Word: ulanova
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Lyricism over Steel. Two successive performances of Swan Lake introduced Ballerinas Maya Plisetskaya and Nina Timofeyeva, two of the Bolshoi's first-line quartet of female dancers (of the first week's stars, Galina Ulanova no longer dances Swan Lake, and Raissa Struchkova is not doing so at the Met). Both ballerinas were superb in the double role of Odette-Odile-the Swan Princess and her evil counterpart. Plisetskaya danced her roles with a more contained fire, whipped her sprung-steel body through scissored leaps and glittering turns, gave the role of Odile a brittle profile that suggested...
...company's stars a chance to display whatever muscles they had failed to flex earlier. There were a few quiet numbers-a beautifully danced version of Fokine's Les Sylphides (called Chopiniana by the Russians), an embarrassingly mawkish pantomime called A Blind Woman, which Prima Ballerina Ulanova almost managed to make acceptable. But most of the evening was given over to acrobatics: spinning, headlong leaps into the arms of supporting male dancers; a vaulting lift in which Ballerina Struchkova balanced light as a gull on the arched chest of her partner; a delicate tracery of pirouettes executed...
...look was not a disappointment. But, as with many such wonders, the anticipation was somewhat more exciting than the actuality. In the initial performances at least, the visitors demonstrated a technique linked to a floridly Victorian style that was frozen on pointe some 30 years ago-though in Galina Ulanova, they possess a prima ballerina who is still a true wonder of her time...
...Bolshoi's managers spared no pains for their first U.S. tour. They selected the top 110 dancers from a total company of 250, including Ulanova's chief rival, Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who for rumored political reasons had not appeared in the West before. With them came 40 tons of scenery, scaled down to fit the Met stage (a third smaller than the Bolshoi's home stage), and a generous ham-perful of the meat-and-potatoes favorites with which the company regularly sells out its home season. Because of the difficulty of shifting the Bolshoi...
Heading the list is the legendary Galina Ulanova, who at 47 has slowed down to an average of three ballets a month, but whose free-flowing line and effortless technique are still unmatched by any other dancer in the company. Ready to replace her are Maya Plisetskaya, 31, with her forceful, passionate style and broad, floating leaps; Raissa Struchkova, also 31, whose style in such a work as The Fountain of Bakhchisarai is warmly brilliant rather than deeply emotional; Marina Kondratieva, a rising star at 23, whose lightness and lyrical qualities make her a notable Cinderella...