Holding the prestigious position of first soloist with the Mariinsky, Alexander Sergeev is much more than one of the most praised dancers in Russia. He has long been dancing principal roles, and popular opinion suggests he should in fact hold principal status. Sergeev has already created several compelling ballets that have been performed at the Mariinsky’s annual festivals, and he has been pursuing a side business as a concert producer with significant success.

Vaganova Today sat down with him to find out more about his career and aspirations.

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23 December 1937 – 29 October 2020

It is with a very heavy heart that I share the sad news of the passing, yesterday, of the Mariinsky’s greatest male pedagogue, Gennady Seliutsky. Known for his character roles on stage and moreso for a sparkling career honing the talents of the Marrinsky’s top male dancers. While I never worked as closely with him as his dancers did, I had the honour of interviewing him several times, and ever since then, whenever we crossed paths, his warm smile and demeanour always welcomed me with a short chat. I know how devastated the dancers are today, and my own tears fall as I share their grief. Rest in peace dear Gennady Naumovich, you will be greatly missed, always remembered, and never replaced.

Russia’s leading ballet theatres have much in store for the second half of the 2019-2020 season, which for most will run through July 2020.

At the Bolshoi, former Mariinsky dancer and now choreographer Anton Pimonov will present a new work, “Made at Bolshoi” on 26 March as part of a mixed bill that includes Vyacheslav Samodurov’s “Tanzmania” and principal Bolshoi dancer Artemy Belyakov’s “Vremeni Goda” (The Seasons). On 21 May, the theatre will premiere the new “Master and Margarita” by Edward Klug, who presented his version of “Petrushka” on last year’s mixed bill alongside Forsythe’s “Artefact Suite”.

The Mariinsky’s annual International Ballet Festival begins on 11 March with a heavy focus on Ratmansky. The festival opens with an evening of Ratmansky’s ballets, and will also present his “Seven Sonatas” for the first time, which is being set on site by Stella Abrera (American Ballet Theatre). If the coronavirus does not cause cancellations, then several guest stars are slated to appear. Lauren Cuthberthson, who fell ill before she was able to perform “The Sleeping Beauty” in last year’s festival, will make another go of it this year alongside Xander Parish. Oksana Skorik will join the Paris Opera Ballet’s Germain Louve for “Swan “Lake”, and the Bolshoi’s Olga Smirnova is set to appear in “Giselle.” In addition, the Bolshoi’s Vladislav Lantratov and Maria Alexandrova will appear at both the opening and the closing of the festival.

It was the 4th of April 2019, the premiere of A Winter’s Tale and the Bolshoi Theatre was full. A double tour en l’air moving stage left. A step he had done thousands of times since his school days. But something went wrong – the angle of the landing or the torque, maybe simply overwork. No sooner had both legs hit the ground than he immediately lifted one off the floor, and hopped into the wing on the other. The music stopped. The curtain came down. A murmur filled the house and the house lights came on for an unplanned intermission.

From 21 to 24 November, the Bolshoi Theatre presented Alexei Ratmansky’s latest masterpiece, a momentous reconstruction of Giselle, infused with new choreographic alterations and several key departures from the currently known libretto. The revised version culls information from the Stepanov notation, Henri Justamen’s records and at least 4 other sources. Robert Perdziola’s enchanted set designs, based on originals by Alexander Benois, take us immediately to a medieval time and place in which social classes may obstruct true love, and legends of evil spirits literally come to life. Ratmansky’s choreographic shifts highlight the libretto’s underlying theme of Christianity throughout the work, lending a deeper meaning to this ballet and marking its historical significance.

The scandals at the Bolshoi Theatre over the past decade have given the theatre a name synonymous with disgrace. The acid attack on Sergey Filin, Nikolai Tsiskaridze’s sharp criticisms of the renovation process, the advent of a new administration and the changing of the guard (and some of the troupe’s members) as a result. Things have quieted somewhat, but the inherent challenges faced by Russia’s largest ballet company remain unchanged: the traditional hiring of various graduates versus the dancers entering laterally based on connections or worse, bribes; and the perpetual challenge of finding quality dancers in a system and city where hundreds of ballet schools and teachers are churning out products at various levels of excellence.

Against this backdrop, reviving ballets that ran previously in the repertoire or adding new ones sets the bar high. The Bolshoi chose to bring Balanchine’s Symphony in C back to the stage after a long haitus, and paired it with Maurice Bejart’s avant-garde Gaité Parisienne for four nights in mid-June. The result was a minor victory on some fronts, but a disappointment on others.

On 25 and 26 April, Moscow’s two largest ballet troupes offered press conferences announcing their plans for the coming 2019-2020 season.

The Stanislavsky troupe will feature the premiere of Nureyev’s version of Don Quixote as set by Laurent Hilaire on 25 October. The spring will bring a ballet by Goyo Montero of the Nurnberg Ballet on 28 March. And Hilaire will also set Giselle, first to premiere on 5 December, but in Cannes, France and only near season’s end in Moscow.

In like fashion, this must be the “year of Giselle” for the Bolshoi is also offering Alexei Ratmansky’s version in November. The Bolshoi is offering a set of new works as well, beginning on 26 March with former Mariinsky dancer and now recognized choreographic talent Anton Pimonov’s new Made in Bolshoi. Edward Klug, whose Petrushka premiered on the Forsythe mixed bill last November (2018) will return with The Master and Margarita.

And for those eagerly awaiting some Russian dancing state-side, the Bolshoi will tour the US in the summer of 2020.

The Mariinsky’s The Sleeping Beauty has received its share of controversial press, not for the quality of the productions –for there are two– but for the history behind them. When Sergey Vikarev’s version debuted in 1999, it divided the Mariinsky troupe in two, those both for and against the work. The “original” which was adjusted by Konstantin Sergeyev for the Soviet audience in 1952, and now also known as the “1890” production due to its roots in Petipa’s original, continues to rotate in the company repertoiire, while the Vikarev version has been quietly shelved.

As part of the XVIII Mariinsky Ballet Festival, which returned this year after a one-year hiatus (due to the anniversary of Petipa), the company presented the Sergeyev “original” with billing that included Lauren Cuthberthson from the Royal Ballet, along with Xander Parish, who got his start early on at the Royal but has become a principal by climbing through the ranks at the Mariinsky over the past 10 years.

The Young Choreographer’s Workshop has been held annually (except for 2018) during the Mariinsky Ballet festival as a means for amateur choreographers to present their creations in order to, in the best case, ignite or shift into a choreographic career. The best works from the festival are said to be adopted into the rotating repertoire (although in practice, those that are, run quite rarely). This year the workshop offered seven works by both known and unknown creators, starting with the more experienced Yuri Smekalov and ending with the promising Ilya Zhivoy.

The Pharoah’s Daughter, one of Marius Petipa’s original ballets, is a work nearly unknown in American and European houses but that reigns supreme on the Bolshoi stage, where today it is almost exclusively performed. However, those performances occur quite rarely. A block of Pharoah revivals closed out last season in July 2018 for those Muscovites who had not already abandoned the city for vacation time. This week Moscow audiences enjoyed their only glimpse of the ballet for the current season in a series of 6 performances over the span of 4 days.

This large-scale work, in every sense of the word –from sets and costumes, to the large number of cast members and even animals required for all three acts– is a restoration by France’s Pierre Lacotte dating from 2000. The libretto sets the action in ancient Egypt, where a British explorer finds himself smoking opium and falling into a dream. Reminiscent then of the last act of Bayadère (Solor too smokes opium before his dream of the Shades), Pharoah also has components of Romeo and Juliet‘s star-crossed lovers: the heroine Aspicia throws herself in the Nile River when she cannot be wed to her beloved Taor. But in a true fairytale twist, she’s saved by the God of the Nile, who resembles Poseidon with a trident and long golden locks.

The March block of performances featured a series of debuts, including Margarita Shrainer next to Vyacheslav Lopatin in the leading roles and, on closing night, the ever-reliable Ekaterina Krysanova alongside Vladislav Lantratov in his debut as Taor.