Fleurdelis
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Posts posted by Fleurdelis
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According to her website, she is also sheduled to appear in the upcoming Fall for Dance festival at the NY City Center on 1 and 2 of October in a Van Manen piece Variations for Two Couples.
I wonder if she is planning more appearances here in the US now that she has gone international.
I also wonder if we will ever again see any Russian ballet stars here in the US, at least during my lifetime.
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On 2/20/2019 at 6:34 PM, volcanohunter said:
Sevenard is not what I'd call tiny. She may not be very tall, but her build is robust by ballet standards. Rodkin is tall and strong, but when the two of them performed the Nutcracker adage at the Adyrkhaeva gala last May, he had conspicuous difficulty with the overhead lifts. Spartacus isn't any easier in that regard.
There are dancers at the Bolshoi I go out of my way to see. Sadly, only two are on the London tour in principal roles. There are others, and this list is a little longer, whom I avoid if at all possible. The remainder of the dancers are somewhere on the like-to-neutral scale. So I rated the performances accordingly, and found that only three received net positive scores. Two more received neutral scores, whereby the positives and negatives balanced each other out to produce a zero rating. The remainder are net negatives.
I visit Moscow a lot, mostly to see the dancers the current management is trying so hard to eliminate. I attended 32 Bolshoi Ballet performances in Moscow last year, seven so far this year, so I've seen nearly everyone recently. (The exceptions being Meskova, Semenyachenko and Vorobyov, whom I've never seen in person.) I agree entirely with Mashinka that the Royal Ballet has better principal women, and better female soloists, too. As for the dancers lower down the rankings, I fear you'll find mostly very thin women with wobbly ankles. But they can all point their toes at the ceiling.
Phrygia is generally willowy and fragile. Sevenard is anything but that. That's why it is a curious choice. Maybe she will redefine this role, who's to say? Difficulties with lifts can be overcome with practice and experience.
I recently saw the video of the Royal's A Winter's Tale. Looking forward to it premiering at the Bolshoi this coming April. Will be the definitive head-to-head comparison of whether Royal's principals are really all that. I saw Sarah Lamb's Aurora, she is excellent, but in my view Bolshoi does it better. And Vishneva does it better too.
I may not have the luxury of seeing 32 Bolshoi performances a year, but the pointing toes at the ceiling part is news to me. Zakharova does this a lot, but she indeed has a unique stretch. Marchenkova did a bit of it during the recent broadcast. But that's all I could think of really.
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On 2/21/2019 at 12:15 AM, volcanohunter said:
Would this mean that Kondratieva was not a great ballerina because she didn't dance bravura roles? Or conversely does this make Kristina Kretova a great ballerina? Don't misunderstand me. I like Kretova a lot. She's a good dancer and a fine actress with a broad range. The Bolshoi is lucky to have her. But she's a utility dancer. A good one. But not a great ballerina.
It means that being a one-trick pony is not a way to greatness. Dancing Nikiya the same way you dance Kitri is not greatness. Kondratieva danced many varied roles. Giselle and the Mistress of the Copper Mountain are very different roles. Range is more than just bravura or non-bravura.
I'd be happy to discuss Kovaleva and Kretova on their own threads, or I'll digress too much.
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On 1/24/2019 at 6:07 PM, Mashinka said:
lets face it the Royal Ballet arguably has better female principals than the Bolshoi.
Highly arguably. Natalia Osipova aside. But then she is an ex-Bolshoi product.
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Lucky Londoners will get to see Denisova's debut as Phrygia. I have a feeling she will be amazing. Curious choice by Sevenard, would have been a much better Aegina.
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I actually see Olga as a throwback to the styles of Pavlova, Ulanova and a bit of Kondratieva, in many of her parts she has a similar otherworldly, ethereal quality.
And then you see her Carmen, and she is completely different. Incredible range. To me this is what distinguishes a good ballerina from a great one - range. Vishneva, Guillem, Makarova, Bussel among others had it. I hope Alena develops hers too. Why not be delighted by youthfullness and freshness one day, and be moved by dramatic talent the next one?
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13 hours ago, Buddy said:
Awhile ago I thought I saw a large 'improvement,' a change of emphasis, in Alyona Kovalyova. She seemed much more continuous in her flow. Her coach remains the same, Olga Chenchikova. It could be growth or new imput from others. Would you have a guess as to how this could happen ?
I am not aware of Alena switching her tutor or working with anyone else besides Chenchikova, aside from foreign ballet masters who come to set up imported pieces, such as Jewels, Artifact Suite or Etudes. But I have not seen enough of Kovaleva lately to comment on her progress, the ticket pricing policies of the Bolshoi are curtailing my usual theater-going habits, so I do not get to see as much as I used to. More than development of flow, I am hoping to see how much substance Alena has been adding to her roles.
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On 12/27/2018 at 1:07 AM, Buddy said:
Of much interest to me and noted earlier at BalletAlert! she is now being coached by Maria Allash, former Principal Ballerina, recently made ballerina "Under Contract" as well as Coach, instead of the highly regarded Marina Kondratieva ("Ballet Master-Repetiteur"). Maybe someone has some insight into this.
The insight is that it is very common for dancers to switch their tutors at the Bolshoi. Smirnova went from Kondratieva to Allash, who, by the way, was a wonderful Aegina in Spartacus, so it was very timely given that Smirnova debuted as Aegina a week ago. Stepanova has recently left Lyudmila Semenyaka for Kondratieva. And Daria Khokhlova left Nina Semizorova to go back to working with Lyudmila Semenyaka, who was her first tutor at the Bolshoi. Evgenia Obraztsova prepared her first Don Quixote at the Bolshoi with Lyudmila Semenyaka, then switched to Svetlana Adyrkhaeva and is currently with Nadezhda Gracheva. Shipulina went from Kondratieva to Golikova (who passed away) to Nikonov and now to Gracheva. Nikulina started out under Maximova, then went to Semizorova, then to Semenyaka and is now with Chenchikova.
Only Zakharova stayed with Semenyaka throughout her career at the Bolshoi (and it shows). Also Adyrkhaeva's ballerinas tend to stick with her.
I will not get into the men.
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It would be really great to have Bolshoi cast a black dancer as Spartacus on its next US tour. It would add a new connotation to the plot and make Americans see it as an eternal hymn to freedom, rather than condescendingly dismiss it as "communist propaganda".
Carlos Acosta was the most amazing Spartacus I ever saw. I am so glad that his performance will live eternal as among the definitive ones, having been recorded and released on DVD.
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On 8/5/2018 at 7:24 AM, Laurent said:
Does so well what ? In other variations Smirnova displayed the same defects she has been always afflicted with, her hands defying all attempts to conform to the canons of classical dance. If this is going to stay, she will never be a great classical ballerina.
She already is one and has been for some time. A true jewel with some of the most beautiful arms and hands in classical ballet. Probably equaled only by Lopatkina. That is, to those who know a thing or two about classical ballet. Starting with the great upkeepers of the tradition such as Pierre Lacotte himself.
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The Gamzatti debut sounds very enticing. She is one of my favorite characters. And to see a rising young star in this role may be too good of a chance to pass. Looks like it is time to splash some of my savings on a London adventure.
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It is unfortunate that because of ROH's tougher policies towards videotaping of performances their wonderful young dancers do not get as much international exposure through the Internet as many of their mostly Russian counterparts of whom there are lots of videos on YT. I am so curious to see Naghdi or Hayward, but will have to go all the way to London, or hope and wait for a guest stint in NY.
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On 6/13/2018 at 1:38 AM, Laurent said:
Disgraceful? Ridiculous? Two hours ago the best perhaps in recent memory graduation concert has ended. As a spectacle it was an equivalent of three shows at l'Opéra, Royal Ballet, or at any American company, with the exception of New York City Ballet.
If one prefers a more lavish, ostentatious, Moscow-style production, then, yes, it was an absolutely smashing spectacle. The old graduations, the filmings of which can still be traced on the Internet, may not have been as richly produced, but were prominent for the quality of the performances that possessed that unique pure, chilly, ethereal and flowing (like the Neva River itself) mystique that is so unmistakeably St. Petersburg. Whatever St. Petersburg style and amazing graduates that Vaganova still produces is entirely thanks to a few dedicated teachers, who are persevering on and staying true to their teaching methods and tastes.
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Getting back to Shipulina and Vaziev. Shipulina has been the Bolshoi's best Gamzatti and among its three best Aeginas in the last fifteen years or more, she was among the original five most accomplished Moscow Academy ballerinas chosen for the Cinque program by Bigonzetti (alongside Krysanova, Semionova, Kochetkova and Osipova), she completely stole the show as Ondine in Possokhov's Hero of Our Time, overshadowing Zakharova's Princess Mary, a more prominent character of Lermontov's novel. Moreover, if we are to esteem the opinions of choreographes and ballet scholars with knowledge of 19th century ballet, then look no further than Pierre Lacotte, who selected Shipulina for the lead role in the upcoming revival of his and Petipa's Pharaon's Daughter at the Bolshoi. I don't think Lacotte really cares about who may be Putin's friend, but he is very discerning about who dances his ballets, so this is a most compelling recognition of Shipulina's undoubted merit and accomplishments.
Everything Shipulina has achieved is thanks to her talent and hard work, not marriage to Matsuev. On the other hand, it should shield her from being pushed into retirement before she is ready to retire herself.
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Plato may not be my friend, sed magis amica veritas. In the article under the link below, a prominent Russian conductor Roudin also complains that it is notoriously well-known that the Mariinsky theater library does not give anything to anyone. Can't tell whether it is because of Gergiev's supposed malicious whim, or simply a reasonable precaution to protect the library's collection of rare and fragile antique sheet music. In any case, it was also publicized that the library recently acquired a scanner to convert its collection to digital format and make it easy to access.
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2310500
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This is wonderful news, obviously an impressive achievement. I can't wait to see her on the Bolshoi Ballet TV show, I'm dying to know what she is about.
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On 6/22/2018 at 3:13 AM, Mashinka said:
I don't think Laurent has anything to substantiate, Ilya Kuznetsov does run ballets schools and it is in the public domain that he aspired to the job Tsiskaridze now has.
I think the bit that needs substantiation is the allegation that Kuznetsov had an informal agreement with Asylmuratova to push his kids into the Vaganova Academy.
As for Asylmuratova's condition, one only needs to watch the video footage of her and the previous rector's removal from the Academy, it is still floating around the internet.
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I don't see any evidence that Shipulina started getting major debuts only after associating herself with "a friend of Putin". A quick stroll down her biography on the Bolshoi's website tells us that she debuted as Gamzatti at 22 in 2001, Odile-Odette at 23 in 2002, Classical Dancer from Bright Stream in 2003, Kitri and Aegina from Spartacus at 25 in 2004, Cinderella at 27 in 2006. She married Matsuev around 2006 according to the article at the below link (in Russian only, sorry). The lead debuts she got since then were Mehmene Banu in 2007, Medora in 2009, Fleur de Lys in 2011, Marchesa from Marco Spada and Giselle in 2013, and Carmen in 2018. Hardly looks like acceleration. Filin promoted her to prima in 2011 upon becoming artistic director, it was a well deserved promotion, but she was already 32, once again, hardly an acceleration, as most other Bolshoi primas achieved that rank while in their 20s.
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3 hours ago, Laurent said:
What condition was she in?
That of a lame duck
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9 hours ago, canbelto said:
I do know this: the Vaganova grads since he took over have looked healthier, fuller-bodied, more muscular even, with toned calves and thighs, and stronger feet.
I am not sure fuller-bodied and more muscular is something I would like to see more of, I would prefer more Lopatkinas, Zakharovas and Vishnevas, or am I advocating an unhealthy look?
And what about the men?
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Are Maria Khoreva and Maria Bulanova this year's top graduates from the Vaganova Academy? Will the Academy's top graduates will buck the trend and actually go to the Mariinsky, instead of the Bolshoy?
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We could never know what's on her mind, but judging by her continuing committment to quality performances and the relentless work she is putting into her roles, I believe that she has no plans to slow down. Not saying it is not going to be an uphill battle, because the administration's youth focus is apparent.
The exotic locations could be reflective of a work hard, play hard lifestyle.
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Many of your predictions may come true, but Shipulina will most certainly NOT be moved to contract status. In a few years maybe, if she decides so herself, but not in the near future.
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Osmolkina looks a bit clumsy for my taste. So does Yana Selina. My picks from among Vaganova graduates who are still active at the theater would be Novikova and Svetlana Ivanova. As for the men, why Stepin when you have Shklyarov?
I hope they quickly find some role for Lopatkina. She would be the perfect rector for the Academy. And Tsikaridze can focus on becoming a TV star.
Olga Smirnova
in Dancers
Posted · Edited by Fleurdelis
Wow, what a different take on the subject, so much expressiveness and naturalism! Finally someone who understands that death is painful and tragic! Other stars only care to show off how gorgeous of a swan they are.