linsusanr Posted April 15, 2002 Share Posted April 15, 2002 I attended the "Meet the Artist" interview before the performance this past Friday, and had the chance to hear Vanessa Zahorian tell us a little about herself. It was her 23rd birthday that day, and everyone clapped for her when it was announced that she was being promoted to Principal Dancer. I am happy to hear it, since she really is quite a fearless dancer, with such great turns. I wish I was a natural turner! Apparently she had studied for a year with the Kirov, and it did her well. It's been sad that we are losing some of our principals, but the recent promotions are well deserved. I'm very excited about next season already! Link to comment
Leigh Witchel Posted April 15, 2002 Share Posted April 15, 2002 Vanessa Zahorian got promoted to principal dancer? Gee, why am I not surprised? ;) Congratulations to her! Link to comment
Juliet Posted April 15, 2002 Share Posted April 15, 2002 Oh, I am happy, happy, happy to read this!!!!!!!!! Although not so happy to hear that she's turned 23....calendar time is not the same as time in my head, alas....;) Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted April 16, 2002 Share Posted April 16, 2002 Zahorian is fearless... I first saw her when she was still at the Kirov Academy DC, they were touring in the Kirov Nutcracker and appeared in SanJose..... She was 3rd cast, the only American, and I thought "she must be SOMETHING if they're letting her do the ballerina role," so chose to go that day.... In that version of Nutcracker -- Vainonen's -- they substitute a ballerina for the little-girl CLara (Marie?) half-way through; she sort of "wakes' out of her dream somehow rather early in the proceedings -- the reason I can't remember this is that just as Zahorian woke up and started dancing, the lights went out -- but hte orchestra continued and she KEPT GOING. there was a ghostly faint light (from the emergency lights) and you could tell that she was AMAZING, these huge streaking extensions sweeping around all over the place -- renversees and such -- which a stage-hand , full of self-importance, strutted to center-stage and interrupted, telling us the power was out all over SanJose and we'd have to wait to see if it came back on..... What an oaf -- and she was like a Sylphide, he couldn't see what respect she deserved SO Zahorian had only been dancing about 15 seconds, but I was dazzled..... and thrilled when her name appeared on SFBs roster the next year, in time for Nutcracker. Went to catch her first performance -- the first role she did here was the Sugar-Plum Fairy at an 11 AM matinee ! And she was fantastic -- so was Guennadi Nedviguine, it was the first I'd seen of HIM, too, we could not believe how softly he landed.... THe remarkable thing about Ms Zahorian -- I almost called her Vanessa, there we go -- was not her assurance, it was her interpretation of Christensen's choreography, which is hard to "make anything" out of. How to phrase it? She actually danced it as well as ANYBODY I'd ever seen before, and better than most... She's strong, brave, eager -- I find myself wanting her to cultivate her feet.... Wonder what others think..... Link to comment
BalletNut Posted April 30, 2002 Share Posted April 30, 2002 Paul, I believe I was at that very same performance of the Nutcracker; if there wasn't a program in front of me, I would've thought she was a principal already! Off-topic, but SFB seems to be getting a bit top-heavy these days; the way things are going, there won't be any soloists left unless we see even more promotions--of corps dancers that is.;) Link to comment
Juliet Posted May 1, 2002 Share Posted May 1, 2002 I was at the matinee lights-out performance...... Olga Chenchikova, who was scheduled to perform that night, graciously allowed Ms. Zahorian to perform instead (friends and family had travelled far for this) and it was really wonderful. Very happy that she is doing well. Link to comment
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