tamicute

Unfortunately, you are correct that it is entirely due to being wrongly favored by someone high up.

The only obvious trait of Skorik is that she is the most puzzling enigma in Russian ballet history. Why has this no talent ballerina been made a star? Skorik was star of the movie, "A Beautiful Tragedy", but Skorik clearly is the Tragedy of Mariinsky Ballet, a disgrace to the name Mariinsky.

You will love Napoli.

Although I have never heard of anyone counting fouettes during a performance of Swan Lake, as if it is an Olympic event, I know that both Alina Somova and Viktoria Tereshkina, are the best Mariinsky ballerinas at executing fouettes. I went to Youtube to look at Tereshkina's most recent Don Quixote and went to the video where she does fouettes. Tereshkina used every 4 counts as 2 single and one double, resulting in 24 fouettes,.but 32 revolutions. Alina Somova, prior to her pregnancy, and Tereshkina also, normally would have done more double fouettes than that. I have often seen Somova do single, double, every time, which would result in even fewer fouettes, but definitely not less revolutions.Unless a dancer wants to purposely, slow down the music to fit in 32 fouettes, being with the music is a much higher priority than 32 fouettes and with many double fouettes, 32 fouettes is not possible without slowing down the music and making the fouettes seem dead slow.

Remember that , not only are dancers important, but the ballets. In some cases, if you do not like the ballet or the music, it makes no difference who is dancing.

Sounds like you are very passionate about this topic - I can understand that! Especially having seen Stepanova right after Skorik. This experience will definitely make me follow the casting announcements much more closely and do more research before booking any tickets - especially that I was planning a trip to Moscow to catch a few Bolshoi performances. I have a lot of reading and learning to do... Everyone has different tastes, but I have very strong opinions on what I look for in dancers and particularly with the Mariinsky, I am familiar with all their dancers and would gladly give you my opinion on every Mariinsky dancer. I am familiar with some of the Bolshoi dancers, but most of my knowledge applies to their stars with some knowledge on lesser dancers.. Anyway, I would be happy to give my recommendations and why, plus you can research on your own, various dancers. Casting is very important because some dancers do not deserve their roles and others are more suited for certain roles, while some are great in every role.

If the acid attack on Sergei Filin, is the greatest crime in ballet history, the 2nd greatest crime is the insane casting of Skorik in major roles. Skorik has been highly criticized by many ballet lovers for her incompetent ballet technique, her horrible Mariinsky style arms and upper body, her total lack of any stage presence, no acting ability, no flow of movements, a complete impostor of a ballerina , a true disgrace to the Mariinsky name and an insult to all ballet lovers, who should be seeing great ballerinas, like Stepanova and constantly get Miserable Skorik shoved down their throat, and she constantly dances opening nights when the best should perform, not ballerinas who are worse than the worst corps de ballet girl.

Thank you for enlightening us on the benefits of being an uneducated laborer in New York. You do need to revise your wording of take home pay. Your quoted amounts for take home pay are actually gross pay. Take home pay would deduct Federal income taxes, New Your state and city taxes, plus Social security/Medicare taxes. I am not knowledgeable on current New York state and city taxes, but my guess is that the take home pay amounts would be approximately, $ 60,000 annually and not near $ 100,000. However, in my opinion, most stagehands are similar to construction workers. In construction, you will have a licensed plumbing contractor, who has employees who perform plumbing work, but these employees are not officially licensed plumbers. The same situation applies to licensed electrical contractors, who have employees who perform electrical work, but they are not officially licensed electricians. The licensed plumbers and electricians, will make much more money than their workers, who perform electrical and plumbing work. I am certain that among stagehands, there are licensed electricians, but most of those dealing with electrical work, are comparable to construction worker electrical employees working for a licensed electrician. i cannot justify regular stagehands, who have qualifications, comparable to normal construction workers, getting six figure salaries. Although, I consider the intelligence of construction workers and stagehands to be on a relatively low level compared to most educated professions, the arts are not immune to idiots in high ranking positions.

It's also their standard MO to compare compensation for stagehands to compensation for ballerinas, instead of lawyers, bonds traders, plastic surgeons, etc. There are many construction workers around the country, who work on electrical construction plus many other construction jobs and their work is no less difficult or no less deserving comparable pay to stagehands, but I have met many construction workers who struggle to live decentlydue to awful pay. Stage hands are no more deserving of good salaries than struggling construction workers. Nobody would consider a construction worker or a stage hand as deserving the salary of lawyers, accountants, scientists, biologists, chemists or medical doctors.

This is insane and no wonder theaters have to charge exorbitant prices, because they have to cover the ridiculous stage hand salaries. One paragraph says it all Backstage workers can earn more than the onstage talent. Five stagehands at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center were each paid more in total compensation in 2011 than the highest-paid dancer at New York City Ballet, filings showed. And, in 2010, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” paid its stagehands a total of $138,000 a week, while the principals and members of the ensemble earned slightly less than $100,000 put together." If I ran a theater, I personally would try to do anything to get rid of these vastly overpaid thieves. I do not know the legality of training stage hands in private institutions to replace these theater robbers. I disagree with this statement made "Their tasks are “extremely complex, extremely high-tech and possibly extremely dangerous,” said Martha S. LoMonaco, a professor of theater at Fairfield University, in Connecticut. “They should not be viewed as the schleppers of the theater industry.” If I ran any of these important theaters, I would try to talk to various owners to start training such workers and there are many talented people and plain shleppers, who would gladly earn a fraction of what these robbers earn. Then when these robbers go on strike, the replacements come and say good bye to this robber union, but I do not know about union lawsuits. This union alone is crippling major theaters.

I know someone who is going who will love to watch it, but I need to find out when they arrive. If their planes arrives late, they will not be able to go. Please hold it and i will speak to them , no later than Sunday. I already left them a message. Thank you very much

Is this a full time job?

My third wish is that Altynai Asylmuratova is back in charge, producing remarkable students at Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. My fifth wish is that the new, intelligent ballet director, realizes that Yulia Stepanova is the prima ballerina assoluta of the world and Oksana Marchuk is not far behind.

Based on what you are saying, then you would consider Margot Fonteyn's rose adagio as being unmusical because she did slow down the music, particularly to allow her to balance with her arms over her head in attitude. Then among current ballerinas, Ulyana Lopatkina, primarily due to her size, dances slower than other Mariinsky ballerinas, so due to what you would describe as her technical limitations, brought on by her height, she is unmusical. This thread is titled "Skorik" and I will bring up one ballet role, where what you say, would apply precisely to her. Kitri is a role full of life and energy, all technical limitations with Skorik. so when she danced Kitri, she danced it much slower than normal and I am talking about allegro work, not adagio work. Her being unmusical at all times, made her Kitri even worse. However, the role of Kitri is in my opinion,a perfect example of allegro work, that can be danced at different speeds and still be musical, within limitations, such as with Skorik, who is totally out of character in energy, interpretation and speed. However, I will discuss the act 1 variation which Maya Plisetskaya made famous with her back leg kick to the head. This is a fast variation and is often danced at varying speeds, particularly which country and ballet company is performing. In Russia, it is always fast, but some dancers have exceptional speed and dance it super fast. I think that the normal fast dancer is as musical as the super fast dancer. The final act grand pas de deux Kitri variation is a similar situation, where even the choreography is not always the same and the use of the fan is often present or non-existent. However, a tiny dancer by the name of Malika Sabirova, 1969 Moscow Competition gold medalist, had phenomenal speed in her variation and in my opinion, her speed did not alter her musicality. However, there are some dancers that try to emphasize their balancing ability and that drastically alters the speed and in my opinion, i am used to this variation, not emphasizing balancing ability and I would consider the balancing variation as unmusical, but some will disagree.

I have seen criticism on her musicality, but the extension topic is analogous to "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". For some, high extension is a big negative and considered ugly. For others, they feel that if you have it, flaunt it, and for them, high extension is beautiful. The biggest obstacle is that ballet directors and most ballet audience members, no longer accept 90 degree extension. Then the question about how high is appropriate, depends on the individual.As you said, some feel that what is appropriate in gymnastics, is not appropriate in ballet.

Natalia Makarova was known for a very slow Odette adagio and it was not her 210 degree extension slowing her down. Makarova's taste was to dance the Odette adagio to an extremely slow pace and to the delight of all the Makarova fans. Musicality deals with being in tune to the music and has nothing to do wit the speed, as long as you are in tune with that speed. Plisetskaya and Makrova danced Odette adagio to very different speeds, but nobody would dare accuse Makarova of being unmusical because she slowed down the music. A ballerina, who uses her big extension to lift her leg higher, does not hinder her musicality by lifting her legs higher. If that requires her slowing the music to allow her to be in tune with the music, she still is musical. It priamrily si the moments when the ballerina is traveling that define musicality and not when she is standing, lifting her legs. The flow of movements define musicality. when the music is playing and the ballerina is moving, si she moving to the music, or as in Skorik's case, is she totally unaware of the music.I happen to have a Russian violinist friend in St Petersburg, who happens to love ballet and she recently saw Alina Somova rehearse Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Alina Somova has been wrongly accused on this forum for sacrificing musicality by using her superior extension. My violinist friend told me that she was amazed at the rehearsal with Somova and Terekhova, at the amazing musicality of Alina Somova. My friend plays violin professionally at the ST Petersburg Conservatory, across the street from the Mariinsky, and she would know if someone is musical or not.

I watch much Russian TV and the number of Russian series and movies that show police corruption are shocking and it is not possible that so many Russian shows and movies depict police corruption, if not true. I have many Russian friends and they say police corruption is everywhere. Watching Russian TV, what is most shocking is that smaller towns are ruled by the wealthiest person in the town, who pays off police and tells police who to arrest, but creating fictitious information. I recently saw on USA TV, a documentary on Russian prisons and many of the prisoners described that they were totally innocent and the police made up false charges or someone framed them. There are so many Russian shows describing innocent Russians arrested because someone more important than them, disliked them or did something wrong and found a way of falsifying information to get another person arrested instead of them. The latter is just a loophole in Russian crimes and not necessarily police corruption, but often is. One common aspect shown in too many shows, particularly in the big cities, is what I call the wealthy Russian's private swat team. There are too many shows which depict Russia's main business competition practice as being murder of the competition. Wealthy Russians are followed around by body guards to protect them from getting killed by business competitors. Usually the richer men pay off police. There are too many shows that show a swat team with masks and machine guns that come to a competitors home or estate and kill all the body guards and all servants and all family members. Even Gergiev, while in Russia, walks around with two body guards. Putin, walks around with an army of body guards.

Womack danced Lise in the Moscow school production of La Fille Mal Gardee and Marina Leonova or her teachers, did not seem to have a problem teaching her the choreography. If she was able to remember the choreography for Lise, she definitely could remember the choreography for a swan standing around, doing nothing, during the Odette adagio.I consider Rebetskaya as a liar, my opinion.

Dr. Linda Hamilton, NYCB Medical consultant and former NYCB dancer has many resource links on her website: http://www.drlindahamilton.com/wellness-tips/wellness-tips-injury-prone.html And she seems to agree with Sandik: "Unfortunately, if you're like most people in the entertainment industry, you'd rather sweat bullets than check in with a performing arts specialist for fear of having to take time off to recover. This is a common mistake that can have serious consequences. First, you miss the "magic" one-month healing period, where many problems resolve. Next, the longer you wait, the more you tend to compensate by favoring the sore area, creating more stress on your body." Thank you for all your assistance.

When a ballerina has a minor achilles injury which limits a ballerina slightly and she does not want to rest it for a good length of time, what should a ballerina avoid? I read that in general, high heels are bad when you have an achilles injury, but if you are doing pointe work, the pointe work sounds more dangerous than high heels. What would you recommend a ballerina, who does not want to rest her injury and wants to continue performing on pointe shoes?

What and where is a Costco theater?

I completely agree. His world has become a 3D world of me, myself and I.

For years as Fateyev and Gergiev were destroying Mariinsky Ballet, many have said that Vaganova was the wild card which prevented Gergiev and Fateyev from destroying the ballet company. I never imagined that Gergiev could ever do what he has done at Vaganova. If Vaganova gets destroyed, Mariinskly Ballet will not survive as the greatest ballet company in the world, as many, who love the St Petersburg Vaganova style over all other styles, feel. I also have my doubts that Gergiev wants to keep these institutions. He might want to turn them into hotels or other businesses to make more money for him. He has yet to harm the Conservartory which is where Gergiev and Netrebko and so many others graduated from. He does not like ballet, but he does like opera and orchestra and it seems like he does not want to destroy the Conservatory for sentimental reasons and for the fact that it is the feeding ground of many of the non-ballet performers at Mariinsky. Of the 3 instititutions which Gergiev wanted to join with Mariinsky under his control, Gergiev has removed the directors of 2 of those 3 institutions, but has not touched the Conservatory. I do agree with many people in their opinions on Gergiev being a madman and the Mariinsky Ballet tradition is in serious danger, unless Gergiev is stopped, which would mean his removal as Mariinsky director.

Vaganova has always been distinctly separate from Mariinsky Ballet. If Vinogradov ever complained about the quality of dancers being produced at Vaganova, both Sergeyev and Dudinskya would have given him hell. In the past, the director was always a businessman such as Kekhman and Iskanov, and not another arts person, such as Gergiev. My opinion is that the director of a major theater in Russia should be a businessman as it always has been, however, if anyone from the arts was qualified to be director of Mariinsky Ballet, it would have to come from the pride and joy of the theater, their main money maker, BALLET. Definitely not a conductor with no training in business and no knowledge regarding the main money maker, ballet. As Gergiev has proved, he subordinates ballet grossly to opera and orchestra and as Asylmuratova said 18 days before Tsiskaridze was appointed, opera had 8 premieres last year and ballet gets nothing and Gergiev's excuse is that there is no money for ballet productions. Ballet makes more money than the orchestra and opera combined and that is easy to recognize based on ticket prices and seats sold. Ballet prices are much more expensive and ballet seats sell much more than opera and orchestra. While, Gergiev does not have money to produce ballets, he is constantly finding money to build up the Stradivarius collection and his Stradivari Ensemble is performing now. A director of a theater should be promoting his main asset, but he bleeds it and uses funds to help the orchestra and opera. By any North American and European business standpoint, Gergiev should have been removed from being director, many years ago. It is his close friendship with Putin that allows Gergiev to keep his job and rob (yes rob, not divert) the ballet company of all it's income production. Going back to Gergiev's interference with Vaganova, he has made statements which are definitely not true, namely that Vaganova is not producing the talent, when under Asylmuratova, the amount of recent talent is better than at any time in Vaganova history. Then Gergiev, who has no knowledge in evaluating talent, also has no knowledge on the financial situation of Vaganova and accused Vaganova of being in bad financial shape which Asylmuratova strongly said was not true. Gergiev has an agenda to eliminate his opposition, namely Asylmuratova and Dorofeeva, to succeed in his planned arts empire proposal. Of the 3 entitiies that Gergiev wanted to join with Mariinsky under his command, he contacted Putin to remove the Arts History Museum director and now did the same with Vaganova. From anyone's standpoint in N.America or Europe, he should have no right to interfere with an important Arts Museum and no right to interfere with Vaganova. In my opinion and many, he is power hungry and ruthless in getting what he wants by contacting Putin to remove his opponents. There is no justification in what he is doing regarding Vaganova and Mariinsky Ballet. He never was qualified to be director of Mariinsky and he wants complete control of Mariinsky and it seems like complete control of the other arts institutions in St Petersburg.He does not believe in delegation, thinking that he can do everything. Maybe if he did not have over 200 concerts around the world, he could do much at home, but since he is always on the road, he clearly is a failure in managing Mariinsky. Nobody can do anything without his approval. Gergiev never should have been made Mariisnky director and has clearly proven incompetent in managing Mariinsky with his bias against the main asset and his being away from Mariinsky more often than he is at home, in light of nobody being allowed to make decisions without him being there to make the decisions.

So the film came first before the company itself visited the US. I'm seeing lots of dates on the web for the first US visit. Does anyone have a reliable source on this? Sol Hurok's bio.