canbelto

I also can't fault Copeland for aggressive self-promoting. I can't fault anyone in ballet. Recently there was a Russian ballerina whom I greatly admire who gave an interview that really turned me off. She went on at some length about how devout she was and how much she went to the Russian Orthodox Church. Given how aggressively the Russian Orthodox Church has been imposing its values on the Russian population, it seemed so calculated to me, for her to mention that prominently in the interview. But again, can't fault her.

Please pardon my ignorance, but does the Mariinsky Ballet have different (and better) versions of these classics? Yeah, they're available on video ...

I also notice that the slave women were all wearing what appeared to be bronzer on their legs and their faces, but they forgot the bronzer on their arms. A lot of skin tone mismatching.

I've long thought that ballet was the Soviets' officially sanctioned soft porn. There are plenty of examples that pre-date Grigorovich, such as Kasyan Goleizovky's preposterous interpolated "gypsy" dance in Don Quixote or Leonid Lavrovsky's Walpurgisnacht. Naturally, the licentiousness was primarily on the side of the villains, but Grigorovich invariably gave you a good, long look at it: "Oh, look at those nasty, evil Roman imperialists engaging in their nasty, evil orgies...Now let’s see that again." But the Phrygia-Spartacus duets aren't immune to this either. Because nothing says love like holding your woman upside down with her legs split open. I also love the fact that Phrygia has time to change into three separate skimpy dresses while being in the slave encampment. And then for Spartacus's death she's found a longer more modest mourning dress. The slave encampments had a shopping mall?

I don't mind Spartacus. It has its place in Soviet history and the Bolshoi is the only company who can pull this work off. I really mind the fact that the ugly, reworked Grigorovich versions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Nutcracker, Raymonda, etc. are still untouchable. Not to mention his atrocious R&J which meant the Bolshoi dropped the Lavrovsky version. Ugh.

Well I thought I would hate it but I found it very enjoyable in a kitschy schlocky kind of way. It reminded me of those Cecil B. DeMille Biblical epics -- campy and over the top. I think the Sunday afternoon casting was amazing -- they really sold this ballet, and the partnering of Lobukhin was spectacular. Would I run to see it again? Probably not, but for one afternoon, it was a lot of fun. Also a big hand to the Bolshoi Orchestra. It was such a delight to hear them play Minkus and Khatchuturian as if it were Mahler -- I'm not used to hearing such quality sounds from the pit when I go to the ballet.

I'll also add that I'm surprised some of the choreography made it through the Soviet censorship. For instance during the pole dance at one point Aegina takes the pole and rubs it between her legs. At another point she lies down, legs spread eagle, and pumps her hips into the air. Also Crassus appears to uh, take her from behind. I was outside the stage door and there were a bunch of teenagers who were talking about how they were shocked at "all that sex" onstage.

I attended this afternoon's performance. The four leads in this afternoon's performance exemplified what I call the "Spartacus spirit." Mikhail Lobukhin was originally from the Mariinsky but he completely transformed himself into Bolshoi Soviet Superman. He was beefy, he was strong, he was tireless. In Act Three he drew a huge ovation for lifting Phrygia (Anna Nikulina) over his head with one arm, then circling the entire stage while Nikulina changed positions several times. First she was in the classic curtain drape lift (. Then she was sort of in an overhead split. Then she somehow turned her body completely upside down and her legs were in the air as her head was facing the ground. I bet Lobukhin could bench press with the best of the Olympians. As for Nikulina, there were murmurs among the audience that she's one of the Bolshoi's weaker ballerinas, but all I can say is: she certainly knows how to stick her legs in the air while being lifted. She also knows how to catch her foot while being wrapped around Spartacus's shoulders. And really, that's all the role requires. The "evil" couple of Crassus and Aegina was even more fun. Alexander Volchkov looked like the stereotypical spoiled Roman emperor. I even loved his slightly boyish look -- it made him resemble King Joffrey. But beneath those pretty locks and baby face was so much typical Bolshoi horsepower. He was amazing. Even more stunning was Svetlana Zakharova as Aegina. Zakharova has unusually long limbs, with highly arched feet, and a careful, controlled way of dancing that often leads to her being labeled "cold." However she was absolutely riveting as the Roman courtesan. Her legs and feet became sexual objects. She danced with the full awareness of her own sexiness. She often walked all the way downstage to the footlights, and stood with a pointed foot forward at the audience, and then shimmied. In the Act Three pole dance, a weaker dancer might have looked ridiculous. But she contorted herself around that pole like a Vegas showgirl. It was completely believable that a bunch of slaves started crawling on the ground to grab her legs. She was the definite star of the performance.

Don Quixote is considered the Bolshoi's house special, and it's easy to see why. The Bolshoi has over 200 dancers, and many of them specialize in character dancing. That's why they can have rows and rows of dancers who don't even look like ballet dancers, but rather like folk dancers, with the emphasis on lower body strength, back flexibility, and dancing on the downbeat. I loved the character dance soloists -- the Spanish dancer (Maria Zharkova), the Bolero couple (Anna Antropova, Vitaly Biktimirov), the Gypsy dancer (Kristina Karasyova). Their solos are short, but do they know how to sell it! The women seem to have jelly spines, and their long skirts become almost like musical instruments as they sashay and shimmy and dance their hearts out. The Bolshoi has been famous for its Kitris -- Maya Plisetskaya, Ekaterina Maximova, Nina Ananiashvilli, Natalia Osipova are just a few of legendary names. Tonight's Kitri, Maria Alexandrova, is coming back from a ruptured Achilles tendon and as much as I'd like to report that she's rebounded from her injury completely, there were a lot of moments when her Kitri seemed weak. For one, her once buoyant jump is gone -- the grand jetes are now low to the ground, and effortful. In the famous Kitri Act One variation, she didn't even attempt the famous Plisetskaya head kick, and also had trouble traveling on the diagonal. Her Italian fouettes in the Vision scene were also effortful. In the final grand pas de deux her balances were shorter, and her variation with its rapid passé and relevé sequence seemed again heavy and effortful. She did finish her fouetté sequence with some very fast singles. Alexandrova's still a solid, likable dancer, but she's no longer the whiz-bang that this role requires. I also wish her upper body weren't so stiff -- she now dances with a tenseness around her arms, neck, and shoulders that is distracting. Thankfully, her Basilio, Vladislav Lanatrov, added the sparkle and joy to Alexandrova's Kitri. She might not be able to do all the tricks that other Kitris can pull off, but her rapport with Lanatrov was wonderful. If she couldn't wow the audience herself, as a couple they could wow the audience. Lanatrov picked her up in two thrilling one-handed lifts, the second prolonged as the corps banged their tambourines longer and longer. Lanatrov's solos were also very fine, if occasionally sloppy in form. I've seen cleaner double assembles and split leaps, but Lanatrov had a real charming personality. The only time his partnering failed him was in the wedding pas de deux, there were a few pirouette/lunges that looked shaky. The rest of the soloists showed that the Bolshoi, despite its quirks, is a company with real depth. The variations were cast from strength. Kitri's friends at the wedding danced two splashy variations -- Maria Vinogradova was notably stronger than Ana Turazshvili, but both showed great promise. Denis Rodkin (Espada) didn't do as much with his back I would have hoped but Anna Tikhomirova was thrilling as the Street Dancer. She looked like a Kitri in waiting. Yulia Lunkina wasn't that memorable as Cupid. Olga Smirnova (Queen of the Dryads) is the big It Girl of the tour. I missed her Swan Lakes last week, but I did see her Nikya when she guested with the ABT. It's easy to understand why Smirnova has a following -- she's one of the most physically exquisite dancers I've ever seen. She looks like the ideal ballerina, with her raven hair, china doll face, and beautifully tapered legs and feet. So I hate to sound sour but I think she's one of those ballerinas who might be too aware of her own beauty. Her Dryad solo was beautiful and pristine, but also contained a lot of mannered "now you may admire the exquisite tilt of my neck" posing. It's impressive, but too calculated by half. I just want her to really dance. The only thing I don't like about the Bolshoi's Don Q is the Dryad variation -- I prefer the developpe/Italian fouette variation that the Mariinsky/ABT does. The Vision Scene corps were beautiful.

I've read enough of these "Why isn't ____ dancing enough?" diatribes from "revered" critics in Russia to take them with a grain of salt. Every dancer has a right to drum up publicity, but I personally find these kind of sob stories tacky.

There is one offer on Craigslist for the matinee performance of Don Q ...

I can't really help but compare the Bolshoi Ballet's sold out but artistically empty Swan Lake with the Bolshoi Opera's not sold out, but authentic, well-cast, well-sung, well-played Tsar's Bride. The Tsar's Bride audience was also full of real enthusiasts. Everything was on a very high level artistically.

Ok here is something that's confusing me ... I think critical reaction to the Grigorovich Swan Lake abroad has always been negative. Arlene Croce called it the "most senseless .... and the ugliest." And this was in the 1970's. And I understand that Vladimir Vasiliev in the two minutes he was AD for the Bolshoi came up with a new SL production. Did anyone see that production? And is the Grigorovich production still revered in Moscow?

There's a saying in ballet that says "Put Swan Lake on the billboard, and they will come." This certainly seemed the case tonight as the Bolshoi Ballet has kicked off its two week stay at the Koch Theater with a week a Swan Lakes. Well ... I think many of the audience were shocked, to say the least, that in the Bolshoi/Grigorovich version, there's no swan and no lake. In fact, audience reaction was muted, and it made for some awkward moments when the audience was dead silent and the dancers decided to come out for another bow. Grigorovich decided to make the whole ballet a vision conjured up by the "Evil Genius." The Evil Genius mirrors Siegfried in all his dancing and actions, and swans appear from behind a curtain. In the third act a sextet of black swans and Odile are also conjured up by the Evil Genius from behind this curtain. This robs the ballet of any meaningful romantic connection between Odette and Siegfried. It's all a vision of the Evil Genius, remember? And in the final act, there's no reconciliation or forgiveness between Odette and Siegfried. The Evil Genius again whisks his swans behind the curtain. The end. Many iconic moments are gone: Odette doesn't make the flying entrance. Instead, she's already behind the curtain, and has to exit the stage before re-entering. The entrance of the swans is also gone: they're already onstage behind that stupid curtain, then a few minutes later they re-enter with the familiar flying arabesque sequence. This production spends so much time getting people offstage for no reason only to haul them onstage a few seconds later. The only things left marginally intact are the White Swan pas de deux and Odette's variation. The character dances in Act Three are also gone: all the princesses dance on pointe, and so the Spanish/Russian/Polish/Neapolitan dances look exactly the same. Oh, the score is cut and rearranged beyond recognition from the usual Petipa/Ivanov arrangements. Even Tchaikovsky's beautiful apotheosis music is gone -- the ballet instead ends with a replay of the overture. What a mess. All of this would be more tolerable if the production weren't so darned ugly. The whole thing has a cheesy 1970's decor. The guys at court are in pageboy wigs, and the girls are sporting puke-yellow dresses. The sets have lost whatever sheen they might have once had and just look old and tatty. They even get the swan tutus wrong -- they're in flat pancake tutus without the usual feathers to line the tutu. But I guess in this version it's not even clear they're swans -- they're just random girls the Evil Genius whiffed up behind the magic curtain. The Bolshoi corps, that can look like balls of manic energy in Don Quixote, were sluggish and often uncoordinated with the orchestra. They might have been cramped by the small Koch theater stage, as I noticed many of them making small adjustments to avoid dancing too close to the edge of the stage or near the wings. It's a shame, because the dancing by the leads was on a very high level. Anna Nikulina doesn't fit with the current O/O aesthetic (very tall, long-limbed, majestic). She's petite and frail. But her dancing had a wonderful delicacy and lightness. She doesn't go for the big flashy extensions that Svetlana Zakharova would display, but Nikulina's portrayal was warm and human. Her arms were soft and supple. I would love to see what she could do in a more traditional production. I also would love to see her in Giselle. In the White Swan pas de deux Nikulina didn't slow the action to a crawl -- she actually seemed to move through the music. When Odette does the split jump in Siegfried's arms her spirit seemed to soar. Another highlight was her Odette variation. Her sissones really flew, and she ended the diagonal with a flawless set of piroettes. As Odile she was more kittenish than vampish. Her fouettes started off with an impressive series of doubles, before she sort of ran out of steam. Artem Ovcharenko had beautiful lines and elevation as Siegfried, and partnered Nikulina wonderfully. His cabrioles had wonderful soft landings. Grigorovich's choreography for Siegfried is fussy but Ovcharenko made the most of it. Denis Rodkin performed the "look at ME" Evil Genius choreography with the requisite campiness. In the act one pas de trois Chinara Alizade and Daria Khoklova were both excellent -- fast with the petit batterie. And the Russian companies always find great Jesters -- Denis Medvedev was no exception. All this wonderful dancing is essentially wasted though. The Bolshoi's Swan Lake is DOA.

I understand what a stopgap means. But I don't see how this applies to Stepanova. Fact is O/O is a role usually given to dancers on the principal track. There are so many dancers that have been stubbornly denied O/O. "Stopgap" would be asking Stepanova to jump into the third shade variation because Dancer X got injured. I'm not saying the facts aren't "true," but I've also read enough of these Russian diatribes bemoaning the lack of opportunities for their favorite dancer to take them with heavy shovelfuls of salt. There's plenty of heartbreak among the Mariinsky but Stepanova's story is not a sob story. She's young, she's getting opportunities, her career is going places. Now talk about Daria Pavlenko or Ekaterina Osmolkina and we might have a real story of dancers who got dropped like lepers in the Fateev administration.

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.

Well she sounds like a well-paid off critic.

Sorry, but this sounds like a Stepanova claque diatribe. From what I've seen of her she's a remarkable ballerina but this isn't a serious piece of journalism.

Without a doubt Petit's. I saw Alonso's Carmen twice with the Mariinsky and the dancers gave it their all but the choreography was so repetitive. Uliana Lopatkina had great legs is all I could say positive about that Carmen.

dansomanie @dansomanie · Jul 9 RT @philippenoisett Pas de Guillem sur Arte suite au refus de la dame. Mais on a pu voir le duo avec Nico au cinema! This is a French dance news twitter. https://twitter.com/dansomanie Philippe Noisette is a dance critic: https://twitter.com/philippenoisett he recently did an interview with Mathilde Froustey: http://www.parismatch.com/Culture/Spectacles/Mathilde-Froustey-l-aventuriere-du-Nouveau-Monde-574946

I'm a bit disappointed that Guillem made this request. If this was her own gala then I could totally understand it, but this was a gala for her colleague and the livestream was for his many fans (and her fans too).

I also read from tweets that apparently the people who bought HD movie theater tickets got to see the duet, but it was cut from the livestream at Guillem's request.

There are two mixed bills night marketed as Osipova/Vasiliev extravaganzas. Uh oh ...

It is not destroying my "sense of otherworldliness of ballet dancers", it is destroying their capabilty to become great artists. Happening to have close ties to the world of ballet going back to around 1980 I can attest that the great ballerinas I knew were extraordinary, profound human beings. There are still some. Up to this day I regularly meet truly extraordinary, serious youths at some full time ballet schools in Europe, the kind of which I never encounter elsewhere even though it is my job to work with and mentor "outstanding" youths. Many of the best don't even use ineternet. Their parents tell me they have no time or desire for it. They live and breathe exclusively ballet, as they should. Well, it's not my place to give advice, but I'd say that one important part of being a mentor to any adolescent is refraining from a sweeping judgmental attitude.

Actually I think the Instagram pictures and tweets for the most part make me admire the dancers more. Most dancers seem to have (at least based on their social media posts): 1. A good sense of humor 2. A pride in their work 3. Strong relationships with other dancers These three qualities would, I imagine, be crucial in surviving a profession as difficult and demanding as ballet.