Catherine

Azulynn, As I am in St. P and have the festival program, I can confirm that the program lists the changes you noted. Whether or not they are official promotions is another question, as often the Kirov lists the dancers in different "ranks" when on tour or in promotional materials (ie programs) than on the (rarely updated) website. Another point to keep in mind: i've been told that internally there are not that many different rankings in terms of pay; so while the booklets list 6 or more different categories (Principal, First Soloist, Second Soloist, Coryphee, Corps de Ballet, Character dancers, and so on), in reality (internally) they don't necessarily consider those divisions. THis is my way of saying YES the program reflects those changes (Tereshkina as principal for example -- which makes sense given her recent award) but as to whether these are official, yet, I can't say. One would presume so, however. p.s. Agree 300% re MacAulay!

Just a note -- Sergeev will be in NYC but only for the Forsythe "week". SO yes, he dances Giselle (his debut) here on April 4, and I think sometime after the 12th flies to NYC. Some of the dancers have later departures/arrivals than others. Initially Schklyarov was set to dance James this past Sunday (March 30) but Grigory Popov filled in for him (and did a stunning job; I would be hard pressed to have seen a greater performance, Popov's acting abilities far surpass Shklyarov's in my opinion). Nonetheless I think Schklyarov is also flying to NYC... The others you list though, Natalia, are absolutely staying here. It's going to be a La Sylphide and Don Q fest in April for the MT locally!

I saw the NY Times article and have to say, I was perplexed! Why make that announcement at the Astoria and then contradict it less than a week later? (It is strange tomorrow will be one week, it seems like it was a month ago already!) I can only interpret this to mean he is still serious about leaving and I suppose the Astoria announcement was made in order to ease immediate concerns (ie. they will have a director on the NY tour). Actually (as is very common in mass media today) the article does not say he is NOT coming to NYC and I did see his name on the flight lists (which left today, the 29th). It is clear he is not happy and has not been happy for some time, and the reasons for that unhappiness inside the MT are not changing, erego he wants to make a change and do something about it (ie leave). I personally would presume not to see him this fall, but it will be a lot of back and forth until we hit that point. I cannot see him truly leaving before the season ends though. Just intuition. And to his credit, I suppose, he is sticking to the initial plan -- therefore the zayavlenie, in essence, holds, and the date is TBD.

Actually it is the "dew" that is more bothersome in my book -- No french pronunciation of "deux" is "dew". Although fondu could be phonetically transliterated as fon-dew. A travesty they actually wrote that! I have often heard the "tchii" at the beginning of Tchaikovsky when spoken by Russians. This makes sense as, in Russian, the first syllable of a word is very very very rarely accented (unlike in English), and an unaccented vowel is declined/spoken differently than an accented vowel. Open vowel sounds in Russian (A, for example) are never pronounced as A unless the accent is on that very syllable. So it would be Tchi-KOV-sky rather than TCHAI-kov-sky (or Tchai KOV sky) but in either case the emphasis shouldn't be on the first syllable. In sum I've heard that first syllable said both ways here. To the previous question -- the government wouldn't announce anything as this was Vasiyev/Vasiev/Vaziev/Vaziyev's (however you prefer to spell it) zayavlenie but I also haven't seen anything official following his announcement either.

Hi again, Just to put the record straight, there are no reports "floating around." I was the first person to post, on Criticaldance.com, what I saw and heard just past midnight at the Hotel Astoria in the wee hours of Monday morning as Vasiev addressed everyone in attendance. I just want to be sure this is not classified as rumor because it absolutely is not. I was inside the theatre and heard the announcment firsthand from dancers on March 12, when there had been a company meeting announcing his plans. At this point the letter was not public and the press office would not comment on the zayavlenie, therefore I refrained from posting unofficial information at that time, out of respect for the dancers who I know and who trust me. I posted the link to the Kommersant.ru article also on the above-named site only after it became public. It goes without saying that the company was divided on the issue. Many no doubt wish the outcome had been otherwise. But at the Astoria, that wasn't visible -- and why should it be, in a venue like that, with donors and philanthropists and rich visitors filling the room? Someone, I think VRS, mentioned Vasiev's title, and yes, absolutely that was part of the issue. Many Russians were discussing the fact that Vasiev is *not* listed as artistic director, that no one on the company masthead/admin list has that title at present time. [Natalia, to your post-script comment, perhaps that thing is the single most disappointing aspect to all of this! And one not overlooked by many, I assure you!] +++ VRS, to comment on your question, in English we're transliterating sounds and not letters. This is why there are numerous "versions" of the same Russian last name, because more than one ENglish letter is often needed to recreate the singular Russian Cyrillic symbol. Witness Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovski, Chaikovsky, Tchaikowsky, and so on. In my book, Vasiev, Vaziev and Vasiyev are all similar transliterations of one and the same Russian name. It's really just a matter of taste; I'm not aware of certain guidlines but various publications do follow certain rules (ie. endings in Y and not I, for example, Sergey and not Sergei).

Hello everyone, From what I understand, Lopatkina holds a certain amount of respect and clout with Gergiev inside the theatre. Combine that with her desire to become AD (not every principal dancer, it should be noted, would want the position) and that puts her at the top of the list, as Natalia noted. Richard to your question, Gergiev adores the opera... and the opera comes first in the MT...

I just wanted to answer the last part of Innopac's question. The only other Mariinsky performances that replace the portal curtain are the Forysthe works (which begin with the curtain already up as you enter the house) and the Fokine program, which presents the Byzantine-looking "Ballet Russes" curtain (a Moor with a sword, a Scheherezadian woman and other figures woven inside the letters themselves).