Mathilde K

Thanks for the info, Mathilde K.! I am glad the Yacobsen Ballet is considered worth attending since I felt that way too!

I strongly recommend the DVD Everything Turns into Dancing & Don Juan .

It consists of two ballet-films, the first appeared, I think, in 1978 but was filmed probably just after the death of Leonid Jakobson. Its video quality is not even Thirld World. It offers some very interesting choreography (Female variations are fantastic) and frequently spectacular quality of dancing. It presents Jakobson's troupe, Хореографические миниатюры (Choreographic miniatures), soon after the grand mâitre's death and under the new artistic director Askold Makarov.

The second film on the DVD is a mini-ballet Don Juan by Sergei Vikulov (recorded not later than 1988), with Sergei Berezhnoi, young Zhanna Ayupova, Veronika Ivanova, Olga Likhovskaya and Yuri Zhukov.

I would rather say it has to do with her use of social media and by extension ballet journalists that are in France prone to jump on an easy topic… This is quite rare we have full length reviews of what happened on stage in the media, French journalists are more interested to present the events before than to analyse them after… Froustey has spent years promoting herself through every means that exist before leaving and then made a fuss about her leaving Paris. That’s a lot of material. Sofiane Sylve is practically unknown, although I remember she already danced here few years ago an impressive Swan Lake with English national ballet…

You've made several interesting points. I would only add that ballet journalists not just in France are "prone to jump on an easy topic". Some of her recent interviews in French I found quite illuminating nevertheless.

I can see three similarities: strong leaping ability, distinct bravura style, frequent flirting with the audience.

I do not wish to sound sarcastic, but all ballerinas share some similarities, for example they all dance on pointes. The two dancers in questions have different temperaments, different approach to dancing, they present different image when on stage and they bring different levels of energy to the stage, they jump big but their jumps look very dissimilar to me. Tikhomirova always looked to me more "academic" and at the same time "bulky", Osipova more "free style".

Regarding "flirting with audience" — personally I didn't witness either flirting with audience, so I have nothing to say in this regard.

Tikho(mirova) seems like a Bolshoi ballerina with similar qualities as Osipova.

I know both very well and I have hard time seeing similarities (by the way, is it really necessary to create "nick-abbreviations" like "Tikho"? ballerinas are not rappers or DJ's).

Now, I have been going to the ballet for close to half a century and one thing I never focused on during a performance was the bottom of dancers' shoes nor their toe boxes. However, I found myself distracted by the coal black bottoms and toe boxes of practically all of the dancers. It looked like they had all just been dancing in tar pits. It was not a nice look. I was in Row B of the Second Ring and, even without binoculars, thought they looked like "dirty shoes." I've never seen this at NYCB or ABT or any other visiting company. And, on a slightly different topic, the Bolshoi really does love bling, doesn't it?

I had that exact same experience! I've noticed it before with Russian companies -- it seems to be a national idiosyncrasy. Does anyone know what's behind that? Even David Hallberg seems to have "gone over to the dark side," as the bottoms of his feet on Thursday night were nearly black as well.

I have a Blu-Ray of the Mariinsky performing Balanchine's Jewels. I always find it off-putting to see Zhanna Ayupova's coal black shoes in the a Emeralds section.

Not "a national idiosyncrasy", perhaps, but certainly some kind of untidiness that you observe with many Russians. For me this has been always off-putting too.

I reread this whole thread, and if you go back to page 3 of this alexaa1a gives a history of what does seem like Skorik's meteoric rise, and when you compare it to Stepanova the two stories are completely different. This was fascinating reading, because it gives a lot of insight into what is going on,

Fascinating reading indeed, I don't know how I have missed it. Very valuable information. Should be attached to Zozulina's article as Exhibit #1.

I can understand your enthusiasm after the last night's performance yet when I see a ballerina splashing her emotions on the stage and, as some ballet pedagogues say (contemptuously) "dancing with her face", I consider this to be a transgression against the classical canons. Public readily responds to it, yet it is no more classical dance, it becomes danced melodrama. A pedagogue of the ballet school of the Opéra who I admire said: "«la danse classique» is a face of the Soul made visible through the medium of the body in gracious movement" and this is very different from "dancing with one's face".

A not uninteresting general reflection, perhaps worth a thread of its own, because there is certainly a difference between using one's eyes and, as I at least would say, merely dancing with one's face. I have seen ballerinas as varied in schooling as Fonteyn, Verdy, and Maximova 'dance' with their eyes as indeed they danced with every inch of their bodies. Soul made visible indeed...Last night, Smirnova most certainly danced with her whole body including her eyes - which are part of the allure of her dancing as Amour described.

Smirnova is in many ways still developing as an artist, but last night 's performance had many beautiful and striking elements. I also admired the rapport with the very fine Chudin. I may try to write more later...

I am glad she is developing. When she arrived at Bolshoi, she was scorned by the Muscovites as being singularly lacking in charm and cold. There was something to it, for sure, in 2011-2012. I have been staunchly defending her against detractors who were then in majority, saying she was simply an unusually serious kind of young ballerina. Then, in 2013 she went to almost the exact opposite — emotional intensity, splashing her emotions on the stage, and every kind of mannerism added to her dance. I couldn't watch that not least because I felt it wasn't sincere. That caused some sort of consternation in Petersburg especially that she also began displaying some surprising technical faults that were embarrassing her alma mater. Maybe she is finally striking some balance.

I absolutely agree with you, Helene. Yet when the "deformations" of the Artistic Director's policies reach the pathological levels and this is combined with zero accountability, like in the case of Mariinsky's Ballet, that surely should be a concern.

I am much less inclined than others to cry over aggressive promotion of this or that, perhaps undeserving, dancer, if other, better qualified (in many cases much better), are at least given an opportunity to grow and are not locked up for years in the corps de ballet, so that glaring deficiencies of the "favorites" are less noticeable. The graduates within the last 10 years of one of the most distinguished ballet schools in the World, Vaganova Academy, whose very existence is intimately connected to the Mariinsky Theater, are denied opportunity to grow, all of them. We are not talking here about a few "pretenders" with too much self-esteem complaining about injustice. Actually the opposite: I don't recall any of those young ballerinas complaining in public. Partly because of how they were raised at the Vaganova Academy, partly because of fear.

"revered" critics in Russia? who? I don't think that I could have missed so much especially while maintaining close ties to the Rusian ballet for so many years.

The article is not at all "Why isn't ____ dancing enough?". It is about the pathologies of the Acting Director's policies in one of the most distinguished ballet troupes in the World.

Beyond promoting or not promoting this or that dancer, the other concern is that he gives so few chances to young dancers.

Except for those very few who, like Skoryk (Perm), Chebykina (Kiev), are given everything, irrespective of whether they can handle it or not. Chebykina who joined the company this season has been given by Fateev this month alone:

July 12: Gamzatti

July 16: Queen of the Dryads

July 25: Myrtha

July 29: Queen of the Dryads

July 30: Queen of the Dryads

Just one month! In one month she gets more from Fateev than what he gave to nearly any Vaganova graduate of the last 10 years since he was appointed 6 years ago!

For her «Swan Lake» debut Fateev gave her Ivanchenko, one of the most reliable and experienced partners of the company, not an inexperienced debutant.

A beginner, in her first year at Mariinsky she has been given by Fateev:

Giselle (Myrtha)

Swan Lake (Odette-Odile)

La Bayadère (Gamzatti)

Don Quixote (Queen of the Dryads)

Balanchine's Jewels (Diamonds)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hippolita),

Sylvia (Diana, Ceres)

Cinderella (Khudyshka (one of the Ugly Sisters))

Is she considered to be another Pavlova or Ulanova in the making? If yes, I am totally unaware of that.

I can understand your enthusiasm after the last night's performance yet when I see a ballerina splashing her emotions on the stage and, as some ballet pedagogues say (contemptuously) "dancing with her face", I consider this to be a transgression against the classical canons. Public readily responds to it, yet it is no more classical dance, it becomes danced melodrama. A pedagogue of the ballet school of the Opéra who I admire said: "«la danse classique» is a face of the Soul made visible through the medium of the body in gracious movement" and this is very different from "dancing with one's face".

and one more

Rehearsing «Sylvia» in the middle, and «Swan Lake» with Xander Parish

To put certain facts in a proper perspective: Yulia Stepanova's repeat «Swan Lake» was the 40th «Swan Lake» danced by Mariinsky this season! Twenty two were danced when Mariinsky was touring abroad (5 Italy, 3 China, 3 Germany, 4 Denmark, 7 USA), 4 were performed on the new stage, and 14 at the old Mariinsky Theater.

Stepanova danced 2 and, if I am not mistaken, she was the only Mariinsky ballerina and a Vaganova graduate who graduated in the last 10 years and was allowed by Fateev to dance any of these 40 «Swan Lakes»! Truly mind boggling.

After the London tour one will be able to say that exactly 3 out of 49 most recent Mariinsky «Swan Lakes» were danced by a Mariinsky ballerina who graduated from the Vaganova Academy after 2003, and that unique and uniquely "privileged" by the management ballerina was Yulia Stepanova.

So, yes, I agree with canbelto, "her career is exactly where it should be", the article is nothing more than "yellow journalism" and "a Stepanova claque diatribe", while its author "sounds like a well-paid off critic".

I am glad that Weibye noticed Kristina Lind to be "surely ripe for a promotion out of the corps de ballet soon". In my estimate, one of the most interesting dancers in the company, not just corps de ballet and, despite her rather difficult physique for a ballerina, showing potential for subtlety, finesse, and depth, not often seen today. Helgi Tomassón, I hope is listening.

theartsdesk in Paris: San Francisco Ballet 1

http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/theartsdesk-paris-san-francisco-ballet-1

"Tomasson’s sometimes over-fiddly partnering and its accompanying, rather bland music, Saint-Saëns' Second Symphony, left me desperate to see something like William Forsythe – nourishment for brain or heart, as well as eyes."

This says more about the author (Hanna Weibye) and where her "brain" or "heart" are located, not speaking about the "eyes", than about Tomassón's «Caprice». I read a devastating review two years ago of Mariinsky's «Swan Lake» with Kondaurova and Korsuntsev, written by some Modern & Contemporary bolshevik whose name now escapes me. The language was more directly condemning but the meaning was the same.

The official Mariinsky tour poster on the wall of the Royal Opera House (Yulia Stepanova has become the "face" of the tour)

The unsteadiness of her free leg was surprising, as was the lack of musicality.

That must be the effect of a really poor quality of the video. She is one of the more musical dancers I saw. I snatched a really good ticket for her «Swan Lake» in London which means I will be making travel arrangements soon. I saw her many times in «Swan Lake» before, unfortunately in all but one cases as one of the four Big Swans or dancing Spanish Dance.

Possible cast changes as Kristina Shapran and Oksana Bondareva are no longer listed in Mik roster: http://www.mikhailovsky.ru/en/theatre/company/ballet/

According to Laura Capelle, a Paris based journalist, both Bondareva and Shapran have joined the Mariinsky. In fact, since Olga Essina is now out of the Mariinsky London tour, Shapran is covering for her in the Balanchine program night.

That was known already a couple of weeks ago. The only "surprise" was that Shapran yesterday out of the blue showed up as First Soloist. Observing her regression to the point when she has to simplify many variations in order just to perform them, seeing her name next to Novikova is a total absurd.

For those who feel disappointed with not being able to see Bondareva due to her move to Mariinsky: I am afraid you would be more disappointed seeing her on stage, a type of one dimensional "fouetté" girl, with little finesse. Soboleva, Vorontsova are each much more interesting and refined than her. Unlike Shapran, Bondareva was sought to be hired by Fateev. This is a perfect illustration of the Acting Director's tastes in ballet.

Good news: Kristina Shapran is now First Soloist with the Mariinsky. Congratulations for her! (...)

The first dramatic result of the appearance of the article perhaps? A few days ago she was Coryphée.

Vaziev's wife, Olga Chenchikova, graduated from Perm. This is the likely reason why Vaziev took the graduates from Perm, Shirinkina, then Skoryk. If Skoryk indeed was already given solo parts under Vaziev, then she must have arrived in 2007, since at the end of May of 2008, Fateev was appointed the Acting Director.

He extended his care over the two Permians from the start. The fact that Skoryk for her Swan lake Adagio debut was given the most dependable partner (Korsuntsev), is a good indication of Fateev's intentions re. Skoryk. In comparison, he deprived Stepanova of the opportunity to try herself in the Pas de deux and variations from the «Swan Lake» before her debut. Then made her debut doubly difficult by giving her an inexperienced debutant as her partner.

Even more telling is the list of the soloists selected by Fateev for that Brilliant Divertissement gala (Dec 2, 2010) where Skoryk was dancing the Swan Lake Adagio with Korsuntsev:

Lopatkina, Novikova, Tereshkina, Kolegova, Kondaurova and... Shirinkina, Skoryk — nobody else.

Loosely translated, Madame Lefevre's comments about Millepied are as follows:

"I was hurt when he told the press he wanted to bring modernity to the Opera. It has not pleased me. The little girl in me winced: She [the little girl] wanted to be told that she had worked". That last bit about "she had worked" is a bad translation. I think what Lefevre was expressing was that she had been successful with her programming or management. Maybe one of our French correspondents can provide a better translation.

I would translate it ("bien travaillé") as "done a good job." It's often used a compliment in the sense of "Well done!"

Yes, and I think it was refering to the efforts she made to bring modernity to the ballet

All of this is quite hilarious. She is of course right: she made every effort to "bring modernity to the Opéra", simultaneously destroying the past greatness of this institution and making it what it is today. When her replacement by Millepied was announced a year ago my first thought was that she is being replaced not because of the damage she inflicted but because she hasn't damaged enough.

I added to the translation the information about the author.

Finally, particularly troubling is the constant neglect by the management of artistic capabilities of Yulia Stepanova, likely the most notable and talented among the young dancers of the passed five years. Her difficult, constantly obstructed climbing up the career ladder eloquently speaks that ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’.

This is where the article loses me. Stepanova has been given Odette/Odile and is headed to London where her performance is highly anticipated. Also set to dance the Firebird. Seems like her career is exactly where it should be.

As I said, from what I've seen Stepanova is a wonderful artist and she doesn't need to be dragged into this kind of yellow journalism.

She is "not "given" anything. Her roles are in most cases "stop-gaps". I hope you understand what that means in a theater. Fateev has been recently in a desperate need for soloists. Mariinsky's repertoire is massive. A ballet nearly every night every week, sometimes twice a day. It generates the revenue for Gergiev. Whatever his motives for promoting mediocrity, he knows who can dance in the company well, who cannot. He knows Stepanova is capable to do well any part, no matter how demanding, and this is why he uses her as an "insurance policy" in case there is some urgent need. I can only suggest you read the article again, more carefully.

The situation at the Mariinsky Ballet has been such an anomaly that you are entitled to think that all the described facts are not true, just don't call it "yellow journalism". It is neither "journalism", nor "yellow." The person who wrote that has proper credentials. Not less than Yuri Fateev himself.

Yes, this is the site of «Tanz».