I finally received a brief update that Lopatkina has has a small injury but will be performing Nov. 11 and 12 at Moscow's Operetta Theatre. There are two programs, "Uliana Lopatkina Presents Roland Petit" and "Uliana Lopatkina Presents a Grand Ballet Gala". They are calling the stars who will also perform, "the Dream Team", (?!) which includes dancers from the Bolshoi, Grand Opera de Paris, ABT and La Scala.

For those who read Russian, the web page is here:

http://www.mosoperetta.ru/main/index.ph ... &i_news=74

WHEW!! From some reports I've read online I thought she was done for the entire 2008-2009 season.

Thankfully, not the case .

October 23 - Happy Birthday Uliana Lopatkina! Many happy returns on your special day!

That's right--she's 35 today! May she continue to have a long career as a ballerina.

By the way, Lopatkina granted a very long inteview to Izvestia newspaper that was published on her 35th birthday on October 23, 2008. For those who can read Russian, the article is here:

http://www.izvestia.ru/culture/article3121837

Some of what she talks about have already been mentioned in interviews to English-language newspapers (particularly one to the Times of London in 2005), but she did say in the article that:

1) She has great admiration for Rodion Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya, who celebrated their 50th anniversary together just recently (Lopatkina was at the 50th anniversary celebration in Moscow).

2) She doesn't sound like she's ready to become Deputy Director of Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre just yet. (I think she's being very humble about this; Lopatkina has enough appreciation of classical ballet and enough connections with the Mariinsky management and the Vaganova Academy that the job is hers when she's ready to take this role. I don't think Lopatkina wants to be a Vaganova instructor, because I see her more interested in the historical side of the Mariinsky Theatre.)

3) It appears she wants to follow the footsteps (literally!) of Plisetskaya and to more modern dance work like what Plisetskaya was doing by the early 1970's.

The easy option.

It's understandable given that Lopatkina's physical abilities are starting to decline and she might not be able to dance certain "classical" roles she has done in the past. I've seen many examples of Plisetskaya doing more modern ballet from the 1970's and the results were actually quite good.