"Dedication to the teacher" by Diana Cherry at the Mariinsky Theater. Blood, sweat and the barre: one day in the life of a Bolshoi Theater ballerina You are not afraid to get lost in the corps de ballet

Alena, can you introduce yourself in a few words?

My name is Alena Kovaleva. I am 17 years old. I am originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. Last year I became a student at the Vaganova Academy, after finishing seven classes. (Alena explains the education system, which has recently been changed. Previously, we studied for nine years: seven years - full secondary vocational education and two years - higher education. Now receiving higher education takes three years, of which one year is training, after which students can go to work in theaters, completing their studies for two years on a free schedule).

Who do you study with at the Academy?

My teacher at the Academy is Yulia Kasenkova. But I came to Lausanne with Irina Sitnikova, a professor at the Academy, who teaches for another participant in the competition (Laura Fernandez-Gromova).

The Academy has advised you to take part inPrixdeLausanneor was it your own desire?

In fact, I already applied last year, but due to certain circumstances I was unable to take part in the competition. Therefore, this year I talked with my teachers and the rector, and they gave me their consent. Of course, everyone comes to Lausanne with the hope of winning the competition, or at least to appear, but for me the most important thing is to gain experience and work with new teachers. The teachers here are different than in our Academy.

Did you have the opportunity to talk about the competition with last year’s candidates – Elena Solomyanko and Dmitry Zadorozhny?

Yes! Elena now works in the theater (MAMT in Moscow), but we talked about the competition. It was a positive experience for her and she gave me some advice.

What variations do you perform? And why were they chosen?

In classical dance I perform Gamzatti’s variation from La Bayadère, and in modern dance I perform a variation from Richard Verloc’s The Rite of Spring. The choice of variations was a compromise between my teachers, but the initiative still came from me. I think technically the Gamzatti variation suits me. I am very interested in creating the image of this proud princess. The variation contains quite complex elements, but it is very effective on stage. As for the modern variation, the first for me was the music of Stravinsky, which is very close to me. This music is very close to the Russian soul! I was also interested in immersing myself in this wild world, a world before civilization. It's also a bit reminiscent of the Chosen One's creepy dance. A dance where you always need to be on guard, because there is danger behind it, and death awaits. It's very interesting to create such a world on stage.

Alena Kovaleva, Gamzatti variation from the ballet “La Bayadère” (qualifying round).

Alena Kovaleva, variation from the ballet "The Rite of Spring" (qualifying round).

How did you prepare for these variations? And to the competition as a whole?

This year is very busy for me because it’s mine. last year– year of graduation from the Academy. Traditionally, we always have a series of performances in The Nutcracker before the New Year. Therefore, we began preparations after the New Year. We didn't have time to rehearse before. I prepared for two weeks leading up to the competition. And during this time I was completely immersed in preparation for the competition.

Did you dance Masha, the leading role, in The Nutcracker?

I'm very tall and we haven't found a partner for me (laughs). This is not a problem at the Mariinsky Theater, but at school - yes! I danced solo in oriental dance and was in a group of four in waltz. She also played the leading role in “The Fairy of the Dolls” - this was the Academy premiere.

Are classics classes in Lausanne different from what you are used to at the Academy?

Yes. Of course, the basis is the same here. But the ligaments, the sequence of movements that are imprinted in the body - all this is different. It's interesting because later in the theater we will have to work with different choreography. This is also good because it makes you work with your brain, makes you think quickly.

What is your background? How did you get introduced to dance?

There are no dancers in my family. My mother thought it was good for me to dance, for my body, for my back, to learn to be graceful. I started taking classes at a private school. Then I was offered to go to preparatory courses at the Vaganova Academy. I was six, and when I arrived I saw people crying, it all shocked me a little. I was scared, but in the end they accepted me. I took courses and gradually began to enjoy dancing. These preparatory courses lasted three years, and then at the age of ten I entered the Academy, where I continue to study.

What is your dream after school? Do you want to join the Mariinsky Theater?

I don't know yet. Of course, the Mariinsky is dear to my heart. I have known this stage since childhood, and now we are dancing on it. But I would like to find a theater that would be interested in me, in my personality. I want someone to find something special in me that will allow me to continue to grow.

Aren't you afraid of getting lost in the corps de ballet?

No, I'm not afraid. But I want people to really want to work with me in the theater where I go.

Are there any ballets or roles you dream about?

In classical ballet – of course, “Swan Lake”, I would also like to dance in the ballet “Young Man and Death”.

Are there any ballerinas you like that inspire you the most?

Ulyana Lopatkina!

Source and original interview on French: dansomanie.net February 5, 2016
Photo: Gregory Batardon and sophia (dansomanie.net)

A ballet festival has started at the Mariinsky Theater, among the most anticipated events of which is the ballet " Bronze Horseman" and evening "Diana Vishneva. Dedication to the teacher." The St. Petersburg prima organizes it in honor of Lyudmila Kovaleva, with whom her entire professional life is connected, starting with her studies at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.

St. Petersburg will see for the first time at this evening the recent premiere of Diana Vishneva - the ballet of the Dutch classic Hans van Manen "Live". Students of Lyudmila Kovaleva of different years will dance in the divertissement: representing Mariinsky Theater Sofya Gumerova and Kristina Shapran, prima ballerina Bolshoi Theater Olga Smirnova, Vienna Staatsoper star Olga Esina and others. On the eve of the evening, Diana Vishneva answered questions from the RG columnist.

Any ballerina will envy your fame. And at the same time, you continue to constantly develop professionally, and are not afraid to take risks. What motivates you?

Diana Vishneva: Everyone is different in life and career. In my case, the thirst for creativity and curiosity from childhood to this day have not gone away. It all started at school, with teachers. We must take into account that I studied at the best ballet school, came to best theater, each director was a personality - Konstantin Sergeev, Igor Belsky, not to mention the galaxy of teachers: Dudinskaya, Zubkovskaya, Kurgapkina. The atmosphere is incredibly formative.

Now everything has changed, starting with the relationship between student and teacher. Then there was a single master who shaped the views, tastes, and opinions of the class and whom the students believed unquestioningly. As a student, I received recognition at the Prix de Lausanne competition, which I won at the age of 17. But this success, both at school and in the theater, was assessed ambiguously. Two years later I received the “Divine” award, the initiator of its presentation was Sergei Danilyan, a producer and manager from America.

And in Russia I was awarded the official title of People’s Artist only in 2007. So recognition came from the West, and it did not keep pace with my development.

You made your debut in the theater even before you graduated from the Vaganova Academy. Then your success in Don Quixote caused both delight and fear: whether this would break the student. How do you evaluate that experience now?

Diana Vishneva: I received this offer from Oleg Vinogradov (then chief choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater) after Lausanne. My teacher then said that this was impossible. But Oleg Mikhailovich decided: “Why is it impossible? First try to prepare, and then say whether it is possible or not.” We didn’t leave the hall until nightfall. We worked not on technique, not on fouettés or jumps, but on the most basic - how to get on the big stage and take a step on it, how to exist next to experienced artists.

Now I understand that it was a risk. It was possible to strain yourself - psychologically, physically. And in principle, this really broke me internally, because the demands were on me as on a mature dancer. But since childhood, I was given tasks that seemed impossible. I've been following this path all my life. In Don Quixote you had to jump over yourself and over people's stereotypes. After all, I also came to Lausanne knowing nothing about modern dance. And there was a lesson in modernism in front of the jury, you had to master it, have a body prepared for it. But some unknown resource was activated in me: curiosity, ambition - all this still fascinates me and moves me forward.

All these years you have not lost contact with your school teacher. To what extent is this a personal relationship, to what extent a professional one?

Diana Vishneva: This is the story of two people's entire lives. Lyudmila Valentinovna, as a teacher, grew up with me, who grew up as a ballerina. I was in its first episode. She took our class in her second year. Every year we were afraid that they might take us away from her because she didn’t have much experience yet. But Lyudmila Valentinovna brought us to the end. She deserved the dedication evening that I am organizing in her honor on April 1 at the Mariinsky Theater with her teaching talent and many years of work. I am grateful that I can give her such a gift and gather her best students who are scattered all over the world and have a serious repertoire.

But Lyudmila Valentinovna Kovaleva is not only a teacher for me. Our work has grown into co-creation, exchange of ideas, search for a line of images. She has a lot of standard performances in her memory - Alla Shelest, Alla Osipenko, Galina Mezentseva. Her imagination was fed by Baryshnikov, Makarova, Kolpakova, whom I later met and became friends with in America. She tried to convey all her experience, imagination, taste to me. There is no point in talking about the technique: of course, it does not miss a single non-turning heel. But we were focused on something else: she, as a director in a drama theater, worked with me on dramaturgy - building imaginary stories. It was unique creative laboratory. The approach that we developed in the process of preparing classical performances is what I use in collaboration with choreographers.

Is Kovaleva not disappointed that you are delving deeper into modern choreography?

Diana Vishneva: So it was she who instilled in me a taste for her! She showed the first tapes of Mats Ek's performances that appeared. His “Giselle” made such an impression on me - I realized that I was not ready to come out in the classical version that I was working on then. But with all my adoration for Mats Ek, I understood that at the age of 20 the body was not yet ready, for me it was not yet such a known object to give it such loads. Modern choreography must be taken on by a mature ballerina. And I understood that Lyudmila Valentinovna would remain my master, but there would still be people nearby who would see me differently, open me up and develop me in a new way.

Who are these people?

Diana Vishneva: When I graduated from school, it was clear that I would automatically get into the Mariinsky Theater. I didn’t have to worry about roles either - they were given to me. I was led by leaps and bounds, without breaks or downtime. My arrival at the Mariinsky Theater coincided with the emergence of new management, new ideas, and a new repertoire. For me, the 1990s meant mastering the classical repertoire, when I literally lived in the theater, unaware of what was happening around me, in politics, economics...

And at the same time, worn-out cassettes with ballets by Roland Petit and MacMillan appeared in the theater, and their performances entered the repertoire. Then Neumayer arrived. Academic theaters God himself ordered his ballets to be danced - he is very close to the classics. John invited me to participate in a new production of Schnittke's music, which he created especially for us. I immediately felt that he was unique in his work. Therefore, I came to him and asked permission to participate in two other ballets that Neumeier brought to us. He said: “Diana, this is impossible, you will overstrain yourself.” But when I saw my burning eyes and heard my arguments, I realized that it was impossible not to give me the opportunity to try. And then everything depended on me: how to manage to prepare three ballets when everyone had one. I did it.

After Neumeier, I had a great desire to dance Béjart. His performances were not at the Mariinsky Theater, so I went to Lausanne on my own and met him there. Then nothing worked out - but then we met and worked at the Berlin Staatsballet.

After that, Pina Bausch, Martha Graham, and Mats Ek appeared in my life... I think the most important thing is for everything to happen correctly and on time.

Concert ballet

On April 1, Diana Vishneva presented the most luxurious gift to her teacher Lyudmila Valentinovna Kovaleva - an evening in her honor. OLGA FEDORCHENKO visited the Mariinsky Theater.

Lyudmila Kovaleva in 1994 instantly became a famous teacher. But the deceptive simplicity and speed of victory were the result of a long and outwardly seemingly inconspicuous path. For 22 years she was a soloist of the Kirov Theater, her technically impeccable dance in variations and solo parts set off the brilliance of ballerinas Irina Kolpakova, Gabriela Komleva, Alla Osipenko, Ninel Kurgapkina, Olga Moiseeva. A teaching career after performing was logical and natural: the few films with the participation of dancing Kovaleva should be shown as educational methodological manual. However, the leadership of the Leningrad Choreographic School (and then the Academy of Russian Ballet) was in no hurry to give her graduating classes; on the contrary, she worked in the most difficult section of the middle classes in order, after doing a huge amount of rough work, to transfer the well-trained girls into the hands of the graduating masters, who received pedagogical glory. But one day, for the first time, Kovaleva was allowed to bring the students she nurtured, whom she took from the 2nd grade, to graduation! And a year later there was a sensation. First, small - at graduation performances in 1993, when Diana Vishneva, a 6th grade student, surpassed other graduating girls in the pas de deux from Le Corsair. A year later, she won the Grand Prix in Lausanne and, without waiting for graduation, conquered the theatrical Olympus with Don Quixote.

Diana Vishneva’s loyalty to her teacher is from the category of filial ones. And the evening dedicated to the teacher, despite the official status and the crowded theater, seemed like a family event, if we mean the family clan. A tightly knit community of not the largest numbers (Kovalyova still prefers to take classes at “middle” ages, so the gap between her graduations is four to five years), but exceptional devotion to the boss. The concert program, which proportionally combined classics (academic and Soviet), modern dance and the obligatory comic number seemed to convey a secret message to initiates in encrypted form with a key known only to them.

The youngest graduate, Lyudmila Kovaleva, was entrusted with opening the concert. Nika Tskhvitaria (graduated in 2015) serenely sailed on the pink sea of hopes in the adagio from “The Nutcracker.” A variation with numerous stutters pulled her out of the intoxicating darkness of her cantilena dance, but the festive beginning was made. In a lordly and imposing manner, Ekaterina Borchenko (graduated in 2000) performed the classic pas de deux from Le Corsaire, savoring the fouette like olives in a cocktail. Olga Smirnova, in the grand pas from Don Quixote, dealt with the choreography like an elite sniper - an amazing mastery of space: in the smallest pas de bourrée, she flew almost half the stage in a few bars; excellently high tempo of variation, without “spectacular” slowdowns in the relevé in the second movement; elastic precision in stops after rotations. The plastic masterpieces of Leonid Yakobson (duets of Aegina and Harmodius, Phrygia and Spartacus) with the participation of Zlata Yalinich (graduated in 2008) and Sofia Gumerova (graduated in 1995) seemed overly affected and deliberately pathetic. But what kind of tribute is there to the adored teacher without deliberately exaggerated expressions of feelings that come exclusively from great love? Olga Esina (class of 2004), representing the Vienna State Opera, captivated with the sweetly beautiful dance meditation “Fool`s Paradise” staged by Christopher Wheeldon. And Alisa Petrenko (graduated in 1995), in the role of toastmaster in tandem with Igor Kolb, had a great time in Radu Poklitaru’s number “Rain”, discovering in the recently lily classical dancer a rare gift of ballet grotesque.

Diana Vishneva herself appeared in two one-act ballets - “The Old Man and I” and “Live”, choreographed by Hans van Manen. These are not summation ballets, although it would be tempting to interpret them as confessional or personal, but there are undoubtedly parallels and intersections with creative destiny Mrs. Vishneva herself is in them. The coquette woman tries on various masks (seductive, playful, naive), trying to provoke the Old Man (Vladimir Malakhov, shrill in his plastic “silence”) to dialogue. And suddenly he finds himself in a black space-time hole, where, in fact, there is nothing and no one to ask, when no masks are needed, because a duet with the Old Man is a duet with one’s Death. The second ballet "Live", which tells about the biographical moments of its first performer Colleen Davis, makes all spectators unwitting voyeurs, spying on the ballerina through the lens of a video camera that projects the image onto the screen. In a bright scarlet leotard with a short skirt, so similar to the Carmen costume in which Diana Vishneva shot in 1994, the ballerina “remembers” her story, and the camera mercilessly circles nearby, broadcasting to the outside world what she might want to hide inside. The choreographer is merciless: bitterness, disappointment, demands, betrayal and deceit are concentrated in van Manen’s minimalist choreography. And any attempt to escape is impossible. You can only cover the camera with your hand, but then memories from the depths of the heroine’s memory will be broadcast on the screen - her backstory... The only way to make your life inviolable is to put on your coat, wrap your scarf and leave the theater. Exit to Theater Square, surprising late passers-by, and disappearing into the darkness.

“Jewels” on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater

Since March, a new director of the ballet troupe has been working at the Bolshoi Theater.

Even if you knew nothing about it, you can read it from the poster: new names have begun to appear regularly in the ballets of the current repertoire.

Last season, the classics found new performers, and this season, the first performance with mass debuts was the October block of Balanchine’s “Jewels”: five new performers only in the leading roles, and together with solos – more than a dozen.

The last performance of the block featured two of the most intriguing debuts: the popular theater premier Vladislav Lantratov danced the leading male role in “Rubies,” and the debutant of the Bolshoi troupe, Alena Kovaleva, appeared in her first big role, in “Diamonds.”

One of the most popular ballets by the main neoclassicist of the 20th century, George Balanchine, “Jewels” is a plotless choreographic reflection on the properties of precious stones– the mysterious light of emeralds, the fiery sparkle of rubies and the solemn radiance of diamonds.

Despite the fact that Balanchine himself commented rather controversially on the concept of his ballet, the opinion has become established that this three-part ballet is associated with three original ballet schools - French, American and Russian. The first part - "Emeralds" - to the soft romantic music of Gabriel Fauré - is dedicated to ballet France (the choreographer himself spoke about this), the motor "Rubies" to Igor Stravinsky's "Capriccio" permeated with jazz intonations - to the American ballet (the choreographer himself denied this, but it seems a little disingenuous), and the solemnly majestic final ballet - “Diamonds” - to the music of Tchaikovsky’s third symphony - to the Imperial Ballet of Russia.

“Jewels,” which first appeared on stage almost fifty years ago, has become a 20th-century classic and is performed all over the world. In Russia there are stage history is not large - at the beginning of the 2000s the ballet was staged by the Mariinsky Theater, in 2010 the Bolshoi danced “Rubies” for the first time, and in 2012 it acquired a complete set of Balanchine’s “Jewels”.

But also in short Russian history This ballet featured real performing gems: in “Diamonds” - Lopatkina, Zakharova, Zelensky and Tsiskaridze, in “Rubies” - Vishneva, Osipova, Sarafanov, in “Emeralds” - Ayupova. Naturally, Russian dancers feel most comfortable in their native, diamond part. But this turned out to be not Lantratov’s case.

Starting from the premiere of this ballet at the Bolshoi, in the first part - “Emeralds” - Vladislav Lantratov appeared, his elegant style of dancing was extremely suitable for “Emeralds”, and now four years later, very important for the development of this dancer, he danced the most striking male the part of this ballet is in “Rubies”.

Why not “Diamonds”? Maybe because “Diamonds” is the realm of the ballerina, while “Rubies” maintains gender balance? Or maybe because “Diamonds” in the male part does not go beyond the classics and the image of a noble gentleman, while the more modern “Rubies” are a challenge for the classical dancer?

Perhaps someday the dancer will get to the third part of “Jewels” (Tsiskaridze at one time danced both “Rubies” and “Diamonds”), but now he was attracted by the more democratic “Rubies”.

During the shocking four years since the premiere of “Jewels,” Vladislav Lantratov danced a whole kaleidoscope of different, often polar, roles - Ivan the Terrible, Crassus, Ferkhad, Hamlet, Pechorin, Arman in “The Lady of the Camellia,” Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew,” Yellow in “Russian Seasons”, performed as a soloist with fashionable choreographers Lightfoot and Leon, became one of the recognized Basiles and de Briennes of the Bolshoi... and felt absolute freedom on stage. And freedom on the verge of detachment is exactly what is in demand in “Rubies”. In “The Taming of the Shrew” by Mayo, the dancer tasted the delights of ballet humor and was finally ready to perform “Rubies”.

In the slyly sensual manner of Lantrat’s Rubin, one can certainly feel the experience acquired by the dancer from Mayo: “Rubies” is a plotless ballet, but in its center one can discern the love, with a touch of eroticism, play of the leading couple: mutual seduction - taming, rivalry and attraction of the male and female. Although this is not a choreographer’s prescription, and in the performing history of “Rubies” there are different interpretations – sometimes the emphasis is not on flirtation or eroticism, but on constructivist vocabulary, echoing Stravinsky’s springy music.

But not this time - the duet with Yanina Parienko (debut as a soloist) was very sensual, but not lyrical, it was rather ironic: the active eroticism of “Rubies” softens the humor. Lantratov showed that he is as masterful of this instrument as he is of the technical side of the part, and the latter is very difficult: sweaty tempos, syncopated music, Jesuit technique of parterre support, which requires great coherence of the pair, especially since Lantratov’s partner was not the easiest - large, not very flexible and not very dexterous.

Large partners are not the specialty of the athlete Lantratov, so he coped. The second soloist of “Rubies”, Elvina Ibraimova, was also non-standard (she danced as a soloist for the second time). Usually in this part, ballerinas exploit the image of a vamp woman, but Ibraimova was more like an athlete and a Komsomol member, the smile never left her lips for a second, and the men who were supposed to worship the soloist treated her like a sports equipment. Naturally, the dancer dominated the stage.

“Rubies” were choreographed for a small, nimble dancer with fine movements. Lantratov is a dancer of the modern type: tall, well-stretched, with a large jump and a wide range of movements, and Rubin’s part in his performance, while maintaining the same energy, sparkled in a new way, acquiring, in addition to stage freedom, also scope.

Vladislav Lantratov danced and played in “Rubies” infectiously and playfully. The debut took place on the eve of his twenty-eighth birthday, and this is symptomatic - the dancer entered the period of maturity in the full flowering of his universal talent.

Unlike Lantratov, the other debutant of “Jewelry” that excited everyone this evening is at the very beginning of her career. In “Diamonds,” her first ballerina role was performed by this year’s Vaganova School graduate, Alena Kovaleva, who had just joined the Bolshoi troupe.

Before “Diamonds,” she appeared on the Bolshoi stage in a small solo part, and immediately “Diamonds” is the most prestigious part of “Jewels” in Russia. The famous “diamonds” of the Bolshoi troupe, Svetlana Zakharova and Olga Smirnova, dance on the same stage. Alena admires Ulyana Lopatkina, but this was not noticeable from Kovaleva’s own performance: it was without a shadow of epigonism, without any references to those who had already danced “Diamonds” before her.

Apart from an occasional appearance on the theater stage, this evening Alena Kovaleva was actually presented to the general Moscow public for the first time as a Bolshoi ballerina, and it turned out to be a breathtaking spectacle. Very tall, almost as tall as her partner, but with a graceful physique, the young ballerina has such rare beauty that one could simply walk across the stage and it would still bring great pleasure.

But she danced with almost no discounts on her status and age. For a debutante, she was quite confident, musically sensitive, perhaps, but the interaction with her partner was not entirely seamless, which is excusable for a recent graduate of a ballet school. She was given the most experienced Alexander Volchkov as her partner, with whom Zakharova usually dances this ballet. Volchkov reliably and delicately looked after the ballerina, there were no chemicals, but also no emergency situations.

According to Moscow tradition, this role, which is status-bearing for ballerinas, is danced mainly by graduates of the Vaganova School, led by Svetlana Zakharova, the only exception is Ekaterina Krysanova, a ballerina with Moscow training, but in “Rubies” she looks more organic.

Zakharova has not danced this ballet for a long time, and the most notable Diamond is considered to be Olga Smirnova, a graduate of the ARB five years ago, from the last season of the Bolshoi prima. But, despite the same school, there is a gulf between Smirnov’s and Kovalev’s performances: Olga in “Diamonds,” the queen, is proud and unapproachable, expressive and baroque, every pose is fixed and brought to the absolute, and Alena is a young princess who looks like someone who has not yet blossomed a bud of a beautiful flower, surrounded by a mystery that promises a lot, a young girl on the verge of blossoming, her style was soft and feminine.

The show of the new ballerina went very well, of course, this is still a sketch, we will wait for the bud to bloom and turn into a beautiful flower. Femininity is in short supply in the theater.

MOSCOW, July 3 – RIA Novosti, Anna Kocharova. Rehearsals all day long, joint pain, diets and going on stage in the evening. The life of ballerinas is sweat and blood. But despite this, they are all ready to devote themselves to what they love. RIA Novosti spent the whole day with Bolshoi Theater ballerina Alena Kovaleva.

I usually get up at 9 so that I can be at the theater by 11 am. For breakfast I eat oatmeal. The portion is probably the size of a fist. You need to eat well, because you need strength to withstand the entire load. For example, I really love sweets. And I don’t have a diet as such. But if I feel like I need to lose weight, I cut back on something, it allows me to get in shape. I regulate this myself. Of course, I weigh myself, but not every day.

I eat three times during the day, but sometimes I don’t have time due to rehearsals, and then I have to grab something on the go. Sometimes you run like this all day, and you’re ready to eat a sandwich or a pie. But with such a load, a lot of things burn out on their own. We can sometimes afford more than many people think.

At the theater, my day begins with class. It's like a lesson: we warm up, practice movements, get ready for the working day. Then rehearsals begin - solo, general, corps de ballet, stage rehearsals (this is when the performance is being prepared). Today, for example, I have a class and four rehearsals. And this is not the limit, there can be more.

The duration of each rehearsal is different: it can be 30 minutes or two hours. Today I have a solo rehearsal for two hours, then a stage rehearsal for another hour and a half. And then another one for 40 minutes.

We rehearse with the teachers. But in each hall there are cameras installed, through which the head of the ballet troupe watches the rehearsals (Makhar Vaziev - Ed.). He can call on a special internal telephone and give some recommendations to the teacher, or he can come to the hall.

Now I’m preparing the part of Odette-Odile for “Swan Lake” (I will have a performance in the fall), and he just came in during rehearsal.
In general, if I’m preparing a part, I can sometimes start humming something, dancing, or making some head movements right on the street. And sometimes you just want to warm up your back in transport and crunch your bones. People, of course, may think something wrong!

In my bag I always have two pairs of pointe shoes (main and spare), a bandage and a thin mesh that can be used to bandage a finger so that it does not wear off. We always come to rehearsal in warm-up clothes, socks, and gradually, when the muscles warm up, we take them off.

We select pointe shoes individually. There are many different brands and models, so you can choose. I dance on pointe shoes that have a plastic insole, which makes them durable and can even be washed. True, from time to time I feel the urge to experiment, and I start trying other models.

You need to sew ribbons and elastic bands on your pointe shoes to hold your foot in place. You need to find the right place to make you feel comfortable. Some sheathe the heel, the tip of the pointe shoe, on which we stand during the dance. This is necessary so that it does not slip.

I spend two hours on each pair, which is quite a long time. On average I use one pair per month. This, of course, depends on the number of rehearsals.

This is my first season dancing at the Bolshoi Theater. I graduated from the Academy of Russian Ballet. A.Ya. Vaganova. In this educational institution combined general and vocational education. I went to preparatory class for three years, going to classes three times a week. I entered when I was 10 and studied there for 8 years. All classes are mixed, we spent whole days there. For example, after rehearsal there could be math. This is even good, there is some kind of change of activity, you come to rest.

As a child, my mother sent me to choreography so that I would have good posture and grace. From there they began to send me to the Vaganova Academy. I remember when we came to the screening before the preparatory class. There was a crowd of people there, a mad rush. They checked our physical data and looked at us. Those who entered were given coupons. And everyone ran out and began asking whether they had taken it or not? At that time I didn’t really understand where I had come, what it would all lead to. At first I told my mother that I wouldn’t go to study there because everyone there was crazy. But she persuaded me to try. And then every time I liked it more and more.

Sometimes, of course, it became difficult and I gave up. But ballet, it seems to me, is like a disease. This is life that has taken you and will never let you go. You put up with any difficulties, you are ready to endure everything for the sake of the future and to achieve your goal.

There is a performance at the theater this evening, but I am not dancing. I try to relax at home in the evening. I go to bed as best I can. If after rehearsals, then at 10 o’clock, if there is a performance, then at 11 pm. Of course, sometimes there is not enough time to rest.

We have one day off a week - Monday, when the theater is traditionally closed. If there are interesting premieres in other theaters or tours, then, of course, it’s interesting to go see it. But in general I try to rest on this day. I love to walk. Moscow is a new city for me, this is my first year living here and I don’t regret moving. Here is the theatre, which I love, there is work, there are many opportunities.