Russian choreographer Yuri Grigorovich dies at 98
Yuri Grigorovich, the longtime choreographer at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, has died at 98. He was the artictic director of the theatre for more than three decades.
Vaganova
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Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky’s daughter Anastasia jumps ahead
Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky’s daughter Anastasia Zaklinskaya will debut in the role of Nikiya in La Bayadère.
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Prix de Lausanne candidates 2019 announced
The members of the video selections jury panel for the Prix de Lausanne 2019 have chosen 71 dancers to participate. Along with the nine pre-selected candidates, a total of 80 dancers will take part in the 47th edition of the international competition from 3-10 February 2019. The video selections concluded last weekend by the panel…
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Review: Three casts for La Bayadère with the Bolshoi at La Scala
How secretly gratifying it is when wine experts trip up, rating High Street plonk higher than the Premier cru. Ballet music could benefit from unlabelled listening. Minkus is routinely pooh-poohed, yet how many superb, theatrical moments he creates for La Bayadère — sublime, exhilarating, haunting, joyous. If interval chatter isn’t focussed on complaining about the…
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Pia Russo and the art of teaching ballet
Pia Russo is a highly respected Italian ballet teacher, currently working at the Ballet School of Teatro San Carlo in Naples, one of the world’s oldest ballet schools, founded in 1812 by Salvatore Taglioni, uncle of the celebrated Maria. She is known for her passion, dedication and meticulous preparation. After her dancing career ended, she…
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Bolshoi Ballet’s Italian dancer, Jacopo Tissi, on his first year in Moscow and Diamonds at the Lincoln Center
Last August, young ballet dancer Jacopo Tissi, resigned from the La Scala Ballet to accept the offer a contract with the Bolshoi Company. As I wrote last September, it’s not something that happens every day. Like all Russian companies, the Bolshoi has few dancers from outside the ex-Soviet borders in its ranks. However, Makhar Vaziev,…
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Ballet dancer Sergei Vikharev died in his dentist’s chair
Sergei Vikharev, the former Russian dancer renowned for his reconstruction of ballets and who died last Friday at 55, will be celebrated in the foyer of the Mariinsky Theatre today, before being buried in St Petersburg’s Serafimovskoe Cemetery, which is also the resting place of many other Mariinsky dancers including Yuri Soloviev, Feya Balabina and…
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Vaganova Prix 2016… UPDATE
In July, Gramilano reported on the upcoming Vaganova Prix in St Petersburg. In view of the numerous requests from Russian and foreign ballet schools the age of the participants of the competition has been extended to include 19-year-olds and the new deadline for accepting applications has also been extended, now giving hopeful participants until 19…
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Nikolay Tsiskaridze on the Vaganova Academy and Russian Ballet
In a recent interview with Our Russia‘s Olga Malik, Nikolay Tsiskaridze spoke once more about the Russian ballet and the Vaganova Academy’s relationship to dance in the rest of the world. I believe that the Russian ballet school is one of the few (if not the only) school that keeps the traditions of the classical ballet…
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How to stage a ballet… Maina Gielgud explains
The indefatigable Maina Gielgud is a freelance stager, guest teacher and coach. In 1983, two years after leaving her successful and varied career as a dancer, she became Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet, where she stayed for a remarkable fourteen years. It was the beginning of a long second career in company administration and…
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Russian Ministry says Vaganova letter against Tsiskaridze is forged
The Russian Ministry of Culture has said that the letter sent to Vladimir Putin by the staff of the Vaganova Academy, asking for the removal of Nikolai Tsiskaridze as its director, is a forgery. The letter said that the announced removal of the director Vera Dorofeyeva, and the artistic director, Altynai Asylmuratova, would cause “irreparable…
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The year ballet wept… jealousy & rivalry at the Bolshoi
So 29-year-old Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko will go to prison for six years, and his career obviously ends here. His biography has been taken down from the company’s website and soon his picture will disappear from the ‘leading soloists’ page. What a lot of damage he’s caused: to himself, the international reputation of the Bolshoi company and…
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Diana Vishneva ‘outraged’ by the appointment of Tsiskaridze at the Vaganova Academy
Valery Gergiev says he is delighted at the appointment of Nikolay Tsiskaridze as the new head of the historic Vaganova Ballet Academy, but not everyone is so happy. Diana Vishneva, herself a graduate of the school in St Petersburg, is said to be outraged at the appointment, according to RIA Novosti. There was no significant reason…
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Russian Culture Minister talks about the Vaganova reshuffle
Russian Culture Minister, Vladimir Medinsky, talked to Izvestia about the reshuffle at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. The newly appointed Artistic Director and Principal, Ulyana Lopatkina and Nikolay Tsiskaridze, are outstanding dancers, but have no experience in directing an institution. How do you entrust the oldest ballet school to inexperienced people? Tsiskaridze has a rich experience in teaching. Before reaching…
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Tsiskaridze is Principal and Lopatkina the new Artistic Director of the Vaganova Academy
Nikolay Tsiskaridze has been appointed Principal of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, and Ulyana Lopatkina will be its new Artistic Director. Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told Izvestia: Tsiskaridze is preparing thoroughly to take up this post, bringing with him a wealth of teaching experience, and his training in the legal profession. Lopatkina is now at the height of her…
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Mikhail Baryshnikov helps achieve the dream of Russian poet Josef Brodsky
Nobel prize-winning poet Josef Brodsky and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov were good friends. Really good friends. Brodsky hated calling Baryshnikov ‘Mikhail’ or ‘Misha’ so he called him ‘Mysh’: mouse! He called himself Josef the Cat, adding in a little miaow afterwards This is how the pair always referred to each each. They met in 1974 in New York where the twenty-year-old…
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Keenan Kampa of Boston Ballet to join Mariinsky
One of Boston Ballet‘s dancers Keenan Kampa will join Mariinsky Ballet over the next few months, US media say. An official announcement to this effect will be made at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, which has become a venue for current performances by Mariinsky‘s lead dancers. Keenan Kampa, 22,…
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St Petersburg student wins scholarship to study at the Royal Ballet School
We hear much about British students winning places at the Mariinsky or Bolshoi schools, so how refreshing to hear of a dancer in St Petersburg wanting to attend London’s Royal Ballet School. The 16 year-old ballerina is called Hannah Beach, which seems very anglo-saxon, and is explained by the fact that she is not from St…
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