and I don't see how it is possible to assume they know nothing about ballet simply by looking at a photo.

I was responding directly to volcanohunter's question about what the Bolshoi press office was trying to imply.
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Yes, it's funny that the Bolshoi should have tried to dismiss or diminish the pro-Tsiskaridze protesters for being overwhelmingly female precisely because ballet's audience is predominantly female. We also know from official surveys that women constitute the majority of the audience for all performing arts forms in the United States. Even in the case of jazz music, which proportionally speaking has the largest male audience, women still make up the majority of its patrons. So it's unfortunate that the Bolshoi should have employed a sort of fallacious logic here: Tsiskaridze's fans are women; women are hysterical; Tsiskaridze's fans are merely hysterical. Nothing to see here...

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Volcanohunter wrote:
"There are plenty of dancers ... who don't go globe-trotting much but who don't lack an "international reputation" as a result."

I absolutely agree with that. Dancers make their own choices. And Tsiskaridze is selective which doesn't make him a snob.
He always expressed his admiration for Paris Opera Ballet and Mariinsky and guested with them. Someone wrote: "At the Grand Opera he has had only one-off appearances." Well, he danced in three ballets there:
Nureyev's La Bayadere - 3 performances
Petit's Clavigo - invited for 2 performances but was badly injured at the dress rehearsal.
Nureyev's The Nutcracker

I know that he had offers from La Scala and other companies but turned them down because the Bolshoi was the most important thing in the world for him.
The invitations, which appealed to him, were from Mariinsky. He danced there in The Legend of Love, Swan Lake, Bluebird and Desire in The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, Manon, Sheherazade, The Rubies, The Diamonds, and Forsythe's ballets. Although the Mariinsky is very conscious of its own style, nevertheless, Tsiskaridze who is an epitome of the Bolshoi style was the only outsider invited to guest with Mariinsky every year and was even offered a special Tsiskaridze gala there.
This was his choice.

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There has been some contradictory information about this in recent weeks, but it appears that Anzhelina Vorontsova will, in fact, be leaving the Bolshoi. She submitted her resignation on June 25 and will leave with Tsiskaridze on June 30. She has not revealed where she'll be going, only that she's received several offers.

http://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/28/wife/

The Bolshoi hasn't wasted any time and has removed her headshot from its web site already.

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Ismene Brown is characterizing Vorontsova's departure this way:

Angelina Vorontsova, gf of Filin suspect Dmitrichenko joins Tsiskaridze & Pronin in having contract un-renewed at #Bolshoi. Int trns follows

https://twitter.com/ismeneb/status/350773069465403392

Until the translation comes out, we won't know what her source is, but it might not be contradictory to a resignation: either being forced to resign somehow or having there be an advantage to resigning vs. the lapse.

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This is a fascinating and sad story. Setting aside the politics, the contractual issues, and the acrimonious history, just how valuable IS Tsiskaridze to the Bloshoi at this stage of his career?

1) As a coach in patron of certain younger dancers, he seems to have created his own school-within-a-school, and has been an enthusiastic participant in political infighting and name-calling, possibly to the detriment of some of his own students.

2) As a dancer, he certainly seemed to be out of shape and remarkably tentative in the clip of the Act II adagiio pdd from a "recent" Giselle, posted earlier in this thread. (On the whole, the dancing by both principals in that section of Giselle hardly seemed worthy of a great ballet company.)

I was struck by a statement by the unidentified "female Bolshoi employee" in Ismene Brown's blog, posted here on June 10l:


iI don't agree with the claim that he is outstanding. At one time, Nikolai was, of course, able and interesting, but now his quality (naturally!) is being eroded by age. Now nature is leaving him. And while his professionalism fades, so his argumentativeness and litigiousness mounts.

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Ismene Brown is characterizing Vorontsova's departure this way:

Angelina Vorontsova, gf of Filin suspect Dmitrichenko joins Tsiskaridze & Pronin in having contract un-renewed at #Bolshoi. Int trns follows

https://twitter.com/ismeneb/status/350773069465403392

Until the translation comes out, we won't know what her source is, but it might not be contradictory to a resignation: either being forced to resign somehow or having there be an advantage to resigning vs. the lapse.

The Bolshoi says it had not intended to terminate Vorontsova's contract, and that the resignation was her own initiative.

http://www.itar-tass.com/c1/789193.html

Tsiskaridze says she was pushed.

http://www.interfax.ru/russia/news.asp?id=315495

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The gist of the article from machine translators (bing and google):

Intro paragraph describing how Vorontsova resignation was confirmed by the Bolshoi, after having been reported a couple of weeks ago and denied by the ballerina. According to the Katerina Novikova, the theater had no intention of terminating Vorontsova. I think it is saying that the Vorontsova was unavailable for comment because she's dancing in a gala in Astana.

From the interview: Ovarchenko doesn't understand why she resigned: she was given roles befitting her rank. Filin had higher-ranked ballerinas to cast in roles like Odette/Odile, but that there's always a chance that someone can't dance and that an opportunity will arise, and a dancer should be prepared to take these opportunities and use them to the fullest, like he did when he was given ten days to learn "Giselle." It's the role of artistic directors to determine who dances and who doesn't, and no one questioned Grigorovich when he did this.

From Google Translate:

So you think that she has a repertoire and no one has in no way limits?

- This, of course, a very difficult situation that now exists in the theater. Restrict someone, someone is not restricted. This has been and will always be at the Bolshoi. Someone is dancing more, some less. In past years, such as when Yuri (Grigorovich) came up and said, "I do not like the way you dance!" All - you will not ever danced, because Yuri so decided. And this is his indisputable right as artistic director. Or conversely, a man he considered worthy of a party - he danced it. It seems to me that in a situation with Angelina is too early to judge anything. I honestly still do not understand her reaction.

Ovarchenko also doesn't believe Filin would avenge himself upon his return:

So you think that her fears were groundless and that Sergei Filin would never have her revenge?

- I do not think so ... Why revenge? Life and everything is in its place. I'm Sergey, if he comes back, will not be up to someone to take revenge. First, it has in the meantime, of course, there was some soul-searching. And after what happened to him, I am sure he will pay more attention to your family, your children, and not the fact that someone revenge. I think he set the right priorities. He is a creative person - he will do ... How did he do this when he was artistic director at the Stanislavsky Theatre, then at the Grand. Once I went to dance in Berlin, "Esmeralda", as Sergey arrived there too - only to see Cranko ballet "Onegin" and see for himself that it is a quality and a very interesting performance. What he needed the Bolshoi Theatre. So he used to go around the world - see what you can bring and show at the Grand. This man set out to do theater. A revenge - is not it. As far as I know him, and we know 5 years, I have not seen or heard of someone that he had avenged.

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Thank you for sharing the link!

It's shocking to me when she said that Filin told her to give up Ovcharenko as a partner. Was not it the same period when Ovcharenko asked to change his coach, and even claimed that he'll join the Stanislavsky if he cannot switch his coach? Ovcharenko himself also said in the article he sent to balletfriends.ru that he knew Filin for five years, which means that they could be in close touch with each other in 2009, and Filin wouldn't say anything against Ovcharenko because of his antagonism with Tsiskaridze.

I think the problem with Angelina is still that she wanted too much and regretted that she did not seize some opportunities well as other emerging stars in Moscow. She is a special and talented ballerina, but so is many others-Smirnova, Khokhlova, Tikhomirova, or even Bochkova, Kruteleva, Soboleva, Vlashnets, Parienko, etc from the corps, not to mentions Kristina Shapran or Anastasia Limenko, rising stars at the Stanislavsky. It seems that early victories make her a vain person who think too well of herself and when things do not turn around her, she got distracted from her dancing career and focuses on something else. She is, or was a ballerina of good quality, she did not seize well some of her chances, which makes her career a bit tougher than expected, but she is not so much better than the rest of corps de ballet in Bolshoi or the dancers in the Stanislavsky, granting her no reason to claim for O/O only because she rehearsed it.

On the other hand, should Filin be such a biased, horrible person as she described, Pavel Dmitrichenko should have no chance to dance those wonderful principal or soloist roles with his bad relationship with Filin. Tsiskaridze, on the other hand, would not recommend his pupil to speak this way to the public, or to quit Bolshoi, had he been a responsible coach and cares about his pupil's career.

Sorry for all these negative comments. I do not post much on this forum, but I'm really sorry about what's happening at the Bolshoi right now, and to read such blind, biased comments from a ballerina who could be a ballerina of better quality HAD SHE ONLY CONCENTRATE ON HER DANCING, and try another female coach if it's required. Tsiskaridze, on the other hand, should recommend his tutor to change a coach for a role if necessary, had he been a coach who truly cares about his pupil. He's not the GOD of the Bolshoi and there's no harm to his pupil rehearsing with someone else for a short term.

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From what I've seen of clips of her dancing, she had plenty of roles at the Bolshoi. She advanced from being a member of the corps de ballet to a soloist rather quickly. I don't see what she's had to complain about. But since she's been so unhappy and dissatisfied at the Bolshoi then maybe it's just as well that she's leaving.

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She has "drunk the Kool Aid" of Nikolai Tsiskaridze's victimology. Swan Lake may be danced often, but the Bolshoi is not the present day Mariinsky. My meaning is that Sergei Filin was not allowing unfinished ballerinas be cast in the role. Also, she mentions getting only 2 of 20 Nutcrackers (assuming she danced Masha). My goodness, this shows her unworldliness! If she had done any research at other major companies (POB, RB, DRB, NYCB, ABT, etc) she would see that the primas will get maybe 3 turns as Masha / Clara. The up and comers get perhaps one or two performances (at the most!)

Now, if she had a better coach, he would have told her these things, and put it into perspective. Further, a good coach will pay attention to the advice of the AD, and if the AD wants a different coach - the original coach will give way. Honestly, this is no different than any sport. If the head coach asks an athlete to get specialized coaching with someone else - this opinion is paramount!

I think we have to wait to see what happens with the court trial, but once it is over, the best thing for Ms Vorontsova would be to leave Russia and dance at a company that is much more professional and "normal" in its company culture.

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This is a fascinating and sad story. Setting aside the politics, the contractual issues, and the acrimonious history, just how valuable IS Tsiskaridze to the Bloshoi at this stage of his career?

1) As a coach in patron of certain younger dancers, he seems to have created his own school-within-a-school, and has been an enthusiastic participant in political infighting and name-calling, possibly to the detriment of some of his own students.

2) As a dancer, he certainly seemed to be out of shape and remarkably tentative in the clip of the Act II adagiio pdd from a "recent" Giselle, posted earlier in this thread. (On the whole, the dancing by both principals in that section of Giselle hardly seemed worthy of a great ballet company.)

I was struck by a statement by the unidentified "female Bolshoi employee" in Ismene Brown's blog, posted here on June 10l:

iI don't agree with the claim that he is outstanding. At one time, Nikolai was, of course, able and interesting, but now his quality (naturally!) is being eroded by age. Now nature is leaving him. And while his professionalism fades, so his argumentativeness and litigiousness mounts.

No dancer will look as good at 39 as they did at 19.

Tsiskaridze was a brilliant teacher - I've watched him in action though I never saw any of his coaching sessions. "Unidentified Bolshoi Employee"? some viewpoint with no name to it.

Tsiskaridze dances in London later this month and I'll see for myself what shape he is in. The press will as always crucify him whereas the audience as always will shower him with flowers and applause.

What difference does it make if Vorontseva was sacked or forced to resign, it's the same thing after all and there have been a number of forced resignations since Filin became AD - she's hardly the first.

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