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Isa, here is the information I promised.<P>I first became aware of the name Nikolai Tsiskaridze from a newspaper article published shortly before the 1993 Bolshoi season at the Albert Hall. The article featured interviews with three young Bolshoi dancers making their debuts in London, Elena Andrienko, Andrei Uvarov and Nikolai. The interviewer, the dance critic Jan Murray, had spotted him in class earlier in the day and considered him outstanding and was clearly very pleased to discover that he was one of the dancers selected to feature in her report.<P>Nikolai took her to his home – one room in a communal flat which he shared with his seriously ill mother who was at that time recovering from a stroke and told her about his hopes for the future, the difficulty of his life in Moscow and the strain of supporting his sick mother. Tragically she died before the interview was actually published.<P>As I have mentioned elsewhere, I first saw him dance at the Albert Hall and was immediately impressed by his speed, his line and musicality. I was also impressed by his total immersion in every role he danced. As Mercutio he had the looks of a youth from a Renaissance work of art, as if he had stepped out of a painting by a Florentine master.<P>It was just over two years before I saw him dance again – at a children’s matinee in Moscow in the role of Prince Cherry in the ballet Cipollino. Most of the cast were named after fruit or vegetables and Nikolai’s character was an unfortunate young man locked up in a tower and rescued by a beautiful girl (Princess Magnolia). Although I had difficulty following the plot, it was highly enjoyable and the children seemed to love it.<P>I had to wait four years before seeing him again until he arrived with the company in London in 1999. He was dancing the leading role in five of their ballets that season, the most intriguing being the role of the King in Swan Lake, which was specially created for him by Vladimir Vasiliev. This was a very controversial production as Vasiliev had changed the ballet entirely and the role of the king (Seigfried’s father, a wicked but handsome sorcerer) became the focal point of the ballet instead of Odette/Odile. I can’t say that I enjoyed what Vasiliev had done, but Nikolai was quite phenomenal in the role drawing gasps from the audience for jetes with his foot touching the back of his head. This is a step Plisetskaya made popular, but the first time I had seen it performed by a man.<P>It was at this time that I first met Nikolai. When the Bolshoi comes to London they rarely announce casting, so to catch all his performances the only way I could find out the dates he was dancing was to go up to him and ask him. It was fortunate that I did, because some of the dancers had extra appearances at provincial festivals that I knew nothing about. So thanks to his information I was able to catch him in two more of his roles that summer.<P>Since then I have seen him in Moscow in Daughter of the Pharaoh, in Barcelona as Desire in Sleeping Beauty and in Giselle in Santander in addition to his performances in London this year. Other roles in his repertoire that I haven’t mentioned include Les Sylphide, James in La Sylphide, Legend of Love, Spectre de la Rose and Symphony in C. He has recently made his debut in Swan Lake as Seigfried.<P>His main teachers are Marina Semyonova (still teaching at 90+) and Nikolai Fadeyechev, in the past he rehearsed with the late Nikolai Simachev and Galina Ulanova.<P>Although stylistically Nikolai is far from being a typical Bolshoi dancer, he has always been championed by Yuri Grigorovitch, who took a keen interest in him throughout his school years and his early years in the company, giving him leading roles in his ballets when he (Nikolai) was still a teenager.<P>His hopes for the future are to dance des Grieux in Manon and the title role in Onegin. He also dreams of dancing with Sylvie Guillem, whom he adores. Above all he would like a choreographer to create a ballet for him based on Rubinstein’s opera the Demon. There is a famous picture of the Demon by the Russian artist Mikhail Vroubel and Nikolai recently had a photograph of himself published in the same pose. Here is a link to Vroubel’s picture <A HREF="http://www.phys.lsu.edu/students/alexey/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.phys.lsu.edu/students/alexey/</A> <P>So far Nikolai remains famous only in his native Russia where he has won every award under the sun, but in London his talent divides the critics and although the number of his admirers here is growing, he is still not as well known as I think he should be. Nikolai Tsiskaridze is a very individual dancer with a technique that can be described as spectacular and with interpretive skills that reveal a great heart and I sincerely hope that his success in Paris is the beginning of an international career for him.<P>
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