assoluta
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Posts posted by assoluta
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On 29/09/2019 at 01:59, DD Driver said:
It wasn't said but probably Kirrill broke the rules when he reached out independently to get an audition with the Bolshoi (?) Maybe this was the last straw after the support he had been given.
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.
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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.
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Naomi M, Thank you! Very good. The English subtitles translate the spoken words only approximately.
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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.
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5 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:
Have the boxes been developed to their current state because they are healthier for the dancers' feet? In which case how can we complain?
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.
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... smaller new Bolshoi theater ...
The "New Stage" (rather than "new Bolshoi theatre") is located in the old historical building vis-a-vis.
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"Esmeralda" is performed at the Samara Theatre where Yuri Burlaka is Artistic Director. They showed their "Esmeralda" earlier this year in Moscow.
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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.
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2 hours ago, JNC said:
Short of pointe shoes getting so extreme that the average person on the street is able to go on pointe and do ballet (which I don't see happening anytime soon), and short of there being very obvious clumpy silhouettes on the feet, I will continue to be amazed by the beauty and skill of professional ballet dancers, regardless of shoe choice.
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.
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I think that the point (sorry!) being made is that the shoes of today have little platforms at the end as distinct from pointes.
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.
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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...
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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.
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5 hours ago, Amelia said:
Mukhamedov also danced with Natalia Bessmertnova. Her tragic Phrygia is remaining as an iconic image for the following interpreters of this role. She was swift and fearless in high lifts and her cantilena adagio dancing was seamless. The lamentation scene was flowing like an epic poem. Unforgettable!
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.
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All that said, I thought Zakharova on Saturday night was in an entirely different class from either Kovalyova (as one would expect) or, for my taste, Smirnova. And she and Rodkin made the ballet considerably more exciting than it was either Friday or Saturday afternoon.
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.
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On 23/07/2019 at 00:30, bridiem said:
Following on from a discussion about ticket availability for rehearsals at the ROH in another thread... why do people go to rehearsals? (Genuine question.) I used to go to rehearsals - RB and others - occasionally when I was younger, because a) they used to be cheaper than they are now, and b) they were sometimes 'real' rehearsals, i.e. aiming to get things right on stage before opening. Over time, they became simple run-throughs of the work/s, differing in no significant way from a performance except that you didn't really know if the performers were 'giving their all' or not. So I no longer saw the point of going to them when they used up money that could be used for a performance. I remember an LFB rehearsal taken by Beryl Grey years ago - she was in the auditorium with a mike, directing the rehearsal, correcting mistakes, etc - it was fascinating! But rehearsals aren't like that now. So I'd be interested to hear why people go. (I hope I'm not too enlightened, since I already spend too much on performances!).
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.
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On 20/07/2019 at 10:47, alison said:
Whose production is it, BTW? I didn't know the Mariinsky had La Sylphide.
Not only they do but they dance it often: more than 200 times in the first 16 years since the the 1981 premiere.
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On 15/07/2019 at 13:39, annamk said:
The tough Moscow critic, Tatyana Kuznetsova, has a lot of praise for Akram Khan's Giselle
She loves anything Western, Contemporary, anti-traditional.
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On 30/05/2019 at 01:09, Quintus said:
Oddly, up in the second circle, quite a few people left in the first interval, and a few more in the second - the dancing was good, and Shostakovich is not everyone's cup of tea, but should hardly come as a surprise either.
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.
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2 hours ago, zxDaveM said:
it also makes you wonder what else they are carelessly getting wrong in the rest of the paper
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?"
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On 08/05/2019 at 05:24, Sam said:
La Scala, Milan
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.
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On 03/05/2019 at 05:57, capybara said:
This season, I have sat in the Stalls, Stalls Circle, Grand Tier (for a rehearsal), Balcony and Amphi. and, for me, the experience has varied enormously according to where I am watching from. I personally like to be close to, and wrapped up in, the action. I know that I miss ‘the patterns’ but I value the emotional involvement more than anything else.
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.
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On 08/01/2019 at 00:56, Bruce Wall said:
Thank you for this aqualia2008. As with so many of these illegal Russian self-youtube-published clips which ever increasingly proliferate in that locaton you do have to take into consideration the often awkward position/angle of the filming itself. It is not always flattering to the dancers. Far from it in some instances.
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.
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On 11/04/2019 at 06:22, BeauxArts said:
Well, Capybara, we had one Act only: some might say the best of it. The company are taking the full-length version (of which we saw the final act) to Washington.
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.
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On 12/04/2019 at 10:38, Jeannette said:
I attended Tuesday night’s opening. While I generally enjoyed the presentation - but preferring ABT’s more faithful version and the Bolshoi’s Tsarist-Era splendor - I was underwhelmed and taken aback by the hyperflexed & brittle (ribs protruding) Maria Khoreva, who stopped just short of landing in the orchestra pit during her 29 or 30 single fouettes...lending new meaning to the designation “The Traveling Ballerina”!
Then, the young lady is in a great company, right with Margot Fonteyn and Natalia Makarova…😉
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Vaganova Academy Boys Documentary
in Ballet / Dance news & information
Posted
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.