#russian ballet on telegram

[tikitania]

Margarita Schrainer as the Diamond Fairy via Telegram. 💎💎💎💎

[ballet-symphonie]

Vaganova Ballet Academy Asks

So there is official information of Koshkareva signing a solo contract with Bolshoi and Nikolay Tsiskaridze's close friend (devilonpointshoes on Telegram) and ballet enthusiasts on ballet forums stating that Koshkareva, Valiullina, and Kuprina going to Bolshoi. How do you feel about all the star students going to Bolshoi instead of Mariinsky like many expected? It isn't unexpected that Valiullina is going to Bolshoi given that she suits that company but with Koshkareva and Kuprina being Mariinsky's trainees for a year, and their dance style suiting Mariinsky more, I really do not understand why they chose Bolshoi (perhaps they were given soloist role straight away)? Anyways I'm also confused if Koshkareva is going to Bolshoi like Kuprina, why is her name not taken down from the trainee name list on the Mariinsky website... Honestly idk how to feel about this and ngl Im pretty disappointed that Koshkareva and Kuprina are not going to Mariinsky :(

The Bolshoi is the fast track. These girls have been promoted as stars and BT has likely made them big promises to keep treating them that way. With how the Bolshoi gives out roles at the speed of light to young prominent grads, plus the benefits that generally come with dancing in Moscow (read: money), the offers are likely very tempting. The corps life is tough, no one wants to do it if they don't have to lmao.

I thought with this reinvented MT and more publicized MT trainee situation that MT management would have managed to keep at least one of Koshkareva and Kuprina but I guess not. I am actually more surprised Valiullina is tagging along as I thought her body type might hold her back. While I agree with many that her dancing fits the broad movement and expressive style of the Bolshoi, that’s unfortunately not exactly what goes on stage all the time nowadays at BT, maybe its about 50/50 now depending which principals are cast.

Hi Ale! Any news on Daria Kulikova? How is she doing at the Academy? I think the 2023 class is a powerful one, and my opinion isn't based on who is better. But there's something about Kulikova??? I don't know... but I like her dancing and I'm rooting for her, there's just something special, artistic I see in her.

The 2023 class has just been everywhere and she hasn’t been one of the most hyped ones for obvious reasons. I don’t think I’ve seen where she’s going but I also haven’t been crawling through the TG channels looking for information about her you know? 

With the ‘big 3’ of this class heading to BT, there’s likely some MT spots available, which is theoretically what she would want after changing schools so late in the games.  

Do you think there will ever be a Kovaleva graduate to top Vishneva off? I honestly don't and it's not because there weren't other talented girls to graduate, but it's just that none of the ones who came after, could even compare to Vishneva, let alone surpass her. Koshkareva for example, is really talented, but it's already being called the 'next Vishneva', so... I will say though, after Vishneva, only Smirnova and Khoreva came a little close and probably Koshkareva will too.

I don’t think she will ever top Vishneva, she’s a once in a 100 years type of a dancer. I also don’t know how much longer she will continue to work. Her talent as a pedagogue is immense, she’s proven that she can train exceptional dancers with different body types, backgrounds and ambitions. Her training and her graduates, quite literally is defining the past, present and future of Russian ballet.  

how do the “classes” at vaganova work?? like if it’s class of kovaleva, does that mean that she’s taught them all 8 years at vaganova orrr 

No, if a ballerina is listed as ‘class of Kovaleva’ that means that she taught their graduate year. Generally, the teachers will change every 1-3 years as some teachers are especially skilled at working with different age groups. 

[balletomaneblog]

Not sure if you follow the VBA graduates this year closely but there is official information that Koshkareva is going to Bolshoi and many russian ballet enthusiasts and Nikolay Tsiskaridze's close friend Irinaba on ig stating that Koshkareva, Valiullina, and Kuprina are going to Bolshoi instead of Mariinsky like many expected... (close to 100% certain this information is accurate) How do you feel about this. Honestly its expected that Valiullina is going to Bolshoi since she really suit that company and I was hoping that she will go there too. But Koshkareva and Kuprina going to Bolshoi really is a shock especially when two of them were Mariinsky trainee. Ngl im kinda disappointed with their choice of theatre but maybe something happened between them and Mariinsky or that Bolshoi gave them a better offer... hope to hear what you think about this.

Yes I was hoping that at least Koshkareva and Kuprina would be going to the Mariinsky. The classical and neoclassical repertoire of the Mariinsky is a bit more extensive than the Bolshoi at present, especially since the Bolshoi hasn't performed Sleeping Beauty or Le Corsaire in years (hopefully this will change next season 🤞🤞). There were a few Mariinsky ballets not at the Bolshoi--like Bakhchisarai and Stone Flower--that I was hoping to see these girls in.

However, I will say that there are usually more recordings online and on Telegram of Bolshoi performances, so at least we will be able to see more of these promising dancers 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️. And I agree that Valiullina is a perfect fit for the Bolshoi. I think they are all valuable additions to the theatre, but to me, Valiullina brings something special to the Bolshoi that they don't have already.

Another positive would be that this means some of the Mariinsky dancers who are just starting to get bigger roles, such as Borodulina, Savelieva, Ustyuzhanina, Plotnikova, Chernyavskaya, and Lendvai, will have a smaller chance of being swept aside for the 2023 class.

[mariacallous]

Forty-year-old actress and director Polina Menshikh was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during a live performance for Russian troops in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region. The soldiers had gathered to celebrate Missile Forces and Artillery Day, drawing comparisons to Russia’s recent deadly attack on Ukrainian soldiers during an Artillery Day award ceremony. Members of the Ukrainian army have unofficially dubbed the attack a “retaliatory strike.”

Russian actress Polina Menshikh’s death was first reported on November 20 by the St. Petersburg Portal theater, where she’d previously directed a musical. The next day, Russian state news agency TASS said that Menshikh had been killed by shelling in the village of Kumachovo in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”), about 70 kilometers (around 50 miles) southeast of the city of Donetsk.

“DNR” authorities reported that the village had come under fire on November 19, adding that a woman born in 1972 had died. Andrey Rudenko, a war correspondent for the Russian state-owned broadcaster VGTRK, said the attack was a Ukrainian HIMARS strike.

Polina Menshikh was an actress and director. For 15 years, she led the Lege Artis theater in Moscow, which she founded. Menshikh said she taught classical ballet, character dance, Irish dance, acting, Russian folk dance, contemporary dance, Baroque dance, and ballet conditioning. She directed plays at the Central House of Journalists, the Presnya arts theater, and the Moscow International House of Music. In recent years, she headed the Nezhen folk-dance theater.

On November 21, pro-war Telegram channels began publishing details of Menshikh’s death, saying she’d been performing at a concert for Russian soldiers in a cultural center just 60 kilometers (around 37 miles) from the front line during the artillery strike. A video circulating on social media allegedly shows the moment during Menshikh’s performance when the building was hit.

Russian pro-war blogger Alexander Kots speculated that the strike on the cultural center was coordinated. “The enemy has hundreds of people on the Internet engaging in OSINT and dozens of pairs of eyes, ready to give a tip-off for 200–500 hryvnias (about $5-14). This is a fact. And it can’t be ignored,��� he wrote.

Rybar, a pro-Kremlin military analysis channel on Telegram, called the concert for the soldiers “the stupidest decision to gather a huge crowd in a conspicuous place.” “Apparently, very smart people had a think and decided that since the concert venue is located 60 kilometers (about 37 miles) from the front line near the Russian border, it would definitely be out of reach,” Rybar wrote.

Pro-war Telegram channel Military Informant compared the incident to a strike on Ukrainian soldiers in the Zaporizhzhia region who were in formation for an award ceremony. “Remember how funny it was when the AFU’s 128th Brigade was ordered to line up in honor of Artillery Day […] for an award ceremony, and then our missiles came? Well, exactly the same alternatively gifted people were found in the Russian army,” wrote Military Informant.

The day after the strike, RIA Novosti published a video from the cultural center where Menshikh was performing. According to RIA’s correspondent, the auditorium was “practically undamaged,” but the roof above the stage was destroyed and the walls were covered in shrapnel. 

Ukrainian Armed Forces are unofficially referring to the strike on Kumachovo as “retribution” for the shelling of Ukraine’s 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, wrote Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Madyar’s Birds aerial reconnaissance unit. According to him, soldiers from Russia’s 810th Marine Brigade were in the cultural center. Brovdi claimed 25 people died in the strike and over 100 were injured.

Later, the Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Center issued a statement saying that Ukrainian forces “successfully inflicted fire damage” on 810th Marine Brigade members who had gathered to celebrate Russia’s Missile Forces and Artillery Day. “The Ukrainian defense forces promptly identified the location of the Russians’ celebratory event and warmly welcomed them. Russian propagandists claim that the precision strike killed several dozen occupiers simultaneously, with about 100 suffering severe injuries,” read the announcement.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not officially commented on the strike, and there is no precise information on the number of deaths. A Russian military expert, who spoke with Novaya Gazeta Europe on condition of anonymity, claims that 23 people died and up to 80 were injured in the strike. According to him, four “visiting artists” were among the dead. There is no confirmation of these data.

[c-g-t]

Reblogging to add Olga Smirnova as of 2023, what a queen and I’m glad i discovered her. (Olga does a better Nikiya than Zakharova in my opinion, she has the soft Vaganova port de bras and very fine tuned details, plus those 180 degree extensions that rival Zakharova’s)🙂

But you can tell that the five of them are actually nice, passionate, liberal, and talented people who care about human rights and what is good in terms of politics. Even before the war, Bolshoi was so connected to Russian government. It’s literally a kilometer away from Parliament. Osipova knows she can’t go back to Russia and won’t go back until it’s totally safe, although she has family back in Russia and there’s already some Russians who are critiquing her beliefs. Kochetkova is part Ukrainian and spoke out too, Lunkina married a Ukrainian and did stuff for Ukraine. Not so sure about Semionova though she seems to be a good person too-she spoke out for the hard work that the doctors/medical staff were doing during Covid. I have also noticed that Osipova, Kochetkova and Smirnova are following “foreign agents” of Russia who spoke out against the invasion and live in other countries because of it.

They also seem to be doing well with newer contemporary works. Osipova and Kochetkova are now married to contemporary dancers (Jason Kittelberger, Sebastian Kloborg) and do more things with them, Smirnova does things with Forsyth and Akhram Khan, Lunkina and Semionova do some new things in their companies too.

The people who are staying at Bolshoi during this war don’t care because they’re being fed propaganda and think that they’re doing good by killing and injuring Ukrainians. Bolshoi proudly writes their name on bombs to Donbas, they raised money for Russian soldiers, and Nadezha Gracheva was caught writing letters to Russian soldiers via a “for the front” Telegram. Zakharova is staying silent (yet has ties to Putin), which imo isn’t the way to go, and I’m glad she isn’t being invited to those international galas now.

Anyways, besides being dancing powerhouses, they seem like nice people who aren’t afraid to go beyond what is the norm in ballet and have good consciences that stand up for what is right. If they stayed at Bolshoi, I feel like we wouldn’t get to know them as true people AND see their talents. I’m glad they are thriving in the West. They made a great decision to stay there and I am glad to know that they care about what’s right and what isn’t.

Does anyone else think about how different the Bolshoi would have looked if Polina Semionova, Maria Kochetkova, Svetlana Lunkina and Natalia Osipova had stayed with the theatre

[caveartfair]

The 9 Best Booths at Independent Brussels

For the second year, Independent Brussels spreads across six floors of Brussels’s historic Vanderborght building this week, dotting the former 1930s department store’s modernist walls with tightly curated exhibitions. And like its New York counterpart, which this March hosted a second run at its glossy new Tribeca home, Spring Studios, this year, Independent Brussels truly spreads its wings.

Thanks to Independent’s year-round presence in Europe’s capital via the exhibition space it opened in 2016, Independent Régence, it has now cultivated a loyal following in the city. This, in addition to the fact that the fair’s inaugural edition last year took place shortly after the tragic March 22nd terror attacks at Brussels’s airport, led to a marked increase in attendance on opening day.

“Last year there were a lot of new elements; a new city, a new fair, we had the attacks four weeks before we opened,” said executive director Laura Mitterrand during the VIP preview. “It was really a fantastic edition,” she added, “but it was also a difficult time for everyone. This year feels very different.”

Over 70 galleries and nonprofits, from 32 cities, participate in Independent Brussels’s 2017 edition. Among them are returning blue-chip galleries, like Barbara Gladstone and David Zwirner, whose Marcel Dzama-curated stand arguably steals the show. Notable newcomers include Sprüth Magers, Capitain Petzel, and Mendes Wood DM, which opened a Brussels outpost in the city earlier this week, adding to locations in São Paulo and New York.

“Galleries are getting more and more excited about what they can do here, and making statements that they wouldn’t be making at other fairs or in other cities,” said Mitterrand. “It’s bringing [the fair] to a new level.”

Nine of those participating have transformed their booths into full-scale exhibitions, taking the fair to a new level indeed.

David Zwirner

First Floor, Booth 11

With works by Marcel Dzama, Mamma Andersson, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Stan Douglas, Marlene Dumas, Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon, Isa Genzken, Sherrie Levine, Jockum Nordström, Raymond Pettibon, Al Taylor, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lisa Yuskavage and Jordan Wolfson, Hans Accola, David Altmejd, Peter Doig, Thomas Dozol, Mandy El-Sayegh, James Ensor, Kendall Geers, Douglas Gordon, Young Sun Han, Marcel Mariën, Paul McCarthy, Marilyn Minter, Cindy Sherman, John Stezaker, Rose Wylie

Installation view of David Zwirner’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Courtesy of Independent Brussels.

Guises of every ilk fill David Zwirner’s stand, where Marcel Dzama, the art world’s master of puppetry and masquerade, has curated a booth around the theme of the mask. Titled “The Mask Makers,” it draws from Dzama’s long history with the motif, which began in the mid-’90s and culminates in the elaborate fairy-tale costumes he designed for the New York City Ballet’s dancers last spring.

The affinity dates back much further, said Dzama, standing in the booth. “The earliest memory I can think of was when my grandmother bought me this Greek theater mask in Hawaii, that you could turn around to be happy or sad,” he said. Dzama was six years old at the time.

This particular presentation was inspired by 19th-century Belgian painter James Ensor’s Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 (1888), which sees a sinister, encroaching mob populated by masks and caricatures. At Independent Brussels, Dzama’s own menagerie gathers work by nearly 30 artists—from frequent collaborator Raymond Pettibon to Jordan Wolfson to Cindy Sherman. Among the strongest are a penetrating portrait of a face-painted model by Wolfgang Tillmans, Eleanor / Lutz, portrait, (2016), and, a personal favorite of Dzama, a hand-colored print by Ensor himself.

Peres Projects

Ground Floor, Booth 3

With works by Austin Lee, Donna Huanca and Gabonese sculptures

Installation view of Peres Project��s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Courtesy of Peres Projects.

A 19th-century horned mask helmet from the Fang or Bulu people of Gabon and a Fang figure are not typical among Independent Brussels’s offerings, which skew decidedly towards contemporary art produced in the 21st century. The sculptures are nestled amongst the work of emerging artists Donna Huanca and Austin Lee at Peres Projects’s booth, which range in price from $20,000–$25,000.

The presentation, in part, taps into Belgium’s long-standing as a center for antiquity and classic African art. But it also pulls from Javier Peres’s own passion for tribal art, and is an effort to connect these young artists to the wider art-historical backdrop in which they operate.

“A lot of people who are making work today looking at modernism don’t look at that extra step to classic African art,” said gallery partner Nick Koenigsknecht. The gallery’s past two summer shows have addressed this topic, pairing classic African art with abstraction or figuration. Koenigsknecht said the juxtaposition between Lee’s figuration and the mask, which hangs to its right, “gives me goosebumps.”

Mendes Wood DM

First Floor, Booth 10

With works by Runo Lagomarsino

Installation view of Mendes Wood DM’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Photo by Renato Ghiazza. Courtesy of Mendes Wood DM.

São Paulo’s Mendes Wood DM is the center of attention this Brussels art week thanks to its new location on the city’s Rue des Sablons. The new space opened its doors with an over 40-artist exhibition curated by Fernanda Brenner, director of the acclaimed São Paulo nonprofit Pivô. Marking the exhibition’s entrance is a giant work by Swedish-Argentinian artist Runo Lagomarsino—who also claims an entire wall of the gallery’s booth at Independent Brussels.

The solo installation (priced at $35,000) comprises 40 identical black-and-white photographs, each of which is a reproduction of a single image of the artist’s mother, father, and sister aboard a ship in 1976. They are a family caught in exile, fleeing Argentina for Spain following the year’s coup d’etat, just one year before Lagomarsino was born.

“His work is all about borders, countries, colonization, and globalization,” said gallery director Magê Abàtayguara of the show, which she admits finds particular resonance in today’s political climate. It could explain why Lagomarsino has a slew of upcoming shows lined up in the United States in the coming months.

gb agency / Jan Mot

SECOND FLOOR, BOOTH 13

With works by Ryan Gander, Mario García Torres

The artistic practices of Ryan Gander and Mario García Torres, who happen to be good friends, come to a playful collision in a collaborative booth by Paris’s gb agency and Brussels and Mexico City’s Jan Mot. “The work is about the limits of art and everyday life,” said gb agency’s Julien Bouharis.

One piece, from afar, appears to be framed art-historical monochrome; on closer inspection, the single-colored sheet mimics an LSD blotting paper, complete with perforation marks. Other highlights include a telegram mailed by García Torres to his gallery (“I BET THIS WON’T ARRIVE ON TIME FOR THE SHOW = IF IT DOES, IT CAN BE PRESENTED AS A WORK OF ART  = IF IT DOESN’T, IT SHOULD REMAIN A TELEGRAM”) and an open cardboard box filled with Le Corbusier’s colored, monochrome paper swatches, “like leftovers of modernity,” said Bouharis.

Jan Kaps

Fourth Floor, Booth 4

With works by Daniel Dewar and Gregory Gicquel

Installation view of Jan Kaps’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Courtesy of Jan Kaps.

On Wednesday night, Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel’s work debuted in “The Absent Museum,” a large-scale exhibition that marks WIELS Contemporary Art Centre’s 10th anniversary. Earlier the same day, Cologne’s Jan Kaps debuted a solo booth featuring a stunning series of wall sculptures by the artist duo.

The four works, priced at €13,000 apiece, are carved from pink aurora marble the artists imported from Portugal, and picture mass-produced objects—vessels, toilets, even a Magritte-reminiscent pipe. The booth’s centerpiece is a decoratively carved couch, priced at €23,000 excluding VAT, inspired by a farm near Versailles.

Travesia Cuatro

First Floor, Booth 9

With works by Jorge Méndez Blake, Mateo López, Elena Del Rivero, Milena Muzquiz

Installation view of Travesia Cuatro’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Courtesy of Independent Brussels.

Madrid and Guadalajara’s Travesia Cuatro has loosely focused its booth around drawing and literature. A giant pencil drawing by Mexican artist Jorge Méndez Blake, which sold for $80,000 during the preview to a Spanish-American collector, sees a lush forest with a bookcase at its center. At the booth’s center, a four-piece sculpture by Mateo López imagines the act of drawing four different types of chairs.

In addition to a series of drawings by Elena del Rivero—for which she wrote the words of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva with her eyes closed ($12,000 apiece)—the booth’s most striking work is a photograph by Gonzalo Lebrija taken during an eclipse in Mexico.

C L E A R I N G and Galerie 1900-2000

Second Floor, Booth 7

With works by Harold Ancart, Jean-Marie Appriou, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Hans Bellmer, Huma Bhabha, Sebastian Black, Marcel Broodthaers, Victor Brauner, George Condo, William Copley, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Aaron Garber-Maikovska, Bruno Gironcoli, Raymond Hains, Zak Kitnick, Man Ray, Calvin Marcus, Henri Michaux, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Picabia, Marina Pinsky, Loïc Raguénès, Ed Ruscha

C L E A R I N G, which has the Brussels art world gushing over the new 5,400-square-foot gallery it opened in the European capital on Tuesday, is also attracting its share of attention at Independent Brussels. In addition to a booth of work by Aaron Garber-Maikovska, the gallery took a second booth for its first-ever collaborative presentation, teaming up with Galerie 1900-2000 to each pick works from the other’s program.

“We represent almost exclusively young artists and they represent incredibly established, legendary artists,” says C L E A R I N G’s Max Bushman. “We’re really breaching our previous constraints, which are very much for the contemporary market.”

The resulting booth, hung salon style, sees everything from Man Ray’s 1926 portrait of André Breton’s first wife and muse Simone Kahn, to drawings by Francis Picabia, to work by nearly every artist C L E A R I N G  represents—Harold Ancart, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, and Jean-Marie Appriou among them.

Nina Johnson

Second Floor, Booth 5

With works by Jonas Mekas, Nicolas Lobo

Installation view of Nina Johnson’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Photo by Renato Ghiazza. Courtesy of Nina Johnson.

This two-person booth by Nina Johnson looks at the way we remember places. At its center, sculptures by Nicolas Lobo, on offer for €2,800 apiece, loosely take the form of goggles. While they recall the iconic, pre-digital Viewmaster toy, they’re in fact based on 3D scans of a cave interior in northern Florida and preserve a memory of that place.

The surrounding walls are filled with previously unseen film strips by Jonas Mekas, clips from a series he shot at American psychologist and psychedelic therapy advocate Timothy Leary’s house in Millbrook, Connecticut, in 1965, for his seminal diary-filmwork Walden (1969). The works are on offer as a series of 28 for €56,000, with other individual works available for €4,600 apiece.

“It’s a nostalgic view of the countryside,” said Johnson, “a dreamlike version of what may or may not have been the reality of the place.” To create the work, Mekas mines his old film for images, “thinking of film as an object,” she said. The presentation precedes the 94-year-old photographer’s showing next month at Adam Szymczyk’s documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany.

Delmes & Zander

Fourth Floor, Booth 10

With work by Wesley Willis

Installation view of Delmes & Zander’s booth at Independent Brussels, 2017. Courtesy of Delmes & Zander.

If you caught the gallery’s fantastic booth at Independent New York in March, featuring drawings by anonymous artist Disko Girls, it may be little surprise to see they’ve again selected works around the theme of music, to great success.

The booth features the intricate drawings of cult American rockstar Wesley Willis, who passed away in 2003, in which he rendered Chicago’s streets, skylines, and music scene in bic ballpoint pen and felt-tip marker (and the occasional crayon) for some two decades.

—Molly Gottschalk

from Artsy News

[tikitania]

My hot take is that Bulanova had a phenomenal Kitri debut. I am not surprised at all. It wasn’t flawless and there are things I could quibble about, but she brought the fire. I suspect that the atmosphere in the hall was 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Video from irinaba TG:

[tikitania]

Big news from the Bolshoi….Elizaveta Kokoreva & Dimitri Smilevsky have been promoted to prima & premiere.

@housfox on YT

[tikitania]

Are you aware of any more active forums to discuss ballet, Russian ballet in particular? Tumblr has been my entry point and Reddit is hit or miss (there seems to be more focus on the big American companies). I lurk on some Russian telegram channels but don’t feel comfortable engaging as a non-Russian-speaking westerner… I adore Russian ballet and wish there were more opportunities to chat with folks who share this niche interest with more regularity.

I am right there with you on this. I'm always searching for that really great source and I've never found it. For that reason, I started writing here to just give myself a place to share my growing interest. I get most of my information by following a TON of dancers on instagram. There are a few tg channels that I really like but I don't want to blast them out here. I'm happy to share via DM. I pay for the upgraded version of tg to have everything translated into English, which has been really great for following some of the heated discussions!

[tikitania]

Hi there! Could you recommend some good ballet blogs/forums on telegram? I only follow Irinaba (where I saw the video of Shakirova's stunning performance as Nikiya 😍).

I'm new to the ballet community, so I'm kinda lost in where to find this news/discussions/videos of ballet.

If you could help me, I'll really appreciate it!! Thanks :))

Oh, this is FUN! I love @ballet-symphonie here on Tumblr for her insight from a dancer's perspective. She's also a very engaging writer. I'm mostly obsess over Russian ballet - Mariinsky in particular. I would highly recommend following your favorite dancers on Instagram and then just seeing where that takes you! Telegram can be hit or miss. It depends if the user allows translation or not. Irinaba (also Devil in Pointe Shoes) is very opinionated and can be quite mean, but she does have incredible access and posts constantly. Some more even-keeled Russian accounts on telegram are: Very Ballet: https://t.me/veryballet Ballet Magazine: https://t.me/balletmagazine This one for bootleg Bolshoi videos: https://t.me/tindl Maria Khoeva's starting to use Telegram more and she has interesting posts, not only about her dancing but about ballet history, etc.: https://t.me/marachok

I don't have a great source of bootleg Mariinsky videos. There are a few users who post videos every now and then, but don't allow translation on their channels. I can read a little Russian, but it's still hard for me to make out a lot of the commentary. The Russian Forum, Ballet Friends (easily translated via Safari), can be a rabbit hole. It seems like the contributors like to nitpick each other more than anything. But every now and then, someone offers interesting insight, links of interest, or a review, so I follow along and ignore the bickering: http://forum.balletfriends.ru

[tikitania]

Myriam Ould-Braham in POB’s Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)

One of my favorite telegram ballet bloggers is a Russian ballet writer living in Paris, so I get her takes on the POB through a Russian lens. Unlike a lot of Russians, she’s open to neoclassical and contemporary ballet and her knowledge runs deep. You can follow her on TG (Dance Writer’s World.) She recently wrote some informal thoughts about Ould-Braham upon retirement that I feel is worth sharing:

Today is the premiere of my beloved Inez Mackintosh, and I still can’t get my head around writing about Miriam Ould-Brahm’s farewell performance.

In fact, I repeat, she is not “my” ballerina. I personally don’t have enough temperament. But before arriving in France, I simply categorically did not like her, I did not understand why the star was there.

And when I saw her more than once on stage, I understood.

The French public adores her, I think also for her modesty. She is not a media star, she is not always on TV (like some), she does not write memoirs at the age of 20, and she is not active on Instagram. She is focused on work, and apparently on family.

But this is all secondary. The main thing is that her dance is incredibly pure. She won't show us her huge step, because it's not necessary. But instead, it will open your leg into alezgon in such a way that you will regret not recording it in molecules for the textbook. She has beautiful feet, a very strong upper turnout (she holds the same alezgon in the second act of Giselle simply with her heel into the audience), and School with a capital S. Everything is adjusted down to the millimeter. All five are closed. All is clear. Just sit and write a textbook from it. And this is really rare, even at the Opera. Where emotions often run wild. She didn't have many emotions, that's true. But a dance like hers is very rare now. When less is more. When you just want to see a person not with triple 64 fouettés, but who, even getting into a simple arabesque, finds poetry and beauty in it.

I am grateful to fate that she gave me the chance to see this ballerina.

[tikitania]

Mailbag Time!

I need a distraction from watching the vote tally roll in…and my inbox is overflowing…(Update: it's gonna be a sh*t sh*w in this country for a while.) I have just found the ballet talks in tumblir and in telegram and wanted to ask if you could recommend good telegram / instagram account with ballet reviews? I know Catherine Pollak and Irinaba, though unfortunately I havent been able to translate Pollak's telegram posts. I also wanted to ask if you know if Iraínaba has ever said something about May Nagahisa? I by the way totally agree what you said about her in your previous post, but at least you can find there some videos. Telegram is somewhat of a tough nut to crack. I pay for the upgraded version to access English translation. Once I find an interesting channel, I hit the "find similar channels" and browse for more. Overall, it's easier to come across bootleg Bolshoi videos rather than Mariinsky. I blame the St. Petersburg ushers. Telegram Dance Writer's World (Vita Kholopva) Russian ballet writer, lives in Paris, writes about ballet from across the continent but mostly POB. Zapiski Baletomana Alina Ballet - Bolshoi Videos (also on IG but more videos on TG) Natashik_b - Bolshoi Videos (also on IG but more videos on TG)

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Following up from one of your previous posts - seems like Khoreva is okay for now. She’s scheduled to do Odette-Odile on 11/30, so it seems like they’re just being cautious with her workload. Yes, I hope she's taking it easy. I also wish she would stop posting so much. I feel the more I see her clips on IG, doing pirouettes with her characteristic grim-faced determination, the less I care about her stage performances. I find those vids cringe. There. I said it. ------------

I’m not going to name names, because it might be hurtful. But I’ve started following some vaganova students on the TikTok, and oh my, I wasn’t aware of the extent they go to to stay lean. Many of them post frightening “what I eat in a day” and they repost stuff that would be even triggering to write on this post.

I know it’s normal in that world, but I didn’t know the extent of it. I honestly thought that they were so skinny because of all the exercise + clean eating. I just wasn’t prepared for that level of undereating I saw.

This is really sad, yet unsurprising. The school regularly weighs these girls and kicks them out if they fall outside their norms, so I feel like ED's are baked into their training in implicit ways.

____________

Is it just me or is sofia Valiullina having a splendid season at the bolshoi this year?

I love this! And, yes! She's dancing beautifully. ---------------

I’m confused about vaganova castings. Do teachers assign roles? Or do they hold auditions. Can roles be given and taken away?There was a picture of Natasha furman rehearsing the bunny in fairy doll, but Yasmina Aziz danced it on stage, while Furman did something else. So far there have been three different girls performing the Fairy doll. Do they alternate based on merit? Injury? Vibes? I'm under the impression that students are selected for roles.

--------------- Favouritism: Now that Tsaradiske has a girls class, graduating this year, I’m afraid there is going to be favouritism where he gives all the roles to his class rather than Julia’s graduating class Maybe? I mean…who really knows what's going on behind the scenes. I really wish he didn't have a girls class, though. I was generally unimpressed by the exam last year. I think a lot of people remarked that his style is not suited for the Mariinsky. --------------- Do you think Maria Khoreva would be appreciated more in an European company? Probably. She has a big name and genuinely seems to love dancing abroad. I mean she gushes about her experiences with other companies, so I could definitely see a path for her outside of Russia.

----------------- Diana Vishneva... She's always speaking about her love for Vaganova and about the importance of her teacher Ludmila Kovaleva (and she's also the only one to get a perfect score at vaganova). Do you think that D.Vishneva will eventually move to teaching at Vaganova, becoming a new Kovaleva? Or Maybe take Nikolai Tsiskaridze place and become Rector? No. I don't see that happening. She's got her own creative projects. Tsikaridze is only leaving Vaganova to become the AD of the Bolshoi. I don't think he'd leave for anything less. ---------------- Opinions on Isabella McGuire Mayes? I like her as a person, and i think her tips on technique are quite perfect and right to the point, she's also quite honest on some things regarding the reality of ballet. I like her instagram and youtube videos, and regularly listen to her podcast. However i'm iffy on other things, like when she recounts some of her stories, I've watched most of her videos, past and present, and found many inconsistencies regarding her history, injury's, stretching journey, turnout journey, eating habits, experiences and even opinions on other dancers... etc. sometimes inconsistent, let's say that. I love her. She's a great online presence! I don't think it's fair to litigate someone's memory or impressions, which are far from ironclad. Could you recount memories with 100% accuracy. Do two people recall the event the exact same way. I say this because in my professional life I deal with a lot of testimony and inconsistencies are the norm. In my personal life, I've misremembered a ton — or at least, my memory doesn't always sync with the memories of others. ------------------- I have a question regarding the logic of vaganova's student selection. Obviously they look for medium/tall lean girls, with archy feet, hyperextend knees', natural turnout, etc. And clearly all the girls they pick already have ballet and rytmic gymnastics training. But at the same time i wonder if it's correct to limit their dancers to this, like i would love to see a vaganova trained class filled with random girls and just see what vaganova can produce without selecting the best and most blessed from the start. Logics of ballet selection part 2: Since they look for these natural talents, they must also realise that these genetics are part of some of the dancers downfall. Hyperextened knees are SO prone to injury, not to mention what high arches archy feet do to the tendons etc. Excessive flexibility and hip mobility also means a decrease of muscular strengh. Combining this with overtraining and malnutrition, young dancers are just putting their bodies through hell. Not to talk about what amenorrea does to the body, like osteoporosis, low bone density (increased stress fractures) etc So why? why is it so? is it so necessary? or can greatness be achieved in other ways. Their approach will likely never change. That said, your thought experiment is interesting…but there is an established aesthetic and I don't see this changing much if ever. -------------- Did you see that bolshoi is touring the mariinskii 2 with Romeo and Juliet? We will get to see Sofia Valiullina, Elisabetta Nallin and Yaroslavna Kuprina back in St. Petersburg! Yes! This will be so interesting! -------------- Do you know why Jaden Grimm (the American who graduated vaganova in 2023) is leaving Mariinsky? I had no idea she left. I don't really follow her. We can only speculate as to why, but I'm sure her next steps will be announced eventually.

[tikitania]

I’m bereft! My favorite YouTube source for Mariinsky ballet videos has suddenly evaporated, and then another Telegram goes silent at the same time! I can’t help but think it has to do with Russian State censorship and control.

EDIT: Or it may just be copyright / permission issues. I’m saddened nonetheless.

[mariacallous]

Last week, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater dropped Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Nureyev,” a ballet production celebrating the Soviet-born star dancer and choreographer, from its repertoire. In a series of Telegram posts, Serebrennikov responded to the cancelation, objecting to the theater’s General Manager Vladimir Urin, who said that the decision to permanently cancel the show was “only natural” in view of Russia’s new law prohibiting so-called “LGBT propaganda.” It’s certainly true that Rudolf Nureyev’s life did not conform to the Putinist idea of “traditional values” any more than it fit the Soviet canons of virtue. The bisexual dancer defected from the Soviet Union in 1961 and never looked back. Today, “Nureyev” is once again leaving the Russian stage to “live in freedom.” In his director’s statement, Kirill Serebrennikov explains the new political significance of his ballet and why he believes in the production’s future.

“Nureyev” has been repeatedly canceled and banished. The first attempt to banish it happened in 2017. Then it happened again and again, under different pretexts. The theater’s exclusive rights to the show expired in 2022. And yet again it’s in the news, being canceled.

The main character in this story is completely against the grain of all that’s happening now in the country. He is entirely out of place as a gay person of talent, and as the most successful of all the defectors from the drab and dreary Soviet state in history. Contrary to every prediction, he refused to “die in the gutter” and instead became a first-magnitude Star. Rudy’s leap towards freedom showed not only that a Choice like his was possible, but also that [defection] can sometimes be the only solution for preserving one’s integrity and leading a fruitful artistic life.

He really was a “traitor” in the eyes of all the cultural “Red Guards,” snitches, propagandists, and activists from the USSR. He was also an object of envy for his fellow artists and colleagues who couldn’t make that leap, and a cause of their sad reflections about their own fate. (The astounding Alla Osipenko, whose letter is recited during the production, made this clear.)

“Nureyev,” a ballet commissioned by the Bolshoi and by Vladimir Urin himself on the occasion of Rudy’s anniversary, is being canceled to appease the security apparatus within the arts, and to show the rest of society that there’s a commitment to enforcing the new anti-LGBT law.

The precedent is now established. Everything’s clear. But here’s the bad news. The culture bureaucrats’ and theater managers’ readiness to cancel shows, to erase the names of actors and directors, to post “foreign agent” disclaimers, are all, in my opinion, a product of their “learned helplessness.” These acts look like the worst of what we’ve already seen happen in history. They normalize the nightmare. This compliance with criminal orders is itself criminal, even if this isn’t a crime against humanity but merely an attack on the arts.

Let’s not mourn this show, which has been so important to all of us. “Nureyev” will live on, in freedom.

Stay tuned.

[ballet-symphonie]

OLGA SMIRNOVA JOINING HET NATIONALE BALLET

The post was initially made on the Ballerina's telegram channel, with a picture of the Ukrainian flag.

"I never thought that I would be ashamed of Russia," the post continued. I have always been proud of the talented Russian people, our cultural and sporting achievements. But now the line is drawn on the before and after. And it hurts that people are dying, while others are deprived of a roof over their heads or forced to leave their homes."

"And who would have thought a few weeks ago that all of this would happen? We may not be at the epicentre of the military conflict, but we cannot remain indifferent to this global catastrophe."

Absolutely unprecedented in this era of ballet. My tremendous respect for her to speak out boldly against the war when the consequences for doing so are beyond severe in Russia. My best wishes to both her and Viktor in this new chapter.

[ballet-symphonie]

Hi Ale❤ I love your blog❤ Have you ever thought about creating a Telegram group chat with people from this blog community? That would be super cool! I know in this kinda groups you can control who enters and who don't, and to not display anything about your personal information. Also, you could creat a type of question list to people answer before entering the group. I only mention that because I don't have anyone to talk to about ballet, so I'd be always hoping the conversation to start here😅.

Hmm would this be something people are interested in? I wasn't under the impression that a lot of English speakers/non-Russians used that platform. I'm not sure I'd have time for both...I'd certainly have to gauge the interest first. Not completely opposed though, something to think about.