Bolshoi prima ballerina Maria Alexandrova, who injured her Achilles tendon on 2 August during a performance of La Bayadère in London, may not be back on stage for a year. Alexandrova received emergency medical treatment in London before being flown back to Moscow.
Svetlana Lunkina, in an interview with Izvestia, said that although healing is faster in women, it is an injury that requires a six month rehabilitation period, and full recovery takes about a year.
Bolshoi teacher Mikhail Lavrovsky, one of the company's star dancers in the 60s and 70s, said that many dancers continued their career without major problems after an Achilles tendon injury.
Yuri Vladimirov tore his Achilles tendon, and fortunately it happened in Australia, where he was treated by experts who had him dancing again in six months, and he continued to dance brilliantly.
The incident happened as Alexandrova was starting Gamzatti's second act pas de deux with Vladislav Lantratov as Solor, and they collided, something Lavrovsky says is not uncommon at rehearsals and during performances.
Alexandrova's noble Gamzatti hobbled off the stage, the Grand Pas was Gamzatti-less, her variation was cut, and corps member Daria Bochkova executed the fouettés during the coda. Exciting, maybe, for the audience; tragic for Alexandrova and balletomanes everywhere.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
Interesting story… Not sure what to make of Lavrovsky`s comment. He has always been known for having quite a sharp tongue and not keep it to himself. But I`m not sure if he supports her or in a way makes her look like a drama queen who just wants a year off.
A couple colliding in a grand pas de deux is not that common in performance… especially as they usually have almost the full stage to themselves.
Now what I would like to know about is how that “quick thinking corps de ballet” girl did… if she did the whole performance, how was the audience reaction to her….
Much more interesting than having conflicting details about how dancers have handled injuries
Please please please tell us more. Could it be the start of a wonderful story just like when that young man from La Scala replaced Ivan Vasilliev as Quasimodo at the last minute…. Sorry for sounding like someone who likes happy ending stories…
The FT’s Laura Cappelle has corrected me on what happened after the incident – it seems that the Russian press wanted to sex-up the report. The post has been updated!
As a matter of fact, the incident happened some seconds before the Adage. During the whole Adage, there were just the six quadrille roles dancing on-stage (rather strange rendition of the Adage… but the opportunity to have a closer look at those who are usually obviously outshone by Solor and Gamzatti). No Gamzatti variation. And then, Bochkova took the initiative to go for the Italian fouettés and fouettés – in a rather clumsy way – and got huge ovations as a saviour of this piece of choregraphy.
In my view, no ballerina discovery though!
Thank you for the precision. There seem to be conflicting reports, but no ‘star is born’ then!
Oh…. and there was me hoping to read a beautiful star is born story…. never mind… I`m sure she did her best and was very professional.
my hat up to her bravery, it can`t have been easy to just jump in such difficult step with no preparation
Well…the story is missing alot of details but as a Masha’s fan Iam really sad…I wish her a speedy recovery and if we are lucky enough she will be dancing and amanzing us in no time.