Iām wondering how Natasha Furman is studying in the Academy? I saw the posts on Instagram that she danced little Maria in the Nutcracker and it seems that teachers like her very much.
Have you seen clips of Natalie furman in the last nutcracker? Heard that sheās a promising young student, but she was prominent in the US/competitive ballet circuit so I wonder how she fairs at VBA
Natasha is, obviously, very young, and itās too early to make any assessments or predictions. For now, sheās at VBA and she appears to be doing very well and enjoying herself. You can also follow her on YouTube for some extra videos from the Academy.
More on the weight topic. I saw in a video that one girl in Sharova's 4th class was dismissed because of weight. Yet, there are a lot of girls in the upper classes, especially year 7 and 8, that don't exactly have the slimmest bodies. However, Vaganova allows them to stay. Why is this?
Some of the older girls experience weight gain due to puberty, which tends to hit around the time of their final year. As this is a natural process, and not something the girls can control, the Academy tends to be more lenient, especially since the weight gained due to the onset of puberty tends to go away with time.
Thanks for posting the Bunkamura VBA video! I'm really excited about Anastasia Smirnova. Physically, she reminds me so much of Zakharova, with some Lopatkina tones as well. Of course, she will have her own dancing style. But she has a regal, mature quality to her that brings a lot of refinement to her dancing. She has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see it develop, I hope at Mariinsky as she's perfect for that theater!
A lot of people think that she looks like Zakharova, and thatās a huge compliment. Iāve been watching Anastasia since she won the Diana Vishneva award at Vaganova Prix a few years back, and I hope she goes on to have an amazing career. She studies under Professor Kovaleva (who graduated Diana Vishneva and Olga Smirnova, among others), which is also very exciting.
Are the Vaganova teachers friendly toward one another, or are they competitive. For example, do you think that in 2015, Kovaleva was unhappy that Udalenkova's student Shakirova was portrayed as the star of the class rather than her Nika or Anastasia Lukina? Is there a hierarchy of teachers, like the older ones get to make demands of the younger teachers like Kasenkova or Sitnikova?
Naturally, thereās a hierarchy of teachers at VBA. Itās impossible to say, as an outsider, but I imagine that there would be some healthy competition among the teachers. That being said, I donāt think senior professors like Udalenkova and Kovaleva would fight over their students. I also donāt think that Shakirova was necessarily presented as her yearās star. I remember the attention being pretty evenly spread between her and Lukina.Ā
What is behind the two doors at the back of the main Vaganova studio? One big room? Or two separate rooms? Or two connected rooms so that students can come out of one door and go in through the other? Or something else?
You can see the space in this video:
Why does Tsiskaridze not like Khoreva as much as Elya? Elya's just as good, but doesn't he see that Khoreva is a once in a generation talent? He only allowed her to debut as Masha in Nutcracker after Elya graduated, whereas he allowed Lizi and Anastasia to debut as Masha while Alexandra Khiteeva was still dancing it at Vaganova. And, in her graduating year, it was the 280th anniversary of the school, but he could've still let Maria dance Paquita instead of calling Elya back. She'd had her shot.
I donāt think itās fair to say that Tsiskaridze disliked Khoreva. Masha was Professor Kovalevaās student, and Kovaleva is particular about how her students are represented publicly. Tsiskaridze was very vocal about how great Elya was (which she really was) and it did her no favours; he overexposed her.
A studentās debut in a particular role is not determined by the rector alone. The studentās teacher has a lot of say in this. Plus, the student in question must typically audition to get the part.
Elya was called back for a special performance, which brought together past VBA graduates, including Zakharova, Obraztsova and Smirnova; it wanāt a normal graduation performance.
What is happening with the Vladivostok school?
The short answer is: no one knows. No one on the outside, that is. The Vladivostok campus was handed over to BBA a few years ago and, curiously, Leonovaās interviews at the time suggested that the campus had always belonged to the Moscow academy. Itās been suggested that Tsiskaridze was forced to take on theĀ Vladivostok campus, and had never really wanted it because it was a drain on VBAās resources. Regardless of this, he had set the campus up and ran it successfully for over a year. Itās all rather bizarre.Ā
An interesting video of a masterclass with Tsiskaridze has just been uploaded to YouTube by Anya V. Do you have any more info about this class?
Tsiskaridze taught a master class for the 4th grade girls at VBA a few days ago. I believe that the class was part of the many conferences / educational events the Academy runs, and was open to the public (byĀ āpublicā I mean ballet insiders, teachers and dancers). Thank you for the link, by the way. I have this recording in bits but not as a whole.
