Marianna

Hi nysusan, I have just consulted with my girlfriend who listened to me saying those names in Russian several times and after that she kindly transcribed for me what she's heard (rigid rules of Russian spelling and Russian-to-English transcription left aside): Tsiskaridze - Tiz-ca-ri'ze (with the emphasis on the third syllable "RI") Belogolovtsev - Bella-ga-loaf'-tef (with the emphasis on 'loaf' part ) Antonicheva - An-to'-ni-chi-va (with the emphasis on the second syllable) Lucky you nysusan! You will get to see all those dancers! Hoping to read later about their performance!

I will be there!!! :huepfen: :huepfen: Although I would rather think of a happy-ending in a Don Quixote story as of more appropriate for St. Val's (the girl ends up finding herself in a wedding vs. Giselle finding herself dancing on own her grave) - Giselle with its tragic finale would be still a great treat for me! THANK YOU MARGA - you've just returned poor little sleepy me BACK TO LIFE!! I can't wait until Feb 14!

You GOT me Lovebird - BRAVA! The point was not about who was Russian, Georgian or Ukranian, actually. But Lukaev took my point correctly - it was more about "who's version of whom". Lukayev, I promise i didn't mean to make your opinion to seem "worthless" or "uneducated", please forgive me i did. ARE WE FRIENDS NOW? I am not very much educated about ballet myself, in comparison, for instance, to moderators and/or many other people who post on this board; which is fine - i am always happy to learn from someone - i just learn whenever i can, and try to find as much information as possible. Learning is a life-long processes, and that is a great fact of life!! Please keep sharing your opinions with us, Lukayev, your opinion is just as important and worthy as of anybody else's who is posting on this wonderful board - even if those divine Tsiskaridze or Malakhov themselves were posting here, YOUR opinion would still sound equally important

Okay, my dears (I’m learning Torontian, you see, and I’m loving it ), it took me longer than I hoped to get back with the review of the Canadian Ballet Theater Nutcracker that I attended on Dec. 20, 2003 in Toronto Leah Posluns Theater. Since then I have attended another Nutcracker performance by Xing Ballet in Toronto on Dec. 21 and one more Nutcracker (by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal – WHY there has to be a muted -S after every word in French??!!) in Montreal on Dec. 26 . Now that I am two more Nutcrackers older and hopefully wiser , I am happy to share what I’ve seen with you, my dears. The main attraction of the December 20, 2003 day-time performance were two principals from Bolshoy Ballet – Elena Andrienko and Dmitriy Gudanov . I have mentioned and confessed earlier the absence of professional education in my approach towards ballet, so I am going to leave the pleasure of writing about them to professionals, and will talk about my deeply amateur and personal opinion of that performance. For me personally one of the greatest highlights of that event was meeting the most amazing person – Marga (the lady who has so thoughtfully posted an announcement on this board) in person. I am hoping that Marga will take a few minutes from her very busy schedule and would share with us her impressions from the Saturday evening and Sunday performances. It was expected, by the way, that Karin Kain was attending the Saturday evening performance ! Marga, we cannot wait to hear from you!! When I [used to]attend any performance I [used to] bring FOUR BOUQUETS of flowers :flowers: with me - as this number usually seemed to cover all my favorites of a performance. So, my FIRST BOUQUET goes to Leanne Chiavoroli – for that this young ballerina has successfully performed en-pointe Harlequin’s part, which has traditionally been performed back home (and my guess would be – the same for St. Pete’s) by a male dancer naturally on demi-pointe (and that was the one possessing the superb technique and strength). BRAVISSIMO LEANNE! At first I almost had a heart attack that the girl would kill herself, but she’s done it great! The SECOND BOUQUET goes to the Spanish dance performers Melissa and Jessica Panetta – they’re sisters, so they can share . Another nice little surprise for me – I am so used to this dance as to a boy & girl dance. There’s no limit to the flight of artistic imagination – here the boy was eliminated and the girl’s party was doubled. Performed en-pointe (BRAVO!). And the sweet topping of this dance were FOUETTES performed by one of the sisters – so confidently that even my non-ballet-goer companion gasped in delight. BRAVISSIMO! Where else can you see fouettes in a Spanish dance! I DID! There! B) The THIRD BOUQUET goes to an absolutely gorgeous young male dancer who is about 2.0 m tall. I believe his name is Ian Szkolak (Marga, correct me if I’m wrong, please! ). He was dancing in a Christmas party scene in the first act and in the Waltz of Flowers as a Cavalier to two most graceful ballerinas. This dancer is blessed with a body of such perfect proportions that trick your eyes so much that they do not make him seem huge on stage – compare to traditionally miniature ballerinas and not-so-tall male dancers. He manages his body while moving on stage so gracefully that you won’t realize that he’s that tall unless he’s off stage standing next to you. What I was impressed the most with (and so was my virgin-ballet-goer friend) were his pirouettes – performed so clean, accurate, with such perfect aplomb that it would make anyone look impressive. The taller the dancer is the more difficult it is for him or her to manage his/her body. This young dancer is truly blessed with natural inborn sense of aplomb, grace and taste. BRRRAVO! (psst! :secret: - his legs were so beautiful – lean and so perfectly shaped!). And the FOURTH BOUQUET goes to Mr. Davidson Jackonello, who was the most wanted dancer of that day – as he performed a Nutcracker-Doll part, Arab Doll part, and a male part in the Pas de Trois. Not bad for a dancer of a delicate teen-age, eh? B) I have to mention that I always leave this last forth bouquet for a ballerina or a dancer who seemed to try their hardest on stage but seemed to be a bit unconfident about their performance. Davidson is a fairly tall dancer, beautifully built, clearly trying to be perfect so hard, that he forgot one thing – to lure us, the audience, into the illusion that what he is doing on stage is really a pleasure - not a hard work, and that he is enjoying it so much – he could’ve danced and danced no matter what. I would like to express my best wishes to this young dancer and wish him to find his confidence in his own capabilities, and he has all the reasons to be confident! He has everything for it – he is extremely dedicated, hard working, he has a body and grace with it. There is one more thing that I am wishing him - with all my heart - to find in himself: to let his joie de la danse out when he’s performing on stage, I am sure it is there, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken so much on! (do not laugh at my “French”, please ) I would also like to mention the lead ballerina in the Arabic dance, Ursula Szkolak. When I was watching her dance – so beautiful and tall - I caught myself thinking that I was actually watching La Bayadere with Nikia dancing in her temple (overqualified!). This young dancer has a lot of spirit and “drama emotions” in her interpretation of this dance, which I used to enjoy watching more like a dance performed FOR some Arabic Sheikh by a dancer willing 'to please a man'. I am wishing her all the best in her professional future! As usual - lack of bouquets! I just realized that i have forgotten about the Dancing Doll part (some times referred to as Colombina) in the first act. This is a VERY CUTE LITTLE PART, which is traditionally given to a petite and cute ballerina who has reached the necessary level of technique to allow this part shine like a little diamond. My dance teacher used to perform this role - a ballerina in her 30's (that is about experience not about "being old"). In CBT version this cute little role was given to a cute young ballerina Nadia Maiolino. Oh my God! Her legs and arms are mile-long, she has most impressive lines and a good potential. So I fell in love with the Dancing Doll just for her mile-long legs, inspite of the fact that this baby-ballerina is still too young to handle this role with necessary ease (she got "carried off" during pirouettes en-pointe). But she tried really hard, she did her best and so, the FIFTH BOUQUET goes to Nadia - along with the wishes to keep working hard and move towards gaining enough strength and stamina to reach full control over her most beautiful mile-long legs and arms! A really promising young ballerina! My notes on the Nutcrackers by Xing Theater (Toronto) and Les Grands Ballets De Montreal are to follow soon.

... was just wondering reading Lukayev's little posting (this pondering just begged to be let out ) - if for some Georgians then Russian dancer Malakhov would be like a Russian, compressed, petite, plain version of "their" Tsiskaridze (if the comparisons have to be made this way)? That said i would like to add that neither of those two superb dancers are versions of anybody else - they are absolutely unique, each in his own way, and in my humble opinion to call anyone any kind of version of somebody else would not be flattering to either party, IMHO. :shrug:

I have just come back from the very first performance of Nutcracker at the Canadian Ballet Theater (CBT) with participation of two Bolshoy Ballet principals - Dmitriy Gudanov and Elena Andrienko. Usually it takes a couple of days for me to have things settle in my mind and produce a readible outcome, so at this point I just wanted to express my total delight and greatfulness to the producers of this Nutcracker. I've seen about 20 of them (laughably too many for some, and laughably too few - to others) in my life so far, and it is a certain way of a ballet i'm used to - i was prepared to see something quite different from what is dear to my heart but to my great JOY and SURPRISE that performance was SO CLOSE to what is done in Almaty (that is to sound more descriptive is the version of Mariinsky/Kirov - Petipa choreography) !!! Of course, it was not an identical mirror image - but some choreography moves were exactly the same - which touched my heart deeply and emotionally, it is like hearing a song in you native language being away from your dear precious friends It was the same atmosphere and feeling of magic, beauty and that nervousness (or calmness) - of those young dancers who are to perform on stage for the first time in their life :sweating: :sweating: :sweating: . That is - as i wrote last winter about the Nutcrackers in Almaty - for me personally is the most precious thing about Nutcracker: to see those beautiful buds to tremble and open delicately (or stay half-open - still delicately) for us to see and admire their fresh beauty and fragrance of youth. So, I've rejoyced and cried (yes, for the first time at the ballet performance i couldn't actually fight my tears) -seeing that beautiful performance!! More verbal and descriptive post is to come within a couple of days! AND A THOUSANDS THANKS AND GRANDE REVERANSE GOES TO A WONDERFUL AND MOST AMAZING LADY - MARGA - AGAIN!! My Christmas is already here - thanks to Marga and effort of all the wonderful team of CBT!!! I am sure that more delighted notes about that performance won't take long to appear on this site! PS Drosselmeir's feet were to die for - a subject of envy for many girls even!

Dear Marga, I am all excited about seeing Nutcracker tomorrow!!! You've mentioned that you were off for the rehearsal last night, and the natural question is fighting its way - would that be possible for me to attend the morning rehearsal or class at the Leah Posluns Theater with you? IF there will be rehearsal or class. That will be my best Christmas experience ever!!! I've attended only very few rehearsals in my life and each of them is a very special and precious never-fading memory of my whole life. ANd I can't tell you how many times I've heard NO, YOU CAN'T ATTEND THE REHEARSAL/CLASS - so i'm prepared for either outcome: positive or negative. I'll be checking my PM inbox during the day today and hopefully you'll have a moment to drop me a note. Thank you either way and I am looking forward to Saturday!! Marianna )

OH BLESS YOUR HEART MARGA!!! What great news for me - being new to Toronto, and coming from Almaty (that is one of the former Soviet Union cities) where I have gotten very much addicted to classical ballets, i've been missing those good old ballets here. SO THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT NEWS!!! By the way - are you planning to attend that Nutcracker with Gudanov and Andrienko? Would be great to meet you there! Like i've mentioned, i'm new to Toronto and have been missing "real life" contacts with the people associated with the ballet world here. I've been keeping in touch via phone with all my ballerinas friends from the Almaty State Ballet (some of them graduated from Vaganova's Dance Academy, some from the Moscow Ballet School, and some from Almaty Ballet Academy - all are exteremly wonderful and generous at heart people), which is a great thing, however, i'm missing "live contacts" in my new place of living.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!! ... djb , you surely know how to make me happy ... Those photos of Jaffe are truly superb!! :jump: :jump: :jump: I encourage the idea of coming up with yet another emoticon - :drop off the chair: (with a loud ka-boom!) AND THAT WHOLE GALLERY IS REALLY A FABULOUS SITE TO VISIT - AND SPEND THERE HOURS AND HOURS, BROWSING THROUGH THE PHOTOS AND READING ABOUT THOSE BALLET GODDESSES!! (Any similar sites with a similar photogallery of the ballet GODS, by the way?) All that comes to a final: THANKS A MILLION, DJB !!

Thank you again, rg - you seem to be an ocean of information about ballet and ballet-related issues! Silvy , i guess, you should try e-bay or amazon.com as rg recommended - as I bought my Swan Lake with Yevteyeva and Markovski (THANK YOU AGAIN rg ) when I was visiting St. Petersburg, Russia back in Aug. 2002. They've got lots of most incredible things sold there - right in a foyer of Mariinski and Alexandrinsky's theaters - for almost nothing! (it was actually rather sad to see all those elderly ladies, aparently retired long ago as Mariinsky personnel - selling ORIGINALS of all those precious (or should I say PRICELESS) BLACK AND WHITE photographs of the ballet legends - dating back to early XX cent.!! But you would love to find yourself there and just browse through their precious possessions - offered for sale to earn them pennies for bread.)

djb, i'm praying you will answer this one (even though I still owe you history behind Ulanova's and other dancers' names ) I LOVE BALLET DOCUMENTARIES! :jump: And, I've never heard of Backstage at the Kirov . May I ask where did you get this tape, and if possible - to completely overjoy me - how and where from, you believe, I could get it from? A THOUSAND THANKS IN ADVANCE!

May I suggest the tape THAT'S DANCING! I bought it while visiting NYC few years ago, and can never get bored watching that tape - as it covers the story of the dance and dancing - starting from the pre-historical period up to Michael Jackson. The main narrator is Gene Kelly. Several other great dancers overtake during that video, amongst them - Mikhail Baryshinkov (reviews classic ballet part); Lisa Minelli (Dancing on Broadway), etc. It is a mini-encyclopedia of numerous genres and directions of dance in a way, and for me it is an absolute must-have video. I am sure that any young dancer (and their moms, and just about anyone more or less interested in dance and its history) would appreciate having this tape in their "essential" video collection. Speaking of Swan Lakes - I treasure my Swan Lake with majestic Yevteyeva as Odette/Odille and her partner's name has just slipped from my aging memory - his first name was John . Performance by Kirov's Ballet. (Gester - brilliant Valery Panov). The reason I treasure it is that they actually created some dancing for the prelude part of the ballet! Also - a great thing to have is Don Quixote with Baryshnikov (ABT, 1983). It is always so uplifting! I love every second of that superb performance! Aspiring dancers can find plenty of things to learn on that tape, and ordinary mortals like myself - just thoroughly enjoy joy de vivre of of it.

A THOUSAND THANKS, rg! You gave me many directions for a search and WHAT A SEARCH THAT WILL BE! (i guess i am in love with Susan Jaffe and Victor Barbee ) AND THANK YOU ESPECIALLY FOR ALL THE TIME YOU'VE DEDICATED TO PROVIDING THIS INFORMATION TO ME!!

Thank you rg - I KNEW that answer would come quickly Any sites you (or anyone else) could refer me to - to view more photographs of that Queen of Driads. She possesses such beautiful style and strength!! And - while we're on this topic: any other roles performed by Mr. Barbee? Thank you again!

I am sure that the answer is right out there Last weekend I've been watching on video for the umpteenth time that beautiful Don Quixote with Baryshnikov (ABT, 1983). And the ballerina who was dancing the role of the Queen of Driads HAS GIVEN ME GOOSEBUMPS on my arms and legs ('xuse me for being that physiological - it doesn't happen that often to me, so i was impressed with that ballerina's performance effect on little poor me ). For some strange reason her name was not given on the casting list in the end of the tape - whereas even the Innkeeper was listed there Also, once i'm at this topic - the name of that dancer who performed Gamache (the unlucky rich seeker of the Kitry's hand to marry). He was SO GOOD! (see, that role is usually done so overly comically humiliatingly and anti-men in a way - by the ALmaty State Ballet) - so I was (or should I say - I have ALWAYS BEEN) really impressed with that dancer's performance, too! WHO is that beautiful stranger?? THANK YOU! SPASIBO!!

Dear Local Foreigner in Almaty, Trust me - your candid confession that you loved the Waltz of Flowers from the Nutcracker WILL NOT sound silly to NONE of the people on this board (and those who would think it's silly, wouldn't even come near this board ). I promise that everyone would nod agreeably :yes: Of COURSE, it is a beautiful music and the choreography, and costumes and atmosphere of a fairy-tale - for me it is the essense of ballet (see my QUOTE ), or one of its numerous purposes: to evoke the feelings of delight and amiration in the hearts of people watching the ballet, and definitely, enjoying the Tchaikovsky's genius. So, congratulations, it seems like you successfully becoming one of us - people who are hopelessly addicted to ballet (when this first occurred to me - i suddenly felt my "addiction" to ballet and everything about it - it honestly, felt SCARY at first, but then - I was lucky to have met and become friends with those few others alike, so things fell into right places, and my life has gotten its purpose and direction. Which is all about ballet ) Please keep sending us your updates from the Almaty Ballet performances - you are doing excellent job!! THANK YOU, Poss! Please say BIG HELLO to Lelia for me - i am missing her a lot! She knows that i am one of her most admiring fans! GOT AN IDEA HERE!! :jump: If you happen to have a good photo-camera, why don't you take some photos of Leila back stage - either between parts of the performance or right after it - and post your photos on this site!! THat would be such joy!! Let me know if you think you could do that (you have to post 30 posts to be able to start posting images on this site though). A presto, Marianna

Privet Local Foreigner in Almaty! Sorry I didn't keep in touch for a while. SO HOW WAS BOLSHOY (or, to be precise, bits and pieces of Bolshoy Ballet brought to Almaty)? I've spent some time on the phone with Dastan and Kuralay lately - getting updates on the latest performances. So, I already know that mega-star Nickolay Tsiskaridze didn't come to Almaty, as he supposedly had some injury while touring in Europe. However, young dancer Gudanov seemed to take everybody's hearts. So, please share your impressions about Bolshoy Ballet's tour to Almaty! Can't wait to hear from the immediate frequenter of the Performance! Marianna

That may sound a bit funny to some - but what I loved doing (and I still do that!) when I came to my VERY FIRST BALLET (i was 27 then) was: 1) Sit as close to the stage as I could (tickets were not more than $10, so that was easy) - "sitting almost on the stage" some people might call it, and 2) watch and listen to every move and every whisper, every wink, every breath of those super-natural etherial female creations and such manly and may i invent a new word "gentlemanly" male dancers (ex-Soviet Union suffers from a bad terrible lack of real gentlemen, you see ) doing some thing supernatural on that stage, that is dancing, and even when (especially when) they were not actually dancing. If they whisper - it must be something totally different from what us, ordinary people, would whisper about, when they sigh - it is because what they're doing is so difficult - they do not breath as us, ordinary earthly folks. When they wink - that is for a great reason - they are lending each other that invisible arm of support, like they're saying to their co-dancers: "You're cool, you're the best". I hope nobody would laugh at this - i am being as honest and sincere as possible, laying all my gutts out here When i was a beginner i used to prefer to sit in the center, then i realized that if i move to the very side of the rows, located really close to the stage (rows 2 to 5), then i will be able what those mysterious beautiful creations do when they are not on stage - HA! They stretch, they chat, the jump and stretch again. May sound perfectly ordinary to those who do that professionally - but to me it was like a taking a glance at their "otherworldly" life. Of course, even back stage - they are not really like us, earthly people! That is what i thought to myself. That is what I have discovered - to my total satisfaction, when I was lucky to have met some of them in person, and even spend FEW MUNITES (total delight!!!!!!) backstage during one of the Swan Lakes. To me - a perfectly ordinary earthly person that were perfectly special sacred and unforgettable few minutes. You can laught but I felt i could have happily died after that - to me it was like "To see Paris and to die" There is that big incredible illusion that those dancers create for us - that dancing is really easy and effortless. That is of course, everyone who has no real idea of what ballet is about, usually thinks (i confess, was sinful of that too). But when I actually started taking lessons from that favorite and much-adored ballerina of mine - i realize what that etherial lightness is all about. Sweat, pain, super-human efforts (so I WAS RiGHT about the super-human moments there!) AND remembering to always hide it underthat illusion - that it costs them nothing, it is sheer joy and pleasure. Forget the aching muscles, bleeding blisters on dancers' feet, aching backs of guys lifting up couple of hundreds of kilos during one performance, totalled up. Then i've discovered - pretty fast, i've discovered - another thing about ballet that is still an eternal mystery to me but it keeps me hopelessly addicted to ballet - please just read my quote below my bubbling down there My admiration towards those people is as big as the ocean or universe - and it will remained unchanged Till the End of Time!! PS DJB, you have seen Plisetskaya AND VASILYEV dance LIVE !!! You are a lucky soul! I only have tapes of them dancing - i came a bit too late to this Earth That must have been one of the experiences of your life - making it worthy of living, no?

Thank you THANK YOU dearest Local Foreigner in Almaty (BTW - I know your real name - Almaty IS bolshaya derevnya, you were right! So, Leila was satisfied with the premier of a young ballerina doing Zarema's part. That is nice. Let me ask YOU now - and the fact that it has only been your second or third ballet you've ever seen won't work here. How DID YOU feel during the most emotionally tense scenes?? Did YOU feel sorry when Vatzlav was killed? HUH??? Did you feel that heartache that Zarema felt when she discovered that her husband does not belong to her anymore? Did you, finally, feel electrified when NurAli jumped on stage and did his wild (and may i add - extremely manly and sexy) part????? You do not mention Erjan Doskarayev - who's done Nurali's part (i hope he did that night?). That guy gives me goosebumps - whenever he's on stage and whatever he does on stage (yes, yes, yes, I confess - i am a total sucker for that guy, and my heart was broken when he got married But EVEN MY MALE FRIENDS who'd accompany me to ballet when he dances - they all agree that he is REALLY TOTALLY GREAT. "He LIVES HIS LIFE ON STAGE" - they say - "HE DOESN'T JUST WORK ON STAGE" (there is a huge cosmic difference between those two states of dancer's mind - LIVING and WORKING on stage, and I am very unhappy when some dancers expose me to that latter because i was lucky to have known better than that - by watching my teacher Aigul Jumagalieva to perform, every single second of every single part that she does. I am sure you'll notice her - she really stands out, a petite ballerina with a dancer's spirit large as a Sun ) Coming back to one of my favorite dancers of Almaty State Ballet - Erjan Daskarayev - to give an idea to people who haven't seen that brilliant young man to perform - try to picture the dance of Golden Idol from La Bayadera - performed at utmost best brilliance possible. He shines and he makes you feel like he dances only for you. When he's doing Gester in the Swan Lake he manages to flirts with each and every woman and girl in the theater - he is so good in creating that chemistry with the audience (hmmm, i guess, i wouldn't like THAT IF i WERE married to him So, tell me Poss (hope you won't mind me calling you by your nickname, since your bro has spilled the secret ) - what did YOU FEEL watching it. We - non-professionals in ballet will NEVER be able to watch and perceive ballet performances as THEY do. I will never learn to catch all those little intricate nuances in classical dance, which i have learnt to accept about myself and not to feel guilty about. I just go by how the performance (particular dancer) makes ME FEEL and try to pretend at times i know something about "ACADEMISM IN BALLET" - looking at their "lines", arms, legs, feet (actually - i can tell beautiful feet from so-so feet now and know it is not good when someone breaks the "line" of the arm, by bending the wrist too sharply - it should be a soft "round" arch, you see ) So, confess how that Fountain of Tears made YOU feel? Thank you again, and I am looking forward to hearing ALL ABOUT the Nutcracker - from someone who doesn't know MUCH about ballet (AND do not allow yourself fall under professionals' influences in your opinions - sometimes it is not a good thing for non-professionals like us - sometimes THEY admire "beautiful lines" and i simply go :sleeping: )

DJB - you are simply brilliant!! Second grande reverence comes to you YOU'VE GOT THAT RAZOR SHARP LINGUIST'S SET OF MIND! And most likely Alexandra IS right and there are some Balerinovs and Balerinovas living in Russia!! But there are definitely no Balerinovs in my family tree :shrug: Another good example of moving a stress in a lastname to make it sound DISTINGUISHED - "divina ballerina" of Mariinsky young Diana VishnYOva's last name is/would be USUALLY pronounced with a stress falling on that "YO" vowel ("e" with two dots above it) - however, I keep hearing now and then - when the last name is mentioned in the ballet circles - the stress has moved to the very first syllable making the common last name sound distinguished - as VEE-shneva. Those distinguished noble people !! I'll try to answer your question about "BARYSHNIK" (yes- yes, definitely, one is sitting on a family tree of that famous Mikhail ). "BARYSH" is actually a word of TURKIC origin which was "borrowed" by Russian language from Turkish during the extensive cultural/trade/war exchange between Russians and Turks back then (i would think, back in XVII-XVIII cc.). I do not know what this word means in Turkish but in Russian it means "PROFIT/INTEREST FROM A DEAL" (and I wouldn't even try to guess what it could mean in Turkish as - this is really amusing! - the Turkish word BARDAK means only a GLASS (a glass of water), but it is A BAD MESS in Russian; Turkic DURAK is only A STOP (like a BUS STOP) - but it means FOOL in Russian; there is a nice Turkish male name BARAN - it actually means MALE SHEEP in Russian and is often associated with really dumb people. Cool, eh? (my four summer vacations spent in Turkey scuba-diving didn't go wasted) So, "HORSE DEALER" may be applicable in case when we're talking about someone making a profit - BARYSHNIK, that fits the description, no? I will burst like a big bubble if I won't tell you this now (and shoot me if you have already known this!) - NUR-eyev comes from another Turkic word meaning - NUR<=>DIAMOND or LIGHT (and something divine on the top of it all). Isn't that something? Au revoir for now (and I was planning this one to be a really 'short and sweet' one :sleeping: PS A propos, I could also tell you later where meanings of the last names of Ulanova, Vasilyev, Lopatkina come from - if you really care to know

My theory for that specific way of stressing the last syllables in certain Russian NOBLE lastnames (ending with -OY/-AYA) was that those folks really were trying to maintain that their family is coming from BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK THEN when the last names were stressed in that funny odd manner (and we are talking - back in X century and earlier). So most likely the point made was that "I'm coming from a really ancient roots and just want to make sure everyone makes a note of that and gets profoundly impressed" - that was supposed to evoke great respect. (NB: actually i do think it is great when people can follow up their genealogical "tree" back that far, i am not the lucky one :shrug: ) Russian last names - they way they sound now - are different from the way they were back between V and XIV-XV c.c. (they were more like nick names, like FAT, TALL, BLACK, DIRTY, PRETTY, WHITE, etc. (what do you think "TOLSTOY" means in Russian, if you only just move the syllable? Exactly "FAT MAN"!), there was a change in the XVIII-XIX c.c. (when last names were given by the children's father first name "FATHER'S FIRST NAME/OCCUPATION+ -OY/-AYA; -EV/-EVA, etc. IVAN-OV ("John's son" - literally), PONOMAR-EV (there is an add by Mark Haegeman about mime PONOMAREV, btw ) = "CHURCHBELL-RINGER'S SON" - the word "SON" has been dropped out at some point, though), which gradually brought Russian lastnames to sound the way they do now - a mix of everything. Hope that quick excursion to the history of Russian last names could/would help some at some aspects. PS I found it hilarious that there were remarks in the "War and Peace" English edition that so-and-so is speaking French (it is a bit like those movies with sub-titles before the sound was brought to the cinematograph ). I WISH, though, WE had those endless dialogues in French from "War and Peace" translated to Russian!!! THat would've saved me hours of reading at school! PPS Am very much looking forward to start taking French classes in January!!! Beautiful language - and comes very useful in Canada, too! :grinning: Besides, that is the international ballet language - the language of my gods, godesses and idols

Privet djb we seem to share passion for ballet AND languages I can envision some 3 + hour conversations - IF we were in the circumstances to have a "live" talk :grinning: I guess i should try really hard not to go on for ever now The issue with the stressed syllable that you've recently discovered reading Tolstoy - it is about something that Russia has lost back in 1917: aristocracy. Those noble families last names were DISTINGUISHED from the lower class people's last names by exactly this trick - by putting a last syllable under stress (IF the endings were -OY (-OI) for men and -AYA for women) . The "lowly" people had their last names stressed ANYWHERE BUT their last syllables. Here is another perfect example (which will round up my speech this time): Ivanov is believed to be the most common Russian last name. Everyone I know knows at least one person with a last name Ivanov or Ivanova (for females), the letter "O" comes always unders stress. I hope you're sensing the link i'm trying to make here to the Swan Lake's choreographers - Petipa and IVANOV. To show appreciation for that gentleman's outstanding work for the Russian ballet, HIS last name was pronounced then and NOW (by knowing people - like me )as IvAnov - to make his last name sound distinguished, and I guess - noble (vs. thousands of other perfectly ordinary IvanOvs). There is nothing written in stone in any language, so you just learn as you go (for example - i was really surprised that the letters "i" and "e" in the words "recipe" and "recite" do not read the same (well, it is a French word for you, "recipe" - isn't that obvious - one of the native English speakers remarked to me :shrug: PS Alexandra - see, see - i am ALWAYS trying to have ballet issues involved, even when yak-yaking about Russian language - you gotta love me for this PPS I just dawned on me - half if not more of the "War and Peace" is written in French anyway. Do you feel that your French is improving, too, djb ?

I would love to see photographs of this ballerina!!! Any links one could recommend? And that video mentioned by Paul Parish - was that one of those privately owned tapes or can it be ordered from somewhere? THANK YOU!

I see a twist of intrigue here - first A LOCAL FOREIGNER appears IN ALMATY, after I left it just few months ago, who is followed by a SKYSHARK, who has known the LOCAL FOREIGNER for a gazillion years, and every one knows Leila. NOW, WHO IS POSS??????????????????????????????????? :shrug: :shrug:

I am sure you will make a great teacher, djb - your students will love you for your detailed style. BTW, did you take some Russian back then, OR do you have any Russian background? - As your Russian is suspiciously good