Alexandra Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 A translation of an article about Svetlana Zakharova by Natasha Dissanayake on Ballet.co. Originally published in the Russkyi Kruzhok (Russian Circle) Bulletin, SCOLA, Surrey. October 2003 Svetlana Zakharova Among the leading ballerinas, you will find variations in skill, temperament, and, of course, physical gifts. Nature may bestow one with elongated lines, another with a good jump, a third with a gift for tours, a fourth with expressive arms, a fifth with the ability to soar lightly across the stage, and so on. But where nature has sold a ballerina short, she has to overcome this, concealing it or making up for it with other qualities. It’s rare for nature to strain itself and create the perfect figure for ballet. But at the moment, there actually is an example of that rare gift of nature – her name is Svetlana Zakharova. You’d struggle to find a ballerina anywhere in the world to rival the beauty of her physical form. Link to comment
akimova Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I think it's the time to move this topic to the "Bolshoi" section. A friend of mine phoned from Moscow to tell me of Zakharova's debut in Grigorovich's "Swan Lake" on the 7th of December. She was different from Moscow ballerinas who traditionally are more emotional and stress the contrast of two characters: elegiac Odette and vicious Odile. Zakharova prefers to be more reserved in both roles, I saw her dancing "Swan Lake" in London and loved her reserve. After all, she is an enchanted bird: both the White Swan and the Black Swan are dominated by the Evil Genius. My friend thought that Zakharova was aesthetically superlative. Link to comment
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