Don Q Fan Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) I attended lastnights show. A bit of meh and a bit of wow...mixed bunch. Sarafanov totally wasted with Vestris. Would have loved to see more of both Sarafanov and Gomez. I think the choice of pieces was bad. If they had looked to some of Carlos Acosta's shows I think they could have chosen better. I recall Carlos at the Lowry danced a solo that was created for Baryshnikov with Natalie Klein the cellist playing on the stage it was very good. Then in one of his London shows he danced a group piece with other men...I recall McRae and Vargas was it Machisimo or something...that could have been used. I recently saw Loup at Malakhov's Gala in Berlin which was done here..ok. I agree Le Bourgeois would have been a great choice Sarafanov may have been better suited to that although I rather think Vasiliev would have been the one to nail that! I quite liked Bolle in JH though I do not fully understand the piece yet and I really liked Prototype with its clever use of video. I have only seen Bolle once before at Darcey Bussell's farwell gala. At stage door Bolle seemed to be one people were waiting for and I think he could sell his "and friends" gala here ok! There were lots of italians at the stage door too so he does seem popular! Vasiliev was asked and said he would be back in the UK in July with another project and also in January 2015 with ENB for Swan Lake. I was definitely glad of the chance to see 5 top dancers in one show even if the choice of pieces performed was iffy and I agree the highlight of the show was Vasiliev but then he is quite a bit younger than the others Edited March 23, 2014 by Don Q Fan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I recall Carlos at the Lowry danced a solo that was created for Baryshnikov with Natalie Klein the cellist playing on the stage it was very good. Push Comes to Shove, wasn't it? (Not that I was there, come to think of it, if it was at the Lowry) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 DQF, are you saying that Vasiliev is going to be performing with ENB in Swan Lake?!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 DQF, are you saying that Vasiliev is going to be performing with ENB in Swan Lake?!!!!!!! Must be he said January 15 with ENB Swan Lake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 If Vasiliev really is going to dance with ENB in Swan Lake in London next January, his letting it slip has rather stolen ENB's PR thunder, hasn't it? But, to be honest, I just can't see him as Siegfried. And, as a postscript, I found King's of the Dance disappointing in not really displaying the rich talent of all the male dancers on stage and poor value for the money I paid to see them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Found this interview with Patrick de Bana.....an extremely interesting individual. I did not realise this had been especially choreographed for Vasiliev and with especially written music.....but I understand now why he made it so powerful. I know some people didn't like it even have called it a non event or words to that effect .....ballet critics that is....but I disagree with them I genuinely found it quite moving in parts as well as exhilarating. I thought Vasiliev really lived the part anyway and would want to see it again but he will be a hard act to follow. De Bana definitely caught some of the essence of Vasiliev as a dancer and I'd thank them both for that!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Thankyou Amelia for your defence of Vestris!! This was a piece I could have understood better if I had bought a programme I think!! It just suddenly seemed an odd piece and in a vacuum of knowledge on my part I had no idea of its purpose other than it was someone from a past century trying to relate different human characteristics to the music!! I do feel from your clips that Baryshnikov illuminated this somewhat better than Sarafanov did on Friday but it seems as if this was created for Baryshnikov? Or have I got that wrong? So I suppose nothing like working with the original choreographer! It's still a strange little piece but actually very hard to do unless you are a pretty good actor too. Sarafanov communicated some bits well but I think....probably wrongly I don't know....that he went for sending it up slightly and somehow it didn't work for him. But perhaps he wanted to try the piece out and is finding his way into it still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I thought Zucchetti really made Vestris come alive in Men in Motion, and it was his acting and comedic timing that pulled in the audience. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 ... it seems as if this was created for Baryshnikov? Or have I got that wrong? Yes, LinMM, this piece was choreographed for Baryshnikov originally. Gaétan Vestris (1729 – 1808) obviously belonged to the XVIII century. Although his son Auguste Vestris’ (1760-1842) performed a minuet with Taglioni even at the age of 75 his best dancing I suppose also happened in same century as his father’s. Hence the elegant and playful costume and the wig of the rococo era in this piece. Yakobson’s choreography reflects the fact that Auguste was the first to introduce jumps and pirouettes into male dancing but it is done here tactfully, with delicate stylisation. All those bits and pieces: the smoothy courteous beau, the romantic hero, the laughing jester, the frail old man, the restless young soul, they all must be interconnected and spruced with tasty hints and inklings. Yakobson’s wife Irina allowed three other dancers - Andrei Ivanov, Denis Matvienko and Ivan Vasiliev - to perform ‘Vestris’ in concerts. And now Sarafanov danced it too. I am not alone in thinking that Baryshnikov made a masterpiece out of it and remains unsurpassed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 I have the "Live at Wolf Trap" DVD (think the colour video above is that performance) and used to hate Vestris but when I booked for Men in Motion I looked it out again and began to like it more and more, thought Valentino Zuchetti was brilliant, especially his facial expressions, but on Wednesday it was easily the worst piece of the evening for me, Leonid Sarafanov looked really mis-cast. Roberto Bolle danced many times at the ROH with Darcey Bussell, also I think he partnered Zenaida Yanowsky, it was nice to see a face from the past, and he did say in an article that he would like to dance again in London, I believe I also read that he replaced David Hallberg in Kings of the Dance, who was too busy at the Bolshoi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Labyrinth of Solitude with Vasiliev can be seen on YouTube (thanks to Dance Europe) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Labyrinth of Solitude with Vasiliev can be seen on YouTube (thanks to Dance Europe) Thank you, Aileen - I just fiinished watching it .....wonderful! I have this dream that someday male dancers will not be clad in black against a black backdrop. I have a dream...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 ....I dream that too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 I have this dream that someday male dancers will not be clad in black against a black backdrop. I have a dream...... I think that's going to be a very long dream.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Thank you Amelia for that clip - very interesting. I learn a great deal from this site. however, it doesn't change my view of Friday 's performance. I also meant to say how much I enjoyed seeing Lunkina in JH - she made me shiver! I would really wish to see more of her. Did she ever tour with the Bolshoi when they were in the UK - I don't remember? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 If Vasiliev really is going to dance with ENB in Swan Lake in London next January, his letting it slip has rather stolen ENB's PR thunder, hasn't it? But, to be honest, I just can't see him as Siegfried. And, as a postscript, I found King's of the Dance disappointing in not really displaying the rich talent of all the male dancers on stage and poor value for the money I paid to see them. That's what I thought but then to him it's work I guess. He'd be a good Rothbart or Jester rather than Siegfried, but I don't think ENB's version has a Jester! Agree your final comment all that talent and nothing really to show it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) Thank you Amelia for that clip - very interesting. I learn a great deal from this site. however, it doesn't change my view of Friday 's performance. I also meant to say how much I enjoyed seeing Lunkina in JH - she made me shiver! I would really wish to see more of her. Did she ever tour with the Bolshoi when they were in the UK - I don't remember? Yes she did - I saw her at the Coli with the Bolshoi (2007?) in La Bayadere as Nikya and I think Natalia Osipova may have been with her as Gamzatti. Edited March 24, 2014 by Don Q Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusanR Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 I saw Lunkina a few years ago in Spartacus,in Southampton! I can't remember the exact year. She danced the role of Phrygia. Susan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 (edited) Yes she did - I saw her at the Coli with the Bolshoi (2007?) in La Bayadere as Nikya and I think Natalia Osipova may have been with her as Gamzatti. Yes, Don Q Fan, you are right about that performance of La Bayadere in 2007, when Lunkina danced with Matvienko and Osipova. She danced in London many times. We had the first glimpse of her in 1999 when she debuted as Kitri with the Bolshoi at the Coliseum on her 19th birthday and the crowd waiting by the Stage Door sang her “Happy birthday!” And then Vasiliev & Maximova took her to a restaurant. At Druri Lane in 2001 she danced in “Les Sylphides”. I saw Lunkina a few years ago in Spartacus,in Southampton! I can't remember the exact year. She danced the role of Phrygia. Susan We saw her a lot in 2006: “Swan Lake” at Hippodrome in Birmingham; Phrygia in “Spartacus” in Salford; “Giselle” in Nottingham - all those in Spring. Could she be at Southampton during that tour too? Then in Summer 2006 the Bolshoi was at Covent Garden and she danced Zina in ‘The Bright Stream’ and in “Jeu de Cartes”. May be something else - I can not find the programme. In 2007 she was back with the Bolshoi and did Medora, Nikiya, Phrygia, “Class Concert” and Wheeldon’s “Misericordes”. She had two maternity leaves, in 2003/04 and 2009/10 and last time she was here I think in 2011 for the Ulanova Gala at the Coliseum where she danced Adagio from “Giselle” with Gudanov. I will not be surprised if I have missed something. She always had very good reviews and Clement Crisp always called her adorable. Edited the script. Edited March 24, 2014 by Amelia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 She certainly impressed me on Friday!! Was perfect in that role! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 She is now a guest principal with the Canadian National Ballet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naomi M Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 A latest clip of Lunkina in Swan Lake at the National Ballet of Canada. She was just amazing in it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 She is now a guest principal with the Canadian National Ballet. Yes, Meunier, this news was followed on this forum last year: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/2798-is-svetlana-lunkina-moving-to-toronto/?hl=%2Bsvetlana+%2Blunkina However, Svetlana Lunkina is still listed on the Bolshoi’s official website as a Principal: http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/ballet/ http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/persons/ballet/78/ The Bolshoi will be at NY Lincoln Centre (July 12–July 27) with Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Spartacus: http://www.lincolncenterfestival.org/bolshoi-ballet-opera All three ballets are in her repertoire. I wonder if she will be on this tour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 At Druri Lane in 2001 she danced in “Les Sylphides”. And Giselle, if I remember correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I did a good digging into the Augean Stables of my ballet memorabilia and found the brochure of that Bolshoi Ballet's tour at Drury Lane in Spring 2001. You are right, Alison, Svetlana did dance then Adagio from "Giselle" in the Divertissement as well as "La Sylphide" pdd with Gudanov and "The Dying Swan". They alternated 3 different programmes then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTL Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 I was at that season, or rather the programme containing the Shades scene from La Bayadere (very shaky and one girl in the front row looked injured) and the Flames of Paris pas de deux (good, I subsequently sought it out on DVD). The Bolshoi were in the doldrums then, that performance was poorly attended, while the Mariinsky were riding high and even offering mid-week matinees at their early-2000s seasons at the Royal Opera House. How quickly times change! The format at Drury Lane was compromised by there not being any free cast sheets, only expensive programmes: I remember overhearing a mother telling her daughters after the Bayadere Shades that they had just seen Swan Lake. In these compendium-style programmes, I do wish they would use the scene-change time to project onto a screen a synopsis of the next piece along with details of the dancers/choreographer/composer/designer. Even if I've bought the programme, I haven't had time to take in or remember all these details. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 (edited) The Bolshoi will be at NY Lincoln Centre (July 12–July 27) with Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Spartacus: http://www.lincolncenterfestival.org/bolshoi-ballet-opera All three ballets are in her repertoire. I wonder if she [Lunkina] will be on this tour? According to the Lincoln Centre Festival brochure the following Bolshoi principals will participate the 2014 NYC tour: Maria Alexandrova Ekaterina Krysanova Anna Nikulina Ekaterina Shipulina Olga Smirnova Maria Vinogradova Svetlana Zakharova Artemy Beliakov Yury Baranov David Hallberg Vladislav Lantratov Mikhail Lobukhin Artem Ovcharenko Ruslan Skvortsov Denis Rodkin Alexander Volchkov No NYC Bolshoi Lunkina on this round, Amelia - sadly - it would seem - for the moment at least - (or, indeed, Vasiliev as a 'guest principal' in his breath-taking Spartacus such as is a part of the Bolshoi season proper in Moscow next month). Still NYC has two performances of Vasiliev with ABT and nine with the Mikhailovsky to enjoy this year ... and I suppose a greater chance to see Lunkina in full length works with her newly adopted Canadian National Ballet - especially after the reviews that greeted the NBoC's (Ratmansky) Romeo and Juliet when they were last here. (I see NBoC are taking their current R&J later this year to LA after the success that greeted them last year with Wheeldon's Alice.) There is too, of course, the not so small matter of regional proximity. A bit like 'as Paris is to London' ... not that such a fact helps London audiences enjoy more POB productions, say. Ironically POB has been seen more frequently off the Lincoln Centre plaza than it ever has, say, at Sadler's Wells, Spalding's projected 'world mecca for dance'. Go figure. Perhaps NYC/LA audiences will see Lunkina too as Paulina (I should think she might well be well suited to that role) in The Winter's Tale - given that such is a co-production between the NBoC and the RB, with the latter holding the North American rights. ('Ah, that Karen Kain, a gifted and bright lady,' I hear you murmur, Amelia.) I see Ratmansky is doing a new work for NBoC in their next season as well and they have banked also some the Neumeier full length cornerstones (e.g., Seagul, Nijinsky, etc.,) as well. All here, of course, are just imagined projections on my part ... nothing more. The mere jottings of an aged - and ever aging - mind. They beg your indulgence, Amelia. Edited March 27, 2014 by Meunier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 What a good idea Grand Tier Left!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 (edited) Perhaps NYC/LA audiences might see Lunkina too as Paulina (I should think she might well be well suited to such a role) in The Winter's Tale - given that such is a co-production between the NBoC and the RB, with the latter holding the North American rights. Should - by rights - read 'the former' ..... The correction missed the BcoF clock. Drat! Edited March 27, 2014 by Meunier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 You are right, Alison, Svetlana did dance then Adagio from "Giselle" in the Divertissement as well as "La Sylphide" pdd with Gudanov and "The Dying Swan". They alternated 3 different programmes then. Really? Only the adagio? I could have sworn I'd seen her dance the whole thing somewhere ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Here maybe? http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_99/jul99/bm_rev_bolshoi_0799.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Thank you, Jane S, I knew that I missed something. Yes, they brought Vasiliev's "Giselle" to Coliseum in 1999. By the way, it is interesting that Bolshoi has been keeping for years now TWO "Giselles" in its repertoire. Another one is by Gigorovich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I see Ratmansky is doing a new work for NBoC in their next season as well . this is wandering way off the topic of this thread,but Ratmansky is not doing a new work for NBOC; NBOC is acquiring his Tempest, which he created for ABT (in co-production with NBOC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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