volcanohunter

I certainly never meant to imply that Japanese balletomanes are anything less than adoring and respectful. They tend to be pretty enthusiastic in New York, too. I'm sure that many people who attended Osta's final performance were seeing her for the first and last time, so naturally they would have had relatively little emotional investment in the occasion. After all, the POB had not visited New York in ages, and local audiences were discovering several generations of its dancers at the same time. Tokyo is different because the POB and its individual dancers have visited more regularly, so I don't doubt that Dupont, Letestu and Ciaravola all have devoted fans there.

Just the other day Vladimir Medinsky announced that the Moscow Ballet School would soon begin construction on an additional building, including a dormitory--primarily to accommodate foreign students--and a swimming pool. While he was at it, he mentioned that the Vaganova dorm was also in need of reconstruction and renovation, to begin at the end of 2014. http://riarealty.ru/news/20131101/401709574.html?fb_action_ids=534706903286978

It's an interesting phenomenon. You would think they would rather give their final performances for their home audience, which would naturally have the strongest sense of attachment to these dancers. I saw Osta's last Giselle, and while the response of the audience was very warm, I'm sure it was only a pale reflection of the send-off she had received in Paris. It was certainly less animated than some of the farewells of New York-based dancers that I'd seen. Nevertheless, I'm sure the tour will be very emotional for everyone--dancers and audience.

Turns out there are geo-blocks.

Dupont is scheduled to give two more performances of the ballet in Tokyo in March. Agnès Letestu is also scheduled to give her last POB performance there, just as Clairemarie Osta gave her final performance on tour in New York rather than in Paris. http://www.nbs.or.jp/english/contents/schedule/ballet-de-lopera-national-de-paris-la-dame-aux-camelias/

The performance will be streamed live at 8 p.m. Paris time, or 2 p.m. Eastern. http://www.medici.tv/#!/lang-lang-dance-project

Most interviewees have mentioned that Mariinsky-II has a single ballet studio.

The second day in court did not seem to reveal much that was new, except that during the investigation the apartment of Batyr Annadurdyev, in whose car Dmitrichenko had been the night of the attack, was searched, but nothing incriminating was found. According to medical documents, as of April Filin had 0.2% vision in his left eye, and while his injuries were not life-threatening, it was deemed that he had lost 35% of his capacity to work [don't really know what that means], which qualified him as a victim of grievous bodily harm. A group of Bolshoi dancers was present to support Dmitrichenko, but they did not fit into the courtroom overcrowded with journalists and had to wait outside. http://izvestia.ru/news/559906

If the contracts of "pro-rectors" expire automatically when the rector leaves his post, it would not necessarily follow that all instructors would find themselves in that boat. According to the Russian version of the Academy's web site, the school has six vice-rectors: Altynai Asylmuratova (artistic director), Alexei Fomkin (pedagogy and methodology), Tatiana Golovina (academic, educational and social work), Vyacheslav Isakov (research and development), Galina Taupeko (administration) and Olga Abramova (international relations). http://www.vaganova.ru/page.php?id=20&pid=19

Now we find out how good Tsiskaridze is at diplomacy.

After many critical appraisals of Tsiskaridze's appointment, Yulia Makhalina has given him her support. "I fully and completely support Kolya, because I know that he is fanatically devoted to art, very educated and demanding of himself, and his service to Terpsichore cannot be doubted for a second." She also added: "The appointment of Tsiskaridze was the government's decision, right? If the government appointed Kolya, then it knows what it's doing." However, she is also struck by the sudden nature of the change, and disagrees with the decision to replace Asylmuratova with Lopatkina in light of the fact that Lopatkina is still performing actively. She refuses to venture a guess about whether the Vaganova staff will vote to approve Tsiskaridze's appointment, but she believes they ought to assist him rather than going to war against him. http://izvestia.ru/news/559897

The Lang Lang Dance project, featuring music by Chopin, choreographed by Stanton Welch and performed by Houston Ballet, will be streamed live from Paris on Monday, November 4 on Medici TV. It appears that the broadcast may not available for later viewing on demand. I'm also not 100% sure about the start time because of the North American time change kicking in the day before. http://www.medici.tv/#!/lang-lang-dance-project http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/lang-lang-dance-poject-sons-de-lame-au-tce-144383 http://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/recital-et-musique-de-chambre/recital-musique-de-chambre/lang-lang-dance-project

This time about Tsiskaridze as teacher, with lots of references to Semionova.

Again, no subtitles, but here is Tsiskaridze on Semionova.

No subtitles, but here is Tsiskaridze on Pestov. Part 1 of the feature is here:

He was, though once he began working at the Bolshoi Theater, he was taken under the wing of Marina Semionova. His coach was Nikolai Fadeyechev.

The final performance is also scheduled to be streamed live on Medici TV, though no direct link is available yet. http://www.medici.tv/#!/live/to-come/

It's the performance from 2011. The Bolshoi will not be performing The Sleeping Beauty again until February 2014.

It's probably worth noting that the presiding judge in the case, Elena Maksimova, was on the panel of judges that sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovsky to prison, and that in all the years that she has served on the bench at the Meshchansky District Court, she has never returned a not-guilty verdict: 150 convictions, zero acquittals, one dismissal. Whatever the merits of this case, I don't think a fair trial was ever in the cards. Dmitrichenko probably realizes that he is going down, so he is going down swinging. http://izvestia.ru/news/558639

[Admin note: the posts about the trial have been split from the Sergei Filin Attacked thread.] Day one of the trial. Sergei Filin was not present on account of returning to Germany for additional medical treatment. This is slightly odd timing considering that the Bolshoi Ballet is just under a week away from a major premiere. The prosecution contends that the defendants spent at least three months organizing the attack, Pavel Dmitrichenko buying black-market mobile phones and SIM-cards for communication purposes, Yuri Zarutsky boiling down battery acid to make it more concentrated. For his part Dmitrichenko denied being part of a conspiracy. He also said that he had been unaware of Zarutsky's criminal record. Dmitrichenko read out a lengthy opening statement, but the part that, not surprisingly, caught the press' attention was his accusation that Filin demanded sexual favors from young female dancers in exchange for roles. In particular Dmitrichenko named Olga Smirnova as one such dancer. Alleged attacker Zarutsky partially admitted his guilt, but insisted that the other two men were not involved. Alleged driver Andrei Lipatov denied involvement. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-bolshoi-ballet-acid-attack-trial-20131029,0,3472794.story#axzz2jBShfxS1 http://izvestia.ru/news/559756#ixzz2j8FNLL5h http://www.mk.ru/social/justice/article/2013/10/29/937867-sergeya-filina-obvinili-v-intimnyih-otnosheniyah-s-artistkami.html?fb_action_ids=668319123199690&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[239767376181747]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[]

From an interview with Vladimir Medinsky: http://izvestia.ru/news/559614 The official handover was apparently less than smooth. Lopatkina was not present because she is currently on the road. Dorofeeva was crying. At one point a number of Vaganova staff and students walked into the room and there was a bit of confusion, after which Medinsky asked the press to leave. http://izvestia.ru/news/559670

The performance is available for viewing on demand, but only until October 31. http://www.medici.tv/#!/alan-gilbert-new-york-philharmonic-stravinsky-a-dancer-s-dream

A digest version of the Dutch National Ballet's 2013 opening gala is available for viewing on demand. For now I'm not being geo-blocked. Watch it while you can. http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1375883 Défilé Grand Pas Classique, abbreviated adage and coda Jurgita Dronina and Mathias Heymann Ssss Marijn Rademaker Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, variations and coda Remi Wörtmeyer and Maia Makhateli Overture ensemble Variations for Two Couples Igone de Jongh and Josef Varga Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding Lollapalooza junior company Five Tangos, variation Vito Mazzeo In Light & Shadow Larissa Lezhnina and Artur Shesterikov Don Quixote pas de deux, variations and coda Matthew Golding and Anna Tsygankova complete program http://www.het-ballet.nl/media/library/2013/09/Gala_PB_web.pdf

It appears he returned to the Stanislavsky Theater with a promotion. He is scheduled to dance the part of Bratfisch in MacMillan's Mayerling on November 8 and 9, having recently danced the Bronze Idol in the company's new La Bayadère on October 18, 19 and 21. http://stanmus.com/person/1012

For now it appears the Russian government has put the kibosh on Gergiev's grand plan to merge the Mariinsky Theater, the Vaganova Academy, the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the Russian Institute of the History of the Arts. However, Gergiev continues to push for the merger of the Mariinsky and the Vaganova Academy. According to Gergiev's press secretary, he is unhappy with the dancers being trained at the Academy and believes that the school is not meeting the theater's needs. "Today the Mariinsky company includes stars of the first magnitude, such as Diana Vishneva and Ulyana Lopatkina; this is not about them, but rather about a systematic approach and forming a sound basis for the emergence of new names in the future. This requires serious work, on which Valery Gergiev insists." The Vaganova Academy counters that Gergiev has not specified the source of his dissatisfaction and notes: "Our graduates make up 98% of the Mariinsky Ballet. This means that Valery Gergiev is dissatisfied with his entire ballet troupe. If our graduates are so badly trained, why are they taken into the company in such numbers?" The school believes this is really about something else, namely that the Mariinsky-2 is poorly equipped with ballet studios, and in the event of the closure of the main theater for renovations, the Mariinsky Ballet will wish to commandeer the Vaganova Academy's studios for its own use. http://izvestia.ru/news/559481 The Academy has published a long open letter on the matter. Among other things, its signatories object to the fact that consultations on the issue are being conducted with Nikolai Tsiskaridze, whose connection to the Mariinsky is minimal, and Irina Kolpakova, who has lived and worked abroad for more than two decades. They note with concern the tendency of many Vaganova graduates to choose to work in companies other than the Mariinsky, and also the falling standards of the Mariinsky Ballet. But that, they say, may be a result of the difficult conditions in which the Mariinsky's repetiteurs work. http://www.vaganova.ru/page.php?id=265&pid=265&level=1