Ivan Vasiliev

[drb]

Ivan Vasliev, Ratmansky's wunderkind at The Bolshoi, now has his website:

http://www.ivanvasiliev.ru/

While it is in Russian, it is very easy to navigate. Click photographs and be amazed how this guy (so much like his partner Natasha Osipova) lives in the air. There are other remarkable photos scattered throughout the site, including some endearing ones with Natasha. He has videos as well.

[coda]

There is a good interview with Ivan Vasiliev in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...t/btivan114.xml

Ismene Brown can not pent up her admiration for his technique.

Apart from that his personality is also so engaging.

Don't miss to click on the blue line:

Video: Exclusive footage of Ivan Vasiliev dancing

[Helene]

I don't understand Russian, but he seemed like a delightful young man from the video. I wish I could be in London this summer to see him.

[carbro]

I agree, Helene -- charming fellow, wish I could see now.

Thanks for this, coda.

There's another "blue line," "Five Russian Men Who Changed Ballet." An odd note in Baryshnikov's paragraph:

The first crossover dancer, when contemporary queen Twyla Tharp created ballets for him, he immersed himself (and his fortune) in regenerating modern dance.

Huh? What about Nureyev's earlier forays with Murray Louis, Martha Graham and Paul Taylor? Were they not crossover? Didn't Graham's duet for Fonteyn & Nureyev predate Tharp's "Push?" Or does the fact that Nureyev never left the ballet world discount him as "crossover?"

[drb]

In the interview it is stated that his coach Yuri Vladimirov admires Vasiliev's athleticism but is concerned about the roughness of his early training. Ivan seems aware of this and was clearly working on it even back in Minsk:

Conscious of his lack of pedigree schooling, he studied video of Baryshnikov to try to polish himself up. "I love the harmony of Baryshnikov's dancing, how easy it looks. His dancing seems as if it simply demands to happen, and it couldn't be any other way."

The MTV approach used for the article's video, including slow-mo, obscures his dancing, but the last video on his site, Don Q at age 17 with Natasha Osipova, seems to show positive results from this yearning for Baryshnikov polish, especially in variation 1, and the coda brings to mind the glory days of Baryshnikov's early partnership with Gelsey Kirkland.

Personal record: 21 rotations for one pirouette!