Lark

Some video has just surfaced showing portions of a Swan Lake performance from this 2018 run.  One shows Stepanova and Volchkov in the black act and the other two show Stepanova as Odette. You can see the Odette variations on Facebook in the account of "Passionballet".  

2 hours ago, Ivy Lin said:

 

Sometimes the "professional photographers" IMO veer dangerously close to ana chic with their photos or the dancers who choose to photograph themselves in somewhat ana chic ways. I have seen these photos circulated online in ana forums for "thinspiration" and I think dancers do have to be mindful that a photograph of them that purposely shows off their entire ribcage can be construed the wrong way.

What is Ana chic?

Yesterday's matinee was the last performance on the Mariinsky tour of California, La Bayadere at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall with Novikova, Kim and Batoeva. It was magnificent!  Rarely do we see such dancing in the Bay Area, and the audience was over the moon.  The scenery and dancers competed for space on the small Zellerbach stage but they made it work to create an escapist fantasy set in a mythical past.  The elephant, the tiger, the parrots! Oh my!  They even managed to get 32 shades on the stage. 

Kudos to the corps! The same cast (except for the principals) had performed the same ballet twice on the previous day and some of them looked a bit tired.  However they gave it their all.  I recognized the inimitable Yana Selina as the second shade and Maria Bulanova in the grand pas. Maria Illushkina was listed as one of two dancers in D'Jampe but I couldn't tell which one she was, nor did she stand out in the grand pas.  Anastasia Lukina had a slight stumble towards the end of the third shade variation but was otherwise pretty secure.  The crowd loved Phillip Stepin as the Golden Idol.  

Olesya Novikova as Nikiya -- words fail.  I was sitting next to a young dancer who gasped each time Novikova held an impossible balance or went into a lift with all the insouciance of a person catching a bus. Her technical security allowed her to inhabit the role without pause.  During Nikya's monologue the normally unruly Berkeley audience held its collective breath and you could hear a pin drop. Novikova rarely tours (she has I think 3 children) so we were very lucky to see this performance.

I was expecting great things of Nadezhda Batoeva as Gamzatti, and those expectations were exceeded. What a glittering princess she was, what great technique and stage presence.  I have never seen such slow and beautifully controlled Italian fouettes.  She was an equal match for Novikova in the "cat fight" scene and added many interesting details to create a unique Gamzatti. For example, after Nikiya attacks her with the knife Batoeva conveyed Gamzatti's gradual realization of what had just happened and the evolution of this into a decision to punish Nikya. 

Kim was Kim, flying through the air.  The audience went nuts.  Bouyed by this, his last manege of grand jetes at the very end were if possible higher and more energetic than earlier in the ballet.  He was better as a partner than expected.  During the bows the mutual respect between Kim and Novikova was touchingly evident.  

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to see these great artists in person.  I hope they return soon.

17 minutes ago, DrewCo said:

I liked her a lot. And Chapkina was listed as dancing one of the vision scene variations, not the role of Henriette or Clemence; those were listed as Maria Vinogradova and Anastasia Denisova. (A lot of different dancers get opportunities in this ballet.) 

Yes @DrewCo you are correct about that. Now that the power is back on I could look it up to check!  I also meant to mention favorably vinogradova, whose lightness is quite miraculous. 
However, with all due respect, I am interested in reading and discussing comments on technical details based on objective observations. It’s not just about who we like or don’t like. 😉

Raymonda — Some really wonderful dancing, notably Belyakov and the adorable Liza kokoreva in the third act variation.  There were also a few shockingly weak performances like antonina Chapkina as Clemence or hortense (not sure which) — she really seemed lost to the music. As to Smirnova, her lower half was technically close to perfection but whatever has happened to her vaganova hands?  just since the Bayadere transmission they seem to have turned into sticks sharply bent at the wrist and then there’s that index finger sticking up at an exaggerated anglle.  I blame Maria Allash, her new coach, because somebody has to be blamed for such ugliness. 🤨Aside from those few negatives enjoyed seeing the complete ballet for the first time. 

sorry for telegraphic writing and bad typing — have to type quickly — power outage due to fires

22 hours ago, Springbourne3 said:

Sorry Lark maybe I didn’t make it clear - I meant that ‘Smirnova stood out’ in the class (from the expression ‘in a class of their own’),

Olga is not really in a class of her own. She certainly appeared to be much better than the others in Allash's class but that's because nobody else of her rank was there.  If you look at last year's Akimov class you can see she's really no better or worse than the other primas who were also in that class, including Obratzsova, Stepanova, Shipulina, etc. It seems as if somebody got rid of her competition this year (except for Krysanova, who is beloved). I guess that's the Bolshoi for you.

9 hours ago, FionaE said:

I only saw a brief section of the Akimov class and noticed principals/first soloists Artem Ovcharenko, Anna Tikhimorova and David Motta Soares.  There may have been more - it switched over to the Allash class and also I’m not so familiar with all the faces.  Was Lantratov there too?  

Lantratov was not there, nor any principal other than Ovcharenko. First soloist Igor Tvirsko was spotted in the Akimov class.  I recognized a few faces in the Allash class but again, other than Olga, none of the recognized stars were there.

35 minutes ago, Springbourne3 said:

Smirnova shines in a class of her own.

Shipulina complained in an instagram post that she and other primas were not invited to film, so that's the reason Smirnova was in a class of her own.  Krysanova had some time in a different segment, but that was about it. Very disappointing for those of us who had hoped to see an Akimov class full of principals as we did in the 2014 World Ballet Day!

Bolshoi and Pathe have started publishing on YouTube short "webisodes" in advance of the Raymonda broadcast.  The first one features Yulia Stepanova narrating and dancing the wedding variation from Act III.

5 hours ago, Don Q Fan said:

Then there are the "in betweeners" but sadly they just were not used well enough in this run - here I am thinking of the woeful underuse of Anna Tikhomirova, who would have made a fabulous Odette or Kitri, Ana Turazashvili I am sure could do the main roles too and so it goes on....

Both Anna and Ana are excellent in variations and shorter roles but both have limitations when it comes to primary roles.  Anna has had trouble sticking with the choreo and Ana has not yet reached the technical level necessary for primary roles. Both are favorites in Moscow, however, and have been working hard and making progress, so perhaps we will see Anna as Kitri some day, and Ana as Odette. 

Adding my thanks for the fine audience reviews posted on here.  

I do have a question, though. Has anybody seen any professional reviews of Stepanova's three (one Spartacus, two Swan Lakes)  performances in the UK press? I haven't found any and I can't recall even any passing mentions.  Aegina is a relatively new role for her, so it's not surprising that others got more attention, but she has performed O/O more than any other role in her repertoire.  Balletomanes on the various ballet fora have been commenting that her O/O interpretations have evolved while under the tutelage of Marina Kondratieva to something both new (ie different from the current standard interpretation a la Zakarhova) and old (recalling Ulanova's tenderness and vulnerability).  Am I right there has been not one mention in the press about this?  Her two Swan Lakes were on Monday evenings -- do British critics typically take that night off? (No criticism, just curious.) Color me puzzled!

These three ballerinas - Zakharova, Smirnova, Kovalyova -- represent three different stages of artistic development, don't they? It seems a good idea to evaluate each with that in mind.  Zakarhova is the mature artist, blessed with a perfect ballet physique who learned over the years to access her internal emotions and share them with the audience, thus becaming the complete ballerina she is today.  Smirnova is in the middle years of her development, having achieved technical near-perfection but still clinging to her safe place of remoteness and artifice.  She has hopefully another 10 years or so to become, perhaps, less glacial, more human, should she wish to do so.  Kovalyova is not an artist yet, but only a unique, delightful, beautiful ballet dancer with a lot of potential. We will see whether she will apply herself to her art or skate along on her physical charms.  

While we can certainly delight in performances throughout a dancer's lifetime, I don't think we can honestly evaluate any ballerina against the "greats" of the past until we see their mature artistry. It's our great good fortune to be able to follow and discuss their artistic development in Swan Lake and other ballets.

38 minutes ago, DanJL said:

Stepanova seemed to almost falter after the first one, and then sped through the rest extremely quickly. Maybe there was something different about the contact for her. Although I assume she would have rehearsed on the stage?

As Odile, Stepanova generally does really fast fouettés, but a rough start would make it difficult to get in synch with the orchestra, I would imagine. 

There have been reports that other Bolshoi primas (Zakharova & Smirnova) also had uncharacteristic problems controlling their fouettés on the ROH stage.  Is it that different from the Bolshoi stage, I wonder?  

Before arriving in Berkeley, Mariinsky will put on performances at the Segerstrom Center in Southern California. I don't know what to make of the fact that the cast lineup is different, notably featuring Somova instead of Novikova and Askerov instead of Ermakov.  Novikova is indeed wonderful, Bruce, and I hope it's correct that she will appear in the Berkeley performances.  

Wednesday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Nikia – Alina Somova
Solor – Kimin Kim
Gamzatti – Nadezhda Batoeva

Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Nikia – Maria Khoreva
Solor – Vladimir Shklyarov
Gamzatti – Anastasia Nuikina

Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Nikia – Ekaterina Kondaurova
Solor – Timur Askerov
Gamzatti – Ekaterina Chebykina

Saturday, October 19 at 1:00 p.m.
Nikia – Alina Somova
Solor – Kimin Kim
Gamzatti – Nadezhda Batoeva

Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Nikia – Maria Khoreva
Solor – Vladimir Shklyarov
Gamzatti – Anastasia Nuikina

Sunday October 20 at 1:00 p.m.
Nikia – Ekaterina Kondaurova
Solor – Andrei Ermakov
Gamzatti – Ekaterina Chebykina

Casting has been posted on the Cal Performances website for the six Mariinsky performances of La Bayadere in Berkeley California October 30-November 3, 2019.  Tickets are $25 to $225 and will be available for purchase by the general public on August 6.  

Interesting to read all your takes on Bolshoi's La Bayadere. I truly enjoyed the sheer spectacle of it, all the color, costumes, and divertissements. The corps de ballet and most of the soloists were great. However, I felt the love story got kind of lost, partly because of the amount of time devoted to other things but mainly because the lovers did not seem all that interested in each other.  Belyakov is a wonderful dancer -- those jumps! --- and a very elegant figure, but he seemed to be in a world of his own.  He didn't look like he was in love. Smirnova is a cold dancer and so brittle looking I felt she might shatter into ice shards if she fell, which thankfully she didn't.  She too is elegant (they were well matched in coolness and elegance) but sadly, the camera is not her friend -- she probably looks better in the theatre. I did appreciate her pacing and musical accents and the general high technical level but her lack of connection with anybody else on stage was disappointing. She does not usually dance with Belyakov so I suppose the two of them were focussed on getting through without mistakes and this probably made it difficult to enter fully into character. As for Gamzatti, I'm mystified why Bolshoi chose a corps de ballet member with questionable technique and over the top acting skills instead of one of the many magnificent Bolshoi Gamzattis like Allash, Shipulina, Vinogradova, and Kretova, to name a few. The production was good but could've easily been wonderful with a better cast.

Thanks for the welcome, Janet.  I've been lurking quite some time now and thought it time now to jump in.

On 14/01/2019 at 10:56, Farfallina said:

Hm, casting for Sunday's Bolshoi La Bayadere a bit odd: is Nikita Elikarov so outstanding or are they running out of choices ?

I wonder who does the casting for the movie transmissions 

Yes, it is odd. Belyakov and Marchenkova have normally been cast with Stepanova, who also is the featured ballerina in the trailers.  All three are relatively tall while replacement Smirnova is on a smaller scale.  We'll see how it looks at the movies but I have my reservations. To your point, Bolshoi casting decision guidelines in general seem to be (1) director favorites (2) sponsor favorites (3) suitability for the role.  

Official Bolshoi theatre trailer wherein Smirnova narrates and (uncredited) Stepanova dances: