volcanohunter
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Posts posted by volcanohunter
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I have no personal interest whatsoever in Maria Khoreva as a dancer or as a person.
(In matters Vaganova/Kirov/neo-Mariinsky I have been a heretic since childhood. And when I sat down to figure out why I had found so many outings to the ballet in recent years unsatisfying, I realized I didn't enjoy Russian ballerinas. Perhaps 95% of them.)
If Khoreva is posting on Instagram, and if YouTube should be blocked in Russia and she continues posting there regardless, then she probably has foreign help with her social media, although presumably she is still providing the material via email or a cloud.
My impressions from interactions with artists from the fSU, especially musicians and dancers, who begin specialized training early in life, is that their general education is poor. Their understanding of the natural sciences in particular tends to be abysmal. This is not to say that they are necessarily stupid, obviously.
Khoreva differs from most 21 year olds in Saint Petersburg in that, pandemic notwithstanding, she has already traveled the world, knows many people abroad and has worked extensively with foreigners. She should be able to distinguish between caricatures of the outside world and what she has seen for herself. I think this is why Ratmansky expected better of his Russian colleagues.
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The continued importation of foreign shoes is another thing I've been wondering about. Gaynor Minden now manufactures its shoes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (and I've certainly seen my share of online complaints about how the shoes have changed for the worse). Presumably those could still be exported via Serbia. But Freeds or Blochs?
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9 hours ago, Drew said:
Challenged on the fact that he himself didn't stop working in Russia after they annexed Crimea--a challenge made in comments on Instagram written in response to his post--Ratmansky himself responded
This is an interesting question, and I hope a journalist will ask Ratmansky about it in greater detail. He did condemn Russia's actions at the time and was critical of Tsiskaridze and the others. But he didn't withdraw his repertoire, in the interim he would have signed new contracts granting Russian companies the rights to perform his works, and eventually he began visiting Russia again to stage his ballets. I was actually surprised his works continued to be performed, since he was overtly critical of the regime. Yet this spring alone he had two evening-length premieres planned there. Why didn't he feel uncomfortable about that? Did he really believe that ballet could exist in some rarefied, conflict-free bubble of international understanding? Was he shocked to discover that some (many?) of his Russian colleagues inwardly hated his kind?
I can understand why he left Moscow so abruptly. He also had his Kazakh-American designer and American lighting designer to consider. Circumstances have changed dramatically. Last weekend the Bolshoi gave its final performances of The Bright Stream. In April it will perform Flames of Paris for the last time. His production of Giselle won't be seen again for the foreseeable future. I hope the National Ballet of Canada can retrieve its production of Romeo and Juliet. (If not, I won't object to the return of Cranko's version.
)
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Perhaps Ratmansky does not wish to seem to be engaging in polemics with Baryshnikov, with whom he really has no dispute.
1 hour ago, pherank said:Perhaps many of these people thought that signing a letter of support was merely an act of rah-rah patriotism, necessary to keep in the government's good graces, but lending one's support to an illegal military action* is going to have consequences. And should.
At the time, there were no consequences. The foreign engagements of Gergiev, Zakharova, Ivan Vasiliev, Matsuev, Bashmet, Spivakov et al. continued as before, although protesters began to appear at venues where they were performing. Ukrainians were paying attention, and I remember that some performances scheduled in Ukraine were promptly called off. The directors of practically all major theaters, museums, libraries and arts education institutions in Russia signed; no doubt it was expected. Vladimir Urin signed, but Tugan Sokhiev and Sergei Filin did not. Neither did Yuri Fateev. Oddly enough, I don't see a signature from the Stanislavsky Theater. (Perhaps Urin's old post was still vacant?) Some signatories, such as Elena Obraztsova and Vladislav Piavko, were retired and so advanced in age that they had nothing to gain by demonstrating fealty to the regime. The directors and rectors, on the other hand, may have been ensuring their continued employment.
However, the vast majority of dancers and musicians did not sign. Zakharova and Vasiliev went out of their way to do it. And I'll say this: Zakharova and Ekaterina Shipulina(-Matsueva) are 42 years of age, and all other Bolshoi principals in their 40s have been deprived of their base salaries and shunted to the weird "under contract" category, but those two haven't.
Well, eight years later, the list no longer seems inconsequential.
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From Ratmansky's Facebook:
‼️ My view on the ‘cancellation’ of Russian culture:
In 2014, more than 500 prominent cultural figures (cinema, theater, TV, pop, opera, ballet, literature, arts, science, sport etc), including big ballet personalities like Vyacheslav Gordeyev, Marina Leonova, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Svetlana Zakharova, Ivan Vasiliev, and also Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Urin, Sergei Danilian, Vladimir Kekhman, Elena Scherbakova - signed a letter of support for Putin's annexation of Crimea. After this letter, every performance or any public action of these 500, could be seen as an act of propaganda. Especially those who have gone on to perform in the West. These people have made a political statement publicly supporting their President's unlawful actions. They are playing politics and therefore should be held responsible or at least asked to clarify their position today.
It is precisely because of the support of the most visible figures of Russian culture that Putin gained his unlimited power and now is using it against humanity in this bloody war that is destroying Ukraine. The 2018 list of Putin 'representatives' ('doverennye litsa') included hundreds of the biggest names in sport and culture, Boris Eifman, Tsiskaridze and Zakharova among them. Sergei Polunin and Andrei Uvarov took over high administrative positions in Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. Many celebrities are serving as members of the State Duma, whose unanimous vote gave Putin formal right to start the invasion.
How is it possible now to ignore their voluntary involvement in Putin's politics? Yes, there were those who were not involved, and others who even protested. And it seems fair that these artists/sportsmen should be given chances to perform/compete in the West. But in reality it's a more complex issue. Putin's popularity has increased significantly since he started the war... Russia is now engulfed in a military patriotic frenzy. I know that many of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers, whom I adore and with whom I happily worked for more than 20 years, sharing my heart, inspiration and knowledge, support Putin and his crimes in Ukraine. I don't beleive they are unaware that Ukrainian cities are being shelled and destroyed, thousands of civilians killed and millions displaced. I don't beleive they can't get true information. No, it is their chosen point of view.
It's humiliating to think that dancers should only dance and concentrate on their art, ignoring what's going on around them. It's not only pretty legs that they possess, they also have brains and hearts. The mass murder of innocent people in Ukraine is done in their name also, in the name of Great Russia of Culture that was so admired by the whole world until very recently. -
On 3/21/2022 at 6:59 PM, Drew said:
Though Macaulay summarizes Ratmansky's argument saying Russians do have access to real information and can easily find out what is happening if they wish to do so, Macaulay himself still ends his statement by recalling the role of "propaganda" and "confused patriotism" --as if to once again remind people that Russians may not always have access to real information.
The Soviets were very clumsy practitioners of cancel culture. From time to time owners of Soviet encyclopedias would receive a sheet in the mail with instructions to cut out a certain page and replace it with the new one. Naturally, people compared the sheets for changes, to see whose entry had been removed. The populace wasn't entirely stupid. In our time the Russian government resorts to internet censorship, although it has nothing to rival the Great Firewall of China. Access to Ukrainian news sites and television channels was blocked years ago. More recently CNN, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and other foreign news sites were blocked. The latest to be blocked is Euronews, which could hardly be described as a Russophobic channel, but it does use the word "war" to describe what is happening in Ukraine, and that may be enough. Twitter has been blocked, Meta has been identified as an "extremist organization," so Facebook and Instragram have been blocked. There have been reports that YouTube may be blocked in the near future. The authorities are also blocking VPNs. So technically, Russians may not have "access" to information, but surely they can recognize that all those foreigners must have different information and that their government is doing everything possible prevent them from seeing it. Or they believe that the entire world is conspiring to present a false picture of what is happening out there and are prepared to swallow their government's version hook, line and sinker.
As for "military patriotic frenzy":
On 3/21/2022 at 6:59 PM, Drew said:let's just say that, in my eyes, Putin isn't the only war criminal in the world
But do ballet companies from their countries present three-week seasons at the Royal Opera House?
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The Teatro di San Carlo will present a gala benefit for humanitarian relief in Ukraine on April 4th. The artists scheduled to appear include Ukrainian dancers Denys Cherevychko, Iana Salenko, Alexandre Riabko, Kateryna Shalkina, Anastasia and Denis Matvienko, and Katja Khaniukova, as well as a number of Russian dancers working in the West: Maria Yakovleva, Maria Kochetkova, Liudmila Konovalova, Alexei Popov and Olga Smirnova.
https://www.teatrosancarlo.it/en/spettacoli/ballet-for-peace.html
The Royal Opera House will present several events to benefit the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, including an opera concert on April 15th.
Beginning on April 22nd, the Royal Ballet will stream Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern as part of the appeal.
On May 5th there will be a benefit performance of Swan Lake, during which Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez and Natalia Osipova will share the role of Odette-Odile, while Vadim Mutagirov will be Siegfried to them all.
Last weekend's London gala organized by Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov raised more than £140,000 for the DEC appeal.
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2 hours ago, sandik said:
What we know about the new Ratmansky is that everyone is crossing their fingers that it can happen at all -- world politics are making everything fraught right now.
I would have thought that owing to world politics Ratmansky will be staying mostly in the U.S., so PNB will get his undivided attention.
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Yes, this thread had lapsed, but Denys Nedak did make several guest appearances with ABT in 2014 and 2015. The Bayadère he danced in 2015 opposite Veronika Part and Gillian Murphy was the most dramatically compelling performance of the ballet in my experience. It absolutely crackled with chemistry.
As mentioned on another thread, Bel Air Classiques is currently streaming his Siegfried opposite the Odette-Odile of Natalia Matsak, filmed in 2019.
I was not aware that he had joined Atlanta Ballet.
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Meanwhile, the Bolshoi plans to ignore Maillot's request on the grounds that the terms of their contract have not been violated. The Bolshoi is anticipating that other choreographers may also seek to withdraw their works, and evidently it intends to disregard their wishes.
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1 hour ago, dirac said:
Shades of "freedom fries."
I think of those pickup groups of dancers who perform "The Great Russian Nutcracker" and such at smaller venues. For the purposes of selling tickets it was considered advantageous to call the productions Russian, even if the dancers actually came from Ukraine, Moldova or Kazakhstan. Now appellations to Russian ballet have the opposite effect.
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Jean-Christophe Maillot has withdraw permission for the Bolshoi to perform his Taming of the Shrew.
To be honest, I'd been wondering whether other choreographers might do the same, especially Ratmansky. (Performances of Flames of Paris and his production of Giselle scheduled for May have indeed been canceled.) In any case, the Bolshoi has no means of paying royalties.
All Grigorovich all the time, I suppose.
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Naming rights may be the ultimate "first world problem."
17 minutes ago, Drew said:the terror many of us feel listening to what is coming out of the Kremlin....
Yes, whatever Olga Smirnova's motivation for making her statement against the war and leaving Russia, she can't return.
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I agree entirely. And the renaming of the lounge is completely inconsequential.
Today we learned about the death of a former dancer of the National Ballet of Ukraine, who had been in hospital for more than 2 weeks with severe wounds he suffered during bombing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbONOJttv8v/
And an actress of the Kyiv Young Theater died after her home was bombed.
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Do we know at what point the lounge was renamed? Did it happen last week or perhaps at the beginning of the year? Those would be completely different scenarios.
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Sarah Kaufman is reporting that the company has also hired three new dancers from Ukraine and that its school has taken in seven Ukrainian students.
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Russian ballet's first political defector of the 21st century.
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This is a big deal, and a smart move, I think, for Smirnova. Not just because the Bolshoi won't be touring or working with outside choreographers for the foreseeable future, but also because she has always been better suited to contemporary repertoire than the classics.
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Meanwhile, Russia's Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media) says it has blocked 20 VPN services in the country.
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Access to Facebook and Instagram is being cut off by the Russian government, not by Meta. Russia has already blocked access to Twitter. These blocks can be overcome with a VPN. But of course if Russians continue to post, comment or like on Instagram, the government will know they are using a VPN.
In 2019 a number of VPN providers closed their servers in Russia after the government demanded access to those servers. The companies refused and pulled out of the country in order to protect the privacy of their subscribers. That made it impossible for the likes of us to overcome Russian geoblocks.
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This news is about a week old, but IMG Artists has suspended its representation of the Bolshoi Ballet "until peace is restored." The announcement was posted on the Bolshoi site:
"The arts and culture bring people together from all over the world. They overcome time and distance. They help us to find the best of ourselves and our common ground. The Bolshoi Theatre and IMG Artists are devoted to celebrating and promoting these virtues through our work in the performing arts. We are now all faced with a crisis. Hope and peace and beauty should not be faded concepts, but guiding principles.
The values, virtues and power of the arts - creation, collaboration, diaglogue, and multi-culturalism – should be our guides for living with each other in the 21st century. It is out of our profound respect for our artists, colleagues and community that we have suspended our concert series with The Bolshoi Theater until peace is restored. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to supporting and protecting our artists, our shared principles, and hope that we may soon meet in a time of peace and understanding around the world."IMG Artists posted a separate statement on the invasion on its site.
https://imgartists.com/news/img-artists-statement-on-the-crisis-ukraine/
It also posted condemnations of the invasion from Vasily Petrenko, who has suspended all his engagements in Russia, and Andrey Gugnin.
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Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov are organizing a fundraising gala on March 19 at the London Coliseum to benefit the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Other dancers scheduled to appear include Marianela Nuñez, Mathieu Ganio, Katja Khaniukova, Isaac Hernández, Francesco Gabriele Frola, Emma Hawes, Federico Bonelli, Fumi Kaneko, Natalia Osipova, Mayara Magri and Reece Clarke. Everyone, including musicians and the venue, are donating their services.
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Adrian Blake Mitchell on resigning from the Mikhailovsky, leaving Russia in a hurry and biting his tongue until he was out.
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On 3/5/2022 at 7:00 PM, pherank said:
The name Yaroslavna (with an N) has an almost mythic resonance to anyone who knows Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”: Prince Igor is Prince of the early mediaeval Kyiv, then the capital of Rus and subsequently of Muscovy.
Oh Lord. When Macaulay gets into these historical "explanations" he only manages to embarrass himself. 
)
Oh Lord. When Macaulay gets into these historical "explanations" he only manages to embarrass himself. 
Ukraine invasion & the arts: Gergiev fired by his agent, etc.
in Other Performing & Fine Arts: Performances, Exhibits, Films, and Events
Posted
A benefit for Ukrainian humanitarian relief will be held at the Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan on April 7th. Dancers appearing include Silvia Azzoni, Alexandre Riabko, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Ludmila Konovalova, Maria Yakovleva, Alexey Popov, former Bolshoi principal Jacopo Tissi, and also Stanislav Olshanskyi and Alexei Tiutiunnik, two National Ballet of Ukraine principals who were touring the Netherlands with Igone de Jongh when the invasion began and are now essentially refugees.
https://www.teatroarcimboldi.it/fat-event/pace-for-peace