YouOverThere Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Vasiliev delivered...but in clunky (heavy, even thunderous at times) manner, IMO. And those white tights did not help. Very personable/charismatic stage persona, so I'm rooting for him to (a) find a more becoming costume and (b) soften those landings. The dancers in the other performances also wore white tights. Does even a star get to decide what everybody wears? There can be slight alterations. At the Bolshoi, all of the Conrads wore slightly different costumes - some had the Greek 'skirt' version (Tsiskaridze, for ex.), while most wore tights...some tights darker than others. Back to ABT/Conrad: Vasiliev looked so embarrasingly chunky, that I had to apologize to my partner during the first intermission when he asked me "Didn't you say that Vasiliev was supposed to be good? He's heavy." It was being commented a lot by folks in our group. His chunky line is a serious-enough problem when it detracts from all of what he does so spectacularly. Your friend apparently isn't familiar with a body feature known as "muscle". Vasiliev is totally buffed (he played Ali Saturday evening, and, no, there weren't rolls of fat showing when he didn't have a shirt on). Unshapely or bulky muscles, or short, squat muscular bodies, or an unpleasant facial feature or personality type, are not aesthetically pleasing to all. Neither is a sloppy landing after a quadruple pirouette. I can't recall every enjoying a dance performance less just because the dancers weren't all perfect 10's. Link to comment
Lawrence Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Agree with YouOverThere. Apparently ABT doesn't have an issue with Vasiliev's build and casting him in the role. It has nothing to do with his talent and ability. Link to comment
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