The Fairy Doll

[Mireille]

I recently watched a full version of the Fairy Doll, filmed at the Maryinsky several years ago and danced it seems by the students of the Vaganova Academy, and as there is no generic listing the dancers, I was wondering if any of the lead dancers later joined the Theater. The whole ballet is charming and the variations quite difficult and wonderfully performed, the costumes absolutely beautyful. I was also charmed by the music and thought I recognized the main waltz as being used in another ballet, but could not pinpoint it. Would anyone have details on this recording?

[Natalia]

Mireille, if you're talking about a ca-1991 Russian-TV telecast, then I have a partial cast list at home, which I can dig-out later. Off the top of my head, the tallish girl dancing the Japan Doll solo is Lopatkina. Many other 'now-famous' dancers can be spotted in little solos, e.g., Volochkova, child Vishneva, etc, etc. I don't recall the lead but she did enter the K-M corps for a while (not a readily-recognizable name).

If you're talking about a ca-1996/97 Russian TV telecast in conjunction to a tribute to Dudinskaya, then the lead was Elena Sheshina (today a 2nd soloist with the K-M). That version of Fairy Doll was danced by Dudinskaya's last graduation-class, of which Sheshina was its most famous 'product.'

[Mireille]

Thank you Natalia for your help. I remember that Sergeev went on stage at the end of the performance and the conducter's name could be Liuter, or Luther.

[Natalia]

Must be the first one that I mentioned, Mireille, as Sergeyev passed away shortly after the 1990/91 telecast.

[Natalia]

The title role in that earlier -- to be exact, Sept. 1989 -- telecast of Fairy Doll is 1990 graduate Olga Sazonova, who remains in the Kirov-Mariinsky corps de ballet under her married name, Olga Akhmatova. Other soloists include numerous well-known graduates of the 1990/1991 period, such as Anna Polikarpova, Nikita Scheglov, Alla Dmitrieva, Lopatkina (as mentioned earlier), etc, etc. who would have been about 16/17 years old during this telecast. It's also possible to spot a lot of the mid-1990s generation -- such as Vishneva, Dumchenko, Fadeev, Volochkova -- in the ensemble of youngters (11/12 year-olds).