“Who is to dance at Mariinsky?”

[Helene]

This is a discussion board. Members are here to voice their opinions, however popular or unpopular. Whether they piss anyone off or delight them is generally of no concern, as long as the site rules are followed.

There are no sacred cows here, and even the most knowledgeable scholar with the most degrees who's been published for 50 years can be criticized, period. Alastair Macaulay can be criticized, Arlene Croce can be criticized, John Percival can be criticized, Edwin Denby can be criticized, Zozulina can be criticized. Disagreeing with a specific point or an article does not mean that the source is being dismissed wholesale: it means that the poster disagrees with a specific point or article.

I asked how Zozulina could at once say that dancers were offered corps contracts, but on the other hand management didn't try to hire them. No one has come forward to say that this is rhetorical or her Russian readers would understand that she's paraphrasing a Soviet general or administrator or referring to a famous case. Neither Zozulina nor anyone else has addressed why Fateev would cast a student so prominently with the company, but then offer her an insulting contract. No one's come forward to say that she won a prize that included performances with the Mariinsky, for example, and that it wasn't Fateev's choice.

Of course we understand that things are different in Russia: if only a noted scholar in the West could complain about a dancer's rank, and the company would respond with a promotion.

[Mathilde K]

Alastair Macaulay can be criticized, Arlene Croce can be criticized, John Percival can be criticized, Edwin Denby can be criticized, Zozulina can be criticized.

Unlike Macaulay, Croce and Denby, Zozulina is not a journalist. She is primarily a scholar, a pedagogue, as well as an insider in all the matters related to Mariinsky, Vaganova Academy, and ballet in Petersburg. The situation she is describing is well known to most people who have been following closely Mariinsky. The only ‘novelty’ is that a person of her stature has finally spoken out on this issue.

[Helene]

And yet, no one has answered why Fateev would cast Zhiganshina so prominently in the Company if he wanted to insult her, or how a company can offer dancer corps contracts, but not attempt to hire them, since Zozulina made no mention of any provisional terms for the dancers from several years ago.

[elianam]

And yet, no one has answered why Fateev would cast Zhiganshina so prominently in the Company if he wanted to insult her, or how a company can offer dancer corps contracts, but not attempt to hire them, since Zozulina made no mention of any provisional terms for the dancers from several years ago.

Nothing in the paragraph says that Fateev "wanted" to insult Zhiganshina. The word "humiliating" can be read as Zozulina's own opinion or Zhiganshina's feeling, of which we can never know.

Contract alone is not sufficient proof of attempting to hire someone. She may be hired because her talents are properly recognized, or can be hired only as any other good Vaganova graduate. Zhiganshina is not an average good Vaganova student, she is a distinguished one whose previous experience makes it natural to expect more upon graduation. It is like a college offering a contract to a full-time professor from Harvard to be lecturer or research assistant, something a graduate student can do as well. The college is not attempting to hire the professor because this job has few to do with his experience, intelligence and knowledge, and the college does not even care if the professor would accept this contract or not, because it is very likely that this professor will not.

I agree with Mathilde's previous comment that Fateev may like Zhiganshina less because she gained some weight recently. No matter what his concern was, and no matter what was behind Zhiganshina's previous opportunities at the MT stage, what the fact shows is that Fateev is still not having something clear in mind, whether or not, and how to hire Vaganova graduates, especially those on the top, who do not want to be treated like the previous top graduates who are still fighting among the corps because opportunities go to people from other places. I am curious to see what kind of contract Fateev will offer to Shakirova, who based on the opportunities she already had, makes it also natural for her to expect more upon graduation.

Olga Smirnova's recent interview in Dance Magazine tells how she felt when making the choice to go to the Bolshoi. She was also offered the contract, but "found the atmosphere uninviting". This can be equally taken as not making an attempt to hire, if no one cares if she wants to stay or not. (http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/June-2014/The-New-Girl)

I use the term "piss me off" to express my feeling at that moment so as not to appear like offending someone intentionally. But now I know that I don't have to think too much in this regard because as long as we follow the rules, we don't have to feel sorry for anyone else' feeling here. (Delete this part if you think it inappropriate, but I just thought I should explain that I was not asking for someone to care about my feelings)

[Helene]

On the contrary, it's like Harvard offering a tenure-track Assistant Professorship to a particularly brilliant and gifted newly-minted Harvard PhD, because full professorships are granted either to those who've gone through the tenure track or who are leaders in their field, which newly minted PhD's, however brilliant, are not. Another university might offer that PhD an Associate Professorship (with tenure), a well-funded lab or his or her own, a less competitive and political career path, and/or a more congenial work environment to snag him or her from Harvard, even if s/he's never wanted to be anywhere but Harvard, has been educated there for a decade, has deep roots in the area and to the institution, and has mentors who are watching his or her back, but sees that only one in 12 of the department's Assistant professors ever get tenure and that the powerful department head marginalizes the PhD's subject matter or methodology.

Any Vaganova graduate has had years to see what Fateev prizes and what his or her career trajectory and working conditions are likely to be, and that future, with rare exception, has been grim for Vaganova graduates at the Mariinsky under Fateev, which, to me, is the main point behind Zozulina's article as well as detailed documentation in this thread.

I don't see any previous reference to Zhiganshina's weight, and after seeing her in her very recent graduation video, if Fateev is concerned about it, it's another reason for her to run far away as fast as she can.

[elianam]

And yet, no one has answered why Fateev would cast Zhiganshina so prominently in the Company if he wanted to insult her, or how a company can offer dancer corps contracts, but not attempt to hire them, since Zozulina made no mention of any provisional terms for the dancers from several years ago.

Your question is, how is it possible for a company to offer a contract and does not attempt to hire, and I used the example of Harvard professor offered contract to work in a college as research assistant to show how is it possible to offer a contract without intention to hire, and how it may appear humiliating to a person even if it is not the intention of the company to insult. I am not saying that Zhiganshina is a professor and the MT is a college.

On the contrary, it's like Harvard offering a tenure-track Assistant Professorship to a particularly brilliant and gifted newly-minted Harvard PhD, because full professorships are granted either to those who've gone through the tenure track or who are leaders in their field, which newly minted PhD's, however brilliant, are not.

Now, considering Zhiganshina a brilliant PhD graduating from Harvard. Since we do not know the exact terms of the contract, how can you know it is a tenure-track Assistant Professorship or a temporary research assistantship? If Vaganova students is equivalent here to Harvard PhDs, what can be seen in the past few years is that until the time the article was published, none of the brilliant, newly-minded PhD graduates since 2005 received a tenure-track Assistant Professorship (maybe with the exception of Batoeva), for a tenure-track means promised promotion and recognition as long as substantial contribution is made in certain amount of time. What those excellent PhDs did in the company is more like working under contract. And in most cases, the jobs they are doing are easy jobs that a middle-school graduate can do as well. And none of them is allowed to contribute with their "new minds". At the same time, there were very few tenure-track positions offered in the past few years, and almost all of them were given to PhDs or Masters from institutions like the University of Kentucky. Even if these people all have something distinguishable, Harvard think it not enough and have them taking graduate courses with Harvard full-time professors while maintaining their tenure-track position (giving new soloists from other schools extra time to work with Vaganova-style coaches, in order to look like Vaganova ballerina, whereas Vaganova graduates do not have such priviledge).

Zhiganshina is special, however, in that she was already offered chance to teach a distinguished college-level course, with approbation from the leaders in the field. Everything shows that she might be the only Harvard PhD in the recent years to receive tenure-track from Harvard, but what she gets may be something less than that, or something equal to a working contract research assistantship like previous Harvard PhDs. At the same time, she was offered a tenure-track position in Yale, so she is going to Yale. And what Zozulina, a professor from Vaganova, or "Harvard", is doing, is to voice the concern of Harvard professors for the unfair treatment of Harvard excellent PhDs in terms of their career possibilities in Harvard.

However, Harvard is still a private institution, and the Board of Regents and the big patrons can decide the future of the college as long as they think it fair. Professors should move if they do not agree with the direction of the Board of Regents and the patrons. If one day, the directors want to change Harvard into a ballet academy or a music conservatory, it is very well up to them. But the Mariinsky Ballet is a national treasure of Russia, Russian people, if not for the field of ballet in general. It is not Fateev,'s or Gergiev's own personal company, and it is receiving funding from the government, so is the Vaganova academy. In the US, there is no public academic institution that enjoys a national prestige equivalent to Vaganova or Mariinsky ballet in Russia. That is why we can not assume that a Harvard example, or an equivalent example in the US, explains everything. I would say University of Sao Paulo in Latin America can be an example in this regard, or if someone knows better, an public academic institution in Russia.

The logic should be that, the Vaganova does not have to change anything just to suit the personal taste of Fateev, and if Fateev has problem with the Vaganova style, he should find funding to start his own company. Gergiev himself said in the interview he gave on the DVD of Jewels that he should make effort to preserve the Vaganova tradition, and as the article of Zozulina shows, Fateev also expressed his admiration of Liudmila Safronova. But how is it possible that students who worked 6 years with Liudmila Safronova in academy, who are the prides of the professor herself, are still "working on the contract" with no verified promise of promotion and recognition. And how is it possible that Gergiev is "preserving the Vaganova tradition" when a Vaganova professor is complaining about the unfair treatment of Vaganova graduates in the company. And how is it possible that we are saying here that the Vaganova should change its tradition in order to suit the taste of Gergiev or Fateev? Zhiganshina does not have to lose weight to suit the taste of Fateev, if all the Vaganova coaches and professors think it OK, she is still a proud carrier of the merits of Vaganova training, better, or at the very least, cannot be worse than what Fateev did himself.

[Balletfreak]

It would be interesting to know what terms are generally offered to top graduates? I know that Vishneva (her graduate profile being very similar to Zhiganshinas) was promoted to principal within just one year after joining the company...but did she still first join as a corps de ballet member?

As for Ksenias weight gain, I honestly didn't even notice it myself. She is still very petite.

[Helene]

I didn't realize Fateev was taking the graduating students from schools that are the equivalent of the University of Kentucky and offering them Soloist positions in the Mariinsky.

If I followed the news stories correctly, there was an attempt to have the Academy come under the auspices of the Theatre, allegedly (as posited by official sources) to take over the Academy's studios for the Mariinsky while the old theater is renovated, and it failed. The Theatre doesn't control the Academy, and the Academy can continue to produce dancers according to its own standards. It can't, at least at this point, force the Mariinsky Ballet to compete for or to use the Academy's graduates or to prevent them from hiring from the outside.

The Mariinsky is a company that is funded by governments, corporate sponsors, and private individuals, some as a result Gergiev's personal efforts. Gergiev was appointed the head of the Mariinsky Theatre. Whoever appointed him can remove him, if they feel his policies or his hires are ruining a national legacy. Governments can pull funding if they don't like what he or his hire is doing. Either they agree with his policy, or haven't been convinced to take action against him.

[elianam]

I didn't realize Fateev was taking the graduating students from schools that are the equivalent of the University of Kentucky and offering them Soloist positions in the Mariinsky.

"Equivalent" is your term, not mine. By University of Kentucky, I mean it is an institution very different to Harvard both in terms of its location, and in terms of its nature and tradition. Other possible meanings associated with the use of the University of Kentucky are your own. And if you follow closely the casting information of the company (available on the website and on other reviews and youtube) in the last three years, combining them with the way they joined the company and the time they get promoted, you will know what I mean.

If I followed the news stories correctly, there was an attempt to have the Academy come under the auspices of the Theatre, allegedly (as posited by official sources) to take over the Academy's studios for the Mariinsky while the old theater is renovated, and it failed. The Theatre doesn't control the Academy, and the Academy can continue to produce dancers according to its own standards. It can't, at least at this point, force the Mariinsky Ballet to compete for or to use the Academy's graduates or to prevent them from hiring from the outside.

The Mariinsky is a company that is funded by governments, corporate sponsors, and private individuals, some as a result Gergiev's personal efforts. Gergiev was appointed the head of the Mariinsky Theatre. Whoever appointed him can remove him, if they feel his policies or his hires are ruining a national legacy. Governments can pull funding if they don't like what he or his hire is doing. Either they agree with his policy, or haven't been convinced to take action against him.

This is the confusing part of the situation. Allegedly it seems that the theatre wanted to take over the academy but failed, so that the academy is independent to the company and the company is free to hire whoever it wants and the academy is free to create its own style. But what was happening at the time is Gergiev wanted to be the head of a mixture of artistic associations, Vaganova Academy included, over which he is not artistic authority. And he received stiff resistance for his attempt from those institutions. (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/nikolai-tsiskaridze-to-head-vaganova-ballet-academy/488611.html) If we consider the Mariinsky ballet Gergiev's personal property, then the independence of the Vaganova Academy to the Mariinsky ballet means the independence of the Vaganova Academy to Gergiev.

But first, what is the official source showing that Gergiev is making personal efforts to get sponsorship for the theatre? Or is he donating his personal money to the theatre? What is the percentage of that? Second, assuming that the personal effort can be specified and quantified, how much of it comes to the ballet company? If Gergiev is donating money to build the opera and the orchestra, not the ballet company, does it mean that we could still consider the ballet company his personal property, or that of Mr. Fateev, his acting director? The historical fact is when Gergiev was appointed head of the theatre, the ballet company was famous and especially for its close connection with the Vaganova Academy (any attempt to study the roaster of the company, past video recordings, reviews and programs would reveal this), and Gergiev is still ABUSING the term "Vaganova" in order to maintain his position as the head of the company, that is why he never said anything openly like "the Vaganova Academy is bad and we should hire more coaches and graduates from Perm or Kiev or Dnepropetrovsk, to change the style of the Mariinsky ballet", he does not dare to make this kind of claim because that would cost him certain amount of support from Russia.

The fact is, Gergiev himself said he would make effort to protect the style of the ballet company (exemplified in his remarks on the official Mariinsky Jewels DVD, I do not have the DVD currently with me so I cannot provide the exact terms he used, but if I remembered correctly, he did mention the Vaganova, and there was nothing in his remark showing that he was trying to change the style). Even his attempt to put the Vaganova academy under his power suggests a close historical connection between the ballet company and the academy that he himself cannot ignore no matter what he wants to do to with the company. And his consideration of the Vaganova continues when the rector is changed to Tsiskaridze, an appointment he speaks highly of. (http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/dance-today-news/item/1320)

To follow your logic in "Whoever appointed him can remove him, if they feel his policies or his hires are ruining a national legacy. Governments can pull funding if they don't like what he or his hire is doing. Either they agree with his policy, or haven't been convinced to take action against him", Gergiev can openly speak against the importance of Vaganova graduates if he, or his acting director, thinks none of the graduates since 2005 worth being anything more than a coryphee (with Batoeva, Shapran exceptions, but should be discussed separately) and dancers like Skorik, Shirinkina, Chebykina, and now Bondareva, worth more than they do. Either they justify what they are doing openly in words, or fulfill what they said orally into practice. If Fateev thinks the Vaganova not good for him, why still praising professors like Liudmila Safronova and having the coaches trained at the Vaganova in the company? If he still admires the Vaganova style, why not promoting student there? Another similar case can be Gergiev's praise of Ulyana Lopatkina, who worked in the company for a long time with Kurgapkina. Yet it is also during the reign of his acting director that another protegee of Kurgapkina, Evgenia Obraztsova was lost to Bolshoi because her talents no longer properly recognized in the company immediately after the passing of her coach (proof is her repertoire after the death of Kurgapkina).

To me, they are being hypocritical because they know if they voice against the value of Vaganova tradition, they would lose some of their support in the government and in other institutions in the country, and they themselves would be deposed, possibly. Politics is never black and white. Zozulina's article represents an insider's voice of the reality, that of which what is happening in the company is not following its outspoken logic. And again, I do not see any necessity for the Vaganova to change in order to suit Fateev's taste, in order to have their wonderful graudates to dance decent parts on the MT stage. What they choose to do is to fight. And Fateev and Gergiev may be relying on their lies (despite of different natures) about cherishing the Vaganova tradition in order to remain on their posts. Otherwise what explains he divergence between what is happening and what they were saying?

[Helene]

Anyone in a position of authority could see with their eyes the kind of dancer who is cast and who goes on tours and the kind of dancers who are not and languish in the corps. No matter what Fateev or Gergiev says or doesn't say, what is on stage speaks volumes and directly to the worldwide public, through live performances, videos, or just following the casting on the website.

Gergiev is not a Czar. If the people who appoint and the governments and sponsors -- private and corporate -- who fund him don't like what they see, they can do something about it. If they won't, then the Vaganova graduates, looking at the company, will make their choices between the Mariinsky or other companies.

[Mathilde K]

Anyone in a position of authority could see with their eyes the kind of dancer who is cast and who goes on tours and the kind of dancers who are not and languish in the corps. No matter what Fateev or Gergiev say or doesn't say, what is in stage speaks volumes and directly to the worldwide public, through live performances, videos, or just following the casting on the website.

Those "in a position of authority", unfortunately, rarely care about nor have the eyes to see what's going on. Very differently from the audience: yesterday after the first White act I heard ROH balletomanes around me angrily asking "why is this girl not dancing "Apollo", why others who are bland and uninspiring are given multiple performances and not her?" They seemed to be genuinely puzzled.

[Birdsall]

Tiara, I am so glad you were able to go to the matinee after all. I know you were unsure whether you would get a ticket to it once they switched Stepanova's performances. One of my favorite moments in the Swan Lake love duet is when the ballerina lifts her right leg and falls backwards into Siegfried's one arm as she lowers her leg to meet the other one. I love to watch how the ballerina moves her arms after she falls. It is just a minor moment to most people, but Yulia Stepanova's arms and hands are like seaweed flowing in the ocean current. She makes that moment so beautiful, and these details are what I look for in a ballerina. It is very easy to miss, but for me it underscores how much detail has been put into her interpretation.

[elena]

The translated article states at the end: "For example, the third and the most difficult variation in “The Kingdom of the Shades” is danced by Stepanova essentially flawlessly. This is why it has been selected for being recorded."

Does this mean they are coming out with a DVD of this ballet? I have the previous version with Komleva/Terekhova. I hope they do not choose to record Skorik as Nikiya, I can think of many others who should be preserved in this role for posterity (my ideal would be Vishneva, but failing that, I'd prefer Lopatkina). I searched to see if this was posted about but couldn't find anything, perhaps there was a problem in my search terms.

As far as the rest of the discussion in this thread, I think it's just very embarrassing (or should be) for the MT, to have recent top Vaganova graduates choose to go elsewhere because they are not valued at the Mariinsky. I won't say anything more, as it has been discussed pretty well already.

[Mathilde K]

Teryoshkina has been selected as Nikiya, Matvienko as Gamzatti. Teryoshkina - a superb technician but with little in terms of the 'image creation' ability. She has danced 40 principal parts this season (while Lopatkina has been given very little). I reached the point of oversaturation with her. Matvienko (a graduate of Kiev) bland though techically sound. I lost hope that her dancing could ever move me.

One of my favorite moments in the Swan Lake love duet is when the ballerina lifts her right leg and falls backwards into Siegfried's one arm as she lowers her leg to meet the other one. I love to watch how the ballerina moves her arms after she falls. It is just a minor moment to most people, but Yulia Stepanova's arms and hands are like seaweed flowing in the ocean current. She makes that moment so beautiful, and these details are what I look for in a ballerina. It is very easy to miss, but for me it underscores how much detail has been put into her interpretation.

That was indeed extraordinary on July 6. Yesterday Xander was a bit late catching Yulia the first time she was falling, so the image produced wasn't as ethereally beautiful.

[Birdsall]

The translated article states at the end: "For example, the third and the most difficult variation in “The Kingdom of the Shades” is danced by Stepanova essentially flawlessly. This is why it has been selected for being recorded."

Does this mean they are coming out with a DVD of this ballet? I have the previous version with Komleva/Terekhova. I hope they do not choose to record Skorik as Nikiya, I can think of many others who should be preserved in this role for posterity (my ideal would be Vishneva, but failing that, I'd prefer Lopatkina). I searched to see if this was posted about but couldn't find anything, perhaps there was a problem in my search terms.

As far as the rest of the discussion in this thread, I think it's just very embarrassing (or should be) for the MT, to have recent top Vaganova graduates choose to go elsewhere because they are not valued at the Mariinsky. I won't say anything more, as it has been discussed pretty well already.

Elena,

I was at three Bayaderes that were filmed this summer. On July 12 Kolegova danced Nikiya with Askerov as Solor and Gergiev conducted. On July 13 and 14 both these nights Tereshkina danced Nikiya with Shklarov and Boris Gruzin conducted. All three nights cameras were filming from various angles (cameras placed in various areas around the theatre). My box had most of the seats removed due to needing to put a camera in it, so I assume they knew ahead of time and did not allow anyone to buy the seats that they removed.

In Europe the July 14th performance was telecast into movie theaters in some countries, I believe. So maybe all that filming was just for the broadcast and no dvd will emerge.

However, it seems very strange to film 3 different nights with two nights with the same exact cast and one night had different lead dancers but same supporting cast.

So I have no idea what is going on. Maybe the Kolegova night was filmed in case they needed more footage of the supporting people. I have no idea.

Originally Gergiev was slated to conduct on July 12 and 14 but not on the 13th. That was also very confusing.

Usually any ballet dvd released by the Mariinsky is conducted by Gergiev.

We might get a dvd with Kolegova and Gergiev conducting. Or we might get a dvd of Tereshkina with Gruzin conducting. Or there may never be a dvd released.

But if one is released it will probably be with either Tereshkina or Kolegova because they were the two Nikiyas that were being filmed those 3 nights. So don't worry. Skorik was not filmed. I originally assumed Tereshkina was getting a dvd of her Nikiya, but since Gergiev only conducted Kolegova, maybe she will get a dvd. If they do not release a dvd of one of those nights it seems very odd to do all that filming.

For opera lovers out there, the cameraman told me that War and Peace was also being filmed at Mariinsky II.

Bart

[Tiara]

Tiara, I am so glad you were able to go to the matinee after all. I know you were unsure whether you would get a ticket to it once they switched Stepanova's performances. One of my favorite moments in the Swan Lake love duet is when the ballerina lifts her right leg and falls backwards into Siegfried's one arm as she lowers her leg to meet the other one. I love to watch how the ballerina moves her arms after she falls. It is just a minor moment to most people, but Yulia Stepanova's arms and hands are like seaweed flowing in the ocean current. She makes that moment so beautiful, and these details are what I look for in a ballerina. It is very easy to miss, but for me it underscores how much detail has been put into her interpretation.

Yes. it was a performance of just so many beautiful details and I was sitting near enough to the stage to be able to see all her expressions. Completely mesmerizing!

[elena]

Thanks for the information all!

I would prefer a Lopatkina Nikiya above the others mentioned as the possible casts (if it even gets released). Oh well... Tereshkina and Kolegova are better than Skorik, so at least there's that.

I wonder if Lopatkina is dancing less because she is choosing to wind down her career, or because she is being given less opportunities. I would imagine she has more say than other dancers there, aside from Vishneva perhaps.

[alexaa1a]

With special exceptions, I do not feel that foreigners belong in Mariinsky Ballet. Their training and style is so different. Where my feelings against foreigners is most evident is when the Japanese dancer, Kumiko Ishii, is on the stage. Her technique is too weak and her lack of sufficient Vaganova training is much too obvious. I refused to see Kampa dance Kitri, even at the cost of missing Stepanova dance Dryad.

For me, any dancer, who had their most important early years of ballet training, not at Vaganova, and in schools like where Kampa and Ishii trained, which are different to the Vaganova style, these dancers do not belong in Mariinsky Ballet. Dancers like Haley Schwanz who had her early training with Vaganova graduate, Angelina Armeskaya, from the Children of Theatrer Street movie, at the Washington Kirov Academy, fit in well at Vaganova and would have fit in at Mariinsky because her early training years were in the proper Vaganova style. Vaganova has great teachers in SPB, but they cannot break the bad habits brought up from improper training in the early years and Haley Schwanz had the proper training and would have been a wonderful Vaganova style ballerina at Mariinsky, but she joined Malakov's Berlin Ballet.

[alexaa1a]

Unfortunately, Vaganova needs foreign money because it is no longer the Soviet Union where the Soviet government supported Vaganova. Now Vaganova needs the foreign money. However, Vaganova does not currently allow foreign students to enter in first year, so dancers not going to Kirov Academy in Washington or anything similar, are at a serious disadvantage.

Even Kirov Academy has changed drastically for the worse since now many current teachers are not Vaganova graduates and are training their students very different to the Vaganova style. When Vinogradov started the Kirov Academy it was like the SPB Vaganova school with Vaganova graduates teaching, but now there are German teachers brought up in Germany, who know nothing about the Vaganova style and they are not training their students in the Vaganova style. The Kirov Academy does have some Vaganova grads teaching, but it no longer is 100% Vaganova grad teachers.

[Mashinka]

I feel uncomfortable reading the xenophobic comments being posted here and I wonder what exactly constitutes 'foreign' now that the old Soviet Union has split into a number of independent countries. I know nothing about the background of Kimin Kim, but I am aware that in the old Soviet Union there was a sizeable minority of ethnic Koreans. Would there now be no place for Kazak Asylmuratova, Georgian Nioradze or Austrian Baimuradov for example?

Ballet is an international art and talent shouldn't be restricted to where someone was born.

[Helene]

I feel uncomfortable reading the xenophobic comments being posted here and I wonder what exactly constitutes 'foreign' now that the old Soviet Union has split into a number of independent countries. I know nothing about the background of Kimin Kim, but I am aware that in the old Soviet Union there was a sizeable minority of ethnic Koreans. Would there now be no place for Kazak Asylmuratova, Georgian Nioradze or Austrian Baimuradov for example?

Ballet is an international art and talent shouldn't be restricted to where someone was born.

If you read the original post, and not even all that carefully, you'll see the distinction made is between the dancers trained by Vaganova teachers in the Vaganova style, and those who haven't, not where they are born or their ethnicity or even in what country the school is located. Whether you agree is another story.

[Mashinka]

In post 99* it clearly says that foreigners don't belong in the Kirov. There was nothing ambiguous about it.

[Admin note: edited to reflect the post number in the merged topic]

[Helene]

At the end of post 99, the poster makes it clear that the issue is training, which is discussed further in post 100.

Edited to add:

Dancers who are not trained in a company style but join the company are hotly debated no matter what the company.

[Helene]

But first, what is the official source showing that Gergiev is making personal efforts to get sponsorship for the theatre?

Here is a sampling of articles in the Western press and pravda.ru that refer to Gergiev's fundraising activities:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/gergiev-the-great-1.1241708

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/16-04-2013/124290-gergiev_mariinsky-0/

http://www.enca.com/life/ambitious-mariinsky-supremo-launches-new-petersburg-theatre

http://www.mariinskytrust.org.uk/mariinsky-theatre-trust-long-history/

http://www.colineatock.com/valery-gergiev.html

http://www.thinkrussia.com/life-arts/week-russia-gergiev-and-his-love-theater

http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/whatson-story/2128938-it-s-all-gravy-for-gergiev/

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2014/02/05/valery-gergiev-the-powerful-and-polarizing-maestro

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/195812/t/Mariinsky-Theater-unveils-new-stage/Default.aspx

http://seenandheard-international.com/2012/04/thirteen-years-on-gergiev-returns-with-a-masterful-parsifal/

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/may/16/classicalmusicandopera2

http://www.gmn.com/artists/artist.asp?bio=true&id=1008

http://alb.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=6387702

The Mariinsky Theatre Trust (UK) was established by Gergiev, as was the Mariinsky Foundation of America (formerly White Nights Foundation of America.)

[MadameP]

The new corps de ballet members have finally been added to the roster, including Vitaly Amelishko, who made his debut as one of the Horses in Little Humpbacked Horse on 5th October.

Also, the following dancers are no longer on the Mariinsky roster, so presumably have not renewed their contracts for various reasons: Yulia Kasenkova, Keenan Kampa, Tatiana Serova.