Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

MadameP

Senior Member
  • Posts

    621
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by MadameP

  1. 12 hours ago, Buddy said:

    This is a name that I’d like to pass on. She’s a new discovery for me. Her name is Lada Sartakova. She’s actually with the Primorsky part of the company. (Thanks to Nastya at BalletcoForum for the insight).

    From a video clip of her recent performance as Princess Florine (The Sleeping Beauty) she appears to be very lovely. This is the performance that Maria Iliushkina debuted in as Aurora in Saint Petersburg.

    Lada Sartakova looks totally like a main company dancer. She has beautiful grace and long lines. She also has her own definite personality that makes her somewhat different from similar main company dancers and adds a nice interest and attraction. She’s getting some attention so let’s see if she stays in Saint Petersburg. I hope so as she would seem to be a fine addition.

    And since I'm talking about a far away dancer, Valeria Kuznetsova, somewhat similar and whom I’ve mentioned from the school in Perm, who performed at the Moscow Ballet Competition, would seem to be another fine addition if that were to ever happen. Yuri Fateev (Mariinsky ballet director) was a judge at the competition so she’s not an unknown. Still, nothing going on there that I know of for the moment.

     

     

    Lada was an online sensation as a child, dancing en pointe and performing the Kitri variation at age 7, winning numerous prizes at YAGP Paris at age 9 and performing 32 double fouettés at age 10!   There are numerous videos of her performing as a child on YT.  Here are the fouettés!:

     

     

  2. I haven't commented on this forum for ages, but just read many of the above pages and they make me so sad.  I don't want to say too much, but Yes, we are going through terrible times but need there be so much negativity?   There are many dancers who many people don't like/don't think are deserving of promotion/think should act in a certain way.  How wonderful it would be if the whole world and every event could be ordered as every person would like.  It is impossible.  There are many dancers I love who never rose above corps level.  There are some who were promoted who never should have been - but this is my OPINION.  Our opinions are all different.   Nobody knows what is going on in someone else's life, or what is in their mind, even if they may say something publicly.   How many are there in throughout the world who dare not speak out against the war for fear of retribution.  Who can blame them?  It's easy for us all to say what somebody else should do, but could we do it ourselves?    I think Alyona Kovalyova's comment is entirely natural - who doesn't want things go to "back to normal" or live in a war fee world?  Why should she feel she has to say anything else because others have done?  We are all individual - and yes, she IS young and will learn the hard way that there is no normal. As for her dancing, of course she is quite beautiful to look at with extraordinarily long lines.  I have seen her dance a few times, and yes, she doesn't have the strongest pointe work, so hops en pointe are not her forte, but she does have stage presence, those beautiful lines, natural acting.  I remember others in the past who had weak hops en pointe, those who had ugly extensions, those who couldn't jump.  Those dancers were criticised then, and now it seems there is another person to pick on.  Kovalyova  obviously fitted Vaziev's vision of a principal ballerina and that's her luck and his prerogative to decide on his rankings.  Personally, I do find her over-tall, and therefore problematic to cast, but that also is my opinion.  I think it's very sad that there is so much criticism of so many dancers.  

  3. On 2/26/2022 at 4:57 PM, California said:

    If Ratmansky were willing to become a company director again, I suspect ABT would be ecstatic to hire him. But from things he said when NYCB wanted him to be their choreographer, exclusively, he seems to want the freedom to work with many different companies, in both new work and reconstructions.  

    I'm wondering what happens to his Giselle reconstruction, which I saw "live" streaming in the theater in January 2020 before the lockdown.  It would be great if they would release it on DVD or streaming-for-purchase or bring it to the US on tour, but all of that seems in doubt for the foreseeable future.

    At least his Giselle reconstruction has actually been performed and is in the repertoire.  I don't have much interest in The Art of the Fugue, but his production of Pharaoh's Daughter, which the Mariinsky was to premiere in May, will not now go ahead either.   

  4. On 9/24/2021 at 7:07 PM, ECat said:

    There have been some roster changes at the Mariinsky. I'm may have missed a few but here is what I found: Tamara Gimadieva and Camille Mazzi have been promoted to Coryphee.  Congratulations to them! However, Alexandra Khiteeva (Khiteyeva) and Anastasia Petushka have been demoted to the Corps de Ballet. Perhaps this is a common practice with the Mariinsky, but can anyone tell me why? Both of the ladies are very fine dancers who have danced many solo roles successfully. There seem to be other dancers in those coryphee and second soloist ranks who barely perform at all. 

    Khiteeva was never a coryphee (although I think she certainly should be at least this level.). She has always been in the corps.  Petushkova certainly was a coryphee though, and demoted to the corps, as you say.  

  5. Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and I hope that everyone is coping as well as possible with the current Coronavirus pandemic.  Good health and happiness to everyone this year and I hope we can all enjoy the beautiful art form of ballet in whatever way we can.

    In this spirit, I would like to draw your attention to a new video channel on YT by user Mezentseva Fan.  This user has uploaded many videos, including a number of TWELVE HOUR videos, featuring some of the most famous roles of a number of illustrious Mariinsky and Bolshoi ballerinas - Obraztsova, Somova, Tereshkina, Stepanova, Zakharova, Smirnova,  Novkova and most recently, Uliana Lopatkina!  They are absolutely wonderful!  I am not sure whether BA can support a link to a 12 hour video, so I will post the link to a performance of Swan Lake by beautiful Altynai Asylmuratova and her husband Konstantin Zaklinsky, so that you can find the channel (if you haven't already!).  If you click the play button in the middle, and then click on  watch on YouTube at the bottom right, you will then be able to access the channel on YouTube.  Anyway, I hope you will all enjoy it!  

     

     

  6. On 10/5/2020 at 4:08 PM, volcanohunter said:

    At age 38 they are eligible to begin receiving their pension, which sort of absolves the theater of continuing to pay them a regular salary. However, pensions are always smaller than salaries, and because the "under contract" dancers inevitably see a drop, sometimes precipitous, in the number of performances they get, it's not a winning proposition.

    Under Filin, veteran soloists, especially character dancers, were teased out of their ranks and listed separately in the weird "under contract" (i.e. resident guest artist) category. When it was done to principals Anna Antonicheva and Marianna Ryzhkina there was a public outcry at this visible relegation, and their bios were relisted among the primas. Under Vaziev there are no such niceties, and there has been a discernable pattern of promoting dancers to "replace" a "retiring" principal. When Dmitry Gudanov left at 42 (without going through the "under contract" stage), his spot was given to Vyacheslav Lopatin. When Alexander Volchkov began working "under contract" at 40, his spot went to Artemy Belyakov. Now Ruslan Skvortsov's spot has been given to Denis Savin (although since there is zero overlap in their repertoires, it can't really be described as a replacement.)

    Savin is a very, very fine artist, but an unconventional principal, and at 36 he won't hold the position for very long. I think the real story here is who wasn't promoted: Igor Tsvirko. Because while Savin is a character/modern dancer, Tsvirko is a demi-caractere dancer with a substantial repertoire of leading roles Savin doesn't dance: Basilio, Solor, Rothbart, Nutcracker Prince, Conrad, Philippe, Spartacus, Ferkhad, Ivan the Terrible, even Albrecht in the Grigorovich production. By the time Savin and Mikhail Lobukhin reach 40 four years from now, Tsvirko will be in his mid 30s and it may well be too late for him. Unless, and this is highly unlikely, he will be given the spot currently held by Ekaterina Shipulina, who turns 41 next month. More likely, her place will be given to Alyona Kovalyova, and the next to Olga Marchenkova (prospects that fill me with shock-horror). I'm not a Tsvirko fan, but given the sort of repertoire he carries, especially Spartacus, and that Savin probably never expected to be made principal, this really is a body blow.

    Agree!   Savin is a fine artist, but I don't believe he deserved to be principal as much as Tsvirko did - and like you, I am not a Tsvirko fan, but in terms of the body of his repertoire, he was by far more deserving of the promotion.  

  7. I enjoyed Smirnova's performance.  I thought her reading of the character of Giselle was intelligent, full of detail and touching, and she displayed spontaneity in her interaction with other characters on stage.  Her technique is precise and her petit allegro in general was excellent.  Also, she certainly gave the impression of an insubstantial wili in the second act.  I loved Belyakov - a true danseur and such a worthy principal finally!  He has an excellent presence and that jump... the height of his entrechats is amazing!  His acting is heartfelt and sincere and he looks the aristocrat.  I thought Khokhlova in the peasant pas was delightful - so fleet and light in her footwork - and  her partner Alexei Putintsev had great ballon.  I have been very critical of other Ratmansky productions, but I really enjoyed this one.  I thought the whole of the second act was  beautiful indeed, and the choreography for the wilis very effective in giving the impression of an army of man-killers - especially in the scenes where they capture and dispatch Hans (Hilarion).   Ratmansky increased the petit allegro element of the choreography and also the amount of mime, which I found to be totally in keeping with this 19th century ballet, and there were many new and beautiful poses - the kneeling pose that replaced the high lift in the act 2 pd2 for example.  I thought Nelli Kobakhidzhe gave an extremely sympathetic performance as Bathilde and also Lyudmila Semenyaka as Berthe was entirely convincing and how wonderful to see her back on stage!  We can all argue about various elements we didn't like (and I did find some of the changes of tempo a little sudden) but overall I thought this production is a success.  Loved it!

  8. 16 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

    The Spessivtzeva solo final diagonal is back in Russia!! Ratmansky has done a great job at paying homage to those few ballerinas and companies that kept it through the years. Alicia Alonso is dead now, and oh...she would had been so happy to see it danced outside Cuba. Spessiptzeva, Markova and Alonso must be celebrating up there. Bravo Ratmansky!! Brava Smirnova!!!♥️

    Agree.  Olga took that Spessivtseva diagonale at great speed, too!  Fabulous, wasn't it?!  

     

  9. Some really great news today - Maria Bulanova has been promoted to Second Soloist, bypassing the Coryphee rank!    She is a wonderful, dramatic ballerina with real presence on stage and acting ability!   I am so pleased for her, and hope to see her in many more roles now!  Congratulations!

  10. 3 hours ago, Alana Vashti said:

    Hello, I would like to know if anyone knows what the title of the music is by Franz Schubert at the Chanel 2019 Paris Opera's Opening Gala. The music was for the Ballet " Variations " and the costumes were by Chanel. There was a forum posted about the ballet on this website not long ago. I have searched everywhere for the title of the music. I have heard this beautiful piece of music somewhere before. Thank you,

    Alana

    Can you post a link to the ballet/piece?  

  11. He was a wonderful Hooligan when I saw him in the role  - technically brilliant, and truly rough around the edges in character, instead of being a bit too much like an Oliver Twist type as some are.  Truly poignant in his acting.   A very talented boy.  

  12. More superbly landed double tours here also... not to mention the ease, poise and control and beautiful lines in arabesque, and the series of entrechats 6 ...  quality...

     

     

  13. Agree he is wonderful.  I have seen him in many roles at Mikhailovsky.  It is a tragedy really that with his amazing talent, he is not a Mariinsky principal instead of Mikhailovsky.  He has beautiful lines, that cruising ease of movement, high jump, spectacular turns - EVERYthing.  He also has great charm and presence on stage.  I don't want to say he is wasted at the Mikhailovsky, because that would be to imply Mikhailovsky is not a good company, which it certainly is, but from Lebedev's own point of view, he has missed out on the worldwide exposure and opportunities that being a principal at Mariinsky would have brought him.   As it is, I can only say, yes, he's stunning.

  14. I have to say - I realised that some of it at least was not live - moving directly from Eleonora Sevenard's interview to the middle of her rehearsal with Rodkin, for example.   I did not realise that the whole Bolshoi segment is taped in advance.  It's  a great pity.

  15. 39 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

    Perhaps, but reality is often more complex that we realize. For example, in his memoirs Valery Lagunov, another Bolshoi coach, described Akimov and Vladimir Nikonov as Party stooges.

    I do not have this book, so could you explain what exactly Valery Lagunov meant?  I remember a few years back watching several classes taken by Boris Akimov, and he was equally courteous to all dancers and spectators, and full of the most incredible vigour and enthusiasm for his work.  

  16. I love this production of Raymonda.  I think some of the effects for the corps, such as when we first see them grouped together, are particularly beautiful!  Belyakov was absolutely spectacular and I also thought Tsvirko was well cast.   I do like Olga Smirnova very much as a dancer, but she did seem extra cool to me in this video - it's a minor point, but I think a softer stage make up would make her look less severe.  

  17. 1 hour ago, Deflope said:

    Judging by world Ballet Day rehearsals, it looks like it will be Krysanova-Motta Soares, Ovcharenko-Denisova and Vinogradova-Podubnyak in the lead roles. 

    Olga Smirnova also said she is to be dancing, although she was not rehearsing because of having a light day before Raymonda...

×
×
  • Create New...