Article in the Evening Standard:



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Irek danincg with Altynai is a sensuous experience. They are equally matched in physical years and experience and they really do spar with one another. I urge you to go to the Coliseum to see the gala performance.

There appears to be a problem with the link I posted above. Basically when you click on it it will go to the Music section. Simply click on theatre and then you will find the Irek article.<P>Sorry.

Article in the Daily Telegraph<

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[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited September 25, 2001).]

I read this article and cringed. <P>I will be at the gala on Sunday to support this great dancer. Who else will be there - I mean in the audience rather than on stage.

I also cringed. To suggest that Lesley Collier became a "major star" through dancing with Mukhamedov is an insult!!! Collier had been a major star from the moment she set foot on the Covent Garden stage. And suggesting Viviana Durante wouldn't have become a "world class ballerina" without him is an equally fatuous statement. These dancers achieved their status through their own talent and hard work, not through association with a Soviet defector.

I agree - a bit too much offended ego. Much as I adore Irek as a dancer, he could have taken the responsibility of making a dignified farewell to the classics, and announced those May Giselles as his final bow with the RB. He was after all there when Lesley Collier, a star for decades, made her farewell Giselle to fantastic acclaim and shops full of flowers

To be fair, Mukhamedov is not quoted in the article as saying that he made silk purses out of the raw material that is Durante and was la Collier. Though I have not met him personally, the interviews with him have shown an enthusiastic dancer and person. I have never thought of him as having a particularly large ego.<P> The manner of his exit from the Royal Ballet could probably have been smoother - it must be incredibly hard for a dancer to have to retire at what, for most careers, is such a young age.

Article on Adam Copper dancing in Irek Mukhamedov's gala - from The Evening Standard



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The old dog's new tricks

Irek Mukhamedov has written a new ballet for London schoolchildren. There's just one problem, he tells Louise Levene [The Telegraph]: they've been so badly taught[/b]

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Onwards and upwards
He may be ballet's most charismatic star, but Irek Mukhamedov doesn't care about glamour. Now a teacher and a choreographer as well as a performer, he tells Nadine Meisner in The Independent why he's happy in his new roles.

Where do I find today's most heart-fluttering Tartar, the man who put big-time machismo into ballet, the dancer who was the Bolshoi's answer to Charlton Heston? Behind the wheel of a low-slung, chafing Ferrari? In the sleek foyer of a Park Lane hotel?

Irek Mukhamedov stands on a rickety table in a scruffy, stifling studio in Fulham Broadway. At his feet seethes a human sea of 57 children, aged nine to 15. They scratch, chatter, open bags of crisps, slurp fruit juice, adjust their leotards. I feel I've walked into a prickly, itchy swarm of mosquitoes.

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Combined from another thread:

David

Joined: 02 Jul 2001
Posts: 40
Location: Rugby, UK

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:47 am Post subject: Irek Mukhamedov

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Irek Mukhamedov and his wife, Masha, have both joined the teaching staff at the Elmhurst School for Dance, Birmingham Royal Ballet's Associate School.

The full press release from Elmhurst/BRB reads:

ELMHURST SCHOOL FOR DANCE ANNOUNCES NEW TEACHING STAFF

IREK MUKHAMEDOV JOINS ELMHURST

As a new academic year begins, Elmhurst School for Dance is pleased to be able to announce its new members of staff.

Former Principal with both the Bolshoi and The Royal Ballet, Irek Mukhamedov joins the dance faculty as a full-time teacher of ballet along with his wife, Masha Mukhamedova, (also a former dancer with the Bolshoi) who will teach at the school on a part-time basis.

Former English National Ballet Soloist Lee Robinson also joins the dance faculty, as does Neil Westmoreland, former dancer with English National Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures.

Jennifer Dunn, a former dancer with Kokuma Theatre and ACE Dance joins the school as a part-time teacher of Dance Styles and Steve Cave joins the School as a pianist.

Mary Goodhew, Artistic Dirctor of Elmhurst School for Dance in Association with Birmingham Royal Ballet said, “I believe that the wealth of experience and exceptional talent of Elmhurst’s teaching staff enables the school to offer dance tuition at a level second-to-none within a vocational dance school.”





Cassandra

Joined: 07 Jun 2001
Posts: 490
Location: London UK

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:44 am Post subject:

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Another nail in the coffin of the once admired English style?

Personally, I believe that Mukhamedov made an important contribution to the Royal Ballet and I'm confident that he has a lot to pass on to the students at Elmhurst.

I for one, join with Stuart Sweeney in acknowledging Irek Mukhamedov's contribution to the RB. I have no idea what kind of teacher Irek Mukhamedov will make, I only know the story of how a chubby 10 year old from Kazan through the extreme rigours of the Bolshoi School, became the last outstanding international male dancer with a truly wide and successful repertoire of roles. His time with the Royal Ballet showed his extreme masculine vigour and his subtle acting skills in equal measure. He also showed something rarely seen, the joy of being a dancer. He was in part, like Rudolf Nureyev said of himself in the similar situation, "...a tea-cosy to keep the pot warm." Without Mukhemedov, the RB's international stature for the period of his stay, would have been diminished. As the Royal Ballet has since had to recognise, there is a place for non- Royal Ballet School trained dancers within the repertoire or even to maintain the repertoire. The current 'international' dancers of the RB have shown that over time and with the right artistic direction they can assimilate the so called RB(Ashton ?)style. However, I don't understand Cassandra's comment. Is it ironic, sardonic, simply facetious, or something worse?

I’m not sure that Leonid’s is generally accepted view of this dancer as many people regretted Mukhamedov's joining the Royal Ballet because stylistically he was completely at odds with his new company colleagues. A former Kirov Ballerina pointed out to me that after twelve years of dancing Grigorovitch's choreography he no longer had the ability to look good in other works. I don't totally agree with that view, but he never managed to assimilate the Royal Ballet style (Something that was pointed out by Bruce Sansom in a documentary about IM).



The international star of the Royal Ballet at that time was, and remains, Sylvie Guillem and frankly I don't believe Mukhamedov's presence made any significant difference. He was admired by those who like showy technique but not by those tempted into the theatre by the hype about him and (lets be frank) his heavy, unattractive physique never endeared him to the casual ballet goer.

His technique was not as good as Nureyev's (with whom Leonid appears to be comparing him) as for example Nureyev could turn both left and right with total ease, as can be seen in the video of him in La Sylphide. Mukhamedov could not, remember him turning left when the other two male dancers turned right in Les Biches? As for "subtle acting skills" I still remember the audience's stifled giggles at his histrionics as Des Grieux.

The Royal Ballet has just two British principals at present and the reasons are many and varied. Alarm bells over the situation are beginning to ring though and earlier this year I attended a press conference where Antoinette Sibley, Luke Rittner and John Tooley launched the Fonteyn Nureyev competition to encourage young British talent in an attempt to address the problem.

While I appreciate and hugely enjoy the outstanding talents of dancers such as Acosta, Cojocaru and Kobborg I also regret the absence of the British trained dancers of the past, but the prospect of the florid style of dancing that Mukhamedov represents being passed on to British students fills me with concern.