2017-18 Bolshoi cinema season

[Drew]

Very glad to read Stashkevich is a principal!

(Ballerina wars...I think I had better stay away from that topic.)

 

[mnacenani]

33 minutes ago, Quinten said:

Both she and Kaptsova are seriously underutilized, which is a mystery and a great waste

Last season it was a mystery to me too where Genya had gone since I did not see her cast for anything. I found out later that she was expecting a baby (twins ?). She reappeared at the Dance Open closing gala in Piter last April and danced the Satanilla PdD with Lapatin - wasn't good and got polite applause only, didn't show up at the party afterwards. At Bolshoy one could very well drop down in the pecking order when he/she drops out for a whole season due to Vaziev seeming keen to develop the new talent - just think of the dancers recently placed on contract, my beloved Alexandrova and Kaptsova included.

[Helene]

We allow discussions about social media on Ballet Alert! only if they are official news, ie, the public-facing social media of ballet professionals, or if the mainstream media reports on social media.

If contacts want something known here, they can register and post their thoughts.

[Helene]

[Admin hat on]

Official news only.  If you post that there's more story than there is official news, or intimate there's something you can't say, that's a reason for your posts to be deleted and for you to be put on Moderated.  This has been the policy for nearly two decades.  So stop it.  Or start a blog, where you can say whatever you please.

[Admin hat off]

[MadameP]

Stashkevich was an adorable Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, and showed great comedic talent, so I think Coppelia is a very appropriate ballet for her, and I hope she dances Swanilda.  (Also Franz would be perfect for Lopatin!)  With regard to Kovalyova, I think she is a an outstanding prospect and I am very happy to see her given all her opportunities.  Interestingly,, although of course the role of Swanilda would not be considered typical emploi for such a tall dancer,  in fact Kovalyova HAS already danced the role of Swanilda - at a Vaganova concert at the Hermitage theatre in 2015 she danced the adagio and she was exquisite in it.   And regarding those ballerinas given performances that are part of the cinema season - I certainly hope Obraztsova's Juliet is shown.  For me, she is far more lyrical and expressive a dancer than Krysanova, who I always find rather hard, as in her Medora performance - but then we all like different.  

Edited November 27, 2017 by MadameP

[mnacenani]

1 hour ago, MadameP said:

I certainly hope Obraztsova's Juliet is shown.  For me, she is far more lyrical and expressive a dancer than Krysanova, who I always find rather hard, as in her Medora performance - but then we all like different.  

As you know firm casting was posted only within the last 24 hours up to which time I was hoping to see Obraz. at the premiere. After the event I came away soo happy to have seen Katya Krys. who imho put on a magnificient dramatic performance. Wish you had also seen it - you would have been as surprised as I was.

[MadameP]

2 hours ago, mnacenani said:

As you know firm casting was posted only within the last 24 hours up to which time I was hoping to see Obraz. at the premiere. After the event I came away soo happy to have seen Katya Krys. who imho put on a magnificient dramatic performance. Wish you had also seen it - you would have been as surprised as I was.

I like Krysanova in SOME roles, and yes, I think she is a good actress, but still for me, no matter how good her acting was, she does not have the lyricism or beautiful lines or flow of movement that I want to see in a Juliet (or Odette-Odile or Nikiya or Medora!)  

[Drew]

23 hours ago, Quinten said:

I couldn't agree with you more!  Ballet is about more than acting. 

Acting -- or dramatic expressiveness through movement which is what ballet requires -- counts for more in some roles than others.   Juliet being one where it counts a lot.

However, Krysanova though not exactly my taste in a lyric/adagio ballerina role is certainly something more than an "actress." She can have electric speed with great clarity and also dances with daring physicality, intensity and even, at times, sensuality--which is what Maillot especially pulled out of her and these qualities surely do not count for nothing in choreography by Ratmansky.  She is capable of genuine power too.

Her dancing is not always the prettiest or cleanest in classics and when I have seen her live  (Swan Lake and Don Quixote on tour in New York) I found the performances uneven and even unevenly paced--superb in whole sections but not having consistently great "through-lines" from beginning to end.  Even as Kitri she seemed to turn it "on" and "off" -- that bothered me much more than the fact that she wasn't an exquisite Vaganova style Dulcinea. However, her broadcast Katherine in Taming of the Shrew seemed to me sensational from beginning to end. I've seen video of (sections of) her performances in a range of Ratmansky ballets that seemed terrific as well, and I have come to have a lot of respect for her.

One issue for me in thinking about Bolshoi "politics" as it appears from the outside is that I would be uneasy to see the company lose its distinctive character, though I accept change is inevitable and probably in some respects necessary; Krysanova is, to my admittedly amateur eyes, almost unimaginable at the Mariinsky, though I know she made at least one guest appearance there. But in the context of the Bolshoi she more than makes sense and can light up the stage. That's the fantastic richness of the Soviet/Russian ballet that I grew up admiring and still admire even though both the Bolshoi and the onetime Kirov have morphed a lot since then.

(My current "home video" ballet watching is in fact Obraztsova in Shurale with the Mariinsky. I could wish I had seen her dance it live.)

 

 

Edited November 28, 2017 by Drew
Grammar

[Helene]

There are also dancers on the record who left the Mariinsky to go the Bolshoi in part, at least, because of Vaziev's direction, which makes it a bitter situation to again find him as the boss, like an episode of "The Prisoner."

 

[volcanohunter]

Miserable ex-Mariinsky dancers, miserable dyed-in-the-wool Bolshoi dancers and the dilution of the Moscow style. 

However, as long as (fellow North Ossetian) Valery Gergiev remains the dominant player in Russian culture, and Vaziev doesn't do anything to tick off Zakharova, I fear this wretched state of affairs is likely to continue.

Edited November 28, 2017 by volcanohunter

[canbelto]

23 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Miserable ex-Mariinsky dancers, miserable dyed-in-the-wool Bolshoi dancers and the dilution of the Moscow style. 

However, as long as (fellow North Ossetian) Valery Gergiev remains the dominant player in Russian culture, and Vaziev doesn't do anything to tick off Zakharova, I fear this wretched state of affairs is likely to continue.

Uh, not really trying to pry here, but why the mention of Vaziev and Gergiev's ethnicity?

[volcanohunter]

1 hour ago, canbelto said:

Uh, not really trying to pry here, but why the mention of Vaziev and Gergiev's ethnicity?

Sadly, I think it's relevant to the way Gergiev and Vaziev operate. Think back to the last World Ballet Day. Whom did we see in rehearsals? Pupils of Svetlana Adyrkhaeva (who is also from North Ossetia) and pupils of Olga Chenchikova (who is Vaziev's wife) and no one else. Who danced the Tall Girl during the New York tour? Any principal dancers? No. There was a junior soloist, Yulia Grebenshchikova, and a corps member, Olga Marchenkova. What do they have in common? Grebenshchikova recently changed coaches, but at the time both were pupils of Adyrkhaeva.

I am not suggesting that Krysanova and Stashkevich are trying the advance their careers by training under Andyrkhaeva. They've been with her for years. But Anna Nikulina's career has skyrocketed since she left the tutelage of Lyudmila Semenyaka and switched to Chenchikova. Vaziev clearly has little use for the Moscow style, but these graduates of the Moscow Ballet School are doing okay.

From my point of view, and I want to emphasize that, Vaziev's leadership looks like a combination of anti-Moscow style disdain, tribalism and a sort of artistic nepotism.

[Mashinka]

Adyrkhaeva has been a senior ballet mistress for a very long time, I saw her give company classes on tour when Ratmansky was in charge, I would have thought her prominence has more to do with her effectiveness than the fact she hails from North Ossetia.  Dancers change their personal coaches throughout their careers, I don't see anything sinister in that.

[MadameP]

10 hours ago, Helene said:

There are also dancers on the record who left the Mariinsky to go the Bolshoi in part, at least, because of Vaziev's direction, which makes it a bitter situation to again find him as the boss, like an episode of "The Prisoner."

 

Helene, I only know of one Mariinsky dancer, who left Mariinsky to go to Bolshoi, when Vaziev was in charge, and that is Andrei Merkuriev, who is now under contract, so not listed as a soloist, but Vaziev recently removed his soloist status ( leading or 1st soloist.)  Lobukhin and Obraztsova left because of Fateyev.   Smirnova,  Stepanova, Zhighanshina,  Kovalyova,  Sevenard and Yangurazov plus corps  ballerinas, Tatiana Tiliguzova, Olga Kalinina.and Sofya Smirnova are all at Bolshoi because of Fateyev.

[yudi]

2 hours ago, MadameP said:

Helene, I only know of one Mariinsky dancer, who left Mariinsky to go to Bolshoi, when Vaziev was in charge, and that is Andrei Merkuriev, who is now under contract, so not listed as a soloist, but Vaziev recently removed his soloist status ( leading or 1st soloist.)  

Did Svetlana Zakharova leave Mariinsky for Bolshoi, when Vaziev was in charge? 
Andrei Merkuriev left Mariinsky for being invited by Radmansky, but not kicked by Vaziev,  according to gramilano’s interview with Merkuriev few yeas ago - Andrey Merkuriev answers the Gramilano Questionnaire. 

[MadameP]

1 hour ago, yudi said:

Did Svetlana Zakharova leave Mariinsky for Bolshoi, when Vaziev was in charge? 
Andrei Merkuriev left Mariinsky for being invited by Radmansky, but not kicked by Vaziev,  according to gramilano’s interview with Merkuriev few yeas ago - Andrey Merkuriev answers the Gramilano Questionnaire. 

I COMPLETELY forgot about Zakharova - oops! - of course,  you are right.  But re Merkuriev, I never said he was kicked out by Vaziev, only that he left while Vaziev was in charge!  

[CharlieH]

Artem Yachmennikov also left the Mariinsky during the Vaziev era, eventually landing at the Bolshoi for a while. Not sure is he is still in Russia.

[Helene]

 I never claimed that any dancers were kicked out by Vaziev: people leave jobs on their own, whether or not they are recruited elsewhere beforehand, or they make it clear to their network that they are available, or with nothing clear ahead of them, because they no longer want to work for their boss or institution, new or old, every day.  

In most ways, ballet is a business like any other: there are x jobs, and most of them have bosses, and all of them have corporate cultures, and people make their own internal trade-offs to work for those bosses/institutions or leave.  We like to think that the stakes are higher for ballet, because of the investment in training, but there are other professions that have a similarly small number of openings for a large number of candidates who have invested the same time and training into their professions, like in academia, where the number of tenured spots is shrinking, and the people who hold onto those spots do so for twice as long as Principal Dancers.

[sandik]

16 hours ago, Helene said:

There are also dancers on the record who left the Mariinsky to go the Bolshoi in part, at least, because of Vaziev's direction, which makes it a bitter situation to again find him as the boss, like an episode of "The Prisoner."

 

Oh ouch!

[Fleurdelis]

On 11/28/2017 at 5:53 AM, canbelto said:

Uh, not really trying to pry here, but why the mention of Vaziev and Gergiev's ethnicity?

Wondering about this too. Shared North Ossetian ethnicity did nothing to prevent the major falling out between these two back in 2008.