Mariinsky Ballet

[Buddy]

Some video clips have been posted of Maria Iliushkina’s recent performance of La Bayadere. She remains one of the Mariinsky’s most graceful dancers, second to Oxana Skorik perhaps, which makes her perhaps one of the world’s most graceful dancers. Her performance is charming, as usual.

 

For me, she balances a childlike ‘loveability’ with beautiful and consummate artistry. This is a challenging combination to maintain effectively. It seemed to me that awhile ago she arrived at a calmer state of maturity. She seemed more comfortable with all this. As an example, in this finely mature performance, there’s a moment when her head flips from side to side — for an unobtrusive instant, a reminder that the child is alive and well.

 

I also tend to wonder what goes through her head at this particular time in history. I wonder what goes through a lot of artists heads. I doubt if we’ll ever know. Again, Maria Iliushkina seems to have found a resolution for herself that’s exhibited in her calm and balanced stage presence. From some comments I’ve read of hers from quite awhile ago, she seems like a lovely person whose perspective on life seems the same.

[Buddy]

Last Tuesday, Maria Iliushkina made her Mariinsky debut as Giselle -- Another big one !  Congratulations to this loveable and lovely dancer. In the video her coach praises her soft airiness along with her big jumps and lines. (Google audio translation) (Thanks to Sophia at Dansomanie for this information)

 

 

 

[Buddy]

There are video clips of Maria Iliushkina’s recent Giselle debut and they’re quite outstanding, both Act I and Act II. I won’t post them, as much as I’d like to, because they’re not ‘officially’ posted, but I do have this and I think that it’s really worth seeing. It’s her performance of the duets, etc., from Act II that she performed about five years ago for an Andris Liepa gala production, posted by that company. In essence, it already has much of the loveliness of her recent debut.