Marc Haegeman

And damn those preliminary castings that never turn out correct - place your bets!

Hi all, Pavlenko would have danced Giselle on May 22, but was indisposed after the gala in Toronto (and also had very little rehearsal time, as usual....). She started rehearsing and will normally dance Manon on May 1 with Tsiskaridze. Let's not forget her website where there is a calendar of her performances.

Sitnikova has been working as a teacher in the Vaganova Academy since her retirement sometime in the late nineties. Dancers like her were not necessarily "mistreated" I think; they were extremely gifted soloists and that's how they were used. A company like the Mariinsky needs them more than anything: they are the fairies, the odalisques and the countless friends of the leads, but they are not principals. It seems that today even that artistic distinction has disappeared (along with the notion of emploi and a few other 'details') and dancers of any level or calibre are expected to carry principal roles, and on top of that, much too soon in their careers.

Thalictum, Maya Dumchenko is 1,72 m (just as Gumerova), not exactly petite I would say. I understand your concern. Yet there is nothing new under the sun in the Mariinsky which has been revering the cult of youth for a long time now. The great classics have been "under-danced" because of that for years. In the early nineties it was Yulia Makhalina pushing twenty who got everything, often at the expense of the older generation; later came Volochkova and Lopatkina; in the mid-nineties we got Vishneva, Zakharova, Part, etc hardly twenty who were dancing principal roles, first nights, and who were showcased as the face of the Kirov before they were properly suited for it and while mature artists were on the bench doing nothing; now it's another generation again who seems to get everything. The only thing one can say is that their time is very short.

The Mariinsky has done it by restoring Petipa's La Bayadère and The Sleeping Beauty, and it was anything but a success. The dancers all hated these versions (yes, of course, they too were brought up with those wicked Soviet ways ) and many audiences, even here in the West, didn't appreciate the work that went in them. (In Paris many left after the 3rd Act in Bayadère.) And personally I don't believe that as soon as something was added after Petipa, it is necessarily worse.

Raymonda is far too difficult a ballet to be danced so infrequently.

That's correct, Natalia.

Thanks for the info, Mikhail.

Thanks so much for these reports, Natalia!!

LOL! Does that mean the end of Khaikin, Golovanov, Kondrashin, Rozhdestvensky, Svetlanov, and the likes?

For your info: a bio can be found on her website: Svetlana Zakharova website. Same for Daria Pavlenko website. There is also biographical information about both ballerinas on For Ballet Lovers Only, while Zakharova is also covered on Small Ballet Encyclopedia.

Not anymore. Gumerova is working with Yevteyeva now.

Thanks, Marc. No wonder that her recent performances (Juliet, Bakh Fontan) have garnered such poetic reviews from fans! Unfortunately, Dumchenko danced very little during my last stretch of time living in Russia, mostly due to her maternity leave. I haven't seen her 'live' in years. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I gather she started working with Terekhova since her maternity leave.

Maya Dumchenko is now coached by Terekhova.

Quite so. I wouldn't overestimate Chenchikova's contribution in that case either. For my money OG scored the best results with Maya Dumchenko.

I recall an interview with him, published in Dance View magazine, but I guess this is not available online...?

No, I'm afraid not (at least in the few cases I was nearby the filming of a tv-broadcast of a ballet). The cameramen are no balletomanes. They receive a list of what is going to happen on stage, and that's what they film, but it's the editing afterwards which can ruin everything.

Updated schedule of the Festival on the Mariinsky website.

Thanks Ballet lovers for the impressions. Sounds like a wonderful night out . However, I can't agree with some of your statements. Think of Olga Chenchikova what you like as a repetiteur, but to write her off as an ugly, technical ballerina is a far too superficial presentation of the facts. She was above all a great classicist with an amazing knowledge of the plastique required for each piece she performed. If only the Mariinsky would have somebody with her qualities now. And I also have to echo Thalictum about Vikharev. As you can tell yourself, nothing was "massacred" in the end. The "holy" soviet versions of "Bayaderka" and "Beauty" were not thrown out for Vikharev's versions, they are even returning to the repertory.

You mean the Entracte which is played before a closed curtain. There is no violin solo in the panorama. Thank you for your review ballet lovers . Funny that Novikova is now under Moiseyeva - when she started out she was coached by Kekisheva. And while Moiseyeva has groomed several great names, it doesn't necessarily make her a great teacher. The mere fact that she "produced" ballerinas as opposite as Zakharova and Zhelonkina says enough.

The old Bolshoi building is scheduled to be closed from this July on until January 2008.

Thanks, Natalia. Very interesting. I suppose the next step will be the plays without artists?

That's a very wise attitude, Mireille, and the only sensible one on this case. I'm surprised that people still travel half the globe to see certain dancers.

I would say that's quite correct, Natalia. Lopatkina debuted in the role in 1998, but it doesn't seem she danced it last summer. Those performances were done by Gumerova and Pavlenko. I, too, hope for you she will dance on Febr. 26, Mireille, but if I were you I wouldn't pin my hopes too much on it.

Exactly, that's why this DVD is so disappointing. The casts make nothing new of the roles. Herman, if you are thinking about the Kirov performances in Amsterdam in previous years (RAI, Carré) than I have to agree with you that overall there was nothing much to write home about. Yet this is something that has become part of their touring regime - not every place is considered as important to give their very best, and I am afraid that Amsterdam is just one of those places.