assoluta

Not really, Pas de Quatre, this is exclusively due to the situation at Mariinsky. Diana Vishneva made every effort to dislodge the acting director last year, many believed she succeeded. Alas, he is again as secure in his position as he ever was, probably even more now. Expect seven more lean years ("seven" here is a biblical number, not an exact prediction).

By the way, one cannot really talk of " centuries old rivalry". Before the revolution, the Bolshoi theatres in St. Petersburg and in Moscow were of different level (yes, there is no mistake here, originally, the seat of the Imperial theatre in St. Petersburg was known as "Bolshoi" too; it was indeed bigger than the later Mariinsky theatre).

Such information is private, the Academy doesn't publish it, of course. Only three graduating females were offered a job this year at Mariinsky in the first round by the acting director, Sevenard one of the three, she had also an offer from Bolshoi. She chose Bolshoi and wanted this to be known.

Would have but it doesn't: only one one of those "seven" has been promoted during the interminable "interim" appointment of the acting director, this happened exactly 5 years ago (Kondaurova) and was expressly the will of Mister Gergiev who considers Mlle Kondaurova to be very photogenic. Stellar quality artists have been seemingly forever dancing at the lower ranks all their careers, some buried in the thick mass of corps de ballet.

Once again, the top graduating student of the Vaganova Academy is choosing Bolshoi over Mariinsky. This time it is Eleonora Sevenard. The trend is due to 9 years of discrimination of the Vaganova students by the acting director of Mariinsky who is on record saying (in an interview published in Dancing Times) that "Vaganova graduates are good only for corps de ballet". And good they are, as we will have soon an opportunity to witness this in London.

4 hours ago, aileen said:

From a professional POV I was surprised to read that Madison Keesler is moving as she was beginning to get more featured roles including Giselle in the Akram Khan production. However, sometimes dancers move for personal reasons and perhaps that's the case here. Whilst I admire much of what TR has done I feel that one thing that she's weak on is nurturing junior and even soloist dancers (notwithstanding the Emerging Dancer Award). The same few people tend to dance all the main roles (sometimes dancing more than one main role in a production) and it can take ages for a junior dancer to dance a featured / soloist role. Obviously, there are one or two exceptions to this eg Cesar Corrales and Rina Kanehara. Certainly on the female side, there is a bit of a gap in the middle ranks and, with a number of female principals out this season and next, the company has been stretched and has needed to bring in principals from outside. 

7 hours ago, LinMM said:

I'm sorry Madison Keesler is leaving ENB though.

is the San Francisco Company smaller than ENB? Maybe wants a chance and bigger roles....though she was chosen as one of the Giselles in the Akram Khan version.

Though perhaps she comes from California and just wants to go home?

 

San Francisco Ballet is not smaller, it is a company of a similar size, in fact it is slightly bigger. As a corps dancer at SFB, she will not have any principal roles. There may be another factor though. Helgi Tómasson trusts his intuitions and is known to promote dancers who catch his eye in an an instant. At San Francisco Ballet the season will not start until the December-January run of "Nutcrackers", the proper season is very short, lasts three and a half months and starts in the end of January. Thus, if Miss Keesler is seen by Tómasson in the class to be the soloist level, she may be promoted to Soloist before she even steps on stage.

7 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

Step up Aaron Robison - who, of course, is joining ENB from SFB.)

 

SFB this season was so severely strained in terms of man power that not seeing Robinson given any of the bigger classical parts even once was probably a signal to him about his prospects in the company. I saw him a few times, he was best in Arthur Pita's little provocation Salome, in Posokhov's less than successful Optimistic Tragedy. In Balanchine he seemed to be rather odd, displaying neither the required attack or precision.

4 hours ago, alison said:

The names that Jane mentioned aren't nearly enough to fill all the gaps indicated by the article I linked to a couple of months ago, though:

 

 

The company lost lots of its principals, including several key dancers. Some were retired or fired, other left the company on their own. As recently as a year ago, SFB had 4 Cuban principals, now it has none. The future of Kochetkova's relationship with SFB is uncertain, she moved to New York and commutes to San Francisco to fulfill her contractual obligations. It is not clear how much longer this can continue. Times like these are a golden opportunity for soloists, and indeed within one year all of them who were theoretically capable of being promoted were promoted one-by-one.

In a few weeks from now, Ballet du Capitole will show Belarbi's Le Corsaire in Paris. An opportunity to see it live.

Answering your call, Alison,

The first Bolshoi Ballet show in Japan ended in a huge ovation in Hiroshima. Stepanova danced splendidly, a graceful swan and a fascinating black bird. Ovcharenko combined good acting with technique, powerful Kryuchkov! "Bravos" flying all over and a standing ovation during the curtain calls.

6 hours ago, Lexy said:

It goes without saying that the kind of dancer that Alexandrova represents is essential to much of the Bolshoi repertoire,

I am not so sure about it. Alexandrova, in fact, is not your typical ballerina, "Bolshoi" or not, she is unique to a great extent, she always was. Nikulina now, Bessmertnova in the past, dancers of very different type, were more "essential" for "much of the Bolshoi repertoire", if you understand by this Grigorovich's dramballets. Note that throughout much of her long career, Alexandrova took place behind Zakharova and Lunkina, the dancers epitomizing Bolshoi and its qualities yet so different from her.

2 hours ago, Lexy said:

I could even persuade myself on an intellectual level to admire Grigorovich's Sleeping Beauty (and also his Swan Lake) but really what's the point?

What's the point? The point is perhaps to be just slightly more careful with words. If Grigorovich's staging of Sleeping Beauty is "horrible", then what epithets are left for how the classical repertoire is presented to the audiences in general? Practically every version of Classics I know has numbers inserted, transposed, excised, often seemingly the most necessary ones are inexplicably missing. The costumes and decorations not infrequently become displays of misguided "creativity", distorting the whole work and distracting the audience. So much depends on the level of culture, knowledge, artistic vision of those one who are in charge. The "cut" made by Grigorovich in Sleeping Beauty is short, so short that one rather wonders why he made it all. His version has beautiful, masterfully executed ensembles, by the way. My opinion is that Grigorovich's Sleeping Beauty is anything but "horrible". His versions of Classics I have been considering for years not just valid but actually very worthy.

According to the reports from Japan, the Opening Night Swan Lake was met with a standing ovation and lots of "bravos". An auspicious beginning, I suppose.

Olga Lepeshinskaya

You are ascribing to me opinions I didn't express. My remark about Alexandrova was exclusively in the context of you mentioning her as Odette/Odile. If you mean by "outstanding performance" her London Corsaire, however, and by "finely tuned stage presence" her overacting and resorting to thick coloring, then I disagree. If there ever was "the organized claque of (Osipova) detractors" (the first time I hear about it), then I never was a part of it. The technical aspect of ballet is not measured in the altitude of jumps, the velocity of rotation, or ability to perform acrobatic tricks, there are other, more important aspects of it, purity of lines, harmony of expression, etc.

You are pointing to known limitations of his choreography. Before Alastair Macaulay proclaimed Ratmansky to be a sort of new genius, a more sober view of his talents was prevalent, summed up, for example, by Lewis Segal in his 2013 review of the ABT triple bill that included Ratmansky's Chamber Symphony and Balanchine's Apollo and Symphony in C.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/12/entertainment/la-et-cm-american-ballet-theater-ratmansky-balanchine-20130712

I saw Chamber Symphony several times, for me it was symptomatic that the choreographer did not employ the original Shostakovich's score but the emasculated orchestration of Barshai, that lacked the poignant, crystalline focus of the original. When I inquired about the reason for not resorting to the original score that was obviously far superior, the answer I heard was that it would overpower the choreography. Ratmansky's predilection for Desyatnikov's music, which I find unpalatable, may be due to it being similarly fragmented, contorted yet unimaginative, unable to produce a coherent, sustained melodic development.

31 minutes ago, Lexy said:

Drew, I agree with you about the Grigorovich Swan Lake, although there are parts I  i kind of like  -- the dance of the black swans at the beginning of the black act, and the black swan variation itself (although I prefer the Mariinsky version).  I've read it might be the first of the classical Grigorovich ballets to be discarded and replaced because it is so widely disliked. (Have to say for me at least his horrible Sleeping Beauty should also be among the first to go.)  I do like some Gregorovich, Legend of Love especially.  

 

Krysanova IS dancing O/O towards the end of the tour, in Sendai, that is if she is still able to do so after dancing Flames of Paris on each of the two preceding days!  I would love to see her in Flames or Taming of the Shrew, which show off her technical and emotive strengths, but not so much O/O or other classical ballets.

Krysanova is not dancing three days in a row, a simple mistake, Kretova confused with Krysanova, of whoever was entering the information on the Bolshoi web site.

Secondly, I would never call Grigorovich's redaction of Sleeping Beauty "horrible" (?!?). Grigorovich's versions of Classics are much closer to the spirit of the classical dance than most. Concerning his redaction of Swan Lake, it is liked, e.g., by the Moscow audiences. Not my favourite version, yet personally I find it interesting, proper and, most importantly, valid, more proper and valid than the majority of other versions that are not met with this kind of expression of disliking probably because few really care much about them. It isn't "high art"? Well, is Alexandrova cast as Odette "high art"? Not for me and especially so in recent years when her speed and precision are gone. MAB complaining that Osipova was not given Swan Lake at Bolshoi? When Osipova was dancing at Bolshoi, her classical technique was much inferior to what it became later, especially since she moved to London. In those days her fame was, like in the case of her then partner, Ivan Vasilyev, due to their dynamite performances unfortunately often crossing the boundaries of vulgarity.

Finally, how many modern versions of Classics I could call "high art" at all? Some of them are more enjoyable, some less, our enjoyment depending more often on the propriety of costumes and the quality of the corps de ballet. Is the classical repertoire perceived today as "high art" by the respective artistic directors and dancers as "high at" at all? Knowing both, my answer is - it is not. It is considered as some kind of "crowd pleaser", a lowly entertainment for unsophisticated masses, a sort of necessity, in order to keep the ballet audiences returning, "high art" is Forsythe, McGregor, etc, but give them only the "high art" of Forsythes and McGregors, and many would stop coming.

He died today, not even 56. Terribly sad news...

4 hours ago, Lexy said:

True, Moscow trained Nikulina dances O/O but is not on the tour, who knows why.  Perm-trained but Moscow style Shipulina was scheduled originally but may have chosen not to come for family reasons. (...) It seems Alexandrova and Zakarhova might have had a lock on the role, leaving few opportunities for others.  Or maybe Moscow training does not create or value O/O types?

It goes without saying that any Balshoi prima-balllerina or a leading soloist can dance Swan Lake. Vaziev announced that for the Japan Tour he was taking the "very best of Bolshoi forces", this is why neither Nikulina, whose career has been advanced primarily by Grigorovich's dramballets, nor Shipulina, who is slowly returning to some kind of form (but was never shining in Classics), are dancing Swan Lake in Japan.

Neither Zakharova nor Alexandrova "had a lock on the role", not in the last 5-6 years, or 10-15 years ago. Right after her graduation from the Vaganova Academy, Smirnova was given by Sergei Filin every opportunity to dance anything she wanted even if not always ready. Daily hard work, an unbelievable desire to become a star, combined with a steady promotion by the Boolshoi administration, make that goal reality. Kristina Kretova, another Filin's protégé, was also frequently cast by him in Swan Lake. Before Filin, Svetlana Lunkina was for many years, together with Svetlana Zakharova, a leading Swan Queen at the Bolshoi. No Moscow trained ballerina has been able to fill the void caused by Lunkina's inability to return to Russia.

With this kind of repertoire it is quite inevitable, Zakharova, Stepanova, Smirnova, are currently the best Swans at Bolshoi, after Lunkina's departure from Bolshoi there is no Moscow trained ballerina who possesses Swan like qualities. Obraztsova along with Zakharova are also the best Giselles and Stepanova is the best Myrtha. Obraztsova as Jeanne in the Flames of Paris, and Ivan Vassiliev's wife, Vinogradova, as Giselle, are probably cast as a matter of convenience, since both are dancing the principal parts in another Japan Tour show as well. Kovaliova's appearance is likely dictated by the desire to present to the Japanese audiences the promising young dancer who can become a star a few years from now.

On 5/27/2017 at 14:28, Jane S said:

In 1968, on the occasion of her eightieth birthday, I sent her flowers ... I telephoned her to wish her a happy birthday, and to tell her how much I owed to her for those early years.

 

'But you deserted me,' she said. I told her again why I had to make the choice [to leave Ballet Rambert]. She accepted this, and we made our peace. It was good to know we were friends again, with no trace of bitterness left.

I emphasised the whole phrase to draw attention to the fact that this is a direct evidence that Inglesby felt there was indeed resentment and bitterness on Rambert's part and for a long time (1968 is when Inglesby thinks she finally made peace with Rambert).

Mona Inglesby was initially a student of Marie Rambert, danced in Rambert's own company (for example, she was cast in early Ashton productions and Fokine revivals), but thought not highly of her methodology, she was meanwhile traveling to Paris, was taking classes with Kshessinskaya; there are clear indications that on her trips back to London, probably not very diplomatically, she might have been making comments about finding "true" ballet and superior ballet training ("There," she says, "it was like a door opening, the sunlight coming in."). This alone could alienate Rambert, such things are not easily forgotten, especially that Nikolai Sergeev was delighted by the fact that Inglesby became a champion of Russian ballet school in Britain (this led to a lasting relation between Sergeev and Inglesby, that would be a worthy subject of investigation by a ballet historian). And indeed, the passage you quoted, Jane, can be construed as a clear indication of resentment that Rambert felt towards Inglesby, not speaking of the obvious fact that the successful existence of Inglesby's company provided a direct challenge to her own. Even a casual reader of the book by Handley-Taylor will notice a disproportionate amount of space devoted in that book to the hostility of the British ballet establishment towards Inglesby and hercompany. Not a single name is explicitly mentioned but the British ballet world was then small, interconnected, and Marie Rambert was one of its firmly established and most influential personalities. The book by Handley-Taylor makes an impression of having been written primarily as an attempt to counter that hostility.

9 hours ago, Yaffa said:

 

I have no recent first hand experience, but the FAQ on the POB site at: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/practical-informations/faq says:

• Is there a cloakroom?
  Free cloakrooms are available on various floors of both theatres. Travel bags and suitcase are not allowed. 

When I called a few weeks ago, they advised arriving early for performances to accommodate the extra security checks. They said that their cloakroom won't accept bags, but that if people have bags which can easily be carried into the theatre (they wouldn't commit to a specific size), that's ok - but that otherwise, folks should use the baggage storage facilities in Gare du Nord etc.

Backpacks are allowed into Palais Garnier and Bastille, I always carry one, sometimes quite heavy, never had a problem (this information is up to date), you just open the backpack and show its contents. You have to perform this at the entrances to so many places in Paris, it became just a routine, low-stress ritual.

If you search for 'Dancing for Diaghilev' (with the quotes retained), you should be able to find it easily (don't try the first PDF link, it may be a trap). The second one, with “Perm” in its URL is the right link to open.

4 hours ago, Don Q Fan said:

I haven't been to the Garnier recently so cannot say but as France is still in a state of emergency I dare say it's the same there.

It is.

As the plans for the next season at Bolshoi have been unveiled, my suggestion to those of us who are particularly interested in Marius Petipa and ballet "reconstruction:" book your trip to Moscow early and acquire the tickets at your earliest convenience for the 3-nights run of Great Petipa at Bolshoi (6-8 July 2018). Yuri Burlaka, Sergei Vikharev, Alexei Ratmansky unite their forces.

The source of information:

http://www.bolshoi.ru/upload/medialibrary/a65/a655d67a780f3e199a03324fbbbdf031.pdf

pages 28-29 (page 16 in the above PDF file)

1 hour ago, Duck said:

Thierry Malandain describes his style in the following way - http://malandainballet.com/en/ballet/valeurs

 

"Deep human values underpin Thierry Malandain’s approach, as he leads a troupe of performers who master the grammar of classical dance with a contemporary expression."

(...)

"Deeply linked to the concept of "Ballet" as an aesthetic movement, he gives priority to the dancing body and the celebration of its sensuality and humanity."

Among these "deep human values" are longing for Beauty, Harmony, Clarity, and Meaning...

What I emphasised sets Malandain apart from a vast majority of people working in the Contemporary idiom today, and they are a legion, it is his understanding that ugliness, chaos, cacaphony, are alien to the spirit of ballet. One can speak with a vocabulary radically different from la danse classique, as he does, without descending to ugly athleticism, meaningless displays of gymnastics and twisting the limbs of the dancers in every possible way. Malandain's Noé is an example of such a radically modern work, despite the fact that one of its high points is a beautiful "classical moment", a duet of Dove and Raven. This 70 minutes long creation doesn't hang on a few isolated choreographic points, one or two interesting ideas while the rest is literally "filling the void", it leads the viewer on a symphonic tour packed with meaning and transparent clarity.

Supporting talent, ability and quality was, is, and ought to be, the principal criterion for the repertoire decisions. This means, of course, supporting and steering towards excellence also locally bred talent, it does not mean, on the other hand, providing an avenue for staging works, whatever their quality, by choreographers who may have distinguished themselves by their prior work, but who are either limited or unable to produce high quality work on a sustained basis. Unfortunately, this is what we witness on too many world stages every year.

Thierry Malandain is one of the more talented and respected choreographers on the Contemporary scene, Sim, a skilled "composer" of choreographic text, his Noé is a 70 minute long, remarkably fluid, original, at times ascending to the level of genuine pathos, composition. Ability to compose text, in an original and idiomatic way, to make it a match for the music, is certainly one of his fortes. There are very few choreographers working in Contemporary of similar ability and interest.