Balletomanewithoutacause

The artists attended a huge party last night to celebrate the end of the season featuring pop acts and a huge cake in the shape of the Bolshoi Theatre. The artists repeatedly thanked someone by the name of Roman Arkadievich -- perhaps he paid for the party, I don't know. Was this intended to "make up" for the disappointment of the canceled Nureyev premier? Here are some photos of the party. https://www.instagram.com https://www.instagram.com https://www.instagram.com These may not be embedding properly so I'll try again later.

"Alternative" facts, fake news. Nobody believes you.

According to their Instagrams, recent joiners Eleanora Sevenard and Tatiana Osipova took part as dryads in the just concluded run of Don Quixote at the Bolshoi. (See below). Also performing (twice) was Yulia Stepanova finishing up her first season as principal with this prima quality Queen of the Dryads excerpt. Congratulations to these lovely ballerinas!

Naked Vlad Lantratov. I don't see a problem. http://tv.mk.ru/video/2017/07/10/pervyy-videofragment-repeticii-skandalnoy-sceny-spektaklya-nureev.html Humor too: http://tv.mk.ru/video/2017/07/10/videofragment-repeticii-skandalnoy-sceny-spektaklya-nureev.html Nureyev and Bruhn? http://tv.mk.ru/video/2017/07/10/tretiy-videofragment-repeticii-skandalnoy-sceny-spektaklya-nureev.html

The drama continues. As of this writing, Zakarhova and Rodkin have apparently declined to appear in the Don Quixote performance replacing Nureyev, and it looks like Ivan Vasiliev is stepping in but who will be Kitri? We are getting some idea of what Nureyev looked and sounded like via some video of the final run-through that have appeared online:

This from Anna Okuneva (@call_me_perch on Instagram) is very sad. The Google translation seems to say that this is a video of the close of the last runthrough of Nureyev. (Perhaps someone literate in Russian could provide a proper translation?) I'm pretty sure that at the end she says, "But now I understand Rudolph. I understand why he decided to give up his land, relatives, from home. He chose freedom, which we do not have."

These events could have been intended as a warning to Serebrennikov to tone it (Nureyev) down. Financial stings have been reportedly used by the Russian government in recent years to modify undesirable behavior.

Alexandrova says on her Instagram that the artists were in fact prepared and references similar occurrences of productions being pulled in the 1930's. Yes, the photo is all black.

Yesterday Trump and Putin apparently agreed not to meddle in the internal affairs of each others nation. Today Putin orders repressive censorship of the arts based on his dislike of the subject matter. Very odd indeed but not totally unexpected.

True, Makarova is short -- I have stood next to her at the SF Ballet -- but somehow she has that elongated look anyway, even now. I think her legs must be quite long compared to her torso to give that impression. But that's a really interesting tidbit that she wasn't interested in being in the story! Any insights as to why? I don't know Nureyev's story well enough to know which divas he had important relationships with other than Fonteyn and to I believe a lesser degree, Guillem, and of course both of those were in his post-Russia days. Perhaps this role is of a ballerina who was important to him while he was in Russia? An early partner or teacher?

Updated cast listing for Nureyev. http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/1025/roles/#all Rodkin no longer listed for the Erik Bruhn role. There may be other changes? Also, the names of two episodes have been changed to A Letter to Rudi. The Pupil and A Letter to Rudi. The Diva from I think Letter #1 and #2 respectively. Any guess on who the Diva might be? Clearly a tall flexible beautiful ballerina since Zakarhova, Stepanova and Shipulina are listed in that role. Sylvie Guillem? Makarova?

I meant to say Kasatkina *is* not *was* as she is obviously very much alive.

And here's something interesting, an interview by a Japanese magazine of Natalia Kasatkina (with Yulia Stepanova) apparently having to do with this commemorative tour of Japan. Kasatkina was (among other things) a founder with Vladimir Vasiliev of the Moscow Classical Ballet company http://www.classicalballet.ru/eng/about/ I would love to know more about her and why she was in Japan for this tour. Yulia doesn't say which magazine, but perhaps one of our Japanese speakers could look at the 3rd photo which apparently says something about the event, and perhaps keep an eye out for the article when it's published. Many thanks in advance!

This is the third video of Mikhail that I had meant to post:

Mikhail Kryuchkov has posted some videos taken from the wings of his June 11 Tokyo performances as The Evil Genius in Swan Lake. Sorry the second video was posted twice. Mikhail is still listed as a member of the corps.