#sofia valiulina

I can't believe I'm back on tumblr after 10 years, I just mass deleted all my posts but it was funny to meet my 17 year old self again.

NOW. I haven't found a lot of balletomanes in my circle for the past decade so I'm back here because I just NEED to talk about ballet. I don't think the people I know are aware that my version of the NFL draft/NBA draft is the Vaganova Graduation. Now that the graduation performances are happening, I wanted to share my predictions. (Also, I refuse to say anything judgmental to these girls, this is a mostly-positive blog)

I would absolutely love to see Maria Koshkaryova and Angelina Karamshyeva in Bolshoi. Maria has this courage about her that reminds me of Elya Sevenard. She's always going for the extra turns, and pushing herself in every step. Angelina Karamshyeva is so underrated in my opinon. She is a young Evgenia Obraztsova in my eyes. So lively and young! She also has the same vibe as Elizaveta Kokoreva.

Sofia Valiulina, definitely Mariinsky for me. I know a lot of people think Sofia is a Bolshoi girlie but not I! She is so deliberate and calculated in her moves, and so so delicate. I still remember her from the documentary when she was little and how much she fan girled over Renata. How full circle is it to have her perform Laurencia like Renata did when she graduated. I am almost certain Nikolai Maximovich orchestrated that. Her build is also very similar to Masha Bulanova's and she's doing really well in Mariinsky so I don't know! She will do well at either company, Mariinsky is just my preference for her.

Yaroslavna Kuprina, I think she would also fit in Mariinsky! I know a lot of people have been speculating Bolshoi because her name has been taken down from the Mariinsky company page, and Maria's hasn't. I'm curious though if they took it down so they could move her to the corps de ballet list. Before all the speculation though, I was thinking Mikhailovsky. I could imagine her pulling an Anastasia Smirnova and jumping up the ranks really quickly!

Gosh so many more talented graduates and I do hope they all make it to their dream companies because they all deserve it. My personal favorite from this class is Pinja Risannen. I am worried that companies might use her height against her but the vibrance she exudes is just one in a million. Any top company would be lucky to have her.

Anna Sharova also had a lot of visibility when she was younger, and I'm kind of sad that we aren't seeing much of her anymore. I guess this class is just so talented, it's hard to feature all of them. Based on the small snippets I saw from their exams though, I believe she's still a strong contender. I would not be surprised if she gets into Mariinsky as well.