Lidewij

Very sad news, thank you for sharing. May he rest in peace.

After coming across a video of a rehearsal of this ballet (link below), I found this old thread. How fascinating! If I ever make it to New York I'll be sure to visit NYPL to watch the films suggested above.

I just finished this book. I absolutely loved it, and wished there would be similar books about other dancers of that era.

Maybe she's been off the roster for a longer time, but I miss Olga Belik (character principal) on the page. Does anyone know if she's no longer dancing?

Actually the whole solo seemed inspired by the Spessivtseva video. From the half-turns in attitude to the enveloppes to the poses after the en dedans turns to the final diagonal. I immediately recognized it and really love it!

Wonderful thread to come back to after 10 years, indeed. My favourite at that time would have been La Esmeralda, and I'm really sad that the new production at the Bolshoi has been removed from the repertoire again. I absolutely adored it and would love to see the new generation of Bolshoi ballerinas in it.

I just finished watching a recording of the Vikharev version. I’m surprised that it’s so much less radical (many Ponomarev elements are retained including the entire Shades scene - aside from 1 phrase in Nikiya’s coda) AND so much less effective. Especially the appearances of Nikiya in the fourth act. In the Ratmansky version it feels a lot like the party scene from La Sylphide, but in the Vikharev it doesn’t. I really love this production by Alexei Ratmansky, and I do hope there will be a professional recording some time. I’m so glad I made this trip to Berlin!

Oh, definitely! I love the footwork and the extra details, and most of all I love that the story makes sense! I wish I could've seen 2 different casts, but honestly all dancers are doing such a wonderful job that I don't mind seeing them twice.

Thanks for this, cubanmiamiboy. I’m also in Berlin and wanted to read a bit about all other productions there are (I watched the first act of Vikharev, but didn’t get around to finishing it). Looking forward to my second viewing tonight!

Is the Grand Pas choreography exactly the same as the Bolshoi's (also by Burlaka)?

There are a few clips on YouTube of her performance in "Etudes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMWZ1u4CTMM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsE72KtgFQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V4kaCcxavA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlwsQjLyEcY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCnsD5ERmSg

I just found this video and thought others might be interested as well. Ulyana Lopatkina as Myrtha in Giselle back in 1994:

I think that Vasiliev adapted the choreography for Anyuta on stage. Kaptsova and Nikulina also don't do the sequence on pointe.

I attended several of her performances at Het Nationale Ballet, including her farewell performance, and I can say her épaulement was still as exquisite as it was in her Kirov days.

I understand why you would do that, but if members interested in the Bolshoi ballet company would do a search using the "regular" spelling, your messages probably won't turn up in the results. Ditto for dancer's names. And that's just too bad, because you obviously put a lot of work into your reviews.

Brigitte Lefevre just posted the following on Facebook:

I can't find the trailer on YouTube. Do you have a link?

I'm using an iPad mini, and I don't have any problems.

There is a 1957 film out there of the Messerer production featuring Maya Plisetskaya, it also has 6 dancers in a totally different dance of the cygnets. You can find it on YouTube in its entirety, the cygnets start around 32 minutes into it.

A film of the full performance at the Kremlin theatre: Haven't watched it entirely yet, but it's very interesting to see the Nijinska choreography for Ravel's Boléro. I wonder how they preserved it until today.. edit: the description of the video says this was filmed at the Kremlin, but the curtain in between the ballets is clearly that of the Mariinsky theatre.

https://operaballet.be/en/programme/2016-2017?type=ballet&page=1 There is more to say about the programming than this, but for now I just can't get over the fact they're going to do Grigorovich's Spartacus.

I'm reviving this topic, because a short snippet of Galina Ulanova as Odile has turned up on Youtube!

I looked for her on the Finnish National Ballet website, but couldn't find her. Does anyone know in which company she's dancing right now?

What a terrible experience, Birdsall. I hope you recover quickly! So sorry you had to go through this! I went to St Petersburg by myself back in May (I'm a 25-year old woman), and I walked from the theatre back to my hotel every night, which was at least 20 minutes walking. I never felt unsafe. However if I go back some time, I will now probably choose a hotel much closer to the theatre, just so I won't have to walk alone by night.

Thank you for your review, Birdsall! I wish I could have been there, Anastasia Kolegova is my favourite Mariinsky ballerina of the moment. I was in Saint Petersburg back in May, and I saw Danila Korsuntsev's Jean de Brienne at the historic theatre. I do agree with what you say about him; his fantastic partnering makes me forgive his sloppy dancing immediately.