#petukhova

[elegantballetalk]

Today’s watch:

Character Dance exam from 2017

[dolcesostenuto]

Polina Polenyonok and Mari Petukhova | polenyonok

[sovietpostcards]

New Year postcard by N. Petukhova (1989)

[tentacion3099]

Top Dog Fighting Championship

Olga Gurova vs. Polina Petukhova

[patricedumonde]

Im so sick and tired of all the Russian netizens talking about how valiullina is too big and how she is still growing bigger. There are other prima ballerina who also are not the typical skinny to the bone type of dancers, so why are they insulting her saying that she couldn’t dance properly because of her huge bones?!!

Honestly I’m worried that the theatre won’t be giving her more roles because of her body :(

That is really unfortunate. I never really understood the fixation on extremely long limbs and unreal hyperextensions. It's not like that always translates to skill nor artistry. Dancers typically look bigger on stage too, like in every photo I've seen of Sofya in rehearsal, she's still slender in my opinion.

So far though, she's been given a lot of roles so maybe it's not an issue for management/higher ups. We'll soon see her in Jewels and grand pas in La Bayadere. Not all the castings are out either and there are like 20 Nutcracker shows lol. I hope they give her more chances!

This really makes you wonder how many dancers we've missed because of these unrealistic standards. ( Unrelated but I'm particularly bitter about Maria Petukhova. She had technique and stage presence. There's a reason why she was beside Maria Khoreva at the barre and was a leader for center exercises. Such a disservice for lovers of the art to not have her on a main stage)

[opswimsuit]

Helle Tuxen - Ekaterina Petukhova - Mara Elena - Valeria Pacheco | Women...

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photo by Veronika Petukhova (jae8choi3)

[melmothblog]

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A post shared by Nikolai Tsiskaridze (@tsiskaridze)

Maria Petukhova as Giannina in “The Naiad and the Fisherman”. 2018 Vaganova Ballet Academy graduation performance at the Mariinsky Theatre. June 12, 2018.

I am so impressed with her...

[ballet-symphonie]

VBA Asks

Hi Ale! I hope you can understand my question(s). Talking about the VBA 2018 class, how would you rank in your personal perception of "talent" Ionova, Bulanova, Khoreva, Petukhova and Nuikina based *only* on their graduation exams (not their lives in the theater etc)? And would you add other students to the list of most known/special students in that year? And how would rank them as well? I'm asking this because (first, I recognize Khoreva's talent), but in comparison, I don't understand how....

(Did I lose the second half of this ask?? I'm so sorry if I did, but this is all I have) This is a bit tricky because 'talent' is such a subjective thing. I'll keep the list to the 5 you mentioned, as those really were the clear standouts. In terms of natural disposition to ballet, I think I'd rank them as follows:

Khoreva- checks all the boxes, height, mobility, hyperextension, etc

Nuikina - a jump like that is from nature only

Bulanova - her not having a full education at VBA has left some holes in her technique, the feats she can pull of despite this are nothing short of remarkable.

Ionova - clearly a late bloomer, a bit short but with good natural coordination

Petukhova - a beautiful dancer, but ballet was clearly much much more of a battle for her than her classmates.

just random thought... i think yuri fateev favors maria koshkareva so much, even maria is just a student yuri is striving to get her to Mariinsky. when she compete for the moscow competition, fateev actually got an american choreographer to make the modern variation "maestro" for maria. and now maria getting all the lead roles in school, i mean she deserve it, she's very talented. i think some girls need to work on their confidence, dont let their nerves get them to fall apart.

Koshkareva is really good, but its more than that. She's the first graduate since Khoreva to look like she's ready at such a young age. The girl isn't messing around, some of her classmates could do with even a smidge of her confidence.

not to sound like vba wizard but, I think a paquita comeback is possible with underwater kingdom. but the lead role will be the top performing girl in kovaleva's class, you know who, they are gonna make her the star, with the other girl 2nd prize MBC, after all they are already mariinsky employed, the director promotes them. sofya V, might be princess masha for nutcracker, but she needs to work hard if she wanna shine. still early to tell things.

I would be all in for this programming, those underwater kingdom tutus are far too pretty (and likely expensive lol) to only be used once. I think the long-legged Kuprina would dance the Queen of the Waters Variation so well. I certainly expect Koshkareva to get the leading roles split with either Kuprina or Valuillina, depending on who looks stronger.

Hey! This is a really weird question but recently I've been watching recordings of older Vaganova ballet exams and of course the strongest students are in the center. I watched both Vishneva's and Zakharova's. It's so cool how two of the most famous ballerinas of their generation graduated just one year apart from each other.

So I was wondering your opinion, if Vishneva and Zakharova had actually been in the same class together, which do you think would have had the center position in the class, or been the favorite?

Ooh what a question! I often forget that they graduated only a year apart despite Vishneva being 3 years older. Zakharova was invited to VBA at 15 after winning 2nd prize at the Vaganova Prix and was allowed to skip not one but two grades into the graduating class.

I think the answer to your question depends on who's teaching the class. If its L.V. Kovaleva, there's no way Vishenva is taken out of the middle. Diana is her golden child and still is today. If the teacher is E.V. Evteeva, I think it could go either way. However, as incredibly gifted as Zakharova is, I don't really associate her as VBA's product, she only studied there for a year. Numerous talents such as Tsiskaridze, Grigorovich, and even Semionova, have described Zakharova's talent and style as utterly distinct from any real school. I personally feel that more credit should be given to Zakharova's teacher in Kiev, Valeria Sulegina. I think it would be hard to take the position away from Vishenva, who spent her whole life battling at the academy.

Hi Ale! I recently stumbled upon your blog and now I can't stay away! :D Maybe this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that in recent years the Vaganova boys have gotten... weaker? They don't seem to be as strong as the graduates of past years. How do you think this will affect their chances of making it into a companies like Mariinsky and Bolshoi?

Ahhh oof, the state of the VBA boys is not great IMO. They are graduating fewer competent boys each year. I think there are a variety of causes, including an outdated and ineffective training curriculum, a lot of the historically successful pedagogues no longer working, greater competition from other schools, and a smaller talent pool.

Prior to the war, I would have said yes, this will negatively affect their chances. Both BT and MT have repeatedly shown their willingness to hire and promote both foreign and foreign-trained talent, think of names like Victor Caxieta, Nikita Korneyev, Jacopo Tissi, David Motta Soares, etc. However, I can't imagine any graduate from a major ballet school is itching to go to Russia any time soon, the talent pool for Russian companies to pull from has unquestionably shrank.

However, we can still see the effect of the decline in a variety of other ways. For example, of the 8 boys taken into MT this fall, half were from the school of Boris Eifman, not VBA. VBA's insistence on poaching boys from the theatre to dance leading roles in their academy shows also doesn't help the problem. The decline isn't super obvious now, but wait 5 or so years when the current premiers start to retire...

[curatedfortheartist]

Ester Petukhova (@esterpetu)

Devochki Kaif (Девочки Кайф)

Acrylic on canvas

[balletroyale]

Maria Petukhova in The Naiad and the Fisherman (Vaganova Ballet Academy) 

Never forget what could have been. 

[patricedumonde]

Who are your top 5 favorite Vaganova graduates of the last, say, 10 years?

Funny my brain went all the way back to 2003 then realized 10 years ago was 2013. LOL. So, post Olga Smirnova...

Okay, top of my head 2013 is Renata's class so Renata will make it, of course. This is a difficult question first because some dancers who stood out in the academy don't necessarily stand out now, and vice versa. We also had some gap with the pandemic so a lot of 2019-present dancers' career progressions were affected. Let's see, if I were to rank them though.

Renata Shakirova

Alexandra Khiteyeva

Maria Bulanova

Maria Illiushkina

Anastasia Lukina

Ahhhhh that was difficult, I definitely had my favorite students while they were in the academy though. Svetlana Savelieva had a lot of visibility when she was a student and I loved seeing all her exams. She hasn't had a lot of soloist roles since graduation so I wasn't sure if I should list her or not. If we're just talking about their tenure in Vaganova though, Sveta would be up there and Maria Illiushkina wouldn't.

You know who I miss seeing on stage? Maria Petukhova. I'm still crushed by the fact that her videos in the academy will probably be the only videos we'll see of her on a main stage, ever. *cue tears*

Alyona Kovalyova was also one of my favorites when she was a student. The reasons she's not in my top 5 are one, I follow Mariinsky a lot more than Bolshoi and two, I can't say that she stands out in Bolshoi right now.

Sixth on my list is Anastasia Smirnova. I believe it's her class that didn't get a graduation performance, so I've mostly seen her work once she joined Mikhailovsky (plus that short stint at Mariinsky lol) and my god, she's a terrific dancer.

I'm also realizing that 2013 onwards feels VERY "right now." All of these dancers aren't even prima yet. I wonder if it's the effect of the pandemic or what, but I can't believe those graduates already span a full decade.

When I first read your question, my mind immediately y went Olga Smirnova and Yulia Stepanova so yeah, definitely a fun and challenging question :)

[monsterism]

Katerina Petukhova.

[balletroyale]

Stop this still upsets me greatly.

Remember when Maria Petukhova wasn’t hired by the Mariinsky but Anastasia Nuikina was?