Backstage at the Kirov

[canbelto]

I just got this video and I thought it was a very interesting film. I of course loved seeing Altynai Asylmuratova when she was so young. She seems so charming and down-to-earth too. I dont know many ballerinas who would admit they dont like class and would rather sleep in I also loved how she seemed so flattered that someone asked her for an autograph. Awww. I was upset that they didnt show more of her first performance of Swan Lake -- she looked like an absolutely beautiful Odette/Odile. Anyone know if they ever released a video of her in this ballet?

I was also struck by how different she was as a ballerina than the prima ballerina in this video, Galina Mezentseva. (I think y'all know how I feel about Mezentseva ) Altynai really had the qualities I associate with a Kirov ballerina -- those long extensions and soft limbs. Ok, I need to stop gushing about her, but this video makes her seem very lovable indeed.

I had to admit I cringed a little at how harsh the balletmasters seem to be, especially to the 10-year old Vaganova academy students. I mean, I know ballet is a perfectionist business but the ballet master berating a corps swan for her powder falling off?

[Cygnet]

I just got this video and I thought it was a very interesting film. I of course loved seeing Altynai Asylmuratova when she was so young. She seems so charming and down-to-earth too. I dont know many ballerinas who would admit they dont like class and would rather sleep in  I also loved how she seemed so flattered that someone asked her for an autograph. Awww. I was upset that they didnt show more of her first performance of Swan Lake -- she looked like an absolutely beautiful Odette/Odile. Anyone know if they ever released a video of her in this ballet?

I was also struck by how different she was as a ballerina than the prima ballerina in this video, Galina Mezentseva. (I think y'all know how I feel about Mezentseva  ) Altynai really had the qualities I associate with a Kirov ballerina -- those long extensions and soft limbs. Ok, I need to stop gushing about her, but this video makes her seem very lovable indeed.

I had to admit I cringed a little at how harsh the balletmasters seem to be, especially to the 10-year old Vaganova academy students. I mean, I know ballet is a perfectionist business but the ballet master berating a corps swan for her powder falling off?

Canbelto, I also cherish this video because it shows Altynai on the cusp

of greatness. Its also one of the, (unjustifably), too few records of her on film. I also wish her Act 2 has been filmed rather than Galina's. I don't think there is a video of her in a full 'Swan Lake,' certainly not with her home company. Like you, I wish her full Kirov Odette/Odile had been filmed.

Whenever the Kirov toured Swan Lake, they always played fast and loose with casting, keeping her under raps like a secret weapon. It was like playing the lottery. You had to be damn lucky to see her. IMO her live Odette/Odile was simply sublime: Her's was the most intriguing and nuanced interpretation of her generation in that company. When she danced it with ABT (Baryshnikov's version), it was the first time she got to interpret the tragic ending. She outshone the production, looking like a magnificent stranger in the wrong paradise. The opportune moment to have filmed her Odette/Odile with the home team was in 1990. That assignment went to a young and inexperienced Makhalina.

(BTW the berating ballet master was Vinogradov the A.D. In that scene he was excessive. What did he want, a corps that didn't sweat during a performance?)

[canbelto]

Cygnet,

Thanks for the info! How was Altynai's Odile? She doesnt seem quite as tough or evil as the natural Odiles, and I've never seen her do fouettes ... But I'd see her dance anything, really.

Vinodagrav was really excessively harsh with the corps. It was between intermission, for chrissake, and yelling at the girls that their powder had been sweated off ... Is he still the AD?

I hope this comes out on DVD. And I'm so happy to see the backstage Altynai. She really does seem very sweet and down-to-earth, a quality that comes through in her dancing too. I love her wide-open, unaffected smile.

[BalletNut]

No, Vinogradov is not the AD of the Kirov/Mariinsky anymore, the director is now Makharbek Vaziev.

[Cygnet]

Cygnet,

Thanks for the info! How was Altynai's Odile? She doesnt seem quite as tough or evil as the natural Odiles, and I've never seen her do fouettes ... But I'd see her dance anything, really.

Vinodagrav was really excessively harsh with the corps. It was between intermission, for chrissake, and yelling at the girls that their powder had been sweated off ... Is he still the AD?

I hope this comes out on DVD. And I'm so happy to see the backstage Altynai. She really does seem very sweet and down-to-earth, a quality that comes through in her dancing too. I love her wide-open, unaffected smile.

Canbelto, Altynai's Odile wasn't a vamp. She didn't flaunt her sexuality. As Nikia she didn't even do that. She was not flamboyant. She wasn't sinister or nasty either. She was regal and charismatic. Her entrance was like someone had

thrown a hand grenade on stage! She was technically strong - not overwhelming with fireworks. Her fouttees were strong and sur place. Sometimes she ran out of gas between 26 & 32 (she didn't have really short legs for lightening fast turns). Also, she didn't have the height, really long legs, hyper-extension, or the skis that the Kirov favors today. Her coda tempo was fast, as it was written. She got the job done. In two words - tasteful and cerebral. She made you think and sit on the edge of your seat. She danced her variation quickly and it was sharp and crisp. She smiled a devastating smile, but only during her variation, not in the pdd. (To put this in perspective, I remember her contemporary Kunakova's Odile. She chose a smirk/snear and was vulgar in comparison).

Her personality is introverted, unassuming and humble offstage. You saw this in the video too. Therefore, her's was a very personal interpretation, and she brought this personality to the work, and in the context of the Kirov style this approach worked. Her Odile was charming but remote, like her white swan. In that respect, she was just like her Odette, yet a portrait of inaccessible femininity. It wasn't like night and day. In her encounter with Siegfried she had all the power because you sensed she already knew Siegfried's weakness before she came to the ball - Odette's vulnerability and remoteness. So, she transformed herself into the object of his desire.

When the act was over she seemed to scream like a maniac, and tore the bouquet apart and threw them at Siegfried's feet. Now that was shocking and memorable. She glared at her father VR as if to say 'mission accomplished' and she ran off stage first, followed by VR. That was unique too. I understand Mezentseva's approach was similar but it wasn't one scintilla as effective as AA's. Her third act was total belief. In one word, passion. I could go on and on about her dancing.......

Vinogradov went out of power about 6 years ago under a cloud of financial

scandal. Today he's running a ballet school that teaches the Vaganova style in Washington DC and is the AD of the Seoul Ballet (I think that's what they're called).

[canbelto]

Cygnet,

Thanks for the recollections! Well I hope the new AD is slightly nicer than Vinodagrav seemed in that video :shrug: I really thought he came across as very harsh and cold.

It's funny, the perception of things. I actually think of Altynai as one of the "newer" breed of Kirov ballerinas, from what I could tell. I mean, she's more overtly glamorous, and her extensions while not extreme are certainly pretty flexible. She doesnt have the chilliness and hauteur I associate with a lot of Kirov ballerinas like Mezentseva (I guess y'all know how I feel about her), Lezhnina, even Makhalina. Altynai especially has an extremely flexible back. In fact, I read a review of her 1990 tour in which the reviewer complained about just this:

-----------

"The Kirov was then run by Oleg Vinogradov and the

roster of ballerinas was a mixed bag. There were older

women of great integrity like Tatiana Terekhova and

Galina Mezentseva, but they were deemed Soviet in

style and thus passé. Altynai Asylmuratova was the

chosen one, having been earlier anointed in The New

Yorker. She had a dark ardor, a Tartar princess face,

but a faulty technique which she hid under excesses of

line and a puffed-up posture. Yulia Makhalina was

coming up fast, yet she too reached for extremes of

line, her dancing as overdone, labored, as little

Zhanna Ayupova’s was modest, light.

------------

You can find the entire article here:

http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/21/sept02/jacobs.htm

But anyway, to continue with the gushfest, Altynai I think is a universal ballerina. Meaning though she's obviously from the Vaganova school, she's adorable and exquisite wherever and whatever she danced. (Finding her on video to me is like finding a rare jewel -- I practically cry.) Some ballerinas are very impressive but I couldnt really imagine them in any other company dancing any other repertoire. Wendy Whelan for example. But Altynai, I would watch her dance ANYTHING.

[Cygnet]

Jacobs wrote a very astute article. Thanks Canbelto for the post!

[Cliff]

Just a quick note that there is a wondeful performance of Altynai Asylmuratova dancing Tudor's Leave are Fading in the video Essential Ballet: Stars of Russian Ballet.

[canbelto]

I have that Leaves Are Fading! It's beautiful! (Although a pink tie-dyed dress??? )

It's also interesting to see in the video how Asylmuratova and Mezentseva both end the White Swan Adagio in this position: -I. You know, head and torso out and making a parallel line with the stage, leg up, perpendicular with the torso. Makarova does it this way too, as does every Odette I've seen live (Kent, Aniashvilli, Dvorovenko, and on and on.) But when I look at historical footage, Plisetskaya, Fonteyn, Ulanova et al. don't end in that position at all. So when did this change?

And to go on with the Altynai gushing, in this video she looks incredibly beautiful without any makeup, in her warmup clothes. Sometimes you look at ballerinas who seem quite glamorous onstage and upclose without makeup they look ordinary. Not Altynai.

[native New Yorker]

Today he's running a ballet school that teaches the Vaganova style in Washington DC and is the AD of the Seoul Ballet (I think that's what they're called).

Oleg Vinogradov is Artistic Director of the Universal Ballet, based in Seoul.

The ballet school was called the Kirov Academy until a couple of years ago and is now the Universal Ballet Academy. While Vinogradov is still the Artistic Director, Yelena Vinogradova, as Deputy Artistic Director, is the one who actually "runs" the school.

As for Altynai Asylmuratova, she is presently the Artistic Director of the Vaganova Academy, school of the Kirov Ballet (known again, especially in Europe, as the Mariinsky Ballet Company).