elianam

"It's a little lower in rank than a soloist, but the pay is practically the same" (p. 18 in the original text). At the Bolshoi coryphées are members of the corps de ballet. The Bolshoi corps has three internal ranks: "artist of the ballet," "artist of the ballet 1st category" and "artist of the ballet 1st category - coryphée." I was told by a friend with theatre connection that coryphees at the Bolshoi are listed as soloist, and I assumed that everyone know it. But that might be incorrect. And this is something I cannot find from reliable official sources, so I apologize if it's not correct. But even she was not directly lying here, she seems to view coryphee as quasi soloist (proven by the quote by volcanohunter above), and when she was talking about Maria Prorvich, she also distinguished the difference between coryphee and average corps-de-ballet, "Marua Prorvich suddenly got from the corps de ballet to coryphee status and started dancing in premieres as a soloist. Yes, the roles were not particularly important, but in my view the difference between her previous level of roles and her new status is obvious." And this might result in a misleading effect easily putting Filin as the bad guy. Whereas how the administration differentiate coryphee and soloist and corps-de-ballet remains unknown to public. If coryphee still belongs to the category of corps-de-ballet, it is easy for average readers and public to assume that coryphee is more similar to average corps-de-ballet. My main point is not that she is a liar, but much of what she said appear to be biased. I understand that she must be very sad and therefore emotionally biased and is suffering. But to put it public now has nothing good to do with her career and with Filin, and her reputation as a good ballerina might suffer if Tsiskaridze could not justify himself in the end. I think I've said enough about this, and it's not my intention to say that Vorontsova is a bad ballerina, so I'll drop the topic now.

Sorry, Helene. I think I'd better drop the topic. But what I said on this board is entirely based on the interview posted on this forum, Ovcharenko's message to another forum whose link I posted, the news about Filin's current state, and the information based on the official website of the Bolshoi. I keep a record of the information updated on the website in regard to promotion and debut for a long time. And please correct me if something I said here is wrongly registered.

Agree. And I still think that even if Filin here is the bad guy, her career is equally negatively influenced by Tsiskaridze. She certainly suffers a lot on her own, partly because of her vanity and ambition. But to speak in such a way in front of the public does nothing good to her reputation and career, unless Tsiskaridze wins in the end. While as we know, quite a few professional dancers accused Tsiskaridze of lying, Anzhelina was also not speaking entirely the truth here based on what I know. And more importantly, she should spend her energy on her dancing, not on giving public interviews. While she's talented, there's still much room to grow and to work on.She and Khokhlova are the only two 09 grads who proceed to soloist level in the last two years(before that she was listed as a corps-de-ballet, indicating she lied in her interview), and several more experienced and equally talented 07, 08 grads(Okuneva, Parienko, Vlashnets, etc) are still fighting their path among the corps. I see no reason for the Bolshoi to single her out and force her to leave, unless she herself does something improper. The same goes with Dmitrichenko, who once proved innocent, still has the chance to remain or to leave for somewhere else as a soloist based on the roles he got in the last two years. There's no reason and no proof that the Bolshoi singled him and his girlfriend out, completely without the influence made by Tsiskaridze.

It's pretty clear to me that aurora is not saying that Dmitrichenko is a rapist. It's just an metaphor showing that whether Dmitrichenko is innocent or not, Filin is not to be blamed. He remains victim and no evidence shows that he demanded that Dmitrichenko be arrested. And the fact that he is still listed as a leading soloist by the Bolshoi means that his career is not entirely ruined. The fact that despite the antagonism he had with Filin, he still got many important roles under Filin's administration indicates that Filin did nothing to "revenge" or to block his artistic career. The chronology of the role he got on the Bolshoi website is proof to it, and seems to me that he is the third most promoted male dancers (the other two being Ovcharenko and Lantratov) in the last two years, with a good chance to proceed to principal. You seem to be firmly believing that Vorontsova is forced to leave, do you have absolute evidence for it? It's irresponsible to believe in only one version of the story in which Tsiskaridze, Vorontsova, and Dmitrichenko are the victims instead of Filin when there're many doubts about different people's narration. That is pretty biased to me. And whatever the fact is, it's improper to say so negatively about Filin(and at least the Ovcharenko part seem be a lie) at the current stage, when Filin is losing his sight, and eventually the rest of his artistic career, unless she believes in the theory of Tsiskaridze that Filin's accident is made up by himself, which is more difficult to believe in than the innocence of Dmitrichenko, based on the news and discussion we know. If Filin intentionally wants to bring Tsiskaridze down with a fake accident, why the police didn't arrest Tsiskaridze and coerce him to confess directly?

Anyway, she is still a young ballerina and has a career ahead of her which is too early to judge right now. But if she become an anonymous and average ballerina because of these political factors that distracted her attention from pure art itself, Tsiskaridze should at least share half of the responsibilities. He was not the AD of Bolshoi YET, and should do something to prevent his pupil from speaking negatively about her current AD who's suffering in hospital in front of public. Tsiskaridze is not helping his pupil here to deal with other people from the theatre, especially those in power with whom Tsiskaridze is not friendly, the result of which is that Vorontsova has no one but Tsiskaridze to rely on, and if Tsiskaridze could not win back his position at the Bolshoi, the girl has no chance to return to the Bolshoi at least for the next 10-15 years. I would like to see both artists continue to thrive on the stage with their highest qualities and talents, but even assuming that everything she said badly about Filin and the like is true, not malicious lies, what she is doing is not at all wise, and I don't think Tsiskaridze wouldn't be able to see the negative effect this interview is going to have on Vorontsova's career. Anyway, good luck to both of them, and good luck to Filin as well.

According to the interview, she was told to take on another coach partly because Tsiskaridze's teaching contract would not be renewed. If this is true, under other circumstances, she might have been amenable to some coaching from a female coach, but here she very well may have been motivated by loyalty: had she moved to another coach, even temporarily, it would be chipping away at his student base and that much easier to justify not renewing his contract as a teacher (which was separate from his contract as a dancer). I didn't think of that. But anyway, my point is that she is being blindly loyal to her coach-Tsiskaridze, who demands her sacrifice for his own good, not "sacrificing" himself for the sake of Voronstova's career. Tsiskaridze did nothing good to her except telling her she is the best ballerina in the world deserving to be promoted as a super star(From what I read from the conversation, her only regret is that she was not being promoted like Smirnova, Kretova, Chudin, and the like, and she clearly thinks those dancers are inferior to her. She's probably also thinking that Filin should still promote her as he would have had she chosen to join the Stanislavsky four years ago, regardless of the change of the atmosphere in both theatres - Had she joined Stanislavsky and as a result now being promoted like a star, she would have no complaint at all). That's not what a coach should do. Apart from coaching, he should also advice his pupil how to deal with the Management, relationship with colleagues, and in this situation demanding her to change for another coach. While I doubt Tsiskaridze's quality as a human being, it suffers for me to see that Voronstova is still blaming Filin as the bad guy and blindly supports her coach with her entire career in the Bolshoi. A good coach would see his pupil's successful career at the Bolshoi as the most valuable sign of loyalty, Tsiskaridze has no such regards for Vorontsova, and only thinks about himself.

Thank you for sharing the link! It's shocking to me when she said that Filin told her to give up Ovcharenko as a partner. Was not it the same period when Ovcharenko asked to change his coach, and even claimed that he'll join the Stanislavsky if he cannot switch his coach? Ovcharenko himself also said in the article he sent to balletfriends.ru that he knew Filin for five years, which means that they could be in close touch with each other in 2009, and Filin wouldn't say anything against Ovcharenko because of his antagonism with Tsiskaridze. I think the problem with Angelina is still that she wanted too much and regretted that she did not seize some opportunities well as other emerging stars in Moscow. She is a special and talented ballerina, but so is many others-Smirnova, Khokhlova, Tikhomirova, or even Bochkova, Kruteleva, Soboleva, Vlashnets, Parienko, etc from the corps, not to mentions Kristina Shapran or Anastasia Limenko, rising stars at the Stanislavsky. It seems that early victories make her a vain person who think too well of herself and when things do not turn around her, she got distracted from her dancing career and focuses on something else. She is, or was a ballerina of good quality, she did not seize well some of her chances, which makes her career a bit tougher than expected, but she is not so much better than the rest of corps de ballet in Bolshoi or the dancers in the Stanislavsky, granting her no reason to claim for O/O only because she rehearsed it. On the other hand, should Filin be such a biased, horrible person as she described, Pavel Dmitrichenko should have no chance to dance those wonderful principal or soloist roles with his bad relationship with Filin. Tsiskaridze, on the other hand, would not recommend his pupil to speak this way to the public, or to quit Bolshoi, had he been a responsible coach and cares about his pupil's career. Sorry for all these negative comments. I do not post much on this forum, but I'm really sorry about what's happening at the Bolshoi right now, and to read such blind, biased comments from a ballerina who could be a ballerina of better quality HAD SHE ONLY CONCENTRATE ON HER DANCING, and try another female coach if it's required. Tsiskaridze, on the other hand, should recommend his tutor to change a coach for a role if necessary, had he been a coach who truly cares about his pupil. He's not the GOD of the Bolshoi and there's no harm to his pupil rehearsing with someone else for a short term.

The cast information of March is updated untill Mar. 18th, and it seems that there're quite a few debuts this month. http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/ As far as I recall and according to the dancer's biography on the website of MT, the major debuts are: Olesya Novikova in Rubies, Ekaterina Kondaurova in Diamonds, Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov as Anna and Vronsky in Anna Karenina, and Oksana Skorik in the Swan. Other debuts includes Ekaterina Ivannikova in Swan Lake as Prince's friends, Yevgenia Dolmatova in Anna Karenina as Dolly, Viktoria Krasnokutskaya in Chopiniana, etc.. To me, the most unexpected debut is Skorik in the Swan. It seems that there're currently many disputes over her lack of poetic feeling, I'm not sure how she will be like in the Swan, and I personally think Vasnetsova will impress more in that role. Besides, it seems to me that the Swan is one of those roles only for the principals in Mariinsky, such us Lopatkina and Nioradze. I hope it's not an indication that she will soon be made one. Although given the current administration, I'd be surprised if she's not a principal in three or four years. Anyway, I'm eager to know how they appears in those roles, especially Kondaurova, Tereshkina, Shklyarov, Novikova, and Skorik. The casts for this year's Ballet Festival MARIINSKY is still not available.

It seems that Elizaveta Cheprasova has also left the Mariinsky Ballet. Her name is no longer on the roster. http://www.mariinsky.../ballet/troupe/ I'm wondering if there'll be another promotion in the short term. And also, it seems that Keenan Kampa is going to join as a coryphee in May. http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs033/1102598867708/archive/1109268419726.html