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Tereshkina! Tereshkina! Tereshkina!


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Now that's what I expect from a Mariinsky ballerina. The third variation just left me awestruck. At 3:07 and 3:12 she did arabesque fondus that have to be the most exquisite I've ever seen. Flawless.



Thank you, Helene, for remaining trance-free long enough to post this.


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Look at her arms and upper body. These are the "seaweed flowing" arms that I always talk about that I love in Vaganova graduates (most Mariinsky dancers). You don't see that anywhere else, in my opinion. Some people do not like that style, but I think it is gorgeous. So the upper body flows along with the body. The entire performance is great, although I believe she slips at some point (not in the variations) but I can't remember for sure, but she is definitely good. Kolegova and Novikova are also incredible Raymondas.

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Tereshkina! Tereshkina! Tereshkina!

"Clarity! Clarity! Clarity! .... "Phrasing! Phrasing! Phrasing!"... Thank you, Helene and whoever put together this clip.

My only quibble is with the clapping variation. Perhaps a little too cool and controlled (too much hauteur?) for my taste. I first saw Raymonda with Sylvie Guillem, whose clapping variation -- with its sense of mystery and flow -- is widely available on the internet. That remains my own personal gold standard for that variation, though I know it has its detractors.

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Thanks so much for the link -- this is a lovely anthology of solos. I particularly loved her adagio control at the beginning of the third solo as she rolled through her foot from pointe to plie. It reminded me of Cynthia Gregory and her ability to use technical skill as an expressive element.

I had to giggle at the end, though -- as always, a matrix of other YouTube videos show up, all of them other dance videos except for Judge Judy in the upper right hand corner, looking like a member of a competition jury!

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What a great ballet -- you can't lose, finding more wonderful dancers who make the part theirs in their own ways. And in SUCH different ways. Plisetskaya is awe-inspiring -- Kolpakova is equally thrilling, but in a completely different way -- and she does entrechat-quatres-to-pointe instead of changements-to-pointe in her version [so does the amazing Novikova].

But my favorite is Semenyaka -- the way she rotates and expands her arms from the shoulders in the clapping variation is one of the wonders of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pmvZIcXfQ

it is expansive, great-hearted, generous, and commanding all at once. The arms are parallel when the hands clap, and then as they they turn out they spiral in several planes, with a Baroque circle at the elbow, en route to second position, and when they arrive rise into a kind of "Lift up your hearts" gesture. This is a romance heroine of high imagination -- I don't know who coached her -- she worked with Ulanova, but that was probably long before this: still, there is something wonderful about her temperament and imagination that Ulanova's protetegees tended to have [Maximova, too], and I miss it in Tereshkina, strong and beautiful though she is.

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But my favorite is Semenyaka -- the way she rotates and expands her arms from the shoulders in the clapping variation is one of the wonders of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pmvZIcXfQ

it is expansive, great-hearted, generous, and commanding all at once. The arms are parallel when the hands clap, and then as they they turn out they spiral in several planes, with a Baroque circle at the elbow, en route to second position, and when they arrive rise into a kind of "Lift up your hearts" gesture. This is a romance heroine of high imagination -- I don't know who coached her -- she worked with Ulanova, but that was probably long before this: still, there is something wonderful about her temperament and imagination that Ulanova's protetegees tended to have [Maximova, too], and I miss it in Tereshkina, strong and beautiful though she is.

I was looking at Semenyaka's final Raymonda variation (via youtube) just the other day--it's just stunning. I did also see her Raymonda w. the Bolshoi when they were on tour: I remember loving it, but honestly can't remember any details of the performance--watching the video though reminded why I have always thought she was one of the greatest I was ever lucky enough to see.

(Very much enjoyed the Tereshkina video, especially the second to last variation--the one in the beautiful purple tutu which is indeed rather better than the tutu she wears at her wedding.)

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But my favorite is Semenyaka -- the way she rotates and expands her arms from the shoulders in the clapping variation is one of the wonders of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pmvZIcXfQ

it is expansive, great-hearted, generous, and commanding all at once. The arms are parallel when the hands clap, and then as they they turn out they spiral in several planes, with a Baroque circle at the elbow, en route to second position, and when they arrive rise into a kind of "Lift up your hearts" gesture. This is a romance heroine of high imagination -- I don't know who coached her -- she worked with Ulanova, but that was probably long before this: still, there is something wonderful about her temperament and imagination that Ulanova's protetegees tended to have [Maximova, too], and I miss it in Tereshkina, strong and beautiful though she is.

I was looking at Semenyaka's final Raymonda variation (via youtube) just the other day--it's just stunning. I did also see her Raymonda w. the Bolshoi when they were on tour: I remember loving it, but honestly can't remember any details of the performance--watching the video though reminded why I have always thought she was one of the greatest I was ever lucky enough to see.

(Very much enjoyed the Tereshkina video, especially the second to last variation--the one in the beautiful purple tutu which is indeed rather better than the tutu she wears at her wedding.)

Yes, I love the blue/purple tutu that Mariinsky Raymondas wear also (it seems to be blue with some and purple with other dancers and each has slight variations to the embellishments on the tutu).

Bart

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Btw, I agree, Tereshkina's fantastic in the variation where she piques forward and back -- the fondus are ravishingly soft and perfectly placed, I've never seen that one before kept so simple and pure, and yet so generous. ANd I LOVE the way she travels those changements on pointe -- she covers MOST of that diagonal, and the whole thing is full of allegria [like Patricie McBride flying across hte stage in an assemble to pointe in Balanchine's Coppellia [sp???? how DO you spell that].

Semenyaka's beautiful costume -o yes, it IS beautiful -- is Virsaladze's. I will never understand why people don't like his designs -- I think they're wonderful. Yes, it looks like Ivanhoe -- but it OUGHT to.... Sir Walter Scott is responsible for la Sylphide and a whole lot of Romantic medievalism.

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Semenyaka's beautiful costume -o yes, it IS beautiful -- is Virsaladze's. I will never understand why people don't like his designs -- I think they're wonderful.

I can't speak for others, but for me it was his penchant for contrasting legs for men's tights. When you have a lighter side and a darker side, you see a lighter side and a heavier side. It bothers me no end, perhaps because I'm a Libra.

This was a fabulous video. Tereshkina's feet would mesmerize me, until I'd notice how the line of her back changed, and that epaulement! OMG!! Impossible to take in all of her exquisite details in a single viewing.

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But my favorite is Semenyaka -- the way she rotates and expands her arms from the shoulders in the clapping variation is one of the wonders of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pmvZIcXfQ

Thank you so much, Paul, for the Semenyaka clip.

I prefer Semenyaka' clapping variation too. She seems more comfortable with the character dance aspects, giving the performance an earthiness Tereshkina's rather 'grand ballerina' lacked.

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But my favorite is Semenyaka -- the way she rotates and expands her arms from the shoulders in the clapping variation is one of the wonders of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pmvZIcXfQ

I was fortunate to see that exact Raymonda performance, live at the Bolshoi Theatre. A Russian friend recorded it for me off Soviet TV and of course, a few years later when it became a commercial video, I bought the VHS and then later the DVD. I made a mistake by never keeping programs, but I think it was performed, after the final round of the 1985 Moscow Ballet Competition and the day before the awards ceremony and gala concert. Since I do not have programs to look at, my memory is that the Bolshoi Ballet performed 3 times during the competition, Nutcracker with Semenyaka and Andris Liepa, Golden Age with the same cast as the commercial video, made two years earlier and the Raymonda, which was the only one of the three which was televised, although Soviet TV did televise both nights of the final round and the awards and gala concert.

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I like Semenyaka's actual hand clapping much better - Tereshkina's seems a little dainty for the variation. But I would argue that Tereshkina's having to fight against a pretty bad musical performance (including some horrendously out of tune notes in the winds and some unclear passagework in the piano). Semenyaka's orchestra is in top form, and so her very musical movement is enhanced by the playing. Poor Tereshkina - to be given such a slipshod orchestra performance! And sadly not uncommon at all for the Mariinsky orchestra.

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What a great ballet -- you can't lose,

Raymonda is a great ballet, which makes me wonder why ABT has not revived it for more than 10 years. I'm guessing that the politically incorrect aspects of the plot may be a factor in ABT's decision.

That's so interesting to hear...for which that was the same reason given to me by an insider of Alonso's company as why this ballet has never been staged in Cuba.

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