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The film is not a documentary in a strict sense. Portions of it were scripted with consent of the participants. For example, the top graduating students of the Vaganova Academy are offered a job at Mariinsky after the graduation exam, the general audition a few weeks later is meant for the others, there were several other similar scripted scenes.

There are no such rules. What the boy did is completely normal, and what lots of professional dancers do in a similar situation: they request to be seen in a class. He did, he came with great credentials, after all, and he was offered a job. Maybe he made the same confession we heard from him outside of the Bolshoi, to the Bolshoi ballet director, that from now on there will be no modelling, no fashion industry side jobs, just ballet, total commitment to professional dancing. The films made it clear, even though this may have been partly obfuscated by inaccurate subtitles, that the principal's frustration with the boy was his lack of total commitment and, what comes with it, his insufficient skill level.

I am getting to the finish line with these two films. There is a wonderful, uplifting moment towards the end of the second segment, when Kirill makes his "confession". Then there is a sequence with Aaron, where the principal, after mentioning the "handicaps" that Aaron faces compared to his rivals, concludes: "..., yet with his talent he beats a vast number of those who have (what Aaron lacks)". In the subtitles we read: "Yet he has overcome every handicap through hard work". Oh, my, well, ... The films made the situation with auditions and employment look more dramatic than it was in reality. There was never any doubt, in my mind, that Marko Juusela will land a job with a top company. I attended the dress rehearsal and two, out of three, graduation concerts, and Marko's performance in my opinion eclipsed that of Misha's. But I was truly delighted and, I admit, surprised, by Aaron, when it was his turn to perform the lead part of the King of the Ocean. Paquita brought the house down, it was so well performed by the whole ensemble, and the lead, Alexandra Khiteeva, danced like a complete, professional first soloist.

Naomi M, Thank you! Very good. The English subtitles translate the spoken words only approximately.

Pas de Quatre made a very good point: improperly learned pointe technique often leads to serious injuries already at the school level, how many girls' dreams of becoming a professional dancer were ruined by a stress bones fracture, for example? This is one of the reasons why at the leading schools children were in the past not allowed on pointes before reaching certain age. This said, however, doesn't invalidate the point made earlier, that professional dancing on pointes is a serious hazard for ballerinas health.

No, Janet, this "development" has nothing to do with health. Pointe shoes, and ballet proper, from the modern perspective, so obsessed with health matters, should be considered extremely unhealthy. Just wait until some militant activist politicians come up with a law proposal that outlaws selling and distributing pointe shoes (not unlike selling and distributing "controlled substances"). The tragic situation, I am not afraid to say that, with the recent degeneration of the pointe shoe, is to primarily make it easier, and, for many, even feasible, to perform what was previously considered (very) difficult and what could have be done by a very select group of ballerinas. Compare the pointe shoes worn by Margot Fonteyn with the ones worn by most of our principals Anno Domini 2019.

... smaller new Bolshoi theater ... The "New Stage" (rather than "new Bolshoi theatre") is located in the old historical building vis-a-vis.

"Esmeralda" is performed at the Samara Theatre where Yuri Burlaka is Artistic Director. They showed their "Esmeralda" earlier this year in Moscow.

Yuri Burlaka produced a new version of "Esmeralda", more faithful to the original, according to what I know. This is why his earlier effort at Bolshoi is put to rest.

It may surprise you but they are already so extreme and, yes, they do disfigure the feet of some dancers in a very obvious way. The trend is spelling a catastrophe to ballet education, by the way.

The shoes used nowadays by the majority of our principals and soloists, unfortunately, boast outrageously big blocs (I am not talking about the sewing which may look ugly as it does in certain brands). Not only this completely disfigures the feet, it also gives a huge (and unfair) advantage in performing what was previously considered technically impossible or very difficult. A number of my colleagues in the profession notice this with great regret. The bad example is now spreading like a disease through ballet schools everywhere. We are facing a total extinction of a pointe shoe as it was known for generations of great artists.

I wouldn't be so sure that "the Russian companies pale by comparison with the home team". Reading the above, gives an impression that ballet for some of us is a circus act where one-handed lifts and 'scissor jumps' are a determining factor. For some Ivan Vasiliev may be an ultimate ballet dancer, for me, and a lot of others, he is unbearable to watch on the ballet stage. One more thing, practically all of our principals and soloists nowadays dance in the pointe shoes that are a travesty of what the pointe shoes were and should be, while in those "Russian companies that pale by comparison", we still can appreciate, at least among some dancers, feet not disfigured by those terrible shoes that should have never been allowed in ballet, because they not only look ugly but they are also, to say it bluntly, a form of cheating comparable to doping in sports. Then, there is a serious issue with shoulders and hands whose form as displayed by our dancers is oftentimes simply painful to watch. Is the erosion of standards so great that no competent Royal Ballet coach can instruct our principals and soloists in what is right, and what is an absolute no-no? Just a few questions to ponder...

I think, I feel obliged to say some good words for Ovcharenko's Siegfried. I am afraid, we are accustomed to (and spoiled by) too much of athletic, over-done, male dancing, it makes us prone to dismissing a subdued manner of acting as "blank". I do not feel that Siegfried must necessarily "command the stage". As to Stepanova's Odette - this was a very fresh, sublimely tender, interpretation, with the purest, classical lines, free of any angularity and extreme mannerisms that disfigure interpretations by certain ballerinas. Her Odette is an emanation of goodness, warmth, and vulnerability. The word "steely" doesn't come to my mind when I think of her Odile, rather as being enticing, alluring, cheerful, the kind that young men are tempted by most. Stepanova's ability to inhabit the characters she portrays, her technical ease, plus her exceptional musicality, were all amply present yesterday as well.

Bessmertnova had something tragic about her. Her most memorable role, Giselle, moved me beyond description. I always felt a special sympathy towards Kaptsova, yet her recent Phrygia (with Tsvirko, Belyakov and Stepanova) was no more than a shadow of what I expected.

Zakharova was, indeed "in an entirely different class". I am puzzled by some of the dance writers not being able to see through Smirnova's mannerisms and deformations she embelishes her dancing of classics with, as means to draw away attention from the fact that she simply has atrocious shoulders and wrists.

You made a number of perceptive observations. Rehearsals open to public are more often than not, yet another form of publicity affairs. Real work is done elsewhere. It is there where one has a chance to have a close look at various dancers, to observe their qualities.

Not only they do but they dance it often: more than 200 times in the first 16 years since the the 1981 premiere.

She loves anything Western, Contemporary, anti-traditional.

I think it isn't Shostakovich, it is the choreography, infinitely inferior to the music. I saw "Shostakovich Trilogy" before and I didn't think much of its Red Square May Day parade group displays of gymnastics.

I have been saying this for many years to those who base their opinions on what they read in the newspapers: "A few things you know well they report all wrong, why, therefore, you have trust in what they say about everything else?"

The La Scala Academy has a different focus now, than a few years ago, I am afraid, even then it wasn't a place where I would send my daughter to. John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart for many years has been the best in Germany and one of the best in the World. Its pre-professional program is free tuition. Currently, there are many foreigners at both the Vaganova Academy and Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Our own boy, Aaron Osawa-Horowitz will be among the best Vaganova students graduating this year.

I second this. Using opera glasses is unfortunately not an option for me. For this reason I avoid Amphitheatre. You save yet you lose too much.

I may be revealing a terrible secret, yet pedagogues at ballet schools and their students, the dancers themselves and their coaches, all over the world, heavily rely on these recordings in everyday practice.

Not even the full act, only the Grand Pas, a veritable mosaic of variations from other ballets. The so "full-length version" you are mentioning has new libretto and new choreography, by the company dancer Yuri Smekalov, it is not a reconstruction of any kind, of the lost original or of the later Petersburg stagings.

Then, the young lady is in a great company, right with Margot Fonteyn and Natalia Makarova…😉