Vukasin

I very much enjoyed last night's performance. Kovalyova is obviously not the finished article, nor would it be fair to expect her to be in such a role, at 20 years old, but after reading her intelligent and thoughtful answers in this interview, it's obvious she has the most important asset required to be an excellent artist - a good brain.

http://www.vaganovatoday.com/alyona-kovalyova-bolshoi-ballet

On the subject of her height putting the Mariinsky off, can I assume that Ulyana Lopatkina was considered a significantly more promising freak talent at a young age, or has the culture changed? They are around the same height, as far as I know.
 

I would watch Kondaurova dance the Macarena, so thanks for the heads up.

On 05/01/2018 at 17:40, Don Q Fan said:

Sounds a great line up and possibly bigger than before. However I will not expect everyone named to be at the show there's usually a few that miss it. However this is stellar! 

This is the thing. I would gladly pay to see Alexandrova and Kondaurova in anything but I have the worst luck when it comes to people dropping out of things I have paid for!

Most recently I was very moved by Ekaterina Kondaurova in Infra and Alessandra Ferri in Woolf Works.

There were two or three instances of mobiles ringing during the matinee performance of Sylvia, and they seemed to go on forever. It's not the crime of the century but the instructions really couldn't be clearer. 

On 16/08/2017 at 07:59, assoluta said:

I am not sure how an (artistic) failing can be remedied by knowing that it was " a question of artistic choice". Mixing multimedia with live dancing is spreading like a disease these days, I have a feeling it is supposed to draw away attention from the failings of the choreography.

I didn't say that it can be remedied. If it's a failing it's a failing, but saying that the piece itself would have been better realised if it had a different concept places the responsibility for the artistic vision with the critic, not the artist. Infra wouldn't be a better version of McGregor's idea if it didn't have the projected images, it would be a different idea, which may or may not be more artistically successful than the one he came up with.

7 hours ago, fashionista said:

Not wishing to prolong this discourse for too long, but I still maintain that the choreography should be innovative enough to put across the message of our daily lives and the complexity thereto, without the need for electronic add-ons!!!

I wouldn't argue with that, but I'm sure McGregor would argue that's a question of artistic choice, not a failing.

On 11/08/2017 at 11:49, fashionista said:

So what is the point of Infra?  Exactly!  Personally, and I fully appreciate that we all have different tastes (would be boring otherwise!!!), I don't think there is a point - gymnastic display of dancers' skills disturbed by the unnecessary addition of electronic moving figures.  Apart from Chroma, I am afraid to say that McGregor does not do it for me.  Chroma showed great potential, was "different" and had a creative pulse.  I think that subsequent McGregor works are variations on the Chroma theme and I am not a fan of using "effects" - the "effects" should be in innovative choreography and not electronic gimmicks. 

The point is supposed to be that the projected figures are ordinary people going about their supposedly banal and non-descript daily lives, drifting along, like commuters on a bridge, and the dancers represent the complex inner lives of these same people, as MAB said. "Actually, people are quite interesting" probably isn't the most profound idea McGregor has ever had, but the stick figures aren't there for no reason.

25 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Hello Vukasin and welcome to the Forum!

Hello and thank you!

I was most excited about seeing Vishneva but found Carmen a bit lacking. She danced very well but it didn't grab me. Kondaurova ended up being the stand-out for me in both Infra and Paquita. Such presence.