Thalictum

One might also add that Millepied scales down every aeriel step so that he could be a 50-year-old prima donna dancing her last Giselle. A dreadful performance.

Ballet Lovers, Scherbakov did not change the opening of the man's variation; it was changed by the Kirov management in 2002, after both Dmitri Simeonov and Anton Korsakov were injured in the opening section. Korsakov has now re-choreographed the variation almost entirely to suit his style and capacities. Scherbakov has no power to change a single step.

When I last saw Scherbakov dance the Pas de Trois a year ago he was giving the best performance of this I have seen since Alexander Lunev twenty years ago: extraordinary ballon, batterie and elevation, perfectly centered pirouettes, nearly perfectly centered saut de basques, and enormous swinging scissones, with beautiful phrasing and subtleties of epaulement.

So if what you're saying is correct, it is disturbing. Perhaps the company has finally suceeded in destroying his equilibrium. Perhaps the latest humiliation, watching the rookie Skylarov debut Sunday night as Desire, a role he has rehearsed for two years, has been too much for him.

On the other hand, perhaps we do not have the same taste at all. Sometimes Scherbakov's arms are a little stiff and "Balanchinian" (But not as Albrecht.) This is part of his style but not everyone will like it. But I can't imagine him ever having a stiff neck because his epaulement is one of the most fluid and articulate in this company.

I also think Iosifidi is extraordinarily compelling as a Big Swan. I do not ask for compete uniformity of height among the Big Swans. And I completely disagree with you about the value of Vikharev's work.

But I DO agree with you about Samova!!

[snip]

I find her "Autobiography" very unreliable and not very honest, but

perhaps she really did not like the concept.

They had very little time to set the Balanchine program.

I believe Colleen Neary was working with Clifford on the staging a year ago.

Edited to eliminate what the poster knew was gossip at the time s/he posted.

I thought that Yuri Fateyev had some sort of supervisory position, but given the state of Four Temperaments, for which Fateyev is listed as the sole coach, either something has gone awry with his taste or he is simply deferring to Vasiev etc. and casting court favorites. Stupnikov in the Dancing Times has also mentioned that Fateyev is a possible choice for director, so who knows what games are being played. As in the past, the casting preferences of the Balanchine people are frequently ignored. I am waiting for the Trust to step in.

Gergiev may know nothing about ballet, but let's remember something, he saw what went onstage at the"Spectaculars" in Washington, he knows what the cast of this week's Tchaikovsky Festival is, and he may have just blown his top.

I know the literal translation of the school's title is "Choreographic Institute" even though it teaches dancing, but could it be that Gergiev is really referring this time to the lack of new choreographers and taking a shot across Grigorovich's bow, since G just moved in as adjunct prof. of choreograhy? Gergiev has already complained to the Washington Post and the Dancing Times about the lack of new choreographic talent being fostered by the company.

Wait a minute, I just read Gergiev's comment about 16-1/2 students. Ridiculous.

Re: the school: the problem is not the quality of students produced by the school --although some of the men's classes could be more vigorous -- but the foolish and exploitative way they are cast at the Kirov. Alexandra, you are so right!

When, as in Four Temperaments, one relay of infants is disastrously out of their depth, the company simply washes in another crew of whelps, and it makes sure that the experienced dancers don't get to do the roles they should, because experienced dancers have EMOTION, they have their own IDEAS, they are INDEPENDENT, and do more than simply what the coaches command. One character dancer I interviewed told me that he told an authority figure, "I don't dance for you, I dance for the audience!" The comment was not appreciated.

I am going to have to write for publication an assessment of the way the Kirov is currently under-performing in Balanchine, because it is outrageous, but no more so than what's going on in the rest of the repertory. Yet Balanchine was treated by them with somewhat more respect in the past.

The production was originally supposed to star Makarova and Vikulov, but reportedly they could not come to $ terms. Evteyeva was indeed much too young to do this, and Osipenko was Markovsky's near-exclusive partner already, but she was too much of an apostate in Soviet society to be featured in something so prominent. I'm sure ten years later Evteyeva would have been much more distinctive. She certainly is outstanding in the Pas de Quatre live from the Kirov.

And the Kirov plans to tour only the 1952 Sleeping Beauty to the US this fall -- the same production that was critically panned in 1989 and even in 1964 in the US.

I'm talking about the production, not the dancing. Nor was the staging well liked in London or Paris in 1961.

I think it's ridiculous for Homans to claim that the Kirov was trying to bring back Imperial style -- would anyone call Zakharova in Sleeping Beauty Imperial-esque???

When the Mariinsky was renovated in 1969 they performed at the various Palaces of Culture around town.

I heard that Skylarov gave a middling performance technically as Desire, and was unconvincing as an aristocrat. And now onto the Samova nightmare.

I agree with you, of course she would be worth seeing in it, or anything, for that matter. But when casting is as unlikely as this it has a bit of a provisional flavor about it; the management knows it can always switch the casting if it looks like it isn't going to work out. Remember we're talking three and four months from now.

We shall see!

I adore Part, but in all likelihood she will not be able to get through Ballet Imperial. They have may have cast her simply so she will get the chance to rehearse it and work on speed. I doubt she will really do it on stage. Of course Meunier should have gotten the chance. Meunier's pas de trois in Ballet Imperial was sensational. At least Meunier and Liceica are getting multiple performances of the pas de trois. Each was divine in it last year.

Right on, Natalia. Samova needs two years in the corp de ballet -- "and then we'll talk!"

When I saw her Swan Lake in London in 2000, she did them all to my amazement, and last year in New York they were quite impressive. Onstage she has a real ballerina's will of iron when it comes to attacking, if not always overcoming, technical challenge.

Speaking of pigs flying, there can be no question that the Kirov has become a company without shame. There is no artistic agenda anymore, only a political one, and a blind battle for power.

Last night, 18 or 19-year-old Vladimir Skylarov made his debut as Desire in Sleeping Beauty. This is a role that Vasili Scherbakov has rehearsed for two years. He is a decade older than Skylarov, and he is perfect for this part. He should have performed it five years ago. Once a year there is a rumor that he will actually perform it. Somehow it never happens. This is psychological torture to rival the Kirov in the days of Shelest and Osipenko.

The Kirov also stupidly cast 19-or-20-year-old Grigory Popov for a debut as Bluebird. Popov is a very short dancer with a great jump who could become a first-rate grotesque/demi-caractere dancer. But he cannot pirouette. He is described as a woodpecker, not a blue bird.

I think ABT has been absolutely right in not making Wiles principal: at the Met lat year she was outclassed by Meunier and Liceica in Ballet Imperial; her Raymonda was a near-disaster. Her extension and jump have actually decreased in the last two years. But her Odette/Odile was quite good for a debut. She is obviously very talented but has not made steady progress. This is one time where I think ABT has been wise not to jump the gun. Wiles' herself,

in the Time Out interview last year, seemed to admit as much. So I am very looking forward to seeing her at the Met this year and hopefully she is much improved. I really think Hallberg is not a strong enough partner for her, so now that she's dancing with older, more experienced men while he is injured she may be blossoming.

And I loathe the cuts! -- Above all to Aurora's Act 1 variation!!

[snip] Someone close to the company says many performances in St. P are now danced by the ensemble "with indifference."

There is a review of Part's Lilac Fairy at the Petersburg premiere of Vikharev's Beauty by Joel Lobenthal in the Spring 2000 issue of Ballet Review.

There is an article on Part, Dumchenko & Vishneva by Don Daniels in the Fall 1999 issue.

There is a review of Part in the Kirov's June 2000 London season by Lobenthal in the Winter 2000 issue.

There is an extensive discussion of Part with ABT by Daniels in the current, Winter 2004 issue.

I'd like to take credit for Natalia's vivid reporting of the Sleeping Beauty debacle, but I can't!

But your response to the casting instabilities is, as Marc indicates, the only sane one, Mireille.

I believe that it is now much more likely that we will see Part as Raymonda at the Met.

The on line affiche said she was doing it last summer but I don't know if she really did. No it was changed to reflect Gumerova and Pavlenko's appearances.

There's a great deal about Part in the latest Ballet Review, Winter 2004, in an article by Don Daniels.

Too bad you can't also link to the extensive discussions of Part at Ballet Review.

I have to disagree that Selutsky is the best. He is perhaps the best of the male coaches that Vasiev has allowed into the company.

You'll probably edit this, but ....

What needs to be mentioned, too, I'm sorry to say, is Sarafanov's sub par acting. I thought his acting was ludicrous in Swan Lake and La Bayadere. Selutsky should not have allowed him to go on stage in those roles. One drawback of the coaching system at the Kirov is that the coaches -- the proactive ones -- want their pupils on stage in anything and everything; the brand must simply be represented everywhere, every time.

I think it's time to realize that the Kirov's now routine policy with the graduates it considers outstanding is to immediately throw them into the most taxing roles in the repertory, e.g. Dmitri Simeonov dancing Solor in his first year in the company, etc. There isn't any slow grooming and that's a decided shift from the traditional policy. It has gone on for a while but it's now hardened into custom, with mixed results.