Young American Ballet Dancer accuses Bolshoi of extortion...

[LinMM]

Yes I agree that we don't know for sure but I wish such rumours would stop surfacing then it wouldn't even cross our minds no doubt!!

I tend to think everything/body is above board until I learn otherwise. I just don't want to believe that dancers have to pay bribes...or worse....to get roles. So I hope it's not true and she has somehow got the wrong end of the stick. Or it's sour grapes over her ability.

 

She is certainly a lovely dancer with good technique etc but there is a lot of competition within the Company obviously and she doesn't strike me personally as having that certain something over and beyond which you need to survive in a big Russian Company like the Bolshoi. However have never seen her live so wouldn't judge her ability as an artist until then.

Also she is very young still.

 

One will probably never learn the truth of the "bribe" situation. But Ive had to pay bribes in Eastern European Countries before now(issues over visas) so things are not quite as open as here.........though I know underhand stuff does go on in Business to,get contracts etc.....even our National Health Service now it seems but not for this Forum I think!!

[primrose]

I do have personal experience of the Russian dancers and I would say they are no different to any other dancer throughout the world. Russian people I found come across much harsher than they actually are. I found the Russian ballet teachers to be very firm but fair and very caring towards their students and not opposed to putting their arms around the girls when a hug was needed. Saying that they weren't opposed to giving a tap on the leg either when a correction wasn't being taken on board.

[LinMM]

Diana Vishneva went from corps to Principal in ONE year.....but at the Maryinski.

 

Now she is someone who had that extra something and from a young age.

If you watch her Carmen when she was only 15 even though quality of film not brilliant she shows her artistry even then.

 

Joy Womack is not in her league by any means......well not for me anyway...she also has a Carmen on Youtube .......But it shows you can progress faster than usual even in the big companies occasionally.

 

Perhaps they did offer this contract as a soloist to her if she graduated very well from the School...... but then were disappointed with her subsequent development so did not offer her any actual roles.

 

And then she heard of this other possible route......as I said we'll probably never know the truth about it all but in today's links by Janet there is a report by the Guardian on the Trial going on and the dancer accused brings exactly this issue up so its not going to go away just yet.

[alison]

I've just come in after being away from my computer for most of the day, and am disturbed to find so much speculation, particularly with regard to a dancer's private life.  So much of this is along the lines of "If A, then B", without even knowing whether "A" is true.  Please could we keep this to the facts (what facts there are ...)

[LinMM]

Apologies Alison have got a bit carried away on this one.

 

To end this on a positive note.....Joy has at least had the benefit of the Bolshoi training which you can see she has made full use of so inspite of everything she has a good career to look forward to......somewhere.

 

I wish her all the best for the future anyway.

 

Linda

[LinMM]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-bolshoi-ballet-bribe-joy-womack-20131120,0,7437189.story?page=1#axzz2lI3jtBuW

 

This is from today's links and does throw a bit more light on this story.

 

It was interesting that BEFORE she was offered this soloist contract last year she was already in negotiations with another company so it doesn't look to me as if she expected to be at the Bolshoi as her right so to speak.

 

I feel she has probably been poorly treated for whatever reasons.

[aileen]

What amazes me is that the Bolshoi has so many junior/corps dancers that they can afford for some of them to sit around doing nothing. Whatever the truth of the story is, it's clearly very difficult to get yourself noticed in a company of this size.

[alison]

Especially when they give you a soloist contract? Why bother? was my immediate reaction.

[aileen]

As ENB starts its run of *44* Nutcrackers with a few Corsaire performances thrown in for good measure I'm sure that a few of the corps dancers, who will be dancing in virtually every performance, would like a few days off to sit around especially over Christmas (I think that they only have Christmas Day off).

 

The Joy Womack story is very odd. Like most stories, we'll probably never get to the bottom of it. The system of remuneration seems ambiguous to say the least.

[LinMM]

I find it quite disturbing that she pleaded just to do some corps work just to be dancing.

 

I don't want to be seen as "Bolshoi bashing" as they train so many excellent dancers......so I'm sure the School or Academy is okay but there is another article in today's links about another American girl who has been training there.....Precious Adams who is black and she has been having problems being cast in end of term or year shows in the theatre......Because she doesn't fit in! She was asked to leave an audition before even having danced!! And this is someone who is not intending to apply to the Bolshoi Company just a student nearing the end of her training. She is very grateful for the training nevertheless and is hoping her talents will employ her back in Canada or America but her experience does not make for comforting reading I must say.

 

It does seem they are keen on foreign students training there because they do pay a LOT of money.....obviously only those with the talent to benefit from the training.....but the company itself seems more closed.......you have to very much fit their physical mode I think.

 

I hope they don't give the impression though that it is otherwise.

[primrose]

The international students pay 12 thousand pounds per year. That includes training accommodation and food. Not an awful lot considering the standard of training and also in comparison to the cost of training at the British ballet schools.

[LinMM]

In the article said 21,000 American dollars so not sure how this transfers to £

 

How much would the Royal cost per year for a 16-18 year old?

 

There are some similarities in that not everyone who trains at the Royal gets a job there but they usually know about this before accepting training.

Do students get left out of the Royal's students show in the summer......barring injury of course? Or is some part found for all of them?

[LinMM]

Works out at £13,000 just marginally under for the Bolshoi then.

 

If that is all inclusive......of food and accomodation and not just tuition fees then I would say its not bad either then......expensive and beyond the average UK pocket on the whole but reasonable for such a prestigious place.

[LinMM]

Well the Royal costs £28,000 a year for upper school......tuition and accomodation!!

 

So way out of most people's league!! No wonder so many foreign students wishing to train at the Royal go in for these competitions in the hope of being offered a place there this way.

 

The Bolshoi is almost cheap by comparison!

 

However people from UK can win scholarships etc. at least to the Royal.

 

In Russia it's only the "foreigners" who pay. I believe ALL the Russian girls accepted for the Bolshoi School go for free.

 

I imagine any training in the US would not be that cheap either.

 

So perhaps some students from US studying at the Bolshoi should feel no more financially exploited if they were at any of the Big top European companies then.

[Jules]

Training in the US can be costly also. Kirov Academy in D.C.  6 years ago was ~  $18,000.00/year.  Vaganova Academy in St Petersburg  4 years about the same for foreign students.  Life in Russia is especially grueling for foreign students, and they need to know this. There is no way to fully prepare them for the life they will lead while they are there. In the end, it is all about the level of training. Is it worth it? That is for the individual to decide.  

[SMballet]

Perhaps this is the wrong place for this subject, but has anyone else been following the increasingly lurid Dimitrichenko trial in Moscow? I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it - though I should really know better; I feel like a rubbernecker - and it does seem, regardless of what we are to make of the young American dancer Joy Womack's allegations, that there were many really very iffy goings on at the Bolshoi under Filin.

 

Latest allegations, which I feel dirty even mentioning, but - humour me people! - are that 1) he has been having an affair with Olga Smirnova, and hence her meteoric rise to the top (and she was the only dancer who apparently testified at the Dimitrichenko trial who appeared to be on not-friendly terms with Dimitrichenko; all the others, including Evgenia Obraztsova, seem to genuinely like him)  2) but also apparently, at least according to this latest report from the trial: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/dance/in-acid-attack-trial-dancers-trade-stage-for-stand.html?ref=international-home&_r=0 - that Filin had, or wanted to have, a romantic/sexual liason with Dimitrichenko's wife!  And if you add all these (completely unsubstantiated, I hasten to add) rumours to Joy Womack's story, well, then... I thought Hollywood couldn't get any worse, when it came to depicting the world of ballet, than that stupid Black Swan movie, but I'm afraid it is beginning to sound to me like the off-stage shenanigans at the Bolshoi are far worse than even Hollywood could dream up. If someone were to make a "real" documentary about the Bolshoi, at least as it seems to be under Filin's tenure, I think it would make the fictional ballet company and dancers in the  "Black Swan' movie appear quite tame in comparison!

 

Anyway, I only mention it here because, as I think I've noted before, my love of ballet began, as a young girl about a decade ago, watching the Bolshoi on a tour in my country, And it makes me sad to think that the Bolshoi is, in reality, such a viper's nest for dancers.

[Marissa]

I wouldn't be so quick to believe those allegations against Filin. None of them have been substantiated and they've been made by people with an agenda and an axe to grind.