ECat

Yes!  Anthony Dowell is a great one.  I was also thinking of Manuel Legris from Paris Opera Ballet. Much of Nureyev's choreography for POB seems to allow for dreamlike dancing from men. But Legris, to me, always seemed to be soulful in his dancing.

21 hours ago, Buddy said:

When I watch the Mariinsky perform Swan Lake, it all revolves around the dreamlike continuity that’s defined by the famous White Swan duet. For me, it’s like an unbroken spell. It flows like a river from beginning to end. When the Bolshoi performs it, the human identity and drama become very important. It can be more a collection of highlights. Yet, this is still contained within the underlying pursuit of grace and flow.

This is an interesting topic!  I agree with you that while the "Mariinsky  and Bolshoi are artistic equals", the Mariinsky has more "grace and flow". I love both companies enjoy their differences immensely. Perhaps the Mariinsky is more dreamlike and Bolshoi is more expressionist. Bolshoi principal and former Mariiknsky dancer Mikhail Lobukhin is a favorite of mine.  I bring him up as I would put him into the expressionist category. Vladislav Lantratov as well. Are there any male dancers that you would categorize as dreamlike?

Oh I think I figured out what you mean by "expressionist". Of course, how silly of me - a dancer who is very expressive - Maria Alexandrova or Diana Vishneva. I would put May Nagahisa in the dreamlike category. Bateova and Shakirova into the expressionist category.  

Hello @Buddy For some reason, this is the first time I have seen this topic thread and like all of you other posts, I love it. I innately understand what you mean by a "dreamlike" quality. However, I'd love to know more about your "expressionist" type. A new favorite of mine is Elizaveta Kokoreva with the Bolshoi. Which category would she be in? I am guessing expressionist.  Also I would like to know how you would categorize May Nagahisa, Nadezhda Batoeva, and Mariinsky's newest prima- Renata Shakirova. I so enjoy your insights.

WOW!  This is fantastic news! Very well deserved. Shakirova is quite versatile and has proven herself to be a well-rounded and technical artist.

On 10/24/2023 at 5:38 PM, Danielle said:

I don't understand it either. Meanwhile, the Bolshoi is promoting young talents like Elya Sevenard to principal dancer. Maybe that's why more and more Vaganova grads are choosing Bolshoi. 

Indeed! Also several recent Vaganova grads have gone to Bolshoi and are already getting important debuts. For example, Maria Koshkaryova just joined Bolshoi as a soloist and debuted Gamzatti. 

14 hours ago, Danielle said:

I'm still amazed Maria Bulanova has not been promoted or even given new principal roles to dance.

Agreed Danielle! They have a wealth of talent at the second soloist level, many of whom are ripe for promotion. Not sure why they hired from outside.

Hello fellow Ballet Lovers! The Mariinsky ballet website has a new dancer listed as a first soloist. https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/soloists/

Elena Svinko has joined and previously danced with the Mikhailovsky Ballet as a soloist and the Krasnoyarsk Ballet. https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/soloists/first_soloists/dancers1/svinko_elena1/ After watching a few Youtube videos of Elena, I see that she is a very talented dancer who has won numerous awards. While I do not want to detract from her excellent abilities, I wonder why management chose to hire her rather than promote from within. I have no doubt she will make an excellent addition, but there are several second soloists deserving of a promotion.  Perhaps more promotions will be made soon. 

16 hours ago, onxmyxtoes said:

I don't see any reason to not promote Jake Roxander even though he joined the company in 2022. If someone is clearly a star, performing at a level higher than one's rank and higher than the level of people at the rank above... it sounds like good cause to promote.

Agreed!  In fact Susan Jaffe was promoted after only a year or two in the company.

@Danielle Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful interview!

On 5/25/2023 at 12:54 PM, Fernie M said:

I just happened to look at the casting for the Kennedy Center in June, Mira Nadon is going to debut in Concerto Barroco, with Isabella Lafrenière, how exciting. If anyone is there, please report! I think Nadon is a natural fit for CB.

Thank you for the heads up that the casting has been posted.  Here is a link: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/ballet/2022-2023/new-york-city-ballet/

I'll be flying to Maryland to visit my mother and we are going to the June 11 matinee performance. I am thrilled that Megan Fairchild is dancing Donizetti Variations with Joseph Gordon.

Whoops! For some reason I was thinking of Alexei Timofeyev when Sergeyev was mentioned as being promoted. But I do still believe that Stepin deserves principal status and Timofeyev deserves First Soloist status.

Congratulations to all of the newly promoted dancers! I'm especially pleased for Alexander Sergeev who has long been deserbving of this promotion.  I would love to see Philipp Stepin promoted to principal.

Eleanora is now listed as a principal ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet! I wish her a huge congratulations!

https://2011.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/ballet/soloist/

This is wonderful news!  Congratulations to them both!

On the Bolshoi Ballet website, Ksenia is no longer listed and I'm wondering if anyone knows more about this. I've always been a fan of hers and enjoyed hearing about how her career has progressed. Although I wish she would get cast more regularly in leading roles. Klim Efimov, who I believe is her husband, is still listed as a soloist.

I am wishing a big congratulations to all of these beautiful dancers!

Congratulations to Jose Martinez! My guess is that he will be a very fine director.

@Buddy I agree with everything you posted. It is very exciting to see the up and coming dancers in both the Mariinsky and Bolshoi. They are all so different from one another and brins such diverse talents. 

19 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.

 

 

 

Yes I agree! As I was watching the video of her as Princess Florine, I wondered where she'd been hidden. What a glorious young ballerina!

On 8/3/2022 at 3:58 PM, Buddy said:

I see a lot of very fine resemblances between Renata Shakirova and the Bolshoi’s Elizaveta Kokoreva. Both are dance prowess firecrackers. Elizaveta Kokoreva does a leap into an overhead lift that has to be seen to be believed.

Renata Shakirova is somewhat more softly lovely, whereas Elizaveta Kokoreva has a more linear, statuesque beauty, which is quite commendable in someone who doesn’t seem very tall. I know that Renata Shakirova isn’t.

And both are innately bundles of sunshine and that can spell hope and good will.

@Buddy I had the same thought about these two beauties. I love reading your posts and often need the proper time to gather my thoughts to reply. Your avid appreciation for ballet is delightful to me. Both Shakirova and Kokoreva are spitfires with similar gifts. It will be exciting to watch their careers grow and flourish as I am hopeful that they will both become principals. 

Kokoreva could easily step into Krysanova's repertoire, although I believe Ms. Krysanova has many more dancing years ahead of her. 

@silvermash Thank for for sharing that.  I did not know and I now I feel it was that much more special.

It was a magical evening at the Hollywood Bowl last night. The weather was perfect, the music was fantastic, and the dancing was sublime!

It was a pleasant surprise to arrive early and be graced with the dancers taking class on stage for all to see. The first pas de deus was Grand Pas Classique danced by Valentina Colasante and Marc Moreau. It was beautifully performed. While Colasante had a couple of bobbles, unnoticeable by the untrained eye, she presented the regal technique that the French are known for. In her variation, especially, she shown. Moreau's variation was textbook perfect and elegant. Second was Le Parc with Laura Hecquet and Germain Louvet. This seems to be a better ballet performed in a smaller venue, but the crowd was very appreciative. The "flying kiss", my favorite part, was breathtaking. Jean-Yves Thibaudet deserves mention as he played the piano beautifully throughout the evening.

Up next was Swan Lake Act II Pas with See Eun Park and Paul Marque. Park absolutely deserves her etoile title and made a lovely, vulnerable swan. Her swan arms were so smooth making full use of her arms during the bouree entrance facing upstage. While I am used to a higher arabesque and extension from watching so much Russian Ballet, it did not bother me that her legs did not reach her ear. She used what she had with the dreamy unfurling of her legs. It was another demonstration of the clean, elegant Parisian style of Ballet.

Faunes, to Debussy and choreographed by Sharon Eyal, also would have been better in a different venue. Paris Opera Ballet always has cutting edge contemporary works and this was one of them. A group of nine dancers, both male and female, gyrated and contorted their bodies to embody that of a faun.

After Intermission was Dorothee Gilbert in The Dying Swan. This is not a favorite ballet of mine, but Dorothee is and she was so mesmerizing that I have a new outlook on this ballet.

Perhaps my favorite of the evening was Trois Gnossiennes by Hans van Manen with the lovely Ludmilla Pagliero and her handsome partner Florian Magnenet. Pagliero is another favorite of mine. This choreography to this haunting music was a beautiful feast for my eyes, as well as those who were with me. 

Nest to last was Clair de lune danced by Germain Louvet. It was a solo variation showing off Louvet's gracefulness and technique. It was a little repetitive, but enjoyable.

Last, but absolutely not least was my second favorite, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude with the colorful flat tutus and purple costumes for the men. GP Classique and this were the perfect bookends.  This is a really fun, high energy ballet showing off 5 dancers. Colasante was back in the lead role. She is a great technician but I could not keep my eyes off of Hannah O'Neill. Her legs, her feet, her pretty face, oh my! 

All in all, it was a satisfying evening of ballet and I'd love to hear from anyone who attends tonight.

16 hours ago, Beezus21 said:

I think Chloe Misseldine is exquisite to watch, but it's hard to believe that her family connection to ABT has not helped her become a soloist at the young age of 20! Elisabeth Beyer, who is also 20, is still sitting in the Studio Company waiting to be promoted to an Apprentice. How does that even add up?!

If that were the case, one might ask why Hannah Marshall has not been promoted. Her mother is Cheryl Yeager, former ABT principal who danced while McKenzie was a principal.

On 7/14/2022 at 8:56 AM, Buddy said:

I agree ECat — “versatile” and “sparkles.”

I’ll go back to what I’ve mentioned before. I would say both “versatile” and proficient. I saw her debut of Swan Lake and it was as if she’d been dancing it all her life.

Can you “sparkle” in Swan Lake ?  The day before I left Saint Petersburg because the virus was shutting everything down, I did see her perform a second Swan Lake and it was almost joyful — and it worked !

 

There are going to be a lot of prominent new faces along with Nadezhda Batoeva’s. Viktoria Tereshkina is already beginning to teach, for instance.

I would say that Maria Iliushkina will be the most prominent for pure loveliness and refinement, carrying on the recent tradition of one of the finest ever, Ulyana Lopatkina, now featuring Oxana Skorik, and sharing this spotlight with the Bolshoi’s Vaganova graduate, Alyona Kovalyova.

I see no one on the horizon to come close to replacing Yekaterina Kondaurova in overall versatility and adaptability. She can dance anything — and brilliantly !  May she continue to dance forever and ever !  😊

Renata Shakirova and Maria Khoreva do have a fine range, but Yekaterina Kondaurova is very, very special.

Nadezhda Batoeva may well be the company’s next Viktoria Tereshkina in many respects. She also has a certain spark and excitement of personality, along with her proficiency, that should make her very special and enjoyable.

Maria Khoreva may quite possibly be the most interesting because of her remarkably talent, adaptability and invention.

Renata Shakirova is loveable along with having very impressive prowess and adaptability.

Maria Bulanova should shine brilliantly with wonderful personality.

And all these artists could develop noticeably as their careers progress allowing for some very impressive and exciting, even heartwarming, surprises.

 

 

@BuddyI always enjoy reading your thoughts on all things ballet!

The two times I saw Batoeva, Rubies and Gamzatti, she almost stole the show. She sparkled and captivated in both. She is quite versatile and, in my opinion, is capable of dancing all of the roles that Tereshinka has danced. 

Indeed, this current crop of upcoming dancers at Mariinsky is steeped in talent and versatility. I am also a big fan of Philipp Stepin and hope that he becomes a principal soon. There is a huge pool of talented men in the second soloist division as well.

Yes, "Queen" Kondaurova is supremely beautiful - both as a dancer and as a woman. In addition to the classics, she excels in the contemporary choreography. If La Dame Aux Camelias is ever performed at eh Mariinsky, I would love to see her as Marguerite. Tereshinka as well!