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Evgenia Obraztsova


drb

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Posted

I'm very sad to see that she won't be on the Bolshoi's tour of Australia in May.

Not that I really expected her to come given the rep they're performing.

Sigh, I wonder if I'll ever get to see my favourite dancer live?

Posted

She played in a recent (French) movie by Cédric Kahn, called "Les poupées russes"

(IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409184/). I haven't seen it, but it was quite successful recently at the French box office.

Evgenia played a role in "Russian Dolls" (Les Poupées Russe) A nice movie to watch, factually is her acting very natural and convincing.

Posted

It looks like there is a new, lengthy documentary of Evgenia available on youtube:

(part 2:
). Would any Russian speaker be able to provide a summary, please? I can only understand the broad outlines. Thank you in advance.
Posted

Many thanks, elena, for the links to the versions with subtitles.

Based on the subtitles, here is a summary of Part 1:

Her parents were dancers. The married early, and she was born soon afterwards. Her mother, who danced professionally (but it isn't clear for how long), remarried a sailor, who brought discipline to the household; she was as school girl at the time. Her mother gave her ballet lessons in the kitchen, which she resisted, but her mother's insistence on turned out heels during those exercises bore fruit as a professional, and she's often praised for her turnout.

She didn't do well in school for the first year, was lazy, tried to avoid working hard, played ill, etc.. Her mother "handed her over" to Nikolai Tagunov. Lots of praise for Tagunov, who knew how to teach. He worked her hard (with austerity) and she responded. "He changed my world. He changed my mind."

She learned what to keep and what to toss. She did well in her first year with him and got a top mark for her classical work, after which she wanted to work harder to get better. She saw a path for the future, always going forward. She swore an oath to a bust of Petipa to be the best in her class. She graduated first in her class, and then joined the Mariinsky.

-->At 9:58 there's a clip of her dancing the Princess to Alina Somova's Nutcracker? (Shelkunchik?)

Right after she joined the Mariinsky, she was the only one of the bumper crop from her class to be invited to dance on the tour to Paris. Was happy and scared. Her first bitter tears: she was nervous and scared, there were things she couldn't do, and she was berated by the more experience dancers.

Her first solo was Manu in "La Bayadere." Embarrassing story about carrying around the pitcher on her head all day, and I think being visible from backstage during a tech rehearsal and getting called out by Vaziev over the mike. After the tour he approached her to say he'd seen her Cinderella in the Sergeyev version, and also Juliet, and that she should rehearse Juliet, for which Kurgapkina would coach her.

-->The rehearsal footage of R&J from ~14:20 shows Ludmilla Semenkaya and Mikhail Lavrovsky coaching her.

Every role taught her something new, stretched her. Years from 18-25 were "mostly magic."

First place in the International Ballet Competition led to an invitation to dance at the Rome Opera with Fracci. Invited to dance in Berlin for Malakhov, then did her first Aurora on a US tour. Verona was great, and she danced Cinderella there. She looked forward to invitations, new partners, learning about new schools.

She's danced in many versions of "Cinderella"; her two favorites are the Sergeyev's (her first) and Ratmansky's. (clip with Mikhail Lobukhin). She loves the setting and the atmosphere, and believes he understands the character as a modern day person. Her happiest moments in the theater are during the Act III pas de deux.

Posted

Part 2 (from the subtitles):

The Bolshoi rents the Moscow apartment for her. Dancers are used to traveling and living in hotels. She lives alone there, and sometimes is lonely, but she only trusts and lets in loved ones, and later she discusses how it's nice to wake up to quiet and have time to think.

She was lucky to meet Ludmilla Semenkaya in 2005 during the Grigorovich competition. She has lots of praise for Semenkaya. (Harmony, lines, cantilena.) She never would have had the nerve to introduce herself to Semenkaya, who was a judge, but Semenkaya came up to her and said she was supporting Obraztsova.

She was one of the people who stayed in the theater for the results, and was pacing around, when she passed a partially opened door -- the judges room -- and Lavrovsky came out of the room with a white carnation, told her congratulations, and handed her the flower. The women with the prize list later let her see it: at first she couldn't find her name and panicked. Then she saw it was under "First Prize." She and her mother celebrated at the Hotel Rossiya, which she said is no longer there.

-->At around 6:17 there is a clip of her receiving a prize (Golden Mask?), and it sounds like the announcer pronounces her name as "Obrazkova." It's followed by a clip of her dancing White Swan PDD with Igor Kolb.

"Outstanding, life-changing event" was when she met Sergei Filin during the Moscow tour. They danced an excerpt from R&J. He told her he wished they could work together and asked her to dance something at the Stanislavsky Ballet, which turned into her guest starring with the Company. "I saw motivation in his eyes, an artistic, creative interest"; she found this lacking at the Mariinsky.

--> Around 9:44 there's a clip from "Petite Mort."

She danced a lot of roles for Filin and the Stanislavsky, including her first "Swan Lake." Until Filin became the Bolshoi AD, she had always been a guest, while retaining her home in her hometown surrounded by loved ones, but she moved to Moscow to join the Bolshoi, where her life is more interesting. She feels more peaceful, has matured, has some theories why. She's settling in now, after thinking the atmosphere was different and wondering if she could deal with it and get used to the pace of Moscow.

She says with Filin it is a dialogue between artists, and she speaks to him as if he's still dancing.

She has much praise for her coach, Grachiova and discusses their working relationship.

-->From 17:32-~19:38, her description of being coached as Giselle is worth the entire documentary.

She describes all there is to do in Moscow, and she loves theater. She thinks all things in her life led to this.

On the Paris tour she met someone dear to her, Pierre Lacotte. It led to "Ondine," where he cast her in many small parts. Two years later, he cast her as Ondine when he came to work at the Mariinsky. All of the ballerinas ahead of her -- Zakharova, Vishneva, Pavlenko -- had to pull out for various reasons, and she danced opening night and a second night.

She was uncomfortable getting a Golden Mask at age 23.

Her next project with Lacotte was the "Three Musketeers" (clips with Matthias Heymann interspersed) to music by Michel Legrande. She danced it in Tokyo with a group of POB dancers.

-->She tells funny a story about Lacotte and a lift ~33:18

She loves Lacotte and his wife Ghislaine Thesmar; they joked about wanting to adopt her.

Filin was responsible for bringing Lacotte's "La Sylphide" to Moscow, and she was coached by Thesmar in it. She explains how the character differs from Bournonville's Sylph.

~39:22 wonderful footage of Themar coaching Obraztsova with the help of a translator, but in a way, not really.

She then worked with Lacotte on "The Pharaoh's Daughter." (clip with Denis Rodkin).

She worked with Lacotte at the end of her first Bolshoi season to rehearse Aspiccia. Her coach was a great Aspiccia and the first to dance this version. Lacotte made changes, and Grachiova knows all of the versions. Ann Salmon was very strict; Obraztsova knew Salmon from "Ondine." She likes the role because it is different from her other Lacotte roles: she's stronger.

She secretly dreams about Carmen and Manon.

She still has St. Petersburg plates. This is a metaphor.

For some reason the doc ends with a montage of fouettes.

Posted

Obraztsova got married this weekend! Here are David Hallberg's tweets:


Headed to Evgenia Obraztsova's wedding. So happy for her. Beautiful spring day. pic.twitter.com/Emg81mt6w0

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460285869241688064/photo/1

Dear partner and friend Evgenia Obraztsova. With love.. pic.twitter.com/IRuedADjpQ

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg

Happy married couple. pic.twitter.com/DNvDYBvG9Z

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460684409310810113

Congratulations to Ms.Obraztsova and her new husband :flowers:

Posted

Didn't she already get married, in the film Russian Dolls? wink1.gif

Congratulations for real this time. And how stunning she and her husband look in their crowns!

Posted

As Mariinsky's web site, she is no longer listed. I guess it's fitting that she dances at Bolshoi. She is like the late Maximova. I hope that she will dance the Nutcracker. I like Maximova's Nutcracker very much. I think Obraztsova will shine no less.

Posted

Obraztsova got married this weekend! Here are David Hallberg's tweets:

Headed to Evgenia Obraztsova's wedding. So happy for her. Beautiful spring day. pic.twitter.com/Emg81mt6w0

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460285869241688064/photo/1

Dear partner and friend Evgenia Obraztsova. With love.. pic.twitter.com/IRuedADjpQ

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg

Happy married couple. pic.twitter.com/DNvDYBvG9Z

https://twitter.com/DavidHallberg/status/460684409310810113

Beautiful photos. Congrautlations to Evgenia and Andrei!flowers.gif

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