Buddy Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 (edited) I’m totally enchanted by this young lady ! Here’s why. (Video also officially posted at the Competition site.) She’s a vibrant, highly expressive young dancer with absolutely lovely dancing. She’s still a student at the Perm Ballet School in Russia. She just won a Silver Medal in her Junior's category (no Gold was given) at the Moscow International Ballet Competition. She reminds me of the Bolshoi’s new Principal Dancer, Alyona Kovalyova (Mariinsky school graduate), because of her appearance and remarkable gracefulness. There isn't much information that I can find about her, but I'll try to follow her career as carefully as I can. I’d love to see her at the Mariinsky. I think that she’d really shine there, but I’m sure that wherever she goes she’ll be wonderful. Edited August 17, 2022 by Buddy Link to comment
duffster Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 I agree Buddy, she is very gifted- I can't believe that she is still a student. Here she is performing a very difficult variation with an absolute sense of calm. Her port des bras are beautiful and she is interesting to watch even while doing the simple steps. She must also have amazing teachers who have developed her gifts so far. I'm sure that she will have a successful career ahead of her. Link to comment
Buddy Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 (edited) On 8/16/2022 at 7:32 PM, duffster said: I agree Buddy, she is very gifted- I can't believe that she is still a student. Here she is performing a very difficult variation with an absolute sense of calm. Her port des bras are beautiful and she is interesting to watch even while doing the simple steps. She must also have amazing teachers who have developed her gifts so far. I'm sure that she will have a successful career ahead of her. Thank you very much, Duffster, for your very nice and informative comments. It’s interesting to me that you’re so impressed that she’s doesn’t look like a student. I can certainly understand why you feel this way. Yet, for me, she does still look like a student but in the most positive sense. Her youthful vibrance is luminous and her dance ability is very impressive but not so technically refined as to lose this feeling. Being a former professional ballet dancer you see many things that I don’t notice and focus on. Thank you for the insight as to how difficult this solo (variation) is. Agreeing with you completely about her “absolute sense of calm” she appears to be the kind of woman with that remarkable female ability to smile radiantly through anything. You also mention that she makes even the simple look interesting. I don’t like to over-analyse but I do notice certain inflections in her motions, for instance, that could account for part of this. As for her training, the Perm Ballet does seem to be very high quality, and some very famous artists from its school have excelled beyond, such as Oxana Skorik at the Mariinsky. As with some other ballet dancers that I like very much, I hope that she can hold onto this youthful vibrance while excelling with her remarkably lovely, elevating and proficient artistry. This might make for a very interesting comparison. It’s a video clip of the Mariinsky’s young and highly talented Maria Khoreva doing another solo from The Sleeping Beauty. At first glance her always interesting and highly impressive proficiency is very evident, while Valeria Kuznetsova’s remarkable gracefulness is also very apparent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATC3J17uA-A (posted by Maria Khoreva) Edited August 18, 2022 by Buddy Link to comment
Buddy Posted August 22, 2022 Author Share Posted August 22, 2022 For pure dance loveliness, she’s the one that I’m watching all the time at the moment. Similar linear beauty can also be found in Oxana Skorik and Alyona Kovalyova. One quality that I notice is her statuesque and lyrical verticality. Whatever shapes she’s composing, she always seems to be able to draw them into an ascending dreaminess. This is done with the alignment of her neck and her head. Compare this to the much looser positioning that Maria Khoreva uses in the above video clip. Valeria Kuznetsova’s head, and as a result her entire imagery, almost seem to be lifting and floating somewhere in the heavens. Link to comment
Buddy Posted September 3, 2022 Author Share Posted September 3, 2022 I’d like to elaborate somewhat on my previous post. There I described the important effect of the placement of her head. What has become even more fascinating is her facial expression which actually seems to direct the rest of her outstandingly graceful physicality. Again, I’ll refer to The Sleeping Beauty video excerpt posted above at the beginning of this topic. Her face is so vibrant, that you’re immediately drawn to it and perhaps more important, into it. With a change of glance, intensity and direction of regard and even emotion, she actually manipulates the overall image of her entire body. A glance or a smile can change the way that her entire body is perceived. It’s quite remarkable and absolutely lovely. And I’ll continue to suggest that she sets the standard at the moment for graceful wonder in a young ballerina, perhaps for any ballerina. Link to comment
Buddy Posted September 14, 2022 Author Share Posted September 14, 2022 In my post before this one I suggested that the very young Perm Ballet School student, Valeria Kuznetsova, sets the standard for Grace for all young ballerinas and even suggested for all of today’s ballerinas. I continue to feel that her youthful abilities in this area are perhaps unequaled. As for mature ballerinas, I would have to again mention Oxana Skorik as probably being the finest. Still, I would not maintain that mature refinement is necessarily the ultimate quality. Emotional effect can be as important as technical prowess. It might just be a matter of personal preference. Valeria Kuznetsova has remarkably graceful, and overall, abilities, especially for her very young age. She also has a youthful vibrance and spontaneity. Oxana Skorik has overall maturity and all the developed refinement that can result. And totally her own, I once again have to mention her hands, which may be unequaled by any ballet artist, ever. Here again are two videos to make what I consider a very interesting comparison. Valeria Kuznetsova Oxana Skorik Link to comment
Buddy Posted September 21, 2022 Author Share Posted September 21, 2022 (edited) Still watching continuously the two videos in my previous post, I feel more than ever what a wonderfully graceful and perhaps untouchable ballerina Oxana Skorik is. Yet — somewhat amazingly actually ! — I see a Student on an equal footing with this remarkable Mariinsky Principal Ballerina. Valeria Kuznetsova, or anyone else, may never have the same kind of greatness that Oxana Skorik has, but Valeria Kuznetsova, in her parallel and differently wonderful way, may already, at such a young age, be of similar stature. I do hope that she continues to shine like this and that someday she will also be featured regularly on a great stage such as the Mariinsky’s. Edited September 21, 2022 by Buddy Link to comment
Buddy Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 Wow ! “Graduated from the Perm School of Dance and joined the Mariinsky Ballet in 2023” (Mariinsky site) Link to comment
Buddy Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) Since discovering yesterday to my delight that Valeria Kuznetsova was accepted this year to the Mariinsky, I’ve been watching video excerpts of some of my favorite Mariinsky/Vaganova ballerinas in the category that I’m particularly fond of, the more dreamlike and airily graceful grouping. To narrow it down, I’ve focussed on those closest to Valeria Kuznetsova in linear airiness or willowy gracefulness, which is seeming to me to be one of her lovliest characteristics. It’s been suggested elsewhere that she’s not actually very tall, and yet she has some of the same attraction as do two of this group’s tallest stars, Ulyana Lopatkina and Alyona Kovalyova (now a Bolshoi Principal). She may be closer to Oksana Skorik in actual size. Yet to my eyes she may be the most linearly embracing and in this I would put her closest to Alyona Kovalyova and Oksana Skorik. To even regard this young, recently graduated (Perm School, same as Oksana Skorik) dancer alongside these others is about as high a compliment as I can offer and I’ve felt this way almost since I first viewed her about a year ago in the Moscow International Ballet Competition videos. I would say that she has since matured noticeably in her dramatic aura and become even more refined and lovely. Here’s a charming video of her as Giselle several months after the Competition. Edited November 23, 2023 by Buddy spelling correction and a few words added Link to comment
California Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 20 hours ago, Buddy said: “Graduated from the Perm School of Dance and joined the Mariinsky Ballet in 2023” Many on this site already know this. Others might be interested that the Kirov/Mariinsky was evacuated from Leningrad in 1941 to Perm. This helps explain the great traditions at Perm. https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/about/ww2/1941/ Link to comment
Buddy Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 (edited) An exciting recognition for her ! Wednesday, April 3, she debuted at the Mariinsky as Phrygia in Spartacus, also featuring Renata Shakirova (Aegina) and Andrei Yermakov (Spartacus). https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/playbill/playbill/2024/4/3/2_1900/ (Thanks to Enya at Dansomanie) Edited April 8 by Buddy Link to comment
Buddy Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 This is from a review by Catherine Pawlick at Vaganova Today mentioning Valeria Kuznetsova’s debut. I will post this brief excerpt primarily because it seems to answer a question I had as to her height. Apparently, she’s quite tall. “On 03 April, Andrey Ermakov danced a noble Spartacus, infusing the role less with vim and vigor than with quiet determination and pride. Valeria Kuznetsova, an impossibly tall and long-limbed Perm Academy graduate, debuted in the role of Phrygia, Spartacus’ wife. With height that matches Ermakov’s stature well on stage, she did justice to the wrenching monologue in the final scene, a dramatic challenge for even seasoned ballerinas.” https://www.vaganovatoday.com/spartacus-love-and-war-on-stage-april-2024/#more-1361 By the way, this has been the top of my video watching list, unchanged, for over a year. Oxana Skorik Olga Smirnova Eva Sergeyenkova Alyona Kovalyova Maria Iliushkina Valeria Kuznetsova Link to comment
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