Ukraine invasion & the arts: Gergiev fired by his agent, etc.

[pherank]

8 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Adrian Blake Mitchell on resigning from the Mikhailovsky, leaving Russia in a hurry and biting his tongue until he was out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca2w211gwAN 

Since posts can be removed, I'll copy and paste his text here:

"Time to finally share my thoughts. After over 7 years in Russia, as of the 25th of February, Andrea and I resigned our posts at The Mikhailovsky Ballet. This move had been in the works prior to the Invasion of Ukraine. Nonetheless, departing Russia within 48 hours, shipping what we could, driving to the Estonian border and walking across (Beau in tow) before making our way into Tallinn, and even more importantly, witnessing the death and destruction that has been brought on Ukraine has all but soured my entire experience. I fell in love with Russia, and it’s people, despite its flaws. Many people and experiences that I had there are still near and dear to my heart.

Many people mention that arts shouldn’t mix with politics. This is impossible. Art has always been a mirror for the best and worst of human nature. The most famous and influential art was inspired by the times in which it was created.

If you are going to pray for someone, or think of someone, or hold space for someone, please do so for the Ukrainian people. But I also implore you to have compassion for the Russian, many of whom I know are kind-hearted, caring, wonderful people who are against this bloodshed with every fiber of their being. Many have spoken out, and I commend them for their bravery, as I personally was not comfortable posting until I was out of Russia. Treason is being threatened to artists, and free speech is not a reality for those still inside of Russia."

Edited March 10, 2022 by pherank

[pherank]

There's a fundraising event planned for April 9th in New York, as mentioned by Alastair Macaulay:

'And now an “I ❤️ Dance For Ukraine” night is announced in New York to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Its announced dancers already include Isabella Boylston, Brooklyn Mack, Sarah Lane, Skye Mattox, Unity Phelan, Christine Shevchenko, Cory Stearns; others will be named in due course.'

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca8LFPAgru2/

Among the participants will be:

Isabella Boylston
Christine Shevchenko
Cory Stearns
Indiana Woodward
Skye Mattox
Brooklyn Mack
Unity Phelan
Sarah Lane
Alexei Ratmansky
David Fernandez
Andrii Ishchuk

Edited March 11, 2022 by pherank

[volcanohunter]

This news is about a week old, but IMG Artists has suspended its representation of the Bolshoi Ballet "until peace is restored." The announcement was posted on the Bolshoi site:

"The arts and culture bring people together from all over the world. They overcome time and distance. They help us to find the best of ourselves and our common ground. The Bolshoi Theatre and IMG Artists are devoted to celebrating and promoting these virtues through our work in the performing arts. We are now all faced with a crisis. Hope and peace and beauty should not be faded concepts, but guiding principles.

The values, virtues and power of the arts - creation, collaboration, diaglogue, and multi-culturalism – should be our guides for living with each other in the 21st century. It is out of our profound respect for our artists, colleagues and community that we have suspended our concert series with The Bolshoi Theater until peace is restored. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to supporting and protecting our artists, our shared principles, and hope that we may soon meet in a time of peace and understanding around the world."

IMG Artists posted a separate statement on the invasion on its site.

https://imgartists.com/news/img-artists-statement-on-the-crisis-ukraine/

It also posted condemnations of the invasion from Vasily Petrenko, who has suspended all his engagements in Russia, and Andrey Gugnin.

[pherank]

Last night @sfballet opened The Seasons by @alexeiratmansky
We are sending love to Ukraine from San Francisco 🇺🇦

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbLnGgsjMuq/

[volcanohunter]

Jean-Christophe Maillot has withdraw permission for the Bolshoi to perform his Taming of the Shrew. 

To be honest, I'd been wondering whether other choreographers might do the same, especially Ratmansky. (Performances of Flames of Paris and his production of Giselle scheduled for May have indeed been canceled.) In any case, the Bolshoi has no means of paying royalties. 

All Grigorovich all the time, I suppose.

Edited March 19, 2022 by volcanohunter

[volcanohunter]

Meanwhile, the Bolshoi plans to ignore Maillot's request on the grounds that the terms of their contract have not been violated. The Bolshoi is anticipating that other choreographers may also seek to withdraw their works, and evidently it intends to disregard their wishes.

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5260829

Edited March 18, 2022 by volcanohunter

[dirac]

News continues to be (mostly) bad for Gergiev.

Quote

Despite such cancellations of Gergiev’s involvements, he will still conduct Italy’s annual Ravello Festival this summer. “The Ravello foundation, all its collaborators and artists are very saddened by the fratricidal war in the heart of Europe,” Ravello’s president Dino Falconio told Il Mattino. 

 

[pherank]

Alastair Macaulay's posting regarding a recent Alexei Ratmansky posting (includes screenshots of Ratmansky's text):

"1, 2, 3, 4. This statement by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky (on my Facebook post of Baryshnikov’s recent interview about Ukraine and Russian artists) is of the utmost importance and interest. Ratmansky includes the support (too little known in the West) of Russian artists for Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea - he names names; he includes the Russian artists who continue to support Putin’s 2022 war on Ukraine - he names names; and he addresses Mikhail Baryshnikov’s latest statement about Russian artists and sportsmen being allowed to perform in the West. His intelligent and detailed grasp of the political, historical, and artistic significance of the current situation shines forth from every sentence.

A number of people, writing heartlessly from the effortless comfort of their chairs in the West, have coarsely and announced that “silence = consent”, that Russians who do not protest Putin’s war are therefore supporting it. This is both insensitive and ignorant. We must not doubt that, as in Nazi Germany, there are artists whose refusal to criticise the Putin regime is caused by terror of reprisals to their loved ones.

Ratmansky, however, here has highlighted both Russian artists who have actually spoken up for Putin (with details and names I had not known) and the more silent support of many other Russian artists who are surely at least aware of the murderous aggression of Putin’s war. The names of Boris Eifman, Nicolai Tzitskaridze, and the Ukrainian-born Svetlana Zakharova are particular examples of pro-Putin artists, but Ratmansky is talking of a larger and more disturbing phenomenon: the increasing popularity within Russia of Putin’s anti-Ukraine violence.

It’s hard for us to imagine the propaganda and confused patriotism that must pervade Russia today. Or is it? I’m old enough to remember the colonialist histories of the British Empire that made many Britons feel British culture was a boon for all. <MORE>"

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbXRS-6A_fz/

[Drew]

Though Macaulay admires Ratmansky's statement, his own attitudes are different and that comes out subtly even in the way he summarizes Ratmansky's points which, in fact, slight softens them:  . [Edited to add: in the comments to his post, Macaulay makes his distance from Ratmansky clearer than in the initial post.]

Though Macaulay summarizes Ratmansky's argument saying Russians do have access to real information and can easily find out what is happening if they wish to do so, Macaulay himself still ends his statement by recalling the role of "propaganda" and "confused patriotism" --as if to once again remind people that Russians may not always have access to real information. This is not Ratmansky's position in the FB post Macaulay is referring to (quoted below)... Likewise Macaulay acknowledges the importance of Ratmansky's critique of Russian silence as often a mask for Putin support while ALSO insisting that Western observers who say that silence=consent from the comfort of their armchairs are speaking "coarsely" and "heartlessly."

Moreover, I think Ratmansky goes farther than a critique of silence as consent. After discussing many who have openly and loudly aligned themselves with Putin over the years, Ratmansky adds;

"Yes, there were those who were not involved, and others who even protested. And it seems fair that these artists/sportsmen should be given chances to perform/compete in the West. But in reality it's a more complex issue. ... Russia is now engulfed in a military patriotic frenzy. I know that many of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers, whom I adore and with whom I happily worked for more than 20 years, sharing my heart, inspiration and knowledge, support Putin and his crimes in Ukraine. I don't beleive they are unaware that Ukrainian cities are being shelled and destroyed, thousands of civilians killed and millions displaced. I don't beleive [sic] they can't get true information..." 

My interpretation of the part in bold is that we have to take seriously Ratmansky's reference to "others who even protested." The latter don't get a pass from him either. (And that seems a bridge too far for Macaulay who silently leaves that bit out of his summary of what Ratmansky wrote.) It's not clear to me why Ratmansky takes that position: perhaps because he thinks most protesters have not gone far enough? Or perhaps because, short of fleeing Russia, he thinks that when artists and athletes "represent" Russian art they de facto shore up Putin's and Russia's prestige EVEN IF they oppose Putin's war? perhaps because, as with any other kind of sanctions, he believes that cutting off Russian artists/athletes has to be thoroughgoing to be effective -- even at the cost of hurting those who may not deserve it? Perhaps because he thinks many of the antiwar statements have been blandly humanitarian but not actually anti-Putin?  I don't know.

If I am honest with myself, then I think my attitudes on these issues are closer to Macaulay's ever so slightly softer position or even Baryshnikov's quite different position--though mostly I feel weighed down by uncertainty and the experience of "propaganda" in all directions.  But I know I certainly didn't stop attending Farrell's performances just because I read an interview in which she ooh-ed and ahhed over what a Ballet Fan Henry Kissinger was and, to keep things from going too much off the rails, let's just say that, in my eyes, Putin isn't the only war criminal in the world.

But I do find reading Ratmansky very salutary...He obviously sees himself, indeed he IS, a warrior in the "information" wars....

Edited to add: As noted above, in a comment added to his post, Macaulay makes his distance from Ratmansky and Baryshnikov clear: "Rather than rushing to think either man [Baryshnikov or Ratmansky] is right, we should consider the conditions that may be most effective in freeing Russian artists of the pro-Putin views that may seem to them as appealing as the outdated British imperialism of my boyhood."

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Drew

[pherank]

All good points, Drew. I'll just point out that the closer one is to the center of the crisis, the more emotional one gets. The most "reasonable" sounding people are always the ones well outside the war zone. Both President Zelensky and Ratmanksy are going to be more worked up and unforgiving of the opposition than, say, Macaulay because it is their friends, family and fellow countryman whose lives are being threatened (or taken) on an hourly basis. The Ukrainians simply don't have time for changing Russian "hearts and minds",  as we like to say. That ship sailed. Right now they require a military solution.

I can see that Ratmansky feels there have been plenty of years/opportunities for the Russians to improve their worldview and government, but little has fundamentally changed. He seems to think that, aside from the protestors (who have likely all been arrested, btw), everyone else is sitting on the sidelines, either cheering, or shrugging their shoulders and trying to get on with their lives. I think Ratmansky wants to see more organized anti-war activism in Russia, but the government clampdown is going to make that very difficult now.

EDIT: I do recommend that people read the transcript of Putin's rally speech (assuming they don't speak Russian) to get a sense of the rhetoric that the government broadcasts now each day.

Edited March 22, 2022 by pherank

[pherank]

From the NY Times:

As Big Shows of Russian Art End in Europe, Some Wonder What’s Next
Museums in London and Paris are grappling with questions about how to get art back to Russia, and whether the works will ever be seen again in Europe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/arts/design/europe-russian-art-museums.html

"As the war in Ukraine continues, museums across Europe are having to grapple with a range of questions — logistical, moral and diplomatic — about how they should deal with their Russian counterparts. That includes working out how to safely return artworks, but also what to do with future exhibitions that are meant to involve Russian loans."

[volcanohunter]

The Teatro di San Carlo will present a gala benefit for humanitarian relief in Ukraine on April 4th. The artists scheduled to appear include Ukrainian dancers Denys Cherevychko, Iana Salenko, Alexandre Riabko, Kateryna Shalkina, Anastasia and Denis Matvienko, and Katja Khaniukova, as well as a number of Russian dancers working in the West: Maria Yakovleva, Maria Kochetkova, Liudmila Konovalova, Alexei Popov and Olga Smirnova.

https://www.teatrosancarlo.it/en/spettacoli/ballet-for-peace.html

The Royal Opera House will present several events to benefit the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, including an opera concert on April 15th.

Beginning on April 22nd, the Royal Ballet will stream Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern as part of the appeal.

On May 5th there will be a benefit performance of Swan Lake, during which Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez and Natalia Osipova will share the role of Odette-Odile, while Vadim Mutagirov will be Siegfried to them all. 

Last weekend's London gala organized by Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov raised more than £140,000 for the DEC appeal.

[dirac]

Drew writes:

Quote

If I am honest with myself, then I think my attitudes on these issues are closer to Macaulay's ever so slightly softer position or even Baryshnikov's quite different position--though mostly I feel weighed down by uncertainty and the experience of "propaganda" in all directions.  But I know I certainly didn't stop attending Farrell's performances just because I read an interview in which she ooh-ed and ahhed over what a Ballet Fan Henry Kissinger was and, to keep things from going too much off the rails, let's just say that, in my eyes, Putin isn't the only war criminal in the world.

There was also Fonteyn burbling in her book about what an awesome hostess Imelda Marcos was, touring South Africa during a culture ban, etc.

And of course there's stuff like this:

Quote

But for Johnson, dealing with the crown prince — known as MBS — might be more pleasure than business. “The chemistry between them just works,” said Eddie Lister, a former long-serving aide to Johnson who himself dealt with the Gulf nations while working in Downing Street and has just become an unpaid non-executive director of the Saudi British Joint Business Council.

Drew writes:

Quote

It's not clear to me why Ratmansky takes that position: perhaps because he thinks most protesters have not gone far enough? Or perhaps because, short of fleeing Russia, he thinks that when artists and athletes "represent" Russian art they de facto shore up Putin's and Russia's prestige EVEN IF they oppose Putin's war?

I would certainly hope this logic never gets applied to populations in the West. My own country’s government has committed acts of which I disapprove, to put it mildly, and at times I have protested, i.e., stood on a corner waving signs. I’m very lucky in that if I’m reasonably polite I won’t get hauled off to jail or beaten for doing so (although others haven’t been so fortunate). I also know that many of my fellow US citizens are seriously ill-informed and believe things that are not true, even though we have a free press and our TV news shows aren’t government propaganda machines, at least not overtly. I can only imagine how these things are magnified in states with authoritarian regimes or tendencies.

pherank writes:

Quote

The most "reasonable" sounding people are always the ones well outside the war zone.

Not from the news footage I’m seeing, although I take your larger point.

[Quiggin]

I don't think it's been reported here but the dancer Artyom Datsishin has died of wounds incurred in fighting in Ukraine, as well as have several other Ukrainian cultural figures.

I tend to be more sympathetic to Ratmansky's argument than Baryshnikov's, though perhaps not quite so literally and not all of it. A country's art is backed by its whole culture and politics and is not in some pure category set aside. As the Ukrainian poet Serhly Zhadan is quoted a recent LRB Blog entry on Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, ‘Russia’s “great humanist” culture is going to the bottom like the invincible Titanic. Sorry, I mean like a Russian warship.’

So it's hard to be neutral or draw up the protective shield of the arts, as it was difficult to do so during the sixties in the US when Americans everywhere were asked, "why are you in Vietnam?" And Russians during Soviet times knew subtle ways of showing dissent.

Re returning the arts collections to Russian is an interesting problem. Putin signed off on the important Morozov collection, full of early Matisses and Cezannes. Wonder if it will become a hostage in negotiations. I think of the traveling Sarah and Michael Stein collection of Matisses that never came back from Germany after World War I.

Dispensable Traditions –

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/march/dispensable-traditions

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Quiggin

[California]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

The Teatro di San Carlo will present a gala benefit for humanitarian relief in Ukraine on April 4th. The artists scheduled to appear include Ukrainian dancers Denys Cherevychko, Iana Salenko, Alexandre Riabko, Kateryna Shalkina, Anastasia and Denis Matvienko, and Katja Khaniukova, as well as a number of Russian dancers working in the West: Maria Yakovleva, Maria Kochetkova, Liudmila Konovalova, Alexei Popov and Olga Smirnova.

https://www.teatrosancarlo.it/en/spettacoli/ballet-for-peace.html

The Royal Opera House will present several events to benefit the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, including an opera concert on April 15th.

Beginning on April 22nd, the Royal Ballet will stream Crystal Pite's Flight Pattern as part of the appeal.

On May 5th there will be a benefit performance of Swan Lake, during which Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez and Natalia Osipova will share the role of Odette-Odile, while Vadim Mutagirov will be Siegfried to them all. 

Last weekend's London gala organized by Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov raised more than £140,000 for the DEC appeal.

I wish they would all explore streaming-for-a-fee for those of us who can't attend in person but would happily pay to help the charities and see these performances. That Swan Lake with four O/Os looks really enticing! But the San Carlo and London galas also seem worth the money.

[pherank]

2 hours ago, California said:

I wish they would all explore streaming-for-a-fee for those of us who can't attend in person but would happily pay to help the charities and see these performances. That Swan Lake with four O/Os looks really enticing! But the San Carlo and London galas also seem worth the money.

I agree that this event is an obvious opportunity to raise funds worldwide, rather than only locally, if they simply stream the event with clear information about where to donate. Various YouTube channels, for example, solicit for funds during and after live broadcasts.

[pherank]

For people wanting to know a bit more about how life has changed in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, this video might be a good starting point:

Eli from Russia
Our life in Russia under sanctions | Prices in the shopping mall, Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4EA8VSZdZ8

[volcanohunter]

On 3/21/2022 at 6:59 PM, Drew said:

Though Macaulay summarizes Ratmansky's argument saying Russians do have access to real information and can easily find out what is happening if they wish to do so, Macaulay himself still ends his statement by recalling the role of "propaganda" and "confused patriotism" --as if to once again remind people that Russians may not always have access to real information.

The Soviets were very clumsy practitioners of cancel culture. From time to time owners of Soviet encyclopedias would receive a sheet in the mail with instructions to cut out a certain page and replace it with the new one. Naturally, people compared the sheets for changes, to see whose entry had been removed. The populace wasn't entirely stupid. In our time the Russian government resorts to internet censorship, although it has nothing to rival the Great Firewall of China. Access to Ukrainian news sites and television channels was blocked years ago. More recently CNN, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and other foreign news sites were blocked. The latest to be blocked is Euronews, which could hardly be described as a Russophobic channel, but it does use the word "war" to describe what is happening in Ukraine, and that may be enough. Twitter has been blocked, Meta has been identified as an "extremist organization," so Facebook and Instragram have been blocked. There have been reports that YouTube may be blocked in the near future. The authorities are also blocking VPNs. So technically, Russians may not have "access" to information, but surely they can recognize that all those foreigners must have different information and that their government is doing everything possible prevent them from seeing it. Or they believe that the entire world is conspiring to present a false picture of what is happening out there and are prepared to swallow their government's version hook, line and sinker.

As for "military patriotic frenzy":

 

On 3/21/2022 at 6:59 PM, Drew said:

let's just say that, in my eyes, Putin isn't the only war criminal in the world

But do ballet companies from their countries present three-week seasons at the Royal Opera House?

Edited March 23, 2022 by volcanohunter

[Buddy]

3 hours ago, pherank said:

For people wanting to know a bit more about how life has changed in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, this video might be a good starting point:

Eli from Russia
Our life in Russia under sanctions | Prices in the shopping mall, Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4EA8VSZdZ8

Thanks, Pherank.

This may be drifting off subject somewhat, so delete if it seems appropriate. I've been watching Eli's posts for several weeks. She seems quite lovely. I hope that I'm right in my perception of her and if I am I wish her, and all others like her, well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD4fKDicTvI&t=2s

Granted, in my many years of visiting Russia I've just been a tourist and I've avoided political discussions, as I often do anywhere, but these young individuals seem fairly typical of those that I know. The blonde woman indoors is perhaps the most 'nationalistic' of the group, more so than most that I've encountered.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Buddy

[Marta]

Drew said:

If I am honest with myself, then I think my attitudes on these issues are closer to Macaulay's ever so slightly softer position or even Baryshnikov's quite different position--though mostly I feel weighed down by uncertainty and the experience of "propaganda" in all directions.  But I know I certainly didn't stop attending Farrell's performances just because I read an interview in which she ooh-ed and ahhed over what a Ballet Fan Henry Kissinger was ...

I've read Baryshnikov's position but since I don't have a Facebook account, I've only seen what Macaulay included about Ratmansky's position.  Is it possible to cut and paste what Ratmansky wrote on Facebook here? 

[volcanohunter]

From Ratmansky's Facebook:

‼️ My view on the ‘cancellation’ of Russian culture: 

In 2014, more than 500 prominent cultural figures (cinema, theater, TV, pop, opera, ballet, literature, arts, science, sport etc), including big ballet personalities like Vyacheslav Gordeyev, Marina Leonova, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Svetlana Zakharova, Ivan Vasiliev, and also Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Urin, Sergei Danilian, Vladimir Kekhman, Elena Scherbakova - signed a letter of support for Putin's annexation of Crimea. After this letter, every performance or any public action of these 500, could be seen as an act of propaganda. Especially those who have gone on to perform in the West. These people have made a political statement publicly supporting their President's unlawful actions. They are playing politics and therefore should be held responsible or at least asked to clarify their position today. 
It is precisely because of the support of the most visible figures of Russian culture that Putin gained his unlimited power and now is using it against humanity in this bloody war that is destroying Ukraine. The 2018 list of Putin 'representatives' ('doverennye litsa') included hundreds of the biggest names in sport and culture, Boris Eifman, Tsiskaridze and Zakharova among them. Sergei Polunin and Andrei Uvarov took over high administrative positions in Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. Many celebrities are serving as members of the State Duma, whose unanimous vote gave Putin formal right to start the invasion. 
How is it possible now to ignore their voluntary involvement in Putin's politics? Yes, there were those who were not involved, and others who even protested. And it seems fair that these artists/sportsmen should be given chances to perform/compete in the West. But in reality it's a more complex issue. Putin's popularity has increased significantly since he started the war... Russia is now engulfed in a military patriotic frenzy. I know that many of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers, whom I adore and with whom I happily worked for more than 20 years, sharing my heart, inspiration and knowledge, support Putin and his crimes in Ukraine. I don't beleive they are unaware that Ukrainian cities are being shelled and destroyed, thousands of civilians killed and millions displaced. I don't beleive they can't get true information. No, it is their chosen point of view. 
It's humiliating to think that dancers should only dance and concentrate on their art, ignoring what's going on around them. It's not only pretty legs that they possess, they also have brains and hearts. The mass murder of innocent people in Ukraine is done in their name also, in the name of Great Russia of Culture that was so admired by the whole world until very recently.

[pherank]

This is Ratmanksy's crucial point for me:

"These people have made a political statement publicly supporting their President's unlawful actions. They are playing politics and therefore should be held responsible or at least asked to clarify their position today."

And I basically agree with him. How ignorant or how innocent could a person be to assume that an annexation of Crimea would be a bloodless act? It just defies the imagination. Perhaps many of these people thought that signing a letter of support was merely an act of rah-rah patriotism, necessary to keep in the government's good graces, but lending one's support to an illegal military action* is going to have consequences. And should.

* It violates the Charter of the United Nations, and constitutes a crime of aggression in international criminal law. "The invasion has also been called unlawful under some countries' domestic criminal codes—including those of Ukraine and Russia."

Edited March 23, 2022 by pherank

[Drew]

1 hour ago, Marta said:

Drew said:

If I am honest with myself, then I think my attitudes on these issues are closer to Macaulay's ever so slightly softer position or even Baryshnikov's quite different position--though mostly I feel weighed down by uncertainty and the experience of "propaganda" in all directions.  But I know I certainly didn't stop attending Farrell's performances just because I read an interview in which she ooh-ed and ahhed over what a Ballet Fan Henry Kissinger was ...

I've read Baryshnikov's position but since I don't have a Facebook account, I've only seen what Macaulay included about Ratmansky's position.  Is it possible to cut and paste what Ratmansky wrote on Facebook here? 

Ratmansky's initial post was expressed as a response to Baryshnikov and opened with a long tribute to Baryshnikov and his support of Ukraine. He re-posted it as a general statement on his own FB page without that tribute as has been cut and pasted by others above. As you probably saw, the part that I was reflecting on and which concerns "even" people who protest Putin is quoted in my earlier post. 

 

[volcanohunter]

Perhaps Ratmansky does not wish to seem to be engaging in polemics with Baryshnikov, with whom he really has no dispute.

1 hour ago, pherank said:

Perhaps many of these people thought that signing a letter of support was merely an act of rah-rah patriotism, necessary to keep in the government's good graces, but lending one's support to an illegal military action* is going to have consequences. And should.

At the time, there were no consequences. The foreign engagements of Gergiev, Zakharova, Ivan Vasiliev, Matsuev, Bashmet, Spivakov et al. continued as before, although protesters began to appear at venues where they were performing. Ukrainians were paying attention, and I remember that some performances scheduled in Ukraine were promptly called off. The directors of practically all major theaters, museums, libraries and arts education institutions in Russia signed; no doubt it was expected. Vladimir Urin signed, but Tugan Sokhiev and Sergei Filin did not. Neither did Yuri Fateev. Oddly enough, I don't see a signature from the Stanislavsky Theater. (Perhaps Urin's old post was still vacant?)  Some signatories, such as Elena Obraztsova and Vladislav Piavko, were retired and so advanced in age that they had nothing to gain by demonstrating fealty to the regime. The directors and rectors, on the other hand, may have been ensuring their continued employment. 

However, the vast majority of dancers and musicians did not sign. Zakharova and Vasiliev went out of their way to do it. And I'll say this: Zakharova and Ekaterina Shipulina(-Matsueva) are 42 years of age, and all other Bolshoi principals in their 40s have been deprived of their base salaries and shunted to the weird "under contract" category, but those two haven't. 

Well, eight years later, the list no longer seems inconsequential. 

[Drew]

1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

 

At the time, there were no consequences.

Yes....none of substance....

Challenged on the fact that he himself didn't stop working in Russia after they annexed Crimea--a challenge made in comments on Instagram written in response to his post--Ratmansky himself responded: "I never supported the annexation of the Crimea. But yes, I wish I understood better what has happened back then."  He also says that he has asked both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky to suspend his repertory.  The full exchange is interesting and --for those who haven't seen it already -- here is a link; you have to scroll down the comments to get to it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbbXrlHKjTs/

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Drew