mariaspir

[mariaspir]

If you were a ballet fan in Moscow and offered free tickets, which of the upcoming Swan Lake debuts would you go to?

Kuprina/Chino (double debut)

Moseeva/Mikhalkin (2024 and 2023 BBA grads)

Konovalova/Vysubenko (most experienced Siegfried - Efimov will also be debuting as Evil Genius)

I think Moseeva and Mikhalkin.

I'm sorry, but I STILL have not been intrigued by Kuprina. I LOVE Chino however, I'm looking forward to videos of his debut. Konovalova seems a bit teenager-y to me to play O/O.

Moseeva was an EXCELLENT Gamzatti, and Mikhalkin was fantastic as Toreador in Carmen. He has a baby face, and sometimes I don't get very convinced 😅 but for the Prince that's not a problem.

[mariaspir]

Sergei Osminkin and Maria Khoreva in Classical Symphony (Vaganova Ballet Academy, 2017)

[mariaspir]

This for Morozova

Alena Kovaleva, Naina’s Magic Gardens

© Alex Pankov

[mariaspir]

the video of maria polunina is from the graduation performance right? i think the moscow school did act 3 from swan lake as part of their day two performance.

which i feel was an unusual choice (i'm not sure any student can really be a 100% convincing odile) but actually worked relatively well in terms of having lots of variations for different graduates to dance (especially in the grigorovich act 3 -which has all the brides/princesses in pointe shoes), a star female role and two male variations.

I find Odile is an easier role than Odette. Yes, a 17 year old probably has little experience in being seductive, but the white swan needs a kind of purity, spirituality, tender emotionality, and deep melancholy that's even harder to understand, let alone bring to life. You can do the black swan just technically, it won't be very good, but it will be dignified. You can't just do the steps of the white swan, the part demands the soul.

So I find Zakharova made a good choice for the school, given they have a lot of strong girls, and at least one VERY STRONG partner. Congratulations to the Prince, this is a very difficult part to do too.

I think the white act was the wrong choice for Morozova. I find Nikolay made a choice that was not in her best interest, she's not THAT strong technically or acting wise. They should have done Gardens of Naina, which was last presented in 2016, with Kovaleva as the lead.

[mariaspir]

Robert Gould’s Elric of Melniboné art

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Maria Polunina, 2025 graduate of BBA, made her debut on the Bolshoi stage.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKoZZOeIiryV7nu96GCSgx32azVvXStQfWPaaE0/?igsh=MXg3NXA3dDJvMHN5bQ==

I noticed her beautiful arms and use of shoulders, something that's often a weakness of the Moscow school.

[mariaspir]

What a terrible day.

The world has lost another Masterpiece Made Flesh

Rest in Peace

[mariaspir]

Laments of the fallen king

Sketches under cut

[mariaspir]

dystopia au where we are all assigned one of two chosen genders at birth

[mariaspir]

ΜΑΡΙΛΕΝΑ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@matzaflari

Yall are lying

LAITOS VA IS THE VA FOR THE NARRATOR IN PEPPA PIG??! I've seen it all 🚶‍♀️

[mariaspir]

Can we all agree that Gaynors and Etu and other synthetic pointe shoes are NOT "better for the environment"?

Yes, they last longer, but THEY ARE PLASTIC!!! That will not break down over time!!!

You know what traditional pointe shoes are made out of? Paper, leather, fabric, and flour glue!!! Even if you throw away 5 pairs a week, THEY WILL DECOMPOSE!!!! You can even cut them up and put them into compost!!!!

You know what doesn't do that? Plastic boxes and plastic shanks!!! That 1 pair of Gaynors will last 500 years in a landfill.

Yes, they may be better for your feet, for your art, for your wallet, but they for sure are not better for the environment.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I just saw an Earth Day ad from Gaynor and had to rant somewhere.

[mariaspir]

Natasha Furman being right handed, but a lefty turner makes so sense to me. The right leg, aka, supporting leg should be the strongest, so of course, why arnt more people turning better to the left? Is it just cause we practise it slightly less so we perceive that side as harder?

I don't know if right-handed-ness necessarily means you'll turn better right as well.

I remember reading somewhere that the human body is set up better for turning to the right because of the way the internal organs are distributed, but idk if there's any science to back that.

For some people being a right turner is purely because we practiced it more. Especially if you start learning fouettes on one side only, you improve drastically on one side and the other stays mediocre.

For others, it could be a physical issue, for example one leg is ever so slightly more hyperextended than the other, making it harder to balance and turn οn. Or the neck could have a bit less mobility towards one side so the spotting is worse in one direction.

Of course, it could be a mix of both, but if practice can make both sides even and equal, lack of practice can make one significantly worse.

[mariaspir]

How much of an advantage do you think Yasmina Aziz has over her classmates by not having gone through a growth spurt? She hasn't yet gone through that phase in which you almost have to re-learn how to dance with longer legs, at a different height, with a different center of gravity, with muscles which have not yet caught up yet to the inevitable new weight and have not adjusted yet to the new bone length? Because usually this moment happens between about year 5/6 and I worry that she will grow later and have to go through this awkward phase in her graduation year and might ruin her moment!

Honestly, I don't think it will affect her much, it hasn't affected her classmates much either. Yasmina is one of those dancers that were placed so meticulously (as in her teachers put attention to her placement) that the body is strong enough for anything. It's something that you can start to see if you have studied teaching, when a body is placed strictly from childhood, then placement overpowers everything later on, they can lift legs, they can jump, they can turn. And it's true the other way around, when the teacher rushes to do advanced steps the dancer struggles twice in the future.

[mariaspir]

Natasha Furman is in Swan Corps btw!!

That's good to hear!! If it was one year later, maybe she'd get to do big swans, but I don't see VBA doing Swan Lake again for a few years. She'll do it in Mariinsky, though, I'm sure. She's quite the jumper.

[mariaspir]

Nothing wrong with those fake arches! Almost everyone wears them, maybe not as much in russia where selection to the academies is so serious that they can afford not select besed on aestetics of insteps, but everywhere else... fake arches it is.

This. Even principal dancers wear them. It's literally just aesthetics. It is kinda sad that we have such stupid body ideals, but that's the reality

[mariaspir]

My life changed with fake arches. My teachers actually adviced me to buy them because I’m decent on point, and now my image matches with my skill!

Left pic is without, right pic is with. I too have become a fake arch supporter since March.

I use stick-on n*pple covers because they cost 1/10 of what the fake arch sock on Grishko costs, and out of my 3 ballet teachers only one said they suspected something when they saw it. I did the competition like that, and the audition.

It is something that will never change, my bones will never change shape, and it's not like I suddenly have Zakharova's feet. But having bad feet is something that I will be judged for, and be seen as a lesser dancer for, so yes, fake it. It's an aesthetic art, we wear fake eyelashes to make our eyes bigger, so if I can get away with it I will fake my feet too.

[mariaspir]

if you ended up in Nikolaj Ciskaridze class, what would you do to save yourself

Honestly? I would try to mind my own business, do my job to improve, and try not to cross him.

Whether you like the teacher you end up with, there's only so much you can do. At the end of the day you WILL graduate under them, whether you like the teaching style or not. Talent shines either way, and NT personally loves a hard worker, so you can be one or the other (if not both).

And even if your teacher ends up not liking you for whatever reason (sometimes they just dislike you because you breathe the wrong way) remember, you WILL be free of them one day. Just keep a low profile and do your job.