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Mathilde K

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Everything posted by Mathilde K

  1. Of all the Mariinsky ballerinas Lopatkina and Stepanova are the ones that possess the strongest stage presence, the images they project are far deeper, finally, what sets them apart is the awareness of the utmost importance of detail. Lopatkina is ascetic and meditative, for Stepanova I am still in search of the right word, the 'breadth' and expansiveness of her dancing, her delicate singing hands and melancholic gaze, the refinement in her movement - are just some of her characteristics. For me, she is currently the most interesting ballerina, and not just at Mariinsky.
  2. Monday, August 4 Odette & Odile - Ulyana Lopatkina Prince Siegfried - Evgeny Ivanchenko Rothbart - Andrei Ermakov Jester - Vasily Tkachenko The Prince's Friends - Anastasia Nikitina, Nadezhda Gonchar, Kim Kimin Cygnets - Anastasia Asaben, Oksana Marchuk, Anastasia Mikheikina, Elena Firsova Big Swans - Viktoria Brilyova, Alisa Sodoleva, Yulianna Chereshkevich, Zlata Yalinich Two Swans - Nadezhda Batoeva, Nadezhda Gonchar Spanish Dance - Viktoria Brilyova, Anastasia Petushkova, Yaroslav Pushkov, Kamil Yangurazov Neapolitan Dance - Oksana Marchuk, Oleg Demchenko Hungarian Dance - Ksenia Dubrovina, Kirill Leontyev Mazurka - Olga Belik, Elena Androsova, Ekaterina Bondarenko, Maria Shevyakova, Dmitri Sharapov, Roman Belyakov, Maxim Petrov, Vadim Belyaev After the performance I met the ROH balletomane who I befriended on Saturday. I tried to talk about Lopatkina but my friend was constantly returning to Stepanova, talking especially about the 4th Act on Saturday, and bitterly complaining about Stepanova not dancing Balanchine.
  3. Stepanova has been in this category even before she graduated from ARB yet I must admit she really surpassed my expectation in «Swan Lake». Before, I felt she needed to improve in some important areas in order to pass to the 'principal' level. Many mention Nikitina, Batoeva, Marchuk. The foremost, however, is for me Svetlana Ivanova. It's a tragedy that such a truly refined ballerina spent all her career in the corps de ballet. There are several others, 'artistic', if less prominent or technically accomplished. Among the men Kim Kimin has developed into a very interesting artist, and Konstantin Zverev is more refined than others. This one is a must. If you can afford, watch as many «Swan Lakes» as you can, irrespective of the principals. Mariinsky's corps de ballet is beyond comparison and, today, is the real glory of the company.
  4. I am aware that 'acting' is something expected of a classical dancer in London. In France that would be considered 'bad taste': la danse classique after all is supposed to make the 'face of the Soul' visible exclusively through the medium of the body in graceful movement, not through acting. The 'soul' here stands not for individual 'emotions' but for the universal concept with noble connotations. Spilling emotions on stage may please the crowd and undemanding critics yet is alien to the spirit of classical dance. In Russia, especially in the Petersburg School, this visualization of the Soul through the medium of dance takes the form of what, for the lack of a better term, I will translate as 'image construction'. This is an ideal, and the ideal is rarely attained. A few dancers are capable of achieving unusual depths, like Lopatkina, others possess one or two emploi that they wear on stage, most are content with simplistic solutions, or are plain bland. Not being able to 'create image' that is deeply moving doesn't prevent a dancer from acquiring even the highest levels of technical prowess sometimes bordering on wizardry. This, however, is not considered Artistry. The latter must be always accompanied by a high degree of refinement and, especially in France, gracefulness, tenderness, elegance.
  5. They certainly form a very cohesive couple, both have been given countless opportunities to perfect that. I remember how impressed, initially, I was when seeing their «Don Quixote» in the Spring, yet my Petersburg friends surprised me by questioning the Artistry of what I saw. Confronted with it, and watching Teryoshkina/Shklyarov a few more times, I accept they were right, and I am not taking away anything from Teryoshkina's technical mastery.
  6. Sorry for the oversight re. Styopin. I didn't mention Tkachenko since I don't like mentioning in public disappointing performances. Yulia didn't seem to me tense which is not to say that she possibly felt more relaxed at the rehearsal. In the last act Yulia has already reached near-perfection. I never saw this better done.My impression is that yesterday's performance could have been on the other hand affected by too many distractions that Parish is daily facing in London. On June 6 he was in love with Odette, yesterday I had an impression his thoughts were elsewhere. In «Swan Lake» I value more tenderness, delicacy of movement and, honestly, going for fireworks in a few variations often associates in my mind with vulgarity. Some time ago I realized that I would give up all the fouetté in the world for the "poetry of wrists".
  7. Teryoshkina has been selected as Nikiya, Matvienko as Gamzatti. Teryoshkina - a superb technician but with little in terms of the 'image creation' ability. She has danced 40 principal parts this season (while Lopatkina has been given very little). I reached the point of oversaturation with her. Matvienko (a graduate of Kiev) bland though techically sound. I lost hope that her dancing could ever move me. That was indeed extraordinary on July 6. Yesterday Xander was a bit late catching Yulia the first time she was falling, so the image produced wasn't as ethereally beautiful.
  8. Those "in a position of authority", unfortunately, rarely care about nor have the eyes to see what's going on. Very differently from the audience: yesterday after the first White act I heard ROH balletomanes around me angrily asking "why is this girl not dancing "Apollo", why others who are bland and uninspiring are given multiple performances and not her?" They seemed to be genuinely puzzled.
  9. Saturday, August 2 matinée Odette & Odile - Yulia Stepanova Prince Siegfried - Xander Parish Rothbart - Andrei Ermakov The Prince's Friends - Anastasia Nikitina, Nadezhda Gonchar, Vasily Tkachenko Cygnets - Anastasia Asaben, Oksana Marchuk, Anastasia Mikheikina, Elena Firsova Big Swans - Viktoria Brilyova, Alisa Sodolyova, Yulianna Chereshkevich, Zlata Yalinich Two Swans - Nadezhda Batoeva, Nadezhda Gonchar Spanish Dance - Viktoria Brilyova, Anastasia Petushkova, Yaroslav Pushkov, Kamil Yangurazov Neapolitan Dance - Oksana Marchuk, Oleg Demchenko Hungarian Dance - Ksenia Dubrovina, Kirill Leontyev Mazurka - Olga Belik, Elena Androsova, Ekaterina Bondarenko, Maria Shevyakova, Dmitri Sharapov, Roman Belyakov, Maxim Petrov, Vadim Belyaev The Pas de trois of the First Act wasn't memorable. Nikitina the only one refined of the three. The Cygnets, the Big Swans and the corps de ballet in the White acts were what you come to expect from Mariinsky (their Grishko pointes were distinctly noisy on the ROH stage surface). Compared to the phenomenal expansiveness and amount of nuance in Stepanova's interpretation they felt subdued and remote as if all the Swans were immersed in a state of trance. Ermakov was razor sharp as Rothbart, on one occasion the flap of his wing entangling Odette so tight that Yulia freed herself from his embrace with difficulty. The Saturday evening cast identical to the Friday night except for the two principals and Filip Styopin replacing Kim Kimin in Pas de trois.
  10. In terms of finesse and image construction, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that Stepanova's third «Swan Lake» was a historical performance. I simply can't remember seeing anything comparable. Yulia's upper body was absolutely magnetic throughout, her wrists and hands undulating and fluttering like wings of a butterfly. Next to me a very seasoned British balletomane was comparing what she was seeing with the last year's Smirnova's «Swan Lake» while making some very perceptive comments about Stepanova's Odile. That was indeed the greatest surprise for me. In her two previous «Swan Lakes» Yulia was searching, on her third attempt she found it: the adagio of the Black Pas de deux was among the finest I ever saw. Xander Parish was a better partner than on the two previous occasions, in their duets that were much smoother he was mostly invisible, which is in a way a compliment. In particular, the White Pas de deux was very delicate and smooth. Yulia's delicate touch predictably didn't deliver the punch and excitement in the variations of Odile that technicians à la Tereshkina can deliver. I can see in the future, however, a highly polished elegance instead of showmanship. The last act was again as fine as on July 6 (and that was a revelation), with the Waking up-Apotheosis a tad more convincing. After the two White and the Black act there was a deafening thunderous applause.
  11. Unlike Macaulay, Croce and Denby, Zozulina is not a journalist. She is primarily a scholar, a pedagogue, as well as an insider in all the matters related to Mariinsky, Vaganova Academy, and ballet in Petersburg. The situation she is describing is well known to most people who have been following closely Mariinsky. The only ‘novelty’ is that a person of her stature has finally spoken out on this issue.
  12. Tonight the first «Swan Lake»: Rothbart - Konstantin Zveryov The Prince’s Friends - Ekaterina Ivannikova, Nadezhda Batoeva, Kim Kimin Cygnets - Anastasia Asaben, Oksana Marchuk, Anastasia Mikheikina, Elena Firsova Big Swans - Viktoria Brilyova, Alisa Sodolyova, Yulianna Chereshkevich, Zlata Yalinich Two Swans - Viktoria Krasnokutskaya, Anastasia Nikitina Spanish Dance - Viktoria Brilyova, Anastasia Petushkova, Yaroslav Pushkov, Kamil Yangurazov Neapolitan Dance - Anna Lavrinenko, Alexei Nedviga Hungarian Dance - Olga Belik, Boris Zhurikov Mazurka - Ksenia Dubrovina, Elena Androsova, Ekaterina Bondarenko, Maria Shevyakova, Dmitri Sharapov, Roman Belyakov, Maxim Petrov, Vadim Belyaev
  13. I wish she used her "celebratory status to promote" high standards in the Arts.
  14. They were better: Maximova's footwork was legendary. By the way, the "1987 video" was filmed a few years earlier (I was in there).
  15. That indeed is one of Smirnova's main problems and is going to be even a bigger problem for her in the future: her heavy bones and big joints are so distinct that they inevitably affect the purity of lines. This is particularly visible in the upper body (her arms, her neck) yet it also applies to her legs.
  16. Stepanova should be dancing with Parish twice: that would be great for the Mariinsky troupe and Londoners would absolutely love it.
  17. They have problems selling Contemporary and Modern, in fact. "Institutionalized" scalping has been for years contributing to those inflated prices at Bolshoi.
  18. Please provide the official source for the terms of the offer. If she was offered a starting position like many other Mariinsky grads, then "humilating" is an opinion. It also does not make sense that in Russia she would have received no other offers, if other dancers in the last few years have bern offered and have accepted positions at the Mikhailovsky, for example. Helene, please reread the opening paragraphs of Zozulina's article. To put things into perspective: Mikhailovsky compared to Mariinsky is like University of Michigan compared to Harvard, and Vaganova Academy's mission always was to prepare dancers for Mariinsky — only those who couldn't were going elsewhere. Combine this with the fact that Zhiganshina is not just a graduate of the Vaganova Academy: she is an outstanding graduate, highly accomplished, professional and with exceptional promise. In Russia such individuals don't get offers from lesser companies, it is considered to be a different league. Mikhailovsky in recent years was simply benefiting from disastrous policies of Fateev at Mariinsky and internal strife at Bolshoi. If Zhiganshina's case was isolated... but it isn't, it follows a clear pattern.
  19. She would have had in the U.S., not in Russia. Russian society is totally different. She had a "non-offer" from Mariinsky (i.e., an offer with humiliating terms), and later a real offer from Bolshoi. The choice was obvious (if one can even talk here about "choice").
  20. Exorbitant prices for tickets can be perhaps explained by the fact that ridiculously high ticket prices for Bolshoi ballet performances are the norm in Moscow (one of the few cities on the planet where there is little correlation between the quality of anything and the price).
  21. I am not at all certain "that such things have happened in the past": the personnel policies of the Acting Director are so pathological they are far beyond any "I favor this ballerina over that one".
  22. In the case of Balanchine, Helene, you can say that was his own company, he was its "god-creator", and he was literally falling in love with his female dancers. Mariinsky, like Bolshoi, like the Opéra, are companies with completely different character, history, and modus operandi. And none of them will ever be "just another company". Great Vaganova trained artists have really no other place to go — not in the sense that they would not be wanted — in the sense that Mariinsky is the only place where they really can show what they were so meticulously trained to do.
  23. Her opening paragraph sounds very strange to me: is Cappelle so ill informed about San Francisco Ballet that she isn't aware that the company is simply not capable of bringing to Paris, or anywhere else, "the warhorses trotted out every summer by the Bolshoi or the Mariinsky". Instead, they brought what the company excels at. I talked to a number of dancers before they left for Europe and told them: just do your absolute best, and then the success in Paris is guaranteed. A similarly odd sounding is her "The repertoire relies heavily on San Francisco Ballet's principals to carry almost every ballet". San Francisco Ballet has almost twice as many principals (20) as soloists (12).
  24. When I saw the first sentence of your previous post I wanted to stop reading and tell you about her serious injury. Yes, she hasn't recovered fully. It is a pity and I feel very sorry for her, since over the years she gradually won me over with outstanding levels of technique and artistry.
  25. This is what I wrote about that outstanding performance myself: A true paradox is that a dancer as truly outstanding and as unique as Lopatkina is not a favorite of the current management either. Add to this Novikova who is not even a prima.
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