Cordelia

I received the DVD yesterday and watched it twice. Why twice? Just to make sure how much I dislike this production. I had seen Jewels done by NYCB, SFB, Mariinsky, and PNB, plus I have DVD of the luminous version done by POB. This version by the Mariinsky has lots of irksome camera angles, for example the traveling cameras are annoying because it doesn't add anything to Balanchine's choreography. In fact it gave me motion sickness watching it, though to be fair I watched it on a large screen TV. About the dancing, all I can say is how underwhelmed I was especially with Emeralds and Rubies. I was expecting Zhanna Ayupova to be sublime since I had heard so many great things about her lyrical or soft style. But Ayupova never gave me the feeling of longing or aspiration that is central to Emeralds. Her gentle, noble carriage aside, there wasn't much else she offered, if you turned off the music and disregard her costume you can imagine her dancing Les Sylphides solo. Rubies was a mess, with Irina Golub wrongly offering an amateurish interpretation. She gave what to me was a gaudy take on Rubies, all thrust yet no humor nor insouciance. Golub mistakenly thought Rubies to be only an exercise in gymnastics and put very little effort in presenting the off-kilter positions and exaggerated extensions in playful fashion.

I wonder how much of the delays in promotions to soloist or principal status have to do with budget concerns? Does a company have to have certain number of soloists versus corps dancers, and what about differences in pay scale? I can see late promotions a sign of budget constraints not lack of talent on dancers' part.

Bolshoi's website is not designed very well, it's not user friendly. I just checked on list of principals, finally Chudin and Hallberg are on that list. But I noticed Obraztsova is listed under Guest Stars without further information. After more digging, it says that she is scheduled to dance Kitri on October 16, a day after Osipova dances the role. Maybe Obraztsova's dancing might not fit in well with Bolshoi as regular principal there. Her style is too refined or ethereal for the Bolshoi even as her technique is stellar. She would stick out like a sore thumb compared to likes of Osipova and Alexandrova. On the other hand, she's shown herself to be great in dramatic roles so it might work. I just think her style is so representative of pure Vaganova schooling that it would be a shame for her to leave.

I don't have deep knowledge of the Bolshoi roster but believe Kaptsova and Lunkina are both more lyrical ... Oh yes thank you, Kaptsova definitely lyrical type of dancer and is wonderful but she's not principal, just 1st soloist I think. I saw her dance Gulnara in Le Corsaire. Lunkina is a principal and is definitely in the lyrical camp but I haven't seen her on tour as much as Zakharova, Osipova, and Alexandrova. Nadezhda Gracheva just recently retired from stage. Stepanenko is well into her 40s, both Ryzhkina and Antonicheva are either 40 or approaching 40, so there are definitely spots open for female principals in near future. Maybe Filin will steal another dancer from somewhere else.

Wow, that's great for Hallberg but sad for ABT and us American fans. I've always preferred Bolshoi over Mariinsky overall, I love how the Bolshoi is continuing its invigoration which started under Ratmansky. Just out of curiosity I went to Bolshoi's website and didn't see Hallberg's name on the list of principals yet. Reading the list of principals there I'm surprised at how much older their principals are, with many in their late 30s or older. It would be exciting to see how Hallberg is used and how well he is accepted by Moscow fans. I also believe they need a couple more female principals, I saw them seven times in recent years, and it seems like every ballet on tour have same lead ballerina, mainly Zakharova, Osipova, and Alexandrova. Not saying those ballerinas aren't great because I do love Osipova, but Bolshoi desperately needs a more lyrical ballerina to balance out the mix.

How about King Lear? Okay maybe I'm not impartial since I am named after a character in King Lear. Actually, Twelfth Night would make a better ballet than Lear. It would have more opportunities for pas de duex and variations, not unlike Ashton's A Midsummer NIght's Dream. Plus who wouldn't want to see more female to male cross-dressing in ballets.

One of Arencibia's faults IMO, is the tendency to pose as a way to accent the music, instead of actually moving to it in order to convey emotion. So in that sense I can sort of agree with you on "trying to look for perfect placement...". But even then, she still has the sort of old skool quality that I admire in Cuban dancers, say what you will about her look or build. The Cuban quality of actual dancing and clean technique that they and POB dancers have, over the floridly affected manner of dancing that many Mariinsky ballerinas adopt at the expense of technique especially footwork or petit allegro. Arencibia does look different in physique from other BNC ballerinas, so I don't know if that has any influence on how she uses her Cuban schooling to accentuate it.

I don't know why Arencibia doesn't get more international attention, at least over Valdes IMHO. I saw her Odette in June at Segerstrom in OC, and she defintely was the highlight for me. No she doesn't have in-your-face projection Valdes has, but I think her particular kind of lyricism combined with old skool technique is more appealing.

The Black Swan I saw of her was full of the much talked about Mariinsky's "suppleness" and "upper carriage" and "flexible backs" and all that stuff...plus the usual heavy dose of distorted extensions, BUT ...when time came for the fouettes she couldn't even do 22 or 23-(all that while traveling all over the stage, VERY close to the pit). She even had to stop abruptly and invent some choreography to supply for the emptiness during the midway of the can-can-like music! . Embarrassing as I've never seen it before... Wow, that is very sad indication of how much extensions are given precedence over other more important aspects of technique. When a ballerina can't even do single fouettes without taking a scenic tour of the stage, but instead is allowed to rely on ridiculous labored extensions as interpretation, no wonder Mariinsky dancers who want to get ahead will take notice and emulate that style.

I received the book from Amazon yesterday, and I began reading it last night. I too was struck by how so many esteemed pedagogues and coaches "don't mince words" as they describe how the abuse of extensions has been detrimental to Vaganova style. But my big question is why, if so many respected coaches are against this trend, does Mariinsky encourage dancers to distort lines when displaying forced, ungainly extensions? In some cases they're even rewarded for doing so, one dancer that comes to mind is Skorik. Her Princess Florine on youtube shows no airiness, but all extension with a dose of heaviness. Then she's rewarded with Swan Lake, why? Judging from her rehearsal video on youtube, she again looks out of depth trying to show off extensions with distorted line and not much else.

Greetings. I am a lapsed balletgoer from heart of Silicon Valley in California. I had studied ballet quite seriously for six years starting from age 13. I say seriously because even prior to that, I did rhythmic gymnastics. Part of our training included ballet. When I wasn't dropping them, Ribbons and Clubs were my favorite apparatus. Great deal of my ability to watch dancers with a critical eye in fact comes from my RG background. Rhythmic gymnasts are flexible but not necessarily turned-out in hips for instance. I admit I was always the student in ballet class who did or try to do fouette rond de jambe en tournant with turned-in supporting leg. Like I said, very flexible but bad habit in turnout was a big hurdle for me as a student. One would think my RG background I would prefer to watch sporty dancers, but in fact it's quite the opposite. I believe there is a delineation between sports and ballet, I am just as excited about London Olys next year, especially looking forward to RG events. But that doesn't mean I wish to see sports as the dominating essence in ballet. However, my first introduction to ballet was through attending a performance of Sleeping Beauty when I was 8 years old. I had been going to ballet performances on and off ever since, although I hadn't gone much until about three years ago. One of my friends is a ballet fiend, she not only follows our local company SFB, but also companies in Europe. Through her, I rediscovered the world of ballet again and started attending performances of SF Ballet and other companies with her. I must say I don't share in her overwhelming love for Russian dancers only. Don't get me wrong I love Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers, but I don't only appreciate them and think of non-Russian dancers as second rate. Does that make sense? Anyhow, currently Paris Opera Ballet and Royal Ballet are my favorite companies, followed closely by Bolshoi, ABT, Mariinsky, and SFB. My favorite dancers are Matilde Froustey, Myriam Ould-Braham, Marianela Nunez, Alina Cojocaru, Sofiane Sylve, Diana Vishneva, Maria Alexandrova, Yevgenia Obraztsova, Danil Simkin, David Hallberg, Cory Stearns, Mathieu Ganio, Andrian Fadeyev, and Ivan Vasiliev, to name just a few. I absolutely hated the movie Black Swan.