#ekaterina kondaurova

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Gorgeous Mariinsky tutus.

Paquita: Ekaterina Kondaurova

Raymonda: Viktoria Tereshkina

La Bayadere: Olesya Novikova

Sleeping Beauty: Ekaterina Osmolkina

Don Quixote: Renata Shakirova

Swan Lake: Maria Iliushkina

[ballet-symphonie]

i would kill to see kondaurova in the petite mort pas de deux

I WANT THIS. The trouble with Kondaurova is its so hard to find her a partner who's tall and strong enough enough to dance with her and emotionally vulnerable enough to match her on stage. Choreographically, there's a lot of partner work in that ballet that is difficult to do with similarly sized people, and casting usually favors more medium-height girls for the main two pas de deux. I'd want her dancing with someone outside MT.

[tikitania]

Pharoah's Daughter at the Mariinsky

I'm excited to see the Mariinsky's new staging of The Pharaoh's Daughter, especially the set and costume design. I love a big 3-act ballet! I've been following the Russian ballet forums and there's a lot of speculation as to how much of Ratmansky's restaging of Petipa's choreography remains now that Tony Candelario is spearheading the project. (I suspect quite a lot.) However, the sets and costume were well underway before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it seems that Robert Perdziola is still finishing his work on the set design. Given that an American is designing this…I'm hoping for the best. (aka, no body sprays, tanning or even blackening skin "for accuracy" which is the argument that the Russians make.) AND casting has been announced! Of course, it's Vika, Kimin Kim and Renata in the premiere! Happy to see one of my faves, Alexandra Khiteeva, featured in a soloist role. (She's been dancing a LOT lately, which I love but it also makes me worry about an injury.) Quite shockingly, Kristina Shapran, is in the cast. I hope to see her gorgeous dancing more!

[gorbigorbi]

Ekaterina Kondaurova as Girl, “Leningrad Symphony", music by Dmitry Shostakovich, libretto and choreography by Igor Belsky, design by Mikhail Gordon. As part of the program “Commemorating the Lifting of the Siege of Leningrad” (“The Young Lady and the Hooligan" by Konstantin Boyarsky, “Concerto DSCH” by Alexey Ratmansky and “Leningrad Symphony”), Mariinsky Ballet, Saint Petersburg, Russia (January 27, Mariinsky II)

Photographer Yulia Mikheeva

[thefaceclaimfinder]

Ekaterina Kondaurova

White

Born 1982

5’8

Cis female

Brown hair

Blue eyes

[bloodhag]

Act III, Black Swan - Pas de Deux

[steebtiny]

Ekaterina Kondaurova and Roman Belyakov in Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc (Mariinsky Ballet)

[melmothblog]

Vladimir Shklyarov, Ekaterina Kondaurova and Alina Somova (principal dancers at the Mariinsky Theatre) have been named Honoured Artists of Russian Federation. I know these Soviet titled don’t mean much to the rest of the world, but they are a pretty big deal in Russia. Congratulations!

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Ekaterina Kondaurova in Raymonda.

[ballet-symphonie]

Do you happen to know why a fair amount of principals and soloists at the Mariinsky rarely ever dances? From the 6 primas, only 3 are really active ones. Also, do you know why Shklyarov and Shapran rarely ever dances? Not as partners, just in general. I understand some of the principals/soloists are closer to retirement, but that's not their case.

The only one who I really consider 'inactive' is Vishneva. She's just not here, no longer dances classical repertoire, and rarely dances contemporary work fit for the concert stage. She's obviously on the site to keep pretenses but is clearly more involved in her foundation, studio, and choreographic platform.

Novikova has had her 4th child but is certainly still dancing. I believe she returned to the stage in March and recovered quite quickly. In May alone she danced The Legend of Love, MT's La Fille du Pharaon, Giselle, and in a gala. She also did both DQ and RJ in June and danced at a gala at Alexandrinsky Theater last week.

Kondaurova had major Achilles surgery but has been doing a similar amount of work. She's dancing about 4-5 performances per month including RJ, Lilac Fairy in SB, La Fille du Pharaon etc. This is not at all a small amount especially when they're all often different ballets.

Shklyarov dances quite a bit, he's still the go to partner for numerous MT girls and most notably he just had a huge choreographic evening honoring his 20th anniversary dancing at MT.

Shapran has had long stretches of time where she was absent to a combination of injuries and illnesses on top of maturity leaves. I wouldn't be surprised if the combination of these factors makes management more hesitant to cast her.

It's also not uncommon for older dancers like all listed here to end up with a lighter schedule in the summer, this seems to be a trend at both BT and MT. Dancers like their holidays.

[tikitania]

It's been a long few weeks at work. I wanted to spend some time studying La Bayadere reconstructions, but decided that I just needed some to watch a beautiful Odette. Ekaterina Kondaurova never disappoints.

One of my all time favorites. Video: Balletomane M

[gorbigorbi]

Ekaterina Kondaurova as Juliet Capulet, “Romeo and Juliet ” music by Sergei Prokofiev, libretto by Andrian Piotrovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Radlov and Leonid Lavrovsky, based on the tragedy by William Shakespeare, choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky, set and costume design by Pyotr Williams, Mariinsky Ballet, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Photographer Yulia Mikheeva

[balletroyale]

tereshkina and skorik are considered the two best performers of swan lake at the mariinsky. whose interpretation do you prefer?

I’d actually say Kondaurova is the best Swan at the Mariinsky. But I prefer Tereshkina to Skorik, the latter of whom has gorgeous lines but I just don’t see any stage presence. 

[harmonicthemes]

Le Parc - Ekaterina Kondaurova.  Photo by Svetlana Avvakum

[tutu-fangirl]

Ekaterina Kondaurova and Andrey Ermakov in La Bayadere x

[melmothblog]

Ask Responses: Tough Questions #3

Do you think that either Vishneva or Kondaurova are jealous of Maria Khoreva’s quire rise? Weren’t they both either bashing the younger generation (Vishneva) or bashing people getting promoted quickly without working their way up (Kondaurova)? Weren’t Vishneva and Zakharova promoted after only a year? Yes, it’s longer than Khoreva’s waiting time, but I don’t think anybody would have bashed them like this. So why Khoreva? And maybe Vishneva feels competition to be Kovaleva’s best student ever.

I’ve received some tough questions recently (six of the, to be exact). I find these particular questions challenging for a number of reasons: some subject matters are potentially controversial; my personal opinion on certain subjects is not especially nice and I’m cautious when it comes to sharing it; or I simply don’t have enough information to give a good answer. Either way, I will do my best to answer these questions honestly.

To clarify: Diana Vishneva warned the younger generation of dancers about the dangers of social media and putting all their eggs in that particular basket; Ekaterina Kondaurova criticised younger dancers for steamrolling their way into the company. Kondaurova’s comments were made around the time Khoreva joined the Mariinsky and shot through the ranks, so it’s been assumed that the comments are directed at her. 

“Ballet has become mediacentric, but I am worried that very young dancers gain fame too quickly. It’s not right: public interest will fade, while the time one should have invested into becoming a serious artist will have been lost.”

— Diana Vishneva

I can’t imagine that either Vishneva or Kondaurova are jealous of the younger dancers (I’d be really disappointed if they were), but Kondaurova’s comments really annoyed me at the time because they were mean-spirited and unnecessary. I wrote about this at length here and here.

Yes, Vishneva and Zakharova were promoted very quickly, but this practice wasn’t as common as it is today. Dancers tend to progress in their careers relatively quickly now, and they are certainly given major roles earlier, which isn’t necessarily a good thing (can lead to injury; they may not be emotionally or physically ready for the role; etc.)

d i s c l a i m e r