Marc Haegeman

Dear friends, before we get entangled in a pointless discussion about the respective physical qualities of these dancers, may I suggest that we limit our observations as much as possible to their performances, which is in any case more constructive. After all, opinions about physical beauty, bodily shapes, flexibility and no-jointed hips are about as personal as colors and tastes, and what might seem ideal and beautiful to one person, will appear downright wrong and ugly to another. Thank you.

It's great that you share your impressions about the Bolshoi in London. Have you seen any other performances in that run? I'm sure others did as well - Jane, Alymer, ...? Please post about it in the appropriate thread.

Nikia, I am so glad you seem to have found your favorite ballerina. It's actually a very rare thing to discover an artist who meets your expectations in such a complete way. I also hope that you'll be able to see much more of the Bolshoi, and of Maria Alexandrova in particular, so that you'll be able to find and appreciate the true qualities of that ballerina as well.

There isn't anything commercially available featuring Tsiskaridze, but as Robert mentioned over the years there were some Russian broadcasts (mainly from the Kultura channel) - "Notre-Dame de Paris" and "Queen of Spades", both by Roland Petit, come to mind. These programs are in the Russian ME-SECAM or European PAL standard. Also in 1997, the Vasiliev "Giselle" was filmed with Lunkina/Tsiskaridze/Alexandrova in the main roles, but you need to go to the Bolshoi Theatre to purchase the cassette.

Suffer or not, there is no choice anyway. That's all there is from the Kirov - studio, fake live, live, whatever.

These Kirov performances were taped in the studio/theatre, with no audience, just as most of the other Kirov videos from that period (Coppelia, Swan Lake, Stone Flower, Corsaire, Don Quixote,...). In some cases applause was added for the atmosphere.

Re Shapchits, I heard last week that she decided to quit dancing, being fed up with it all. A rather unglorious end for her career, I must say.

I agree, Herman. Irina Shapchits was an outstanding ballerina - London balletomanes are still talking about her performances with the Kirov in the early 90s. And yes, it is a horror story about talent going down the drain etc. Unlike Larissa Lezhnina, the Zavialova's never found that company which knew how to exploit their talent properly. Bonn was a dump and so was the RB of Flanders which only used her as a demi-soloist.

Irina Shapchits, you mean, Herman? She and her husband Zavialov (who dances Franz on the DVD) left the Kirov in 1995. She now dances with the Peter Schaufuss company in Denmark. You can find an interview with Irina Shapchits (or Zavialova) on For Ballet Lovers Only.

Here is the schedule of the Fall 2004 Tour of the Bolshoi Ballet (courtesy of the Bolshoi press office): Boston, Wang Center: Oct 6, 7 - Raymonda Oct 8, 9, 10 - Don Quixote Mexico City, Auditorio Nacional: Oct 14, 15, 16 (+matinee) - Giselle (Vasiliev) Oct 17, 18, 19 - Raymonda Minneapolis, Northrop Auditorium: Oct 22 - Romeo and Juliet Oct 23, 24 - Don Quixote Seattle, Paramount Theatre: Oct 27, 28 - Romeo and Juliet Oct 29, 30 (+matinee), 31 - Don Quixote Berkeley, Zellerbach Auditorium: Nov 3, 4 - Romeo and Juliet Nov 5, 6 (+matinee), 7 - Raymonda Chicago, Auditorium Theatre: Nov 10, 11 - Don Quixote Nov 12, 13 (+matinee), 14 - Raymonda The Chicago performances don't seem to be finalised yet, as there is a chance Chicago might get Romeo and Juliet on Nov 12 and 13. More details nearer to the time.

The answer is, yes, Ostrich: the Bolshoi had a 3-act "Coppelia" (staged by Alexander Gorsky, later revised by Radunsky and others), although I don't think it's currently in the repertory any longer. It also has been a favourite ballet for the Bolshoi School performances, and pas de deux from the ballet are danced in concert programs. The Kirov version you saw was by former director Oleg Vinogradov. The Kirov had a version of "Coppelia" staged by Petipa in the 1880s and performed until the late 1920s. Vinogradov brought the ballet back into the repertory in 1993, yet his version originally staged at the Maly Theatre was anything but a success and is no longer performed by the Kirov now.

Jean-Luc gave an excellent review of the "Pharaoh's Daughter" on the Bolshoi in Paris thread. You can find it here: Bolshoi in Paris Interesting to note also that "Pharaoh's Daughter" has now appeared on DVD with the Zakharova/Filin/Alexandrova cast. For the moment it seems only available at the Royal Opera House Shop in London, but wider distribution will certainly follow soon.

Very briefly - You might at best call it an experiment - as I know the Bolshoi likes to think of it that way - but it's not a ballet. Poklitaru's shoplifter's choreography is extremely poor, it doesn't match the dramatic intentions and (even worse) ignores the music; the story has been (oh how original!) updated to 20th-century depravity country full of vile, perverse, and unsympathetic characters still bearing the same names but for whom one couldn't care less; some details are magnified (Mercutio's ambivalent sexual nature, Tybalt's relationship with Lady Capulet), yet the central element of love has been banned; the music has been chopped up leaving everybody wondering whom they are seeing. In spite of the occasional screams and silent passages, it remains even on a purely theatrical level a non-event. We all realize the Bolshoi wants to move forward, but this is a serious step backwards I'm afraid. No blame for the dancers, though, who did what they had to do in the best possible way, but they deserve a lot better. The production has been shred to pieces by the London critics, but the audience on opening night was cheering.

Lifted out of today's Links forum, a profile of Maria Alexandrova in the Moscow Times.

With the opening of the Bolshoi Ballet season in London only a few days away, I thought this preview in The Times might be of interest: Dance: One jump ahead. It features among others parts of an interview with star Maria Alexandrova and with director Alexei Ratmansky. Anybody seeing something of the Bolshoi in London, be welcome to report.

Hi Ostrich, Lunkina is still on maternity leave. We hope to see her back and dancing next season.

"Tiptoe through the tulips" - couldn't we make a ballet out of that one, Leigh? In any case, Herman, the concerts will be a safer bet than Gergiev conducting dancers in a ballet, on or off stage.

Better late than never!

Elisabeth Platel.

There’s at least one Balanchine fan who does not accept that Balanchine is danced with the local “accent”, and he is the author of the article we’re considering. One is bound to disagree with certain of Robert Gottlieb’s points (to put it mildly ), but where to my mind he hits the ball right is by stressing that it takes a bit more time to get to Balanchine than the Mariinsky and also the Bolshoi are allowing themselves – regardless of how “authentic” one thinks Balanchine should be performed – it is still "Concerto Barocco" and not "Chopiniana". Secondly, I think Gottlieb rightly questions the knowledge and the authority of the “local” coaches after the Balanchine ballet masters have left the building. How safe is it to be coached by someone who never danced Balanchine himself? Some good examples of how far Alexandra’s elasticity can go, were given by the Bolshoi Ballet, recently returning to Balanchine as well. When I saw this program ("Concert Barocco", "Tarantella", "Agon", "Symphony in C") last May, it struck me how some of them seem to find a story in everything. A duet in "Agon" was turned into a straight declaration of love by the flirtatious behaviour of Shipulina, while Nadezhda’s Gracheva 2nd movement in "Symphony in C" was a clear alternate take on "Swan Lake", Liebestod and all included. And that’s where the elastic snapped in two for me – no matter how "good" the performances might have been on their own.

Thanks for highlighting this, Alexandra. A great read, even if it is from the Balanchine-centred side, but what a relief to find something different than the usual "how-superb-the-Kirov-is-in-Balanchine" fare.

Thank you for the Beauty reviews, chiapuris and Inga! The way they justify the Grigorovich adaptations in the program notes is really in a class of its own .

It's not enough. To broadcast it once on some foreign channel in the middle of the night, and then shelve it, never to use it again - that's not very useful. Yes absolutely, Naoko, I meant Mariinsky and Bolshoi especially - where no ballet video was commercially released in the last ten years outside their own theatres (even the filming of the Bolshoi's "Pharaoh's Daughter" is a French initiative). I'm afraid that we still have a much too idealistic view of this matter. It's really not about "having interest in contributing to promote the form of art by sharing their great assets with a wider audience" - it's foremost about money.

I'm with you on this, videos of ballet performances have their value for various reasons and we can never have enough of them, but it remains a fact that they are really hard and expensive to produce nowadays. Galas and one-time events are filmed and commercially released only in exceptional cases. As we can see from the performance videos that are available - they prefer to shoot them on several occasions and edit them afterwards (or in the case of the "Bolshoi at the Bolshoi" videos film the performances without a public and then add the sound of applause for the atmosphere). Yet, I can only repeat, the POB is doing real great with filming in the last years. Estelle, true about the French TV channels where there is very little happening re ballet - just as little as on the other major European channels - and maybe the situation was better ten or more years ago (although we are considering the harvest of several years together there), yet now we have the pay channels which sometimes specialize in "culture" and bring ballet at regular times. Finally, it's true that the TV archives are loaded with ballet material they once broadcasted, but then shelved. And I fear that's where they will remain for the remainder of their existence. I know several cases of people trying to obtain copies from certain programs broadcasted not even such a long time ago (they are public domain, at least in certain countries), but the TV archives couldn't already locate them anymore - or they couldn't be bothered.

From a purely commercial viewpoint (and that’s - like it or not - the only one that really counts for the distributing houses), producing ballet videos/DVDs is a very risky business. It remains a fact that the market for those items is extremely limited and it’s not because ballet X is popular in the theatre that it will sell when released on home video. The Paris Opera Ballet is for that matter doing great. We had several of their current productions in the last years on DVD – something which cannot be said of all major ballet companies – and of course there will always be somebody who prefers this or that cast to the one featured on the DVD, but there is really no such thing as a wishing list in this racket. (Platel can be seen as Gamzatti alongside Guérin and Hilaire in the POB's Bayadère.)