Terpischore

Apparently the claque phenomenon is strictly a Bolshoi one, as opposed to a general, Russian one.  I recently read a recent interview with Yevgenia Obraztsova, I believe it was one conducted by Laura Cappelle on the French ballet forum Dansomanie, in which Miss Obraztsova expressed surprise at the employment of claques at the Bolshoi.  She said at the Mariinsky a dancer gets the response he or she deserves based upon performances, and that if a dancer has an off performance then applause tend to reflect that.  Whereas Bolshoi audiences, which Obraztsova says has been kind to her, the presence of claques make themselves known.  She goes on to say on the record that she will not be employing the services of claques.  I find it interesting the differences between the two major Russian companies in this regard, and also the differing mindsets of dancers from both companies as far as tolerance goes.

 

Quote:

“Smirnova says and implies of a life without friends and without life outside of the ballet studio and stage.”

“...if you make a video showing fans glimpses of your private thoughts and offstage life, then it is well within our right to comment on it…”

 

Yes, we are within our right to comment but have to remember, as Janet McNulty mentioned, that the “film that can be (and obviously will have been) edited.” It could be the director’s idea to show a ballerina as nothing else but a picture of complete devotion to the art of ballet. We don’t know if he ever asked the 22 y.o. dancer how she would like to be portrayed.

Sometimes we are also prone to misinterpretation and to making assumptions. Olga didn’t imply a life without friends. She just said that she doesn’t have many friends. She has been living in Moscow for 2 years only, was working hard, and I can not consider it abnormal to have a limited social circle.

I can assure you she is a normal young lady. At the moment she enjoys being in London. With her girlfriend, a Bolshoi’s young soloist, she visited several museums. With another friend she spent her first day-off at Windsor, had a tour of the Castle and hired a horse to take a ride in Windsor Great Park.

If Smirnova looks serious, it is not a great sin. Ulanova was serious too. Lopatkina is also serious. However, it is not true that all “Russian ballerinas seem so tortured by their art”. Obraztsova is always smiling. Krysanova is a very cheerful girl. Alexandrova has a resounding laughter. Lunkina, bless her heart, was always giggly. And so on and so on. Generalization here distorts the real picture.

 

The documentary was well crafted piece that strove to portray Smirnova as a serious young woman who devotes herself to ballet, her chosen art.  The fact that it did its job too well, meaning it turned the subject into a bit of a caricature of an obsessive-compulsive ballerina in the eyes of some viewers, is something that should be accepted as well.  Do most of us who see the documentary know about Smirnova as a "normal young lady" as you put it?  Were we supposed to know that before watching the documentary and refrain from drawing conclusions from it?  I stand by my view that it is not a generalization to make conclusions based upon the short documentary, as the overwhelming seriousness and compulsive devotion leaps out at this viewer at least.  If there is a marked discordance between Smirnova the dancer and the image she would like to project in the video, then this video did nothing except to reinforce her very aloof and icy stage persona.  Smirnova's cool stage persona makes it easy for one to make conclusions about her being a perhaps too serious-minded and joyless dancer.  Of course one can say that these are just misinterpretations and assumptions, but aren't such video profiles done in order to shape and promote reputations of dancers in the minds of fans and critics?  It's a great way to provide personal narrative for the dance artist, since dance is such a visual and emotive art.  However it cuts both ways, a dancer must expect people who watch it to make inferences from the portrayal, good, bad, or indifferent.  

"What is backwords about worshipping seriousness? What is insipid about devotion? What do we know about her life experiences? Should a comedian be funny in real life? Did you see Smirnova dance in real life or are you basing your judgement on the little video upthread? And could one's lifestyle/level of devotion/attitude/sexual orientation/eye colour be a predictor of one's talent/artistic abilities/expressiveness?"

I don't think an artist owes you or any audience an explanaition about how he/she chooses to eat, practice or think of his/her art.  And nobody is asking what the audience thinks.  It's ultimately your choice what to watch or don't watch.  There's a breadth of happy-go-lucky dancers in Russia, the UK, Japan and the US." 

ENBlover, the video in my opinion, shows a young artist sequestering herself within world of ballet, and only ballet.  That to me is backwards-looking, as it harkens back to a time when ballerinas were expected to not have a life outside of dance and to only immerse themselves within confines of studio and stage, basically ballerinas as nuns.  That sentiment started to die down once Balanchine era (when he demanded such devotions from favored dancers) died down.  I don't know how you inferred attitude or sexual orientation from my post, so I can't respond in tones apropos to your suppositions.  And yes, if you make a video showing fans glimpses of your private thoughts and offstage life, then it is well within our right to comment on it, especially if you say you don't have that much going on outside of ballet.

I am American but I also have lived in Asia, my appreciation for the arts, especially ballet, have always been drawn from a hodge-podge of influences both Western and Asian.  That said, I definitely consider the current trend of worshipping serious to the point of dourness, self-sacrificing Russian ballerinas as epitomized by Olga Smirnova in The Prodigy, to be backwards thinking and stereotypical.  It's off-putting in so many ways.  First of all, it cements the stereotype of ballerinas as obsessively self-sacrificing maidens wedded to their art, to the point that they exist in cocooned world of ballet impenetrable from outside influences and ideas.  I agree with poster above, SMballet, in that Smirnova comes across as joyless and uninteresting beyond her devotion to ballet.  Since when is the ballerina to be exalted for being joyless, serious, and borderline obsessive-compulsive?  A well-crafted short documentary aside, that is the dark undertone I got from watching it.  

What's more, Smirnova says and implies of a life without friends and without life outside of the ballet studio and stage.  Even at lunch Smirnova looks dull and serious.  Every idea and influence Smirnova has, it implies, she gets from within her sealed-off world of ambitious talent climbing the ballerina ladder at the Bolshoi.  This type of devoted obsession, in my opinion, is insipid rather than inspired.  All this time alone in the studio or within her own mind thinking of ways of perfecting poses or certain movements in order to stand out from other talented dancers, is taking away time that could be used to experience and explore a fuller life outside of company life, artistic or not artistic.  A young, talented dancer should have charisma, that is a given.  But in my view, she should also possess intellectual and artistic curiosity in the world around her or at the very least try to live a life outside of ballet, rather than to just seal herself off within the confines of studio and stage.  Being young should predispose a dance artist to embrace a breadth of worldly ideas, especially given the interconnected world we live in today.  So it's a throwback to see a young dancer like Smirnova who seems to embrace an old-fashioned, slavish, and narrow devotion.  Such a devotion inadvertently turns ballet as art form into mere craft, because there is no creative input or influences from things unrelated to ballet and its world.  Such thinking has given us, in my opinion, the current Russian aesthetic of looks or the physicality of dance over the usage of pure, classical technique to express drama, characterization, and ideas.  

Sorry if my assessments seems rather harsh, I know I am of the minority opinion here nevertheless.  But as a former ballet student from the late 1980s and ongoing ballet fan, I just feel the need to offer a countering view.  I also should note that I do prefer ballerinas who are capable of expressing joy and a love of dance when they dance, whether inside studio or on the stage.  I equate such intangible qualities or vibes to be on par as the sense of aloof coolness, which has been used to describe Smirnova, if not more.  Of course I am not saying a ballerina should always convey same moods or same quirks in their own personalities, but that today there is an overwhelming view that a excessively sinuous ballerina giving off aloof and cool vibes on stage automatically equates with definition of True Ballerina in the pinnacle of her ballerina art.