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Shurale…explained!

I've been in between jobs, and during this time I had hoped to write up about the the happenings in ballet that have percolating in my brain…but I just haven't had the focus, even if I do have the time. Meanwhile, I found this video explaining the libretto of Shurale by Leonid Yakobson, which the Mariinsky had recently toured at the Bolshoi to resounding success. It's strange that Yakobsen is still a bit of an unknown. He was vershadowed by Grigorovich, but seemed to be more of an innovator and willing the push the boundaries of ballet. His talent seemed stifled by Soviet policy and politics over the course of his career. I also find it very curious that the current Artistic Director of the Mariinksy, Andrian Fadeev, is also the Artistic Director of the Yakobson Ballet, and there have been quite collaborations lately including Mariinsky dancers guesting at the Yakobsen. Given the Mariinsky's lack of contemporary repertoire due to the war, taking on the Yakobson repertoire would be a nice infusion of interesting work. This is just a fantasy, but it also kind of makes sense… But I digress. Here's the video about Shurale. You can use the auto-translation in closed-captioning for your language preference:

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Just beautiful. As a ballet obsessive, I often forget about Isadora Duncan because she is so often associated with modern dance. She was the anti-ballerina. But her movement was so radical and organic that her critique of ballet was absorbed by ballet and has influenced countless choreographers. I would love to study her more—how she inspired and influenced—when I recalled that the Royal Ballet visited Jacob's Pillow last summer and Mayara Magri performed Five Brahams Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. It was jaw droppoing and really spotlighted Duncan’s lasting magic as well as Magri's artistry. Here is Tamara Rojo dancing the same piece at the Royal Opera House. Or is it the Royal Ballet and Opera House now? Just gorgeous.

"Sketches of Isadora Duncan dancing by Maurice Denis." The art of the dance [by] Isadora Duncan. 1928.

Internet Archive

From a book uploaded by associate-emily-neff.

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do you know who the dancers in this video are, please? the blond dancer in particular! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtc1vK6_Gsc&list=LL&index=48 from

Great find! I'm 99% sure that blonde is Alexander Sergeev, current 1st soloist of the Mariinsky with a growing reputation as a choreographer. His partner appears to be Maria Yakovleva, now a prima at the Hungarian National Ballet.

Those cheekbones gave it away for me, but then I checked the creator's page, and Vadim Sirotin appears to be a character dance teacher at Vaganova who posted a lot of videos and one identifies Sergeev. That's a better confirmation.

And then I found this post where Maria Yakovleva talks about Vaganova exams. I think it's just an excerpt, but it's still quite interesting:

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I'm not sure if this is a new promotion or what but I just realised that Pinja Rissanen is a principal dancer with the Varna State Ballet already??

Thanks, Anon! I had not been following her career, but I'm so glad that she seems to have landed on her….toes! She certainly charmed me in the graduation performances, and especially in her Kitri performed at the International student gala. Hope to see and hear more of her in the future!

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The Tszikaridze Exam….

I watched the exam in its entirety last night on Telegram, hoping it would appear on YouTube soon, and here it is.

I have so many thoughts….but here’s my initial impression.

First off, Tzikaridze describes this class as “his vision for the future of ballet and tribute to ballet past.” If so, God help the Vaganova school.

There were clearly a lot of luminaries in the audience: Gracheva, Fadeyev, almost all the coaches from the Mariinsky, and teachers from Vaganova. Even Victoria Tershkina was there. I couldn’t help but sense that that the applause — especially in the beginning — was uncomfortably polite from the gallery audience. I bet they were in shock!

What I’ve always loved about Russian ballet is the primacy of flat shoes for most of class. The theory behind this is training the feet to feel the floor and build strength through the feet. I’ve felt that’s what made their technique so beautiful is the extension of their lines through the entire legs to the toes. But here, the girls are in pointe shoes for the entirety as if they were in the Royal Ballet. There can be arguments pro and con, but I’m old fashioned on this front.

The barre work seemed in keeping with last year’s exam, which was a head scratcher — blisteringly fast, but also very brief in duration. There didn’t seem the normal progression from pile, tendu, fondue, releve….it was just a few grand plies then off to the races. I really missed the Vaganova port de bras. The ugliest element were the grand battement EN POINTE. It looked terrible and felt cruelly fast for no explicable reason. I was also struck by the lack of leg extension across the board. No one really impressed me…

In the center, it’s clear the Tsikaridze wants to create a performance rather than conduct a classical ballet exam. Everything was showy while also feeling unnecessarily fussy. All I wanted to see was a stable long-held ecarte with an elegant transition. (I’ll go back and plug in time stamps for the stuff I found especially galling.)

The jumps all seemed to be about grand jetes. I don t recall a ton of petite allegro, but I’ll watch again. (It was so late and I did nod off a bit….could have slept thru it.)

These girls appeared strong and generally more muscular than a typical Vaganova graduate, and I wonder if Tzikaridze is simply working with the material he was given — or has the focus on jumps, strength, super fast fouettés sculpted these stronger, less swan-like bodies? I dunno….but given both companies preferences for long, willowy dancers, I’d be very surprised if many of these girls get invited to the Mariinsky or Bolshoi. There were a couple who caught my eye, and I need to double-confirm their names before jotting them down here.

All in all, it was both a memorable exam for its unorthodoxy, but also forgettable in that no one really stood out.

More later…

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Links to Tsiskaridze's Graduation Class

Last time I requested assistance in finding vids, you all came through. I'm hoping to watch this year's exams for Tsiskaridze's class. I've only seen a five minute clip from the floor but that's it. (And it was…..different.) I'm also a busy working mom — and probably ancient in your eyes — so help an old lady out, please?! I'm eager to watch.

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Valiullina getting the invite ahead of the other young Gamzatti debuts might be a sponsor/regional thing as the other girls are all from Moscow/St Petersburg but she is from Ufa (and interestingly so is Natalia Suprun who is dancing Nikiya during the same perfomance).

Definitely during her time at Vaganova she had a number of regional sponsors from Ufa that worked to promote her and fund things (like transport, extra costumes etc). I wouldn't be very surprised to find out that one of the sponsors for this festival (and maybe paying for Kimin Kim to come) is from Ufa/Republic of Bashkortostan - possibly connected to Komi Opera and Ballet because of Suprun who is principle there - and that they specifically requested Natalia and Sofia for this performance.

By the way even if this is the case I don't think it reflects poorly on Sofia or makes it less special for her to get to dance with Kimin Kim. Outside influences impact casting all the time and Sofia herself has almost certainly lost out on roles over the past year due to other dancers supporters/sponsors. She got support from these companies as a student because she was talented and hardworking and they (correctly) believed in her ability so wanted to give her the same opportunities the Moscow/St Petersburg girls get.

Thanks for sharing this, Anon! So interesting. Even if it's speculative, it's a reminder that there are so many behind-the-scenes influences to a dancers' career.

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Gamzatti's Italian Fouettes

Darina Moiseeva is just showing up on my radar because I don't closely follow the Bolshoi as I do the Mariinsky. (EDIT) I wanted to re-state how much she impressed me in the few snippets of her debut that I saw. But I had previously commented on how terribly slow and lugubrious Moiseeva's fouttes were in her debut - it's a trend that I don't like. Yes, it showcases the dancer's control, but it absolutely drains the choreography of energy. It's not a "trick" I like. And here's a side by side, for comparison: Darina Moiseeva's fouettes:

Yaroslavna Kuprina's Fouettes:

I still haven't see videos of Polina's debut. I'm sure they're somewhere….point me in the direction if you have them, please! Now, I'm very curious.

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Wow apparently sofya valiullina will be dancing with Kimin kim in the International Festival of Opera and Ballet Art. Not sure how true is this but ngl I was honestly so sad that she wasn’t given roles in the upcoming playbill at bolshoi recently but after finding out about this I can’t wait to see her performance!!

@jellllycattt Thank you for this nugget — and yes, it's true!! But I had to do some digging and reading to figure out which festival, where, etc. They are performing in the Republic of Komi - a once semi-autonomous region now fully under Russian control since 2017. I had never heard of it before! So I did a little wikipedia dive, and it was really fascinating. But I digress. Here's the link to the event: Ballet poster here.

I'm a little surprised that none of the recent debutantes from the Bolshoi joined Kimin Kim on for this trip — or a partner from Mariinsky — and that it would be Valiullina, although I'm happy for her. I wonder if she was considered for this recent run of La Bayadere but was pulled? Or this is considered a test run...Who knows… I've received quite a few questions about my impressions of the three new Gamzattis — I've only seen two of the three. Kuprina and Moseeva. Even though she wasn't as clean, I like Moseeva's stage presence — a lot a lot. She seemed to really command the stage and convey Gamzatti's character better than Kuprina. She has a fantastic jump, too. Although two big quibbles — the 180 degree ecarte at the top of her variation (too showy for me) and the second was the lugubrious pace of the Italian fouettes. It felt very stunt-like and drains the variation of energy. I didn't see Kuprin's fouettes, though, and I recall that Koshkaryova did this as well. It's not my cup of tea. (Edited.) While Kuprina was lovely in every way — her lines, her port de bras — she still seemed a bit hesitant to me, but still a good debut! I believe Darina Moiseeva is a rising star…she just has the extra something on stage that really draws me in. I'll keep an eye on her. Video: Dr. Alina via TG

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Doris Humphrey in “Soaring"  1920

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Can we talk about how perfect Semyon Chudin is — he is both the epitome of Prince Desiree and also stunning in neo-classical and contemporary work.

Here he is a work titled, Dream Caused By Flight from the recent Love Stories gala in St. Petersburg.

📸 : Sergei Toto

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OMG? ANNA SHAROVA'S EX BOYFRIEND IS ANGELINA KARAMYSHEVA'S FIANCÉ?????? 😳😳 that's fcking crazy bro

I try not to gossip but I couldn’t resist here. Where are the receipts? I stopped following Anna Sharova because she was just posting boring selfies. What did I miss?

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Opinions on Natasha Furman, Yasmina Aziz, Veronika Zhupakova and Irina Sukhanova? Personally I'm so excited about this class! They are already getting solo parts, Veronika Zhupakova even performed at a gala of some sorts at thte Alexandrisky Theatre

Honestly, I'm only vaguely familiar with the first two. I don't really pay attention to Vaganova students until the graduation exams and performances. Love those! And then I start to get excited to learn where they got contracts because that's when the rubber hits the road! Gone are the guardrails that school provides. Some flourish. Others do not. We'll see….

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What is the difference between paquita and paquita grand pas

Paquita is a full ballet from the mid 1850’s, which fell out of the repertoire for many decades but was recently revived at the Paris Opera by the late Pierre Lacotte; and again in the Mariinsky by Yuri Smekalov. Both versions have the same general libretto, but different choreography.

POB version:

Prior to these restorations, most ballet companies danced the Paquita Grand Pas which is the final wedding scene of the story, which is renowned for having lots of insert variations (Paquita’s Friends.) It’s big, grand, challenging - and much shorter. Below is the POB Paquita Grand PAs from the ballet above. You might also recognize this as what the Vaganova performs periodically for their graduation performances.

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Who is Kuprina’s teacher? Why is she good?

Nadezda Gracheva is her teacher. She’s a former Bolshoi Prima and possibly their best O/O in the past 30 years, better than Zakharova IMO. She’s got several soloists under her wing.

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The dancers I follow at Bolshoi are currently scheduled for the following at the moment:

La Bayadere: Yaroslavna Kuprina: Gamzatti Maria Koshkaryova: Gamzatti Sofia Maymula: First variation (kingdom of Shades) X2

La Fille du Pharaon: Elizaveta Kokoreva: Aspicia Yaroslavna Kuprina: Congo X2 & The Fisherman's Wife Elisabetta Nallin: Pas d'action (second variation) & Neva Sofia Maymula: Pas d'action (second variation) Maria Zakota: Pas d'action (second variation) X2 Maria Koshkaryova: The Fisherman's Wife

Swan Lake: Maria Koshkaryova: Friends to the prince X2 Yaroslavna Kuprina: Friends to the prince & Waltz Anastasia Smirnova: Friends to the prince Elisabetta Nallin: Waltz & Three swans X2 Darina Moseyeva: Three swans X2

La Sylphide: Elisabetta Nalin: Sylph Master and Margarita: Diana Vishneva: Margarita The Bright Stream: Elizaveta Kokoreva: Ballerina Darina Moseyeva: Zina's friends X3 Yaroslavna Kuprina: Zina's friends X3

The Flames of Paris: Maria Koshkaryova: Jeanne Elizaveta Kokoreva: Jeanne Anastasia Smirnova: Mireille de Poitiers Sofia Maymula: Amour in the ballet Rinaldo and Armida Darina Moseyeva: Friends to Armida in the ballet Rinaldo and Armida

The Seagull: Svetlana Zakharova: Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina X2 Elizaveta Kokoreva: Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya X2

The Tempest: Darina Moseyeva: Cerera

I don't watch the Bolshoi as closely, but I'll add that Margarita Strainer and Ulyana Moksheva impress me quite a bit. I'm am soooooo curious about Kuprina's debut as Gamzatti. She has the best teacher at the Bolshoi, and from what I've seen of her in Raymonda and Swan Lake, she looked lovely.

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The followers I follow at Mariinsky are currently scheduled for the following at the moment:

Maria Bulanova: Russian Overture: The Young Lady and the Hooligan The Fairy's Kiss, The Queen of the Snowflakes (Nutcracker), Princess Betsy (Anna Karenina), Street dancer (Don Quixote), Carducha (Paquita).

Maria Khoreva: Kitri (Don Quixote), Paquita. Alexandra Khiteyeva: Swanilda (Coppelia), Gulnare (Le Corsaire), Cristina (Paquita).

Diana Vishneva: Girl (A csodálatos mandarin A kékszakállú herceg vára)

Renata Shakirova: Swanilda (Coppelia), Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), The Tsar-Maiden (The Little Humpbacked Horse), Paquita.

Olesya Novikova: Chopiniana Le Spectre de la rose The Swan Schéhérazade, Giselle.

Maria Chernyvskaya: Russian Overture: The Young Lady and the Hooligan The Fairy's Kiss 

Alisa Barinova: The Prince’s Friends (Swan Lake), Classical Duet (Giselle)

Yesenia Anushenkova: nothing at the moment Svetlana Savelieva: nothing at the moment :(

Camilla Mazzi: Sylphide, Petrouchka Le Carnaval The Firebird, Maria (The Fountain of Bakhchisarai), Chopiniana Le Spectre de la rose The Swan Schéhérazade.

Daria Kulikova: The Queen of the Dryads (Don Quixote), Medora (Le Corsaire)

Lots of overlap. I also follow: Valeira Kuznetzova: recently in Swan Lake as a bride, and also danced as one of the 2 swans, Fairy of Tenderness (I think??) in Sleeping Beauty. She'll be a Fairy in the Upcoming Fairy's Kiss, and I suspect she'll have a variation as one of Paquita's Friends in the upcoming run of Paquita — I hope! Valeria Bespalova: I think she was injured for a minute, but she's playing Effie in La Sylphide. She was very good in Legend of Love (one of the gold ladies.) On the men's side, I want to see more of: Ivan Sitnikov, Anton Osterov, Aaron Horowitz-Osawa, Deryabin (recently debuted in Raymonda) and Ramanbek Beishenaliev. Interestingly, in the recent run of Shurale, both Nagahisa and Botoeva has to bow out due to injury/illness, so Amanda Gomes — a Brazilian dancing for the Tartar State Opera and Ballet — had to step in. There was no one else prepared or available. What an incredibly opportunity for her!