Helene

I thought Nureyev was interested in Bruhn not only because of the Bournonville technique, but also because of Vera Volkova's influence on the RDB. Did Boal say Balanchine was satirizing classical elements in the "Square Dance" solo? I don't think there's anything in the music or the movement that suggests this.

The US does not allow a citizen to choose to become stateless. Since she's not a Russian citizen, and hasn't claimed to be a citizen of anywhere else, she could not renounce her US citizenship. Russia allows dual citizenship in any case; were she to become a Russian citizenship, she could retain her US citizenship. Again, she doesn't claim she wasn't paid for the contract she signed; she claimed too much tax was withheld. She claimed that she did informal extra work for no pay, but nothing for which she expected payment.

If Americans stop going to the Bolshoi school, then perhaps the "warning" is meaningful, but the situation of other Americans who've been successful at the Bolshoi tells another story. If the fired employee is in the right. There's no proof that Ms. Womack was right in this situation, because she offers no proof of her accusations. It is a claim. Who threatened or "threatened" her and what they said would elucidate whether she understood what was said more than she understood her position in the company, what the feedback that said she was unable to fit into the corps meant, or anything else she was told. In any case, she spoke to the press and continues to speak to the press; threatening her, if it happened was not successful, but I don't know why they bothered, since her credibility in Russia is nil. Filin's lawyer reserved the right to sue *after* she had made her statement to Izvetsia, in which she claimed she was not going to speak about it anymore. I don't see anyone saying that any dancer should have to have sex or give money for parts, directly or indirectly. It is the Russians' company as far as casting, typecasting, assessment of talent, promotions, touring, and advancement, just like you or I don't have a vote at NYCB or ABT. It's their taste and judgement, and the idea that all the swans must look alike is hardly specific to Russia: one look around the companies in the world outside Dance Theatre of Harlem shows that regardless of country. I don't see NYCB or ABT being any less dictatorial, even if the AD's present more Americanized attitudes. The Russian employment practices may change if there is social change within the country, if their practices lose them students and dancers -- the pipeline has been Mariinsky to Bolshoi, so I don't see that happening soon -- if someone goes to the UN, and the UN intervenes, in other words, if there is an actual whistleblower, not an unhappy ex-employee. In fact, I said that Womack's situation is hardly unique only in there have been dancers of all ranks in the Bolshoi whose contracts have not been terminated even though they are rarely cast. She was not told to file a formal complaint about non-payment. She did not make a complaint about non-payment: she complained that too much withholding tax was taken from her paycheck, i.e., she was paid for the performances listed in her contract, without being issued a Russian tax ID. Urin addressed this and said the theater had handled it poorly. She claims to have done additional unpaid side performances for the experience, but that was her choice Urin told her to go to the authorities about the criminal accusations she made concerning bribery. She isn't accusing anyone in the theater of making improper sexual advances: she accused a potential sponsor. Could NYCB prevent a CEO of a company from making the same offer to a ballerina in the company? She complains she was told that she would have to pay for roles, which implicates employees of the theater and theater management (if only if their oversight capacity) in criminal activity. Even in 21st Century Russia, that behavior is technically criminal, or Urin wouldn't have told her to go to the police with her claim.

Snowden's situation is off-limits to discussion on Ballet Alert!, as it is a political issue that has nothing to do with ballet. Womack did not flee to Russia to escape the consequences of whistle-blowing elsewhere. If anything, the more dire consequences of her interviews would be expected to be in Russia.

She said she left because she would not use her body or her money to get parts. She did not claim that she never received payment for her contract. In fact, she said she was paid, but that 30% withholding was taken from it. She said she did unpaid, unofficial work because she thought it would get her exposure in parts. Many young dancers from NYCB gained invaluable one-on-one coaching and experience for taking part in Jacques d'Amboises little tours. (I've never heard these were unpaid, but they likely paid only a small amount, given the venues where they performed.) You can laugh all you want, but it's always been an effective strategy. Complaining does not make what she said true, either, although I personally don't doubt that a prospective sponsor offered her whatever influence he had in exchange for sex, that a person she respected told her that she needed to pay for parts, although how serious this person is and whether that person was correct is questionable, that she was told to learn to survive in the company by observing/asking how the other dancers did it, or that she was told she was stylistically and (on stage) temperamentally unsuited to be in the corps. She said she was pressured, but doesn't give details. Pressure is not always coercion: it is often a warning that a person is going down the wrong path for his or her own good. She wrote on Twitter and re-confirmed in an Izvetsia interview before Filin's attorney said a thing. She spoke before she said she was pressured, not in response to pressure not to speak, at least according to the official news on record. No, she said she wouldn't name the person out of respect. At least one of the articles in Links identifies this person as a director, but never states that Womack said this. I think it's a safe assumption that if she still respected the person, it was not the person who was collecting money for parts, if that is even true. Since there's no context, it isn't clear whether this was a cynical comment made to her, since she didn't follow up.

"Of course" the hospital *would* tamper with witnesses is an absurd generalization. I said there was no reason to fire her. (That's what you quoted.) There is not a strong relationship between them not giving out roles and firing dancers. As she was on a contract, they simply could have left her contract lapse had they wanted. She claims to have left. One of the articles in Links insists she was fired. The company hasn't addressed her claims or made a statement. The Bolshoi has not used either of the PR strategies you've proposed.

It can't, because sexual harassment, pressure to have sex for roles, voluntarily having sex for roles, and being pressured to have sex with sponsors is almost entirely invisible to the outside world, and so is nearly every way management enforces, doesn't enforece, or directly violates its own policy or ignores what happens under their watch. We only know about it if someone sues or is brought to court, as happened to a Ballet Arizona dancer, who was raped by his sponsor for his education in Russia. The case was covered fairly extensively in the media during the trial. The racial composition of companies and who is cast in what role are transparent. There's no conjecture about who is actually dancing.

We from the US may know that it's wrong to tell someone to rid themselves of their skin color, but perhaps we might look at the lack of opportunity and employment for black dancers in the US before thinking so poorly of Russia, even if nothing is said directly to black dancers in the US.

If someone accuses a person or institution of having a felony, does that person or institution not have the right to use every legal remedy to dispute it? If a thug came to her door, that would be illegal means. If a person called and said, "I will call every artistic director in the world and have you blacklisted," in most places that would be illegal. If someone called her and took her aside and said, "Wrong way to do things in the business world," or "You can forget any good recommendation from me, since I won't be tainted by any association with you." that is well within their rights, and she can take it any way she chooses. There was no reason for the Bolshoi to fire her: she's hardly unique in that regard. Filin gave her an option: figure it out for yourself and make yourself useful and fit in, but don't come running to him to fix it. (He has a few other fish to fry, like trying to see again, and trying to re-establish a place for himself.) She had an option to use her time wisely and spin her leave for positive reasons. That, of course, would not have stopped her from cooperationg in a future investigation or writing her tell-all book, doing her tell-all interview for NYT Magazine, selling her story for a screenplay, or going on 60 Minutes like Gelsey Kirkland. It wouldn't have stopped her from warning people (semi) privately -- her Virginia talk was low-key and became public because Kiem wrote about it -- or talking to every American in the school. It would have allowed her to establish her professional and personal credibility elsewhere. She doesn't lose credibility by exposing crimes: she loses credibility by inconsistent statements, unrealistic expectations, deleting tweets, and expecting to drop a bomb and run. In the Dmitrichenko trial, Annadurdyev may have been telling the truth on the stand, but he was not a credible witness, at least by press reports. (The judge may later beg to differ and state that she based her ruling on his statements in court.). If witnesses aren't credible, why should the public believe them when there is something for them to gain? And, yes, accusing an unidentified party of taking bribes is accusing someone of a crime. That's why Urin told her to go to the police with her accusations. Accusing management of a government controlled institution of condoning criminal activity could be accusing someone of a crime.

Whose investment? The school got her tuition, and the Bolshoi artistic management didn't cast her, and she's burned her bridges with the company. Her parents don't seem to have much sway: they couldn't talk her out of a sham marriage, which was like buying medicinal tonic from a turn-of-the-century magazine ad. The teachers and coaches who invested their time in her and believed in her know how the system works: her accusations are ultimately meaningless -- there's nothing new in them, and they're not from anyone who is credible in Russia -- and if they were invested in her success, they knew how she could extricate herself without burning bridges. As far as being intimidated by Filin's attorney, after saying that she wasn't going to talk about it anymore (to Izvetsia), she's spoken to the NYT, the LA Times, and to Elizabeth Kiem, as well as to a small public group in Virginia. To say, why care now, my career's ruined, that's a short-term, irrational reaction without a basis in reality: she already has another gig in Russia. There was nothing to stop her from saying, "it's all in the Izvetsia statement. No further comment." There's nothing she's said since that enhances her credibility. As far as social media is concerned, there are effective means of self-promotion, which she used to bolster the "first" category, which isn't even factual, and there is attacking one's employer and reneging, which is a black mark in the social media world. The other thing about social media self-promotion is that performances had better back up claims. Self-promotion may get performers opportunities, but they don't do the singing, dancing, etc. I think that's different than being the person quoted in the media, because no publicity is considered bad, and that could be catnip to a company that would get immediate press attention by hiring her. She could have left the Bolshoi and gotten a job with another company, given her credentials, where all of her self-promotion in social media would have been swallowed up by the press, and she returned to the US, it would have been the "Coming home in triumph" story. Even if she had left to go to a smaller Russian company, where it would have hardly raised comment in the Bolshoi -- she's not that important -- it would have been a story to follow in LA, especially with supportive quotes from teachers/coaches who were pulling for her. There was nothing pushing her out of the Bolshoi while she looked for something else: she could have made her $500/mo and continued to be ignored while she worked her connections for another job. She made herself vulnerable by speaking to the press in the first place: to say that she needed the press' attention to protect herself is a circular argument. Credibility is th most important thing if she spoke to help other people. If every accusation she's made is true and the behavior is indemic in the theater, it helps no one when the person speaking is dismissed as not credible. It's been clear what a mockery they've made of Volochkova, and she isn't a 19-year-old from another culture. It bolsters the other side.

From the LA Times article on Shannon,

From Kopatkova's interview about the Tsiskaridze appointment as Rector of the Vaganova Academy in Ismene Brown's blog:

A school teacher's contract is likely to be different than a dancer's contract, although I've worked for companies with pensions and various stock schemes, and parental leave -- as opposed to the period defined as medical leave and possibly disability leave -- stops vesting and matching contributions, just as periods of not working affect Social Security calculations. MacKenzie's comment about not paying anyone more than the maximum reminds me of Beverly Sills' comment that she didn't negotiate her fees: she would only take the highest fee on the scale, whatever that was.

I don't think she should be given a free ride on this one. The Twitter thing, plenty of people have done, and plenty of people her age treat social media casually and make their mistakes in public on it. Interviews with Izvetsia, after which she said she'd no longer talk about it, then NYT, LA Times, and Elizabeth Kiem are not the blow-ups of a 19-year-old. She made allegations that she expected to walk away from, and she involves more and more people in each interview. At this point, she owns it, regardless of any wishes or regrets.

From Ismene Brown's blog, an Izvestia interview with Irina Kopakova in support of Tsiskaridze: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/11/21_Kolpakova_backs_Tsiskaridze%2C_anti_his_rivals.html

Today Ismene Brown posted a summary and translation of Izvestia's longer report on Iksanov's testimony: http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2013/11/21_Trial_day_8__Iksanov_testifies_%28another_report%29.html

When I was 20 and traveling in Europe, I was offered money for a sham marriage to bring someone home to the US. Now the advice is online, and much of it is bogus. (There are excellent peer-run immigration forums that spend most of their time debunking the myths and old info.) If Womack wanted to stay in Russia, she could have gotten all kinds of advice easily. A sham marriage could have been one of the suggestions to bypass years of applications and red tape. It would have been a demographic oddity for me to bring home a foreign-born husband at 20, even then, but it's not for a young Russian. For all that dancers are taught to shut up and be obedient, it's hard to imagine becoming a professional dancer without being equally driven and headstrong.

Welcome to Ballet Alert! seniordancer! We hope you find things on our site to fill in some of the gaps. I'd recommend listening to the Ballet Initiative podcast with Linda Hamilton, who talks about the changes since she was a dancer at NYCB (Linda Homek), and how she went to college and most of graduate school during her dance career. She earned a PhD a couple of years after she stopped dancing. To see how training has (or hasn't) changed, you'd find plenty of information at our sister site, Ballet Talk for Dancers, which requires separate registration. There's a link to "BT4D" on the menu bar under our logo.

Once again, this misrepresents the arguments made here. No one is arguing that she quit because she wasn't being given solo roles or that she didn't want to do corps work, even as a last resort. Her place as a small fish in a big pond is brought up to show how naive and unreasonable her expectations were and to show how little she seems to have listened and observed during her four years in Russia. She chooses to make statements to the press that reinforce this conclusion and speak to her credibility. She has every right to want a good, positive working environment in which she dances a lot, is appreciated, and progresses. She has every right to leave an environment that is toxic. That doesn't obligate the Bolshoi to be the environment she wants it to be to fit her dreams, any more than it would NYCB, RDB, POB, or any other big institution, where careers stagnate and dreams dissolve on a regular basis.

It is not true that she never expressed dissatisfaction with dancing in the corps, because when she went for advice, the advice was for getting prominent parts. She didn't reply, "But I want corps roles, not $10/K per solo roles." She wanted to be in the corps rather than dance nothing. That is a lament of just about every soloist who has been on the record: not being given solos and not allowed (back) into corps roles. The Bolshoi is not a 30-50-dancer-sized company where soloists have to dance senior corps roles just to put the ballets on stage. She quotes "them" as to why they didn't want her to be in the corps: she didn't fit the role in their estimation. It's their company; they get to make that judgement call. They could make it on the basis of her line, that she emoted too much, and her dancing didn't meld into the group -- pretty much the "Chorus Line" corrections the Director gives Cassie -- or they could make it on the basis of her enthusiasm, which was a cultural misfit from the start. She says nothing about trying to take that feedback and adjusting her dancing to fit their specs. Filin, whom she claimed she wouldn't speak about, told her to "talk to the other dancers and find out how it works here and what is the best way for you to be here." She had no obligation to fit in culturally or learn and follow the group norms, and she left to join a smaller company in Russia. (She's confirmed that, only not which one.). She thinks the problem is with them, and they need to change their attitude, a bigger indicator that she thought much more highly of her place than even expecting important roles. They begged to differ.

I think the most important point she makes is about dancers when they explore new fields for their post-performing life. Many people have spoken about how hard it is to find something they love as much as dance, but she speaks about the difficulty of dealing with false starts along the way.

A quote from the LA Times article: That will go over well, I'm sure.

The network has announced: It will be called "Flesh and Bone" It will be created, written, and produced by "Breaking Bad" writer/co-producer Moira Walley-Beckett Ethan Stiefel will consult and choreograph In supporting roles will be former ABT Principal Irina Dvorovenko, ABT's Sascha Radetsky, and Ballet Arizona's Raychel Diane Weiner The producers are an interesting and ballet-deep bunch:

Ismene Brown has two blog entries: the first reported that Iksanov did not appear in court because he never received a summons to go to court, and he thinks reports that he was nowhere to be found, when he was in fact at home, were meant to discredit him. The second is about Iksanov's testimony in court, where he backtracked from earlier statements he made about Dmitrichenko and Filin's relationship, claiming second-hand knowledge. His earlier statements were read in court as a response. Iksanov also directly denied Dmitrichenko's claims about threatening staff and extorting money.

Welcome to Ballet Alert! Kinsburygirl! We're glad you've rediscovered your love of ballet and have found us. We'd love to hear about ballet you see in the cinema: North American coverage of the Royal Ballet in HD has been spotty.