Asylmuratova and Mikhailovsky boss Kekhman, talk about her new appointment

Altynai Asylmuratova has been appointed as advisor to the director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Izvestia reports.

The theatre’s director, Vladimir Kekhman, said,

Altynai Asylmuratova, with her experience and know-how, can do much for the Mikhailovsky Ballet, and I am interested in involving Altynai as quickly as possible with our teaching and rehearsal process, so we have decided that she will start from tomorrow, 11 December, when she will meet the company and the whole team at the theatre.

Asylmuratova said,

For now, the most important thing is to get to know the artists, teachers, and the theatre’s organization.

Nacho Duato, the current artistic director, will finish his contract on 1 February 2014. Kekhman said that the new artistic and management team would be put into place by spring next year.

Former director of the Vaganova Academy, Vera Dorofeeva, was snapped up by the Mikhailovsky when she was ousted from the job to give Nikolai Tsiskaridze a position, has now been joined by her ex-artistic director, Asylmuratova, who resigned yesterday from the Vaganova.

Personnel changes at the Vaganova Academy, which began at the end of October, caused outrage from many quarters, causing Tsiskaridze – who had initially refused to work with Asylmuratova – to let her stay on, after her intended replacement by Ulyana Lopatkina.

Just a wild guess, but maybe the idea of working alongside Tsiskaridze was too much?

Photo by Igor Akimov

Gramilano( Editor )

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.