Ostrich

I have an opportunity to see Oleg Kharyutkin in Swan Lake. I've seen the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre before, but not Oleg Kharyutkin, and since the standard of the male dancing was not remarkably high last time I saw them, I'd appreciate some insights about this dancer. Is he worth going to see (the tickets are a bit too expensive to just risk it)?

Is it usual for the supporting cast to be largely the same night after night? Surely someone else would deserve a turn and I can't imagine that the Mariinsky has only one cast worthy of dancing in the Festival...

BTW Alexandrova and Korsuntsev have also made it onto YouTube by now.

Very interesting, thank you! Actually I love the way she brings her arms up into fifth on her fouettes.

I admire loyalty but I think it is hard to support a company which gets such a review from a respected critic (not a website wannabe) Mr Johnson says "It's hard to know who should be more ashamed -- the impresario, Columbia Artists Management or local presenters -- for trying to swindle audiences by linking this garbage to the finest in Russian ballet."

I haven't seen their Carmen. If it is the one-act version created for Pliesetskaya, I can imagine that it wasn't well received. It generally seems to get very unfavourable reviews in the west, no matter what company performs it. However that may be, with the last part of Mr Johnsonson's statement I can't agree. The St Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre is part of the "finest in Russian ballet" as far as I'm concerned. Certainly they are in no way inferior to the travelling troops that the Bolshoi sends around (I'm not talking about the full-season, all-star casting that places like London get). I'd love to ask Mr Johnson in what way they failed to meet this standard.

BTW, I don't know if I just couldn't access the rest of Mr Johnson's review, but his arguments seem to be entirely unsubstantiated. He describes the production as "teeth-grindingly awful". In what way? Choreography? Decor? Dancing? Casting? Unless there is more to this, I'm not taking what he says on faith.

I like your perspective, vagansmom. Many of her comments certainly appear in a different light when read in context.

I wonder why, if the Yacobsen company are so good, they only play arts centres and colleges ? Iknow the Tachkin company plays major cities and venues, with an orchestra so I guess they are in a higher league.

Don't forget that it is often publicity and spending power that makes all the difference in where a company is able to perform.

Also, I learned that the SPSABT has just been renamed "Yakobsen Ballet" back home in Russia.

Glad to hear it. Also happy to read your review - I fell in love with this company first time I saw them!

Two couples that haven't been mentioned yet whose performances certainly seem/ed to benefit from their offstage relationship: Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev, as well as Alina Cojocaru and Johann Kobborg.

And one that didn't: Asylmuratova and Zaklinsky (or is that just me?)

You're in for a bi-i-ig treat! Persuasion is possibly my favourite Austen novel. It always kills me to think it was also her last one. If that's the way her writing was progressing, what might future novels have been like ?!? In fact I read the beginning of her unfinished last novel (Sanditon, I think). I became fully engrossed in it within minutes. It is much darker. She seemed to be progressing towards a more "tragic" atmosphere (although I believe Austen stated that she intended it to have a happy ending).

I have been searching for more info on Burlaka. I find him mentioned in articles on the Bolshoi's Le Corsaire reconstruction, where he is described variously as being a ballet master, a notation specialist, Ratmansky's "assistant", a ballet historian, a specialist for classical choreography and a Petipa scholar. Probably all these descriptions apply to some degree, but I would appreciate some more concrete info (of which I have only what Marc said, about him being a classmate of Ratmansky and an expert in ballet reconstruction).

Has he danced himself? Where has he principally been working before he collaborated with Ratmansky? How much experience has he had in directing?

"Yeah, thanks for thinking of me, but I kinda like dancing in the back. Why don't you promote her over there?"

A few reasons I can think of for the non-promotion of dancers from the corps would be:

1. No reason at all. Bad luck/oversight.

2. Adequate technique for corps work, but no further potential/development.

3. "Early bloomer" - shows lots of promise as a student but slacks off once accepted into a company.

4. Reaches emotional or technical plateau. I have often wondered about Ekaterina Shipulina of the Bolshoi. She seems a magnificent dancer - I am quite unable to take my eyes off her in some roles (lilac fairy, queen of the dryads), but her progress up the ranks looks like it has stopped at first soloist.

5. Emotionally too highly strung to cope with solo/principal roles (seriously, I have seen this happen to students, at any rate, more often than one would think. Lovely in class, or in a group, but put them on stage alone and they fall apart).

If the Jacobson company is the older one, then who is actually using whose name? If I'm right the only difference in name is that Tatchkin's company is know as the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre and the Jacobson company as the St Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre. Isn't Tatchkin's company "riding" on the older companies name (ironically it seems to be working the other way now, with Irina Kolesnikova's fame boosting the Jacobson company!)?

the Bolshoi has managed to modernize its extensions and atheleticism without sacrificing taste

That is a good way of putting it. And I agree, the Bolshoi seems to keep clear of the shocking lapses of taste that so many other Russian companies show. I trust, though, that a large degree of credit goes to the teachers there, and that the change of director won't impact this too much.

And unless a miracle happens, once again we will find ourselves on the provincial edges.

I remember a lot of pessimism when Ratmansky was due to start his term at the Bolshoi. I hope that we'll be able to look back in a few years and say that these concerns were just as ill-founded!

Doesn't work for me, unfortunately. I get the message "Not...andwidth", which I presume means "Not enough bandwidth". I've got broadband, though!

I've recently watched videos on YouTube posted by ilyaballet, some of which show dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy (apparently his own pupils). I am confused. Is this the same as the Moscow Choreographic Institute?

The director of the upcoming Li Cunxin has just published in Australia a children's book. The illustrated picture book is called The Peasant Prince. Perhaps in a few months it will be available in a U.S. edition?

I have just seen this book on my last visit to the bookshop - very well illustrated, I thought, and one of the few ballet books for young children around that will appeal to boys!

over a century after many of Marius Petipa's pieces were choreographed, dancers still struggle with the pure technique of the ballets.

I recently read an interview with Natalia Osipova regarding her Giselle - I can't seem to find it again now that I want to post a link to it - in which she states that in her performance of Giselle she went back to the more "original" choreography in some places which had been abandoned or changed because it was considered too difficult (for which she was apparently criticized, the audience being under the impression that she'd made it up). This backs up the point canbelto mentioned.

I think one mustn't forget that even if you could "measure" all the different aspects of ballet, audiences will never be free from the influence of the familiar. I mean that to an audience used to seeing extesnsions not higher than 90 degrees, today's dancers would look shocking, painful, not to mention indecent. But a modern audience, accustomed to high extensions, will see the dancers of 100 years ago as dreadfully restricted in movement. That's not to say that either the one or the other is "better". It depends on what you are used to what you like and how these extensions, regardless of their hight, are used.

Of course I could have used a different example. Shoulders, for example. A great barrier, for me, to enjoying dancers of the past (I know, I know, you can't really judge from film footage, but still) are those horrible raised shoulders. Ulanova uses them a lot and incorporates them into her acting. To me it looks stiff, inelegant and, frankly, affected (although I am a big admirer of Ulanova in other ways). But I'm sure people who saw Ulanova would disagree.

I wondered what the dancers were doing

Um..praying, maybe? :blush:

A very interesting point. Especilly Alexandrova has seen "her" repertoire encroached upon by Osipova, I think. And I'm delighted to hear she will be doing Aurora - she should excell at that!

I love that troupe, although I'm a bit sorry that they have set-aside the true gems of their repertoire -- the Yakobsen oeuvre -- when touring

I remember seeing them perform a piece called "Illusions" and wonder now if it was one of Jacobson's or not (They also performed some choreography by Petukhov). It is a pas de deux with the woman's costume in Balinese style. The choreography shifted cleverly to and fro, leaving you guessing about which dancer was having "illusions" until at the end I was fully convinced that the person having illusions was myself!

It's sexist to insist that all women be this way or to take those qualities as an excuse for patriarchy, but I don't think it's sexist to have a taste for one over the other in ballet, no more than it is to prefer Martha Graham to, say, what Patricia McBride might have looked like in Graham roles.

That is well put.

And I hope the Lavrovsky R&J comes back into the repertoire soon. Maybe it's more likely to be revived once the Bolshoi moves back into the big theatre?

Why is strong technique and physical strength in a female dancer somehow deemed to be 'masculine'? Frankly I find that rather a sexist assumption.

Ballet is out-and-out sexist, I'm afraid. Why put ballerinas in tutus? Why make them dance on pointe? Why expect them to hide their powerful technique behind the air of fragility and delicacy?

I understand what previous posters mean when they remark that Alexandrova and Osipova have a "masculinity" about their dancing. That's not to say they are masculine, just not what we normally expect from ballerinas in romantic/classical ballets. In Alexandrova's case I think this comes about because of her commanding presence and maybe also because her arms aren't as long and quite as beautifully shaped as those of other Bolshoi ballerinas (although she puts them to their full use and can be surprisingly lyrical with them).

Osipova posesses a delightful girlish air, so I can only imagine it is her powerful technique and (comparatively) short/stocky figure that gives makes her more "masculine" than other ballerinas. And hey, there's nothing wrong with that! I get very tired of seeing the "dying swan" types all the time!

Thanks, a fascinating interview.

You showed a very naturalistic heart attack, and your mad scene was truly frightening…

I received four text messages during the intermission, one of them from my mother. They were all asking if I was alright.

Indeed, just seeing it on YouTube made a great impression on me.