This year’s White Nights festival has included numerous changes at the Mariinsky Theatre:  the troupe’s second “tour” to the Bolshoi stage set for mid-July with “Fountain of Bakchisarei”, the appointment of the troupe’s first “artistic director” in many decades, the premiere of a new version of “Coppelia” (coming July 25th) and also a few debuts in ... Запись Debut in La Bayadere - Mariinsky Theatre - 13 July 2024 впервые опубликована на сайте Vaganova Today ..read more

As a precursor to their week-long run of “The Fountain of Bakchisarei” at the Bolshoi Theatre in mid-July, the Mariinsky troupe presented three performances of this ballet at home first, which included a handful of debuts. On 12 July, Camilla Mazzi portrayed a gentle and tender Maria who was clearly in love with her fiancé, ... Запись The Fountain of Bakchisarei in Both North and South - July 2024 впервые опубликована на сайте Vaganova Today ..read more

As a precursor to their week-long run of “The Fountain of Bakchisarei” at the Bolshoi Theatre in mid-July, the Mariinsky troupe presented three performances of this ballet at home first, which included a handful of debuts. On 12 July, Camilla Mazzi portrayed a gentle and tender Maria who was clearly in love with her fiancé, and projected the emotions of a princess while maintaining clean lines and careful positioning. Despite some partnering glitches between the two of them in the initial sequence of supported sissones, Alexei Timofeyev proved a strong partner and gracious prince as Vatslav, w ..read more

With the White Nights Festival in full swing, some of the Mariinsky’s traditional ballets feature relative newcomers on stage, not yet seen by most Western ballet fans. The administration has dipped into the ranks providing some of th youngest dancers with opportunities to dance principal roles. On 04 July, Daria Kulikova, a long-legged, expressive beauty still in her first season with the company and ranked coryphée, danced Medora in “Le Corsaire”. The role carries much of the weight of the libretto forward, both in terms of steps and choreography, and although no one can compare to Altynai A ..read more

As part of a three-day festival dedicated to Igor Stravinsky and falling on the composer’s 142th birthday, the Mariinsky offered several evenings of Stravinsky-based music, including the premiere of dancer/choreographer Alexander Sergeev’s latest work, “Concert Dances”, an intelligent multi-layered ballet that highlights the structures in Stravinsky’s score and includes allusions to choreographic works from Balanchine to Ratmansky. The premiere was nestled into a mixed bill that started with Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces”, always a challenging work with unusual counts and steps that the Mar ..read more

The 282nd graduating class of the Vaganova Academy demonstrated the results of their training in 3 performances on the Mariinsky’s historical stage in a three-act mixed bill in early June. An except from “Flora’s Awakening” featured two girls cultivated by Academy rector Nikolai Tsisaridze. Ekaterina Morozova, who essayed Flora and, in Act 3, the Lilac Fairy, seemed the most polished and graceful of the bunch. She accented well-centered turns in arabesque with graceful port de bras and appropriate épaulement. The non-intuitive sequence of tendus into à la seconde and then retiré passé did not ..read more

“The Fountain of Bakchisarai”, referred to as a “choreographic poem” in four sections based on the work by Alexander Pushkin with a prologue and epilogue and created by Rostislav Zakharov in 1934, is a quintessentially Russian ballet in its philosophical leanings which juxtaposes the refined civilization of Slavic (in this case Polish) Europe with the barbaric practices of the Tatars. Yet overall themes of greed and grief underscore the moral obligation to temper desires and adhere to strictures that preserve life and love.   On the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum ..read more

Coinciding with the birthday of the city of Saint Petersburg, the Mariinsky’s annual White Nights Festival began on 27 May with summer heat flowing through the city. A full house ushered in the start of this yearly celebration of dance, symphony, and opera delights. Although they’ve not performed together in this ballet previously, Oksana Skorik and Nikita Korneev joined forces in the leading roles of “Giselle” on opening night. The dashingly handsome Korneev, a first soloist since 01 May this year and now regularly performing principal roles, danced an emotionally engaged Albrecht who managed ..read more

Even the most talented writer cannot find words that do justice to artists of the highest caliber, finely tuned ballet dancers in this case, who have spent years and sometimes decades of daily toil to perfect their art. The Bolshoi Ballet troupe, now united with the Mariinsky under the same overall directorship of Valery Gergiev, launched its first set of “exchange” performances in early May 2024. The Moscow troupe brought three nights of Yuri Grigorovich’s “Spartacus” followed by another three nights of Balanchine’s “Diamonds” to the Mariinsky stage in St. Petersburg. Extra long last-minute t ..read more

Расскажите, как Вы попали в балет. Ваша семья из мира балета? Мои мама и отец инженеры. Я занималась в кружке самодеятельности. Современные кружки очень профессиональные, раньше же это было просто для общего развития, ничего серьезного. Оттуда, грубо говоря, вы никуда не пойдете, если не профессиональная школа, разве что на инженера учиться. Мне нравилось танцевать, но в следующем кружке меня  пытались поставить к станку делать урок, тогда в Волгограде пытались сделать более профессиональную школу, я тогда думала: «Я хочу танцевать, зачем этот станок?!». Пытались  ..read more