Yulia Stepanova and Artem Ovcharenko - Swan Lake, Moscow September 2019

Ballet is like dreaming on your feet.

- Carla Fracci

This is perhaps my favorite video to exist on youtube! I watch it way too often lol. These students were so lucky to share a stage with the dancers from Bolshoi.

It is so difficult to even choose favorite dancers in this performance. I would say Xenia Zhiganshina and Yulia Stepanova stood out for me though. Alyona Kovalyova danced my favorite variation, and I think she did a marvelous job here. I thought it was breath-taking. She's so tall though that in the end when she does the tour jete, it low key looked like she tripped lol. I know it's part of the choreography but my heart still skipped a beat. This performance is my Avengers Endgame haha.

well, i can only say no one was happy or celebrating her promotion out of joy. they’re not blind, they know what good dancing is and they certainly see the difference in how stepanova performs vs how other principals perform.

years ago, it was proposed that diana vishneva should become a bolshoi guest principal. all the bolshoi primas flipped and “stormed” the management office in opposition. granted, that was an entirely different generation of dancers. they were a lot more “conservative” and “protectionist” then, and vishneva was already an established star. but i can guarantee the sentiment is still there. there’s also david hallberg, who joined the bolshoi as a principal. of course, there was objection but not in an explicit manner. he described the dancers as stand-offish and guarded against him. but as he proved himself to be a worthy dancer to be taking on the roles he was getting and being personally approved by svetlana zakharova, dancers warmed up to him.

yulia stepanova came to the bolshoi as a soloist, and then got promoted straight to principal after about a year. it’s inevitable and justified for dancers to feel like they have been robbed off. she was an outsider, she is taking their roles, but she is nowhere near their level. however, i’m sure they’re all very professional people who don’t let their personal sentiments affect their attitude at work. their online interactions are cordial.