Some more internet video clip watching.

I still consider Ulyana Lopatkina to possibly be the one ballerina in the world today who could be considered an all time great, in the company of Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova and a few others. For me, she is the best definition of someone who possesses what Natalia Makarova called 'limbs that sing.' In this she may never be equalled. She is my 'gold standard' for comparison with other ballerinas today.

Oxana Skorik is a ballerina that I regard very highly. To want to make comparisons with Ulyana Lopatkina is meant as a real compliment. Oxana Skorik's different quality that I like so much at the moment is the warmth and *Poetry* of her remarkably beautiful motion and expression.

Added comment:

For what it's worth, I just finished another viewing, of many, many, of Oxana Skorik's Act IV Swan Lake, and the comment that I make time after time....

" Absolutely Incredible ! "

I know I'm new here, but I find your obsession with Skorik tediously repetitious, if not disturbing.

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We are now in the final week of the season at the Mariinsky. August 8 will be the last performance, with Evgeny Ivanchenko debuting (!) as Ali in the full length Le Corsaire.

Olga Esina is now a permanent (for a season?) guest artist and will be performing with Ivanchenko on the 8th. Prior to that we have guests Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, dancing separately but both in Carmen.

And on September 9 the new season begins...

Thanks for this great news, Catherine. I was really hoping that something like this would happen. For those who don't know, she is a Vaganova (Mariinsky school, more or less) graduate and I've felt, since the first time I saw her several years ago at a benefit gala, that she belongs at the Mariinsky.

I think that she is one of the most beautiful dancers today, and although I still feel that Svetlana Zakharova's Giselle at this year's Festival was possibly the finest performance of *Anything* that I've ever seen, Olga Esina's Swan Lake was possibly the Festival's *Most Beautiful*.

Olga Smirnova, a 'prodigy' student at the Mariinsky's Vaganova school and now a 21-Year-Old (!) Star with the Bolshoi, has performed in London (La Bayadere) to unanimous press acclaim. The mood was probably deeply rooted by the venerated London dance journalist Clement Crisp when he returned from seeing her in Moscow last autumn and has been in love with her ever since. Yet the other London journalists do have minds of their own and still support this viewpoint 100%.

And, yes, for me these days, all roads still lead to Oxana Skorik.

I do follow the somewhat parallel rising to stardom of these two remarkable young artists ( I would go as far as to call them *genius artists*) rather closely and I still make the same generalization.

Oxana Skorik is Lyrically Refined Beauty with Remarkable Highlights of Expression.

Olga Smirnova, these days for me, is more Remarkable Expression with her 'Vaganova' Refined Lyrical Beauty being an Interweaving of Starlight.

I have to admit that I'm very partial to 'Mariinsky Ethereality'. Olga Smirnova is now balancing this with what might be called (and I highly respect) Bolshoi Expression. How she structures this balance will be of great interest to me as the fascinating and beautifully compelling 'voyage' of these two remarkable young artists flows on into the future.


[slight word changing made in one sentence]

Now it's Official, Catherine !

Olga Esina -- Guest Principal.

Brava !

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/ballet/troupe/

(thanks to Mariinka forum in russian for this alert)

Added:

Apparently it was officially posted when Catherine announced it (it was posted by August 2 in russian) but I didn't see it at the english site.

Added added:

Thus your post was official, Catherine.

Catherine, I just found an internet video clip of the Act II duet from Oxana Skorik and Evgeny Ivanchenko's July 9 "Giselle."

I've only watched it once, and hope to 100 times more, but I completely understand your posted enthusiasm.

It is indeed a Masterpiece of a performance.

** Oxana Skorik's Sculptural Compositions **, for one thing, are ** Absolutely Magnificent ! **

Her ** Facial Expression ** is ** Classical Art At Its Finest ! **

A nice article about Keenan Kampa in the St. Petersburg Times -- "American Dancer Soars At Mariinsky"

"Out of the 11 female Russian dancers who were part of her class, Kampa said, only four remained by the end of the two years, along with a few other foreign students….

"While it all took some getting used to — for both Kampa and the Russian instructors and students at the academy — eventually she found her voice, and a deep connection to her associates.

" “I never thought I would say that,” said Kampa, “But I had fallen in love with Russia…."

"After two years with the Boston Ballet [after her Vaganova graduation], Kampa received the unexpected offer to come dance for the Mariinsky Ballet, making her the first American to join the ranks of a dance troupe that is universally regarded as one of the best in the world.

" "You can’t work more than six hours each day [in US, labor rules]….Here the dancers will work until midnight, just because they love their art so much. They love it. They respect it so much that they want perfection.” "

http://www.sptimes.ru/story/37905?page=nopages#top
(Thanks to BalletcoForum for posting this although I'm sure that Francis would have found it quite quickly as well)


Added:

And a story about another young woman from the US who graduated from the school at -- 'The Other Place'.

"After years of training in cities from Detroit to Washington, D.C., and later in Russia, Maria Theresa Beck has become only the second U.S. woman to graduate from the world’s most famous ballet school, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow." ["the world’s most famous ballet school"....Catherine?]

She will now dance at Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theatre.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/arti ... let-troupe
(thanks to Ballet Alert! for posting this)

More video clip watching of Oxana Skorik's Act II duet from "Giselle."

The *Artistic Beauty* of This Woman is -- * Mind Boggling ! *

Added:

Also been watching the video clip of Olga Smirnova's recent "Diamonds" performance in London. She is a Vaganova (Mariinsky school) graduate now at the Bolshoi.

Both her's and Oxana Skorik's development seem to be almost moving as One for me. Both are slightly different but both have Remarkably Beautiful similarities in their Essence.

I like to keep Oxana Skorik and Olga Smirnova on the same radar, so I'm ending up discussing Olga Smirnova here instead of at the Bolshoi topic for the moment. I can also justify this because of her very recent graduation from the Vaganova (Mariinsky) school. I think in somewhat similar terms about the Bolshoi's Svetlana Zakharova who also started at the Mariinsky. Both these women's Fineness makes me think of the Mariinsky.

More watching the video of Olga Smirnova's most recent performance of George Balanchine's "Diamonds". She has been performing this for at least a year and there have been at least three internet versions. The development is absolutely Lovely. If George Balanchine ever wanted to create an ideal White Swan ("Swan Lake") this most recent performance of Olga Smirnova's "Diamonds" would be it, for me. I know he did at least one take on "Swan Lake" itself, but Olga Smirnova here, for me, is George Balanchine's **The** White Swan.

I find the Odette, White Swan, Act II duet from "Swan Lake" to be possibly the finest statement of dance that I've ever seen, so my above compliments are intended as the highest of praise.

Added:

Another video performance that I would put in the same category is Louise Nadeau's (PNB) Divertissement duet from George Balanchine's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Related to my previous post I would like to include an excerpt from Clement Crisp's review.

"There is an inevitability about certain performances that persuades us of an utter rightness, an all-conquering emotional force which tells us that this is how it must absolutely be, and not otherwise.

"....how ecstatic Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins in Diamonds. But on Tuesday, after the Bolshoi Ballet showed us Jewels, I was prepared to hail Olga Smirnova’s performance in Diamonds – and no less so Semyon Chudin’s as her cavalier – as sublimely commanding, perfect.

"So, Diamonds as a summation of Mariinsky attitudes, made by a great master, and Russian dancers recalling a heritage, responding with splendid effects to Balanchine’s tribute. And Smirnova setting out the choreography with an exquisite clarity, the dance flowering through her torso – Vaganova schooling disciplines every moment – and the music made clear to us.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3c117712 ... z2dVVbdNM2

In a very nice and interesting article Tala Lee-Turton (ninth UK student to be accepted to the Bolshoi school) gives us many insights.

“They [her UK school] teach the Vaganova method which is designed to involve the whole body in every movement, the idea is that [it] creates a greater harmony of movement and right away it just felt right.

"I guess it doesn’t help that to English ears, their [Bolshoi instructor's] accent sounds really harsh, but they are really encouraging."

And for those of us who have to wait until the last minute to find out who is performing and what….

"The funny thing is though, while it can seem incredibly disorganised, things do get done.”

I have to completely agree with this. No matter how long it may take to sort things out, the Mariinsky, for one, has ultimately and consistently produced most of the finest stage performances that I've ever seen.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/yorkshir ... -1-5969208
(thanks to BalletcoForum for posting this)

Catherine, I've been watching more of the internet video clip of Oxana Skorik's July 9th, "Giselle." The Act I solo, where she moves across the stage on pointe with her front leg in pendular motion, is Absolutely Superb in its entirety. Her Linear Fineness (Svetlana Zakharova's being perhaps the current Gold Standard) is Remarkable and two sets of spins, one in Attitude (one leg bent and extended back), the other in both directions with her leg elevated and crossing in front, are Breathtakingly Beautiful.

As for the so-called mad-scene, which I try to warn all parents nearby with small children about, she accomplishes this with as much Artistic,Theatrical Brilliance and sense of propriety as I've ever seen.