#postnova

Hi Melmoth! What do you think about Jacopo Tissi and Italian dancers in general? (I read that one of your favorite female dancers is Alessandra Ferri)

I’ve written about Tissi here. I don’t have an opinion on Italian dancers as a whole. I’m partial to Bolle and I adore Ferri, but there are no other Italian dancers on my radar.

What do you think of the étoiles at the POB (present)?

I’m not overly familiar with POB, though I have a lot of respect and admiration for French dancers. I always find the POP étoiles sophisticated and refined. If I had to chose a favourite, I’d go with Myriam Ould-Braham. She was Nikolai’s partner, so I’m more familiar with her work. I love her effortless charm and sincerity.  

There's a newly uploaded clip of Stanislava Postnova dancing a duet in Giselle as one of the paysans at the Bolshoi. Your thoughts on her dancing?

Like I said here, I’m a bit hesitant to give my opinion these days... I think Stasya did well. Like any green corps dancer tackling their first soloist role, she suffered a few minor missteps (if you can even call them that), but her potential is obvious and I’m sure she will improve and go from strength to strength.  

A post shared by Postnova Stanislava (@ruby.tear) on Nov 13, 2017 at 12:59am PST

Through one of your ask responses, I learnt that Alena Kovaleva performed the lead role in Diamonds. I understand, however, that she's still a member of the corps de ballet. Is it common for a corps member to be given the opportunity to play a main role? I always thought that main roles were kept for soloists or principals and weren't given to corps members even if they're hugely talented like Kovaleva is. Also, I found it strange that she is only 18, don't most VBA students graduate at 18/19?

It depends on the artistic director. Vaziev has made it his mission to discover new talent among the corps dancers, so we’ve been seeing a lot dancers like Alena given great solo and principal opportunities. I’ve never expected Alena to stay in the corps for long, to be honest, and she appears to be moving very fast indeed. This is her repertoire to date and she’s debuting in Swan Lake in September. The age of the graduates varies. It depends on what age they were when they entered VBA.

I don't understand the appeal of Postnova Stanislava? Yes, she has gorgeous extensions but we haven't really seen her dance, so we know so little of her ability (we do know she's good enough to be hired by Bolshoi.) Plus I believe she also ties into the group of dancers that became famous too early through Instagram.

A compilation of responses to the miscellaneous questions which came through Ask recently. Thank you for asking.

Hi, do you know what is considered the ideal height for female students to achieve whilst at the Vaganova? What about Mariinsky? It seems they really prefer a taller (170cm or more) aesthetic, especially at the Mariinsky.

Taller girls may actually find it difficult to get into the Mariinsky. In a recent interview, Tsiskaridze confirmed that the company didn’t offer Alena Kovaleva a contract because she was too tall (he didn’t name names, but it was pretty obvious that he was talking about Alena). 

I don’t know whether Vaganova has some sort of norm when it comes to height, but the height/weight ratio table they have on their website goes up to 174cm. I think most graduates are somewhere between 160-170cm.

I just noticed Oksana Bondareva is no longer on the Mariinsky roster, you know what happened to her?

She’s no longer a member of the company. I don’t know why.

Is Marko Jussila an exchange student at Vaganova or has he been there since he was a boy? What do you know about him?

I don’t know anything about him, to be honest. I’m pretty sure he’s a foreign trainee.

Did Stanislava Postnova graduate and officially sign on to the Bolshoi?

Yes. I wrote about it in May.

Do you think Eleonora will follow a similar path as Alena, now that she's at the Bolshoi?

Only time will tell. Vaziev clearly had a plan for Alena when he hired her. If he has anything similar in store for Elya, we will know pretty quickly once her first season with the company kicks off.

What theatre did Oscar Frame join?

The Bolshoi. Allegedly.

Speaking of Ksenia Sevenard, she rarely gets good roles(like soloist in recent graduation performance) though she does very well in her classes. Of course, we can't assume everything from short video and performance, but what makes her prevent from shining on stage? Height? Or other promising students?

Ksenia gets plenty of opportunities, though not as many solos as her classmates (Savelieva) or the girls from the upper year level (Khoreva, Ionova). I wouldn’t read too much into it though. Not until the next academic year starts (in September).

Do you know what, if anything, happened with retakes for Vaganova pupils who didn't pass the end of year exams?

I don’t know yet. VBA dropped a lot of students this year. Presumably some of them will audition for other ballet schools, but I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know if I ever will. This isn’t the kind of information I usually go looking for.

I saw Eleonora Sevenard's post on instagram where she says she just performed for the first time as part of the Bolshoi. Would you happen to have any idea what ballet she performed in?

Don Q. The Dryads.

Do you think that the 2019 VBA graduation class will be as strong as 2015 , as it appears (as there are 3 girls classes) that a lot of girls are appearing in solo roles now , even more so than the class of 2018 

Class of 2018 has some promising young talents, but I don’t think we’ll see as strong a class as the 2015 one was any time soon. That was really once in a blue moon thing. 

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, class of 2015 included Renata Shakirova, Anastasia Lukina, Nika Tskhvitariia and Elena Solomianko.

And?

Diana became involved in high profile fashion and commercial projects (to say nothing of her presence on social media) two decades into her career, loooong after establishing herself as a serious artist. Stanislava (and many others; again, I’m not having a go at Postnova specifically) is doing it the other way around. The fact that people don’t see the difference only proves how big of a problem this is.

A compilation of responses to the questions that came through Ask recently. Thank you for asking. 

“Opinions on Dancers” responses are coming! I promise!

I love reading your blog. Why do you prefer Ulyana Lopatkina over Svetlana Zakharova?

Thank you! I love and respect both of these great ballerinas, and I get enormous pleasure from watching either. Ulyana is special to me because, as corny as it sounds, she speaks to my soul more than anyone else. Watching her dance makes me want to be a better person. In fact, whenever I find myself really angry and teetering on the edge of doing or saying something nasty, I think of Ulyana to calm myself down. 

On the other hand, when I am facing a personal battle and need courage to fight, I think of Tsiskaridze. He (or, more accurately, the thought of him) actually saved my ass once, when I found myself in a difficult and painful situation. I’m not even joking.

Do you know the name of the variation danced by a girl in a mohogany bodice tutu at 59:26 in a video posted by balletflower titled "Vaganova Ballet Academy. Concert Full HD"? What is also her name?

Her name is Xenia Andreenko. Unfortunately, I can’t identify the variation.

Was Ilya Kuznetsov fired from BBA as a teacher?

He was “encouraged to resign” (his own words). And that’s all I’m willing to say on this subject, so please don’t ask we to elaborate.

What happened to Uliana Lopatkina's daughter? (Marsha Kornev) Did she join vba

Well, Maria is 14 now, and there have been no news of her ever auditioning for any ballet school. I think it’s safe to assume that she’s a regular teenager... whose mum just happens to be a Goddess among men.

What's your opinion on Stanislava Postnova? Really, i don't see anything in her except a nice body and flexibility and that she bears a resemblance to Vishneva.

The thing about Postnova is, no one’s actually seen her dance yet. Very short snippets (filmed from a long way away) aside, we have only ever seen her demonstrate her incredible flexibility and control at the barre. Nevertheless, she’s a top student at BBA and has been hired by the Bolshoi. That’s got to count for something. It’s impossible to judge her skill as a dancer yet. We have to wait and see.

I know from watching the new first years promenade that there are considerably more girls than boys. You mentioned that the staff assess the students and expel the weaker ones generally at the end of years 3 and 5. There has been a spate of congratulatory post exam class pictures posted recently. I notice one of the 4th year classes has 11 girls and 10 boys. Is that a coincidence, do flaws appear obvious at an earlier age in girls than in boys or are they more forgiving of male students?

I’ll let a ten year old VBA hopeful answer your question (screenshot from the Little Swans doco):

I love this kid! This is the level of savage I aspire to. Also, he’s completely right. I’m still not entirely sure how they level the numbers, considering the huge discrepancy they face at the start (19 boys and 35 girls this year). 

For reference, here’s what the graduating class looks like this year:

Udalenkova: 8 girls

Vasilieva: 6 girls

Tsiskaridze: 7 boys

Enikeev: 7 boys

I think they trim the number of girls down over the years. And while boys occasionally get expelled too, I have a feeling the academy is more patient with them. Student numbers also change towards the sixth grade, as the academy starts taking in transfers from other schools and international students.

It’s Stanislava Postnova. Just in case non-Russian speakers are confused by her name: Stanislava is her first name. It’s sometimes shortened to Slava or Stasya. Most people know her as RubyTear.

A video posted by Postnova Stanislava (@ruby.tear) on Aug 28, 2016 at 7:30am PDT

I don’t really have an opinion on her yet, as I have hardly seen her dance. Aside from a video of the modern piece Andrey Merkuriev choreographed for her, there are only a few little snippets of her in action. Flexibility and amazing control, which are evident from her insta posts, do not make a good ballerina. I was even skeptical about Khoreva until I saw footage of her in class and on stage. I’m interested to see what Stanislava is capable of. Now that she’s in her final year at BBA, I’m hoping that more videos of her performing variations will become available.

Even without seeing any actual videos of her performing classical pieces, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Stanislava will end up at the Bolshoi. She is extremely hard working, a perfectionist and a straight A student. She’s already forged serious connections in the ballet world and she’s showing no signs of slowing down. 

One thing slightly bothers me about Stanislava. She seemingly has taken a leaf out of Diana Vishneva’s book and is getting involved in a lot of commercial ventures. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se, but I feel that we are moving in the direction of ballerinas becoming commercial entities rather than artists. And that bothers me. I do feel that Diana has cheapened herself by appearing in shampoo commercials, etc. and I think that she’s not setting a very good example. Call me paranoid and old-fashioned but I am concerned that ten years from now, if not sooner, ballerinas will be hired and given roles based on how many followers they have on social media and how marketable they are.