Lam

Kaptsova in Tarantella with Daniel Ulbricht at the Kremlin gala

http://www.jackdevant.com/nina-kaptsova-and-daniel-ulbricht-in-tarantella/

Also few portraits taken. Images of Kaptsova quite at the end.

https://www.lapersonne.com/en/post/kremlin-gala-2018-part-1#&gid=1&pid=24

https://www.lapersonne.com/en/post/portraits-ballet-stars-special-edition

2 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

But to address the main topic of this thread, among the ballerinas currently working at the Bolshoi, Kaptsova is the one I admire and enjoy most.

I agree.  I have liked everything I have seen her in (mostly though recordings and Youtube). As far as I can tell she excels both in comedic as well as dramatic roles. I hope to see her more in the future.

From the current principal roster Krysanova, Obraztsova, Shipulina and Stashkevich interest me the most.

I am aware that Bolshoi is a state institution.

I'm also curious to know about this retirement rule and whether this is something set into the company rules and then convieniently applied when she turned 38. Antonicheva and Ryzhkina retired  when they were over 40. Granted, they also danced less. At one point both were moved to soloist under contract and then moved back to principal status and then back to contract position and then retired. Zakharova is 39 and still dancing so I don't understand why Kaptsova, a highly capable and versatile dancer, should be demoted from principal status.

I believe there are no topic dedicated for Kaptsova so I thought it would be nice to have one.

I saw her in Bright Stream as Zina on 28th October 2017 performance and I thought she was in fine form and technically proficient. I am still shocked that she was demoted to soloist under contract position :((((

17 hours ago, canbelto said:

I'll add that if you cannot enjoy a ballet without these blackface getups (as in without the blackface then you don't want to watch the ballet), then maybe that ballet isn't worth reviving.

Indeed.

In my opinion the production could do well without the whole face painting business. And the painted dancing children. I honestly don't think that by removing both it will affect or lessen the production value the work has.

23 hours ago, Gnossie said:

An outrage if Khokhlova gets the Coppelia broadcast (and so would be if Krysanova gets it) 

It SHOULD be Stashkevich, one of only 3 dancers (and the only one dancing it in this run) in the company who is stylistically, aesthetically, musically and technically suited to dance Swanilda. 

Yes to this.

I will definitely have to check Mariah Hannah Winter. Thank you

Indeed Ivor Guest's works are mentioned both in Caddy's and Karthas' work

For my bachelor thesis I chose Ballets Russes as a topic for my paper and I found things that I thought it would be nice to share. 

To get a whole picture and better understanding of cultural historical development at the turn of the century and early 20th century I acquired a fair amount of literature with the focus on Fin de siècle - and Belle Époque period. Although my main subject was Ballets Russes, I also got to know  more about cultural history of France. While  searching materials for my thesis, I noticed that the materials I needed, were scattered and different disciplines offering their contribution to the subject. It makes sense because I have always considered ballet as an interdisciplinary subject. On the side I found a few interesting titles covering also ballet in France late 19th and early 20th c.

Caddy, Davinia. The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Music and Dance in Belle-époque Paris. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012

- Somewhat critical rethinking of Ballets Russes. Also a chapter on the state of French ballet before the war - "Ballet at the Opera and La fête chez thérèse"

- Italian ballerinas showed virtuosic and technical skills, but critics noted the lack of art-dimension

Karthas, Ilyana. When Ballet Became French: Modern Ballet and the Cultural Politics of France, 1909-1939. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015.

-The reasearch's focus was  on cultural history, cultural politics and  dance history in early 20th c. I thought the book was an excellent work and methodologically consistent

Karthas' work focused on the cultural exchange between Russia and France in early 20th century and the influence of Ballets Russes and their eventual effects on POB estabelishment, and finally with the effort of Lifar, how it was turned back as a state funded institution. Basically, in order to get state funding, ballet dance had to be proven as a viable expressive art form for republican France.

Parisian music-hall ballet, 1871-1913 By Gutsche-Miller, Sarah

-Interesting book that covers ballets performed in music halls.

-Tries to argue that before Ballets Russes, ballet was already popular in France, that's why Ballets Russes had such a receptive audiences already in France. I have several problems with the hypothesis of book, but the book is informative. 

-My impression I got from music-halls ballets is that they are considered low-class, popular among the masses and  definitely not high art.

-I remember how Homans mentioned the subject shortly in her Apollo's Angels but essentially  ignored it. 

In addition I read an extensive amount of secondary literature that did not cover ballet, but instead covered cultural and political setting of Fin de siècle  and Belle Époque period that I found very informative. Books that covered theatre culture, city history, cultural politics were helpful and added social and cultural context to the subject. 

I thought it would best to start a new topic on history writing and ballet. Since there was a somewhat heated discussion on Ivor Guest thread, I thought it would be best to move it here. I am interested if this topic can generate interesting discussions. Quick search didn't reveal an existing topic. If there is one then please someone inform me  

15 hours ago, Amy Reusch said:

Not to mention that doubles are actually a "rest" for the dancer (one less relevé ... one less whip of the leg)... and  changing spots is impressive from a technical standpoint but doesn't have much more  to say aesthetically.

That's interesting. Perhaps it depends. I remember from some youtube video (Washington Ballet) where a female dancer stated that double turna are harder because it requires more speed, more force to do the doubles.

On ‎12‎.‎4‎.‎2018 at 10:25 AM, Ashton Fan said:

I think that you have to remember that when Western Europe rediscovered ballet as a significant art form in the early years of the  twentieth century the rediscovery was  prompted by Diaghilev's Ballet Russes which for the main part presented new works rather than historically significant repertory. The only company in the West which maintained a significant amount of nineteenth century repertory was the Royal Danish Ballet. The POB performed Coppelia but it had last  performed Giselle in the late 1860's. The newly kindled interest in ballet in the West was essentially an enthusiasm for new works.

Although today a lot of companies in the West have a repertory which includes a mixture of twentieth century ballets and  versions of some of Petipa;s ballets this was not the norm in the 1930's.  When the company which eventually became the Royal Ballet acquired its nineteenth century repertory in the 1930's the ballets which De Valois selected for her young company were all works which had historically important scores as well as good choreography. The idea was that these works would develop the company technically and artistically and be a means of maintaining the company's technical standards long term. They were not intended to dominate the company's repertory as it had been established to be a creative company rather than a choreographic museum. As the intention was to establish ballet as a serious art form and Minkus' music tends to support the  prejudice that nineteenth century ballet and its music are sweetly vacuous ballets with scores by  Minkus were the last things that De Valois and her music director would have wanted to stage and that is before you get into the practicalities of the diminutive size of the stage at Sadler's Wells and the fact that the company did not have the resources to stage a ballet like La Bayadere. I think that the first that the West saw of La Bayadere was the Kingdom of the Shades scene which both major Russian companies had as part of their touring repertory . That is the section of La Bayadere which Nureyev staged for the Royal Ballet in the 1960's.For years it was the only bit of that ballet which the company danced. As far as I am concerned I should be quite happy if the company were to revert to dancing it with its full compliment of  thirty two shades and dump the Markarova staging. But that is another story.

Not meaning to divert the topic, but the claim in the beginning with Diagilev and the rediscovery of Ballet is somewhat outdated and has gone under some revision over the years. Classical ballet was never dead in France. 

Giselle was performed By Diagilev's Ballets Russes in 1910, to warm reception but it was rather mild compared to other "exotic" works in the press reviews. The classics such as Giselle did raise some nostalgic feelings among french audience but the general view was that the romantic ballet was old and out of fashion. This I found when I analysed reviews from several prominent french newspaper from 1909-1914 for my bachelor thesis.

There was a reason why unclassical repertoire  were created. Those unclassical works were solely created for western audiences.

I mean books about Diagilev and Ballets Russes usually highlight their successes but their success did not come without problems especially during 1909-1914 period.

Thanks for the info. No wonder I was so confused.  Good thing I checked the ticket otherwise I would have simply missed the performance.

I saw this performance Initially thought that I had  booked the evening performance for I wished to see Maria Shirinkina perform. As it turned out I didn't but nevertheless I was still happy with Shakirova