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blackswaneuroparedux · 1 year

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Football is the ballet of the masses.

- Dmitri Shostakovich

Dancers of the Bolshoi ballet backstage during a performance watching the Russian national team win a penalty shootout during the World Cup 2018.

#dmitri shostakovich #shostakovich #quote #bellet #dancer #ballerinas #bolshoi #foootball #sports #world cup #culture

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vaganova-blog · 4 months

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Anna Tikhomirova

#Bolshoi #Ballet

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thepaintedchateau · 9 months

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..."sooner or later, everybody dreams of other worlds"...

~J. Aleksandr Wootten

#the painted chateau #painted chateau #art #ballet #giselle #bolshoi #russia #inspired life

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sallyhardety · 11 months

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#natalia osipova #ballet #giselle #ballerina #ballet core #coquette #marianela nunez #black swan #natalie portman #nina sayers #aesthetic #core #swan lake #don quixote #evgenia obraztsova #bolshoi #royal ballet #russian ballet

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federer7 · 2 years

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Russia. Moscow. The Bolshoi Ballet School. Practicing positions. 1958

Photo: Cornell Capa

#cornell capa #russia #1958 #moscow #bolshoi ballet #Bolshoi

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anjelalala · 8 months

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Bolshoi Theatre New Rising Star: Maria Koshkaryova

Photos by: Alisa Aslanova for Ballet Magazine Russia

MARIA KOSHKARYOVA brightly announced herself at the XIV International Ballet Competition in Moscow last summer, for the three rounds of which she prepared six numbers in a month. Being at that time a final year student at the Academy of Russian Ballet and an intern at the Mariinsky Theatre, Maria did not set herself any overarching goals and went to the competition with a modest “ not to surprise anyone ” attitude , but went home with first prize in the solo category.

At the same time, she first appeared on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, which, according to her, she was immediately fascinated by.After graduating from the academy, Maria moved to Moscow, where she is about to begin her first full season as a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater ballet troupe. The young ballerina told our publication about combining study and internship in the theater, the difficult choice that determines one’s fate, and whether the opinions of others are important.

CLICK THE LINK FOR FULL INTERVIEW:

#maria koshkareva #maria koshkaryova #ballet #mariinsky #bolshoi #vaganova ballet academy #moscow #vaganova #theatre #pointe #soloist

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tikitania · 5 months

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Nutcracker Season!

Nutcracker season can elicit an array of feelings. Some love it, some hate it. I was falling into the indifferent category. I don't live in a major city, so the month long onslaught of ballet school-civic rep level productions has me a bit bummed out…and ready to tune it all out. AND THEN…I stumbled upon this very interesting panel discussion lead by ballet critic, Alastair McCauley, comparing the original Lev Ivanov Sugarplum PDD to the Balanchine version, getting into the nitty gritty of the score and the choreographic language that can be found in both versions, pointing out the various ways in which Balanchine quoted Ivanov. This is so interesting and only available online until Dec. 17, so hurry and watch it while you can. Who knew about the original version of the Sugar Plum sliding across the stage on point on a hidden stage tracking device?! If you do anything, watch this first video with the panel talk and demonstrations. The videos I included after that are just if you want to get obsessive like I did to dig deeper. Panelists: Suki Schorer, Wendy Whelan, Sara Mearns, Jonathan Stafford. (Watching Suki coach is worth watching!) NYCB Dancers: Chun Wai Chan, Ashley Hod (Balanchine version) & Anthony Huxley, Emma Von Enck (Ivanov Version)

MacCauley mentions the Fonteyn version a few times during this talk, so I found it for you. The tempo is certainly much faster, and it really makes you appreciate Fonteyn's speed! But I actually prefer the slower tempo, which allows the music to really soar. But I also wondered if it was the audio quality of this historic recording is simply too compressed and tinny to do it justice.

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The Mariinsky dances the Vasily Vaionen version of the Nutcracker, and I wanted to see how it compared to the Ivanov version. I really love the Mariinsky version. It's a departure from Ivanov, but still very classical and regal. PPD below with Baby Shakirova.

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BONUS: If you want to watch the full Mariinsky Nutcracker, here's a 1994 recording with Larissa Lezhnina and Victor Baranov. And for some real fun going down the rabbit hole, this is an amazing Soviet black and white recording of the PDD with the late Svetlana Efremova (SHE IS AMAZING!) and Sergei Vikulov. Notice that the extra four cavaliers are not in this one, so the choreography is adjusted. I have a thing for soviet era black-and-white ballet films. Not to be overlooked, the Grigorivich version at the Bolshoi is worth mentioning. There are a few things that stood out to me. Its religiosity, for one. The PDD essentially starts with Masha and her prince praying together as if at a mass. And then, towards the end, are the huge lifts that end with an upside down ballerina (not my favorite pose…)

Interestingly, ABT's version by Ratmansky also incorporates the same big lift, but transitions into a spin. You can see it here, and it's a much smoother transition. Ignore the weird speed manipulation in this video. It can give you motion sickness.

AND….I found this POB version. The Nureyev choreography is horrible and Tsikaridze knows it. He can barely hold back his own laughter as how bad this performance is. When I watched this, my first thought is that Nureyev must have been a misogynist because the Sugar Plum/Clara choreography is so god awful that it seems like he's trying to humiliate ballerinas. Poor Myriam Ould-Braham, she does her best to dignify the choreography with her impeccable technique, but there is no saving this. Another thing that bothers me is that the couple are hardly dancing together, it's like a bad ballet class where they dance side to side. I hope this version soon disappears forever. Watch at your own risk. It made my blood boil.

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Okay, that's it for a while. I may go see the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker if I have time. But I will mostly be focused on taking time off with the family, puttering in the garden, and catching up on my ever-expanding to-do list. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

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ballet-symphonie · 8 months

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The same thing happening at Mariinsky is happening at Bolshoi. The best principal dancers are either retired (Alexandrova), close to retirement (Zakharova, Obratsova, Krystanova), on contract and very close to retiring (Shipulina, Kaptsova), or working/freelancing outside of Russia (Lunkina, Osipova, Semionova, Kochetkova, and of course Smirnova) Don’t get me started on how they mistreated Kaptsova, Alexandrova and Shipulina, they all had unique dancing qualities and deserved better.

Most of the younger dancers at Bolshoi also don’t stand out to me too because they all look the same and lack any emotion/artistry. Now that Smirnova is at Het Nationaale, I definitely think she was about to be Zakharova’s replacement, but obviously that will never happen. Stepanova shouldn’t have been promoted to principal, she still looks like a student when she dances and it’s one reason why she isn’t popular internationally. Zhiganshina is I think still on maternity leave and I don’t see her going up any time too. Shrainer and Tikhomirova don’t have the charisma to be a principals. I can see Denisova as a leading soloist, but not a principal. Vallulina is my pick for a future principal, but she was another top Vaganova ‘23 student that didn’t come from BBA.

The only young principal dancer(s) that I see as having star potential are Sevenard and Kokoreva. Sevenard has a good balance of artistry and technique, Kokoreva lacks artistry right now but looks promising. There’s also few good young male dancers there too. You are totally right about how it’s going to be difficult to find international dancers to go to Russia now. Most of the famous/good dancers at Bolshoi nowadays came from Vaganova, not BBA, maybe because it’s more famous and they produce more successful dancers there now? I also heard that there’s nepotism at Bolshoi too. Kokoreva and Denisova seem to be the only potential star dancers who aren’t from Vaganova.

There's a lot of good points here.

The last of the early 00s generation of Bolshoi stars are indeed fading away. Enjoy them while they're still on stage everyone, because while there is a younger generation coming slowly- they're totally different stylistically.

Bolshoi is at least trying with the younger guys, more than MT in my opinion. It takes longer for male dancers to develop, precious few are strong enough to dance a full length at 18 or 19. But they have Smilevsky, and 3 young first soloists - all of whom are BBA grads. I'm not his biggest fan but Gerashchenko is there as well.

Yes, BBA has become corrupt. From nepotism, and more 'paid' places, to instructor internal issues, the consequences of the turmoil are reflected in the quality of students they're producing. VBA has resisted some of these temptations, and the long tenure of senior instructors is also helping. Regarding BBA's recent grads, Kokoreva is clearly an exceptional talent, not the baseline. Denisova and Sergeenkova have potential as well but are a long way from the polished stars BBA used to churn out.

#bolshoi theatre #bolshoi #ballet #ballerina #ballet ask

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balletomaneblog · 1 month

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Casting is Out For Premiere of Lavrosky's Romeo and Juliet at the Bolshoi!

April 4th (opening night):

Juliet: Elizaveta Kokoreva Romeo: Daniil Potaptsev Mercutio: Daniil Lopatin Tybalt: Mikhail Lobukhin

April 5th:

Juliet: Evgenia Obraztsova Romeo: Artem Ovcharenko Mercutio: Alexei Putintsev Tybalt: Alexander Vodopetov

April 6th (matinée):

Juliet: Eleonora Sevenard Romeo: Denis Rodkin Mercutio: Mark Chino Tybalt: Nikita Kapustin

April 6th (evening):

Juliet: Svetlana Zakharova Romeo: Artemy Belyakov Mercutio: Dmitry Smilevsky Tybalt: Denis Savin

April 7th:

Juliet: Ekaterina Krysanova Romeo: Vladislav Lantratov Mercutio: Denis Zakharov Tybalt: Igor Pugachev

Very excited about some of the line-ups! I'm especially excited about Sevenard performing Juliet as well as the Kokoreva-Putintsev pairing, and Krysanova-Lantratov will be lovely. But I'm not as crazy about Zakharova performing Juliet. I just don't see her as the youthful and sweet fourteen-year-old Juliet anymore. I know her and Krysanova are relatively similar in age, but for me I see Krysanova far more as Juliet. Still, it's Svetlana Zakharova, so I'm sure she'll pull it off.

Anyway, I'm very excited for this premiere!

P.S. Would love to see Vinogradova and Maymula as Juliet in this ballet at some point as well!

#ballet #romeo and juliet #bolshoi #elizaveta kokoreva #alexei putintsev #eleonora sevenard #denis rodkin #svetlana zakharova #artemy belyakov #ekaterina krysanova #vladislav lantratov

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papaija · 11 days

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Olga Smirnova and Victor Caixeta in Maillot's Nutcracker pas de deux, Prix de Lausanne 2023 gala

#ballet #pas de deux #olga smirnova #victor caixeta #nutcracker #jean cristophe maillot #het nationale ballet #mariinsky #bolshoi #prix de lausanne

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miss-mollys-ballet-blog · 10 months

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OOOOOOOOOH SHIT JUST GOT INTERESTING.

If you ever doubted that the Russian government uses the theatre, especially the Bolshoi, for propaganda, you should stop because 1 hour ago (2:25pm EST), the director of the Bolshoi released a video saying that the staff and the entire theatre supports Putin and encouraged unity and peace in the country.