Balletomanewithoutacause

"Final" casting is up on the Bolshoi website for the 2017 Japan Tour Programme. The Russian Seasons festival opens with Stepanova's Swan Lake in Hiroshima and ends with Smirnova's Swan Lake in Osaka. Stepanova and Smirnova dance three Swan Lakes each and Zakarhova and Krysanova each dance one (if I've counted right). Obratzsova dances one Giselle and debuts in Flames of Paris! Maria Vinogradova dances one Giselle with her husband Ivan Vasiliev. It seems impossible that Krysanova would on three consecutive days dance two Flames and Swan Lake, so possible changes to come there. Lots will be seen of Margarita Schrainer known to London audiences from her Don Q debut. Recent Vaganova graduate, Vaziev favorite and new star-in-the-making Alyona Kovaleva will dance Myrta, casting against type if there ever was (she is a lovely happy dancer who has not yet shown a darker side). Many Bolshoi "senior" dancers will not be seen on this tour, nor will a favorite of London audiences, Anna Tikhomirova, who is, according to her Instagram, 7 months pregnant. Anna's husband Artem Ovcharenko will appear as Stepanova's prince. Looking forward to reading reviews from anybody lucky enough to attend! 2 June Hiroshima Bunka Gakuen Hbg Hall Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Yulia Stepanova Prince Siegfried: Artem Ovcharenko The Evil Genius: Mikhail Kryuchkov Friends to the Prince: Anastasia Denisova, Ana Turazashvili The Fool: Georgy Gusev 4 June, matinee Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Giselle (Y. Grigorovich version) Giselle: Evgenia Obraztsova Count Albrecht: Igor Tsvirko Myrtha: Yanina Parienko 4 June, evening Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Giselle Giselle: Svetlana Zakharova Count Albrecht: Denis Rodkin Myrtha: Yulia Stepanova 5 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Giselle Giselle: Ekaterina Krysanova Count Albrecht: Vladislav Lantratov Myrtha: Alyona Kovalyova (debut) 7 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Olga Smirnova Prince Siegfried: Semyon Chudin The Evil Genius: Igor Tsvirko Friends to the Prince: Kristina Kretova, Margarita Shrainer (debut) The Fool: Alexander Smoliyaninov 8 June, matinee Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Yulia Stepanova Prince Siegfried: Artem Ovcharenko The Evil Genius: Mikhail Kryuchkov Friends to the Prince: Kristina Kretova, Margarita Shrainer The Fool: Georgy Gusev 8 June, evening Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Svetlana Zakharova Prince Siegfried: Denis Rodkin The Evil Genius: Mikhail Kryuchkov Friends to the Prince: Anastasia Denisova, Ana Turazashvili The Fool: Alexander Smoliyaninov 10 June Otsu, Main Theatre/ Biwako Hall The Flames of Paris Jeanne: Evgenia Obraztsova (debut) Philippe: Igor Tsvirko Jerome: Alexander Smoliyaninov Adeline: Ana Turazashvili Mireille de Poitiers: Margarita Shrainer (debut) Antoine Mistral: David Motta Soares(debut) 11 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Yulia Stepanova Prince Siegfried: Artem Ovcharenko The Evil Genius: Mikhail Kryuchkov Friends to the Prince: Kristina Kretova, Margarita Shrainer The Fool: Georgy Gusev 12 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Olga Smirnova Prince Siegfried: Semyon Chudin The Evil Genius: Igor TsvirkoFriends to the Prince: Kristina Kretova, Margarita Shrainer The Fool: Alexander Smoliyaninov 14 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan The Flames of Paris Jeanne: Ekaterina Krysanova Philippe: Vladislav Lantratov Jerome: Denis Savin Adeline: Ana Turazashvili Mireille de Poitiers: Margarita Shrainer Antoine Mistral: David Motta Soares 15 June Tokyo Bunka Kaikan The Flames of Paris Jeanne: Ekaterina Krysanova Philippe: Ivan Vasiliev Jerome: Alexander Smoliyaninov Adeline: Ana Turazashvili Mireille de Poitiers: Margarita Shrainer Antoine Mistral: David Motta Soares 16 June Sendai Izumiti 21 Dai Hall Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Ekaterina Krysanova Prince Siegfried: Vladislav Lantratov The Evil Genius: Igor Tsvirko Friends to the Prince: Anastasia Denisova, Ana Turazashvili The Fool: Georgy Gusev 17 June Osaka Festival Hall Giselle Giselle: Maria Vinogradova Count Albrecht: Ivan Vasiliev Myrtha: Olga Marchenkova 18 June Osaka Festival Hall Swan Lake Odette-Odile: Olga Smirnova Prince Siegfried: Semyon Chudin The Evil Genius: Igor Tsvirko Friends to the Prince: Anastasia Denisova, Ana Turazashvili The Fool: Alexander Smoliyaninov

While I understand that historical methods have changed since the advent of the Internet, it's still true that anyone hoping to be viewed as a responsible historian must give specific citations (including edition, page number or accepted internet citation) so as to enable others to view the source material and come to their own conclusions. It's also important to keep in mind the difference between demonstrable historical facts and opinion based on those facts. What other people said about somebody at the time can provide interesting "color" (especially for one writing historical fiction) but should not be cited as historical fact unless such opinions are corroborated by other reliable sources, which should also be cited in a form that can be checked by others. Among those of us who are not scholars, all sorts of assertions can be thrown around but nobody can insist their interpretation is the correct one unless they take the further step of demonstrating the historical basis for their assertion. I see nothing wrong with tossing around essentially unsubstantiated "facts" about ballet -- we do it all the time -- so long as we are clear there are no irrefutable facts, no "correct" interpretations, until such has been proved by rigorous historical methods.

Our transmission today in California did not seem to be in HD -- it was washed out and fuzzy. It looks better streamed on my Mac from the Bolshoi website. I actually liked The Cage and was surprised at how well the Bolshoi danced this avant garde kind of work. I don't know if the movements were exactly as Robbins would have wanted them, but the dancers certainly conveyed something quite unusual and creepy. Those pyramids of bodies were extraordinary -- it was hard to tell which body parts belonged to whom! I loved Russian Seasons. I can't get over the beauty of the music (yes, including the violin hijinks!) and the gorgeous soprano. As for the dancers, Krysanova (girl in red) was good but oddly lacking in energy, especially when compared to the standard set by Natalia Osipova, whose performance you can see on YouTube. I thought that tiny Anna Nikulina's performance as the girl in green was quite remarkable, very different from that of the tall girls (e.g. Shipulina) who usually dance this part. The song of grief (for want of a better word) danced by Stepanova as the girl in orange was poignant and somehow formally satisfying with its thrice repeated refrain, sensitively danced each time with subtle variations. What are the words to this song? i wish I knew. The last of the 12 sections, about marriage and (premature?) death were, to me, immensely effective as a reflection on the brevity of life. On the technical side, the lighting was weird, with dancers' faces intermittently in shadow, often at inopportune times, who knows why. Etudes. Well. Having gotten used to the Mariinsky version danced by Tereshkina or Novikova, backed by that glorious Mariinsky corps, I can only say the Bolshoi has a way to go. It wasn't BAD bad, but the lack of uniformity in the corps, the tentativeness of the soloists (my goodness, what happened to Chudin?) and the general atmosphere of terror made it uncomfortable for me to watch. For the first time in memory, Olga Smirnova fell off point! I'm sure after a number of performances it will be much better, but it seems this worldwide premiere was overly ambitious. Have to add that I liked Ovcharenko's evident good humor, even when things weren't going exactly perfectly.

That's interesting. I think RS would be a great hit here in San Francisco. I am not a fan of everything Ratmanksy does, but his ability here to create inventive choreography that interacts fully with musical forms and ideas seems to put him in the same league as Balanchine and Mark Morris. Each time I watch this ballet more is revealed, and frankly, that's what I look for in a work of art. Having said that, today's was not the best performance I've seen of this work.

The Bolshoi segment of World Ballet Day 2016 is now up on the Bolshoi video website: http://media.bolshoi.ru/play/ Preregistration is required.

Here's a lovely photo of Kovaleva following her debut performance in Diamonds. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLQKwtLji6I/?taken-by=_kovalenka

Yes, understood. On Facebook, however, there is a feature that permits you to save posts within the Facebook app for future viewing. I wish I had remembered to try that.

How did you download the feed to watch it later? Would love to be able to do that!

I don't actually know, of course, but it seems to me that given all the turmoil at the company and the unknowns surrounding the turnover from Filin to Vaziev, it's not surprising that people might have wanted to take a little break from the company. In addition to those who may have thought it a good time to go on maternity leave, there were other mysterious no-shows this past season (the first Bolshoi season I've followed) such as Maria Allash or Maria Semenyachenko. It will be interesting to see what the roster looks like going forward, whether these people will come back or just disappear. On the question of why so many dancers were "allowed" not to be on the London tour, the only thing I can say is that I don't think it's Bolshoi policy for gala gigs to take precedence over company obligations but it's probably subject to negotiation at the "etoile" level. Vaziev said in a recent article that he's considering implementing etoile status, meaning certain high level principals would be allowed to chose what they dance and with whom. The interviewer pointed out that currently only Zakharova has this right and Vaziev agreed and said he thought some others should also be in that category, not naming names. Given her etoile status, Zakharova's partial absence from the London tour was something she was entitled to do. Her husband Vadim Repin was also appearing in the Japan festivities so perhaps that had something to do with her choice. However, since none of the other absentees were considered by Vaziev to be etoiles, presumably they took advantage of a temporary breakdown of discipline that accompanied the turnover from Filin to Vaziev where a lot of things seemed to fall through the cracks (including leaving Vasiliev and Osipova on the list long after it was know they would not be appearing). Again, this is just speculation, so if anybody knows the real scoop.....

Thanks for the correction. I meant Lobukhin. I forgot about Skvortsov -- I think I remember now that you posted about the Japanese premiere before.

You (or your spell check) must have been thinking of the famous ballerina Ekaterina Vazem. The new Bolshoi Ballet director is Makhar Vaziev. Mr. Vaziev has actually been quite vocal about his plans for the company, his dancers, and his views of Bolshoi vs Mariinsky style issues. I would refer you to Ismene Brown's excellent reporting http://ismeneb.com/blogs-list/160819-vaziev-full-steam-ahead-after-london-tour.html andalso to the film "Bolshoi Babylon" if you haven't seen it. The dancers themselves are quite forthcoming in social medial, especially Instagram, to which I have become quite addicted. I love seeing them in brief informal videos, working in the studio, preparing backstage, etc. This one of Vaziev backstage in London benignly watching Zhiganshina show off a bit tells us a lot about the tone at the company. Then there's World Ballet Day coming up in October -- I personally plan to be glued to the screen. We also have many expert commentators on this Board and elsewhere, several of whom are longtime regular attendees at Bolshoi performances and who speak from time to time with Bolshoi personnel. I gratefully rely on them for their insights and observations. It's true this is a lot to keep up with for people more interested in other companies, but there are those of us who have found ways to learn more about this company and its dancers, and I for one am happy to share, for what it's worth. I agree that anybody on the outside is just guessing but it is interesting to speculate, One thing not generally known, perhaps, about the London Tour is that many of the more experienced high profile dancers were simply not available or had limited availability. Obraztsova, Shipulina, and Vinogradova were on maternity leave. There was a gala in Japan to which Zakharova and I think Lantratov and several others I can't remember had been previously committed. Staskevich and Hallberg were injured. A number of experienced soloists were also pregnant, injured or had not been seen for a while. Some, like Zakharova and Lantratov, showed up for some performances but perhaps not the ones they would have done had they been fully available. This left Vaziev with a lot of holes to plug, so he used -- had to use -- less experienced dancers. Unfortunate for audiences expecting to see familiar stars, but not done purposefully, I think. The "muted style" may have been partially due to the replacement dancers being relatively inexperienced and possibly not accustomed to dancing with each other, but who really knows, as you say.

Here's a video of Kovaleva

I totally agree with you that everybody has and certainly is entitled to their own opinion. I've heard lots of valid criticism and discussion of Stepanova's Queen of the Dryads variation (a truly ugly variation imo no matter who dances it), but I hadn't heard from any source that her O/O or Medora were wooden or heavy. If I hadn't gotten distracted I would have followed up with you on your impressions. I know nobody could tape those performances so I would happily rely on the observations of people who actually saw it. But what if we're talking about a dancer's characteristic style or skill as opposed to a specific performance? If I said that Tikhomirova has been held back because she is sloppy (frequently falls out of pirouettes), adds extra steps and has a limited range of characterization, i would not be surprised if somebody asked me to show them some video and/or her bio. Perhaps she is generally unreliable and just had a great couple of days in London. Perhaps she has improved since the videos showing problems were filmed. All this we can talk about in a constructive way. If on the other hand I said in a pejorative fashion that I don't like Tikhomirova's grandstanding, incessant self promotion and mugging for the audience -- well, what would be the purpose other than to hurt her? The charge that Stepanova is unmusical is in a similar vein. It's all over the internet promulgated by people (primarily on the Russian fan sites) who don't want her challenging their favorites. It's designed to be hurtful and it's very difficult to refute because it's an artistic issue, unlike taking extra steps or falling out of pirouettes. So the charge has stood, even though patently and demonstrably untrue. This is why when anybody charges Stepanova with unmusicality I ask them for video. Nobody has EVER been able to show me a video in which she is unmusical. No reasonable person would believe that a dancer who is always musical on video would suddenly become unmusical in live performance. The indisputable fact is,Yulia Stepanova is a musical dancer. Anyway, I'm eagerly looking forward to additional promotions at the Bolshoi, especially the promotions of Tikhomirova and Lopatin. I think the troupe is shaping up into something very interesting!

Lucky you to live in London! Out here in San Francisco we rarely see European or Russian companies. Alyona Kovaleva and Alyona Ledyakh are from Vaganova. Check out Kovaleva ("Kovalenka") on Instagram. She's utterly gorgeous.

Here's her Gamzatti debut:

No, it's not a level of fan obsession, it's a level of constructive, respectful discourse. By refusing to defend your assertion of unmusicality one can only assume there's no there there. End of topic. However, I must ask you not to attack me personally, even by implication. You're implying that I'm a "shill" and I do resent that. I can be interested in Russian ballet and in particular dancers without being "obsessed", thank you very much. Nor is there any rule that I know of that I have to comment on topics in which I have no interest. I live in California and I think I may have commented on here about our local San Francisco ballet, but I have no children taking ballet lessons and am not at present very interested in English ballet, so no, I don't comment on those threads. I came here thinking many on this Board might be interested in hearing/talking more about Russian ballet. I'm disappointed that the discussion has veered off into nasty baseless accusations and unfounded criticisms. Hopefully you will decide you've had enough and will allow us to get back to our friendly discussion.

I'm fine with your liking Tikhomirova better and even with you being of the personal opinion that Stepanova is not principal material. You must be aware that many disagree with you, but you may not know that the great dancer Ludmilla Semenyaka, Yulia's coach at Bolshoi, has been quoted saying she cannot work with an unmusical dancers. Since Semenyaka is very happy with Yulia, it's virtually impossible that Yulia could have "poor musicality" as you allege. Perhaps Semenyaka, Vaziev, Vladimir Vasiliev, Andris Leipa and Yulia's other fans have missed something? You should definitely show us some videos of her being unmusical! Since you didn't respond to it I guess you didn't go to the linked page where I demonstrated the subtleties of Stepanova's musicality, so here it is: "Many criticize Yulia for what they perceive to be a lack of musicality, but in actuality what they are uncomfortable with is the lack of what I call “beatiness”, i.e. moving or ending a moment “on” the beat in such a way that the “journey” between the beginning and ending is perfectly regular in speed, neither getting faster nor slower. True, this is pretty much how a corps has to move, in order to stay together, and Yulia does this when in the corps as can be seen from her many youtube videos. However, on her own she will sometimes, for example, start a movement late but end it on time. This results in a speeding up of the intervening movement which creates a phrase with emphasis at the end. There’s a good example of this a few seconds into this video https://www.instagram.com/p/BHpGE1DhZ02/ where the soloists behind her, as a group, start to lower their arms on the beat, before Yulia begins to move. Starting late, Yulia does the same move but faster, yet ends up back at the top together with the corps. Yulia gives emphasis to the movement (down UP) that reflects and enhances the musical phrase and gives it forward momentum. (Try singing along with the music, or do the movements both ways yourself, and you’ll see that it’s a very natural thing to do what Yulia does.) If we see ballet only as moving from static pose to static pose, or as essentially acrobatic, we don’t miss this sort of thing. But I think people who saw dancers of the past look for this kind of sophisticated musicality and are happy to find it in Yulia." I would be interested in hearing your comments on this, supported by video. Thanks.

Sorry, I started this thread for the purpose of sharing information about Bolshoi promotions and joiners, not really to evaluate dancers in derogatory terms without any substantiation. All dancers have their strengths and weaknesses. I won't here go into Tihhomirova's limitations (take a look at her resume and clips if you doubt that), but there's no point in tit for tat, imo. Suffice to say that dancers at this very high level deserve our respect, even if they are not our particular cup of tea. I have heard that Stepanova is regularly trashed by Smirnova fans and Kretova fans and others on the Russian forums. The effect is that canards such as "unmusical" are tossed around to the point they become received truths. I have written elsewhere defending her musicality, which as a musician myself I find sophisticated and beautiful. https://bornagainballetomane.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/stepanova-promoted-3-times/#comments Ithink she is a wonderful dancer and would be happy to discuss further on another thread. I do think Anna will be promoted soon, given all the nice things Vaziev said about her. I hope she's promoted to the Leading Soloists and given opportunities to do the full lengths ballet roles she's not yet done.

Dancers joining the Bolshoi Ballet corps this season are: Alyona Kovaleva, Olga Ladina, Alyona Ledyakh, Anastasia Strakhova, Elizaveta Khokhlova, Ilya Vladimirov, Artem Kalistratov, Andreï Koshkin, Modeste Skorodumov, Jacapo Tissi (ex-La Scala) and Kamil Yangurazov (ex Mariinsky & Stanmus). The last is married to Yulia Stepanova who seems to be the only dancer promoted thus far. (Bolshoi often announces promotions in waves rather than all at once.) In case anyone hasn't heard, Stepanova was moved up from soloist, past first soloist and leading soloist, to principal dancer. Pretty much unheard of from what I can tell. Hopefully Vaziev is only waiting for an opportune moment to promote Anna Tikhomerova, Slava Lopatin and maybe even Igor Tvirsko, to mollify those who feel that Bolshoi style is at risk with the spectacular promotion of yet another Vaganova grad (Smirnova, Obraztsova and Zakharova being the other 3). I have my fingers crossed that nobody is considering the broken glass in the pointe shoes revenge strategy described by Mary Allash in Bolshoi Babylon -- there are bound to be a lot of dancers unhappy with Stepanova's elevation after only one year with the company. Yet, that is Vaziev's style (remember Alina Somova's meteoric rise under Vaziev's guidance at Mariinsky) so they probably should just get used to it. Speaking of revenge, no sign of Dmitrichenko yet. It's hard to tell which dancers have left. The website is in flux and sometimes the English and Russian content offers quite a bit. For example Merkuriev no longer appears on the company list in either language, but his Russian bio can be found and he is still listed in the Don Q cast. Hopefully this will be straightened out soon.

He's now a "soloist under contract". http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/people/838/. This page does not link to the company list, but it may just be that the webmaster has yet to catch up with the various changes. Or perhaps Merkuriev decided he didn't like the new status after all and quit. Stay tuned.

I doubt it's a case of either/or. Vaziev has expressed great admiration for Anna and said she will be up for promotion.

Here are names and former companies of the Russians brought by Zelensky to Munich this season: First soloists: Ksenia Ryzhkova (Stanislavsky} Maria Shrinking (Mariinsky) Vladimir Shklyarov (Mariinsky) Dmitri Sobolevskiy (Stanislavsky) Soloists: Tatiana Tiliguzova (Mariinsky) Elisaveta Kruteleva (Bolshoi) Alexey Popov (Mariinsky) Corps de ballet: Ekaterina Bondarenko (Mariinsky) Vera Segova (Mariinsky) Konstantin Ivkin (Mariinsky) 7 from Mariinsky (!), 1 from Bolshoi, 2 from Stanislavsky.

Here is a photo from Obratzsova's instagram of Artem and Anna on their wedding day receiving a gift (a small sculpture of the newly weds) from Eugenia and her husband, the latter being the sculptor. https://www.instagram.com/p/BJqbFrngXKK/?taken-by=evgeniaobraztsova

Artem Ovcharenko and Anna Tikhomerova were married yesterday at a resort outside of Moscow. There are a lot of photos of the happy event on Instagram and Twitter (#bolshoiwedding) , but this video of the wedding dance I just had to share here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJqh77hg-F9/

Moved to new thread, Anna and Artem Bolshoi wedding.