Anna Lavrinenko

[kaskait]

I saw her dance one of the stepsister roles last winter in Mariinsky's Cinderella.

She had fantastic stage presence and wonderful form. She impressed me more than Matvienko in the lead. I did a search on the internet and I found small clips of her dancing the Jewels section in Sleeping Beauty and some work in solo roles in Don Quixote and La Bayadere. But really nothing else.

Has anyone seen her in larger roles?

[MadameP]

I saw her dance one of the stepsister roles last winter in Mariinsky's Cinderella.

She had fantastic stage presence and wonderful form. She impressed me more than Matvienko in the lead. I did a search on the internet and I found small clips of her dancing the Jewels section in Sleeping Beauty and some work in solo roles in Don Quixote and La Bayadere. But really nothing else.

Has anyone seen her in larger roles?

I love Anna Lavrinenko's dancing and have seen her dance many times - but sadly, never in big roles, although she certainly deserves them. At the moment she does not have any in her repertoire. She is a lovely, vivacious dancer, with a particularly expressive face, ideal for roles such as Syuimbike in Shurale, or Masha in Nutcracker, or Juliet or Giselle, but she is most usually seen as Flower Seller, Syuimbike's friend, fairy variation, Neapolitan etc. I remember once seeing her as Masha's brother Franz in Nutcracker, where she was a real scene stealer with her great acting, but this is a real tragedy that she performs this role, when she should be dancing Masha. It is a terrible waste of her talent - she is so noticeable on stage, but although she has been in the company for 10 years now I think, she is still only ranked coryphee, and never given any roles that would use her talent to its fullest.

EDITED to add that I forgot she does dance Columbine in Carnaval, in which she is wonderful, but this is still only a one act ballet and far from the repertoire she is capable of dancing.

[kaskait]

That is horrible that she hasn't been given more opportunity to use that presence. Even on little youtube clips where she is only one of a group, people point her out for special mention. How can a company let that kind of charisma go to waste? And for what? Yet another sad eyed, cookie cutter copy of Mezentseva but without her talent?

If and when Mariinsky comes back to NY, I'll look out for ballets with Lavrinenko in them.

[MadameP]

That is horrible that she hasn't been given more opportunity to use that presence. Even on little youtube clips where she is only one of a group, people point her out for special mention. How can a company let that kind of charisma go to waste? And for what? Yet another sad eyed, cookie cutter copy of Mezentseva but without her talent?

If and when Mariinsky comes back to NY, I'll look out for ballets with Lavrinenko in them.

I forgot to mention she also dances Columbine in Carnaval and have added it to my original post above!